Category: Article

Installed tailbrights on my Connie

Buck Sport Touring sells reflective stickers called Tailbrights that stick to the rear and side portions of the hard bags. Tonight I installed them. Installation was pretty simple; only had one or two bubbles on each of the stickers. I guess that you could make these yourself; but Buck Sport figured out the right shape, and I like to support companies that fill a niche like they do. The cool thing about them is that the stickers are black; so during the day you don’t even see them.
Here are some photos:

Virtual Gravel Rash

Tonight after removing some of the caked-on dust from under the seat, I decided to investigate the gravel rash on the right of the lower fairing of the bike.
Getting down on my hands and knees to take a look, expecting deep grooves, I was shocked to instead find something like silver paint stuck to the fairing. It was caked on there, maybe one or two millimeters. Using a damp paper towel though I was able to remove all of the shiny crud.
My best guess is that the previous owner rode into something, or something rode into him, that left the material there.
I like easy fixes!

Wrapping up the 2009-2010 School Year

This past May, I completed the Simulation and Parallel and Distributed Systems class that I was attending. While taking two classes while working full time was challenging; the pure fun of it all more than made up for the challenge! I will have fond memories of that semester for a long time.
I can’t wait to get started with Applied Mathematical Analysis next week.

My old leather coat

While waiting for the Roadcrafter suit to arrive; I decided to get my old leather coat out of storage. Purchased at the flea market in Orange County, CA sometime in the mid-nineties, I’d somehow managed never to wear it. While some may lament the 90’s shoulder-pad styling, it is hard not to like the southwestern influenced design.
Thus far it has been pretty comfortable, the leather seems sturdy, and you know… I don’t mind the smitten looks that I receive while wearing it one bit ;).

Bought some nice work boots

The MSF beginner’s riders class that I took a month or so ago required shoes that covered the ankles and I ended up buying a pair of the Brahma Hutch II lace-less steel-toe boots from Walmart. Wearing now for a about a month I’ve been really impressed; they are comfortable, broke in really easily, and slip on and off pretty quickly. Perhaps the only downside for motorcycle-riding is that the steel-toe makes for awkward shifting and breaking. For that reason I’m looking at buying some real motorcycle boots pretty soon; in particular the TCX X-Five.
All in all for only $30USD this is a really nice boot.

Bought a helmet

After a good bit of research I decided to go with a Shoei RF1100. After a few hundred miles I’ve found it to be really nice; comfortable, a lot of air goes through it, and it doesn’t squeal when you are sitting behind a windshield like a couple of reviews that I had read suggested.
Perhaps the most bothersome discovery is the ridge on the top of my head that is going to force me to purchase some extra padding or something to level out the top of the helmet so it quits giving me a headache!

One “funny” thing I found in the owner’s manual was a warning that if you purchase the Matte Black helmet then you need to be extra, extra-careful about protecting its finish. Great!