Do you have more vehicles (bicycles count too) than rooms in your house? Have you found yourself using kitchen implements in the shop (it's not a garage, garages are for storing cars), and, scarier yet, using your tools in the kitchen? Or have you moved into your garage? During boring lectures, do you work out the gear ratios on your bicycle/motorcycle/car/18 wheeler on your notepad? And if it's a long boring lecture, do you work out a bunch of alternative gear ratios? Scarier still, do you work out gear ratios in your head on boring rides/drives? When you walk through a hardware store, do you find yourself thinking up all kinds of new and creative uses for the doohickies on display? Have you ridden in the rain long enough for your skin to take on the color of your gloves, or worse yet, clothes?
If you answer yes to any of the above, you are a GearHead. Do not be ashamed, there are millions of us out there and without us the world would grind to a halt. Heck, somebody's got to grease the bearings on the axis the world rotates on. If you answered yes to all of the above, you seriously need professional help. No, I don't mean the "mental health professional" kind, I mean turning over that rebuild that you've been slaving over for the last decade to a professional so you'll have time for a smidgen of social life and some doorknocking for your progressive democratic candidates next election day. GearHeadism is an incurable disease, for which relief can only be found in the form of talking or writing about, designing, building, fixing, or riding/driving our beloved machines.
Now for too long we gearheads have suffered in (relative) silence here on DKos. Yea, once in a while we had a diary on the LeMans race or other gearhead topics. But in between we "suffered" through days of mindless diaries on every aspect of progressive politics except cars, motorcycles, bicycles, trains, and trucks. But relief is on the way... A while back I somehow became a "Trusted User". I'm not entirely sure what that is, but apparently I'm allowed to start groups. So a few days back, and just in case they take my T.U. powers away, I started the GearHeads group here at DKos. I live out in the boonies with kinda spotty internet access, so I'm gonna need some help administering our GearHeads group- So if you think you can help please volunteer. And as sunday evening seems like a good a time as any for a GearHeads get together, I'm kickstarting our first weekly Gearheads Gettogether today.
On to Introductions... I'm Dyna and I'm a Gearhead. My life is dominated by, for a start, five motorcycles. Here's my favorite, A rainbow colored Motorvation Formula II sidecar hooked to an '84 BMW R65LS. My other sidecar is a Motorvation Spyder on an "83 BMW R80ST, that ones done up in red, white, and blue. Those are my parade machines, and the rainbow sidecar will be in the Stonewall DFL contingent in the Minneapolis Pride parade next sunday. Today I'm riding an '07 BMW F800S that gets 60 MPG on E30 fuel, a '92 BMW R100GS has taken up residence in my living room in a slow motion rebuild project, and I've got an '01 Buell Cyclone stashed away in Florida for winter use. Sharing the garage are a VW Golf TDI and a couple boring haulers, a Ranger pickup and a Mopar Minivan. I'm thoroughly addicted on the human powered front too, with a Teledyne Titan framed road bike, a Santana tandem, a Bike Friday folder, and a couple sports wheelchairs left over from my gimpier days. Oh yah, forgot about two RC cars... Ever imagine a 1/10th scale Wellstone Green Bus? I've built two of them! I'm into trucks too, preferably Mack, but so far have managed to resist buying one. And living in the country, I'm of course shopping for a tractor, even though my spread ain't quite even an acre...
So GearHeads, It's time to engage in some self-help "therapy" as we try to live with our incurable (and what our non GearHead friends consider insufferable) disease. So introduce yourself, tell us what wheeled vehicle(s) move you, and bench race a bit if you like. So let's get on with our inaugural Gearheads Group Get Together!