BluepoofBikes Motorcycle Adventures

Yeah, still not riding.

This is my excuse:

 

Remember that back injury I talked about in September?  Turns out it's a ruptured disc.  Well, I feel better about being a whiny little brat about it now.

I went in to see the doc today and he put the above picture up on the screen, turned to me, and said, "well, I bet you can find the problem!"  Heh, yep.  He also said that the bright white parts that are right up against the vertebrae (inside the blue circle) are actually supposed to be inside the disc.  Eeeewww.  I told him I had a shock absorber leak, which got a chuckle out of him.

The good news is that I shouldn't need surgery and the doc says most ruptured discs go away on their own within 6 months.  

I can resume normal activity as pain permits -- unfortunately, pain isn't permitting riding yet (hockey is of course also right out) but I was glad to hear that the injury is "stable", meaning that if I do try to ride a little or go to a public skate, worst case is that it hurts.  I'm not going to make it worse, per se.

So...yeah.  I refused the epidural steroid injection the doc wanted me to get (since my last one didn't go so well) but I did agree to the 5-day stint on methylprednisolone.  I see the doc again in a month and we'll go from there.  With any luck it'll be healing and I'll either be back in physical therapy or otherwise well on my way to recovery. 

RIP Buell

I find this news incredibly sad.  I don't know anything about Buell's finances, or the politics of how it was assimilated into -- and ultimately killed by -- Harley-Davidson, but it's never a good thing for the sport when a company goes under.

I'll admit it, I choked up watching the above video.  

Maybe some of it is my Wisconsin background; maybe some of it is seeing a man who so clearly loves his work and his company have to give its eulogy.  

Buell brought so many things to the sportsbike world; I remember bike show displays that proudly showed off the perimeter floating brake disc, the frame holding fuel, the swingarm holding oil.   Like the Buell Blast or not, it got 70mpg -- that's better than my XT!

I've ridden a Buell Blast around Wisconsin, a Firebolt XB12R and a Lightning XB12SCG around a track in Nevada, and I've toured with Firebolts and Ulysses.

Rarr, now I've spent minutes of my life trying to find the photos of me at Femmoto riding the Firebolt.  I'll upload one later if I find it.

In the meantime, here are my other Buell photos.  I never owned one, but I liked riding them.  I'm sorry to see them go...and it'll be interesting to see what, if anything, this does to Harley.  I think their reason of "needing to focus on the Harley brand" is a bit coy; can you think of a brand less in danger of being forgotten than Harley-Davidson? Ah well, I guess this is why I'm not in PR/marketing.

What's this? A motorcycle ride??

Your eyes do not deceive you! I went on -- drum roll -- a motorcycle ride today!!

OK, don't get that excited; it was about 7 miles long.  But it was the first time I'd been on a bike since June, so I was still grinning in my helmet the whole time.

All ready and rarin' to go!

It was a gorgeous day, if a little warm. 

The heat made the views of San Francisco a little hazy.

I stumbled upon Vista Park and decided to stop and look around.

It turned out to be a neat little city park, a pilot site for a native plant/pesticide free park.  They have a little landscaping area set up with examples of native plants and a little info about each one.

Behind the landscaping area is a trailhead.  Looks inviting, huh!

I took the opportunity to sit in the shade for a few moments partway along the trail.  I didn't see any of the aforementioned wildlife; only the native beer bottles and discarded trash that people seem to feel appropriate to dump in parks.  Grrr.

I'm pretty sure "hiking in motorcycle gear on a 95F day" isn't one of my PT-approved activities, so I turned around and walked back to the bike.

The round trip was only about 7 miles, but it was riding!  It felt great to ride the XT -- though I'm not entirely sure the new clutch lever I put on was disengaging the clutch completely -- and I'm looking forward to more tiny trips.  :)

A hot pair of twins at work

A nice pair of F800GSs parked outside of work today.  Gorgeous!

The one on the right is a 2009 owned by my buddy Guido.   The lefthand one is a 2010 in a really nice coppery orange color.  It looks red in the cell phone photo, so here's an official-like BMW pic:

I approve!  I'm biased because I just love orange, but this is really a fantastic color.  BMW made the F650GS in the same orange for '10 as well:

I still like my red one...good thing, huh, since I own it and its paid for and stuff.

But that orange F800GS is really wonderful.  I'm happy that I'll get to look at it outside of work from now on. :)

Beak extender for the Beemer

Well, if it's just going to sit there, I may as well make it pretty.

Write-up for installing an F800GS beak extender

Super easy, and I think it looks nice. :)

This is why you wear gear, kids!

Some of the aftermath of my Sport-Touring.net buddy Frank's accident in Foster City, CA on 9/6/09.  

Frank went down when he was turning left in an intersection and a Harley rider ran the red light and came straight at him. The Harley rider then left the scene.  

Frank spent 5 days in the hospital with a broken scapula, broken collarbone, and seven broken ribs. And that's WITH full gear.

We just had our monthly STN dinner over at Frank's house with pizza and beer and nice company. He was in great spirits and showed off his lovely bruises (sorry, no pics ;) ). The ZR-7S is in remarkably good shape; if it weren't for a scratch on the quarter fairing and some rash on the sidebags, you'd never know it had been in an accident.

Here's Frank and the aforementioned ZR-7S up on Hwy 299 in October 2005. I'm glad that both it and Frank are still (mostly) in one piece and will be riding again!

Physical Therapy is phun!

I've been rather avoiding blogging lately as, well, I don't do anything these days.  I don't mean my hockey games or motorcycling are uninteresting, sadly; I mean I don't do them. At all. But I realized that I'm not the only injured person in the world and I thought maybe other motorcyclists or hockey players would be at least marginally interested in my latest physical therapy adventures. 

So.

I last rode a motorcycle on June 10.  I last played hockey on August 16.

WTF?

Janky Elbow
Well, the motorcycling bit started out, as you know, with Janky Elbow.  I started doing PT for Janky Elbow in late July.  My fears about tennis elbow were justified when they measured my "squeeze" strength with each hand.  With my elbow at my side and my forearm out straight (making a 90 degree angle with my bicep), my right hand could squeeze 75 lbs.  My left arm? Barely 30 lbs, and even that hurt like a mofo.

So I began regular PT.  Ice, electrical stim, and stretches.  

Once an hour, I do these stretches:

I also recently bought a Thera-Band Flexbar, which seems to be helping already.  After reading this post from the New York Times, I figured it was worth a shot.  I do 10 repetitions of the exercise shown in that post, twice per day.

I'm at the point now where I can sit on a parked motorcycle and use the clutch a half dozen or so times.  Progress!

So that's my elbow.  

Janky Back

So then, as mentioned in my last hockey entry, I tweaked my back playing on August 16.  By August 17, I couldn't stand up or move at all, and spent the day lying on an icepack cursing the world.

Long story short, I had two tilted and stuck vertebrae, L3 and L4.  By the time I got to the chiropractor (about a week after the injury), my whole back was messed up.  I couldn't stand, couldn't walk without bending forward nearly double, and couldn't lie flat either on my back or stomach.

Pretty much once an hour, I had to lie like this on an icepack (without the dumbbells ;) ) for 20 minutes just to make it through the day:

After two weeks of twice-weekly physical therapy (no stretches or exercises, just manipulation, ice, and electrical stim), I could walk upright and felt almost normal...unfortunately, then we flew to Wisconsin to pack up my mom's condo.  Packing boxes put me right back out again.

So now it's been a month since the original injury and I'm just starting to get OK again.  I still do twice-weekly PT, with the following exercises:

Every hour:

• Hamstring stretches (30 sec per leg)
• Piriformis stretches (30 sec per leg)

Every day:

• Cat/camel (10 reps)
• Tail wags (10 reps)
• Bridges (10 reps)
• Knee lifts while sitting (10 reps per leg)

I'm supposed to also do a couple of Swiss ball exercises but they still hurt my back too much to do them. I'm hoping to start those up next week.

The L3/L4 pain is pretty much gone now, but a lot of pain has spread down to the sacrum area.  I'm told that's normal after having an abnormal walking pattern for any length of time (and I've certainly been walking like a pregnant hunchback for the past four weeks), but I'm over the novelty and really, it could go away at any point now.  Really.  Other than that, it's just that my hip and upper back muscles have turned into hard cords.  It's really massage o'clock once I can get ahold of the Apple Wellness people to fit me in at lunch sometime.

As for hockey, the physical therapist said that once I can go three days in a row without pain when sitting, standing, or walking...then I can start thinking about when I can skate again.  Realistically, I'm guessing it'll be about another two weeks.

So, another season in Red for me as Maroon evals are this weekend.  I'm bummed about that but...what can I really do? I can't skate at all, much less be evaluated for the next highest division.  Must be zen about annoying things.  Ommmm.

So that's my life in a nutshell.  Lots of PT, lots of frustration, but I'm starting to read motorcycle forums again (I'd stopped for a while because it was just depressing) and starting to sit on my bikes in the garage again and make little vroom vroom noises.  

Hopefully soon I'll have actual content to write about! :D

Missing rider near Missoula, MT

I hate making these posts, but I feel helpless enough sitting at home in front of my computer that I hope maybe just sharing the information might be useful.

Donald Masters left Orofino, ID on Monday, August 31, headed for West Yellowstone and then on to Denver. He has not been seen or heard from since. Last credit card usage was for gas in Lolo, MT. on 8/31. He was riding a black 2008 Goldwing, Colorado Plate #327-UTH.

If you are near Lolo Pass, or anywhere between Missoula and W. Yellowstone, please be on the lookout for Donald and his bike. He's 62 years old, weighs about 175 and is about 5'9" tall. His bike would have been loaded with a fair amount of gear as he was on a 2+ week trip. If you have seen him or have information about him or his bike, please call the Clearwater County (ID) Sheriff's Department at (208) 476-4521.

If you're in the area, please consider joining the st-owners.com search on Saturday September 12.  More information here: http://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72221

Drunken Pirates stats

Yarrr, another season over, matey!

Team: Drunken Pirates (R2)
Player: Carolyn Bierman
Number: 94
Games Played: 17
Points: 6
Goals: 3
Assists: 3
Penalties in minutes: 0

No PIM!? Apparently I skated in peace this season.

Division stats for the season:

Team	GP	PTS	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	SOG
R1	15	24	12	3	0	0	54	22	345
R2 - Drunken Pirates	16	20	9	5	0	2	45	30	299
R3 - Fast & Furious Devils	15	12	5	8	1	1	13	30	268
R4 - Mad Cows	15	11	5	9	1	0	22	43	205
R5 - Monkeys on Ice	15	12	6	9	0	0	36	45	297

A good showing, ahoy!

Everyone's a motorcyclist in Wisconsin

Even the TSA at Milwaukee gets into Harleys. :)

The "solo traveler" lane had a lone rider on a Harley, but Peter wouldn't let me skip the security line to go take a photo. ;)

I also love the "Recombobulation Area" sign just past security; yknow, where you...recombobulate.

Our most recent visit to Wisconsin happened to have amazingly good weather, so there were tons of motorcyclists around.  It was pretty neat to see.  There's a part of me that really does think it looks badass to be riding a big Harley down the midwestern freeways and county backroads.

I guess the closest I ever got was riding a Buell Blast around the farms...

Ah well.  You can take the girl out of Milwaukee, but....