Catalytic Converters Being Targeted by Thieves
Catalytic converters being targeted by thieves – MOUNT VERNON — Local law enforcement reported at least five incidents in the past week of people claiming their catalytic converters were stolen. [Mount Vernon News]
How hard is this to curb? Require scrap metal dealers to take a digital photo or require photo id with an explanation of where the converter came from. This isn’t to much to ask from them.
I go to scrap yards all the time and they are full of undersireables toting in goods that I would bet are stolen. They get enough to have a few beers or a crack fix. They’re not hard to spot. Of course, good people go there too, but the stuff they’re bringing is obviously from projects and what not.
1992 Chevy Truck Stalling Problem Diagnosis and Repair
I have an old C2500 1992 Chevy Truck. It’s paid for and it’s tough enough to do most things. With it’s 5 speed and throttle body injection, I can get close to 20 mpg out of it. So, when it’s broke down, I am not happy. For a long time, this truck has had a major stalling problem that nobody could figure out.
- My Old Chevy Truck
The truck would run just fine, then out of nowhere, it would stall. Sometimes it would start up, other times you had to wait about 10 minutes to try it again. No matter what, it couldn’t hold a low idle when the engine was warm.
Nobody could figure out what was wrong. I tried the Internet and the suggestions others had posted. New fuel filters, spark plugs, fuel cleaners, new throttle body sensors, and anything else that made sense. Now that winter is coming on, I want my truck! The motorcycle is getting cold and I’ve passed up oppurtunites for free firewood.
I took the truck to a mechanic and the correct diagnosis of a bad distributor was made! It’s still running rough because it needs a new rotor, rotor cap and plug wires. It was a pricey fix – $300, but I’m willing to pay for someone who was smart enough to know what was wrong. He told me he just looked at all the corrosion in the distributor and knew what the problem was. Also, spraying some water around the motor killed it immediately. Lesson learned. Nobody even suggested the water trick to me, so I was happy to get the tip.
If you’re having similar problems, I hope this post helps. I could have did this repair for less than half of their cost on my own. Contact me if you have any questions I can help with. As Red Green says, “Remember, we’re all in this together.”
Wan – The Crazy Beer Drinking Honda Ruckus Man
I don’t know how I missed this, but a year ago a Korean man named Wan undertook an amazing adventure. It’s an adventure that only could come from a foreigner with a big dream to cross America on a Honda Ruckus. A Ruckus is a tiny 50cc heavy duty scooter. It’s basically a trail bike.
Now anybody could do this, there’s nothing original about taking off across the country. It’s been done so many times in so many different ways that it’s difficult to come up with your own spin on the trip. Wan’s story is different. He saved his meager earnings working at a restaurant to fund the trip and he was watching every penny. He did not have a choice, if he wanted to do this trip, it was of the utmost importance to be thrifty. He also had to overcome language barriers, culture shock, and scooter inexperience. Many times this left him depending on the charity of total strangers and relying on his people skills to pull things off.
He logged this trip on totalruckus.com and the members there just took off with his story. They communicate with him, assist with him, and most importantly, they party with him. Wan turns out to be a beer hound of sorts and when combined with is very likable personality and sense for adventure, the United States becomes his never-ending home away from home. This vagabond rarely wants for anything. With the help of the Internet, most of his needs are met and exceeded wherever he goes.
Due to the slow speed of the scooter and his thrift in finding accommodations, he is constantly being scrutinized by law enforcement. The end of every meeting with them results in a photo with the officers and no fines or punishment. Most of the time, they assist him with information he needs for better local accommodations. He even makes friends with Texas law enforcement, which I know from experience, is very difficult to do.
This is a rare must-read forum. I could see a movie being made about this guy at some point. I can get a little boring at time with the usual forum-style language from other members, but it’s well worth the time. It’s the first time I’ve ever felt the need to review a forum of all things.
Here’s the link, – http://totalruckus.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php – enjoy!
Ohio State Route 555 – The Triple Nickel
Ohio State Route 555, otherwise known as The Triple Nickel, is one of those fable rides that surprises just about every rider on the first trip. Truth be told, the catchy name of the road lends more to the hype than the actual ride, but it’s a great starting point for any ride in Southern Ohio. There are so many great roads, like Ohio State Route 78 connected to it, that you can make The Triple Nickel part of any ride in the area.
I started my ride today from Newark, Ohio and headed down Ohio S.R. 668 to Ohio S.R. 22. From 22 I caught 555 in South Zanesville. Bad drivers are everywhere in South Zanesville! For the first few miles of the 555 I had a V-10 Dodge Truck tailing me. It doesn’t take long on the 555 to lose any pickup truck though. After a few miles south of the city, the biggest danger turns into the 555 itself. It’s a little confusing just south of town too, so you have to take it easy to get through what little bit of traffic you’re going to see on this road.
Being October, there’s a chill in the air and the leaves are turning. For the few straightaways when you can look, the Southern Ohio countryside view is incredible. Hard to believe you just left Zanesville at that point!
Today I took the Honda 750 Shadow. After my footpegs hit the pavement a few times, I started wishing I would have taken the wife’s Suzuki V-Strom, but on a day like today, I just wanted to lean back on a cruiser and enjoy the ride. I seen a few V-Strom’s with huge smiles on their face though!
The 555 is notorious for being in bad repair. A few times I dived into curves, seen the gravel and had to grit my teeth and try to navigate through it. It kind of reminds you of the first ride on a roller coaster when you decide that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. You just have to ride through it the best you can. If you can get through the first bad decision, you won’t let it happen the rest of the ride. You can go through curves of the 555, or any road, to slow as many times as you like, take one to fast and you’re done.
The challenging part of a road like the 555 is that you don’t get a rythym going like normal twisting roads. You keep running into so many various types of curves like increasing/decreasing radius, blind, loose gravel, banked and unbanked, banked but the banking fades out, to just barely a curve at all. You even have parts where the road looks like it goes straight, only to find out that’s another road and you have to follow a sharp turn to stay on the Triple Nickel.
Keep an eye out for other bikes in trouble. There are a few spots where a motorcycle could dive off the road and over a cliff, with nobody ever noticing there was a downed biker. Be ready to hug the right edge of the road. A few times cages swung curves wide.
Just north of Marietta, Ohio, I started getting lost just following any road heading north and/or east. I didn’t even pay any attention to the names of all of them. I stopped a few times to check the cell phone GPS and take a break. Eventually, I made it back home just as it was getting to cold to ride. As the sun set on a cold October evening, it’s a little sad to think of a great summer with plenty of great riding weather fading away. Kind of like heading into a gravel covered curve you really wish you could slow down a little more for.
All 48 States in 106 Hours – Unofficiated
Great story. That had to be alot of fun to plan and do. Planning may have been more fun that actually doing the drive.
I really like the fact that it was unofficiated. They have enough proof to know that they did it and it will be something the forever remember doing. One of them stated that they followed an old plan of his father’s. It was funny that he said he wanted to do it before he got to old. Is there an age limit on this type of driving?
I wish that Fox would have shown the exact route. I wonder if it could be improved by routing? I guess I would have to try on my own to find out. With all of the information available on the web at Google Maps, state DOT sites, etc., planning a trip like this would be fun. There are all sorts of variations too, like best MPG, shortest distance traveled, most restaurants visited, you name it.
With fuel prices what they are, this could get really interesting. You could try this on any high mileage vehicle like scooters and motorcycles. There are all sorts of extremes you could do with something like this to make it fun.
Our Honda Shadow Aero 750, Suzuki GS500, and a v-Strom 650.
I have a 2006 Honda Shadow Aero 750 and my wife has a 2007 Suzuki 650 V-Strom. These provide most of my entertainment. I’ve always enjoyed motorcycles and probably always will. What other form of recreation doubles as cheap transportation? I don’t like to stay put long, so the motorcycle provides a great excuse to get out and enjoy the outdoors. I’ve had some great adventures on the motorcycles and met some great folks too. I’ll try to get some of the stories on the site for those who are interested, at least the ones I care to tell on the Internet.
Pictured above 2005 Suzuki GS500(rear) and the 2006 Honda VT750CA Aero(foreground).
The 2006 Honda Shadow Aero
The Dealer
Honda is a good bike, but they have bad dealers out there. Most notobably are the dealers that also sell cars. They want to sell bikes like they do cars and it’s just a serious hassle. They want to haggle financing and prices and they do not understand the product they’re selling.
- I received no manual or tool kit.
- Rude and disrespectful sales staff
- Scratches on bike that they would not remove, had to do that without their help.
- Just a very odd experience with them.
- Very little information given. For example, I bought a Honda Club membership because they failed to tell me that it was free for the first year.
- Suspension was not adjusted correctly. Shocks were set at different numbers from the dealer
The Motorcycle
The overall motorcycle has been a nice motorcycle. Here the problems so far though.
- Valve Adjustments – scheduled maintenance every 4,000 miles on them. I would not have bought this bike if I knew this.
- Slightly Bent Handlebars – bent from factory
- Handlebars To Low – Initially I liked the look, but they are so low many people will have their knees into them on tight turns
- Handles Funny At Slow Speed – There is a wobble at about 5 mph. Nothing serious, just enough to make it a nuisance
- Parts – They’re getting easier to find, but still not as plentiful as motorcycles that have fewer models sold. The only parts I could get for a while where the overprices genuine Honda parts
- Low weight rating and uncomfortable seating for passenger
Now the good parts of the bike -
- Great fuel mileage – about 50 mpg average
- Bike feels bigger than it is.
- Smooth ride
- Decent acceleration
- Good looks. Folks comment on it, then notice it’s not a Harley and complain. I love that.
- Easy to change oil
- Decent shop manual available (although it’s expensive)
- Reliable, no breakdowns as of 12,000 miles
- It will do 120 mph, though it takes a while to get there.
- Just has a nice feel to it for me. 5’10″ with 30″ inseam.
- Reminds me in size of the older Harleys.
Everybody has reasons for liking their favorite bikes. So, there’s why I like this bike. The pros outweigh the cons for me.
The Suzuki DL650 V-Strom
Suzuki V-Strom
The V-Strom was a replacement for the GS500. Tami quickly mastered her skills and wanted a bike that was a little taller and more capable. The DL650 will do anything well. Great bike to say the least. It has a 650cc V-Twin with the latest electronics and fuel injection. It sounds like a robot starting up. The only competing bikes like the BMW dual sports, Triumph Tiger, Buell Ulysses, etc., all have outrageous price tags. You can buy 2-3 of these for the price of the competitors and the perfomance and quality gains are only slight if any on the the comparable models.
The V-Strom’s good points -
- Handles very well in every condition and terrain.
- Nice seating position.
- Fast!
- Handles heavy loads (two-up riding) effortlessly.
- Many accessories available.
- VERY large following with numerous forums, blogs, etc. on the Internet.
The V-Strom’s bad points -
- Marginal quality on some parts like windshield, grips, foot pegs, etc.
- It’s a kit bike. You need to add numerous parts to get the DL650 up to it’s potential. Guards that should be on the bike are add-ons.
- Very tall – short folks need not apply.
- Jerky acceleration – this is smoothing out with further break in though.
The 2005 Suzuki GS500
We bought this bike for my wife to learn on . She is tall, so the lightweight entry-level cruisers were just to small. A salesman brought this bike out and it fit her well and the price was great. These bikes are not the most popular because compared to other sport bikes, they are are a little slow. A slow sport bike is still fast enough though. I’ve had this bike at well over 100 and there was no problem. It’s only “slow” area is in the low rpm range where it seems to have very little torque. The Suzuki 500 parallel twin is made to be at high rpm for power.
We bought this bike at Mid-Ohio Honda-Suzuki and the sales staff was really good. They continued to treat us well for the service too. Much better folks than the Honda dealer in Heath, Ohio. If you live in the Newark or Heath Ohio area, it’s worth the trip to Mount Vernon for better service.
The Suzuki GS500 bad points are -
- Low power at low RPM. This makes it a little difficult for a beginner to learn. It stalls very easily on takeoff due to the low power output
- The seat is a sport bike seat. I want to have this seat repadded
- Typical sport bike positon for the legs. It can get cramped on a long run.
- Very few aftermarket add-ons available, we have found luggage that will work if you have no passenger
- Runs very poorly when the engine is cold. May be a problem with this bike that just needs the attention from a good mechanic.
The Suziki GS500 good points are -
- Very high fuel mileage, I’ve got 65 mpg when I run it easy.
- Good enough for beginners, yet big enough to satisfy any rider
- Very nice handling and lightweight
- Handlebar position is slight more upright than most sport bikes
- This bike is a big fun for a low price
Old Ford Gran Torino
Old Ford Gran Torino.
Bad photography, I know, but good enough to get the point across. This was a cool car. I believe it’s a 1968 Torino, but it could be an old Mercury. Fords were never my favorite, but they made some nice looking cars in this era. I didn’t want to bother the owners, so I took the picture from quite a distance.
When I was a teenager, I had a friend’s Dad that had a Cobra Jet similar to this. I remember it being an odd looking muscle car, but very cool. With the sloped back window, I guess they figured that forward movement was all that mattered. There’s no way you could see much, but it sure looked cool.
As for the photography, I’m trying to learn a new camera. I’m not doing to well with low light conditions like this. I have to master the noise levels yet. The noise is all those purple speckles you see when you look very close. It’s a common condition for digital cameras, but this one is worse than most. I may have to resort to spending money on software that corrects the problem.
