23-OCT-2010
Saturday - Oct 23, 2010 - A desperate ride
It has been raining here in Southern California the whole week and today is the first day that the weather cleared. It's still cloudy but at least it had no sign of raining. So I and 2 friends were riding to Lancaster to have lunch, through some beautiful country roads, for a total of 200 miles.
07-OCT-2010
October 2010 - Locksport - the art of lockpicking
I recently picked up a new hobby: locksport (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locksport). Locks are something that we all use everyday but very few people understand the mechanics and the inner working of the lock. So I decided to study its different mechanism, its different designs and especially the art and challenge of lock picking.
The first rule of locksport is: "You may only pick locks that you own, or those to which you’ve been given expressed permission to pick by the rightful owner"
13-AUG-2010
Friday the 13th, August 13, 2010 - Ride to Palomar Mountains, California
Today is Friday the 13th, a bad day for a lot of people. Since I am an atheist and I'm not superstitious, what better day than today to go ride motorcycle solo?
I recently installed some friction pads on both sides of the tank so that I could hold on the tank better when cornering and braking. It was time for a test in the mountains, where lots of high speed cornering can take place.
I rode up to have lunch at the Pala Indian casino. They have free soft drinks 24 hours a day and the food is reasonable. Then I rode up to Palomar mountains. I was almost by myself on a Friday. Only saw a few cars and motorcycles. With the new friction pads, I was able to anchor myself to the tank when cornering so I could hang loose on the handle bars. It was so much better that I was able to use my tires up to about 1/8" from the edge, which I have never been able to accomplish before.
I rode for a total of 285 miles today. It was a great ride.
24-JUL-2010
July 24, 2010 - replaced the motorcycle tires...
If we want to do something right, do it ourselves. That was why I and my friend Vu got the Nomar Classic tire changer and balancer and changed the tires ourselves. My last set of Michelin Pilot Road lasted 11810 miles and I have a trip to Mammoth Lakes coming up so I replaced them with another set of Michelin Pilot Road. While it took a lot longer than the shop, but everything was checked and double-checked, cleaned and lubed properly.
18-JUL-2010
July 18, 2010 - Motorcycle, shock, and cbr1100xx internet web forum
My Honda CBR-1100XX Blackbird has 56000 miles (90000 km). The rear shock was pretty tired so I found one for sale on cbr1100xx forums by another XX rider, with only 3000 miles on it. I emailed the seller and he immediately packaged it and shipped it to my home in a few days, with only a note telling me to send him a check after I received it, installed it and tested it. I was truly surprised. Lesson learned? There are always good and trusting people everywhere and I promised myself to 'pay it forward'. Thanks Howard, you know who you are.
18-JUL-2010
July 16, 2010 - The quest for hearing protection...
It doesn't matter how good a helmet is, riding motorcycle at speed is an extremely noisy endeavor. Most people didn't realize that gradual hearing loss is unrecoverable. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. There is no such thing as "getting used to the noise" as the only reason that one can get used to noise is because the hearing was deteriorating and therefore a loud noise doesn't sound that loud anymore. That's not 'get used to noise', but 'hearing damage'.
I always wear earplugs when I ride motorcycle. Earplugs, or any hearing protection devices, are rated by 'noise reduction rating', or NRR. The higher the NRR is, the more noise it can block out. The highest NRR available on the market is 33 for passive earplugs. However, not all earplugs that bear the same NRR rating block the same level of noise, due to difference in testing, I assume, but it's also due to each person's ear canal shape and size. One company's NRR 33 earplugs therefore may block more or less noise than another company's NRR 33 earplugs for the same person.
To select a proper earplug for myself, I went to
http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/foearpltrpa2.html and ordered a pack of 19 different earplugs, made by 10 different companies (as the same company may have different earplug models). I will try out all of them in the next several weeks and keep notes on them. Once I found the best one for me, I'm going to order it in larger quantity.
For the record, I am currently using Moldex's Purefit 6800 that doesn't list the NRR on the package, but they are listed as having NRR 33 on their web site. However, some recent Moldex Purafit 6800 with NRR 33 printed on the package didn't block the noise as well the older Purafit 6800. Therefore, I concluded that even the same company making the same model of earplugs don't behave the same.
The exercise begins...
June 10, 2012:
After using up all these earplugs, the winners are: EAR Classic Superfit (great noise blocking but the foam is hard), Howard Leight Max USA, Moldex Camo NRR 33 (great noise blocking, long, soft, smooth). I decided to order a 200-pair box of Moldex Camo from earplugstore.com. These will last me a lifetime.
08-MAY-2010
First Aid and Emergency - May 8, 2010
I recently took a Red Cross CPR and First Aid classes. I also volunteered to train for the Urban Search And Rescue. I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before. I also started to build up my own First Aid kit as I now think I know what I need in a kit. I hope that I will never need to use it, but if the need arises, at least I hope that I have what I need to do.
On the road again - May 1, 2010
Any motorcycle trip is a good trip. We ride to ride. A trip is long overdue. All of us stressed out at work, burdened by everyday life and commitments and we all need a ride. Any long ride is going to clear our head, refresh our mind and put things back into perspective. Any long ride is going to make us so much sharper and so much more energized. I can always find peace on the seat of a motorcycle and a long lonely road. Time to focus, reflect and think, where nothing else matters but me and my motorcycle.
03-APR-2010
Palomar Mountain, California - April 3, 2010
I was kind of down and needed to unwind so I and my buddy Vu did a 250-mile ride to Pala Casino. Had a great lunch then rode up to Palomar Mountain. It was the first time we rode up there and the twisty roads were awesome. There were 2 guys who took pictures of everybody who passed by and posted on their web site for sale. Here is one they took of me.
It was a great day. Great company. Great riding. I'm feeling better.
10-JAN-2010
Azusa, CA - Jan 10, 2010
It's another year. Time really went fast without us realizing it. I didn't have a chance to ride much since I came back from my motorcycling trip to Arizona in Oct 2009. The weather in Southern California is nice, about 65 degree F. Getting back into the seat of a motorcycle is always exciting and exhilarating. I went up to Azusa mountain roads and I always find peace when it was just me and the machine.
13-OCT-2009
Arizona revisited - Oct 9, 2009
In Oct 2007, we visited Arizona on our motorcycles. This Oct 2009, we revisited it and it was always as awesome as we left it back then. The people are nice and the Arizonian drivers are truly courteous. They always drove at a safe distance behind our motorcycles and waited patiently when we stopped at red lights, waiting to make a right turn. In California, if we ride at the speed limit, Californian drivers would drive right up to our rear fenders and make us to go faster or they would yell at us if we waited a few more seconds to make a right turn on red. They should learn from Arizonians and the roads will be a better place for all of us. I salute you, Arizonians. We all appreciate your courtesy and friendliness when we visited your home state and we'll be back again soon.
05-SEP-2009
Sept 5 - 2009
Today we decided to ride our motorcycle to Santa Barbara Stern's Wharf for lunch. It was almost the last ride for me and my friend Vu. The weather was great. The friendship was warm. The lunch was good. The ocean was calming. On our way back, while riding on the fast lane of the 2-lane 101 freeway at 75 mph, a car in front clipped a parked car on the right side emergency lane, spun out suddenly in front of Vu, blocking almost the whole lane, with enough room on the right side for Vu to sneak through, then I followed. If we went 5 seconds faster, I probably wouldn't be writing this. Life is always full of surprise and it gave us enough excitement of a day.
May be I should go back to decoding the Vigenere Cipher for fun, instead of riding my motorcycle? Le chiffre indéchiffrable, the unbreakable cipher of Blaise de Vigenere, is probably safer?
Again, I remember seeing the following quote on the web but nobody seemed to be able to identify the original author:
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, thoroughly used, totally worn out and loudly
proclaiming: "Wow, what a trip!