Modern Vespa

If you don't put your blood into a project, does it really count?

Nope! Don't forget sweat and tears.

Sweat for sure installing my tow hitch yesterday. Yeesh.

Think I drank 1-1.5 gallons (US gallons, not those wimpy euro gallons ) of water and didn't pee til after the gym this morning.


I really do need to sort the GTI's a/c. But first I have to finish sorting a lot more stuff before TMO comes on Thursday.


Sooooo many things to do before we're outta here. Oy vey.

I think not.

I'm with all of you on the bleeding. Seems like when I'm out in the garden I catch all sorts of wire fence, etc, and my legs look like I took on razor wire. I guess running in for a band aid is good protocol, but for me it's when the work is done and the streaks of blood have dried. My wife is not impressed.

The "guess gauge" started acting up.
Full tank but gauge shows 1/4 left. After about 50kms fuel icon starts flashing. I can clearly see gas in the tank.
Wondering if I should try a can of Seafoam......

Work it out on the Odometer.

I'm looking for a white grease pencil as I'm typing.....old school.

when even trying to clone a git from github fails with a problem that has been discussed on stackoverflow for over a decade. fatal: early EOF fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output. there's even youtube videos about it but of course no recommended fix is working for me.

had this a year ago (can't remember what repo) and took a day to solve - can't remember which obscure fix worked (wasn't the popular recommended fixes). every experiment takes 15-20mins of waiting before failing

of course I'm only doing this because I reported a bug and they (google) suggested I make a change in their lib to see if it helps even though I gave them enough info to repro and test their experiment themselves.

way too much of software dev has become this sort crap. I miss the old days when devs cared and you could chat directly with them

and people wonder why I left the industry.

British-American Motorcycles (an online seller of parts and accessories for Triumphs) and their inability to list something as "out of stock" on their website. I mean, I could understand no live inventory in 2005. It's 2025, this isn't a difficult ask.

I ordered a Motone GT luggage rack for the Bonneville on June 8th.

On June 20th, I politely inquired as to estimated ship date.

Having received no response, I asked again on the 27th. I mean, it's not unreasonable to expect a reply, especially since TMO (military movers) comes on Thursday to start packing up my house.

They informed me it had just come off backorder (why it wasn't listed as such on their site, or ANY notification after the sale, I can't ducking understand) and would be shipped by Wednesday/Thursday the following week (so before the 4th of July).

It's now the 14th, and guess who has two thumbs and zero tracking information or updates?

Speaking of "This Guy!" He and his TV Show partner have pissed me and Mrs Syd off for decades. We had the couplename@gmail.com long before the show came on the air. But now every other bozo sets up random crap under our email address because they know they won't have to get the crap email. Grrr, Jim and Pam piss me off!

I have no idea what that means.

Ditto!

Syd and the woman that tolerates him share the same name as a once popular TV couple who have mentioned their email address is their names @ gmail. Which Sid also has.
*canned laughter*

Well, I'm not going to post my email address so more peeps will have it, but I guess I should have mentioned that if you hadn't watched the US version of The Office (I hadn't, until the crap emails started) you wouldn't know of which I speak.

For $100 more than I paid for the Kymco submarine that blew up on day 2 of the Scooter Cannonball, I could have bought a Zebu.

https://fayar.craigslist.org/grd/d/stilwell-zebu-very-small/7860070412.html

That sucks. What went wrong with it?

I want to know if the Zebu would fit in under the displacement restrictions.

According to Gemini:

A single zebu bull used as a draft animal, such as in agriculture, can generate approximately 0.67 horsepower (Ho).

This figure can vary slightly, as indicated by different measurements for Bos indicus (a subspecies of Zebu) from Tamil Nadu ranging from 0.598 Ho to 0.671 Ho.

While horsepower is the standard measure, oxen, which are often castrated Zebu cattle, are renowned for their strength in pulling heavier loads over extended periods, especially in challenging conditions like mud, notes Rural Heritage Magazine. However, oxen tend to be slower than horses. Notably, a single ox can pull 5,000 pounds, while two oxen yoked together can pull 15,000 pounds.

according to the ad it's "very small" so probably not big enough for the farm tasks they'd planned for it.

With that two tone color scheme and those yellow hooves, it has bodge written all over it. Probably welded together from three wrecked zebu.

As I got into it, I realized there was a high likelihood that the entire scooter had spent time underwater. I got it from South Florida, so caveat emptor.

I checked the oil the morning of the second day, and it was at capacity. Later, it ran out, and the engine failed before I could do anything about it.

So I took all my personal effects off the scooter, stuck the key in the ignition, and rode away in my support vehicle.

Fedex. What the actual duck is going on here? This is a photochromic visor for my helmet; the warehouse from which it shipped is FIVE SIMPLE HOURS (287 miles to be precise) from my front door. Of course my call goes to an offshored call center that doesn't have access to any information or ability to actually rectify the issue. No wonder they limited comments on their facebook announcement of Fred Smith's death. I can only imagine what some people could be capable of saying.

Oh Fedex losing a package? Not surprised. My worst one was 4 300Ah LFP cells from China - got all the way to the Fedex facility two miles away - then NADA. I had to get the Chinese to chase them to get my money back.

My buddy had a secondhand People GT300i. Aside from the lack of foot placement options and the tiny under seat storage, it seemed like a decent scoot. I'm guessing the 205cc made around 20hp and you would've given the Scarabeo rider a hard time if the People was in good health!

Sorry your Cannonball ended so soon, man.

P.S. Glad you didn't say where you left it. My dumb ass would go try and rescue it.

40 miles west of McCall.
This was the best handling bike I've ever ridden in the cannonball. And it was fast. Until it blew up, it seemed to be the perfect cannonball bike, except for the 2 gallon fuel tank. That added at least an hour to the day. It had Bitubo front fork springs, Malossi transmission [clutch, bell, variator, torsion controller, belt and contra spring,] Malossi rear shocks, RMS brake disks, Malossi sintered pads, Malossi exhaust, RMS brake handles, Champion oil and air filters, Faco sport screen, and new tires fore and aft. I even replaced the plastic rivets with the correct part number from Japan.

The bike was great climbing, because it didn't lag down to the point you wanted to flintstone up hills. I would absolutely get another one, just not from southern Florida. I might get one of the 300Gti models as a daily rider, that's how much I liked it. It's either a reliable BV or an SH with cheaper plastics,.

But alas, as Christi reminded me when I thought about loading it up, I already have four broken Cannonball bikes.

Shoulda used rotella.

Damned strimmer stopped spinning on the gears, opened it up nice piece of chineseum plastic broken on Black and decker, just ordered a compatible new body for 27 bucks hope it lasts, better than binning it I suppose.

the hell is a strimmer?

also still waiting on USPS to deliver my bonneville parts from NJ; they've been sitting less than 30 miles away for 4 days now, claiming "the texas flooding has degraded estimated delivery of your package."

Bro it came from New Jersey, to Maryland, both of which are world-renowned for not being in or near Texas.

Also known as a weed wacker, I think.

"Strimmer" is a portmanteau of "string trimmer".

sounds like ohio rizz to me.

You left one out....but I can't recall his name.

Thunderthighs?

Batman...

...only spelled with an "F".

Strimmer seems to be the preferred term for Brits and (some) Europeans.

IIRC, that's what Black & Decker called their device, and it entered the lexicon, like "hoover".

I thought everyone had strimmers!

Having researched the term, I must admit to settling on whipper snipper as my new preference, especially if I've bought a new one and it sits next to the old experienced one.

Only a saint that one episode.

You're treading a very thin line, me laddo 😉

You ain't alone on waiting for USPS. Package from FL to VA so farther, but "Moving through network, in transit to next facility" for a week with no update in 4 days. Strangely no "Texas flooding" message even though much closer obviously…

Will have my strimmer fixed again if Amazon delivers on time next week (strimmer= hand held lawnmower )