[Motorcycling] 7/1 Update

[George Fazio]

So, I didn't ride all week.  Monday, I decided to take PA-724 home just 
because I hadn't taken it in awhile, and because I thought I might use it to 
get the bike into work without taking express-ways.  As fate would have it, I 
passed a motorcycle accident that had just happened prior to me getting 
there.  I was waved through, and saw the body of the motorcyclist laying on 
the ground.  It's horrible no matter how you cut it, but it kind of shook me 
up having just gotten a bike only two weeks prior.  Tuesday, I looked in the 
news papers on-line and learned that the 17-year old rider was killed in the 
crash.  May he rest in peace.  You can read the article at the Reading Eagle 
if you are interested (http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=47489).  
It sounds like a classic case of car doesn't see bike, but I could be wrong 
as the article does not have many details.

The rest of the week was spent contemplating why I bought a motorcycle, and if 
I really was willing to accept the risks as I had initially thought.  I'll 
spare you the muddy thoughts in my head, and just say that I decided to keep 
riding.  I have the PA Motorcycle Safety course scheduled for the next two 
weekends (July 6, 7, 13, 14), so that should help me to be a better rider and 
reduce the risk of me doing something wrong.  Then I just have to keep alert 
for all the other people on the road.  Someone said, "assume you're 
invisible."  I'm thinking that's a really good idea.

Saturday, I didn't ride because I was on-call for work and did not want to 
have to worry about checking for messages, etc. while out and about.  I did 
run up to the Honda dealer in Leesport (in the car) to inquire about longer 
stems for the mirrors and bigger grips.  Of course, silly me forgot to get 
measurements and they wouldn't help me without knowing exactly what I had.  
Though they didn't have anything in stock for the mirrors anyway.  I also ask 
the about the gas tank.  They confirmed that a new tank is around $750, which 
is what I saw on-line.

I did, however, manage to get something out of the trip in spite of them 
blowing me off.  They told me about this other place in Reading that deals 
with "older" bikes.  I spoke to the owner.  He said that he didn't have 
anything from salvage that he could sell me used, but that I should consider 
getting it repaired.  There are two autobody places that he deals with who 
will work on tanks.  He said that it is typically between $200 and $250, if I 
take the tank off myself.  That is much more palletable, and sounds like 
something to do either over the winter or while I'm on the two week vacation 
that I still need to schedule.  That dent really bothers me, so I'll probably 
do it while I'm on vacation.

Sunday, I got up really early (for me on a Sunday), and got the yard mowed so 
that it was out of the way in case a friend called about going out riding.  
After I was done mowing and cleaned up, I took the bike out for two short 
trips totaling maybe 15 miles.  The rest of the afternoon was spent in front 
of the computer trying to automate cleaning up the ID3 tags for my FLAC and 
MP3 files with Perl (is there another scripting language?).  After I got back 
from dinner, I got on the bike again and just rode for a long time.  I'm 
guessing I put over 40 miles on it in that trip.  It was from sometime after 
6:30 PM to about 8:00 PM.  I stayed local, and looped back on a few roads a 
couple times.  It was a good ride, except for the a**hole that passed me in a 
no passing zone because I was doing the speed limit and that apparently just 
wasn't fast enough.  Scared the piss out of me.  I knew there was a car 
behind me, but I didn't hear it get on the gas.  So, all of a sudden there's 
something on my left and I was like "Oh sh*t, what's that?!" for a second.  
This is yet another reason to get the mirrors working.

I'm planning on going up to Montgomeryville Cycle after work on Monday to see 
about the longer stems and bigger grips.  Well, unless I get conscripted for 
over-time, which is entirely possible with the stuff we have going on at work 
right now.  Hopefully they will have something in stock as I don't like 
waiting for things.  Other than that, I'm just looking forward to taking the 
Safety course (which should end with me getting a Class M license).

Additionally, I'm probably going to open the list up so that any list member 
can post.  This is a not a definite yet.  But, my life is not that 
interesting, so there's plenty of room for more people.  If I do that, I'll 
probably move the list to another domain of mine, lunaticcafe.us, so that it 
doesn't look like a list about me (N3GQF).  I'll let you know if/when I 
decide to do it.

George