Pete Wall Pete Wall: http://blog.petewall.net/
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The most important tech products of 2010
Inspried by a list by Kevin Rose, I made my own list of tech products that would be the hardest to give up*.  I'd like to do this every year, and see how things change.  Here's the list for 2010:
* I'm not going to say "that I can't live without".  Thankfully, my life does not depend on these things.
Coming back
I'll be posting more stuff again.  Stay tuned.
4 years of awesome
Fairing repair
ABS Cement
So, since I got my motorcycle around October last fall, I didn't have much time to ride before winter hit Minnesota.  It's already been a long winter, but I've been keeping myself busy with some winter projects.  One of my first projects was to fix the various cracks and warps in the fairings.  To do so, I used the ABS cement trick described in the Ninja 250 FAQ.  I picked up a cheap soldering iron from Radio Shack and I had some ABS cement on hand.

The process is simple:
  1. Find the crack
  2. Sand down the rough edges
  3. Use the soldering iron along the crack to melt the fairing back together
  4. After it cools, sand down the crack again
  5. Add ABS cement to fill in the gaps
  6. Sand the outside face until smooth
  7. Repeath steps 5 and 6 as needed

You can just solder the inside face, which would make it hard to notice from the outside.  That also has the advantage that you might not have to repaint, which you would if you sanded both sides.  I knew I was going to repaint, so I did sand both sides.  Here are some pictures of my fixes.

Lower fairing 1
This is a crack in lower fairing
Outside sanded
The outside is sanded
Inside sanded
The inside is cleaned and sanded
Outside sanded
The crack is soldered from the inside
Outside sanded
ABS cement is added to strengthen the joint
Outside sanded
Here's the result from the outside.

I had two cases that took a lot more than one pass to completely fix.  The first was on the upper fairing, which you can see from an earlier post, a pink streak by the front-left turn signal.  That was a large crack that a previous owner filled in with Bondo.  Bondo is great for filling in dents or other divots, but I don't think it's the right tool for joining cracks.  I sanded that down until the original crack was exposed, and then soldered it together.  It took several (probably 8 - 10) cycles with adding the cement and sanding down until it was smooth and there were no bumps.  The rear fairing had a crack that made a small ripple.  That one also was a matter of sanding off the hills and filling in the valleys.

Upper fairing
The upper fairing's Bondo streak
Rear fairing
The rear fairing a few cycles into the process

It took a while, but they're smooth now.  I'm now in the process of painting, and that's very satisfying.
The tale of the puffy face
We normally let Olive run around outside with just the "sparkle" (shock) collar on.  She enjoys it, and we get to stay inside.  Win-win.  However, that doesn't keep her from getting into stuff.  A few days ago, she came back in and after a while, I noticed her poor face puffing up.  Either she ate something she was allergic to, or got stung by something... we may never know.  Our sweet little puppy is a trooper, though.  Even at her worst, she still wanted to play with her toys.  I had to put her in her crate to keep her still.  Some peanut butter flavored "puppy crack" with a sliver of Benadryl, and a few hours later, she was feeling, and looking, better.

Puffy face
Oh, Puffy Face!
Normal face
Feeling better
Olive's day of destruction
Apparently, the door to Olive's crate wasn't fully locked, so she had a day with free reign of the house.  Here's the casualties:
Total Loss:
3 Apple earbuds
2 pens
1 cactus and plastic pot from IKEA
1 *brand new and unused* yellow purse

Partial loss:
WeightWatchers book (cover chewed off)
Calendar for Betsy Wall Photography (edges "rounded")
1 shirt (belonging to Ann.  Sorry sister)
1 document

Things she surprisingly missed:
The table full of my winter motorcycle projects (wires, small plugs, etc...)
iPod USB cables
Apple laptop charger (she has a reputation, since she's chewed three of these in the past)
1 bottle of body wash (thankfully)
Any of the numerous power cords around (again, she has a reputation)
Bundles and bundles of yarn

Things she unsurprisingly missed:
Her food
Her toys

Olive
This is how I found her
Aftermath
This was pretty much all of the chaos
Earbuds
Earbuds...
Pens
Pens...
Cactus
One unfortunate cactus
Purse
Brand new purse...
Jack
Headphone jack...
Address book
Address book...
Flower pot
Flower pot...
Bad dog
Bad dog!
Cancun
Betsy and I spent a week vacation in Cancun over last week.  Yes, it was nice.  Yes, we skipped the -20° weather everyone's talking about.  Betsy posted a good entry about the trip on her blog, so you should read that first.  I'll just show you some pictures of the trip.

Sleepy at the airport
We had to be at the airport by 4:00 AM
ENGINED!!!
This was my spectacular view
We named it "Spotty"
Drain
This was the drain after they fixed it
Water pressure
This our room's shower pressure at maximum strength
Beach
The beach, however, was wonderful
Drinks
The drinks were weak, but plentiful
Resort
We did this a lot and fully enjoyed it
Swan
They made us towel swans!
Location
Right in the middle of the Hotel Zone
Rainbow
We saw a full rainbow on the plane home