Thursday, 2 April 2009

Some political views - I hate the 'Sena's'.

I know its a biker blog but I could not help but express my views about politics as India goes to elections. 

India, a rising economy whose strength lies in vast human capital, diversity (and unity within it), educational institutions and entrepreneurial spirits of Indians. However some forces are trying to destroy two of these factors: human capital and unity of diversity. These forces are the so called 'Moral Police', 'Community protectors' and all that BS. I am talking about all the so called 'Sena's': 
'Shiv Sena', 'Manav Nirman Seva', 'Ram Sen' etc. 

Yes I hate them I hate them from my guts. They are a terrorist organisation. They harm the country more than any other terrorist organisation because they live within us. They travel in buses and trains with us and one say they start beating us because either we are not from the state or some community or because some of us are women. First India was divided because of religion then political parties for their vote bank tried to divide us based on caste and then now MNS and the #$@#$@#$ Raj Thackarey are trying to divide based on states and another #%#%# muthalik based on gender. Now Shiv Sena is trying to make sure that a terrorist friend of their's - Kasab does not get a trial and are doing unconstitutional things. The reason they attacked Lawyer Anjali Waghmare is because they want the terrorist to go scot free. I am sure they know (atleast their good for nothing chief Bal Thackarey knows) that if Kasab does not get a trial he can not be convicted and its constitutionally correct to provide him with a Lawyer. Where were these so called 'sainiks' when Mumbai was being attacked? Why did they not form an army and fight the terrorist? Because they were hand in glove with them. Am i accusing Bal Thackarey to be a terrorist? Yes I am. He should be probed and I am sure he can be linked to come terrorist organisation. 

Then there is that rascal called Raj an his own terrorist organisation called MNS. He is trying to divide the country based on states. Who gave him the right to beat up innocent students just because they were from Bihar? Isn't that act an act of terrorism? 

Lets not talk about Muthalik. Enough has already been said about him. He will be busy counting the pink chaddis he received.

My biggest agony is that these terrorists are not arrested and kept in jails forget about giving them a death penalty which they so very much deserve. They cause damage to Indian Constitution everyday. 

Please do not vote for any of them. Lets not give power to the terrorists.    

Please forward the link to my blog to Bal Thackarey and his terrorists, Raj and his team of numb skulls. I want them to read this. 



Monday, 1 September 2008

My Unemployment Trip to Adirondacks Park

Unemployment Trip to Adirondacks National Park
“What is the good of being a genius if you cannot use it as an excuse for being unemployed?”
Gerald Barzan
Day 1:

August 22nd, 2008 was my last working day, as an intern, at Irving Oil and I still did not have a job lined up. I decided to go for a weekend ride and camping rather than sulk in my apartment. A friend helped me fix the brakes and change the brake pads on Friday night and by next morning my brakes were in a perfect working condition. I had rented a Tent and Sleeping pad a day earlier for the weekend. I strapped the sleeping bag, the tent, sleeping pad and my back pack on the bike and set sail. I had to use innovation to be able to be able to strap all of them as this bike is not exactly designed for adventure touring. I started riding early morning on Saturday and caught the sunrise when I was on the highway. Last time I remember seeing a sunrise was when we were partying overnight in Lima, Peru.





My Camera was acting all funny. I think having been on my tank bag for so long for the past few weeks, something inside it came loose or something. This is the kind of pictures it started taking. The whole image was shaking very vigrously and the camera was making a funny clicking sound



As soon as I entered Vermont, I had plans to hit PDR – Puppy Dog Road, a dirt and gravel track which goes all the way upto Canadian Border. I did some part of it but unfortunately I had to leave that track when I saw the floating bridge, which is a major part of it was closed. Also I had to meet up with a friend for a hike in Burlington, VT. So, after riding some dirt tracks



I hit the highway and slabbed it all the way to Winnoski, VT where my friend lives. Soon me and Adam left for Camel’s Hump. We hiked up for about 2 hours and the view from the top was amazing. I think it will be a great hike in fall for the colors. The hike down took us almost the same time and by the time we reached the bottom, we both were starving. Went to his place, showered quickly and then left with his room mate for getting some food. Nothing better than a huge Burrito when you are starving!

Day 2:

Stayed at my friend's place for the night. Crashed on his couch but got a great sleep after the tiring day or riding and hiking.



Next morning, hit the road after a long and lazy breakfast. Hit some nice back roads in VT











Took the Chimney Point Bridge into NY and straight into Adirondacks Park.


I wish I had one of those


I wanted to do the super secret T road I had heard about and asked around for it. Once there, the road was awesome. It really looked like it was designed by a race track designer.

I was very happy after riding it. Did it about thrice. Very few pics and no pics of the real twisties for obvious reasons.






I needed a small snack break after that








Yogesh, I need a BCMT T Shirt!




I really wanted to see the Lake Placid. Realised the lake was one of the smallest in the area and could not even find it. Anyways

Found out about a camping spot from the info center and headed out there. It was quiet a ride from the Lake Placid. The roads in the park are awesome. Nice and twisty




A small mishap happened over here. I put the bike on the stand and was taking out the camera from the tank bag to take pictures. Suddenly the bike started to tilt towards the right. I had my hand full with the camera and I put it quicly back into the bag and tried to save the bike but it still tipped over. A family had also stopped at the rest stop and helped me pick up the bike. Small damages – Indicator cover broke but would still would need to fix the whole assembly, scratch on the headlight cowl and sctartches ont eh lower fairing. Anyways, as long as no major damage happens, I am fine with it. The carbs were flooded so had to wait for them to be normal before I started again.
I camped at Fish Creek Pond. I realized the camping spot was expensive - $22.50 but was in no mood to find the free spots and did not have enough tools like a coking stove or any food to camp alone. So set up camp in the public camping area.








My Campsite was unique in many ways. I was the only Indian in the whole park. I was the only one on a bike and I was the only one who was alone


This is how a regular campsite looked like


This is how mine looked







One of the reasons for choosing this park over others was it was one of the few which were just long the water. View from my campsite





The campsite also had a live musician playing in the evening. Went and listened to some old country songs.





Now I was feeling a little tired and did not have any food with me. Had some Icecream from a Ice Cream Truck in the park and then rode to the local deli shop to get a Subway Sandwich. Also got a beer, came back to the site and had probably the longest Subway Sandwich dinner ever just looking towards the lake and enjoying the isolation.
Retired into my little home for the night




Day 3:

Got up and just lazed around in the quite tent. Finally it was time to leave and before I left I spent some time reading a book sitting on the picnic bench next to the lake. I decided to go to Plattsburg and take the ferry over to VT and then slab it out on the highway.





Nice Roads again

















I went off course at one point after missing a turn but took the opportunity for taking an awesome pic














My thirst for dirt road never ends. I found one and started riding thinking it was leading to a lake









After riding for a while I realized it was going nowhere only to later realize it would take me back to the original highway. Anyways, the short 30 min ride on it was awesome









I reached Plattsburgh and after a much needed lunch (had not eaten since morning) I headed out for the Ferry








My bike’s first boat ride















After I was dropped off, went through Grand Isle and this road to reach the highway I-89





Once I was on the highway, I slabbed it out all the way to Portsmouth only stopping for gas and a coffee.

I came back poorer, unemployed but happy! Need to find a job now to keep paying for the gas!

Sunday, 17 August 2008

Motorcycle Suspensions Part II

Source: http://www.sportrider.com

Now that we have seen what compression damping is, we should also know about rebound damping. For perfect suspension settings, these have to be syncronised.

Remember that compression (or bump damping) occurs when the wheel contacts a bump and the suspension compresses. Rebound (or tension damping) occurs as the spring forces the shock or forks to extend. Most current sport bikes have external adjustments for both compression and rebound damping as well as spring preload. On most forks, the screw adjustment at the top is rebound damping (not to be confused with the larger spring preload adjuster); the one on the bottom near the axle is compression damping. (An exception would be a Marzocchi or Paioli fork.) On the shock, the adjuster on the reservoir is for compression and the one on the shaft eyelet is rebound. These adjusters have their limits and affect only a portion of the entire damping. In other words, external adjustments can't make up for poor internal valving design; the adjustments merely fine-tune the valving action.

Of course, external adjustment can never make up for extremely worn-out dampers either, so if your bike is wallowing along like a '63 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with blown-out shocks, you might want to do some rebuilding or replacement before you spend the rest of your life playing
with "clickers."

Let's look more closely at rebound damping. The major trade-offs involve traction, a feeling of control and plushness. If you look at the graph you'll see they're all plotted on the same graph. There are no numbers on the y axis because these are largely subjective quantities. In other words, we are discussing "feelings." You will notice that traction starts out at a low amount at very light (quick) rebound damping settings, increases to a maximum, then decreases again. Why? At very light rebound settings, the chassis is uncontrolled. When the wheel hits a bump the shock is compressed. Then the wheel extends without any control; in fact, it extends too far. Because the sprung weight of the chassis has mass and is moving upward, it wants to pull the wheel off the ground, thereby losing traction.

If you direct your attention to the right side of the traction versus rebound damping curve, you will note that at high rebound damping, traction has suffered. This is due to the wheel not being able to follow the ground simply because it can't respond quickly enough. The suspension compresses as it hits a bump. Then, it can't follow the ground (return to its original position in the travel) fast enough after the crest of the bump to maintain traction. When this is excessive it is called "packing." Somewhere between these two rebound damping extremes, traction is at maximum.

You may have noted from your own riding experience that when rebound damping is very light, the feeling of control is minimized. The bike "feels loose." As you increase rebound damping, the feeling of control increases. The chassis isn't moving around nearly as much and the bike feels more "planted" and stable. When rebound damping is very slow, meaning there's a lot of damping, traction is so poor that the feeling of control suffers as well. Once again, somewhere between the two extremes the feeling of control is maximized.

The third quantity is plushness. At very light rebound damping, the wheel moves very quickly and the feeling is plush and mushy. As rebound damping is increased, there is more and more resistance to movement, and at maximum damping the wheel is "packing" so much, the chassis is sucked down in its travel and has not recovered for the next bump. This means the following bump has to overcome the added spring force due to this compression and the result is a jolt to the chassis upon impact.

The key thing to note here is that there is a trade-off. As you can see, maximum traction does not necessarily occur at the same damping setting as maximum feeling of control. Herein lies a problem.

Quite often riders have mistaken ideas about how much damping should be used. They think the faster they are (or the faster they want to be), the more damping they need. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, after a certain point, traction, control and ride quality (plushness) are all sacrificed. And, even with rebound damping settings in the ballpark, in other words, between the two peaks, there is a trade-off. Of course, there is room for personal preference, but there's not much value in having all three qualities suffer.

Here is one word of caution: The only way you will ever know if you have less traction is if you are at the limit of traction. This is a very delicate thing. If you are not at the limit of traction-i.e., sliding the tire-you can't feel the difference in traction. So street riders will want to focus on the feeling of control and save traction experiments for racetrack days.

The job of suspension engineer and suspension tuner is to make these two peaks-traction and the feeling of control-as close to the same point as possible. This is done by reshaping the damping curve internally and requires an understanding of high- and low- speed damping and valving piston design. The relationship between damping, spring forces, weight bias and all the other factors that make a bike handle are also very important. Overwhelming? Naah...one thing at a time. Or should I say, one click at a time.