The Adventures of FriarJohn on Two (and Sometimes Four) Wheels

I whipped up a new masthead for the BonnevilleAmerica.com forums. Hopefully they can use it. People have been complaining for years about the backwards Triumph tank badge in the current masthead.

Clicky:

Update: It may be a while before we can get the site owner to upload the masthead (if he accepts it at all), so impatiently I used the Greasemonkey and Stylist plug-ins for firefox to dynamically replace the image in the header. If there were proper CSS “hooks” in the code I wouldn’t have needed javascript to pull it off. I only used custom CSS to remove a border around the new image. Here’s a screenshot:

I added a new Page on this site called Californication, with the major route mapped out for my upcoming California trip in September. The Google folks just made it super easy to embed maps in web pages, otherwise I would’ve just relied on the Travel page in my TBA Wiki, which I’ve been using to track a variety of different potential routes. The new Californication Page only contains the final route on which I’m 99% certain.

Tires and Brakes

Just picked up my wheels from Jeff’s shop.

Front: Avon Venom X 120/90-18
Rear: Avon Venom X 170/80-15

Cost, mounted: $300
Mileage: 33931.6

Next year I may try the 130/70-18 on the front. If I like the way it handles I’ll need to find a stock front fender bracket to replace the one I’ve modified (extended) to work with the 90-series tire.

Also, one of these years I’d like to try Metzler 880E tires. Jeff doesn’t carry that brand so I’ll have to buy them elsewhere, even if I have Jeff mount them for me.

My front brake rotor is .1mm below spec and is due for replacement. I wouldn’t bother (until next Spring) if I wasn’t going to California in September. I ordered an EBC Floating Rotor and new EBC sintered brake pads from Newspeedmaster.com, along with stainless steel braided brake lines front and rear. Also, I’ll finally be installing the Speedbleeders in my calipers that I bought years ago and obviously replacing the brake fluid with fresh DOT4. The rear rotor and pads are well within spec as I hardly ever use the rear brake.

I also replaced the fork oil with a 50/50 mixture of 10W and 15W. And I installed my Optronics fog lights under the lower front yoke, although I broke the switch for the console already.