Added to the box

I painted the box satin black and added some stickers from my favorite coffee shop. Since I do pick up coffee every day I figured it was appropriate and the stickers should make people notice me better. Not the best paint job but I figures I was gonna cover it with stickers any way.
Side note: Satin textured paint is a pain in the butt to get stickers to adhere to.

Tiddler upgrades

I had some time to work on the Tiddler this weekend and thought I would share it.
A friend had an old metal box he got with one of his machine shop tools and never used. I mounted it to the diamond plate he cut for me and now I have a secure metal "trunk" for the Tiddler.

I used allen head bolts from underneath and wing nuts on the inside for security and easy removal. Steve has some great ideas, guess that's why he's the machinist/artist.
While I was at it, the wife has a daily demand for me on the way home from work in the morning (I work nights). She's a little high maintenance and "doesn't care for drip coffee". What ever.
So she demands (let me tell ya, I hear it when I don't do it) her morning iced latte from Dutch Brothers. What the hell? I'm riding a motorcycle from 1969! There aren't any cup holders!
Well now there are.
I cut some thin cardboard from some old packaging I had laying around to fit inside part of the inner frame work of the box. Placed in 2 cups side by side and filled the remaining space with foam insulation from a can. It expands greatly so I had to cut off the excess but now I have 2 cup holders on a 1969 ct90.
And it stores all my crap with room for a strategically placed helmet

Not bad for a little extra time on the weekend.
Yeah, I know the box is blue and the bike is yellow. I didn't take that much time! There are other weekends

Are you kidding me?

I moved away from political blogging for a while, but this head line caught my attention and I have to put it out there:

Killings of 4 Americans in Tijuana sow fear

Then in the article I read "President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 45,000 soldiers to combat drug cartels in the country whose turf battles have killed more than 10,750 people over the last two-and-a-half years."
Compare this to Chicago - 509 people were murdered in Chicago 2008.

People, Mexico is DANGEROUS and the border cities are some of the worst.
We need to do something, because soon, those murders will happen on our side of the border. We need to protect our border and our people. We need to stop this crime from flowing over.

James Bond

Over the last few days I have had the pleasure to watch the original first 3 James Bond movies from 1963 and 1964
The special effects are sometimes laughable to today's standards but that forced them to involve more reality and risk to get the desired effect. A few such laughable are the obvious fast forward during car chases or prerecorded film in the windows to simulate a live chase from inside the car.
Ignoring these, I find these movies more believable then most made today.
the vehicles are real and the weapons, if not real, are plausible. Fight scenes are the best. This is street fighting, not professional martial artists. It's what you expect to see in real life. People tackling eachother, headlocks, missed punches, using what ever is in the room as a weapon like chairs, bottles etc.
The response to being hit is more real then todays super hero type recoveries. You get hit in the head with a bottle, you get knocked out. You take a couple punches to the head, you get knocked out. You get shot you die. In todays movies, it seems the only way to get killed is to be beheaded or blownup and even then thats only a maybe.
There was more reality in the James Bond films. I hope I get to wath the rest of them soon.
James Bond is not a "super Hero" in the sense of super powers etc. He is an attainable human. He fights hand to hand like any other man, uses everyday weapons or what will one day be. He can be injured. He lives to a standard of integrity and honor. He fights the terrorists of the day and out smarts them and out fights them because he is smarter, faster and better. What ever happened to that?
Todays movies it's all about fantasy and super / unattainable powers. No human could perform in such a way. A child could grow up to be James Bond with education and training and practice. And in these films you learn that being hit or shot hurts and there is a deadly consiquence.
Hmmm... Maybe thats what I like about JB, The bad guy loses and there are always consequence for action. Oh, and Bond always gets the sexy woman.

Nicks DIY bike bench

After spending too much time laying on the cold cement of my garage and being too cheap to buy a professional lift, I decided to build my own ct90 work bench.
I decided on a work area that is 2'H x 3'W x 7L' I could have gone a little smaller but happy I didn't.
I figured out my wood needs and went to Home Depot to get the materials and have them cut it to length. I know I could have gotten the wood cheaper at a local shop, but I am not so straight with the circular saw and knew Home Depot would chop it for free. A real time saver.
I also decided on screws to hold everything together and because I knew I would mess up something and have to be able to easily correct the error. I'm a klutz and a little dyslexic and a bit A.D.D. so I leave myself an out. It's also good to know that when it loosens up, I can tighten the screws rather than hammer more nails.

Materials list:
(6) 4"x4" cut to 2 feet
(2) 2"x6" cut to 7 feet
(2) 2"x4" cut to 7 feet
(4) 2"x4" cut to 3 feet 3 inches
(4) 2"x4" cut to 3 feet
(1) sheet plywood cut 3 feet x 7 feet
(54) 2 1/2" wood screws
(32) 2" wood screws

The 4x4 are the legs, 2x6 are the side rails with about 1 1/2" lip to keep stuff from falling off, long 2x4 is bottom support rail and the rest are support ribs under and on the ends of the plywood.

After assembly, I lumbered up on the bench and did a little jig. I'm about 260lbs (+/-) and not even a squeak! Then I pulled the bike up and walked around it and still no movement!
I will add a couple 2x4 or 2x2 to the bottom rails to use as ramp storage. I plan to make a 12" x 7' ramp so I can drive onto the bench rather than keep picking up the bike. Unless I find a cheap plastic or metal ramp beforehand.

Reasons for size: I could easily have kept the stock 8 foot length of the boards but I am strapped for garage space and 12 inches actually makes a difference. 3 feet seems wide enough to have room to walk around the bike and a place to set tools and parts. I can roll the front tire to the edge and then pull the ct90 onto it's center stand and I am now centered on the table.
Besides, Home Depot cut the wood for free so I knew I wasn't gonna lose a finger on this project.
2 feet seems to bring the bike to a comfortable height for sitting on a stool or chair.
I will also drop a piece of scrap linoleum down for easy cleanup of the oil I will spill. My battery charger and a few tools will be hung on the rails.

And for those of you that have dogs, just tell your wife you are building a dog grooming table. Great height for trimming fur, nails etc... And then it "doubles as a ct90 parking throne".
All this for less than $60

Recently I acquired a Honda ct90 K1 from my father-in-law.

Being my first motorcycle, I have a lot to learn. First, I have to learn how to get this thing street safe and while I am doing that, I have to learn to ride. Yeah, I know it should be easy but since I have never been on any bike other than as a passenger, I figure I should do it right and then create the bad habits.
If I take Basic Rider Training then I do not have to test at the DMV
I would much rather learn and test from a trained pro instructor than test for some DMV employee. Yeah, never had much luck with DMV testing people. That's another post.

I am told this is a simple bike to work on and riding it should come easy.
On my side links you can find a few sites with parts, history and pictures. Honda Japan is still producing these for Australia for the postal service and they are referred to as posties there.
This ct90 has not been running for about 4 years and yesterday I got it started and drove it around the yard for a bit. It has quit a bit of pep and torque. And I got my first offer to buy it! Not for sale.
They were advertised to the outdoors person with the ads showing men and women driving them in the woods with rifles mounted on the side and secured to the back of campers with a simple carrier.
They are also street legal without modification!

I began this experience by going to the local dirt bike shop and asking if they carried parts or knew anything about the ct90. I was answered with "those things are money pits and I hate them". As you can imagine, I won't be spending any money at that shop.
Since then, I have found great resources on the internet and even a few within 20 miles of the house. I have also learned that far from being money pits, these bikes were (are) known for being almost bulletproof! Like many old vehicles, you can spend more money repairing and restoring than what you can sell it for. But unlike most new vehicles, you can actually work on it yourself and most parts aren't equal to buying a new one.

I joined a Yahoo!! Group that has more resources than I thought would exist.
I figured I would have to scrape the bowels of old book stores and parts houses to find wiring diagrams and manuals etc. But I found them and more with this group.

I’ll try to remember to take pictures as I disassemble and reassemble “old yeller”
If you are interested where I have found parts and info, drop a comment and I will be happy to share my resources.

Polysomnography

Sleep is an interesting phenomena. We spend almost half our lives asleep and
more often than not, we don't think about it until we have had a bad nights
sleep. We wake up tired, sore and irritable.
Why?
what causes this?
What can we do to correct it?

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003932.htm

Polysomnography is a sleep study. It measures your sleep cycles and stages by recording brain waves (EEG), electrical activity of muscles, eye movement, breathing rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rhythm.
A specially trained health care provider will directly observe you while you sleep.
There are two states of sleep: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
REM sleep is associated with dreaming. Your body muscles (except your eyes and lungs) do not move during this stage of sleep.
NREM sleep has four stages distinguishable by EEG waves.
REM sleep alternates with NREM sleep approximately every 90 minutes. A person with normal sleep usually has four to five cycles of REM and NREM sleep during a night.