As some of you may know, I am also active on the Honda ST Owners web forum as my long distance ride is a 2007 ST1300. She is the exact opposite of the XS650: she weighs 730 lbs, her 1261 cc DOHC 16 valve fuel injected engine produces 127 HP, she has linked (front & rear) ABS brakes and her windscreen is electrically raised and lowered. I did not order the on-board restroom, galley and dining area, but she’s got EVERYTHING else.
Anyhow, one of the most popular members on STOwners is a chap called Igofar. He is a semi-retired motorcycle mechanic who freely shares his expertise on this very complex bike. If you actually take your bike to his shop, he will go over it from front to back and fix/adjust every single thing in his self-described “OCD Garage Maintenance Program” for a nominal fee and many Forum members have taken him up on this kind offer. It is great to know that the XS650 forum is not the only place where generous experts share their skills.
Last year, Igofar and his wife moved from Southern California to Arizona and he likes his new digs, and the much lower cost of living in the desert paradise. However...this morning he posted this story about an encounter he had in his garage...
Today at 12:00 AM
Was sitting in the garage like a Maytag repair man, wishing SkipCurt was still here. Its always sad when I watch another hostage ride away into the sunset...
I cleaned up a little, and made preparations for a brake bleed / secondary master cylinder replacement scheduled for tomorrow, and finished a little bit earlier than I thought I would.
The wife was out, and it was just me and Bella (the Dog). The view of the mountains in front of my house is always nice around dusk, so I grabbed my little parlor guitar, and was sitting on a little stone bench in front of the house, picking some Doc Watson and Ragtime tunes, when I got lost in the moment.
My left foot was gently tapping as I was getting into a groove, and enjoying the sunset. Now those who know me, know I'm pretty deaf, and I don't always wear my hearing aids.
Half way through Deep River Blues, I noticed I was struggling to keep time with my left foot? It felt VERY heavy.....
Just then I looked down, and found a very LARGE Western Diamondback Rattle snake resting across the arch of my foot! Now for the last week or so, I've had 4 or 5 kingsnakes, racers, and gopher snakes in both the front yard and the back yard. Heck, when SkipCurt was here, a 4 foot desert kingsnake crawled right up my driveway and came in to visit while I worked on his bike. I like snakes, and this area has been quite amusing so far.
However, having a HUGE rattler resting on my foot changed all that
I stopped moving my hands, and it spooked the snake enough to tense up and raise into a couple coils between my legs!
I froze....two or three minutes passed, and it seemed like hours, I sat breathing very shallow, just watching it's tongue slowing flicking in and out, thinking its right next to the artery in my inner leg, not to mention other parts that I consider important.
I tried to move the guitar to distract it, and that just seemed piss it off more! More minutes passed, my mouth was dry, my heart was racing, and I was just sitting there listening to its dry raspy rattle, I was close enough to count the 14 rattles on its tail. Funny thing is, the thought that passed through my head at that very moment was how am I going to to the brake service tomorrow?
Then without warning,it decided to simply continue on its way, and crawl down the rocky hill between the houses and disappear into hole!
When I gathered myself, I went and got a tape measure, and measured where its head had been to its rattle, and it was over 6 feet long, and about the girth of my forearm.
The whole incident probably took 3 minutes, but it seemed like 3 hours.
So today's lesson was Patience....How to sit perfectly still, and look like a statue.
Anyhow, one of the most popular members on STOwners is a chap called Igofar. He is a semi-retired motorcycle mechanic who freely shares his expertise on this very complex bike. If you actually take your bike to his shop, he will go over it from front to back and fix/adjust every single thing in his self-described “OCD Garage Maintenance Program” for a nominal fee and many Forum members have taken him up on this kind offer. It is great to know that the XS650 forum is not the only place where generous experts share their skills.
Last year, Igofar and his wife moved from Southern California to Arizona and he likes his new digs, and the much lower cost of living in the desert paradise. However...this morning he posted this story about an encounter he had in his garage...
Today at 12:00 AM
Was sitting in the garage like a Maytag repair man, wishing SkipCurt was still here. Its always sad when I watch another hostage ride away into the sunset...
I cleaned up a little, and made preparations for a brake bleed / secondary master cylinder replacement scheduled for tomorrow, and finished a little bit earlier than I thought I would.
The wife was out, and it was just me and Bella (the Dog). The view of the mountains in front of my house is always nice around dusk, so I grabbed my little parlor guitar, and was sitting on a little stone bench in front of the house, picking some Doc Watson and Ragtime tunes, when I got lost in the moment.
My left foot was gently tapping as I was getting into a groove, and enjoying the sunset. Now those who know me, know I'm pretty deaf, and I don't always wear my hearing aids.
Half way through Deep River Blues, I noticed I was struggling to keep time with my left foot? It felt VERY heavy.....
Just then I looked down, and found a very LARGE Western Diamondback Rattle snake resting across the arch of my foot! Now for the last week or so, I've had 4 or 5 kingsnakes, racers, and gopher snakes in both the front yard and the back yard. Heck, when SkipCurt was here, a 4 foot desert kingsnake crawled right up my driveway and came in to visit while I worked on his bike. I like snakes, and this area has been quite amusing so far.
However, having a HUGE rattler resting on my foot changed all that
I froze....two or three minutes passed, and it seemed like hours, I sat breathing very shallow, just watching it's tongue slowing flicking in and out, thinking its right next to the artery in my inner leg, not to mention other parts that I consider important.
I tried to move the guitar to distract it, and that just seemed piss it off more! More minutes passed, my mouth was dry, my heart was racing, and I was just sitting there listening to its dry raspy rattle, I was close enough to count the 14 rattles on its tail. Funny thing is, the thought that passed through my head at that very moment was how am I going to to the brake service tomorrow?
Then without warning,it decided to simply continue on its way, and crawl down the rocky hill between the houses and disappear into hole!
When I gathered myself, I went and got a tape measure, and measured where its head had been to its rattle, and it was over 6 feet long, and about the girth of my forearm.
The whole incident probably took 3 minutes, but it seemed like 3 hours.
So today's lesson was Patience....How to sit perfectly still, and look like a statue.
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