Gsxrnz

Great shot! Any chance you could share the aperture, shutter and ISO settings on that one?

OP - my thoughts for you.

For the track or hard out road riding, clutchless upshifts (or a quickshifter) are a must if you want to get the best/quickest shifts. With either method, you should also invert your gear lever so down/up is reversed GP style. This allows you to have your foot on top of the lever for upshifting which is much faster. It also means when exiting a knee-down corner, your foot can come from the peg straight to the lever to upshift without having to get your foot under it, thus saving time and no risk of squashing your foot between the bike/road.

The clutchless upshift method for the track and hard riding (assuming you're looking for max acceleration etc) is to be constantly applying pressure on the gear lever as you're accelerating in anticipation of the next upshift. Snap the throttle off/on as quickly as you can and the preloaded weight from your foot on the lever will shift gear as the driving force is removed from the transmission.

I'd also suggest you fit a speed throttle that converts the amount of throttle roll to say a 1/4 turn. This reduces the amount of twist on/off required to get a faster shift and power back on quickly.

As you accelerate in the next gear, release pressure from the lever so it can return to the detent, and then reapply the pressure in anticipation of the next shift. Take time to understand the response of your bike especially going 1st through 3rd. On a superbike when you may only be in those gears for a few seconds at max throttle, if you get it wrong and give too much of a fistful at the change in the wrong rev/speed/gear combination then you'll pop a wheelie or worse.

It's almost as fast as a quickshifter, costs nothing, and unless you intend to own your bike for a hundred years it will cause no hardship to the modern transmission.

As for clutchless upshifts/downshifts while commuter riding, well yes it can be done quite easily by partially rolling off and "feeling" the shift through your foot as other posters have described. It can make for very smooth riding if you get it right. I do it occasionally if traffic conditions allow for it, but IMHO the real reason for clutchless shifting is for hard out riding.

Quickshifters are the bees knees, but can result in tears unless you're experienced and have at least some track riding experience. I'd encourage you to learn clutchless upshifting at speed and become familiar with it before you consider a quickshifter.

I guess, Another victim who had been abandoned by his girlfriend ... Life can be hard.

How do you come to that conclusion Sherlock??

Because in typical TV fashion he didn't bother to read the whole story before firing off a salvo.

The article clearly states that the Swiss man's girlfriend informed the reporter that he had a heart condition and suffered from mental health issues.

And what's the point of reading the whole story if you don't understand what you've read before firing off a salvo?

It says the girlfriend of the Swiss man's son was tracked down by police...not the Swiss man's girlfriend!

Touche

It sounds suspiciously like an intermittent fault.

Seriously - the dealer should be able to plug in to the ECU and diagnose the fault. It could be anything from contaminated fuel, a poor electrical connection, faulty ignition system, faulty fuel pump, air in the fuel lines, blocked fuel filter, faulty sensor/s.....literally anything.

When the engine stops, does your dashboard die as well? That would indicate computer/electrical. Or does a warning light (ECU ) come on when the motor dies? Or is the issue temperature related?

Try and determine a few more things to help diagnose. Maybe next time it happens, depress the clutch to stop it from bump starting, come to a halt and then try to key start it and see what happens with the dash/warning lights etc.

Back in the old days you'd just check all the electrical connections, clean out the carby, and that solved 90% of the problems like this. If it didn't then you'd swap out the coil and Bob was probably your Aunty.

These days the only thing recognisable to me under the hood is the battery.

Another success for Pattayas BIB......................

Actually, the report said it was Volunteer Police that nabbed the two Ladyboys.

The actual BIB were either sitting in their office drinking coffee or out fingering "fines" for not wearing a helmet at the corner of Tai and 2nd Road. That's before they "rushed" to the scene - I bet they finished their coffee first though.

What is surprising is how in the hell the Volunteer Police managed to chase the Ladyboys being weighed weighed down with their jackboots and 25 kilograms of attachments on their belts - and none of them are exactly pictures of athleticism in the first place.

I can only surmise the Ladyboys weren't too fast on their feet in their 6" heels.

The laws in this country seem more grey than black and white.

They have been deigned to be a perfect midpoint grey. Not too dark but not too pale.

That's 18 percent gray.

You can bet your white balance on that. .

Lots of bars rent pool tables off "Influential People" this does away with any license requirements.

Seems like you'll have to enter some sort of "rental" agreement.

Isn't that just so "Thailand".

Similiar to how they show contempt or scorn. Not as extreme as the feeling of derision and less display as they would with feeling of disrespect.

So somewhere between arrogance and indfference. But not like haughtiness or snobbishness. More like indifference when rebuffing someone.

Is that from a subjective or objective perspective?

Here's one I didn't pay for at Star#ucks yesterday as he and the bird were sheltering from the rain. He's actually giving it a shower.

Now THAT'S what I call a jail sentence.

You just don't know whether the soapies on the tele emulate real life, or vice-versa.

When do we get to see the chick behind the voice?

Here's a link to the airport wheelchair service, which is free and can be booked (according to the website). Although that is for people described as "sick".

Otherwise it says to make arrangements via the airline you are booked with.

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/en/41-wheelchair-service-for-the-elder-disabled-and-patient

Have your spreadsheet download the data automatically. Here's a link that will give you some code and a basic spreadsheet to get you started.

http://investexcel.net/automatically-download-historical-forex-data-into-excel/

Unless they work on a golf course they've probably never seen a lawnmower up close and personal.

Being a born delegator (and naturally lazy), I'd invite them to learn how to use it to increase their skillset that may lead to a new and lucrative career, convince them they need hours of exposure to become proficient in its use, and set up a weekly roster for them to come and mow my lawns.

Of course, I wouldn't charge them for the training and I'd give them free use of the lawnmower - I'll even supply the petrol for free. But I'd suggest that a bottle of beer coming my way occasionally wouldn't go amiss.

I like the way you think! The only downside is them dragging the mower over a foot wearing only flip-flops...things could turn right nasty, what with the ducks eating the toes and all

Steel capped Jandals would be compulsory.

IMHO the only way you can fully understand a culture is if you're born into it and/or grow up in it. Maybe you have a chance of crossing cultures if you do it before the age of 8,and maybe you have a chance of fully understanding two cultures if you're immersed in them both from a very young age. Otherwise, I suspect that no matter how well one thinks they understand a foreign culture they entered as an adult, the truth is they will never know how well they've assimilated because their perspective is very subjective.

I think this applies equally even if the language is the same. For example, I emigrated from the UK to NZ at the age of 5. When I returned to the UK at the age of 13 for a year, I felt like a social outcast because of my Kiwi accent and my total lack of exposure to the UK schooling and social systems. I suffered for a year before my family took us back to NZ. The irony - I'd tried to assimilate so much into the UK that on my return to NZ, I suffered a little bit of culture shock due to my recently acquired Yorkshire accent and different norms of behaviour.

Converse to the OP's view, I know a Thai man that is now 48. He emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 22 and married a Kiwi. So he's been living in New Zealand most of his life. He's made three brief trips back to Thailand in that period and none in the past 12 or so years.

He is as fluent with English as any long time immigrant to an English speaking country. NZ is full of Asian immigrants from so I think I have a fairly good perspective on their levels of fluency, social integration and assimilation. I've worked with many immigrants in professional fields and interacted with them socially - it's just part of our very mixed NZ culture. He even confesses that on occasions when talking to his family on the phone in Thailand, he has to ask them to speak slowly. He has no need to use his mother tongue and he admits to struggling when he does have to use it. I asked him once what language he "thinks" in - he admitted that the thought hadn't crossed his mind for a long time, but that he does think in English and not Thai.

This man I'm talking about has excellent English skills but is not and never will be totally fluent, and neither will the vast majority of immigrants that migrated from their own countries as adults. His word knowledge is huge, but he fails to comprehend nuance and slang that are based around social mores and norms specific to NZ and/or stolen from English culture and language.

You'd think that after having more exposure to NZ than to his own culture, that he would understand the intricacies of language, social interaction etc, especially after raising three children (born in New Zealand) to adulthood. I could give countless examples, but suffice to say, while he has enjoyed watching cricket over the years and one of his sons plays the game.....he doesn't understand half of the rules or half of the language.

I think the OP's claim that it's all in the language is incorrect and only part of the story. Language is the biggest hurdle to be crossed, but an adult crossing cultures will probably never be considered to be 100% integrated, whereas his/her children probably would be.He may well think he's fully integrated because of his Thai language skills, but his view is very subjective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_anthropology

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans

Gee don't tell these guys "the only way you can fully understand a culture is if you're born into it and/or grow up in it" because there is a whole science dedicated to just that and those guys think they know what they are doing.

.

Cultural Anthropologist: Job Description & Career Info

Cultural anthropologists, also known as sociocultural anthropologists, study the language, art, traditions and customs of societies past and present.

http://education-portal.com/articles/Cultural_Anthropologist_Job_Description_and_Info_About_a_Career_in_Cultural_Anthropology.html

OK, Kimosabe, I won't tell them.

Not interested in applying for a job either, only pays a measly $73k at best.

You neglected to include the "IMHO....." in quoting me, so it's only my ever so humble opinion - I don't claim it to be fact or scientifically proven.