bimota

After more months of trouble with the Triumph, and the godawful service from AMPS motorcycles in Auckland, I've decided to move on and get rid of the T595. In the meantime, I've just purchased an immaculate bimota YB8e. This is a 1994 model running a Yamaha FZR1000 engine. Its just been serviced and will be shipped in the next 5 days. I'll post more when it arrives.

Getting the bike going

So yesterday I picked a round and black set of Pirelli's for my '97 Triumph t595. They are the new Diablo SuperCorsa's, a 190/55/17 SC3(hard) for the rear and a 120/70/17 SC2 (medium) for the front. I've usually run the Dragon SuperCorsa's until now, but these should be fairly similar. The only thing of difference I can find in the press blurb is the fact that the front tyre has a 'sharper' profile for quicker steering. (different tread pattern too)
I had a pair of Dunlop D207GP's a few years ago with a very pointy front tyre that made the handling very nervous, and too keen to shake its head at higher speed. The bike used to fall into corners too quickly compared to the Pirelli's I later used. I'm hoping the new Diablo's don't display the same characteristics as the old Dunlops.
Ah yes.. I also picked up a battery (Yuasa YB14LA2), renewed the rego and got a warrant attached. $850ish spent.

Another 4 years to wait...

The All Blacks crash out of the World Cup this morning New Zealand time, as the French take the opportunities to win 20-18.
The All Blacks presented what was probably their best team in the 20 years since we last won the cup, and yet again failed to go the distance.
A dark and heavy cloud will hang over the collective New Zealand head for some time to come.
Lets hope Murphy and Richards can restore some faith in the flag as they take on Bathurst this afternoon.

MadAss

Got to get me one of these! Its a MadAss, a 50cc (or 125cc) scooter/motorcycle from Sachs Bikes in Germany. Specs include 16in wheels, disc brakes and full suspension front and rear. It has an in-frame fuel tank, and looks like a BMX bike on steroids and 95kgs of pure fun ! This will be ideal for my 6km trip to work, being environmentally friendly to boot, as the muffler houses a catalytic converter. Wouldn't it look good with a carbon Akrapovic on tho?? :)

Dead Fish Society

I'm no icthyologist, but I do have an interest in keeping fish. I have three tanks, a 50l, a 100l, and the new addition, a 225l. I recently stocked the 225l with 10 Cardinal Tetras, 5 Penguin Tetras, 4 Clown Loaches and a red spotted Plecostamus. Unfortunately the 4 Clown Loaches have expired along with 5 of the Cardinal Tetras, and one of the Penguin Tetras. I have done regular water changes, and 'cycled' the tank, but to no avail. It appears that the dead fish caught the dreaded white spot disease, and despite using the appropriate chemicals, I couldn't save the fish. Now I'm getting a little gun-shy, and I'm less than enthusiastic about wasting more money on fish corpses ! The remaining fish appear to be healthy.. but who knows how long that will last.

Movie Cataloging

I'm kinda wrapped up with USB thumb drives and the software you can use on one of these things.
Today I hooked up with a program that helps you catalogue your movies collection. Its called Ant Movie Catalog, and provide a simple way to save all the info you need about your movie collection in one database... accessible anywhere (where there is a computer!)
All needs to be done is to type in the movie title and it will connect to one of a variety of online databases (e.g. IMDB) to retrieve information, including the coverart, to store in your local database.
Its classy and free.

And along the same lines, I'm using Picasa today, from Google. This is a photo organiser and cataloger, with which I am attempting to reign in my many photos and movies. The program has been indexing the database for 5 hours so far, with a current total of 73,833 pictures indexed. (Theres still a way to go !)

Damn you bloggers

I hate the name, and even the concept, but here I am with my blog.
Been a sporty sort of weekend, and to me that means lots of TV! Ranfurly Shield challenge by Auckland which they won over Canterbury, All Blacks decimate Romania at the World Cup of Rugby, Lewis Hamilton scores 10 points for a win at the Japanese Grand Prix, while his rival and teammate Alonso scores nothing.... my heart bleeds ! (not). And finally Max Biaggi takes out the first race at the Italian round of the World Superbike Championships.
So with all that out of the way, wasn't much time for anything else!
Note to self: Apple snail laid eggs two days ago..

and here is an interesting article on Slashdot that concerns the extension of Daylight Savings in New Zealand (which incidentally started today), and Debian Linux.