Old Car and Bike rambling

During the coldest days of the winter I discovered that I was not getting any heat on the driver's side of my car. At first I thought it was because my commute to work was too short to properly heat up the car until the day I drove my other car to work and had a toasty interior before I was 4 blocks away from my house. Most of the people complaining about a similar issue had dual climate but my car does not have it.  I found a video of someone who replaced his heater valve and it looked straight forward and cheap enough for me to go ahead and order the $22 part just so I can have some heat in case another cold spell came through before the end of winter. Here's a picture of the new valve installed on my car. It's located under the hood on the passenger side mounted to the firewall.  Replacement was about 30 minutes. Here's a few of my tips for free diagnosis so you don't need to buy a cheap replacement part if you come across the same issue. this valve ha...

My wife stood over me with her arms crossed as I stooped over the front wheel laying on the ground on a cold winter morning. her: "Don't you want to take that to a shop to do?" me: "Why?" This is my 2nd time replacing the tires on my motorcycle.  They are supposed to be replaced every 5 to 6 years whether or not the tires are worn due to hardening of the rubber significantly reducing grip. Unfortunately the hardening of the rubber also makes the tires much more difficult to remove. The first set of tires were 30 years old so I figured these would be comparatively much easier. Unfortunately, that didn't make the experience any better. Here's a few tips that seemed to work for me and a few other ones that I should have followed: things you'll need/want: 6-8ft long 2X4 1ft or less 2X4 2ft 4x4 or a bucket or something to set the wheel on right angle tire stem warm sunny day soapy water solution air compressor at least 2 of the longe...