zagger

I'm thinking about some barrels in my yard. https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/us-stocks-april-20-2020 Of course, I would need a friend with a refinery to make some gas, etc. Anyone have those connections? zag

For what it's worth - I like my Arai helmet. Like this one: https://www.araiamericas.com/node/224 I like having the chin guard a little further out (like the Arai) than the normal full face helmet so that you aren't breathing straight into the chin guard. I cut out the vents to provide better airflow. Although I really like the visor sun protection, I did cut it back a bit from the stock size. As I recall, I also installed a tinted shield. Although it is expensive to change your mind, it might be good to pick something to try and see if it works for you. zag PS I'm not a fan of hinged chin guards since I'm concerned that it might hinge up or down right when I'm doing a face-plant. I like the components of the helmet to be rigidly fixed.

No, but I did just finish running to the dump and piling brush beside the road in front of my house. My wife planted a "dwarf" cedar near our garage and when it got up past the garage roof, we figured that the "dwarf" claim was a lie and we had to cut it down. Lots of brush to deal with. On top of the usual ginormous piles of garden junk from my wife. Fortunately, our village just reopened the dump this week. My garage was completely full of stuff that needed a new home. Now I just have bikes, lawnmower, and snowblower. zag

I haven't seen anything yet. What is the schedule supposed to be? zag

Thank you cowpuc. I appreciate your honesty. zag

This should be a discussion about Covid-19 since this mess is affecting all of us in important ways. I certainly don't see any reason to drag in other topics. Maybe just boredom? I'm starting to wonder when warmer weather will come and if travel restrictions will be lifted so that I can get my bikes on the road. zag

More pieces in the puzzle. https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/did-xi-jinping-deliberately-sicken-the-world/ zag

Well, thankfully we are not shut down completely and the dump is open again today. My wife has a bunch more garden debris that needs a new home. Pretty pathetic that my life now revolves around dump hours! How exciting! We still have giant piles of brush but, supposedly, the village is going to send around trucks with chippers next week. zag PS I am still delivering meals to old farts that cannot get out of their homes. Gonna make another run this morning. The community center now sets everything outside - big insulated bags with color coded tags and lists of the addresses.

Just got back from two trips to the dump. All garden stuff goes into the composting part. Other than restricting the number of cars in the dump area, it wasn't a problem. Got rid of my wife's gardening junk and a bunch of cut sod. Next week we are supposed to have brush pickup and that should get rid of the big piles of brush inside the garage and outside. zag

I have zero idea why religion is having any input into this discussion. We are living through a time when a country who is searching for more control has either purposely released a virus to the world or done so through incompetence. Apparently, it appears that the virus contains genetic aspects which could only have been derived from a laboratory. If that doesn't give you a moment to think - I don't know what would. I'm hoping to survive this and I hope the same thing for all of my VR friends. Gonna spend the afternoon hauling my wife's garden junk to the dump. Should be a zoo since it has been closed for months. Only one car at a time into the drop off area. zag

Spend an hour and watch the video (post #1 ). Pretty sobering. zag

Well, it seems to me that we are all trying to deal with a life/death issue. Where I live, everything is shut down and neighbors get online if anyone stops at our house and a car is in the driveway. I guess we will eventually find out how many Venture riders are left after this. Since news is obviously censored, I thought it would be good to pass on the latest findings to my friends. I guess that I don't see the political aspect, unless you are in the Chinese ruling party and don't like the obvious evidence that the virus spread was both created and concealed. Now the reports are 21 million dead in China. This isn't a republican/democrat thing - this is just simple survival. zag https://web.archive.org/web/20200406190917/https://n5ti.com/health/1233/

That is the dilemma, isn't it? We take actions which make sense in our "free world economy" viewpoint, but the results may slowly crush us. I think that I would immediately return all essential manufacturing (like manufacturing of medicines) to the US. Even something simple could be a problem since our capabilities may have become so poor that we are not able to deal with anything. Pretty scary situation if the producer decides to turn the screws. I would cut those boys off regardless of the cost. The alternative is slow suicide. What a situation! I have nothing against the Chinese people but I completely distrust their government. Years ago I built my own electronics company and happened to bring my kids to a northern Wisconsin ski hill. An old Chinese guy was working to clear tables in the cafeteria and I started to chat with him. Turned out that he was running from the Chinese government of that time since he was Christian and that was illegal in China. I drove back up to northern Wisconsin to pick him up, found him a place to live, hired him at my company, and tried to prove that he had made the right choice by coming here. It was fairly painful since he wasn't able to do anything that needed to be done in our electronics production. Just an old guy a long way from his family. The point is: these Chinese government freaks have been grinding their people for many years. It is totally time to shut them down. zag

Time to make those bastards pay the price. I'd suggest stopping all imports from China immediately. They have started a secret war with the rest of the world. zag

If your pipes are not loud enough, then I'm not use what horns might do. zag

Well, now I am depressed! Thanks for the info. zag

In addition to the push button, there is a starter relay which must make a good electrical contact to provide power to the starter motor. If the relay contacts get pitted and make a poor electrical connection, you might hear a "click" as the relay closes but the starter will not get enough power to turn. This arrangement is common to all cars and bikes with electric start. zag

I had to stop at the grocery store for a couple of things and saw that every checkout position had signs stuck to the floor, spaced out at 6 foot intervals, showing where the next person in line should stand. Of course, there was practically nobody in the store. I was happy to notice the employee's wiping down everything with some sort of disinfectant. zag

The stock under seat tank is actually a great design and is the main reason why I got my venture. Of course, most folks are completely confused and think that the top of the tank where the filler is located is actually the entire tank (maybe 1 quart sized!). I have no desires to replicate any sort of tank located on the frame between my knees. Anyway, it wouldn't be very easy to do since the frame has two rails in that area unlike most bikes which have a single frame rail running through a tunnel in the gas tank. I used the space above the carbs for Vboost valves (from a Vmax) and individual intake filters. I do carry four plastic cups to stick on the filters if I need to leave the bike parked in pouring rain. Good luck with your project. zag

I really like the under seat gas tank on early ventures. In fact, that is why I got the bike to modify and make into some sort of chopper - not a bobber, I guess. Keeping the weight sitting low in the bike is really a good idea and makes handling much faster. Many riders have no idea where the gas is stored since the tank isn't obvious. Seems like a lot of effort to adapt some gas tank to your frame. Why not just go with the parts that you have? zag

I have a "Stop & Go" tire plugging kit with CO2 cartridges for tire inflation. To be honest, I regard it as a magical talisman to prevent flats! As long as I am prepared, nothing will happen. zag https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/stop-go-tubeless-tire-plugger-with-co2

Just got back from the grocery store. TP is completely gone. Lots of other shelves are bare also. We stocked up on dog food since we have 3 guys who expect a couple of meals every day. Since this is only beginning, I will bet that the effects are going to grow. zag

I prefer FLAT black, the stealth non-color. zag

I had these extra gas tanks for my Honda Sabre welded up at a nearby shop. The dimensions were chosen so that they fit right behind my saddlebags, but the dimensions could be anything that works for you. There are fittings on the bottom of each tank that connect to an electric fuel pump so that I only have to hit a switch on the handlebar to move the gas in each of the tanks into the main tank. When the main tank goes onto reserve, there is enough room for the gas in one of the spare tanks. There is no need to stop the bike or fiddle around trying to dump gas from a spare tank into the standard gas filler location. This whole system works great and tripled the bike's range. Not as simple as a plastic bottle stuffed in a saddlebag, but this is certainly less messy and much more convenient. Just thought you might be interested. zag

Just got back from a very large grocery store. It was a mob scene with very long lines and signs on the outside doors listing their restrictions on purchases of toilet paper and bottled water. Of course, the one thing I went there to buy, they didn't have. zag