Go there and buy some stuff! Smitty has an excellent variety of hot sauces, fantastic salsa and other goodies. My personal favorites are the salsa and the chipotle table sauce.

First up was to design a room.
No animation, just a single frame. This one is neat for me because that’s actually my painting on the wall. My taste in decorating has vastly improved though! I think if I had to live in a room that looked like this I’d vomit. I know for sure my wife would!

Then came the animations.

Animating a cylinder:

Next up - a countdown from 10 to 1.

Hockey School - my young nephew (6 or 7  at the time) lived in Phoenix and was a huge hockey fan.

The Bowler - my dad retired from IDOT in 2000, and has bowled on Monday nights, well, forever. I did this video as a congatulations type thing.

Thinking back, I really struggled with 3D. It was never my strong suit in school and I was never as good at it as I wanted to be. However, this was a fun trip down memory lane. Thanks for making me think about it Ben!

I decided to go with a stainless steel braided line. Stainless steel lines add firmer braking because they don’t expand and contract the way rubber hoses do. With only a single solid brake disc on the front, any added braking power is welcomed. I kept the stock master cylinder, caliper and the pads on the bike still looked good. I replaced everything in between the master and the caliper.

The stock setup consists of, starting at the master cylinder, a length of line that goes behind the headlight bucket, into a block. This block is where the wiring for the brake lights ends. Then from this block, another length of line runs down the fork leg to a solid piece of tubing. The solid piece of tubing makes a bend and then goes into the caliper.

In this photo you can see the wiring block and the solid tubing that runs into the caliper, both outlined by yellow boxes.

I didn’t care for this setup at all as there are two extra places for leaks to appear. I decided to do away with this setup entirely, and replace it with one solid length of line.

I got all parts at Dennis Kirk. I shopped there because not only did I previously work there, but they had everything I needed, fast & free shipping, and helpful staff - especially Tim in tech support. He’s the one who helped me put this list together.

• Part #198392 - 32″ Goodridge Platinum Universal Brake Lines w/Chrome-Plated Ends
• Part #191350 - Russell Brake Line Fitting-3/8 in.-24 Inverted Flare-#3 Straight
• Part #191339 - Russell Brake Line Fitting Chrome 3/8 in. /10mm Banjo x #3 Male 90°
• Part #210369 - K & S Hydraulic Brake Light Switch
• Part #27487 - Russell 10mm Aluminum Banjo Bolt Washers
• Part #303574 - Castrol GT LMA Brake Fluid

The brake light switch replaces the normal bolt that goes through the banjo into the master cylinder. This switch bolt has a length of wiring that I ran down with the new brake line, then plugged it into the wiring under/behind the headlight bucket for the brake light. The brake line then runs the entire route down the fork leg, and the small Russell brake line fitting connects the line to the caliper.

NOTE: Make sure you take a measurement of your current brake line. I have a set of drag bars installed, lowering bar height a couple inches. If you have stock or higher bars, you might need a longer brake line than the 32″ one I purchased.

After installing all parts, bleeding the line and testing it out, braking power and feel is much improved. It’s still not modern day bike with dual front wave rotors, but it’s a vast improvement over what was there. I’ll add some photos of the new setup soon. Hopefully this weekend the weather will be nice and I can get some good shots outside.

Hope this helps,
Jeff

Check the gallery for more pics

I’ve been thinking about getting a motard for a while now. The timing was right, so after doing my research, I pulled the trigger. I mainly need a commuter bike, and the local twisties are about as far as I’m able to venture at this stage of my life. This little supermoto should be the perfect bike for me.

Why the WR250X? For starters, I didn’t want a sportbike. I wanted something with upright seating, super light weight, was cheap to buy and cheap to insure. And it had to be FUN. I also plan on riding all year round, which in northern Illinois means riding in snow. I could have gotten the WR250R instead, but that is meant for more dirt riding than street riding.

I also considered for a time getting a scooter, but I just couldn’t do it. I wanted a real motorcycle. So enter the 250. Now to just find some tires that are good in the snow…

The weekend of September 12-14 I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Indianapolis MotoGP. I had been to Road America and Brainerd AMA Superbike races before, but the Speedway and GPs were so different. The Speedway is HUGE. It’s hard to comprehend just how large that facility is. It’s so large in fact that it was, by complete guess, a 2 mile walk from the Hall of Fame museum inside Turn 2 to the street corner outside Turn 4. I didn’t have my pedometer, but I probably walked 3 miles or more each day. Thank God for comfortable shoes.

Rain put a damper on the festivities, but not enough to ruin my good time. It was also not enough to prevent me from being excited for next year. Speaking of rain… holy cow was there a lot of it! Thanks to Hurricane Ike, Indiana was blessed with a ton of rain that soaked the track, racers and fans. At turn one and in pit lane, the water was so deep the splash created by the bikes going through it were nearly as high as the riders themselves. Yet they still managed 175mph or more on the front straight.

We were fortunate to get some nice weather on Saturday, which made it far easier to get good photos. It also allowed me the chance to see Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards signing autographs, so I got his. My brother in law Kevin had the chance to talk to Keith Urban, but didn’t have a pen, so no autograph.

Even though the MotoGP race was shortened by 8 laps and the 250 race was cancelled, I still had an excellent time. I can’t wait for next year.

I’ll post more thoughts about the race in the coming days, but for now, check out my gallery of event photos.

Sixteens Racing Products is a dirt track race car retail parts and fabrication shop based in LaSalle, Illinois. Thanks go to Jeff Miller of Jam Graphix for getting me the project.

Magento is a new open source ecommerce platform. For a version 1 software, it is outstanding and very full featured. Working with it, from a designer perspective, is quite mindblowing because of all the features available. Thanks go to Ben Carlson for showing it to me.

I’ve had one printed on a white/blue sleeved shirt and it was given to my uncle, who frequents Wrigley Field more than I do. So if you see him there, check it out! Interested in a Sweep T of your own? Send me an email.

I was asked to the shirt designs for the WCRM (West Coast Regional Meet) and the National Meet. I did the design, and they were printed by DesTeeNation.

Tonight, I hit my very first triple! Not just of the season, but of my entire city rec softball life! I roped the ball really well between left and center, easily made the double and while about half way to second decided to stretch it out and see if I could make it. I should have been nailed. The throw beat me there, just like every other time I tried to stretch it out. But I had a really good slide, and the 3rd baseman tagged me on the chest while my leg was sitting on the bag. I was so pumped!

I followed that up a couple bats later with a double. Two extra base hits in one night! Last year I hit about .650, and every single hit was a single. We won pretty big, but I’m not sure what the score was… somewhere around 16 - 5.