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.

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