N4RFC.COM

This has happened twice now….I get a funny look when the subject comes up that I am riding a Kawasaki ZRX1200R.

The ZRX is a naked bike, a UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) a throw-back to 1970’s when the bikes were devoid of fairings and low handlebars. The Honda CB 750 was the first of these bikes. Some consider the CB 750 to be the first superbike. It was too, then came the H1 Kawasaki two stroke triple, the CB900F, the Z-1000 Kawasaki, and so on!

The nickname for the ZRX is the Z-Rex. The implication is that the bike is much like the T-Rex, Tyrannosaurus Rex. A dinosaur, a relic from a past time, but at the same time a very powerful relic!

The first time I got the look, I had gone to a local motorcycle shop to get a rear paddock stand for the ZRX. The place was busy on a Saturday afternoon. I got my turn at the counter and asked the guy behind the counter if they had the a Pitbull rear stand for a bike with spools. The guy asked me what bike it was for and I told him for a ZRX1200R. From the look on the guys face you would have thought I was holding the place up. A real deer in the headlights look. I looked about behind me to see if there was someone back there with a mask and a gun! He kinda stuttered out the question, “That’s your bike?”

I’m 57 years old and I look it. I’m pretty well bald, what hair I have is gray. I guess I don’t look like the typical guy that rides a ZRX1200R. I asked him if that was a problem? He said, “Oh, no, no problem, that’s a nice bike.  You say it has spools?” Barbara was with me and she got a hoot out of the guys reaction.  She said, “I guess he didn’t expect an old fart like you to be riding that crotch-rocket!”

Last Tuesday, primary election day in Georgia, I was standing in line waiting for the polls to open. The guy in line behind me noticed by Harley-Davidson jacket and asked me if I had a motorcycle. I answered yes and we got into a conversation about riding and motorcycles. He was a rider too, his wife rides a bike. He was riding a Yamaha cruiser but wanted to move up to a sport bike. His wife didn’t ride much any more and he wanted something with a bit more performance. I told him that in addition to the Electra Glide (also probably more appropriately known as the Geezer Glide) I had a ZRX1200R Kawasaki. There was that look again. His was a little different, his mouth was hanging open. He said that he heard that the ZRX was a really fast bike, and that mostly kids rode them…..Yep, that’s what he said, kids. I guess he couldn’t figure why this old guy was riding a Z-Rex!

Actually, the ZRX is a really nice bike.  Since it is not truly a crotch-rocket it has higher, wider handlebars and a more upright seating position just right for an old guy like me.  It has only a small “bikini” fairing around the headlight so the motor is exposed unlike its sport bike siblings.  And, visually, the motor on the ZRX is big looking!

Despite its old school looks the bike has some fairly modern technology.  Fully adjustable suspension on both ends, dual disk brakes up front with six piston calipers and a single disk on the rear.  (the Nighthawk, although a great bike, had a mechanical drum brake on the rear…very old school!)   Very sticky radial tires and overall a nice riding bike.

The engine just makes gobs of torque making the bike very easy to ride.  It has very good low and mid range torque that makes the bike accelerate in any gear, without having to make the motor scream.  It is quite docile in around town cruising.  But also, it does have a bit of  split personality.  When the RPMs get upon the motor it starts making some pretty good power.  It will accelerate smartly if you grab a hand full, not that I would know, I’ve just heard!

As Claude Pepper, former Congressman from Florida used to say about government spending , a couple million here, a couple million there and pretty soon you are talking about some real money! Well Claude, Microsoft is after Yahoo and they are talking real money.

Microsoft is again using its deep pockets to buy out a company that have been in-effective at competing against. In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft has offered $42 Billion in cash and stock to the share holders of Yahoo. This was an unsolicited offer, or as some have reported, a hostile takeover attempt.

Here is a quote (from Yahoo’s news page) from Microsoft:

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said preventing Microsoft from buying Yahoo would undermine competition by allowing Google to become even more dominant than it already is on the Internet

“Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet,” Smith said. “We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals.”

Microsoft is committed to openness? This is the same Microsoft that was found guilty of anti-trust over trying to make it’s Internet Explorer the only browser that would work with the Windows operating system? That Microsoft?  I have worked at two companies that used manufacturing software supplied by software companies that were Microsoft official partners.  “Microsoft Partners,” develop systems that run on Microsoft OS, using Microsoft powered servers, with Microsoft development applications, and with Microsoft SQL servers.  The have support and training websites for the their customers that just don’t work with any other browser besides Internet Explorer.  Imagine that!

If this buyout goes through I can see the future of Yahoo will go the Microsoft way. First, you won’t be able to use your Firefox or Opera browser on Yahoo because they don’t support the “advanced features” offered on the sight after Yahoo is ported over to Microsoft IIS servers. (!) Of course, the advanced features will include the robust MS .NET technology, so you can look for Yahoo to slow down considerably.  So you can just forget using your Linux/UNIX machine on Yahoo Mail.  Probably your Mac too.

I have used the Yahoo search engine and Email for 10 years, and I have to say I have been greatly satisfied with the service I have received. I even pay for the Yahoo Premium email service. It works great, is reliable as anything I have seen on the Internet and for $20 a year is hard to beat. I guess I can kiss that goodbye if Microsoft takes over Yahoo!

What do you think?

I was watching Fox News this morning during breakfast. They showed the results of a poll of Republican voters that indicated that John McCain had a significant lead nationwide over Romney with Huckabee third. It made me wonder, where have the conservatives gone?

McCain in my book is more liberal than many of the Democrats. There’s McCain-Feingold that works to limit free speech and free expression coming into elections. Then there’s McCain-Kennedy that would have given Social Security benefits and amnesty to illegal aliens, not to mention his constantly voting against tax cuts during his tenure in the Senate. That makes Mr. McCain pretty liberal by any yardstick. I’ve seen John McCain interviewed and honestly he seems like a pretty nice guy. He seems to have a pretty good sense of humor and appears to be very self effacing. I have to admit, I have a great deal of respect for John McCain for his service to his country. He was a fighter pilot in Vietnam and a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. However, he does appear to have had some really bad luck in his career as a pilot, from what I understand he has about four more take-offs than he does landings!

Also, today we got a phone call from the McCain campaign, a message recorded by Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, voicing his support and urging our support for “my friend, John McCain.” Saxby was working hard for the McCain-Kennedy legislation when it was first proposed in the Senate. But somewhere along the line Senator Chambliss’ support wained for the bill, it could have had something to do with the negative feedback he got from is constituents in Georgia. I for one wrote several letters to Senator Chambliss and Senator Isakson expressing my opposition to the bill.

If McCain is the best the Republicans have to offer, then you better be ready for higher taxes, amnesty for illegal aliens, socialize medical care, and other very costly liberal programs. (Somebody please show me where the US Constitution guarantee’s the right to health care.) Either way, if Hillary or Obama, or McCain wins, it’s all about the same result!

What do you think?

Hello again. My blog sight is back on-line, with a new look. I had some troubles with the software package I was using and I have now setup a new system. Hopefully this one will be more robust than the last.

Over the next couple of days (maybe weeks) I will try to get the old postings moved over to this new engine.

The previous blog engine was Simple PHP Blog, the new system is WordPress. I must say the installation of WordPress was pretty easy. I had a few problems getting access to the database that I set up, but after that all went well. So here I am, back again!

One of my relatives in North Carolina sent me this. It is a very good analogy! Very Good!
___________________________________________________

A Sad Parallel…

I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. Within a week, we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.

But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tiles, the chairs, the table…everywhere.

Then some of the birds turned mean: They would divebomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket. And others birds were boisterous and Loud: They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.

After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore. I took down the bird feeder and, in three days, the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio. Soon, the back yard was like it used to be…quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.

Now let’s see…our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.

Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor: you child’s 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn’t speak English; Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to press “one” to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than “Old Glory” are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

Maybe it’s time for the government to take down the bird feeder.

What do you think?