April 2017 – Mechanical Sympathy

Any Motorcycle Trip’s A Good Trip

April 13, 2017 By Tim

A short ride up and down the banks of the Grand River near Elora, Ontario. We headed over to Pilkington Overlook, then up to the West Montrose Covered Bridge and then back down the north side of the Grand River to The Breadalbane in Fergus for dinner on a…

Todd Blubaugh’s Too Far Gone

April 9, 2017 By Tim

It took me almost a month to slowly work my way through this complex piece of media. I originally came across an excerpt from it in Bike Magazine and it was so moving that I immediately purchased it. I'm generally not a fan of coffee table books. I've always thought…

Motorcycle Insurance Money Grabs and a Lean Motorbike Stable

April 8, 2017 By Tim

The greatest single downward pressure on the infamous motorcycle equation is the way you're worked over by insurance for them, especially in Ontario. If you own one bike you're likely to be paying about $700 a year if you're an experienced rider. If you're new you can pretty much double…

The Virtual Motorcycle

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017 By Tim

[caption id="attachment_3047" align="alignright" width="405"] The sedendary gamerz don’t do well in VR – it demands some athleticism. Our highest scorer on Space Pirate Trainer is a black belt.[/caption] I teach computer and software engineering when I'm not motorbiking. This year I'm also doing a Ministry of Education grant on virtual…

Positively Encouraging: Teachers Doing No Harm

April 2, 2017 By Tim

In another confluence of events I'm reflecting on just how much of an effect teachers have on a student's trajectory. A misread tweet on how damaging assessment can be was followed by a post on Google+ and punctuated by a graduated student showing up unexpectedly this week. It all got…

360 Camera Thoughts & Early Spring Commutes

April 1, 2017 By Tim

Some media from the first week of regular (twice!) commuting: A tiger's eye view of the ride in to work. About 4°C and a bit damp. That afternoon was up to 12°C and I comfortably took the long way home. Both videos use the high speed video capture option within…