BMW throttle friction screw

How many folks know about the throttle friction screw for early K-bikes and airhead BMW motorcycles?

I have one on my '94 K75S and I had one on my '81 R100RS. It can be tightened or loosened to achieve just the right amount of friction to overcome the throttle return spring and keep the throttle from snapping shut when you take your right hand off of the grip.

I was chagrined to discover my '91 K100RS right handgrip assembly was not drilled and tapped for the screw, so I used a Bob's Wrist Rest instead.

Here are the parts numbers, but I don't think any dealers carry them anymore.

• K bikes:  32-72-1-454-414
• Airheads:  32-72-1-230-874

I was wrong. Max BMW has the K-bike version for $9.65. http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=51745

An ashtray from the ashes of the Third Reich

Sixty-eight years ago this week, Capt. Phil Kroon, a Grand Rapids, Mich., boy serving with the U.S. Army’s 144th Field Artillery Group, had a chance to rummage through Adolf Hitler’s Berghof retreat at Berchtesgaden and a Diplomatic Corps castle down the road.

Capt. Kroon brought home a lot of cool stuff, including this heavy granite ashtray from the Berghof. There’s no chance that Hitler used it because he was a non-smoker. In fact, he had a standing offer of a gold watch for any member of his entourage who quit smoking.

Capt. Kroon was my father-in-law from my first marriage. He took a reduction in rank to remain in uniform when the Army downsized after World War II and served in Okinawa and Korea. He moved his family from Redlands, Calif. to Lafayette, Ind. when he was assigned to the Army ROTC program at Purdue University. That’s how I happened to meet his eldest daughter, Diane.

Phil Kroon was a good man who loved his family, his country, and his church and served them all faithfully until pancreatic cancer took his life in 1988 at the age of 69.

Check back tomorrow to read the letter he wrote to his wife on V-E Day, May 8, 1945.

Helluva ride

Makes my riding plans for 2013 look pretty tame.

Adios, Doc

I was startled to hear that Otis Bowen, who was governor of Indiana from 1973 to 1981 and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Ronald Reagan, died Saturday in a Donaldson, Ind., nursing home at the age of 95.

I was startled because I didn’t realize he was still alive.

I have a picture of me and Doc Bowen shaking hands at the Indianapolis Press Club back in the 1970s when I was elected to the Press Club board of directors. I can’t find it to post here, so this photo I shot at the dedication of a now-defunct theme park near Thorntown in 1971 will have to suffice.

Doc Bowen (he was an M.D. from Bremen, Ind.) served two terms and was generally well liked. He was a Republican.

Jack sings

Jack likes to sing along

Jack, our 20-month-old Aussie, is the first dog I ever had who pays attention to TV.

He especially likes to watch dogs on TV, so I’ve been entertaining him with YouTube videos of herding dogs at work, dogs playing at the dog park, and especially videos of dogs howling.

He loves to sing along.

Easy Reader

I’ve had the Kindle app on my iPod for years and my iPhone 5 since I got it late last year and I’ve read a few e-books using it.

But it wasn’t the satisfying reading experience I wanted and I knew that, sooner or later, I was going to want a serious dedicated e-reader.

Maria got a Kindle Fire about a year ago and uses it all the time. She encouraged me to get one too, but I didn’t like the illuminated screen that was hard to see in direct sunlight. (I guess I envisioned myself reading on a beach somewhere.)

I looked at the other Kindle offerings and settled on the $139 Paperwhite with build-in illumination and a claimed battery life of 8 weeks.

It showed up last Tuesday and I bought a Kindle copy of a World War II history by Antony Beevor, an author who’s previous books entertained the hell out of me.

With a 6” diagonal screen (4¾”x3½”), it fits in a 5”x7”x½” case that makes it easier to carry than a conventional paperback book. With the illumination turned off,  it reads just like a piece of paper. With the illumination dialed up, I can read in total darkness.

I think I like it.

Rain

The rain finally stopped this afternoon and I dumped almost 5 inches of water out of the rain gauge.
I got an unexpectedly quick report from this morning's ultrasound.
Gallbladder looks normal with no stones. Now they want to set me up with a Pipida scan (look it up if you care) to check gallbladder function. Fine with me as long as it doesn't interfere with my rally plans this month.
We tried to get in to see Iron Man 3 after dinner but all the screenings were sold out so we're hanging out at Barnes & Noble.

Not a BMW rally wristband

 I presented myself at St. Bernards Imaging Center at 7 a.m. today for an abdominal ultrasound to let my doctor have a look at my suspiciously behaving gallbladder. It took about a half-hour and I get the results sometime early next week.

Now I’m hanging out at Panera, having sprinted across the parking lot in a very cold (43 degrees) rain, where I wolfed down a bowl of oatmeal. It’s been raining like a mofo since about 6 p.m. yesterday. I meant to check the rain gauge when I left home this morning, but was preoccupied and forgot. I’m betting it’s got close to 2” of water in it.

It could be worse. They got snow in northwest Arkansas.

Off to a weird start

The cable, which includes TV, Internet, and phone was out this morning. The cable provider's line was busy when I called on my cell phone, so I figure they know about the problem.
And Maria noticed one of the carriage light bulbs had broken loose from its base in a way I've not seen before.
What next?

In today’s mail

Here’s the fabulous Pioneer Trails 13½” chop plate I scored last Sunday night on Ebay.

It’s the largest piece in the Wallace China Westward Ho Pioneer Trails series and a glorious example of the artistic work of Till Goodan, whose signature is at the bottom of the scene.

While I love the Rodeo and Boots & Saddle patterns, I have a special fondness for the Pioneer Trails stuff.

Here are the major pieces in my collection – mostly Pioneer Trails – which is rapidly outgrowing the limits of our china cabinet.

Moving again

I’ve been thinking about getting back on the treadmill for weeks.

It stood dust-covered in our cluttered garage for months, silently taunting me every time I came and went through the garage.

I’ve been subtly preparing myself to climb aboard for the last few days. Early this week, I put a charge in my iPod mini, but the events of Monday and Tuesday, leading up to the closing on our building, either got in the way or provided a good excuse not to start – you pick, both work for me.

But a new month dawned this morning and it seemed like the perfect time for a new beginning. I strapped on my Suunto Advizor watch/heart monitor, only to discover the battery was dying.

Undaunted, I realized I don’t need heart rate data, so I put my Breitling back on, laced up my Bates boots, ran an extension cord to an outlet in the house (the treadmill doesn’t like outlets with built-in circuit-breakers, which is all we have in the garage), flipped the switch, stepped up and pressed the “start” button.

I figured I’d take it easy, having lost stamina and muscle tone to months of couch potato-ness, but I underestimated the power of good exercising music and found myself bumping the speed up. I ended up covering a mile in about 22 minutes, which is farther and longer than I expected to go.

Now, two hours later, I can still feel the endorphins. I’d forgotten how good it feels to get moving.

Sold

We are now officially in the real estate investment business, doing business as Bucksnort Properties LLC.

We closed this afternoon on this 7,000-square-foot office building in downtown Jonesboro. We’re calling it the Flora Building, mostly out of a sense of whimsy.

We drove by the building after dinner this evening and were pleased to see the seller’s Realtor has updated the For Sale signs from “Pending” to “Sold.”

Our friend Susan, who has been pretty successful in commercial real estate deals, found this property and decided it was perfect for us.

We checked it out, crunched the numbers, and decided she was probably right.

We have tenants with long-term leases, so the financing went through without a hitch.

I still have the white enamel-clad letters that adorned the front of my father’s insurance agency in Delphi until he retired and sold the business in the mid-1970s.

It’s kinda tempting to use five of them to put “FLORA” on the front of the building, but maybe that would be a bit much.

Either way, I think he would have been proud.

The Flora Building

We closed today on the Flora Building in downtown Jonesboro.

More later.

Glorious spring morning

After a gray rainy weekend it was a pleasure to get out on the K75S and run errands this morning.
You can smell so much more on a bike - honeysuckle, skunk, wild onion, and something that smells like a freshly sharpened Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil.

I can see clearly now

The rain has gone and it left .6 of an inch of water in the rain gauge.

In today’s mail

I was a Hopalong Cassidy fan when I was a little kid, so I couldn’t resist throwing an opening bid of $4.99 at this 9½” Hopalong Cassidy plate the other day on Ebay. Nobody else wanted it, so I got it and it arrived in this morning’s mail.

Behind me is a framed piece of 1950s Hopalong Cassidy wallpaper, exactly like the wallpaper my parents used to decorate my room where we lived until the spring of my third grade year. I wonder if the paper is still there, under a few subsequent layers, or if it got scraped off.

Another Oracle gone

Mike Packard, or “Mick” as his high school friends knew him, was a year older than I but we were in high school musical groups together and were friends.

When I was writing a weekly column on motorcycling for The Indianapolis News and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles was about to institute motorcycle skills testing, I called Mick to ask if I would watch examiners being trained. He did me one better and invited me to be a member of the first class of examiners.

I accepted and eventually helped train new examiners until Evan Bayh became governor in 1989 and put skills testing in the hands of fulltime BMV employees.

Here’s his obit from The Indianapolis Star:

 

Michael M. Packard of Indianapolis, IN, passed away on April 25, 2013, following a battle with cancer. Michael was born on January 16, 1944 to Marvin and Alta Packard in Delphi, IN. He married Lorrie (McMinn) Packard in June of 1990. They have two children, Kameron and Keenan.

Michael graduated from Delphi High School in 1962 and graduated from Indiana State University with a B.S. degree in Psychology in 1966.

He worked for PSI Electric and then was Comptroller at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. There he was appointed Commissioner of the BMV by Governor Otis Bowen. He received the Sagamore of the Wabash from Governor Bowen. He was also appointed as acting State Auditor, acting Secretary of State, and acting State Treasurer during his political career. Michael also was Deputy Constable for Decatur Township for 18 years.

Michael loved horseback riding and was a member of the "Wild Bunch." He was also active in Boy Scouts of America for several years. Michael was also Assistant Golf Coach at Decatur Middle School for five years.

Michael is survived by his wife and children. He also leaves behind three brothers, Dave (Pennie), Rick (Ellen) and Bob.

Family and friends may attend calling from 2 P.M. to 6 P.M. on Sunday, April 28, 2013 and from 9 A.M. to 10 A.M., Monday, April 29, 2013 in Jones Family Mortuary in Mooresville, IN. Charles Paxton will officiate the 10 A.M. celebration of life funeral on Monday, April 29, 2013 in Jones Family Mortuary. Michael will be laid to rest in West Newton Cemetery.

Memorial contributions can be made to Camby Community Church, 8604 Camby Road, Camby, IN 46113. Website and online condolences: http://www.jonesfamilymortuary.com

Adios, LaDora

LaDora’s mother was my cousin, so I guess that made her a second cousin, or something like that. I was startled to learn that she died yesterday morning in a nursing home.

M. LaDora Hamilton
LaDora Hamilton, 67, of Carroll County passed away on April 25, 2013, at 6:23 a.m. at Milner Community Health Care in Rossville.
LaDora was born on April 9, 1946, in Lafayette to the late William J. and Barbara E. (Rodenbarger) Dickinson.
She was a 1964 graduate of Delphi High School and a graduate of Wright Beauty College in Kokomo.
LaDora retired as a gear lab technician for Fairfield Manufacturing in Lafayette after 17 years. She had also been owner and operator of Styles by LaDora.
She enjoyed crafts, singing, reading, watching movies, mushroom hunting, and riding her golf cart along the Wildcat Creek.
She is survived by her daughter, AunDrea (Bieghler) Schock (husb: Rod) of Delphi; her sister, Belinda Weatherwax (husb: Deet) of Delphi; grandchildren: Jake Bieghler (companion: Stefanie Dobson) of Cutler and Ali Bieghler (companion: Mikie Dubes) of Camden and Caleb Biegler of Delphi; and great grandchildren: Kaylyn and Ty Michael; niece: Elizabeth Hofmann and nephew: William Weatherwax.
She was preceded by her parents and one brother: Ronald I. Dickinson.
Viewing will be at Davidson Funeral Home from 10:00 a.m. to the 11:00 a.m. service on Saturday, April 27, 2013. Rev. Bill Glenn will officiate. Burial in Ball Hill Cemetery, Cutler.
Memorial Contributions may be made to the Milner Activity Fund.
Online Condolences: www.davidsonfh.com.

Her older brother, Ronnie, used to bully me and throw rocks at me. He died a few years ago in Florida. I forgive him for being a mean-spirited beefwit.

Dog TV

Jack likes to watch herding dog videos on YouTube.

Your healthcare dollars at work

I went to the doctor this afternoon to see if my self-diagnosis of a gallbladder problem was plausible.

Obamacare hasn’t compelled him to ask me about guns in my house yet, but it does require him to hand out “educational” material to each patient. I received this handout on best techniques to sleep – on my back or on my side – for back health. Homo sapiens has been around for about 200,000 years, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – run by the Satanic Catherine Sibelius – thinks we need instructions on how to sleep. And you know who ends up paying for this crap. I told him to put my copy in the trash.

He agreed that the two episodes I’ve had, both of which followed a meal of fatty, greasy food, sound like a gallbladder problem, so he scheduled me for a gallbladder ultrasound a week from tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m definitely off of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Outback Steakhouse’s breaded, fried crawfish.