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.

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. :)

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

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....

What the heck is going on?

Yeah, I suck.  My bad. 

Let's see....

Janky Elbow

Janky Elbow continues to be janky, though slightly less so.  I can fully extend it about 60% of the time now, which is sadly an improvement.  I've just sent off an email to my doc to get a referral to an orthopedic doctor with the ultimate goal of physical therapy.  

I was hoping to avoid PT, but it's been 5.5 weeks since I've ridden a motorcycle now and the elbow isn't healed yet.  Time to bring out the big guns.

XT225

I'm still hoping to attend the Chain Gang Altitude Sickness 2.0 ride in September.  It seems a little ambitious right now to be planning a ~600 mile weekend when I haven't even been able to ride around the block lately, but I'm delusional and optimistic.

F650GS

The nice part about taking time off from the bikes is that I get to do a bunch of modifications that would otherwise be a pain in the ass.

So far, I've ordered Rox handlebar risers, which bring the bars slightly up (bad) but much farther back (good).  I haven't done an installation report yet, since we're still tweaking things, but here's the gist so far:

The two downsides to this mod are that I have to order a longer brake line (which I've been steadily forgetting about for the past week) and I have to have the Rick Mayer seat slightly tweaked.  With the bars up a little bit from stock, I need the seat to be higher in order for my shoulder/elbow angle to be OK.  

Given the bike has a low suspension and I wear boots with risers, I should be able to have about 1/2" or 3/4" added to the seat without a problem. Right now I'm sitting on an Airhawk while testing angles in the garage, and it seems OK.

I swear, in my next life I will be 5'6".  

Hockey

Hockey is going really well, as thank goodness Janky Elbow isn't keeping me off the ice.  I'm probably overcompensating a bit for the lack of riding by getting super involved with hockey, but it's keeping me (relatively) sane.

My NCWHL team, the Drunken Pirates, are really a great team and just a joy to play with.  We're in second place in the division but, more importantly, have a ton of fun when we play.  I know I say that every season, but this team really does rule.  We're actually passing and making plays and have little pirate cheers.  

In other NCWHL news, I've join the board of directors as the league Treasurer.  I told you, overcompensation. ;) I'm a bit terrified of it, but that's generally a good indication that I'm doing the right thing.

Team Danger, at Ice Oasis, is sadly out of the playoffs after just one game.  We somehow wound up in first place based on points and penalty minutes (there was a four-way tie for first) but got our asses handed to us by the CPC Waves in the first playoff game.  Oops!  This was a pretty decent season for Team Danger; we had a little bit of a hero complex going ("I alone shall save this game!  Who are these other four players on the ice wearing the same jersey as me? Pish tosh! I alone shall win!") but -- frankly -- I've never been on a coed team that didn't have that going a little bit.

In other Ice Oasis news, I'm going to be joining the Thursday night league as well.  I told you, overcompensation. ;)  Thursday is also a coed league, like Monday nights (Team Danger), but Monday is mixed-level and Thursday is ostensibly done by skill level.  

So next season, I'll have my NCWHL team, Team Danger, and a Thursday night team at Ice Oasis.  Whew.

OK, I think you're all caught up now!  See you again in another month. ;)

Janky Elbow

I rode up to Rick Mayer Cycle in mid-April for a custom seat for the Beemer; a fun ride, but the friction zone on the clutch was too far out (even adjusted all the way in), which left my forearm and elbow a bit unhappy.

I replaced the levers with Wunderlich Vario adjustables, which helped a bit...

Stock clutch lever:

Vario lever:

But I continued to ride, and continued to aggravate the nerve, and now I have Janky Elbow.  

Janky Elbow is a distant cousin, I believe, of my old friend Angry Shoulder, except that Janky Elbow is at least predictable.  I pretty much can't pick anything up with my left hand, and forget about squeezing anything with my arm extended....y'know, like a clutch lever.

So, here's Janky Elbow currently.  

It's incredibly frustrating, to understate the obvious.

The wrist wrap and forearm strap help a bit, but I still can't do anything nuts like ride a motorcycle.  Astute readers might remember that I don't actually own a car, so I've been hemorrhaging money for the last two weeks on a rental car.   I'm also doing daily heat/ice cycles, ibuprofen, and regular chiropractic visits.

I seem to be able to play hockey without pain or inflammation (though backhands can sometimes really tweak it unexpectedly), so at least that's keeping me marginally sane.

In the meantime, I added Rox bar risers to the Beemer, which did bring the bars back farther, but I think the bars are fundamentally still too high and too wide.  

Peter gave me the suggestion to sit on his Airhawk, which actually did help my posture -- who knew I'd ever need a HIGHER seat?? So I might be heading back to Rick Mayer to add some more height back onto the custom seat (well, when I can even consider riding 250 miles, that is).  

I'm also looking into swapping narrower bars on; I like how the wide bars feel more stable in turns, but it's clearly keeping my elbows at a, well, janky angle.

So, the short story is that I'm incredibly frustrated but, hopefully, Janky Elbow is on the med and I'll be riding again soon...fingers crossed.

I swear, in my next life, I'll be averaged sized and not have ergonomic problems with every single thing I try to do.  Rarrr.

Beemers now and then

Two happy Beemers in the work parking lot.