NickDG

I've had the Droid X since this morning . . . The battery seems okay. I've been playing with it all afternoon and it's still going. I know you can also buy an extra battery and change it out on the fly. This evening when I did put it on the charger it went to full charge pretty quickly. (I didn't think to actually time it.) The virtual key board is better than the slide out keyboards on the earlier Droids. And the keyboard works great. You also have a choice of using normal touch type or Swype. While the keyboard works great sometimes the on-screen command buttons like "next" and "done" seem quirky and my take more than one touch. Also unlocking the phone is touchy. (It slides to the right like an iPhone but it seems if you go too fast (or too slow, I'm not sure which yet?) it will snap back to locked. I purchased a screen protector for it but the touch screen was impossible to use with it on so I took it off. Scrolling through web pages and the zoom works as well as an iPhone. Internet speed seems as good as my laptop on a broadband connection. And of course Flash will be available with the August update. I'm hoping the software update addresses the few issues I mentioned. As for the phone itself I've made about a dozen calls with no drops including a few in a moving car. Sound quality is excellent including over the speaker phone. So far I really like it . . . The photos below are comparing the Droid X and the iPhone 3G NickD

Pretty cool!

I like art . . . So I'm heading down to Orange County for this thing on Saturday. It'll be a nice little run for Nina . . . NickD

Love how the intakes mount to the cylinders. That hardware looks like something you'd find under a sink! NickD

Funny thread from one of the Harley forums: A guy asked what Harley threads would be like if the internet existed back in the 1970s. He thought it would be mostly like the following: - how much oil SHOULD my bike leak. - i don't think my bike leak's enough oil - how do i kick start my bike - when my bike finally starts how do i keep it running - my bike don't leak any oil and it;s full. - how many parts should fall off my bike when riding. But I wrote that bikers back then were too mechanically inclined (unlike today) to be asking stupid questions like that. So here's my top four sticky biker threads if the internet existed in 1975: 1. Where can I get a cheap Penicillin shot? 2. What's the best way to get rid of the Crabs? 3. Anybody seen my old lady, I forgot where I left her? 4. I'm in LA. Anybody got any pot for sale? (Not that 10 bucks a lid Mexican crap.) NickD

I don't believe she likes to be called Purple Patty anymore. Isn't it Pasha or something like that nowadays? NickD

It's not a Crane it's an Ultima which is really a Dynatec (made by them) and just re-branded by Ultima. If you time it the way you mentioned that's just "static" timed. It doesn't take into consideration the differences in valve train lash (and a host of other differences) from engine to engine. It's what you do just to get the bike to start before you time it for real with an inductive timing light. I was having so much fun riding I forgot I never timed Nina with a light, but when I did it was indeed off a little bit. NickD

Yes, I think they classify them by predominant material or their cores. Some are just debris held together by gravity, some are mostly rock, some are icy, and some have metal cores. NickD

Couple of updates. I hardwired a receptacle into Nina so I can plug in and charge a cell phone, and keep the GPS going, and it's funny how that's something we never worried about before. But since my old Motorola flip phone died I've really felt lost without it. But I'm waiting until after the 15th and getting a Droid X. Now that I've been on some longer rides the oil tank was getting hot enough that it was burning the underside of my thighs so I pulled it off and and added some leather around where it hit the frame and around the cap. Rode her this afty and she's better now. But these Evo motor do throw some heat, more than my older Shovelhead did. I can't imagine what those guys on the 1500 cc Twinkies are dealing with. Took Nina to the gas station for the first time after I hit reserve last night. She took 4 and a quarter gallons so I guess with her tanks sitting up so high I'm only losing 3/4 gallons of usable fuel. That's not bad, I really thought it would be more than that. Then I took her down La Tuna Canyon Road to visit a mechanic friend of mine at Bob Hope Airport, the first real twisty road we've done together. Nina likes going straight better, but she's not bad if you make her do it. We also got caught, not in a downpour, but a decent sized summer afternoon thunder storm. So I'm thinking here's where I find out what shorts out. But I wired Nina for the rain and she didn't miss a beat. A lot of guys today won't even ride in the rain nowadays, and I never understood that. I'm still having trouble with the cheap assed ignition switch. At first I thought I must have wired it wrong but it's really just a piece of junk from overseas and I'm going to have to replace it. I got it working all right by tightening it down so much but now I have to strain to turn the damn thing. I'm not sure what I'll replace it with. It seems like all of them, even the ones from the MOCO, are from someplace in Asia. I guess I'll have to run a MOPAR switch somewhere on Nina and just leave the one on the fatbob console a dummy. NickD

The European spacecraft called "Rosetta" is currently on a multi-asteroid encounter mission and just this morning sent back some great photos of a very large metal asteroid called Lutetia. Julia is working this mission from Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) as we have the only radio dish system capable of receiving the large data packets the spacecraft sends back to Earth. Rosetta is on a path to its main target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in 2014. Here's Lutetia! 1 is on approach. 2 is a closeup of a crater with evidence of a landslide. 3 is waving goodby. NickD

Arender used to be on a huge billboard in New York's Times Square with steam coming out of his mouth (to represent smoke.) I remember it from when I was a kid . . . NickD

Yup, I can put you in date, and my parking lot specials are always free of charge . . . NickD

So last night I'm out riding Nina and coming home I was about three blocks away when she started sputtering and running real bad. I shut her down and look everything over and couldn't find anything amiss. But she wouldn't start so I pushed her home and up that damn uphill driveway of mine. This morning I started checking things. The plugs looked all right, the fuel was clean and flowing, and it was getting spark. I checked the carb and that looked okay. Finally I took the timing cover off and sure enough it was the electronic programmable ignition. When I installed it, some weeks before I was ready to start Nina for the first time, I didn't tighten it down all the way, figuring I'd have to time her with a timing light. But I put the cover back on and when I did go to start her she fired right up and ran fine so I forgot all about not tightening the ignition plate. I'm amazed it stayed put so long before starting to wander. By the time I got that figured out it was too late to head out to Perris so I went down to Glendale Harley instead. They were having a barbecue and a meeting of the local HOG chapter. I wasn't sure we'd be welcomed as most of those guys run store bought Harleys but it turned out all right. I sat on a bench about ten feet from Nina and just listened to what people said when they stopped to look at her. Everyone liked her! One lady nudged her old man and said, "That's the kind of Harley you should have bought." LOL! I was dying! I guess one continuing refrain I'll have to get used to is people asking me, "Is that a real hardtail?" Well yeah, I'm thinking, if it ain't a real hardtail then it's something else. But I was polite, and just said, "why yes, it certainly is." And everyone thought that was pretty cool. I guess they are rarer than they used to be. I stayed long enough to get a killer Polish dog and a lemonade for free. And I think Nina did all right her first time out among other bikes. But I think she was surprised to find out she had so many other brothers and sisters. So I was heading for the freeway and home when a motorcycle cop pulled up behind me at a red light. And I think, okay, here we go. But when the light turned he passed me and smiled as he went by so that was very cool. Maybe I'll try for Perris next weekend . . . NickD

Bill Booth at Apple and Window's Ted Strong used to be friends, but now they seldom speak. And of course John Sherman over at Google thinks they're both idiots . . . NickD

Not only old! But fat as all get out too. Chantal must have finally learned how to cook! . . . NickD

Hey Gypsy, I'm taking Nina out to Perris tomorrow, her first 200 mile ride (there and back) and I'll probably spend the night in the Ghetto. If there's anything in that garage of yours that runs, come on out! . . . If nothing else we can laugh at Moley! NickD

>>At the risk of sounding Racist...mexicans are the worse about that shit!

Damn, I think Mr. Bill hit upon it . . . I should have just went down there and told them I lost it, not saying anything about it being wrong! NickD

Maybe I'll just get "Airtwardo" and let Jimbo deal with the tickets . . . NickD

I'm back! It's almost noon now so that took what? Three and half hours! And I did wind up on the Group W Bench to boot. I'd already waited 45 minutes when their computers went down and they completely stopped calling numbers. The outage was state wide. I stuck it out for another hour and the system came back up. Then when I finally got to a window the lady said for some reason the computer wouldn't let her make the change to the plates, so she'd have to phone up Sacramento to straighten it out. That's when I got sent to the Group W Bench which were a row of chairs marked for the Handicapped. And every few minutes some rent-a-guard would come by and try to roust me out. "But, that lady told me to sit here!" A half hour later the lady motions me back to the window and says, even after calling, they are having some sort of trouble changing the plate, but she said they'd get it done eventually and mail me the plate. So I walked out with no plate and only a new paper temporary. Now watch my stuff get lost in a pile on someone's desk! I know shit happens but what a waste of time that was . . . NickD

Tuesday morn here . . . I'm off to the DMV (with a bit of hangover no less) to get Nina's wrongly printed license plate sorted. Oh God, I can hear it already. Two hours of sitting through, "Now serving B203 at window 24!" NickD

That's a deal, anytime, Bro . . . NickD

I feel like the Nancy Reagan "Just Say No Generation" has come of age. Sad really . . . NickD

Come in and get me Coppers . . . NickD

Glock Shmock! I picked up this nice little .380 Bersa when I was down in Argentina delivering airplanes to the Contras for Ronnie Reagan (hey, it was exciting and a paycheck even though I hate conservative jack offs.) I visited the factory and they cut me a good deal. It has the double side by side magazine that holds 15 rounds (sixteen with one in the pipe) that's so illegal nowadays. I've got hollow points in it now and you just look at me wrong and your paste . . . LOL NickD