Kirk Petersen

I’m selling my 8″ Dobsonian telescope. I’ll probably be asking about $150 and might make it $100 if any friends are interested. It is a great telescope if you have an SUV to haul it around in. It’s about 4 feet tall and the base is very bulky. That’s the downside of a telescope that gathers that much light for that price. I’ll just be using a set of 15×70 binoculars for the 2-3 times a year that I actually look at stars (worked great last weekend).

I’ll probably sell my 15″ Macbook Pro. I just bought one of the new aluminum Macbooks and really don’t need two machines (rather, my iPhone has become my second machine).

Also selling my car (in order to buy a new/newer one). I will probably sell my motorcycle, too. I didn’t ride for a couple years and really felt like getting back into it. But I just don’t ride it enough. Part of that is the bike (not as fun as I thought it would be) and part of that is simply having a million other things to do.

I picked up a Honda CB350 engine off Craigslist a few days ago. This is purely for educational purposes, as it is in pretty bad shape and I don’t have a motorcycle to put it in anyways.

My first goal is to just take it completely apart and observe all of the parts and how they fit together. I bought a service manual and read through the chapter on the engine, clutch, and transmission. It won’t help too much right now but it will if/when I put the engine back together.

Many of the screws are in bad shape, especially the Phillips head screws, which all seem to be made of some incredibly soft metal. Some were stripped when I got it and I’ve stripped a few more. Now I’m reading up on various techniques and tools for removing stripped screws. When I put the engine back together, I’m hoping to replace all of these with hex bolts.

We moved all of the furniture from the condo to the house Sunday, with lots of help from W & S (thanks!). Shanti did a lot of organizing yesterday and the place feels so much more comfortable. Most of the furniture works as well or better than I expected, though we are still planning on replacing a few things. We already ordered a new couch that I think will be really nice.

(I’ll post a few pictures of the house soon)

I’m about halfway through The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a pretty good book though there aren’t as many good photos as some of the other books I’ve looked through. I really want to start tinkering with something so I’m stalking Craigslist. At this point, any sort of small 4 stroke engine would be very educational. Perhaps even something detached from a motorcycle.

Shanti and I are thinking about doing NaNoWriMo this year. Right now I feel too busy but I think that feeling will subside a bit now that we are settled into the house. More stuff is coming in the next couple months, though…

Tonight is the last night of acrobatics. I remember talking to Chuck about the trampoline during the last Olympics, so that means I’ve been doing it (off and on) for a little more than 4 years now. Despite it being lots of fun and great for coordination and strength, I think I need to take a long break. I get much more satisfaction out of running/jumping/throwing type sports, mostly because I’m actually talented at that sort of thing. Acrobatics has always been a challenge. A fun challenge, definitely, but after 4 years I’d prefer to spend more time on something that comes naturally to me.

One thing I’m looking to do is play volleyball more often. I’ve played a couple times with coworkers and it has been lots of fun.

The park near our house has a rubberized track. I’m thinking of getting some track spikes and doing a sprinter workout. Again, I should focus on types of exercise that come naturally. I’m far enough out of shape that I should stick to things that are immediately enjoyable and rewarding.

It has been a year since I sold my R1100S. I don’t regret selling it but it would be nice to have something to ride once in a while. Especially now that we have a garage where I could park it.

Rather than going off and buying some sexy new bike, which I would’ve done in the past, I’m working on a plan that will save some money and be much more rewarding in the end:

1. Start saving a little money every month
2. Read a few books on motorcycle maintenance and repair
3. Sell my car and put any money I “make” into savings
4. Decide on an inexpensive and simple retro bike
5. Find a good deal on such a bike on Craigslist when I have enough in savings

Ideally, I’ll find something that is about 500cc, gets 50 MPG or more, and will basically serve as a glorified scooter when I want to zip around town.

I’d love to learn how to fix motorcycles. The idea of keeping an old vehicle in good shape and on the road (instead of a new vehicle being built) is very appealing. It would be nice to be able to fix cars, but that is way beyond my abilities right now.

I worked on bicycles quite a bit a couple years ago and enjoyed it. I eventually lost interest because I don’t ride bicycles very much, so I never had anything to fix.

One example of the type of motorcycle I like is the Royal Enfield Bullet Deluxe:

• http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/models/deluxe.html

They are only $5000 new and they’ve been making them for decades (over 50 years, actually) so there are occasionally good deals on used ones from 10-20 years ago (ones not old enough to be classified as antiques). Any old British bike (Triumph, BSA) would be cool, though they seem to be more expensive. A medium sized Japanese bike from the 70s might work, too.

Note: I definitely won’t turn any old motorcycle into a cafe racer. I just don’t get that aesthetic. Besides, most of these bikes are small to begin with, so I’m going to look a little silly on one… I don’t need to make it any worse with ridiculously low bars, a crappy dull black paint job, and an exhaust that is loud enough to draw everyones’ attention as I ride by.

Update: neat article on converting a Royal Enfield to diesel and getting > 100 MPG:

• http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=113508

(though the diesel engines seem to lower the power quite a bit, and these bikes aren’t too powerful to start…)

My motorcycle battery was dead and it is parked on the street, far from any power outlet, so I bought a BMW battery charger (hooks right up to the auxiliary port on my bike – so nice) and a 150 watt power inverter for my car. After hooking those up and waiting half an hour, the battery had just enough of a charge to start the bike (and my car battery was still fine). So I rode around for an hour to charge the battery more.

Every year I do this – after letting my bike sit for 2-3 months, I have to put some work into it and think it might be best to just sell the bike… until I get that first ride of the spring. It was very fun.

When I picked up the battery charger at Ride West, I looked at all the new bikes. I’d love to try them out but I think my bike is exactly what I need. My bike (the 2004 R1100S) was the last of that style. The new R1200S has shifted toward the sport side of the sport-touring category. The R1200ST fills in the sport-touring category but is hideous from the front. Guess it takes over for the R1150RS in the ugliness category.

I’d love to have a GS with hard cases, but only if I had a second bike to ride around for fun. Oh, and I signed up to win a K1200R at Ride West. I really like the new K bikes, so I’d keep it if I won it, but I could never actually purchase a bike with 160+ horsepower.