17-MAR-2010
Day 76 - Frame
(806/365)
I've finally answered my year-old question of "Has anyone painted their VStrom Frame?"
I am answering 'Yes'.
Bedliner takes about 15 minutes to apply the three coats (this is at coat #2) over an hour period of time. It takes about 3 hours of prep though to get to the painting stage. I had to wrap everything, including my chain and rear caliper. I'm not shooting for perfection here, I'm shooting for initial appearance. What I have missed with the bedliner, I expect to cover up with dirt and grime in the first month back on the road.
16-MAR-2010
Day 75 - Flow
(805/365)
I swung by the falls this morning (I swung by three separate falls this morning, this is also known as "the falls" at least to me). There is a stone ledge in front of the camera that I am usually concerned with getting to close to as it is about an 8' drop to the rocky shore below. Today the river water was within about an inch or two of spilling over the stone ledge. The water on this side of the falls is tidal, so I have to assume it was high tide, but even then the water level was quite high.
I set up the ND 6 on the tripod and went to town. This time I was good enough to hold my whibal card in front of the camera to get an exposure for adjustment later (that was a long shot of holding my arm out for 25 seconds too). The work paid off, normally there is a huge red shift that whacks my color so I just go B&W. I actually had to desaturate the blue because it looked so artificial. Turns out our town (South Berwick) reported rainfall of 9" during this storm. Considering the weathermen said 2" - 4" was expected, I would consider this signifigant.
15-MAR-2010
Day 74 - Great Works Pano
(804/365)
This is a highly deformed pano of the Great Works River on the west side of the new bridge. I shot this pano with an ND 4 filter in place. This might be my first Long-Exposure Pano. The steel girders in the photo are actually straight. If you can straighten this out in your mind, you can get an idea for the amount of water here. The trees in the distance form the banking at the river's curve. The house to the right sits on property that extends to this curve. While I have seen the river come up over the bank, I don't recall seeing it go so far up. This is the same river that has overspilled into our development, I have a photo in my Flickr Photo stream of it.
14-MAR-2010
Day 73 - PJ Fencer
(803/365)
My oldest has been fencing with my wife for the past 4 1/2 months so I've never had a chance to see. My wife is gone for a week & 1/2 so I get to take my daughter to her fencing lessons. The studio is horribly lit, there are flourescent lights and the walls are this orangish/yellow color, not white. It screams "White Balance" at least to me. I only brought the LX3 which doesn't have any zoom. She was in the far area, I was sitting in this little seating area that extended to where I am taking this shot, though I was another 10 - 12 feet back. It looks like I can go into the studio while they are practicing. I might bring my 'gear' with me next weekend. I was hesitant to bring the gear today with the storm in full force, though I could have had some pretty cool shots in our town of water shooting up through the sewer, knocking the manhole cover off about 3 feet or so.
13-MAR-2010
Day 72 - Front End
(802/365)
My bike finally has a front end! It's missing a couple of things like brake lines and brakes. But I finally finished my forks! With the front tire back on, I was able to take the bike off the stands and push it to its new location near the garage door. After a short-lived timeframe where it resembled a motorcycle, I popped it back up on its center stand and yanked the rear tire. I've already pulled the front sprocket, I have to replace a seal behind the front sprocket and also install my lowering links. I have to do both of these things with the rear off. If the temps warm up a bit (after we get slammed by this current storm), I will hit the frame with some bedliner.
12-MAR-2010
Day 71 - Discarded
(801/365)
So I don't want to make it look like I eat at some fast food restaurant all the time, but today I was eating a little lunch in the McDonald's parking lot and noticed this rose on the ground beside my car. I studied it for a while trying to figure out its story. I was wondering who left or lost it there in the parking lot. I was also wondering why no one claimed it, even though it was very dead by the time I noticed it, that may not have been the case when it was dropped. Of course, if it had been there for a long time, it would have been much flatter from getting run over by vehicles.
I imagine others were wondering what the heck I was doing outside in the parking lot with a big 'ole Canon white lens (70-200 F4L) taking photos of something on the ground. I already know my story though ;-)
11-MAR-2010
Day 70 - Parking Lot Handouts
(800/365)
I actually had a lunch today, I left the building and everything. My first stop was Sears to look for a replacement Torque Wrench. While the Torque Wrench didn't pan out, I got completely sidetracked on some garage gear from Whirlpool called Gladiator Garageworks. I know what I will be looking at in the coming months once I've finished the bike.
After Sears I went to Wendy's for my favorite cheeseburger. I have this routine whenever I go (which isn't that often). I pull into the adjoining parking lot (KMart, which is now another Sears) and eat so that I'm not screwing around with eating and driving. Normally there are a bunch of Seagulls just hanging out waiting for people to feed them. I've never fed them before, but I had my camera with me so I figured this would be a great oppurtunity to capture a bird or two. This little guy got a little piece of a french fry from me. He was hanging out waiting for more, but I'm a bit of a Scrooge with my fries.
10-MAR-2010
Day 69 - Partial
(799/365)
I'm only partially here today. These late nights are taking a toll. I am not the first one to ride in on my motorcycle to work this year. My bike is not road worthy and it can't get any more road worthy if I'm at work all the time.
/rant
09-MAR-2010
Day 68 - Misidentified Frustration
(798/365)
Another one of these "its at the top of my list today photos". This past weekend, I almost finished my front end on the bike. Almost. I was lining up the parts for the left fork, getting all the seals and bushings lined up so that I did it right, when I realized that the part that was supposed to be the Oil Seal, was actually a dust seal. I am very anal about ordering parts, I have a logistical background and I work in the Auto ID (As in Identification) market (bar codes). I ordered the right part (#51153-14D00), the bag had the wrong part.
So I was unable to finish the fork,
which meant I was unable to mount the forks,
which meant I was unable to mount the tire,
which meant I was unable to put the bike back down on its two wheels,
which meant I was unable to move the bike forward,
which meant I was unable to put the bike back up on it's center-stand,
which meant I was unable to remove the rear tire,
which meant I was unable to work on my front sprocket or my lowering links.
This also meant I was unable to prep my rear swing arm for paint.
I was able to source the correct part from a company nearby (in Maine) that got it to me in two days (not bad). Unfortunately I don't have the time to finish the forks until the weekend. . .
08-MAR-2010
Day 67 - Distorted
(797/365)
I got home late again, I wanted to try some kind of Strobist shot with shadows and someone had left this clothespin on the kitchen table.
Strobist Info:
580EX-2 Camera Left 1/128 Power. Triggered via Cybersyncs.
07-MAR-2010
Day 66 - Grunge
(779/365)
This is pretty much how I feel today. I had a pretty busy day today. Productive day also. I finished (to the best of my knowledge) all of the removable parts on my bike that need to be painted with the black bedliner. I put on my new handlebar, it's lightly takced on, the grips haven't been added yet (not sure if I am going to use the original grips or a different set). I was able to successfully spray myself with brake fluid in the process of taking off the old bars (nice!).
06-MAR-2010
Day 65 - Big Race
(796/365)
My son didn't do so hot in the pinewood derby today. Both races he came in last (they have a double elimination). Its all in the wheels, something had to be wrong with the wheels.