Another productive weekend

ted | bike | Sunday, June 4th, 2006

I can tell, because my ass hurts.

No, not like that, you preverts. Saturday my special lady and I partook of a leisurely 25 mile bike ride. Me on my steamroller – my singlespeed Gary Fisher Tassajara frame with a Surly 1×1 cro-moly steel fork – and Nikki on the $20 Raleigh Sportif road bike I picked up at a thrift store. Another Jackson for new tubes, tires, water bottle cage, a quick 15 minute tuneup and it was ready to roll. All the construction on Archer made us take a slightly out of the way route, but fine less-used neighborhood streets always make for a relaxing ride. Some light weightlifting at the fancy new UIC fitness center and a more direct ride home was an awfully nice way to spend a couple hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

I spent a good half hour trying to get my motorcycle to start, despite topping up the battery and slapping it on a charger overnight. After winding myself trying to roll the damn thing off, I finally just jumped it from the Golf and it started right up. After letting it idle for a while and some mild smoking from the bits of grease and oil what had leaked onto the exhaust system, I started taking it around the block five or six times, progressively faster. It’s running suprisingly well. I hope I can get the idle wonkiness worked out with some tuning of the idle air mix for the four carbs and running a couple tankfuls of gas through it. It’d be nice to have it for running around town or actually ride it to work on secondary roads. Also been thinking of selling it and getting a scooter for around town stuff, since they’re cheaper to run than a motorcycle and if under 50ccs, you don’t have to have a M-class license (which I have, but my wife does not). Not to mention arguably safer and more practical than a 1982 Suzuki GS550 for city use.

Today was spent doing the typical Sunday stuff, sleeping late, drinking coffee, working out the menu for the coming week, grocery shopping, etc. Finally found an oil sprayer so we don’t have to keep getting those damn cans of pan lubricant and also picked up a few other niceties for the kitchen.

Yeah, hell yeah I’m domestic.

You wanna know how much? Here’s a short list:

  • Put up a clothesline in the back yard
  • Construct some manner of fabric sun shade for the deck
  • Install some pleasant lighting for deck use
  • Make a top for the outdoor bar Mike and Linda gave us
  • Compost bin

You get the picture.

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