I used to dislike tubes a lot more than I do now. Since I started using these babes, I haven't pinched a tube: http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-tools/stubby-tire-tools/. I have had something like these for my bicycle tubes for years, but it took a while before someone made them for motorcycles.

I hope it wasn't anything embarrassing.    That was so long ago, I can't remember what we talked about.

I thought it was a brilliant comment about how gear had become a little trendy, at least for the young sportbike crowd. I think the conversation started when I mentioned that I was surprised and happy to see so much actual motorcycle gear on the bikes I saw on the way to your place.

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/185571181.html

Jump in motorcycle deaths pushes up fatality count in state

Posted by: Tim Harlow

Despite an uptick in the number of fatalities on state roads last year, 2012 will go down as the third safest in nearly 70 years.

Interesting. I'd love to know what makes MNDOT think there were more motorcycles on the road in 2012. They were sure invisible, if they were out there. For a proposed PSA, I wasted hours on six different days in mid-to-late April and early May trying to get some motorcycles on video. For at least ten hours of filming at rush hour, I got about a half-dozen bikes at three different high traffic locations.

I suspect total mileage wasn't any where near the highs of the last 70 years.

Thomas Day
Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly Magazine
http://http://mnmotorcycle.com/
http://geezerwithagrudge.blogspot.com/
thomas@motorbyte.com

Very cool. Thanks Ray.

Hey! You're mentioned in this month's Geezer rant. It's something I wrote almost right after you helped me crimp my new chain a couple of years ago. Sometimes, it takes a while before my morass of stuff filters into the magazine or the blog.

Thomas Day
Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly Magazine
http://http://mnmotorcycle.com/
http://geezerwithagrudge.blogspot.com/
thomas@motorbyte.com

A pretty good rule of thumb is both "if it hurts to hear, it's hurting your hearing" and if you experience noise that causes ringing, you've done some amount of permanent damage. We're all different, but the hearing mechanism is incredibly fragile and not that well designed for the modern environment. I recommend shelving the ear phones and going for the best ear plugs you can find. Both ears, almost all of the time.

The math is pretty straight forward and solidly points in every direction away from sound in the helmet. I use in-ear phones, all the time, to mix in live recording environments. That's, even, pushing the boundaries of safe practice. In R&R situations, I put my Shure in-ears (36dB of isolation, mid-band) inside of my industrial ear protectors (38dB of isolation from 250Hz to 12.5kHz and 29dB of isolation from 62.5-250Hz) to give myself a little dynamic range while monitoring the recording. Helmets are miserable protection, sometimes actually magnifying air flow and SPL inside the helmet. So, I don't count that as any sort of protection. Many audiologists (and me) have done measurements in a helmet at highway speeds and the general consensus is that the noise level in a helmet is between 85dBSPL and 120+SPL; depending on the helmet (3/4 helmets are the worst offenders), fairing and windshield, motorcycle exhaust noise, speed, and environmental conditions. So, getting 36dB of attenuation from your ear plugs or in-ears just brings the noise level down to "marginally harmful" in many/most cases. 

One of the fine folks on this list volunteered to weld it for me. He did an absolutely artistic job on the plate and engineered it far better than the manufacturer. It has been installed, unintentionally tested in the Pine Barrens north of St. Croix, and held up beautifully.

In case he doesn't want to get buried in a lot more work of the same sort , I'll leave it to him to "expose" himself as an excellent artisan.

Thanks for all of the great advice.

Back in the 80's, I went to a lot of Laker games, especially when they weren't playing someone in the hunt because I could get tickets cheap and the rich assholes would bail at half-time and I could filter down to the floor seats. In a game against Philly, Magic slipped a pass through everyone and nailed Vlade Divac in the chest, knocking him on his ass and putting the ball in the bleachers. Without slowing down, Magic ran a loop around the opponent's end of the court, grabbed Divac by the jersey, yanked him up, drug him down court, while saying (loudly), "Three rules to basketball, Vlade. Look, look, and look."

Ian (and anyone else who wouldn't mind being directly quoted in the article),

Would you email your comments directly to me (along with the name you'd like used in the article and the motorcycle make and model you ride on the Loop)?

Thomas Day (twday60@comcast.net)
Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly Magazine
http://www.motorbyte.com/mmm/
http://geezerwithagrudge.blogspot.com/