Yah! Class is over! Had my last exam last night. Was 10 minutes late because of work, which I'm pretty sure they're all going to hell for. It was a typically mind-bending exam from the mind of Didi Wendell. She rocks. She *might*, I said might, be the best professor I've ever had, but then again Dr. Doyle, Dr. Paynter, Dr. Dougherty... She's the best at UNT, hands down. And she'll be teaching in the fall!! I'm there!

This morning I went mudding!! I made a royal mess of everything but it was damn damn fun! My bike is covered with mud dabs.

Yesterday I picked up this girl named Kimberly Gay. She's a Journalism major at TWU. This was the most enthusiastic and upbeat person I may have ever met. She had just won an internship in Washington, D.C., which she couldn't stop talking about. I imagine she'll go very very far on the strength of her personality. At first blush, it might've sounded like she was really full of herself, but that was totally beside the point with her. Anyway, got her "TWU Leadership Conference" business card with her email address, so I think I'll send her a message.

Last Friday I picked up this runty guy in Flower Mound. He was about 4'11" and would barely stop talking long enough for me to say "uh huh". He just kept going on and on about Cadillacs and his little internet business enterprise. My bullshit sensors were pinging, as he said he'd owned 7 Cadillacs. Anyways, the funny part was we had another pick up. It was an older black guy in Carrollton. And it just so happened he was a Cadillac enthusiast as well. So this tiny high-pitched voice gay guy and this 70 year old man are swapping stories about various Cadillacs like they've known each other for years and I'm just trying to be the silent cabby behind my sunglasses. It's fun to watch fanatics go at it, no matter what the subject (although Cadillacs would never have crossed my mind as a topic of choice).

I think I'm going to take the NX250 to Denton. It needs brake work again, but the insurance on it is EVEN LOWER. Still need gear of course. Here are some performance stats on it:

0-60: 6.25 seconds (a little slower than a Porsche Boxster)
0-80: 14.6 (about as fast as your average midsize Japanese family sedan)
quarter mile: 15.2 @ 81.9 mph (about as quick as a '99 Mustang GT V-8 in time)
45-70, 6th gear: 11.6 seconds
45-70, 5th gear: 8.3 seconds
45-70, 4th gear: 6.6 seconds (don't know if it can reach 70 in 3rd, but you could certainly cut the time even more by starting in 3rd and going to 4th)
top speed: 89 mph (95 indicated)
gas mileage: 80 mpg
weight: 289 lbs wet/full tank
power to weight: 22.51 (bike's max wet weight + 170 pound rider divided by measured peak HP)
liquid cooled, can go off-road, has a range of 160 miles, sounds very nice, a very personal rumble that won't upset the neighbors (unlike my 454, which can wake up the neighbors down the street just in the driveway, and that's before I open up the baffles a little for more sound) (but the NX is a little too quiet for comfort; I want the cars to hear me)

The only picture I have currently is this, which shows the NX in white behind my 454 (back when I had the seat back, the rear fender, the windshield, the chrome side covers, the highway bar, etc.) in the garage. Here is an NX250 which has had some mods made to it. People liked them better than the NX125 and NX650 because they had liquid-cooling and DOHC cam engines as opposed to oil cooling and SOHC on the other two. The weight and power to weight was just about right on the 250, people figured.

So the performance is quite nice up to 60 mph, acceptable up to 70, and the 70-80 thing takes quite a while, and getting to the tucked top speed of 89 requires some time. It handles very well (although I'm not crazy about the knobby tires). No sportbike handling, but it's tossable. I think it's a great little Denton runabout that I can even commute on (service roads?). And I can take it out on the dirt! And getting 70-80 mpg is real nice (and it takes regular, another plus). I won't win many races on the highway, but stoplight to stoplight there shouldn't be much that can touch it, and it should handle the twisty roads quite nicely thank you.

Anyways, I'd love to have both of them and the two cars, all 4 running so that I have a large choice as to what to ride or drive each day. I can keep the vehicles in good shape by not putting too many miles on them, and when one is broken, three others are waiting. Just a thought. We'll see what happens.

If it were truly mine, I'd remove the luggage rack, chop the rear fender, tighten the suspension, put on a BS Battlax street tire on the rear, a Continental Blitz tire for the front, take off the rear footpegs, trim various small bits, remove the decals, and open up the exhaust a little. Screamin'!