Rush: Snakes and Arrows

Despite the hot weather, tonight’s Rush concert was amazing. They were really in to the crowd, the crowd was really in to them, and the attitudes were kept under control. Of the Rush concerts I’ve been to, this one was the best ever. They played tracks that I’ve never heard on the XM, never mind the radio. It was amazing to hear them play Witch Hunt, Entre Nous, and Natural Science, as well as the classics like Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions and some tracks off of Snakes and Arrows.

Stardust

I got out to see Stardust tonight and really enjoyed it. It’s too bad that it came out up against the Bourne film, the Simpsons movie, and others because it’s a really good film. I’ve been a fan of Neil Gaiman’s work for a while now and will have to pick up the book this one’s based on.

The movie is a classic epic fantasy/fairy tale story with a good amount of humor added in. It centers around a young man’s quest to find a fallen star in order to win the hand of the woman he loves. Through his journey he does a lot of learning and growning and emerges a completely different person.

There were a number of memorable scenes, including some that had me laughing out loud. Robert Di Nero’s character was absolutely hilarious and it was great to see him in a different type of role.

Definitely a good movie and one that you should go out and see if you liked movies like Willow, The Princess Bride, etc.

Curing The Oil Leak

I’ve been trying to find the source of a really annoying oil leak that looks like it’s coming from the T where the oil drain hose meets up with the feed line from the oil tank and the line to the pump. Turns out that the cheap one time use hose clamps that Harley used in the assembly of the bike have a service life. They’d come loose and were the source of the leak. Since I was already doing an oil change I cut all three of them off and replaced them with normal hose clamps. Amazingly enough it looks like the leak’s gone.

Pie/Dr. Pepper Ride

The day started out nice, if a little bit humid because of all of the tropical moisture that the remnants of Erin brought up this way.

We headed down to the starting point without anything eventful happening, got some breakfast, met up with the rest of the group, and hit the road 9 bikes strong.

The ride down to Hico was fun, no major issues, other than the bike eating pot hold just before we turned on to US-67. The roads were good, with a few sweepers to liven things up.

We arrived at the Koffee Kup at around 11:30 or so, got a couple tables for the group which had now grown by a few more thanks to some of the Austin netscum who rode up to meet us. Food, and more importantly pie, was had by all.

Afterwards the group split into two smaller groups with me leading the one over to Dublin for some real Dr. Pepper. The other group decided to go find some twisties to play with. A fateful decision as we’d find out later…

Old Doc’s was pretty interesting and the Dr. Pepper was delicious. In case you didn’t know, Dublin, TX is the only Dr. Pepper bottling company that still uses the original recipe, including the cane sugar instead of corn syrup.

After we finished up there we headed up US-377 for home. When all was said and done it was around 230 miles round trip and quite an enjoyable ride both due to the company and the roads.

The only bad part was that one of our riders went down. Details are sketchy right now, but it looks like he’s going to be OK. Some lacerations and bruises, maybe a concussion, and the bike’s a bit messed up. He’s OK, which is the important part. We’ll worry about his bike later.

Pie/Dr. Pepper Ride: The Test Run

We’ve been talking about doing a run like this for a while so I finally got around to setting up a route and took it today to test it out. The bike ran really well, except that I couldn’t always find the 93 octane that the high compression engine really requires.

The only problem with the route was the street name for FM-1187, it’s actually Debbie Ln.

The Koffee Kup had some really good fresh strawberry pie, and was a perfect stopping point.

I skipped going in to Old Docs, choosing instead to head back home.

The ride is on the 18th and you can find more info on it over at Where’s The Ride At.

New Saddlebags

I had some reward points saved up, plus some cash I’d been stashing away, so I treated myself to some new saddlebags in preparation for the Deal’s Gap run in September. Unfortunately they didn’t have the turn signal relocation kit in stock so I’ve got to wait to install them…

Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad

And the finale in the five book series that started out as the Avatar Trilogy. Cyric’s been infected by the book he was trying to use to convert everyone over to his worship and Mystra and Kelemvor, the new god of death are trying to stop it. It’s told from an interesting, almost third party narrative perspective, and really wrapped up the loose ends well. By the end everything’s been resolved, more or less, with the pantheon returning to their roles, and the normal friction between them restored. It’s been a while since I read the original trilogy and it was a treat to finish off these last two books.

Picked The Bike Up

Piper Performance finished tuning the bike today and it’s running a lot better. The air/fuel ratio has been adjusted a little on the rich side, but the nasty lean part right at the low RPM section is gone. The numbers are pretty good too. Max HP of 64, max torque of 67 ft.-lbs.

The ride home was nice, there was still a little pinging, but nothing like it was before, and it was only when the engine and outside air were both really hot. I’ve dropped the advance curve back a couple more ticks and as long as I’m using good gas, it’s not pinging at all.

The Saddlebags From Hell

Since I had the turn signal relocation kit and the bags, I decided to put them on today. After a little disassembly I was ready to go.

The instructions weren’t all that good, trying to be all things to everyone, and because my bike’s a little older than most of the years the kit’s for, it was even tougher.

The worst part was getting the bags attached to the brackets. They didn’t quite line up and 2/3 of the total installation time was spent getting 8 bolts threaded.

They’re on now and look good, so I guess it was all worth it.