264 Arabs Making Noise

An angry Egyptian, yesterday afternoon, after he discovered he'd been had.
On top of all that, he forgot to bring home the pound of margarine and gallon of milk.

Oh, my god!
Something's got to be done about all of the unrest in Egypt!
The sky is falling, too!

Basically, there's not much I can do except comment that it's all an intentionally instigated event to start with, in my opinion.
Before anything you'll hear on the TV news or read about on the good ol' Internet (on an official news website, of course), I'm much more likely to believe that this is all drummed-up in order to benefit somebody other than the people doing the yelling and bleeding.
Maybe it was simply decided that the guy presiding over the country of Egypt has used-up his usefulness and it's simply time for him to go bye-bye.
So, the boys that made it possible for him to get there have now taken action to get him out of there, and, being the sneaky and covert bunch that they are, they do it by manipulating people into thinking it's some kind of grass-roots movement instigated by the average Joe on the Egyptian streets.
I sure as heck don't believe that.
I'm more likely to believe it was carefully planned, things done to get people all riled-up, and, very important, media coverage falsely portraying what's really going on over there.

In the end, once things die down, the guys really running the Egyptian show will have somebody new who they like this week in there.
Then, they can go about raking-in some great tax money from average Joe Egyptian, perhaps more than ever.
Why not?
That's what they're doing to you and me over here in the USA, ain't it?
I'm getting taxed more than ever, and I don't see my local neighborhood changing one bit because of it, other than everybody having a harder time making ends meet.

Ever wonder where all of your tax money really goes?
Hmmm?

Off to jerk,
-John

I Hit the Powerband 263 Times

Riders should know that there are an assortment of powerbands available, enough so that you are sure to find one to suit.

I read a thread posted on the ThumperTalk forums where a guy asked if anybody had any funny tales to tell about their early days of messing with motorcycles and their lack of understanding things related to motorcycles.
In other words:
What silly shit did you not know about motorcycles because you knew nothing?

I really can't remember any big misconceptions I had along the way, other than making mistakes and learning about how things went the hard way.
One silly think I would often hear from retards my own age back in high school, though, was this thing that everyone called the powerband.

Supposedly, the term "powerband" came to being in the early 1970s in one of the then-in-print dirt bike magazines, or so I read.
What that word means is a description of an engine's power characteristics, basically.
Even a dimwit can begin to understand that an 80cc engine will have a different character from a 600cc engine.
Can we all agree on that one?
Powerband was used when discussion turned to things about that, and was handy when comparing one bike to another.

The dipshit part comes in when numbskulls who knew little about dirt bikes started doing dangerous things like trying to think about them.
Lots of kids I knew would say the same silly thing:
"I was in 5th gear, wide-open, powerband..."

The use of the word powerband was as if it were some kind of thing you could hold in your hand, or as if it were some kind of state of being, or if it were some kind of switch on the handlebar labeled "powerband".
Supposedly, these guys believed it to be when the engine suddenly went crazy, producing a lot more power than it did most of the time, and it was basically implied that you only enter the powerband during times of need.
Running from the local cops because they caught you riding your dirt bike down the street coming back from your friend's house?
Time to hit the powerband and skedaddle.

A bike made for small kids to ride and make riding as harmless as possible were frowned on because they had no powerband.
Lots of douchebags thought you could somehow take a powerband out of a box and install it onto one of these sad bikes.

Today, the legend of the powerband is still alive, and, if anything, is now entered into a kind of mysterious state because lots of the dirt bikes sold these days are 4-stroke bikes, and these engines typically have smoother power characteristics, even when tuned for racing.
These is now a whole generation of dirt bike riders that never rode a 2-stroke motocross bike and never used (for any length of time) a bike that had what was called a lightswitch powerband, where the bike made power over a relatively narrow RPM range.
For these guys, all they have to go on is what they're told and what they read.

Assuming, that is, they have learned how to read.
I know lots of them can't spell and punctuate worth a damn.

Off to jerk,
-John

262: Need a Crane or Two

In January of 1978, the roof of the Hartford Civic Center, raised in 1972, fell in under the weight of heavy snow.
I remember seeing the same ol' pic behind the familiar ol' WFSB in Hartford TV news anchors gabbing about it for what seemed like forever.

I heard last night that a semi-local indoor motocross track called MotoTown had it's roof collapse due to the weight of the snow on it.
I hear that nobody was killed or hurt, although I imagine that most are wondering if a similar place will open in the area again.

Well, the rear shock from the WR-250FY firebreather is en route to Go Race Suspension in Virginia.
I estimate about 10 days before I'll see it back here, so this weekend would be a good time to work on the front end of the bike while the rear end is apart.
Changing the fork oil (and maybe lowering the oil level a few millimeters more while I'm at it) and greasing the steering head bearings would take care of those jobs for a while, so it just might take place.
When I put the rear shock and rear suspension back on the bike, I'll naturally grease the parts that need it at the same time, as well as install a new drive chain and new sprockets.
After that, it's basically a case of waiting for the weather and ground conditions to improve. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

261: Tearin' 'er Down is Fun & Don't Dilly-Dally

Why is John messin' around with one of his bikes, again?

That sounds like something my dad would have asked back in the day.

Not surprisingly, he knew zippo-squat about motorcycles. :)

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Well, since we now have less than a month to go before that wonderful month March gets here - the month where these bikes of mine start to get actually ridden, again - it's high time I removed the rear shock absorber from the ol' WR-250FY and send it on in to a suspension shop for a service.

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Service?

On a shock?

Yeah, Buckwheat, a high-end shock like you see on a high-end motorcycle will have a shock that can be serviced to make just as good as new, and even modified for different performance characteristics, if you so chose.

The shock on the WR-250FY has about 1,200 off-road miles on it (a bit more than one full year of use), so I believe it is money well-spent to have it freshened-up with new oil and nitrogen gas pressure.

I'll be sending it to the same place that overhauled the shock on my WR-250XX:

Go Race Suspension down in Virginia.

I'll ship it out Monday afternoon, and, being realistic, I'd expect to see it back about 10 days later.

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The "Don't Dilly-Dally" part of this post's title has to do with a website I've been going to for 10 years, now.

(You know, I just remembered that about a week ago marked the 10 year anniversary of me buying my first PC and logging onto the Internet.

I'll need to do a post on that subject.)

It's a place called Motorcycle Daily (which I've seen nick-named Motorcycle Dilly-Dally), and is, basically, a place where the guy in charge will post reviews of bikes, products (like the made-in-China Bell helmet I mentioned a short time ago), and just post general mumblings about what he feels is important.

The product reviews are basically, like any other website or magazine or TV show with them, an advertisement for the product.

Not surprisingly, I honestly can't recall a single bad review on anything I've read about there on Motorcycle Daily.

Well, if the guy posted a review that said, "Bell helmets are junk - don't buy one.", do you really think he'd be invited to get more free products to play with...oops, I mean review in the future?

No way, Jose!

Even the well-known issues with certain bikes he has tested are glossed-over in a sugary-sweet way in order to make it sound like there's no big deal at all.

If a test bike can't be started reliably, instead of saying that the bike is a piece of shit with issues, they'll say that perhaps the jetting wasn't correct for their elevation...of three-and-a-half feet.

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Anyway, the reason I brought up this site is because I saw a silly little advertisement, also known as a mini-documentary, on some lady traveling around the world on her BMW GS80-whatever adventure bike.

If you've been keeping up with my posts, you know I think adventure bikes are actually repackaged street bikes with a bit more ground clearance, and all of that heavy (for an off-road bike) weight that is MUCH better off on smooth pavement.

Well, the video showed the lady rider en route with her around-the-world adventure bike trip, smiling for the camera and peeling veggies for din-dins by the campfire at night.

I got a kick out of some of the comments and a couple of the replies of my own comment, which was the first one there, too.

Pretty funny, as some of these adventure bike fans seem to be too touchy.

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http://www.motorcycledaily.com/

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-John

Nice Chinese Helmet You've Got There - Not

This morning, I read an article that most call a "product review", but to me, it's more of an advertisement for everybody to read and become aware of something on the market for sale.
It was for a Bell street bike helmet, called the Star, and, of course, it came off as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I even left a comment, saying that the last time I bought a Bell helmet was back in the olden daze, when the familiar Bell logo was still a USA trademark.
These days, the helmets are made in China, like a whole lotta' other products you buy in the USA, today.

Just why in the heck is everything being made in China, anyway?
Why should I care about it?
Well, the "why" is because, I believe, that's how the big shots that have the money and power to do so want it done.
I really don't believe for a half-second that the country of China is in the process of becoming industrialized all by itself, as if the Chinese people woke up one morning recently and decided to build factories and lure US production of products over there with the bait of cheap labor from the Chinese people, meaning more profit for the wealthy people who control the manufacturing.

That's probably what the tycoons would want you to believe, and although that would seem bad enough (the US businessmen and their factories leaving the United States, cutting jobs for US citizens, and moving into a factory in China to employ Chinese people), what I feel the REAL story is is actually much, much worse, and even more of a kick in the balls to the people in the USA.

I think it is actually a case of the wealthy corporations and International bankers of the world (you know, the guys who actually call the shots) intentionally uprooting from the USA and voluntarily moving over to China and putting up their factories, taking advantage of all of those people over there who will work all day long in sweat shops for $2 a day.
Agreements were hammered-out among the big players of the banking and corporate world, a world that you and I aren't privy to or have any vote or voice in, and these guys are pumping the money into China and, basically, putting it through it's own version of an Industrial Revolution.

So, China is becoming the world's manufacturer and going through such changes because foreigners from the USA and Europe are doing it.
This is because they smell a profit to be made.
If China was left alone and not being tampered with, they'd probably still be paddling up rivers in bamboo boats and swinging from trees in the jungle.

But, that's not the biggest thing that effects you.
How would you have voted if you were asked for your input onto this subject:
How do you feel about setting up an agreement to lure US factories over to China and promising them that any start-up costs and teething pains would be paid for by the US taxpayer?
Hmmmmm?
What would have been your vote on that one?
Were you even asked about it?
Were you even made aware of it?

Think about that one for a bit, and you probably won't perceive that familiar MADE IN CHINA label quite the same.

Off to jerk,
-John

259: Trade You my Opinions for Some Cheap Wine

Oh, look.
It's another "helpful" retard from a motorcycling message board here to set you straight on what you should know and do.

Have I told you this one?
Sorry if I have.

A couple of months back, I read a post on a forum where a guy wanted opinions on the bike I'd sold a couple months before:
The Yamaha WR-250RX.
That's the dual-purpose bike I'd ridden from June of 2009 until September of 2010, and I rode it everywhere, both street and dirt.
7,500 miles worth, so I got to know the bike well.

This guy wanted opinions on comparing a 2008 Yamaha WR-250RX to a 1989 Kawasaki KDX-200E1.
The KDX is an off-road (not street-legal) motorcycle, intended for trail riding and general off-road riding.
I've ridden them, had friends and relatives that owned them, and even had a 1986 model, myself, back in the day that I bought brand new.

Anyway, the guy wanted to know how the Yamaha WR-250R compared to the KDX as far as feel, power, and suspension went.
I wrote with what I knew from experience:
The WR-250RX is a good dual-purpose bike that, once uncorked with the mods to get rid of the EPA restrictions, will be a decent trail bike and run with traffic just fine on the street.
It will weigh about 50 pounds more than the KDX, which is a serious chunk of weight for an off-road motorcycle, and have suspension that isn't as good as the KDX, but, I wrote, that's how the dual-purpose bikes typically are with their stock suspensions:
They look like the latest and greatest, but simply don't work like them.
Why?
The Yamaha factory cut corners to save money, and basically had no intention of equipping the bike with top-of-the-line suspension, lest they end-up with a bike costing more money for them to produce.

The guy asking the question basically couldn't believe that I'd write saying the modern-looking suspension of the WR-250RX was anything other than excellent, or at the least, very, very good as it comes off the showrooms.
He went on to ask me questions, trying to comprehend what I'd written for him to read.
After several replies by me, it was obvious that he wasn't only not getting it, but he was basically in denial over such a notion.
So, he did what lots of guys will do:
Concentrated on asking others the same questions, sticking with the individuals that were giving him the answers he wanted to hear.
Basically, he told me (without actually writing it) that I was all wet and this could not be the case.

I had to laugh when I found out why he was asking about comparisons to the 1989 KDX-200E1:
He wrote, later, that this KDX was the ONLY dirt bike he'd ridden since the mid-1970s, and he only rode the KDX around in a parking lot before selling it shortly after he's bought it!
Yeah, that's right.
The guy last rode a dirt bike in 1973, back when they had very short and crude suspension, and, basically, knew nothing about riding a dirt bike since then.

Also, I then shortly afterwards read his advice and answers he was giving to other people who were asking questions about the WR-250RX, themselves, and he was more than willing to provide his opinions on that bike.
I guess it wouldn't surprise you to find out that the guy not only doesn't own one of those, but never even as much as rode a WR-250RX, either.

Nice, huh?
Yup.
That's what you can run across on a forum:
A guy who is very vocal and opinionated, but has more ambition and meaning-well-to-do than experience on the subject.

Off to jerk,
-John

258: Ain't Being a Braindead, Wishy-Washy Geek Great?

Oh, look.
It's an old pic of the Beastie Boys, just before they made their big (big?) breakthrough with that hella' good music they're known for.
The additional guys are their manager and traveling janitor to pick up after them. :)

Not only do I read and hear comical motorcycling-related stuff having to do with maintenance and what old bikes are worth, but another hot topic is what modifications are deemed as being OK and non-offensive by some turkeys.
Oops.
I mean riders. ;)

Here's an example of what you'll routinely read on a forum that has a bunch of dual-sport (AKA dual-purpose bike) riders chiming-in with their opinions:

Anybody that knows what they're talking about knows from experience that today's EPA regulations are so strict and downright silly, that the way a street-legal bike runs off the showroom floor is often not as well as it could be, to say the least.
Pathetic is often the correct word.
The bikes are strangled for intake air, the carburetor or fuel injection settings are so lean that it's amazing the bikes will start and run, and the exhaust mufflers are stuffed with catalytic converters and feature outlets holes the diameter of a No. 2 pencil.
I ain't kidding.

Because there are people who have a functioning brain in their heads as far as wanting something called performance with their motorcycle, it is common for a rider to make changes to the bike in order to get rid of these performance restrictions, and done correctly, the bike is still just as civilized, as easy to ride (actually, it is easier because it will now run correctly), and will bother nobody who isn't simply a grouchy jerk looking for a punch in the face.
I belong to this group of riders.

There is a 2nd point of view on this stuff, the one where some riders feel that doing modifications to the bike will only reward you with trouble.
Trouble because you're breaking the law by removing the EPA restrictions (and possibly killing the fragile environment), and no doubt you'll be making the bike really loud, which will annoy people 37 miles away from you merely starting the engine.
These guys will try to convince you that you should leave the stock parts in place, claiming that, "the bike already makes enough power", or , "I don't want to make a lot of noise and get noticed or offend anybody", or some other Oprah Winfrey-type of new-aged, wimpy, brain-dead geek reasoning.

These guys are serious geeks, and I really doubt the most vocal among them have even given it a go, themselves.
I really doubt they actually know what they're talking about, in other words.
Ridding the bike of the silly regulations does not turn the bike into an evil noise-maker.
I, myself, have always been against riding a loud bike out in public, be it on the street or on public land like out in the Pachaug rock pile.
Doing that has always been, in my view, very selfish, stubborn, and something that is just asking for trouble.
I'm talking LOUD.
Some guys do it, and I feel it's a reflection of their personality.
You know:
Jerks.

These geeks will basically come on to a thread where somebody who just bought their dual-purpose bike is asking about what mods should be done to the bike to make it run better, and the geek will basically try to convince the guy asking that he should leave the bike well enough alone.
The No. 1 reason they give is that noise is the enemy, and you'll be shooting yourself in the foot by making the bike one decibel louder in any way, for any reason.

I say those geeks should get a grip and realize that the way the bikes come are simply unacceptable, the EPA regulations are beyond ridiculous, and getting rid of them is, basically, a requirement.
Their case of making the bikes loud simply is not true when using an exhaust muffler with trail riding in mind.
The FMF Q4 muffler that I have on my WR-250XX (and I also used it on the WR-250RX last year) is louder than stock, but still not loud.
It is totally acceptable as far as noise output, yet the bike runs much better by using it.
Combine this with an FMF Power Programmer fuel injection doo-hickey, and the bike is mucho better in the way it responds to the throttle.
I've always felt that if a rider can't appreciate qualities like that in his motorcycle, he should look in the mirror and ask himself just what he's really made of.

Cheese, maybe, because he's a squeaky little mouse spouting-off about how we're all gonna' get in trouble by modifying our bikes, and how we're all going to lose riding areas by having loud bikes.
These guys can kiss my ass.
This is because I firmly believe that, with the way I have my WR-250XX (and WR-250FY firebreather, too) modified, I'm not bothering anybody due to the modifications.
If I happen to run across somebody who gives me a dirty look while I'm on my bike, it's just because I was there and on a motorcycle - period.
Not because my modified bike is loud.
It is not.
It's because I was there and on a motorcycle.
That's it.
I could have been there on the bike with it in showroom condition (all plugged-up), and still gotten the same non-friendly reaction.
This probably would be coming from a horseback rider, nature boy or nature girl hiker (who believes they have first pick of the trails because they're on foot, the way God and Al Gore intended it), posey-sniffing faggot, New Aged brainwashed retard, environmental mental case, or similar poor excuse for somebody to be out there on the trails.

Of course, I sometime wonder how many of these geeks writing-in on the forums are environmental wackos, themselves.

Off to jerk,
-John