Leaderboard

@docc In fila per la parata ufficiale!

I spent my high school years doing high Sierra backpacking in California with friends, going off trail and traversing passes and glaciers — when there were still glaciers up there 😢 — all around Mt. Banner, Mt. Lyell, Mt.Ritter, et al. This was done with USGS topo maps and a compass. It is really great to have an analog in a topographical drawing to look at the land to see things with added dimension. As a youth I spent many happy hours leafing through the map drawers at the USGS office in Menlo Park, CA. Probably about my favorite place to be, second to the library. I like paper road maps. I have AAA maps, Benchmark maps, and some of the Butler motorcycle maps. I also like reading about routes and looking at them on maps. Then I can use my phone’s map app to make a crude distance and arrow chart to put in the tank bag window. Call me an ignorant Luddite or a romantic curmudgeon, but I like not-too-much information, particularly when going off on a road trip. The great thing about a paper map is that the next leg of the journey may only be three inches…..of what? Let’s find out. The older that I have gotten the more I have grown to dislike and resent digital technology and devices. I have a real love/hate relationship with my phone because I have adapted it into so much of my life and so much depends on this tool to interact with and accomplish things, yet it and its ilk draw me away from the real things in the world that I could, and did, engage with. I am to blame for letting myself succumb to the digital malaise that I see and feel in my life. I know better. But I have gone back to writing on typewriters outside of work. It slows you down and is a nice visceral and physical experience in making a text. I am old enough to remember the good old days before computers, when there were plenty of pay phones and public drinking fountains around and everyone did fine. I have always had an analog aesthetic for things, whether audio, visual, or mechanical. And while I am glad to have a bike like my V11 with FI and a good ECU, I am turned off to TBW, different ride modes, etc., on bikes. I understand having ABS and traction control as a safety feature, but I have never had those things on a bike and have never felt the need for them. I am currently looking for a touring bike, and I am leaning toward a Stelvio NTX (it does have ABS and traction control! 😬) rather than a V85TT, partly because it is not TBW and is more old tech. When I throw a leg over a bike and ride away, one of the things I am riding away from is all of the crap of the modern world. All I want to look at is the road. All I want to hear is the bike and the road, although I ride with earplugs to dampen the wind noise. A mileage and arrow chart in the tank bag window and a trip meter or odometer have been enough to get me down the road, as well as keep me from running out of gas. If I need more info I’ll pull off the road, have a smoke and look at a map. I am sure I am ignorant, and probably part or full-blood idiot, but that’s how I like to go. Use maps! They give you something to mull over and mark up while you’re taking a break and having having a cup of coffee, and they will become old and creased.

I'd think there's a tradition and patriotism that Brits feel that Americans can't understand. I know the monarchy does have its domestic critics but I'm guessing that's an apathetic minority. Certainly the queen has been an inspiration for many, particularly the WWII generation. She did have grace, seemed unassuming around her subjects, and had a dry sense of humor. I think she was wise even as a princess. One interesting tidbit, so far as wealth, they weren't nearly as rich as many royals across the world. I read the royalty of Thailand were many times richer.

It is turning out that way. Yet, even if things were balmy and dry here, my middle name is Rainer (pronounced the way Reiner usual is). My German mother had a Weimar-era adolescent crush on Rainer Maria Rilke, so that “boy named Sue” sort of name has been part of me since the beginning. So, it is SpineRainer every time I come here! Bill

Longest reigning Monarch in the UK, and a long, full life. But from my (US-centric) point of view the whole Royal Family thing seems unnecessary and ineffectual. But as counterpoint to my own statement, I can't help but feeling the world would be a little bit better today if King Charles and Queen Diana were ascending. Imagine how much good she would have done in the last 25 years. And Diana would have ridden a Moto Guzzi. Actually, she probably would have a Triumph with a super cool flag tank.

You Know What You Must Do, Grasshopper......................................

Thanks for the info guys. My fears were completely unfounded. Got a few shots of contact cleaner in it and cleaned up some of the gunk on the outside edges. Both switches seem to have pretty good action. I made a point cycling them to scrub the contact cleaner. Hopefully, I'll be good to go.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/v11_meticcio/85d7v13WM9 Un piccolo assaggio...

Docc, This year going to be the SpineRainer's Rally?