The Urban Survivalist

I got all of the parts needed for about $100. You can't even tell that it's been in a wreck now. While hunting around for parts I found some nice backrests and luggage racks. I'm seriously thinking about getting something like that so that I can use the bike for some serious touring/weekend camping trips. I've already got saddle bags for it and I bought some luggage a while back that mounts to a sissy bar thinking that I'd be able to attach it to the little grab rail that's there now. No dice. Oh well. One nice thing about the whole experience is that I've come to realize just how easy this bike is to work on, how cheap replacement parts can be had for it and how durable it is. I've also been cutting expenses. I got my cable bill reduced by $50 a month when I called them and threatened to cancel my TV service. That will last 6 months. If I can't get a similar deal in 6 months then I'll probably just shut it off. I also canceled my hom...

I took my Virago for a ride today and decided to hit up some twisties. It was a beautiful day but there were a lot of icy patches and tons of sand on the road everywhere I went. I ended up going down pretty hard. I was wearing good gear so I walked away without a scratch. My bike was a little beat up but fixing it should be cheap and easy. I rode it home so it couldn't have been in too bad of shape. It just took a little bit of ingenuity. The skid mark: The McGuyver fix on the broken shifter that managed to hold together long enough to get home:

Wanna know what life in China is really like? Just ask a motorcyclist . This guy rode all over southwest China on a 200cc dirtbike and documented his entire trip. It gives really good insight into what day to day life is like for a lot of Chinese. It also gives us a small glimpse of how they regard foreigners. After reading this guy's ride report it gave me a really good idea of just how far we have to fall. This is how a lot of their people live yet somehow they're regarded as our competition. It also just goes to show that no matter how bad things seem you can always make the best of things if you've got the right attitude.

Let's face it. No matter how bad the news gets there's always that chance that things will once again turn around and things will start to look good for humanity again. We will always have our upturns and our downswings. Things seem pretty bleak right now but all is not lost. Things aren't so far gone that there's no hope of a recovery. If things do recover then it will likely result in another period of prosperity that could last for another decade or two. Maybe what's going on right now really is the final nail in the coffin. Maybe it isn't. Maybe we're at the cusp of another depression that will last for years. Maybe we'll eventually bounce back. Maybe in 50 years automobiles will be remembered as mythical, magical artifacts and the average person won't even know what paper looks like, let alone know how to read words that are written on it. I've never been a gambling man. I like to hedge my bets. When it comes to prepping I do th...

I just heard this song by John Rich on the Glenn Beck show today. I'm not much of a country fan but this one is worth checking out no matter what kind of music you listen to. Skip to about the 3 minute mark if you want to skip the commentary.