You know its time for a haircut when you walk in and your friend immediately bursts into fits of rolling-on-the-floor laughter.
I knew I had a lot of junk, but I didn't realize I had THAT much junk. Good grief I need to get rid of some stuff.
You can conceal all kinds of interesting things with the proper equipment.
Mom can barely conceal her excitement that I am home.
Now I gotta get stuff sorted out and get packed for the weekend...
Reading the news, they are going to raise the minimum wage. And of course its being heralded as the greatest thing ever to help the under-paid minimum wage worker.
Lets run this through its course.
Raise the minimum wage.
Workers are happy
Cost of everything now goes up
So in the end, nothing has changed.
Cost of living will be forced up, due to the rise in production. Thus negating the wage increase.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm ok with helping the underdog (to a degree) but this is not the solution that people think its going to be.
Now that I think about it, why is the Govt in the business of managing the "free market" anyway??
It was a beautiful day and I'd already sat on my duff and read a bunch of pretty much useless info on the interweb while hoping something would come up with something to do. Nothing happened so I jumped on the bike and off I went. No particular destination in mind, just knew I had to be in Alvarado by 1900. No worries it was 1600 as I fired up the Viffer.
Weather was a perfect slightly over cast, but still plenty bright day. Viffer was running great and the new tires were feeling great. Tunes rolling the helmet couldn't have matched the mood of the ride any better. Smooth and rolling along nicely. Really just one of those perfect rides. Great for clearing the head even when your not actively thinking about anything while riding.
Having no destination in mind, I was turning at random on any road that looked decent. Ran down a road (don't recall the number) and the neighborhood bull was just standing there watching me. Naturally I stopped and took a pic. 
Knowing FM51 has been a haven for crashing sport bikers, I turned off on FM205 and wound my way past Dinosaur Valley State Park and wound up turning down CR1005 (I'm pretty sure that's the number) and paused at a low water crossing to walk across it and take a few pics. 
After my walk across the water, I decided it was ok, and thought I'd ride across and continue my random explorations. Well, the path I walked and the path I rode were apparently different as I found a slick spot with the bike. Back end decided to take a different path then the front and down she went. No worries I was going a like 2mph at the time. I'll just pick it up and ride on.
DOH! The last 3" of the clutch lever decided to snap off. well, I can still ride it home no worries.
The kind lady standing there watching me do all this informed me that those low water crossings were slick. Where is Bill Engval when you need him?
So I get it out of the one-lane water crossing and look the bike over closer to see what damage was done. 
=
Only to discover that its quite nearly pouring oil out of the top of the oil cooler. Seems the drop moved the headlight enough to puncture the oil cooler. Double check the oil and thought I'd ride it back to at least Glenrose.
About the time I got to DVSP it was clear that the bike had other plans. Too much oil was blowing out for me to continue riding. I parked across FM205 from DVSP and called HRCA.
The lady on the phone was having trouble with her computer (aren't they always? :scratch: ) and I wound up spending nearly 15min trying to get a tow setup. In the end they dispatched Don's Towing from Granbury saying it would be 2hrs before they could make it out.
As I'm sitting there on the side of the road staring at the sky, The game warden pulls out of DVSP and comes over to check on me. I explain it, he oogles the bike and drives away. A little while later, a car pulls up to ask if I'm ok. I inform them that I've already got a tow setup and am just waiting for them to arrive. They turn around and then stop and ask me if I have what I think was drugs. I had the camera in hand, I shoulda snapped a pic of their plate
As time goes on, there's no less then 6 cars pull out of DVSP full of folks that I know. Most all of them stopped to check or at the very least wave.
Laying there staring at the sky I had this random inspiration hit and snapped this shot:
I don't know, maybe the bugs were getting at my brain
Low and behold I hear a bike riding down the road and what should I see appear but a red VStrom blur piloted by a man in a Tecknic jacket. I say to myself "self, is that Bill?" soon enough I find out as he's back and it was indeed our very own Bill (Graubert) out testing his new Laminar lip. Bill proceeded to wait with me till the tow truck shows up. I am here to tell you that talking to another person is much more fun then talking to yourself!
As Bill and I were standing there, there was a gaggle of sport bikes that went by. The last of which was a familiar looking black bike piloted by a pink-helmeted rider. Bill and I both asked if that was Melanie (Vitto) Turns out we were right!
The tow truck shows up and the first thing out of his mouth is "I'm going to have to get you to sign a waver as I ain't equipped to haul bikes." :doh: well, I guess I don't really have any other options. Sign the waver and load the bike up. Took a bit, but got his straps around the lower fork clamps and get it strapped down. I'm not super happy with it, but it beats pushing the thing all the way home. 
Its really a sad sight
Got her home and into the garage. I'll tear it apart and figure out exactly what I need to get it going again.
A big thanks to Bill for hanging with me while the tow truck took forever to show up.
Needless to say, I missed my Alvarado meet at 1900. Oh well, sometimes things happen.
Replace the shoes on the VFR yesterday. 7600mi in 14mo not nearly enough miles. Course I did put 4k on the ST1300, so I shouldn't complain too much.
The old tires still had some life left in them. but I thought I was going to Arkansas this weekend and I didn't want to chance the tires running out of life while I was up there. Peace of mind is worth sacrificing a few miles on a set of tires.
Ok, The previous tires were Avon Azaro ST45/46. I absolutely love those tires. Great turn in, great feel, great grip wet and dry, great mileage. I really think I could have matched the ~9,000 that I put on a prior set of Michelin Pilot Roads had I left them on. In short, I loved these tires.
I would have replaced them with the same thing except Avon release the Strom 55/56 ST tire which is being heralded as better then the 45/46 if thats possible.
So I've got new shoes on the steed so its time to ride!
So there was some confusion about "biker lingo" in my last blog so let me see if I can't clear some of it up.
Today I rode 110miles and never went anywhere. All while averaging ~27mpg. So what was I doing?
I convinced Tony from EuroSport that my VFR was a Sprint ST and went to his track day at Motor Sport Ranch
Having never done this before I was quite unsure what to expect. Asked around here on TWT, read through Sport Riding Techniques, strapped a cooler and a chair to the back and headed out.
Arrived in Cresson at 0800 and got started taping the bike off (no truck/trailer) At first there weren’t many people there, but they gradually started filtering in.
While I was going through tech, Loyd, apparently he had convinced Tony that his CBR600RR was of European descent as well.
As I was starting to gear up, Loyd decided that I should at least try on his spare set of leathers, to my surprise they actually fit. Well, except for the sleeves, but I haven’t found much that fits my monkey arms. So now I’m looking the part and take off around the track behind the instructors (Tom and Guy) they are taking the track at a “leisurely” pace. I’m riding along thinking “this is fast enough for me!” fortunately for me, a few laps had me feeling much more comfortable with the track. Then it was back to the classroom while those who could actually ride took to the track.
As the day wore on, my confidence level increased and I was actually getting around the track. Nowhere near what would be considered fast, but I had a hoot and that’s what mattered.
At the end of the last session before lunch, I pull off towards the pits and notice a familiar face standing on the wall. Pull around and attempt to figure out what this foreigner is doing so far from home. Turns out she was headed home from the CheapSTOC event and made a wrong turn :-P seeing as she was there, she thought she’s stop in and take me to lunch
I’ve never ridden vitch so it was a new experience. It seemed to be a day for them.
In the first session after lunch, I was attempting to pass a Connie, panicked and ran off in to the grass/mud. Guy stopped and we rode back to the pits at a super slow pace. Don’t want to get mud on the track for the rest of the riders. He explained what I had done, what I needed to do to correct it and sent me off. I kicked myself and headed off to wash off the tires for the next session.
I wasn’t the only one to leave the track today. Couple other folks messed up turns and went on “agricultural trips”. Loyds dad got clipped in a corner and crashed. Fortunately no one was injured.
Sadly, the crash ended both Loyd and his dad’s day at the track. I had to give the leather back, so I finished the day out in my gear. Which by the way, is MUCH warmer then perforated leather!
Back on the track the next time I concentrated on just being smooth and trusting the bike. Things went great so I picked up the pace next time around.
When the day was over I was sweaty, tired and happy. I’d successfully completed my first track day and kept the shiny side up on the bike. I’d improved my riding and gotten ride of those darn chicken strips. Drug the left peg feeler twice, and Guy was telling me to take the center stand off for next time as it was dragging.
So yeah, I had a blast. Learned to trust the bike more and had a blast! Did I mention I had fun?
