Monday, September 24, 2007

CSTN 07

A few photos from the 2007 Sport-Touring.Net Central Meet (CSTN), a 3-day weekend of riding based out of Eureka Springs, AR. (Sept 22-24, 2007)















Tuesday, September 18, 2007

R.I.P. Robert Jordan

Arrrrgh. Fantasy author Robert Jordan died over the weekend (cancer).

Some of you know that I have always enjoyed reading. The longer the book, the better. Robert Jordan, with his epic 1000+ page books has been a "must-buy" author for me for a long time.

The first book in his "Wheel of Time" series was published in 1990. I discovered it in paperback form at my local library a few years later and was instantly hooked. He faithfully punched out a new book for me to devour every year through my high school graduation in 1996. While I was in college, his intervals between books lengthened out to 2 years or more. I was buying them in hardback as soon as I saw them, generally finding them at the bookstore on the day of release. I remember one case where my first sight of one was at a kiosk in an airport (with elevated airport prices). I was ensconced in Jordan's fantasy world for that entire flight.

Jordan's writing was known for incredible levels of detail and huge numbers of characters to keep track of. Somewhere in there, he had a 1000+ page book that covered only one day in the timeline of his world. Another had nothing really happen (as far as clues to tying up story lines) until the last 6 pages. It was maddening slogging through mundane moments in the lives of characters I no longer cared about to get scarce hints about how and what certain others were doing.

Somewhere in there I stopped calling Jordan a "favorite" author. I now HATE his writing style. It's become supremely boring and slow.... but I kept buying them because I MUST KNOW HOW IT ENDS!

Volume XI, "The Knife of Dreams", was published in October 2005 with the tantalizing note that there was only one more book to go. I would occasionally check Amazon to see if there was a publishing date set yet, but didn't see anything. Now this. Arrgh arrgh double arrgh.

Rest in Peace Robert Jordan, but you sure had some bad timing.

According to his website, his wife (who is also his editor) will finish the last book from his notes.

36k Service

I did a 36,000 mile service on the R1200ST on September 8 (weekend before last). Valve adjust, oil change, and a new rear tire. It was the first motorcycle maintenance I've done in my new garage... Also the first time I've ever gotten the ST onto the centerstand without someone standing on the other side "just in case".

Apparently Pilot Road rears are on backorder with the release of the new Michelin Pilot Road CTs, so I took a Metzler Z6 instead. SPORT-touring riders rave about the Z6, but I, being more of a sport-TOURING rider, have never tried them. I'm a little concerned that I won't get good mileage out of them, but they seem very "tire"-like so far. ;)

I did a run out and back to Austin last weekend to break them in. I'm leaving for CSTN (Central Sport-Touring.Net Meet) on Thursday after work. It's up in Eureka Springs, AR again. I'm going to have to figure out something else for next year, because the ST.N National Meet is scheduled for Eureka Springs in June.