Are You the April Fool?

Yeah, folks, brace yourselves for a heaping helping of Friday, April 1st, also known as April Fool's Day. Maybe tomorrow, I'll post a nice, close-up pic of a prominent politician or somebody equally as criminally-minded. :) Finally put the front wheel and front brake caliper back on my WR-250FY firebreather. Just about a month ago, I took the front end apart to grease the steering bearings and change the fork oil, but, since I no longer have access to the garage where I'd been storing my bikes 99% of the time since 1981, I was a bit bummed and just didn't feel like putting it back together immediately. Now that some time has passed and I've basically accepted the situation and have planned a new routine for storing and maintaining the bikes, I feel like going ahead, assembling the bike back into one piece, and actually getting out there into the Pachaug rock pile to do some actual WR-250FY riding, gosh darn it. Maybe this weekend. We'll see how the weather turns out. :) Off to jerk, -John

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Went to bed early and got up early today, and this will probably be one of those days where I'll eat an early lunch as soon as I get to jerk. :) ****************************** I could easily ride the WR-250XX into jerk today, but, as I get older, I feel like riding in the cold weather less and less. This morning is around 32 degrees, and although for the next couple of days the daytime highs will be around 50, I'm inside working during those hours. So, it very well may be a couple more weeks before I start riding the bike into jerk regularly. I'm not saddened or feeling bad about this because it's what I really want to do, and the weather will come soon enough. ************************* Been reading more silly shit on motorcycling message boards, and lately, one of them has sprouted a new "head honcho", the kind of guy who knows everything, has an explanation for everything, believes he can reason his way through any discussion and come out on top as the "victor" through superior intellect (with big 50-cent words and lots of them with extremely long posts), and, basically, thinks he's always right and everyone else is seriously missing the boat. In other words: His way of looking at the very same motorcycle I own is the only way that truly makes sense. My view on that is he's just another know-it-all that more than likely can't ride or wrench his way out of a wet paper bag, but gets a big thrill from writing essays on message boards and putting other members in their place by trying to make them feel like they've got it all wrong, or at the very least, make other members realize that they fail to adequately explain their views and make them seen viable. ************************ The thing that typically happens to these big egos, though, is that the old saying often comes up to bite them on their I-know-everything ass: The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Because, you see, almost everyone will eventually become complacent, get more and more ballsy (brave), and eventually start putting their foot in their mouth in grand fashion. It happens nearly every time. :) ********************* Off to jerk, -John

286 and the Ride was a Fine Fix

Although the weather for both days this weekend didn't measure-up to normal-for-this-time-of-year temperatures by about 10 degrees, it still felt good to have a couple of good rides. :) *********Time for more of these******** ************************************* Yeah, took the WR-250XX out both yesterday and today, and I had a good time. Even though I'm still getting used to the feel of the bike and even though the temperatures weren't high enough for the tires to truly work as well as they can, the bike is feeling very good, indeed. High points for this bike are the rear suspension (which works well since the rear shock was overhauled by Go Race Suspension over the winter), strong front brake (thank God, because fitting high-end brake parts, like I had to do with the DR-Z400SMK9, ain't cheap), quick-revving and high-revving power, correct-feeling ergonomic layout, great handling, and killer looks. ************************************* All-in-all, it's a fantastic bike, very fun to ride, and I'm very glad I decided to buy it as soon as I found out about it. I am, for sure, looking forward to many a' fun ride this season. It will be sooooooooo good once I get those nice, new Michelin Pilot Power tires mounted and the weather gets warmer. Soon. Very soon. :) ************************************* -John

285 Insults on my Bike

This guy has obviously insulted the wrong guy with his views on motorcycles.


When you talk with people on the Internet about motorcycles, especially when it's the same model of bike that you own, you can count on some very much wildly different opinions on the bike.
An excellent example of this is the WR-250RX that I owned last year.
90% (I estimate) of the guys and girls on the forums that ride this bike think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and they pretty much take any kind of criticism about it as some kind of a put-down or insult.
I really get a kick out of the discussions where somebody posts a question like, "Hey, I want to buy a new bike, either a WR-250R or a WR-250F. What's the difference? What's better for my riding? Blah, blah, blah..."

Naturally, because the question was posted on a WR-250R forum, the responses will basically say to the guy that getting a WR-250R will be the best thing he could ever do in the whole wide world.
Then, just as the forum members think they've got yet another completely biased WR-250R rider in the making, I come on and give my honest opinion, the one I formulated after owning and riding both bikes a whole lot.
Basically, I'll tell the guy that the WR-250R is a dual-purpose bike meant to split street and dirt riding, which means that it won't be as good as a WR-250F off-road (and not by a long shot, which the other forum members do not want to hear because they take this as an insult to their bikes).
However, it will be much better than a WR-250F on the street.

See how that works?
That's what happens when you expect to use one bike for two different kinds of riding.
Considering that dirt and street riding have different requirements (basically smooth and fast pavement versus slower and much bumpier off-road terrain), I think the WR-250R does a good job of it since it does allow you to ride in either area with the same bike.

So, where does the insulting thing start?
When the other WR-250R riders take my opinion as a way of saying that their bike sucks for off-road use and has cheesy suspension and weights way too much and is a slow dog in engine performance.
That's not really my message, but they take it that way because I had the nerve to say something other than the WR-250R is the best bike out there, when all I'm really doing is pointing out the differences in the two bikes.

Fueling this to a large degree is that, as far as I have seen, read, and experienced in real life activities, the vast majority of guys riding bikes like a WR-250R dual-purpose bike are very much casual off-road riders.
Even more casual than me, a guy who rode his WR-250FY off-road in the Pachaug rock pile for fun as the No. 1 goal, not to try making a loop in world record time.
Catch my drift?
Basically, these guys will stay firmly seated in the seat all day without standing on the pegs once, riding down smooth dirt roads (or narrow trails), and if they come upon a stream that needs to be crossed, they'll all stop and watch each other tackle the obstacle as if it were the main event of the day.
In other words, they are riding slowly and very casually.
Riding at this casual pace, I can see why somebody would wonder why I'll point out that the WR-250FY is a million times better at off-road riding since they aren't trying to push it in the least.

Another offshoot of these discussions is when the topic turns to how well the suspensions work.
Maybe I'll touch on that one later.

Off to another free-bee Saturday at jerk,
-John

284 and Funny Threads Galore

Yup, I've been reading more funny shit on motorcycle message boards this morning.
I just got a kick out of a thread where a guy with a Yamaha WR-250R (the dual-purpose version of my WR-250XX) was told by his local dealer's mechanic that his bike, which supposedly has about 4,000 kilometers on it (the guy's a dumb Canadian, by the way) is overdue for a valve clearance check.

The dimwit...oops!, I mean guy, posted this as a question, asking fellow WR-250R and WR-250X riders about whether or not this could be the case.
As expected, he got replies that basically said the mechanic was a know-nothing idiot, he should go down there and wave his Owner's Manual in the mechanic's face to prove to him that he's wrong, and that the guy should go find another shop to deal with if the mechanic doesn't know the Yamaha product range well enough to know what model bike we're talking about.
The only reply that seemed right to me was one that simply stated the mechanic was thinking of the wrong model Yamaha motorcycle (he was probably thinking of a WR-250F like my own firebreather WR-250FY, a bike that does come with a recommendation that you check valve clearances more often that on a WR-250R).

So, why am I getting a kick out of this situation?
Two reasons:

1) Every person that replied with some kind of that-mechanic-doesn't-know-anything comment has posted some pretty stupid shit since I've been on that message board and reading their comments and questions.
Yes, folks, these are the guys that will have to ask where the oil goes and how does one service their air filter, or even more hilarious, believes he can go six months without ever servicing his air filter (and, of course, he'll do it incorrectly when he eventually does service it).
The same guys that are more concerned with installing their brand-new Gayrider Dualsport, Inc. brand homo heated grips than learning the basics about their very own bikes, themselves.
The basics that are very important when riding your dual-purpose bike out in the woods and far away from anybody else.

2) I believe that 95% of the comments posted in these situations, where somebody who works in a motorcycle dealership is being thrown under the bus for being yet another know-nothing asshole, are coming from people who are too ignorant about motorcycles, themselves, to be worthy of even sweeping the shop floor at a dealership, never mind being able to field any questions about a model of motorcycle they don't own (or never even saw in person) themselves.

In other words:
Look who's talking. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

283: Spring is Here, So Riding for Me

Although I mentioned it before, I'll mention it again:
It feels very good to have the WR-250XX outside and actually being ridden. :)

Spring officially starts today, and I made sure I got the bike out for some enjoyment on it.
It's a good-handling bike with a great little engine and a great front brake.
Once I get the new tires installed (which I have waiting inside the house), it should feel even better since the rear tire has a flat spot worn down the center of it.
That's the result of lots of straight up riding and not much cornering, so it seems the previous owners were into stylin' in front of the local Dairy Queen trying to pick-up 15-year-olds. :)

You know, in a way, it's surprising that I have a 250cc, single-cylindered street bike and really am satisfied with it.
I wasn't all that long ago that I rode 1,000cc sport bikes because I liked the power, and back then, I'd probably have laughed at the thought of using a 250 as my sport bike.
Well, here I am, on a 250 and glad to be.
It's definitely a case of having just enough power, yet being able to use it all, versus metering out the power in small, controlled doses when on a 1,000.
If you're stupid enough to believe you're going to be using all of the performance of a bike like a Yamaha YZF-R1 a lot of the time on the street, you've got another thing coming.
Something like a casket made just for you, Speed Racer. ;)

No, that's not how it's done if you expect to live long, although jackasses do try.
Oh, I sure enjoyed my YZF-R1s and FZ-1s, but you need to know restraint and control on a bigger bike like those.
It's a different ball game with the WR-250XX, where you can open the throttle fully much more often and feel good doing it.
It feels good, and once the weather improves to the point where it's routinely in the 60s and the new Michelin Pilot Powers are fitted, things will be rollin'.

-John

282 Riding Fools

This guy looks like he's right at home.

Probably pulling into the pits for a bowl of steaming-hot Quaker Oats.

*************************

********More of these because this blogger didn't want to accept paragraphs, again*********

*************************

Just some random thoughts this mornng.

I read some more silly shit from some forum members, the kind of guys where when they introduce themselves, they'll tell you about all of the experiences they've had on motorcycles spanning years and decades (complete with pictures).

Yet, the questions they ask are the exact same kind you hear coming from complete rookies.

And I mean the stupidest shit like, "Where does the oil go?"

No, I'm not kidding.

Complete morons, and they've got the reasoning and logic to match.

****************************

Typically, when they're discussing some "hot topic" on a forum, a proposed idea sounds like a good one to them as long as they feel like doing the work or spending the money.

If not, they'll dismiss it with their own brand of "reasoning":

That of a complete dipshit.

****************************

In other news, the weather today is supposed to be in the upper 60s, which I can take just fine and dandy.

Too bad I'll be inside at jerk during those hours.

Speaking of which...

****************************

Off to jerk,

-John

281 Mysteriously Busted Chains

The mysterious drive chain master link.

Wish I had a nickel for every time I either heard or read about somebody telling their drive chain tales of woe.
Not that I think drive chains on motorcycles are bad and should be done away with (every motorcycle I've owned has been chain drive), but the fact is, the vast majority of idiots...oops, I mean riders...completely neglect their drive chains to the point of failure (or coming close to it).
This is pretty goofy shit when you realize the chain isn't buried deep down underneath the vehicle out of reach.
No, Lenny, it's right there in front of your big nose.

I just read a post on a dual-purpose message board about a loser with his own personal chain mishap, where the link plate of the chain actually ripped in half.
He showed a pic of the ruined parts, and sure enough, the pin of the link showed the classic signs of being run bone-dry for miles on end, eventually seizing the joint and causing the failure.
The sad part of posts like he put up is that the guy is basically throwing his hands up and asking, "Why-oh-why did this ever happen to poor, little ol' me?"

Answer:
It's because you don't know squat about how your bike works.

You see, most jokers think they're driving their cars on the street when it comes to riding their dual-purpose bikes.
What I mean is, they'll basically ride, ride, ride, but don't do the basic maintenance the bike requires to make it reliable as the miles start to pile on.
Actually, they seem overly concerned with how their heated grips and their fluffy seat cushions work, but the things like air filters, cable lubrication, suspension bearing lubrication, and drive chain lubrication and the condition of those parts take a big back seat to the gay shit they're actually concerned with.
In fact, if somebody comes onto the message board and tries to recommend that the idiot get with the program and do some real maintenance to these areas once in a while, the joker will basically ignore it because he's pretty much convinced that nothing like that will ever come to bother him.

That is, until the chain on his bike has enough miles and mud and water piled upon it to use-up all of the lubricant that was once in the chain joints, seize the chain joints, and lead to a failure.
A failure that was no doubt sitting there right in front of his goddamn nose as far as tell-tale signs and symptoms go before the failure actually happened.
All it takes is somebody who had a friggin' clue as to what they're doing and what to look for and how their own bike actually works.

Other than that, these guys are OK with me. ;)

Off to jerk,
-John

Winter Seemed Like it Was 280 Days Long

WR-250XX outside in actual daylight.
Golly.

Took the bike out both yesterday and today (Saturday and Sunday), and they were decent rides.
I think yesterday was a bit better because the weather was a little bit warmer, to be honest, but today wasn't too bad, either.
It felt very good to finally have a chance to see how the WR-250XX performed after doing the modifications over the winter.

The verdict:
Excellently.

Plenty of power, plenty of front brake (although that is 100% stock), good throttle response, the gearing is spot-on as far as I can tell, and the rear shock is mucho better than it was.
It's a great-handling, relatively light-weight sporty little bike, and I'm really looking forward to many a' sporty miles in the saddle this year.
The bike felt very good.

I still have a few things to take care of.
I'll be ordering a stock flasher relay because the I.C. relay I bought (off a forum member) doesn't let the flasher lamps flash at all.
The whole idea behind this I.C. relay was to slow down the flash rate of the LED flasher lights (the stock lights aren't LEDs), but if they won't flash at all, I'd rather have another stock relay in there, even if they will flash faster than normal.
Too bad I hacked apart the stock relay in order to steal the plug out of it when installing the I.C. relay.
Oh, well.
At least it will only cost me $14.

I'll also be ordering a little electronic gizmo that will correct the speedometer error I now have with the big 49-tooth rear sprocket.
See, the speedometer signal comes off the transmission, and if you change the gearing, that changes to speedometer calibration, and right now, it reads too fast.

Third, I've got some nice, new Michelin Pilot Power tires waiting to go on, and I'll be doing that before too much longer since the rear tire is down to the wear bars in spots.
These Bridgestone BT090 tires the bike came with have deep wear bars, so while they're not going bald as I write this, but they won't last forever, either.
Probably will happen next month.

All-in-all, it was a sucessful first weekend out on the bike. :)

-John

279 Wrong Parts Ordered

A couple of times recently, I've seen guys on message boards both selling things and said to have ordered things that don't look like they'd fit the bikes they say they will.
Basically, it's a case of the motorcycle manufacturer giving different bikes very similar model designations, and most people just aren't up on all the lingo by a long shot.

Yamaha has been giving bikes the WR designation since 1989.
The first one was a 1989 model that was practically identical to that year's YZ-250 motocross bike, but with some changes to make it better while off-road and not on the motocross track.
This bike was officially called the YZ-250WRW (the last W stood for 1989 model).
By 1991, they decided to give this bike it's own model designation and called it the WR-250ZB.
So, WR came to be known as their motocross-based off-road bike.

When the world went 4-stroke crazy, the WR went that way, too.
In 2001, the WR-250Z was no more (in the USA, anyway) and we got the 4-stroke WR-250FN.
Just as the WR-250Z was based on the 2-stroke YZ-250 motocross bike, the WR-250F was a 4-stroke based on the then-new YZ-250F 4-stroke motocross bike.
See?
Once you understand that change from 2-stroke to 4-stroke, it ain't that complicated.

Where I believe the Yamaha factory did complicate things is when (probably decided upon by marketing gurus working there, AKA psychotic salesmen who live to just sell stuff) they started calling their dual-purpose bike the WR, as with the 2008 WR-250RX that I used to own.
Same with the 2008 WR-250XX I currently own.
These two bikes are definitely not off-road bikes based on their motocross counterparts.
They're dual-purpose bikes made to be ridden on the street, off-road at a casual pace, and have the weight, EPA restrictions, and (thankfully) the relatively long engine life that everyone expects out of a street-going model.

The problem is that most people, even guys that work inside Yamaha motorcycle dealers (even guys that own these dealerships, I've seen) don't realize these days that a WR is not a WR.
They automatically think that the bikes are all basically the same, just that some are street legal and some are not.
This could not be more wrong, as the WR-250F and WR-250R or X share no parts or designs.
It's all a big marketing scheme in order to attract the buyer to that flashy WR designation and that sporty-looking bodywork - who cares if they really don't understand what it is they're looking at.

So, today I saw another guy all happy because he'd won an E-Bay auction for a Graves exhaust system that supposedly fits the WR-250R or X.
Well, if the pic shown for it is the correct one, it's actually made for a WR-250F, like my WR-250FY.
The way the pipe is bent and where the mounting holes are easily tell the tale, but the guy buying it doesn't know that.
Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if the freak selling it doesn't know that.
Or, maybe he pretended not to know, huh? ;)

Off to jerk,
-John

278 Idiots Up Ahead

No matter how they're dressed or what they're riding, here's what a typical motorcycle gang boils down to:
A bunch of guys who think they're doing something really special in their little pea brains.

I just remembered the time I had the misfortune of coming up behind a gang of supposed badass sportbike riders a few years ago.
Back in the days of when the shop I worked for was called Excalibur Powersports, the dweebs in charge of the place would host what they called something like "bike night", or some silly shit like that.
Usually, it was on Thursday afternoons-into-evening (although they'd sometime have one on a weekend), and it was basically some gig thrown together featuring local guys performing stunt riding, local retards having pitbike races, and mostly just an excuse for people to come and hang out at the local motorcycle shop (and hopefully wander inside to buy something) - don't forget: There's always an ulterior motive with things like this.

At the time I was riding my 2003 Yamaha FZS-1000R, also called the FZ-1, a 1,000cc sportbike without the bodywork or low handlebars, basically.
I rode that bike from 2004-2007 and it was a good one.

Anyway, I forget the exact time and day, but I think it was a Saturday or a Sunday, sometime in the early afternoon.
I left Excalibur Powersports and pulled up to the intersection that I always do.
Well, I pulled behind a gang of guys riding late-model sport bikes, bikes like Honda CBR-600RRs, Suzuki GSX-R600s, etc, and I think they'd just left the get-together that was going down at Excalibur Powersports.
They all seemed like the typical guy who buys these bikes:
Early-to-mid 20s, dressed for a night out in a local bar to meet chicks and impress people with their style sense, and, basically, more of a feeling that they're pretty slick and cool than having actual wisdom and knowledge about riding sportbikes.
In other words, the typical idiot who will put his life at risk if he thinks it will impress somebody, although he doesn't see any risk in what he does because nothing bad could happen to him.

When the gang and I pulled away from the intersection, by then, they'd realized I was behind them.
Instead of getting on the throttle and up to a suitable cruising speed, they instead went down the road very slowly, and it was obvious they were intentionally holding me up.
There were about eight of them, and they were staggered across the lane in front of me.
After we went down the road like this for about a mile, it was obvious they were intentionally being assholes, and basically, dared me to do something about it.

You see, cowards like this won't do this shit by themselves, but in a pack of like-minded retards, they feel secure.
After I realized they were looking for some excitement, I made up my mind to simply open the throttle and weave my bike straight through to pack of these badass clowns as if they weren't even there, maneuvering my bike an inch or two from theirs.

After I emerged out the front of that pack of fools, I gestured with a shrug of the shoulders as if to ask, "What the fuck's the problem, here?"
The answer should have been:
We're just a bunch of losers out on a ride.

A couple miles down the road, I turned right, onto a road with some corners.
They didn't follow, though.

Off to jerk,
-John

277: It's Dimwit Heaven

"Duuuuhhh.
Do I really have to spend the money on that?
Where's the free lunch?"

Quite often, motorcycling dimwits will spend some dough on an exhaust system for their new bike, but balk at spending more to buy a fuel injection programmer so the bike will actually run better.
They'll ask several people, and they'll keep asking until they finally find that one person who will tell them what they want to hear:
No, you don't need one of those.
Just ride it.

After that, the jerk will go on his merry way, riding his bike in bliss.
Too bad it ain't running any better than before he installed his big, bad slip-on or system.
It's OK for the dimwit because most of the time, they're simply "looking for a little sound".
This is stupid asshole talk which traslates into English as:
I've got a pea brain and I'm also an egomaniac, and I want the whole fuckin' town to know when I'm out on my bike.
It makes me feel like a real man and one cool dude.

I feel that over half of the morons on motorcycles buy the bike to start with in an effort to impress other people and try to get themselves some respect from their peers.
My friends, that's got to be the shittiest reason to buy a motorcycle, but many a' moron will do this.
This is because that while they want to give the impression they're rugged individuals who don't take no shit, they're really insecure pinheads that need the approval of their equally stupid friends and aquaintences.

May sound like harsh words, but, I'm actually being nice. ;)

-John

276: More Silly Motorcycling Tricks

It is amazing that there are lots of people out there that sound like they know little about the very bikes they ride, not to mention about motorcycles in general.
I guess that's their way of "experiencing motorcycling" (which sounds like some kind of New-Age, everything-is-OK-and-it's-all-good-as-long-as-you-buy-something sales BS talk).
Barf.

Often, a new guy will come onto a message board, introduce himself, explain how he started riding, tell about the bikes he's owned and ridden, tell about which ones he liked more than others and why, and even post pics from the past.
A decent introduction that basically makes you think the guy knows what he's talking about.

Then, you realize you were fooled about him because overnight, he starts asking questions you expect from a rookie.
Things like:
"Hey. I just picked-up my [whatever model bike] and I need to know how much oil goes in the engine.
Do I use the dipstick on the side of the motor, or is there some other way?
Oh, and what's the tire pressure I'm supposed to use?
How do I adjust the chain?
Should it be tight or a little loose?
One more question:
How do I get the seat off this thing?
Is the air filter under there?
Do you think I should worry about the air filter right away?"

Sorry, folks, but those are all boneheaded questions coming from somebody that's a supposed veteran of riding motorcycles, especially if the guy was just claiming to be really active in it.
This happens very often, and it immediately shows how stupid the guy really is when it comes to motorcycles.
Because, you see, the very first thing the guy should be told is that he needs to review the goddamn manual the bike came with, because what's in there will be much more clear and better-written than 90% of the replies he'll get on a typical message board.

But, he'll get no shortage or replies by like-minded riders, guys that are from the same where's-the-air-filter mold.
Because, message boards basically are purpose-built for dimwitts like that, the kind of guy who ain't quite sure whether or not the bike has an air filter, or likes to run his drive chain way too tight so it will saw into the underside of his swingarm's chain slider.
Oops.
I'm sorry.
I should have gone with the popular opinions from these dweebs and stated that the bike has a design flaw in that area.
That's why the guy's swingarm got hacksawed by the drive chain, not because he doesn't know what he's doing, and of course it's no matter that he's a senior citizen with decades of experience with these motorcycles. ;)

No, I'm not exaggerating.

Actually, drive chain slack is one of the great mysteries with lots of riders.
Not helping is that probably half of the bikes I've owned have drive chain slack specifications listed in their Owner's Manuals and Service Manuals that are simply a bit too tight.
Add this to the average rider's inclination to adjust it a bit tighter, still, and you get a chain that gets as taught as a bowstring once he plops his fat, overweight ass down on the seat (and stays there all ride long, not even standing up to work with the machine for bumps he'll ride across).
Add this fact to the guy's tendency to completely neglect important parts of the bike (unless we're talking about installing heated grips or six-mile-high handlebar risers), and you'll eventually hear him squealing like the proverbial pig in that movie that also features tight bowstrings.

Typically, the comment will be one like:
"Oh, my gosh!
How can this happen?!
All I've been doing is just riding the bike.
Has anybody else had this happen?
What do I do now?
What do you think of my heated grips and bar risers, by the way?
It took me three days to figure out how to do that.
Thanks for the help with that, by the way!
Oh.
Back to my sawed swingarm - WHAT DO I DOOOOOOOOOOOOO???!!!"

My answer to that would be:
Get half a goddamn clue as to how the chain slack needs to be set, because if you put half the effort into those basics that you do with your silly little "farkles" (that's what geeks of all ages call their silly accessories), you wouldn't have done this to yourself, Lenny Geekenheimer.

Often, the guy will get some sympathetic pats on the back, but no real solutions, solutions which should be like the advice I just gave above, as well as replace the parts he fucked-up due to his ignorance and big-time rookie-like mistake.

You can spot which geeks don't know how to set their drive chain slack by how often they say they adjust their drive chains.
Basically, if the bike comes equipped with a sealed-type chain (has little rubber O-rings that seal the dirt out of the critical joint) and the guy has to adjust it more than once every 2,000 miles, then it's a fair bet he's keeping it too taught and the chain is literally being forced to "stretch" (abnormal tension placed upon it, which prematurely wears the critical joints and adds play to each joint, making the chain incrementally grow longer rapidly and get longer with each ride).
Then, the dimwitt sees the chain is basically wearing to the point where the tension on it is relaxed because it now has more slack in it.
Slack that it should have, but the idiot thinks otherwise because he's afraid the chain will come off the sprockets if it has any slack in it, or will have too much "driveline slop" with slack in it, something his lack of fine control of the bike magnifies.
So, he tightens 'er back up.
Then repeats the whole process.
He never catches on.

-John

275 Old Horror Flicks

"Your clairvoyance is truly astounding, Lord Vader."
-Peter Cushing

The pic is of Peter Cushing, playing some character dressed-up in geeky-looking (AKA futuristic) clothing in the 1977 mega-hit Star Wars.
Did I ever tell you I felt the movie didn't even get close to the hype it generated?
If the hype made the movie a 10, the actual movie was a 4.

I just watched a movie (I think it may have been a British TV movie from 1954) version of the novel 1984.
What did I think?
Eh.
It was so-so, and obviously pretty low-budget, and only mildly interesting.
The problem with this one for me is that I'd heard so many and watched so many little clips of different versions of this book, I already knew the basic plot.
It was the first time I sat down to watch a whole movie of the story, so, I figured I'd give it a go.

I kept thinking that the lead character, a guy by the name of Winston (yes, like the cigarettes), looked vaguely familiar to me.
It was only as I saw the name go up the screen that I realized it was none other than that late-nite TV horror B-movie star from the 1950s and 1960s (and even early 70s) Perer Cushing.
I like Peter Cushing.
Not a bad actor, I'd say, not that I'm an authority on that stuff.
I watched more than a few of his movies from those days and thought they were decent.
That was, of course, back when I did that kind of stuff.
Today, I rarely bother to watch a movie, so that's why today is one for the record books. :)

Naw, I leave that to guys like Siskel and Ebert, or at least I did until one of them died.
Did he die?
Shit, I remember the very first time I watched their little movie review TV show called At the Movies.
This was years before they hit the big time and became celebrities.
Their show was on PBS on Saturday in the late afternoon or early evening, on Channel 2 or 53 out my way.
At the time, it was a silly little half-hour gig with these two unknown guys stating their views on a few movies each week.
It looked like a Public Television show, the way it seemed low-budget, too (like the movie I watched today), and I'd watched it out of sheer boredom when there was nothing else to do.
I didn't think they'd go on to stardom doing that shit.
Somebody must have pulled them up the ranks.
How else would those two assholes make it?

In silly motorcycle message board shit, the guy who's perpetually going-to-be-getting-a-bike-maybe-next-week is now supposedly 8 days away from "getting his check".
The trouble with assigning dates and such to things like this with guys like this is that once you blow past the date, you've gotta' dish out another date, and you blow past that one, too.
Soon, not only your mother and father know you're a lying sack of shit and a loser, but the rest of the message board community will then know it, too.
Thanks to you and your bullshit.
Yes, folks, this is the same guy who felt a 225 pound KDX-200E1 felt all weird, too tall, and shitty, but a 275 pound WR-250R will feel fantastic and fit like a glove.

Whenever I read any blabbering where he's basically verbally beating-off, and more so, where he's generous with his stupid opinions and telling everybody about what kind wisdom he's got for somebody else and their WR-250R problems or questions, I keep thinking to myself that the guy's not even sat on the bike.
Basically, it's like a kid dreaming about his dream bike by oogling the same ol', well-worn full-color brochure over and over again.
I know what that's like. ;)
Poor fella' that actually listens to him.

-John

274: More Motorcycle Goofishness in Store. Plus: Darwinism in Reality

Yes, folks.
It's a wrench.
A funny-looking one too, but, it was the first pic I saw when I Googled "wrenching dimwit". :)

Just read a good one on a motorcycling forum about how a guy was surprised to find out his rear sprocket bolts were loose.
In fact, one of the bolts was completely gone, leaving five left.
He found this out when he removed the rear wheel and put the wheel up on a fancy tire changing stand, a thing that puts the tire up at about waist level.
I guess it was because the bolts were a couple feet closer to his eyes and he wouldn't have to bend down to check them that allowed his discovery that his bike was coming apart as he rode it.

Funny thing is that he also posted a video of his wheel up on the stand showing his five remaining bolts all nice and loose, and he played with them and wiggled the sprocket back and forth for the camera, as if he were amazed by this.
He then added that he thinks the missing bolt fell out about 2,500 miles ago.
Does he mean to say he was aware of the missing bolt and not only didn't replace it, but didn't bother to check the remaining ones?

Some wisecracks would say something like Darwinism and Darwin's theory of evolution will eventually weed-out motorcycling numbskulls like that when they crash and burn from such stupidity.
Not me, because I don't think Dimwitt's...I mean Darwin's stupid "theory" has anything to do with what we were taught in grammar school about it.
Nope.
Here's what I think the Theory of Evolution and the Survival of the Fittest REALLY means to the guys who put it forth and believe in it's true meaning:

The theory that things will physically change their physical shape and their physiology to adapt to their environment never made a bit of sense to me.
Never.
I think it was in the 4th grade that our teacher, Mrs. Johnson, told us that a giraffe's neck was once no longer than any other leaf eater.
But, having to reach those tipitty-top leaves and out-eat it's competitors and survive meant it had to get with the evolution program and gradually, over millions of years, get a long neck.
That way, it could munch more leaves and survive.
That was, I was taught, how evolution worked:
When the going gets tough, you adapt and survive.
It just takes millions of years to see the changes.

I felt that was pure bullshit.
I felt it was a complete placing of one's faith in a hair brained "theory" where the idiot preaching it couldn't prove it at all because he wasn't around millions of years ago to watch the giraffes eating and he's not gonna' be around for a million years from now, and neither were his predecessors, and neither will his descendants.
Saying that it's a carved-in-stone theory with a plot like that is basically an insult to me.
It's a completely made-up bunch of shit.
I've never seen or heard any proof, other than the school teachers saying, "It's true".

No thanks, because I'd sooner believe in Santa Claus.
Ho, ho, ho. :)

No, what evolution and the survival of the fittest really means is having to do with us on Earth, in the recent past and today, where the psychos that crave power and wealth and to control those they see as being lesser than themselves believe that the reason they are where they are is because they are naturally better than those below them.
The fact that they are in positions of great power and wealth is because they are more evolved, are the most fit to be there, and because of that, not only are capable of ruling the masses below them, but basically have every right to do so.
Having come from families with a history of generations holding onto their wealth and power and passing it on to their offspring (along with their superior genes) is their meaning of evolution and the survival of the fittest.
That's their definition of Theory of Evolution and what it takes to be the fittest, not some stupid, made-up story about a giraffe.

Off to jerk,
-John

Forward. March.

Wow, we've finally made it to March 1st.

Now, I think I'll have the opportunity to actually ride this bike sometime this month. :)

*****************************

March is like some kind of rebirth after a sucky winter with all of that friggin' cold and snow and salty roads.

Yuck.

Who needs that kind of stuff.

You know?

****************************

No, not me, and now, it'll be just a matter of days before I can finally roll both of my bikes down my loading ramp off the porch and let their tires rest on actually ground.

Outside.

Wow.

What a concept.

Bring it on.

****************************

I've been sick for the past couple of days, and although I'm getting better, it really sucked Sunday night and yesterday at jerk.

That was tough.

Today, I'm still weaker than normal, but at least the headache and body ache has subsided, and if my hunch is correct, I'll be OK by Thursday.

Amazing thing how your body works, so long as you don't make things worse for it by eating and drinking all manner of stuff it doesn't like.

****************************

Off to jerk,

-John