tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40468388594361578412026-03-14T18:04:03.193-04:00Projects, Ideas, Thoughts, Reviews dealing with my motorcycling life.P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-60838431181623461722022-06-03T03:20:00.002-04:002022-06-12T19:31:23.117-04:00

2 June 2022When I got home from the last tire change with Cruzman I was determined to be able to change my own tires without imposing on him.  I don't think it's a real imposition but it feels like it.  That and we ended up using his truck to break the bead and on the ground with tire spoons again.  theWolf does not like being on the ground!Before you go any further, understand

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-89448994768284782822022-06-02T22:25:00.000-04:002022-06-02T22:26:12.302-04:00

2 Jun 2022I'll admit I'm a little obsessed.  I'm pretty sure by now I could have just purchased a commercial product and been done with it.  I think a few years ago, I attempted to do it but the one I could afford was never in stock when I had the money to get it.  This is jacket version 4.I keep seeing the heating pads on Aliexpress, Amazon, and eBay for a pretty good price. 

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-77020082136949219962021-08-23T16:18:00.003-04:002021-08-23T16:18:54.320-04:00

23 August 21: Better Lights?You'd think I'd learn. Maybe I should just spend a little more on better lights. For the past few years I've only had one working aux light. I replaced the angel lights a couple of years ago but sometime last year, one of those lights went out on me too. This time, I spent a little more and upped the wattage a little to get two lights once again.After this year's

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-33320794586794354692020-08-14T14:39:00.001-04:002020-08-20T19:15:24.760-04:00

14 August 2020I finally installed the new handlebars I got last year during the annual 11.11 sale they they have on Aliexpress.com.  It took so long because in my excitement of finding a reasonably priced bar, I forgot all about making sure it had threaded ends.  Oops!New bar on top, old Gen2 FZ1 bar on the bottom.About the time it arrived, I got a lateral promotion that meant I should

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-24873626516269766552020-07-23T21:23:00.000-04:002022-06-12T19:57:27.735-04:00

23 July 2020 In the time of a pandemic... I was excited to learn we were going to have our rally, pandemic or not.  This time I didn't need to do much to the bike to be ready, just change the tires.  I had them in plenty of time for the rally but I didn't know where to go to put them on.  Cruzman said we could do it at his house so that's where I went. This was an all day ordeal

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-70656671746204531332019-11-06T12:20:00.001-05:002019-11-06T12:27:24.549-05:00

A couple of years ago, a tree limb fell the house I was renting.  Landlords sent people to remove it and, I assume, make sure there was no real damage to their house.  When I got home, I noticed that Baby didn't look right.  Turns out they dropped the limb on my bike! There wasn't much damage and the landlord paid for most of it.  I say most because I didn't realize my rear

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-43920534070322292282019-09-20T13:48:00.004-04:002019-09-20T13:48:48.828-04:00

Today I bled my front brakes and realized it's been too long since I've come back here and posted anything.  I have been working for the last two and a half years and have not had nearly enough time to ride.  I remember when I got the part time job I thought it would mean I'd be riding more...uh no. I started working so I could get my truck fixt and ended up financing a whole other

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-66411858637689948922017-07-26T23:01:00.000-04:002017-07-26T23:01:05.241-04:00

Back in late January when we had a cold snap, I killed my 1998 Ford Explorer Sport with the difficult to find 5sp manual transmission. Brandon was no looker, but he was reliable and paid for something I'd come to value more than tech and gadgets since I don't really drive much.  Would I like a newer car with all the new features and stuff?  Not if I have to pay for it, I concluded

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-33165449436073610082017-07-16T16:30:00.000-04:002017-07-16T16:30:05.510-04:00

Stay tuned...Daddy helped a sister out.

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-73238035207753910022017-06-27T04:30:00.000-04:002017-06-27T04:30:25.068-04:00

17 Jun 2017:  Free Play Day After a night spent in the dining room then on the porch, no one mentioned a plan for another group ride.  The best idea seemed to be hang out on the porch, ride the loop known as the Cooler Run, hang out on the porch, repeat as necessary.  For me, I had another plan. After a night spent on an underinflated air mattress, mad at a tent pole for breaking

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-73783066157842959442017-06-27T02:14:00.002-04:002017-06-27T02:17:29.737-04:00

16 Jun 2017:  Group Ride If there's anything that I truly appreciate about our rallys is that there is a general unplanned feeling about everything.  I'm not certain that I've always appreciated this but I do now.  I can admit to being an insider but I try to be inclusive of every new face I see, especially the ones that say they're here for the first time. As long as I've been

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-88551386366863830322017-06-26T23:44:00.000-04:002017-06-26T23:44:01.624-04:00

15 June 17:  Departure Day. Or the longest night.  I went to Wal-Mart around midnight to get a new camping mattress and 12v pump.  My local store didn't have the pump but they had a neat chair.  I was all packed by 1:30 a.m. but still could not sleep.  I couldn't load the bike either because Baby needed a bath badly and I was told not to show up at the rally with a

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-14840477485792077922017-06-20T00:20:00.001-04:002017-06-20T00:20:55.882-04:00

27 May 17: Memorial Weekend Ride I returned from my last ride needing tires and a chain.  My new place has no garage and leaving the bike at my Dad's was a little too far.  Chain and sprockets first.  I wanted to replace both because the chain was so bad I was concerned the sprockets were damaged too. They weren't.  Lesson learned:  say no to the eBay chain despite

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-16081466096619097282017-06-19T00:30:00.003-04:002017-06-19T00:30:53.071-04:00

It's FZ1OA Rally Time! Details to come.

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-77887989319080759702017-05-26T19:16:00.000-04:002017-05-26T19:16:25.570-04:00

I don't know why I didn't post this sooner.  You can bring me to task the next time you see me.  The fork service Cruzman and I did leaked as soon as I got home.  He changed his a couple of more times and still they leaked.  I chose to get professional help of sorts. Here's the results.  The lesson learned is fork seals only work right sight up.  If you put the

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-58708572526719831832017-05-26T19:10:00.002-04:002017-05-26T19:10:54.144-04:00

I got it in January from a forum member.  I've been saying for years I would order one but have always been satisfied with the ones I had.  When I saw this in the for sale section of the forum, I just couldn't pass it up. There's much cleaner air for me behind the Fabbri than the Zero Gravity.  The air now flows somewhere that's not the top of my helmet. Makes my inexpensive

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-18215675463605169252017-05-26T18:45:00.003-04:002017-05-26T18:45:59.816-04:00

Last year, I added hard luggage that I called Chivi since they're a knock off of the popular Givi brand at a fraction of the costs.  Since I added them, I always wanted to be able to remove the bags similar to the way the quick disconnect works on some other brand of luggage racks. My bags came with generic mounting pieces so I didn't really need to buy racks.  But those generic pieces

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-72790229636594131222016-06-10T11:32:00.001-04:002016-06-10T11:32:05.081-04:00

Since I allowed my "nephews" to move in I've had issues with my tools.  Many have just up and disappeared.  Others are broken or no longer work as they are designed too.  My frustration is complete but I have just mostly remedied the problem.  My new toolz. Of course this doesn't replace some of my special fz1 tools that they've destoyed.  Now, I keep my tools under my

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-41829812247749472042016-04-12T21:01:00.000-04:002016-04-13T16:28:34.777-04:00

My budget solution:  Chivi. Every since last year's rally I've been obsessed with replacing my soft saddlebags with hard luggage.  When I bought the saddlebags, I researched hard luggage and realized I didn't want to invest close to $1,000 on something that I believed my softbags would do just fine. There are advantages to softbags that I truly appreciate.  Like being able

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-81515859358474108942016-04-11T19:36:00.002-04:002016-04-11T19:36:31.291-04:00

10 April 2016:  Fork Service Weekend. I’d delayed, postponed it for as long as I could but the time had come when no more delay were possible. Delaying it not because I didn’t want to do it. There were some lupus reasons and other life reasons that caused them but I finally got myself moving. Moving in more ways than one. At the end of last year I made a decision and acted on it: I

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-18196801713457663032015-11-07T14:07:00.000-05:002015-11-09T01:07:30.689-05:00

Since I launched my blog 5 years ago with diy heated gloves, much better technology is available to the diyer.  When it was time to remake my gloves a couple of years ago, I chose not to because the wiring was annoying. Conclusions.  After 5 years, my most used diy thing is those controllers.  I ditched the heated gloves after one too many failures in the field.  It turns out

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-12332477251275375092015-11-04T16:01:00.002-05:002015-11-09T01:06:02.361-05:00

October 9 – 11, 2015:  FZ1OA Octoberfest The gatherings with the members of the FZ1OA have started to feel as much like renuions than rally.  I often say it's my FZ1 family and the rallys are a family reunion.  This one felt more like that than any of the others. I started out my travel day at the butt crack of dawn so I could be there in time for the Friday morning ride.  

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-22704485617876851692015-10-26T16:41:00.000-04:002015-11-09T01:06:02.372-05:00

October 9 - 11, 2015.  I still have to type the report but here are two of the three videos from the weekend.  Slow laptop makes video editing more of a chore than it already is. I left home at the butt crack of dawn to get to TWoS in time for the Friday morning ride.  Cruzman helped me get the tent up enough to claim a spot.  Then I rushed setting up the cameras using the

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-45852419070800269052015-09-09T21:44:00.000-04:002015-09-09T22:09:03.731-04:00

9 September 2015:  Ride less, wrench more?! About 2 months after ordering my new chain, I finally put it on.  During this year's FZ1OA Rally, I realized babying my current chain to get a few more miles out of it wasn't going to work.  It seemed like I'd just put the chain and sprockets on and I wasn't ready to take the $$$ hit so soon. My memory and reality have been estranged

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046838859436157841.post-2749659808194095582015-08-31T09:07:00.000-04:002015-08-31T12:48:41.472-04:00

Action Camera Review I don't usually do camera reviews because I favor the lower end action cameras that aren't user friendly.  As long as it can take jello free video onboard my bike and look decent on YouTube, I like it.  If it costs less than $75, I love it! A little history. All of my videos have been taken with a variety of budget (read clone) cameras.  My first foray into

P D Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11922144082173809929noreply@blogger.com13