Wrider's Scribblings

[blues2cruise]

Heh, when our city cleans the streets, it means the street sweepers take the dirt from the gutters and redistribute it to the center of the road.

Well that is no good. We have street sweepers that sweep and vacuum. Some of them rinse, too.

[Wrider]

They attempt to do that here, but they don't work for crap.

[Wrider]

Took advantage of an advertising mistake (5K under book, 3K under "supposed to be advertised" price) and ended up with a 2005 Toyota Tundra Double Cab, V8, 4x4, Limited.

The truck has every option for that year except for the TRD suspension and the backup camera. 94K miles. Not sure if the timing belt has been done or not already. Was due at 90K so I'll be working on doing that.

Here's the first pic. I cleaned it and clay barred it after that, then went shooting/4wheeling today and got it nice and muddy again haha.

[roscowgo]

Heya wrider, glad ya made it through the roll and the sandy road

[Wrider]

Lol thanks!
It's been a long while since I updated this thing... I sold the truck back in November due to the insurance costs being more than the payment on the truck. Bought a Subaru Forester instead. I do have the bike still, and definitely have some fun with that.

[Wrider]

Managed to snap my chain today... The clip on master link failed and decided to throw my chain. Quick 3 seconds of loud clicks, followed by a really loud click and total loss of power in all gears. Shut the bike off immediately in case it broke my cases (it didn't), and coasted inot the nearest parking lot.

[Wrider]

Been a while since I posted here...
Let's see... Still have the bike. Didn't put many miles on it this year. An exceptionally rainy year combined with the fact that my commute is pure highway miles, then add in lots of school and the fact that I'm too broke to afford new tires and such means I didn't go on many pleasure rides or commute on the bike much either.

I still work on the blasted things on the side, and enjoy that quite a bit.

I also still have the Forester. It's my Lesbianmobile and the bike is the Slowmobile.

I got a job at the Bass Pro Shops they opened up here last October and still work there. For those curious, I work in the hunting department and sell anything and everything in that department, from binoculars to goose blinds to bows and firearms. I'm a firearms expert there. I definitely need to work on my older gun knowledge, but I hold my own in nearly any conversation about firearms, caliber debates, ballistics, etc.

[Hanson]

Ryan,

It has been a long time since you did a bit of scribbling.

When I was a kid I bought a little Honda CB400 for $400. I rode it for about a year and a half and then sold it for .... the same $400 when I could not afford new tires. I can certainly sympathize with the issue of affording moto tires on a limited budget.

That said, I track every penny I have spend on my DL650A and it is costing my a fraction under 12 cents a mile to ride including tires, oil, fuel and maintenance. That is a lot less than it costs me to put a mile on my pickup truck. Unless you are using public transportation for your commute, I would think that you would save money by getting on your motorcycle. Tires are expensive, about 3 to 4 cents a mile, but I save a lot on fuel compared to my truck.

Safe Travels,
Richard

[Wrider]

Unfortunately that's not quite true with sportbike tires on a long straight commute. My commute is about 25 miles each way on the highway, so they get squared off really fast. Besides, I drive the Forester, which gets about 25-26 MPG on average, and the bike averages around 40. Not to mention that bike tires are about 110-160 per tire, which is the same as the car, but the car tires last 5-6 times as long as the bike tires. I've done the math for my combination and it works out to spending about 20% less on the car to commute than on the bike.

[blues2cruise]

It sure has been a long time. Welcome back.