A few bits of news... The items I had been expecting in the mail have finally arrived! The Sundowner seat and sissy bar/backrest/rack combo for the Fat Bob showed up on the porch about an hour ago. Took a peek inside and all looks good (mostly). I was expecting chrome brackets for the sissy bar mount and received black ones with peeling paint instead... So I'll be looking to cheaply replace these when possible. It looks like I finally have all the kinks worked out of the new website! Until today, emails sent to tripp@trippontwowheels.com didn't go there. In fact I have no clue where they were going. Probably just floating around in hyperspace somewhere. So if by chance you had tried to sign

Find reading a map at 50 mph a little difficult, not to mention dangerous? Tired of missing an important call because your phone's in your jacket pocket and you can't hear it at speed? Welcome to $3.00 Tankbagsville, population you. Head to you local hardware store, navigate to the fastener aisle (screws, nails, etc.) and look for the magnet section (it'll be small, just like the number of geniuses looking to make this tank bag). Then snag yourself four nice-sized, round magnets (1.25 to 1.75 inches in diameter) - ceramic or chrome plated, it makes no difference. You shouldn't have to pay much more than a buck apiece for these (cheapest in a 4-pack). Then grab a one-quart (best for cell pho

I've used Garmin products for what seems forever. I've had GPS units for the car and for the bike, hand-helds, three Fitbits and even a watch. All of them have been functional, durable and reliable, and exceedingly so. I've always been impressed with this company because of their innovation and product quality. but after getting my "InReach" and Track Tripp page up and running, I'm impressed even more with a different facet of the company - their customer service. Fresh from five days of hell recovering from a ransomware attack (thank you Russia, and yes, Russia and China can both go to hell, and I really mean that), I spent over two hours (over two days) working out the kinks in my InReach-

I've been hovering at thirty pounds down for nearly a week now and it's getting a little old. Time to turn up the heat maybe? Have been sticking to the daily 1500 calories, like glue. Maybe a little more exercise, or a few more visits to the TOTWIHQ (aka The Solar Oven). I'm excitedly awaiting a few anticipated gifts from the postman. Namely my two eBay scores - the Fat Bob Sundowner seat accompanying sissy bar/mounting brackets/backrest pad. Still working on a couple kinks here on the website. 1) Getting emails to actually go where they're supposed to, and 2) getting the "Track Tripp" page up and running. I've got the "InReach" device in hand and Garmin is 95% back up following their ransom

The Kawasaki Vulcan 900 is a great bike. It comes in three styles, it's reliable as a Swiss watch, and it's been virtually unchanged since 2006. It's hard to argue this bike hasn't been a tremendous success for the green team. Or is it? I've was always taught it's more about doing your best than how you finish. In other words, try to live up to your full potential, and never settle for just "good enough." The VN900 has been good enough all these years to be a damned good bike. One of the best, most affordable, small to mid-range cruisers on the market. So Kawasaki, I must ask: "Why not put your best foot just a little more forward, listen to your inner common sense, and produce the best bik

This past Thursday morning, I won the lottery. Well, sort of. Last year I sold a bike (a beautiful Vespa LX-150 scooter actually) to a good friend under the terms of "pay me whenever," and I'm happy to announce he made good on half the sale price last week. The good news is the dough is going to fund my continued restoration of the "Barn-Find Sporty" and the purchase of a Garmin InReach to power the "Track Tripp" page on this website. Within hours of receiving the dough, I was checking out of REI Co-Op with new friend from Garmin. I rushed home, read the instructions thoroughly (weird, huh) and charged it completely. Then it was on to the Garmin site to register and activate the InReach, rea

What's the single best way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and you contracting it? Riding a motorcycle. Is there a better way? I think not. No matter how hard you try otherwise, you're always at least six feet from others. Social distancing at its finest. Worried about wearing a mask? A helmet with the visor down completely eliminates that concern. Who ya gonna breathe on? Who ya gonna touch? No one, that's who. Let's not forget about your gloved hands. Leather gloves make a fine barrier when touching a gas pump, (which is really inconsequential when you consider the mileage we get), getting change from a cashier, or even shaking hands. Most experience raised endorphin levels when riding,

And now for something that really grinds my gears... If I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone use the term "stealership" instead of dealership, I'd have enough money for a damned good lawyer after I'd kicked every one of their asses. For the life of me I don't get it. People badmouth their local motorcycle dealerships all the time: "Over-priced crooks rippin' me off - to hell with them." Or, "Why do they have to charge this much? I can get that same part online for much less." To them I say: Go online for bike advice. Go online for the part you need today. Go take a stroll online to touch and feel and sit on the latest bikes. Go take a test ride online. Go get your damned bike

It's long been my intention to post bike review videos to the YouTube channel, but I've faced two main challenges until now. The first has been finding a local dealership with a nice selection of used bikes that will allow me to do regular test rides. The second has been finding a dealership that is located in or near a good area to ride (little traffic, interesting roads, nice scenery, and not too challenging for a dude on the bike for the first time). Want no more. Just had a nice talk with Jason, the General Manager of Destination Cycles in Kerrville, Texas. They are located smack dab in the middle of the Texas Hill Country AND they usually have two or three dozen great condition used bik

Damned did I get lucky. Incredibly lucky. Luckier than lucky. Last night I swung by the "garage" to start the bikes and when arriving I noticed THE METAL DOOR WAS WIDE OPEN. Needless to say, a moment of panic ensued. Like a spooked deer from a county road I jumped out of my car, dashed the fifteen feet to the unit and frantically took a visual scan of the situation. Bikes? Tools? GoPro stuff? Amazingly, not a thing was missing. In fact, nothing at all had been touched. Post massive sigh of relief, I noticed both of my circular door locks were perched atop the fire extinguisher cabinet on the wall outside my door, exactly where I had left them the evening before. So amazingly lucky, I though

My scale loves me. Exactly 30 lbs. down as of this morning. I think I've been at it just shy of 10 weeks now so I'm pretty happy with my results so far. Just 30 more to go. :) Another nice milestone was realizing yesterday's video was the 80th I've posted since I started my YouTube channel. Lots of work, but fun work, and it gives one a sense of accomplishment that's for sure. My one disappointment was not being able to ride this past weekend, but shooting three videos and editing one will do that to a guy. About noon today I got that eBay flourish sound on the ol' cell phone signalling a message from the dude I bought the Dyna Fat Bob backrest from. He apologized for not having it in the

Just eight more hours of editing and... Viola! The latest Tripp On Two Wheels' video was done. I decided the CBR1000RR SP Repsol video would be the first to hit the YouTube newsstand so after breakfast I jumped right in. Published just in time for a 6:00 PM premier. Hey, at least we had enough people to throw a virtual Frisbee around. One of these days i'll figure out just what the best day and time is to do one of these premiers, but something tells me it may take a while. Trial and error at its finest you might say. The video turned out well I think. Found a nice soundtrack for it as well, which is sometimes tough to do with YouTube's downloadable music selection. For a song under the G

Escaping once again from the oppressive Central Texas summer heat, I popped into my local Kawasaki dealership yesterday to say hello and give the GoPro a workout. Ended up with some footage of a Kawasaki Jet Ski being liberated from its crate and hoisted onto its trailer to be made ready for sale, and did a quick walk-around of the 2020 Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Classic - a beautiful bike. I've often wondered why Kawasaki has made no significant changes to the Vulcan 900 since it's birth in 2006, excepting elimination of some lubrication zircs and improving the seat comfort a bit. Honestly, if Big K would slap ABS, and 6th speed, and 200-300 more cc on neglected machine, I'd own one now. Who know

Drooling over the Christmas Wishbook, stuffing my face at the Candy & Nut Counter, tagging along with Dad to replace that one lost Craftsman socket... I grew up on Sears. Sears was king, and everyone wanted to visit the castle. Hell, I even got my first mini-bike from Sears. And now it's gone. Last week, a pop-up ad caught my eye: "Store Closing Sale, Everything 40-80% Off." Normally, this sort of thing would bring joy to my heart, but once I read "Sears" in the headline, my heart sank. The last Sears & Roebuck within 300 miles, the dreamland of my childhood, was closing. The next morning I visited the store. Instead of my happy place, I found a near-empty cavern, festooned with yellow and

A few years ago I found myself tipping the scales at 245 lbs, which was way too heavy for a medium-framed 5-11 dude like me. My problem was (and is) I just loved food more than I liked being skinny. After gorging myself on a deep-dish pizza one evening (probably 1,500 calories a slice), I happened to notice my manly physique in the mirror. I realized I needed to change a few things. Namely my weight and my eating habits. And I needed to start soon. The next day I drove to the local Jenny Craig store and listened to the pitch. They hooked me like a starving trout and I tossed two weeks of meals in the car. The next three months I ate 5 portion-controlled meals a day. The food was very good an

Last night I had a great idea - why not build a Tripp On Two Wheels website? So this morning after liberating a #6 with a large unsweetened iced tea from McDonalds, I sat down and did it... or at least started it. After eight hours of work things are coming along nicely (in my tech-idiot eyes anyhow). I'm slowly figuring out what to do and not pounding my head against the wall too often. I'm using WIX and surprisingly it's pretty easy so far. I tried building a site with WIX a few years ago and my main gripe was WIX not having ANY telephone support. It all had to be done by work ticket and email - which was incredibly frustrating. However, WIX instituted phone support a while back so this

I noticed an odd thing yesterday - a UTO (unidentified turd-like object) laying in the middle of The Tripp On Two Wheels Intergalactic Headquarters' (my storage unit) cement floor. I'm pretty good at identifying scat (animal droppings) from my days as a hunting guide, but this one wasn't as easy to decipher. To add to the mystery, there are only a couple of inches of gap between the walls of the unit and the ceiling, making it nearly impossible for most 4-leggeds to navigate from one unit to the other, not to mention darkness and the baking-hot summer heat. and After a few moments of puzzlement, I went on with my business and forgot about things. Forward fast roughly 24-hours... I decided i