02.14.2008 | 11:50 pm | Bathroom Renovation
I had noticed that the grout in the master shower was cracking a bit, so I decided to chisle it out and regrout. But, when I started to remove the old grout, the tiles started falling off the walls. Lo and behold, I found that we had a leak, and all the drywall had gotten soaked up to about 4 feet off the floor, and black mold had started growing. So, the only answer was to pull all the tile off the walls and rip down the bad drywall and do the whole job over again.
Needless to say, I think this was part of the reason that I have been having more than the usual allergy problems.
I called a neighbor of mine who does remodeling and home repairs, and asked him if he could stop by and give me an estimate on what it would cost to repair it. During his visit, my wife revealed our wish to just remodel the whole thing. He generously offered to give me a hand with it if I was willing to do most of the work.
We had originally wanted to remodel the bathroom anyway and pull the tub and make a huge walk-in shower with dual heads, so now seemed as good a time as any to do that.
We tried to pry the tub off the floor and found that the builder had set the tub on a big blob of cement, so we had to use an 8 foot 2×4 to pry it off. I spent 2 days with an air chisel getting the leftover cement off the floor.
More to follow…
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01.20.2008 | 12:42 pm | Goldwing
Would you like a Honda Goldwing that has almost 200 horsepower? If so, take a look here.
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01.20.2008 | 11:48 am | Uncategorized
For the past 2 years I have been involved at work with the ACS’s Relay For Life, which is a fund raising event. There are RFL events all over the country, and they hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research every year. It is my personal goal to raise over $1,000 towards this worthy cause. My deadline is April 1, 2008.
More:
Can you believe that more than 1.3 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year? Those are staggering statistics, but there is hope. Each of us can do something to save lives and help those already fighting this disease. That’s why I’ve decided to take action against cancer by supporting the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event right here in my community.
Relay For Life is an overnight event that brings our community together to help support the American Cancer Society and its lifesaving mission to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. The Society works hard every day to prevent cancer and save lives by supporting groundbreaking research, affecting public policies that protect us from cancer, and educating people on how to prevent or detect cancer early. The Society helps people with cancer right here in our own community. And our efforts at Relay For Life can help the American Cancer Society keep working toward a cancer-free future.
I want to invite you to show your support in the ongoing fight against cancer by joining us for this year’s event. Please click on the link below for more information, including details on the inspirational Survivors’ Lap and the moving Luminaria Ceremony. We hope to see you there! If you can’t join us, will you please visit the site and make a donation to support our efforts? Either way, you will make a real difference in the lives of people facing cancer and in the lives of the people who love them. Thank you!
For state fundraising notices and the American Cancer Society’s Privacy Policy, please paste this link into your browser: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SU/su_0.asp
Pleae visit my personal page on the Relay For Life web site and make a donation on my behalf. Any donation, regardless of amount, will help the fight against this dreaded disease.
I am willing to send a Gremlin Bell to anyone making a donation of $20.00 or more. These are nice, brass bells that will help keep those nasty gremlins off your scoot.
If you donate and wish to receive a bell, contact me at iggy@iggythebiker.com with the name you used to donate, and the address you want it shipped to and I will put one in the mail to you.
Thanks for your time.
Iggy
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01.19.2008 | 10:24 am | Goldwing
After riding the bike for a while, I discovered that when riding in a particular direction, the satellite radio would cut in and out. I am assuming that it is due to a line-of-site issue with the antenna location. So, I fabricated a bracket from some spare metal I had lying around the garage, and I screwed it into the top of the trunk lid behind the passenger seat. I painted it with some black spray paint and shaped it a bit to match the shape of the antenna. It now appears to work just fine. If I ever mount a luggage rack, it may interfere. I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it.
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12.13.2007 | 12:17 am | Goldwing
Last weekend, with the help of 2 good friends, I installed new front springs on the Wing. It took about 2 hours or so, and we encountered no problems whatsoever. While we were at it, we disabled the Anti Dive Valve.
I have ridden the bike for about 5 days now and it seems to ride much softer, especially when crossing low curbs, like when I pull into my driveway. Before, the whole bike would shake and made a hard crashing sound. Now, the front end dives a little bit when applying the brakes, but not enough to be an issue. I no longer get the crashing sound when going over bumps and it seems to handle a little better in the curves.
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12.7.2007 | 10:42 am | Goldwing
Some folks have commented that they like to be able to leave the key in the ignition but still be able to open the gas door and the right hand storage pocket. Some people have gotten spare keys made, cut them down, and glued a knob on the end so they can leave this spare key in the locks.
I made my own key fobs this same way. I got 2 chrome drawer pulls from Home Depot, and it turned out quite nicely. They look like they belong on the bike. If I don’t want anyone to access either spot, I just remove them and lock them in the right hand pocket.
You can’t start the bike with these keys because they aren’t long enough to work in the ignition. Here is what they look like.
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11.14.2007 | 8:12 pm | General
Almost everything that a person does in life involves a certain degree of risk to their personal safety. And, every person evaluates these risks and determines those activities that they feel are safe, and those that they feel are not. Usually, a person will conduct their evaluation based on their own “formula” which takes into account various factors which they think impacts that risk factor.For example, if you ask anyone if they wear a seat belt while driving their car, you will get a variety of answers. Seldom, whoever, can a person give you any factual or statistical data to back up their decision. They will often arrive at their decision by using their formula and plugging in data that is known only to them. Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of sports, or Xtreme sports. This includes racing, skydiving, bungee jumping and the like.
Motorcycle riding, whether for sport purposes such as motocross or racing, or for transportation purposes, is generally accepted as being more dangerous than walking or driving a car. People will usually base this decision on the fact that a bike offers the rider significantly less protection from injury, whether caused by the rider themselves, or by other vehicular traffic that may impact the bike and the rider. Very few people will argue this fact. What is interesting is that some people will modify the risks associated with riding a motorcycle by other outside factors that seem to make sense only to themselves.
I had a discussion with a co-worker about this very subject. He said he might consider buying a bike and riding it back and forth to work, but he felt he lived too far away. What he meant was that he felt that the time he would spend on the bike each day would elevate the risk factors, and he was not comfortable riding it that distance each day. So, I asked him:
Me: “How far do you live from work?”
Him: “20 miles.”
Me: “What if you lived 17 miles from work, would you ride a bike then?”
Him: “No.”
Me: “What if you lived 14 miles from work, would you ride a bike then?”
Him: hesitating, “No.”
Me: “What about 12 miles?”
Him: “Ummm…”
Me: “What about 10 miles?”
Him: “Yea, probably.”
So, what does his personal formula contain that makes him arrive at that decision? Why does he think that 10 miles is OK, but 20 miles is not? I would agree that the more time you spend doing ANY “dangerous” activity increases the odds that something will happen to you. What I don’t understand is how an individual processes this risk formula and comes up with their Go/No Go decision.
It would appear that logic plays less of a part in this process, and emotion and feeling plays a much larger part. The old saying, “don’t confuse me with facts, my mind’s made up” truly applies here.
Once an individual arrives at their decision about how risky an activity is, they will then begin the process of comparing the risk to the enjoyment of that activity. A skydiver may decide that the exhilarating feeling of jumping out of an airplane is worth the amount of risk their formula has determined. A motorcycle rider may feel that the joy of riding, the wind in their face, and the esthetics of swooping through a series of twisting turns are worth the chance of being killed by a person in a 4 wheeled vehicle. Again, their risk assessment is most likely based on their vague, ambiguous, and unexplainable formula.
Some people will carry this process to the extreme. I sat next to a woman on an airplane once who told me that she never wears any nylon clothing or rubber tennis shoes on a plane because, if the plane crashes and catches on fire, she does not want her clothing to melt and burn her. In my mind, if that happens, all the cloth and leather apparel in the world is not going to save you.
There have been millions of conversations over the years about motorcycle riding and protective clothing. Many of these discussions have become very heated, and there is no shortage of opinions on the matter. I don’t think there are many people, including those who are opposed to wearing protective gear, who will not agree that wearing a helmet and protective clothing affords significant protection to a rider in the event of a spill.
Most of these discussions usually revolve around mandated helmet use, or the inconvenience or discomfort of wearing protective clothing. “It’s too hot during the summer. I don’t have a place to store it once I arrive at my destination.” The arguments are many and varied. The riders who don’t want to wear a helmet or protective gear are willing to accept the increased risk associated with riding while not wearing gear.
Where these discussions become testy is when people attempt to convince others that their own view on the topic is correct. Riders who gear-up are not going to convince those who choose to “ride free”; no matter how much they try. The opposite is true as well.
Then, there are those who abruptly decide to quit riding and sell their motorcycle because a family member or friend has been injured or killed in a bike related accident. Their reasoning may be that the dangers of riding have finally hit home, and they now realize just how dangerous it really is. Or, they may decide that they don’t want to put their loved ones through the same grief that the other family has had to endure. Regardless of what their decision is based on, they have made a subjective decision to stop riding, and it is unlikely that anyone will convince them to change their minds.
Ultimately, what this all boils down to is this: People are going to make their risk management decisions based on factors that are often only understandable by them. They will ride or not ride, wear gear or not. If they suffer serious injuries or death as a result of their actions, then that was their choice. All the forum posts or water cooler discussions will not change that.
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10.23.2007 | 10:41 pm | Goldwing
I bought a mount at the Daytona Biketoberfest, but no matter how I set it up, the signal was really low and the radio was cutting out. I came up with the following installation:
I moved the antenna all over and just could not get a really decent signal. So, I said “screw it”. (well, I actually said something else, but we are in mixed company)
I opened up the trunk and removed the liner, and mounted the antenna to the liner with velcro tape like so:
I ran the wire down behind the seat and tie wrapped it to the existing cable to make it neat and tidy.
I pulled the left side seat bolts out so I could pull the wire up higher so it wouldn’t sag down.
I ran it up over top of the battery area.
I pulled the left side control panel loose and slid the tupperware back so I could run the wire up into the left pocket area.
I ran the wire along with the rest of the wires coming from the pocket to the handlebars, and tie wrapped them up nice and neat, then buttoned up all the panels. I started up the bike, backed it out of the garage and checked to see what kind of signal I was getting.
A perfect 10! I tested it with different accessories on to see if there was an interference, and there was none. The final test will be with it running down the road.
I love it when a plan comes together!
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10.7.2007 | 4:40 pm | Goldwing
The second annual Wingstock event was just held on September 29th and 30th in Woodstock Georgia. It is a gathering of Honda Goldwing riders, and the event is hosted by Traxxion Dynamics, who makes high performance suspension parts for Goldwings and other bikes. I rode up with a buddy of mine from the Ocala Florida area, and we got there about 11pm on Thursday evening.
We had a dinner get together at Ryan’s Steakhouse on Friday night, and we packed their back room to the gills with riders.
On Saturday morning, there were a few local folks who arranged to lead some fairly long distance rides in the Georgia countryside. I chose a fairly tame ride, with not so many peg dragging turns, though we did negotiate quite a few twisties. Our ride left the Cracker Barrel restaurant at 8am, and we headed up to Helen Georgia, which just happened to be hosting an Octoberfest celebration. This ride was affectionately known as the trip to “Helenback”. We of course, took the long way there and would our way through some national forest roads.
The weather was absolutely beautiful, with not a cloud in the sky the entire weekend, and the temperatures were in the low 80’s. The view from the side of the mountains was stunning!
Once in Helen, which is a little biker friendly tourist community with lots of little boutiques and motorcycle apparel shops, we parked in the free bike parking lot and headed out to find a spot for some lunch.
We found this restaurant that was featuring German food, and they had a handful of menu items that ended in “wurst”.
I went for the bratwurst sandwich with sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. Yummy!
On the way back, we rode though a place called Wolfpen Gap, which is similar to the Tail of the Dragon. It has gobs of twisties and switchbacks to negotiate. I don’t have any pictures of it, since I was somewhat busy keeping the bike on the road! There is a gas station called Dale’s at the bottom of the road where all the bikers gather to fuel up and grab a drink.
We wound our way back to the hotel so we could freshen up and head out for the BBQ at Traxxion. They had a wonderful BBQ buffet, lots of Goldwings to look at, and a really great live blues band. It was awesome! Many thanks to Max and his Traxxion crew for hosting this great event. The rough head count was approximately 148 attendees. Rather than post a bunch more pictures, I will just post this link to the thread on GL1800Riders.com and you can see more pictures there.
We left late Sunday morning to ride back home, and except for the occasional shower once we got back into Florida, the ride was uneventful.
Special thanks go out to Dennis and Vanessa for inviting me to ride up and back with them, and for all Dennis’ help with the little odds and ends on my bike that I wanted to do. Dennis, if you read this, you are Da Man!!
I look forward to going again next year.
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10.4.2007 | 5:13 pm | Goldwing
After riding to Georgia and back, I found that the stock grips were just too small for me. My fingers were wrapping around and overlapping, and I found that uncomfortable. I went to Seminole PowerSports and got a pair of Kuryakn grips to go over top of the heated grips currently on the bike. I also added a Throttle Boss end cap that allows me to rest my hand on it and keep the throttle open.
I rode it to work today and I like the feel of the new grips a lot better.
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