April 2017 – Mechanical Sympathy

Trophy Wives, Velocoraptors and Riding North of the Wall

April 16, 2017April 27, 2017 By Tim

Every once in a while events conspire to drop you out of the world's daily routine. As everyone else is scurrying to work with worry lines on their faces I was disappearing into the countryside on two wheels, unfortunately the Weathernetwork had gotten the forecast wrong and my day of…

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…

Chasing Eclipses on a Tight Schedule

April 7, 2017 By Tim

Things have tightened up around the total solar eclipse that crosses The States in August. If I can make it back for the 23rd I've got a conference I can attend to demonstrate virtual reality, and who wouldn't want to do that? The conference would also pay for the trip,…

April Fools Forks Of The Credit

April 4, 2017April 5, 2017 By Tim

It crawled up to near double digits on Saturday, April 1, so Max and I took the Tiger by the tail and went for our first ride over to The Forks of the Credit. On our way over to Erin we were stopped at a light when a truck passed…

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…