7 posts tagged “bmw”
I am finding myself in a bit of a quandary over the presidential election. I seemed to have fipped sides, although who can tell which side is which anymore. Once a staunch right-winger, recent events in my personal and business life have caused me to reconsider my values.
It is no secret that the middle class is disappearing in America and the rich truly are getting richer and poor truly are getting poorer. I find myself slipping into the latter class as do many, many others.
At the present time I am in need, again, of motorcycle parts. Unfortunately I am also cashless, but I do have a wealth of things of value both physical and mental.
I have started a parts-swapping bbs on the high slab website.
I made an appeal to folks on the Road Show Podcast and so far there has been little interest which I find curious. If anyone here would like to check it out go to:
Please register and post.....WE DON'T NEED ANY STEEENKING CASHOLA!!
As many of you already know, on May 14 of this year I succumbed the cumulative effects of several days in the high-desert and drove my BMW1100RT off the road with horrific results. That is old news to anyone who knows me or follows this blog.
What is less known is the amazing experiences I had on that ride prior to the crash. I haven't written a lot about my experience of that journey, instead I went back to my old art form of music and made an effort to express those experiences through that medium.
This podcast features full-length tracks from the entire album with explanatory material during the intros and outros. Nevertheless, I would like to take this opportunity to add some more information about each composition.
Lines in the Sand
1) Sunrise in the Mirror. That particular phrase is one of my favorite pieces of imagery from Neil Peart's book Ghost Rider. For me there is nothing like heading west into the desert at dawn with the day rising up to meet you from behind. I would like to thank my long-time friend and ace musician Michael Ferenci for contributing the guitar and bass tracks to this tune.
2) The Red Road. I was firmly on my way east on I-15 marveling at how far out the hype for Las Vegas begins. The slab outlines the northern edge of the Mojave National Preserve for many miles, and I desperately wanted to visit, but I was commited to making Durango, CO before nightfall. I thought I had made it safely past the preserve when at the last moment I spotted "The Red Road." The road was literallly bright red from the local materials mixed in the ashphalt.
I simply could not pass that up. Once on the road I saw glimmering at the top of a small desert hill the dot of a town. "I will go only that far," I told myself. It was as far as I needed to go. I had discovered the delightful little town of Nipton, Ca. and I was hooked.
3) Under Stars. If you have ever spent the night in the desert you will understand this tune.
4) Among Giants. The next day, after a late breakfast, I pointed the Beeemer even deeper into the desert to explore the Mojave National Preserve. It is high-desert, almost alien terrain created by both volcanic and tectonic forces. The remnants of ash-cones and the upthrustings of rock are truly remarkable and huge. One feels as if one has entered the land of the giants.
5) No Mans Land. After exploring the desert sancurary I headed east along one of the more barren stretches of Route 66. It is truly a "No Mans Land."
6) The Ravening Sun. This is a very different and strange tune. My attempt at musically creating the detrimental and hallucinatory effects of extended desert exposure. For me this signals the beginning of the end.
7) Off The Edge. Due to an egregious navigational error I ended up that night in Page, AZ rather than Durango, CO. The next morning I succumbed to the heat and at 100 MPH drove the big BMW off the road into a rocky field.
8) Beemer Babe. Many of you will recognize this as the them music to Road Show. It was originally composed for my lovely wife, "The Wrench Wench," and is dedicated to her for sticking by me through a long recovery
The Picture Book
As an experiment I put the photography and story of this journey in a picture book/comic book format available for free viewing at.
http://www.highslab.com/lines1.html
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Beemarman and crew
I know this doesn't look like much progress but it is a turning point. The new steering heaed is on an the new front subframe. As you can see instruments and new parts and being added to the front again and now they are at the proper angle not all pushed out.
The profane part is now I have to transfer BMW's unholy wiring system over...and I do mean unholy..yeee haaa....
As Neil Peart would say, "One little Victory/"
Last week I had the privilege of interviewing Dave Barr at his home. Barr is a double amputee who holds to Guinness World records for motorcycling...with two prosthetic limbs mind you! As I was leaving, he pulled me aside and gave me some strong advice "cripple to cripple" as he put it which I could not have heard from anyone else, Much like one friend of Bill talking to another. And, it gave me some of my mojo back.
"God" however you want to frame that concept, puts the things you need in your path when you need them but that assumes you are putting one foot in front of the other in "faith"
(Please excuse the use of the words God and faith as I use them in the same sense as the Big Book of AA..."A God of your own understanding."
To wax even more metaphysical....and hang in there with me for a second I give you the following quote.
In astrophysics and cosmology, dark matter is hypothetical matter of unknown composition that does not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation to be observed directly, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. According to present observations of structures larger than galaxy-sized as well as Big Bang cosmology, dark matter accounts for the vast majority of mass in the observable universe.
From Wikipedia
I have a friend who believes that dark matter is the energy of God flowing through the universe....hey who am I to argue with that.
What this is all leading up to though is, of course, my motorcycle. The patient as of today looks like this....
Although I consider myself a somewhat advanced motorcycle mechanic I have never rebuilt a beemer from the sub-frame up and it is a daunting task. I almost lost hope today, but as Steve said, "To try is to have hope, so I will keep plugging away
.
Today the seat lock still would not budge although in jockeying around back there I must have knocked out a pound of red-desert clay. There was not a lot of time to work on it this morning beause the home-health nurse was coming and I had to have my IV and by the time that was d ione it was too hot to work outside. There is a heat wave going in in Bakersfield right now so it gets to be over 100 degrees early in the day and it is very easy to get dehydrated in the garage.
Being frustrated at the rear of the bike I switched to the front and did manage to get the windshield off even though I had to drill out one of the bolts because the impact had tweezed it so bad.
4:20 PM Same day...
Braved the heat to see what I could do with the back lock again. Then it occured to me it did not really matter what happened to the side fairings so I was able to pull them off. As I was doing so a kind of desperationg came over me to just somehow get the bike looking better, as if that would ease the pain somehow of these last three and a half months
David Robertson is the owner and propieter of the website:
In his own words:
"Welcome to BestBikingRoads.com, the motorcycle routes knowledge base for Motorcycle Travel. Using this site you can search for the best sport touring and Motorcycle touring roads in your area and for motorcycle holidays, then enter your favourite roads to see how they compare with others."
Send your articles and suggestions for the Road Show Magazine to: editor@roadshowmagazine.com
BMWeerman's Ghetto Garage
This week I polled a who's who of the world riding community for their list of the top 20 things you need to know to ride around the world. Below is an abbreviated compilation of their answers.
Learn the local language: The leading advice of everyone I spoke too. Whether or not you get it right or wrong a few sincere attempts at speaking the native tongue will take you further than anything else. Know bike Maintenance: A close second was knowing your bike and how to maintain it at least to some degree Plan well but be ready to improvise: The longer and further away you are from home the more likely your are going to need to be flexible. Emergency Evac Insurance Pack--then take half out Get trained Know how to navigate Buy medivac insurance Have paperwork in order Be Healthy Smile Research where you want to go Be security conscious Bend the Rules Self Care Know Political Situation Use Dummy Documents-Keep the real ones locked away Carry your patience Let others know where you are Just do it.
Road Music
Last summer while interviewing Tim Mayhew of www.pashnit.com he made the comment that, to him, each road has a theme and that is how he would structure his writing. It occured to me at that time that maybe roads could have songs too, so since that time I have been working on an album called Road Music. A few samples of which you can hear here.
