New Arnott's Air Ride shocks on the VRod

Having some time on my hands these days, I decided to install a new set of air shocks on the VRod. I have a friend on one of the forums I frequent whose family owns Arnott, Inc., a leading air suspension manufacturing company, respected by many VRod owners. She gave me a fantastic deal on the kit I would need for the VRod so I ordered it and got it installed this afternoon.

The suspension I got replaced the stock rear shocks that originally came on the VRod. Here are some before and after pictures, along with a few details about the installation:

This is how the rear suspension looked before the Air Rides were put on. One of my goals is to reduce the amount of chrome/silver on the bike so removing the stock shocks is a good thing.

The first step then, was to remove the seat and the right and left shocks:

Once the original shocks were removed, the next step was to install the air pump. The shocks are raised by adding air from a pump that is installed in the airbox. Here is what the bike looks like with the airbox removed. The battery is in front (with the red cover over the positive terminal) and the white plastic coolant tank is in back:

Mounting the air pump was easy and only required drilling 2 small holes in the front part of the plastic airbox. Here is the airbox with one of the holes, circled in red:

And here is the airbox reinstalled with the mounted pump:

Activating the pump or releasing air is done through two buttons mounted to the left switch housing on the handlebars. Pressing one button starts the pump and pressing the other opens a valve in a manifold that distributes air to both shocks:

The next step was to install the air shocks themselves. They are very well made and being all black, help to complete the dark look I have been going for. The installation was simple, just bolt them in. I had to do a little manipulation of the bike lift to move the back wheel into the right position.

NOTE: If you are installing these, they look the same but the threaded hole where the air line attaches should be toward the inside to keep the lines hidden. I have circled a small, knurled knob that is used to adjust the flow of oil in the shock, letting you set it for a stiffer or smoother ride:

After the shocks were installed, the next step was to install the air distribution manifold. The instructions suggest putting it under the seat. There is a perfect spot for it with a single mounting hole already drilled into the metal bracket/pan where the ECM electronics are located (under the passenger pillion):

The manifold kit comes with a metal bracket that can be installed in several ways to accommodate mounting it in numerous configurations. In the picture, the manifold is attached to the black shelf with a single bolt which is also used for the ground wire coming off the air release valve of the manifold. The air pump hose attaches to the silver fitting on the left side and the hoses going to the two shocks attach to the two gold fittings in front. The gold bolt looking thing on the right is an air release muffler that can be adjusted to change the speed at which the shocks are lowered. This is so the bike won't slam down when you let air out of them.

The final step was to hook up all the wiring. The kit comes with a fuse connector, relay, and quick release crimp-on connectors. Getting everything hooked up wasn't difficult but I found that my wire crimping skills were a bit lacking so I ended up soldering several of the connectors after they were crimped just to make sure they made a good connection. The hardest part was finding a place for all the wires so they would stay hidden. Fortunately, the kit comes with plenty of black zip ties so I was able to bunch the wires together, zip them and tuck them in behind the left side cover. I didn't get any pictures of this as it was a pretty tangled mess.

Before putting all the parts back on, I tested the shocks to make sure they worked, which they did. It takes about 8-10 seconds to raise the bike and about 3-4 seconds to drop it. Here are two pictures of the new shocks, the top is when they are fully extended and the bottom, fully lowered:

And the completed bike:

Overall, I think the look is fantastic and I cannot speak highly enough about Arnott's products and customer service. If you have a question or problem with the installation, they are more than happy to help you out.

To complete the lowered look I have some fork springs from Progressive Suspension (part number 10-1565) on order that will drop the front end by 1-2". I'll give up some lean angle on cornering but I think the overall look will be much better than stock. Oh, and one thing I found is that raising the bike makes it much easier to slide the bike lift under it. No more rocking the bike back and forth while sliding the lift underneath to get it to go all the way under the frame.

Georgia Aquarium Dive Show

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of being one of the divers in the new Dive Show at the Georgia Aquarium so I brought along my personal videographer (Karen) to record the show. With her help, I used iMovie on my Mac to edit the footage and add some music to fancy it up. Here is the result (if you're seeing this on Facebook, click the View Original Post link to see the video):

Timeshare sales tactics to "help" me find a job

I have been in the job market for about 3 months now and have uploaded my resume to several job sites like CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com. Not too long after doing that, I started getting emails from several people saying they had some openings (mostly in areas I have no background or interest in) and that if I wanted to apply, to go to their website and submit some information. I ignore all of these because I don't want to sell insurance to seniors, be a government administrator, or be a loan officer. Yes, those are apparently the kind of places that look at a software engineer's resume and think I would be good at or want to do that sort of work. Um, no.

The other day, I got a call from a firm called Chandler Hill Partners, requesting that I make an appointment for an interview. I went to their website and saw that they appeared to be a placement company for people with my kind of background, among others but it looked like the kind of place that might actually be able to help me so I confirmed a time to talk to one of their people.

When I arrived at their offices, which were in some of the highest rent office space in north Atlanta, I was impressed with what I saw. Modern furnishings, plaques and awards on the wall of the reception area, comfy chairs and a sofa. When I confirmed my appointment the nice lady I talked to asked me to bring a copy of my resume. That should have been Red flag #1. Why do you need my resume again if you said you had reviewed it?? Ok, whatever, maybe they want the most recent copy, I don't know.

Upon greeting the receptionist, she handed me a 2 page questionnaire and asked that I fill it out then return it to her along with the copy of my resume. The questions were the kind I'd expect from a recruiter like "What kind of job are you looking for? What salary range? Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" (Ok, they really didn't ask that last one). When I was done, I returned everything to her and in a few minutes a man came out and introduced himself (I'll call him Bob) and escorted me to "his" office.

Their suite was on the 26th floor of the building and we entered one of the corner offices. It was the kind of space a company president would occupy! Immaculately clean, nothing on the desk except for a placard with his name on it, a lamp, and a candy dish and a spectacular view where you could see the north Georgia mountains 60 miles off in the distance. That was Red Flag #2. An office that doesn't look like any work gets done in it is probably only for show. Now where had I seen this before? Oh yeah, in a Timeshare sales pitch.

Bob begins asking me questions about my last job, what my strengths are, what sort of job I'm looking for, what I would want to do if money were no object, etc... He explains that they aren't recruiters, they're marketers and that they are there to help me find the job I want by putting me in front of the decision makers instead of making me go through the normal chain of job filling command. He looks over my resume and says it is very strong but could use some updating because it looks like what everyone else has. He says I need to stand out from the millions of others in my situation and that's what they can do for me. One thing that I think threw him was my answer to "What salary do you want to make?" I told him I was completely open on that because my wife and I had talked it over and as long as I'm making something, we'd be just fine. People in his position want you to be desperate and the higher the number you want to make, the more $$ for them.

We talk for about 30 minutes and when he's done, he says "Based on what you have here and what your goals are, I think we can help you". This was Red Flag #3. When he said this, I was thinking "Oh, I'm sure you can." He then said the next step was to have a 2nd meeting where they would give me more details about what they could do for me, start getting my resume updated, go over a fee schedule, and... Whoa, back up there, fella. Fee schedule??? I said "So, you don't get paid by the company that hires me, like other recruiters?" He reiterated that they aren't recruiters and that their fees are paid by their clients like me. Red Flag #4. If you want to help me, don't ask me for money because why? I'M UNEMPLOYED! I DON'T HAVE STEADY INCOME! I CAN'T SPARE ANY MONEY RIGHT NOW!

What put them solidly in the Timeshare sales category and Red Flag #5 was that they wanted my wife to fill out her own questionnaire regarding my professional strengths and interests AND come to the 2nd meeting with me. Classic sales tactics. They don't care about her opinion of my talents; they want to appeal to her emotions so she'll convince me to pay for their services. That was pretty much all I needed to hear. I let him finish his spiel and even went so far as letting him set up the 2nd meeting but I had no intention of keeping it.

When I got in the car, I called Karen and told her that I think I had found the Timeshare Sales of the job market, explaining what happened and she agreed that it was a good idea to not go through with their plan. When I told her what the place looked like, she said it might have been a Virtual Office that the main company had set up just to impress potential new clients. I don't really believe it was but the fact that Bob's office was so clean and looked unworked in did make me wonder.

I did some research on them through Google and found that many of the hits on their company name also included the words "scam", "ripoff", and "run away". Someone else said their fee was somewhere between $6000 and $10000 so I think I made a pretty good decision to turn them down. If I had that kind of money sitting around, I'd probably rather spend it on a timeshare!

Bottom line here...if you're in the job market and you get contacted by someone that says they want to help you find a job, treat it like you would any major purchase. Do some research and see if others have had good or bad experiences with them and pay attention to your instincts. If it smells like poop, it probably is poop.

New Dive Show at the Aquarium

Being a volunteer diver at the Georgia Aquarium has given me the opportunity to do some pretty fun (and challenging) things for the past 3-1/2 years. Most of the work I do centers around the maintenance of the exhibits and the dive equipment used by fellow divers but recently, I was given the chance to participate in a new way to engage the guests at the Aquarium.

About 6 weeks ago, I got an email from Jeff Reid, the manager of Dive Operations, announcing they were starting up a Dive Show in the Ocean Voyager gallery and I, along with several other fellow divers, had been selected to participate. The shows would begin sometime in August and would involve a diver inside the exhibit interacting with a narrator in the Theater room, in front of the big window talking with and taking questions from aquarium guests. How could I turn that down? It was a chance to dive in OV and NOT have to wipe any of the windows or scrub algae off the rocks.

Richelle narrating during a practice for the Dive Show

Several practice sessions were held over the last few weeks, allowing both the divers and the narrators from Guest Services a chance to test out the communications and topics to be discussed during the show. On Friday, 8/7, I received an email from the Director of Training and Volunteer Operations, Alex, announcing the first show would be on Monday 8/10 at 1pm. One of the Guest Services volunteers, Richelle, was to be the narrator but they needed a diver. Fortunately, I was available on Monday so I responded saying I'd be happy to be the diver for the first show. Richelle, Alex and I set up a time to meet prior to the show to go over a few things, mostly so we'd all know what we were going to talk about and in what order. Alex also said he thought the show should run about 12 minutes.

The show was to begin at 1pm so around 12:30, I started gathering my equipment. Prepping for the dive is a little different than a normal maintenance dive. The big difference is the mask. The ones we use for the show are special full-face mask similar to what is worn for surface-supplied dives except the air comes from a normal SCUBA tank worn by the diver and not through an umbilical hose connected to an air supply outside the water. To be able to communicate with the show's narrator in the theater room, the mask has a connector attached to a microphone and a set of underwater earphones. For divers who do surface-supplied dives, the communications are similar except you have to plug yourself in to the system before you can hear or talk to the narrator.

Ed and I before the show.

For the first show, my safety diver was Ed Ryan, one of the members of the Dive Immersion Program. After we got suited up, Ed got in the water to make sure it was ok for me to enter. With 4 big Whale Sharks, a Manta Ray, and several other species of large fish, you have to be careful entering the water so you don't end up bumping into something and the safety diver helps with that. Once Ed and I were in we slowly made our way over the tunnel, waving to the guests walking through it, and over to the cluster of rocks behind which is a grate where the communication cable terminates.

I could see Richelle standing with her microphone in front of the window surrounded by what looked like more than 100 people who had gathered for the show so we waved to them before getting hooked up to the comm system. Ed held the grate up while I uncoiled the 15 ft. of cable and attached it to the connector coming from the mask. I immediately heard Richelle say something about being able to hear me so I greeted everyone and did my impression of the Verizon guy "Can you hear me now?". I could see some acknowledgements from the audience and Richelle confirmed that she could. The audio coming through the earphones was a little bit lower than I was used to so I would have to stop breathing momentarily to be able to hear Richelle's questions. When you exhale with one of those masks, the noise of the bubbles leaving the regulator and going up past your ears makes it hard to hear anything coming over the earphones and I had no way to adjust the volume.

Richelle began by introducing me which gave me a chance to to tell the guests that I was a volunteer and a little background of my diving history with the aquarium (3-1/2 years doing maintenance mostly in the Beluga habitat but most recently in one of the fresh water exhibits in the River Scout gallery). Richelle interacted with the guests, testing their knowledge of Ocean Voyager then turned the conversation over to me to give them the "real" scoop on the statistics of the exhibit. The time seemed to fly by because before I knew it, Richelle was asking the audience if they had any questions, which was the cue that the show was almost over.

Following the impromptu questions from the audience, Ed and I had our only "close encounter" when one of the larger Groupers was getting a little too curious...so much so that Ed had to intervene with his deterrent stick. After the Grouper left us alone, I disconnected from the communication cable waved goodbye to Richelle and the audience, stowed the cable back under the grate and swam up to the window to wave to some of the guests. Ed and I took it slow going back to the ladder, passing over the tunnel for more waves and pose for a couple of them taking pictures.

Saying hi to some of the guests after the show

Overall, the show was a lot of fun, even if it didn't seem to last long and I'm looking forward to doing more of them. From my point of view, the guests definitely seemed to enjoy it so I think it'll be a big hit once it gets cranked up. The plan is to have two shows a day with one occurring during the afternoon Dive Immersion Program. I'm sure that'll get people interested in signing up to dive or swim with the Whale Sharks.

I'm yet another statistic

Yesterday, Karen found a couple of articles in the Atlanta Business Chronicle that I found particularly relevant. In the first one, it has been reported that private businesses cut 371,000 jobs in July. What I found humorous, or more to the point, ironic, about the story was the company reporting this was ADP, the same firm from which I was let go in July. On the same day, there was another article that gave me hope. It said that according to the website CareerBuilder, almost 50% of people who were recently laid off were able to find new full time jobs within 3 months. I plan to be among those and will be striving to have something nailed down within 2 months.

A statistic that I found interesting in the article came near the end where it said about 28% of those looking for jobs changed their appearance to make themselves look better for potential employers. Just last week, I was talking with my brother in law about a possible job with his company. He mentioned that some employers would see someone like me (25+ years of software/IT experience) as a potential burn out, preferring to hire someone younger. Their thinking is that a younger person would be more motivated and eager to learn emerging technologies than those of us who helped develop the internet and pave the way for all this new technology. If that's how a company sees me just because I've been around the software block a few times, then I wouldn't want to work for them anyway.

I will say this though, I'm glad that, in my late 40s, I still have most of my hair but I did get my stylist to take out some of that pesky gray stuff that's been creeping out of my head in recent years. I wonder if I should get my teeth whitened again or maybe get a tattoo.