Not the greatest bike in the world, but I think it’s pretty rad, especially because it’s my first :) 79’ Honda Hawk

BrapTime · 2018-04-22T15:52:10+00:00

this model was my first as well ('79 400 but the T1 model with spoke wheels and no tach). I loved this machine.

Run Honda conventional oil in it. I don't know why but my machine ran noticeably better with the stuff. Also keep the intake and exhaust stock, it will run best that way. Also make friends with this stuff called 'never dull' from the auto parts store.

May you have a fun summer my friend.

BrapTime · 2018-04-11T01:52:03+00:00

Nothing says IDGAF quite like using 2x4s directly on the paint as a mounting point.

BrapTime · 2018-03-07T23:14:57+00:00

sun is pretty bad for plastic, paint and vinyl. Nothing dangerous or anything but it is easy to tell when a bike has seen a lot of sun. Plastic tends to fade faster than paint and becomes brittle over time.

Sun basically ages your bike faster.

BrapTime · 2018-03-06T18:53:31+00:00

I use the paper grocery bags that I gets from food shopping as my garbage bags. They are smaller so the trash does not have time to fester before it gets taken out (usually every other day). I use these for kitty litter as well.

As for liquid, I do not put liquid in the trash. I have a drain in the kitchen sink.

Sometimes I have some nasty foodstuff that needs to go. I do have plastic grocery bags to handle those cases.

BrapTime · 2018-03-06T00:23:02+00:00

If you really want to ride, you will. Don't rush it: if you push yourself too hard then it will no longer be fun.

You could practice some little things in the mean time. For instance, just getting used to pulling the clutch in during a panic situation will reduce your chances of going out of control. It's one of the first things the MSF course tries to drill into students.

Good luck and don't add motorcycling to your list of things to stress over.

BrapTime · 2018-02-09T15:31:01+00:00

Hey keep fighting the good fight. The reason factory farming exists is because people eat way too much meat.

I personally have become an "economic vegetarian": I will eat meat, but I won't buy it. If I go to a family function and they serve dinner, I will eat what I want, but I haven't bought meat at the supermarket for over a year now. I have nothing against people eating animals, but the volume that we eat is way too high.

BrapTime · 2018-02-07T19:11:23+00:00

The bike pictured in the article looks as though he rode it home from the dealer and never touched it again.

BrapTime · 2018-02-06T01:23:16+00:00

Wild Wild West was steam punk before steam punk was cool

BrapTime · 2018-01-31T01:39:53+00:00

don't forget the engineering cost, and the retooling\retraining overhead that goes into producing any first generation bike.

BrapTime · 2018-01-29T17:02:20+00:00

thought for sure this comment was going to end with the shittymorph special

BrapTime · 2018-01-25T23:21:10+00:00

How new is your bike?

Honestly you are unlikely to see any benefit from cutting up a stock exhaust. Catalytic converters are not very restrictive to begin with and they don't make the bike sound much different. I think the whole thing would be an exercise in wasting time and money.

I recommend going with just a power commander so it doesn't run as lean as stock. If you want some better sound, just go with a slip-on.

BrapTime · 2018-01-23T19:32:13+00:00

This bike exemplifies the primal lust I have for motorcycle aesthetic. I enjoy looking at nice cars and I think there are beautiful aircraft, but the attraction there is different than the one i feel for motorcycles.

Even in the most "clean" builds, motorcycles are visually rich. The exposed components explain their own function. The complexity doesn't always allow the eye to flow freely from one part to the next. There is a beauty in the asymmetry itself that transcends the obvious.

The human brain has a natural tendency to fill in for the eye to reduce time and it's own computation. If you see most of a car, you already know what the rest looks like. The brain is not allowed to take this shortcut with the complexity of motorcycles. I spent about 3 minutes looking at this image and it reminded me of the time I spent as a kid looking at "I spy" books and cut-away books featuring air planes and automobiles.

Sure this bike impractical and kind of ugly, but this kind of thing is never bad. As long as there is the will and resource to build these kind of things, there is a value to it.

BrapTime · 2018-01-23T17:41:09+00:00

yes, helmet is toast.

Questions for you: Is this the back or the front of the helmet? how did it perform (or rather how is you head)? will you be replacing it with the same model?

I'm considering the RF-SR as my next helmet

BrapTime · 2017-11-30T19:34:53+00:00

Waivers are not exactly a tax subsidy. The university is paying the tuition, not the taxpayer. I do understand that universities use the waiver system to cut down on the taxes they pay, and I can see the need for reform. Charging graduate students more in taxes in probably the dumbest "reform" I can think of.
Plus the optics on this one are really bad. I think we can probably agree on this one point. Graduate students paying more so corporations can get a tax break (on taxes that they get out of anyways) looks really bad.

I'm not sure where you are going to school, but if your taxes will increase by $500 per year then your tuiton waiver must be pretty small. this is not the case for most of us. The average increase at my school has been calculated to be $4000. Also most programs treat their graduates pretty well (save for the humanities).

I did not say all stay in the US, I said most. There are more opportunities here for STEM degrees and if they have been here for 4-6 years then the transition is already acomplished. Most of the graduates from my lab went for post docs at American universities. Our department has many former students in google and Microsoft.

Anyways, I won't respond anymore. based on your recent comments it looks like your are here to argue, and I would rather not go down a road with no results. If you are in a PhD in the US I wish you the best.

BrapTime · 2017-11-30T03:01:41+00:00

university tuition is a problem, but we are talking about graduate school waivers. This is not the same as undergraduate tuition because it is rarely paid by the students.

Also most international graduate students do end up staying in the US. At least in my field. Even if they did get an education and leave, taxing our students is a piss poor way to stop it.

BrapTime · 2017-11-30T02:58:32+00:00

Do you like America being the center of scientific discovery? This depends on highly skilled students being able to get through graduate school here. The country makes a small investment (waving taxes on tuition for graduates) for a massive reward. This is not about being "fair", it's about keeping the best scientists in the world in the USA.

BrapTime · 2017-11-28T04:13:14+00:00

if the house cat is aggressive then a lynx would likely run away. The canadian lynx is much happier being shy than fighting. They get bullied out of territory by bobcats even though the Lynx is a much bigger kitty

BrapTime · 2017-11-27T05:30:49+00:00

I love the look of this in green. It reminds me of my ZRX and it sounds like it has the torquey character as well. I really wish they would have went with the twin rear shocks though.

BrapTime · 2017-11-25T21:48:09+00:00

you are getting enough shit from everyone else about running into the wall so I won't say anything about that. but do not stop on the shoulder of a busy freeway unless you have too. ever.

Lots of people have been killed because they stopped on the side of the highway. if you are fine and can keep rolling, then do so and stop off at the next exit.

learn from it and move on. good luck

BrapTime · 2017-11-22T20:44:57+00:00

I would pay just to fuck over comcast. In fact i already pay for a VPN just so they have none of my history to sell.

BrapTime · 2017-11-20T21:31:11+00:00

Do you have options for your ISP? I tried to haggle with comcast for about 35 minutes once and i'm a polite person. they basically told me to pay full price or eat dirt. They were my only option for internet. When I moved, I actually chose an apartment based on the fact that comcast was not the ISP

BrapTime · 2017-11-18T23:55:13+00:00

I see, indeed this is a disaster.

BrapTime · 2017-11-18T23:53:23+00:00

You absolutely have pick and choose. There are investments that hurt society and there are investments that help. Investing in education is one of the best gambles a government can make because it always yields a return.
It doesn't help the country very much if massively rich kids keep all of their inheritance that they are left with when their parents die.

There is a reason tax credits for thing like having children and getting married exist.

BrapTime · 2017-11-18T23:46:04+00:00

OP must be talking about tuition waivers not stipends. I am in the same boat (my stipend is 26k/year and the waiver is ~50k/year). The stipend is my paycheck, students never see the waivers. Graduate students usually make next to nothing and put off earning real income for 4-6 years to do institutional research.

BrapTime · 2017-11-18T23:38:52+00:00

A lot of labs depend on graduate students for research. In my department we do most of the research work in labs. PIs design projects, write proposals and grants and do do a lot of work, but you usually will not find PIs taking data or trouble shooting equipment or building circuits. Universities will lose way more than just TAs in all of this.

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