Real-Life Super Heroes!

Allow me to get right to it. No muss no fuss. Here is where our story stems from. Tim was reading the news and this is what showed up. Crazy shit!

Now after laughing for a little over three minutes at Cincinnati's Masked Super Hero, I began a very fast Google search and found the World Superhero Registry. All I can say is, WOW (and no, not World of Warcraft).

I also came across this little ditty this morning while downing a half a cup of coffee before work. Again I am left speechless.

Apparently "nerds" fat and skinny alike, like to LARP. Even though Urban Dictionary definite it as Live Action Roll Play, I am still not sure what they are doing, but....well.... they sure do.

So today I was on the phone and emails a lot, and finishing up a big Corporate project. OK, it might not have been that big, but it was a "Hot Rush," and I got it done! Ahead of schedule! Now guess what! I got a pat on the back and a good job, but now they want it changed. So I think I may have to take up some LARPing to take my mind off of this.

I may have to start playing some WOW (yes now World of Warcraft) to get some ideas, but be warned I will rule supreme as a Dragon Hunter Elf Warrior! Look out Legolas, I'm "A comin' to steal yer thunder!"

Moving on.

Then I was on BikeForums at lunch and saw this.

Kind of creepy. But interesting non the less. Notice how they don't hug the girls. Only the men. Hmmmmm, are they afraid to get slapped, sued or an erection? Or do they just really like men? Either way it is still creepy they give them a hug, then the other guy gives them a hemlet.

There has been another sighting of this man.
That is all, carry on.

REVIEW MONDAY!

So today I bring you the Honda Ruckus! I have had mine for almost a year now. And it is time I wrote some words about it.

I will start off by saying I LOVE IT! And if you know me, you know that it's true. It is the best purchase I made in a long time. Yes I love my bike(s) and My guitars (but all of my guitars were purchased before The Meepers, so my statement is true!).

Let me introduce you to The Meepers. Here he is day 1.

I had just drove him home from Wilkes-Barre to Taylor. Bone stock and at this point did not have a name.

Side Bar:

The name Meepers came from Amy. When I was a slave at Gander Mountain, she came to visit me from time to time. Well they use to let me pull my "scooter" inside the back of the store. Then someone got a hemorrhoid and didn't want me to park it there any more. So said manager, who was afraid of/didn't know how to manage told a co-worker to tell me that "I can't park it there anymore." So Kryptonite NYC Noose and disk lock kept him safe in the parking lot. Well Amy came to visit on one day and brought me the best ice-tea in the world. She looked out into the parking lot and saw my "Scooter" all alone chained to a poll. She said "Awwwwwwwwww, look at that meepers out there." And BAM! The Meepers had a name. The perfect name.

After much Internet searching, reading and pondering, I was going to buy a Yamaha Vino 125. I wanted a bigger engine so I could hit 55 mph. Well after getting screwed over on a few of them, I said fine I'll get a 50 cc scooter. Now I always wanted a Vespa, but they are crazy expensive, so I was going to get a Vino because they are basically a rip off of a Vespa. But once I got up close and personal with the Ruckus, Honda had pretty much won me over. Only snag was the engine size.

Now in the state of PA under 50 cc does not require a motorcycle license. Over does. Now that was not a concern to me, seeing as I have a class M endorsement on my licence. And for the record YES, The Meepers is more fun than my old motorcycles. I loved them both dearly, and wish I didn't sell them, but I still have more fun on my scooter.

Ok to the review!

There is something to be said for not being able to top 42 mph with a stock scooter. But I'm not going to say it, I want you to do it. I have yet to do any performance mods to my scooter. But one cosmetic mod did rob me of a little top end speed. I use to be able to hit 45 going down hill. then I took off the floor boards and put on a frame brace. Well part of the floor boards. I took off the top, the bottom half acts as a guard for the fuel filter and the gas tank. I am sure I would be fine without the bottom half, but I am paranoid as you know. But next week I am going to cut The excess plastic off so you will never know.

With that said, I can still hit the proclaimed top speed of 42 mph no problem. Acceleration is a bit slow, but if you start on a nice flat strip you can hit 30-35 with in a block or two. But there are factors with that that, wind. Now I am personally use to slow starts, my other mad ride is an 06' Scion xA, dubbed The Egg.

But if you start with a decline you are going to hit 30 pretty fast. I normally get up to and cruise at about 40 mph. I am waiting to get pulled over, knock on wood, to see how fast I am really going. In my experience with motorcycles, the spedo is often off by about 3 mph.

When you hit a rise, you will lose speed. That's a given. If you tuck, you'll lose a little less speed.

Verdict: A 125 cc engine would be great for this scooter. More top end speed, faster acceleration and less cars riding your ass, but you get over that in a hurry. But then cost will rise, you'll need a motorcycle license and you lose fuel efficiency. WAY AROUND ENGINE SIZE. You can do an engine swap. Get a donor bike and pull the motor. There are some great tutorials at TotalRuckus.com. I don't mind going slower. OVERALL: If I wanted to go faster I would have kept looking for a bigger scooter. I am fine with my speed.

Fuel efficiency. Now I don't need to type more than a few lines here. 1.3 gallon tank. Last time I checked the Honda web site they were pitching 99 mpg. I get from 98-110. A+++++++ on this.

Customization: Well I got on board unknowingly, until I tried to buy mine, at the Ruckus boom. Now parts are every where. From some great TR members to some great website (look at the bottom of the page). As I said earlier, I have only done cosmtic mods. Black Lower Seat frame

Some Tanak mirrors and head light covers

One of my favorite additions is my Rising Sun radiator cover:

Comfort: Well the stock shock isn't the best, but it loosened up a bit and is now riding OK for me. The biggest difference were the lower seat frame and the pegs. The pegs you can see above. Just some $15 pegs from my local LBS. I got them because I was use to riding my Triumph SS bike. So I kept my feet/legs crunched up on the floorboards like I was ridign a Sport bike. The seat frame can now be found pretty easy. But when I got mine I had to order from eBay, and it eneded up being a fellow TR memeber. Every one was out of stock. At first I didn't think I liked it, but it grew on me and made it much more comfy. The frame brace came with pegs that attach on the front so you can be more streached out, but agan I like the "Sport Bike" seating, so i use the BMX pegs. If I were a little taller, I may be more comfy streatched out. But I'm not.

Quality: It's a Honda. Do I really Need to say more? I will say this, The Meepers stared in the dead of winter in 15-20 degree weather. I didn't ride him around, I'm not that crazy, I let him idel for while. My Buel would starts a little below 30, Triumph if it was below 35, not a chance, below 40 was pushing it. Just think about that old Civic you have. How many 100,000 miles do you have on it? And it's still running strong. Ya, that's Honda. A+! And if you don't believe me, read about Wan.

Over all, the Honda Ruckus gets a 98%. Only thing keeping it back is that Honda made a 250cc Big Ruckus (that I personally don't like) and not a 125cc Ruckus. Other than that, it is the best bang for your buck. The MSRP went up $350 after the first of the year, but taking into consideratino that the cheap Chinese scooters only have a life span of a year or two, the little bit more money is worth it. You will have this scooter for the rest of your life.

This is a two post day. So either scroll down or click here to see more pictures of The Meepers. I didn't feel like making two photo heavy posts so I will just send you to the other one.

That is all. Carry on.

Photo Blog!

Here is a photo shoot at Keefers this past Sunday. Enjoy.

That is all. Carry on.

Scranton Critical Mass

So I am super late to inform you about this. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it until today, but I still should have given the heads up earlier.

As some of you know Charlotte Lewis was seriously injured a few weeks ago. Well her sister organized a Helmet Critical Mass for her tonight. It is a 6 p.m. tonight at Court House Square, on N. Washington Ave.
If you have a bike, any type pf bike come on out for a ride around town. I am not sure of the mood, it may be a little somber, but you still get to ride your bike!

I will be the kid with the blue Bianchi with red rims. Hope to see you there!

What is a Hipster?

Well the tittle "Hipster" seems pretty self explanatory. But the definition seems to be much more outrageous. The reason it is outrageous is because, so many people have so many different definitions for it. Basically everyone that is not them. Not "as cool" as they are or, "are making THEIR ""Culture" to """Trendy."""

Well I will give "my" definition. A person that is Hip or Trendy. Not necessarily a bad thing. Here is Urban Dictionary definition. But people like to make it seem like you should be beat down for it. But.....yes this is a HUGE but.... EVERYONE IS A GODDAMN HIPSTER! So come down off your High Horse, and realize it. Stop trying to bring others down, because they wear fake Ray Bans, or wear a Keffiyah.

Ok I will admit that some people do try to hard, and to deserve to get made fun of. But most of the people getting "Ragged" on are just doing what they want to do. There is no, I did that first. NO YOU DIDN'T. Someone did it before you. You are not a trend setter, or some one special.

I wear Levi 514's and 511's. I have been wearing the 514's sense they first went into the catalog at the Army/Navy. So I have been rocking them for 4 years now and before that I wore/wear 501's. I really like them. They are really comfortable and they fit well.

But apparently I am a Hipster because I ware "Tight Jeans." I don't go around saying I wore them before they were popular, so I'm not a Hipster! Nope don't say that. In reality, They were based on their very popular selling 512 jeans. People wanted something that was not tapered. So Levi made the 514. A non-tapered version of the 512 and some colors were stretch fit. Now, if there wasn't a demand they jeans never would have been made. So people were wearing them before me. So no, I didn't wear them first, so I am not a trend setter.

Same with messenger bags. I have been using them for at least 15 years now. Sense before I knew about bike messengers. Hell my first one was from a skateboard magazine. But now I am a Hipster because I use a messenger bag. I don't go around crying that I have been using them for years so I am grandfathered into not being a Hipster.

But we do have some web sites that make fun of said Hipsters. like "Look at this Fucking Hipster"
Or Hipster Hunter. Now the Hipster Hunteris defanitly trying to hard. Mostly lots of pictures calling everyone a Hipster. But wait, isn't that MY point? Ok I'll admit I still laughed at some of them. Some of the people are super funny to look at. I think some were dressed up for an occasion. That meaning wore some things on purpose. Others are just lame people.

I will say I do have a problem with the Emo kids with black hair, with the blond top. Then they shag their hair over their eyes and they can't see. I saw a kid walking down the street today with his head damn near on his shoulder so he could see. His hair was so in his eyes, he couldn't even keep his head up. It reminded me of the old V8 commercials were the people walked sideways. I couldn't find a picture of that, but this will do:

The kid was not leaning forward, but did have his head tilted like that so he could see. Now I have long hair, but it you can't see GET A HAIR CUT!

Ok, that's enough of my rant for now. BUT! We have a new culprit to look out for! Be on the look out for this man:

He has also been spotted here:

That is all. Carry on.

UPdate!

I was reading BikeSnobNYC (well I didn't even finish yet because if this video). He was talking about this kid Danny MacAskill. This is insane. You need to watch this.

Make sure you read New Rims! also. That is from today.

New Rims!

So I got a few new parts in the mail on Friday. I received me new Weinmann DP 18 wheel set and some Soma Oppy XX double gates.

Now I can use the black Soma Double straps you can see above with my new Soma clips. I feel secure now!

I would like to add that I bought the Wheel set and Clips from Bells Bike Shop in Philly. I ordered the wheel set and clips last Thursday morning and got them via FedEx Friday after noon. Now I only live about 2 hours north of Philly, but next day arrival is amazing! And it was FREE shipping! I also bought the MSK pedals, the Soma straps and some MSK clips (but the MSK clips didn't work with the straps and I wanted doubles so I went another rout).

You could look forward to a Review Monday about the new wheel set in a week or two. I like to use the products for a bit before I review them. But I will say this! I received a lot of good comments on the new wheels. And so far they have been riding great!

Moving on.

I hope you liked the first installment of Review Monday. I liked writing it, and taking a bunch of photos. I took far more than I uploaded and posted.

So here we are at today, Tuesday April 21. what to say about today? It is almost noon, so they day is half over. But the work day still has 5 hours in it. There has been no YouTube watching yet, as i am still 20 minutes out from lunch time. So here we put this on pause.

I stumbled upon this. I don't even know what is happening here. Apparently it is some freak cycling accident.

There are more pictures in the article, but I am eating lunch so I am not going to read it while I am cramming salad in my face. But my guess as to what happened here is the Bob here was being chased by this guy.

Those Ents can get crazy after they deliberate for while.

I guess this sign wasn't good enough.
It should have looked more like this.

At least it wasn't me.

That is all. Carry on.

REVIEW MONDAY!

Well here we are with our very first Review Monday. Today I will be reviewing my new R.E. Load bag.

I purchased the Deluxe Messenger Work bag. I wanted a nice big bag. I upgraded from my year old Chrome Metropolis bag, which is now solely my bike bag. Seeing as the R.E. Load bag was a little over $300, I am going to baby it for a while. Well I have now had my R.E. Load for 2 weeks to the day. I arrived at pretty much 6 weeks to the day (I ordered it as they closed on a Friday, and it came on a Monday 6 weeks and 3 days after I ordered the bag). I was told it was a 6 week lead time on custom bags, and it came exactly when they said, so A + there!

This bag is big, about 2800 cubic inches, as compared to my Chrome bag that is 2000 cu inches. Now the Chrome was a bit to small for me, and it seems the R.E.Load could be a tad big, but it has base compression straps so I can cinch it in when I am not in need of all that space.

All that space did come in very handy last week when I had to take a business trip for work. I managed to get all my my cloths, an extra hoodie, a pair of shoes, reading materials, water and snacks, my camera, a bunch of gadgets I have on me all the time, and a few other odds and ends (sorry I didn't think to take a picture). All of that and there was still a ton of room. So again I give this bag an A+ for capacity!

The strap. So far it is super sturdy, but super stiff. There are two D-Rings, one for loosening one for tightening. Right now they don't work so hot. But I an told they loosen up and work great with time. So I'll have to wait and see. I mean, it's not like I have a choice. Right?

The shoulder strap is OK. The pad is not super thick, but it does it's job. I do wish it was more like the Chrome strap. That being a little more padded and with a Hook and Loop (If you are confused that is what Velcro is, Velcro being a name brand) strip for accessories like a cell phone holder. I like having my phone right there, and I like to not have bulky things in my pockets. But over all I give the strap a B+. It seems like over time it will prove to be great, but right now in my mind, there is room for improvement.

Pockets. There are plenty. I wish one had a zipper. I am always afraid things like my check book, jump drive, iPod, ect will fall out. There is a very large inside hook and loop pocket with some pouches on the outside of it. I had some things there, but they tend to fall out into the bag. so they went inside the hook and loop pouch. there they got jumbled up.

So now they reside in one of the two HUGE outside hook and loop closer pockets.

The pockets are very deep and my fears of losing valuable are very low, but it would be nice. I do wish I had an option for a better inside set up, like Seagull Bags offer, but I bought a bag designed for working messengers. And I did know I was buying a bag for working messengers, so I knew what I was getting. If you didn't realize yet, I am not faulting the bag for this, it does exactly what it is designed to do. If I wanted a Seagull pocket set up, I would have bought a Seagull bag (I still may in the future, I have an addiction to bags). One more thing I have to knit pick and this I think the bag should have. A key clip. I could really use a key clip. It's not hard to put one in myself (and I plan on it), but it would have been nice for $300 they could have done it for me. I did opt for the FBI pocket, which is essentially a large hook and loop pocket on the inside back of the bag. As seen here:

So far the ballistic nylon base has proven to be very durable. It is much like the construction of my old Timbuk2 bag.

Now that bag is still holding up great after 7 years of hard use. Amy uses it now for school from time to time. The ballistic bottom is great for me dragging the bag and pushing it here and there.

For messengers it will work extremely well. Some of these features, double outside pockets, ballistic bottom, compression straps, messenger pad all come standard on the Deluxe model. But the standard models they are add ons for an additional charge. I did the math and after I added on the features i wanted, it was the same price, so it was just easier to order the Deluxe model out of the gate.

Now for the custom parts! Unless you order one of their pre-made bags you can choose your bag color, thread color, piping color and hook and loop color for no charge to customize it. For $10 more you can make the flap a different color from the bag. The best part is CUSTOM GRAPHICS! Mine seems to be embroidered by a computer, but it was a pretty easy design. Some of their more intricate graphic requests are Applique (spelling). Here is where the price adds up. But I love my graphic, so it was worth it. A+ on the graphic!

Comparison. As I said earlier, I had been using both a Timbuk2 bag and a Chrome bag. I bought the Timbuk2 in college. That replaced my older messenger bag I had been using sense High School (lost, but probably around this apartment some place). I used it all through college and for years after. I lost it for a while and purchased a Chrome Metro while in Portland last Spring to replace it. I was looking for a R.E. Load bag there and before I flew to Oregon from Philly. But super early flight didn't allow me time to stop at the R.E. Load headquarters to order one. So Papa Bear, being from SF, loved Chrome and talked me into one. I like it a lot. It is a great bag. In some ways better, in some ways worse. I am like all of you. Nothing made by someone else is going to be 100% what I want. I'll have to make my own (but I am not very good at it yet, that's why i bought these bags instead). Comparing all of the bags from 1-3 as of right now. Hmmmmm. I know the Timbuks2 comes in three. The major reason being, the flap. The flap is not over sized enough. The sides bulge enough so water could get in. It was better when it was newer and stiff, but now it is lacking. It is a beer bag for when I need to be out on the town and carry a case of nice cold ones on my back, and Amy's bag to use for school. It held up well, and is still going pretty strong. It is a toss up for one and two. Both have pros and cons, most not worth mentioning because they are personal things that I don't like/Love about each bag. The biggest thing I love about the Chrome bag is the two inside pockets on the sides. They work great for tools, drinks and lunch! But the R.E. Load bag has two HUGE outside pockets. I guess I just wish the R.E. Load had both. But the R.E. Load wins the coveted #1! I have wanted one for a few years, and now I have it. And if you know me, I love Philly, PA and the East Coast, so of course it wins! I like CA, but I am not from the West Coast and as of yet I have never been to SF.

To recap, 1) R.E. Load 2) Chrome 3) Timbuk2 4) my old Thrasher Magazine Mess bag. Hopefully I will have a Seagull to rub my face on too.

P.S. I have a Crumpler bag that I use for my lap top. It is a messenger bag style, and I used it as my daily bag for about 6 months, but it just wasn't big enough (well the model I bought) for daily use. So it is just for when i need my computer. So I didn't feel the need to compare it for this review.

Sorry for being so scatter brained. I started this at work, and finished it at home. It was longer than I thought.

That is all. Carry on.