There she goes, my beautiful world
As Gearhead Orwell wrote, two wheels good, four wheels bad.
My Moto Guzzi has been running pretty rough lately. It wouldn’t start on my trip into San Francisco for a doctor’s appointment the day before Independence Day and I had to get it trailered back to Alameda. A couple of months ago I had a similar-seeming issue which was an electrical problem, but this did not seem electrical. The starter motor turned the engine over with vigor but the darn thing would not catch.
Next on my list of usual suspects … Read the rest
It’s way past time for the rear brake pads on the Guzzi to be replaced. I’ve been putting it off for too long thinking that I don’t really use my rear brake that much anyway. Of course, that’s terrible reasoning for at least three reasons.
First, it’s terrible reasoning because I ought to use my rear brake. The front brake is always going to do more work, but why not let the rear brake do its part too? Novice riders … Read the rest
It’s been a tough couple of months. I’ve been pining away for my Moto Guzzi, which has been in the shop. That means more than just an emotional gap in my life; I’ve been less able to get from place to place and have even resorted to driving four-wheeled vehicles on occasion. That was an exercise in frustration; not only did it take twice as long to get anywhere, it usually took longer to park than it did to drive.
The … Read the rest
As a motorcyclist I’m frequently faced with the claim (sometimes out of concern and other times from judgment) that riding a motorcycle is unsafe. It’s true that a two-wheeled vehicle is inherently less stable than a four-wheeled one, and that riders are more vulnerable to impacts that one would be protected from inside a car. Looking at the statistics one can clearly see that the fatalities-per-million-miles and injuries-per-million-miles are much higher for motorcycles than for automobiles.
Several factors make these … Read the rest
January has been a tough month. Sometimes getting things accomplished comes somewhat naturally and other times it is an uphill battle just getting through each day. January has been a whole month of the latter. It hasn’t been a bad month so much as it has been a difficult month.
I really mean it when I write that it hasn’t been a bad month. The situation with my totaled Moto Guzzi has been resolved in what is probably the best of … Read the rest
Today while I was feeding a vacationing friend’s cat, someone backed into my parked motorcycle with her car. After months of living with shot steering bearings I finally got them replaced less than two weeks ago. Now my steering is messed up again.
I don’t think its too bad but the mechanic’s shop doesn’t open again until Tuesday. It appears that the bracket that limits the range of steering is bent, as I can turn the handlebars all the way to … Read the rest
The people at Landmark have a thought-provoking piece of advice: be unreasonable. While this may be related to the idea of using one’s faculty of reason, it is not quite the same thing. The suggestion is that we (human beings) often get caught up in a web of reasons for the actions we take, and the suggestion they make essentially means to take responsibility for volition and free willor more specifically to take responsibility for our choices rather than … Read the rest
Since I started my new job in Palo Alto, I’ve been riding back, rather than by 280 or the hated 101, by Page Mill Road up to Skyline. It’s a great, fun ride. Page Mill is challengingly twisty and not a very smooth road so I have to be a little cautious. Skyline is smooth and even and about as nice as a two-lane road can be for a fast, relaxed pace. Well, right about the time I got … Read the rest
Freeways are scary.
I’ve been making it a point to practice a lot on the bike. I figure there’s no time like the present to develop my skills. So I’ve been picking less-populated times and places to ride where I’ll have to corner or change lanes or stop on a hill or whatever. I ride through the Presidio on the way to work each day, which forces me to trust that the bike can lean that far over and that yes, … Read the rest
I’m writing from the dining room of one of California’s great curiosities, destined to amaze and befuddle even the most jaded of observers. Today I’m lunching at the worlds most beautiful Taco Bell.
Yes, that may sound like damning with faint praise, as though I’d said the world’s most honest politician or tallest midget, but indeed this is exactly such a curiosity.
Here in Pacifica, right off of Route 1, there is a sleepy little wooden shack overlooking Rockaway Beach. … Read the rest