Sunday, January 25, 2004
What a day! What a BEAUTIFUL DAY! Most cancer survivors (you know you don't 'cure' or 'beat' cancer, you 'survive' it, if you are lucky) anyhow, most cancer survivors probably share my thought that EVERY day you wake up is a beautiful day. It is so wonderful to be ALIVE!
But today! Today was exceptional. The sun was out, the air was crisp, clear and chilly. And at 10:30am, a group of my friends (Kevin, Chuck, Larissa & Sara) went for a motorcycle ride. Unfortunately, my pal Aparna, visiting from India, has a little cold, and could not make it with us. So I took the Suzuki Mo-tard. But what a day.
We rode through Saratoga, out Highway 9, up into the hills, out to the pacific coast, and stopped in Davenport for lunch. Oh my, I could have stopped there and had a full day. After lunch we took the Pacific Coast highway north, then came inland over Stagecoach Road. Woo Hoo! tight, twisty, perfect for a hooligan on a super motard. I rode fast, I did wheelies, I did rolling stoppies, I backed it into corners, I was laughing so hard my face hurt from smiling.
Oh, brilliance. Oh joy.
Through the small town of San Gregorio, and out to the coast again to Tunitas Creek Road. Wee Tiny goat-trail of a road along the creek. Now this is no normal creek. It looks like rain forest. Jurrasic rain forest to be exact. Big ferns, giant redwoods, high canopy, I just kept waiting for a dinosaur to run across the road.
Stopped at Alices for gas, rested a bit, then down Page Mill Road and home.
I am tired, I am feeling great. What a day!
Other news:
My 'hellstorm' tactical police watch cap arrived Friday afternoon. It fits a lot closer to my head, and is V warm & soft, and I look like a bad man when I wear it, but it doesn't fit under a helmet, and is still a little large.
My pal Rebecca was on her way to work Thursday, and some guy in a car thought she was ready to stop, and assisted her. Fortunately, she is okay, but her street/city bike is done for. Everyone is sending her all sorts of good wishes, which is grand, as she's a wonderful person.
Friday night Sara and I went for schmancy dinner at Jack's girlfriend Elaine's house. yummy yummy fishes.
Saturday we slept late, Sara had an afternoon Yoga workshop, while Kevin & I went for vietnamese noodles.
OH OH OH! And I sold my spare DRZ motor yesterday, having all the spare money has lead to me Next week, I go to SF to look at a 1963 Honda 305 Superhawk a gal up there needs to part with. This is the bike I dream about, and hope it is a worthy bike, if so, I may have a new project.....
A few weeks back was our pal Joan's birthday, Jack's brilliant photos are up here: http://homepage.mac.com/ojack/PhotoAlbum67.html
if you look at the album, photo#
jack2193 is Jack & Elaine
jack2126 is Me & Jack pretending to not talk to each other
jack2223 is the most brilliant photo of my pal Kevin Tiene
jack2282xx is Joan & Dale
jack2276 is our pal Karolyn from Kanada
jack2274 is Joanne, the fastest motorcycle next to OMJ in the world, with her husband Mauro, the best baker
jack2239 is apparently me administering a birthday spanking?
jack2246 is me next to the most beautiful woman I know. (who will let me kiss her)
Work is busy, but it's all good stuff. I just got a new laptop, IBM T-40, to replace my old T-30. So far I've been configuring it, and it seems a little pokey, but the keyboard has nice action, and really feels workable. I have some budgeting to finish at work, meetings to set, etc, but hope to really dive into my book on the flight to India.
And now, I must stop, cause I am way tired. But first, this forwarded from my pal Joe in Austin, comparing a dragster to a GP Motorcycle
Interesting facts passed along from Ray Blank, Pres of American Honda MC Group
While I'm not crazy about the sport, horsepower is always intoxicating:
* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.
* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.
* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.
* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.
* Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. Cutting the fuel flow can only shut down the engine.
* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
* In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.
* Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.
* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).
Putting all of this into perspective:
You are riding the average US$250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec).
The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him.
Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.
But today! Today was exceptional. The sun was out, the air was crisp, clear and chilly. And at 10:30am, a group of my friends (Kevin, Chuck, Larissa & Sara) went for a motorcycle ride. Unfortunately, my pal Aparna, visiting from India, has a little cold, and could not make it with us. So I took the Suzuki Mo-tard. But what a day.
We rode through Saratoga, out Highway 9, up into the hills, out to the pacific coast, and stopped in Davenport for lunch. Oh my, I could have stopped there and had a full day. After lunch we took the Pacific Coast highway north, then came inland over Stagecoach Road. Woo Hoo! tight, twisty, perfect for a hooligan on a super motard. I rode fast, I did wheelies, I did rolling stoppies, I backed it into corners, I was laughing so hard my face hurt from smiling.
Oh, brilliance. Oh joy.
Through the small town of San Gregorio, and out to the coast again to Tunitas Creek Road. Wee Tiny goat-trail of a road along the creek. Now this is no normal creek. It looks like rain forest. Jurrasic rain forest to be exact. Big ferns, giant redwoods, high canopy, I just kept waiting for a dinosaur to run across the road.
Stopped at Alices for gas, rested a bit, then down Page Mill Road and home.
I am tired, I am feeling great. What a day!
Other news:
My 'hellstorm' tactical police watch cap arrived Friday afternoon. It fits a lot closer to my head, and is V warm & soft, and I look like a bad man when I wear it, but it doesn't fit under a helmet, and is still a little large.
My pal Rebecca was on her way to work Thursday, and some guy in a car thought she was ready to stop, and assisted her. Fortunately, she is okay, but her street/city bike is done for. Everyone is sending her all sorts of good wishes, which is grand, as she's a wonderful person.
Friday night Sara and I went for schmancy dinner at Jack's girlfriend Elaine's house. yummy yummy fishes.
Saturday we slept late, Sara had an afternoon Yoga workshop, while Kevin & I went for vietnamese noodles.
OH OH OH! And I sold my spare DRZ motor yesterday, having all the spare money has lead to me Next week, I go to SF to look at a 1963 Honda 305 Superhawk a gal up there needs to part with. This is the bike I dream about, and hope it is a worthy bike, if so, I may have a new project.....
A few weeks back was our pal Joan's birthday, Jack's brilliant photos are up here: http://homepage.mac.com/ojack/PhotoAlbum67.html
if you look at the album, photo#
jack2193 is Jack & Elaine
jack2126 is Me & Jack pretending to not talk to each other
jack2223 is the most brilliant photo of my pal Kevin Tiene
jack2282xx is Joan & Dale
jack2276 is our pal Karolyn from Kanada
jack2274 is Joanne, the fastest motorcycle next to OMJ in the world, with her husband Mauro, the best baker
jack2239 is apparently me administering a birthday spanking?
jack2246 is me next to the most beautiful woman I know. (who will let me kiss her)
Work is busy, but it's all good stuff. I just got a new laptop, IBM T-40, to replace my old T-30. So far I've been configuring it, and it seems a little pokey, but the keyboard has nice action, and really feels workable. I have some budgeting to finish at work, meetings to set, etc, but hope to really dive into my book on the flight to India.
And now, I must stop, cause I am way tired. But first, this forwarded from my pal Joe in Austin, comparing a dragster to a GP Motorcycle
Interesting facts passed along from Ray Blank, Pres of American Honda MC Group
While I'm not crazy about the sport, horsepower is always intoxicating:
* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.
* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.
* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.
* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.
* Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. Cutting the fuel flow can only shut down the engine.
* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
* In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.
* Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.
* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).
Putting all of this into perspective:
You are riding the average US$250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec).
The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him.
Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.
# posted by Charles Statman : 7:51 PM
