No, we did not get any young dogs. Nor am I referring to a slang term for mammary glands. I am talking about Grip Puppies: a foam tube that slides over the grips on the handlebar on a motorcycle, essentially giving the grips a bigger circumference and adding some cushion. I have used them in the past, on the BMW and V-Strom I had before moving to scooters. Joan had them on her PCX and currently has a set on her Xmax. I decided to put a set of them on the CTX.
First step: trim them to the length of your grips. Second step: coat the inside of them with soapy water, and put some on your grips. Third step: slide them on. It was that third step that made me work this morning... by the time I was done getting them on, my hands were aching. Yeah, that seems to be counter-productive. ;-)
I also put on the new license plate, and used a "memory jog" to imprint that number in my brain. The last 3 digits are S4L... "shit 4 luck." Whatever works.
Then, out and about to enjoy a ride. Upper 70s, wind out of the southeast at 19, typical humidity - yeah, that seems like good conditions for a ride. I had a "destination" in mind today: to the large parking lot at the Convention Center on SPI; it gives me a chance to ride by my favorite mural (one of Wyland's Whaling Walls, featuring Orcas), then go practice some slow speed maneuvers in that big empty parking lot.
The CTX is bigger, longer, and heavier than the Vespa. It carries the weight low, though, so low speed maneuvers are not difficult. Within a couple trys, I could u-turn the CTX in two normal parking spaces... and never scraped a floorboard. After that, I stopped to get a photo of the CTX in that parking lot...
Cropped in close to see one of those Grip Puppies...
The Grip Puppies are comfortable, but my hands still ached from putting them on. And for grins, I made this stylized image of the logo on the side of the tank...
I enjoyed the ride. The chop on the water on the Laguna Madre was starting to build as I came back over the causeway... but, it still has that pretty turquoise look, for now. Some things look different in the past couple months: the area where Pier 19 was (it burned to the water in a fire) is just a few bits of pilings above the water; sad. Some new construction on the island (noticeable: Chaos, which used to be a mall of sorts, then became a spring break dance club, then was gutted. There is siding and new windows on the building, and a "Restaurant for lease" sign out front.). Not a lot of people out and about; this is generally a pretty quiet time... before the crush of summer visitors comes rolling in.
I rode around our island on my bicycle earlier today - pretty quiet here, too. That will change soon.
2 comments:
Pretty cool that your new CTX is now a bona fide Texan. I did not know about Grip Puppies, but I did something similar on my Gold Wing back in the day with bicycle inner tubes as a grip surface over foam tape. It is less fatiguing for the hand to wrap around a larger diameter, especially on all-day rides. We also home-brewed our own electric grips. Put an electrical engineer with cold hands together with a mechanical engineer, and that is the kind of project you get.
Having worked at least 50 hours this week already, I'm taking the evening off for a bluegrass jam.
Hi Earl - nice to hear from you. Having had more Harleys than any other brand, I was used to a thicker grip. The Grip Puppies give you that extra thickness with a bit more cushion. Only bike I ever had with heated grips was the BMW R1100RT I had when we still lived in the frozen northland - they work. Since then, my solution to cold hands when riding: move way south. ;-)
You put in 50 hours by Thursday? You deserve the night off. And the next 3 or 4 days. Sounds like your boss needs a talkin' to... I remember those days of being self-employed. I like being self-unemployed.
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