My life in a Verse

I don't write songs about girls anymore
I have to write songs about women
No more boy meets girl boy loses girl
More like man tries to understand what the hell went wrong

End of An Era

The RED BANDIT has come to the end of the road.

After 133,347 kilometres the RED BANDIT is parked.

It's a bit hard to believe , I really didn't expect this time to ever come.

The good news is that the BLUE BANDIT has arrived.

45000 Km's Blue and a 1250S . Hello EFI! and liquid cooling!

First impressions are fantastic , But also quite familiar .

A fuller report on both bikes to come.

Things I DON"T Dig

My own response to my Things I dig post.

1. Diabetes. 
2. Depression
3. Anger
4. ADD
5. Tinnitus 
6. Road Rage
7. Soft Rock
8. Donald Drumpf
9. Politics
10. Drivers who don't signal.
11. Spring when it acts like winter. 

Bullying

We hear a lot about bullying and how bad it is these days. I recall two occasions as kid when I was a bully. Both were relatively minor , were of less than a few hours duration , were both apologized for without prompting from outside and  both make my face red with shame. I hope that those were the only time I was such an asshole.

This comes to mind after i happened to run across the name of someone on facebook who now that a ton of memories have come flooding back I realize bullied me.

 Certainly never apologized for and went on for  few months , long enough that I now realize had a devastating effect on not only my time in high school but my life ever since.

I'm sitting here now having an anxiety attack just thinking about that time. I was systematically separated from my friends ,beat up once and "accidentally hurt" 2 or 3 times in Gym class by this person.

Already having a problem fitting in thanks to the ADHD I now realize I was isolated and at the same used by this "Friend" and some others at this time. In the case of some of the others it was due no doubt to the bullies constant bullshit and my obvious weakness.

Like discovering I have ADHD this is going to take some time to process.

I FUCKING HATE how I'm feeling right now.

Things I Dig

This is an Idea I have shamelessly stolen from from Toronto Mike the only blogger i actually follow. (You should too! )

I stole it because:

a. it's a neat kind of list to share. 

b. I like the word Dig in this context. 

c. it got me thinking "what do I dig?" 

d. making a list was a way to connect with what it is I Dig. 

A seriously incomplete list of Things I Dig in no particular order.

• family Time
• My Wife
• Model Trains.
• Motorcycles 
• My Red Bandit 1200
• Jessica Jones.
• The IT Crowd.
• British TV in General. 
• Motorcycle racing.
• Playing Guitar.
• Guitars
• Photography. 
• Blacks Books
• Monty Python
• the smell of freshly cut wood
• hiking 
• Dr.Who
• AC/DC
• Tool
• MotorHead
• The Ramones
• Punk Rock
• road trips.
• Music
• Rush
• Dogs
• Cats
• friends
• Mountains
• rock cuts on the highway
• star wars
• Angry Birds
• Leaning into a long sweeper
• canoeing
• My iPhone

Things that Toronto Mike digs that i Also Dig.

• french press coffee
• biking
• Neil Young
• The Wire
• fatherhood
• pizza
• playing catch
• The Tragically Hip
• playoff hockey
• camping
• Tarantino movies
• skating outdoors
• apples
• rooting for the home team
• Dave Chappelle
• kayaking
• The World Junior Hockey Championship
• The Simpsons
• tee shirts
• chocolate
• The legend of Bill Barilko
• live music

Da' Trains! Da' Trains!

I love Model trains . Love them .

I'm building a 1'x8' diorama , a 60x27 inch "Real" layout and a 12x24 inch diorama.

 This is the diorama. Actually a little further along but this is the only pic I have handy.

I have a LOT more to say about this and will be soon.

Possibly.

I suck at updates .

New Season New Issues?

FINALLY the weather is Ok for riding!
It was a LONG Dreary winter and getting on the bike has been such a relief.

BUT... First I had two oil leaks.

One from the left side of the crankcase from the Starter Clutch Cover. Why? Who the fuck knows!
It started over the winter and wasn't too bad but any leak is a problem so I had to fix it. lucky for me i accidentally bought a starter clutch cover gasket when what I wanted was a Clutch cover gasket . i could have sent it back but at the time i figured hey why not? It was only a few dollars.

GOOD CALL  :) .

Number two leak was the drain Plug. I didn't document it but I had striped the oil pan threads last year during an oil change . I know, I know rookie move.  Being a little rushed (by me ,part of my personality issues?) I went with a self taping replacement drain plug. I would have prefered a helicoil but that wasn't possible at the time.It worked great but the provided washer was a soft washer and not so hot and it was leaking too. BTW this is after an oil change that i had to do to replace that starter Clutch cover gasket. Why didn't I change it during the oil change you say? I forgot to get a new gasket. And as I don't have my own place to work on it I was in a friend's driveway ,inconveniently distant from a place to get one.

I  decided to replace it with a copper  washer thinking that would be a much better solution.

NOPE

So after Draining the oil replacing the soft washer with copper and refilling the bike with the drained oil. It was if anything WORSE.  I revisited Canadian Tire got a fresh lot of Oil ,filter and a soft washer. Did yet ANOTHER oil change( using Castrol 4 stroke Motorcycle oil rather than my prefered Mobil1 Full Synthetic.  Due to cost mostly. 1/2 price and i wasn't sure it wasn't going to leak all over after all this)  .

Success ! No leaks for a almost a week and about 500 Km's.

All Good!

Or Not so much?

On Sunday I took San out for Brunch on the Bandit. We then did few errands ,on the way to our last stop suddenly the throttle got sloppy I was pretty sure that my Pull throttle cable had broken as it has been frayed since last year. I have a replacement but it's a bit of a job getting it on so I haven't tackled it yet. So after we got home I took  the bike over to a close by culdesac and pulled the tank to have a look. lucky me the pull cable had just come loose on the carb mount and is was just a few minutes to sort out. at least a couple of hours to change the cable ,I have to remove the carbs to do it.

After a little adjustment it was better than ever :)

But I noticed something interesting while I was doing this work. Could it be that my poor old Bandit had a Cold? Or was it spring allergies? Or...

Well not literally of course , if you think motorcycles have allergies or get colds maybe your grip on reality is a little loose?

It DID sneeze though!

For Reals!!

Only it's not allergies or a cold of course. The Bandit had what is known a a "Lean Sneeze" over a Maximum Suzuki . A well known condition bandits are prone to ,especially when stock and running very lean. What happens is that due to the lean condition a cylinder will fire prematurely while the intake valve is actually open  sending a little explosion back through the carb. This is NOT a good thing. Now I  am not stock ,I have a Holshot Stage 1 jet kit so I was not expecting to see the rubber intake pipe bulge while i was looking at the left side of the engine close up and listening. However it definitely "Lean Sneezed"

The good thing is as I said it's a known condition. The first thing to check is the idle mixture screww so i checked and it was pretty much the 3.5 turns out recommended by Dale Walker. I'm not 100% certain I've fixed it but I've sent the idle mixture screw on Cylinder #1  to 4 turns out instead of the 3.5 turns and preliminary results look good. The Bike actually felt a little stronger  on last nights ride and one of the most annoying noises it makes appears to be gone. I've been looking at the other 3 cylinders to see if it was happening on them too but so far so good:)

That's enough for now. More to follow

Chain Gang

Ok I don't know why I called it that.

I finally got a new chain on to the Bandit a couple of weeks ago.

Had a really hard time getting the new sprockets on but the end result is awesome. I love how smooth it is in comparison.

It felt like I needed a carb sync but really the sprockets were out of shape.

That makes cornering quite a bit more comfortable LOL

Pennsylvania

I managed a 4 day trip down to Pennsylvania In July (15-19th)

Had a blast for the most part, but I was going through what I am starting to call my down cycle. it's part of the depression and it comes and goes. When it comes I start getting anxious and that makes the ride a little less comfortable.

Mind you my chain was on it's last legs and that was making for some anxiety too .

I was joined by my good friend Adrian , Adrian has a triumph Sprint ST . I LOVE that bike.

If I could I'd pick one up today. Love the bandit but.... It is no doubt getting very long in the tooth and repairs , weird noses  and adjustments are beginning to burn me out especially as I don't  have anywhere to work on it at home.

I love riding with Adrian as well, he's very good and he's just fine with whatever is going on in the moment and he is quite social and can talk to anybody. That means I don't have to either talk at all or at least not have to try and connect when I'm not able to (95% of the time ;( )

I have been fantasizing about turning  the bandit  into a street fighter and that would be very cool but my fantasy includes an engine rebuild which, without my own space that I can control is just not possible.

Still it is what it is and I still get a lot of pleasure riding.

Saggy Rear End

The bandit needs a new rear shock . The rear end sags badly almost bottoming out two up . 

I picked up a Hayabusa shock off of eBay for $ 40 ,pre-load  rebound damping and compression damping . Only pre load on the OEM Shock . 

I'm hoping for a more stable ride . The rear end  may end up an inch higher or so . That may make the steering quicker . Not sure how that will be but I'm looking forward to finding out . 

It's been a LONG time.

Not quite ready to post regularly again. I think but the pressure to put my thoughts out there is growing. It's been an emotional and busy 18 months or so since I last  posted.

New Home -"Go west young man"  they said ( who are they ? ) so I did .
New Love - Sandrine Exibard a beautiful and exciting woman from the south of France.
Other New Love.  Morgan Exibard also beautiful and exciting , Sans 8 year old daughter.
Lost a Brother - My big Brother Al passed away from Cancer in December 2011. Miss him daily.
I'm now a Guitar player. -Not just a guy who has a guitar (or 6 )

Details and thoughts to come

ADHD Support Group

I joined an adult ADHD support group. The first meeting was incredible! walking into a room with 30 other people who's life experience is so similar to yours was amazing!

Early days but i think it will make a real difference in my life.

Genuine

I've been in a convesation about my next relationship. (Don't worry none too soon)

I was talking to a freind about Who or what kind of person I would be with.

She used the word Genuine.. Good word . Very good word.

I am lucky enough to have a few close  friends that are genuine.

So i think I knowe what i'm talking about.

Hope so anyway. :)

Slices of Life

I'm on my way home from visiting my brother in Telkwa British Columbia . Sitting in the airport in Prince George . I've had an amazing week . I saw a number of animals I've not seen in nature before , met some really nice people , ate healthy and delicious food ( including a curried chicken thanksgiving dinner that was amazing!! ) walked dogs two or three times a day , slept in a cozy cabin heated by a wood stove , used a real chain saw for the fist time , had an ATV ride , took about 800 pictures and best of all got to know my brother Al and his partner Brenda much better .

A very worthwhile trip .

A full report and pics to follow!

Western Views

I'm in Vancouver airport waiting for a connecting flight to Prince George. Where I'm picking up a car to drive to Telkwa to visit my brother . Have not seen him since 2004 . Can't wait to get there . He's got cancer . I hate cancer . Really . Love it here . Maybe a move west is what I need to break the bonds . Sometimes feel like i'm suffocating back home. Work , bills, ADHD , depression all adding up .

But what would I do without my friends? Something to think about that's for sure .

ADHD

ADHD has been on my mind a lot lately. Well that and 100000+ other things but i do keep coming back to the ADHD. The medication I'm on (VyVanse) is helping.  I spent all of Friday and Saturday at home cleaning and reorganizing . I made HUGE strides in the living room ,office and dining room and good progress in the kitchen and my bedroom.  The Bathroom is now very Clean too :) . At work Sunday i did work that would have taken about 7 hours before in 3. tedious work BTW. REALLY Tedious .  Still have irritability problems especially at work and still procrastinate. And I'm definitely impulsive sometimes. Hopefully at some point I can get past all that , I'm looking for a coach now . So expensive but hopefully worth it. tricky though. the one i liked after talking to her turns out to have abandoned a fellow ADDer i met Monday half was through her sesssions and has not paid her back or completed the sessions 4 years later. I'll be looking elseware.

I also joined a Adult ADHD support group. Wow 30 people in that same room as me with almost all of the same issues and challenges. I was euphoric leaving the meeting . Looking forward to more .

Found out that i can NOT have more than a beer or two at a time.  Very adverse emotional effects . This turns out to be a good thing. Far less embarrassing for sure!


Not the most coherent post but all I have for now .  Far more on my mind but it will have to wait.

Hi!

Have not posted forever it seems . have a few things on my mind I think I'll try and post them in the next few days.

I bet you can hardly stand the suspense!

Robot Dj's Of course :(

http://www.alancross.ca/a-journal-of-musical-things/2011/8/18/the-non-human-dj-gets-a-gig-aaarrghhh.html?lastPage=true#comment14845498

Allan Cross posted the above article on his blog. Robot DJ's I think we've had them for a while actually Radio had soul even 10 years ago. It lost it a long time ago.

This is my response on his blog.

Inevitable and yet disappointing as well. And it almost is the future until the lights go out on radio forever. As you say in the article radio’s charm is that connection between the DJ and the listener. I personally don’t feel that connection anymore. Martin Streek at the edge was the last DJ I really felt connected to in Toronto. His firing and the aftermath were that last straw as it were. Playlists are pre-packaged DJ’s are generally not music fans they are robots either spewing banalities or trying to shock the listeners.




So an actual robot? No surprise. And I won’t be listening.

Brave

A good friend said I was brave for putting myself out in public with this Blog.

I don't think my sisters would not see it that way ,for them I think they would say Stupid.

I'm divided.

I feel almost compelled to say what I'm saying. I NEED to bare myself.

I don't know why for sure but it's there. And I sometimes want to wipe it all away.

My family is /Was very repressed. There were secrets. Some have been revealed but I suspect there are others.

I can't be  like that . I have bottled up far too much for too long.

So ? Brave or Stupid?

ar·tic·u·late

A beautiful and (Obviously ) intelligent women told me Saturday that this blog was articulate. And that she could clearly see my passion and emotions.

I am inordinately pleased by that.  :)

Here's a definition.I like #4

ar·tic·u·late   /adj., n. ɑrˈtɪkyəlɪt; v. ɑrˈtɪkyəˌleɪt/ Show Spelled


[adj., n. ahr-tik-yuh-lit; v. ahr-tik-yuh-leyt]

adjective, verb, -lat·ed, -lat·ing, noun

–adjective

1. uttered clearly in distinct syllables.

2. capable of speech; not speechless.

3. using language easily and fluently; having facility with words: an articulate speaker.

4. expressed, formulated, or presented with clarity and effectiveness: an articulate thought.