I was reached out to by a company I interviewed with months ago. I had coffee with the hiring manager this morning. Very nice conversation. He wants to create a position for me, which is very flattering. I currently have a job at a company that has been very good to me. They've promoted me in very short order, they pay well and I'm considered a future leader. I like it. However, there is a lot of travel needed. My current job will keep me away from my family at least one night a week. -At first this can be fun but traveling for business gets old fast. The new job would be more challenging and I'd likely learn a lot about medicine and biology -pretty neat. We will see what they propose. Lots going on. I'll be posting a new #meethubski later today. Check it out.
I love taking jobs where I can learn new things. It's not as fancy sounding but my current job taught me a ton about gardening which has really come in handy. The gardens at my parents house needs work and it's nice that I'm able to fix them before they need to sell. I figure well kept gardens make for a good first impression so it'll help get it sold. It also saves them a lot of money having me do it for free which is the least I could do really. Hopefully this places comes up with something good to offer because learning about that stuff sounds pretty awesome !I'd likely learn a lot about medicine and biology
Good morning, Hubski. I'm seated in an airplane, wearing tights under my hiking pants, unshaven, with dirty hiking boots. I got TSAPre today, which was awesome because I could keep my boots on. A layover in Detroit, then land in Albany, fill up my water bottles at the airport, get my rental car, stop for stove fuel, get lunch, then two hours to a trailhead, three to four hours hiking to a campsite. If all goes to plan, I'll be spending the next two nights in a lean-to. Weather is cold overnight. We'll see how that goes. But no rain or wind are in the forecast. If I'm being honest, I'm a little scared. I act a little tough, like nothing really phases me, but it's a facade. It'll be fine; I don't mean for that to sound alarming. I just wanted to say it out loud. I weighed my backpack on Friday, and it was a hair over 40 pounds. I added a couple things since then, so I'm probably around 41-42 pounds. That's ten pounds more than the bag I used last summer, but I've also lost ten pounds since then. I'm optimistic. I think.
I started thinking about doing a solitude trip. So far I've been doing summit hikes. These tend to be around other people (who are generally the best people you'll meet but still a crowd). But mid-week in a less popular area I bet I could hide from the world for days and see only trees and birds and just sit quietly in the woods. I grew up car camping. It took until my 30s to realize one can get out in the woods and be entirely alone. I'm a fan.
I think I am getting better at this. I got the Mercury Transit on May 9 all set for the main Library, a few more outreach dates set in stone and our group hit 2000 eyes through the 'scopes for the year with the goal of 15,000; last year we hit 12,000. Somewhere in this mess i have work and I have to clean a house for a parental visit in early May.
big fuckin' dob big fuckin' dob big fuckin' dob big fuckin' dob big fuckin' dob big fuckin' dob DOOO EEEEET (and then fit it in your Subaru) I'll say this - M31 is the shit through a 21" dob at 10,000 feet in dark sky New Mexico. But the care and feeding of a critter like that is no joke.
Ah, now we get to talk my talk! Taking a picture like M31 does not require a big telescope, in fact that can end up hurting you. The one that I linked was from an 8" SCT and a modified Cannon Camera with the IR filter removed. What makes these images so amazing is time. The mount the guy used in that one picture cost more than the scope and camera combined. You get kick ass detail in a photo not with aperture like you need to do visual stuff, but by holding the scope on the target with minimal drift over 20-30 minutes per frame. I have an 80mm and a mount that I can start to learn with, but I am saving for a better camera so I can get some detail. The moon and planets are so bright compared to the other targets out there that you can use 10-30 millisecond exposures and get detail like the above. For M31, you need minutes per exposure and with a poor mount you end up with star trails instead of pretty. The goal is to treat myself with something very neat for my 50th. I have the savings set aside and almost am ready to start talking options and lead times. I can get a 25" Obsession with the motors and computer for about what I dropped on the car, and get this, IT WILL FIT IN THE SUBARU! That or I need to drop $1500 for a van, but at that point 1500 is an accessory anyway. The other option i have is a Teeter 20" which have better glass and for what I have been able to look through they look better at the eyepiece and allow more eyepiece options than the big Obsessions. That 25" Obsession? It takes two hours to set it up from pull up to the field until you are ready to go hunting for what you want to look at. And yea, care and feeding of a scope like that can get pricey in time and money, but then again so do all our hobbies. I got one better: Globular Clusters. If you get the chance to look at M13, M15, M10, M12, M4 etc through something in the 20" range you will fall in love with the things. I've seen Palomar 8 With my 14" I had the star field in view and was in the exact right spot, but could not see it. With the 25" scope it was right there and very plainly visible.big fuckin' dob
I'll say this - M31 is the shit through a 21" dob at 10,000 feet in dark sky New Mexico. But the care and feeding of a critter like that is no joke.
The pinpoints of light in the image are stars in the Milky Way and are closer to us than M31, the Andromeda galaxy. The round smudge at about 11 o'clock, is a companion galaxy much like our Magenellic Clouds. M110 is the elongated smudge at the 5 o'clock position, which is a much bigger companion galaxy.
I got a cheap 3x Barlow lens to make the image of the planet take up more real estate on the imaging chip which gave me more to work with. I've also descended down a well of processing tutorials that may or may not have been unhealthy. Yay Autism!
If you want to see Kyle Gallner in b_b's Hubski shirt, see Welcome to Happiness on May 20. No joke. A bit more progress on the painting. I am going to be in New Orleans from Saturday to Wednesday at a conference. I just got an email that Joe Biden made my poster presentation 30 minutes earlier and 30 minutes shorter.
Last update I heard was that it would likely get a 10-15 screen release, and obviously VOD is available everywhere. Not mentioned in the article is that in addition to writing, directing, and producing, Oliver Thompson also scored most of the film himself. Not bad for a first timer. If you're in one of the big media markets for independent film, check it out. And you'll support hubski indirectly, too, as mk is an EP, so a tiny fraction of your generosity will filter back to your internet experience.
This is awesome news. I can't wait to see this film, I've certainly heard a lot about it. That is my old Hubski shirt, it's making the rounds!! Good luck in NOLA, have fun.
I quit my job. The company is certainly in a rough spot. In the past 5 months 3 people have quit and 3 have been fired. All good workers who have gotten fed up with where we've been headed. All in leader positions in from all departments. Some fought back aggressively and were canned, some of us just bailed. I had planned to turn in my notice on a Friday, but at the end of the day Thursday one of the Project Managers quit, stormed out and said he'd use up his vacation (2 days) and be back on Tuesday to finish out two week. They decided not to let him work out his two weeks. It was dramatic. They kept insisting that his attitude meant that he was hostile and they couldn't let him come back, and that he wouldn't be eligible for Unemployment. Happily, I've spoken to him since, he is getting unemployment. I turned in my notice the following Monday. They let me work out my two weeks and tried to get me to stay quite a bit. Offered another raise (still lower than the lowest amount promised 4 months ago), asked me to stay on part time, asked me to come back to train when they find a replacement. Ultimately I feel like they wasted my last two weeks, I offered multiple times to meet and go over everything I'd been working on, but it kept getting put off. I have also refused to go back in since my time ended. It's been so nice to not have to worry about it anymore. I've also talked to a few companies doing something similar, and prospects are good. But in the meantime I'm trying to spend more time with photography and enjoying being at home a little. Been able to get a lot more cleaning done : )
Sometimes we do weird things for the people we love. The wife and I, we started playing Minecraft and it's an alright game. I can see how it could easily become an addictive time sink for people. The very first night we played it though, she got lost hunting mushrooms. I gave her so much shit for it, because that's just typical her. So this morning, I've spent about two hours going from mountain top to mountain top, creating lighted beacons in the shapes of arrows, each one pointing to home base. Next time she plays, hopefully she doesn't get lost. Though if she does, I'll really give her shit for it. All that game does though, is make me want to go on a nice hike, not something as adventurous as WanderingEng of course, but enough to get me some sun and fresh air. Maybe hear some birds.
I watched empires rise and fall in Minecraft haha. I was part of a small server back in high school that was working on a project to build this massive kingdom. It was cool because we each got our own quarter to design how we liked. The game can be cool, but the going outside thing is usually pretty awesome as well.
Yeah. People have been telling me that Minecraft users come up with ambitious and creative projects all the time. I bet a shared server must have been quite the social experiment. Also, my beacons work. I almost got lost myself. The game really needs a compass.
It might actually be worth redownloading the JRE or JDE or whatever is it again... and Minecraft too, I guess. Either way, it would be worth it to see the novelty of galen playing something other than CSGO.
OH MAN. I would come back to Minecraft for that. And y'all know (or at least Quatrarius does) that I almost never play games other than CS:GO.
People have made working 16-bit computers in Minecraft.
Oh man, the hours I have spent on online Minecraft servers a few years ago. Our server had among other things subways, giant cities, a sport called spleef with an actual league (with outfits and 6 stadiums), massive community projects and digs, a 5km parkour challenge...I bet a shared server must have been quite the social experiment.
So, I love my job, I don't love where my desk is situated. As it stands, I sit right next to a pit of heart-failure nurses who do nothing, all day, but talk to patients in congestive heart failure (Pre-transplant folks) about symptoms and management. Of the few possible endpoints for my particular heart disease, congestive heart failure is a pretty likely one. Before I started at the hospital, I knew what CHF was like in textbook, abstract terms. Now I know way too much about it on a very visceral level. It makes me feel even crazier than normal on 'bad heart days', because I can't decide if I am actually feeling symptomatic, or if I'm experiencing a hypochondria that's common to people who haven't been working in hospitals for long. Good fodder for my counseling appointment tomorrow I guess. On a much happier note, my birthday weekend was a lot of fun, and I impulse bought a guitar on Saturday. A discontinued 'Willie K Special' from Marshall Music in Allan Park, Detroit. I picked it up after fooling around with a few other guitars and it just sang to me. I wish I could find a picture of the headstock that did it justice. Really pretty blue abalone inlay and (I found this out after I bought it) gold tuners. The sound is so rich and buttery, I have a hard time putting it down.
I got hired to write the story/dialogue for a game. I can't talk much about it right now until it gets kickstarted in...whenver, late August I think. Not really focused on that right now so much as inhaling the plot, figuring out where all the pieces go, creating voices for the characters, and meeting the other team members. These guys are the real deal and I hope I can keep up with their output, they're not fucking around. Uhhhhh, everything else is good. My sister picked her school so we went on a tour and cracked jokes in the middle of it because tours are stupid and we were only there for the free lunch. There was a sign for "Muggle Mondays" where they watch a Harry Potter movie every monday...which is how I know that Harry Potter is a white people series, because only white people would willingly fucking call themselves the Wizard version of the N word and then put it on signs, but whatever floats your boat. She got a full-ride so I'm proud of her and hopefully I'll be able to guide her so she doesn't make the same mistakes I did in college (don't do something you're gonna hate, stick around on campus don't just go straight home, yeah everyone sucks but have at least two people you can to, etc.). I want a burger. There are no good burger places in Boulder, they're all in Denver/Castlerock. Park Burger...mmm...CRAVE BURGER YEAH, it's only 11AM and I want to ruin my cholesterol let's goooo. I've also been listening to lots of Disney Music because it cheers me up when I start to go back into my dark gloomy place that I'm trying to stay out of. That and 90s shit which I always listen to during the summer. how y'all doin. edit: I should get around to following everyone back, shit
Burgers... I don't know anything about burgers in boulder. My friend who recently graduated from CU gave the following recommendations: -Snarfburger -Rueben’s Burger Bistro -The Sink (which I hated) -The Dark Horse . While I can't personally recommend many in Boulder... in Denver you really should try: - the Johnny Burger at My Brother's Bar (this will be the location of our next Denvermeetup) - any of the stuffed burgers at The Lobby (ballpark/fivepoints)
uh this is dumb, but in the spirit of things: you're looking for 'mudblood'. muggle is more neutral, or just a descriptorwhich is how I know that Harry Potter is a white people series, because only white people would willingly fucking call themselves the Wizard version of the N word and then put it on signs, but whatever floats your boat.
You're right, muggle Mondays is pretty dumb. But thanks for defending the honor of HP. On the one hand, I got it wrong. On the other hand you're literally the last person I'm going to talk race jokes with, after that stupid Ferguson shit you pulled. Hard peace.
That Hercules soundtrack is A-1 incredible. No Five Guys in Boulder? Not boutique locavore or anything, but goddamn if a big greasy bag of Five Guys doesn't deliver best bang/buck.
shout out for savage garden. that was my shit.
Falling behind on the productivity part of things. Have not been editing the vlogs, not done the hubakiday thing, not replied to a bunch of important emails yet.... Maybe it's the beach town vibe getting to me, maybe the hotness or maybe I jsut don't feel like being on the computer when I feel the end of my trip coming so fast. Been having a blast vacation-wise tho! It's new years in Cambodia right now and yesterday was the best :) Time to get my shit together (for the nth time on this trip). Moving around and staying focused is harder than expected, them laptop lifestyle instagrammers are so bulshitting with their computer pictures on the beach. Can't work with that glare anyway you liar! Feeling a push to settle down in the near future, at least to have more permanent home base. Looking into youth mobility visa for Germany. If I can pull it off, why not go live in fkin Berlin!?
Don't worry about the Hubski day thing :) enjoy yourself.
What about doing one sad and one hairy? *happy not "hairy" -was too funny to not keep. Especially given your connection w facial hair.
I was in Berlin twice before and I absolutely looove the city. It's one of the few places I see myself giving up MTL for, and the only one I could realistically afford/get a work visa for. Seriously considering the possibility while I can actually do it (no kids, house, job etc).
Yes, do it while you still can! I cross all the seas / It's fine by me / 'Cause I'll never be / Far from homeSeriously considering the possibility while I can actually do it (no kids, house, job etc).
As far as I go / As far as I know / I always got / A place called home
A Porter for me, barkeep. So I got a new job as a Proposal Writer for a transportation telematics company. Started on Monday. By 2:PM I was working on a major project. Delivered the project today. Two days ahead of their optimistic schedule. Reviewed it with my stunned boss, who wants me to make two minor edits, add in some verbiage from Legal, and then print it and send it out. Three days before the deadline... a deadline that they were all sure they were gonna miss. So yeah. I think I'm kinda setting the right tone in the new gig, if I do say so myself! Also finished up my writing contract with another company by delivering a couple of Customer Case Studies to them. (And got a check from them as well! Woohoo! Also demolished the bathroom, my bedroom wall, part of the ceiling, moved the entire storage room to ... well ... everywhere else in the house where we could shove anything, and then will get to work on demolishing the two walls of the storage room. The city came out and spray painted markings on our driveway and lawn about where the underground sewer and water lines run. So I am comfortably ahead of schedule on the REPLUMB THE ENTIRE HOUSE project. The Plumber arrives Monday to start the heavy work trenching in the yard and digging up old pipe. Drumming my fingers on the table waiting for Men's Wearhouse to have a sale so I can go in and buy my wedding tuxedo. Sold my motorcycle to a good friend. (A Suzuki Intruder 1400.) Now I have the cash to get the bike I want (a 1970's era BMW R-bike... R75s, R100rs, R60/5, etc), and FOUR different ones that I like and can choose from. And so life continues to be incredible ... amazing ... full ... entertaining ... exhausting ... distracting ... frustrating ... and ALIVE. It's all good, baby. All good.
Fleet management systems. You attach a GPS tracker to all the vehicles in your fleet, and then before a trucker drives off, he does his vehicle inspection. The results of that inspection get logged into a cloud system. Then his Dispatcher can check in throughout the day on where the driver is in his route, if there has been an accident, or if they need to re-route the driver somewhere else, etc. Also tracks fuel consumption, driving style, etc. So if you are a City Motor Pool, for example, you buy our stuff to keep track of the maintenance on all your vehicles, as well as where your vehicles are at any point in time. To buy that stuff you have to put it out to public bid. That's where I come in. I see the bid, write up a proposal for the salesdude, who then takes it in and does the deal with the City. (Kinda. That's the short version, but basically it.)
Further to what ThatFanficGuy said - Although I do feel a bit conflicted since I know that I can make it better
That impulse can be good when it drives you to work harder and improve yourself, but you shouldn't be so afraid to admit that you earned something. You might see flaws in the simulation you submitted, but the professor considered it good enough to offer you a research position based entirely on a single piece of submitted work. Maybe that's more common than I thought, but it seems incredible to me, and you've certainly earned the right to pat yourself on the back! I'm sure you've heard of the Impostor Syndrome. Give yourself credit where credit is due.
My (side) grant got funded! It's for Rett's syndrome, which isn't exactly Alzheimer's, but on my end it'll mean me following a very similar pipeline, except with Rett's in place of Alzheimer's mice. I also had a somewhat embarrassing experience in class last week: I presented on a scientific paper for class, picked by a teacher who also happens to be the co-PI on afformentioned grant, my de facto neuro-minded advisor, and head of an institute. We got to the end of the discussion and she asked me straight if I believed the authors' work. I hesitantly said yes... thinking that I didn't see any specific problems with the core hypothesis, which was supported by a decently-validated knockout mouse. As a class, we'd already discussed a few side issues at that point with regards to some of the biochemical methods, but it was hard to argue with the behavioral and imaging data. Then she pointed out that the authors never checked if the cell type in question even expressed their gene of interest. And in fact other labs had checked from a few different angles and found an absence of signal in their data. And in fact I'd been at a group meeting in this PI's lab a year prior where they'd specifically pulled up these absence-of-signal figures and discussed their controversy, but hadn't latched on to that information because I was still in my in-over-my-head phase of barely understanding the gross types of questions people in neuroscience even like to go after. So PI laughed at me, and I felt a bit dumb, and after they found me in their lab and shared a few more of their thoughts. And now I'm trying to re-organize my mental check-list of things to look for in papers before I believe their conclusions. Anyways, here's some neurons:
I wanted to say I received the new Hubski stickers and magnets from insomniasexx in the mail, and theyr'e great, and there's a new sticker on my car now! I have now played with the idea of getting a "What can be learned?" tattoo. I'm tattoo crazy right now, I swear.
Me too insom! I picture you writing out the url of the Hubski link on the back of each envelope of stickers and can only conclude that you are very thoughtful. Sort of like sending your professor an attachment titled "LastnameFirstnameClass" instead of "Paper".
Lol, I actually do that will all my files. I don't have papers anymore but I have invoices and SOWs and more and they all include my full name and date. I just realized I am that thoughtful, although it's mostly due to me being incredibly annoyed when I get another invoice.pdf and it lives in my downloads folder and then I have to open it later to figure out where it came from. I enjoy making the envelopes, and seeing the poor post office workers face when she sees them. They're usually all different colors (lil sent me a pack of awesome pens that I always use) and have silly drawings and writings. I decided to tone it down a bit this time because the post office worker told me they might get returned last time. Some did end up getting returned but I still think it was due to them being over 1oz, not the amazing drawings and messages. :P
Finals finally over. Tomorrow I'm gonna present our group's bridge design, which turned out pretty great (unrealistic perhaps, but I like the design). We even made a model with a 3D printer to accompany our wooden lasercut model: This weekend I'm going to a theme park with my sister for some sibling quality time, and next week I will finally start one of the courses my university gives on automated driving, among other cool new courses. Suffice it to say I'm pretty happy now. :)
Finally got around to doing my taxes last night. I owed the state less than a dollar. I was very annoyed at having to go through the trouble of paying for less than a dollar. I've never minded paying real money tax bills, but this was just silly. If they didn't explicitly say they wouldn't take cash I would have mailed pennies out of spite. Instead I paid with a credit card and let them eat the processing fee that will be greater than my $pocketchange tax bill.
Hubski, things are pretty good for me right now. My ex and I are texting each other a few times a day, and just started writing each other letters. I don't think either of us wants this to become a romantic thing again (at least not too soon), so it's pretty low key. Still, I'm really happy to be hearing from her. I was terrified when she said she needed to be alone that it would mean she would drop out of my life completely. I'm really happy too that we have been extremely honest and civil this whole time. In other news, I might be living on a boat in the fall? For reasons unknown, my dad is trading in his old boat for a new one about 3000 miles from where we live. It starts out in Oakland, where a really good friend of mine lives, so I might just become a live-aboard for a month or two while I sail up the west coast. A bunch of friends (including my ex) are moving to Seattle around the same time, so currently the plan is to go Oakland - Seattle and back, with lots of time in between to see if there is somewhere I want to live/work on the coast. I have exactly a month until my graduation, which is surprisingly not freaking me out. I still have a pretty sizable chunk of work to do, but honestly, after the craziness of last week, a few papers feel like nothing. I've biked 50 miles since my breakup, and I feel a lot more comfortable in my own body than I have in a while. I'm trying to not become complacent just because I feel less anxious, I don't want the progress I made last week to just disappear. EDIT: Thanks again to everyone who helped me out last week, it helped a whole lot, I mean it.
stateofthelilski Prosecco, bartender, please. And a few bottles for anyone else still kicking around this place. I composed a message to pubski early this morning, but didn't have time to post it. It went like this: I know it's hard to believe, pubski, but I actually do other things besides ride on murderous trains and have dating mishaps. In fact, today I'm on my way to teach a session at Startup School called, "How NOT to Kill Your Co-Founders: Strategies and Tools for Successful Teamwork." so I was going to write that this morning before I left I'm back now, down the long highway, all quiet, except that I'm listening to S.O.B. by Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. Seems appropriate because he also sings, "I need a drink." Anyhow, the workshop was awesome and so much fun, lots of participation and interactivity and even self-reflection. Speaking of teamwork, tomorrow is a four-way with the lawyers. Maybe I'll get a separation agreement in the works by tomorrow night. One door closes. Yes, one door closes and THEN A FUCKING TRAIN CRASHES IN THROUGH THE WINDOW. Kills a few people, and leaves me walking away, shaking my head, asking, "What was that about?" Otherwise, everything is good. For me, anyway. I'm sad for the ex-spousal-unit. But he's on meds now for depression and anxiety and will no doubt have another personality change soon. Best we get this done while he's still recognizable. *note to self: drink the Prosecco, then edit that last paragraph. TMI. Edit Cheers blackbootz first round is on me!
Ha! I didn't see the timing. I've had a busy few days so I missed pubski entirely. If you're buying, I want the chocolateyest, thickest stout in the joint. I want a loaf of bread for a drink. They're great for washing down the day.
Check. Moved just about everything over the weekend. The new place is sweet, way happier with most of it! Kind of yes, kind of no? I'm helping to studio design two low power FM radio stations and am working through a lot of FCC and licensing issues right now. Learning a lot and I think I'm becoming well-connected among parts of the radio community. Also had a recruiter reach out to me for the first time, so there's that.I'm moving! I think.
I'm seeing someone! I think.
I pretty much have two jobs right now! I think.
Yesterday was my birthday! I turned 19, which is basically the birthday you get to celebrate in between the "I can vote!" and "I'm not a teenager anymore!" years. I can sign a lease now that I'm legally an adult in my home state, so I suppose that's neat... I spent the day (after classes) with my sister, who's one of my favorite people in the world. Went to Barnes and Noble, bought a few books, got dinner with my parents, and resolved not to work on that godawful presentation that I was complaining about last week! Overall, it was a very nice day, and I'll celebrate with my friends on the weekend (when I don't have to get up early the next morning)!
Today I tasted what it's like to feel good about myself. Not especially proud or empowered, but good: feeling that I am, as I am, all right. A certain calmness accompanies that feeling, and it feels dissonantly serene. Did the Latin Olympiad today. In Russia, an olympiad is an intellectual multilevel contest that tests one's knowledge on a single subject. Our uni group is doing very good as far as Latin is concerned, so we were exempt from today's class in exchange of us all partaking in the olympiad. The results will be out on Monday, April 18th. We were promised rewards based on our performance, one of them - for those who reach the national level - being the automatic final mark for the subject. Thanks to jadedog, byonic and OftenBen for pushing me to treat myself like a good person, as well as to Henry Rollins for the badass creed from his song Shine.
I finally got around to looking up pricing for motorbike learner permits. The price has... gone up. I've been thinking about this for months and months. Pricing skyrocketed on April 2nd. If I'd had my shit together, I could have saved $280. Now if I want to do this, it's going to set me back $585 just for the permit course. Plus a check ride ~3 months after that. I guess I'm waiting until I get back from New Zealand to do any of that. Also, does hubski do motorbikes? Any tips/recommendations for someone who doesn't really know a damn thing about bikes other than that I like riding them?
I've been riding for more than 40 years. Short version (because I am at work at my groovy new job and need to get some stuff done): 1. If $585 is a lot of money to you, maybe a motorcycle is not the right thing for you right now. You are going to spend more than that on a new pair of tires, or having someone fix the repair/replace the brakes. Or you are going to spend that much when you fall over the first time, and have to replace turn signals, shifter lever, and a rear view mirror (not to mention plastic). 2. Your first bike should be cheap. Because you are going to break it. Probably a bunch. But if not, you still are going to learn on it, and then your mate is going to want one, so you can sell it to him cheap, and buy yourself a "real" bike. The Honda Nighthawk, any old Kawasaki KZ from the 1980's, any Honda CB that's less than 750cc and more than 25 years old, etc, etc, etc. Ask around. Tell your friends you are looking for your first bike. Someone knows someone with an old KZ500 in the back of the garage that they'll let you have for $500. 3. It really doesn't matter what you get, as long as it isn't a big 1000cc sportbike. Just get on a bike. Do your feet sit flat on the ground comfortably? Rock it back and forth between your thighs and feel the weight. Grab onto the handlebars and feel how your shoulders and back feel. Comfortable enough? Don't buy from someone you have zero connection to, like, off Craigslist, or whatever. Buy from someone you know, or from someone your friend knows. They'll be honest with you about the condition and problems with the bike. Then buy it. 4. Always ride with the proper riding gear. Always. Period. It's just that easy. 5. Ride as much as you can, away from the rest of the world. Residential streets. The warehouse part of town. Brake hard when you don't have to, so you can get the feeling for how the bike reacts when you need to do it for real in a panic situation. Use only the rear brake. Use only the front brake. Figure out how to stop before you start. It's easy to get bikes moving. It is hard to stop them. Work on the stopping part first. 6. Fix the shit that breaks. That's what YouTube is for. Take the seat off... just for the hell of it, and look what is underneath. Adjust the handlebars. Change the angle of the brake lever and the clutch lever. These all require you to loosen and tighten TWO bolts. Anybody can do that, but when you do, you suddenly will be way more in love with your ratty old bucket of bolts. Put a sticker or two on it. Make it YOURS. So when you sell it to someone else in 5-18 months, they can do the same thing and make it THEIRS with their own stickers and clutch adjustment, etc. 7. After you are comfortable with this bike, you will know what kind of bike you want to get for your "Real" bike. You will know if you want a cruiser or a sportbike, or a Thruxton, or a Honda, or a BMW, or a Ural with a sidecar. Right now you have NO IDEA what you want to ride. Yeah, you may think you do, but you don't. Ride for a while on whatever you can get your hands on. You'll figure it out. Then you can go buy the RIGHT bike for YOU. 8. Talk to every other biker you see. They will see your rat-ass piece of shit bike and love it. "Oh my god! I used to have a KZ440!! Damn... I loved that bike. But hey, watch this connection right here, because see how your foot has been rubbing on it? Yeah, keep an eye on it, or it'll leave you stranded in Tuscaloosa late one rainy night like mine did." REAL motorcyclists love motorcycles. All of them. You want these people as friends. They will have tools, knowledge, passion, and maybe even a lift, so when you want to do that chain replacement, you can call them up, go over to their house with a case of beer, and hang out and put the bike up on the lift and do it together. Welcome to the club. Remember to wave to every other biker you see.
Thank you for such a comprehensive response. I really appreciate it! Particularly points 4 and 5. Duly noted. The money isn't an issue, really. I just wasn't expecting the cost to have risen so much so quickly. Right before I go on holiday. But I knew it wasn't going to be a cheap affair! Good luck with the new job!
Thanks man! The new job is amazing. Keep up up to date on your motorcycling adventures. Even the "silly little things". For some of us, those little things happened so long ago, it's nice to be reminded of the excitement, the thrill, from new riders who experience these things for the first time.
https://hubski.com/tag/motorcycles?time=all briandmyers knows a thing or two as well. What, exactly, are you looking to know?
Well assuming I can get through the permit course (I've been told it's quite easy), I guess I'll be looking at second-hand bikes. What are the main things you'd want to look for when going for something second-hand? If you were to recommend any bike to a beginner, what would you go with?
I would recommend the one you love. Go to a few bike shops. Sit on a bunch of stuff. Listen to advice. Most bike shops also service so anything you buy, they're likely to get money out of. They may have bikes, too. Either way, fall in love with something, be it a style, a brand, a color, whatever, and find that. Know that you either need to learn basic maintenance or you need to pay someone. Motorcycles require more fiddling than cars by an order of magnitude. If you enjoy it, this is great. If you don't, it's a drag. Fortunately they're hella easier to work on. There's this trope amongs the Internet motorcycle community that OH GOD DON'T RIDE ANYTHING OVER A 250 and it's purest bullshit. You'd rather be on something that will get out of its own way because motorcycles don't brake as well as cars and they don't turn as well as cars so the only thing you can consistently do to avoid a problem is accelerate. Combine that with the fact that the secret to surviving a turn you underestimated is throttle, not brake, and "underpowered" isn't where you want to be. That said, you probably don't need a Hayabusa. If anything, I'd choose something that you can afford to lose, and I'd choose something that won't be worth nothing a year from now when it's time to move on. Most communities have a rotating pool of Ninja 250s that go from one learner to another. Those are fine. Pretty much anything Japanese will be ridden sparsely, dropped a half-dozen times and likely kicking along dandy. European bikes retain value much better than Japanese bikes. You will likely get a better deal at the end of the summer than at the beginning. Anything to add, goobster?
According to my bf: -check for even tire wear -condition of all fluids (color of coolant/oil) -check air filter -check brake fluid (you'll need a screw driver) -compression test (they sell 30$ kits) -wear on chain and sprockets (if there's a chain) -drive with no handlebars to check steering -make sure all electrical works by turning all on (don't believe if the seller says that it's just a burned fuse, electrical work is the worst) -ask if cables have been changed on 15 years + bikes (change before you ride if seller did not) -pay attention on scratches on bar ends, foot pegs and fuel tank and exhaust : bike involved in past accidents are a bad sign, especially if the owner tries to hide it from you. -ask when battery was last changed Apart for the compression test, it's all doable without equipment beyond a screw driver. Things may vary for older bikes, different engines etc...
Some of that shit is fucking impossible to get at, though. There's also this idea that you can show up to someone's driveway and do a compression test and it's just fucking laughable. You're basically asking a stranger to sit in his driveway with a trunk full of tools for two hours because - wait for it - you don't trust them. - Even tire wear: it's either "even" or the bike went sideways. A bike with lopsided tire wear is an unridable bike and you'll determine that quickly. All you can really check is if he spent any time on the sidewalls. In some cases you'd rather have uneven wear (look up "chicken strips motorcycle" if you don't believe me). - Condition of fluids: take it for a ride. If the brakes are spongy, then you know the brakes are spongy. If you know the oil is black you know the oil is more than 500 miles old. THAT'S IT. Listen: I've got $1500 worth of brand-new Brembo on the Benelli. New RCS masters, new pads, new stainless lines, new DOT4 fluid, new $150 each Rizoma reservoirs, new hoses. In the time since I put all that on it's been ridden 500 miles... and sat under a cover outside for six months. Know what? The fluid turned brown. Your boyfriend would actually mark me DOWN for that. More than that, I've made it easier for him to do so 'cuz my reservoirs are useful: But how brown is too brown? What color makes you happy? What color makes you sad? 'cuz DOT3 and DOT4 are different colors. Fuck - if it's got new brake fluid that means the dude just replaced the fluid... perhaps to hide the fact that the pistons are leaking. - Check air filter: On my KLR you'd need an hour to get to the air filter. On the Benelli, even if you promised to do it, even if you promised to give me a thousand dollar deposit, I'd tell you to fuck right off and get out of my driveway. To get to the air filter you need to remove the seat, the tank, the side fairings, loosen the handlebars, remove the carb horns, and then get out the special ball-end long Allen extension I had to order from Amazon and then get it all back together again and that involves placing tension in just the right place and not stripping out some of the mounts. - compression test: I've never owned a bike that I could get to the spark plugs in less than an hour. And like I'm going to let you, you monkey, anywhere near my aluminum head and iridium spark plugs. And like you'll learn anything about a single unless you own the shop manual, and like you'll get consistent results having never worked on my bike before in your life. Backintheday you could do a compression test to learn something about a big stupid American V-8 and it still took an hour on like a '66 mustang where everything is out and visible like Slim Fucking Goodbody. -wear on chain and sprockets (if there's a chain): What does that even mean? Check the tension? Do you know what the tension is supposed to be? The KLR was built like an AK-47 and needed to be sloppy as fuck. On the Benelli, the difference between 15mm slack and 13mm slack is "won't shift" and "slips out of gear." Measured where? Well, not where the shop manual says. The shop manual, by the way, gives you an integer, not a range. So good luck with that. -drive with no handlebars to check steering Agreed. But then, if you've never ridden one before you'll have no idea what you're looking for and minor shit won't show up this way, just a bike that's been hammered to shit. I fixed a friend's bike that had been in an accident bad enough that we needed to change out the forks and triple tree and even with a bent center tube it rode like a dream. This is a collision bad enough to invoke a pickup and four guys to get it out of there. -make sure all electrical works by turning all on (don't believe if the seller says that it's just a burned fuse, electrical work is the worst): Apparently your boyfriend has never done valve work. Or brake work. Or clutch work. But yes. make sure the turn signals work. That's not usually the stuff that goes south, but sure. -ask if cables have been changed on 15 years + bikes (change before you ride if seller did not) My KLR ate clutch cables every 5,000 miles and never did a thing to the throttle. The Benelli ate a clutch cable at 8,000 miles and it was such a bear to deal with that I swapped it out for hydraulic. Cables go, cables don't, and it has nothing to do with age. -pay attention on scratches on bar ends, foot pegs and fuel tank and exhaust : bike involved in past accidents are a bad sign, especially if the owner tries to hide it from you.: They won't though. They've ridden motorcycles, you haven't. Either they'll repair the damage or they won't. if they do, you'll never know. 80% of new motorcycles are dropped within the first 6 weeks and you know what? Most of the time it's fine. Me and that KLR went over 3 times at speed and you wouldn't know 'cuz it was nerfed out like crazy. Me and that Benelli went over once at speed and $1500 in parts later it was as good as new (and that's with crash bobbins). -ask when battery was last changed: Like the answer will mean something. Either it will start or it won't. If it won't, pay less. If it will, expect to put in a new battery within the next year or so anyway because lead acid motorcycle batteries suck. Lithiums barely cost more, weigh 20% and give you twice the CCA. Apart for the compression test, it's all doable without equipment beyond a screw driver. And this is just utterly preposterous. I've got a $200 torque wrench for the Benelli and I wish I had it when I had a KLR. I needed to make wrenches to make it easier to get to the spark plug on the KLR. Usually when you show up to buy a used bike they ask for payment in full, let you take it for a ride, and then if you don't like it, give you your money back. Anyone willing to put up with your boyfriend's list is selling the thing for so much over market value that he'll put up with a bottomless list of indignity. Me? Fuck right off. I gave 8 people test rides on the KLR before it sold. Which means the hypothetical dude with the wrench? He's got 7 other guys who are less dickish about it and I'm happy to sell to them over him.
He mostly buys old crappy stuff so it's pretty much a visual inspection to check if the bike was taken care of by the owner. Old oil, scratches, dirty filter (if accessible) are just generally a bad sign. Also, if too many things (battery, cables,headlight...) have to be replaced on a 500$ POS, you're probably better off looking for something in slightly better condition. As for the advice, I think I just mis-represented what he said cause I don't really know shit about bikes. The first thing he said when I asked is that there really is no general advice because all bikes are made so differently. And I think your experiences in bikes are vaastly different (As in, he mostly ever owned the older stuff. Filter visible on the outside, spark plugs accessible in 5 minutes. So I think different things come to mind when thinking of a "typical" bike). I guess I'll just shut up about the subject because this is just an argument through the broken telephone of my lack of mechanical knowledge. Ooops. Just asked him and he said he'll take electrical problems any time over re-doing a clutch so that part was just me typing shit wrong.
;-) No harm no foul. It's entirely possible he buys bikes that I would dismiss out of hand because when they're that old, they're either (A) abandoned barn finds or (B) maintained by proud owners whose outsized sense of value over their possessions makes them utterly pointless to negotiate with. My general experience is that if it's old and shitty enough that you can get to the plugs easily, and it isn't being driven daily, the carbs are so full of schmutz and crud that the sucka will never run right. The optimal envelope for a slide-valve carb is so narrow that when you get it out of optimal even a tiny little bit you have a bad time - I improved the fuel economy of the KLR by 10MPG just by tightening the needle valve an eighth of a turn.
Yeah, the cost of owning/having the right to ride here adds up to about 1k/year with only half the year where you can legally ride without snow tires :( not much left for the motorcycle after that. And the better the bike, more expensive it gets. Plating only is 1300$/year if you have more than 400cc! Plus, having done moto mechanic school he finds pretty good deals where he replaces basic cables and the battery or I don't know what he does but never resells at a loss a couple seasons down the line.
My main method of transport is sitting at the back of my boyfriends bike :) I can ask him for tips if you want, but things like prices and availability are different in Canada. As an example, old BMW are a pain to own here since it was never sold here and parts are rare. What kind of advice are you looking for? Could help out on the technical/maintenance aspect for sure! Do you know if you want to go sport/chopper/cafe racer/whatever yet? He has an 84 Yamaha maxim he bought last year for 500$ cad right now but he's been talking about getting a new bike lately... He's owned 3 in the past 3 years and I don't think it will ever stop :)
I do love the look of naked bikes. Some of the older Honda CB's are pretty nice. My girlfriend's father has a gorgeous Thruxton 900 that I'd love to ride someday... The restrictions on learner riders in Australia are pretty heavy now though, so a lot of the bikes that I like the look of are out of the question until I've held a license for three years. How are you finding the traffic in SE Asia? I was terrified riding around in Indonesia. I guess you get used to it pretty quickly though.
Naked bikes are my faves! Sports just dont look as good with a bunch of plastic all around!!! We only rented a scooter in Chiang Mai, which was pretty relaxed trafic-wise. Don't think I would do it in a big city like Bangkok (or any city in cambodia, it's next level choas compared to Thailand here). But i trust my boyfriend about this, he's had a moto for 10 past years and drivers in MTL suck. Dont think we ever passed 40km/h here anyway. I've been more scared back home going 100 and seeing someone changing lanes in front while we're in the blind spot... However, a bro-looking guy got into an accident at the hostel the other day and is pretty scraped up. But these news from the same dudes that got mugged and beaten by locals multiple times (how!?) Intheir 2 week vacation makes me doubt they were careful riding the scooters. Good luck with the license, I think its going to be worth it in the end. And, if it's the direction the government s going in, it's only going to get harder/more expensive with time.
People who get mugged and beaten by locals multiple times within two weeks sound like they're looking for trouble... Thanks for wishing me luck. I can't wait! And you're right. I think it's only going to become more difficult to ride in the future!
It's the final countdown. My last day of exams is May 5th, and I'm done. I'm really pushing myself hard to get this whole college thing done strong. I feel like my parents are way more excited about it. I feel slightly burnt out which is why I'm not going to head to grad school right out of the gate (also can't afford it). The biggest feeling I have on the whole thing is relief.
I found a place to live, for the next few months!!! OK, a one year tenancy would be better but this is with some pretty nice people, in a nice area, in a spacious apartment. It's an ex-council flat, which I assume was bought under the "Right to Buy" scheme. It's right on the very edge of the wave of gentrification, in one direction there is a railway line and then a load of under-construction luxury flats and in the other direction it's all council housing. I'd like to be able to vote in the London mayoral election in a month, but I don't think I'll be able to move in and register to vote in time. I really hope Sadiq Khan wins.
I decided to go hiking nearby this Saturday and now it's all I can think about which doesn't work well with the fact that I have a test I should be studying for. The trail is technically still closed which is awesome because we can still go but it won't be as busy as it would if the trail was actually open. Spring is the best time for this particular trail though because all the melting snow from Winter gives the falls a little something extra. Work starts Monday as well which takes a ton of worrying out of my life. Life is looking pretty damn good right now, and as long as I don't fuck myself up on this hike things will be looking good for a while.