MMmmmm Rubber

So here we are sitting downtown at our usual spot, enjoying probably the first palatable Saturday evening in the open air of 2008.

Here comes this kid with a nice REAL nice BMW Sedan, in black of course (shouldn't all BMWs be black?). Of course staring at us with his windows and his euro-trash metal music blaring. Just looking for trouble (or a race, or a fight, or god knows what). Finally about the 3rd or 4th time through the light, Matt finally yells at him: "Do a burnout!!!" By this time we'd all gotten a look at the car - it's a BMW M5. Now I'm no BMW expert but I know that its a nice ass car. And not cheap, to boot. And the way this kid's been revving the engine and driving a little sketchy-like, I'm guessing its daddy's car. I had casually mentioned (read: scoffed) to my friends under my breath that 'its probably an 80 thousand dollar car'. Well of course this kid is more than happy to oblige and has a huge, bug-eating grin on his face which allows us all to clearly see the sad story of his two front teeth; jagged and broken as a shattered mirror. My teeth hurt today, weeks later, just thinking about it. So of course he locks it up the front wheels and obliges us with about 15 seconds of tire-melting goodness. Easily the best burnout I have seen in Lincoln, NE. His car is sliding slightly forward, the front brakes unable to push back hard enough against the raw power behind the rear wheels. So he lets off and gets a short applause and a couple whoops and hollers from the gawkers before taking off at the light.

Shortly after (you didn't think the story is over did you?), he pulls by in our side of the street slowly, waving. Of course he decides to stop in and say hi and see who he can cajole into a race. He stops in the middle of the street (oddly no traffic, wierd) and chats with us for a moment. Yeah it's an M5 with a *blah**blah*blah*blah* stage two tune from some german company. That cost about 40 grand on top of the car. Dual turbochargers or some BS like that. He continues to chat for a moment, indicating that his "old lady" messed up his teeth the other day. Not sure if that meant his wife or his mom or what... but don't really care. He sees some cars coming up behind him and decides to stop and chat some more. He pulls in quietly down the block and parallel parks nearer the other end of the street.

At this point I already knew he wasn't a character I really wanted to associate with. I notice the guy slightly tweaking every few seconds, either high on something, stoned on something, drunk on something, or a combination of the above. (not that I really had any doubt anyway) He chatted with the guys some more (I purposely did not join in the conversation or move anywhere near where they were talking). Well I hear him ask who wants to race. Hah! A bit of an akward moment and Matt, being his smooth self, says none of us are really racers, they are hanging out down at BK on 25th! The guy, resolute in his quest to cause trouble, decides to go find someone, quick, fast, and in a hurry. Jumps in his car and again, (no traffic, how weird) squeels his tires backing up, then pounds the accelerator, flipping the car in a U while burning off some more rubber, out of the parking space. I think he meant to flip a 180 out of the space, and then head east, but he was a little too liberal with the throttle, and ended up doing about a 270, facing his car directly into the curb. Stopped, logic I guess betrayed this poor kid, that or his nuts grew in size threefold and he decided to continue his rubber-melting-frenzy. Cranking the wheel and pounding the accelerator once more, leaving us all in a thick white cloud of smoke. He must have spinned around 4-5 times continuously before he finally decided to head east and find a racer. Closer inspection revealed giant black circles, spanning 4 lanes of traffic and a turn lane. How he didn't hit one of the parked cars (lined on both sides of the street) or any traffic (where the hell was all the cars???!!!) I'll never know. However it was possibly the sweetest thing I have ever seen anyone do on four wheels, and certainly the coolest thing done on a public, open, road. The only thing that would of topped it would be a cop to show up and arrest the kid (rightfully) for reckless endangerment or whatever it is cops are making up now. People that do stupid things like that make all us law-abiding folk look bad.

If I tried to squeak my wheels even a little I'd have every cop in a three-county radius lighting me up and dragging me out of my car by my collar. This kid nearly gets away with murder and not a 5-oh in sight? Chalk it up to my being unlucky, I guess.

Oh and I looked up the kids car on BMW-USA it's about a $100,000 car not counting any modifications he made. Holy crap dude. I guess it must be nice to have money and not care what happens to it.

Nebraska Firearms Association

Or some variation of the name.

This may or may not happen. I listened in on an organizational meeting this Saturday concerning the formation of an association here. It may or may not get running depending on the desire of the people to get active. A great point came up in that an association is fine but 20 people really has no pull on votes in the unicameral or any other political body. The association must pull in firearms owners from all walks of life and type of ownership in order to become successful and help move firearms works through our government.

Some discussion was given to forming a group that could work under some IRS code 501(c)4 or some junk that would allow the group to have public political agendas. All fine and good but one step at a time. Seems like we need to have members before we go too crazy, right?

Anyway it may be around in the future and of course I'd fully support any such venture. I'll keep an ear to the ground and let you know what I hear...

Way to go Lou!

See Lou Dobbs on CNN lately? He's had some excellent coverage on there the last couple days of some high-profile firearms cases currently out there. Here's the CNN video explaining a case, where the guy lent his 20 year old rifle to a buddy, the rifle malfunctions, and now the gun owner is facing 6 years in prison, and up to $250,000 in fines!

Here's David Codrea on praising the media for their coverage, and why we need to let the networks know we like to hear about these firearms injustices. It sounds from Lou like he is as upset as many US gun owners likely are too! The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives is a bit out of control! I can't believe they got this case all the way through trial and got him convicted, with a whole jury full of people finding the poor guy guilty!? (He's yet to be sentenced, and has filed for Acquittal I believe)

Wanna make some noise?

The more I ride, the more I wish I was louder. Both for safety and for fun. (OK so it's about 10% safety 90% fun, so sue me)

So I talked to Dave from PineboxOnline about exhaust with a mount for stock brake light and plate. Basically there is a huge bracket that mounts your light, signals, and license plate on the back of the bike. Well most folks remove all that crap and come up with some nice looking custom taillight/plate mount. Its a fender elimination or fender 'elim'. Well I did take the bulk of my fender off, but whats left I feel is a good compromise between looking clean and sleek, and not getting harassed by the cops. I do have after-market exhaust but it is barely any louder than the stock system. Though MUCH lighter, and deeper sounding, it certainly does not turn that many heads. And this exhaust system came with holes and an adapter to mount up to the stock fender bracket.


Well anyway back to Dave. He posted some photos back in January about a PineBox Screamer exhaust system that would include welded in brackets for mounting up the stock fender piece. SO needless to say I was keeping a close eye on the site to see if he would release this version of the exhaust on the unsuspecting public. Well he didn't so I finally got impatient and e-mailed him the other day inquiring about this new addition or if he could possibly do a custom job of it. Well he CAN. Go figure, he updated the site the very same day I mailed him about it, and I think he's gonna make me one! I reserved my spot in line and he'll be fabricating it late May/June and I should receive it sometime in July.



So finally, I'll be able to make some noise.

From the customer testimonials page:

"It has a sound that I really can't associate with anything that I heard so far....From 7-10K RPM it sounds like the Armageddon is right around the corner...."

All I can think of to say about that is, :-D

To be or to blog

Test first posting blah blah blah

linky to something else goes here