Sanity Ride...

Took a little ride today, you can read it here:

Sanity Ride....



And here is a good song that played on my mp3 player on the ride:

Got a new camera for Christmas...

It's nice and a big upgrade over my old Samsung Digi Cam. Expect to see more pictures soon...maybe even some from this Friday's The Last Ride Of The Year Ride To Eat. What's a RTE? Well, it's an even where motorcyclists ride a sizable distance to meet up for lunch....It sounds cool and is 250 miles away.

So, dork that I am, I am actually planning on leaving home at 5-5:30 in the morning to make it to the Stagecoach Cafe in time to see all the bikes. Past TLROTY's have had over 800 bikes, so that will be cool to see.

Crazy? Maybe, but it sounds like fun to me. Plus, I've been wanting to ride to Alabama for a while and this may get me motivated enough to do it.

This is what I want for Christmas.....

Dan Moto exhausts sound good and are priced a lot lower than name brand exhausts. Good reviews, too....

Toys for Tots Ride

Got up this morning and decided to make the Toys for Tots run this morning, even though it was cold and there was a chance of rain. That wasn't the biggest thing on my mind, that made me question whether I wanted to leave the house.

Not to get too depressing but my wife became ill at work and I took her to the emergency room Wednesday and they found a 2.5 inch brain tumor.... They are 99% sure it's benign but surgery is a must. An MRI is scheduled so we are waiting on the results to have a better idea of what we are looking at. But, to say the last few days have been a bit weird is a bit of an understatement.

So, anyway, my wife asked if I was still going and to be honest, I was already talking myself out of it because I'm just worried. But she said to go and enjoy myself and she'd be fine and I may not be able to ride too much for a little while. I told her I may go and went to bed still talking myself out of going. But then I realized that I needed to go and if I stayed she would probably  be upset with herself that this was keeping me from having fun. So, I decided to go.
I got on the road only slightly behind time and made a stop at WalMart for the present.



Riders from two local forums had decided separately to meet up at the Home Depot near Capital City Harley Davidson, where the Run started. One of the forums is Tallahassee Motorcycles, a local forum I started.

So I pulled in a few minutes before 9am and saw no other bikes there.



There is a thread on Maximum Suzuki talking about bushwhack camping and someone mentioned that two forum members took a cross country trip and would stop at Lowes or Home Depots and sleep in the sheds in the parking lot. I thought that was really kind of cool so I took a look at the sheds and could see that could be done.

I also like to kid my wife and tell her once the kids are grown we are downsizing to one of those micro houses, or the North Florida equivalent, one of these. But hey, that two story shed has plenty of room......She's still not buying it, though.

We ended up with two Tallahassee Sportbikers forum members, four Tallahassee motorcycle forum members, two Chrome Divas and four or five sportbike mc group all at the parking lot. So, four different groups picked the same spot to meet up and ride in.



One of the Chrome Diva's rode this Ninja. One day I will own a Ninja 250, 500 and a 650. Don't know why but those are some nice looking bikes to me.



Supercool VW powered trike.



Not quite as cool (but still pretty cool) Suzuki Burgman powered trike.



Not too sure what bike this is but it looks good. Is it a Honda Rune?



This dog was cool. He was also a ham and when anyone pointed a camera at him, he would pose, one ear up, one ear down. Note the doggy windshield.



Nice old Goldwing.



There were two Buells there and yeah, they still grab my attention from across the parking lot.



I need one of these. Badly. Very cool.




This Jawa was parked next to the Ural. So they win the coolest bike duo at the Toys for Tots.

My buddy rides one of these...

Actually, that is his bike and that Vance and Hines pipe sounds amazing. This 83 Honda CB 100F is a cool bike.

Got the lights up.....

I am embarassed to admit this....

but Glee made me realize how frickin' awesome this video still is....

Standardized!

2012 Versys 1000

Wow. I want. 

The Bandit is going through some mods....

Someone at the Maximum Suzuki forums wanted to go from the naked to faired look and posted saying he'd trade a really clean naked set up for a non pristine faired set up. I emailed the guy and he's serious so he's sending me the headlight, turn signals, brackets and some other stuff like a tank bra and some handlebars, all for my rashed and cracked fairing and fairing stay.

I'm psyched, to say the least. I had been kicking the idea around for a few months but hadn't done anything on it. The other day when I took the fairing off to get to the light bulb on the oil pressure light, I really liked the view from sitting on the bike without the hugh fairing on the front and side of the bike.

I can't wait to get the box and get the headlight on the bike.

And here's some grunge for you:

I was looking for threads for bed liner paint jobs...

And ran across this thread. Maybe I won't paint my bike. Or hootus.

Did a bit of maintenance today....

I got around to replacing the turn signal bulb that's been out as long as I have had the bike and also replaced the oil pressure light. Too bad that didn't fix the problem so it looks like my oil pressure sensor is bad. Off to ebay I go.

I got the fairings off without too much trouble. Putting it back together took an extra hand but it looks good and I didn't have any left over parts, so that's good.

Looking at the Max-Zuke forum there are some really interesting looking Bandits with cut down fairings. Very cool looking. Wonder if my neighbor has a Dremel.....

Got some plans this weekend....

I turned over 45,000 miles this morning on the commute. I think I'll do some maintenance on the Bandit this weekend.

I have a turn signal that's out, my oil light bulb may be bad, might as well change the oil and filter and maybe I'll even take the fairing off and see if I can put on the new head lights I bought.

Pictures to follow......

Took the Bandit off road today...

Ok, not true but wow, that is some intense riding, huh?

Ratbikes...

I like them. Here's a  thread from ADVrider with some cool ones.

REM quits...

Kind of sad about them hanging it up. Not that they have called it a day, I can respect that and like that they are simply done and (so far) not going to keep on going through the motions for money.

What sort of got me down was they had been around for 31 years. 31 years. Sure, there's bands that are old that are still together but REM was new for me, nothing like them had hit before and I was sort of there, you know?

Anyway, in honor of REM, one of their videos

:

Ok, I need a new exhaust!!!

And for around $50, it works for me. Listen to this one:

Ignore the big diesel truck at the beginning.....

30% chance of rain......

Usually, I will ride to work if the chance of rain is 40% or less. The last two days the chance has been 20% and 30% today, so I rode to work.

Got rained on on the way home both days. Not too bad but it was a bit worrisome yesterday when I'm riding and the road is covered in that white slime. So. I. Went. Slow.

And made it home fine.

Today I left work and the eastern side of town was covered by black clouds. Still, it wasn't raining on me yet and I still had to get home, so I headed out. About two miles down the road a drop or two hit while sitting at a red light. A few hundred yards later, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees in about 20 feet of road.

Well, not going to make it home dry.....

The rain started to really pour so I decided to stop somewhere and give it a few minutes to wash some of the slime off the road.

And, ff I'm honest with myself (and you readers), I'm a little worried about what happened a few days ago, which I never did explain what I did wrong that caused that near accident.

So, in the days since I had the near drop, I have realized several things I did wrong that almost caused at least a dropped bike:

1. I was going a little too fast. No, not 80 mph but enough that it caused the second mistake:
2. I used a little too much brake. I didn't stomp on the rear or wrench the front brake but I think when I realized I was going a little too fast, I grabbed a little too much. And add in my third mistake:
3. I was riding in the middle of the lane. I know, I'm a newbie. So, when I grabbed the brakes, I was in the middle of the lane. And at a major, busy intersection. So, the middle of each lane is black with car droppings and leaks.

And that was more than enough for me to lose traction and have ..... an experience. Thankfully, no harm was done and I certainly don't ride the middle of a lane anymore. Also interesting how several minor mistakes could have led up to a big problem, huh?

But, back to today. It didn't stop raining so after about ten or fifteen minutes, I decided to head home. And of course, in less than a mile, the rain stopped and a little farther on the road was bone dry. Just my luck.

This is a video of Husker Du. Extremely good band:

Take a look at this ride report from ADVrider.com

Mini Bike Ride Report . Very cool.

And here is a video they made of the RR:



And here is a video of a song that was running through my head on my 120 mile ride today.

My Brother was a Beach Bum....

I say was because he died 11 years ago.

Anyway, he was a very cool older Brother to have, even though as I got older, some of the coolness was exchanged with a little bit of corniness. But, to a 12 year old, a 22 year old Brother that moves to Panama City Beach every Summer is cool. Especially one that lets you spend a weekend with him.

Then I got older and he was even cooler cause he could buy beer. Not that he ever did, of course....

One Summer my Mom and I drove down to PC Beach to see my Brother and he asked if I wanted to stay. Well, duh. Of course I did! He even told Mom he'd drive back to Tallahassee to drop me off later in the week.

Back in the 70's and 80's, PC Beach was very cheesy, filled with lots of homey recreational type things. Game rooms, bars (my Brother was 6'6", so he was a bouncer at one time or other at most of them), air brush shops, Mom and Pop food stands, Putt Putt Golf, go kart tracks and even a Wax Museum. Outside the Museum, they would have someone dressed up as Frankenstein or some other character to wave at cars driving by. Well, again, my Brother was 6'6" so when he worked there, he was Frankenstein, but he didn't have to wear the platform shoes. And to a 12 year old, if your Brother is paid to dress up like Frankenstein, well, that's just cool.

Back to the go kart track. This place was awesome. After my Mom left, we made a bee line to the go kart track. We rode several of the tracks and then came to a tiny little track. It looked kind of boring. It was maybe 50' by 50' and all the track had was a long railroad tie in the middle of the track. So basically, you rode in a fairly small oblong circle

We watched the race that was ongoing and we realized this was the coolest track at the place. The track area was oiled down. So you basically drifted around the entire track.

We raced with about 8 other cars on this tiny track and it's a wonder no one died. All I remember was drifting almost the entire time, riding sideways around the entire miniloop around that railroad tie in the middle.

Sort of like how I was on the Bandit yesterday riding home from work!

No, I didn't crash or anything, but riding down the road and then rotating from straight to left then back the straight to almost 90 degrees to the right was a bit......disconcerting.

I've since had time to figure out some of the things I did wrong but will save that for tomorrow.

Shop Rates



Found this on a really cool site: Volksrat. Which has some really awesome shots of old air cooled VW's, bikes and NSFW women.

Can you imagine this show?

This shot was borrowed for the Sedgeyard, which is linked to the right. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It is a very cool site.

What an absolutely gorgeous day.....

It is generally understood that August in Tallahassee is going to suck. Heat. Humidity. More heat. Any time after 11am means either disgustingly hot temperatures or torrential downpours which end and turn into disgustingly humid and hot temperatures.

So I was amazed when I turned on the TV this morning to check the weather. The Weather Guy said temps were in the high 60's - low 70's. What? Really?

I couldn't wait to get out of the house and get on the bike for the ride to work.

Opening the door, I was met with a dry, cool car port. No sticky humidity. No fogging up eyeglasses.

Riding to work, I actually felt cool. It was awesome.

Riding to lunch was warm. Just warm. Didn't even break a sweat. At 1pm. In Florida. On August 16th!!!!

O(f course this means it will soon return to 150 degrees. But it sure was nice.

200th Post!

I was driving home last week from work and saw some of the coolest bikes. There were two sets of bikes and they were very cool. The first set looked like a husband and wife and they were both on ratty BMW's. I like ratbikes and a BMW ratbike is cool. They looked more or less like these two:

The next pair actually work where I do, but I haven't met them. They ride Triumphs, a Sprint and a Speed Triple. Very cool bikes and one of these days I'll meet those two riders. What's a three cylinder bike sound like, anyway?

But the coolest thing I saw on the way home that day was what looked like a homemade reverse scooter trike. I googled and searched for a picture that was even sort of similar to what I saw being driven down the road. No picture even came close.

This thing looked like the front of an old 70's VW kit car, very angular and it had a bench seat. But in the back was the single reartire of a scooter. And it was painted flat black. Like I said, very cool.

Which brings me to my next point. I am really thinking my Bandit would look good naked and painted olive drab or flat black.....

Last week sucked.

I woke up Monday morning, dragging, and thought it was just normal Monday drag. Got to work and started with the coughing. Not too bad but didn't feel too good. Went to lunch and when I got back, I felt worse. My Supervisor stopped by and told me I lookd pasty....

About an hour later she stopped by and told me to go home. Went home and crashed. Didn't get off the couch Tuesday, but made it to work Wednesday. Went in a few hours on my day off and rode the Bandit. Still felt bad and didn't stay all day. Made it to the weekend but still felt bad.

Finally feel sort of ok but still have some coughing.

Sorry for no updates but not much happened all week. So, enjoy some music:

Way too much rain....

So not a lot of riding, but I did manage to clean and lube my chain this week.

As for some music, enjoy some old school...




And have a song from probably the greatest and coolest person to ever play guitar. I saw Dick Dale once at The Point in Atlanta. I had never heard of him but was told he was great. The show was awesome and the coolest thing was as the show neared its end, and they finished a song, Dick Dale said 'Ok, we have a couple of songs left ad instead of doing the bit where we walk off  stage and you sheer for an encore, how about we play three more songs then hang out and let us talk to you guys?' More or less. That is not a direct quote, I was pretty smashed by then that night. I was young :)

But I do remember that was some of the best music I have ever heard.

Hmmm.... what color is Bel Ray chain lube?

I needed to lube my chain, so went out last night to do it. My can of chain lube is empty, so I wander over to my neighbor and he has some Bel Ray lube. Cool!

So, I get home from work and have a few minutes to clean and lube my chain. Spray the lube on and notice it looks different than the other lube I had. The directions say to leave it on for a while, so I do.

Went outside to check on it and it's still looking different.

Off to google what color the lube is supposed to be :)

Saturday Night Punk

I really like this song.

Not much to report bike wise. Rode to work all week. Riding is still such a blast. Played a bit at 10k rpms this week, just to see what the Bandit sounds like. It sounds good.... but the stock exhaust is very quiet. And that's fine and I keep telling myself I do not need an after market exhaust.



And it's time for The Jesus and Mary Chain. This was/is my favorite band. Still good stuff, 20 plus years later....

Oh, wait, there is something new and interesting going on. Seems I got a lead on a dirt cheap spotless GSX-
R. May not turn out but it will be cool if it does. I don't think I need or want a GSX-R but it would be cool to ride it for a few miles.....just to see what the fuss is all about, right? Right?

And I'm back...

That was a relaxing break. Sad thing is, I didn't ride much but I did spend a lot of time on the beach with the kids, impressing them with my skill of finding sand dollars. No major sun burns, and a lot of fun had by the whole family.

I headed back Thursday and while riding east on 98 I noticed a large and dark mass of clouds sitting to the north of me. But the sun was out overhead and the ride was nice. However, once I hit Panacea, the temperature fell and a few drops hit my faceshield.

Oh boy. Well, nothing to do but keep on riding, so that's what I did. The rain wasn't too bad and I was barely getting damp. By the way, the bike and tires did fine, I am really liking these Shinko tires.

I was enjoying the ride and then noticed that it looked a lot darker on the road in front of me. Well, I soon rode into a typical North Florida rain storm. It poured.  Nothing to do but keep going. I was soaked. I did sort of look around to see if there was anywhere to pull over and get out of the rain, but I kept going. What was the point? The bike was doing fine, no real traffic behind me riding my bumper and I was already soaked.

So I kept going. Once I hit Crawfordville, the deluge had stopped and I was halfway dry when I got home. Fun ride, actually but those bridges were ... interesting. Don't like bridges on the Bandit. I mean, I know I'm ok but I guess the fact there is nothing next to the edge of the bridge makes me a little ummmm ... clenchy. Guess I'll have to get over that if I plan on any travel longer than a day or so.

Well, the vacation was nice but it is nice being back!

Loud pipes save lives....

(shamelessly stolen from some thread on ADVRider.com)

Vacation time.

And when it sort of worked out that I needed to ride the Bandit to the beach, I was even happier. So, Sunday morning, we all woke up, got ready, loaded up the Explorer and the Wife and Family headed out. After I got ready, I hopped on the Bandit and followed.

But like most of my Bandit trips, it started here :



The Taquito was especially good, knowing I have the week off. So, I took my time and read the newspaper and enjoyed my breakfast.

After breakfast, I headed out of town in the quickest way possible, which took me by my office. I swung in for avery quick photo.



The ride was nice and uneventful but I was planning on stopping in Carrabelle for some history.






Back in the 70's, there was a show called Real People . For a 9 year old kid, it was an awesome show. I was completely amazed when it did a feature on a spot that was fairly local to me. Hey, I was 9 years old, cut me some slack.

But you have to admit, the police station is pretty cool, huh?




Soon after you pass through the small town of  Carrabelle, you hit Carrabelle Beach, where I spent many a hot Summer day back when I was a young kid.  So, I had to stop and take a few pictures. The place is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago. It just seems a lot smaller....






I hope these pictures convey a little of my area and experiences. I by no means whatsoever claim to be anything more than some guy with an old digital camera. Maybe when I have the correct date on my shots, I'll act like a photographer :)

Anyway, the beach house is nice, all the kids are asleep and I'm heading to bed, too...

Had some rain today...

And the bike did fine. I was working a half day today. I work a four day week and my day off rotates every four weeks...... or whenever the higher ups remember to change it. But we can work overtime, but it's not overtime. You get time and a half leave instead.

Since my wife rented us a beach house next week ( YAY! ) I needed to build a little extra leave. So I went in today. I did not get going too quickly this morning so left the house about 30 minutes late.

I didn't see Mr Buell Guy but did get passed by a guy on a Suzuki....a Suzuki streetfighter/ratbike/commuter. I've finally defined my favorite bikes. I guess my perfect bike would be defined as a low dollar 'fighter/ commuter with a bit of ratbike added in.

I think the bike was a GS 500 or possibly a Katana with the fairings removed. It was black, of course, and slightly dirty, of course. It did have an after market exhaust and it sounded good. Cool bike,

Leaving this afternoon at 3:30 instead of my usual 7:30, it was sunny and hot.  Some small dark clouds were in the sky but it didn't look like rain. Stopped at What A Burger for a late lunch and as I was leaving, I realized it was raining lightly, but the sun was out. Looking South, I saw a wall of dark rainclouds. Not good, I had a stop to make before I could head home. I made the stop and coming out of the Post Office, saw that it had rained quite a bit while I was inside.

Being overly careful, I headed out and the bike and new tires did fine. No problems at all and after a couple of miles, I passed some invisible line and the temp rose about 20 degrees and the road was bone dry.

As for the beach house, I can't wait. I am going to ride the bike down and ride back a day before everyone else comes home. Expect pictures of the beach. And a picture of the world's smallest police station. But more beach pictures. We may not have curvy mountain roads, but we do have beautiful beaches.

Got my tires installed Saturday.

Found a local mechanic who works out of his home and charges a reasonable amount. He didn't mind me waiting while he changed the tires and we talked bikes while he switched out the tires.

He was impressed by the Bandit, especially when he found out what I paid for it.

So far the Shinkos feel really good. They feel softer.... and ummmmm grippier. So much for my idea of giving an informative review, huh? They look good, too. And for the riding I do, I imagine these tires will do exactly what I need them to do.

What's interesting is that they have the same tread design as the 005 Advance that came on the rear of the Bandit.

So, new tires at 43, 304 miles.

Home today with a sick child....

So we need some Clash!

Music of the day...

Have some Sloan...



No riding today, forecast torrential rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph. So, I decided to hold off until I get the new tires on thr bike. Of course, what that means is that it poured for two hours and an hour before I get off work, it clears up and when I left work it was only slightly warm and the roads were dry.....

Got to love summers in north Florida.

And here is some Ugly Kid Joe:



Of course, the only bike that I saw parked in the motorcycle parking at work was the guy with the Burgman. Rock on scooter guy!

I've never told my fifteen year old one of my favorite bands when I weas in college was called Ned's Atomic Dustbin....

Read this review of Michelin Pilot 3's....

http://www.fz6-forum.com/forum/fz6-general-discussion/35444-michelin-pilot-road-3-here-8.html

A 20 mile ride on the Road of Death.

How's that for a title?

It all started when I sent a message to a friend of mine who had offered to help me change my tires. He said we could change them today but he was going camping Saturday, and oh, hey, why don't you ride out with us and have some fun? Sure, the road is dirt but there's a guy that rides with us on a big Triumph, so you'll do fine!

So, what the heck, I decided to go.

I mean, what's the worse that can happen, right? My buddy even said we'd go as slow as I needed to and if need be, I could turn around and go the other way in.

So, I pulled up at his house and this is his bike:

Hmmmm. I don't know a lot about KTM's but I do know they are serious off road bikes. Ok, reminder to self: be sure the roads are decent dirt roads with nothing crazy on them.

The guy that was camping with my buddy shows up on this bike:

Those two bikes weigh less than 300 pounds each. For reference, this is my bike:

It weighs a tad more than 275 pounds and as you can see, the knobbies are a little worn. But as the sticker I saw on a bike recently said:

So, we suited up and headed out. We stopped at Sonic on Capital Circle and I had their breakfast burrito. Not bad, but not What A Burger. And for some weird reason, Sonic doesn't give free refills on soft drinks.... But half of the people that bring you food are on roller skates, so that must count for something.

We headed out and they took a different route to meet up at the entrance road. We met up and headed into the Apalachicola National Forest. We took it slow and everything was pretty good, no serious slipping or sliding, just a little 'floating' and then we hit the first deep sand on the road.

And the fun ride came to a screeching halt. I didn't drop the bike but it wallowed around and I came to a quick stop. Got a little advice and we headed off again. Hit some more deep sand and kept a steady (slow) throttle and made it through ok.

Kept going and Sean (on the KTM) passed me doing a wheelie...which he had told me he very well may do. He slowed down to ride sweep again and the next time he came by, he was resting his feet on the handlebars. It was funny. The bastige.

We hit a tiny bit of paved road and I prayed that was it but after about 25 yards we headed back into the woods on a smaller dirt road. It was actually a bit tighter and was fine. I was actually able to look around a bit and this is what we were riding through:

I kept my eye out for one of these

but we didn't see one. Which admittedly was going to be hard since that is a picture of a Grizzly. And Florida is not a Grizzly habitat. See, entertaining and informative. However, I was on the lookout for one of these:

And we didn't see one of those, either.

So we kept riding and I kept slipping and floating but generally heading in the right direction when we hit a road that to the front wheel on the Bandit, looked like this:

See me on the Bandit in that shot? Yeah, that's what it felt like. For a little bit, the Bandit did ok. But then, the ruts got so deep that I probably clenched a little too much and the front tires tried to walk up the side of the rut. And then it tried to walk up the other side of the rut. Then the rear tire got into the action.

So, the bike went over. It didn't fall, it just sort of leaned over a couple of inches and I stepped off. I'd give myself a 9.2 on dismount. It was a very casual action, although at the moment I was a little umm excited. This is the actual road but imagine it with a lot more sand. A lot more.....

The bike was fine, no harm done at all. I did have to adjust the left rear view mirror, though. Sean then picks this time to tell me this is the where he broke his collar bone we he crashed here....

Now that is not the right thing to tell a guy on a freakin' street bike 10 miles out into the middle of no where, is it? That picture is actually from when he dismounted ungracefully...

At this point I was a little worn out and frazzled but I think I got a little better at the steady throttle and lean on the back and didn't have any mishaps and we made to their camp site.

After they set up camp and I enjoyed the complete lack of any man made sounds, except for the KTM and Yamaha running through the mud, I was talking to Sean when the Yamaha revved up and then cut off.

We looked over and there was the stuck Yamaha and it looked like this:

So we walked over ands they got it out and after a bit we decided to head out. We went the other way out and I did pretty good but the road was a lot better. We hit pavement and it. was. Heaven. Sean and I immediately took off and that KTM is awesome. We slowed down and I was thinking how cool that KTM is, when at speed, Sean decides to show us how capable the bike is by riding off the road onto the side. Bastige...

At the light in Crawfordville, they took a right to go to Sopchoppy, and I headed back to Tallahassee.

Very cool experience but not too sure I'll take the Bandit off road again. Unless I get some knobbies....

(By the way, almost all of these photos were stolen off the net. That is actually my Bandit and that is the road where I had the lean over.)

The OMGHI2U guys have another video!

Wow, the tires are here already!!

When I ordered them, the salesperson told me they would be here Monday, which seemed reasonable to me.

So, with rain forecast the last two days, I drove the car to work. And it was a good thing, it has poured here the last two days.

I got home today and something told me to check our front door. We use the car port door at our house. So, on a whim, I opened the front door and there where the Shinkos!

I can't wait to get them on my bike this Sunday!

This would suck....

Did some window shopping today....

And these are what I want to buy in the next few weeks....

A headlight bucket because I think I want to go naked on the Bandit. The front fairing on the Bandits are kind of ugly....

Bar end mirrors, because the stock mirrors are pretty good at giving me an unobstructed view of my shoulders. Plus, if I go naked, they look cool.

I saw these cameras on some blog and for $10 bucks, they are cool. And for ten bucks, you can feel ok with sticking the camera anywhere, and if you lose it, no huge deal.

A Bandit key ring. 'Cause I want one.

And last but not least:

A new set of tires. Actually, I bought a set today.  I was going to get a set of Continental Motion tires, for around $150 a set. However, they didn't have the front tire in my size in stock. So I did some investigating. A friend of mine suggested some Shinko dual sport tires. The price was right and the tires got good reviews. Unfortunately, they didn't have them in my size.

They did have Shinko 740 series a really good price and they had both front and rear in my size. So, I was interested. I looked online for some reviews and found some positive reviews from the Ninja 500 forum and the Suzuki GS sites. The sportbike forums returned the knee jerk, 'THEY SUCK DOOD!!! YOU HAVE TO HAVE BRAND X TIRE OR YOU'LL CRASH, BURN and DIE!!!'

Interestingly, those posts and threads were from several years ago, probably when Shinko first came out, so that's understandable.

The deciding factor for me was in another thread, one of the people that actually bought them and used the tires posted in another thread a couple of years later and reported he got 7k miles out of the tires.

And when I thought about it, I decided to go for it. The way I look at it, the people that ride Ninja 500s and Suzuki GS 500's are not riding for show and probably can look past the name and give an honest opinion.

So, I called and ordered a set of Shinkos. Funny thing is, they are listed as cruiser tires..... So, what makes a cruiser tire, anyway? I don't know and they are rated for a higher speed than my Bandit will go (and far faster than I'm going to go) so I imagine they will be fine.

Oh, how much? $115.98. Total.

And have some Dinosaur Jr.