I'm Back!

Hey,

Thanks CTLP for posting the FARTAB Vol 5 pics and recap!!!

Ouch.. My head hurts just *thinking* about my Cinquo de FARTABO performance... I swear I knocked something loose in my brain on that trip. Just not right. After the trip Baldboy Wonder emailed the results of his cooler autopsy.. between Kaptain Krunch, BBW and I we somehow consumed 1.5 bottles of Gin, and only 1/2 bottle of Juice. Could explain the early sleepy act...when we got to the campsite. Just a thought.

As the title of the post, I just got back from being away from the southernmost point of the Beermuda triangle. I spent a few days travelling for work, then took off on vacation with Mrs 40 up to Montreal, then up to Vermont for a kayak and camping trip with BaldBoy. I still have to download my pictures from those adventures and will post a recap when I get time.

In the meantime, Check out the video of this f*cking moron....You have GOT to be kidding me??? How did this chump get elected???

I'm beginning to agree with J Howard Kunstler, that GW b*sh and republicans will be going out of business if we make it out of the energy/food/global warming/housing crash/economy crash/insert ongoing disaster here.

On a lighter note: stay tuned for vacation and maybe more fartab pix!

-40

FARTAB V: The Re-awakening... Part 3

The camp was set up, an unadvised but surprisingly injury-free round of fire swinging occurred and cooking commenced. However, around the time dinner was served (thanks to the excellent cooking by BBW and KK), the sleepsy twins started nodding off:

It was barely 8:00, and in their defense, it was a long day on the river in the sun with G&J as their chosen beverage. That being said- it was not enough to stop us from entertaining ourselves at the expense of the one who decided to nod off in front of the fire instead of the relative safety of the tent...

Due to 40 worrying that some of the less tame pictures would make it on to the blog they were summarily deleted by him the next morning. I am still working out the punishment... Breakfast was a little tough for yours truly after an extra couple of barley pops and a late night of revelry. After breakfast was finished we heard the thunder start in, and kicked into high gear taking down camp and getting on the river. Seems EVERY time it rains during the final 'mile' of the river trip. And by 'rain' I mean 'epic storm':

All in all- it was a pretty great trip yet again. The iBucket delivery from 40 was JUST in time and operated perfectly. I was so psyched for that! Sleepy managed to stave off the sandman longer than two or three of our compatriots. Kaptain Krunch and Dogg had their first FARTAB experience and said that they might actually be willing to subject themselves to it again. BBW fell out of his kayak more times than I could count. GUDG got to fling a soccer ball around with reckless abandon and took full advantage of the 'family pass' staying up until the wee hours with yours truly in an attempt to lessen the amount of liquid cargo that would need to be transported the next morning.

So- until next year...

FARTAB V: The Re-awakening... Part 2

So- with poke-a-hottt-a$$ leading the way we continued down the river.


Stopping for the occasional (read: 'frequent') rest break:


And for Kaptain Krunch to show us his best 'Deliverance' impression:


Things got a little fuzzy for me after the mouse hole. I know we did our good deed for the day in sawing a path through a downed tree- during which I guess we broke BBW's great saw...

For a good portion of the trip we also managed to invent a new 'fappy-hun ball' game involving a beat up soccer ball I rescued along the way.

The new sport was done more while paddling, but during stops along the river provided another way to continue screwing around.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with a lot of falling off coolers, falling out of boats and falling off of docks (guilty...). Gravity was a strange mistress... When we came up to the Alton dam- one that always looks like you can go over but the water never seems high enough- I was lubricated enough to finally just do it. As was proved during WIFETAB a couple weeks later (and with a higher degree of sobriety)- this is the optimum way to ford said water feature, and I will never carry a kayak around it again. By the time we loaded up all our stuff (apparently with two canoes on the trip I did not need to carry a single thing- that is not the way it should be, but probably saved me from testing my waterproof packing capabilities) at the last portage and made it to the campsite, it was nearing dusk.

At which point, someone switched the CTLP doll to 'evil'...

FARTAB V: The Re-awakening... Part 1

I know- this is a LONG time coming.


It has taken me some time to come to terms with the slightly over the top debauchery and drunkeness that marked this FARTAB. Yikes. By the end of the trip there was more falling out of the boats than piloting them... Seeing as it was Dogg and Kaptain Krunch's first FARTAB, I felt pretty bad for them at first. Until they started to contribute to and raise the stakes in the level of play.


We started out innocently enough- we put together our supplies- Lyndie style:






Then hit the river:

We made it through the portage sections quickly:

But we also were making it through our adult beverages at an alarming rate. When I reviewed the pictures from the trip I noticed that at this point a disturbing trend started to emerge. I think it is best simply called: man nipples.

It was like everyone JUST found out they had them and felt they needed to point them out to me. Ugh...

Then the silliness REALLY began.

Something tells me...

...that I should pull all the large bullfrogs out of my pond.

Not sure what makes me think that is a good idea...

Oh yeah. Maybe that... I don't know why I never figured out how it was that they were getting so big and so fat. After playing tug of war with the frog trying to pull the fish back out, I scooped him up and dumped him in the stream. He can catch trout now instead of goldfish and koi.

And yes, I am well aware of the fact that I am probably expected (received three phone calls/emails about it already) to do a bit of a FARTAB Vol. 5 recap. I will get to it eventually. Once my stomach settles from having to see some of the pictures that I downloaded. YIKES.

If we hit it that hard next year, life preservers might be mandatory...

Cinqo de FARTAB-O May 30-31

So it's just a few days away... the headline event of the year...FARTAB, Volume 5!

I must say, I'm un-naturally excited about the trip this year.

Greased Up Deaf Guy will be returning after a year of pro-creating and the associated doodies, er, duties.

Kaptain Krunch will make his inagural appearance, as will the yet to be named, N-D.

Check out the last few years worth of pix:
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

CTLP's Perspective:
Volume 4 Post 1
Volume 4 Post 2

CTLP got a video too of the event. I had a friend set us up with some FTP hosting. Stay tuned for video if we can figure out how to post a video here.

See you Thursday Night for FARTAB!!!
-40

Additions to the BFB

Front derailers drive me insane. I avoid them where possible. I've stopped using them on mtbikes a couple seasons ago but was still using one on the BFB where one is really needed... it's tough carrying all that crap or a passenger without looooow gears to get up hills. But, all that extra chain and sloppy shifting was getting old so I dug out an old SRAM 3x7 wheel I had made for the tandem recumbent project. I took apart the bike and set it up.

Nice and clean up front now!

Also, after taking a passenger, I realized I needed some handlebars and footpegs. I rigged up the handlebars pretty easy, but ended up buying the real-deal Footsies made for the Xtracycle kit.
I also broke a couple front spokes, so swapped out the front wheel for a tandem specific wheel. This is wicked rugged.

Other than that, I've been pretty busy getting the yard ready for spring... and FARTAB Vol 5!!!

FARTAB is in less than 2 weeks! I'm working to get CTLPs ibucket ready in time. This weekend I started a batch of three ibuckets. I brought the namesake ingredient over to the FlatTires for processing...via BFB of course!

Big River Clean Up

I was cruising around the RINEMBA website and found some pics from the Big River Cleanup a couple weeks ago. Check it, some good picks.

What you missed this weekend at the 5 Boro Bike Tour

After last year's brutal contest, another winner is crowned.

-40.

TDI intake cleaning

The design of the VW TDI (Turbo, Direct Injection) diesel engine has an EGR valve that, by design, sucks dirty sooty exhaust, and injects it back into the intake to help reduce NOX emissions.

The problem with this is oily fumes from the CCV (crank case ventilation) system can combine with carbon particles (soot) from the EGR system to form a black sticky tar in the intake system. This eventually starts restricting the amount of airflow into the engine, resulting in gradual power loss as the vehicle ages and the intake clogging becomes worse. Over time the car suffers from lack of power at higher engine speeds, and in the worse case, the car will detect excessive intake back pressure and go into 'limp home' mode, disabling the turbo. This has happened to me many times on the highway, and is very annoying. More or less, I figured it was time to clean the intake manifold.

BBW made an unscheduled appearance in the BeerMuda Triangle this weekend. He was in the area for a business trip so figured he might as well come over. It was great to have company in the garage and a working laptop. BBW would look up the how-to on the web, ordered parts for his new bike, fetched beer, and took pictures of the project.



A great resource for TDI VWs is Fred's TDI page. They have a great FAQ that anyone who has a TDI or is considering one should read. The procedure is descriobed in detail there, but some forum users have gone a bit further. This guy even took videos!

Anyhow, it wasn't that bad of a project, just tedious. I took the hood off the car to make it easier to work on.

After a few hours, the intake came out and it was DIRTY
One port was almost 50% clogged!

It took a couple hours of scraping, two cans of carb cleaner, a soak in a vat of solvent, but eventually it was cleaned out.

I was happy!



After breathing solvent fumes all day, scraping out sludgy soot, I was getting pretty tired. The reinstallation procedure is pretty tedious:

Eventually the project was DONE, and it was time for a test drive:

We found a intercooler hose clamp that I forgot to fasten, and it blew off. The car ran like crap without the turbo, very sooty and stinky. We fixed it and took it for another spin around the block. I couldn't tell if we got the massive increases in performance, maybe because the head is still partially clogged with sludge? (can't clean that while its in the car, and i was certainly not pulling it off myself)

Anyhow, the project was a success!