Tonyblaze

Most Harley dealers rent. Powder Keg Harley in Mason is showing that it currently has rentals.

Saw this information, just wanted to pass it along. Rode down to Columbus last week, froze my nookies off, took the battery out of bike before I warmed up when I got back.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/best-of-british-tour-cleveland-registration-76148541337

I'm in. Do we need to bring anything?

Wow, you should open this thread to a college level political science or sociology class. Many of the base theories they study are flowing through here. I'll leave the base question of racism to others to debate. Individuals on opposite ends of any power spectrum will agree on very little because their perspectives are very different. The topic is Trump. As a pretty avid student of history he is not unique. Trump falls right in line with the long line of world personalities that appeal to the fears of the populace and stoke those same fears to move them in the direction they wish. Looking at the studies that are already being released concerning the past election Trump ran a campaign based upon the picture that America was dying in flames. Crime was stated as being rampant in our cities. Citizens were said to be unemployed from coast to coast. Immigrants were claimed to be raping and murdering at will. Businesses were claimed to be closing their doors left and right to leave for the greener pastures of foreign nations due to taxes. On and on this went. Trump ran a campaign based solely on the notion that there was nothing positive going on in this nation. Looking at recorded factual data this seems to be blatantly false. Please feel free to check me on these facts. At the end of the Obama presidency the nation gained 2.2 million jobs in the previous 12 months. Job gains had been realized for the previous 75 months - longest streak on records. When President Obama took office the country had lost 4.4 million jobs in the previous 12 months. The unemployment rate was 7.8% when President Obama took office and hit a peak of 10% his first year. At his departure the rate was 4.7%. The historical average is 5.6%. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation was crashing when President Obama took office and continued so his first year. In his subsequent 7 years in office GDP rose every year with a high of 2.6% in 2015. Desired GDP growth by the markets is 4% not seen since 1999 but from where we came from markets were very happy as evidenced by corporate profits during the period which reached record levels in 2014 at 1.73 Trillion. Note this figure and year as we'll get back to it. The sector that was key in causing the economic crash of 2007 has recovered quite well under recent years. Housing prices have rebounded to the point that market analysts are warning of another bubble in prices in some areas. This is the area that is the most visible indicator of the steam in the economy currently to most Americans. Trump took office with stock prices at near historic highs, after an eight-year run-up.Under Obama, stock prices set record after record. All three stock indexes set records on a single day, Aug. 15, 2016. The S&P 500 had gained 166 percent, the Dow Jones had gained 131 percent and the NASDAQ had gained 260 percent. During the campaign, Trump kept repeating the false statement that the murder rate was the “highest it’s been in 45 years.” In fact, even with murders rising, Americans were less likely to be murdered in any of the past eight years than at any time since the 1960s. In 2008, the rate was 5.4 per 100,000, and it has not been that high since. Americans were 23 percent less likely to be a victim of burglary, auto theft or other property crimes than they were in 2008. And the number of property crimes edged down further by 0.6 percent in the first six months of last year. Trump is a master manipulator. He has shown this in his business dealings where by no measure could he be considered successful. Most of his holding end in bankruptcy or sold off at drastically reduced prices. This is attested to by his business peers, market analysts and others. Trump claims that America will be first and countries and business that don't embrace this will feel his wrath. Well he can start in the mirror. Not one product from any of Trump's numerous businesses is made in the U.S. From food to clothing to printed materials all of them are made and/or packaged on foreign soil. Trump has hijacked the U.S. political machine for purely personal gain through personal enrichment (tax cuts) and the power that he now his with multi-national corporate executives. Its no coincidence that he has placed millionaires and billionaires in every department lead position with no prior experience. Each is taking actions to eliminate all regulations and requirements for businesses to do anything except chase profit. The tax cut was stated that it would have a trickle down effect that would improve the life of the American worker. The full effect will take years to be judged but the first round of results doesn't look promising. Companies that Trump paraded before the American people as bringing jobs to the states because of him have eliminated or fired thousands of workers and relocated facilities and operations off shore. Comcast, AT&T, WalMart, Carrier all made big press release announcements following the tax cut passage about how many of their workers would receive bonuses because of it. Following the business news shows that all are laying off or firing thousands of workers, consolidating profits and increasing dividend payouts for their shareholders. This isn't how this was supposed to work. Getting back to that record 1.73 Trillion profit for corporations in 2014 ....up until the 1980's as productivity within the American economy rose workers wages rose almost in lockstep percentage wise. At that point there was a divergence. I'll leave it up to others to explain why, I have my beliefs. At that point productivity continued to rise but workers wages remained relatively flat to the point that from 1973 productivity measured by rise in GDP and profit indexes rose approximately 73% while worker wages only rose 12%. You will also note this is when we started to hear of the "golden parachutes" and the hugely inflated CEO salaries. As productivity rose corporations held workers wages flat while funneling more and more profits to shareholders and executives. How this relates to Trump is this - you're being fleeced and agreeing to it. The best scam is one where the target willingly goes along with it. Nothing in Trump's resume indicated that he had any skills, knowledge or abilities that would translate into an effective leader for this nation but he said what people wanted to hear. The majority demographic is shrinking percentage wise in this country and is estimated to switch the majority to the minority by 2050. That has the electorate testy as hell because they are seeing their values and images reflected less and less in their neighborhood, media, public policy and other places in society. When any entity feels that its survival is threatened it lashes out. Trumps tapped into that fear using lies painting the looming threat of immigrants over running the country. Thugs controlling the streets. Heathens threatening your religious rights. Then he painted himself as the only one willing to do the dirty work to put the "monsters" back in the box and "Make America Great Again". I always wondered at specifically what point in America's history was he referring to? Topic for another time. Trump got the electorate to vote against in own best interest. "I'm going to bring coal back." If there is anyone here that believed that would happen then you've wasted your time reading this. That wasn't even a possibility. The only individuals that believed that were the folks suffering the most from coal's decline due to a changing energy industry. They believed because that was the only thing they had to cling to. They had an excuse but what about the rest of the country. "Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it." Sounds good - implement it. Does anyone think that throwing 20 million Americans off of healthcare coverage will be beneficial to the country? The media assists Trump in his schemes by entertaining the notion that whether or not he is racist matters even in the least bit. Articulate why that matters? What does matter is that this tax cut is going to hit your pockets in about five years when Congress refuses to extend them because the deficit has exploded due to reduced receipts and the economic ratings agencies threaten to lower the U.S. credit rating. What does matter is the health of yourself and your family when food, product and environmental safety regulations have been stripped. How long has Flint, Michigan been without clean drinking water again? How long has Puerto Rico been without electrical power? They are Americans too aren't they? Trump knows exactly what he's doing and he knows that he doesn't have long to do it. It's no mystery as to why after eight years of Congress holding up appointments to federal courts there has been a flurry of appointments in the past year - and yes those are lifetime. I feel strongly about this because the people that can least afford it are the ones that will suffer the most and when the pain starts to hit those that believe that are above it they will lash out in the absolute wrong direction as to the cause of it. Misdirection, the oldest trick. The saying that is always true is that if you follow the money you will find the truth. There's many neat little applications online where you can map connections between corporations, rich and influential people that are pretty eye opening and allow you to see the news headlines in a new perspective. Most Americans don't have the patience or time to take in more than the 30 second soundbite which is what they are counting on. Its a master chess game and we are all pawns - expendable. My two cent advice to you is if you have any discretionary funds laying around dump them into a stock exchange traded mutual fund now and forget about it for 3-4 years. The markets are going to go on a short run this year with a correction sometime mid-year and then go on a record rise for two years. The dividing line will be those that are in the market and those that are not. Good luck.

Just because being a data nerd myself I can't stand when people mis-represent statistics the FBI does not track police killings at all in their statistics. No federal or governmental agency in the U.S. currently tracks killings by police which is why media outlets like the Washington Times and the Sentinel in Florida have begun to dedicate resources to do this with their staffs. They are collecting data from other media sources though so even their tracking will most likely have a significant error margin of under reporting. That graphic was not produced by the FBI. Someone took data from the table and made some sort of calculations that I can't reproduce from the source table. About 90% of Black victims were killed by Black people. About 83% of White victims were killed by White people. You kill where you live and socialize - consistent fact in criminal activity. If you would like to see the actual source table it is here: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls

I picked up the Rider X1 Ear Buds made specifically for motorcycle riders ( https://www.byeaos.com/ ). First opinion: Upsides - well thought out design, good sound production, decent mid-range and highs, acceptable bass response. At least for my ear anatomy it creates a pretty darn good seal. I'm wondering how well it will let in high frequency ambient noise such as emergency sirens, horns, screeching tires, etc. They have idiot proof controls that should be easily manipulated in gloves. It also has a very unique voice microphone. Downsides - Control module is made of hard plastic placed about 8 inches from the RCA jack. Unique position focused on riders ability to control sound source while riding but riders particular about their bikes will not appreciate it banging against the paint on their gas tank. The controls are only fully integrated for IOS devices. Androids users, we're screwed. Only the play/pause controls work on those devices. If you double tap on the play button it will advance to the next track. (Not documented in the instructions). The cord is a standard ear bud quality cord. I would have expected one of a little higher durability if its geared toward riders but no biggie. The buds fit fully in your ear leaving no profile exposed above the rim to catch your helmet. I've got a pretty tight fitting helmet (wide head) and they feel perfectly comfortable on me. Overall I'd say they were a bit pricey but worth it for the specialized application. I have to figure out if I want to use my work phone for riding which is an IOS device or scrap this idea and send them back. All of my tunes are on my Android. .

Usually when folks do something like this they also find they need another lighting solution which makes covering up what is there a problem. I didn't put up tongue and groove boards but I did have a popcorn ceiling in a 12x20 living room in a 1942 house that I dropped and replaced with a smooth finish drywall. Seal the room with drop plastic including all vents. Helps if it has an exterior door that you can place an exhaust fan in. You in a tyvex suit and a respirator with N-100 cartridges can drop the entire ceiling with a J-Hook tool in short order as long as you map our any circuitry that is up there. Double bag and duct tape the debris to local landfill. Construction boards, plywood or whatever your favorite base material is will give you an easy installation for those boards otherwise getting a smooth and even look will be hell with an uneven base. Usually people frown on losing ceiling height with a sub ceiling. At least a three person job unless you grab a drywall jack from someplace. Some jobs worth paying for. If it is asbestos you'll need a handyman that is willing to look the other way. Official remediation is costly.

As an avid Amazon shopper it has been my experience that your chances of getting screwed when purchasing something from a seller with no product reviews and very few overall sales is the same as telling a hooker you just cashed your income tax check; pretty much assured.

Southern Cuyahoga county here. With a little warning always up for an adventure. Let me know.

Ogio Mach 5 in red if you have it.

I'll admit the first time I ever touched a bike was in the MSF class. Completed it and was still nervous as hell. Drove to Chicago, picked up a SV650S. Didn't have the skills to properly ride it so waited until the wee hours of the night and rode in the Metroparks for a few weeks until I got the nerve to go in real traffic. Just dumb luck I didn't kill myself before gaining enough basic skills to control the thing.

With changing times comes changing dynamics. When I first got my driver's license the U.S. population was 230,000,000. Now it's 325,000,000 and rising rapidly. With more people comes more drivers and to a lesser extent more riders. Irresponsible riders stain the biker community, make legislatures more apt to pass asinine laws making it harder or less enjoyable to ride and add a definite cost to other riders and non-riders alike in higher insurance premiums and healthcare paying for their mistakes. Insurers and health providers spread out their costs across their entire customer base, not just the idiots. Also results in mandatory features being mandated on bikes that detract from the experience. I'm just saying the biker community needs to take the lead on this before the legislatures do because its not if, its when. Some major municipalities are looking at higher taxes and fees on vehicle registrations becasue they believe that there are too many cars clogging their streets. Who would have predicted that?

Why it should be harder to get a motorcycle license in the U.S. The author is arguing from a safety standpoint but doesn't back it up with his statistics. he cites several but not how they relate to each other. I did some digging and found that the motorcycle related fatalities in the U.S. are historically five times greater than those in the U.K. once corrected for population levels. Additionally motorcycle usage is higher in the U.K. than the U.S. per capita for daily transportation. The author's solution has no chance of being implemented in the U.S. at this time. It would incur huge cost increases to state governments on the purchase, maintenance and upkeep of Instructor motorcycles and the training and re certification of instructors. Not to mention the upgrade of software systems to track and maintain accurate records of he varying certifications. Better money would be spent on mandating ABS braking on all motorcycles certified for road use in U.S. as is already the case for many other nations. The only reason is hasn't been done up to now is becasue of the money and pressure from industry lobbyists. https://medium.com/@IrishVictualler/the-governments-stance-on-motorcycle-antilock-brakes-is-based-on-junk-science-102280d889c8 With nearly 50% of nations requiring ABS now it will soon be more cost effective for manufactures to standardize their operations for ABS. Better money would also be spent on mandating helmet use for motorcyclists unless an affirmative waiver is signed for financial responsibility in the event of a crash. Statistics show that states with helmet laws have lower fatality rates from motorcycle accidents than ones without. A rider sustaining head injury or dying from head injury in a crash incurs a large financial cost to the local municipality and insurance industry in local emergency response, advance life support services, long term care services and local agency investigation requirements and reporting. If riders want to exercise their freedoms and not wear a helmet then they should be willing to pay for it and not encumber the rest of the taxpayers and insurance purchasers with higher costs for their choice. There should be set reimbursement caps for all of the above listed that are charged to the rider and his/her insurance for reimbursement. End result would be that riders would find purchasing insurance cost prohibitive unless helmet use was agreed to. Better money also would be spent on mandating a divers license retest at every fourth renewal. The insanity of testing in your teens and then being licensed for the next 60-80 years without re-evalution is insanity and the cause for many accidents on our roads.