I’ve been an XM Radio subscriber twice. When I started driving to work last year during the fall I called in and got the “open secret” $77 annual membership deal. Service is usually $13 a month, so I was glad paying more than 50% off. However, as the weather got better I rode my motorcycle so much I didn’t listen to XM for months at a time. Even then, I wasn’t a big fan of their music selection and wound up listening to just two channels, something I wrote about almost four years ago when I tried XM for the first time.

Anyway, my year subscription expired about three months ago. I called in and spent forty-five minutes on the phone with an account representative and canceled my membership (which was set to auto-renew at $13/month).

What followed was a ninety-plus day barrage of sales calls trying to get me to become an XM customer again.
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I run three monitors in my home office. For awhile I used to do this via two video cards, but I had a lot of stability problems in Windows Vista and the release candidate for Windows 7. I disconnected the tertiary monitor, yanked the PCI video card, and started researching solutions. I thought I would have to upgrade to a dual PCI-X slot motherboard and run two video cards in an SLI/Crossfire configuration. That meant buying a new motherboard and a second GeForce 7600, and that would have been a pain in the ass for the former and a little difficult for the latter. The GeForce 7xxx series is now two or three generations old, and I didn’t want to gamble on a used card.

ATI’s new 57xx series features “Eyefinity,” which basically allows one card to aggregate several physical monitors into one meta-monitor. This is, conceptually, a little different from a multi-monitor display that breaks the desktop into several sections. Think of Eyefinity as making one big, oddly-shaped monitor out of whatever monitors you have on hand.

The trick to Eyefinity, however, is that you need at least one of those monitors to have a DisplayPort interface. I’d never even heard of this interface until I started researching the 57xx series. Apparently it’s on laptops and Apple has their own “mini” version of it. The problem was that my three existing Dell 22″ monitors had regular VGA and DVI.

I purchased a 22″ monitor from Dell with a DisplayPort link for about $240 shipped. I was surprised to see a shipping notification that evening, and the monitor showed up three days later. Problem solved, right?

Er, no.
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I mounted some engine crash bars made by Racing 905 on my FJR1300A not too long ago. They took forever to process my order, misled me about shipping dates, and the bars were built with such a tight tolerance I had to adjust the bolts down two turns at a time. However, once they were on they looked nice and seemed sturdy. I was happy-ish with them, even if I wasn’t happy with the company.

Fast forward to last Tuesday. I was riding home a little early to take Rosie to the vet, and was able to take a highway onramp at a higher speed than normal. I’ve dragged the right footpeg on the FJR before, and had an idea where my lean angle limits were.

I set my entry speed, leaned the bike, and tilted my head so that the horizon was level. I started my turn, and everything was going great. No traffic, road was clear and smooth, and I was well balanced on the bike. Seemed great.

I heard a scraping sound and the bike started to twitch. I stayed even on the throttle and kept off of the brakes. I figured my foot peg was scratching, but the sound and “feel” didn’t seem like I remembered. I slowly righted the bike and I heard the scratching noise again. This time the rear tire of the bike started to waver. I straightened up a little more and exited the onramp. I continued home and checked the foot peg as soon as I got the bike settled and the dogs loose.
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I buy a lot of stuff online. Like, a lot of stuff. I have a really good idea what to expect as far as order fulfillment, shipping times, customer service inquiries, and return / exchange experiences. I’ve purchased from small one-man outfits cranking out custom brackets for mounting lights on motorcycles to e-commerce juggernauts. The size of the store doesn’t matter; sometimes the small operations give you great service, and sometimes they are run by douchebags.

The same goes for the big box joints, too — although until I tried Wal-Mart’s “Site to Store” shipping service I never had a good and bad experience from the same company.
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I’m not going to recap my nightmare experience with motorcycle safety equipment manufacturer Motoport, but over two months ago the Wayne Boyer offered to take my jacket back for a full refund. I was hopeful that the issue would be resolved quickly, and I would get my money back.

Long story short: Wayne never gave me the refund, and I had to dispute the affair with Discover. Discover ruled in my favor, and I finally got my money back on December 7th.

Here’s the full time line:
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One of the nice things about working in a group office environment again is that there is a lot of banter. A LOT of banter. I am the unofficial DJ for our development room, and between the tunes and the shit-talking there is plenty of commentary to go around. Someone dredges up a long-lost track they liked as a youth, and it’s up to me to find it.

I also listen to a lot of music that doesn’t get heavy rotation. I am particularly fond of cultural mash-ups, like traditional Middle Eastern or Latin American music set to electronica. As you can expect, it’s hard to find these types of albums at big box stores like Best Buy or Wal*Mart. Even when I find them at local record shops, the import prices put a ten-track CD into the $20+ range.

So, what do you do when someone mentions “Ladies First” by Queen Latifah, or if you want to buy Cafe D’Afrique Volume 3 without spending $20? Try used CD e-tailer Second Spin.
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I love Firefly, the short-lived science fiction show about an eclectic band of ex-revolutionaries, mercenaries, runaways and a preacher. One of the main characters was Jayne Cobb, played by Adam Baldwin. Jayne is portrayed throughout the entire series as an emotionless killer for hire. Until he receives a mysterious package that looks a little like this one ….
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Almost four months ago, I was killing time in a coffee shop in California. I was visiting family and had a PT Cruiser rental car instead of my motorcycles, and I was missing my two-wheeled friends badly. I made up for it by reading motorcycle gear reviews, and found read Web Bike World’s review of the Rev’It Cayenne Pro textile jacket and pants. I wanted it.

At the same time, my friend Fish Sprout was researching Motoport’s kevlar textile gear, mostly because her friend owned a set. The Cayenne Pro, despite ingenious venting options, was still a three-season jacket. Motoport owners reported wearing the jacket in temperatures from the 30s to 120s. The lure of a strong, four-season textile suit that wouldn’t melt to your skin like most mesh led me to order jacket and pants from Motoport in late June.

It was a huge mistake. For a product promising a “custom” fit, my Motoport jacket was put together for someone who weighed an extra twenty or thirty pounds. I sent it back twice for alterations, and am still in the process of getting my money back.

Cold temperatures were fast approaching, and I hadn’t solved the problem of a weather-resilient jacket that would hold up well in a crash. My Tourmaster Transition 2 jacket fit well and had nice features, but claims of the jacket disintegrating in crashes as slow as 25MPH made me nervous.

I bit the bullet, and bought the jacket from Beach Moto, run by a member of the ADVrider.com community. Dennis, the owner, was everything Motoport wasn’t, and should have been — responsive, personable, professional, and efficient. Did I mention that dealing with Beach Moto was easy and didn’t make me feel like an idiot? Motoport, take notice.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself. On to the jacket.
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With all of the riding and motorcycling mishaps last week, I neglected to post that Wayne Boyer of Motoport has broken his usual policy and offered to take my jacket back for a refund. You can read the whole saga if you haven’t been following along. The short story: I sent my jacket back for alterations twice, was dissatisfied, called for a refund, was told that because the jacket was now custom a refund was impossible, I posted about it on the Internet, Wayne emailed me in rebuttal (which was also posted), and now we’re here.

My jacket was sent back last week and should arrive on Monday. I am not sure how long it will take Motoport to process my return. Once I have my money back and this whole event is closed I’m going to update my Internet posts with how the situation was resolved.

I am thankful that Wayne decided to take the jacket back. It’s against Cycleport’s usual policy, but hopefully I will get my cash back in short order. I feel better, but keep your fingers crossed. We’re not out of the woods yet.

I promised Wayne at Motoport I would post his email to me in its entirety. I have only removed my first name from his email. I posted this on advrider.com’s equipment forum, but I am unsure if the post will be allowed to stay because I posted on behalf of a merchant. So I’m reposting it here. I will quote Wayne’s comments, and bold my rebuttal.
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