Monkey Butt

Not so long ago Mr. Motorcycle wrote a review of an anti-chaffing product marketed to motorcyclist on his web site. I left a comment on his review. A day later I got an invitation to review Anti-Monkey Butt Powder myself.

Here is a portion of their invitation:

Hey Danny,
I enjoyed reading your various musings on your "a Blog About..." The World's Toughest Riders Club seems quite intriguing and I hope it all goes well for you! Anyway, I noticed your positive comment regarding Anti-Monkey Butt on Mr. Motorcycle's Product review of it. I figured I would try and save you some time and money by offering to send you a full bottle of the product, along with some samples, if you were interested in writing a review for it on your page.

As far as background goes, AMBP is a new product, invented by motocross athletes, designed to treat friction and irritation that can result from excess sweat. As you yourself and I am sure many of your readers may have experienced, excessive sweat from running can cause irritation, also known as "monkey butt". Unlike other powders, AMBP has calamine and talc which gives it a cooling sensation instead of the burning that you might get from other products.

Let me know what you think. Thanks again for a great blog!

To be honest I was interested and admit I have had the occasional case of Monkey Butt. I replied to them, agreeing to do a review. They quickly replied back and said my bottle of Anti-Monkey Butt Powder was on the way. As soon as I try it I will let you know how it works.

Tundra Heading To The Shop

I came out this morning to drive the truck to work.

(There were thunderstorms in the area so I didn't ride)

I looked under the truck and saw this.

A stain that had been there had grown and was looking wet this time.

I took the car instead and when I got home climbed under there to check things out.

It seems that the shaft seal on the transmission is leaking.

There was a little red fluid ready to drip from the joint right at the transmission.

Thursday we will be dropping off the truck to get it looked at.

It should be warranty work so I am not too worried.

I just don't plan on driving it until I take it in.

One more excuse to ride the bike.

Looks like I found a little good in the bad.

Weird Motorcycle Photo Of The Week - Submissions By Lance

Today's Weird Motorcycle Photos come from Lance, one of my loyal followers.

I have actually posted both of these before. However since Lance is the only one who has submitted any photos to me so far I will go ahead and re-post them both.

This one I posted in October of 2008.

It is based on the same concept as a Segway.

I could imagine emergency stops and sudden losses of power only resulting in having a really bad day.

I posted this one in March of 2009.

This however is a much better photo of it.

It still makes me hungry every time I see it.

Thanks for the submissions Lance!

If you want to submit some Weird Motorcycle photos yourself just email them to me.

Happy Birthday Joyce

Happy Birthday Joyce!

It was actually my mother-in-laws birthday this past Saturday. I just now got around to blogging about it. Sorry for being late with it Joyce! Don't worry, I won't tell anyone how old you are.

51

I Must Be Crazy

I am not the only one here at work that commutes by motorcycle.

There is one other regular motorcycle commuter and a couple occasional riders.

The other regular has this sign (shown below) on his motorcycle.

Me being a curious person, I wondered what it was all about.

After doing a brief search on the Internet this is the organization I found.

A club of riders with a love for long distance riding. It is also an exclusive club. To get in you need to ride 1000 miles on your motorcycle in 24 hours. Then prove that you actually did it and didn't just tell them you did. Actually 1000 miles in 24 hours is the minimum to earn membership. There are longer rides you can do to earn membership into The Iron Butt Association. Not to mention earning some serious bragging rights.

Now why would someone who has trust issues with their motorcycle even mention a 1000 mile ride?

Because, I must be crazy, that's why.

I am actually considering giving it a try. The bike has been doing better this last week and it would be a few more weeks at least before I went ahead and tried it. Can't just jump into something like that. There has to be some planning involved. I also need to gain a little more trust in the bike. So far all I have done is consider the basics. Such as where to ride to and how much this will cost (fuel & food).

Where to? Well a little time on Google Maps revealed that if I rode from where I live now to where I grew up I would put in almost exactly 1000 miles. It is literally 500.8 miles door to door, go there and back and round trip is just a little over 1000 miles. Another option that popped into my head would be to ride to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and back (I am a racing fan). Round trip mileage on that would be about 1036 miles. I need to figure out a northern and western destination too. I am thinking that picking a day to do the ride would be best. Then choose between a few planned routes the day before the ride depending on weather.

The bike? Well I am going to have to gain a bit more trust in it. I am more positive with each ride that I finally got it all fixed. However there is still that lingering 'what's next' in the back of my head. The bike will need a complete inspection to make sure that there is nothing lingering and waiting to go wrong. That is one task I need to do anyway. Then just before the day of the ride an oil change will be an excellent idea. Then pack plenty of tools, gasket sealer, form a gasket, fuses, oil, spare spark plug, electrical tape, duct tape and whatever else I can think of between now and then.

Money? I don't think it would cost all that much really. I could pack my own food and water to avoid expensive convenience store snacks. The bike gets about 55 miles per gallon. A thousand miles should take about 18.2 gallons. The national average today is $2.52, (I think?) so that would be about $45.86 in gas. Maybe round it up to $50 or $60 just to be safe. Then there would be a place to sleep if I got too tired. Most likely I would just pack my little one man tent and a sleeping bag. Camping spots are much cheaper than hotel rooms.

Rescue? What if I don't make it and have to be rescued? We do have a truck but gas would get expensive quick. Then there is asking my wife or other family member to potentially drive 500+ miles to get me then drive me home. I would hate to have to do that to them, especially my wife. If they agreed to be on standby to perform a potential rescue, I would need to be sure to leave detailed maps of my route and be sure to stay on it.

It's a lot to think about. I am not sure I will even attempt it. If I do I will need to make sure it is properly planned, the bike is ready and that I have the support of my family.

I Have Been Asked To Photo A Wedding

My wife's friend Angela is getting married later this month. They asked if I could take the photographs of the wedding. I am not a pro by a long shot. So I will be doing this work for free. I have actually done this before.

I even took a few shots at my own wedding.

Like this one of my wife.

I also took all the 'on the ground' shots at a skydiver wedding.

Then later took the photos of their reception.

I also shot a wedding for another set of friends.

I actually took the time to get a backdrop for that special day.

Can you tell he likes her?

The last wedding I took photos at was sort of last second.

I took my camera just to take photos of my wife who was a bridesmaid.

I ended up taking quite a few photos of that wedding.

The bride and groom have included many of them in their wedding album.

It's hard work shooting a wedding but I am actually looking forward to it.

Pippy & Harley

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3 Generation Family Heirloom (or is it 4?)

My Grandparents owned it.

My Mom inherited it.

She just handed it down to me.

Then three minutes after we get it in the house, Tulip claims it for herself.

Little Ride To The Lake

Last night I took the bike for a little ride around Longview Lake. I tried to recreate the conditions that were causing the fuse to blow. I was unable to get it it fail. I am hoping that means I have fixed this last issue. Today I am going to get back to commuting by bike yet again. I will let you all know how it goes.

Trust Issues

I have begun to have some serious trust issues with my motorcycle. It has gotten to the point that I am very reluctant to ride it. I dare to even say a little scared to ride it for fear of where it will leave me stranded next. It seems as I fix one thing all I do is wait for the next thing to break. This time I can't seem to pin down the problem 100%. I know I have or had a short somewhere but where? I am not certain. I have inspected the electrical system from one end to the other but can't seem to find an obvious problem. I did wrap some bundles of wires that wrap around them was coming loose. I also secured the starter relay better. These things could have been the cause but I just don't have any way of knowing for sure. I have tried several times to recreate the event of the fuse blowing in hopes of finding the problem but so far that has provided no clues as to what the problem is. I am feeling really bummed out about this. I want to ride, but can I trust my bike? The only answer I come up with is, no, I can't. I start having bad thoughts about it. Thoughts like maybe I should give up on motorcycles for now or maybe I should have sold the bike when I had an offer on it a few weeks ago. I know I should try to be more positive but right now it's hard for me to have an upbeat attitude about this.

Weird Motorcycle Photo Of The Week - Nasty

Ummmm....

I'm sorry but this is just plain nasty. I don't really see anything I like about this motorcycle. It's more than a bit tasteless. If you pulled up next to me on this thing I would pull off the road just to avoid you.

In other news...

I am now taking submisions for Weird Motorcycle Photos. If you have one you would like to share please do. All I ask is that they don't contain any graphic content. Then tell me if you took the photo or where you found it so I can give photo credit when possible. Just e-mail them to me.

Norton Transformer

I wish my motorcycle would talk to me and tell me where that darn electrical short I can't find is.

Let Us Out Of Here

Last night I had to do the nightly distribution of treats to the cats on my own.

Harley and Ramone will steal the other cat's treats if we don't put them in a room of their own.

I am usually in there with them while Julie gives the other cats their treats.

Since she was at a friends birthday party I took care of it myself.

Before releasing them from captivity I took a couple pictures of them watching me from under the door.

Oreo

Celebrating The 4th

Today we went to see Julie's friend Angela to celebrate Independence Day and a birthday. Angela's son Nicolas has a birthday soon so they had a two for one celebration. We cooked out by the pool while the kids swam. Angela's fiance Dave took care of the kids while I tended the grill. After we filled up on food we celebrated Nick's 3rd birthday and ate a little bit of cake.

Click here to see more photos.

After the celebration we rushed home. Josie is not so good around all the fireworks going off. We wanted to get home before it got too noisy. When we arrived home the neighborhood already had the stench of sulfur and smoke floating through it. The fireworks were going full force and still are now. Josie however is doing fine now and doesn't seem to care about the fireworks going off this year. Maybe she got used to it.

Hope you all had a good Independence Day. We sure did.