Graduation

I finally graduated. May 4, 2008 - MBA. It was a good ride but glad that I am done.

Meeting with the Bro

My eldest brother, TOC (The Old Coot) came over today on his way to a family trip to Moab without motorcycles. I had to show him the latest and greatest stuff that I had been doing to my bike. Here is what he wrote to the rest of the MMMM clan:

"I have just been formally introduced to Eddie's new motorcycle, Wolfie. Yes, he wants to call his bike Wolfie. Anyway, he has had his bike for less than a month and the following is a list of the work that he has done on Wolfie thus far, at least the stuff that I can remember: disassembled front end and greased his steering bearings, rewired the back light to make it into a brake light, a horn, a new light switch that includes low and high beams, a speedometer with self-designed bracket, license plate holder, rear view mirror. And he has purchased a new FMF pipe and jetting system that still needs installation. And all of this in less than 4 weeks. This guy is a maniac."

Yes, my bro, I am a maniac. The motorcycle shop is working overtime, baby!

Work on my bike

I have still yet to come up with a name for my bike. But I have done A TON to it lately. I have put the speedometer on. Not only is this a speedometer, but it has a tachometer, ambient temperature, engine temperature, tripmeter, and odometer. It installed pretty neat and it is even ran off of the motorcycle's battery. Here is a link to it:

Vapor Computer

To make the bike street legal, I had to install a horn and a brake light switch. Luckily, the WR already has a dual filament bulb and wiring all set up for the brake light. I just had to wire it up with a switch in between. I also switched the kill switch to my horn switch, and vice versa. I have a switch that can turn off the headlight, and go to high and low beam. I think that my bike is already set up for that except the plug to which the wires go into at the headlight. I am thinking about wiring it up, but I don't know for sure. Not sure if it is necessary or not.

So I got it inspected, insured and licensed. I was really pleased with Progressive motorcycle insurance. My main concern is that it is going to be stolen, so even with $100 deductible, it only costs $157 per year to insure it. That is cool.

I also have installed some nice Acerbis Rally Pro hand guards.

I have yet to install my James Dean jet kit or my FMF Titanium Q slip on exhaust. Tha should happen in the next week or so. I am getting it ready for the big Moab trip on the 10th - maybe on the 17th depending on how many people from MMMM group can come.

I have also been doing a lot of greasing of the bearings lately. A lot of people from the thumpertalk forum" say that the bearings come from the factory very dry. So I took off the front wheel, the forks, the handlebar, etc etc etc and greased the bearings. They were right. They were bone dry it seemed. So now my steering is smooth as a baby's bottom. I need to do that to my rear linkage, but that can happen another day. I also greased the bearings on my front wheel. Man - that is so nice.

Anyways, this has taken me about 10 or 12 nights working on my bike. Wow. That is a lot of work. But I just love to go out there and work on it. I love getting my hands dirty, I love the smell of grease, I love the thought of accomplishing something. It is just a good feeling to say that it is done.

Oh - and I have to say that nothing came apart, or fell off, or broke while I was driving to work this morning. Yes, it is warm enough here to ride a motorcycle to work. Let's hope that it stays this warm so we can start riding in the hills!

eddie

A New Era

So here is the story:

I have been looking at this bike for about 2 weeks. I first saw it on KSL classifieds and thought that it was a screaming deal at $4400. I guess the only catch was that the bike was in Blackfoot, ID. I called him and he said that he still had it. I basically told him that I wanted it, but I didn't have the money for it right now. But I will have it around the middle of Feb after we close on our house.

So I have been checking every now and then just to make sure that it was still listed. I finally decided to give him a call last night - around 8:00pm - just to make sure he had it. He said, "Uhhhhhhh, I guess I still have it." Dang, I thought - he has already sold it! "A guy is coming from Provo tomorrow to look at it and I assume that he is going to buy it." Adrenaline started to flow through my veins. It would take a couple of hours to get to Blackfoot. How were the roads?

I called up my dad and asked him, and as I was talking with him, I thought that I should have just got on the internet to find out. But my dad said that he was more than willing to go and take a look at the bike. He just didn't want to buy me a lemon. He asked what my brothers were doing. I quickly gave them a call. Couldn't get TOC, but Handlebars came to my rescue! He quickly accepted, expecially since his next best alternative for the evening was to watch Supernanny.

Mom and dad graciously made arrangements to pay for the motorcycle so mom and dad - my check is in the mail. So tehy get there and I guess this guy just lives in a mansion. He was working here in Centerville last year for something and ended up at Full Throttle Motorsports buying new bikes for his entire family. It is a 2006 bought brand new in the spring of 2007 and rode it all of 350 miles. He has changed the oil in it 4 times. It has a dent in the exhaust protector and the clutch lever is bent. It has Renthal handlebars. Handlebars said it looks like it is in very good condition. I guess he is having his 5th baby and he wanted to get out of some debt that he had. So all it takes is just good timing.

I am so pumped. I am so giddy. Christmas truly does occur after December 25th. The Moab date is set - April 10-12. I am getting more and more excited about this! HOW COOL IS THAT? I will end up picking up the bike next weekend when we come up to IF and visit the family.

Eddie's Motorcycle Shop is open for business!

End of an era (and a friend)

It is hard to fathom, hard to comprehend, hard to deal with. But the truth just has to be told. I sold my motorcycle on Saturday. Yes, the motorcycle shop is still open, but unfortunately, there is no motorcycle in the shop to work on. It has been almost 5 months since I have ridden him. The last being the Moab trip in February. With school and work, I have not had time to ride him at all.

But there is a good side to this story. Dream Bike v.2, a Yamaha WR450F, has a shorter ETA than before. Plus, because of the sacrifice, the Mrs. said I could get a bike with any accessories that I want! (within reason) A little information about the motorcycle:

Power is incredible
Weight is less that dream bike v.1
Yamaha has a better reputation for durability
I can get a Rekluse auto clutch
Stock gas tank is only 2.1 gallons, but I can get a Clarke Manufacturing 3.2 gallon gas tank

Yes, the sacrifice is great. I will miss a few rides including July 4th, Baumgartner, and a Moab trip. But in my mind, the ROI is greater this way. That is what keeps me going. I even have a picture in my office of v.2. I can almost feel the power now.

Documenting my life

I feel that far too often things from our past are not written, videotaped, or photographed and are lost and will be soon forgotten. My dad is an excellent example of how to constantly document his life with a journal. I hope that one day I can have as many volumes of his life with my own version.

In a meager attempt to document my life, I have started to write in my journal. But like my previous post says, all of the precious thoughts that I have are saved for my personal hand-written journal, in which I share with very few people. But for those of you who wish to keep up in the life and times of eddie and his family, let me know and I can add you to my journal list.

Going along with the documenting theme, I have been taking more pictures as of lately and have started using the program "iWeb." It is a really easy program to use in which you can create a website. I love it and I am going to try and update it as much as I can - with pictures, videos and other stuff relating to our family life. The link is:

My site

eddie

4/11/07 6:58am update

Well, grandson number 5 (from Allie's side), and grandson number 17 (from my side) was born at 5:43am this morning. Everyone is doing fine, even when Allie didn't have an epidural. He was 8lbs, 3oz, and 20 inches - one big boy! CP is already eating.

Allie did absolutely awesome. I can't even begin to say how well she did. Many times she said she wanted to quit, but she didn't. I love her so much.

eddie

4/11/07 2:08am update

We were woken by a phone call around 12:00 this morning from LDS Hospital, wondering if we still wanted to have our baby. Of course we did. So we quickly gathered all of our stuff and left and called M.A. to come meet us at the hospital. We checked into the hospital, got all connected up, and around 1:45, her water was broken by the resident here.

We are now watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a classic with Steve Martin and Michael Caine. Allie hasn't seen the movie, and the other movies were all action packed, so we wanted something soothing - or at least funny. That is what M.A. recommended.

So now it is a waiting game. We are excited for number 3! Hopefully, it won't take too long.

eddie