Wedding time,

well yet another pair of friends decides to tie the knot and so It was a great possibility for me to grab my photo equipment and shoot this event. Running around, switching lenses forth and back. Trying to not interfere and avoiding the whole 'pose here' or 'smile there' disaster.

but I truly hope I never meet a groom with a white reflective tuxedo again...

Oh yeah I also had the chance to provide my delicious smoked tri tip. Which is rather simple to make:

ingredients:

• 3-4lbs tri tip
• salt/pepper/cardamon
• 5lbs charcoal
• 4 pieces of wood, hickory

preparation:

mix a handfull of pepper and salt with 2-3 teaspoons of cardamon. Rub it all over the meat and let rest for 2-4 hours, depending on desired taste.

prepare smoker and heat up to 220F and let the meat smoke for 30 minutes a pound. Remove around 160F internal temperature.

let rest over night and serve the next morning. TADA

-

And another jacket...

Well after 2 month my latest (third!) motorcycle jacket broke now to during basic riding I gave up on the Tourmaster brand and returned it to the store. So I was looking around for a new jacket to replace it.

To say it short, they had to happen a Dainese perforated leather jacket in my size for sale. Can't mention the price, it was just to good to be true. But it was a lot less than Dainese normally sells for.

Now I have a bright jacket and finally not the 'Geek' look anymore as I had with bright yellow one.
Another nice side effect is that the jacket is a lot tighter and closer to the body so the wind pulls less on me.

(Sorry sunshine)

Now I still need to get a pair of pants to go with it.

Aventinus

last night I went shopping at my favorite grocery store to get all the ingredients for my by now famous cheese fondue. While I was desperately searching for a lager, which is required my eyes stumbled over a violet/purple bottle of beer, called Aventinus. Understandable I was incredible excited. Since I discovered this beer at a tiny bar in germany 2 years ago and managed to go there with Ashley last christmas and rediscover this beer. Which translated in her steeling my beer...

To avoid this happening again I bought the complete stock of this beer at the store. A whopping 4 bottles. I think someone is going to be very happy wednesday night.

The Streets of San Francisco


The weather is finally getting nicer here in california and so I started to extend my rides from the Davis/Sacramento/Auburn area to the Bay Area.

First stop was my favorite american city, San Francisco and I have to say it's quite different to drive there by motorcycle and not by car.

First of all, you need about 45-50 minutes from Davis to SF, instead of two hours. If you take the bay bridge. Basically traffic jams don't exist anymore, thanks to the california law of splitting lanes. Now if you take the Golden Gate Bridge, you can't split lines anymore. The roads are to narrow and so the way back was more like 2.5 hours and my left hand was killing me after being for 1 hour stuck on the bridge in the traffic jam. Pull clutch in, Pull clutch out, Pull clutch in, Pull clutch out...

Reason of being there?

Now why did I actually go to SF? There is this great store, called Johnson Leathers, which provides custom made armor protection for you and your bike. Obviously I'm not rich enough to spend 1500$ on a custom made outfit. But I did get some underpants, so I can ride in jeans/cargo pants and have impact protection, but sadly barley any abrasion.

They did offer me to make a pair of perforated Leather Pants till the next weekend for 500$ to go with the underpants, but I had to decline. Maybe at the end of the year when my wallet recovered from the trip preparations.

For now I hope to be able to find some mesh pants or leather pants at a motorcycle outlet store for 50-100$ to help with the abrasion.

It is funny, you spend all this money on stuff you never hope to use.

Let's see

200$ 3 Season Jacket, which ripped again. So I have to return them. Maybe tomorrow...
100$ Summer Jacket ( which I already wear, whenever I ride in davis. 80F are already to hot)
230$ Back/Chest protector
180$ Winter/Fall pants
120$ Leather Gloves
400$ Helmet
200$ Protective underpants

Sadly my favorite 'motorcycle' headphones broke last week and I don't really want to spend another 200$ on them to buy them again. I mean they only lasted 8 Month, which does not speak of the quality. But they did have great noise isolation.

Maybe I give a Scala G4 or Blueant F4 a shot next? I just don't like to be forced to connect my IPhone/IPod over Bluetooth. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer good old wires for music transfer. I tried to use my old Sennheiser CX300 today, but they don't isolate the wind noise and so are useless. Guess I have to give up on music and use foam ear plugs again to filter these frequencies.

Another reason for going to San Francisco is because I really love to ride the motorcycle and to explore parts of california I would never see by car. Why would you ever take back roads in a car?

On a funny note, I had no problems starting the bike at all at the steep hills in San Francisco. Sure it was a bit noisy and whiny, but I did not stall it and it had more than enough power to keep going. Now If I could avoid to get my legs roasted by the engine heat in stop and go traffic . This would be a plus...

The scotch tasting experience.

For some reason a lot of people around me like scotch, mostly single malts and so I thought I need to test this sometimes to see what this all is about. Also after my last vodka experience I just can't go near to vodka anymore :(

So after reading up a bit, I found out that there are basically 6 types of whiskey

• bourbon
• canadian
• irish
• scotch
• single malt
• blended
• blended malt

this seems to be all quite pricey and so I decided to stick to scotch for now...

Since I always try to keep an open mind my first approach was 45 days ago trying to get a collection of some cheap too medium priced whiskeys to cover each of the regions with 2 bottes. Why 2? So that I have a comparison and give each region a fair chance. The statistical correct way would be 7 different bottles, but neither my liver nor wallet permits this.

The Regions

Lowland:

nothing in the collection so far, need to find one of these: Auchentoshan, Bladnoch, and Glenkinchie

Highland:

Glenmorangie Original

Islay:

Bowmore 12
Laguvilan 16, I only tried a glas of it at a party, but it was incredible smooth and tasty. Defiantly my preferred whiskey right now. Now I just need to find a bottle somewhere for under 80$.

Campeltown:

nothing in the collection so far, need to find one of these Glen Scotia, Glengyle and Springbank,

Speyside:

The Maccallan 12

The Glenlivet 12

The Islands:

nothing in the collections yet, but people highly recommend Highland Park.
I did try a tallisker 12 from the Island of Skye and was not a fan of it at all, way to sprity for my taste.

The other whiskeys?

Just for the sake of comparison, I added

blends:

chivas regal 12 - I really don't like it, but it's great for BBQ sauces. I need to get a bottle Johnie Walker Green sometime.

ireland:

Jamison 12

Drinking it?

Since I know from past experiences I neither like whisky in mix drinks (except manhattans, but this is canadian whiskey) or neat or on the rocks. Which means I have to water it down. After a bit of testing It turned out to be the most tasteful with 10-15% water from norway on a glas of scotch. Yes I actually did test water from different countries in different combinations.

Enjoying it?

It is really impressive how much the flavors varies between a highland and an Islay scotch for example. I tried Glenmorangie now several times and I just dont like it for some reasons, except with 40-50% of water and after standing for 10-15 minutes. Than it's quite enjoyable, but not nearly as enjoyable as an Islay.
I can't really say this about all Highland Whiskeys, since I did not try enough to make a statement on this. But most defiantly I like to continue the exploration to Speyside and Islay.

..sometimes I think I just need the right motivation to write...

since it's the end of the month and I'm running out of cash, after all the expenses of this month, I decided to put some more miles on the little honda. Since it shouldn't just sit in the garage and collect dust. Also the tank is full and the tank on the R6 is empty.

It runs great and is fun to ride, even if it's way to small for me. I think I should officially rename it from 'daisy' to clown bike/

I also did the slight mistake and took it on the freeway to see how it performs at 65-75 mph. After all it's supposed to hit 85mph. Well to say short I was scared for my live and happy to get of the freeway at the next exit. The bike is just powerful enough (don't attempt to pass anything) , but just to light at 158kg/350 lbs to withstand the wind from passing cars and trucks. Also the skinny front tire is not helping much either and gets stuck in every potluck pothole.
Short It will not see the freeway again and stay in town and in parking spots for ashley to practice.

On the bright side, Rebels in this price range are selling currently for 2800$, so I should be able to sell it for what I bought it for + registration once the time comes.

I also think it shrunk in the rain...

last night I encountered the first snatch with my upcoming road trip.

I was not able to pack all my stuff on the bike and don't even have enough space to take the camera with me with more than a single lens. This is just unfair.

The I ordered two bungee nets to see If i can use them to tie down my tent/sleeping pad/sleeping bag on top of the tail-bag. It's somehow the only chance to move it.

On the bright side my seat upgrade arrived and after getting used to it, it works quite well. It insulates me a bit more from the engine heat and dampens quite nice, while even raising me about half an inch - an inch. (1.3 - 2.6 cm) higher. Which relaxes the riding position a bit and decreases my knee angle. Actually while writing this I notice that my legs are not totally cramped up right now, which is normally the case.

The disappointing part is that it removes a bit of feedbag from the bike and you feel like you 'float' on the bike. I know it's the purpose of the pad, just strange. After 200 miles I was still being happy on the bike and was able to take the curves a bit more aggressively, to see how it behaves there. And it works quite well. I do need to push the bike a bit more to counter the floating on the pad to the right or the left, but overall I easily double the distance I can ride and will see how much I can push the bike tomorrow. I really need to get some pants next. At 80F+ my current pants just cling to me and are incredible uncomfortable. I hope to get this fixed at the first of the may weekend, once I got money again, now if I just could raise the handle bars an inch and move the controls an inch back I would be in heaven. But I think they call this a yamaha FJR and it would make more sense to trade the bike instead of investing money in it.

I also managed to submit my abstract for the conference in amsterdam and paid for the registration. Short I will be there soonish, but now my credit card is maxed out with the tire purchase, hotel costs and registration fee for 2 conferences, well I should be reimbursed in june-july.

One another note, I'm riding the R6 now since 5000 miles + without any major technical issues. I even managed yesterday to replace the brake fluid, which only took an hour for all 3 brakes, after my practice run on the Rebel. (This did take about 3 hours for one brake and spilled fluid all over the floor)

Last, but not least. I managed to sign the lease for a townhouse in north davis for the next year. It's a bit early, but I hope all works out with the visa. In the worst case I have to sublease it to someone.

My vacation is now roughly one month away and the whole setup for the 'Expedition' falls into place, more or less, but got more expensive than expected.

Got

• new tires
• tire patch kit
• saddle bags
• tail bag
• tank bag
• tent
• sleeping bag
• camping kitchen (mini stove)
• ultra light gear for different temperatures
• Airhawk seat for the bike
• touring windscreen
• gps mount
• digital camera - D80
• digital video camera
• 16GB + 8GB SD Card
• wired charging system for GPS and Phone into the bike
• tripod
• water filter
• sun lotion
• my standard hiking hat
• bungee cords

Needed:

• a pair of motorcycle pant's, since my over pants are getting way to hot and won't keep the protectors in place
• small can of chain wax to carry with me
• 1 gallon fuel tank for worst case scenarios
• camel back for water

ah it happened again, I missed the death valley 'flower show' again. It only happens for a week or two a year

I'm slowly making progress with my vacation plans and it all starts to come together. My main goal is to keep it between 2-4h of riding each day and camp as much as possible while doing it. So this is the current route.

Now I just have to find a way to strap a gallon of gas and a gallon of water to the bike. Next to the tent, laptop, conference outfit, hiking outfit and liners.


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the perfect crepe recipe

I think since close to 5 years I try now to create the perfect crepe recipe and I think today I succeded!

Current recipe for sweet crepes

ingredients

3 large eggs
2 table spoons melted butter
2 cups of flour
3 cups of 1% milk
1/2 table spoon vanilla extract
2 table spoon white cane sugar
1 zest of an orange

directions

put the flour into a bowl
add the butter
add the milk
add the orange zest
mix this all together till it’s smooth
add the eggs
mix it all together
add the vanilla extract
add the sugar
mix it all together

slightly grease a pan with some butter over medium heat and start making the crepes.

They will be thin and delicious. Perfect to be served with some vanilla ice cream and apple sauce.

upcoming project for April, checking the valve clearance before my bike trip:

http://www.r6messagenet.com/forums/r6-how-guides/14272-how-valve-clearance-check-adjustment.html

and no it's not a joke, but I'm not going to pay 1200-1500$ for the adjustment. I also need new brake pads.

--

Mein april projekt wird das messen und justieren des Ventil Spielraums an der R6 sein. Ja ich koennte zum Mechaniker meines Vertrauens gehen, aber der will dann gleich wieder 1200-1500$ fuer das justieren.

Ich glaube das koennte ich noch hinkriegen. Ich muss sowiso einen Oelwechsel machen. Und die meisten Werkzeuge habe ich eh herumzuliegen.

Achso ich brauche auch mal wieder neue bremsbelaege.

yay my second attempt at cutting a movie is done...



the picture is also much more stable and clearer now. I have to say I'm really impressed by this little camera.

--

endlich ist mein Computer fertig mit dem berechnen des zweiten Videos vom Sontag. Und ich bin ziemlich beindruckt von der Bildqulitatet dieser Streichholzschachtel grossen Kamera.

after spending the morning riding the bike all over auburn and forest hill (a touch over 200 mils) I just don't want to sit on the motorcycle anymore, so I spend the evening having a quick photo shoot with 2 young woman for there massage and therapy salon. Pictures coming as soon as the client made there pic. So most likely by the end of the tomorrow or Wednesday.

Now I just need to sort 800 pictures and cut 5 hours movies together to like 3-5 minutes. Not that much fun...

today I finally managed to find the courage to join a local group of riders for my first group ride with 25 other motorcycles. A random mix of Harley's, vulcans, gold-wings and the odd BMW or SuperSport (Like me).

5 hours later or 120 miles I was finally home again. Yes it was a pretty uncomfortable ride, since we were going backroads (which were fun!) at a pace which was frustrating(about 15-20mph mostly), since the cruiser were not able to take the corners faster...

Well tomorrow is another ride and I'm looking forward to it. Video uploads come later, but here is a picture!

surprise surprise a bug promptly killed itself on my camera lenses and smugdes 800 of the 900 pictures...

oh my, my definatly favorite webpage is right now

http://www.ram-mount.com/


I think the right term would be that I could go gaga about all these different mounting solutions. I wish I had known about this when I still had the pickup truck.

Now were can I find a store to play with all these things. I have no idea what I actually could use of this, but the self leveling cupholder is an act of genius.

cupholder

---

eine meiner beliebtesten Webseiten ist momentan

http://www.ram-mount.com/


da ich das Konzept einfach nur toll finde und wuenschte nur ich haette die Webseite gefunden als ich noch den Pickup hatte. Nun muss ich nur noch einen Laden finden, welcher die ganzen Module verfuegbar hat, so das ich damit herumspielen kann.

Besonderst den Selbstausrichtenen Becherhalter finde ich einfach nur toll.

Becherhalter

my pathetic shaky first attempt with a way to high compression ratio...


and what is possible with this little camera, once you figure out where to mount it, how to mount it and have quite a good idea how you have to edit movies

the picture quality is pretty impressive for such a small camera, mounted on the tank at 40 miles and hour and also 80 mph looks good. Sure it's a bit grainy and there is quite a lot of purple fringing. But it's a 300$ camera with a plastic lens which can be replaced when dropped (5$) and not a 1k+ dslr.

well tonight I finally managed to find the small camera I wanted somewhere in stock and got it.


Now I really need to figure out how to use it, but here are some first results....

the camera is basically a little 5MP camera, which is mainly a 1080p HD video camera. Now If I could figure out how to upload videos to this blog...
YouTube to the rescue...



Related to the amount of laughing and fun we had, well it was well worth it and one of the best buys.

I finally ordered my birthday gift which consist of

• touring windscreen in light gray for the bike
• power outlet for the bike
• iphone holder as GPS
• new helmet cheek pads to improve fit
• tail bag for the bike for my utah tour
• little video camera

I'm still not sure about ordering the hammock, I really have to see it in person first and sleep a round or two in it. And I do have a tent. We shall see.

About the wallet, ashley still has to take me to the store, so I can pick one up.

Guess there is going to be some wrenching going on next week :)

it all makes sense...

After riding the R6 for a bit over 4k miles, which translates into another 6k miles before i need to get the valves adjusted and most likely some parts replaced. Anyway I finally understand the tips I read in the book 'Sportriding techniques' and the bike becomes more stable in the curves and stops wobbling.

So time to reread the book and figure out what else I miss understood.

langsam verstehe ich die Zusammenhänge,


nachdem ich knappe 7000km mit der R6 durch die Gegend 'geeiert' bin verstehe ich langsam die Hinweise, welche ich in dem Buch 'Sportriding Techniques' gelesen habe und kann sie anwenden. Oder anders ausgedrückt das Motorrad wird langsam stabiler in den kurven und wackelt nicht mehr so stark. Leider bedeutet es auch das ich in 9000 km meine Ventile justieren oder austauschen muss, was relativ teuer oder eine Menge Arbeit wird. Vermutlich werde ich es selber machen und sehen was dabei rauskommt.

I also tried to buy a tail-bag last night at cycle gear and a video camera, but sadly there had nothing in stock. Well it makes the wallet happy. Or wait it turned out they had a v-star and v-strom standing around and my god they are so beautiful (v-star) and ugly (v-strom), I want one to play with.


Des weiteren wollte ich letzte Nacht eine kleine Videokamera kaufen und eine Tasche, aber wie immer war nichts im Laden verfügbar und ich mache keine Vorbestellungen. Dann kann ich gleich zu amazon gehen. Ich probiere nur langsam alles fuer den utah trip zusammen zukriegen, was eine menge Zeugs ist. Es stellte sich auch heraus das der Laden eine V-Star und eine V-Strom ausgestellt hatte und ich finde die beiden Maschinen ja einfach nur schick und hätte ja gerne eine um damit etwas herumzuspielen.

v-star 2010 - cruiser

2010 Suzuki V-Strom - Enduro/Tourer bike, which ashley really likes and is one of the most

practical bikes around

They even offered me to trade my R6 for a V-Star 650 1:1 and I was tempted, except I want the 950 or 1100 V-Star and I'm really happy with the R6 (ok a bit much power and not enough space)

Der Laden bot mir sogar an meine R6 gegen eine neue V-Star 650 umzutauschen und es war verlockend, aber ich bin eigentlich glücklich mit der R6 (ausser das sie viel zuviel PS hat und etwas klein ist)

Completely unrelated (mostly) last weekend we went wine tasting in Eldorado country and the foothills and I promptly ended up buying a wine club membership for port-wines. Which gives me 4 bottles of port wine all 3 month for 90$ each time. Which averages out to the amount I spend on port wine anyway.

Dann sind wir am Wochenende erstmal Wein verkosten gewesen, was bedeutet das ich erstmal eine Weinklub Mitgliedschafft abgeschlossen habe. Naja mal sehen ob das eine gute Idee war...

I even managed to see my all time favorite car again, which I am going to own one day.

Und wie immer habe ich mein Lieblings (unpraktisch) Auto gesehen, eines Tages...

I just love the look of the classic mustangs, but I need a much higher income before I can ever consider buying on. I mean it's a 50 year old car...

This weekend I'm most likely todo some trips down to napa valley or so and next weekend we are going back to twain harte and start with some little projects on the cabin

recently I spend a lot of time traveling the country side of davis and the Eldorado hills, trying to practice and build some muscles for the trip to utah and death valley.

and I'm not sure. but I start to get the feeling the R6 was not designed for more than 200-300 miles and other than perfect roads. Which I don't really seem to find in california.

Maybe I should had done more research before I bought the bike? There are actually a lot of motorcylces out there which all fit me...

For example I still like the idea of the V-Stars, but the more I read about them the more annoying I consider that you have to adjust the valves all 4k miles, which is just to much maintenance. I do like more and more what I read about the V-Stroms, which are basically designed to go around the world a couple of time and compete directly with the BMW-GS800/1250 models.

I think I should had made an education as a mechanic after all.

After noticing some oil on the oilfilter I thought, yay another project. Finally an oil leak.

but after removing some parts

ok some more parts and even more I ended up here and think this was the issue

so I used up my WD-40 and cleaned it all to make it look pretty again.

sorry no pictures of this. But let's see how the bike behaves for the next couple of thousand miles till we get it a companion for the cold winter months and to have the girl more comfortable.

This weekend was slightly surprising.

It started all with a sunny saturday afternoon and I'm riding home, taking my favorite freeway excit, leaving a curve and guess what? A gigantic puddle of oil is in front of me, cars to the left, cars to the right and so throw I went and nothing happened, except a skid. (Glad to was already out of the lean, otherwise...)

Oh wait a second there is this other car behind me skidding up to me and not being able to brake, so I accelerate into the intersection, which is empty bad red. See a white flash and a sign: Red Light violation 370$.

So home I got and spend the next day on a nice ride with ashley. She is starting to enjoy riding on the bike and afterward I was cleaning the chain and the oil off the bike from the day prior. And while doing this I happend to drop the bike onto the concrete and into some stuff in the garage.

The second it fell I knew this sounded expensive...

• banged up and scratched exhaust
• scratch front top fairing, arg
• broken peg, annoying but not the big deal
• dent in the tank
• scratched frame saver, protecting the upper and lower fairing from breaking, yay :)

After all the only frustrating thing is the upper top fairing and the tank, cause these are pricey to replace. Which I'm not gonna do...

Pictures you want? Here they are!

oh the perfect toy for me, I'm resisting since 2 month...

ut I'm also resisting this, this, this and this

At the last weekend I've gone for my first longer ride with the R6 and slowly start reaching the conclusion that this might be not the ideal form of long distance transportation.

Don't get me wrong it's a lot of fun and I enjoy 2 hour rides, but that's pushing it. After 3 hours I felt miserable, after 4 I just wanted to toss it into a corner. (Happily I did not run into any corners) and after 5 hours I was seriously considering selling it and getting a cruiser like this (2009 V-Star 950, they are really comfortable). Luckily there are none for sale on craigslist right now, except for 650s which are to small for me...

Yes I'm considering selling the bike, since it's more a toy at the current point in time, but it makes no sense with the current visa issue and I really need to stop being so impulsive.

So I started reading up what I can do to make it more comfortable

• buy another seat - 300$
• buy a bigger windshield - 80$
• throttle lock - 100$

out of options. I do have a tire patch kit now...

Translates into one thing for sure, except for getting coffee or short rides ashley is not gonna be on the bike and for sure not comfortable. I might give it a try for a road trip in a couple of months and limiting my self to 200-300 miles a day. Once I figure out how to get corners right. The bike is just so unstable and the advice from a fellow rider is not really helping

if the corner says 20mph go at least 40-50mph otherwise the bike topples over to easily.

I'm not going faster than the recommended speed in such a corner. Sure to take a 50mph corner with 60-70mph is not the big problem. But I'm happy to get around a series of 25-30mph corners.

Otherwise our weekend was great, after me being lost for 3 hours in the mountains and having the battery die on me in on 'Big Hill Road' (yes it was a big hill)...

Well we enjoyed 4 days of reading, relaxing and wood chopping. Oh and don't forget, some tasty tasty cooking. Ashley and I both realized our relationship really evolves around food and traveling.

completely unrelated, I start to consider thinking that the R6 is maybe a bit much and belongs to a race track and not to the street...
Short I try to take the advanced riders course next month, if time and money permits.

Update:

after sleeping a night and reading up this morning on how to take curves and testing it I still love 'jasmine' she just needs to be treated right and a more comfortable seat...

well after I scraped the required money together to:

• buy shin guards for ashley
• buy a jacket for ashley
• buy a chest/back protector for me

I drove happily home and promptly got a flat tire. Which surprise surprise cost 300$ to replace. Luckily nothing happened and some other rider pulled over and helped me to get the bike of the highway and to his 'biker society meeting' where they patched the tired and inflated it, so that I could get home.

Now tomorrow we will move the bike to the shop and waiting to hear the bill. Since I have these wonderful absolutely ridiculous expensive tires, which are most likely have to be special ordered, will translate into me not taking the bike to twainheart and eating oatmeal and top ramen for the rest of the month.

I never felled so stranded in my life and reminded me to the conversation last weekend.


Gert: Tj, short question. I'm doing a 400 mile kit and thought a tire plug kit would be a good idea
Tj: it's so rare that a tire blows out or goes flat, you really can save these 165$ right now and invest them in some protection

today:


Gert: Tj guess waht,
Tj: what?
Gert: remember the conversation about tire plugs last weekend
Tj: yip what about it?
Gert: guess... I got a flat and I'm stranded...

The people standing around me just cracked up...

Well 3 days ago I got paid and this means I started to full fill my promise to ashley and start shopping with her for motorcycle gear. So she is nice and save in the back of the bike.

So far we only got a helmet for her and found one jacket which fit her. But we did not buy the jacket yet, Main reason is that it's a very new brand and I can't find much informations about there quality.

I one the other hand bought a mesh jacket for the summer, which was reduced by 60% and should keep me cool.

Now I'm really unhappy with my pants. Why?

Well my legs are too long and the knee protection is more in the thigh area, than over the knees And after riding home tonight, avoiding 2 animals and about 40 garbage bags randomly spread over the highway I started thinking.

Is what I have enough or maybe should I improve some things?

My main thinking was a dedicated Knee/Shin protector and a dedicated hard back/spine protector.

I'm quite sure that I invest the 70$ into the knee/shin protector for my 400 mile trip in 2 weeks. But 230$ for a back protector is to much right now.

Let's see if I can sell the following things on craigslist right now

• ebook reader - 150-200$ - it works, but books are so much nicer and people constantly asking me what it is, well I like to be left alone and read. I have my anti social moments...
• volkswagen tools - 50$ sold
• code reader - 80$ sold
• 2 speed sensors - 120$
• tele converter - 100$
• ramps - 20$
• head phones - 150$
• xbox 360 + Games 250$ sold

the more I think about it, the more I think that 400$ are nothing compared to being paralyzed/dead

currently we have wonderful thunderstorms in davis and I didn't know about it. Sure it was raining, but that was not unheard of before and I live in a little area which is quite wind sheltered.

So I drove to work this morning and as soon as I hit the open road I had to battle crosswinds of up to 50mph. Needless to say I was happy that nothing happens and check now the weather report before I leave the house in the morning, and if it's gusty/windy I'm going to work from home.

It also turns out that my leather gloves are not waterproof and the new jacket is not as waterproof as the old on. Basically the sleeves are soaked and the bike is parked in the delivery area, since I'm affraid the wind topples it over during the day, while I'm waiting for a moment when the storm settles to run home.

after we spend this weekend In yosomete I learned a couple of things.

• snow camping didn't work, since my sleeping bag was to cold and also ashley's spare sleeping bag. So we rented a cabin
  
• snowshoeing didn't work out, since there was not enough snow at our altitude. Guess we have to go to higher altitude. Instead we did a nice hike
• we had a wounderful time together and celebrated our return to davis with a tasty dinner and a bottle of cabernet. Once in a while I actually like dry cabernet.
• sleeping bag liner don't work for me
• my food planning worked well and I love my little camp stove
  

So what do we have to change for the next time?

• buy a new backpack, mine is more or less gone now and rips everywhere. After all it lasted 6 years and traveled over 100k miles on airplanes
• buy a -5 celsius rated sleeping bag for the next winter. It's gonna be pricey and will take a year to acquire
  

 

 

 

the last couple of days I was spending with writing parsers for chemical databases. Like

• Kegg
• BinBase
• Pubchem
• LipidMaps
• Chebi
• HMDB

to integrate them all together to a single database of compounds. During this process I decided to use the inchi key as main identifier over all these databases and just ignore the compounds which don't have an inchi key.

This inolved some rewriting of a couple of open source projects to include the newest inchi specifications and to make some work under osx 64bit snow leopard.

well my Logitech Triple FI arrived around the 22 of December and I put them away to sell them on craigslist. Well this was my honest attention I swear!
But this morning they just kept shouting my name, try us, try us, TRY US. You got us for 100$ instead of 400$. You can always sell us used, once the people sold all there triple fi's and the market recovers.

Well I caved in and listened to them. No pun intended... And have to say, they sound awesome, right out of the box. It's amazing for in ear headphones. They literally blow my RE0 away.

So now I got:

In Ear Headphones:

• Logitech Triple FI for listening to music on the go/at work
  
• Head Fi RE-0 + Foam Tips for riding the motorcycle, they are small enough to fit under the helmet and block the wind noise quite nicely. Still optimizing
  
• Sennheiser CX-400 for listening to audio books (I found them in the back of my closet!)

Full Size:

• AH-D5000 Denons
• Shure SRH-840 (for sale, can't justify keeping them and wanting grados. So they have togo)

after we arrived back from germany I started to research my christmas gift a big more and it turned out to be a combination of:

• tankbag for the bike
• saddle bags for the bike

and I also did exchange my black tourmaster jacket, against a hideous neon yellow Tourmaster jacket. Advantage you can see me much better, disadvantage the cool bike image is gone...

Well I don't have to see myself in the mirror. But the color is damn hideous...

before:

after:

 

now the color I really wanted was sadly not available

all flights are canceled. Well this is the current state of my vacation this year.

Now time to find some new flights, rebook them and get reimbursed for my loss of time and planning.

I'm kinda glad I got travel insurance and flight insurance for this trip.

So yes right now my flight from tomorrow is canceled and I will be in berlin a bit later. New flight is supposed to be on sunday...

...We shall see...

I'm driving car's since years and never actually considered changing anything on them. As long as there running I'm happy.

Now with the motorcycle, well I got it since 2 weeks now and did already the first modification to it. I replaced the standard light bulbs with some fancy high lumen light bulbs. And boy what a difference these make, I'm finally able to see something on the highway at night and feel save driving on it.

So far defiantly the most rewarding 100$ I invested so far and cheaper than fixing a couple of broken bones, because I didn't see the pothole at 75mph.

I also know that I will install the same light bulbs in the next car I own, I'm just amazed at the difference. It's really light and day.

planned for 2010, taking the bike camping in yosomete and later yellowstone.

required setup?

Something to work on in the next 4 month while I get my riding skills up.

required

tankbag
saddle bags

Today I learned something new, how to push start a motorcycle and I have to admit it's a heck of a workout.

I got a call from a friend around 4pm that she is stranded and needs someone to deliver a can of gas to her car, sure not the big deal.
I was a bit frustrated since I just cleaned and lubed to chain, which was supposed to rest overnight. Reason being is that the lube can soak into the seals completely and 30 minutes are recommended, but a night was supposed to be better.

Anyway after riding to her house and picking up the gas, my bike didn't start anymore. Reason being, no electricity. At this point I remembered, wait I had the high beams running, while the engine was off. To keep the engine fan running, while lubing the chain. Seems that a motorcycle battery is drained much quicker than a car battery. In like 45 minutes or so...

So I googled on my trusty IPhone and found out that I can push start the bike, I just have to move it in first or second gear and it should fire up. 20 Minutes later I realized that the success is higher, if you turn the kill button off... Once this was done the bike stuttered and fired right up.

Guess I put in a new battery after my Christmas vacation, since I'm quite sure that the battery will be drained after being in the garage for 3 weeks, without running. And my car battery charger can't be used on the bike.

Also to take off the seat to reach the battery is kinda sad...

Since we had some sunshine today, the weather was nice and warm. So I decided to visit my girlfriend in sacramento on the bike and drive down the old river road.


View Larger Map


Well the idea was good, but turned sour wet after I hit a mild rain in woodland. But motivated as I was I still kep going and the tunes of pink floid - pusle joined me at the ride. I was successfully avoiding the squirrel of doom and this time there was no stray dog on the road (last time I went this way I ended up in the dirt with the truck, to avoid hitting a stray dog)

65 Minutes later I arrive happy and toasty warm in sacramento. Sure my clothes were dripping wet. But my outfit kept me warm and dry more less. Even the glove liner worked well enough at this 50F day (10 degree celsius) and we went to the store to look at some warmer gloves for me. I was kinda scared about driving back and not finding the road again. (No GPS on the bike and ihpone/TomTom are not cooperating)

Sadly it turned out they had no decent gloves at the store. I mean they have at least 500 pair of gloves, but not the ones I was looking for and there 'winter' gloves were a joke in the first place. The only gloves I liked and which were warm and toasty (and heated with an additional plugin!) were way to expensive. At least I got a 10$ neck warmer, which makes live much nicer. Than we stopped at REI so that Ashley can get some warm clothes for Germany.
It's great that she plans ahead instead of freezing her toes off, that's going to be my job anyway. Since we all know that I'm always freezing.

after I left work today I got surprised by the rain and it was so slippery that I decided to work the rest of the day from home.

Well I guess rest of the day is meant literally, since it's now 9.45pm and I'm still working. It looks like I fall into old habits and working on friday nights. Which turned out to be not the smartest thing todo, judged by past expiriences.

Anyway I decided to stop at the store and reward my self with some good chocolate, apple sauce and a 20 year old port. It's been a while since I had nice wine.

Since it was raining I finally had a bit time to take some pictures of jasmine instead of always riding her or trying to learn to control her.

So just some quick shot's from the garage and I will try to provide some better shot's once the weather is nice and I take her outside for a long ride.

Isn't she beautiful? She even has character. Today the horn and rear signal stopped working.

I already got the signal fixed, loose connection and I guess the horn is the same issue.

the biggest scam in the states seems to be the sales tax.

let's see you buy an item and you pay a tax for it? Ok I kinda agree with this so far. Than you take this item and sell it again. What happens to the buyer? He has to pay sales tax.

This translates into the following (fictive) example.

 person A buys a motorcycle and pays 10k dollar for it. The sales tax is 10%, so 1000$
 person A sells this bike to person B for 8k dollar, the sales tax is 800$
person B sells this bike to person C for 4.5k dollar, the sales tax is 450$
person C sells....

so for one item you the state got a total of 2250$ in taxes so far. Does this seem fair?

yes I had to pay sales taxes today for 'jasmine' And no I'm not happy about it. I just paid sales tax for my Passat 7 month ago...

I was kidding since weeks, as soon as I get the bike it's going to be cold and rainning.

forecast for tomorrow:

-4 degree celsius
and rain...

i don't believe my luck...

look what saint nikulaus dropped off at my door last night

here name is 'jasmine' and she is a 2005 yamaha R6

I also got some wonderful truffels from my beautiful girlfriend

this mornign I stumbled over a deal for some logitech IEM's which were reduced from 400$ to 99$, one day only.

What did I do? Order 2 pairs like several other thousand people in the hope to sell it on craigslist for a quick 400-500$ profit. Let's see if it works out.... At least I got an order conformation before the logitech server collapsed.

today I came home and found a huge package on the door step. What could it be?

Surprisingly my REI clothes came a week early and now I'm almost ready for germany this year. And quite sure that I'm not going to freeze again...

Only thing missing are socks and glove liners now. Yes I hate nothing as much as to freeze and as I know my girlfriend she want's to walk all over berlin in a middle of a blizzard...

• jacket - wind/water proof
  
• jacket liner - fleece
• jacket liner - thermo
• underarmor pants (base layer)
• underarmor shirt (mid layer)
• rei light weight shirt (base layer)
• rei mid weight shirt (mid layer)
  
• rei fleece pants (mid layer)
• jeans (top layer)
• gloves
• hat

if this is not enough, I'm really running out of options....

tonight I started reading the novel 'First Blood' also better known as 'Rambo', because the movie is based on this novel. Sadly the movie is not very close to the novel and the worst thing...

in the preface the author analyzed the movie against the novel and gave away the main difference. He explained the different endings in the novel and the movie. Or let me translate this, on page 5 he gave away how the book ends.

Thanks, not really motivated to read it now anymore...

today I finally managed to connect my laptop to my little dot dac and have to say. The quality is quite impressive and I can't really complain. Now I just have to sort out all these bad quality < 256kbps mp3 files I have. Cause 128kbps sounds plain awful.

Advantage? Only have to buy cd's I really like and don't have as mpg3, since iTunes doesn't give you loose less compressed files :(

currently head direct is kicking out RE0 IEM for 79$ instead of 200$, since they are releasing the new version soonish.

There was no way I pass up such a deal and did not order these for my IPod/IPhone. Now all I need is a portable amplifier. I really like the iBasso T3 or iBasso D10, but I guess this has to wait till january/february/march.

But this also requires me to order a LOD for my I-Pod. 

After all I still have to pay for registration, insurance and delivery for the bike, which is going to be another 400$. Not to mention the great steakhouse visit :)

yay my new cd and cooking book finally arrived. And so far I really like 'Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita'

Not sure if I need a third cd from this band, since all there music sounds a bit similar. But it's just so calming and relaxing. Now one day I have to setup my system at home to rip the music from my cd's to a harddrive.

Why?

So I can listen to it on the way and while being at work.

something is seriously odd this year. For non apparent reason what soever all my laptops just die

• T41p (company) - blown logic board, blown display, broken fans and other stuff. I fixed it so often, not worth it anymore. Had it for 5 years+
  
• X60 (company) - blown display after 12 month , replaced by myself, now blown circuit board after 18 month. Had it for 18 months
  
• mac book pro (privat) - blown display after 12 month
• mac book pro unibody (company) - somebody dropped it during the airline flight and now I have no: wireless, webcam, bluetooth, keyboard lighting and to get it fixed I have to pay 1000$ for a new display. Not worth it, for 1300$ I get a new macbook and use the one without a display as a computing node. Had it for 8 Month

anybody sees a trend?

Now I'm actually considering buying a netbook, just to have reliable internet at home.

arg...

progress with the quest of conquering everystate in the USA, 2 more are done...

• new jersey
• arizona

conquered means I was there for more than a lay over!

ich denke weihnachten kann kommen, endlich habe ich genug warme sachen zum anziehen...

• under armor shirt
• fleece pullover
• fleece jacke
• softshell jacke
• fleece hosen
• under armor hosen
• handschuhe
  
• muetze
  

I guess christmas can com, I finally got enough warm clothes to wear

• under armor shirt
• fleece sweater
• fleece jacket
• softshell jacket
• fleece pants
• under armor pants
• gloves
  
• hat