tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529017857914379152024-03-21T09:56:47.269-04:00MotorsAndCyclesNine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-48125103784636508702024-01-02T12:38:00.005-05:002024-01-02T12:55:47.810-05:00Handling Guns and Guns in the Home<span face=""Work Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #194867; font-size: 1.5rem;">Handling Guns Safely</span><ul style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arvo, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 1rem; font-weight: bolder;">Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tacticaltrainingcenternj.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_4991-980x871.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="800" height="178" src="https://tacticaltrainingcenternj.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/IMG_4991-980x871.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Make sure the muzzle is pointed in a safe direction.</span> Only point a gun at something or someone you want to shoot.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><b>Treat every firearm as it its loaded</b>. If handed to you, check if it is or is not loaded, even if you saw someone check prior.</li></ul><p><span face=""Work Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #194867; font-size: 1.5rem;">Storing Guns Safely</span></p><ul style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arvo, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Never leave a gun unattended.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Unload firearms when not in use.</span> Remove all ammunition from the firearm, including any rounds in the chamber.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Keep your defensive firearms where you can get to them. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Use a touch safe to allow those trained and capable in your home to access them quickly.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Keep the firearm locked.</span> Secure firearms in a lockable touch safe. I recommend one on the ground floor, one in the bedroom. Both safes should be secured to the home. These safes allow you virtually immedate access to your guns and ammo via touching the pads. For example, you program to tap index finger, middle finger, middle, middle as a combination. Many of these safes can do fingerprints as well, but I don't find them reliable enough. I prefer the tap method. I use a cable to attach my main floor safe to an appliance. The cable is secured inside the safe and the safe must be opened to detach. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZUkStg6__mTBU17mM09sujcMtIHSkykTvtSvg3AIjHR_cFWXw5_mPn88PZSjnvrkvFfotN-rFRCneadvVbUArFSbPVXlLE3je9yKLrB4CFtMJ0oHgr3a18F29F-ajhJBB_XMrSGDHdxRhjpSZ5kjzKXKYzlZyN9zrwLIKLL5HO7htXd9jh-CkdkCJ9gxR" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Touch Safe" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1488" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZUkStg6__mTBU17mM09sujcMtIHSkykTvtSvg3AIjHR_cFWXw5_mPn88PZSjnvrkvFfotN-rFRCneadvVbUArFSbPVXlLE3je9yKLrB4CFtMJ0oHgr3a18F29F-ajhJBB_XMrSGDHdxRhjpSZ5kjzKXKYzlZyN9zrwLIKLL5HO7htXd9jh-CkdkCJ9gxR" title="Touch Safe" width="238" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Touch Safe<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Store ammunition in a lockbox or safe separately from firearms.</span> Keep the keys to the firearms and ammunition storage in separate locations.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Talk with children about what to do if they see a gun.</span> Make sure they know not to touch it, but to tell you or another responsible adult.</li></ul><p><span face=""Work Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #194867; font-size: 1.5rem;"><b style="background-color: transparent;">VERY IMPORTANT </b>Legality of Using a Gun in Self Defense</span></p><ul style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arvo, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem;"><li style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">The castle doctrine creates an exception to the duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense if the individual under attack is in their own home. The law in New Jersey allowing the use of force in defense of one's home or personal property (NJ Rev Stat § 2C:3-6 (2013)) follows the castle doctrine.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #56544f; font-family: Montserrat; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.18px;">For deadly force against an intruder to be justified, the intruder must have already used or threatened deadly force against the property owner or someone else present, or the individual must reasonably believe that someone else present would be in substantial danger of bodily harm without the use of deadly force.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; display: inline; text-align: left;"><span face=""Work Sans", sans-serif" style="color: #194867; font-size: 1.5rem;">Tip for using Guns</span></p><ul style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arvo, serif; font-size: 1rem; margin: 1rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Use pistols that you are comfortable with in or around the home.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Practice. Practice. Practice. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Even one month can degrade your skills.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Keep a flashlight and the ability to turn on home lights available. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i5.walmartimages.com/seo/Maglite-Heavy-Duty-Incandescent-3-Cell-D-Flashlight-Black_db8b76e5-1a42-472a-8f2a-7a42630ea69f.0e02f7faf2eb67f5521e9d0576390c92.jpeg?odnHeight=2000&odnWidth=2000&odnBg=FFFFFF" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://i5.walmartimages.com/seo/Maglite-Heavy-Duty-Incandescent-3-Cell-D-Flashlight-Black_db8b76e5-1a42-472a-8f2a-7a42630ea69f.0e02f7faf2eb67f5521e9d0576390c92.jpeg?odnHeight=2000&odnWidth=2000&odnBg=FFFFFF" width="200" /></a></div>My preference is a Maglite. 4 battery or similar. If I can't shoot an intruder, because there isn't a physical threat, then 6'1" and 275 Steve and the Maglite are the only option. Insert Rottweiler or Cane Corso if available in your home.<br /></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Do not shoot anyone you have not seen/identified. DO NOT shoot sounds.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Learn to move around your home in the dark.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Any caliber can work. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">I recommend at least .380. For home defense, smallness is not as much a concern (.380 is small, for small carry guns), you should use 9mm, S&W40, 10MM or .45 calibers. I prefer 9mm and S&W40, both of which you can carry 10 or more rounds and have good energy to take down intruders. Note that current NJ law limits magazines to 10 rounds. A gun can have 11 rounds - 10 in the magazine, 1 loaded in the chamber.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>Which gun for you? </b>Revolvers are simple, usually .38 or .357 (which can shoot .38) are the go to calibers. They are simple to use, reliable, typically accurate but limit you to 6, at most 7 rounds. Most people today use semi-automatics, but you have to learn how to use them, how to fix them in a jam, and how to change a magazine. They allow you to have 10+1 rounds in NJ, and more, 13+1 or more in .380, 9mm, S&W40 calibers.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Shotguns, AR's and other rifles can be used. </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Note they are harder to use in the small confines of rooms, doors, stairs, etc. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.vectorstock.com/i/1000x1000/97/73/short-pump-shotgun-vector-15359773.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="800" height="250" src="https://cdn.vectorstock.com/i/1000x1000/97/73/short-pump-shotgun-vector-15359773.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; break-inside: avoid; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.625; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; padding-left: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">I recommend ammunition designed for defense, such as <b>Hornady Critical Defense</b>. Critical Defense is designed to take down intruders without going through walls. Critical Duty, designed for law enforcement, has more object penetration abilities.</span></li></ul><ul style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: Arvo, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem;"></ul>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-29612074877588028302024-01-02T11:59:00.002-05:002024-01-02T12:46:57.946-05:00Get a New Jersey CCW Living in Manalapan<p style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Get a Manalapan (New Jersey) CCW Permit</i></b> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">First, this is complex and changing. Doing my
best to prepare you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Residents who wish to apply for a Permit to
Carry can complete an application on the online portal website at
<a href="https://www.njportal.com/NJSP/ConcealedCarry/">https://www.njportal.com/NJSP/ConcealedCarry/ </a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="https://www.njportal.com/NJSP/ConcealedCarry/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Concealed
Carry Permits (njportal.com)</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia;">Manalapan ORI </span><b style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia;">NJ0132600 </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Freehold ORI Number </span><span lang="EN" style="color: #040c28; font-family: Roboto; line-height: 115%;"><b>NJ0131600</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">You need a 2x2 photo
with a light background, digitized, like a passport photo. I can do one or
Walgreens does actual passport photos. I believe Argentina passport size works
best.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Other things you’ll
need:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.therange702.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/handgun-and-bullets.jpg.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="800" height="116" src="https://www.therange702.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/handgun-and-bullets.jpg.webp" width="200" /></a></div>Firearms/Ammunition Card</li><li>Drivers License</li><li>Name, address and
contact information (email and phone) for four references I believe. How long you've known them.</li></ul>Needed Prior to Applying:<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Must have been
<b>fingerprinted</b> for firearms prior to applying <b>(</b>you should have done this getting firearms/ammunition card).</li><li>Completed and have
proof of successfully completing Safe Handling and Use of Force Training for
Private Citizen Concealed Carry prepared by the State of New Jersey and the
Provisions of N.J.S.A.2C:3-1,</li><li>Completed and have
proof of successfully qualifying on a course of fire substantially similar to
HQC2 (modified) included in the Private Citizen Concealed Carry Use of Force
Training manual, utilizing a minimum of 50 rounds and receiving a minimum score
of 80%</li><ul><li>For the
above, which should be able to be done in a single class contact (Manalapan Fire) Chief Robert Hogan, <a href="mailto:rwh@cabinfirearms.com"><span style="color: #1155cc;">rwh@cabinfirearms.com</span></a> </li></ul><li><b>Proof of ownership
of handguns intended to carry</b> (purchase receipt or purchase permit or a
notarized letter of ownership listing make, model, and serial number of
handgun(s).</li><li><b>Handguns intended
to be Carried Form</b>. <span lang="EN">https://www.nj.gov/njsp/firearms/pdf/sp-182a_PTC_Additional_Handguns_Intended_to_be_Carried.pdf</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></li><li><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Fees (please double check)</span></li><ul><li><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">$50 to be paid</b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> on the Permit to Carry Portal </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">at the time of application</b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">.</span></li><li><b>$150 Money Order or Cashier’s Check payable to “The Township of Manalapan” and memo: “Permit to Carry”. </b>(you should be able to do that after
you finish the app below).</li></ul></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">When you have everything go to <a href="https://www.njportal.com/NJSP/ConcealedCarry/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Concealed
Carry Permits (njportal.com)</span></a> and click Start Application.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN">Documents<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><span lang="EN">Sp-182a
PTC Additional Handguns Intended to be Carried</span></b><span lang="EN"> -
optional, if you want to carry more than the gun you qualified with. You can,
and some recommend, you actually qualify with all the guns you may carry.</span></li><li><span lang="EN">PTC Safe Handling and Proficiency Certificate
- filled in by you, signed by RWH after course.</span></li><li>Gun Ownership confirmation. Either a receipt, or type up and I believe you need to notarize something similar to the following:</li></ul><div><br /></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b>Fred Smith</b></p><div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Roboto; mso-fareast-font-family: Roboto; mso-highlight: white;">28
Somewhere Ln<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Roboto; mso-fareast-font-family: Roboto; mso-highlight: white;">Manalapan NJ 07726</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b>(917) 555-1212<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">January 2, 2023<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To Whom it May
Concern:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am the original and current owner of the xxxx xxxxxx serial number CC########. This is the firearm
I qualified with.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sincerely<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fred Smith<o:p></o:p></p></div>
Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-67506394379276914442024-01-02T11:31:00.005-05:002024-01-02T11:35:19.900-05:00Get a Manalapan Gun Permit <p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"> <b><i> Manalapan Gun Permit Appliction</i></b> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">You fill out the form to get the permit, and up to 3 forms to buy handguns. No forms are required to buy rifles. You have to use the forms in 90 days, and have 30 days between using each form. Get at least 2 IMHO.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">If you have resided outside of New Jersey in the past 10 years, you will be contacted to complete an out of state mental health check request.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span> Apply at </span></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><span>https://www.nj.gov/gov/njsp/</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"> <span> </span>Manalapan ORI <b>NJ0132600</b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NCUyouRm595VEjaPD2oqfnB5375NcgKytxEnz9gsOK_MZsRVRM9HKnSYDmTGVU7JGX_B1xKP74-0wZazl6FISs2U8ddCja9B0F_C-4Qg6c61CKXzgOyNu7KWifx56N8uwULxRhDzTgVRPPkO8prYnCueXfqj0BUzn3E_gro0xCIemR2uFW_lQNVBC0_e/s4032/20231211_183633.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NCUyouRm595VEjaPD2oqfnB5375NcgKytxEnz9gsOK_MZsRVRM9HKnSYDmTGVU7JGX_B1xKP74-0wZazl6FISs2U8ddCja9B0F_C-4Qg6c61CKXzgOyNu7KWifx56N8uwULxRhDzTgVRPPkO8prYnCueXfqj0BUzn3E_gro0xCIemR2uFW_lQNVBC0_e/w218-h291/20231211_183633.jpg" width="218" /></a></span></div><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">You will need to take online instruction.</span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">If you haven't been fingerprinted, </span><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">follow instructions for fingerprinting.</span></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span><span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">You will need a passport style photograph. Best is to CVS or similar. I believe Argentina passport photo is good size. Get extra if you are going to go for CCW.</span></span></span></span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">You will need 2 references. Name, address, email and phone. How long you know them.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: white; color: red; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small; font-weight: 700;">After completion of the online application a Check or Money Order written to Manalapan Township is to be dropped in the POLICE/FIREARMS drop box located outside the front doors of the municipal building. This should be done within a week after applying. Make sure the applicants name and confirmation number of is on the check or money order. Applications will not be processed without payment. Initial ID Cards cost $50.00, and Handgun Permits cost $25.00 each. There is no charge for Duplicate cards (lost , mutilated and address change). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;"><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-weight: 700;">If you incorrectly entered your references e-mail address write an e-mail to </span><a href="mailto:firearmsreg@manalapanpolice.org" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none;">firearmsreg@manalapanpolice.org</a><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-weight: 700;"> with the corrections.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small; font-weight: 700;">If you applied for a Firearms ID card, after approval, you will receive an e-mail from the NJ Portal with a link. This link will contain your new E- firearms ID card. You can print, save or screen shot your new E-FID card. Firearms ID cards do not expire. They are no longer paper cards.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small; font-weight: 700;">If you applied for handgun purchaser permits, once approved, you will receive an e-mail stating that you have electronic permits. A licensed dealer will look them up in the system upon purchase. There are no longer paper permits.</span></p></blockquote>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-40310445317243171382021-04-14T12:52:00.008-04:002021-04-15T08:40:16.809-04:00From Tough to Karen in 100 Years<p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1xT49izHnMhGnvWMx71eXX_13BgRYeygvh0o1Mjllm39vk4dtIKs9RgH9BAf_5b0UFgFW-U7qWnrewicvJ_IHXPCj5V225iCVclyfz5PCINK6WiBL0nGraTaBtKpPFcMkajSJyyAj-E_/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1xT49izHnMhGnvWMx71eXX_13BgRYeygvh0o1Mjllm39vk4dtIKs9RgH9BAf_5b0UFgFW-U7qWnrewicvJ_IHXPCj5V225iCVclyfz5PCINK6WiBL0nGraTaBtKpPFcMkajSJyyAj-E_/w210-h118/image.png" width="210" /></a></div>I run a large local Facebook page and its amazing to me how people complain about the smallest things. We recently went from our garbage being collected only once a week. We're in an uproar. Posts with 400 comments. Calling for the head of our elected officials (some of which that have run the town wonderfully for 10 or more years). It doesn't matter that theres only one other large town in our county that provides garbage pickup. For the same or more taxes. Today the garbage trucks came at 6 A.M. and woke someone up. The local chinese is terrible (I'm guilty of this I admit). The roads have some potholes. The power went out for 10 minutes. Someone sped by at 45. You name it we've got a first world bitch about it.<p></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmxkmZo-BNXE48EtzdkzDcQ6zsskwWoN595ejwjZw2S53xHhlljRTMUQepPeV5nbFRq13HSF99IM7eSZyDgs-nSKahxt2tYagaCkFUBll5jjICTLzgYRRE5ybs6RRcCV7s3odlHRUEins/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="63" data-original-width="139" height="91" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtmxkmZo-BNXE48EtzdkzDcQ6zsskwWoN595ejwjZw2S53xHhlljRTMUQepPeV5nbFRq13HSF99IM7eSZyDgs-nSKahxt2tYagaCkFUBll5jjICTLzgYRRE5ybs6RRcCV7s3odlHRUEins/w200-h91/image.png" width="200" /></a>It makes me realize we've become Soft. Spoiled. Is it Adam Carolla's book "in 20 years we'll all be women"? Too late. If you had to travel somewhere anytime in history up to 100 years ago, you were uncomfortable, riding or walking. Braving the elements. You could easily get stopped and hurt or killed. Today we'll complain that the guy sat too close to us on the bus to the city. The 2 year old Toyota Corolla that will comfortably get you from NY to LA and back.. repeatedly.. at exactly 68 degrees, dry and safe... "NEEDS TO GO". Its not swanky or roomy enough to carry your butt, a lobster a dozen clams and a carrot cake from Wegmans. Mazda's rides too hard I NEED the Lexus.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9p5FDBgDnDddZJPTjbvaFGCpYVAinY9j6hfN2xKrDOfwFDNW2Tvbx-bJJKPtjKKWLMQFJHzIwjJJ2i7uELpzG6pX5IZfWC90oBPvxnK-4LBkdUhBdJvoMktWq0ntYCTQs6hEucU3KS-yD/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="474" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9p5FDBgDnDddZJPTjbvaFGCpYVAinY9j6hfN2xKrDOfwFDNW2Tvbx-bJJKPtjKKWLMQFJHzIwjJJ2i7uELpzG6pX5IZfWC90oBPvxnK-4LBkdUhBdJvoMktWq0ntYCTQs6hEucU3KS-yD/w216-h143/image.png" width="216" /></a></div>In all the thousands of ears we've been on the planet you needed to brave the elements just to live. To keep a home warm and filled with food and protected. Wood had to be cut down, chopped, dryed and brought in regardless of the weather. You had to trudge to an out building because we only recently got indoor plumbing. You had to hunt and preserve food, sometimes all year long. If a fire broke out, you were pretty much on your own. And remember no running water. Cooling was at best a good wind. In the last 100 years we've gone to multiple cooling zone and piping heat into our bathroom floors and showers. We heat our driveways to melt the snow.<div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">We went from thousands of years of carrying and heating buckets from the lake to instant hot water in just over 100 years. Our leg muscles didn't stay strong a minute longer than they needed to. Don't get me started that we now pay people to harvet our food and keep our lawns and flowers nice, but have to pay a whole new (Gym) industry to get us back in shape, in perfectly controlled 68 degree of modern comfort because we are on our way to 400lbs.</p><p style="text-align: left;">For thousands of year we had fire. Heck till 1960 we used charcoal. We have an oven, a broiler, an inside grill, at least one gas outdoor barbecue grill (sometimes installed in its own outdoor kitchen), an air fryer, a crock pot, a pressure cooker, a George Forman grill. We live better than we ever have before. And never have we apprieciated it less...</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS3JsCbmNpkHymfs0Qn6J54RB9KDEqQvINEM9inrRIA5PKhcclm7vciICfAL6Lzehugvfr-QyL-RhdoSZMY8xiPiMQBK2S_okWiAoGDTFd97Zjyc0RgYHxEtALZf9enesvdClej26ihBiC/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="57" data-original-width="556" height="47" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS3JsCbmNpkHymfs0Qn6J54RB9KDEqQvINEM9inrRIA5PKhcclm7vciICfAL6Lzehugvfr-QyL-RhdoSZMY8xiPiMQBK2S_okWiAoGDTFd97Zjyc0RgYHxEtALZf9enesvdClej26ihBiC/w399-h47/image.png" width="399" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></p></div>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-61790181942435349532020-12-05T17:46:00.003-05:002020-12-21T09:51:22.162-05:00Electric Cars are All the Rage ... but can our infrastructure support them?<p>All of the car companies, along with the news and governments seem to be infatuated with electric cars. I'm not sure that we've thought out all the issues if we move to predominantly or exclusively Electric cars. Many of my friends want and love the sound of a U.S. V8 or a Honda V6. I know much of my Baby Boomer car people feel that way. Those that ride rip the standard exhaust right off our Harley-Davidsons, often before they come home, for more sound and performance.</p><p>I know that the generations after me feel the same, they also rip and replace the exhausts on their EVO's and Honda's. While it's not my treasured V8 sound, they want a car that stirs their emotion.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQG-2loS0e5fSvOZWWFvQbTX1O_Z5cdJvwHtGKq6dFMyr9PQq1r-3QCTcrGUv9QVic-00a4YFe-t5yarNzgnMwp3XN0MnZhcSv5WY8994EqyADo5UnxHPZBmN5871oT1zdGeAdH33Tigbz/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="800" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQG-2loS0e5fSvOZWWFvQbTX1O_Z5cdJvwHtGKq6dFMyr9PQq1r-3QCTcrGUv9QVic-00a4YFe-t5yarNzgnMwp3XN0MnZhcSv5WY8994EqyADo5UnxHPZBmN5871oT1zdGeAdH33Tigbz/w320-h243/image.png" width="320" /></a>I know the sound of a car is trivial compared to the world wasting its limited supply of fossil fuels and clean air so let's get into the more important issues.</p><p>A 250 mile range simply isn't enough. I can regularly do a 300 mile or more round trip for business. My companies home office for years was 4 and 1/2 hours away in Virginia and I drove there regularly. Many will say "you can recharge when you get there", but my company was very cost conscious. We often moved between hotels based on the rate and I would have been very difficult to find a place to recharge my car for the trip home. Can you imagine my trying to get a ground floor room to try and loop an extension cord out the window to my Tesla? I often do day trips to central Connecticut which would stretch the limit on any electric car.</p><p>I have a friend who drives straight through to Florida to see family. This trip is 3 or 4 times the range of an electric car. It may be a bit of a humble brag but I have an ex that lives off a bluff in NYS. I have to leave my car down at the out building and take a 4WD up the windy dirt road to her home. The rickety outbuilding is not charger equiped. Electric is spotty and leaving it open to charge my car overnight is not an option. </p><span></span><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj49bOOr17M08SgL5m8YzWUsKfmuTgA-V0JLX2yJ7yZlWEpxE-fSE0G1pMvh2xwxzM4A5roviRFpplU2zf80vfhw11i6rhTWrAfmER9UWrCkQpSn5WHkbyhzfUBjxI9ZMU05sK2cOQI2lAh/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj49bOOr17M08SgL5m8YzWUsKfmuTgA-V0JLX2yJ7yZlWEpxE-fSE0G1pMvh2xwxzM4A5roviRFpplU2zf80vfhw11i6rhTWrAfmER9UWrCkQpSn5WHkbyhzfUBjxI9ZMU05sK2cOQI2lAh/w200-h133/image.png" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p>I'm not terribly impressed when people all get moving towards the newest thing without working out the details. Are you old enough to remember the dot com boom? People were buying companies at multiples of 1000 times revenue when 13 times a companies profit is the norm. Companies were trading at 1000 or 10,000 times what it was truly worth. The real estate bubble was similar. I recall Bank of America stating after it burst "we'll never again give a mortgage to a person for a house that they can't afford". There are many times in our past when "everyone's doing it" drove major personal, financial, government and corporate decisions. I think we're doing some of that with Electrics.</p><p>Electric power has to be delivered to us from numerous generation stations and a complex delivery grid. Electricity doesn't store or travel very well. As it moves along electric lines, resistance converts electricity into wasted heat. If electricity is not used immediately, it needs to be stored in expensive and inefficient batteries. Electric is like Milk, it doesn't last very long or travel very well. Every local area has a dairy, and a power station. </p><span></span><p>We've all experienced black outs. During Super Storm Sandy, there was such damage done to the infrastructure that we lost electric for roughly a week. If we were all dependent on electric cars, we'd have virtually no ability to go for more than a few hundred miles before we ran out of range. Yes fuel and Gasoline have their own distribution problems during storms and electric outages. You need electricity to pump fuel out of the ground. But that’s relatively easily addressed by gas generators to pump fuel from gas station tanks, fuel trucks, or local fuel storage in above ground gravity fed tanks.<span></span></p><!--more--><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMRwj7ocyfDLmev04FpxSc_19B8h8I2rrtJLmxqwCIgrXABZaAfPdl4XRSPOb0wHUJQYTWT94BzCxOuXnH7ymurC-EJdFq_WARJiOOPQGVck4ZNgxfwdo432hK0VQ2k5B9gabP8tJhke_P/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="398" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMRwj7ocyfDLmev04FpxSc_19B8h8I2rrtJLmxqwCIgrXABZaAfPdl4XRSPOb0wHUJQYTWT94BzCxOuXnH7ymurC-EJdFq_WARJiOOPQGVck4ZNgxfwdo432hK0VQ2k5B9gabP8tJhke_P/" width="320" /></a></div>War is a fact of life. When a force lands in a country, they bring stores of fuel. Its heavy and difficult to move armies, in addition to their ammunition, food and fuel. I wonder how we'd protect a country with electric fighting vehicles. Fuel stores its energy in liquid form making it possible to go thousands of miles across oceans and lands by bringing the needed fuel along. And fueld can be resupplied from the elsewhere. How could we go into a foreign country with a fleet of electric vehicles? The relatively quick refill cycle of gasoline replaced by the long recharge time of batteries could keep Jeeps and<br /> Humvees out of battles for critical hours. You can fill any number of fuel vehicles any time anywhere out of jerry cans while each electric vehicles requires a distribution system and a dedicated outlet or charger. And don't forget the difficulty that electricity must be used or stored virtually immediately. Would our military fleets remain gas/fuel while the consumer fleet went electric? Would the vehicles on the front lines need to stay gas and diesel based?<span><!--more--></span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB9PJHoDqBOvB1iLX2f_ckHzuizJrFeJL_wMBI5wsfmzMTMb5g-5nNlxwAJoZfyAYYXiw-LINaCCa_2V_PmmTp9KMCIysek_CjAFt4NIJh-TN0XS_4D0OEui764UaT8DPCkj5l45Q5Q6IN/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB9PJHoDqBOvB1iLX2f_ckHzuizJrFeJL_wMBI5wsfmzMTMb5g-5nNlxwAJoZfyAYYXiw-LINaCCa_2V_PmmTp9KMCIysek_CjAFt4NIJh-TN0XS_4D0OEui764UaT8DPCkj5l45Q5Q6IN/w133-h200/image.png" width="133" /></a></div>Have we considered if we have enough electricity to move the majority of the US automotive fleet to electric? We currently have brown outs in the urban suburbs and cities during hot summers. There are about 300 million cars in the United States. While they won't all become electric overnight, do we have enough electricity to have half the cars produced in the next 10 years be electric? To have half or 3/ 4 of the miles travelled in the next 10 or 15 or 20 years be powered by electricity? Clearly this will require an increased reliance on Nuclear energy. Nuclear electric cars and energy wil clean up our air, but will we have a problem safely disposing of the increased nuclear materials? Can we transmit all the increased energy required? Or will we need to provide some multiples of our current infrastructure to move the electricity from gernerator to users?<p></p><span><!--more--></span><p>I truly think that Hybrids make much more sense than pure electrics and the very fact that people are pushing right past them to full electrics makes me all the more curious. Hybrid cars have fuel engines designed to power the wheels and or act as an electric generator. They can power a car on their own, but the engines recharge the electric batteries and work with the electric motors to power the wheels. Hybrids have two big advantages over full electrics. They don't have any real limits, to their range. They are easily and quickly refilled at any gas station and with both a fuel and electric motor they can be quite fast. The downsides to a Hybrid is that with the engine/generator and battery being onboard Hybrids can be heavy. The engine leaves less room for batteries than a full electric and the interaction between the engine and the motor can lead to complicated computers to make them work smoothly together.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfPPFp8GQS_Xsm2pvBPmhBqDsimVCUqfZMvA-j5urUMb_qVNgxyO5uLKQbvQTzRXe0hru1GGTMn7cNduKa7my5_axn68XL5xqDra74RrMHKzhV_FYNtF-yogM05WJ-9K_l5eF1uM_Wzus/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfPPFp8GQS_Xsm2pvBPmhBqDsimVCUqfZMvA-j5urUMb_qVNgxyO5uLKQbvQTzRXe0hru1GGTMn7cNduKa7my5_axn68XL5xqDra74RrMHKzhV_FYNtF-yogM05WJ-9K_l5eF1uM_Wzus/" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>One way to compare gas hybrids and electrics is MGPe. We estimate how far a gas, hybrid and electric would go on a gallon of gas. The best electrics go about the equivalent of 110-115 miles per gallon. Typical Hybrids like the Honda Accord get about 50MPG. Plug in Hybrids, a newer and more expensive breed of Hybrids have more batteries. With more time running via electric than fuel these Plug in Hybrids can produces MPGe over 100 miles per equivalent gallon.</p><p>Electric prices aren't high compared to </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKb1bm88WLwA0ccKcl1MSVIvEWKv4cWX_XjWAFCl30keZruIIfcRbpf3RwghwPPl1mKxu5ie7rXn10sHRlKB3I6yVniRzec9X6DESFBkLMwX4c3e81bugOp2Ohqoje65L2_McvlFEO2Xpu/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="800" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKb1bm88WLwA0ccKcl1MSVIvEWKv4cWX_XjWAFCl30keZruIIfcRbpf3RwghwPPl1mKxu5ie7rXn10sHRlKB3I6yVniRzec9X6DESFBkLMwX4c3e81bugOp2Ohqoje65L2_McvlFEO2Xpu/w200-h145/image.png" width="200" /></a></div>Large battery capacity hybrids seem to make the most sense for most people. They include a large amount of time running on more efficient electric power. As batteries get more efficient, you'll be able to have excellent electric range with go anywhere gas engine range. </div><div>Its important to point out that as Hybrids, Plug in Hybrids and Electric cars increase the demand for electricity, the pricing and availability of electric vs gasoline and diesel is likely to change.</div><div><p></p><span><!--more--></span><p>In all fairness, with free markets, we are free to use whatever technologies are available. But that doesn't change that we typically rush into new technologies based on the whims of the market. We all want to own whats hot. Often it works out. As we're dumping millions or billions into electric technology to meet the needs of the next century and our dwindling oil resources, we need to address the detail issues, cost, our broader infrastructure, portability, emergeny use, etc. And perhaps leave a few fuel powered vehicles for Baby Boomers for everyone to remember the wonderful sound of a Chevy V8.</p></div>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-16396325007515929862020-08-27T11:55:00.004-04:002020-12-21T10:37:39.361-05:00Having Trouble with your Internet Provider? The Solution is Coming!!!<p>Most people today are limited to one, if they're lucky two Internet providers for their home. One or a small number of providers results in poor service and high prices. Verizon Fios was to be an alternative to cable for many local communities, but Fios has years ago stopped expanding its wired Fios footprint.</p><p>Verizon has stopped expanding Fios because the end of wired Internet is upon us. Nicola Tesla was the first to show us that you could send electicity wirelessly. We transmit electricity and data over the air many ways today, for example we can charge our cell phones wirelessly. As we improve wireless technology home Internet is soon going to move from a cable or fiber to the air.</p><p>Most people currently use two sources for our Intenet, our 4G cell phones for mobile access and in our homes we use wired Intenet from Cable or Fios. The 3G and 4G speeds at our handsets are currently limited. 4G will support your phone and a some small number of computers or tablets attached to your phone, but 4G not enough to provide Internet for the modern home. Your wired Internet provider, provides 200, 400Mbps, even 1Gbps (1064Mbps) speeds. You use your wifi router, to split that speed to the 20 or 30 or more devices in and outside your home. Becaue you don't use all the devices at the same time, and your router is designed to take packets from the busy devices and prioritize those, each device can get the 50, 100 or even 150Mbps it needs to provide quick service.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4G Cellular Internet Speed = 50Mbps</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Home Internet Speed = 200-1064Mbps</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Th-MZV8TGMUF0SY-weWwe5Iqqjp_SiYMGApQ0igWt9pKZUUAY1VtlvKlvurYIvtKrzmPquPH-yp8FAv6xTIpKcW-nBqHZqwlU1MvGfphRBOrZkUjXULanQ20lx3yEA-0AABkZCoNM891/s609/Home+Network.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="609" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Th-MZV8TGMUF0SY-weWwe5Iqqjp_SiYMGApQ0igWt9pKZUUAY1VtlvKlvurYIvtKrzmPquPH-yp8FAv6xTIpKcW-nBqHZqwlU1MvGfphRBOrZkUjXULanQ20lx3yEA-0AABkZCoNM891/w390-h110/Home+Network.JPG" width="390" /></a></div>5G seems it may be the answer to homeowners issue of having limited providers of wired Internet. 5G service will be much more like Wifi than cellular. <div><br /></div><div>First we should note that 5G is actually 3 types of technology. Low-band, Mid-band and Millimeter. Mid-band 5G will provide up to 1GB service and good range while millimeter will provide very high speeds but about a 1/4 mile of coverage. Millimeter is heavily effected by building walls. In the US, Verizon is begining with millimeter service but the providers and the analysts seem to believe that Mid-band is the 5G sweet spot.<div><br /></div><div>5G will require cell towers, likely smaller than our current towers, every 1/3 to 1/2 mile. The benefit to this it will operate similar to Wifi. 5G technology will allow you to use a cellular 5G device in place of your current wired modem, giving you 500Mbps or more service over the air. Its also possible that each of the devices in your home, each TV, phone and computer, could connect to the 5G network directly the way they connect to your Wifi network now. Optimum and many other providers have similar capabilities today public Wifi hotspots. Given the limitations in the sheer number of connections to the 5G required to support the 30-40 devices in a typicall home, I forsee having a 5G device replacing your home cellular modem the more universal solution. Your modem and router consolidating your home devices into a single IP address. I believe we'll see a hybrid solution to allow remote devices, like a video camera at the end of a long driveway.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can buy devices off Amazon to replace your Internet modem with cellular today, and T-Mobile is providing cellular based Internet service and equipment in select locations https://www.t-mobile.com/isp. T-Mobile's solution is a great start but its limited in the locations its available, and to LTE speeds.<br /><div><br /></div><div>What you'll get from this is that in the US alone, each home should have 5 or more potential Internet provicers - Cable, Fios, Verizon Wireless , AT&T, and T-Moble/Sprint (now one company). The competition for your home Internet, between Wired and Cellular carriers should improve speed and reduce cost. Stay tuned - the answer to "my Internet service is expensive and terrible" is coming..</div></div></div>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-3104935366698574132020-07-23T11:42:00.003-04:002020-08-27T11:34:27.611-04:00Whats Right and (mostly) Wrong with Harley-Davidson in 2020<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
Episode 247 of Law Abiding biker kicked
off some thoughts. </div>
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Harley Davidson has
been in trouble lately. My knowledge and experience puts me in a particularly
good place to evaluate what they've been doing right and wrong. There's much
more wrong.</div>
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<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<a href="https://cdp.azureedge.net/products/USA/HD/2020/MC/TOURING/ROAD_GLIDE_SPECIAL/50/EAGLE_EYE/2000000001.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="800" height="188" src="https://cdp.azureedge.net/products/USA/HD/2020/MC/TOURING/ROAD_GLIDE_SPECIAL/50/EAGLE_EYE/2000000001.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">I'm a biker. 25 years, Road
Captain at LE clubs. I spend my weeks figuring how to get out as much
as I can on the weekends. And during the week. And for long trips..</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">I'm trained as a business
consultant, having spent 35 years improving peoples business process. I
have an MBA in Finance from NYU Stern Graduate School and have worked for
PwC, HP, IBM, consulting on marketing, sales and supply chain. My clients
included helping Trev Deeley (Harley of Canada) design processes and
systems to run the firm.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">I'm very computer literate,
which is a big part of vehicles today.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">I grew up around cars, dad
owning a gas station from the day I was 7. I understand how engines work
and can and have built cars from just a body and frame..</span></li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
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To keep it as short
as possible:</div>
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<br /></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Harley never modernized. From
engines to forks to radios and lack of GPS. My 2012 Street Glide <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/resizer/ijO_yfv8mpYtKHP4kY2eAdpL6sc=/893x595/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bonnier.s3.amazonaws.com/public/CW32U3WJLUT7KH3ZZVXOPYI3C4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="133" src="https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/resizer/ijO_yfv8mpYtKHP4kY2eAdpL6sc=/893x595/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bonnier.s3.amazonaws.com/public/CW32U3WJLUT7KH3ZZVXOPYI3C4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
has no
usb, no bluetooth, no screen and no GPS though most have been standard
years before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can buy Indians
and Yamaha's with overhead cams and water cooling. Harley's Milwaukee 8 is
a horrible attempt to have pushrods actuating 4 valves with large claw
like actuators. This gets Harley the improved flow of 4 valves per
cylinder, but with heavy low RPM valvetrains.
Modern engines use overhead
cams to actuate light high RPM valvetrains that provide both torque and
HP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another example of going
halfway, Harley water cooled the heads to keep the rider cool, but that
leaves the air and oil cooled motor without enough cooling to support
performance improvements, like higher compression ratios.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Harley wants to sell you a
platform and then have you spend thousands to dress it up and get the
performance to where it should be. Many things you should get for your
$25,000 - decent exhaust, nice real leather seats, extended bags, etc. are
all extra. The cowbells on many Road Kings, the first thing you see on the
bike, are cast, no chrome or black. Boom boxes still need to be manually
upgraded, often at a cost when Apple and Android update apps and maps
virtually automagically. Harley would sell many more bikes if $25,000
motorcycles had good shocks, nicely stitched leather seats, real bar
options and good performance. Harley wants you to buy the bike for $25,000
and add $10,000 in chrome, cams and power commanders. Racks and decent
windshields that fit a big <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.harley-davidson.com/content/dam/h-d/images/product-images/parts/batch-4/76000834a/76000834A_OB.tif?impolicy=myresize&rw=700" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="700" height="180" src="https://www.harley-davidson.com/content/dam/h-d/images/product-images/parts/batch-4/76000834a/76000834A_OB.tif?impolicy=myresize&rw=700" width="200" /></a></div>
rider (Indian and others have standard
adjustable windshields). H-D should sell you a $23,000 bike you're proud
to ride and that can get down the road. People don't do much to Diavels or
Chieftans or Challengers, they come nicely equipped. The Diavel has some
152 horsepower. Harley is selling bikes with less features, value and
performance. That works when the H-D name used to cause lines for bikes.
When you have solid competitors like Indian, Ducati, Customs and others,
you have to give people great product.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Harley can make a beautiful,
well done, nicely optioned bike. They call them CVO's and charge $40,000+
for them. The $25,000 bikes should be more like the $40,000 CVO's and
they'd sell a whole lot more.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Closely related to #1, but
too important not to repeat, riders don't care if the engine has a 45
degree v and pushrods. We're past that. Our F-150's have v6's with
overhead cams and turbos.</span></li>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="circle">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Give us good HP and Torque
out of the box and sound like an H-D. An Indian Challenger with a
breather and Cams and a remap can put out 145HP. You think you can get
any (non-CVO) Harley to 145hp with a $1,000 investment? </span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Harley already owns the
technology with an assist from Porsche. Bump the V-Rod Revolution motor
up a few hundred cc's and tune to get good HP and torque and you're
there. A V-Rod with good exhaust is water cooled and sounds great. I
don't care if you leave pushrod tubes to make the Revolution+ look like a
V-Twin, leave them empty or have them flow oil to the heads.</span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
Harley needs to address the old classy style, like a Deluxe or a<br />
Heritage <span style="font-size: 11pt;">but they
should be built like </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">resto-mods. Old style</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"> class </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">on the outside, </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">new technology, 4
valve overhead</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"> c</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">am power </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">on the inside.</span></div>
<ul style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="disc">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Expensive. Everything from
clothes to service is expensive.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Harley is badge engineering
20 years after General Motors showed it didn't work. We have Road Kings,
Street Glides, Road Glides and Electroglide/Ultras with very little if any
real differences. The same chassis. My buddy got a Road Glide Ultra as a
loaner, probably one of the worst boring combinations of the Road Glide
fairing (which I like) with the rest of the bike being the way too heavy
for me Ultra.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Harley is
investing in potential new areas, the best two bikes in the lineup, those
that are the Harley name, the Softail and the Tourers are badge engineered
mediocrity.</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Make an attempt to give those
people that want new modern styling newer designs. Perhaps a younger or
more forward thinking audience. For example, Harley Saddlebags haven't
changed in years they are designed to meet that classic look, design
something that flows to the back and<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.motostop.eu/productimages/20667/66896.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="800" height="199" src="https://www.motostop.eu/productimages/20667/66896.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
melds with a Street Glide fender,
that covers the exhaust stock, it makes for better looking ride. You can
have two tourer saddlebag designs, a fresh design might actually sell to a
younger generation.</span></li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
Many Harley guys,
particularly the new riders that should be attracted don't care about the 45
degree V and pushrods that Harley is clinging to. Its not even clear they know what those parameters are. Recently my buddies loaner
from H-D here was running like crap. He let a HOG member ride it to see what
was wrong and the member of the Harley Owners Group comes back
with his diagnosis. "Its running on only 3 cylinders..". No
lie.</div>
<br /></div>
Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-83801724641764740832019-01-30T16:30:00.001-05:002020-07-24T13:41:52.008-04:00Swinger vs Stinger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5byunEaYarRAZi94KtKI6iA3d1rYgt6303aUnSoGsOH_C4d06YPlEvT3LNQ10qcr40FdACqTnesthPFkCoplZ6A5jc94yyk7DUjor5-NOdi0wFrng0cwR9tTfrCI0kWmYHYS4tc10WcvV/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="445" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5byunEaYarRAZi94KtKI6iA3d1rYgt6303aUnSoGsOH_C4d06YPlEvT3LNQ10qcr40FdACqTnesthPFkCoplZ6A5jc94yyk7DUjor5-NOdi0wFrng0cwR9tTfrCI0kWmYHYS4tc10WcvV/s640/Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swinger.. vs...Singer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-78815587275094214312019-01-18T10:10:00.005-05:002020-12-16T10:34:08.464-05:00Four Wheel Drive vs AWD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've tried to use the Internet to do research on the difference between Four Wheel Drive and All Wheel Drive. While All Wheel Drive explains what it does well, Four Wheel Drive requires some qualification. The concepts of Four Wheel Drive and All Wheel Drive are both poorly understood.</div>
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Lets start with Four Wheel Drive. If you crawl under a old Jeep, say a CJ5 you'll find a driveshaft running from the engine and transmission, but instead of going to a front or rear differential the driveshaft first goes into a transfer case. A transfer case is made up of gears and/or chains, and is typically a very simple device. For those with some car and bike experience, picture the primary drive on a Harley Davidson with two outputs. It sends roughly half the power of the engine to the front and the other half to the rear wheels or axle.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbGYpGhDeFgPWYExNpoeoxw41H-ocur3cb5NMPVLIIlle8-cDOZSvbvd7T3f9YHC-jqP-buivLSHVg36lu0zDT2jabmGZfpFyS-Ue84ewA5Xul-o62AZBvL0H2cliGnkE-qznxsoR7MFi2/s1600/Capture.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="830" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbGYpGhDeFgPWYExNpoeoxw41H-ocur3cb5NMPVLIIlle8-cDOZSvbvd7T3f9YHC-jqP-buivLSHVg36lu0zDT2jabmGZfpFyS-Ue84ewA5Xul-o62AZBvL0H2cliGnkE-qznxsoR7MFi2/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />Two driveshalfts exit the transfer case, each going into a differntial usually near the center of the front and rear axle. These use a ring and pinion gear to turn the driveshafts 90 degrees, where they attach to individual axles to drive the wheels. Most differentials only drive one wheel at a time. The reason for this, and why they are called differentials is that as a car drives the wheels go different distances. When a car goes around a corner the inside wheels drive a shorter distance than the outside wheels. The simplest way to make up for this is to drive one wheel on an axle and have the other axle not be driven (free wheeling). To make matters worse, the way they are designed, most standard differentials send the engine torque to the wheel with the LEAST traction.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for open differential" height="150" src="https://coubsecure-s.akamaihd.net/get/b8/p/coub/simple/cw_timeline_pic/82efde60ac2/ce9a209381420e0aa2cd3/med_1409082786_1382455579_image.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="199" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Open Differential</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This means that in a normal, relatively inexpensive Four Wheel drive system, one wheel drives on the front axle and one wheel drives on the rear axle. A simple, standard 4WD system is in fact 2 wheel drive. They work better than the typically rear wheel drive system because a wheel turns on both axles. It also means that at least one wheel will turn on the front axle that has the motor and 55%-60% of the cars weight. The front axle provides most of your traction in low traction conditions because of having a larger percentage of the cars weight over its tires, given them more traction.<br />
<br />
Better Four Wheel drive (4WD) systems come with Limited Slip differentials. These are differentials that more evenly adjust the torque to go out of its two axles. They are more complicated, and more expensive. Limited Slip come in many types, including fixed (split) value, torque sensitive, speed sensitive, and electonically controlled. They use different methods to run and adjust the torque split based on traction, speed etc. 4WD with limited slip is a very effective step up from standard 4WD. Since there is still some slip, limited slip diffentials can go around corners while bringing 4 driven wheels into play. This is the first time you're getting all 4 wheels working to provide traction when you need it. A 4WD system with limited slip is where the systems capability, driving all four wheels, matches the name Four Wheel drive. Its also the most similar to All Wheel Drive.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.torque.com.sg/public/2015/08/limited-slip-differential-lsd-pic1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://media.torque.com.sg/public/2015/08/limited-slip-differential-lsd-pic1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Limited Slip Differential</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Real off road racers and heavy duty off roaders move up to differentials called lockers. This actually locks both wheels together on either axle. The good news is both wheels rotate at the same speed. The bad news is these systems cannot operate in all conditions on a normal car. They require a slippery surface to allow the wheels to slip and travel at different speeds. When you drive a locked differential on dry ground however, the wheels will "chuck" at you. They skip over the sticky pavment with more force, which you can feel in the steering and even the car. This makes the vehicle very hard to drive and will wear tires and driveline parts out quickly. Some systems that run full time 4WD have unlocking rings on the front wheel hubs to lock and unlock the front wheels from the front driving axles. When the wheel hubs are unlocked, the wheels don't attach to the turning axles and each wheel can travel at their own speed. You would re-lock the hubs when the weather gets bad.<br />
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Another way you can accomplish locked axles is to use a switched locked diffential. These are typically available on very expensive and technical vehicles. The Ford Raptor, a special offroad version of a Ford pickup, comes with a remotely lockable rear differential. It can be unlocked to allow the back wheels to move easily at their own speed on high traction surfaces like dry concrete and be locked remotely to have both wheels turn at the same speed on surfaces with low traction.<br />
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ALL WHEEL DRIVE<br />
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All Wheel Drive is typically a more sophisticated system than Four Wheel drive. Companies like Subaru or Audi have a differential or clutch packs in the middle of the car, similar to the transfer case in function that it distributes power as needed to the front and rear axles. But its far more sophisticated than a 4WD transfer case. Torsen gears combined with computer controls can vary the output from locked to variable between the front and rear axles.<br />
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When the power gets to the axles, many of these systems continue to use computers and sophisticated differentials to control the exact torque that goes to each wheel. So if one wheel has traction in the snow, the computer can switch most of the power to the axle with the most traction and the differential can send most if not all of the power to the wheel with the most traction. This type of system has additional benefits to bad weather performance. For example, systems like Acura's SHAWD (Super Handling AWD) use computers and sensors to shift the power to the appropriate wheels to keep the car from skidding off the road and to help the car handle better. For exmaple, if an Acura with SHAWD is making a left turn, it passes more power to the right side tires to help the car rotate to the left, and those wheels to travel the longer distance they have to in a left turn. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSuR-GcUJ6FuA4UWLFL3GNTKM7IGOdKq5SjE_NWpZZ5GBed09KKhY1ueuPKXnObtBS46m1uGpRf4z3wvE2_IpfnoIT41KonzFuev_1UpgFoDY5GhyRsrEIAa2v_SvPKVr3c7p8Bnrnlv1/s1600/Capture.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="1236" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSuR-GcUJ6FuA4UWLFL3GNTKM7IGOdKq5SjE_NWpZZ5GBed09KKhY1ueuPKXnObtBS46m1uGpRf4z3wvE2_IpfnoIT41KonzFuev_1UpgFoDY5GhyRsrEIAa2v_SvPKVr3c7p8Bnrnlv1/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Torsen Differential</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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All Wheel Drive comes in many flavors and has many benefits. In some hybrids, it can even be accomplished by a traditional gas or diesel engine powering one axle and one or two electric motors powering each of the other two wheels. These are of course are all controlled by computer to allow them to work smoothly together! The advantage to this type of system is lighter weight - there is no heavy center differential or transfer case. The small dissadvantage to such a system is that you cannot put the power from all of the motors out from any one wheel/tire.<br />
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I hope this helps to explain the difference between Four Wheel Drive (4WD) and All Wheel Drive! Please send me your feedback!</div>
Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-56964519512008944862013-02-08T16:50:00.002-05:002013-02-08T17:26:04.150-05:00Snow Driving Tips with Nemo Approaching..<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With in 8 or more inches of snow headed out way with Nemo and us not having much snow for a few winters, lets go through some tips. First no matter what you drive, drive slow and easy. 4 wheel drive doesn't help you stop,...leave more distance and slow down. I see more SUV's off the road than cars. Once a car is moving it typically handles better than a top heavy SUV. Once an SUV gets moving on the snow, its still big and heavy.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dress for the weather. If you get stuck you don't want to be in a short sleeve shirt and sandals. If you get stuck, build up a rocking motion, back and forth. Don't spin the wheels very much - you will burn out your transmission and dig yourself in deeper. Forward, reverse, forward easily until you build up enough momentum to keep going. In a 4wd - learn how to go into 4wheel lock and low range if you have it (many trucks may require you to be not moving and/or in neutral - check the manual BEFORE you need it). My best piece of advice, no matter what you drive, is throw a shovel and towels in the car - shovel any high spots under the car, snow under the car holding the car up off the wheels is the biggest reason for getting stuck). Shovel the snow around the wheels -- make enough room to let you build up a forward and back rocking motion (the towels? mostly for you being wet and sweaty by this point and needing someplace to throw a wet dirty shovel).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its always a good idea to keep moving. Getting a car moving from a stop is the single hardest thing to do in the snow. If you can let the car creep along at 2 MPH, its much easier than starting from a stop. Try to stop facing flat or downhill, not facing uphill. Of course while going uphill getting started is your problem, going downhill, stopping can be like ice skating.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-Z_YGjA2puPNDsLdQH4PrPNUghmLX81LNimPw8FnBI3K15x1eCK5gD8yRojBMoozqKp_4JbW3L-j5r8X4CAAn85pNHR_5A9tmPo24SO1vq3Mac2LwZaEPkzL5gWbdioFvGmDq78DON85/s1600/blonde_car_stuck_girl_stuck_in_snow%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-Z_YGjA2puPNDsLdQH4PrPNUghmLX81LNimPw8FnBI3K15x1eCK5gD8yRojBMoozqKp_4JbW3L-j5r8X4CAAn85pNHR_5A9tmPo24SO1vq3Mac2LwZaEPkzL5gWbdioFvGmDq78DON85/s1600/blonde_car_stuck_girl_stuck_in_snow%5B1%5D.jpg" height="204" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plan your stop early around cars and especially when coming up to stoplights - you dont want to slide into an intersection and oncoming cars. In fact, when your light turns green, make sure you look both ways - just because the light is Red for oncoming cars, doesn't mean they all can stop in the snow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">Make sure you have at least 3/4 to a full tank of gas, decent tires (I guess its too late now if you don't, right?), that the air pressure is normal (or a little low) NOT HIGH (low pressure helps build traction - high pressure makes the tires harder). BTW, the gas in your tank helps in two ways - most cars have more weight over the front tires than the rear - at 7lbs a gallon the 150lbs in the rear helps the rear tires do more work. Throwing a couple of 50lb sandbags in your hatch or trunk doesn't hurt either, but don't overdue it as some point you'll just make the car/truck lower and increase the chance of getting caught up in high snow.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">If you get on ice - try to get off the brakes, move 6 inches or a foot and a half to your left or right, and try the brakes again - the surface could be rougher or have more snow on it. If that doesn't work - try it again, even moving back where you were it could be different as you move on. Typically, the best place in near the shoulder - while people may have turned the center into ice, the sides could have more snow which is easier to stop in than snow.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">With 8-12 inches or more, I wouldn't even consider going out in a RWD (Rear Wheel Drive) car - yes I know your BMW may have traction this and that. That helps to keep the tires from spinning - but it doesnt change the laws of physics. No matter how many electric nannies you have, in most cars roughly 55% of the weight is on the front wheels, 45% on the rear. With RWD and snow, it is very difficult to push 100% of car with 45% of the weight on the two wheels doing the pushing on slippery surfaces.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">Just to show that my methods work, two or three years years ago when we got pounded, I threw a shovel in my fwd car and went out to get my exs friend in a 4wd Toyota Sequoia. I was able to get her out of 20+ inches of snow by shoveling out around the wheels and instead of her drivng and just spinning the wheels, rocking the truck to get enough movement to get the truck moving and keeping it moving out of the big snow it was stuck in.</span></span>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-33019917499705860282010-03-06T11:08:00.006-05:002014-01-20T12:29:19.648-05:00Google Latitude<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
(Note - since writing this Google has cancelled Latitude)<br />
<br />
Quick Blog today - as the season begins, I'm thinking how I'm gonna get all of my friends together. I work too hard during the week to chat everyone up. I have some that I send an email, some on Facebook, some on HDForums, some on BON, and I never really get to everyone, because while we may be going to the same place, likely we're coming form different starting points, with different people, throughout the day. Often, on Tuesday after a great day out, I learn that 15 of my buddies were in New Hope, or at OCC too.<br />
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I know Bikers aren't the best to accept technology, but we're getting there. Many have embraced CB's. More recently, its a flood - cell phones, GPS's and fuel injection all make the ride better. There's even a lot of stuff working quietly inside the bike like new battery technology.<br />
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Google makes a great tool called Latitude. You can use this on virtually any phone. GPS enabled phones will allow you to know where someone is within a few feet. Without GPS, the system uses telephone tower connections to tell where you are. This is actually a very good compromise because if you're inside, or on a bus or train, the system still knows roughly where you are.<br />
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Before you go "but anyone will know where I am". I've been using it for a year. I tell it exactly who can know where I am. If you're banking on-line, or using a GPS, heck if you even have a computer online, a good hacker can already tell if you're home using or not, so this isn't really any more of a risk of your privacy than starting up your GPS or laptop.<br />
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Now picture this, we drop kickstands at 11:30 in Flemington and realize that 3 of your best buds are in New Hope. Instead of missing them, you text them and make a plan to ride up and grab lunch, and ride for the rest of the day together.<br />
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You can setup the tool to send you a text when you and a friend are close to each other. You can rumble into Frenchtown and a few minutes later, you can get a text that says "Steve S is within 5 miles". Latitude even learns that you and a friend may work together and not tell you if you're close by every Monday thru Friday morning.<br />
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Go to http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html, put in your cell phone and follow the instructions. BTW, the application Latitude runs over is Google Maps. This is by far the best application to help find a phone number, or a pub near where you're going for lunch.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWT7YFCO0KUHTpw5208eBF_W4eYq4VylsCb27JwO92ytWx8KuP4CTaZ6xeyR9IXFwnj0Ix-cWDPD8rrjDqVn3G6zQD7x29wdNk5ARBR3Adcuv31HKcwxwpWn37LPoDpMceGEXLR9luWLs/s1600/google_maps_hello_world%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwWT7YFCO0KUHTpw5208eBF_W4eYq4VylsCb27JwO92ytWx8KuP4CTaZ6xeyR9IXFwnj0Ix-cWDPD8rrjDqVn3G6zQD7x29wdNk5ARBR3Adcuv31HKcwxwpWn37LPoDpMceGEXLR9luWLs/s1600/google_maps_hello_world%5B1%5D.jpg" height="120" width="200" /></a></div> You simply type "Pub" and it shows you all the bars, closest to where the maps is centered first, with a rating by users from zero to five stars. It give you the phone number, and you can dial right from Google Maps. I don't even have the number of places I call regularly in my phone like the quicklube down the block, its so easy to type "Quick Lube, Jackson NJ" into Google Maps.<br />
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My brothers and some friends have been using it for 9 months or more and it's great. Now if I can just get the rest of my riding buds on!!</div>Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-14632018290809092232010-02-20T20:32:00.017-05:002014-01-20T12:36:00.628-05:002010 Riding SeasonI'm excited for the 2010 riding season. I am looking forward to getting out. While in years past, I've ridden on Christmas Day and New Years day, this year, there wasn't a single day when my schedule and the weather and the roads would let me out. That makes me more anxious to get out and blast out a couple hundred miles. I got three words. Watch your ass.<br /><br />Here in Jersey we typically have very good roads. But we haven't had a winter like this<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8wPyboT73SQkVhRi189Tk4onDxgY1n8m9T3pLO3lzFukMpFtGzjKXbyt0aIG4Slf0t_nr0zwLpE2eSzY62ET7sIGRpyAVEMYhmJ3yybS3MCETRib_y95wrVn1EhLt7GTJj7us7lrjoYi/s1600-h/IMG_0344.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 172px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8wPyboT73SQkVhRi189Tk4onDxgY1n8m9T3pLO3lzFukMpFtGzjKXbyt0aIG4Slf0t_nr0zwLpE2eSzY62ET7sIGRpyAVEMYhmJ3yybS3MCETRib_y95wrVn1EhLt7GTJj7us7lrjoYi/s200/IMG_0344.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440508881701457090" border="0" /></a> in some time. As the snow begins to clear, I've been watching the roadbeds realizing that a winter like this can be terrible on new and old roads. Potholes are caused by cars and trucks hitting the pavement over and over, causing cracks. Water then gets into the cracks and freezes. The cracks are often treated during the summer to save the roads. When we have a winter like this, the damage can be more than any normal maintenance can handle. Water gets below the pavement and the water freezes under the pavement. Ice takes up more space than water. If you don't believe me, go put a closed bottle of Poland Spring in the freezer and come back in two or three days. As the water freezes, it expands, which cracks the pavement, causing loose pavement, or potholes.<br /><br />We've had at least three good snows this year leading to water and freezing multiple times. It seems that <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUvoNq9rZeqAosU7wIYl9v3NSG7cqYWVligD4iMxrMDuwdpDL0yO3V66rp_WHDcKwbTJ7VQmfyiI8VVvzPzF_joftyumg8ObXwUrn7o27U_szWUYSTRw4vCIas6wNNl98oFkUBLeMpHBKr/s1600-h/IMG_0348.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUvoNq9rZeqAosU7wIYl9v3NSG7cqYWVligD4iMxrMDuwdpDL0yO3V66rp_WHDcKwbTJ7VQmfyiI8VVvzPzF_joftyumg8ObXwUrn7o27U_szWUYSTRw4vCIas6wNNl98oFkUBLeMpHBKr/s200/IMG_0348.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440506867719572434" border="0" /></a>with DMV here in NJ putting down a couple of inches to top new roads, the water is settling just below the new top and we're getting 1 1/2 to 2 inch potholes. These are pretty bad in a car, but cars have an extra tire, or three. On the cycle, we don't. There are many intersections that are just more pothole than pavement.<br /><br />One of the problems we have is that this type of pothole, because the cracks start first in the car tracks, are precisely in our stagger lanes. I think for the first couple of months of the year, we may have to be conscious of giving more room front and back to allow folks to avoid potholes when ridding stag<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOXhyphenhyphenIwf150DJKVjhyphenhyphenU_vy_nhsKE0MaP2mFaSWN6XAQvsn7CsGDV6avrPruUmtoS05I3-0yKSSbSD4PI6zoBCnZRklY9ho-g2-qpWB8TTNJ5NpuXnmsrtkzV2ZXIVDSJW1PbmiMtd4mdO/s1600-h/IMG_0347.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOXhyphenhyphenIwf150DJKVjhyphenhyphenU_vy_nhsKE0MaP2mFaSWN6XAQvsn7CsGDV6avrPruUmtoS05I3-0yKSSbSD4PI6zoBCnZRklY9ho-g2-qpWB8TTNJ5NpuXnmsrtkzV2ZXIVDSJW1PbmiMtd4mdO/s200/IMG_0347.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440506633877988946" border="0" /></a>gered.<br /><br />This will be particularly bad on the blacktop roads we have all over the back roads of NJ, exactly the lightly traveled roads we like to ride. The concrete used in many other parts of the country, or for first building the roads, does not crack anywhere near as easy.<br /><br />How do you ride through a pothole? First option is to go around it. Leave yourself enough room from the person staggering with you to allow you to move around a pothole. And if you're riding alone, leave enough room after the car in front of you to see one come out under the car and avoid it. I find a good way to practice this is to see if you can avoid every manhole cover that the car in front of you rides over. If you can't avoid the manholes, you're not leaving yourself enough space.<br /><br />What if the road is covered? Well, then you are going to need to slow down - but get off the brakes, off the gas and be going as straight as possible when you hit the pothole. Grip the bars tight enough to make sure that the pothole doesn't knock you off your line - but use your elbows as a spring to let the bike hit the pothole and you stay in control.<br /><br />Another problem we have is that when snow gets pushed onto roads and shoulders and <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWk9NFNUDMWxOCgt3y2ZGqazmNcX8TfF9j0Od_tWufpME2xTULyfaQxDCgY8CXfslpvX6IJMaMKuV4Iw5CUf1vGkc9udeNmxTTCeVNCgxH_KQGteKqzrJh0vRJ1nCUg9wcEuB0ZY78LVF/s1600-h/IMG_0345.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFWk9NFNUDMWxOCgt3y2ZGqazmNcX8TfF9j0Od_tWufpME2xTULyfaQxDCgY8CXfslpvX6IJMaMKuV4Iw5CUf1vGkc9udeNmxTTCeVNCgxH_KQGteKqzrJh0vRJ1nCUg9wcEuB0ZY78LVF/s200/IMG_0345.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440511885567083986" border="0" /></a><br />parking lots, dirt and pebbles get moved with it. With so much snow, there has been little place to put it so the plows have left snow and dirt and rocks right where we're going to be riding in a month. When the snow melts the crap stays.<br /><br />Three or four days ago, I came down a tree lined road and actually seemed to have a low hanging branch clip my cars mirror. It didn't do any damage, but it made me realize that it was going to be worse for motorcyclists. There are down trees down all over - from the snow snapping off limbs. The conditions are weaking branches, and the water and the snow on those branches are causing them to snap in half or snap off completely. When I'm on my bike I don't want to clip a tree with my shoulder, and I certainly don't want to be ridin<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GGVACp6m28EiQ9uu3JZMrSnpxj5cJlRKos3aoIk1SgThS-WCRs1dwMqTM0r2EwUDZZyxn2kf6pyPOtMVIJHaSr9Ejmg4DxNXJJ53ExUgvIzPkV1YnDXkBrOt8disvnAigw3iucYPdE8q/s1600-h/IMG_0376.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2GGVACp6m28EiQ9uu3JZMrSnpxj5cJlRKos3aoIk1SgThS-WCRs1dwMqTM0r2EwUDZZyxn2kf6pyPOtMVIJHaSr9Ejmg4DxNXJJ53ExUgvIzPkV1YnDXkBrOt8disvnAigw3iucYPdE8q/s200/IMG_0376.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440780140326710754" border="0" /></a>g over them when they are in the road. If you come across branches in the road, take a firm grip of the handlebars, leaving just enough movement to let them move a bit with what they hit the obstacle, come off the gas to stabilize the motorcycle and keep the back wheel from spinning or kicking up the tree. There are some that recommend giving some power when the front wheel hits a big obstacle to shift weight to the back wheel, but I think that if the bike will make it over the obstacle, and its something like a tree that can shoot up and move, possibly in front of someone you are riding with or kickup into you or your back wheel/chain/belt, I would try to hit the tree with the bike stable, with you going straight, and off the throttle and off the brake.<br /><br />If you've ever worked a plow, you realize its hard to know where the street ends and <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzIDsstmrg61m50-1dc9Tfgjfqn3XsUHN9dh1c8xdt-Epuz3IwKRp6JGPE6zuHapVL4PRqv_I5HO7DZdiRTjgyxaRlrPGX0Cd9r8MeVIPlQACRWTceIbEfD1VnL-tp0wxns19cO-gEqzR/s1600-h/IMG_0360.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzIDsstmrg61m50-1dc9Tfgjfqn3XsUHN9dh1c8xdt-Epuz3IwKRp6JGPE6zuHapVL4PRqv_I5HO7DZdiRTjgyxaRlrPGX0Cd9r8MeVIPlQACRWTceIbEfD1VnL-tp0wxns19cO-gEqzR/s200/IMG_0360.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440782417311719874" border="0" /></a>where grass or dirt starts. We put up poles in parking lots to try to stop the plows from destroying concrete flower beds, and to save the plows and the trucks from getting a big jolt from running the plow into a fire hydrant hidden by the snow. But we can't put these poles all up and down the countries side roads. As a result, plows, and the drive wheels of plows and other cars and trucks, have been turning up the sides of country roads all winter. Everywhere you turn, they've put dirt and sand and rocks onto the roadway.<br /><br />It's going to be treacherous out there - ride safe-er.Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-1502814010012162312010-02-14T18:45:00.013-05:002010-02-15T16:12:01.712-05:00New Pro's..I've ridden since as long as I can remember - Honda's and Kow's as a kid. And been big enough to give a grizzly a decent fight for almost as long. So goin from the sabbatical that many of us take to have a family and kids to riding a big Harley eight years ago was pretty easy for me.<br /><br />This year, I learned that it doesn't come as easy for some. I took a course to learn what I was doing, and to get my license. My friend JG, who learned with me took the course as well. My brother Aron got run through the course exercises by me, and then took the course with my friend Chris.<br /><br />There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into account when you judge how fast you move up from learning to a big bike. JG bought his uncles Heritage Softail and did fine - he's a natural and 6'1 and 260. Even when the Heritage gave him a hard time, and the Screamin Eagle Ultra's that followed got tough to handle, his combination of experience, natural ability, training and the ability to muscle it got him through.<br /><br />Brother Aron learned to ride for the first time ever on his Dyna. I rode it home for him. More than a few people pick up a bike from Lombardi Harley Davidson, on Staten Island in New York City and have a hard time learning to ride AND negotiate New York City traffic all at the same time. They tell stories about VRods that have gone out with an inexperienced rider aboard and come back a couple hours later on a flatbed. Aron listened, he took to it well, he's 6'3" and 220 and between strength, ability and the class, got through a couple of learning years and now is an excellent rider, and still on the same trusty Dyna. Maybe one of the important things is that he never really made a move without listening to what I had to say, or one of our other experienced friends. For example, I told him that the class was not optional, it was required, particularly if he were not gonna get on a pretty big bike right from the start.<br /><br />This year however, I've learned that I think that someone always need to have an experience rider to ask, and listen to, before makin big moves.<br /><br />Let's take Ed. Ed's a big guy, about 45 and he saw all of us riding and went up and bought a Road King. There's about 20 of us now - everyone typically has a good combination of skill, experience or a "Rabbi". This was Ed's first bike. Ever. No class. No listening to better bikers. So far, I've been out with Ed twice. He yells at me and JG for riding too fast when we're riding on a nice country road 5 or 7 mph over the limit. It's so bad that mini-vans get between us. At a SI HOG meeting, he put the bike down during a 5 MPH altercation with a bus. He's full of excuses. The bike has a shake at 50-55 mph. He thinks SI HOG and all the rest of us ride too fast. I rode the bike - it's fine. This guy, new to riding should never have learned to ride on a 700+lb bike. He had size - but doesn't have the natural ability to get on a big bike - he needed to learn skills on something easier to handle, and build up his confidence as well. Of course, he should take the motorcycle course. Two probably. He needs to listen to people rather than once he made it to the corner, think he had it all covered. I believe he's gonna get hurt. Hopefully, it won't be bad and he'll get better and learn. By the way, he passed his NY State license test which will show you how useless the tests are at judging real ability!<br /><br />Similarly, my friend, lets call her Claire, I got great respect for. She is over 60 and has ridden bitch for years. She's great - when she rode on back with me, you never even knew she was there, except for the arm around you somewhere. She decided, with some push from friends, that she was going to learn to ride. She bought a Rebel, took the course, and she's been out<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.motorcycle.com/gallery/gallery.php/d/137858-3/2009_Victory_Motorcycles_Jackpot_Ness_09_rider.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 316px; height: 211px;" src="http://www.motorcycle.com/gallery/gallery.php/d/137858-3/2009_Victory_Motorcycles_Jackpot_Ness_09_rider.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> doing some pretty serious mileage for someone just starting. She's doin great. So we were talking about a new bike. She's not the most mechanically or bike inclined. For example, she likes the way the Victory's feel but thought that 100 CI would be too much power - she was going to buy a Victory and pay someone to put a smaller motor in.<br /><br />The problem is, Claire made it to the corner on her Rebel and now thinks "I'm a Pro." Anyone who's been riding for some time knows she has joined the great fraternity of people who ride, but is just beginning to really learn. She's much better than she was when she started so she thinks she has it mastered. No more need to speak to anyone else - she rides, now. But there is a tremendous amount of learning that goes on in the first four or five years of riding, that can only be accomplished by putting miles under your belt. I recommended she look at Dyna's or go to a custom guy (she's got a few bucks) and buy a bobber, like a Sucker Punch <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://image.hotbikeweb.com/f/17633919/0812_hbkp_02_z+custom_harley_motorcycles+harley_girl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 313px; height: 234px;" src="http://image.hotbikeweb.com/f/17633919/0812_hbkp_02_z+custom_harley_motorcycles+harley_girl.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Sally. She decided she was going to surprise us all and went to the local custom builder I recommended on her own, and told him how well she's doing. I've spoken to him since and it's not his issue - she told him she could hand the Custom Fat Boy he sold her. Why not she reasoned, she can put her feed down on the floor. Now god bless, I hope she can handle it, but I think the first time this 62 year old, 130lb grandma has to walk this 650 lb bike <span style="font-style:italic;">(post post edit - my bro is correct a FB is at least 700lbs)</span> across an intersection or a parking lot at 4 mph, or has to stop quickly, or has to muscle it around someone, she is going to put the bike down. If she has to stop quickly, I'm nervous she's gonna lock up the rear on this heavy bike and high side it. I don't think there is any way she is going to walk this bike backwards up any kind of hill to park it.<br /><br />Riding is a combination of a few things. You gotta have a bit of cohones to ride. You can't be afraid, which I think is Ed's big problem. You need to have some natural ability. My mom could never learn to drive a stick and a motorcycle would be a no sell. And you might not ever know who'll get it and who won't. I think the best example of this is that my middle brother bought a Honda cruiser, a 650lb Road King clone, about the same time Ed got his Road King. He also didn't get training, but he had way more natural ability and has been cracking many of the real good learn to ride books. While Ed is still struggling, and dropping the bike next to NYC Transit Authority Buses, my brother Jeff is riding two up with his wife, his daughter and his son and in my eyes doing quite well. He seems to always have control of the bike and can keep up with a pack quite well.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m46/horsebitesdogcries/fat_man_bike.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 317px; height: 262px;" src="http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m46/horsebitesdogcries/fat_man_bike.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>You need to get training, and be willing to learn. And you have to account for your size. A big person, that has some motorcycle in their blood can handle learning on a bigger bike because if you stop suddenly and put your foot down on gravel, or a slippery white line, you can grab the bike if its leaned over a bit, even if its starting on its way down. And you can stay in control of the bike through an emergency better.<br /><br />I realize that the trend is for folks to want to ride big fancy bikes. But I think that people need to pay attention to friends with experience, what's the saying, "You Don't Know What You Don't Know". And as a rule of thumb, I think if you can't back the bike you are riding up a medium sized hill, the bike is too big for you. If you're riding an Ultra and can't get it to budge without the motor rockin - you should be riding a Dyna with bags on it. If you're riding a Deluxe and can't get it to move well forward or backward, then you should be riding a bobber or a FatBob. Just because big fancy bikes are out there and you fancy them doesn't mean that you should. The down side is not 'oops, did I scratch that', it could be serious injury. The same way if a small person can't see out to find all the sides of a Ford Expedition, maybe a Explorer is a better choice - just because Harley makes a Fat Boy and an Ultra Classic doesn't mean it's the safe bike for everyone to ride or to ride. Or to ride right now, with your present level of experience..Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-59407561598889487232010-01-09T21:54:00.007-05:002014-01-20T12:26:54.106-05:00Droid Devices..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I know this is a bit off the topic of Motors and Cycles, but I can't help myself. I stopped in PC Richard to play with some Droid devices.<br />
<br />
First, its not really the operating system that matters, its how easy it and its devices are to use. The iPhone and the BlackBerry work because they do the little things that let you do many things, and move around <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNfpMXpaS2RN-GO2FVDX8edZIQEqXuOgJ0EudgTURdpy6UeTJAqblBmD8zs2xguPSf9BhrsbxF4oi-V6TrSZwjZmXtcaAxjNX3sPUMlxvl40POT3-4nGVCnRxBIUPzjZTk1OxBVfOGlPDe/s1600/Motorola-Droid-X%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNfpMXpaS2RN-GO2FVDX8edZIQEqXuOgJ0EudgTURdpy6UeTJAqblBmD8zs2xguPSf9BhrsbxF4oi-V6TrSZwjZmXtcaAxjNX3sPUMlxvl40POT3-4nGVCnRxBIUPzjZTk1OxBVfOGlPDe/s1600/Motorola-Droid-X%5B1%5D.jpg" height="200" title="Motorola Droid" width="183" /></a></div>
easily on a small device. For example, when you're searching for a name on a BBerry, you can natually erase one charater at a time, but if you hit the return button, if first clears all the text and lets you put in another search, and if you hit it again, you exit the contact search screen. On a Windows mobile device, you pretty much erase characters or exit the screen - there is no intuitive way to simply start a new search.<br />
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I thought the Motorola Droid would be perfect. I want something with the ease of use of the Blackberry with a bigger screen, a la iPhone, but with a separate keyboard my fat fingers could use. The ability to use a touchscreen for quick tasks, or pull out a full keyboard naturally, and have a bigger screen than a Bberry, with Google functionality made it seem like it wood be a winner. Well, in reality, I got another Chrome - a product with a lot of buildup, but which didn't really improve on the products before it (Firefox for Chrome, Blackberry/iPhone for Droid):<br />
<ol>
<li>The keyboard is terrible. If you are a normal sized guy with reasonable sized hands, the keyboard looks like it has separate keys, but it doesn't. Essentially, it's just like a touchscreen keyboard, one where fat fingers hit all the wrong keys almost 50% of the time, except it has a rubbery feel rather than having you touch a hard screen.</li>
<li>The touchpad on the side does not let you use the touchpad and keyboard naturally like the bberry.</li>
<li>With my inability to even type my or my brothers email correctely in 2 minutes because of fat fingers on little keys, I barely got to try the email, but essentially, there doesn't seem to be a consistent way to move from To: to Subject: to Text: fields.</li>
<li>I like the home menu hard buttons.</li>
</ol>
They didn't have a Goodle Droid device, but I tried the Verizon and I have the same issues I have with the iPhone - great for pics and moving thru menus. Terrible to type on the keyboard, never get the right letter 2x in a row, and it's got a big screen, but I lose half of it, or more, for a keyboard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisOTbtPJ0Q7nPMu3d3AEbzzmQk00ws5wOVIarB-bULp6iMnRPWavPP5NihxWGPLa3fIiBZ-kEmkHmOwJkG_v_7WBCUzRmE75UvPI7AH4maop8ZrA4JfLrlhtvFujHRDqE_PK8m2-0eJyWx/s1600/rim_blackberry_curve_8310%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisOTbtPJ0Q7nPMu3d3AEbzzmQk00ws5wOVIarB-bULp6iMnRPWavPP5NihxWGPLa3fIiBZ-kEmkHmOwJkG_v_7WBCUzRmE75UvPI7AH4maop8ZrA4JfLrlhtvFujHRDqE_PK8m2-0eJyWx/s1600/rim_blackberry_curve_8310%5B1%5D.jpg" height="200" title="Blackberry" width="155" /></a></div>
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Don't even get me started on why the iPhone with a not replaceable battery is fine for the "leisure" user, but simply does not work for an executive. A single battery will run out sometime during your 4:30 conference call, leaving you without a phone at dinner/drinks/dancing). After 8-10 months of use, every single phone battery I've EVER used has suffered memory effect. I get a new battery every 6-8 months for every single phone that's used as a real, very day working phone. Not 20 minutes a day with some texting, - 150 to 200 minutes of calls or more every day.<br />
<br />
I don't care what the operating system is (as long as it's not the terrible to move around Windows Mobile), just give me the Motorola Droid or similar form factor, with separate keys, like on the Blackberry 8820 or 8830 and I'm set. Big screen, big keys, smallish device.<br />
<br />
I've got to give Blackberry credit - except for the mistake in trying to get into touch screen with the Storm, they're sticking with the form factor best for business users even if some other form factors are getting media attention.<br />
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The net of it is, I still haven't run into the form factor that would drive me from the Blackberry, which is both easy to use, and deals with every function well. The Droid doesn't drive new features, in fact, it won't let me have both my corporate and personal email on the same device (doesn't do corporate mail well, most use BBerry Enterprise server) and the form factor isn't compelling (big screen good, keyboard not). It's a personal device alternative to the iPhone if it drives you to a better carrier (Verizon) and/or if you are not an Apple person.</div>
Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-45002922709852969432009-12-05T19:04:00.011-05:002009-12-06T13:29:43.223-05:00Riding in Traffic when Two Lanes are Reduced to OneNow that the snow is falling, if I can't ride, I'm going to spend some time writing about riding. I'm always looking to improve how I'm riding. Both my own personal skills, and as a group. I'm big on stagger. I think we all have a few friends that we don't have no problem riding side by side with a reasonably slow speeds, good riders who hold a line. Even in very slow turns I'm so comfortable with their skills. But in any turn of reasonable speed or more or busy area, stagger is it.<br />My brother has some friends who say there is no point to stagger. One recently ran into the other going around a turn and one has a broken arm. Enough said.<br /><br />Recently I went out with the group I first started to ride with, affectionately known as the DD Bikers. We did this to make us sound tough. The DD really stands for Dunkin Donuts. Because of course, we meet at Dunkin Donuts on Route 9. We went out recently, and had some new guys with us. And I learned some things.<br /><br />Twice over the trip we ran into traffic because of two lanes coming down to one. The first time, the cars were on the left, and we were merging from the right in Figure 1. We were moving slowly – say 10-15 mph. I was the 3rd bike on the right.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXroRlCvpS6BH0JhFtGt59gGxz7N-hKLAYhyphenhyphenq6M1KGQSoRZgSwC4JvYfbiJz6zsLdJlMECWZ-xfOH7lL6URSn29B2hP4NxlEKbc4FfJH1Mx1kmrTle6AJX3PcQWGEsud4xD2IWpSIEZDao/s1600-h/Cars+and+Bikes+1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXroRlCvpS6BH0JhFtGt59gGxz7N-hKLAYhyphenhyphenq6M1KGQSoRZgSwC4JvYfbiJz6zsLdJlMECWZ-xfOH7lL6URSn29B2hP4NxlEKbc4FfJH1Mx1kmrTle6AJX3PcQWGEsud4xD2IWpSIEZDao/s320/Cars+and+Bikes+1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411913327449790994" /></a><br />As we started to get to the Merge, I moved closer to the bikes in front of me, trying to give the people behind me more room to move in. The guy riding next to me, a guy I hadn't rode with before, first did something very smart – he moved to the left to kind of secure our space between in the cars. This rider is the green bike in Figure 2.<br /><br />This would allow the four of us to get in, but likely would mean that the two or three bikes behind us (the blue bikes) would get separated - there would be a car between us. Then the guy in on the 4th bike slowed his pace. Brilliant! This allowed the bikes behind us to move up and stay with us. See Figure 3.<br /><br />I've ridden for years, and cars typically do not respect us. I know this isn't news. I was reading American Iron this morning and Chris Maida talks in his column on how a driver rode up next to him on his left - and he was in the left lane. If I see bikers riding, if they are moving at a speed similar to me, and <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQk6G9lPTuIUeqkh9C9TJ7BysJhQyPUTKX45s5hsQArxuZhOextLatnbjmonjjkT6rBrwZT9Ej2693L4R9wUvcIk6l8nNM4ux0M0ht9tpVDea7yg4FYMr8ecCTnrsPbUkoaSL2bju4nQb/s1600-h/Cars+and+Bikes+2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQk6G9lPTuIUeqkh9C9TJ7BysJhQyPUTKX45s5hsQArxuZhOextLatnbjmonjjkT6rBrwZT9Ej2693L4R9wUvcIk6l8nNM4ux0M0ht9tpVDea7yg4FYMr8ecCTnrsPbUkoaSL2bju4nQb/s320/Cars+and+Bikes+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411912871088157506" /></a><br />I'm in my cage, I tend to pull up behind them. I am trying to protect them from guys riding too close or hitting them. They're fellow bikers and you never know. I hope the favor is paid forward for me, my friends, my brothers, or any other biker.<br /><br />This is a tremendous riding technique for keeping a group, even a reasonably large sized group riding together. The fact that I as the 3rd rider behind the leader and closed up on the leading bikes helped – it gave the group behind me more room to fit in but it would only let one or two more bikes in . What the fourth rider did ensured that a reasonable sized group would stay together and kept the car behind from unintentionally clipping one of us if we merged late to stay together. It was safer in my opinion, because if the group is separated, there can be a number of issues. For example, an inexperienced rider could be leading the second group. Or any rider leading the second group could lose sight of the first riders. Or worst, if someone passes the car between us, or is spending much time trying to watch the group ahead, they could be hurt if they are not paying attention.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0aUbYpw-3oeh8QMfnjb-VxqPBa6qX-jdHtLb-s-uV7T0qK_bhsQI8R0fleN8bm33nshphT-zW3x7dBFDzP8FS3XzCFQ8KLcyjnAzz_ZJ4iTR3yrmGKj9Uo0H554nKeFL05BNa3Mkj5f3a/s1600-h/Cars+and+Bikes+3.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0aUbYpw-3oeh8QMfnjb-VxqPBa6qX-jdHtLb-s-uV7T0qK_bhsQI8R0fleN8bm33nshphT-zW3x7dBFDzP8FS3XzCFQ8KLcyjnAzz_ZJ4iTR3yrmGKj9Uo0H554nKeFL05BNa3Mkj5f3a/s320/Cars+and+Bikes+3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411913745245007314" /></a><br />Of course, the group had to re-stagger themselves, and the fourth rider became the last rider. If we ran into the same situation again, of course, we'd get a bit more rearranged.<br /><br />Later the same day, we were approaching a bridge, bikes on the left and cars on the right essentially stopped. I was the third rider again, but this time I was closest to the cars on our right and I was going to slip to the right and copy my very smart friends move earlier. I'm a relatively quick rider and we have a few slower riders to the back. My moving out and moving to the back means I will enjoy my day a little less, perhaps having to ride a little slower, but I decided I would pull out and move to the back to keep us together and safe.<br /><br />Because we were stopped and on a bridge and essentially had a very wide lane, the last rider in our group was able to move up to the front of the group, move into the cars and stop – and allow us all room to move into traffic between two cars as the cars in front of our last biker pulled forward. I think he probably saw what “biker 4” did earlier, but if he didn't, it was two very independent but similar strokes of good riding in the same day. The benefit of his move of course is that he is riding last because he seems to like to – and would be last again when we got down to one lane. Of course, in this situation we didn't have to re-stagger and re-order.<br /><br />Group riding is difficult. Its not like it's possible to train everyone - groups likely change every time you go out. To me meeting new people is a big part of the experience. We get some simple rules on group ridign – stagger, stay so much behind, etc. I don't believe we can execute complex multi-bike safe riding techniques, orchestrated like a ballet since the same group rarely rides together twice. But this is something that simply requires one of the bikers, riding within range of the lead group (or the last biker if he has room to come around) to help the bike stay together and help everyone be safer.Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-29239527508743564022008-10-03T10:59:00.001-04:002010-11-12T15:20:06.457-05:00Undercover Police InterceptorsDon't you think they'd remove the "Police Interceptor" plaque from the back of undercover/unmarked Police Interceptors?Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-85896077330780242932008-09-16T22:32:00.001-04:002008-09-16T22:32:08.303-04:00PickupsCame home today. Guy in my development has a car (pickup?) cover on a pickup truck. Can't decide if that's weirder than handicap plates on a pickup or not.Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-48547648129935448952008-08-23T15:26:00.011-04:002008-08-24T12:07:39.277-04:00Harley Touring...Harley touring bikes are interesting machines. They span the gamut from sporty to staid.<br /><br />I've ridden my share - most of my time on my friends Screaming Eagle Electra Glide. Wonderful bike for going down a long straight of highway. And they allow you to ride in colder weather - I can ride my windshield-less Softail Deuce to about 43 degrees, I feel as if I can ride a tourer, behind the batwing, until about 10 degrees lower.<br /><br />The bike is nice in a straight line, but quite simply, not suitable for a more aggressive riding style. I ride my Deuce the point where when leaning right, I've have to straighten up to avoid a mailbox at the side of the road with my shoulder, and then lean back down. On a recent ride, I hit my right heel and my left peg. This never would have been possible on a road king or a batwing.<br /><br />We went out with a group not that long ago, and while the three of us up front were pushing it (Deuce, Dyna Super and Dyna Wide Glide), both the Superglide and Crossbones behind us were takin some metal off their boards, and were not able to keep up as a result.<br /><br />But I digress. The point is, I'd still own a Road King or a Super Glide. They are a good combination between long distance <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/StreetGlide21i.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/StreetGlide21i.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>with storage and sporty. I particularly like the two bikes with a 21 inch tire on the front.<br /><br />I don't understand the UltraClassic thing though. I don't find them pretty - too big and bulky. I'd rather have a 1950's Harley than a 2009 Harley that looks like a 1950's Harley. Harley seems to be so intent on keeping this look that they put a whole new frame under the same sheetmetal and hard bags. I'm glad they gave it a wider back tire - it's been way too long since the typical tire on the back of any motorcycle is a 170 or 180mm, that the tiny tires on the back of the cruisers needed an upgrade. Here we had the biggest of bikes, riding on the smallest of tires.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/2008-Harley-Davidson-Touring-FLHTCU.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/2008-Harley-Davidson-Touring-FLHTCU.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Perhaps it's the woman who determines the Ultra. I've have an ex-friend who has a Road King and then bought an Ultra. Check the picture above. In my mind, the bike isn't as good looking as a Street Glide or a Road King. The only difference I can see is the standard tour pack and the huge back seat. Now if I'm reading the options catalog right, you can easily add the tour pack to a Street Glide or a Road King, but it's not as easy to replicate the big back seat. Which leads me to believe maybe those guys with the Ultra's aren't in charge of what they are riding anymore - the little woman is.Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-65190183596321401492008-08-16T19:59:00.000-04:002008-08-17T22:21:13.647-04:00$50,000 Cars..<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/chevrolet-malibu-2008-ltz-photo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/chevrolet-malibu-2008-ltz-photo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />All of you with $700 a month car payments on your 5 series BMW's, here's a flash. You are wasting your money. Oh, yeah, and the 5 series cars are ugly, but we'll save that for another post. I hate to bring this to your attention, but mid to large sized cars with hot motors, well designed spacious interiors, heck well designed sporty EXTERIORS and kickin' sound systems are now availalble - for about $25,000. All in.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/fsn09_pg_108_ext_lg.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/fsn09_pg_108_ext_lg.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />My favorites are the Ford Fusion and the Chevrolet Malibu. First, both cars are at or near the top of J.D. Powers quality ratings, both overall and in powertrain quality, the two areas I consider critical. The Fusion SEL with the V-6, the sport package (17 inch wheels with Michelin rubber), Microsoft Sync, the upgraded cloth interior (if not the leather) is a tremendous car. The six speed automatic is rarely confused. The Fusion may not quite handle up to my Porsche 911 - but since it holds twice the people and about eight times the stuff, I'll give it a pass. The Fusion handles well enough to put stripes in the undies of your front seat passengers - enter a turn at sports car speeds, no one will expect the Fusion to be able to pull through. The car has little touches that you used to only find on luxury cars - lights to light up the street from under the side view mirrors. The fold down rear seats are a must - it'll hold anything you can put into it from Sam's Club or K-Mart. I had 40 boxes folded flat in the Fusion when I was moving. And very well designed - the releases for the seat backs are in the trunk, not the car. You rarely need to push the seats down from in the car, you need to do it when you're standing at the trunk with something that won't fit. The only thing that will fit in an SUV that won't fit in the Fusion is something big and square - like a old style television (with the large pass through, most of todays' 37" or 42" flat panels will likely make it home).<br /><br />The steering is even communicative. Yes there is some front wheel drive pull, but when you feel it in the steering and it doesn't pull the wheel out of your hands, the car is telegraphing it's moves to you - you are in charge, not it. The car is also good in snow with front wheel drive, and AWD an option.<br /><br />The Chevy Malibu finally addresses one of my key criticisms of General Motors cars. The two tone interior is beautiful, good materials and all.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/MalibuInterior2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/MalibuInterior2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The LTZ, shown at the beginning of this article and below, is striking.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/2008_Chevy_Malibu_08.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/2008_Chevy_Malibu_08.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />My other favorite is the new Honda Accord. You get classic Honda reliability, and with the leather and aluminum interior, a very tasteful place to spend time.<br /><br />I'm not as familiar with the details of the Malibu and the Accord - I don't live with one every day, and I don't have the press credentials (yet) to borrow one from the factory. But given the reviews of the Malibu surpass the Fusion, it looks as <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/2008-Honda-Accord-11.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r226/nine11c2/2008-Honda-Accord-11.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>good or better and it's rated very highly by JD Power, I'm not worried that it's gonna be a winner.<br /><br />And guess what - virtually no performance difference between your $50,000 (maybe $60,000) German wundercar and the $25,000 variety. The 2008 Honda Accord does 0-60 in 6.3 seconds and goes through the selected slalom at 66.6 mph. The BMW does 0-60 in 5.5 but does the same Edmunds slalom in 65.3 mph. Sally the soccer mom is never gonna notice the difference. The BMW - $61,000. The Accord - $28,000 and change. You can buy a spare for less than the BMW.<br /><br />Differences - well, I'd like intermittent wipers. I'd like a little more support under my right leg for long trips. No distance sensing cruise control. But I can buy a Ducati's and two Triumph cycles every five years with the money I save. Keep your BMW.Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-487892576079070392008-08-16T19:40:00.001-04:002008-08-17T22:45:29.424-04:00American Cars..Boys and girls, it's time to stop being Lemmings. In the mid to late 70's when foreign cars started to get really good most of the people I tried to tell this, well, didn't listen. They still were bying Camaro's and Firebirds that 0-60 in 10 seconds and had lousy quality, instead of Toyota Celica's that got twice the gas mileage, were way more dependable and were just as quick.<br /><br />Well, now we're on the other side. The Lemmings are buying foreign cars because everyone in the neighborhood is. And you know what - they're still good, but the American cars are damn good.<br /><br />I will admit, I was aflicted. Between 1985 and 2007 I owned a Porsche 944, a 911, a Mercedes C, E and BMW X5 as well as one of the most awesome cars I ever owned, a Nissan Pathfinder. I had a hand me down Chevy Blazer for about 4 months, and a couple of Jeeps, all as station cars, but they were all old and not really relevant. The cars were good. The BMW, to be honest, was not as dependable as it should have been - it needed a steering rack, etc. The Pathfinder was damn near indestructable. At 150,000 I gave it to my ex-wife still running strong. I would change oil, tires and front brakes. Yes front brakes. At 150,000 the car still had it's original rear brakes. Oh, changed the plugs and belt at 100,000 miles. Not even the hoses. The car ran and ran and ran and, well, it's on it's way to 200,000. Well in the divorce, I got to keep the Harley and the wife got the Nissan. So I got a company car. 2008 Ford Fusion. I expected to go out and start shopping for something fun - Infinity G37. Corvette. Honda S2000. 350z. You know what - the damn car gets 23 mpg mixed, handles and goes well, is comfortable for 4 and will hold 5, has the awesome Sync sound system and looks damn good. 20,000 miles and not a problem. The interior, with a faux black wood strip along the bottom and contrasting grey and black, it so much nicer than most Camry's it's pathetic.<br /><br />It's time for all you foreign car lovers to take a look at JD Power. The top two ranked mid-sized cars are the Ford Fusion and the Chevrolet Malibu, the new version of which is just as nice, if not nicer than the Fusion.Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352901785791437915.post-81401363155529348612008-08-11T21:42:00.000-04:002008-08-17T22:45:57.834-04:00Riding in a GroupI'm a group rider. I'm pretty social - between friends (3 or 4 groups) and a couple of web sites I hang out with, I seem to always have someone to ride with. Been a couple of years since I really went out by myself. Well, it rained two weekends ago, I was busy last weekend, tomorrow is comitted, and next weekend is busy. Bunch of friends were going away Saturday and Sunday, but with commitments Sunday, no go. So I went and got the scoot and did about 120 miles by myself. Up to wash the bike, then watching some Olympics and lunch at Old Man Rafferties. Then down the Canal to Allentown, rockin trip down 524 for some ice cream and home.<br /><br />You know what? It's awesome riding alone. Bein a good rider, bein social and having a nice bike, it's always nice comparing and storming with some of my boys (and girls). But you know what, riding by myself, I didn't need to make sure I was ridin fast enough to keep the bombers interested, while slow enough to keep the pack together (I lead alot). I didn't have to worry the track was gonna slow my butt down. It was just nice to worry about only me, and to go at a pace that was good for me. To stop for gas, or stop at the bank when I needed.<br /><br />Maybe I'll take off next Tuesday and scout new roads around Frenchtown that look awesome on the map...Nine11c2http://www.blogger.com/profile/17819165288479746591noreply@blogger.com0