Good Night From II

Reminds me of when I took my Kawi Z6 to a drag strip to race against my grandfather's mustang. Fishtailed half way down the bloody track. Still pulled ahead, but it was a less than ideal take off, didn't matter if I was center or off center of lane.

That was the ohio valley raceway in KY.

 

That's a nice bike. Fishtailing it, well, I hope you had some extra shorts on hand.
That type of stuff is better suited to 4 wheels. It's actually fun.

I went to the girls house to make them some dinner tonight. Chicken fried rice, which is a favorite of theirs.

And to upgrade Leah's (ex-wife, their mom) hard drive in her little laptop/tablet.
She only has a 60GB drive, and I was going to give her the 1TB drive I took out of my current laptop which I replaced with a SSD.
I got the drive imaged and opened up her computer to find... no hard drive. Just an empty space where the manual said the hard drive goes. Not even any connections for a hard drive other than the mounting posts.
My only guess is that there is some sort of 'SSD' in there, or flash memory. But I couldn't upgrade it to something better after all. Disappointing to say the least.
And it is SO slow! It is hard to believe that it is not using a small and slow hard drive.

 

Learned that the hard way. US93 is a much better drag strip for a motorcycle. As is virtually any other road surface.

I've had more than a few close calls over the years. I've not personally owned a 4 wheeled vehicle in 10. That particular episode got the heart beating.

But what really scares me is when the front slips (they call it a tank slapper for good reason.) I've got really lucky. I've only ever went down on a gravel road going like 5-10mph. That was on a shadow1100. Turns out not all of the road was graded that well, front tire burried, it went left right left, and slid out from under me.

Now that one's a head scratcher, I can think of one or two ideas, but they should be apparent. Sounds like flash too me.

 

I've had a couple back in the day. A Honda 550 and a Yamaha 650 twin.
I think it was on the Honda that I was taking an off ramp and went through some spilled fuel on the road. Suddenly it was like being on ice and down I went.
It would not have been bad had the ramp been straight, but it was curved with oncoming traffic in the direction I was sliding.

The scariest time I was going around 70 with a few friends. They went a bit faster so I gave it more, and suddenly my front wheel/forks/steering started oscillating violently. It was all I could do just to hold on. I really thought I was a goner that time.
I let off the throttle just a bit to slowly bring down my speed and it stopped when I was down to around 65.
I had replaced the rear shocks just before that happened, and I think that was the problem. It may have set the front geometry just a little off, maybe too much caster?
That was on the Yamaha.

 

And I'm in Lamar, CO tonight, headed for Fort Worth, TX with a can load. All of under 8k.

It is due to be delivered tomorrow evening, but it looks like it will be a bit late.
Between here and Amarillo will be 65-70 mph wind gusts tomorrow.
I'm going to try for the Walmart at Dumas, TX before I shut down, because I need supplies.
If it is too bad before that then it will probably be the Love's in Boise, OK.

 

Well I made it as far as Dumas and shut down. The wind has been steadily picking up and the truck is getting tossed around more and more.

My Coleman cooler hasn't been cooling as well the past couple days so I figured it was time to clean it. I had bought a replacement fan while I was in Denver so I did that too. The dust around the fan was pretty bad.

 

Done some damage to my knee once coming to a stop light, stepped in oil or something and my leg hyper extended before I got purchase, but the adrenalin kept me from looking like and idiot and having me go down completely.

Then there was the right turn I made, there was water in the corner (I took it too fast,) rear slipped out and then it got traction, and what was nearly a low side, almost turned into a high side, it nearly threw me off but I stayed in control, and when it whipped my leg back down I got jabbed by the peg. Didn't go in, but it bruised the hell out of my leg, didn't walk right for about two weeks.

And that osscilating your talking about, is the definition of a tank slapper. Usually results in a high side accident. Good thing you got it back under control. The worst cases, the bars will rip outta your hands and the bar will very violently go to one side with obvious results.

First road bike was a 82 Kawi specter (750 4 cylinder.) It was my uncle's, I got it running. It was only missing an oil plug and pipes. I put a Sportster tank on it, cause my uncle had one sitting around, and the original tank was beat up. Cleaned the carbs, it fired up. Moved away, he sold it for meth.

But I have two, right now. I don't have the ZX6 anymore. I'm looking to get another supersport, maybe in the fall or next winter. Cause now that I don't ride daily, I just want to get on, go somewhere and feel the adrenalin. I have my easy riders anyway.

 

I'm in Joseph city AZ. I'll be home before noon in the morning. I'll hear the final word from Todd Monday. And in the mean time, my planner offered me a spot on CMC, running rebar. But that is for now the backup plan till I hear from Todd Monday.

I had fun picking up at farmer bros in Ft Worth. Called and asked if the load was ready, they said yes. I went there dropped an empty van, pulled the trailer that was "loaded out of the dock." It wasn't loaded, waited 6 hours for that to happen. Then went as far as I could. Couldn't make it to Vegas in one shot today if I tried, so I just took it easy and split the remainder.

Delivery is Friday, only like 3 miles from my condo in Henderson. Which is how I'm getting away with 5days home. Or was going too. Heck I've been out for two months. It's not like I didn't earn it.

 

I'm at the J in Peculiar, MO.
Dropped my load at the Walmart and there were no empties. I messaged my DM to ask if I could BT to Church & Dwight since they were only 2 miles away. He said go for it and see what they say, then dispatched me.
Luckily there was no problem picking up the load.

Now I'm headed to WI, just under 600 miles and deliver tomorrow.
I wanted to get a bit further today but I've been fighting a cold the past few days.
Yes, I finally got sick. It was due after 4 years.
Yesterday it was bad by the end of the day, but I was feeling a bit better this morning. Shutting down early today will let me get some extra sleep without pushing myself too hard.