Manufacturer's Recommended Replacement

BMW says that you should replace your pulley and tensioner every 60k miles. Why should you do this? Well the picture above is what happens to the plastic pulley when you don't replace it. In the front is the old pulley. Right behind it is the new replacement pulley. See the cracks at the edge of the old one? Shouldn't be like that.

See the difference in thickness between the back of the old and the start of the new? That's bad. Very bad. And no, that is not because I didn't line them up properly.

See my fingers pressing on the old pulley? Shouldn't be able to do that. Nope. Not at all. So what would have happened if that wasn't changed? Ohh....pulley would have probably shattered and the belt thrown. The battery light would have come on 'cause the alternator would no longer be spinning and the engine would soon overheat because the water pump would no longer be spinning.

Nothing much I suppose.

185k miles. I don't know if that was the original pulley but a word to anyone with an older BMW. Have you had your tensioners changed? Your engine making squeaking noises that change with rpm's. You'll wanna look into that.

NY Bike Tour Bends to Stupid

This morning I awoke to the news that the NY Bike Tour has banned the use of backpacks, saddlebags and hydration packs from the tour. Why? Boston.

This has to be the stupidest move I have ever seen and reflects the growing knee jerk "we must do something, ANYTHING!" reactions to tragic events. Let me explain a few things:

1) I have done the bike tour 3 times, the last being last year. It is usually cold (upper 30's) at the beginning. Many people, including myself, wear a lot of clothes at the beginning to deal with shit like standing for over an hour at the start line. to deal with shit called "wind chill" when moving at 12-20+ mph. We're usually also carrying food and drink 'cause 50 miles, particularly for those short of Tour De France experience will need to drink and eat something during the tour.

I have two water bottles on my bike and I usually go through both of them before the end.

So these backpacks that people have are often a necessary part of partaking of the tour, particularly as the temperatures rise and clothes are shed. I suppose that folks will be tying their shed clothes around their waists and hope to God their hydration and food they have on the bike and hopefully tucked into their jerseys (if they are wearing one, a lot of people do not) make it.

2) What about all the people along the route? You can't tell people who are NOT a part of the tour to not wear backpacks. We go through many neighborhoods that look much like the finish line of the Boston Marathon. These Bike Tour people do realize it was a roadside bomb that went off right? How exactly does their announcement do anything about the risk of any person on any of the streets the cyclists will be on will not leave a bomb? Oh right. Nothing.

Look. No one is coming to the Bike Tour with a pressure cooker on their back. No one is coming to participate in the Bike Tour to blow anything up unless they plan to go with it. In which case they'll just make the bike a bomb. Think about it. If you have the skills to make a bomb then you have the skills to open a bike frame of a cheap bike and place explosives in it.

Duh.

Anyway. I'm not riding this year and until this stupid rule is lifted, won't be riding in the future. I will not freeze, overheat or starve myself for the stupidity of the folks running the event.

More With the Dumb "Sensitivity"

Americans have become a place of people who apparently need "trigger warnings" and protections from cartoons and the like because their fragile emotions will lead them to utter dispair and perhaps lawsuits. As reported by the NY Times:

A recent episode of “Family Guy” that contained jokes about deaths at a marathon has been removed from Fox’s Web site and from Hulu, the network said Tuesday, one day after twin explosions at the Boston Marathon.

The episode, broadcast on March 17, imagined a scenario in which the cartoon character Peter Griffin won a marathon by driving across the finish line, killing runners along the way. The episode also included a joke about a terrorist blowing up a bridge with two bombs, which were inadvertently triggered by Griffin’s cell phone. After the bombings in Boston, a video uploaded to YouTube showed the two scenes spliced together, leading some Internet commenters to claim that the TV show had predicted the attack. The video has since been blocked.

This is beyond stupid. The ONLY people who would be seeing the videos on the internet are those *looking* for it. And that's not even the important part. What the fuck is wrong with a country of people who need to have shit censored and removed for them because they lack the mental fortitude to "deal with it"?

Seriously this country is quickly becoming a place full emotionally unstable and fragile people. Sad. Really sad.

Fuck Zach Rosenberg.

Over at the so called "Good Man Project" one Zach Rosenberg informed his 4 year old son that he is a rapist. What did his son do?

Tried to kiss a girl in school. The girl objected.

For this Zach told his four year old that he is a rapist.

Why doesn’t she want to be your friend?”

“She didn’t like that I kissed her,” my son says, pushing his index finger into the middle of a strawberry.

“Well, did you ask her first? Or did you just try to kiss her?” He looks up and takes a bite, nonchalantly saying within a shrug “I just tried.”

“Oh, well, dude, you can’t do that,” I say, thinking this will end here.

“Why not?”

That was when I dropped the R-word.

“Because that’s rape,” I answered, matter-of-factly.

Fuck Zach Rosenberg.

Women Never Lie about Domestic Violence

Nope. Never.

Hard luck lads, todger size DOES matter: Official

According to the Register:

Two points of note:

These "taller fitter figures" were, though, considered even more desirable if they were well hung, and even if they were heading into cocktail sausage territory, "a smaller penis was less of a detriment ... than it was to shorter or potato-shaped" guys.

Translation...tall and fit gives an edge when you're sub-par.

"Penis size had a stronger effect on attractiveness in taller men than in shorter men. There was a similar increase in the positive effect of penis size on attractiveness with a more masculine body shape."

But if you're fit as hell and carry a big stick you're batting 1000.

Question for the researchers: Did you try images with erect penises?

Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy

By Om Malik I could title this: Why I hold onto my old ass Nokia N900 for dear life.

Facebook Home

So people can use Facebook more while out in public. They can more easily sit in groups and completely ignore each other as they stare into their phones. Dates can be even more rude by having their phone light up with Facebook messages and status updates.

That is when they're not using Twitter or sending and receiving text messages....which Facebook home will make oh so passé

Oh fun.

So What Was She Doing?

So this advert popped up on my statistics site.

Exactly WHAT was she doing that dude fell over?

Haaa!