[Clay Dowling]

My wife took the MSF class in August, so she’s done the proper riding lessons part of that. The problem with getting a bike late in the year is that getting days with good weather where she can practice is really hard.

[Clay Dowling]

I live just west of Flushing (west of the river, by Coldwater road). I’m actually looking to move to Ann Arbor, because that’s where I work. Also, I like the diversity in the riding community there. That and free parking in the ramps for motorcycles.

[Clay Dowling]

I live in the southern half of the state, and I can usually count on being able to get in one or two rides in December. Sometimes I can sneak in a ride in January or February, but last year both months were frozen solid. I don’t have a problem with a short ride (i.e. not over 30 or 40 miles) in the 40s, but my morning commute is more like 60-70 miles, and I’ll only take that ride in the 40s after I’ve been cooped up for the winter and I’m desperate to get on two wheels.

[Clay Dowling]

The company I work for runs a call center for a number of insurance companies. They all swear by Rider for coverage and rates. Unfortunately Rider is not available everywhere (like where I live).

You should also look to see if your insurance offers roadside assistance. If your bike dies midway through a ride, it can be very useful to have somebody come pick you up.

You can also buy roadside assistance separately. Better World Club, for instance, will even run a gallon of gas out to you if you do something silly like forget to switch off reserve when you gas up. Of course, that’s probably not the route to take if you are trying to save money. But if you’re touring, that kind of coverage is good to have.

[Clay Dowling]

Last time I changed my oil I did a lot of research on oil filters and oil. Fram was universally rated one of the worst. It uses cardboard for its internal support structures, and has less filter material than other filters. The Walmart equivalent filter is actually better.

Purolator filters cost slightly more, but they support the filter material with metal instead of cardboard, and they have a lot more filter material than others (esp. Fram). The price difference wasn’t that great though, so you really don’t need to sweat price.

As for crush washers, you can pick them up at a car parts store, where you also get the filters and oil (although I prefer to buy my Rotella-T from the local farm supply, where it’s slightly cheaper). You need to know the diameter of the nut, then ask for it at the counter.

A torque wrench is also a lot cheaper than you would think. If you were a professional mechanic you’d pay a lot of money for a really good one. If you change the oil on your bike once or twice a season, you want a $15 wrench from Harbor Freight, and an inexpensive metric socket set. Make sure you match the wrench’s size to the attachment size of the sockets. 3/8″ and 1/2″ are the most common sizes. Think I went with 1/2″ because it’s easier to get the large sockets needed to swap out wheels that fit a 1/2″ wrench.

In general, the more you can do on your bike the better. Motorcycle mechanics charge way more for their work than car mechanics do, and motorcycles are a lot easier to work on than cars. Tires are the one area when the tool investment to mount and dismount the tire from the rim will take a long time to pay off, but even then, if you’re going to make riding a long-term thing, it makes a lot of sense to buy the tools and learn how to do it yourself.

[Clay Dowling]

Walking right past a perfectly good Ducati dealership. My wife doesn’t ride, but she saw the Ducati episode of Twist the Throttle and found herself fascinated.

[Clay Dowling]

is different from “won’t do.” This boy ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. There was an open bottle of alcohol in the car too, which he’s supposed to know better than to do (as in I’ve warned him specifically about it in the past). Fortunately he passed the field sobriety test though, so no time in lockup. Officer could have taken him in on the general douchebaggery too (felonious assault was the specific charge), but decided not to press that one after the tone of my wife’s voice indicated that jail would be letting the kid off light.

I’m leaning towards dropping him off at the Army recruiting office. Needs something to knock some sense into his head.

[Clay Dowling]

I think I’ve posted that here before. A buffalo which had escaped from somebody’s farm and was running next to the road. A definite WTF moments.

The steer being herded around somebody’s garden by the farm dogs was good too. I finally figured out where that came from, too. That farmer has a small cattle pen behind his barn, on the other side of the road. First time I saw any cattle associated with it though, in the three years I’ve been riding that route. Figured it was a remnant from more prosperous days.

[Clay Dowling]

Got a call last night around 12:30 from the local police. Seems the boy (my stepson) had a problem with people passing him, and when they’d try to do it he’d swerve into the lane to block them. Rocket surgeon that he is, he never considered that the car he was blocking might have a light bar. Which it did. Which it used.

He was left unsupervised with his mother this morning. I’m curious to see if he’s in one piece when I get home. I don’t think my wife knows where to find sacks of lime, which might be the only thing saving the boy. Then again, she might be willing to hunt around for it like I did.

[Clay Dowling]

Local shops charge $70-$80 to change the oil, which seems outrageous to me. Motorcycles are a lot easier to do the change on than a car, which goes for half the price. So I change my own. Pretty easy to do.

Hopefully you’ll become much more mechanically inclined as you progress through your bike’s maintenance. It’s easier than you might initially think, and there’s quite a bit of pleasure in being able to take care of your own bike without paying somebody else.

[Clay Dowling]

Wife is slowly falling to it too. One of her friends has a bike, and seeing her friend on it makes her want to ride too. She’d gonna try to take the class this fall.

[Clay Dowling]

You want to avoid the motorized unicycles until you’ve got some more miles under your butt, and nobody respects the motorized tricycles, no matter how cool they are.

[Clay Dowling]

You really want to make sure no karate instructors ride scooters in your town before you try this. Otherwise the exchange could be very instructive.

[Clay Dowling]

doesn’t have a sense of humor. A horse does. And sometimes their idea of a good joke is a high speed gallop under low branches, which will see you dismounting in a very rapid and unplanned way.

I don’t ride horses, but I know enough people who do that I know better than to completely trust them. Nice animals, just not trustworthy.

[Clay Dowling]

Are, at least at the moment, behind me. I haven’t done janitorial work in years, and the wife nixes my idea for a terrazzo floor every time I bring it up. Something about it being both unfriendly in a cold climate, and expensive as all hell. Oh, yeah, and they have an institutional look that is kind of out of place in a ranch in a working class neighborhood.

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