A company run by engineers

From Engineers Rule

Honda has never had an unprofitable year. It has never had to lay off employees. In the fiscal year that ended in March, profit grew 12%, to $5.1 billion, on $84 billion in sales. In the U.S., which accounts for 43% of Honda's sales, vehicle sales are up 7% through July, even as the industry slipped 5%. The company sold more vehicles in July than one member of the old Big Three, the Chrysler Group.

...

Honda is using psychology to try to help mitigate a big safety problem for bikers: Drivers don't see them coming. It turns out that if the bike looks like an angry face, motorists take notice.

Adventures in Motocycle Riding

Jason did a pretty good job of summing up our motorcycle adventure this Sunday

Ford Explores Can't Tow Uhaul Trailers

This weekend finds me renting a Uhaul to pick up two motorcycles I found on craiglist.

If I may digress a moment, yes this does in fact make me a crazy motorcycle dude. This is based of a set of criteria derived from the crazy cat lady rule.

1 cat - nice kitty.
2 cats - nice kitties can play with each other.
3 cats - whoa, that is a lot of urine/hairballs/poo/fur.
4+ cats - you are a crazy cat lady (your gender doesn't matter).

I have made some serious efforts to maintain a limit of no more than three motorbikes at once. That will no longer be possible. So I give in, I'm the crazy motorcycle dude as this image suggests.


Back to the subject at hand, I'm renting a Uhaul to pick up two motorcycles.

And while perusing the FAQ page I found this little surprise under the Equipment section

Why can't I rent a certain piece of equipment?

...

Ford Explorer owners: U-Haul has chosen not to rent behind this tow vehicle based on our history of excessive costs in defending lawsuits involving Ford Explorer towing combinations. This policy is not related to safety issues. This is an unusual circumstance for U-Haul – we have built our success for over 59 years by saying "yes" to our customers, and do not like saying "no" instead. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and are committed to working with our customers to find alternative options to help with their move. Please contact 1-800-GO-UHAUL (1-800-468-4285) for assistance with alternative options.

That was a surprise!

Incidentally, I also learned that cars rented using credit cards are usually covered buy the CC's rental car insurance program, but those programs usually do NOT cover Uhaul, or any sort of pickup trucks. AMEX doesn't even cover full Size SUV's, and in any case you have to be the primary driver and us the CC to pay for the rental. They will, however, send you a proof of insurance for you to use at the car rental place, which is nice if you are like me and don't have car insurance.