Thought Sparks

Making a Motorcycle Fit a Tall Rider

Posted by Phil on August 29, 2009 – 2:39 am

This post has been on my mind for quite some time. I’ve devoted a good chunk of time the last few months in getting my Honda Shadow Ace 750 to fit me just right. After walking through the paces I thought I’d pass the info along for other tall riders like myself.

The delimma; making a mid-size cruiser fit a tall person

I stand 6′ 2″ tall. Finding a bike to fit a tall rider is not an easy task, especially if you want to go with a mid-size displacement engine. Being highly practical I went with a Honda cruiser as I love the way they ride, they are economical and are notoriously reliable. I also wanted a bike that I could modify as needed without spending a mint.

Getting the Bike to fit Ergonomically

Finding a bike that fits you perfectly without adjustments is near impossible. Adjusting the bike to fit you is a necessary process, one that can take some time and dollars. I did not want to spend several thousand on a bike and then another grand or so on adjustments.

Some essential adjustments:

Adjust handlebars. Replacing handlebars is an expensive proposition. The factory placement was too low and too far forward. The answer: Risers. I bought a set of risers for $130. Specifically Phat Risers II for the Honda Shadow ACE 750. They did the trick without purchasing new cables. The stock ones did have to be re-routed which I did all but the throttle cables myself.
Added a Backrest for support. The I found an economical one off ebay for $120. It’s not adjustable and was a pain to install but actually fits just right. The Honda stock seat became significantly more comfortable after the backrest was installed. I’ve ridden nearly two hours straight with no significant discomfort.

Other minor adjustments for comfort. Beyond those two major purchases there are a number of tweaks I’ve done to make the ride more comfortable:

Removed the foot brake pedal pad to give my leg more room. (Amazing the difference).
Adjusted the position of the handlebars to the perfect angle for me.
Adjusted up the windshield as far as it goes and raised the bottom sliding window to vent some air and remove some turbulence off the top.
Added a throttle wrist rest. This $13 slip-on piece from the cycle shop is well worth the investment. Even for around-town riding it makes a big difference.
Added an engine guard. I went with economical one for $120 off ebay which was a bit of a pain to install. Besides providing more protection for the bike in case of a spill and looking snazzy, the extra weight on the front-end helped the tire grip better.

Now that the bike fits just right I enjoy every minute of the ride. Being essentially a car replacement, I’m putting 1500 miles a month on the bike. The bike gets consistently between 50 and 52 miles per gallon. All purchases paid in cash and for a reasonable price it will pay-off in the long run.

Mission Accomplished, Down to 180

Posted by Phil on March 16, 2009 – 3:10 pm

Filed under Goal Setting, Just for Fun

Though it took several months beyond my 40th birthday, I finally saw 180 on the scale. In the course of 18 months I’ve dropped a solid 20 pounds. What started as my 35 Day No Caffeine Experiment led to a series of lifestyle changes which had a long-term affect in taking-off the belly fat. The truth is that it’s hard to get started but the momentum has led to an ever easier series of decisions for what I ingest in my body. Fundamentally the move away from the 20 year habit of drinking coffee (which has been permanent) has led to a revision in how I see food and energy.

I used to feed on caffeine and sugar to boost my energy. The truth is that it was a counterfeit version of energy, short-lived and fleeting at best. By diverting from the quick fixes I’ve noticed a long-term vitality that comes from more exercise, good food and letting my body naturally float through the variance in levels of energy through the day as opposed to the quick fixes. I no long move through the day on artificial highs of caffeine and white sugar. Don’t get me wrong, I still drink tea many mornings sweetened with honey. I eat a piece of chocolate now and again as well. What I don’t do is to depend substances to buoy me up.

Motorcycle Odyssey

Posted by Phil on March 8, 2009 – 9:08 pm

Filed under Just for Fun

What started as a scooter, grew to riding an old 500cc Honda Shadow motorcycle which has gone to full bloom now in a shiny 2002 Honda Shadow ACE 750cc bike. Through a pretty intensive educational process I am learning how to ride safely, how to maintenance a bike and learning about myself along the way.

One thing I’ve learned afresh about myself is the ability to intensely focus on things to the point of pushing aside other pursuits. During these last several months my posts to thoughtsparks.net has dropped out as I’ve been consumed with fixing-up bikes, scanning Craigslist, riding the bike and just wrapping myself around the process. Now on the backside of the initial learning curve I can say that I am well pleased with the end result.

So what has the process been? First there was the scooter and helmet purchase in October. In November the scooter was sold and the old Honda 500 was purchased. Then commenced the extended repairs of the bike along with taking the Motorcycle Safety course in January. February, in between trips to San Diego and Chicago was riding and fixing, riding and fixing. March looks the most promising with the sale of the ‘83 Shadow and now the purchase of the ‘02 750cc.

What’s next? Riding and more riding. Now that I have a truly road worthy bike it’s off to the Texas Hill Country in the Spring for some adventures and taking in the beautiful Spring scenery.

Inspired by the Aspire One

Posted by Phil on December 24, 2008 – 5:47 am

Filed under Reviews

This week I picked-up a new Acer Aspire One Netbook for $350. I’ve been eying these sweet little machines for a while. What put me over the edge was the change from a Solid State drive with only 8 GB to a HDD with 144 GB. I needed a very portable but fully functional machine. It has 1GB memory installed with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor. It boots in about 12 seconds and responds nicely. I have decided to keep the number of services running on the machine to a minimum with anti-virus and Skype being the only two added that would put a noticeable load on the processor.

So far I give the machine high marks for the most part. I love the overall design with a casing that seems pretty sturdy and a nice glossy lid. The screen is very bright and the keyboard is adequate to effectively pound away. The HDD model puts out a bit more heat and weighs a little more but still not a beast by any stretch. The mouse position is the biggest flaw with the buttons on the left and right of the pad as apposed to just in front. If you use an external mouse or know/learn keyboard shortcuts, it’s a tolerable inconvenience.

The built-in web cam has a nice resolution which will come in handy for Skype sessions. The speakers are a little tiny, but adequate enough to enjoy listening to music.

The machine comes in both Linux and XP. Being that I’m a Windows guy, I decided to stick with XP and was able to load my full version of Office wirelessly by sharing a disk drive from one of my other machines. One funky default setting easily fixed was the power setting for the wireless connection. It was set to maximum power efficiency which caused the connection to be very flaky. By turning that setting to off, it was good to go. That one oversight the company really needs to fix.

This little machine is powerful enough that if one were to get an external mouse, keyboard and monitor, it could become a primary machine for someone. You’d need to in that case purchase an external CD drive if you don’t have another machine to load software and transfer music files etc, across a local network.

Going Green is Fun

Posted by Phil on October 31, 2008 – 4:33 am

Filed under Just for Fun

Here’s a little secret; being environmentally conscious and fiscally responsible can bring with it some really good times. Newly acquired, I picked-up a really nice deal on this retro style Yamaha Vino this past weekend. Between scooting around on this 50cc to work and hoping on my trusty Marin bicycle, I’m having a ball. With Texas being such a mild climate one can ride virtually year-round aside from the far too few rainy days.

I also love the idea of parking my Camry with 190k on it and extending the life of that old ‘95 model even further. It’s still humming like it was just driven off the dealer’s lot.

I enjoy the adventure that comes from trying new things. Looking for alternatives to our resource-guzzling, over-sized and over-extended culture requires some creative thinking and flexibility. Alternative transport is just one great way to save resources as well as positively affect the environment. Some other ideas I am happy to employ:

Be content with TV from an antenna instead of cable. With a high-def unit and a good antenna I can pick-up both the regular pbs channel and the new Create pbs channel (what more do you need).
Stay content living in a small house. It keeps our family close (both figuratively and literally) and we save big, big bucks with small mortgage, low utility costs and we don’t have room to just accumulate more stuff we don’t really need.
Live close to work which makes scooting and biking very convenient. I used to work 25 miles from where I live in which I would bike and bus to work. Busing is a whole other adventure.
Shopping at Goodwill and garage sales. It’s amazing what folks will discard that is in perfectly good condition.

I’m sure there are many other things I could do that would be good stewardship for what I’ve been given. What ways have you employed?

Customer Support from 1and1.com is Hurty

Posted by Phil on October 14, 2008 – 8:17 am

Filed under Reviews

In the past I’ve recommended 1and1.com for web hosting. I’ve appreciated there reasonable pricing and overall user-friendly administrative interface. However, their customer service is bottom-of-the-barrel. My account was suspended last Thursday due to a billing mix-up. I immediately corrected the issue on my end but it took them until Monday to rectify the problem. It seems that their tech support is handled in India and their billing in the States. After repeated phone calls with promises made that the situation would be rectified quickly it finally was resolved four days later. For a hosting company, that is really pathetic. Any web host you would recommend? I may be in the market.

Which Browser for What Purpose

Posted by Phil on October 3, 2008 – 4:29 am

Filed under FireFox, Google, Microsoft, Reviews

Which is the best browser? That all depends on the purpose. Here’s a short summary comparison of the three browsers:

Internet Explorer 7.0/8.0: It launches slow, loads pages slow and has many irksome features in the general bloated fashion of Microsoft. I have little use for IE for home use. However, on an enterprise level, IE makes a compelling argument for it’s use with integrated authentication and compatibility with its Office and SharePoint products.

FireFox 3.0: Still a mainstay on my desktop, FireFox has an amazing array of browser add-ons that make it a browser of choice for developers. FireFox is hands-down the most flexible and feature packed browser with a large developer community. For an all-purpose browser FireFox takes the cake. One important caveaut, add-ons can slow the launch of the browser down to that of IE which is paltry.

Chrome: The fastest browser by far. It launches quick, loads pages rapidly and simply a slick browser. It’s streamline design, not surprising coming from Google, allows for more screen space. I hope that Google doesn’t get the itch to over engineer the browser as it evolves but leaves the simplicity of it alone. For Mac fans, Chrome is on its way; Just hang on.

Hello Big 4-0

Posted by Phil on September 24, 2008 – 5:27 am

Filed under Goal Setting, Health, Just for Fun

Not sure how I got here this quickly. Just a year ago I wrote the post A Techie Looks at 40. Now here it has come and gone I’m officially over the hill or there abouts. I was talking with Sabrina and the girls last night about how I think at a certain point your true age is determined by three things:

Genetics – You can’t do much about that one.

Lifestyle choices – These are many little choices that add-up. I can tell you that I feel remarkably better than I did a year ago. I dropped my 20 year addiction to coffee (which started with my No Caffeine 35 Day Experiment), dropped fifteen pounds (didn’t Lose 20 by 40 but made some real progress), and am walking on an almost daily basis.

Outlook on life – This one I also have a great amount of control over. It’s a state of mind more than anything. My mother who is a young 76 years old chose to turn outward instead of inward after my dad passed away eight years ago. She cuts a rug on a regular basis with her friends and is currently off on another of her travels.

So from here forth my pledge is to take what I’ve been given, continue to make concrete goals that promote wise lifestyle choices and to keep dreaming. The greater part of failure must be in not dreaming, not believing in what is possible, not setting goals and not going for it. I think I’d rather “fail” at not accomplishing all my dreams or goals than “succeed” at reaching my goals by setting so few.

A Future Past-time

Posted by Phil on September 18, 2008 – 2:04 am

Filed under Creativity, Just for Fun

I think I may have found one of my future hobbies. This cat over at POPcycles! takes old bike frames and refurbishes them into practical works of art. How cool is that. I love the simplicity of single gear bikes with a retro feel to them. Maybe it will be a side business or perhaps a non-profit to put bikes in the hands of folks who can’t afford one. I could just see me some day having a workshop behind the house being known as the old coot who gives bikes away. With gas prices surely to continue to climb over time, I’m betting on the ever increasing adoption of the bike as an ideal mode to scoot about town.

Time to Tighten Our Belts

Posted by Phil on September 16, 2008 – 6:01 am

Filed under Just for Fun, Philosophy, economics, perspective

The market correction for the over indulgence of our country is finally catching-up with us and it’s going to smack a good bit for a while. We have been living on borrowed time with a false sense of prosperity for too long. Time to pay the piper and it is going to cost us big time.

No doubt things look grim. Our banking system is in virtual free fall and our international environment looks grim with Russia back on the scene as our enemy of old taking aggressive steps; building a base in Syria and parking nuclear bombers in Argentina. We will most likely vote a young man who is ill-prepared with the least experience in the history of the country to be president. The American people will continue to point fingers at our Government to blame them for the excess. All total, it looks like we are in for a big piece of humble pie.

In this time of political upheaval, we want to blame the present administration. In truth, we should blame ourselves. Our problems run deep and long dating back to Roosevelt’s New Deal when the government got in the business of trying to rescue the economy. In the course of less than a hundred years we have lost our way.

What does one do about it? Personally, what steps to take?

The first step I’m taking is to get quiet and listen for the truth among all the rhetoric. Try to listen for the voice of reason through the flurry of reports. This is a good time to also get quiet before God and ask Him for wisdom and discernment as to how we should live through some impending difficult times.

The second step I’m taking is to tighten my belt a bit. I’m beginning to discuss with my family the difference between a want and a need and make some spending choices accordingly. The recent hurricane events in Texas certainly help to give a visual reminder of our necessities. The basics such as food, shelter, healthcare, transportation and communication enable us to function as individuals and society at large. We are not the self-contained units we would like to be.

The third step I’m taking is to evaluate my current situation. Are there ways to simplify my lifestyle? What built-in expenses are there that I can alter to reduce our overall financial liability? In my case, for the most part, the answer is to hold steady. Don’t make any sudden changes. We are not hemorraging in any major area, so don’t do anything stupid. Make decisions very slowly and thoughtfully. Put-off major purchases until we see the backside of these turn of events (if we see them anytime soon).

The fourth step I’m taking is to look for opportunity in an economic down turn. Opportunity to prosper with the right investments and opportunity to serve people in need. Each season presents unique challenges and makes available possibilities that won’t present themselves again. The coming economic freefall opens-up the need we have for each other.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better, that we know for sure. How we approach these circumstances will make all the difference. Do we shake in our boots or do we boldly move forward seizing the opporunities before us to turn away from our selfishness and find a new level of caring and interaction with our neighbors. I just pray that any hardships that come would bring-out the best in us.