It Is What It Is

Commuting in heavy, urban traffic is no picnic, so I garaged the big, heavy, great-for-wide-open-spaces cruiser for the smaller, lighter KLR650 (since nick-named "The Beast"). I bought the KLR, a single cylinder, dual sport bike in Arizona and used it primarily for off-road adventure with a buddy (accompanied with lots of bruises). The KLR is great off-road but lacks that little extra "umph" you can use when accelerating in traffic. But given that my wife prefers window coverings and carpets over a new motorcycle (hard to imagine, huh?), I am stuck with it in a different role. So I figured I would do some modifications to juice it up just a bit.

Thank God for the internet and the thousands of folks who work on and communicate about, their bikes.

My first thought was to add a new exhaust, as doing so on my Harley project bike (Puff the Magic Dragon) had really pumped up the torque in the mid-range RPM's. So I started researching what others had done and was shocked at what a learned. Adding a new exhuast adds 1 or 2 horsepower at best, and even a cheap exhaust system costs $300+. So maybe you rejet the carbs as well at a cost of another $50-$100. But again that nets only one or two additional ponies to your stable. And on and on it went. It finally occured to me that with probably $1000-$1500 worth of changes and an incredible amount of work I could increase engine performance by about 5 HP. Does that make sense? Especially after you have already spent $500 adding protection to the bike for off-roading (which you shold now remove, since added weight decreases performance). Fifteen hundred dollars is a nice down payment on a new bike!

But I figured there must be some solution to my perceived problem, so I kept reading and the more I read, the funnier it got. For example, there was lots of discussion about making your KLR perform well enough to do wheelies.

Huh? Why would you buy a single cylinder dual sport bike, spend an amount equal to 20% or more of the original cost to modify it just to get it to do wheelies? You can buy some beautiful and relatively inexpensive bikes - Kawasaki Ninja, Ducati Monster, Honda CBR, Yamaha FZ8 - that will do wheelies right out of the box for about the cost of the original KLR plus mods. Why would you buy a bike meant for a particular purpose and then try to dramatically alter it to fit another purpose?

And then I began to think of the many human relationships I have witnessed over the years where folks fell in love with someone and then tried to change them into something else. Why would you fall in love with someone, presumably because of who s/he is, and then try to get that person to change into something else?

Why would you fall for an alcoholic and then be surprised that s/he does not quit drinking?

Why would you fall for a person who has never met a budget s/he liked and then be surprised that they are always broke?

Why would you fall for someone who says they never want to have kids and then be surprised that they actually don't want kids?

There is a difference between necessary adaptation and change for personal preference. All of us have to adapt to changing circumstances at various times in life: if you lose a job and have to change your lifestyle, you do it. If you grew up as an only child but married someone from a large family, you figure out how to make holiday's work. That's adapting to fit circumstances. If your spouse loves his work as a caprenter, you can't change him into a rocket scientist; if your kid loves reading more than running, you can't turn her into a track star. That's trying to change someone for personal preference.

I bought a dual sport and now I ride it primarily for commuting. It will never have the zip I would like for commuting, but it sure is a safe and dependable ride, well adpated to commuting. It is what it is, and actually, that's quite good, so I think I will quit trying to change it. Guess my wife will get her window coverings and carpets after all ...

Be Prepared

It doesn't freeze in Seattle ... except when it does. It doesn't snow in Seattle ... except when it does. And yesterday it did both. And the roads were messy but worse, the drivers were terrified. When you have little experience driving in snowy, slippery, weather on hilly, curvy terrain, it can lead to trouble. And I saw lots of it - cars sliding, people over-reving their engines and spinning their tires (which only increased the sliding) and this morning on the way to work a plethora of abandoned vehicles.

I must admit it was not the weather that worried me, but the unprepared drivers and road crews. Now, to be fair to both, in truth there are only a few days each year of of snow/ice in this part of the Northwest, and as we in the ecclesial business say, "You can't build a church for Easter Sunday" (though perhaps we should re-think that ... grist for a future blog) so stewardship dictates that highway and road maintenance folks not spend the huge amounts of money necessary to buy equipment and chemicals. It is simply more cost effective to let most businesses shut down for two or three days each year. And it is fun to have a couple of "snow days" as well.

But having lived and driven in the Chicago area and not completely cognizant of the above mentioned realities, we ventured out last night to have dinner with some folks. But before we did I threw some some sutff in the back end, just in case. Be prepared. And I was, even though I didn't need it. But a lot of other folks sure did.

I wonder how often in my life that little Boy Scout motto has saved my bacon? Be Prepared ... which in this instance means having the right gear available if you need it AND constantly looking ahead for what might cause some trouble. Just like you do when riding a motorcycle - so being prepared is all about thinking a few moves ahead, like in chess.

Driving in snow/ice Be prepared means keeping a safe following distance, using a low gear, and especially watching out for what kind of bone-headed maneuver that other inexperienced, unprepared person just might do. Be prepared means watching the behavior of other cars in certain spots and either following or avoiding those spots. Be prepared means relaxing your vision and taking in the whole view rather than focusing on any one place or thing. Be prepared means applying the lessons of motorcycle riding to auto driving, like understanding that the vehicle by nature wants to go straight, squeezing the brakes instead of stomping on them, not over-reacting, using momentum to get you up a hill, following a line, braking before you think you might need to brake ...

It has been almost forty years since I ended my direct association with the Boy Scouts of America, but the lessons learned still hold, for riding, for driving, for living. Who da' thought?

Be prepared.

Giving & Taking

Had my brand-new rain gear stolen from the office the other day. After a wet early morning commute I hung it up on the coat rack to dry and later went out to have coffee with a member. When I got back to the office it was gone ... no doubt an impulsive grab & go crime of opportunity.

I have been robbed several times in my life; once it was a new coat (not yet completely paid for), another time some equipment from my back yard, but the weirdest was my car radio. I got a call around 4 AM that a parishoner had been in a bad accident and was not going to make it. I jumped into the car, put it into gear and headed off for the hospital. Trying to wake myself up I reached down to turn on the radio and found myself reaching into an empty dash instead. The worst part is that at the time I had a Schnauzer that barked at everyone and everything - mailman, parishoners, small children on bicycles, old people with canes, flies - you name it. But the lousy mutt slept through the great radio rip off. Worthless bag of bones ...

Anyway, I must admit that my first thought was "Somebody is going to die." Not exactly the most spiritual response but typically human and pretty much what I have thought every time I have been ripped off. But in each instance afer my temperature dropped my faith climbed; for me to lose a coat or a radio or rain gear is a real pain-in-the-ass, but not the end of the world. When I lost the coat I was cold for a few days and now I will be wet for a few days - not exactly Armegeddon. I won't say that it does not aggrevate me to need to replace the gear, but the truth is that I have a warm home in which to dry off, a loving wife and family to embrace, a job I love and good friends with whom to whine (and wine). My life is pretty darn good. Faith reminds me that I must never confuse temporary inconvenience with authentic loss.

Some folks are cold and wet every day with little option for changing the situation and while I do not condone theft, I do know that when we are miserable we commit acts that might otherwise be alien to our behavior. Thus I choose to affirm that the act was inappropriate but the need great, shrugged off my loss, got on the internet and ordered some new gear and am grateful that I can afford to stay dry on a rainy day.

But in the midst of this I struggle with a far more important question; my faith tradition states that if someone takes your coat you should give them your shirt as well. So I wonder: What if the person who took my rain pants had just looked me in the eye and asked me for those pants, would I have given him my coat as well? Would I have had the authentic courage of my convictions and walked the walk, or would I have said something preacherly like "I'll pray for you" which is a lovely sentiment but does nothing to actually reduce suffering at the moment? Would I have voluntarily chosen to be inconvenienced for just a short moment to help another person, as my faith demands?

Of what value is faith if it does not cost us a little bit now and then?

I think I'll head out and take a ride in the rain ... it will remind me how lucky I am.

Idol-Idyll-Idle

I pulled up next to a guy on a scooter at the stoplight. I purposely looked over to give the guy a thumbs up - it was a rainy, miserable day but in spite of that we were both rolling on two wheels. But he studiously avoided me, concentrating on staring straight ahead; when the light turned green he hit the gas and whipped through the intersection. As I eased on the throttle and slowly let out the clutch I found myself shaking my head and thinking, "What an idiot. Gunning it like that on wet streets is a perfect way to find yourself laying on the ground."

But then I had another thought: "Why that behavior?" And while I am not a mind reader and cannot know for certain, it occured to me that perhaps this guy had been treated poorly in the past simply because he rode a scooter. It's 2010 and some folks still have this 1960's Mod vs. Rocker mentality (look up the movie 'Quadrophenia' set to the music of the Who if you are unfamiliar with the reference).

I have a couple of good buddies who ride scooters and they have told me about some of the crap they take from so-called "bikers" who are usually weekend warriors riding high-dollar, pimped-out toys. These types imagine themselves as outlaws but they are really just wannabe's; watch them and you can see that they are just accidents waiting to happen. They confuse appearance with essence and have thus created a false idol, mistaking the outer covering for the inner reality. They think that looking the part makes you the part, that the clothes make the man. Nope - they just prove that advertising works.

One of my scooter-owning buddies had been riding two wheels for forty years ... and then he got cancer. Physically he can no longer swing his leg over a saddle or handle the 700 pound hog he rode all that time. But he wanted to ride so he got a spry little 400 cc scooter that will get and go, and he can still feel the wind. He understands essence.

And every time I see someone on two wheels I give them a wave, because regardless of the machine we all seek the same thing, the essence. You can love the tradition of American Iron, the sexiness of the Italian bikes, the supurb engineering of German craftsmanship, the absolute dependability of metric machines ... it doesn't matter, because it's all good.

It's not the bike, it's the ride.

How Bad Could It Be?

After seven years in the desert, I am re-learning how to ride in the rain. I am also remembering the kinds of gear one should wear while doing so. As a kid in Florida I knew about rain; every afternoon we expected a 'sun shower' which simply meant that the sun was shining and the rain was pouring. I had been in plenty of rainstorms, walked in the rain, run in the rain, sat in classrooms soaked from the rain, and even sailed in the rain. At age fifteen I got my first motorcycle, learned how to ride, so sooner or late I was going to ride in the rain. I knew about rain and just didn't worry about it - how bad could it be?

Real bad.

Little raindrops at slow speeds don't hurt; those same raindrops at 40 or 50 MPH hurt a LOT!!! I should have known better; I grew up around guns and understood the concept of low caliber, high velocity. And in science class we had done an experiment about force, velocity and mass, first propelling a bowling ball against a target and then doing the same with a marble. We measured and compared the effects and quickly determined that getting hit with a bowling ball at slow speed was far preferenable to getting hit with a marble at high speed.

But at age fifteen (actually at most ages) we don't always transfer lessons from one field to another. After all, what do bowling balls and marbles have to do with rain?

Turns out, a lot.

Under the right conditions I actually enjoy riding in the rain, as it affords a nice change (remember I come most recently from the desert - ask me again in six months) and the opportunity to practice riding under different circumstances, both of which have value for me. And I have remembered that there are three basic options (or combinations thereof) when faced with traveling in the rain: don't go there, increase your outer protection, or slow down.

Small is endurable; small with a lot of speed or velocity hurts. The marble experiment taught me that and the rain reminded me of the lesson. Little raindrops can be refreshing and delightful; little raindrops at high speed HURT! Words, looks, or actions can seem small by themselves but when hurled at high velocity, line whenwe are angry or frustrated or embarrressed, can hurt a lot. So depending upon where you find yourself in the intereaction, make a choice: don't got there, slow down, or increase your outer protection.

Idle-Idol-Idyll

Moving from the desert of Phoenix to the dampness of Seattle has brought with it the need for all kinds of adjustments for me and for my machines. The Big Kawi is EFI so that has not been a problem but the KLR and the Harley are both carburated and they have become a bit cranky in the rain.

The KLR is my daily commuter (lighter and zippier in traffic) and the other day it started idling high; it jumped from 1300-1500 RPM up to 1800- 2000 RPM which is not horrible but certainly enough to get your attention. The good news is that this moderate jump can be handled with the idle adjustment screw: just turn it until it gets rough, back it off about a 1/4 turn, and then she settles right in. Whew! When I first moved up here I had some concerns about needing to re-jet the bikes, but looks like I will be OK with far less serious adjustments.

As I was adjusting the idle screw my mind started wandering, as it is wont to do, and I began to masticate on the word "idle" which has all sorts of negative connotations in our American society. Remember grandma's words: "Idle hands are the devils workshop!" We just don't do "idle" in America because we think of it as a bad thing since it is non-productive.

And that is precisely what got me to thinking. When the motorcycle is idling it is not "non-productive" but rather "pre-productive". The energy contained within the machine is simply waiting in a state of preparedness for the opportunity to be activated. And that is often true of us humans as well.

Now and then parishoners will come into my office and find me just staring out the window. I remember once in particular when a very successful entrepreneur came in, saw me and asked what I was doing; I responded: "Thinking." I wish I could have captured the look on his face for it was a mask of utter confusion. In America you don't think, you just do! His pledge the next year reflected his disdain for a thinking pastor ...

But the truth is that when I am thinking I am not idle, but idling, getting prepared for action. Sermons, reflections, or teaching material for classes are not simply plucked from a tree but are the result of well ... thinking! The same is true in any industry - you must have "idle time" to prepare for action/production; time during which the motor is running, fluids are circulating, and one is in that state of pre-production.

Idle hands may sometimes be the devils workshop, but they can also be angels wings, taking us to new heights.