Travels of a Squid: Blair's beginning motorcyclist journal

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blair
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#71 Unread post by blair »

Nope. Luckily, when you live in a state with enormous insurance rates, sometimes the laws are on your side.

1. I get to choose where to have the damage repaired.

2. If the party at fault is insured, it's all on his insurance company.

3. If the party at fault is not insured, I have to pay my deductible, but then my insurance company pays for the repairs, and gets the right to chase the uninsured party around trying to collect. And when they do collect, the first money that comes in refunds me my deductible.

The only questions are:

1. Will enough come back to cover my deductible? (I keep it pretty high, to keep my rates significantly lower.) But with a nearly $5k bill, the insurance company will have plenty of vested interest in getting me paid back so they can start getting paid back.

2. Will any of this affect my insurance rates? Hey. Insurance companies are like oil companies. They always seem to have a reason to raise rates, and never have a reason to lower them (until the law gets involved).
'93 Honda VT600CD Shadow VLX Deluxe

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blair
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#72 Unread post by blair »

Well, nuts.

Yesterday the electrical system stopped charging the battery again.

I have no idea why.

I'm going to have to take a lot of stuff apart and look at connectors and wires, now.

This sucks.
'93 Honda VT600CD Shadow VLX Deluxe

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#73 Unread post by cb360 »

Like I said earlier... electrical problems suck - like you, I always think I have it fixed a time or two before I find the culprit... usually after i've replaced damn near everything in the electrical system!
1974 Honda CB360
1985 Honda Magna VF700c

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blair
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So how long does it take to get it back?

#74 Unread post by blair »

About 10 R's of the 1100-RPM growl of a V-Twin.

As soon as it burst to life, I knew I wouldn't have to practice takeoffs, do test-turns in the parking lot, or worry if I could remember how to stop properly. Sense-memory kicked in, incited by power and joy, and I was a rider again.

Which isn't to say that I'm not going to review my copy of the MSF training materials and my copies of Proficient Motorcycling and More Proficient Motorcycling

I can't believe I let my bike sit for over 18 months. The mysteriousness of the problem, my general distraction from dealing with it, and the high barrier to getting it fixed, helped.

Turns out it was a shorted cell in the battery. I'd never have found that on my own. You can only detect that with a charge-cycle tester. And I'd never have suspected the battery, as it was less than a year old.

But replacing the regulator-rectifier (see previous episodes of this soap opera for details) was a good thing to do have done anyway. She's yar, with all that clean juice pumping and no battery short dragging her down.

All the paperwork is lapsed. So I did the drive-out registration online, and added the scoot to my car insurance online. I just can't do the full reg renewal online. So that's for after lunch.

Nod and a wave, bros (and babes). I'm on the road again.
'93 Honda VT600CD Shadow VLX Deluxe

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#75 Unread post by Wrider »

Wow... 18 months? in Phoenix? You're insane... :laughing: Also, I'm headed down there in October, so maybe we can meet up sometime? Going to MMI down there...
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Have owned - 2001 Suzuki Volusia
Current bike - 2005 Kawasaki Z750S
MMI Graduation date January 9th, 2009. Factory Certifications in Suzuki and Yamaha

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blair
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#76 Unread post by blair »

2007-07-05

I wear my sunglasses at night

Well, not really my sunglasses, but I stopped at Someburros for a little machaca wrap* and when I got out it was dusky and I kinda started riding before I realized I hadn't switched from the dark smoke face shield to the clear one.

It only got really dark in one spot, which incidentally was the most likely to have random (mostly little furry dead) things lying in the middle of the road.

But yeah, 18 months. I'm kicking myself now that I'm riding again.

And I'm finding some interesting things.

For one, I'm a lot more comfortable on the bike than I thought I'd be, or that I remember being. Turns are fluid and entirely unforced. Takeoffs are crisp and balanced. Even at highway speeds being buffetted by truck-wash I keep a just-sitting-in-the-driveway grip on the bars.

And, since the first couple of turns, I'm cancelling the signal all over the place. Tap-tap-tap. Something to do with my non-deathgrip hands.

I've also picked up a li'l buddy down at the bike shop. I get calls telling me they've got this or that new/used bike in. It's because I indicated that I'd been thinking about trading-up from my 600 to a 900 or 1100 just when I'd had to garage it. I also said I wanted to ride for a couple of months to get my legs back. So we'll have to see if he gets frustrated when I remind him of that, or he keeps giving me first crack at the new rides. The 900-cc Vulcans, 1100-cc Shadows, and Yamaha's 1100 V-star look really nice. I like bobber fenders and wire spokes. I'm not sure what it is about the Suzukis that don't do it for me.

But that's a decision for September or October.

Oh. And I notched my 5,000th mile on Monday or Tuesday. So I got that goin' for me.

* - Someburro's is a kitschy local chain that has consistently great food. There should be one of these every two miles.
'93 Honda VT600CD Shadow VLX Deluxe

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#77 Unread post by blair »

I finally got rained on.

After riding for (10 months out of the last) two years, I finally got rained on.

But I got lucky. Just a little sun-shower.

I saw the clouds, and its being monsoon season knew I could be in trouble if I didn't skedaddle home, so that's where I was going when I caught the drips.

But as I said, it was light. Interesting stinging sensation when the drops hit; I wasn't expecting that, but I wasn't being drenched.

Funny part was, the first drop hit about a minute before the rest, and it hit dead center of my visor. Could have hit me or the bike anywhere. But it nailed me between the eyes, and sat there, going "oh yeah, you know what's coming, uh-huh." Gotta love a solid omen on the bike.

Right after the sun shower quit I turned onto the last street to home, and noticed the river in the gutter. My neighborhood had been absolutely blasted by the stormcloud. If I'd left lunch 5 minutes earlier and tried to "save myself from those clouds", I'd have been in that.

So now, yeah, I'm going to live by the doppler too. I'll need to find a good source for it on my phone.

(cc'ed to the original in the Fixated on the dopler thread.
'93 Honda VT600CD Shadow VLX Deluxe

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#78 Unread post by Shorts »

Blair, can't believe it took you 10mths to get rained on. Both DH and I got rained on our first long ride out of the city. Not just light stuff, talking about drenched to the bone, low-water crossing wet! I guess that's baptism into riding eh?

Good stuff, keep it up :)

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#79 Unread post by blair »

A nod and a wave to everyone in TMW.

I'm Blair P. Houghton, I'm 45 years old, and I learned to ride a motorcycle three and a half years ago.

My Shadow is in the garage, cooling off, with its odometer sitting on exactly 10,000 miles since I bought it.

Time to rename my blog, I think.
'93 Honda VT600CD Shadow VLX Deluxe

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