9/28/2004 - Well, my wife is on her way into the 2-wheel club. We've been trying to find her a bike, she was sold on a Aprilia Tuono 125, but unfortunately they aren't sold in the US. We ordered her helmet, jacket and gloves about a week and a half ago.. I left from work today and headed out to the Kawasaki dealership to see if they had any bikes (Ninja 250's) which she was also interested in. Turns out they had one in yellow, which matches her helmet and other gear (gotta coordinate ya know). The price was right, I called my insurance agent who gave me a GREAT quote... too bad it changed after I'd already bought the bike and he kicked it into the system.. Oh well, had to go with another insurance company... Beautiful little bike, agile, light, anyway.. I go home, get my gear and she drops me off. The dealership was awesome, they took care of plates and registration right there (Right on Arkansas, that is an awesome way to go! Allowing dealers to do this!), anyway... I was told the bike had gas (enough to get me home) but that I might need to gas it up. Luckily I was a 1/4 mile from a Shell Station when she sputtered on me and conked out. I put it in Neutral, and walked it (like a kid with a freaking bicycle! a SEVERELY overdressed bicycle kid in helmet, gloves, and jacket) to the station, pumped in enough gas to fill the tank... started the bike with the choke on, and got it warmed up good again, and then rode it home. Spent about an hour working things out so I can fit two bikes in the stable for the 'Little Buell'. Anyway, Buelly has a stablemate now... which during the whole ordeal (riding home, running out of gas, the sound of the engine, and the yellow color of the bike) was well earned... Bumblebee. So Buelly and Bumblebee. The center stand on Bumblebee is tough (to get up) but is key to them living in happy coexistence. I can mount both (cool) and shuffle between them easily enough so it'll work. Anyway, time to reorganize the shed, and get things in better shape so that Buelly and Bumblebee can live happily in harmony. I just hope Marie will ride Bumblebee (with me) or else I'm gonna be splitting miles... and while Bumblebee has some awesome features my Little Buell doesn't.. I like my Little Buell better.

Addendum: I'm kicking myself, was talking with my friend Henry and you know what he says... "Ran out of gas, so why didn't you switch to the reserve?" DOH! What I newbie I am.

9/25/2004 - I was supposed to go riding with the boyfriend of my wife's best friend today, but it rained. Lame!...

Anyway, last night I was playing with Ray Dream Studio again, I love Blender.. but still can't bring myself at times to fight with it's interface when I know RDS so well... even if the company is out of business. Anyway, I have been cranking out objects in Wings 3D for a while now, and I took one last night and played with it... I don't normally go in for spacecraft or space shots... but when I do my favorite technique is to make a hollow sphere in RDS, apply an image map for the texture and the same image map for the glow map on the sphere... I position a bulb light (white) inside the top of the sphere, and my space objects near the center. Then I put a camera into the sphere, and set it's center on the object I want to 'photograph' and then I use the dolly tool to move around in the sphere. That's the only way I've found to get a space scene with a decent background in RDS.

Went through my closet today, I took about 25 long-sleeve shirts and bagged them, all the pants I can no longer wear (size 40's and 42's), all the jeans (38's - 42's), old coats and jackets I don't need anymore, etc... Threw out a bunch of old belts, etc.. All of it's going to Salvation Army or Goodwill. There are alot of good clothes in there, including two pairs of corduroy slacks I only got to wear for four months before they were too big for me. The reason for this? Well, we went to JCL Penny's today and I got three pairs of new slacks (yes Ben, no more belting and cinching), and another pair of jeans. I also got a brown leather (vinyl I think) jacket for days I'm not on the bike and not wearing my peacoat, and a biker belt (double belt-holes) that normally would cost me $40.00 but was on sale for $14.00. Marie got some nice clothes as well. I also dragged out a belt in the closet and polished it's buckle. It's one I got when I was thin, never wore much, and now it fits me and is in perfect condition. It's also tooled and fits my new image as a motorcyclist along with the new belt that has the belt-holes with grommets in them.

We've got our MSF BRC class coming up next weekend (Marie and I) and we're waiting for her helmet to come in (Yellow Full-face from Rodney's Cycle House, they had to order it as most bikers that shop there want black! :-), and her Yellow, Black and White Joe Rocket Phoenix 3.0 Jacket with Zip Out Liner (Small Men's for sleeve length, fits her like a glove), and Yellow and Black GX Air Gloves from Metric Bikes. Hopefully these will show up before her class.. It's going to be interesting, I'm sure she'll drop a bike in class... it'll be hard not to react to my wife falling off, though at least it'll be in a controlled environment. I can't tell you how many women I've read about who started riding, dropped their bike in a parking lot (while practicing) and gave up wanting to ride. I see ALOT of Buell Blasts sold on this premise by their husbands.

Anyway, this image and update are about it for the moment.

9/23/2004 - Added Digital Gallery 2, just some things I've been playing around with.

9/15/2004 - My toolkit and other gear from Suburban Harley came in. Everything in the order was right except the toolkit. I contacted Mark at Suburban Harley and I'm sending the kit back and they're sending me the correct one. I have alot of nice things to say about Suburban Harley, the staff there is VERY friendly and they are really good to work with. It almost makes me wish I lived up in Wisconsin as the HD and Buell riders up there are lucky to have such a great dealership. Anyway, my basic game plan this weekend is to wash my bike today or tomorrow and dry it with my new shop vac ($20.00 from Harbor Freight) and then install the nut covers (front and rear) and the tank mask (and get ride of my homemade tank mask in the process).

On another tangent... I never played any sports in High School, or Junior High.. My parents didn't want me to, besides.. the whole thing just didn't appeal to me. I know enough about sports of different types to be able to talk about it with the sports nerds I have worked with in the past (yep, I said sports nerds, how about sports geeks.. that works too). I've only known one jock in my life who was intellectual in nature, and he is a great guy who was a programmer on the team I used to work on at work with a year or so ago. I have known ALOT of sports nerds though, these are the guys who never played sports, who never got into the actual physical part of it...

but who are big into watching the games, doing crazy things for their teams, etc.. the fat guys with the face paint and no shirts, etc... It's great that they are into it that much, but to me they're like the ravid anime fans, or ravid sci-fi fans who speak klingon... Now don't get me wrong, I love sci-fi, and am a BIG fan, but not ravid like they are. I am also heavily into my motorcycle, and reading about it alot, talking with other bikers, etc.. but I'm not a biker nerd (yet) as everything I'm learning now is practical in nature.. Oh well, anyway.. I don't know why I jumped onto this tangent... but man, sports nerds are such geeks!

9/15/2004 - My list just grew shorter. I picked up a pair of Freeride Gloves at SAMS Club tonight. These are winter sports gloves, geared towards skiers, ATV and Snowmobile Riders. From what I have found the brand name, Grandoe is the same as Marmot. Marmot Freeride Gloves retail for between $50.00 to $60.00 a piece. They have all of the features and materials of the Marmot gloves, and look identical to the ones I bought except the ones I bought were manufactured for SAMS Club. The ones from SAM'S also have a few features which the Marmot gloves do not. These include Reflective accents (piping on the back of the glove, and on the cuffs, and a goggle/visor cleaner (excellent! on the index finger.)

They have a removable fleece liner, draw cords on the cuffs to seal them off, Velcro straps on the wrist for a tight fit, they're waterproof and have a second lining with hydro-wick facing (so two levels of insulation, and wicking fabric with the removable liner in place), nosewipe index finger, EZ grab loop straps, rolled finger caps, heater pack pockets with hidden zippers and chamois wipes inside, heavy duty wind and waterproof outer shell, leather palm (soft leather) with rugged leather inside the fingers of the palm, and it goes on... and all for $15.00! Not bad, not bad. :-)

All that's left is my drytech liner, and Signal Sourcerer! Oh, I also picked up some Mechanix gloves the other day at Autozone for when I'm working on the bike.

9/13/2004 - My order from Aerostitch came in... The Never Say Die Bandana is very cool. Began wearing it today for the first time in my ride to work. The Clip Clock is VERY awesome.. It's VERY small... The dial is roughly the size of my thumbnail. I put it right up next to the left handlebar mount on the inside of the mount. The white dial on it looks good, and it's a very high quality clock and is waterproof... Not bad for $16.00! The Bungee Net is also very cool, I'll have to start carrying it instead of my bungee cords. The plastic locks are perfect for my saddlebags as well, and very easy to use.

The Motofile I ordered is very small, nylon, with a heavy duty zip lock vinyl bag inside which I am now keeping my insurance, registration, and learner's permit. I can carry it in my jacket easily enough, and highly recommend it to anyone with a bike. I also really like the Baroody's Bike Log I bought from Aerostitch, it's awesome.. I filled it out last night, and used a pencil.. 1.. Because wet pencil doesn't run or ruin, and 2... I can erase and change things in the future.

I also received confirmation that Suburban Harley shipped my package with my nut covers, tank mask, and tool kit. My mother-in-law is visiting us so she'll be home to accept it when it arrives this week. Anyway, not much left to get for the bike.

I checked some books out at the library:

• The Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Guide To Motorcycling Excellence - Skills, Knowledge, and Strategies for Riding Right
• Street Strategies, A Survival Guide for Motorcyclists by David Hough
• Chasing Che, A Motorcycle Journey in Search of the Guevara Legend by Patrick Symmes

I also reserved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert Pirsig, but am still waiting for it to come in.

9/07/2004 - Rode with the windshield yesterday a bit, takes some getting used to as usually the only wind resistance on the bike is me. Now the wind channels around me thanks to the windshield, and riding at high speeds is ALOT better. The shield though is a bit shorter than I'd like, as the wind still comes up and hits my helmet from the nose up basically, but that's nothing I can't deal with. Went highway riding with it, and some regular road riding.. Mileage is currently at... No idea, didn't make a mental note of it.

Current buy list:

• Signal Sorcerer - NEW to the list of Items I want!
  For tripping stoplights which can't detect I'm there sitting, waiting, for 5 minutes for the damned things to changed. Usually not a problem with cars and trucks on the road, but if I'm out early in the morning on a ride it is a problem. What's funny to me is newer cars aren't tripping the lights either, especially compact cars and the new hybrid vehicles because of the same issue... not enough ferrous metals in the engine or body to do it... and some sport utilities are too high to trip the lights. Note: I REALLY need this at some point, went riding last night, and some of the stoplights would NOT change.
• Drytech Liner - Will get in October
  
• Glove Liners - Will get in October

9/05/2004 - Hoping to install the windshield today (well I did, see pictures to the side and below), we'll see. I was given clearance to order a clock for the bike last night so I won't be late getting home, etc... from now on. I was also given clearance to order other items, as Marie didn't see me spending $5.00 on shipping just for one item as a good deal. So here's the manifest of items I ordered:

• Plastic Locks for my Saddlebags - delrin resin locks (high strength), tough enough to use on the saddlebags, but low weight and black so their not high profile or anything. - aerostitch.com
• Motofile - a small waterproof holder that attaches using a strip of adhesive hook and loop. Made of nylon fabric with a zip-type waterproof liner with room for important docs. - aerostitch.com
• Bungee Net - a small cargo net with six hooks for securing things, well, securely - aerostitch.com
• Clock Clip - a waterproof clock which clips to the handlebars of a motorcycle (either 7/8" handlebars like I have, or 1") - aerostitch.com
• Baroody's Bike Log - a notebook designed specially for logging service, maintenance, etc.. on your bike, everyone should have one of these. - www.bikelog.com & aerostitch.com
• Bandana - Never Say Die, a frivolous item, but I'm getting tired of wearing my Killer Whales bandana, and the Sutherlands bandanas I have. - aerostitch.com
• Mitzi Pin (Ogri???) - A bit of naughtiness, a biker chick in leathers... well, mostly. Small and perfect for my leather vest... plus it was on clearance for cheap. - aerostitch.com
  

I installed the windshield the rest of the way, it was pretty easy. I added a strip of car door edging (the kind for keeping from dinging the edge of your door) to the bottom of the windshield where the curve is over the headlight as the flyscreen had something like this and so have many of the other shields I've seen and I like it. Cost me about $3.00 total with tax for that.

That leaves my list of items currently needed as:

• Buell Toolkit - Ordered from Suburban Harley (www.suburbanharley.com)
  I found out that the Buell Toolkit is a mixture of Metric, Standard, and Torx tools. There's not manifest on the site, or description of what's in the toolkit, which sucks because for $30.00 I could assemble the kit at Harbor Freight easily enough. Cruz Tools makes a Buell Kit which is similar to the Buell Kit from the dealer, but they want $130.00 for it... And it doesn't include any tire patching stuff (which for that price it damned well should!). Anyway, if there is anyone reading my site (yeah, right), and knows what all is included in the Buell Kit... Let me know via my feedback form, I need to know the sizes for things like hex keys, wrenches, etc... I found the sizes of everything in the Buell Toolkit, it would cost me roughly $54.00 to put together a toolkit of the same kind from Harbor Freight. Suburban Harley has the Buell Toolkit though for a little less than that, so ordering the actual kit was the best course of action.
• Signal Sorcerer - NEW to the list of Items I want!
  For tripping stoplights which can't detect I'm there sitting, waiting, for 5 minutes for the damned things to changed. Usually not a problem with cars and trucks on the road, but if I'm out early in the morning on a ride it is a problem. What's funny to me is newer cars aren't tripping the lights either, especially compact cars and the new hybrid vehicles because of the same issue... not enough ferrous metals in the engine or body to do it... and some sport utilities are too high to trip the lights.
  
• Tank Mask - Ordered from Suburban Harley (www.suburbanharley.com)
  (Suburban Harley has the best deal on these for the Buell Blast at the moment)
• Front and Rear Axel Nut Covers - Ordered from Suburban Harley (www.suburbanharley.com)
  (Again, Suburban Harley has the best deal at the moment)
• Drytech Liner - Will get in October
  
• Glove Liners - Will get in October
• Eventually an additional set of bodywork for the bike (in Black) - I'll get this someday, not worried about it at the moment.
  (so I can custom paint the stock set with Krylon Fusion paint..., but be able to go back to stock whenever I wanted to.)
• Also need to pick up some air and oil filters so I can do my own oil changes as needed.

Some Pictures Click each picture for a larger image in a new window
Me and the Buell Blast with the new windshield.	Buell Blast with factory windshield installed.	Buell Blast with factory accessory windshield from the Front.
Closeup of Buell Windshield with Door Guard Edging Fitted, and Logo.	Side shot of windshield brackets.	Doey, our little Sennie who was 'Born to Be Wild' on the handlebars.
Doey, our little Sennie who was 'Born to Be Wild' on the handlebars.

9/03/2004 - Well, I started to install my windshield, but I didn't have enough sizes of hex keys. I have the right ones for the windshield screws which came with the kit, just not for the existing screws for the flyscreen. I'm borrowed a set from my dad, so I'll see if it works tomorrow. I am partially into the installation (about 25% of it). I picked up some door guard edge from O'Reilly Autoparts to go along the bottom part of the windshield where it hovers above the headlight bezel.

I road out to Perry County today after work, I'm now sitting at 543 miles on the bike, after hitting the 500 mile engine break-in mark I took the bike up to 60, then 65, and then 70. No problems whatsoever, the bike seemed to like them all. The problem came up when the wind picked up and I was being buffeted and it was pushing me towards the other lane so I had to slow down and ride carefully at around 50 to 55.

After I got back into the city I took the highway home. The wind was still bad, but not as bad out in the hills. I wonder how much was drag and turbulance from speed, and how much from the crosswinds off the lake and hills.. but I don't know. I'm looking forward to getting the windshield on now though and seeing how much of a difference it'll make for me.

9/02/2004 - My windshield came in today... and it's BEAUTIFUL. Brad at www.sporttwin.com is AWESOME. He shipped it to me earlier this week and it showed up, still sealed in the factory box and everything. I saved $40.00 over the factory price, and he included free shipping. Awesome. :-) I went riding yesterday out to Natural Steps and Roland, Arkansas after work to put some more miles on the bike. I got home late as we were having friends over for dinner, and I had to stop at SAM'S Club for Gas for the bike ($2.33 for 1.3 gallons) and heavy whipping cream for my mother-in-law. Since I don't have a clock or watch on the bike it's starting to get PAINFUL for me as I have no concept of time, and my wife won't let me buy anything for the bike at the moment (Windshield was the last approved purchase, haha, and only because it was an excellent deal). I ended the day with 477 miles on the odometer though. Not too bad. I may have to save up and get a Corbin seat next year though, the stock seat is comfortable, but I noticed after about 40 miles with no stops that I needed to pull over and stand up for a second as I was getting a bit of iron butt. I'm really looking forward to putting the windshield on, may do it today or tomorrow. I'd like to have it for the ride to work tomorrow, but.. Well, I donno, we'll see. I hope to break the 500 mile mark tomorrow on my way home.

I took my in-laws to see the USS Razorback in North Little Rock, we stopped at Union Pacific as they have a Diesel Engine on display out front (recently repainted, looks really nice) and stopped at a bike shop that I saw on the way by. A place that builds custom choppers (Rogue Bike Parts) and other stuff. I picked up an HJC Balaclava there for this winter when I'm riding.

Also played with one of the images of my Buell, was putting the nut covers on, and seeing what it looked like (not much difference) so I tried seeing what the bike would be like with a black powdercoat frame, black brake discs, wheels, etc... Looks pretty wicked, too bad Buell doesn't make an all blacked out version of the blast, or offer a blacked out version with chromed wheels, or wheels in different anodized colors.