I'm Already Pre-Shopping Luggage Options ...

 ... for the Kawasaki Eliminator 450 SE. And I already found something interesting:

I hadn't even been thinking about a "sissy bar" backrest, but now I am, for two reasons:

1. It costs about as much with a 22-pound-rated luggage rack as some of the luggage racks I'm looking at; and
2. The bike is comfortable to sit on, but I suspect that cruiser-style seat might be be hard on my lower back on longer rides (which is why I am also considering after-market bench seats, etc.).

I have a top box that would likely fit that rack just fine, and I'm not sure I'd need additional panniers even for longer trips. The engine guard has good mounting points for bags, I could run a tank bag for smaller stuff, maybe even a fork bag for tools and/or ultralight camping gear.

This things would get rid of the pillion seat, but I'm really not expecting to be hauling any passengers, other than perhaps trying to talk Tamara into taking one short ride, early on (I had to haul her to work on my little 50cc scooter once when her car broke down, but she just generally hates the idea).

I won't be making any decisions until I've put a few miles on the bike, but I'm already seeing options that are somewhat less expensive than I had anticipated.

Wordle 1907 Hint

Hint: When you energize the situation in an upward, positive way.

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First Letter: L

Coming Soon

Put a deposit down today, picking up Wednesday:

It's a 2025 (new old stock, not used) Kawasaki Eliminator 450 SE in Metallic Matte Old School Green. Beautful machine. I initially skipped past this bike on the dealership's web site thinking "green -- ugly" but I kept getting pulled back to it and it grew on me. Much more distinctive than their black, white, or gray options.

451cc, liquid-cooled, dual overhead cam, parallel twin engine. 47 horsepower. Listed top speed is 100 mph, but real world tests say 102-103. Anyway, at least 20 mph more than I'll need under ordinary conditions. 150+ mile per tank range, and I expect to stop more often than that whether I need gas or not. If I'm crossing e.g. Nevada and Utah, I will bring a fuel can.

Two things were biggest in making up my mind to just pull the trigger on this rather than looking at others.

One was seat height. I found the KLR 650 taller than I liked to get on and off of, and the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 is taller than this bike, although not as tall as the KLR. This bike has a seat height of 28.9 inches, and height-adjustable foot pegs. I have an inseam of 32 inches, so I can flat-foot this, and adjust the pegs if I find the rider posture cramped. I may move to a slightly taller after-market bench seat, but I'll give the stock seat a chance first.

The other was that my nearest Royal Enfield dealerships are all ~100 miles away, while my local Kawasaki dealership is 20 minutes away; and that Kawasaki has seven times as many US dealerships as Royal Enfield. Since I don't intend to wrench on this bike myself beyond maybe oil changes, I prefer a nearby dealership for parts (at least) and labor (probably). And when I'm on the road, I'll almost certainly be closer to a Kawasaki dealership than to a Royal Enfield dealership should I happen to break down. There's also the break-in period -- I'd have to get the Himalayan home the first time in 30-minute, sub-50-mile increments on highway. This, I can ride home at mostly street speeds, then take out on short jaunts over a couple of days. 

It's a roadster, not an adventure touring bike, but I think it will handle Florida's worst roads without too much trouble and I have no ambition to explore 50-mile dirt single tracks in the Smoky Mountains. After my own body weight, I have 150+ pounds of capacity for carrying luggage, and I'm already looking at aftermarket racks for that purpose. I almost bought a pretty much color-matching compact tent I saw at a store after committing to this one. I may go back.

For those busting at the seams to ask if it's US-made, the answer is no. Some Kawasakis are US-built, but the Eliminator is built in Thailand.

Wordle 1906 Hint

Hint: When you need this hint to be either spoken or rendered in Braille.

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First Letter: B

Affirmation of My Inclination toward a Mid-Size "Adventure Touring" Bike

I've considered petitioning the county to rename my "street" from a number to "Five Lakes Road," because that's how many road-width, tens of feet long, several inch deep puddles it gets between the pavement and my driveway when it rains (fortunately, it's reasonably hard-packed dirt until right after my driveway, at which point it turns into sugar sand and ruts). Here's the first and second ones as seen from the paved road.

Look, it's far from the worst road in north central Florida, and it's less than a quarter mile from pavement to my driveway. On the other hand, I have to ride it anytime I go anywhere.

My daughter really hates that road, because she recently bought a 1988 Nissan 300ZX and has a mechanic currently working on getting it mechanically sound (I think there may even be an engine swap involved). That car has a ground clearance of 5.5 inches. My Lifan KP Mini has ground clearance of 6.7 inches. I haven't bottomed it out on that road, but still.

Speaking of the KP Mini: This morning, as I rode out, I saw a large tree limb lying across the road. As I skirted around it, my front tire caught some slick mud at the edge of one of those lakes, and I nearly went down.

Nearly. After a couple of years of riding, I've finally developed the reflexes and skills to get a foot down and save myself during low-speed slides and such, largely from riding on these medieval European goat track things that pass for roads in Florida. I did stall the bike, but nothing that wasn't supposed to touch the ground did, and I was planning to stop anyway (to get that limb out of the road for future passersby). Hooray.

But the experience showed me that 1) I can handle the "nearly offroad" riding well enough to have a more powerful bike, and 2) something like the Himalayan, with its taller seat height and bigger wheels, will address the mix I want well -- higher pavement cruising speed, better handling on bad roads.

I've really enjoyed the KP Mini. It's taught me a lot about how to ride and specifically about how to get out of whatever trouble shows up in front of, or under, me. But it's time to take off the training wheels.

Wordle 1905 Hint

Hint: The color of natural wool and most computers of the 1980s.

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First Letter: B

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #35

"The guest is God." (Hinduism, Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

The four words by themselves don't convey the longer passage's point, IMO. That passage also includes one's parents and teachers as "gods" in the dharmic sense that one has duties toward them (in the case of the guest, the duty being hospitality) and that fulfilling those duties has karmic effects.

Of course, I threw in the dharmic/karmic thing to emphasize the Asian flavor of the specific aphorism. The general idea isn't specific to Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. For example:

"The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself." -- Leviticus 19:33

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." -- Hebrews 13:2

"Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him honor his guest with his due reward." -- attributed to Muhammad in hadith (Sahih al‑Bukhari).

In most of the ancient scriptural sources, "guest" is not necessarily the same thing as "invited guest." Religions are full of admonitions to treat strangers well.

Even absent the link to the divine, it seems like good practical advice, at least within limits. Perhaps the stranger you treat well instead of badly today, or someone he commends you to, will be the person who treats you well instead of badly later.

Wordle 1904 Hint

Hint: Like dense fog ... or a good gumbo.

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First Letter: S

The Research Has Begun (Motorcycle Bleg)

I am now at "seriously looking for the forever (or at least 10-year) motorcycle" stage. As in quite possibly buying in the next week or two.

Pursuant to that, I dropped in at my local Harley-Davidson dealership today.

Not because I'm thinking "buy a Harley," but because dealerships often have other brands in used/trade-in stock, and I was hoping to find a Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 or Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 at an attractive price.

No such luck. I was shown Harleys, and the showing made me about halfway a believer.

The halfway I achieved: I discovered that they do make a very nice bike with mid-mounted foot pegs instead of the forward cruiser style. It's called the Street Bob.  Seeing and sitting on two very much made me interested.

The halfway I didn't achieve: The best deal they had on a Street Bob was about $10k for a 2013 trade-in, which is more than I anticipate spending; and while I discovered that a very large bike isn't as heavy to wrestle around as I expected, I still don't want a 1200+ cc engine. So that's probably not going to happen.

What I'm looking for in my "forever bike" is:

• Reliability. Not only actual reliability, but the feeling of reliability. As nicely priced as Chinese bikes are, I'm just terribly skeptical of having one cover 600 miles in a day without something breaking. I want a bike that, if I happen to wake up tomorrow and decide it's been too long since I saw the Rockies, I will, deep in my heart, expect the bike to survive the trip. To me, that means a 400cc+ engine on a bike made by Harley-Davidson, Royal Enfield, Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Ducati, KMT, maybe a handful of others.
• The ability to cruise comfortably at 70 miles per hour on the freeway (with actual top speed as close to 100 mph as possible).
• The ability to handle well and to not fall apart on Florida's "three foot deep sugar sand interspersed with two foot deep ruts" back roads.
• Upright rider stance.
• Minimal gizmos and farkles and stuff. If it was up to me I'd have an analog speedo, tach, and gas gauge, a throttle cable rather than throttle by wire, etc.  That's too much to ask the last few years, but I do not need a 32" touch screen and five "ride modes" and all that stuff and want as little of it as possible.
• The ability to comfortably carry at least some luggage. I pack light and I don't want a bagger, but for long trips I'd probably run a top box and saddlebags or side boxes.
• I'd prefer alloy wheels but if the rest of the bike is right, I'm OK with spokes.
• As mentioned above, I don't want a big engine and a heavier than necessary bike. I'm not getting any younger and I don't expect to get a lot stronger. My contemplated range is 400cc to 650cc, although I might go a little higher for the right bike.
• Related to the "reliability" part -- a bike that local shops will work on. I've done repairs and modifications on my small, cheap bikes but I am not a mechanic and will have the "forever" bike serviced by professionals for anything more complicated than an oil change.
• And related to that part, I intend to leave the bike stock/factory instead of trying to soup it up, because I intend to get a bike that does what I need with stock/factory specs.

So, considering all of those things, my main candidates are the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, Guerilla 450, or Interceptor 650 or the Kawasaki KLR-650 or Eliminator 451. Those aren't the only bikes I'll consider, but they're the ones best tracking what I'm looking for and what I'm willing to pay (these are all sub-$8000 bikes new "out the door").

Anyone here have experiences with any of these bikes, or others in the "roadster" or "adventure touring" vein? I'm looking for recommendations (while really, really eyeballing a Himalayan for sale in Tallahassee).

Wordle 1903 Hint

Hint: Wanna bet?

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First Letter: W

Reminder: Generic Ballot Polling Is Worthless

I'm only using Erick-Woods Erickson as the example because I happened to come across it this morning. His general advice to Republicans isn't terrible, it's the information he's throwing out as an example of how poorly Republicans are doing that's the problem.

Republicans take 41 percent on the generic ballot while the President sits at 37 percent approval.

 So what?

1. That's national polling. There are no national elections this November. There are 435 US House elections, 35 US Senate seats, and 36 state governorships up for election.
2. That's generic party preference polling. It tells us nothing about how many people, in which of those polities, like which candidates, none of whom are named "Donald Trump."

Every two years, generic ballot polling gets used to predict a "wave" for one party or the other, but it's not a reliable predictive tool for that, even to the extent that the polling is reliable and accurate.

Republicans are going to out-perform their party's national generic ballot polling in Alabama.

Democrats are going to out-perform their party's national generic ballot polling in California.

In close/"swing" districts, it's going to come down to the individual candidates and their campaigns.

Remember that every time you see a "blue wave" prediction. While I expect the Democrats to pick up seats in both House and Senate, and maybe even take majorities in one or both, we're talking about a handful of seats changing party.

Wordle 1902 Hint

Hint: Under-floor support.

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First Letter: J

The Move Is Far From Finished ...

... but it's begun.

No, that's not a sepia photo filter. It's what the inside of the tent looks like without open windows and in "natural" daylight on an overcast day.

That's about the front third of the tent (the front door is the panel centered behind the pole). Sofa, coffee table, and shoe shelf (shoes won't be worn in the tent) on the left, desk on the right.

That little chandelier on the top right is a solar-powered light with wiring going out the stove jack (you can see the panel through the roof). The light really isn't much; I'll be augmenting or replacing it ASAP. 

I'll have more shelving coming in for e.g. motorcycle helmets and other bike-related stuff, a couple of chairs for that sofa/coffee table area, either a guitar rack or multiple guitar stands, and a twin frame to move the guest bed mattress over from the camper. And so on, and so forth.

I find the desk, which I put together yesterday, a little small. I think I have a bigger one in storage. If not, I'll go shopping.

Right now, the main hold-up is finding enough cheap rugs to completely cover the floor.

Still working to get the tent correctly trimmed, as you can tell from the wrinkle behind the sofa.

While I understood in my head, from the numbers, that the tent is much larger than the camper, it took standing in it to really feel how much larger. If the doorways ran down to floor level, I'd strongly consider using the extra space as a motorcycle garage. Maybe I'll get a pool or ping-pong table!

Wordle 1901 Hint

Hint: If you figure out who's in charge, then take his measure, you'll have solved today's Wordle twice.

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First Letter: R

Wordle 1900 Hint

Hint: Alternative/variant song recording.

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First Letter: R

Thanks For Asking! -- 09/01/26

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. -- James 1:5

I'm not God, but I am a wiseguy. So don't count on any wisdom in the answers, but feel free to ask me anything in the comment thread below this post. If it's a real person asking a real question, I'll answer in, or link to the answer from, the comments. If it's a pseudonymous troll asking a dumb question, I'll only answer if I find the dumb question interesting.