Hours of Daylight – 15:40

Today’s the day… the summer solstice. We have over 15 hours of daylight to revel in today. Notice i hilighted the word daylight. It’s not 15 hours of illuminated sky, it’s 15 hours and 40 minutes of visible sun. The actual day lasts much longer. After today we begin the slide back into darkness. In six months we’ll see the daylight figure drop to a bit more than 8 hours.

In other news i rode the beast several times without incident over the weekend. I’ve found that earplugs make the experience much more enjoyable. Not unlike the CarTalk caller who claimed their car was lacking power when what they were really experiencing was a failing muffler (the increased noise gave them a false sense they were pushing the car and therefore they were pressing the gas pedal less and less), i’ve learned decreasing the wind noise makes for an all-around more pleasant riding experience.

The first gas mileage tests are in for the bike. Based on numbers i’ve pretty much kept in my head the first results are about 35.6 miles per gallon. Yes, yes i realize that number is very low, but there are mitigating circumstances. First, one of the design oddities of the bike is there is no center-stand, but the gas cap is centered on the tank. This means while the bike is leaned over on its side-stand you can never really fill the tank. Sorry, but were i to meet a Victory engineer at a gas station i’d feel the need to administer a dolt-slap. Because it’s impossible to actually fill the tank, getting exactly the right “replacement” amount of gas into the tank is sketchy at best. So, the amount burned vs. the amount replaced is imprecise. Second, i’m still learning how to ride this two wheeled monster. I’m going to guess i’m pretty sloppy and heavy-handed on the throttle. Third, i’ve limited my riding to nearly all city streets. There have been days where i’ve spent more time idling at stoplights than actually going. Even under the best conditions this would skew the fuel consumption to the “fat” end of the scale.