As always life gets busy and I haven’t updated in a bit, so I figured I’d get something posted up. Life has been crazy busy lately, with a bunch of traveling mixed in with a bunch of working, lol. Sadly labor day has come to pass, and I didn’t get to Wildwood or many amusement parks this year, but for good reason: I’ve been traveling a bunch this year, and I’ll likely post up some pics and fun things from my travels later on. This week I set aside my nerdy computer things to focus on more gas-powered fun…
It seems that the “interest of the week” is lawnmowers; partially stemming from the fact that after several recent road trips, my yard was in desperate need of a cut, and in trying to get caught up, my 32 year old Craftsman II tractor finally bit the dust. I’m STILL bummed about it; I was there when my dad picked it up brand new at Sears, sometime around 1987. I’ve been using the same tractor ever since, not only to cut my (then) parents’ yard, but other relatives yards, friends yards, and later on my own. In tractor-miles it probably has 700,000 miles on it. It’s literally been like a friend to me over all these years and up until very recently, it’s required very little service and has been super reliable. It was mostly original: original motor, original trans, original deck, original tires. I did have to do usual maintenance like new deck bearings, new battery, etc.
Yes it could be fixed; I could swap on a new engine, or even rebuild the existing engine, but it may be time to just let it go for something newer. The deck was starting to rot out, and I did find a newer Craftsman LT2000 tractor at a yard sale, but I can already tell the old one is built way more durable. We’ll see what I end up doing.
In fixing up the new tractor for use, I ended up coming across an interesting Youtube channel called “Taryl Fixes All” – a small engine and lawnmower repair channel with some great information, while also being hilarious and entertaining as well. I’ve watched a bunch of his videos and will probably watch more, which is unusual since I rarely ever watch TV. In fact, watching a bunch of these videos inspired me to go through all my gas-powered things and give them all tune-ups and fix any little problems they have. I found a web site called PartsTree.com that seems to have everything under the sun for lawnmowers and all other gas-powered equipment. Another site was Jack’s Small Engines, which has a great site with tons of reference material and diagrams.
With the weather being a little more reasonable, I’ve also managed to get some more motorcycling in, including my usual run up Kelly Drive to the Philadelphia Art Museum…
In addition to my usual riding, last weekend Harley-Davidson was offering Livewire demo rides in King of Prussia. If you’re not familiar, the Livewire is Harley’s first foray into electric motorcycles. It’s (almost) completely silent, currently rated at 105hp and seriously pulls like a freight train. Unfortunately they’ve priced it at nearly $30k, so way out of my price range at the moment. I will say though ,that compared to my Harley V-Rod, the Livewire pulls every bit as hard, considering there’s very little “ramp up” – the power is just THERE nearly instantly. Check their web site for other demo rides, and if you have the opportunity to try one out, DO IT, but keep in mind that in “sport mode”, the bike will pull VERY hard! (Think 0-80 in 6 seconds hard).
While I really enjoyed the test drives, there’s definitely a few things I wish I could tweak about the bike. As a “cruiser-ish” rider, I wish the seat had more of a pocket to keep me planted in, as well as I wish the bike was a little lower overall (I’m a runt). One interesting thing they did change was having the brake lights come on automatically when you “engine brake” – as the Livewire does offer that capability since it charges the battery when you let off the throttle. There was definitely improvement from the last time I rode Livewire, which was around 2-3 years ago when the first prototypes were announced.
Well I think that’s enough for now…hope everyone had a great summer and you also enjoy the fall weather.