D.I.Y.

I am somewhat of a do it yourself guy, I've remodeled the bathroom and kitchen of our house. I've replaced windows and doors, built decks and pergolas, pretty much a home DIYer. It gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment knowing that I did it myself and I save a lot of money in labour costs.

With the economy the way it is, we are becoming more of a do it yourself society rather than paying someone else to do it. Landscapers are being let go, anyone can "mow d' lawne" (French for 'cut the grass'). We don't need Starbucks, we'll make our own mocha-latte-frappa-whooies and as motorcyclists we get to pump our own gas. Oregon and New Jersey are non self service states, except for motorcycles and I believe diesel.

I have realized that I have been somewhat lacking in the DIY of vehicle maintenance. I used to do a lot of my own vehicle work like hanging upside down under the dash installing stereos. I've busted knuckles dropping a transmission to replace a clutch in my first truck and I've replaced the spider gears in the rear end of my mom's car after learning how not to do a burnout. I used to replace starters, alternators and radiators myself, but I was young and broke, now I pay someone to do it, I've done my time.

I still change my own oil and filters, clean and lube the chain and I have installed all the accessories on my bike from heated grips, lighting and horn to saddlebags and removing baffles. But for some reason I procrastinate when it comes to downtime with my bike, not that I don't know or am not willing to learn how to tackle a carburetor rebuild or valve adjustment. I just can't be without my bike for more than a day. I'm afraid that I'll get it apart and something will come up and I won't find the time to get it back together for a week or two.

I dragged my feet through the cold months because of the possibility of one sunny day midweek that I could ride. I think there was a two week stretch in December that I couldn't ride but the garage was too cold and a kitchen remodel was a priority on my honey-do list. If I get the honey-do list cleared through the winter that means more time to ride in the summer.

Now Spring is around the corner, I've been riding all winter and I need to address a few things on my bike. I could pay someone to do it, but I somewhat miss doing it myself. One item on the list is to replace my front tire, I have a new tire in my garage and I could pay the local shop $20 bucks to swap it out and speed balance it, but I want to do it myself. It'll cost me more for the spoons, rim protectors and to build a jig and bead breaker but then I'll have everything when I replace the rear tire, except for the big compressor to set the bead. One of the guys at bike night last night discussed setting the bead using gasoline, now this sounds like a recipe for disaster. "Oh it's easy" he says, "it inflates to about 50 psi and then immediately deflates".

I think I'll use the ratchet strap method, and if that fails I'll take it to the local tire shop and use their compressor. But wait, the bike shop is closer and since I'm there anyway, maybe I'll have them balance it too. So much for do it yourself.

Meh, what's 20 bucks?


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Please shop local...

Brandy and I ran down to Eugene today, unfortunately not on the bike, as we were on somewhat of a mission to find birthday gifts, some new clothes and other odds and ends.

As with any trip to the 'big city' we always make time to stop at at least one, if not two motorcycle shops as well as our favorite accessory shop Discount Motorcycle Parts.

I've mentioned Steve and Annette's shop in a previous post and have linked their page in my sidebar. We rarely walk out empty handed and today was no exception, Brandy found some gloves and other treasures and we picked up a couple of their new designed T-shirts.



Steve proudly declared that he designed the artwork himself...



Thank you both, the shirts are great and will be worn on many a ride.




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We normally get one to two weeks of beautiful sunny, warm weather in February and this week looks promising.

The past couple of mornings I have been met with rain, fog and drizzle but the afternoons have been absolutely beautiful. I passed three fellow riders on my way home from work last night, more than I have seen all winter and a sure sign of Spring.

Being from the Great White North I know that the sighting of the first robin of the new year was a sign that Spring was coming.



This folks tale doesn't hold true in Oregon as robins reside here all year round. I'll have to find another folks tale to signal Spring's arrival and the increasing presence of motorcyclist does seem to hold some accuracy.

Here's a wave and welcome back fellow riders, Spring is near.





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My morning commute

I've been wanting to mount a camera to my bike for sometime but thought I'd wait until summer to figure out how to do it. Then Stacy mounted one on her bike and had the nerve to post how she did it.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.


I thought about wind noise and the wet weather (fog) and I tried to figure out the best way to to eliminate both. I considered wrapping the camera in a ziplock bag and then dub over the audio with music. Instead, I had an epiphany, standing out in the cold garage I noticed the dash on my cafe fairing was just big enough to house a camera.



I drilled a hole in the dash, took a mounting knob off a small tripod I had kicking around and mounted the camera for a trial run on my commute the next morning. I took another video on my way home and loaded both videos on YouTube and then started playing around with iMovie. Here is my first video and editing job.



A much better ride and a lot less traffic than the four lanes of Speedway 34.


EDIT: as per Stacy's request, the camera I used is a Kodak CX7530.



à tout à l’heure


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Bike night

Over a year ago I wondered why there wasn't a local meeting place for motorcyclists to gather, chat and set up rides. I searched the internet and Googled every motorcycle term and local town to find nothing other than local shops advertising. So, off to the local shops I went and again I couldn't find any flyers for any groups. I checked forums and discovered Portland, Salem and Eugene bike nights but still nothing local. I lurked in the forums, watched and waited with little luck so I started Corvallis Bike Night. I made bike night non-obligatory, it wasn't a group or club, just a standing bike night. It was a little slow to start, we made a few mistakes changing locations and trying to meet too many nights, too often, but we have learned a lot in the past 16 months and our last gathering had a great turnout of new faces and I hope tonight will be better yet.

Thank you to Stacy and Women In The Wind for your help getting the word out, thank you to Premier Motogear and Fred's Honda for posting flyers and final billing to pnwriders for setting up the forum for everyone to use.

Local readers, please stop by, we've set up evening and weekend rides and met some fantastic people.

1st Wednesday of every month at 6:00pm - Feb. 4th, Mar. 4th, Apr. 1st.
Just stop by…


American Dream Pizza
214 SW 2nd St.
Downtown Corvallis
Between Madison and Jefferson
from 6pm til…


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