This is a Kawasaki Ninja 250 that HapaD mentioned in his comments to the post about the Hyosung Comet 250.

I’ve heard mostly bad things about this bike (The Comet) stateside. People purchase it with vital components missing, it gives a lot of false neutrals and is a little heavy for a 250. ninja is the way to go. Can’t argue with the time tested kawi enjine.

From a quick look at the specs, both bikes are about the same weight 165KG for the Ninja to 150KG for the Comet. However the Ninja has a quite bit more grunt with 32.5 BHP compared to 27 BHP for the Comet.

Specs below are for the US version which will be slightly different to that in New Zealand.

This bike in the picture was parked a few streets down from where I work.

Specifications

Engine Type: 4-Stroke, Liquid-Cooled, DOHC, 4 Valve Cylinder Head, Parallel Twin
Displacement: 248 cc
Bore & Stroke: 62.0 x 41.2 mm
Maximum Torque: 18.1 lb-ft @ 10,000 rpm
Compression Ratio: 12.4:1
Carburetor: Keihin CVK30 x 2
Ignition: TCBI with Digital Advance
Transmission: 6-Speed
Final Drive: O-Ring Chain
Rake/Trail: 27°/3.3 in.
Front Wheel Travel: 5.5 in.
Rear Wheel Travel: 5.1 in.
Front Tire Size: 100/80-16
Rear Tire Size: 130/80-16
Wheelbase: 55.1 in.
Front Suspension: 36mm Hydraulic Telescopic Fork
Rear Suspension: Uni-Trak with Aluminum Linkage
Front Brake Type: Single 260mm Disc with 2-Piston Caliper
Rear Brake Type: Single 230mm Disc with 2-Piston Caliper
Fuel Tank Capacity: 4.8 gal.
Seat Height: 29.3 in.
Dry Weight: 304 lb.

Here’s how we found it …….

A little while back the page rank on one of our sites was reduced from 4 to 3. Not a huge deal as did not seem that SERPs were affected.

We had hoped the PR would move up to 5 because of all the new links we had garnered, but perhaps we’d lost some also. Or perhaps we’d been penalized along with a number of other sites who saw an artifical drop.

There was no way to tell and no point in losing too much sleep over it.

Some time after, our article directory, was shut down by the hosting company for using too much MSQL resources.

To ensure we made best use of the article directory traffic while we found another host and article directory script, we redirected the article directory traffic (using a 301 redirect) to that of the site above.

About a month went by. In that time we found a suitable host & fired up the new article directory script.

When we checked the PR of the Article directory, it was showing as PR4. Furthermore the Google back links for the article directory were the same as for the other site.

A couple of online PR checkers showed the PR of the article directory to be fake.

Hmmm – may have found something here.

Maybe the PR shown on the pagerank servers is different to that shown internally within Googles systems. That might explain why SERPS don’t seem to be affected on penalized sites.

So it came to pass, Brian’s home grown method to measure the page rank penalty for a site.

• Grab an unused domain. Preferably with zero PR.
• 301 redirect that domain to the site you wish to do a penalty check.
• Wait until all the backlinks in the penalized site are the same as those for the redirected site.
• Wait for the next PR update.
• Check the two PR’s, the difference is your penalty.

Would be interested in your thoughts. Is this co-incidence or can this test be reliably be applied to other sites ?

Hyosung Comet 250. Here we go another bike which looks great. Its another Hyosung too. This photo was taken in Tauranga, New Zealand, when we took the kids for a walk along the beach.

I think its a Hyosung Comet 250 probably 2003.

Specifications shown below:

Its been a while (8 years) since Robyn and I have been mountain biking. While we did buy bikes for the boys, we have until now been without wheels.

Saw a good deal on some end of season Avanti Hammer Disc at the local Avanti dealer, so decided to take the plunge and get some wheels for both of us.

Compared to previous bikes we have owned, these are great to ride. The disk breaks, good quality gearing and lightweight components make it really easy to take on the hills.
I’ve added a few extra’s to the bike shown (mine). Added Keywin pedals. They can be used both with ordinary and SPD shoes. Also added climbing bars. Found these added significantly to comfort for road riding and made hill climbing a lot easier.

Here are the specs taken from the Avanti shop:

• Frame: ADT 7005 UL2 ASB Alloy
• Fork: Rock Shox Tora 318 Air, 100mm Travel w/ Motion Control
• Front Derailleur: Shimano LX
• Rear Derailleur: Shimano XT
• Brake Levers: LX Hydraulic Disc
• Shifters: Shimano LX Rapid Fire Plus 27 Speed w/ Shimano Outer Casing
• Crankset: Shimano FC-M540 Spline, 44/32/22
• Brakes: Shimano LX M585 Hydraulic Disc
• Hubs: Shimano LX M585 Disc Front and Rear
• Cassette: Shimano HG50 11-32T 9-Speed
• Handlebar: Easton EA30 Riser Bar 31.8mm
• Grips: Dual Density “Vice Grip”
• Handlebar Stem: Easton EA50 Forged 31.8mm
• Pedals: Shimano PD-M505 Clipless
• Rims/Wheel Set: Alex XD-Lite Double Wall
• Spokes: DT Stainless Steel
• Tyres: Kenda Nevegal 26 x 2.0
• Saddle: Zero Gamma-X
• Seat Post: Alloy Micro Adjust 31.6mm
• Bottom Bracket: Shimano ES25 Octalink Cartridge
• Headset: Zero Stack 1-1/8″ w/ Avanti Top Cap
• Chain: Shimano CN-HG53

Over the next few posts and thanks to to some magic from Google, I’ll show some of the local tracks.

Was looking at Amazon the other day and found the Garmin Nuvi 350 pocket vehicle navigator. Looks like a neat package.

It comes included with the usual street maps, a points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs etc.

You simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions.

It will announce the name of exits and streets so you never have to take your eyes off the road.

In addition, nüvi 350 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs.

The European version even includes a safety camera database containing the location of safety cameras for parts of Europe. Could do with one of these for New Zealand Too !

In the States you can avoid traffic jams with the addition of an optional FM TMC traffic receiver and traffic services. By adding these to your nüvi, you are notified of accidents or road construction ahead on your route. Simply touch the screen to view traffic details or recalculate your route to avoid traffic.

The device fits comfortably in your pocket or purse. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot.

And there is more. Its an MP3 player, audio book player , JPEG picture viewer, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more

This one hasn’t made it to New Zealand yet but hopefully it will be here soon.

photo credit: cgines

This post is an experiment to test the effectiveness of the eclectolink experiment over at Swollen Pickles .

The idea is one adapted from the successful Andy Coates Viralink experiment. This post on Andys site explains how Viralink can produce a very high number of links very quickly.

In this variation, instead of using asterisks, Swollen Pickles has chosen words for the links. This will give a better result as blogs will rate higher for their selected keyword as well as getting some page rank from the linking process.

Most of the words chosen will give good traffic volumes if your site rates highly for them.

The words were generated at random using an online random word generator. Hopefully this will encourage a wide range of websites to take part.

Participating is easy. Just follow the instructions below:

———copy and paste the Eclectolink and instructions below this line———

Below is a matrix of 100 randomly generated words, I have already added a link to my blog to one of the random words. All you need to do is copy and paste the matrix into your blog and add your own link to one of the other vacant words, and then tell others to do exactly the same!

ECLECTOLINK

dealt : grants : detected : rotating : finishes : expiring : obscure : films : land : grouped : swallowed : hey : activate : releasing : psychologist : selected : serious : forgiving : pacifier : alarmed : tracking : green : telling : unlimited : fitting : hammer : founds : engage : stretches : psychological : reliable : citizen : should : mileage : inferiority : appalling : midnight : shows : provides : sharing : instruct : waved : ride : migrated : country : drawings : uninteresting : quibble : consecutive : advertises: filming : method : premise : incentive : flips : designers : damned : regretting : coincidence : layers : immense : info : skills : definitions : mum : somewhere : atom : illustration : opened : thought : smoking : compiler : credits : liberties : mail : deductions : integrating : cap : collapse : consuming : dragon : elderly : declared : prohibited : forests : precisely : notifies : weakness : arrogant : difference : heel : everybody : pretty : bundle : accord : writings : wars : verb : factually : participates

Rules
No Porn Sites
Only 1 link per person
Please don’t tamper with other peoples url’s
Enjoy!

———copy and paste the Eclectolink and instructions above this line———

I’ll report back later on with results from the experiment.

Check-out this post over at Mashable . They have a range of ideas including online gift cards, scrap books, mum’s domain name, her web page, ecards and more.

Another option is to arrange for her favorite song to be setup as a ringtone on her cell. (your need to sneak her phone for a couple of minutes though !)

Just in case you want to be very sure not to miss Mother’s day next year, try using Google Calendar which allows you to enter an event (mother’s day) then have a reminder text sent to your phone a few days before.

Drove past this bike on the way to work and had to go back to get a picture.

I’m not normally a bike person but the lines and color on this beast are just beautiful.

Here are the specs: