10+ years of white helmets

Through replacements due to accidents and helmet age, I've worn more than my share of white streetbike helmets...'til now. Rather than buying a new one or paying someone to paint what I've got, I decided to this was a DIY job. After sketching out some ideas and asking for input, I settled on a design.

But first, I had some work to do: remove everything I could, sand down the paint and sand out the gouges/scratches.Whats left is the white base coat and the pinkish outer shell.

The design I chose is a stripe of Italian flags, to go with the DIY paint scheme on my Ducati. It is positioned off-center right and runs from front to back. Add a few phrases to help communicate a some heart-felt sentiments and I'm done.

The painting started with a white base coat. I taped off both sides along with the white sections of the flag. Next, a coat of red for the flag, tape off that area, a coat of green and tape off that area. Last was the thin black strips that seperate the flags. Obviously I waited for the paint to dry before each taping.

Text time. After covering the flag stripe, I hand placed letters to spell out my messages. Once in place, the bulk of the helmet was sprayed black. When dry, the letters were removed leaving a nicely contrasting white text with black background.

A few coats of clear, reassemble, and reattach my mini-mp3 (connected to communicator speakers in the helmet) and I'm ready to ride again. Not bad for rattle-can spray paint.

It's not fancy or perfect, but it's not white either.

Can't wait any longer - a motorcycle topic

I had been putting off my first post about motorcycles until I could actually sit down and think about it. Alas, my twitter searches have resulted in several 'following' and subscriptions to other's blogs. So as to not seem like just another follower, here are my motorcycle interests and projects.



Daily rider (when it is not 9'F like it is was morning): '94 Ducati 900SS, with Ferracci's 944 11:1 hi-comp kit, steel braided lines all around, high pipes, flat slides.

Here is a shot on the beach in Trinidad, CA during our 2006 trek to the MotoGP at Laguna Seca.

Dirt: Just a simple 2000 KTM 250sx with an exc (?) tank. No kickstand needed at the St. Anthony Dunes (2002?)

Cafe Racer: Like soooo many others these days, I find the cafe racer style appealing. In comes the '75 Honda CB360. It runs very well now, after spending at least the last 10 years as a barn bike. It was given to me by a friend. We all need more friends like this. Modifications will include: homemade wiring harness, 35V 4.7uF capacitor in place of the battery (done: kick start only now but that adds to the coolness factor, reduces weight and is smaller than a C-cell battery), drag bars, custom seat/tail piece...you get the point

Electric supermoto: Again, I was given a bike, '85 Honda XR350. The motor was seized due to a slight oversight in importance of oil (bad nephew-in-law). The plan is to strip it down, swap in some super-moto rims/tires along, electric motor, batteries, controller... This is a work in progress. As a low budget beginning step, I bought a very used electric golf cart. It has everything I need to get started, except the batteries and charger. We'll see.

Ahhhhh. I feel much better now.

Before signing off, I'll share a couple of my thoughts about motorcycles. First, if you've got it, ride it. Second, there are too many people and not enough motorcycles. If you have a bike that does not run, give it to me or someone else so they can make it run. A non-running bike means that there is one less person out there riding.

kinetic energy

This is the start of what I hope to be a very thought inspiring (both to you and me) topic regarding the use of intentional and incidental kinetic energy. Here are some ideas already out there. http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/kinetic-energy-gadgets

I've have some that I am working on and hope to share in future posts.

What's on your mind?

Look before you type

In an effort to see if I could find myself in the world of search engines, I typed in the former name of this blog, "Tomorrow...starts now". Imagine my dismay when I realized that this phrase has been recently used in the political arena.

Let me be brief. I discuss politics and political issues only to the extent to say that, "I don't discuss politics." To distance myself from anything even remotely political, I have changed the title of this blog. "aka-Riko" is my outside-work persona and, at least to me, is sufficiently unique and curiosity inspiring to aid in my-(insert 20th century catch phrase here)-personal branding. This is my first example of something that all bloggers should heed, look before you type.

Metadyne Industries - Havoc

My first promotional push is for an old friend. Though, I just got off the phone with him and it does not sound like they needs much help as orders are going well. His business is Metadyne Industries. http://www.metadyneindustries.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=82

They design and manufature high quality add ons for paintball guns. However, their latest item is not an add on. They've designed a mini nerf football launcher called the Havoc. See the Havoc in action here. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=thanoszx7&view=videos

Think Mark Antony would approve?

Day 0

Too many ideas and random thoughts to continue scratching and rescratching them on scraps of paper. Time to move into the web 2.0 th century. In doing so, I hope aid the readers in generating new ideas, nuture those ideas and to garner support for my own.

Though I lean more toward mechanical side of things, the title of this post is for my electrical(binary) friends. They'll understand.