victory vegas clutch cables suck

grrrrrr

above my fingers you see a broken clutch cable. let me rephrase that, another broken clutch cable. i have a 2006 victory vegas. i love that bike. it's fun, i've put 20,000 + miles on it. what i don't love is that in the 5 years that i've had it, i've broken 3 clutch cables. w.t.f.? it's not like a ride the clutch or anything stupid like that. seriously, i use the clutch when shifting, and that's it. when i'm at stop lights, i sit in neutral. and yet, i have had three frickin cables brake. two have broken at the connection to the handle, and this one popped down by the transmission. this leads me to believe that their cables are crap. but what can i do? it's not like there are alternate cables i could use (there aren't). victory makes crap clutch cables. i won't even get into their cheap rear brakes they use.

broke vegas

so i was driving to my night class this evening on my motorcycle. i was about two blocks from my house and had just made a right turn onto a rather major street. my bike starts wigging out a little. it's sputtering. it's coughing. it's wheezing. it made some strange, loud noise.

i'm frantically trying to figure out what's going on.

at this point, as i'm almost stopped or stalled, i notice that my clutch grip is just loose. as in, i squeezed it to disengage the transmission when i stopped at the corner, and for some reason it hasn't stopped squeezing. even though i have.

fortunately, there's a side street right there i can coast/sputter onto. from there i see that the cable normally attached to this handle, is no longer there. where has it gone? i have no idea. i guess it went down the cover sleeve.

none the less, i can't really shift gears. i mean, i sort of can, but it's not really driveable. or i'm not cool enough to drive it this way. so, i got it into neutral and push it home.

by the time i get there, i'm a beet red, sweaty mess. and i still need to drive to class. even with the air in the car cranked, i don't think i wasn't sweaty and red for the first twenty minutes of class.

and now i've got to get my bike fixed. drat.

riding my vegas

heading east on hwy 180 in fresno, ca.



music by anthrax, covering black sabbath's 'sabbath bloody sabbath.'

lucky

so i think i am riding my bike to meet tim in vegas. thought i should change the oil
before I went. mentioned a rubbing sound on the rear wheel. they check it out. the verdict: rear brakes almost nonexistant. so, getting that done, too.

here's photo's of the old brake pads


side view



yeah, there should be about a quarter inch of pad there. nope, just touches left in a few spots

fresno fuego over tacoma tide

on to the finals! tonight, the fuego are playing byu's team in the pdl western conference championship.

here are some photos from last night






anyway, the game was pretty good. we led 1-0 @ half, but the game was equalized in the 2nd. there was a foul in the box, which led to a penalty kick. the fuego keeper continued to be unimpressive. not only did he guess right on the direction, he also guessed that the shot was going low. he timed it right, yet somehow he still missed it. lame. so, the game went to overtime (heather and kasey weren't happy to have to sit through two 15 minute o.t. halves). our side scored two in the first, and one in the 2nd. 4-1 final.

i'm hoping we have a similar score tonight, but in regulation.

video video

so, i saw an interesting story on fresno famous. there was going to be a peta protest over @ fig garden village today. they offered $5 to the first person to upload some photos to their flicker group. i thought, "i'm not doing anything @ this second, why not cruise over there and shoot a few pics?" so i hopped on the bike and did. on the way home, i thought i'd catch some video of me driving my vegas, and so i did that too. it's not the greatest, but it's interesting. there's a few seconds where i reach over with my left hand and grab the camera so it's steady.

vegas 1, hyundia santa fe 0

so, today was an afternoon of accidents of sorts.

i was going to track practice, and was riding my bike on the freeway. as i exited the freeway i took my normal offramp. the street that it dumps you on is currently under construction (again). well, traffic was backed up on both the offramp and the street. so, as i was going down the offramp and coming to a stop i was in pretty heavy traffic. the vehicle in front of me, one hyundai santa fe, was trying to move over a lane, while it was also slowing in traffic. the traffic in front of it came to a quick stop, and so they did as well. uh oh! ed's following a little too close, and is trying to avoid locking up the brakes and sliding into the santa fe, or just outright crashing into it. what will happen next to our hero?

well, i didn't lock them up, and i didn't slide. unfortunately, i bumped the santa fe, leaving a little bit o' tire and some wear marks (scratches?) on the bumper. dang. double dang. but, my bike seems to have emerged from the incident unscathed. so, we traded info and off i went to practice. when i got there, i called my insurance agent to let them know to be expecting a call. i figure it'll be a bumper repaint. of course, in today's world, some company will charge a grip of money for that.

at track, one of the other coaches tried to cut or smash my finger off. you see, due to idiocy, we share the infield of the track with the soccer programs. so, despite it being our season, there are a few scrimmages scheduled. this doesn't really seem like a problem, except that it means we have to take down part of our discus cage. and, due to further idiocy, we've had to build a cage that has poles that aren't sleeved into the ground. apparently, having concrete 6" under the grass was unacceptable to the soccer coach. too dangerous. so, we have these 20' poles that are attached to rolling bases that weigh about 75-100lbs. but, with the netting up, there is a danger of it toppling over in a strong breeze (it's like a sail). so, we drive these 2' metal stakes through the bases to further anchor them down. to get the stakes out, you take down the net, and then rock the pole until they're loose and can be pulled out. pretty simple, right? well, we were taking out the first set of stakes, and i had already rocked the base/pole until the stakes were far enough out. i had even pulled one of the stakes completely out already. as i grabbed the second stake, the other coach, thinking that it wasn't free yet, pulled back on the pole to rock the stake loose. yow! finger smashed in between metal stake top and base of pole. so, for the next 30 minutes or so, my finger was feeling pretty numb. fortunately, it only bled a little, and it seems mostly alright now. heck, i'm typing right now.

life is funny. you can be pretty attentive to things most of the time. but, in those instants where you may zone out a little, it can turn sour quickly. now, i was actually paying pretty close attention during both of these situations, but still i almost ended up worse off.

my baby turned 500!

well, actually it turned 500 (miles) earlier, i think on saturday. currently, it's @ 657. so, tomorrow it's getting its first check up, i mean servicing.

two wheels good, four wheels bad

something new lives in my garage

and it meets air standards

what i did this weekend

this weekend i took a class (like jay commented recently, i'm a classy guy). the class i took was a motorcycle safety course. it started friday night @ 6 and finished up sunday @ noon. it wasn't through obviously. four and a half hours on friday night, and then from 7 to noon on saturday and sunday. the class was fairly enjoyable, and by the end i felt pretty comfortable on the bike i was riding. the class is for beginners, which i am, and teaches all the necessary skills to be a safe rider. it also tests you on those skills, and if you pass, you don't have to take the driving portion of the dmv test.

in the test portion of the day, there are four sections. each section is graded, and you can miss a total of 20 points and still pass. umm, yeah. i missed 19. which isn't really as bad as it sounds. in the first two sections i was perfect. in the third section i missed 4. but that fourth section, that one almost killed me. well, it would have failed me had i already not done so well. max deduction, 15. basically, it was a turning deal @ speed. you had to get up to a speed, slow using both brakes, enter the turn @ a safe speed. you couldn't go outside of some lines, or decelerate after your initial slow down. well, i did fine, but should have slowed a little more before entering the turn. i got outside of the lines, and in an effort to try and recover, what did i do? decelerate. as soon as i did it i knew i was screwed. but, again, since i had done so well on the previous sections i still managed to pass my test. now i just need to go and take the written test and i'll have my motorcycle certification.

this weekend was my first opportunity to wear what i got with Xmas money. yep, i wore my helmet. i had also bought some gloves, but one of the seams was coming out the first time i wore them, so i went to exchange them. unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, they didn't have my pair in stock. so, i found some others. i'm not as excited about the look, but i actually prefer the overall fit. although i like the new gloves, i was slightly saddened because they're a different company than i had, and i was planning to buy a jacket from the original brand. it's not some sort of obsessive/compulsive deal, but i do like matching brands. but, it's not like the new gloves or the jacket that i wanted had obtrusive labels, etc., so it won't be a huge deal that they're not the same. maybe you noticed i said had wanted. that's right, i bought a jacket while exchanging gloves. while in the shop, i figured i'd look @ coats, mainly to see if the one i wanted was on sale. it wasn't, but it was a lot less than i thought it was. fortunately, heather was there with me, so i asked if it would be cool to shell out for the coat right now (nothing better than coming home after a big purchase and having to explain spending a chunk o' change unexpectedly). she was fine with it, so i found the right size and made it happen. this was actually a little harder than it sounded. i'm sort of in between sizes. one size it too tight with the liner in. but fits well without the liner. the next size up fits good with the liner in, and has a little looseness with it out. so, i went with the larger one, because in cooler months i want to have a liner in, as well as layers underneath. the smaller wouldn't have afforded this (unless i lost some weight, which i'd love to do but there's no guarantee). but, the place i bought it from has an awesome return policy. they'll let you return anything, for any reason, for a year, assuming you don't screw it up. so, if i somehow need that smaller jacket, i can return the old one without any sort of restocking fee and get the newer, proper size.

man, i'm impressed with technology these days. the gloves have kevlar on the palm, carbon fiber on the knuckles for protection. the coat, it's got freakin' titanium in the sleves (forearm, elbow caps, and shoulders). these aren't some wimpy inserts. they're hard core protection. which, i'm happy with because everyone that rides tells me that eventually you will take a spill. at least i'll have protection. the coat is approved to higher, tougher european standards.

so, now i'm only a little ways away from rejoining the world of motor vehicles.

btw, i'm wearing the coat right now. want to break it in a bit so it's comfortable when i ride.

so, that's most of what i did this weekend. i also watched ewoks:the battle for endor with heather, nick, kendall, kasey and potter. and a little bit of football.