I know. It doesn't come as good news. Had it been received a day earlier we wouldn't have cancelled the vacation and we would have ridden to Newport News.
Here's the thing. I am a firm believer when one door closes another opportunity presents itself. Ultimately, Heather is fine with having cancelled her vacation and is genuinely happy and has moved on. So, how can I be unhappy. I can't. At least, not where she can see it.
I'm going to leave you with this, since this blog was supposed to be about a motorcycling trip and we're not trippin.
I spent a couple hours on Instructables.com sharing my backrest project. There are many other things I've shared too. So if this project appeals to you, or you know someone it does. Or your find a strange desire to begin a worm farm because of this misfire blog, it was worth my time to stop by and offer a window to my soul.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Motorcycle-Backrest
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Remember that ptt I told you about? It's push to talk for short
This is huge deal if you're going to communicate bike to bike. It keys up the radio without having to press the button on the radio itself.
This is Heather's bike placement. Mine isn't far off. A slight of hand will open a channel. Oh and Autocom, the maker of my communication system wants 72.00 per ptt switch and I built this myself with a previously used patient grounding pad wire. Don't worry they didn't need it anymore. I waited until they left. So I saved 144.00 for two bikes. At a dollar a piece per awesome that's 144 of them.
Honestly, my bike is an 8 legged sanctuary
And now, for you worm bin and vermicompost enthusiasts, you guessed it, worm time.
Like "Hammer time", just spelled different.
I've been doing this for over 7 years, and there isn't anything bad about it. Especially, and there are number of other benefits, I've had reports from previous coworkers that a half gallon of wormanure, or castings, was 20.00.
No way man, not when I can feed them my waste food, or pictured below, reconstituting some dried food we made for the trail last year that went bad. They'll eat it, and almost anything, one of the many cool things they do.
I mixed it all in together, blech.
This time, I played in it like a kid (not hard to do) mixed much better, time to wet it down. Worms are made mostly of water, so a proper environment for them to live in is important. This doesn't have much to do with going on a motorcycle trip and I don't care. Freight Train wants to see this. These were however transported on a motorcycle, given to me by the Duchess of Oblack.
Fed and covered.
The transplant bin. Provided by the Duke of Walter.
I've been doing this for over 7 years, and there isn't anything bad about it. Especially, and there are number of other benefits, I've had reports from previous coworkers that a half gallon of wormanure, or castings, was 20.00.
No way man, not when I can feed them my waste food, or pictured below, reconstituting some dried food we made for the trail last year that went bad. They'll eat it, and almost anything, one of the many cool things they do.
I'll over-do anything given the chance, so here's the evidence of that. A half bag of wheat flower and 4 pears I won't have anything to do with anymore.
Where my new bin has been waiting to be built. Just needed some food to put in, how I do, Le pear Garbanzo bean ala wheat flower slurry.
Last time I made the other two bins I didn't mix the paper well enough, Too many strips stuck together didn't help it break down at all.
Dig a trough and add food on one side. If this heats up when it breaks down, it will kill them if they don't have somewhere to move away from the heat in the bin.
Still waiting on the details before we ride to the Portsmouth, in the mean time..
I found a few things to do around the place. But first, the pictures I promised of the backrest installed and placed on our bikes. I rode about 3 miles today, long enough to know I need to raise my backrest about a half an inch and haven't yet decided how I want to do that. It will probably be wire brushing the 2nd paint job off, then cutting the hinge and welding in a metal spacer. I can also drill holes in the wood, the black vinyl is stretched over. Either way, it's going to take some time, but glad I noticed this could use getting adjusted before I went on a longer trip. Cool thing is, I know I guy how can do the work.
A nice feature having used the bolt and hinges, is you can move the backrest forward for your passenger to get seated more easily.
At first, it bent when I tested it out. I later used my cutting wheel to make the angled support at the bottom. By placing the base as far out as possible before I welded to the hinge, gave it the best chance to prevent it from flexing. Had they been an inch longer would have been better. It ended up being a great improvement.
Thanks to the invention of a bungee cord, helped hold the backrest up, It is front weighted and falls forward every time we dismount.
This picture shows the pattern of the hinge. The consideration for placing the holes lower, to raise my backrest, seems like the right thing to do at first. By placing the hinge point lower on the seat means the upper part of the backrest won't push on my back. This points to having to add metal to the hinge to make the height taller. Don't worry, I know a guy.
Use spray adhesive on the material in the back and pre-fold the edge before you goop it on with shoe goo.
Staple the front over the foam first.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
So a video of a Praying Mantis isn't the last thing I post on my blog for a while, an update
While we're waiting on details of the memorial service, Heather has cancelled her vacation.
I received an email to call a way back friend from last year, Barry.
Barry and his wife Tara are really cool and take in people to their home they don't know. I know this, having met them in Pennsylvania last year while on the Appalachian Trail. They are avid bicyclists and occasional ride ones you don't have to pedal, so they're easy to love.
We got to talk at length about our alternative plans and looking for that new direction when life circumstances show themselves. In the coming days, we'll ride to the Portsmouth, Ohio area and you are likely to see a few images and anecdotes. I also owe you a picture of a finished backrest. To date, I have not taken a picture of them since they were placed on the bike. I will also be looking in the radio pockets for arachnids. It's just a fancy name for spiders that I looked up.
I received an email to call a way back friend from last year, Barry.
Barry and his wife Tara are really cool and take in people to their home they don't know. I know this, having met them in Pennsylvania last year while on the Appalachian Trail. They are avid bicyclists and occasional ride ones you don't have to pedal, so they're easy to love.
We got to talk at length about our alternative plans and looking for that new direction when life circumstances show themselves. In the coming days, we'll ride to the Portsmouth, Ohio area and you are likely to see a few images and anecdotes. I also owe you a picture of a finished backrest. To date, I have not taken a picture of them since they were placed on the bike. I will also be looking in the radio pockets for arachnids. It's just a fancy name for spiders that I looked up.
Written by Heather
When life tells you to stop.
The idea to take some time off and motorcycle to Virginia has been in the works for a month, but the idea to just hop on our bikes and ride has been out there far longer. We've made day trips, weekend trips, but we were finally making time in life to go a little farther, a little longer. The time off was finally jiving to the desire.
On the eve of setting out, on a really fun experience, we heard the news that my aunt had passed away unexpectedly. We don't often stop in life, we like to burn the candle all at once and race off into the darkness that is left behind. The decision to not head out on our adventure was made for us but we didn't fight it, we let priorities take control where needed.
But the best laid plans are not to be dismissed entirely. The desire to be out is still there, we just need to work on the timing.
In the end, our plans will be altered to accomodate the time we have. The next few months are more regimented with schedules, due to work, but we've found a way to weave through these months with a few week long trips mixed in with shorter ones.
In the end, when life tells you to stop, just coast for a while, then when the way is clear, get back on the throttle. We'll ride on
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Then...
I came inside to find a Praying Mantis, my all time favorite insect, on my sink. After posing for a shot, he ran over and snapped up an ant.
"Dave, it sounds like you have an insect problem."
I don't have an insect problem. A Praying Mantis has no problem with ants or spiders.
A friend of mine told me. ..
"I hope you find adventure". Well, a spider crawled out of a radio pouch I made while I was working on it...I call that adventure...right after I finished using other words.
Why Biker Beans? You could have picked a name that was cool.
It wasn't that random, though many things about my life are quite scattered and the explanation is usually cut short with a change of topic.
In February of 2009, Heather and I were hiking the hills of North Carolina, kind of with a vengeance. We were at war with our physical condition, eating right and plenty of exercise. By that, I mean 4 to 5 miles on the weekdays and 12 to 18 miles on Saturday and Sunday.
I think we both lost 20 to 25 pounds each. I was under 200 the first time in 15 years, cool.
In the state of highly oxygenated blood surging through my brain, we were having energized conversations, ideas and starting to declare an adventure. I'd traveled for 8 years by this time, I was 36 and we wanted to do something that was an exclamation point...maybe two of them.
Well, we were doing a lot of walking and enjoyed it. I thought, what was there to do where you could do a lot of walking and announced (with arms in the air) "Let's hike the Appalachian Trail!" It had an exclamation point in it. Heather, being a little more reserved said, "Why don't we go on that long distance ride on our recumbent tandem we've talked about, so we did this bikerbeans.blogspot.com
Still doesn't explain the name does it. Part of this enormous desire to eat well and exercise well was from eating rice and beans. We ate a lot of it. Sometimes we ate beans and rice just to change it up a little bit. It was good, I enjoyed it. It was even a recipe I could handle. With 3 ingredients, one of them being water, with rice and beans remaining.
What were we doing, biking. What had we eaten a lot of, beans. The Biker Beans were born, and we set feet on our pedals April 14th, following our February announcement.
We're still bikin', just a little faster and engine powered.
In February of 2009, Heather and I were hiking the hills of North Carolina, kind of with a vengeance. We were at war with our physical condition, eating right and plenty of exercise. By that, I mean 4 to 5 miles on the weekdays and 12 to 18 miles on Saturday and Sunday.
I think we both lost 20 to 25 pounds each. I was under 200 the first time in 15 years, cool.
In the state of highly oxygenated blood surging through my brain, we were having energized conversations, ideas and starting to declare an adventure. I'd traveled for 8 years by this time, I was 36 and we wanted to do something that was an exclamation point...maybe two of them.
Well, we were doing a lot of walking and enjoyed it. I thought, what was there to do where you could do a lot of walking and announced (with arms in the air) "Let's hike the Appalachian Trail!" It had an exclamation point in it. Heather, being a little more reserved said, "Why don't we go on that long distance ride on our recumbent tandem we've talked about, so we did this bikerbeans.blogspot.com
Still doesn't explain the name does it. Part of this enormous desire to eat well and exercise well was from eating rice and beans. We ate a lot of it. Sometimes we ate beans and rice just to change it up a little bit. It was good, I enjoyed it. It was even a recipe I could handle. With 3 ingredients, one of them being water, with rice and beans remaining.
What were we doing, biking. What had we eaten a lot of, beans. The Biker Beans were born, and we set feet on our pedals April 14th, following our February announcement.
We're still bikin', just a little faster and engine powered.
Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa, for those of you who've heard this laugh before
Besides, you just twist the throttle harder and you'll stay ahead of the weather.
Our projected route, we will proceed Easterly
Circumnavigating the construction will be a plus. Fully geared and fully sunny...awesome.
We will be using the same hydration packs we had on the Appalachian Trail last year, to drink and ride. Drink water and ride.
Ahh pictures. I like pictures.
More than that, I like taking of pictures of having done things. Doing things is cool.
This project, making a foundation under the foam of the seat, bolting a bracket that will support the backrest is on a previous project of making a more comfortable seat. Sure, you could buy a more comfortable seat, or you could get 8 lb and 10 lb carpet padding with some spray adhesive to do your own.
While perusing the isles of Home Depot, which I do often in the DIY universe, I found metal and other familiar items such as gate hinges that are worthy of this make.
Some of the first look, BEFORE I CUT OR DESTROY ANYTHING, what is most expected to look like. I have a cutting wheel and a grinding disc to change metal, so it rarely gets used exactly as I find it in the store.
Where will obstructions be, how far apart can I put something so it isn't a disaster to put my seat back on the bike.
The placement of this plate will be what the upper portion of the backrest, the pad against my back, will be assembled to. How far away it is will determine how thick the upper portion will be to reach me from it's foundation. Not to mention if I have a passenger, it can't interfere with where they sit.
Where few will go, being constructively destructive.
Sticking knives in things is cool. I have marked along the way so as I do this, it's as calculated as possible to prevent a mistake.
Here, I am sizing up the cross bar, knowing it's too long. It will be some of the first cuts, just after the first hole you can see on the right, to make the bar symmetrical to the left side.
All I need for the receiver, what I call where the upper portion of the backrest will bolt to. Cutting off the metal outside of lines will make a part I can weld to the foundation, a 3/16 inch metal bar, normally used for reinforcing wood, re purposed for a backrest brace . The back rest can be disconnected, should I transport something large enough on the bike, the backrest won't accommodate.
What kind of welding table is that, it's not very conductive. No matter, I just ground the project itself, and periodically look for grass fires.
The stupid check. I'm about to join two pieces of metal on a molecular level. Though I can grind out an improper weld, I'd rather not have to.
I knew an adjustment screw for the backrest to move back and forth for comfort would land between the hinge and the flat plate.
A weld later and a grinding finish would make it a consistent surface for the bolt make contact.
Now just superimpose the seat where the bracket is, by imagining the "T" shape going under the passenger and the hinge placed behind my back.
Bolted to the bottom of the seat. This requires drilling holes in your seat, not for the faint of heart.
The correctly placed receiver. It used to be a hinge, but I ground the pin out and will buy a bolt for the correct diameter and length to make this backrest removable.
Nice. The receiver is pushing under my original mark for placement.
A slit made in the vinyl and pushed under the receiver awaits the backrest, is yet to be made.
This project, making a foundation under the foam of the seat, bolting a bracket that will support the backrest is on a previous project of making a more comfortable seat. Sure, you could buy a more comfortable seat, or you could get 8 lb and 10 lb carpet padding with some spray adhesive to do your own.
While perusing the isles of Home Depot, which I do often in the DIY universe, I found metal and other familiar items such as gate hinges that are worthy of this make.
It never works out that these four items are found as quickly as they are few.
Some of the first look, BEFORE I CUT OR DESTROY ANYTHING, what is most expected to look like. I have a cutting wheel and a grinding disc to change metal, so it rarely gets used exactly as I find it in the store.
Tomorrow, we ride..
There are a lot of things I could say about this trip tomorrow, some of the highlights are:
Longest ride to a destination, 686 miles. Heather is on her own bike so the dual ride to Newport News, VA will be longer, riding separate bikes than I have ridden solo.
I haven't ridden more than 2 days to my destination. Leaving Wednesday morning, we're not projected to get there until Friday sometime.
We're going slower than usual, checking things out, possibly testing out some coffee along the way.
I usually don't take side roads or stay off of the interstate, I'm always trying to get there the fastest.
I built a backrest for both bikes so we will be more comfortable.
I also wired my motorcycle intercom for bike to bike radio communications, complete with remote push-to-talk feature to keep our hands on the grips. A huge thanks to Mark for hardware and technical support to do this.
In the last three weeks, I have done every possible maintenance item on both bikes before we go. With clean air filters, oil changes, brake fluid, coolant checks, chain lubrication, the extra engine oil Heather's '82 KZ750H will take, I hope to have the safest trip one can have.
Longest ride to a destination, 686 miles. Heather is on her own bike so the dual ride to Newport News, VA will be longer, riding separate bikes than I have ridden solo.
I haven't ridden more than 2 days to my destination. Leaving Wednesday morning, we're not projected to get there until Friday sometime.
We're going slower than usual, checking things out, possibly testing out some coffee along the way.
I usually don't take side roads or stay off of the interstate, I'm always trying to get there the fastest.
I built a backrest for both bikes so we will be more comfortable.
I also wired my motorcycle intercom for bike to bike radio communications, complete with remote push-to-talk feature to keep our hands on the grips. A huge thanks to Mark for hardware and technical support to do this.
In the last three weeks, I have done every possible maintenance item on both bikes before we go. With clean air filters, oil changes, brake fluid, coolant checks, chain lubrication, the extra engine oil Heather's '82 KZ750H will take, I hope to have the safest trip one can have.
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