MattPie

If you're going to write a silly parody song, it better be "Don't Stop Bill-eveing".

Went down into Philly last night. Hit a Beer Garden (complete with trees and picnic benches), had beer and sausages, and hung out with good friends. Beautiful day/night to ride with no rain (forecast was pretty ugly). Hot tub party in Binghamton tomorrow, and I get to ride some more this weekend despite the rain.

In the post editor, there's an icon in the middle with three multicolor boxes (RGB). Click on that and paste the URL into the box that pops up.

I tend towards the big, heavy classical stuff. Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, and the like (it just ocurred to me that they're all Russian too). I had a friend in high school that played those on piano and I loved listening to her. EDIT: Thanks, BTW. You've just picked my music for today in the office. I'll be digging thru all the classical on my ipod.

Nope, we need to blare butt-rock in the arena all the time.

I don't think you have a leg to stand on. I'd imagine you could make some sort of claim that it violates the 40-hour week or something, but that would be the fast track to losing the job entirely.

Wow, it's like listening to the Blues, but it actually makes you depressed instead of cheering you up. Sadly, I can completely relate to Mel on that song, but this isn't the right thread for that.

There's a chain called Fox and Hound that has Center Ice, and quite a few TVs. Looking thru the location list, they seem to be spread out from the East coast to the Front Range and Arizona.

This.

Hmm, these to posts together are giving me an idea... It's 9mi via the shortest route. Getting out there isn't too big a deal, it's pretty flat or downhill. The problem is the 200ft climb right at the end of the return trip. I'll have to go ride down the hill and back up to see if it kills me. For Friday: I'm happy that I'm going to help a friend clean out his flooded house in Binghamton and not the other way around. Sucks for him, of course.

Would seem apropos, even though I dislike the song. I much prefer the Weird Al version. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTTVkh6NX50 Weird Al: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpMvS1Q1sos&ob=av3e I'm not going to Tweet this though, since I'd hate to listen to it on a regular basis.

I'm trying to get in shape. Just in the last week, I'm seeing improvements with everything I'm doing except shoulder/back stuff. I can't find a way to work myself into doing pull-ups. I can't do one, and trying to use my legs to 'help' seems to be a lot more leg than pullup. I really don't want to deal with a gym, but I can't think of good way to work into what's a full-body weight exercise.

Not in this case! The problem with laying her down is generally speaking you're going to be travelling in roughly the same direction as you were when you were rolling. So you're on the pavement, sliding, and hoping you don't run into your own bike or whatever you were aimed. If by some chance you don't hit any of that stuff, you likely wouldn't have hit it had you stayed on your wheels. Except that you'd still have a shiny motorcycle to ride home and arms to use to get drunk afterwards. I think Korab touched on it before: most of the 'I had to lay it down' stories are covering for people that paniced, grenaded the brakes, and locked everything up. PRACTICE EMERGENCY STOPS! And buy a bike with ABS like I have, and *still* practice emergency stops. :) It only takes a couple seconds to haul a bike down from 60mph; you need to be shifting into first and looking for a way out so whatever's behind you doesn't nail you. That takes practice to do smoothly. Oh, and car drivers can often suck.

And that's the truth! Some models of bikes (I'm thinking certain sport bikes, mostly) are known to rub the gas tank on the pavement when they crash. It doesn't take too long of a slide before you wear a hole in the tank and let the gas out. For example: http://www.traxxion.com/r6tanksliders.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucPMCAwW8NQ Bystanders save biker trapped under burning car. Guy is banged up by should be OK. One thing really annoys me about the AP article. They talk about how the guy 'laid her down' to protect himself. That's never the right thing to do. Ever. OK, if you're going to run into a tractor-trailer across the road, perhaps. Otherwise, modern bikes stop pretty damn fast. When you're out riding, you should be practicing maximum-effort stops. And emergency swerve technique. You don't want to be learning when you really need it. The second part is when you lay it down, you've completely lost control of the situation and where you slide, you slide. In this case, you end up trapped under a car that's starting to catch fire. That's less than ideal. Let's say you didn't lay the bike down, and we assume that even a practiced rider couldn't stop in time. Odds are you t-bone the car and fly over it and slide down the highway. If you're wearing gear (which this guy wasn't, ahem), you maybe break/sprain/dislocate some body parts. You don't get incinerated, if not for a dozen people picking up a car to save you. I don't want this to sound like I'm bad mouthing the guy, but as a engineer we're trained to learn from failures. Learn from other people's mistakes so you can find new ones to make. :)

Nope, I didn't take it that way at all. I think my post was equally negative about both major parties. :)

There's a bit of ying and yang there. The sportbike guys have unfortunately bought motorcycles that can't be ridden properly at street speeds. I rented a 600 (the smaller of the sportbike models) and it would do 75 in first, and only really hit the power over 60 mph. Completely useless on the street. Doesn't excuse their behavior, though. On the flip side, a lot of the 'more mature' re-entry riders[0] buy 800lb cruisers but don't really know how to ride or have Easy-rider/Sons of Anarchy dreams of the open road and bar hopping. Neither of those things are good for keeping the shiny side up. For anyone looking to ride or already riding, I can't recommend enough two things: find a local Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) course and take it. They'll supply bikes, gear, and instruction. It won't really train to you ride on the street, but you'll have a much better chance. Second, go buy a copy of "Proficient Motorcycling" by David Hough (Barnes and Noble usually stocks it). Then read it, think about it, read it again. It'll make you a lot better rider, and a much better driver to boot. [0] guys that may have ridden in the past, but took a long break.

I'm not sure what to think about Putin. If this is his real personality, good on him. I have a sneaking suspicion this is a GWB clearing brush or John Kerry riding a Harley onto the set on the Tonight Show moment. For one, no one wants to ride a trike. :) Riding the bike up to Brooklyn/Queens today to hang out with some friends. I hope everything's quiet this weekend.

Actually, I think that was planned. The thread was called something else initially. (there's a couple posts on page one about it)

I did the bicycle too tonight, but MTB on the street. I live in a pretty hilly area; the creek that's probably 1/2 mile away is 200' below my house by elevation. 30 mins, 3 miles, and I'm whooped.

It's better on tap than in bottles, but it's not the end-all. Speaking of which, I'm F'N ecstatic that I could stop at Victory on the way home from getting a haircut today and have a beer while filling up a couple growlers. Hop Devil and Moonglow, and a Headwaters Pale for the wait. The sky is also amazing today as well, and I was out on the bike. Other than having to work all night, it doesn't get much better!

Ditto. It's been crazy here in SE PA. I'm pretty happy that I have a few good friends that I can lean on when I need it. It's tough to see sometimes, but I got it pretty good.

Wow. I used to live about 3 blocks off the right side of that photo in Owego.

If I remember right, the flood wall on the south side of the Susquehanna in Apalachin is a foot or two lower than the Endicott side. If the water makes it over the wall that far, they're all hosed since the wall is at least a story high and there's nothing to stop the water from pouring in. A buddy in Johnson City has already been flooded out, the water was coming into the first floor of the house when he left.

I have to be careful though, too much and I'll become a Flyers fan.