On Saturday, I woke up bright and early and met my fellow students at “the range” which was the Pflugerville High School parking lot. There, we met the instructor, and those without their own helmets and/or gloves got fitted with ones the class provided. I had my HJC half-helmet and leather gloves, so I was all set. The bikes that they had for us were Honda Rebels. The two students who had the most experience got the two Rebels, which were 250’s, and the rest of us got the Eliminators, which were 125cc machines. In all, there were seven of us, because one of the women from the Thursday night class didn’t show. Anyways, we all got our helmets and gloves on, then got on our bikes. The instructor led us through a quick tour of the bikes, then we “power-walked” our bikes to the staging area, and the actual range.

Last night I went to the first class for the MSF Beginners Course. There were eight students, including me, and the rider experience ranged from “used to ride a lot, but some years ago” to “I only sat on a bike once”. The youngest student was probably about 21, the oldest was nearing 60. Basically, the classroom session was going thru the course book, and answering the test questions, then talking about the answers in more detail. The instructor was very knowledgeable and funny, and had some nice insights. The things we covered from the book were really basic, though, like motorcycle controls, basic operation, and gear. I am really looking forward to the riding portions of the course, which start tomorrow and end on Sunday. It’s going to be fun!

We bought a three-gallon aquarium the other day because the little goldfish Bay and Mariko caught at the Japanese Kids’ group’s Summer picnic needed a home.

My friend Mikey traveled to Japan for vacation, and he picked up a cool phone strap of some Spirited Away characters. I put it on my Nintendo DS.

He also got me Electroplankton which is so cool!

Honda has this cool scooter prototype that runs on gasoline and electric power. Yes, it’s a hybrid scooter! I am not too crazy about the looks, but the concept is cool, and it should get incredible gas mileage. Maybe even better than the ~100mpg my C70 Passport gets!

I put the new tire on the front, filled it with air, and it seems alright. I also checked the hi-beam light and it works nicely. I took it up to about 35mph tonight, I think it will go above 40mph, but I didn’t let it get up to speed. I guess the new tire was freaking me out a little. Next I gotta adjust the valve clearance, because it sounded like there was some tapping coming from there.

Last night I went over to the garage to work on the C70. Although I only have a small space to work in, it is adequate. Earlier in the week, I went to Home Depot and bought the materials for my homemade jack-stand. It consisted of two bricks, a bag of dirt, and a tarp. The bricks go on the ground, for height, then part of the tarp, then the bag of dirt, then put the rest of the tarp over it. The tarp is there so that the bag doesn’t puncture. Then I lift the bike onto that pile, and the front wheel is off the ground. The dirt is pliable enough that the bike “settles” into it and is pretty stable. In the future, I’d like to get a center stand, which would make working on the C70 much easier, but the parts for it would cost upwards of $50, so I will just use my “Home Depot Special”.

Anyways, I got a bit of work done. First, I replaced the bulbs in the speedometer, the neutral indicator, and the hi-beam indicator. The panel lights up nicely now. I couldn’t test the hi-beam light yet because I didn’t start the engine, but the neutral light works perfectly. Also, I replaced the air filter, which was all dirty and oily. That was the easy part, and took about 10 minutes.

I have never been a fan of the regular old Tabasco, but I recently went to Chipotle where they have the Smoked Chipotle Tabasco and the Jalapeno Green Pepper Tabasco. These are both excellent! The smoky one has a bbq-type flavor, a bit like liquid smoke flavoring, and the green sauce is more tangy. I’m not sure which one I like better, so I bought both of them at the supermarket today. I still like the red Pickapeppa sauce better, but these are good to put on mexican food.