I've got a fun story to share with you guys.
Last year I made a rack for my emgo travel trunk and took it out to Ohio where my motor threw in the towel and committed suicide. I rebuilt her and in June put the whole travel trunk back on the bike. The design of the rack was never intended to be used the way I wanted it to be used and needless to say, the whole rack tore off my bike and I lost the travel trunk (contents were just some bathing shorts and such.
So I rebuilt the rack and made it beefier than you could imagine and the rack is now a complete one piece design that gets mounted to my bike. There's still some areas I'd like to reinforce to reduce the possibility of failure from vibration and fatigue, but that's a story for another day as its currently being dampened by some rubber cords.
Heres the fun part of the story....
A new rack meant a new travel trunk from Emgo. $75 shipped from Amazon brings it to my door and the trunk is installed the same day. The rack is sturdy and the travel trunk works great. I ran it through its paces and was sure it wouldn't fall of this time.....well it did. But it wasn't the frame the failed. Apparently the freaking trunk came off the locking mounting tabs and ejected it self when I hit a bump. When I realized the trunk was missing (about 10 seconds after it fell off by pure luck), i pulled off the highway while the passenger of another car passed me and frantically waves that i lost my box. I got back on the other direction and there was enough traffic and enough time that elapsed to cause a visible 1 mile back up from people driving around the trunk in the middle of the highway (why no one decided to get out of their car and just move it to the side is beyond me, new yorkers.....).
I get back on the road and slowly recover my parts. a $299 Shark RSR2 helmet.... completely toasted. a pair of ICON gloves, lost and no where to be found. and then the box... Just a few days old.... i picked up the box and the locking tab broke. There was no real way for me to secure it to my bike, so i did the best i could. At this point, my tank bag was opened with my tools. I start riding and the pissed of idiot in my left the tank bag open. Oh, whats in my tank bag? my cover.....
So now, we have this huge cover that just deployed violently like a parachute. Luckily it didnt hit anyone, but the process of recovering my cover was probably a very dumb thing as people just genuinely do not care about someone on the highway, even if thye are on the shoulder ( actually i think several people tried to purposely kill me at this point).
So I recoevered the cover and went to coney island beach, a 10 minute ride away and sat in the sand for 2 minutes before i quickly decided to continue to my destination (rockaway beach to surf), and hte only way to get the rack on was copious amounts of duct tape.
At this point I was hating myself for not cehcking hte lock. Maybe it was my fault, maybe it wasn't. Im really not sure. Eitherway, i was determined to surf it out of me...
I arrived at the surf shop and bull shit around and I try to forget the morning I just had by sharing hateful stories with the guys at the shop and i look out the window to some suspicous activity. SOmeones near my bike, but I cant see my bike.
Its on the make the beast with two backsing floor. someone backed up into it. the driver was being a total douche bag and she just kept on saying, "atleast i didnt back up with you on the bike hahah" and "i didnt see the bike, it wasnt my fault".
Regardless, I kept my cool and thought to myself, things couldn't get worst. My clutch lever was busted and my kickstand was done. My handle bars are scratched up and my trunk fell off again, but who cares, damn thing is broken anyway.
Because she was a pregnant dog and I had enough damages to get her to pay, I called the cops and they came by to fill out a report. She didnth ave her drivers lic on her so she got a ticket for that.
And... ididnt have my safety inspection ticket, so on top of everything I got a ticket (though this one is my fault).
The whole day ended up costing me about $700 in parts and gear cost and the waves were pretty shitty by the time i got out there. Some days just make the beast with two backsing suck. This was one of them.
I knew there would be some risk in having lunch with you last summer but it's now dawning on me how great that risk was.
Apparently your vast black cloud and all its contents were out to lunch that day.
The things that happen to you...whether your doing or not... :o ???
have you considered calling a priest to bless/exorcise your bike? seems to me that the gods are trying to tell you something
just remember...no matter what...it could be worse...you could be on fire!
Quote from: derby on September 09, 2013, 07:26:29 AM
"fake" commencement address:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column,0,5909206,full.column (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column,0,5909206,full.column)
;D
Darth Vader's Commencement Address
Darth Vader gives a commencement address...
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Vassar College class of '99...embrace the
Dark Side. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, The Dark
Side would be it. The long-term benefits of The Dark Side have been
proved by the Dark Lords of The Sith, whereas the rest of my advice has
no basis more reliable than my own meandering cruelty and conquests.
I will dispense this advice now...
Enjoy the power and beauty of your planet. Oh, never mind, you will
never understand the power and the beauty of your planet until after the
Empire has destroyed it in a futile attempt to find the Rebel Base. But
trust me, in twenty years, you will look back at photos of your home and
recall, in a way you can't grasp now, how blissfully ignorant you were,
and how fabulous your planet really looked before it was a pile of
burning space rubble. Your planet is not as dull as you imagine.
Don't worry about the Rebellion - or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to make the Kessel run in a landspeeder.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed
your twisted mind. The kind that fire a direct hit into your reactor
core at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday.
Do in one Death Star officer every day.
Scheme.
Don't disobey the Emperor's orders; don't put up with people who disobey
yours.
Hate.
Don't waste your time on Storm troopers. They can't hit the broad side
of a barn.
The battle is long and in the end, it's only with yourself...and your
idiot son.
Remember the prophecies of the Emperor; ignore the whinings of your
bratty upstart farm boy of a son. If you succeed in doing this, tell me
how.
Keep your old light saber, but change your costume slightly with every
sequel.
Destroy.
Don't feel guilty if you have no misgivings about joining the Dark Side.
The most interesting people I know didn't have any respect at 22 for
their victim's lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year olds I know
still don't.
Have plenty of minions.
Be kind to your right hand, you'll miss it when it's gone.
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe your son will join you,
maybe he won't. Maybe you'll convince your daughter to become a dark
Jedi and assist you in your campaign of hatred and destruction; maybe
she'll become a rebel leader and marry a scruffy-looking nerf herder.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate
yourself either - your destiny is guided by the Force - so is everybody
else's.
Enjoy the Force. Exploit it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it
or what other people think of your "sorcerer's ways." The ability to
destroy a planet is insignificant next to its power.
Kill. Even if you have no one to kill but a meaningless extra.
Listen to what the Emperor has forseen, even if you don't follow his
prophecies.
Do not take your mask off, it will only make you feel ugly. And
vulnerable.
Get to know your parents. You'll never know when they'll turn out to be
your arch enemies.
Be nice to your siblings. They are your best link to your Jedi lineage
and the ones most likely to become Jedi in the future.
Understand that lackeys come and go. But with a precious few, you
should keep from crushing their tracheas. Work hard to bridge the gaps
in geography and lifestyle, for as the more desperate you become, the
more you will need to send bounty hunters to do your dirty work for you.
Live on Dagobah once, but leave before you get foot rot.
Live on Tattooine once, but leave before you get heat stroke.
Travel. Preferably in your own custom TIE Fighter.
Accept certain inalienable truths: rebellions will rise, the Imperial
Senate will have to be disbanded, you too will get old. And when you
do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, rebels were easily
crushed, the Imperial Senate was subservient, and citizens respected
their Emperor.
Respect your Emperor.
Don't expect your son to rule the galaxy with you. Maybe he'll give in
to his anger, maybe he'll strike you down, but you'll never know when
he'll whine pleadingly and you'll find yourself turning to the Light
Side and saving his sorry butt.
Don't strike down your old Jedi Master, or he will become more powerful
than you could possibly imagine.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply
it, or I'll crush your throat. Advice is a form of nostalgia.
Dispensing it is a way of fishing your humanity from the depths of sin,
wiping it off, putting black body armor over the ugly parts and
redeeming it for more than its worth.
But trust me on the Dark Side.
that white multi is BANGING!!!! ME WANT. looks like that parachute i wanted to buy might have to wait. Maybe i can sell some poor soul my bike for 4k, actually the motor itself and the tuned ECU is worth that much!