Author Archives: Pat

Running From Gustav

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I hit the road a little earlier than I would have because Gustav had come on-shore and was heading our way. I went back up TX-6 to I-35 instead of playing on nice roads because I didn’t want to get backed up in evacuee traffic, especially on I-45. The ride went well, averaging 47 mpg over the trip. The seat really needs to go. I’m looking at a Corbin, but I’m going to be saving my pennies for a while for that one! I’m going to check with the club members to see their opinion, and barring any any negative feedback or advice on something better, I’ll have one before the long road trip.

Other than my sore rear end, I don’t have a single complaint about the bike’s performance. It’s a great mile eater!

Riding To Houston

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I packed the bike up for the first somewhat decent distance ride, from Lewisville to Houston. The ride was great, if a little on the hot side. There is a disadvantage to that full fairing in that I don’t have the airflow I did with the Sportster, so the heat was an issue. Other than that the bike performed wonderfully. I averaged about 48 mpg over the entire trip, with most of the cruising in the 80 – 85 mph range. In fact, lets call that a second disadvantage to this bike, if I’m not careful I’m going to be spending a lot on speeding tickets!

I went down I-45 to Madisonville and then hopped on TX90 over to Anderson where I picked up FM149 which goes through the Sam Houston National Forest. The road was suitably twisty, which made the ride through the forest a lot of fun.

I got stuck in a little traffic in Magnolia and Waller, but after that no problems.

I think that the first upgrade is going to be a better seat though. This one was good for about 300 miles, and the last 50 or so were not as much fun as they could have been. Definitely going to have to get a long distance seat!

Riding Gear Refresh

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I went down to MotoLiberty this evening to look for a tank bag for the Beemer. I did find one, a nice black Cortech Mini. It’s got everything I needed, including a non-magnetic mounting system for a bike with no ferrous metal in the gas tank or fairings.

After that I decided to look at helmets and jackets. Thanks to some great help and advice from the staff I came home with a Dainese Air-flux tex jacket and an Arai Vector helmet.

The jacket is amazingly light and comfortable, even with the spine armor in it. And best of all it’s got pockets all over the place.

The helmet is nice and comfy with great air flow for hot Texas days so we’ll see how they perform on the Houston ride…

The Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord

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After work today I headed out to the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos for vespers and to pray at St. John’s tomb. I’d forgotten that they’re on the old calendar and so it turns out that I was there for the Procession of the Cross. It was really interesting to see and participate in it in Russian, even though I couldn’t follow much…

Afterwards I got a couple bottles of oil from the lamp at St. John’s tomb and a book of sayings of the Desert Fathers.

Article 23

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And the second of the two books-whilst-traveling is Article 23. It looked interesting at the store and it was mildly amusing, sort of a cross between A Few Good Men and Crimson Tide, set in space. Not a bad book at all, fun and quick to read. I was almost done with it on final approach to San Francisco and finished it before dinner.

The Ionian Mission

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Seeing as I spent most of my day being cargo inside a pressurized aluminum tube I had a chance to get some reading in. First up is the last of the Aubrey-Maturin series that I have in my possession. The Ionian Mission was a fun read, definitely back to the seagoing adventure that the first few books had as their central theme. Not that the others were bad, just different. Jack and Stephen are in the Mediterranean on blockade for a good portion of the story but due to a twist of fate they get sent off on a mission to deliver some cannons to potential allies. The story ends rather abruptly, but I’ve come to expect that and will have to stock up on the next few once I get the stack down a little.

Digging My Way Out

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I just mailed off the last check for the Jeep. It’s now paid for. One less bit of debt hanging over my head, and there’s a bunch more to go, but I’m making progress. Just had to brag.

Long Way Down

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There was a one night only sneak peek screening of an edited down version of the Long Way Down series that’s about to air and I got tickets thanks to a timely announcement on the BMW club’s mailing list.

After reading the book it was clear that they’d have to cut a lot of content out to fit into a movie length. They did a good job, though there were a few things I would have liked to have seen, but overall it was a good lead-in to the series.

The Dark Knight

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A little late, considering all the hype, but I saw The Dark Night this evening and really enjoyed it. It was longer than I thought, but that didn’t detract from the film one bit. I just kept thinking that they could end it here and have a good sequel lined up, but then they didn’t.

I’m not going to ignore the elephant in the room, so here’s my take on Heath Ledger’s version of The Joker. He definitely made the character his own, much darker than Nicholson’s version and certainly no Cesar Romero! I understand at least some of the buzz now, though I do think that at least some of it isn’t due to his performance. I definitely think that this was the best Joker to date. And since Mr. Ledger isn’t with us any more, it may be the best ever. Too bad he’s not going to be able to follow up. Going out on a high note? Or would he have improved even more?

Definitely a good movie. Lots of good scenes, lines, and action galore.

Replaced A Bad Stick Coil

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I’ve been having some increasingly annoying issues with the Beemer. It’s been starting rough, needing full choke to stay running until it’s warmed up, it dies randomly, fuel mileage in the toilet, and flat spots all over the acceleration curve.

Thanks to some good advice from the on-line BMW community I made an informed guess as to the cause and went down to the Fort Worth BMW Motorcycles dealer and picked up a new stick coil. I replaced the one on the left hand cylinder last night and it was still running poorly, so I tried the right one. Bingo! The idle was back to normal.

This morning, with a totally cooled off motor it started with no choke, idled perfectly, and the flat spots on acceleration are gone. I’ll be watching fuel consumption through this tank but it really does look like it’s fixed.