The Useful Duck!

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Sunday, April 12, 2015

Riding a motorcycle down this road is much more fun that moving a 15 foot grain drill!

There is a lot of wind noise in this video. You might turn your audio down a bit before watching.

I live in a wonderful part of the country to ride a small displacement light motorcycle. Cool weather and twisty and hilly roads with not a lot of traffic.
It is perfect for the 650 Triumph because you hardly ever have to shift. The Ascot VT500 is a little different. I find it amusing that Honda fitted the V-Twin with a six speed transmission and you really do need all the gears. It has a definite powerband and it likes to be wound out.
The Ascot also has a little vibration. I don't really notice it after riding a 650 Triumph without proper engine bracing for 25 years, but I notice things coming loose. The windscreen and mirrors need to be tightened each time I ride.
I also need to find original mirrors. I'd like to find a sport type fairing off of the European version of this motorcycle. There is one in England on ebay for $250 plus shipping and not including mounting brackets. Probably not buying it...
Took daughter to town to get Chinese Food for lunch, pick up a device to convert optical audio to analogue audio, and get a few paper plates. Ended up buying a wireless headphone set for my father-in-law so he can watch is giant TV without disturbing the neighbors.
Carried it all home on the motorcycle.
With no luggage rack or saddlebags. Had a nice time. Daughter and I stopped at Starbucks for iced coffee.
Of course I forgot the connecting cord so I had to go back. Daughter opted to stay home. I bought her one of those complicated Lego VW vans for her birthday. It is amazingly complicated.
I went a little faster without her.
I stopped to see my friend's new tractor on the way home.
I should have gone to MuddyValley's house and welded hooks on his loader bucket. I now feel guilt. Not a lot. Just a little.
Muddy Valley gave me a set of Tandberg Fasett speakers. This would be somewhat of an expensive gift but one of them is slightly melted from a fire. But, one does not look a gift horse in the mouth...

A note in closing...
With my usual luck, I ran out of gas on my way home. A mile from home to be exact. 150 miles on a tank of gas. There was a problem switching to reserve. Not sure what I did but then I got it started before my wife arrived with a gas can.
Everyone was quite amused.

3 comments:

  1. It must be too late at night but I can't get my head around the definition of "optical audio". Would that not be video?

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, we are just old. It is a special cable standard that uses fiber optics to send digital signals from one component to another. I think it is also called "Toslink."
    This is great if you have twentyfirst century stereo equipment but some of us do not.
    SO if you go out and splurge on that 75" LED TV so you can watch old car videos on YouTube, make sure if has a HEADPHONE jack so you can hook it up the console radio in your living room.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was not aware that motorcycles had reserve tanks. Can't you just carry a quart of gas in a thermos bottle if it needs a drink? And I don't really need the hooks until someone's trailer shows up to load the plow on. :-) BTW, my barn owl is messing on your tractor.

    ReplyDelete

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