Topic: 23 Rides in 2023, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[BenelliSEI]

Print it and frame it! Congrats!

[PeWe]

Congratulations, Kevin!!
Looks good!!

You won first price, unlimited number of rides before coming winter....

[Kevin D]

Congratulations, Kevin!!
Looks good!!

You won first price, unlimited number of rides before coming winter....

PeWe, it’s budman “In First”. I’m only halfway home at 12 rides, but I made the badge for him.

I have tried to make an award in earlier years but I am no graphic artist and I only managed to get it done this time using a clip art highway badge imported into windows “paint”. I haven’t used “paint” in a very long time. David, the font size only goes up to 48pt..… I typed in 120pt and it worked for the larger numbers.
I’m not even sure I could repeat a badge like budmans.

[Terry in Australia]

We need someone with one of those CNC engraving machines to make one in aluminium. Making it keyring size would be good. I’d be happy to pay for it, if anyone here knows anyone who could make one?

[RAFster122s]

Cognitomoto has a bunch of equipment, 3 and 4 axis CNC and other cool stuff...
A waterjet cutter is what you would want, blast completely through a piece of aluminum... Reverse on one side but it would be right on other...
Could use piece of stainless steel or aluminum...

[Terry in Australia]

I’m not sure if a waterjet cutter would be ably able to get all that detail on a keyring sized piece David? There’s at least one member here who does CNC engraving on points covers etc, can anyone remember who he is? If the price was reasonable it’d be nice to do the first prize for bud and “participated” for everyone else who get to 23, I’m happy to foot the bill. I’ve just bought another bike, so the price needs to be reasonable….

[RAFster122s]

Waterjet come in many sizes and can be very detailed cutting intricate designs and fine tolerances.

[RAFster122s]

Lasercutters can burn/etch designs into leather...leather fob would be paint and metal friendly.

[Kevin D]

Ride#13   92 miles

I had hoped for this to be a shorter ride yesterday but one thing leads to another and when I got home I found that the missus had mowed the yard, thank you very much dear. The ride extension centered around some ancestry investigation into her family near Pinckney where a family of Irish immigrants were among the very first Europeans to settle nearby, in the 1820’s?, just along my usual route. I went to the local graveyard and found many Harris graves and a very old marble? monument candidate for restoration. There is much to learn.
 I also stopped at the Whitmore Lake marina for a photo. All the boats are in the water by now and most all are docked on a gorgeous Monday morning.

[Kevin D]

Wow, waterjets and laser cutters.
Terry, I’d be willing to chip in.
Brainstorming, I thought about patches(nope) stickers(maybe) magnetic stickers (dunno) pins (probably not)
With an eye to low cost and 20? pieces.
Maybe a fancier one for first in.
I haven’t counted this year, are there 20 participating?

I got this wooden key ring , made by a member in Ohio, 10 years ago?, about $10.
Dunno if I can find the details, and I haven’t seen any similar crafts offered by him lately.

[Terry in Australia]

Great ride Kevin, and I like that one, if anyone knows anyone who can make something that we all like, please let me know. Yep there must be 20 of us participating in Frank’s annual ride, I’d love something that either had a silhouette of Franks smiling face, or even a miniature of his special spanner too?

[jgger]

Or a pair of googly eye glasses! Kind of like the old moon eyes from the 60's drag race bunch.

[jgger]

I clicked off # 4 tonight.  Nothing eventful and most of the pics were videos so not sure i can post them.

Did something I haven't done since the mid 70's,  went to the speedway races. Rode all freeway miles, 74 of them to be exact. What a great show, I love speedway bikes and boy do those guys have some balls! 500 cc's of alcohol burning pandemonium and NO brakes. They even have little kids on PW 50's it is awsome!  Free motorcycle parking and when I got there some people were handing out free passes to get in, so it didn't cost me jack squat!  They were supposed to have side hacks tonight but a couple of nights ago some low life stole a trailer with 2 guy's bikes on it so they couldn't field a race, that was a  bummer. Next meet they are going to have street legal Harleys so that should be pretty cool. It is a very family friendly place and they open the pits after the races so kids and old farts like me can talk to the riders.

Anyhoo it was a very enjoyable night and I can't wait to take my grandson at the end of the month for the next meet.. Anyone in the So Cal area if you get a chance to go to Industry Hills Speedway, I strongly  recommend it.

[Terry in Australia]

Sounds like a great ride, and a great night Jim! Back in the late 70’s speedway was huge here, and an Army friend and his wife used to take me to the speedway, all I really remember was that everyone took blankets and I didn’t understand why until I was showered with rocks as the first bikes or cars went past me! Next time I went, I took a blanket too.

I’m driving to Wodonga, 200 miles north tomorrow to pick up my latest motorcycle purchase so won’t get ride #23 in until at least Sunday, weather permitting. No biggie, while the weather has been fine all week the rain and cold weather is about to start tomorrow, just in time for the weekend. Such is life, at least I’ll get a road trip in tomorrow, my poor little truck hasn’t turned a wheel in a month or two, so desperately needs a run. While it pissed me off in Summer that it doesn’t have aircon, the heater is excellent so it’s going to be an enjoyable trip, even though gas went up $1.80 per gallon yesterday…..

[jgger]

It was really fun. There are only 4 more events on the schedule and I'm going to try to hit them all.

The bunch of guys that I would go to Irwindale to watch speedway had a routine.
Make your bet before the race
Put your goggles on
Cover your beer with your program
Collect or pay your bet

That was how life was in turn 4 front rows!

I tried to attach a video but it cane out as a still pic, oh well.

[jgger]

Since I  got back on motorcycles about a year and a half ago, I have wanted to do at least an overnight trip to Death Valley. I love the desert but after a weather check decided that maybe I should postpone that for a while!! What do you guys think, am I just being a pussy?

[Terry in Australia]

Now that’s just fancy! I haven’t been to a speedway meeting in years so things may have improved, but ours were all outdoor with no cover or seating. We’d have to bring camp chairs or stand up. I think your event is a lot better. Create a Youtube account Jim, and load all your videos on it. I’ve got some folks who actually watch my crap and leave the occasional “like”, which is nice.

[Terry in Australia]

Since I  got back on motorcycles about a year and a half ago, I have wanted to do at least an overnight trip to Death Valley. I love the desert but after a weather check decided that maybe I should postpone that for a while!! What do you guys think, am I just being a pussy?

Check that your cooling fan is working properly Jim, the one on my 2001 model only worked intermittently (I replaced it with a good used one) because older/high mileage FJR’s don’t like really hot weather.

[jgger]

Since I  got back on motorcycles about a year and a half ago, I have wanted to do at least an overnight trip to Death Valley. I love the desert but after a weather check decided that maybe I should postpone that for a while!! What do you guys think, am I just being a pussy?

Check that your cooling fan is working properly Jim, the one on my 2001 model only worked intermittently (I replaced it with a good used one) because older/high mileage FJR’s don’t like really hot weather.

Mine has 2 fans, but I don't think they make a fan big enough to make 126°f  work for me. I must be getting soft!

[RAFster122s]

Wisdom comes in many forms, seeing the forecast and living in a desert where our daily high has not been less than 100 for 28 or 29 days I would recommend you wait to go play in the desert in November or December or January…you will enjoy it far more.

This time of year it is better to head to high altitude in the mountains.

Here in Tucson we are around 2400-2500 Above Sea Level. Nearby Mt. Lemmon is 8500-9000 feet above sea level.
Summerhaven, AZ on Mt Lemmon is currently 78F with 40% humidity atoms 6-6:30pm while here in Picture Rocks out in the desert valley W of the Tucson mountains it is 108F with 13% humidity. Since we are in monsoon season the humidity has edged up about 5% to 10% above usual dry summer heat. Increasing from around 7-10% to 10-15%…
I would love to live in Summerhaven a couple months of the summer and in Picture Rocks the rest of the time…

A trip of 3 hours through the desert in 105 to 110f heat on a motorcycle you should drink about a gallon of water to stay even with the dehydration… if you can stand the heat that long… crank it past 110 to 115(117) I would guess you are going to need drink another quart if not another half gallon. Recent study of human body’s tolerance or survival in extreme temps puts around 125F being the typical upper limit. In extreme temps your heart rate speeds up along with lots of other metabolic changes to survive the heat and consumption of water won’t cool you down much after 115 but it can lessen or prevent dehydration headaches and muscle cramps…need electrolytes too.

So, be smarter than a 4th grader and plan the desert trip for later….


https://www.azdhs.gov/documents/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/extreme-weather/heat/Heat-Index-Chart.pdf

[budman]

Ride #25, 77 miles

Wow, lots going on since my last check-in here.

I have my own laser cutter/engraver.  I'll make my own award...based on Kevin's design.

jgger, where's the speedway track?  I used to frequent the speedway races on occasion when I lived in SoCal back in the 80's.

So the ride...I needed to run a small package to the Post Office this morning, so I decided to take the Scout and get my annual state motorcycle safety inspection done.  There's only one motorcycle shop in town so I went there instead of one of the places that inspects cars, which I think there's only about three places, but they also inspect bikes.  I showed the guy my proof of insurance, he snapped a photo of my license plate and punched some numbers into a computer that spit out a piece of paper.  He didn't inspect anything on the bike.  My friend back in Houston who owns a bike shop does the same.  I paid my $7 dollars, asked how much they charged to change the tires on a loose wheel, and I left, but not before snapping a photo of the Kawasaki Vulcan Indian Drifter tribute bike.  I don't think I had ever seen one of these before.  I knew about them though.  I looked them up when I got home and it's strange that they were allowed to build these, especially since the Gilroy Indians were in production at the same time, but Kawasaki wasn't allowed to use the "Chief" name. 

I had devised a plan to eat lunch at a local barbeque joint before I left the house.  My neighbor works there as the pitmaster and chef.  I sent him a text before I left the house and asked if he was working today, so he was expecting me.  They weren't open yet when I left the bike shop, so I took off and rode about an hour.  Somewhere shortly after I left the bike shop my phone started acting up and I lost my navigation.  I use my old phone without a SIM card in it for nav.  It's mounted on the handlebars and my good phone is in my pocket which I use as a hotspot to feed the old phone via Bluetooth.  The good phone was working fine and showing up as connected on both phones.  Google maps displayed properly on the old phone and would show my location, but it wouldn't let me enter choose destinations or query searches, and it would tell me I was offline.  I tried rebooting both phones a couple of times, but nothing worked.  It was working fine when I left the house.  When I got home it connected to the Wi-Fi and worked properly.  I kind of think it may have been getting hot (or the hotspot function just wasn't working right), but the heat wasn't that bad this morning.

Anyway...after a decent ride I headed to the barbeque joint. I chatted with my neighbor for a minute, but he was working.  I had the Friday special, smoked beef fajita sausage tacos.  Delicious!  I was prepared to have some brisket, but it's hard to pass up a good taco.  I'll definitely be going back, but I need to try the barbeque next time.

I headed home from there as the temps were rising.

Might go out on Sunday.  We'll see.

[RAFster122s]

Dang Bud, now you got me wanting some good Texas BBQ... pickings are slim here...

Went to a BBQ place a Tucson Foodie had raved about and it was a major disappointment...clearly the writer never had good BBQ IMHO

[budman]

Dang Bud, now you got me wanting some good Texas BBQ... pickings are slim here...

Went to a BBQ place a Tucson Foodie had raved about and it was a major disappointment...clearly the writer never had good BBQ IMHO

When I think of barbeque Texas is always first.  It's hit or miss like anywhere else though.  I've had some great barbeque and some not so great here, like the place in Medina, TX I posted about a few weeks ago.  Houston had some great barbeque places, but they say the best barbeque in Texas is in Lockhart, TX.  There are a few places there that top all the lists.  Franklin Barbeque in Austin is supposed to be good too, but I won't make a special trip and stand in line for hours to find out.

I was in Memphis, TN in 2010 and had always heard about Memphis barbeque.  I had some one night and it was way too sweat.  Like eating a bowl of sugar.  I thought it was a fluke so I tried another place the next day and it was the same.  Not the kind of barbeque I like.  Maybe someday I'll get to try Kansas City barbeque.  They say it's good.

I'm making myself hungry...

[RAFster122s]

We need to document the good food places so when Terry is in our area that we know he won't be wasting money trying some place that is not that good...

[jgger]

Another nice ride Bud!

The speedway races are at Industry hills (La Puente/ city of Industry). I think it is called the Grand Arena and looks to double for horse shows. If you are familiar with the area at all, it is close to the Puente Mall (Azusa and the 60 frwy roughly). The covered Arena makes it real nice for summertime races, real clean place.

I'm going to have to check on the schedule for  Costa Mesa and see what that is like. I sure do miss Irwindale.