Category Archives: motorcycle

“fender” bender

Posted on by

Well today kind of sucked in a few different ways.

One mildly noteable way was that I was in a very minor fender bender on the motorcycle. I was sitting at a stop light (the end of the offramp from inner 440 to Lake Boone Trail) and the guy behind me “didn’t see me” and started to move into the lane. Unfortunately, I was sitting in line in front of him. No injuries, didn’t even come off the bike. But it broke the taillight and bent up the license plate mount pretty bad. It may have damaged the tire, but I couldn’t spot any other damage.

I was just starting to accelerate away from the light. Not even sure if I was moving yet. I initially thought something had broken on the bike, like a chain coming off or something, since there was a noise and a jolt. Bit surprised to look down and see a car frontend wedged between the tire and the seat.

weekend

Posted on by

Checked out z_kungfu’s bar space. Went for a ride with z_kungfu and mrs_esterhaus.

Soccer Sunday. Again, proving I should exercise. Managed to twist my ankle a bit. Went for a another ride up around the Falls Lake area.

Then off to see Rasputina with badger. Opening band was called Tarantula AD, and was pretty cool. At various points reminded me a bit of Wetton era King Crimson, Fantomas, or Krakatoa. Picked up a cd.

Rasputina was pretty good. I wasn’t really familiar with them at all, so wasn’t sure what to expect. The primary vocalist has a very cool voice, at times reminding me of Laurie Anderson (particular on a song that I think was “Signs of the Zodiac”?) and Cyndi Lauper (a pretty strong accent…). Pretty entertaining. Spotted leslieerin and a few other folks.

are you a mod or a prog rocker?

Posted on by

Spent most of the weekend down at the Raleigh Rumble, had fun, and did plenty of motorcycle geeking. Even got in some bowling Friday night. I keep meaning to go bowling more often, I enjoy it. Anyone want to start a bowling team?

Got some pics up here and here.

Sunday went on a group ride over to Michaels for breakfast. Apparently Michaels is the cool place to go on a Sunday morning with your motorcycle.

Then headed over to Progday to catch Glen Philips and Mike Keneally. Two very guitarcentric sets. Pretty cool. Talked to a a guy named steve that plays weird music with a theremin for a bit. Er, make that two guys named steve that play weird music with a theremin. You would think that would be a small list…

Monday did a bunch of nothing, then headed over to Chapel Hill area to do some riding. Jones Ferry Road is a great motorcycle road. So is Damascus Church Road. And half a dozen other over that way. It’s doesn’t take long out of Chapel Hill before it gets pretty rural.

tires

Posted on by

Who would of thought it is such a PITA to get a new motorcycle tire?
I have an apointment next Wednesday to get it changed, and I had to order
a suitable tire.

Doesn’t really help that the Bonneville takes a relatively odd size rear tire.

into the hills

Posted on by

Rode the bike to my parents place this weekend, and then up into the mountains with dad, brother-in-law, and brother-in-laws dad. They are all harley types, so it was a pretty laid back ride most of the way. Up 321 to boone, down 105 aways, BRP a bit, then down 226 to marion, and back to Statesville via 10 and 18.

Did some wandering around Statesville Sunday before heading back. I definitely need a new rear tire now.

On the way home, clicked over 10,000 miles on the odometer, just over half of which is mine.

Didn’t do any work on the bike, though current plans are possibly putting the “superbars” handlebars that used to be on it back on, and maybe rigging up some sort of removable saddle bag rail for trips. Might also look into modifying the bracket that holes the taillight/license plate so I can mount the turn signals there as well.

rockett videos

Posted on by

So, I found some instructional videos on how to do some mods to a Thruxton (a variation of the Triumph Bonneville). They are fairly well made.

The weird thing? Produced,written, and directed by Rikki Rockett. Yes, that Rickki Rockett.

Heh, weird.

random ideas

Posted on by

I want to build a mbira using a 3-4 inch diamater pipe, maybe 3 foot long. Have the keys running along the top, but mounted perpendicular to the length. With a shoulder mount. And a sight. I’ll call it a mbirazooka.

I want to make a new brake pedal for the bonneville. With the rear sets and the current brake pedal, the ergos of the pedal aren’t ideal, especially if I’m wearing boots. I want a pedal thats a little bit lower, and/or a little further right. Only concern would be getting the pedal much lower than the foot peg. Scraping a foot peg is mostly harmless. Bashing the brake level into the ground could be bad. Shouldn’t be hard to make.

I want to build an intrument of some sort you control with random remote controls. Using something like irman/lirc and
hacking it to generate MIDI would be enough. Plug that into something like Reaktor. Call the hole thing “Potatoe”. Or maybe
convert the ir signals sound input. Or maybe both.

no more rear fender

Posted on by

I took off the rear fender on the Triumph. Bought a kit with all the brackets and what not needed for relocating the
lights.

No functional reason. I just think it looks cooler.

Also put on a pair of Ikon progressive rear shocks. Those do seem to work a bit better. (And they look cooler).