Lava lamps akimbo

In a previous post, I mentioned purchasing a lava lamp and using it to stimulate pleasant thoughts.

Well, I love it so much I got another. The first is a "blue" lamp: blue water & blueish white lava. My new one is a "black" lamp, which is more accurately described as a chocolate lamp. Very cool.




If I'm not careful, I'm going to have one in every room!

Have fun...john

Summer riding plans firming up

I might have found a theme for this summer's rides. Recall that my last summer's theme was photographing suspension bridges in VA. This summer might be a run to see how many weird and wacky travel sights we can visit. Check this out: click me.

I'm open to suggestions if you have other ideas. Please pass them along.

later...john

Motorcycling Malaise Ended?

Something is not right. Today marks the 5th day in a row that temps have been above 50^oF. Very unusual for February in the Washington metro area. Earlier in the week, temps were nearing 70^o! Yet, I felt no compulsion to ride. On the contrary, I drove 4-wheels every day but today. What's going on?

I hesitate to be too introspective asking 'Why'...I'm concerned I might not like the answers.

However, this morning, I donned my riding suit and rode my Valkyrie to work. Cold air, stinging eyes, numb fingers...and yet, a most excellent commute. The stars aligned and I was forced by traffic to slow down through a sweeping right hander in time to give a respectful nod to a uniformed radar operator.

All is well with the world.

Saw no motorcycles today

I think the high of 14 ^oF (that's -10 ^oC for you folks outside the US) kept riders inside. Not only was the temp low, but the wind was blowing too. The apparent temperature (aka wind chill) was below 0 ^oF at times.

Man am I looking forward to warmer weather.

Improving motorcycle power to weight ratio Part II

All together now:

Control portion size...
...no late night snacks.

How to: Increase the power to weight ratio on my Ducati

Any vehicle's acceleration, be it a car or motorcycle, is determined by its power to weight ratio. I think its a bit more intuitive to flip the ratio giving weight to power, that is, a number indicating how many pounds each horsepower has to move.

Some examples:
Dodge Viper

• 10 cylinder engine
• 450-hp
• 3500-lbs
• power-to-weight ratio = 0.129 hp/lbs
• weight-to-power ratio = 7.8 lbs/hp

So, for the Viper, one hp pushes almost 8 lbs down the road.

Ducati Multistrada

• 2 cylinder engine
  
• 90-hp
• 500-lbs
• P-to-W = 0.180 hp/lbs
  
• W-to-P = 5.6 lbs/hp

That is, each horsepower on the Multistrada pushes less than 6 lbs down the road.

Now we see why even relatively small-engine size motorcycles blow the doors off nearly any automobile.

But wait...
Neither cars nor motorcycles drive themselves. So, we should factor in the weight of the driver/rider to be a bit more precise. For most cars, the weight of the driver is relatively negligible compared to the weight of the car. For example, for the Viper, a 200-lb driver (yeah, a portly dude) amounts to less than 6% of the car's weight. So, the 7.8 lbs/hp becomes 8.3 lbs/hp...not much change (6% change to be exact).

What about the motorcycle?
The 200-lb rider is a whooping 40% of the weight of the bike. Thus, the most excellent 5.6 lbs/hp raises to a Viper comparable 7.8 lbs/hp. So, now this Ducati won't stomp the omnipotent Viper.

So, how do I increase the W-to-P ratio of my Ducati?

Control portion size.
No late night snacks.

Motorcycling and the zen of a lava lamp

An impulse buy. I bought one of these and set it up on my desk at work. Brings back that slow up & down motion of the head with the unfocused eyes and slightly open maw threatening drool--a look that was prevalent in the 1960s among certain crowds. One that I didn't experience personally by the way.



The slow, methodical movement of the "lava" (what is the lava anyway?) got me to thinking about pleasant things like motorcycling. Now that we're on the "right side" of the winter solstice, I'm anxious for longer days, warmer temps, and cycle rides with friends and family. Alas, here in the Washington DC metro area, we're in for more colder weather before warm weather arrives.

Things to do before spring:

• Put fuel stabilizer in all bikes.
  
• Change the plugs in the Valkyrie.
• Change the plugs in the Goldwing trike.
  
• Change the front brakes on the Multistrada.
• Replace brake & clutch fluid in all bikes.

All of these could have been done during the holidays...none were. The holidays turned out to be a black hole sucking time into oblivion. My winter-a-zation for our bikes is minimal (click here) owing to much experience in what works and how much really needs to be done. Different folks in different places must adjust their winterizing accordingly, especially north of here.

Despite the less than ideal riding conditions during the dark months, the number of motorcyclists, and definitely the number of robust motorcyclists, is clearly on the rise. I've seen more riders out and about during this holiday season than I can remember. Many riding with open face helmets sans a face cover. Tough dudes! (I didn't notice any dudette riders, but there may have been some who wisely donned full face helmets making it difficult to determine gender.)

Comments solicited.

Tip: Don't shake a lava lamp. The lava bursts into tiny bubbles taking hours to coalesce disrupting its soothing properties.

2008 Statistics: How many visitors?

Using Google Analytics, another useful free service provided by Google to capture statistics for a web site, I tracked the number of visits (blue line) and unique visitors (orange line) for each month in 2008. Though the numbers are paltry compared to popular blogs, I'm happy anyone is reading mine. May was the best month with about 125 visits by almost 100 readers. And not surprisingly, the last three months have been on a decline. I hope to rectify this for the new year. We'll see....

Happy New Year folks. Ride safely.

I'm back!

After 3 months of silence, I'm back. Hopefully, back with a writing vengeance. Given the timing of my return, this may appear to be akin to a New Year's resolution. Not so. Technically, it's not yet the new year. (Yes, I'm anti-New Year's-resolution.)

It took 3 months for me to get over not making a post of our last suspension bridge ride in late August (I think it was late August). If you're wondering what that last ride was like, click: here, here, here, here, and here. By the end of the summer, they began to look a lot alike.

So, from now until about the spring equinox, I'm going to post more frequently on topics not necessarily related exclusively to motorcycling. Consider them topics associated with getting ready for the 2009 riding season. They will include:

• What to do with motorcycles sitting in the garage.
• Photography.
• My ever vigilant effort to lose some weight.
  
• Anything else that may come to mind.

One topic that I've been having difficulty with is coming up with a "riding project" for the coming year. Last year was VA suspension bridges. This year it will be ......
I solicit your ideas.

Feel free to comment. I'll be back soon.

1st Annual International Trike Riders Rally in Sikeston MO

Finally, my belated posting on the trike rally my wife and I attended in July. You can read earlier "diary posts" I made in near real time during the rally.

Out Bound
We left home on Monday the 21st planning to arrive in Sikeston on Wednesday, the day before the rally started on the 24th. Not wanting to retrace a previous route to MO (see Trip to Oz), we traveled through Ohio and Indiana into Missouri. Ignoring the 2nd morning of rain, the trip to MO was simply spectacular. Especially riding Indiana back roads among the myriad corn fields, the vivid blue sky, temperate weather, and relative lack of traffic made this portion of the trip almost magical.

Leaving home:


On the road wardrobe change:


Cooling our heels waiting on road work:


At the rally
Overall, the rally was enjoyable. It was not overly crowed--one rally official indicated about 300 trikes attended--and the facilities--the fair grounds adjacent to the regional airport--were good. We met a number of interesting trike riders including one trike-builder who rode in from Wisconsin on his 17th, home-built trike. His wife and son also attended on trikes he designed and built.

Only a few vendors showed up which was a bit disappointing--we were ready to buy stuff :). But this is the 1st rally and no doubt it will grow larger each year. A trike dealership from Kansas came offering test rides on a new line of 7/8th-sized trikes made by Ridley. These trikes are sized perfectly for smaller riders, inexperienced riders, and noteworthy in that they use an automatic transmission--no clutch, no shifting.

Less than half a dozen two-wheelers showed up, mine among them. I wasn't made to feel out of place and more or less was invisible. This is an effect I've noticed for some times since my wife started riding a trike: everyone is interested in the lady on the trike...no one cares about the dude on the bike. Nonetheless, the friendliness of trike riders and especially those that attended the rally is noteworthy.

We spent some time riding the flat terrain in and around Sikeston. I don't recommend the area as ideal for motorcycling. I don't fancy roads that travel off to the horizon in a straight line.

I do recommend eating at Lambert's where you're likely to get beaned by a flying bread roll. Please note that there's almost always a line waiting to get inside and the portions are so large that finishing a meal is difficult.

At the rally:






A triked Rune (!!):


It's a helmet!


Automatic, low to the ground, light weight, small size:


Yes, it does have air conditioning:


Long and straight (and boring) roads:


A local landmark:




Good Moments
Taking 3 days to return, we again made great efforts to not retrace a previous route. We left Sikeston for Chattanooga on day 1, north to Martinsville, VA on day 2, and then on to home on day 3. Over the course of the three days, we traveled through much more urban areas than our ride to Sikeston. While not as idyllic as the outbound leg, the return home was nice in that we got to see places we hadn't before. Plus, there's no place like home after being gone for a week.

To recap, here's a non-inclusive list of the good moments of this trip:

• Riding
• Talking to trike riders
• Talking to trike builders
• Stopping for a break once every hour
  
• Seeing the country side
• Eating a large chicken fried steak
• No helmet law states