A Good Saturday, Indeed.
Aug. 18th, 2002 03:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikMmmm. Dim-sum. Well, okay, I don't like most of it, but at least Ming's makes enough of those steamed (and baked) pork buns to make me want to keep going back. Lunch with Paka, Es, Devi, Frang, Farix, Revar, Sassinak, Jon-Ra, and one of Paka's buddies (my usual crappy name memory fails me, as always) was quite fun. Having 10 folks also makes it stupidly easy to divide up the check.
For the first time since I began it, I violated my 'no food after 9p' rule. However, it was done because I was invited to dinner at Frang's. He went to great effort to prepare the meal; it took past 9p to get things finished was all. I'm not going to dis- a friend by going "ding! It's nine, sorry, can't eat your food now," after he had gone to all that effort, so for tonight I ignored the clock. I felt that I'd not violated the spirit of the rule, which was designed to keep me from grazing pointlessly in the evenings. Frang's cooking was exceptional, so I'm glad I partook.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
revar drove me to Ming's since we wanted to arrive together and I didn't want to drive the Van of Anti-Economy. Afterwards we pulled by our upstream data provider to drop off this month's check (yeah, I kind of biffed mailing it on time, whoops). Since I couldn't figure out what else to do, I convinced him to drive me by Road Rider, the biggest motorcycle accessory store in the south bay. I really love going there. I had no special reason to go other than some vague wants, and the need to clear up a special order that'd been lingering for months.
Road Rider is an interesting place. It is one of the only 100% neutral zones in the Bay Area motorcycling scene. Hog-drivers, supersport-squids, cruisejockeys, tour-nuts, grandpa-wingers, dirt-chewers, dualie freaks and scared-shakyhanded-newbies can co-exist in the same space without fear of taunting, intimidation or mockery. There is still a lot of posing, but it's muted. Folks actually have a reason to go there, so posing with one's bike is reduced to a subtext. It's still fun to show off a little, but it's not the core reason you're there (unlike, say, Alices or other biker hangouts). They are also not a motorcycle dealer, so they have no real brand preference or promotion. They have things for most all makes and kinds of bikes, though admittedly their stock is baised towards whatever trends are currently rippling through the motorcycling industry that month.
A few months earlier,reality_fox took a drillbit to his SV650's tail-light. Yes, he did it on purpose. No, it did not go as planned. Yet another definition of "pulling a fox" was created. While in Road Rider later that week, I decided to play nice-friend and ordered him a replacement tail-light. This was backordered and would take a few weeks, they said. No problem, says I, and down went $80 and a request to be called when it comes in. It never came in, and I kept forgetting about it... until today. A quick stop at the counter showed the errant tail-light had still not shipped in. They had no problem refunding me the money and were in fact surprised I'd not come to claim it sooner.
Here's $80 that I'd not planned on having, and here's me standing in a motorcycle store with it. We all know this money isn't going to leave the store.
I got a new cargo net, this time with metal hooks. The last one I had came with chintzy plastic ones which gave way on Friday and nearly dumped my laptop onto Camden Avenue. Grrrr. I also looked at various locking systems such as super-chains and steel cables, but I couldn't find one that I felt would work. A new jar of windshield cleaner and some really silly $3 yin/yang valve stem caps found their way into my basket too. Revar spotted some MX goggles with holographic lenses on them, designed to make the wearer look like a robot or all kinds of other weird effects, and pointed them out to me amusedly. This got me thinking about one of my gear-quests... namely, having proper dirt-riding attire.
To ride in the dirt safely requires slightly different equipment. One of the more obvious changes is in the helmet design. An MX-style helmet has a protruded chin-protector, a sun-visor, and no face shield. Instead of the usual flip-down shatterproof plastic, dirt-riders wear goggles that fit over the helmet and snugly cover the eyes. The arrangement allows for much easier breathing and facial-air cooling, while at the same time providing much more robust eye protection from mud and dust. This is important offroad for a number of reasons. Keeping cool is more important when you're at lower speeds and are working harder to keep the bike vertical on rought terrain. Hitting a mudhole or water crossing could flood-fill a full-face helmet if the visor was cracked open, making it hard to see. Riding through the roostered dust of the guy ahead of you can coat the inside of your visor, whereas sealed goggles will be just fine.
I plan to ride the GS offroad more seriously as my skill increases. Therefore, I need dirt-gear and a helmet/goggles set would be a good place to start. I've ranted earlier about how hard it is to buy helmets for my XXXL melon, but Road Rider had found a super-sized Arai for me earlier... maybe they could help me now. After some serious digging, the salesguy produced two boxes. Two MX helmets, both 3XL in size, one white, one blue/black/silver. Both fit like a charm, much to my surprise -- just annoyingly tight enough to let me know they'd break in perfectly over time. To add to the bonus find was the fact they were on sale! I picked the blue/black/silver one, as it'll match the Bates cordura suit I have on the way.
The helmet, minus the sale price, plus goggles, plus cargonets and valvecaps, minus the refund for the taillight: $70. Wow. Considering this helmet would have been $190 by itself if not on sale, it was amazingly cool to get out of there so cheaply. Sure, it's an HJC, but it's both DOT- and Snell-rated... and it FITS.
No, I didn't get the silly hologram goggles. :) Mine were just normal Scott goggles, their Model 87. They're designed to fit over normal glasses if need be, so I can wear my sunglasses still if I wish.
I figured I'd get while the gettin' was good and my wallet still had some greenery left in it. I've got a good friend to pay back before I do any huge purchases anyways. The evil part is that I'm quite sure the helmet and goggles are just the first step down yet another money-soaking fork in the road, this one labelled 'MX gear'. Now for the Phat Catt dirt-gear, the wider pegs on the GS, some MX-style gloves, offroading boots... (voice trailing off into the distance)
---------
What surprised me about the day, however, was my reaction to an honest comment. As the nice gentleman at the counter was off doing evil things to my debit card in exchange for this new helmet, I recognized two guys who had gotten into line behind me. Both were older, one a black fellow who rode a gold wing, the other a long-bearded white-guy who rode a V-Rod. I don't know their names, but I recognized the faces -- we'd talked at length about each others bikes, on an earlier Road Rider shopping trip. The neutral-ground aura the store carries often makes for such casual meetings, where customers end up seeing each other more than once and wave a friendly 'hi'... maybe giving each other updates on their bikes or rides they've done. I remember both of these fellow riders being curious of the mods I'd done to my GL1800, some four or five months ago. A brisk "oh, hey, hi!" was exchanged, before my attention was diverted by the clerk returning with a credit-card receipt that needed my scribblings-upon.
The 'wing rider of the pair put his stuff on the counter as I was making to leave, new helmet-box in hand. Quite casually, he offered a compliment. "Hey, it looks like you've been working out. Are'ya doing the gym thing? You look a lot better." The comment didn't really register with me at the moment, so I just grinned/nodded, and parted with my usual biker-to-biker comment: "Have a good ride, guys!" I followed Revar back to the car.
It took me about 5 minutes before it sunk in. Someone I'd only met maybe twice before, but hadn't seen in 4+ months, saw enough difference in me to offer a compliment as to my physical condition. A true, honest, no-hidden-subtext statement from a member of the public, that I looked healthier/more-fit than I did back earlier in the year.
My own reaction to this realization still surprises me. I was downright elated! I spent the ride back to the house all jazzed-up, probably annoying the heck out of poor Revar. Having a happy-Tug bouncing around in the passenger seat of a VW New Beetle has got to be a bit distracting, if not just plain hard on the suspension. :) I let myself bask in the feeling for a while before returning back to reality. While I know for a fact that any headway made is only minor, and just one step of many that I need to continue taking in my battle to lose weight... it was still just so cool to get noticed. I'll stop babbling now, and just grin like a blue idiot for a while.
For the first time since I began it, I violated my 'no food after 9p' rule. However, it was done because I was invited to dinner at Frang's. He went to great effort to prepare the meal; it took past 9p to get things finished was all. I'm not going to dis- a friend by going "ding! It's nine, sorry, can't eat your food now," after he had gone to all that effort, so for tonight I ignored the clock. I felt that I'd not violated the spirit of the rule, which was designed to keep me from grazing pointlessly in the evenings. Frang's cooking was exceptional, so I'm glad I partook.
revar drove me to Ming's since we wanted to arrive together and I didn't want to drive the Van of Anti-Economy. Afterwards we pulled by our upstream data provider to drop off this month's check (yeah, I kind of biffed mailing it on time, whoops). Since I couldn't figure out what else to do, I convinced him to drive me by Road Rider, the biggest motorcycle accessory store in the south bay. I really love going there. I had no special reason to go other than some vague wants, and the need to clear up a special order that'd been lingering for months.Road Rider is an interesting place. It is one of the only 100% neutral zones in the Bay Area motorcycling scene. Hog-drivers, supersport-squids, cruisejockeys, tour-nuts, grandpa-wingers, dirt-chewers, dualie freaks and scared-shakyhanded-newbies can co-exist in the same space without fear of taunting, intimidation or mockery. There is still a lot of posing, but it's muted. Folks actually have a reason to go there, so posing with one's bike is reduced to a subtext. It's still fun to show off a little, but it's not the core reason you're there (unlike, say, Alices or other biker hangouts). They are also not a motorcycle dealer, so they have no real brand preference or promotion. They have things for most all makes and kinds of bikes, though admittedly their stock is baised towards whatever trends are currently rippling through the motorcycling industry that month.
A few months earlier,
reality_fox took a drillbit to his SV650's tail-light. Yes, he did it on purpose. No, it did not go as planned. Yet another definition of "pulling a fox" was created. While in Road Rider later that week, I decided to play nice-friend and ordered him a replacement tail-light. This was backordered and would take a few weeks, they said. No problem, says I, and down went $80 and a request to be called when it comes in. It never came in, and I kept forgetting about it... until today. A quick stop at the counter showed the errant tail-light had still not shipped in. They had no problem refunding me the money and were in fact surprised I'd not come to claim it sooner.Here's $80 that I'd not planned on having, and here's me standing in a motorcycle store with it. We all know this money isn't going to leave the store.
I got a new cargo net, this time with metal hooks. The last one I had came with chintzy plastic ones which gave way on Friday and nearly dumped my laptop onto Camden Avenue. Grrrr. I also looked at various locking systems such as super-chains and steel cables, but I couldn't find one that I felt would work. A new jar of windshield cleaner and some really silly $3 yin/yang valve stem caps found their way into my basket too. Revar spotted some MX goggles with holographic lenses on them, designed to make the wearer look like a robot or all kinds of other weird effects, and pointed them out to me amusedly. This got me thinking about one of my gear-quests... namely, having proper dirt-riding attire.
To ride in the dirt safely requires slightly different equipment. One of the more obvious changes is in the helmet design. An MX-style helmet has a protruded chin-protector, a sun-visor, and no face shield. Instead of the usual flip-down shatterproof plastic, dirt-riders wear goggles that fit over the helmet and snugly cover the eyes. The arrangement allows for much easier breathing and facial-air cooling, while at the same time providing much more robust eye protection from mud and dust. This is important offroad for a number of reasons. Keeping cool is more important when you're at lower speeds and are working harder to keep the bike vertical on rought terrain. Hitting a mudhole or water crossing could flood-fill a full-face helmet if the visor was cracked open, making it hard to see. Riding through the roostered dust of the guy ahead of you can coat the inside of your visor, whereas sealed goggles will be just fine.
I plan to ride the GS offroad more seriously as my skill increases. Therefore, I need dirt-gear and a helmet/goggles set would be a good place to start. I've ranted earlier about how hard it is to buy helmets for my XXXL melon, but Road Rider had found a super-sized Arai for me earlier... maybe they could help me now. After some serious digging, the salesguy produced two boxes. Two MX helmets, both 3XL in size, one white, one blue/black/silver. Both fit like a charm, much to my surprise -- just annoyingly tight enough to let me know they'd break in perfectly over time. To add to the bonus find was the fact they were on sale! I picked the blue/black/silver one, as it'll match the Bates cordura suit I have on the way.
The helmet, minus the sale price, plus goggles, plus cargonets and valvecaps, minus the refund for the taillight: $70. Wow. Considering this helmet would have been $190 by itself if not on sale, it was amazingly cool to get out of there so cheaply. Sure, it's an HJC, but it's both DOT- and Snell-rated... and it FITS.
No, I didn't get the silly hologram goggles. :) Mine were just normal Scott goggles, their Model 87. They're designed to fit over normal glasses if need be, so I can wear my sunglasses still if I wish.
I figured I'd get while the gettin' was good and my wallet still had some greenery left in it. I've got a good friend to pay back before I do any huge purchases anyways. The evil part is that I'm quite sure the helmet and goggles are just the first step down yet another money-soaking fork in the road, this one labelled 'MX gear'. Now for the Phat Catt dirt-gear, the wider pegs on the GS, some MX-style gloves, offroading boots... (voice trailing off into the distance)
What surprised me about the day, however, was my reaction to an honest comment. As the nice gentleman at the counter was off doing evil things to my debit card in exchange for this new helmet, I recognized two guys who had gotten into line behind me. Both were older, one a black fellow who rode a gold wing, the other a long-bearded white-guy who rode a V-Rod. I don't know their names, but I recognized the faces -- we'd talked at length about each others bikes, on an earlier Road Rider shopping trip. The neutral-ground aura the store carries often makes for such casual meetings, where customers end up seeing each other more than once and wave a friendly 'hi'... maybe giving each other updates on their bikes or rides they've done. I remember both of these fellow riders being curious of the mods I'd done to my GL1800, some four or five months ago. A brisk "oh, hey, hi!" was exchanged, before my attention was diverted by the clerk returning with a credit-card receipt that needed my scribblings-upon.
The 'wing rider of the pair put his stuff on the counter as I was making to leave, new helmet-box in hand. Quite casually, he offered a compliment. "Hey, it looks like you've been working out. Are'ya doing the gym thing? You look a lot better." The comment didn't really register with me at the moment, so I just grinned/nodded, and parted with my usual biker-to-biker comment: "Have a good ride, guys!" I followed Revar back to the car.
It took me about 5 minutes before it sunk in. Someone I'd only met maybe twice before, but hadn't seen in 4+ months, saw enough difference in me to offer a compliment as to my physical condition. A true, honest, no-hidden-subtext statement from a member of the public, that I looked healthier/more-fit than I did back earlier in the year.
My own reaction to this realization still surprises me. I was downright elated! I spent the ride back to the house all jazzed-up, probably annoying the heck out of poor Revar. Having a happy-Tug bouncing around in the passenger seat of a VW New Beetle has got to be a bit distracting, if not just plain hard on the suspension. :) I let myself bask in the feeling for a while before returning back to reality. While I know for a fact that any headway made is only minor, and just one step of many that I need to continue taking in my battle to lose weight... it was still just so cool to get noticed. I'll stop babbling now, and just grin like a blue idiot for a while.
