Day 304: What's That Thing?

I was out in the garage tonight having a bit of a poke around and getting my tools and things sorted for the weekend ahead, while I was there I thought I'd take a quick look under the seat of the ZX14. I found this short cable bolted to the subframe and I couldn't work out what it was for so I took a photo of it withe the iPhone... I think the camera's getting worse on it, the phone's pretty old now and I'm thinking it might be time to upgrade soon.

Back to the cable: I had to look it up in the owners handbook. Apparently it's for securing your helmet to the bike when it's parked, I still don't really get it. I guess with a padlock you could link the D-ring of the helmet to the loop at the end of the cable, but that seems like a hard way to do things and besides, there's a special helmet lock on the side of the bike that opens with the ignition key. That one only lets you lock one helmet to it though, maybe the cable is for your pillion's helmet... as long as they bring their own padlock.

I would have used a better photo if I had one but this is the only photo I took today, the old iPhone 3GS is very limited in it's photographic capabilities.

Day 203: No Longer Stinky

Back on the 18th of March I discovered that my gloves had gone mouldy inside my helmet, I hadn't been able to wear the helmet since because it smelled really, really bad. After lots of airing out, dousing in baking soda, vacuuming out, more airing out and finally a good spray of Febreeze followed by another week or so of airing out I was able to put my head inside without being assaulted by the intense mustiness that used to be there. I'm quite happy that I can wear this helmet again and I celebrated today by going for a ride out to one of the bike shops in Fyshwick where I proceeded to ride a few other bikes that had caught my eye... more on that later (maybe).

Day 127: May Task - You

I decided that today's subject being 'You' could really only be interpreted as being all about 'Me'. So I chose to gather a few things that are a little bit 'Me' instead of doing a predictable self portrait.

Running through the things I gathered, there is:
- My helmet (not the mouldy one, this is the one I use for racing)
- My favourite sneakers
- My phone which is a necessity for work and play
- My favourite cuff-links (a gift from Belinda, they're in the shape of steering wheels)
- My sunnies I really hate the glare
- My family (on the screen of Belinda's laptop)
- My 'Mr Grumpy' coffee cup
- My car and bike keys

There were many other things that I would have liked to add to this collection but I ran out of time (if you look closely at my phone you'll see it was midnight when I took this photo) and the collection would have ended up looking like a trash & treasure stall. I am indeed a complex individual.

Day 78: Fungus Fingers

It's been a while since I last rode the bike, in fact the last time I had the R1 out I blogged about here. On the last ride I ended up getting a bit wet, the rain and hail did a good job of soaking me through my leathers. It seems after hanging my leathers up to air out, I forgot about the damp gloves inside my helmet. 

A little over a month of incubating inside my helmet has made the mess you see sitting on the seat of my bike. Initially, I thought an industrious spider had gone to town on the gloves... the smell was what made me realise what had really happened. The mould covers the gloves so completely that the fingers look to be fused together. The inside of the helmet looks marginally better than the gloves do, but it smells pretty bad and I'll need to remove the padding for a good clean out before I can wear it again.

Needless to say I used another helmet and gloves for my little ride this arvo.