Total Motorcycle Community Forums

blues2cruise wrote:Did your Dad move with you?

Yep, he instigated the whole move really. I'm hoping he starts taking more of an interest in life again, and this town is perfect for him that way. He can sit in the coffee shop all day and shoottheshit with all his buddies, and generally hangout and visit with folks around town... something he was born to do. The Old Man got the golden tongue in the family, I wish I had half his 'talent' with the ladies.

It is nice to be back in a smaller town again. Edmonton isn't a very big city, but a year of living there drove me nutz. I couldn't survive in Vancouver or Toronto.... things would get ugly fast and head downhill until somebody gets hurt and runs home crying..... either me or someone walking around whichever Bell Tower I wind up holed up in.....

friggen ssssssooooo mad that I have to buy insurance with another carrier now for my motorcycle. almost tempted to drop all my vehicles from state farm as well as my house and move on to someone else but whenever I try that no one can beat their prices.

This is going to be a kind of ironic post. Without bragging, I'd say my wife and I have become serious riders - we're trained, we've worked our way up through a series of bikes to machines commensurate with our abilities, we ride ATGATT, we have accumulated significant mileage on a variety of roads and riding conditions.

If one of my wife's children was going to do something..... umm..... rash involving a motorcycle, I would have always suspected it would be my stepson. Simply because he's younger, he's male (and macho), he's always had a liking for powerful machines, he's had a dirtbike and still has an ATV. My stepdaughter is older (28 now), is more settled, and has better judgement. Or should........

She's wanted a bike for a while this year. Her boyfriend, who rode previously, recently bought a Ninja 650 as a re-entry bike. She's never ridden before. Plans to take MSF soon. I had sent her Craigslist hits on used 250's in her area. Suspected to hear she'd made a deal on one of these. Instead, this afternoon, she tells us she bought a bike ........... a 2006 Suzuki GSX-R600!!!

If the Craigslist post is still up, here's the actual bike: http://houston.craigslist.org/mcy/1435563986.html It's a great deal, nice bike and all that........... but she's an absolute noob and it's a frikkin' gixxer 600!!!!!

Her mother and I are ........ concerned, shall we say?

Coincidentally, Mrs. Stark has a trip to see her planned for Nov. 14. We're thinking about asking her to garage the gixxer temporarily and let us underwrite the purchase of a used Ninja 250. We'd hold title and lend it to her for her learning period, say 4-6 months.

If it's not one thing, it's always another around here.....

jstark47 wrote: but she's an absolute noob and it's a frikkin' gixxer 600!!!!!

Her mother and I are ........ concerned, shall we say?

Worng bike, to be sure, but at least she is missing the key ingredient that kills new riders on high powered bikes: testosterone! I completely agree with the 250 Ninja idea though....

I worked today. I also found out that we go out on strike on Monday morning.
Sigh......

I got up early (for me) and rode the 1125CR out to Gail's HD to have the rear turn signals replaced. As I approached the intersection at 150th street (a construction zone), with a green light and an eastbound turn arrow for me, I notice a car, westbound on 150th, bearing down on my path. I was already leaning into my left turn so I increased my radius a lot and ended up eastbound on the westbound shoulder, which was good as the cage driver ran the light, totally oblivious to any traffic around them. I did not drop the bike, and it happened so fast I didn't even get lumpy pants. I took a moment to curse, then checked the road to see if it was clear, and went on...still cursing

Gail's is OK, got me in and got me out, and I rode home. It is weird to be breaking in a new engine, most of the time on the freeway I run steady speeds , but I'm running the RPMs up and down, like a good boy. Then I had to go pay the cable bill, and ride to work. I have about 200 miles on it so far. Tomorrow will be cold and rainy, and I took Monday off anyway, so with Tuesday and Wednesday I should get that engine broke in by next week.[/b]

blues good luck on your strike.... hopefully it will get resovlved before you go broke......... STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE


IAM local 2198

blues2cruise wrote:I worked today. I also found out that we go out on strike on Monday morning.
Sigh......

If I as closer I would bring some chili and coffee to your picket line.

NPMHU Local 304, division of LIUNA

king robb wrote:

blues2cruise wrote:I worked today. I also found out that we go out on strike on Monday morning.
Sigh......

If I as closer I would bring some chili and coffee to your picket line.

NPMHU Local 304, division of LIUNA

If you leave tomorrow you could be here on time for my weekend picket shift.

Thanks for the thought.

Tennif Shoe wrote:blues good luck on your strike.... hopefully it will get resovlved before you go broke......... STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE


IAM local 2198

ATU 1724

I am optimistic that it won't be a long one. We are part of the transit system that provides transportation to people with disabilities, and anyone that cannot use public transportation unassisted.
I have been working for them almost 15 years. In the 30 or so years that the system has been around, there has never been labour unrest.
We have always been able to negotiate a contract.
Last year, the governing body over the transit system decided to award the contract to running it to an American company.

Disclaimer...this is not about bashing American people

There were several Canadian companies that put in a bid....then out of nowhere the contract was awarded to this American company. We figure it has something to do with the fact that the transit authority brought in a guy from NY to be CEO.

Anyway, from the moment this company came into our country, they have routinely tried to circumvent Canadian labour laws, Canadian labour standards, and contravened the collective agreement.
Our union has taken them to task each and every time and have won every time.
The union and this company have been negotiating for ten months...the company has tried to roll back wages, take away benefits, they lost us our pension plan, they disrespect the seniority list, and so on and so forth....

All the previous contractors were non profit community type societies, or cooperatives.....this was good, because the system is heavily subsidized by tax payer dollars, so the money stayed in the community.
This new company is a "for profit" company....so they are trying to squeeze every last penny they can out of us....the drivers are so stressed trying to keep up to the schedules....drivers were missing breaks and lunches....the union kept harping on them to make sure they took their breaks because it was the only way the company would realize they can't treat our drivers like robots and our clients like parcels.

Anyway...the other thing that galls....tax payer money funding a US company where the profits head south instead of staying here.

A lot of feel that if this company had properly done thier research , they would have known that they could not waltz into our country and start pushing us around. We think they thought that we would be pushovers....not so...we have stood up for our rights and our laws.

Anyway....there will be a lot of negative publicity for the governing body, so this may get resolved soon. I know that yesterday and today, all the management was in having some big pow wow.....
We have gone essential service only....
So, I will sleep in tomorrow and then go for a ride later.....