Gmc28

helluva setup there Tom! Just arrived in Minnesota tonight, tomorrow making the drive to Houston, Minnesota, to see where the norwegian ancestors came over to establish the "bridgehead to america" around 1850. Probably be more fun to be in norway in your garage.

other "air" in the tanks. rather than the usual nitrogen/oxygen/other mix, its a different concoction of gases to achieve certain things, like to avoid nitrogen narcosis at deep depths, or nitrox to allow for different dive times, etc.

i've not done the puerto madryn, which sounds excellent. But I did my inital scuba training and first year or two of diving all in Alaska. I did it all drysuit, though others used thick wetsuits. Was a great way to learn, and a unique place to dive and see. I fondly recall the first real dive, where it was snowing, gray, miserable, and with the drysuit and insulation I needed about 45lbs on my belt plus 4 lbs per ankle, so i'm sweating, damn uncomfortable, feeling like a beached whale, wondering why i'm doing this, and then I backed into the water and voila, of course it all changed.... awesome. Now weightless, "cool" (no longer hot from the suit, nor freezing from the water), with Sea lions, schools of black cod, wrecked boats and airplanes, etc. Getting that drysuit dialed in was key. took some time and focus to get it just right... not so tight on the seals that its painful, but tight enough to not leak. did some mixed gas diving too.

Good point. Though when staying submerged even in most tropical waters, the energy gets sapped fast to where i can get cold. But that’s where scuba diving, where slow and easy movements are name of the game, whereas with no weight belt with snuba I’ll bet the extra work to control buoyancy would keep the blood pumping more, and be warmer.

So a smaller version of the old Snuba setup, right? almost bought a snuba for a Caribbean sail trip, but I had to cancel trip for work, and never pulled trigger. Just seems way easier for shallow, tropical diving than the tanks. But wondering about weight belts, and buoyancy control in that first 1/2-1 atmosphere of change, where we like to dive and where snuba would be the ticket .

I don’t want to derail activepops thread here, but to indulge just a little more…. where’d you find tire irons with the axle nut wrenches on the ends for the husky? great idea… two large-ish tools combined into one. love that idea. Update: quick google search reveals lots of options… imagine that. It’s now dark and rainy, so i’ll get out tomrrow and check those axle nut sizes. my 501 I use on road as well, connecting sections of off-road, or to get home on all tarmac after days of going 1 direction off road, so i haven’t gone down the tubliss path, though i was going to on my former “all dirt” bike. I’m toying with a handlebar mount tool bag now for the 501, and a frame mounted tube for tire irons. problem on the 501 is lack of rear subframe to attach that tool cylinder. I used the slime product for years in mexico on our ATV’s, and basically 3/4 of the time it was all that was needed. seems like more often on the off-road 2-wheelers the flats can be more problematic and not sufficed with slime, mostly because it tends to only work well with the tubeless setups.

i rented one of those large guzzi’s down near Joshua Tree a few years back, for a couple days of touring the park and other areas up north of there. I enjoyed it, preferring it over the Harleys i had way back. that said, they all fall into the same problematic category for me: they are the best type of bikes for cruising down the big highways, which is exactly where i do NOT want to be on a bike, except to connect to other non-highway roads.

I hear ya. funny how much time i’ve spent over the years thinking i’ll just get a nice little kit for each bike, then each year I get on a bike and realize it has only a partial kit or no kit, because I probably went on a big ride in previous year and robbed an item from it. should be so easy, but the tire kit gremlins are sneaky little bastards… Small is the usual and obvious goal, so for me the dynaplug little setups are what i usually get (which seem overpriced, but I usually end up with those as they’re small and they work), then either a few co2’s and the adaptor, just to get me to someplace for a proper air fill, or if its a bigger bike with carrying capacity i’m now popping in one of the Fantik (costco, amazon) cordless inflators, since i use those for more subtle pressure adjustments as well. But it’s the off-road bikes with tubes that give me the headaches… hate having to carry irons, a tube, and all that, because its so much stuff, its a drag to have to use on the trail, and on those kind of bikes there’s less room and more stuff needed. For ADV bikes i just get or convert to tubeless, but dirt bikes i’m always fiddling with “smaller” vs “easier to use”, based on what mood i’m in that day.

Fair enough, good point. Though I’d attribute that to the tiny bit of bubble-action we might see when doing a regular brake bleed. Common over the years for me when I KNOW I’ve bled the new fluid through, there shouldn’t be any more visible air, but still that occasional little bubble is seen, so I end up pumping more, but it never really goes away. The vac bleed was giving the same kind of huge air bubbles/gaps I’d been getting when even hand bleeding, and with two different slaves & bleed valves. Still unsolved mystery in my head, though maybe that is the issue, and just using a tiny bit of vacuum and letting it “pull” really slow would be the test for that, along with grease on the threads.

long pause…. got distracted with other mx projects, then shuffled my way back over to the Gran Canyon. nothing was working, including tying off the lever, but walking away from it for a while allowed the proper “re-focus”, reminding myself “oh ya, the old suction bleeder…”. so I dug that out where its been sitting for years, and rigged it up. Got some fluid to flow, but still with tons of air, and could not get a clean, solid flow still. Stumped, and annoyed, I closed the bleed valve after a sucking through a couple reservoirs full of Dot 4, scratched my head, then just absent mindedly grabbed the lever. It worked. Tried again…. solid resistance, felt perfect. Hmm… there was a ton of air coming out of that slave still when I last closed the valve, but now it seems fine. went back out last night, tried again, felt great, started it up (purrs like a kitten…. or maybe a bit of a young lion, as my sons carbon cans on that 904cc duc motor have no inserts, so she’s a bit noisy, in a not-unenjoyable way, despite me loving quiet bikes), and clutch worked great for a quick test ride. so, good that it works. but still annoyed with what just happened. That much air coming out when bleeding has always meant no way it’s going to work right and needs more bleeding. Need the scooby doo mystery mobile team to solve the mystery.

Not sure I follow what you're saying, but am interested! My Norwegian language skills are just barely above "zero", though I try, so i'm not complaining. Sounds like you did take the beauty for a spin and she wasn't behaving?

So many Norwegians! Love it. I’ve had mixed luck with the modern computer match options, but if you’ll paint the whole part then that’s easy, as the computer is definitely close enough for that. It’s just for juxtaposing stock with painted panels, or (god forbid) blending, where it’s risky.

slightly odd that the picture of the bike in the ebay post doesn’t appear to be showing the kit installed, just a stock setup. ok, not a great way to show what the kit does. I think Activepop installed a set, though i haven’t heard what he thought of them. I’m quite fond of mine, part of a couple minor tweaks that makes Red noticeably more comfortable than goldie, even though same year & model.

And she’s in lovely company, with a blue (less common) ST4, and a red 1st gen multistrada, bikes i enjoyed riding, each unique in their own way.

Hmm. I guess I must have registered the bike with AMA at some point in the last 9yrs. I think signed up with AMA for first time when riding the new-to-me red v11 from Oklahoma to Oregon some years ago, not knowing whether it was truly ready for the journey (seller said “no problem”, but of course that’s taken at my own peril). Docc and good folks on this forum supported that excellent journey, with some hot tips when Red decided to just stop running in the middle of nowheresville north Texas…. But all ended well, with no tow.

Looks like you have the same options as i do, with AMA and Progressive, and then i recently added AAA. After years of refusing and not needing to pay for AAA, I just recently changed my tune because my beloved "whitey", my F350 diesel, which has 320,000+ miles and running as well as ever, but i figure if i tempt fate too long it'll bite me. so a towing option for the old Ford also gets me additional towing option for bikes, via AAA. I cued up the AMA option last month to have my '16 Duc towed, in case my timing didn't work out with a part i needed to get it running, and on a tight schedule. I didn't pull the trigger, and it took me a good 20 minutes to wade through the process, but looked like it would have worked well. But that was just for a ~10 mile tow. AAA says its up to 100 mile tow, for the middle membership option. I wouldn't want to justify that annual cost for just the bikes, but with the truck as the main focus there, then the bonus for the bike tow is great. I have never really looked into the progressive option, though i think i check that box for coverage, since i recall it being super cheap.

I love the sentiment, but have to say for my part that despite now being solidly in the “smitten for life” category, the V11 was an acquired taste for me. I’m that way with a lot of things…. a character flaw. I’ve related here elsewhere on the forum that I literally scoffed at my riding buddy who originally bought one of the LeMans I now own, telling him who would buy such a ridiculous machine, as I compared it to my ST4, in a friendly competition type way, but in my mind the ST4 beat it in every category. I do still have a soft spot for the ST4, but it’s long gone, while it’s unthinkable to imagine selling the LeMans. And not that such detail is important, but since we’re musing, i’ll add that the first V11 for me, the one I had scoffed at earlier, was the one that I became smitten with, but it wasn’t true love till I got Red. Not really for the difference in paint, but I got Red completely sorted and purring like a kitten, in a way I could never quite do on Goldie. Same process, mods, etc., and Goldie now runs excellent, but there’s some kind of buzz/vibration and different “power band” that just isn’t quite right… or i’ll at least say its just different in a way i don’t prefer, while Red is "perfect" in my estimation (and Reds suspension is better dialed-in, which of course makes an important difference…i gave up on Goldies suspension when Red came along). Personality! part of what is endearing about these bikes.

I have 2 of those earthX batt’s now. well, actually one, as a failed relay on my 1200 Duc killed one of them, barely out of the starting gate, with me returning to my bike i had stored down south to find the voltage at around 1.4V. that story is told elsewhere, but a sure scientific sign that Murphy loves to have a laugh…. spend the big bucks, high-five for how great it seems to turn out, then an apparently known Duc (service bulletin, unbeknownst to me) issue kills it. But the 1st one is in the V11 and I am indeed quite fond of it, for its small size and lovely cranking power. I’ve now inherited a 2nd “no name” li-ion battery, and so far so good, which is newer territory for me. because of the aforementioned concerns with li-ions i’d been sticking with highly rated ones when i’m buying new, but i’ve got 2 cheap/no-name brand li-ions now in different bikes i purchased used, and they’ve been great. in fact, a 3rd one, actually a big-name unit (brand escapes at the moment…) is from 2018, and its still going strong (in KTM 990, but removed it when i sold the bike), so thats a single data point for longevity. Doc, where’d you find a PC545 for $148?

i did carry-on there quite a bit on that last post :-> A shorter version of an answer is that yes, complacency kills, and I preach at every new hire class and every annual recurrent that “if you’re too nervous when you fly (and preparing to fly) then you’re probably in the wrong job, and if you’re not nervous at all when you fly, then you're definitely in the wrong job”.

complacency is unquestionably our #1 issue, based on industry data, as well as data from within my own company, where during this last big pilot shortage everyone became afraid of allowing such low time pilots into the professional ranks due to necessity. but turns out the strong majority of issues that are captured in our SMS are not from inexperienced pilots, but from highly experienced pilots being complacent. as you note, battling complacency is a real challenge. I don’t have the answers, just lots of little things we all do. that air france thing, ugh. there’s usually more to the story, and I get that, but from where i sit that right seater had no business being there, hauling back on the stick in panic/animal-reflex like he was. Thats actually something i thought our industry was doing a good job, training that out of people…. “i need to go up, so pull up”, which of course is all wrong in a stall. sim training (etc) seems to have generally done a good job training that out of people, but apparently not good enough. And so thats where experience does play into safety…. pilots who have never had to see what they’ll do under true, unanticipated issues, are real wildcards in my mind. Darwin at work… you need to see some real action/issues before you and the rest of the world will know how you’re wired. then after that, yes, proper training. but there are so, so many pilots flying, and with such an astronomically fantastic safety record compared to any other normal transport mode, it sort of falls into the “it’s going to happen now and then” category, though that understandably sounds disrespectful to those who died. the repetition which leads to complacency is co-mingled with great habits that are formed, which are part of “experience”. we achieve the experience to be able to be comfortable and competent, no longer the wound-up, slightly anxious, “low timer”, but with that comes a natural regression into some degree of complacency. There’s no substitute for self discipline. beyond that, i do think that AI will be a true plus here, though it will take forever to benefit us, as it takes soooo long for the FAA and our litigious society to get anything done in commercial aviation. that said, as alluded earlier, the overall safety record is so good there actually shouldn’t be any panic-type approach to any of this. in fact, i don’t have near enough info for a qualified final opinion, but i don’t know in this case what I would change on the side of CRJ crew/industry side. any changes made to address this specific issue would probably have negative effects on other scenarios. its the military side in this case that probably needs to be looked at for possible enhancements, or more simplistically, just re-configuration of the airspace. that airspace is undeniably crazy. we lived without it for years after 9-11, but Reagan national re-opened, which i suppose is good, but regardless of all else that’s what allowed this scenario to play out as it did.

there are lots of places where the thick air traffic is crazy, though there are surprisingly few issues, despite what i would have said was common sense that "this can't end well". We have the majority of our operations in Alaska, where the skill set needed there is one that requires a real change for pilots coming up from lower 48 (for the village flying, not so much the big airport flying), and not all the folks from down south can adapt. on the other hand, when we have an alaskan pilot move south, its fun in many cases to watch those confident, skilled, experienced aviators suddenly have a look of shock when they first depart the LA basin in a jet, with so much traffic and ATC chatter... thats something they have to adapt to. I moved from Anchorage to LA in the 90's, and that first month down there i'll admit I was properly humbled. Then i got to enjoy watching my friends that I hired and moved down from Alaska all go through the same thing...."What, what are you looking at?" they'd say, as we're holding short for their first take off. "oh, you'll see, mr. tough guy...".

you're not wrong. but even if trained that way and fully "buying in", its takes several moments to snap out of your reverie of doing the same old thing and then reacting. its true that we're trained that we must follow the directions of an RA, but that flies in contrast to the "calm down and deal with things with a cool head", as over-reaction has caused a good deal more pain and suffering than a slightly delayed reaction time to an issue, in most scenarios. But not all scenarios. Even for an RA, which they didn't have (only TA, presumably), you'd normally have several seconds to react. I'll say that my reaction to a TA is first to quickly look at the fish-finder (the screen that shows you where your nearby traffic is) to see whats going on. We get TA's semi regularly, and the response is to check the fish finder to see whats up, then look outside for the real target/aircraft, and normally little or nothing needs to be done other than monitoring that other target. I only very rarely get RA's, and a calm reaction to do what is being directed works fine. Down low where a helo is coming up fast from underneath you... I think that'd be a helluva test, requiring astute technique and at least a little luck, and maybe a lot of luck.

agreed. and that's neat that you got the chance to do that VFR corridor flight a number of times. I always felt guilty scooting along that route while slowed down to whatever the max speed that was allowed, in a lovely old, gas-guzzling, loud, 20 series Lear. Felt like somehow I was going to get in trouble. its a reasonable assumption in my mind that in DC the rotor driver just did an "oops", and then things happened pretty quick and ended badly.

ah yes, RA inhibited. don’t think it would make a difference in this case, as a pilot will typically need to mentally process what the barking-betty is saying, which should be quick, but whether its a “traffic, traffic” call or a “climb, climb” RA, there would be a brief pause before the pilot initiated real action, and in this case probably too late. And i’m not sure what the (simple) logic circuit would make of the path of the helo…

No TCAS below 1000’? not sure where that comes from… it should work fine, just with different parameters. Thats some really crowded airspace, so while its all horrible of course what happened, and the odds are astronomically in favor of a safe operation based on the zillions of flight hours and operations that have safely been done, its still not totally surprising that an “oops” from a pilot would cause the carnage in that crowded area. Well before 9-11, which of course changed everything, we’d sometimes depart Teterboro and fly down the hudson in a little jet (lear 20 series) very low… I believe the VFR corridor dictated we be at 1100’ or thereabouts, right in proximity to helicopters and little piston planes, and it felt like you could touch the statue of liberty. Seemed a bit naughty, as the corridor was intended for light aircraft and helo’s, but regardless, in addition to all those little aircraft swarming around us everywhere we were also sandwiched so near the arriving and departing IFR corridors for Newark and Teterboro. But somehow it all worked…. most of the time. the military guys are exceptionally well trained, but not always as adept with civilian ATC, as they may have more distraction and/or a lot less experience in flight hours in that realm. We’ll sometimes see helicopter pilots that finish their military stint and have not much more than 1000 hrs of flight time on their resume. not totally fair to compare the two types of flying, but in the fixed wing civilian world, you’d need more hours than that to even begin to sit as co-pilot.