My youngest dog Pearl is two years old today! I can’t believe she’s been with me this long.

I adopted Pearl from the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington, DC. They have a fabulous facility and try to do everything they can for the animals staying there.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Pearl from this year, and I think they show her many sides.
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When I sold Raider, my BMW R1150R, I knew I would immediately miss the greater storage capacity. Sure, my Yamaha FZ6 Cylon has the Givi V46 top case and E21 side cases. Even though Raider had the ultra-wimpy E350 Flow case (35L instead of the V46’s 46L), I felt like I had more space on the BMW due to the massive side cases.

However, I didn’t want to spend $200 each on getting the 40L Givi E360 side cases. I started looking around for alternatives, and found a thread on ADVrider.com about JC Whitney’s hard cases. They are a knock-off of the E360, and by all accounts they were not as well made as their Italian inspirations. Yes, there were accounts of them flying off of the supplied mounting rack at highway speeds, or that the interior “stays” that held the clamshell design open snapping on first use. Yes, there was that stupid iron cross sticker on the top. However, they were cheap, at about $85 before shipping.

The more I read, the more intrigued I became. The rumor was that with some “fine tuning” they could be modified to fit the existing Givi rack on my bike. I was already ready to try them out, but when I found a way to get them for less than $65 shipped I was chomping at the bit.
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My employer requires all full-time employees to undergo an annual health examination. It’s a bare-bones, cursory exam that measures height, weight, waist, and blood pressure. A small sample of blood is taken to create a clone army check blood sugar levels and cholesterol. There is also a health questionnaire that asks about family medical history, eating, exercise, and drug use.

I guess I don’t mind, because the information is used partially for insurance purposes and I am reasonably healthy. However, it does give me the heebies that my employer requires something like this in the first place (unless there is a medical reason otherwise). What I believe the way it works is that those who fit within the insurance company’s definition of “healthy” get a slight discount, and every else pays list. Seems fair, but the exam I had today is not a decent health evaluation at all.

I would rather spend more time and undergo a true fitness test that includes heart rate, oxygen intake, etc. The problem with the BMI-esque height / weight / waist measurement is that I could be a really thin, under-fit person and still qualify as “healthy” under their algorithm. Conversely, someone could be very physically strong and in good cardiovascular shape but have more mass around the belly-button plane than considered “acceptable.”

Another concern was the accuracy of the measurements taken. I was eight pounds lighter this morning than when I weigh myself at home. Eight pounds. Granted, I’ve been trying to lean out a little more, but eight pounds on my frame at this point in my body’s development is a big variance. My waist measurement (belly button plane) was three and a half inches different from what I measured last week as part of my kettlebell and Great Body workout program. My height was a little off, but I just cut my hair last night, so who knows. ;)

Anyway, here are my immediate results:
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Nearly seven months after acquiring a 2004 BMW R1150R motorcycle, I’ve reassigned “Raider” to a new home. I was always put in a tough position: if I rode the BMW, my FZ6 sat idle. If I rode the FZ6, the BMW was left waiting in the driveway. My Honda is a project / scoot around bike, so I don’t feel so bad not riding it as often, but the FZ6 and BMW are close enough in mission that I felt that I was choosing between what child to save during a house fire.

I rode Raider mostly to and from work, and I really liked the stability the heavier bike offered during inclement weather. However, every time I jumped on the FZ6 I couldn’t help but smile as the increased agility allowed me to flick in and out of traffic. I decided to sell the BMW in January.
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It’s been a little over three weeks since I completed the excellent Power Half Hour series by Beachbody.com. I wanted to give myself a little time off from the typical Power 90 / Tony Horton-style home workouts, and was on the lookout for something a little different.

I turned to a Russian kettlebell workout every other day, with Beachbody.com’s Great Body fitness series on the off days. Like the Power Half Hour series, I work out six days and take the seventh day off.

For those of you unfamiliar with Russian kettlebells, they are basically a big ball of iron with a handle on top. The bottom is flat so you can rest it on the floor. The ones I’ve purchased have a vinyl lining; that was because they were the least expensive not because I had an affinity for vinyl. Well, at least, not with my workout equipment. Online recommendations suggested a 16kg (35lb) kettlebell to start, with a 24kg (53lb) kettlebell for “fit” men. I am glad I didn’t listen to any of that shit and bought a 20lb kettlebell. But more on that later. Let’s just say it felt delicious for Amazon.com to second-day air me a twenty pound chunk of iron. :)
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I liked my Cardo Scala Q2 bluetooth headsets but could never get the volume loud enough with external speakers. I also had a terrible time getting the auxiliary volume up to a reasonable level, because the 3.5mm jack in the dock wasn’t powered by the headset like the other channels were.

I started researching headphone amplifiers, and found that the products quickly fell into two camps: gimongous amplifiers powered by AC power / more batteries than a North Korean bathtub submarine or tiny portable amplifiers that offered less power but more portability. Adding to the decision making problem was the scarcity of information on the Internet, and/or that the best smaller amps cost almost as much as I paid for the Scalas in the first place.

My memory is fuzzy at this point, but I jumped on eBay trying to find a less-expensive source for one of the more popular amps on ADVrider.com when I stumbled up on the FiiO headphone amplifier. I am pretty sure I was reading about the previous generation that ran off of two AA batteries.

I put in an order from a (extremely reputable, I’m sure) seller in Hong Kong and waited for the awesome power to arrive.
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Yes, my most exciting and rewarding times on a motorcycle are blasting around twisty corners and challenging myself to make a perfect turn. However, the vast majority of my “saddle time” is spent on the highway. Bull’s-eying womprats in Begger’s Canyon back home — I mean, passing tractor trailers on I-95 — can kick up an awful lot of turbulence on an already windy stretch of highway.

Road noise and wind turbulence are two of the major contributors to riding fatigue (seat and seating position are the other two). I sought to reduce the noise and the windiness by swapping out the stock Yamaha FZ6 wind screen on Cylon with Puig’s double bubble racing screen when I first got my bike. It served me very well and I didn’t really know any better until I got Raptor, my BMW K1200LTE. That windscreen was a little TOO big: it blocked a ton of wind and noise but acted as a sail in a cross-wind. Raider, my BMW R1150R, had a much better wind screen that was just big enough to stop a lot of air, but not so big I felt like I was behind a riot shield.

I needed something a little larger than the Puig on my FZ6. The problem is that the newer FZ6 models have a different mounting system, and apparently it’s easier for aftermarket manufacturers to build screens for the new arrangement. Most of the really effective touring screens are for the 2007+ models. After searching the Internet for the best screen for my 2004, I bought the touring screen made by Yamaha.
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I own a 2008 Gmax GM68S helmet (original ADV thread, my personal review, and Web Bike World’s write-up). It is an inexpensive, DOT-only helmet with two main product highlights: a ton of vents and an LED light system in the back.

I fell for the vent hype and thought the LED system was bogus, but the opposite turned out to be true. I have fogging problems with the GM68S, but the LEDs can be seen from far away in the middle of a rainstorm. Funny how expectations work out that way.

Anyway, my major gripe with the helmet (venting aside) is that it was only available in flat, “rubatone” black or various patterns like a snake, a dragon, or a cross. I’m not an old fogey yet, but I’m not an 18 year old squid either. I had to settle for black, even though I was giving up visibility from my silver helmet predecessor.

This year the GM68S has some improvements, and they were convincing enough for me to order one.
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I wrote about the Scala Rider Q2 bluetooth motorcycle communication system almost a month ago. I liked the ability to talk to another person on the bike, place a mobile phone call if I was stuck in traffic, or listen to music.

However, there was a major problem: the speakers that come with the Q2 suck, and I couldn’t hear much over 40MPH with my earplugs in.

I read about soldering a headphone jack connector to the Q2 unit and using and inner-ear earphones headset to eliminate wind noise. I started researching what earphones would be the next best thing to wearing my Howard Leight earplugs. Whatever I purchased needed to live up to a tall task:

1. Provide acceptable protection against the ear-damaging sound associated with motorcycling.
2. Be comfortable in my ears for a long period of time.
3. Provide acceptable sound quality for my Scala Q2.

My research on motorcycle forums like Sportbikes.net, ADVrider.com and sport touring forums, I decided on the Etymotic Research ER6i earphones. They have quite a following from motorcyclists. The manufacturer claims up to 36dB in noise reduction, which would make them more effective than my old foam standbys. At $75 shipped from Amazon it was a lot to pay on top of the Q2 set, but without better sound my bluetooth headset would be useless.

I bit. Would the ER6i earphones do their job as advertised?
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Have you ever gone to a favorite Web site, only to see a cryptic error instead of a blog about zombies, motorcycles, and guns? Worried that your connection is jacked, or curious if the Web site is down? Check out Down For Everyone or Just Me, a Web site that attempts to contact the same Web site you are.
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