The first thing I had to do was remove all of the plastics which was pretty simple. There are only a handful of bolts that needed to be removed and a couple push pins. Once all the plastics were off I climbed onto the ground to see just what needed to be removed. First I thought I could get away with removing solely the muffler and leaving the exhaust manifold connected. I was wrong and it turned out the manifold was the most troublesome part of the entire process. The bolts were locked tight and I had to spray them real well with PB Blaster to get them to release. Once they were strayed down I removed the coupling on the exhaust pipe that held the muffler to the manifold pipes. I removed the rear muffler by removing 3 bolts and then twisting, turning and pulling. If finally came loose and then it was time to remove the manifold pipes.

I had to let the PB Blaster sit for a while prior to trying to loosen the manifold bolts because I did not want to strip the aluminum that they were screwed into. Once I removed those 8 bolts the manifold pretty much fell off and I placed it aside. With this removed I was able to remove the oil pan without much trouble. I had to remove quite a few bolts though and I also had to remove the tubes that connected from the radiator to the oil pan.

Now that it is removed and I feel good about being able to get it apart I am going to take it to have it welded this weekend. Come Monday I will have to put the bike back together and that is the part I am a little worried about. Most of the bolts that I removed need to be tightened with a torque wrench and the one I have is defective because it does not click at all, not even on 0 lbs.

Putting the bike back together will be pretty straight forward as it was not that confusing coming apart and the bolts will pretty much only fit in the respective holes. The only difficult part will be not over tightening the bolts and making sure there are no leaks. Now this little mishap has caused me about 2 hours of my time taking the bike apart, about $30-40 in gaskets that will require changing (and may as well since it’s apart) but it has saved me the cost the bike shop estimated for the labor charges. I cannot believe that everything for a motorcycle is more expensive than for a car. I know they are seen as “toys” but a lot of people actually commute on them every day rather than driving a gas guzzling car. I see no reason why repair costs should be upwards of $90 per hour when most auto shops are $60-65 per hour.

All of this has been a learning experience and I have actually enjoyed it. When I was a teenager I used to like to work on cars. I am glad that I can learn about the bike and do any routine maintenance required thus far.

After looking around online for a replacement oil pan I have decided that $175 is just too much to pay for the part. I called up a friend of my fiance and they are going to weld a nut to the inside of the oil pan so that the bolt will have something to grab onto. This is the point where I say the project begins.

I started to look at the bike to see what route I would have to take in order to get the oil pan off and I am surprised it’s not that difficult but you do have to remove some pieces before you can get to it. In order to get the oil pan off the machine you actually have to remove the exhaust pipes from the engine and also have to remove your tail pipe. The issue at hand here is that you are supposed to use a torque wrench again at 16.5 ft-lbs for the bolts that are holding the exhaust pipes to the engine block. I fear that I may strip these if I use the same torque wrench again. I will try with 10 ft-lbs to start with and see just how tight it seems I guess. My first step however was going down to the auto parts store to pick up some penetration oil because the bolts holding the exhaust on seem be locked up tight and with it being made of aluminum I want to take no chances.

Anyway I will try to post some pictures of the process once completed.

When it came time to make the $650 purchase of a Jacket, Helmet and Gloves I made the trip back to Greater Boston Motorsports. This time however the staff was all running around as if they had 30 customers in the store keeping them all busy. There were maybe 5 customers in the store so I was a bit confused. I asked one guy about the jacket and when I found the jacket that I wanted (A blue Joe Rocket UFO 2.0) he just wandered off to help someone else. The guys that work there work on commission so you would think he would have asked if I needed anything else. After he wandered off I flagged down another staff member to ask about the helmets. I wanted to find one that would match my bike that also fit properly. I ended up choosing a helmet (A blue Scorpion EXO 1000 RPM) however they did not have my size in stock for any of the helmets I looked at. They advertise that they have the most helmets you will see under any one roof and I would be VERY surprised if that were true. They had a large selection of Icon and Arai but not much for any other brands. Also I bet there were no more than 40 helmets on the floor. I ended up having to order my size in the helmet which I was not too happy about because when you drop that much money you want the product right then. The salesman told me that my helmet would be in within 3-5 business days. I had ordered the helmet on July 1st and knew it would not be there within 3-5 days but rather business days since most companies were closed on Sunday and Monday was the day everyone had off from work for the holiday. After 6 business days I called the store and asked if my order was in. The guy took a look and told me well it looks like that product is back-ordered but the order was released today. I was not happy about that. They tell you one think when you place the order and another on the day you expect delivery.

I called and asked to speak with the manager and once I had him on the phone I stated that I just wanted my money back. He said come on down and we can settle this. I was expecting them to try to hit me with a restocking fee which I was going to dispute. However before I could even make it to the store the manager called back stating that they had the helmet in their NH store and could have it for me the next day. How convenient was that? Why could they have not just gotten it for me from that store prior to making me wait 6 days the first time. I agreed I just wanted the helmet and did not want to be lied to so I accepted the offer to get the helmet from the other store. The next day I called up to see if it had arrived and the manager told me it had. I hopped in the car and drove over to get my new helmet. When I arrived I spoke with the manager again and he ran down to receiving to get my helmet. When he finally returned he said it looks like they sent the wrong helmet. I was very amazed at the lack of competence anyone at that store has had. They were unable to order me a specific helmet after they said the order was placed and then to boot they have the wrong helmet sent from another store (Scorpion EXO 1000 Appollo). Not wanting to fight over a refund for the helmet because their policy is no refunds on helmets, I just accepted the helmet even though it was not the one I originally ordered. They are they same helmet except for the graphic design on the outside. When I agreed to just take the helmet the manager thanked me for my willingness to compromise which also made me angry. Why should I have had to compromise? He continued to tell me he just took over the store and things are still a bit rocky… You Think????

Needless to say I am not happy at all about the purchasing experience I had at Greater Boston Motorsports. I will never buy anything from this store again nor would I ever refer any of my friends to go there for buying their merchandise. From now on I will either find an alternative store or deal with the traffic to go to Parkway Cycle.

What store do you trust for your purchases? Please let me know in the comments below.

The best part of the entire ride by far was the Mohawk Trail. There were plenty of curves and it was a nice ride because it was not all stop and go like it is down here in the city. I did not really push the bike too much because I am still a new rider and have not yet taken the riders course. The ride was quite long as it took us almost 3 hours to drive. I was a bit numb when we arrived especially where my legs meet my pelvic area but overall I think I did pretty well. The most challenging part of the entire ride for me was this hairpin turn (photo) found just before you get into North Adams, MA. I thought for sure I was going to dump the bike because it was my first time really attempting this maneuver and it was a tough one because of how tight the corner is. I was able to make it around the turn without a hitch, I just let the bike lean at about 15 MPH and kept my body upright as the motorcycle manual stated to do when you are taking sharp turns real slow. I even nailed it when we were on our way home Sunday but I was a bit more nervous because it was going uphill and I cut the corner tight using the shoulder of the road which had some loose gravel and oil stains from vehicles traveling over it for so many years.

The entire trip went well and I got to put about 450 miles under my belt which I think was a good thing. The more time you get to ride the better you will get. I have outlined the entire route which I rode on Google Maps so feel free to take a peek if you are not familiar with Route 2.

We took a ride up to Windham NH to look at the bike which was at Revolution Cycles (603-893-9950?). It was on a stand in the front window and when we walked in Claire was looking at it in awe. It was in such nice condition and she asked me I wonder what the price is for the bike in the window…. I said that’s the bike we came to see and she was shocked after seeing the bike that the price was only $3495. The bike is very clean, and only has 3100 miles on it. It is a 2006 but with the condition and the low miles it would usually go for around $4500-$5000. Needless to say after starting it up and sitting on it I scooped it up.

I plan to go take the MREP course that Massachusetts offers so that I can learn how to properly ride a bike but also skip the RMV tests. So what do you think?

Once updated however everything seems to be running smooth. I have installed several apps from the application manager but the one app i cannot get to install is Pidgin which is a real bummer for me. I have noticed that while installing apps it appears to be hanging with no visiual progress. I havew learned though that paitience is a virtue. When i want to install a new application i start the process and connect it to the charger. At this point i walk away and find something else to do while i wait. Generally when i go back it is installed bunless that application is pidgin.

Today I even installed JoikuSpot which i had on my E72 previously and I was very pleased with the interface. I cannot wait to get all my work stuff setup on the device, things such as email and communicator for messaging.

After a few days of using the device rather heavilly I really like it. The only thing i find annoying is that the touch screen is a pain to use with your finger. Thank goodness it comes with a stylus. I think I am a bit too used to the accelerometer and pinch zooming on Apple products. While some apps on the N900 change orientation i found most dont. There is also no pinch zooming which makes it really tough to click the small font web links with a finger.

I have to thank my fiance Claire for putting up with seeing the device in my hands everytime she looked at me. She seems to have more paitience than I do when it comes to that.

This post was written using the Nokia N900 and MaStory. I do have a few suggestions for MaStory. It would be nice if there were some auto spell checking and support for the more tag which word press uses. I had to come back in and edit this post from my iPad!!!

Though the game play is very similar at first (and I was surprised they are made by different companies) you will quickly see that Harbor Master while following the same concept takes it’s own direction with the game play. When you first start a game you will see an empty harbor which will quickly fill with boats (if you play on high speed like myself). Some of the boats are small speedboats carrying a small amount of cargo and some are rather large cargo ships. You will notice that the larger the ship and the more cargo it has aboard the slower it will go. When you have a large ship with a lot of cargo headed into port you will notice that it moves at a slower rate than after it unloads. The attention to small details like this is what makes Harbor Master a truly great game.

Another twist is that you will see tornado’s (I think that’s what they are) appear from time to time. Any ships that are set on course for a harbor that hits the tornado get spun around and loses all sense of direction. You will have to direct this ship back to a port trying to avoid the path of the tornado. This tends to make the game a bit more challenging especially when you have a lot of boats on the screen and more than one or two are hit by the tornado. Another great twist is that a ship can be carrying several different types of cargo. You will notice in the screen shots below that there are some ships carrying multiple types of cargo. First you have to dock the ship at one dock to unload that type of cargo and then head over to the other dock to finish the unloading process.

While the game play for both games follows the same concept I feel they are rather different once you play them both for a short period of time. The one fact that I loved about Harbor Master is that it was “free” for the iPad. I am not sure why it is free for the iPad since the iPhone version is priced at $1.99. The only thing I can think of is that it is a promotional price so if you want the game on the iPad I would suggest you go grab it immediately. I am not sure what the Harbor Master price will be once they remove it from being free but I would expect that it would remain closely priced to Flight Control HD which comes in at a mere $4.99.

Overall I would give this game a 4 out of 5 rating. While the game play is nice I would like to see more to this game. I have not been playing for long and my high score is only 51 but I have only seen the single harbor map. It would be great if these games would provide more levels initially with the games and maybe down the road offer more levels for sale maybe 4 for $0.99.

I know I would not mind paying a bit more for added levels if the game were to come with 4 or 5 from the start. I am just a bit disappointed in some of the iPad games because they are shipping with a single level.

The game play seems very basic and at first look you wonder why people are raving over a game that seems so easy. After playing a few rounds I quickly noticed that it is not that easy of a game to play. Once you have several aircraft on the screen with some directed towards a runway and others not it becomes seemingly difficult to keep your attention on all of the planes to make sure there are no collisions at the runways or in transit. I did not notice until today that the game actually takes advantage of the multi-touch feature that the iPad offers. You can use multiple fingers to tap different planes and hold them all in the holding pattern while using other fingers to direct planes where you wish for them to go. This is a very nice feature but after trying it for the first time I have come to the conclusion that it will take some getting used to before you can master that trick.

I have heard people gripe about the price difference between the iPad and iPhone versions of this game when the only difference is a larger screen and higher resolution images. Personally I cannot complain at all because I do not have an iPhone and did not have to pay twice for the application. I also do not think that $4.99 is that much to pay for a game anyway. What are your thoughts on the pricing of this game?

The screen shots above really depict the quality of the graphics in the game. You can see that on the main screen it details information such as average planes landed, total planes landed, high score, etc. This is a very nice page with very useful information. As well as keeping a local record of your high score you can also opt to submit your scores to CloudCell so that you can see just how well you are doing against other players. I have noticed when you look at the leader board it seems to only show people which are “close” to your current location. I have not yet found a way to see your placement on a global level.

As well as being a very addictive single player game you can also play multi-player with a friend in either co-op or vs mode. In the vs mode you are playing on a split screen so it can become a bit tedious to work with when you are used to playing on a full screen iPad. The developers did not stop there either, they have added another twist which could make the game even more addictive. You can play multi-player mode with a friend who also has an iPad. I could see that being a lot of fun and need to find someone local to try it out with but I do not know anyone in my area yet that has an iPad (though I am sure there are many that do).

The last feature that I will talk about is the bonus 3D map that came with the iPad version. Supposedly you can put on a pair of those red and blue 3D glasses and play the game in 3D mode which I have not yet tried. I will be giving this a shot this evening though because I just remembered Dylan has 4 pairs of those that came with his Polar Express 3D movie. I will update this once I have played the game a few times in 3D mode.

Overall I would give this game a 4 out of 5 due to it only having a couple of different maps. for $4.99 I would have thought that it would have come with about 8-10 HD maps but it only comes with 3HD maps, 1 3D map and 5 iPhone quality maps. With the bump in price from the iPhone version all you are really getting is 3 HD maps and a bonus 3D map. Here’s to hoping they offer more maps for free in a future update.

I bought the game last night and I have found that it can be very addictive. From the time I bought the game last night until now I have played for 37 minutes and won 62 out of 83 played games. The unique twist that Hangman RSS HD implements is the fact that every hangman level is created from current news which is pulled from RSS feeds on-line. You might be asking yourself right now since it pulls the questions from the internet does this game require you to always be connected to wifi? The answer is no. The game pulls down the stories and stores them locally so if you want to make sure you are always playing with current news you should connect it to wifi from time to time so that it can update it’s internal list of articles.

Now that I have covered the basics of the game lets start talking about the actual game play. I will first cover all of good and then the bad points for this application. Pulling articles from the current news and using those for the levels is quite a good idea. As you play you are also keeping up with the news going on around you and even on easy I find that some of the levels are rather difficult if you are already not keeping up with the events taking place currently. I have had levels that talk about the earthquake in china to levels about the national enquirer. The game seems to mix the news rather well so that you are not getting levels that are very similar which is nice since repetitive levels would get annoying. The graphics for the game are pretty good and the UI is very appealing to the eyes. I could see myself playing this game for hours at a time without having to worry about an ugly UI getting in the way and becoming painful on your eyes. In the images below you can see some of the features that I have been talking about. One of the best features I think is the ability to actually read the news stories in the application. They seem to be using a Web View when you click on an article because it loads the original website allowing you to read the full article.

There are a few features that I would like to see implemented in a future release however. Currently you can only play the game in portrait mode it does not use the accelerometer to rotate the screen when you flip the iPad. This may seem like a small annoyance for most people however if you use your iPad outside the sun may become too bright for you to see the screen. I get this every day when I am on my way to work and generally I will put on my sunglasses. The issue I have found is that the iPad has problems with polarized glasses when being used in portrait mode. You cannot see the screen because of something to do with the polarization, however if you turn it to landscape mode even with sunglasses on you can see the screen. You might now understand why I find this to be a minor annoyance.

Another feature that I would suggest is to allow the list of RSS feeds that the device uses to be customizable. I would love it for instance if I could add a bunch of Java Development related feeds to the game and actually try to learn something about Java from the game rather than using world news or feeds that are non-customizable.

All in all I think this is a great game that will consume quite a bit of my time however with the few drawbacks that I have mentioned I give it a 3 out of 5 and I think it is well worth the price of $2.99.