more housekeeping.
I also changed the main journal page from adventures.html to just index.html. So you can get to it just from www.bluepoof.com/motorcycles/ now. Just in case anyone cared. The old link will still work, too.

limited edition svs.
Today's picture courtesy of sv650.org. It's a limited edition silver SVS available in Switzerland. Yum.

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I asked for the ticket, and he sneered at me and asked, "what kind of bike you ride?" He said it in such a way that I figured he knew bikes, so I responded, " Suzuki SV650S." He sneered again and gave me a "crazy lady talking to me" look, so I assumed the numbers meant nothing to him, and tried again with "it's a mid-sized sportsbike." At this, he gave an audible "pffft" kind of laugh and said, "and that doesn't throw you off the back?" A little confused, I said, "Hasn't yet." At this, he literally laughed at me and said, "OK, so how do you ride that thing?" Now, I'm pretty confused, because I'm standing there in my gear, it's not like I'm making this up, and he started the conversation, so I stuttered and said, "uh, with my arms? I sit on it?" Apparently this wasn't the right answer, because he pffffted at me again and started angrily muttering, "no, not like that, that's not what I mean," and etc. By now there were other people behind me in line, so I just walked away.

What the hell? This guy was totally stupid in his retardation. I mean, if he was going to be a prick and insult me or my gender (assuming it was the "girl riding bike" that he was having trouble getting through his head), why not just come out and say it? He totally acted like I was outright lying to him about what bike I rode. Would he have been happier if I had responded with a cruiser model? A 250cc bike? What a loser monkeybutt.

because maybe we haven't had enough mechanics in our lives.
I'm pretty excited to start working on Peter's bike. It's looking like we're going to replace the clutch plates for sure, and will also inspect the springs, clutch center, and housing for wear and possible replacement as well. I've been accumulating tricks and tips from various people over the past few days, and feel pretty confident that we're up to this one. It seems pretty straightforward.

It turns out that one of the guys on the Short Biker List is a VF nut, and so he gave me a ton of information about the bike. He recommends www.SabMag.org, so if any of y'all are into V-fours as well, there ya go. I'm pretty entertained by their motto. ;) So, yeah. I gathered up all the tips people gave me, wrote them all out all nice at work, and then forgot to print out the file and bring it home. Oh well. I remember most of it.

playing hooky.
The reason I can't just go get it at work tomorrow is, well, I'm not going to work tomorrow. It's been a pretty crazy and tiring week, and I decided I just need a day off. I went up to my boss this afternoon, and said, "Timo, would you be really pissed if I didn't want to come to work tomorrow?" "No," he said. "Good, because I don't want to come to work tomorrow." "Oh!," said Timo, "are you going on a big motorcycle ride then?" "That," I replied, "is a very good idea."

So I'm thinking that I'm going to go back up in the foothills tomorrow and see how it goes. I figure it'll be fun to go by myself, because then I can turn around when I want to, and pull over to take pictures whenever I want to, and all the other sorts of things I always wish I could do whenever I'm riding with other people. I'm hoping that since it'll be a work day, that the roads won't be too busy, but I guess I'll have to make sure that I'm off of the more major roads by the time rush hour starts (just because Friday evening rush hour really sucks around here). So now I just have to figure out where to go. I'll probably start in Saratoga and go up 9 to Four Corners like usual, but I guess I'll play it by ear whether I want to go down into Boulder Creek, or turn onto 35 and go to 84 or Page Mill Road. So many choices! :)

I really need to get a digital camera like the one I got for Peter. It's small and takes great pictures, and I wouldn't have to worry about wasting film. I'll bring my nice 35mm camera with me tomorrow, and it'll still take great pictures that I'll scan in and everything, but I've been so spoiled with Peter's Elph. It's nice to know right away when you take a picture whether it generally turned out or not, or to be able to take a bunch of "playing around" shots in order to get one that really turns out nice. Ah well. I'll still take great pictures tomorrow. :)

i love my bike porn.
I got more motorcycle magazines in the mail yesterday. My neighbors must be afraid to let their children play near me, since every time I go to the mailbox and find a bike magazine, I get all excited and squeal, "oooh! porn!" happily. This week brought Woman Rider and Motorcyclist to my door. I haven't read the latter yet, but I can say that I really liked this month's Woman Rider. Usually it's chock full of cruiser stuff (not that that's bad -- I subscribe to Motorcycle Tour and Cruiser too), but this month's cover article was on women who ride Ducatis. I thought that was pretty cool. There was even a picture and a couple of quotes in the article by Kathy Gill, who's a Ducati rider and also on the Short Biker List. That made me happy. Her picture was in the article right next to one of a woman with bright teal hair sitting on her Monster. This also made me happy. Yay!

I'm considering writing to Woman Rider and asking if they're accepting contributions to the magazine. I'd really like to write something for them. I don't care about getting paid or any of that; I just really enjoy the magazine and think it'd be fun to be involved with it. This month's "Letter from the editor" mentioned that she's always happy to get email from readers, telling their stories, or talking about their bikes -- I'm trying to think of a story or something to include that would be interesting enough to pique their interest. Who knows? I think it'd kick ass to be included with those gals. We'll see if I can come up with something. :)