Posted on 07/19/2004 9:01:53 AM PDT by BluegrassScholar
Town of Waukesha - Motorcyclist Daniel Buckel was within 10 feet when he saw the potential disaster stretched across a dark and foggy rural road just ahead.
Disbelief turned to fear, then anger, as Buckel's 2-year-old motorcycle hit a barrier of kitchen-variety plastic wrap that was wound thickly from traffic pole to traffic pole on opposite sides of Guthrie Road, south of Highway I.
The clear plastic trap, which was 3 to 4 feet above the two-lane road south of Waukesha, sent both Buckel and his passenger, girlfriend Theresa Brzykcy, into a bloody slide across the asphalt.
"It's appalling, and it's really frightening," Brzykcy said. "What was their intention? This should make people more aware that pranks like that are not as harmless as they seem.
"They had done a pretty thorough job. It was wrapped around pretty thickly," she recalled.
The malicious prank has Waukesha County sheriff's investigators concerned because other capers involving plastic wrap occurred in the town last year, although none was as serious as the motorcycle crash early Tuesday, Sheriff's Detective Steve Pederson said Friday.
Investigators were planning to canvass homes near the crash site this weekend, looking for information that will lead to a break in the case.
"When something like this happens someone always brags about it," Pederson said. "If anyone has heard anything about this or any other incident involving (plastic) wrap, contact us.
"Maybe someone had seen this happen or removed (plastic) wrap from other areas," he said. "We'd like to know about it."
Last year, a number of parked cars were found bound in plastic wrap to prevent drivers from getting inside the vehicles, Pederson said. Plastic wrap bonds together, giving it strength and making it difficult to remove.
Pederson said investigators were unaware of other incidents of wrap being stretched across a road.
The couple's injuries sent both to Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Buckel, 22, of the Town of Waukesha, required 15 stitches to close a deep gash above his right eye and also broke a finger. Brzykcy, 19, of Brookfield, got a deep cut and bruise to her right cheek along with other scrapes and bruises. The motorcycle was a total loss, Buckel said.
The 1 a.m. ride was supposed to be a short one meant to relax the couple, who have known each other for more than a year. He had just left his bartending job, and she was waiting for him at his family home. Earlier she had taken his mother to a medical appointment.
Buckel said he was driving 5 mph under the 45 mph speed limit because the motorcycle headlight had shone on deer along the road and there was a slight haze from ground fog in the low-lying area.
"I didn't see it," Brzykcy said of the barrier. "He braked so hard I figured it was a deer. My first hit was on him, which totally saved me. Then, I landed on my head (on the road). Everything went white and yellow and red, and I blacked out for a while. I woke up on my back, laying in a driveway."
Buckel, fueled by anger and concern for Brzykcy, fought off his own pain and called 911 on his cell phone, he said. Among the first emergency personnel to arrive was Beckel's best friend, Scott Sommers, a member of the Town of Waukesha Fire Department.
"I ran over to my girlfriend and looked around to see if the pranksters were still around," Buckel said. "I didn't see anyone. When my friend arrived, it made things a lot easier to cope with."
LOL!
While it might appear that it's deliberate on the part of H-D to create sales for Screamin' Eagle parts, I think the real reason is that corking up the bike is the only way they can meet the DOT/EPA sound regulations. Air cooled engines naturally tend to produce more mechanical noise, which adds to any intake or exhaust noise. And styling requirments dictate air cleaners and mufflers of minimal volume. It is possible to flow a lot of air without making a lot of noise, but it requires a large volume airbox and large filter element, and large volume mufflers.
Yep, its just so easy to demonstrate the smallest consideration for those around you. Doesn't cost a thing, but it generally pays off big in the end.
I would have guessed pollution control requirements.
Melas? You brought it up, what's your assertion?
HD gets around this by selling their bikes in an extremely lean state of tune, with a restrictive airbox and mufflers.
Close, it's pollution. An extremely lean state of tune DESPITE having a very restrictive aircleaner and mufflers insures that you're burning as little fuel as possible, thus creating as little pollution as possible. Even with this state of tune, HD's are riding the fence on pollution regs.
Yeah, most bikes (and cars) are running leaner than ideal for power to meet EPA regs. Even modern-design liquid cooled bikes like mine with fuel injection are still running way leaner at some rpms than is ideal.
But the restrictive pipes and air cleaner are more to meet the noise regs, aren't they? You can probably leave the bike stock except for rejetting and improve drivability a lot and improve peak power a little. But for serious power gains you need more flow - pipes, air cleaner, maybe cams (which were also chosen with pollution in mind, no doubt).
The biggest benefit of synthetic is 'evenly sized gobules' that fill the surface defects of the cyl walls and anything else it slams into thus reducing friction and allowing an air cooled engine a little more survivability in 110degree summer traffic. But good old 60 weight HD should do the trick for me. We'll see.
<|:-)~~
Why use that overpriced HD oil (synthetic or regular, it is overpriced) when a 15W-40 dual rated CI-4/SL diesel/gasoline engine oil like Shell Rotella or Chevron Delo is $6/gallon? It has NO friction modifiers to cause problems with wet clutches, which is the only reason I've ever heard to use special "motorcycle" oil. It's also got significantly more detergents and ZDDP anti-wear additives. (The API was concerned about ZDDP's effect on catalytic convertors so typical gasoline engine oils have reduced levels of ZDDP).
Lots of information on this at the http://www.bobistheoilguy.com website -- check the motorcycle lubrication forum.
"Yeah, most bikes (and cars) are running leaner than ideal for power to meet EPA regs."
Not true for cars. There are no emissions limits that need to be met at wide-open-throttle, so there is nothing to "hold back" when the pedal is floored.
Also, if the mixture is too lean, NOx emissions go up, which the EPA also frowns upon.
Can this happen in an automobile? Year 2000 Mercury Marquis. I changed it's five quarts oil with just one of them synthetic oil plus added some Slick 50.
You are probable dealing with 4 wheelers. Illegal hunters like to use my dad's property (400 acres) near a nice river on the mountain. They gain main entrance up a creek bed, so dad put him several boards submerged in the shallow waters with big nails in it. After replacing their wheels a few times, the 4 wheelers finally got the idea. But dad would never put a wire/ect across the path, too dangerous/deadly.
Actually, the original reason I put the synthetic in was to aid in maintaining running temp a few hundred miles after I rebuilt the engine.
I orginally put the 20-50 HD in there when we built the motor I guess around this time last year. The only thing original are the cases, flywheel assembly, rocker boxes and covers and jugs. Also shaved the bottom of both jugs and punched em out but didn't stroke it.
Then my engine red light came on, two separate times, during two separate traffic jams here in Floriduh. I had about 500 to 600 miles on the rebuild when this happened. So I tossed around the idea of an oil cooler but couldn't come up with one that fit, or that I liked, or a price that fit my wallet, or one that would do what I wanted. So, in went the synthetic.
It is now time to go back to fossil oil.
I was a diesel jockey for years and my trucks lived for Rotella and Delo (sometimes both!). Being I'm connected with the local repair shop through a bloodline, I prefer HD or revtech.
HD holds a higher consistant pressure than Revtech, but Revtech runs a hair cooler because of the lower pressure.
Also, being it's August, I'm ugly and my breath stinks, I'll try some straight 50 HD until Sept or Oct. Then go back to a multi-grade.
She's putting out HP in the low 80's. Heavy bike too. 835lbs + me.
Take a look at this old write up from '94 at the listed URL below. Gives a good insight on lube properties.
http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/oiltest1.htm
Is that temp, or press?
pressure.
No. I keep saying this and no one on this forum believes me. I am dealing with large street bikes that have smooth road tires on them. I can count the wheels, and there are only two per bike!
Fortunately during a recent storm a big tree fell across the access path and I haven't had any trouble since. No bike can go over or around this.
I wonder what results would have been if they'd tested some 15W-40 diesel engine oils. I believe those are more shear-stable (withstanding the effects of the gears--which tend to make an oil thinner by shearing the molecules apart--which could result in lower pressure at operating temperature).
Also, those tests were done back when API SG was the standard..we are now on API SL (very soon to be API SM). API SL requires big improvements in the base stocks over what API SH/SJ required. For example, a typical 5W-30 of API SG vintage could have been formulated entirely with Group I basestocks. Now, an API SL 5W-30 requires the use of hydrocracked Group II or Group II+ basestocks in order to meet the volatility requirements.
When API SL was proposed, the oil companies said that they would have to use synthetic (Group III or Group IV/V basestocks) to meet the requirements, but they were able to do it with conventional oil.
What is it with cops being there when you're a kid and ready to commit some heinous fun??? Same age as you, we were under a culvert bridge one day and lobbing big sloppy glops of mud up over the edge at a couple of cars going by and wouldn't you know the first one to take a plastering is a Moscow PD car. We spent the whole day on a march of exile to escape that...
A righteous splatter, one of my Northern VA friends was living in Turkey in the 70's and he plastered the windshield of a Soviet diplomats car and got to get chased by pissed off reds :-)
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