This & That

Doctor and dentist appointments on Thursday. No cavities and all clear on the oncologist report for the Missus. While spending time in the waiting rooms I was able to all but finish the Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. While his politics is a bit left of mine, I found myself in agreement about many of the points he made, especially the role bicycles can play in practical transportation. He's an excellent writer, besides being a very successful musical artist. Highly recommended.

It's officially the end of the season. The farmer showed up Thursday evening to start picking corn. He had the north side of the lane picked when I got home from working with the two boxers Coach Jen and I are training. He finished picking Friday morning, so other than chopping stalks, that's it until spring. Lots of deer out on the move now. I had to take evasive action twice on the way home the other night. I had to slow way down for a big buck crossing the road and then about a mile farther up the road a doe ran out in front of me. If she'd lost traction when she hit the pavement, I'd have collected her up for sure. 

While he was picking corn, I was pulling up the old tomato and pepper plants. Hard freeze and snow finished them off a couple of days ago. I did salvage a few big, green tomatoes I'm going to fry up.

daily timewaster

I got a chuckle out of this one. The British taking a shot at the Americans, just about the time Mr. Honda convinced everyone world wide if you wanted to meet the nicest people, you need to ride Japanese scooters. The British and HD got their ass handed to them and it took quite a while to get the motorcycle industries in both countries back on an even keel. There were casualties, of course. The only real survivor of the British motorcycle industry is Triumph. BSA stayed afloat for a couple of years using the Triumph frames. Norton came and went several times but never amounted to much more than selling the brand name and tee shirts, and when's the last time you saw a Matchless? Royal Enfield is back and thriving now but only because they were kept alive due to the Indian market. HD is once again having financial troubles. They sold a lot of motorcycles that people aren't making the payments on and are having problems getting the bikes back, along with the fact the demographics of their clientele is working against them. Lots of Harley owners are aging out of the market and many young people don't want or can't afford a big twin. Plus, they have real competition from Indian.

Yours truly is the proud owner of a Royal Enfield, which has managed to stay continually in the business of making motorcycles since 1901. I also am in the process of getting one of those bikes that make an ungodly amount of racket ready to hit the road next spring. I'm not a fan of drag pipes, so I might have to do something about that. I'm not so sure loud pipes save lives. They do irritate a lot of people, of that I'm sure.

I used the floor crane to set the Sportster down on its wheels yesterday. The front brake is pretty spongy. I ordered some brake pads and a master cylinder rebuild kit and I'll wait to pull the front wheel off until I get those. I should have ordered those when I bought the brakes for the rear wheel. I'd like to get a stainless braided brake line as well.