Modern Vespa

Regrettably, here in Minnesota, we have been (last 10 years) experiencing the worst hail storms. It is so bad, we now have loses worst than Florida with their hurriccans. This isn't occurring in every State in the USA. I am not an apologist for the Insurance Industry, but on home losses they are paying out $1.59 for every $1.00 they collect. Florida is paying out $1.25 for every $1.00 they collect in premiums.

What pisses me off is the huge increases in the cost of home insurance are real tough on retired folks or those on fixed incomes.

Again, not occuring everywhere.

Bob Copeland
Dodging Hail Balls in Minnesota

Here in 'North County' San Diego, we've had two hail storms in the past week. The hail is no larger than a pea, and temperatures are in the low 60's / upper 50's when they occur.

Speaking of hail, a few years ago, we had a rare hailstorm in New England. It did a lot of damage, especially to cars that were outside in it. My house siding, which I was planning on replacing anyway, as well as the roof, took a beating. My insurance company replaced the siding on two buildings, and the roofs of 4 buildings, as well as three skylights. Approximately $90,000 worth, all for the low, low, price of my $1,000 deductible. The insurance company was really great about it, too. On top of that, our governor ruled that the insurance companies could not count the damages against the clients' policies.

An ill wind that blew me a ton of good!

(This probably belongs in What's Cheering Me Up.)

broke the silver plastic cvt cover. the upper forward bolt hole broke off. I'll look at epoxy and/or metal brace tomorrow

You could get a fancy one too.

https://www.scooterbuddies.de/collections/variodeckel-300ccm-hpe

A specific coworker is pissing me off.

He wouldn't listen to instructions, and insisted on doing the job a different way. I was fine with him doing it a different way, as long as it turned out correct (which it would have). But he was wanting to skip two steps, then go back and do them later, which would have resulted with crappy quality. So he said, "I'll leave it for you to do it." When I told him I needed his help to get the order out on time, and could he simply help me with the initial fold, he said no.

Luckily our supervisor overheard the entire exchange, and will be speaking with him later.

This could be in both forums: I had both my knees replaced yesterday and the nerve block has worn off. Wow! Painful stuff but one year or less I'll be done with it, just in time to reward myself with a new 300. I'm weight bearing with a walker and feel quite geezer-like but I'm poised for my next great adventure! The p.o'd part is I had to go to another province to pay for this, the brain trust doesn't allow to go private in your own province.

It's amazing what they can do surgically. I've seen several people have knee replacements and they are better for it. My Dad, at 82, had a hip replacement and they had him up and walking around the next day.

I dread the day I have to have something like that done, but it's encouraging to see how well people recover. Speedy healing to you!

Forgive me for asking but what materials are your knees made of now ?

Titanium, glue, similar stuff to cutting boards all with a 20 year warranty but the claim process is a bitch! I kept one kneecap for a keychain...

Please forgive me for asking questions but what actually wore out ?

Worth having a go at it... somehow I lost all 3 and all I can think of is I managed to step on it when it was off. Grr. New one looks shiny though!

Olde Rider,

Congrats on your new roofs and siding. Your Governor is right - you can not be surcharged for a roof claim. But, if the losses Statewide were bad, the company could take an over all rate increases that affects everyone.

Here in Minnesota, Homeowner rates are up 300% in five years. So even if you specifically did not have a loss, your rate goes up like everyone in the same company. You are in a kind of "Farmers Cooperative" were you share costs.

Bob Copeland

Grunion,

Best to you for a great recovery. That was a bunch - both knees. Hey, you can peg leg around like "Long John Silver" growling at your mates.

My father's family is in Vancouver BC. Beautiful area to visit.

Bob Copeland
50% Canuck

The helmet I wanted is out of stock in my size and apparently AGV won't be making any more.

You'll just have to grow a new head, then.

Broke my phone 🤬

Logistics is pissing me off.

I'm supposed to help arrange and host a regional event, and my school's chapter of the larger group volunteered our school for it.

Despite being a community college, it is nigh impossible to secure space for such a thing over a 3-day weekend. If the buildings aren't regularly open during the times/days we need them, it's a Problem. Is there security on campus? Sure, 24/7. Is there community meeting space available? Well... there is A community meeting space, and as soon as I tried to book it, I was pre-empted by a different event that took priority. There are a handful of other spaces that would work great. Can we use them? No. Why? Several different reasons that I honestly don't feel are very valid, but can't really do much about as a student.

I'm pretty proactive about damn near everything at my school, but I didn't think this would be nearly so difficult. I'm bothering everyone I personally know at this point from groundskeepers all the way up to admin. Someone in Facilities is promising to run themselves ragged to try and help me figure this out, but it really shouldn't have to be that way.

I'm not even mad at any other humans in particular, just frustrated AF. This isn't nearly as difficult to do at other locations we've hosted with.

wrong part. it's the silver portion not the black portion. ah ... think you've got the wrong picture in your mind. this is an HPE

It's getting to be that way everywhere. Darling Bride has run a charity volleyball tournament for over 20 years to benefit an organization that helps young women learn to recognize and avoid abusive relationships, and help any woman escape one if they need to. For the first 20 years they used the same school gyms (which they paid the standard rate for, paid for the custodians time, paid for insurance, etc..). The school complained once ten years ago that a piece of equipment had been damaged, we replaced it immediately and without question with a piece of school's choice. There have been no other complaints. Now all the sudden they're being told that the gyms can't be booked on the weekends. No reasons are given, and they had to move the tournament to a new town to find suitable space.

You're absolutely right, it shouldn't be that way. But people like yourself who are willing to work through the barriers ultimately make their communities better places. Please don't give up. You're doing something good.

Right. My bad!

Oh, I'm not about to give up. I just need to sit and stare at the wall, growl, and work through a list of curse words in multiple languages for a few minutes before rolling my eyes hard and trying to figure out the next best move. (And chronicaling everything to document exactly how difficult this is along with ways to consider fixing it.)

I've had a lot of help at this school, but also come up against a lot of just plain stupid barriers and policies that need attention. I've got enough of a reputation that by my 2nd term, department heads and admin I hadn't met yet were looking me up to include in meetings and focus groups. Half the people on campus are bummed I'm going to be transferring after spring term, and half are relieved.

The latter half probably don't realize that I won't actually be leaving the area, and fully intend to stir shit up visit often and possibly even work part-time as a tutor.

I grew up with a ridiculous percentage of teachers for relatives. For better or worse, I knew too much about the back-end logistics of academia before I knew how to pronounce the word.

All the cartilage then a bunch of bone. My opportunity cost is about 5 years.

I went with the runner-up.

awww. I was really looking forward to some Zaphod photos.

Thank you Grunion.

Best I can do is "thanks for all the fish".

I would have offered this instead:

I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle.

There's a girl in the garden.

It could be worse, she could be in the TV.

"Excuse me. Excuse me! Hello? Oi!"

I'm not a stalker but we found Shaun's house.

Wow. Someone is really dialed in there.

Dogs really can't look up.

Don't tell the squirrel hunting dogs.

OFG

I'm not sure how to phrase this but I've noticed a trend where manufacturers have made scooters and motorcycles with engines that are way beyond any level of practicality.

As an example I'd suggest that a scooter is close to perfect around the 300cc mark because it's still relatively light, easy to ride plus the engine produces enough power in town and just enough for the highway if you wring it out a bit.

At the 400cc mark you're in Burgman and BV territory which require a larger and stronger chassis so they have to become more practical than pretty.

More cumbersome in town but much more relaxed on the highway.

Go even bigger and you have the Burgman 650, Yamaha T Max and Kymco AK 500, all of which are heavy, complicated and very expensive to maintain so I'd argue, not exactly popular.

Sports Bikes however seem to have a sweet spot of around 1000cc's with 4 cylinders where their components are light but strong enough to produce loads of power in a reliable fashion but any bigger than that and the engine loses it's efficiency.

Oddly enough most track bikes are around 600cc's which is interesting.

But the real puzzler for me is that many cruiser or touring bikes have grown so big that they actually aren't very nice to ride as their respective displacements make them unwealdy and unpleasant to ride any distance.

My own belief is that many designers have run out of ideas so the only thing they can think of is to go bigger regardless of riderbility because size, it seems sells very well, even if often the horse power remains similar to the previous model. 1.8 Litres seems to be the current vogue.

Yes there are people who can ride some sports bikes in the region of 1300cc's plus but they are very rare so let's face it most of those bikes potential will always remain untapped. For playing a game of Top Trumps though,they are perfect.

I hate to say it but I think that BMW nailed it with the GS 1250 as it has enough capacity with plenty of torque matched with great handling for a big sports tourer and bags of room to carry everything you need for a long trip away which is probably why they sold so many so making a bigger one was kind of lost on me.

Yes I know that there will always be a place for an oversized V Twin to go touring on but not when you can barely move it around the hotel car park.

And in other news I have a friend who works for a motor group with a Motorrad dealer within its Franchise.

For a laugh I asked him if he could get a price for a regular service on the RT because it's going to need one one day and let's face it I've got too much money already.

I'm still waiting for an answer so even when you know someone on the inside they still don't want to know.

Maybe it just takes a while to count that high.

True.

It's it strange when you have money to spend and someone still doesn't want it.

They want your money. They just don't want you to know how much of it they're taking until you're already committed.

Oh I see, it's like the Jeweller that has no prices on its items and so you have to ask.

I get it now.