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Toshi's thread
- Thread starter Toshi
- Start date
1) I scored a used SHAD/KTM Hard Parts-branded 46L topcase (a SH46 with a KTM logo, basically) with a backrest for $180 USD shipped off of the ADVrider forum. It looks as if its mounting plate is the standard SHAD setup so a $96 rack/mount for my Versys should get me in business for hundreds cheaper than a new SHAD or Givi setup. (A new SH46 and backrest would be over $300 shipped.) 46L can swallow two side by side full-faces.
Sadly, the KTM 950 Adv isn't included for the price.
From the SHAD luggage Webbikeworld review, this is what the SH46 looks like on a Versys.
2) I ordered 20 feet of 2" wide retroreflective vinyl strips designed to be sewn on to highway workers' clothing. I'm going to have the local tailor sew on 2' on each of my currently non-reflective, black pant legs, 1.5' on each arm of my two jackets, and two 1.5' strips down the back of each of my two jackets. That's 16' accounted for if my math is correct, and then the last 4' can go towards the arms and back of my wife's jacket. (Her pants already have reflective piping and she doesn't ride on her own yet.)
The strip in question is the 3M 6160R 2" x 10' ordered from this site: http://www.identi-tape.com/sew-on-vinyl.html . eBay has non-3M knockoffs for a bit cheaper but I don't trust them to actually be truly reflective, which is kind of the whole point of this exercise. These ones are said to have 700 candelas per lux per square meter of reflectivity, which sounds good although I can't quite wrap my head around the units.
Sadly, the KTM 950 Adv isn't included for the price.
From the SHAD luggage Webbikeworld review, this is what the SH46 looks like on a Versys.
2) I ordered 20 feet of 2" wide retroreflective vinyl strips designed to be sewn on to highway workers' clothing. I'm going to have the local tailor sew on 2' on each of my currently non-reflective, black pant legs, 1.5' on each arm of my two jackets, and two 1.5' strips down the back of each of my two jackets. That's 16' accounted for if my math is correct, and then the last 4' can go towards the arms and back of my wife's jacket. (Her pants already have reflective piping and she doesn't ride on her own yet.)
The strip in question is the 3M 6160R 2" x 10' ordered from this site: http://www.identi-tape.com/sew-on-vinyl.html . eBay has non-3M knockoffs for a bit cheaper but I don't trust them to actually be truly reflective, which is kind of the whole point of this exercise. These ones are said to have 700 candelas per lux per square meter of reflectivity, which sounds good although I can't quite wrap my head around the units.
One of my undergrad classmates was married this past weekend. He's in i-banking (after doing a math masters) and her family apparently has money, so this was no simple affair. Black tie, 5th Ave and Central Park hotel, wonderful food, 6? photographers and videographers, choreographed tango as first dance, towering wedding cake, etc. The best thing was getting to see so many familiar Harvard faces, many of whom I hadn't seen in a decadeI haven't been out a decade but some of these people were from classes above me.
I took some photos of my own, of course. Lighting was challenging: even at ISO 6400 and f/2.0 to 2.8 I ended up having to push nearly a stop on many of the photos. After-the-fact white balancing in Lightroom was a life saver: nearly none of the camera's guesses at auto white balance were even close save for the comparatively well-lit tango.
Full gallery here: http://toshiclark.com/images/events and concerts/alex and chloe's wedding - july 24, 2010/ or selections below:
A very cute flowergirl
Bride with Korean parents
The pleased groom on the photo's right, with a photographer caught in the cross-fire
First kiss
Reception. Those black boxes were very nice sets of chopsticks as a gift for each guest!
Portraits of some of my friends in attendance and playing as part of a string quartet (the groom was in the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra with me so a lot of our mutual friends were/are musicians):
First dance, with outfit 2 of 3 of the night for the bride
I thought the photos turned out reasonably well considering that most of them were effectively at ISO 12800!
I took some photos of my own, of course. Lighting was challenging: even at ISO 6400 and f/2.0 to 2.8 I ended up having to push nearly a stop on many of the photos. After-the-fact white balancing in Lightroom was a life saver: nearly none of the camera's guesses at auto white balance were even close save for the comparatively well-lit tango.
Full gallery here: http://toshiclark.com/images/events and concerts/alex and chloe's wedding - july 24, 2010/ or selections below:
A very cute flowergirl
Bride with Korean parents
The pleased groom on the photo's right, with a photographer caught in the cross-fire
First kiss
Reception. Those black boxes were very nice sets of chopsticks as a gift for each guest!
Portraits of some of my friends in attendance and playing as part of a string quartet (the groom was in the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra with me so a lot of our mutual friends were/are musicians):
First dance, with outfit 2 of 3 of the night for the bride
I thought the photos turned out reasonably well considering that most of them were effectively at ISO 12800!
Getting into the resident housing was a pain when we initially moved out here to Long Island. The one man who has the keys to the apartments is incredibly hard to reach/calls in sick/doesn't answer pages/doesn't show up for his own posted office hours. Add to this that outgoing residents apparently are sometimes allowed to stay in their old apartments even through the end of August–don't people have jobs and fellowships to go to on July 1st?!–and you have a recipe for disaster.
Well, sometimes: it worked out for us last year, as after 10 days in a $100/day extended stay hotel we were given the keys to our current 1-bedroom apartment. The walls and ceiling were a mess but it was workable… and, in retrospect, most importantly it had no pest problems. We (including my wife's father, mother, and aunt at various times) busted out the spackle, repainted it from head to toe, and it proved to be a pretty good little apartment over the past year.
However, it is little, no escaping that, and even with trying to pare back on our possessions (ie, selling the upright piano), we were overflowing it at the seams, as it were. Enter our 2-bedroom apartment, a long-promised upgrade, at least on paper. How so? On paper we would be getting literally twice the space for only about $100 more/month while preserving my much-cherished walking commute to work.
Reality didn't match up with the paper vision in all respects, unfortunately. The size wasn't the issue: after finally getting keys to the "new" apartment this past Friday, it did prove to be twice as big as the current place. Unfortunately, it does suffer from a pest problem. A huge, intolerable pest problem. What's worse, I didn't fully realize the magnitude of the problem until after I'd spent many backbreaking hours moving a lot of our junk to the new place.
What's the problem, you ask? Roaches. Tons of them. It turns out that the kitchen tiles underneath the absolutely filthy refrigerator and stove were missing and/or rotten, and there was a veritable colony of roaches living there. They didn't come out until the evening, and then hang out on the walls and ceiling, crawl around on the counters, etc. They're all pretty small roaches but they are disgusting nonetheless, and it's truly unsanitary to be in the place.
We tried the "nuke 'em from space" approach, scraping away the fetid material of their colony, dousing the floor in that area with bleach, and spraying Raid bug spray everywhere. We set off two rounds of fumigators, 10 little fume-bombs in total.
The roaches still are there.
As of tonight I've had enough. We're going to pull out all of our stuff that's currently in the place, and wash or throw away every last item. We're going to move away from the resident housing to someplace where the maintenance people wouldn't dare let a place get so filthy as this one. We're not going to look back. If I have to ride my motorcycle (or bicycle) and get a ride to work from Jessica in the car here or then then that's a sacrifice I will make in order to never, ever have to deal with a place as disgusting and filthy as the "new" apartment that supposedly had been cleaned and made ready for habitation by the hospital maintenance staff.
Well, sometimes: it worked out for us last year, as after 10 days in a $100/day extended stay hotel we were given the keys to our current 1-bedroom apartment. The walls and ceiling were a mess but it was workable… and, in retrospect, most importantly it had no pest problems. We (including my wife's father, mother, and aunt at various times) busted out the spackle, repainted it from head to toe, and it proved to be a pretty good little apartment over the past year.
However, it is little, no escaping that, and even with trying to pare back on our possessions (ie, selling the upright piano), we were overflowing it at the seams, as it were. Enter our 2-bedroom apartment, a long-promised upgrade, at least on paper. How so? On paper we would be getting literally twice the space for only about $100 more/month while preserving my much-cherished walking commute to work.
Reality didn't match up with the paper vision in all respects, unfortunately. The size wasn't the issue: after finally getting keys to the "new" apartment this past Friday, it did prove to be twice as big as the current place. Unfortunately, it does suffer from a pest problem. A huge, intolerable pest problem. What's worse, I didn't fully realize the magnitude of the problem until after I'd spent many backbreaking hours moving a lot of our junk to the new place.
What's the problem, you ask? Roaches. Tons of them. It turns out that the kitchen tiles underneath the absolutely filthy refrigerator and stove were missing and/or rotten, and there was a veritable colony of roaches living there. They didn't come out until the evening, and then hang out on the walls and ceiling, crawl around on the counters, etc. They're all pretty small roaches but they are disgusting nonetheless, and it's truly unsanitary to be in the place.
We tried the "nuke 'em from space" approach, scraping away the fetid material of their colony, dousing the floor in that area with bleach, and spraying Raid bug spray everywhere. We set off two rounds of fumigators, 10 little fume-bombs in total.
The roaches still are there.
As of tonight I've had enough. We're going to pull out all of our stuff that's currently in the place, and wash or throw away every last item. We're going to move away from the resident housing to someplace where the maintenance people wouldn't dare let a place get so filthy as this one. We're not going to look back. If I have to ride my motorcycle (or bicycle) and get a ride to work from Jessica in the car here or then then that's a sacrifice I will make in order to never, ever have to deal with a place as disgusting and filthy as the "new" apartment that supposedly had been cleaned and made ready for habitation by the hospital maintenance staff.
i too got a bug . . . .I got it! Picked up a 2008 Kawasaki Versys tonight from a city about an hour away. Its inaugural ride was an hour on the Long Island Expressway and across a long tollbridge. Only one person cut me off, too.
taking my first 3day trip sunday-tue.
Errr No a 650 is a single, and that's a horizontally opposed twin in the pic so an R850 GS I think??
*sigh* either way its a bike with a motor, and that as of this morning is something I don't have anymore. 
Still I got a good price for the Bandit and its a rider I know will look after her.
Next up?
Hmm if the bank lets me buy the business down south? no Money or time for riding for 6 months.
If the bank says no, I buy another business freehold up north and then go buy myself a Moto Morini Corsaro..... 140HP!!!!
http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/moto-morini/2010-moto-morini-corsaro-1200-veloce-ar80599.html
Still I got a good price for the Bandit and its a rider I know will look after her.
Next up?
Hmm if the bank lets me buy the business down south? no Money or time for riding for 6 months.
If the bank says no, I buy another business freehold up north and then go buy myself a Moto Morini Corsaro..... 140HP!!!!
http://www.topspeed.com/motorcycles/motorcycle-reviews/moto-morini/2010-moto-morini-corsaro-1200-veloce-ar80599.html
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you think roaches are bad, try bed bugs.
As yet another sign of my insanity/inspired by the above: I'm thinking of adding more reflective stuff. This time it'd be reflective tape on the bike itself, and probably a red/back white/front strip on my helmet as well.
http://www.identi-tape.com/3m-conspicuity.htm
Hmm, so many options I'll have to take some photos of the bike tomorrow to see what "landing zones" there might be without unduly sacrificing too much future resale value.
Reflective material brand comparison:
http://www.mahonkin.com/~milktree/hawk/reflector-pics/
Looks like I'll be going with Reflexite: http://www.identi-tape.com/hi-intensity4.htm . The only question is white/fluoro yellow/red? and tape width. I might go full-hog and get a 6" x 15' mini-roll of the fluoro yellow and add "highlights" to the body panels of my Versys, in a very primitive version along the lines of EU police bikes as above.
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Further fleshing out this idea after reading up on ADVrider, I think that adding straight up white reflectors towards the back (on top of the two stripes I already have on the back of my jacket) would not be a good idea. Red/yellow chevrons, on the other hand, are the euro ambulance standard and all > 2009 US ambulances should be so decorated as well:
My half-hatched plan:
- 2" fluoro strips, yellow or orange tbd, for the fork uppers, helmet chinbar, fuel tank cowling, swingarm. I'm ok with non-white for the front, as I don't think the front really matters with the headlight always on and all. I think covering an entire surface such as on the cowls would be difficult due to the compound curves but having at least one 2" strip on the cowling and two 2" strips on each swingarm would be very helpful.
- a red stripe or three on the back of my (high-viz yellow) helmet, and more red on the rear fender/ungainly license plate bracket
- hackish attempt at a chevron on the black areas of my topcase a la a 1/3rd scale imitation of the ambulance, alternating between red and the fluoro color. I think red is absolutely key for the rear. Think the FYYFF bike seen in the last post only with a complete chevron pattern rather than the white stuff laterally. This would be tough to do but would probably be the most effective bit. I would try to extend the pattern all the way out to the sides of the top case, and would consider covering up the existing not-really-reflective and non-illuminated red reflector if need be.
My half-hatched plan:
- 2" fluoro strips, yellow or orange tbd, for the fork uppers, helmet chinbar, fuel tank cowling, swingarm. I'm ok with non-white for the front, as I don't think the front really matters with the headlight always on and all. I think covering an entire surface such as on the cowls would be difficult due to the compound curves but having at least one 2" strip on the cowling and two 2" strips on each swingarm would be very helpful.
- a red stripe or three on the back of my (high-viz yellow) helmet, and more red on the rear fender/ungainly license plate bracket
- hackish attempt at a chevron on the black areas of my topcase a la a 1/3rd scale imitation of the ambulance, alternating between red and the fluoro color. I think red is absolutely key for the rear. Think the FYYFF bike seen in the last post only with a complete chevron pattern rather than the white stuff laterally. This would be tough to do but would probably be the most effective bit. I would try to extend the pattern all the way out to the sides of the top case, and would consider covering up the existing not-really-reflective and non-illuminated red reflector if need be.
I just placed an order for the following items from this page: http://www.identi-tape.com/hi-intensity2.htm . Reflexite product info and spec sheets here: http://www.reflexite.com/refl/americas/en/product_details/items/36 .
- 15' of 2" red Reflexite V92 Daybright retroreflective conspicuity tape
- 15' of 2" fluoroescent yellow Reflexite V97 Fl Daybright retroreflective conspicuity tape
- 15' of 2" fluoroescent orange Reflexite V97 Fl Daybright retroreflective conspicuity tape
The plan is for a yellow and red chevron on the back and sides of the top case, red on the license plate holder, orange on the black trim under the pillion seat, candycane orange and yellow on the fork legs, striped orange and yellow on the sides of the tank cowling. Assuming I have extra material left over my bicycle is getting some color, too (seatpost and fork stanchions for sure, possibly the downtube as well), and the rims of both machines might get a patch of color similar to this idea:
The tricky part will be to do all this without the finished product looking like ass, as I will be selling the Versys in a few years (probably 2014, realistically). I'll have to spend some quality time with a fine scissor or hobby knife to make edges line up, but I'm psyched about the possibilities.
One of my undergrad classmates was married this past weekend. He's in i-banking (after doing a math masters) and her family apparently has money, so this was no simple affair. Black tie, 5th Ave and Central Park hotel, wonderful food, 6? photographers and videographers, choreographed tango as first dance, towering wedding cake, etc. The best thing was getting to see so many familiar Harvard faces, many of whom I hadn't seen in a decadeI haven't been out a decade but some of these people were from classes above me.
I took some photos of my own, of course. Lighting was challenging: even at ISO 6400 and f/2.0 to 2.8 I ended up having to push nearly a stop on many of the photos. After-the-fact white balancing in Lightroom was a life saver: nearly none of the camera's guesses at auto white balance were even close save for the comparatively well-lit tango.
Full gallery here: http://toshiclark.com/images/events and concerts/alex and chloe's wedding - july 24, 2010/ or selections below:
A very cute flowergirl
Bride with Korean parents
The pleased groom on the photo's right, with a photographer caught in the cross-fire
First kiss
Reception. Those black boxes were very nice sets of chopsticks as a gift for each guest!
Portraits of some of my friends in attendance and playing as part of a string quartet (the groom was in the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra with me so a lot of our mutual friends were/are musicians):
First dance, with outfit 2 of 3 of the night for the bride
I thought the photos turned out reasonably well considering that most of them were effectively at ISO 12800!
definitely a good job esp considering the circumstances. how'd the six paid shooters do?
i think i had my most extreme low-light shot a couple of weeks ago...1/40 @ f/1.4, ISO 25600
It arrived. Booyah.
100% pixel size detail of the yellow and orange tape from the right side of the above photo:
… add an hour or three of cutting pieces and sticking 'em on and you get this. Sorry about the poor color fidelity (iPhone shot as opposed to those with my 5DII above), but I wasn't about to wake up the wife just to grab the camera:
toshi, thoughts on the 2005 ktm 640 adventure? ive seen one (about 15,000 km) for sale for $7500. isnt that a lot of miles for a thumper?
anything you want to say about it, specially reliability-wise.
reliability is my main concern, as bike spares are virtually non-existant.. and the thought of a 160kg bike dying on me 200 miles away from the city in the middle of nowhere, 15000ft high in the andes is not amusing.
its got a 7.5 gal (!) tank, which would be awesome, considering there are no gas stations where i plan to go, forgiving dirt bike suspension (about 12"), light-ish (160kg). would be used mainly in pooly kept dirt roads and some (limited) off road in sand.
dont plan to ride it much in tarmac (i would prefer to tow it thru 50-60 miles of tarmac out of lima into the andes, as i´d hate to ride around semis in twisties), but dont know how long will i tow it, before it gets too tiresome to do the whole protocol.
anything you want to say about it, specially reliability-wise.
reliability is my main concern, as bike spares are virtually non-existant.. and the thought of a 160kg bike dying on me 200 miles away from the city in the middle of nowhere, 15000ft high in the andes is not amusing.
its got a 7.5 gal (!) tank, which would be awesome, considering there are no gas stations where i plan to go, forgiving dirt bike suspension (about 12"), light-ish (160kg). would be used mainly in pooly kept dirt roads and some (limited) off road in sand.
dont plan to ride it much in tarmac (i would prefer to tow it thru 50-60 miles of tarmac out of lima into the andes, as i´d hate to ride around semis in twisties), but dont know how long will i tow it, before it gets too tiresome to do the whole protocol.
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The 640 and 690 look like beautiful bikes but I'd be leery of parts availability away from major cities in the US, let alone in Lima (unless KTM has a huge presence there somehow?). All its specs look right provided you can stomach its seat height, and the only complaint I've heard of it is buzziness at freeway speeds since it is a thumper as you know. I know of one guy who traded down from a 950 ADV to a 690 and he misses the 950 a bit.
What's the oil change interval? That's the other thing: KTMs are supposed to be a huge pain in the ass for oil changes (removing bodywork, draining oil from the frame, 40something steps, ridiculous) and if the interval is short that'd make it even more onerous.
What's the oil change interval? That's the other thing: KTMs are supposed to be a huge pain in the ass for oil changes (removing bodywork, draining oil from the frame, 40something steps, ridiculous) and if the interval is short that'd make it even more onerous.
Now with 100% more scientific validation, crossposted from a thread on another board in which this question was specifically asked:
Up to this point I haven't seen a review of the scientific literature regarding the various safety implements that we as riders may choose to use: hi-viz, reflective junk, DRLs whether high- or low-beam, and headlight modulators. Having a bit of spare time I though I'd look through the literature to see if there's data behind the paranoia, and it looks as if there is some evidence indeed.
Torrez LI. MOTORCYCLE CONSPICUITY: THE EFFECTS OF AGE AND VEHICULAR DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHTS. PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Central Florida, 2008. (pdf link, click!) All emphasis in quoted sections below is mine unless explicitly noted. This dissertation, which I just found now thanks to Google Scholar, is a fantastic resource for safety-hounds.
Literature review with regard to daytime use of high-beam headlights, low-beam headlights (DRLs), and headlight modulators:
Literature review with regard to fluoro and hi-viz gear, including reflectivity and the chevron pattern:
Experimental data and conclusions involving age, modulators/no modulators, and motorcycle conspicuity:The colors white, crème, and lime yellow have all been found to be more conspicuous than any other color of vehicle in studies evaluating accident involvement (Allen, 1970; Solomon, 1990). The results from these studies are questionable as there is a high degree of validity as to confounding variables such as individual behavioral characteristics and color selection (do safer drivers choose white cars)
...
In the field of emergency vehicle design, it is extremely important in increase conspicuity as much as possible due to the particular types of situations and traffic these vehicles must navigate. In doing so, a large amount of research has been directed toward patterned vehicle applications, mostly overseas (Tijerina, 2003). One such potentially promising pattern is the Chevron pattern, or Harlequin Battenburg Livery as it is called in Europe (See Figure 2). This pattern apparently plays off of human perceptual cues by representing similarity to a horizontal barricade or bridge abutment, and consequently increasing conspicuity when applied to emergency vehicles (CVPI, 2004).
Figure 2:
...
In a study conducted by (Woltman & Austin, 1973), motorcyclists equipped with fluorescent garments were detected much quicker than those wearing conventional colors under a variety of backgrounds, at a variety of angles. This was especially true under environmental conditions of dust and or dim illumination. As mentioned earlier in regards to vehicular lighting, Olson, Halstead-Nussloch, & Sivak (1981) additionally tested the effectiveness of fluorescent garments on motorcycle detection and found their use to effectively distinguish the motorcyclist from their surroundings via a gap acceptance paradigm. These findings have been supplemented by support from research on pedestrian and bicyclist conspicuity, where virtually every study done has concluded that both fluorescent and retro-reflective garments drastically improve conspicuity (for an exhaustive review see Kwan & Mapstone, 2004).
My conclusions/long-form Cliffs Notes:
1. There exists much epidemiological evidence that DRLs and daytime high-beam usage reduces accident rates, but this type of study is confounded by selection bias (ie, people who wear hi-viz are safer than those who wear wife beaters).
2. There also exists experimental and basic science evidence that shows that DRLs, high-beam usage, fluoro/hi-viz, and the chevron pattern are detected quicker and more reliably, especially in marginal conditions.
3. Old people have measurably slower reaction times, and this difference is significant enough to make the difference between turning in front of you vs. hitting the brakes. Unfortunately, headlight modulators do not "fix" this problem of old people.
4. Headlight modulators do not show a benefit above DRLs alone in the dissertation above, but in more urban/congested/poor lighting scenarios they might have a benefit.
You can draw your own conclusions from all the above, but I've already drawn mine as illustrated below:
In addition to the above I think I'll add these once life settles down (find place to move to, first off):
Photon Blaster (flickering amber LEDs for fork legs):
P3 Lights (flickering + 4x modulating red LEDs for license plate frame):
Back there, somewhere behind you..... There was a line Toshi. 
Back there, somewhere behind you..... There was a line Toshi.
Drivers here are maniacs, and there are too many of them to avoid. I'm escalating the arms race...
next thing, your motorcycle will have a seatbelt, then and airbag, then 4 doors....
Proposed weekend ride to Mount Washington, maybe this weekend? Hmm…
Tentative dates: September 4 and 5, 2010.
Objective: drive the Mount Washington Auto Road. They're open 7:30a-6p through Sept 6, with progressively diminishing hours until the end of October. Why this road? Looks fun. It's there. Motorcycles are allowed ($12 fee).
Do note that scooters and mopeds are explicitly prohibited on the Mount Washington Auto Road, and they don't make a size restriction for the Burgmans and the like out there. On the other hand, the actual climb is only a fraction of this proposed trip.
Part 1: East Meadow to the Port Jefferson Ferry
47 minutes. I'd leave around 7:30 AM in order to catch the 9 AM Port Jefferson-Bridgeport ferry in plenty of time. The ferry takes credit cards or cash, and the one-way motorcycle rate is $29.75--expensive but cheaper than the $51 for cars!
Part 2: Port Jefferson to Turners Falls via North Adams
Route 8 all the way up to North Adams, then Route 2 over to Turners Falls/Millers Falls.
Part 3: Turners Falls to North Conway via Concord and North Waterboro
Route 9 to Concord/Loudon, then Route 28 to Ossipee, then over to North Waterboro via not-as-interesting roads. Stay in a room in a house in North Waterboro ($40/night, doesn't matter how many people, found on AirBNB.)
The next day take Route 16 to North Conway and continue forth.
Part 4: North Conway to Mount Washington
Route 16 to the Mount Washington Auto Road. Climb the Mountain. See what there is to see.
Map link for the trip out there: http://tinyurl.com/LItoMtWashington
I figure the total is about 12-14 hours of riding including the ride up the mountain, with about 9 on the first day, split up by the ferry ride in the morning and lunch along the way.
Day 2, Part 5: Mount Washington to Portsmouth
Route 16 all the way down from Mount Washington to Portsmouth
Part 6: Portsmouth to New London, CT
Superslabbing it back from Portsmouth to New London, CT on I-495, I-290, I-395. Why New London? For the New London-Orient ferry, of course. $28 for a one-way motorcycle ticket, runs essentially every hour if not a bit more often until 8:45 PM.
Part 7: Orient back home. Probably just slabbing it up on 25 then the LIE, I expect, after a very long two days of riding…
Tentative dates: September 4 and 5, 2010.
Objective: drive the Mount Washington Auto Road. They're open 7:30a-6p through Sept 6, with progressively diminishing hours until the end of October. Why this road? Looks fun. It's there. Motorcycles are allowed ($12 fee).
Do note that scooters and mopeds are explicitly prohibited on the Mount Washington Auto Road, and they don't make a size restriction for the Burgmans and the like out there. On the other hand, the actual climb is only a fraction of this proposed trip.
Part 1: East Meadow to the Port Jefferson Ferry
47 minutes. I'd leave around 7:30 AM in order to catch the 9 AM Port Jefferson-Bridgeport ferry in plenty of time. The ferry takes credit cards or cash, and the one-way motorcycle rate is $29.75--expensive but cheaper than the $51 for cars!
Part 2: Port Jefferson to Turners Falls via North Adams
Route 8 all the way up to North Adams, then Route 2 over to Turners Falls/Millers Falls.
Part 3: Turners Falls to North Conway via Concord and North Waterboro
Route 9 to Concord/Loudon, then Route 28 to Ossipee, then over to North Waterboro via not-as-interesting roads. Stay in a room in a house in North Waterboro ($40/night, doesn't matter how many people, found on AirBNB.)
The next day take Route 16 to North Conway and continue forth.
Part 4: North Conway to Mount Washington
Route 16 to the Mount Washington Auto Road. Climb the Mountain. See what there is to see.
Map link for the trip out there: http://tinyurl.com/LItoMtWashington
I figure the total is about 12-14 hours of riding including the ride up the mountain, with about 9 on the first day, split up by the ferry ride in the morning and lunch along the way.
Day 2, Part 5: Mount Washington to Portsmouth
Route 16 all the way down from Mount Washington to Portsmouth
Part 6: Portsmouth to New London, CT
Superslabbing it back from Portsmouth to New London, CT on I-495, I-290, I-395. Why New London? For the New London-Orient ferry, of course. $28 for a one-way motorcycle ticket, runs essentially every hour if not a bit more often until 8:45 PM.
Part 7: Orient back home. Probably just slabbing it up on 25 then the LIE, I expect, after a very long two days of riding…
However, looking at the forecast, it does NOT look like this weekend will be a good one to do this ride:
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=mount washington, nh&wuSelect=WEATHER
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=mount washington, nh&wuSelect=WEATHER
The above is what my commute might be like, starting potentially very soon. B is my hospital, of course, and A is the house that we saw tonight. Per Google Maps the route is just shy of 30 minutes and 20 miles, so I'd be racking up the miles on the motorcycle, especially since I could detour on the way home through my favorite twisty north shore roads
We liked it quite a bit: bamboo planted in the back yard in true hippie style; wood stove in its own tiled-in corner of the living room; fireplace; huge master bedroom with a cedar closet (!); smaller, partitioned second bedroom that'd be good for computer desks and music paraphernalia; huge if currently a bit unkempt back yard; excellent neighborhood north of route 25A in Huntington, NY. (South of 25A is a rougher neighborhood, but north is in the windy road area that I like to hit up on the motorcycle, and the roads are spotted with packs of road bikers, for what that's worth.) 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a nice, open kitchen layout, too. Oh, and the construction definitely looks post-war, with the last renovation (or original construction?) in maybe the 1970s. The later construction bodes well in my mind for heating/cooling costs. Its layout is unconventional but seems like it would be livable, unlike some of the odd hillside creations or 1920s converted barns we've seen.
It's a little bit more than we should be spending per month, and a hell of a lot more than we're spending for our current pre-tax, utilities-included on-hospital digs, but it's a much, much nicer place and neighborhood than offerings even a little downmarket. We'd be in this place for just shy of three years so we'd like it to be a place that we look forward to returning to, and we have some additional financial support that we will most definitely tap from the room and board portion of Jessica's student loans (for what that's worth). I also ultimately could raid our IRA/401k/403b accounts, taking the tax penalty, or hit up the parents for assistance if it came down to that.
I have generally found the housing hunt on Long Island to be a pretty depressing experience, with overpriced, old, decrepit houses on small plots in bland at best, dangerous at worst neighborhoods the norm. This house is the first that actually piqued my interest since the very first one we saw (tiny house on a canal on the south shore), and I quite hope that we consummate the deal and sign a lease.
While it is nice up in Huntington it's also not along the bus lines that head directly to my hospital, and I am beginning to doubt that even my anti-car personal resolve will let me tolerate nearly 3 more years of carless commuting. Commuting on the good weather days would be fine on the motorcycle; no issues there. The cold days would also be fine with my heated jacket liner and gloves. Similarly, the warm, wet days wouldn't be much of an issue. It's the cold, wet days as well as those with outright snow and ice on the ground that would be the problem.
One solution would be to take public transit, but that solution is pretty suboptimal given the potential house's location. How suboptimal? Try bicycling 3.3 miles to the train station in the snow, leaving around 6:20 AM, catching a commuter train for 23 minutes, then riding the bicycle for 3.7 more miles to the hospital. Possible? In theory, sure. A good idea? Probably not, given that this would be on the very days in which the roads are in the worst shape combined with Long Islanders' legendary intolerance for anything even slightly slower than them on the roads.
Thus I grudgingly admit that I would probably need a car, albeit a very temporary car only used during the winter when I couldn't safely get to work on my motorcycle. I figure this will be two months out of the year tops.
The problem with getting a car is that we'll be effectively poor and will be in a rental house. Thus my green-car favorites are all out the door: Nissan Leaf? Too expensive for us at this point/I don't make enough to make the federal tax credit worthwhile/installing a charging station in a rental house isn't kosher. Toyota Prius? Too expensive, and even though my mother graciously offered to give their 2006 Prius to us we can't conscionably transfer the financial burden to my parents so blatantly as they'd need to replace it. Hell, even late-model econocars like a Yaris, Corolla, Fit or Civic would be pushing the budget given that we bought my wife's Honda Fit just a year ago.
An additional problem is that there are millions of other poor New Yorkers competing for the same base of cheap, hopefully reliable used cars, and I have no faith whatsoever in the dealers that cater to this/my audience. The flying spaghetti monster knows that there are enough cheap POSes out there spewing white and blue smoke out their exhausts from leaking coolant and oil, respectively Besides the clear safety issue with these very marginal vehicles there's also the issue of getting them to pass inspection, as well as the whole moral/environmental issue of knowingly driving a car in such bad condition that it's polluting far more than its share.
So what's an overthinking guy to do?
I figure the best way to get a cheap used car is to target the most unattractive vehicles on the market. How so? Everyone wants a late model Japanese compact car so their resale values stay high. Even some otherwise unattractive old vehicles such as pickups and pseudo-sporty cars sometimes are desired by high schoolers and also suffer from price inflation. On the flip side, no one seems to want to buy domestics or older model Korean cars, and no one in particular wants stodgy, totally unsporty domestic barge-like sedans. What car am I talking about? The Ford Crown Victoria, of course.
The Crown Victoria is most recognizable in taxi or police cruiser livery, and thanks to this there is an abundant, continually refreshed supply of late model-albeit-with-high-mileage Crown Vics on the the market. Taxis seem to be uglier (yellow or orange rattlecan paintjobs) and have much higher mileage (try 250,000+! for a 2008) than the ex-police vehicles, plus I like the concept of having all the police interceptor package upgrades: skidplate, spotlight, heavy duty suspension, oil and transmission coolers, etc.
Heresy, you say? Well, it's true that they're kind of pigs: 15/23 city/hwy mpg per the EPA. On the other hand, I'd only be driving it 1/6 of the year at most, it'd be comparatively dirt cheap, and by choosing such an unattractive vehicle I'd avoid competing with the hordes of other NY-area cheap-car shoppers.
It is still unclear whether we'll actually be moving to that Huntington house, as the landlord hasn't responded either way to our offer. It's still possible that we might move to a place within walking distance of the hospital, even, rendering this whole discussion moot. However, it's also possible that I, of militant bike-commuting in Seattle, may end up driving a former police cruiser to work out here in Long Island. Funny how these things work out, eh?
lol....
mountain bike, to wrx, to hippie electric bycicle, to even hippier no interal-combustion transportation, to upright motorcycle to crown victoria.
you certainly dont fit any marketing stereotype....
my yaris already has almost 70,000km on the clock (2006), has graciously taken me to 3mile high fireroads and back.
it has both rear shocks blown, a worn clutch, its has already eaten 70% of its second set of tires, its missing a fog light, front bumper hanging in place by 2 staples and is missing a foglight among many dents in the undersides and lower front as a testament to its off-road prowess... backseat and doors are all scratched up from transporting a mountain bike.... brake pads are not even halfway worn yet (a feat considering i have a habit of driving from sea level to 15,000ft and play gravity-powered sports cars on the way back on a semi-weekly basis!)
its a hard life it has bravely fought and never let me down... but its time to retire it to a more peaceful city life, hopefully delivering kids to school in the morgning in the hands of a caring family of 4 with weekly trips to the market and the park....
time for replacement has come.
options are. 350z (pretty), dodge ram (cheap to buy, expensive to run, room for bikes, ability to monster truck poorly kept mountain fireroads i visit often), 2007 eclipse spyder (would be awesome to drive with the top down in the mountains), jeep grand cherokee and the strongest contender... ANOTHER Yaris (my 3rd, as a matter of fact
)....
i´d love a toyota hilux, while the turbo diesel isnt extraordinarily expensive ($26k) and i work for toyota (5 year warranty and parts at cif prices and service for free courtesy of my garage) and depreciation on toyotas is virtually non existant (4 year old hiluxes go $20k) the $2500 a year in insurace premium is retardly expensive, and it being common rail, i´d worry i´d **** up the $3000 injectors if i ever get a batch of bad diesel in one of those remote "gas stations" serving fuel straight from a dirty open barrel in the andes....
i`d pay $15k in depreciation and insurance over 4 years for a hilux, compared to the $5k between depreciation and insurance ive paid for my current yaris. did i say i can buy a new yaris with a 18% discount over market price, which means depreciation will be covered for at least 2 years...
and i do have access to an SUV (nissan x-trail) which i use every week or so, when i have to go places the, extraorinarily regular gas efficient (600km trip in yaris = $50 in gas, nissan 600k trip=$110), yaris wont reach without breaking something...
peruvian mountain road (or lack of it) which i consider yaris-reachable
yaris after a 800k mountain ride...
alpaca in the wild, in a non-yaris-reachable mountain top
sunset at a non-yaris-reacheable mountain lake....
mountain bike, to wrx, to hippie electric bycicle, to even hippier no interal-combustion transportation, to upright motorcycle to crown victoria.
you certainly dont fit any marketing stereotype....
my yaris already has almost 70,000km on the clock (2006), has graciously taken me to 3mile high fireroads and back.
it has both rear shocks blown, a worn clutch, its has already eaten 70% of its second set of tires, its missing a fog light, front bumper hanging in place by 2 staples and is missing a foglight among many dents in the undersides and lower front as a testament to its off-road prowess... backseat and doors are all scratched up from transporting a mountain bike.... brake pads are not even halfway worn yet (a feat considering i have a habit of driving from sea level to 15,000ft and play gravity-powered sports cars on the way back on a semi-weekly basis!)
its a hard life it has bravely fought and never let me down... but its time to retire it to a more peaceful city life, hopefully delivering kids to school in the morgning in the hands of a caring family of 4 with weekly trips to the market and the park....
time for replacement has come.
options are. 350z (pretty), dodge ram (cheap to buy, expensive to run, room for bikes, ability to monster truck poorly kept mountain fireroads i visit often), 2007 eclipse spyder (would be awesome to drive with the top down in the mountains), jeep grand cherokee and the strongest contender... ANOTHER Yaris (my 3rd, as a matter of fact
)....i´d love a toyota hilux, while the turbo diesel isnt extraordinarily expensive ($26k) and i work for toyota (5 year warranty and parts at cif prices and service for free courtesy of my garage) and depreciation on toyotas is virtually non existant (4 year old hiluxes go $20k) the $2500 a year in insurace premium is retardly expensive, and it being common rail, i´d worry i´d **** up the $3000 injectors if i ever get a batch of bad diesel in one of those remote "gas stations" serving fuel straight from a dirty open barrel in the andes....
i`d pay $15k in depreciation and insurance over 4 years for a hilux, compared to the $5k between depreciation and insurance ive paid for my current yaris. did i say i can buy a new yaris with a 18% discount over market price, which means depreciation will be covered for at least 2 years...
and i do have access to an SUV (nissan x-trail) which i use every week or so, when i have to go places the, extraorinarily regular gas efficient (600km trip in yaris = $50 in gas, nissan 600k trip=$110), yaris wont reach without breaking something...
peruvian mountain road (or lack of it) which i consider yaris-reachable
yaris after a 800k mountain ride...
alpaca in the wild, in a non-yaris-reachable mountain top
sunset at a non-yaris-reacheable mountain lake....
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