Zoinks!
Registered
Hey everyone. Some of the older members here will remember me, but I'm sure there are a lot of new members here, now. Just a forewarning.... this post is probably going to be kind of long. A lot of you probably won't care or have any interest in what it says, but for the people who I've known, interacted with a lot on here, met at bashes, and may have wondered where I've been... Here's your answer.
I haven't posted anything here in about a year and a half. Earlier this morning I got a PM from a member asking about one of the mods I had on the bike, so I figured while I'm here I'll stop in and say hey. The past year and a half has definitely been a busy/interesting one. The main reason I stopped coming here is because in may of 2011, as I was headed home from one of the last few days of my first semester of nursing school, Veronica (my 06LE) had the opportunity to enter into an intimate relationship with the side of a blazer, when its driver decided to turn left in front of me. The blazer took a piece of her (quite literally. There was a piece of the fairing literally stuck in it. I couldn't get it out.) and left the rest of her shattered, broken, and bleeding out on the road.
I spent the next 4 or 5 weeks going back and forth with the insurance company, who was trying to screw me out of roughly $2000 on the settlement. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I was fine. I had a decent sized bruise on my arm and a couple sore spots, but nothing major to speak of. Anyway, I finally settled with the insurance company for about $20 less than what I originally told them they'd need to meet before I'd close the claim. So at least I won that battle.
During that time, I was debating a lot on whether or not to get another bike. I knew about how much I would be able to get from the insurance company and what a new (to me, but used) bike would cost. But my biggest concern was the cost of keeping it on the road. Nursing school takes A LOT of time and energy. The program I'm in is one of the toughest in the state, and because of that, it has a good reputation across the country (from what I hear). So what does that have to do with anything? Well, it means that in order to maintain the grades I need to be able to get in to the upper level programs I plan to attend in the future, I don't have the ability to fit a job into my schedule. Which makes it very hard to come up with extra cash for not only repairs (which it never really needed) but also for general maintenance. Chains, sprockets, oil changes, fork seals, $400 sets of tires that only last 5-6000 miles... It adds up.
Now, at the time, my car (98 mustang GT) had right around 185,000 miles on it. It had been somewhat abused by the previous owner, who had it for 94,000 miles, but it was in pretty decent shape when I bought it. Nearly 100,000 miles later, and the engine was old, tired, and worn out. As in not only down on power, but using about 3 to 4 quarts of oil between changes. Also, the transmission would routinely grind in 3rd gear, as the synchros were worn out, and it would occasionally decide that it didn't feel like being in 2nd gear anymore and would pop out of gear, at random times. The rear end was whining and it started making a rather unnatural clunk, every now and then, so it was needing a rebuild. And to top it all off, the shocks and struts had been in pretty bad shape for about 2 years. I've had this car since I was 17 and never had - and still don't have - any plans to sell it. So since the car is the more practical every day vehicle, I decided to take the money I got from the wreck and put it into the car. Don't get me wrong... I love riding and I could ride every day of the year. I don't mind winter, and if I get caught in the rain it doesn't really bother me. But practically speaking, the car is better for an every day ride.
Once the bike was gone, I started to lose interest in the .org, to a point, because I love riding so much that coming here and seeing all the posts about rides and "look what mod I just did" and all that just kinda made me sad that I didn't have a bike anymore. I love the people here and I've made some good friends here. But it's just not quite the same when you no longer have a scoot. The other thing that drew me away was the plans I had for the car. I started spending a lot of time on the SVTperformance forums because the solution i came up with, to the afore mentioned issues with it, was to basically go through and replace the entire powertrain and most of the suspension. I'll post some pictures and stuff of that later.
If you've stuck with me this long I applaud you, and I promise I'm almost done.... So to recap the timeline - totaled the bike in May 2011, a few days before the end of spring semester and then summer break (about 6 weeks) started. Then I spent about 4 or 5 weeks of summer dealing with insurance and shopping for car parts. That brings us to about a week or so before summer break ends - At that point I went to the lake with my family, one saturday, and had a bit of an accident while wake boarding. Said accident resulted in my femur being broken in 4 places. It's a pretty crazy and kind of long story, so I'll leave that for later. If you want to hear it, feel free to ask; otherwise I'll just say that surgery for an ORIF (Open Reduction Internal Fixation) to realign it with a titanium rod and 4 screws, 3 days in the hospital, home health visits, and month after month of physical therapy kept me out of school for the rest of the year (both summer and fall semesters). I order to be cleared for clinical you have to have no assist ice devices (crutches, cane, etc), have to be able to lift 25lbs, and have to be able to be on your feet for 8-10 hour clinical days. I started back to school last January, and wound up having another surgery over summer break to get 2 of the screws removed. They were sticking out of the bone too far and causing issues with my muscles. It wasn't a major surgery, though, so I was able to continue on schedule and finish out the school year. I'm now in my last full semester of nursing school. I'll have one 5 week class in the summer and I'll graduate as an RN in June, at which time my first 2 goals will be to #1- get a job and #2- get another bike.
It's been a crazy couple of years. I've had a lot of really low, lows but I've had some pretty good highs, as well. Through it all I've had the support of family and friends encouraging me when I felt like I'd never get through school or like I'd never regain enough strength to walk again. It seemed to take so long to get past the hurdles, but now looking back it seems like it was all happening just yesterday.
Anyway.... Sorry for the ridiculously long post. If you didn't read it all, I don't blame you. If you did, I hope you don't feel like you just wasted a bunch of time. I hope things have been going well over here. With the forum and with my fellow members. I may start hanging around some more, but school does keep me extremely busy. I'll definitely be back when I find myself another bike. It'll probably wind up being either a busa or a 1000. Thanks for reading and I'll see y'all around the interwebz.
Zoinks! Aka gmmech07 aka shaggy
I haven't posted anything here in about a year and a half. Earlier this morning I got a PM from a member asking about one of the mods I had on the bike, so I figured while I'm here I'll stop in and say hey. The past year and a half has definitely been a busy/interesting one. The main reason I stopped coming here is because in may of 2011, as I was headed home from one of the last few days of my first semester of nursing school, Veronica (my 06LE) had the opportunity to enter into an intimate relationship with the side of a blazer, when its driver decided to turn left in front of me. The blazer took a piece of her (quite literally. There was a piece of the fairing literally stuck in it. I couldn't get it out.) and left the rest of her shattered, broken, and bleeding out on the road.
I spent the next 4 or 5 weeks going back and forth with the insurance company, who was trying to screw me out of roughly $2000 on the settlement. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I was fine. I had a decent sized bruise on my arm and a couple sore spots, but nothing major to speak of. Anyway, I finally settled with the insurance company for about $20 less than what I originally told them they'd need to meet before I'd close the claim. So at least I won that battle.
During that time, I was debating a lot on whether or not to get another bike. I knew about how much I would be able to get from the insurance company and what a new (to me, but used) bike would cost. But my biggest concern was the cost of keeping it on the road. Nursing school takes A LOT of time and energy. The program I'm in is one of the toughest in the state, and because of that, it has a good reputation across the country (from what I hear). So what does that have to do with anything? Well, it means that in order to maintain the grades I need to be able to get in to the upper level programs I plan to attend in the future, I don't have the ability to fit a job into my schedule. Which makes it very hard to come up with extra cash for not only repairs (which it never really needed) but also for general maintenance. Chains, sprockets, oil changes, fork seals, $400 sets of tires that only last 5-6000 miles... It adds up.
Now, at the time, my car (98 mustang GT) had right around 185,000 miles on it. It had been somewhat abused by the previous owner, who had it for 94,000 miles, but it was in pretty decent shape when I bought it. Nearly 100,000 miles later, and the engine was old, tired, and worn out. As in not only down on power, but using about 3 to 4 quarts of oil between changes. Also, the transmission would routinely grind in 3rd gear, as the synchros were worn out, and it would occasionally decide that it didn't feel like being in 2nd gear anymore and would pop out of gear, at random times. The rear end was whining and it started making a rather unnatural clunk, every now and then, so it was needing a rebuild. And to top it all off, the shocks and struts had been in pretty bad shape for about 2 years. I've had this car since I was 17 and never had - and still don't have - any plans to sell it. So since the car is the more practical every day vehicle, I decided to take the money I got from the wreck and put it into the car. Don't get me wrong... I love riding and I could ride every day of the year. I don't mind winter, and if I get caught in the rain it doesn't really bother me. But practically speaking, the car is better for an every day ride.
Once the bike was gone, I started to lose interest in the .org, to a point, because I love riding so much that coming here and seeing all the posts about rides and "look what mod I just did" and all that just kinda made me sad that I didn't have a bike anymore. I love the people here and I've made some good friends here. But it's just not quite the same when you no longer have a scoot. The other thing that drew me away was the plans I had for the car. I started spending a lot of time on the SVTperformance forums because the solution i came up with, to the afore mentioned issues with it, was to basically go through and replace the entire powertrain and most of the suspension. I'll post some pictures and stuff of that later.
If you've stuck with me this long I applaud you, and I promise I'm almost done.... So to recap the timeline - totaled the bike in May 2011, a few days before the end of spring semester and then summer break (about 6 weeks) started. Then I spent about 4 or 5 weeks of summer dealing with insurance and shopping for car parts. That brings us to about a week or so before summer break ends - At that point I went to the lake with my family, one saturday, and had a bit of an accident while wake boarding. Said accident resulted in my femur being broken in 4 places. It's a pretty crazy and kind of long story, so I'll leave that for later. If you want to hear it, feel free to ask; otherwise I'll just say that surgery for an ORIF (Open Reduction Internal Fixation) to realign it with a titanium rod and 4 screws, 3 days in the hospital, home health visits, and month after month of physical therapy kept me out of school for the rest of the year (both summer and fall semesters). I order to be cleared for clinical you have to have no assist ice devices (crutches, cane, etc), have to be able to lift 25lbs, and have to be able to be on your feet for 8-10 hour clinical days. I started back to school last January, and wound up having another surgery over summer break to get 2 of the screws removed. They were sticking out of the bone too far and causing issues with my muscles. It wasn't a major surgery, though, so I was able to continue on schedule and finish out the school year. I'm now in my last full semester of nursing school. I'll have one 5 week class in the summer and I'll graduate as an RN in June, at which time my first 2 goals will be to #1- get a job and #2- get another bike.
It's been a crazy couple of years. I've had a lot of really low, lows but I've had some pretty good highs, as well. Through it all I've had the support of family and friends encouraging me when I felt like I'd never get through school or like I'd never regain enough strength to walk again. It seemed to take so long to get past the hurdles, but now looking back it seems like it was all happening just yesterday.
Anyway.... Sorry for the ridiculously long post. If you didn't read it all, I don't blame you. If you did, I hope you don't feel like you just wasted a bunch of time. I hope things have been going well over here. With the forum and with my fellow members. I may start hanging around some more, but school does keep me extremely busy. I'll definitely be back when I find myself another bike. It'll probably wind up being either a busa or a 1000. Thanks for reading and I'll see y'all around the interwebz.
Zoinks! Aka gmmech07 aka shaggy
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