Snowbum and Penny
Amor Vincit Omnia

 He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool...shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is willing...teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep...awaken him.
He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise...follow him."
--Chinese proverb

A young Rocky.....playing hide and seek

Another photo of me skiing, several years
after the above photo.  Here I am at the
very top of Heavenly Valley Ski Resort,
just before I headed down Ellie's Run, my
favorite on the California side of Heavenly
Resort.  Here I am at age 72:

Inside every older person is a younger person wondering,
"what the Hell happened?"

K1100LT-EML, new Weatherproof Top I made

 A motorcycle is not just a two-wheeled car; the difference between
driving a car and climbing onto a motorcycle is the difference between
watching TV and actually living your life. We spend all our time sealed
in boxes and cars are just the rolling boxes that shuffle us from
home-box to work-box to store-box and back, the whole time, entombed in
stale air, temperature regulated, sound insulated, and smelling of carpets.
On a motorcycle I know I'm alive. When I ride, even the familiar seems
strange and glorious.  The air has weight and substance as I push through
it and its touch is as intimate as water to a swimmer.
  I feel the cool wells of air that pool under trees and the warm spokes of sunshine that fall through them.   I can see everything
 in a sweeping 360 degrees, up, down and around, wider than Pana-vision and IMAX and unrestricted by ceiling or                                                                      
dashboard. Sometimes I even hear music.  It's like hearing phantom telephones in the shower or false doorbells when
vacuuming; the pattern-loving brain, seeking signals in the noise, raises acoustic ghosts out of the wind's roar.

But on a motorcycle I hear whole songs: rock 'n roll, dark orchestras, women's voices, all hidden in the air and released by speed.

 by Dave Karlotski (who had things to say about riding in COLD weather too!...see further down this page)

1983 BMW R100RT with Ural sidecar.
We sometimes DO get that much snow in the
Winter.    Yes, I'm on my way to the ski slopes.

Below is a Summertime view of the same spot as to the right.
This was my most recent two-wheel ride, a 1984 BMW motorcycle,
R100RT, set up for long distance touring. 
I've been asked about the top-box.
I think it is an old Luftmeister. 
This 1984 motorcycle and almost all my special tools
has been sold, and the motorcycle and tools may
sometimes be at my home, sometimes not. 
details: CLICK

A few more things, by Dave Karlotski

There is cold, and there is cold on a motorcycle.
Cold on a motorcycle is like being beaten with cold hammers while being kicked with cold boots, a bone bruising cold.
 The wind's big hands squeeze the heat out of my body and whisk it away; caught in a cold October rain, the drops don't even feel like water.
 They feel like shards of bone fallen from the skies of Hell to pock my face.
I expect to arrive with my cheeks and forehead streaked with blood, but that's just an illusion, just the misery of nerves not designed for highway speeds.

Despite this, it's hard to give up my motorcycle in the fall and I rush to get it on the road again in the spring; lapses of sanity like this are common among motorcyclists.
When you let a motorcycle into your life you're changed forever.
 The letters "MC" are stamped on your driver's license right next to your sex and height as if "motorcycle" was just another of your physical characteristics, or maybe a mental condition.

But when warm weather finally does come around all those cold snaps and rainstorms are paid in full because a motorcycle summer is worth any price.

At 30 miles an hour and up, smells become uncannily vivid.
All the individual tree-smells and flower-smells and grass-smells flit by like chemical notes in a great plant symphony.
Sometimes the smells evoke memories so strongly that it's as though the past hangs invisible in the air around me,
wanting only the most casual of rumbling time machines to unlock it.
A ride on a summer afternoon can border on the rapturous.

The sheer volume and variety of stimuli is like a bath for my nervous system, an electrical massage for my brain, a systems check for my soul.
It tears smiles out of me: a minute ago I was dour, depressed, apathetic, numb, but now, on two wheels, big, ragged, windy smiles flap against the side of my face,
billowing out of me like air from a decompressing plane.
Transportation is only a secondary function.

A motorcycle is a joy machine.
It's a machine of wonders, a metal bird, a motorized prosthetic.
It's light and dark and shiny and dirty and warm and cold lapping over each other; it's a conduit of grace, it's a catalyst for bonding the gritty and the holy.


Cars lie to us and tell us we're safe, powerful, and in control.
The air-conditioning fans murmur empty assurances and whisper, "Sleep, sleep."
 Motorcycles tell us a more useful truth: we are small and exposed, and probably moving too fast for our own good, but that's no reason not to enjoy every minute of the ride.

 

Notice the snow height at Penny's feet & at right lower corner & area under the mailbox.
Nearly to Penny's hips OVERNIGHT


 

Copyright information!

The information (caveat lector!) on most of this motorcyclists website is copyrighted; usually, but not always, indicated by a copyright symbol ©. You are granted 'reasonable use', and this is shown in detail at the top of the Technical Articles Index list page. If you use an article or parts of an article, please quote me as the source, and do not edit to change my information, as I wish to be responsible for MY input, not yours.  This website is provided free to you for personal, NOT BUSINESS USE. You are forbidden to use ANY of my material in any commercial way. You may NOT place any of my writings/website on a disc and sell the disc.   ASK if you have questions on my website use!!   The Technical Index page has a lot more information on using my material....PLEASE read it!

There are two roads in life, the twisty one is vastly more fun

Reputation is what you are perceived to be, character is what you are; REAL character means doing what is right
(when nobody is looking)

Common sense isn't

Most folks look intelligent.....then they say something

Be Careful when arguing with an idiot...folks watching may get confused as to who that is

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS.
YOU CAN'T LIVE LONG ENOUGH
TO MAKE THEM ALL YOURSELF!

The Purpose Of An Open Mind---Is To Close It On Something

I was always taught to respect my elders,
But it keeps getting harder to find one.

Remember, half the people you know are below average.

 

Internet mailing LISTS and websites:
Your query may well help others... PLEASE post technical inquiries to the appropriate LIST, below.
If the message is very personal. you can contact me at: CLICK!

******If you are new to Internet Mailing Lists, and especially if new to BMW motorcycle riding and BMW motorcycle people, please click on this line and read the short article!!******

You MAY be told to "take it to the LIST!" if you contact me directly, without a very good reason for doing so.
You CAN get advice from Snowbum, and many others, on the various LISTS. 
Snowbum participates mostly on the Airheads LIST; the SCT sidecar LIST; the USCA-West LIST, the K-BMW LIST, and the K-Tech LIST (IBMWR)

The Airheads LIST is hosted by Micapeak.com: see the top of the Technical-articles-list page on how to subscribe; and how to access various functions, including the archives!
Airheads main website (besides mine!) http://www.airheads.org
SCT sidecar LIST http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/SCT
Western USA branch of the above SCT sidecar LIST:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/USCAWest/
K-BMW LIST http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/kbmw   Covers, extensively, the Classic K bike's, K75, K100, K1, K1100
Airhead, K-bike, Oilheads, ETC.  Often called The Big List:   http://IBMWR.org (snowbum participates on the Tech list here)
Oilheads, Hexheads, Camheads, K bikes:  http://bmwsporttouring.com  (snowbum does NOT participate here)

 

The Goal Of Every Engineer Is To Retire Without Being Blamed For A Major Catastrophe.
 

Logic is an organized procedure, for going wrong with confidence and certainty.

Penny and I took the K1100LT-EML sidecar rig from Lake Tahoe across the USA via Nevada, lower Utah and
Colorado, into Kansas and then northerly, to Duluth, Minnesota. We returned mostly via Hy 2 across the top
of the USA...over 5500 miles total. A text and photo blog on the trip is on this website, and you can CLICK for the page.
 

  Not all that proficient on editing E-mails?  Want to know how to do it? Want to know about special keyboard characters, ETC. ?    CLICK HERE   Info is near very bottom.

2008 Across the USA trip

You live
WHERE?
03/06/2008

FOR SALE

(And things wanted)

Getting started
on doing your
own motorcycle
maintenance

Deer Whistles

Three  Santa's 

Politics, inane and serious
ramblings, philosophy, stories
updated 04/01/2011

One Scary Moment
in an Airplane, the
R60/2 is Stolen, more BIO

A humorous short article...A Winter Tale: CLICK! 

       
Technical Articles List
 rev. 01-31-2012
       
           

 Prostate Cancer:
REAL Facts! 

For SALE
& Wanted.
 

Old age and Treachery:
CLICK!
 

Totally worthless & maybe nerdy stuff

Motorcycles, sidecars, & 
cars/trucks I've
owned and ridden
                                

All the technical information on this site is:

But, if you want to donate to help defray costs:  DONATING

Maintenance schedules for all
BMW motorcycles, even the
C1 scooter, is available: www.ascycles.com/service_schedules.aspx.  These schedules are not as complete as my personal ones.

Join the Airheads
 Club!

Throttle screws; friction & anti-friction devices; Snowbum gets OFF and RUNNING!

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