No Helmet, no Diaper . . .

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It’s hard to not get down when you see what’s going on all around. The poltroonish passivity of the populace. Stay safe!

Diaper up!

So I figured I’d show them something else.

The ’76 Kz900 came out to play yesterday – and me, too. Deep green and chrome, polished cases.

No Diaper – or helmet, either.

One illegal, the other seemingly on its way to being. Hence the necessity to ride without either. The time has come to say No to more than just Diapering. The time has come to say No to all of it.

To recover our senses, in other words.

The government has no legitimate business telling anyone they have to wear a helmet – or a Diaper (unless you’re one of those people who believes the government owns us and thus has the right to parent us;or rather, to her us – like cattle).

But the one follows the other, which is what Americans who want to be free of both  –  who want to decide for themselves how to live their lives – have got to relearn.

And re-assert.

It was a grave, naive and hideous mistake to let them (the proto-Diaperers; the life-sucking people who wear and push them now, who were seeding the ground for them way back then) get away with passing helmet laws. And before that, seatbelt laws. By doing so, they made Diaper laws – not “guidelines” but the real thing, which are coming, if not resisted – a fait accompli more than 30 years ago, when the first buckle-up laws laws were enacted.

Fifty-plus, if you go back to the very first seatbelt laws, which – at first – only required that new cars be equipped with them. It took another decade or two before laws began to issue requiring people to wear them. That having been tolerated, it was inevitable that people would be forced to wear helmets, too.

And soon, Diapers.

Because why not?

Seatbelts keep you saaaaaaaaaaaaaafe! Helmets do the same! How does one, having accepted this, deny that Diapers do the same? It doesn’t matter that you – as an individual – may derive no benefit from the seatbelt or the helmet – or the Diaper. The argument is that you might; that someone might.

Ergo, you must.

This is a principle far more obnoxious than King George’s petty taxes, which was enough to motivate a group of men to say No. They were not passive poltroons. Soy hadn’t gelded them; caving in to social pressure – at the price of their honor – was a thing that men such Washington, Sam Adams and Patrick Henry would have rather died than do.

And so, they didn’t.

I try to emulate their example – by not Diapering, ever, anywhere. Because I am not sick, of course – and refuse to pretend I might be because some poltroons worry I could be. But also because for all my many faults,  I am a man, and that brings with it certain obligations, if I wish to be able to tolerate my refection in the mirror.

Not performing Diaper Kabuki being among them.

And more.

I’m done ceding ground, putting up with these incremental affronts – because it’s no longer a matter of putting up with an annoyance, like a mosquito in the backyard while you’re enjoying an otherwise nice afternoon. It is the loss of the backyard itself to the mosquito. The giving away of every last thing until you have nothing left except a Diaper around your face and taped lines telling you where to stand.

If you can stand that.

Not me.

A quick check of the air in the tires. Rotate the tap to On. Ignition hot – and one kick, just right, to awaken the mighty DOHC 900. I recommend this latter hugely. There is no art to pushing a button. When you kick a bike to life, there’s no starter motor prequel. Just the right now unannounced roar of the big four coming online, spitting through the four pipes and sucking through the four carbs.

Ease the kicker back to the rest position; adjust the choke and let her idle even out. Without a helmet, you can hear everything – and see everything. You miss nothing. This is the feel of freedom.

You, the bike, the road and the wind and the sun in your face, experiencing life rather than living in poltroonish fear of death. Americans cheered this sort of thing once. Maybe one day, they will cheer it again.

In the meanwhile, those who fear living it can wear their helmets and their Diapers. But they’d better leave this unDiapered dude alone.

Because he’s had enough.

Maybe you have, too.

If enough of us make that crystal clear, we’ll have more than the wind in our hair again.

We’ll have our freedom again.

. . .

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62 COMMENTS

  1. Hey Eric, imagine when they re-open the pooblik skools. I’m sure they’re mandate masks for all. Get the kiddies used to perpetual masking-as-normal… Manufactured consent; and they’ll see us as the weirdos and bad guys……

    • Hi Nunz,

      Yup. A friend of mine has a 12-year-old. She tells me the government has already decreed Diapering and Kabuki for all the kids. Imagine what this will do to these kids’ minds. The therapy they’ll need.

      • Well Eric, I have always used a 1960s Bell helmet with carpet taped in the I only wrecked onback goggles. I don’t care to be blinded by a bumblebee or a fly. I only wrecked one time and was glad with the seat belt. The other car has a five point thingaroo that would have been more comfortable.
        That is not to say that I despise all of them, but I do what I do. The grind marks on my ancient helmet attest to my being on your forum and still donating. The leathers lost their sheen too. Shit kicker high top boots are a help in a high speed slide. All around one ends up with fewer bruises and a relatively intact cranium..

        • Anon, ride in my part of the world now and you’d better have on a full face helmet or be ready to be wounded. We’re having one of those grasshopper invasions this year. They’re big and fast. When you run 80 mph into a 20 mph wind and those things are flying from every direction, you feel like you’re in a shooting war. The things make so much noise hitting your helmet and face shield it sounds like bullets. You’d better have the inside of your elbows covered too and your leather gloves on. It’s 108 right now. The Jumbo’s haven’t gotten bad yet but when they do, the road gets so greasy since they eat their dead and then those get run over. You can barely hold a bike up on curves and better be going slow.

          Once you get home you have a hell of a chore cleaning the bike and the fins on the engine are solid grasshoppers. It can take longer to clean a bike than a pickup when they’re this bad. I have a hard time with a dirty pickup but a dirty bike is just too much and I won’t put up with it. BTW, you need a jacket on with the collar buttoned or a neck protector.

          • Gee whiz, I always had full leather and light gloves. I was willing to take face hits from some insects but they were flies and such size. I have framed collections of big grasshoppers and locusts. Any of them is a bad hit on a faster bike.
            It was pretty bad when the mayflies hatched on the Mississippi trip with my pals. The roads were paved with them and braking was one of those experiences. I have seen on TV that we can eat them for protein content when plentiful, so all is not lost.

            • Not sure there would be anything worse than riding through love bugs when they’re bad. You and the bike would look like you were pouring blood. I do hate those suckers.

              • Hey, at least they are a very short term phenomenon. The next day they magically disappear so it is not a big burden. I actually liked them when I was off of the highway. What a show!

    • OMG… we people don’t always think about where all this stuff leads to in the future. I didn’t even think of this myself. OMG OMG OMG THIS IS MADNESS. I HOPE ALL THE KIDS NEVER GO BACK TO SCHOOL.

  2. I just arrived home from a flight Tenerife to Zaragoza on the absolute WORST company in the world, Vueling.

    I was sipping a can of beer, fell asleep and the mandatory face diaper was down. Steward, 24 year old big guy, woke me up and told me to “put on your mask”. I did.

    Later, I wen to the bathroom on the plane, Walked out with the face diaper not covering my nose. “put on your mask”. I did.

    Later, one of the dudes put a paper in fron of me full of warnings.

    When we landed I got special treatment. 2 cops approached my seat, told me to follow them, but not too close. Took my info and said there would be a criminal complaint filed against me. Will probably be a fine of $800.

    You want to resist? You will pay for it.

    Vueling airlines, the biggest fuckheads on the planet.

    • Hi Frank,

      Wretched. And it’s why I won’t fly. They have you in their clutches. At least on the ground, I can act. As far as the fine – don’t pay it. Take a cue from the left and stop obeying. The government depends on our playing by its rules. Stop. It seems daunting, I realize. But when one realizes that we no longer have anything to lose – they are going to take away everything, understand this – then we will realize we have everything to gain by refusing and resisting.

    • Frank, I’m assuming that tyranny you speak of is coming from the EU(Spain) side…. How were things in the Canarys re COVID tyranny?

    • This is what you get when you enter a gun free zone LOLOL.

      I went on a flight last year for medical reasons, and when I came back into USA, the customs inspectors chose me for a random inspection… the inspection was fine… but TWO of the agents were EXTREMELY MEAN and PURPOSEFULLY THREATENED ME AND TERRORIZED ME for 30+ minutes. The worst agent went in the back room (maybe to pee or something) and said they’ll be right back to interrogate me some more… but never came back THANK GAWD… I think maybe one or two of the other agents told that bad one to LEAVE ME ALONE because they were SO BAD. So I went through an enemy war interrogation session, in the USA of all places. THEY had guns on their hips, but I was not allowed to have a gun on my hip. Interesting how that works. I filed a complaint, talked to my US representative about it (well, their aide anyways), they filed the complaint on my behalf as a “congressional inquiry” but IDK if anything will ever come of it — THERE’S NO JUSTICE IN AMERICA ANYMORE — THIS IS A LAWLESS LAND OF DICTATORS HAVING A FIELD DAY.

      • harry, you’ll get less argument about that as every day goes by. People are really getting fed up……except those tiny tyrants with no power but a loud voice.

      • Harry,

        When I used to travel to South America twice a year, I ran in to the same thing; I was treated like a fucking CRIMINAL-and I’m a US citizen! I had an easier time entering South America than I did returning to my native country…

  3. I had a 1983 GPX1100 fulie. 120 hp of hell on wheels. Whisper quiet at idle, totally smooth power band thanks to Bosch, and snot wipein’ fast. What a machine! I don’t recall why I sold it- back then it was just another rice rocket with a seemingly endless supply of newer, faster models soon to come. Damn.

  4. We’re under a burn ban. It must be too green. It rightly is hot with day after day of 100-105 and above but the vegetation is green. We have had years though that everyone feared the slightest spark including myself.

    But come 4th of July, I’d load 2-3 4 wheel drive pickups with spray rigs and long hoses in the back, a tractor with a dirt mover ready to go and then raise hell till we finally ran out of fireworks. I think we had one small fire close by the tank where we do this and it was out nearly instantly and this was over a number of years. Having the fireworks reflected off the tank added to the show. We had great times doing that. We’d already had months of hard work and too much heat and had to blow off some steam. We’d let the kids take care of the fireworks when they were big enough to do so and that was a show unto itself while some of them and the smaller ones would be cruising back and forth across the tank. Never had an injury or fire except one about 2 feet in diameter.

  5. Hell yeah! I sure do miss my 82′ KZ100J2. I took it out of the crate and put it together myself. Smooth, powerful, and amazingly comfortable. It sounded sweet with the SuperTrapp exhaust. I put some subtle custom touches on it and it was blacked out before blacking things out was cool. lol My dream bike at the time was the Eddie Lawson Replica. I owned a few parts of one to put on the 1000J2 but thought better of such a hack job and got rid of them.

    • Hi Pappa!

      Well, I too love the ELR replica… which is why I bought a ZRX1200R back in ’03! First and probably only new bike I’ve ever bought. Of course it’s green… Muzzy exhaust, Ivan’s jet kit…

      • Gee Eric, that looks better than new.
        One thing I liked about Triumphs and BSAs is that the cases were easily polishable with Simichrome polish. I have a 70 BSA that is all fixed up and awaiting assembly. The engine and gearbox is shinier than any Kirby. That stuff is great for aluminum and even fixing oxidized plastic headlamp covers. The germans had it figured out before it was needed.
        I like stuff that works.

        • Thanks, Erie – it is!

          I installed a 1015 cc bige bore kit in it, for one. And for two, I polished most of the cases, which is a PITAS but so worth it.

  6. Well this was timely! T’was just watching a motorcicle compilation video last night, and in one of the clips, this old guy (Well, turns out he’s 2 years younger than me- but he looked and acted like an old man!) -on a Harley, no less- was wearing a freaking mask…but not a helmet! I thought that that was pretty illustrative of just how inundated this flu-pssychosis has become in the public consciousness across every strata of society……

    Check it out (The old coot seems either drunk or maybe he banged his head on the pavement one too many times…):
    https://youtu.be/fIqYg_owTOU?t=355

      • Ain’t THAT the truth, Eric!

        Hey, I’m certainly no Harley fan…but is it just me, or was that a NICE-looking Harley?! But for the dent in the gas tank, ya certainly wouldn’t expect that guy to be riding it!

    • Thanks, Anon – me also!

      Anyone who is thinking about maybe getting a classic bike ought to consider the Kaw Kz series, which began as the Z1 900 and ran through numerous 900/1000 permutations. These are good-looking and easy-going bikes; very powerful, even by modern standards and also very reliable, even by modern standards. More so, arguably, as they have no computer or electronics beyond the alternator that runs the ignition/headlight and so on. I’ve had mine for decades and the thing has never left me stranded.

      The one weakness the early models have is that the engine is so modern you forget the rest of the bike isn’t. There is 140 MPH power on tap and it’s easy to get there. But it’s not easy to stop – and look out for the speed wobbles (and potential tank slapper) that can develop as a result of not quite true spoked wheels – beautiful, but watch out – and BB bearings in the steering head….

      • eric, I had a fairing that was large for a cafe fairing. Around 130 it could get the wobbles going even though my forks were independently air adjustable. I kept bending it back getting lower and that helped for another 10 mph or close to another 10 and then it was back. I tried all sorts of pressure in my forks but you can’t make an F1 out of a stock bike. I had done carb work and intake work so it ran better than stock and it was a beautiful bike with that paint Suzuki used on their high end bikes starting in 80 that changed colors depending on the colors around it. People would see me on the road and not recognize the bike because the first time they saw it would be in the garage or under a tree and it would look black but into the sun and it had a plethora of colors in the blue, green and dark reddish spectrum. I had to sell that bike to buy a damned pickup to farm with.

        And years like this, you’d definitely wear a helmet around here, one with a full face mask. The grasshoppers are huge and so thick it’s unreal. Thankfully, they aren’t that way the next few years but we’re unlucky as hell this year. The giants haven’t moved in yet but I suspect they will and since they’re cannibals, a road with dead hoppers gets thicker and slicker all through the hot weather which can be up to December(help, I don’t want one of those).

      • Hogley=Ferguson is dumping a lot of employees. They do not know how to drag in newer buyers. I would never consider any of their bikes other than the Cafe Racer thing that was slow and heavy, but looked good.
        If I were HD I would hire Rickman Brothers if they still are alive. If Harley came out with a bike that handled well and weighed 340 or less, they might get some excitement. 340# allows for sloppy engineering, but lighter bikes that go fairly fast might save them. It would be neat to see the electroless nickle plated frames again.
        Rickmann sure made nice welds and plating. Darned fine working frames too.
        If I was HD I would steal all of the off patent stuff that is around. Use Rickman frames with a copy of the Brembos of the early nineties, and ditch the electronic crap. All of the stuff should be rebuildable by the owner. Sell many and land in the lap of luxury.

        • Hi Erie,

          My 50:

          Modern Harleys are too expensive and complicated; once upon a time they were very simple and – if a bit crude and balky – could be fiddled with by an average guy with basic hand tools, which made them lovable in a way that guys appreciate. You bonded with your machine by busting knuckles on it. It became yours – and you became its. The new turn-key $20k Harleys are much more reliable and smoother and… civilized. But these are the qualities which old men like. And mostly only old men can afford to spend $20k (and up) on a bike.

          Harley has some more affordable bikes, but they’re too small – and too complicated and too civilized. Harleys are supposed to be rough, elemental things – bikes for guys. There may, however, not be enough of such to sustain the brand. Still, I wonder whether Harley would revive if it offered a stripped down 1600 or so with a carburetor and nothing extraneous for around $8k…

          • eric, the economists I rely on have said lately that HD won’t be around much longer. I can believe it. I don’t know how they stayed in bidness this long what with the sticker shock and the shitty economy. I know it’s not because the buyers would rather ride than eat. If they survive the new bike line will be duallies.

      • The only hard wreck in fifty five years of driving was with the back end of a dumptruck. I had to get an MRI for the back and they doped me. I am so thankful that no one was behind the truck. The belt gave me a sore chest but the bags did not go off. A faceplant on the wheel was unlikely to make me uglier but I didn’t lose any teeth.
        I do recommend restraints and eschew the bags. Eric is a dope for not wearing a simple helmet. He will be sorely annoyed with his decision when some driver runs him off of the road.

        • Hi Erie,

          This – “I’m a dope for not wearing a simple helmet”- is why we’re being Diapered up and everything else. Someone else decides “I’m a dope” (or you’re a dope) and on that basis – not because we’ve harmed anyone else – a law gets passed and we’re forced to do as they believe is “best” – or else. The principle, once accepted here, becomes applied there.

          Maybe I think other people are “dopes” for not working out every day, as I do – and every these “dopes” ought to be punished for their dangerously sedentary habits. Etc.

          Do you see?

          One man’s “dope” is another man’s prudent and sensible.

          We all assume risks – the arrogance of some, who think they are the proper arbiters thereof for others always astounds me.

          I choose to ride without because – to me – the feeling as well as the improved vision and the rest – are worth more to me in real/ever-ride-terms than the putative benefit of a helmet I may never need (and haven’t, in decades of riding).

          That makes me a “dope”?

          Think about what you’re endorsing here, the ammunition you’re giving the geeks – the tyrants – who’ve ruined what was once a largely free country. The fact that a man can be legally threatened with murderous violence by an armed government goon over this tells you everything you ought to know.

          • eric, if you read my comment about using a helmet and full face shield because of grasshoppers, I don’t car if everyone else doesn’t want to. It won’t be my eye with a big hopper sticking out of it.

            And I don’t mean to say I never ride without a helmet. I got into a real hard rain with (thankfully)tiny hail one day with just glasses. The glasses had to go since I couldn’t see a thing with them and not much without and talk about feeling like I had run a gauntlet of shotguns, wow. I made sure to have a helmet after that. It was a sunny day and I wasn’t thinking about one of those “out of the blue” badass west Texas thunderstorms. I never forgot it again.

          • Hey Eric,

            There’s a difference between thinking that someone is taking an uncalled-for risk, and demanding that they don’t.

            I mean, I’m opposed to mandatory seatbelt use, of course, but I wear one (even before it was mandated) because I think it’s a good method of self-preservation in most cases- but of course, I want people to be free to choose their own level of risk, based on their own assessments.

            I think Erle was just stating an opinion, which is also a fact; and that fact is, if you ride without protective gear, it’s gonna be much worse for you when you go down- and it will happen one day, if you ride, no matter how good you are- just like the one accident I was in 30 years ago, where a Polak pulled out of a stop sign RIGHT in front of me (He thought it was a four-way stop…duh!)- not a darn thing I could do. If I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt, I would’ve gone out the window, instead of walking away with just a scratch on my noggin; If I had been on a bike, I would have been seriously injured, if not killed.

            As much as I abhor the nanny state, I am not going to rebel against reasonable precautions which I would take anyway, just to somehow silently protest their tyranny and injustice…because that does nothing to lessen the tyranny- it just lessens my own safety- and maintaining a reasonable degree of safety is something I do care about- and I should hope that you care about yours too.

            Here in KY. one can ride without a helmet….but you can bet, if I were to ride, I’d get a good full-face helmet, ’cause when you go down, you ARE gonna whack your jaw and your head. It might not save your life in a really bad crash…but it certainly will in a lesser crash…just as leathers will save your skin.

            Hell, when I used to ride a dirt bike out in the wilderness on dirt and gravel roads [Not like a dirt bike…just touring the countryside) I wore a helmet. Never crashed- thankfully- butr in retrospect, I would’ve been smarter wearing leathers instead of or in addition to the helmet…but I was young, and didn’t know anything about motorcicles back then!)

            • Hi Nunz,

              No argument with the fundamentals you’ve stated; my point is that I am ok with the theoretical risk of not wearing a helmet – and going unbuckled vis-a-vis the tangible (to me) benefit of feeling the wind on my face (and not being constrained by a belt).

              I rise and bite over this stuff because the implication is always that someone else’s being uncomfortable with a risk – as they see it – becomes the pretext for imposing controls on me.

              Cold fish heads to that, I sez.

            • Nunz, I started wearing a seatbelt all the time in 1964, when I got a car with seatbelts. It just made sense. I saw too many kids rolling cars, getting thrown out and have the car roll over them……people my age.

              But I was a gearhead and kept up with all forms of racing and saw many of my heroes die from bs like no seat belt, no roll bar(insanity to not have one on a pure race car), simple things that save your life.

              I don’t think the laws should exist to mandate it but I think they are a good idea. I don’t like a shoulder belt and have been hurt twice by one.

              Seat belts in semi’s are often a death knell. You rarely survive a roll-over but getting thrown out is better by chance than riding it out. Sometimes you have a split second to move forward quickly to see something in your mirror that will avoid an accident but that damned belt won’t let you react quickly.

              Nobody ever replaces the belts on a truck too and with a million miles on one, the buckles are often worn out and nearly impossible to get loose.

            • Nunzio, I agree with you. I was wearing seat belts years before they were mandated, and I still wear them. The same goes for wearing a helmet when I used to ride. Though I hate, abhor, loathe, and despise the nanny state, I won’t stop using either seat belts or helmets simply to make a point; eschewing the use of protective gear to make a point is akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite your face, or however the saying goes.

              I remember how Gary Busey, the actor, was in a motorcycle crash years ago. It was a low speed crash, IIRC. He was messed up and never quite the same after that. Why? He wasn’t wearing a helmet. Had he even been wearing a cheapo $50 helmet, he’d have made a full recovery. I never forgot that…

              • Hi Mark,

                I’m not trying to make a point, per se. I simply regard the theoretical benefits of a helmet (and seatbelt) as being not worth the loss of the tangible actuality of the wind in my hair and the feeling of not being strapped in when I drive.

                It rise fast and bite hard when people tell me I’m being foolish; they need to keep their counsel. I do the same as regards fitness (and not smoking and other “risky” – as I see them – things).

                We all die in the end. Maybe I’ll die sooner because I ride/drive the way I do. It could also be because I eat ribeyes every chance I get. I enjoy living, the way I want to live.

  7. I rode a Honda VTX 1300 (my first MC) for 10 years (2005 – 2015) sans helmet and even sans MC license. I sold it to help pay for the ’71 Charger and have been enjoying the Charger ever since with an illegal vintage plate. Have not been hassled about the plate yet.

    As Col. William Ludlow said in Legends of the Fall, “Screw ’em!”

    • Thanks, Ken!

      I’ve had this one for a long time, like the TA. Over the years, I’ve made some mods, including a big bore kit (1015 cc) with 10.75:1 pistons; that woke ‘er up! I love this bike for many reasons, among them that while it’s ancient, it was so ahead of its time when new that it is still completely viable as a motorcycle today. You could ride this bike or any of its kin – like your police 1000 – across the country without worry. These things are smooth, reliable and hard to hurt.

      • Likely that is all true. I still sorta like Guzzi but to each his own. I have to start dumping motorcycles starting with the Buell 993 as I am incompetent for that. It sounds good but I haven’t put miles on it. The Benelli Sei 900 still goes fairly well and it has the 85 mph speedometer that I get a laugh from. These goomint fecks really try to ruin everything. I kept the original instrumentation to see how long it took to pin it. It wasn’t that long to get a laugh. I think that going by the tach that it flat outed at 125. I hate the Brembo dual braking system.
        Oh well, I still like Guinea bikes.

        • Good stuff, Erie!

          I used town an ’80 Z28 that had the 85 MPH speedo. The car wasn’t especially fast but it could rotate the needle past 85 all the way back to 10 or so, which was amusing in a way that appeals to 24-year-olds!

        • Hey Eric, I had axed you about Cadillacs and I didn’t get an actionable reply. So, I bought a 2011 CTS-V to annoy my wife. I think it cost me 17.7 ounces of gold. The crappy gas mileage doesn’t bother me all that much as a tank lasts far more than a month now. The turd has a rowboat transmission and I am keen on Tremecs.
          I can hardly wait to learn how to drive the thing in order to make my wife pee on her seat. I am terrible, so please forgive me.

          • Hi Erie,

            I must have missed your inquiry – mea culpa! You did well buying this thing as it’s basically a nicer, more practical Corvette. I remember giving my then-father-in-law a ride in a press car CTS-V. We managed 147 in fourth but I had to slow down because of the urine smell coming from the passenger side… (just kidding, Bill!)

            Really great car and all kinds of fun, too.

            Also, rare nowadays. I expect it t become a collectible…

            • “smell coming from the passenger seat”

              …and I thought my EX-friend Jimmy was bad…who used to pick his nose when I’d cart him around!

          • Hey Eric, I have to drive my wife’s van to get to her favored place “up north”. The thing shifts constantly at 65 mph. That is why I wanted a gearbox that is stuck on whatever gear it is in. Then I do get a kick of downshifting when coming to a stop. I know of few reasons for an automatic. Sure, they are faster but loss of control of the engine is a minus. I like engine braking as it saves on the wheel brakes.

  8. Hear hear! Couldn’t agree more…and this can be manifested in many other ways.

    That footage of fireworks covering the LA valley in the face of draconian bans with up to $50,000 fines for non compliance is another great example.

    Perhaps all hope is not lost.

    The leftists fly a banner from time to time: “Become Ungovernable”.

    I agree.

  9. Eric,

    I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but it’s all over social media. Prior to the 4th, CA Dictator Gavin Newsom and certain city mayors (mostly Democrats) canceled the fireworks displays, AND DECREED that any private displays were illegal too. Guess what? There were more fireworks than ever! There’s a viral video clip shot from a TV news helo, and there are fireworks in every direction as far as the eye could see. It was great! What was especially great was hearing the TV talking heads lamenting the fireworks displays. Even the people of CA said “FUCK YOU!” Folks can go here to see the clip: https://abc7.com/illegal-fireworks-los-angeles-air7-hd/2183287/

    • Yup, that’s the footage I was thinking of.

      In my corner of the world the fireworks were hot and heavy and the local fireworks store, sold completely out.

      I’m slowly recovering from a knee issue that has me grounded…every day of perfect riding weather going by the window is killing me.

        • As low as 20F? How stupid are you and your link? I used to do the bicycle all winter even to -15F. The snow and ice at the bottom of the hill was a treat but the fall wasn’t so bad if there were no garbage trucks out. I’d hate to get run over by sliding into an intersection with an oncoming garbage truck.
          I wised up somewhat and bought a Rickman that was light enough to drag up the steps to my kitchen that was at least 45F during the winter. That helped it to start without the boiling water on the cylinder block. Danged if I didn’t lay that down just like the bicycle on the same route. My so-called friends made fun of me for being so fixated on two wheels.

          • Erle,

            I simply never tried to go below 20F. I was looking for a good ski shop to procure more suitable cold weather gear. There used to be a good site called icebike.com, but I don’t think it exists anymore. That site had a WEALTH of info and good ideas for cold weather biking, and it was the site that inspired me to do it.

            That’s where I got the idea to just continue riding as the weather got colder; I manged to get down to 20F, which was well beyond my previous, fair weather comfort zone; it was a personal best. In Central Jersey, where I used to ride, it didn’t get down to 0F, let alone below that, very often anyway.

            That site taught me how to dress appropriately for cold weather biking. They said that you want to be a bit chilly before you hop on the bike. Once you start riding, you’ll generate a BOAT LOAD of body heat! I had no problem keeping warm in 20F temps; in fact, I had to be careful I didn’t sweat. I wish that site still existed…

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