motociclista

Yeah, well as I recall last year it felt damn near cold enough to snow and it rained on us the last five miles, so apparently those rules are flexible. Then there was the Holstein rodeo portion of last year's ride:

I didn't know Larry real well, but I took his course once and wrote an article about it and then we traded e-mails and such afterwards until the evening he died in Texas. I still have the last e-mail he sent me, telling me about how he was buying this old police bike in California and riding it back to Pittsburgh. He was really excited about the trip. He always said the one thing more likely to kill him than a left-turning car was a deer, because the deer were harder to predict. I rode in the motorcycle procession at his funeral. He was a great teacher and a hyper aware rider, which just goes to show it can happen to anyone. I saw on the other forum you're back in the Versys business. I like my Versys, but in this case I was glad I was on the sportbike. The difference in brakes would have probably meant I'd have got to the deer a split second sooner and hit its body instead of grazing it. That would have meant damage, at least. Just lucky.

That's great. Enjoy the opportunity and milk it for all it's worth. I loved the years I lived in the tropics.

There are good training courses available, both street-based and track-based. I've taken a few over the years and all were good, but none are cheap if you're paying full price. it's just hard for the good courses to be cheap when they usually have maybe three students per instructor. MSF Experienced Rider Course is probably the least costly option. Just be careful who you take advice from. There's plenty of misinformation out there. Plus, the best rider isn't necessarily the best teacher. Being able to explain the right techniques is a different skill from using them.

I took a ride down to West Virginia today to see family. I'm riding my Triumph Daytona 675, fortunately, which has great brakes and Dunlop Q2s in good condition. I'm on 328 just south of the intersection with 56 in Hocking County. That section of the road has been paved recently, so no bumps, lots of traction, it's midday, weather's perfect, no traffic. In other words, ideal conditions. I come around a corner and see two young deer standing in the other lane. As soon as I see them, I'm on the brakes hard, wondering what they'll do. One decides to jog slowly left. The other decides to run at top speed to the right, across my path. He's doing that cartoon animal running in place thing, scrabbling for traction on the asphalt. I'm slowed way down but not stopped, and I hear the thump and feel the bump as the fairing or front fender hits his right rear leg. He bounds off into the woods and I pull over into a driveway to get off the road. I'm expecting to see a cracked front fender, or worse, a cracked fairing. I check the bike over and I can't find anything. Not even a scratch. Not even a hair off the deer's rump. I start to get back and the bike and ride off, but I can't believe it. I must have missed something. So I walk all the way around the bike again. Nothing. I'd like to say my great riding skills saved the day, but about all I can say on my behalf is that I did a good job of braking on a very capable bike under perfect conditions. I didn't even have time to begin a swerve. Maybe Marc Marquez could have swerved in that second, while braking, but not this guy. So I got lucky, basically. Just a fraction of a second delay, or less braking effectiveness, like on most any other bike I have owned, and I would have hit him in the body, not grazed his rump, and the damage would have been significant. I know, I know, photos or it didn't happen. Unfortunately, I didn't have a video camera on the bike. I just hope hope he learned a valuable lesson about hanging out in the road and sportbikes. Maybe he'll stay in the woods from now on.

I don't understand motorcycle dealerships. It's like a friend of mine was telling me not too long ago. He took his car in for service and was told exactly when his appointment would be, exactly when the work would be done, they gave him a ride to work and when he got his car back, on time, it had been washed free of charge. Not long after that he took his motorcycle in for service. The dealer had no idea when they'd get to it, and when they did give an estimate they didn't keep to it, and when he got his bike back it was covered with greasy handprints. Sadly, that seems to be common. I can't think of any business I interact with where I'm more likely to get either poor or indifferent service or have to deal with a problem or mistake. Not every experience is bad, but an unusual number of them are unsatisfactory.

I don't have the sort of lens one needs to get good photos, but I posted a few of my inferior shots, if anyone wants to see them.

Scruit, Well-told tale. Under your rights, you are presumed innocent of plagiarism unless proven guilty. As for that killer squirrel story that widely made the rounds a few years back, I never understood why some people thought it was hilarious.

If this press release (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Aug/130812a11.htm) is any indication (and I hope it's not), the switch from Speed to Fox Sports 1 is not going to be kind to motorcycle racing. The press release states, among other things: Ben Spies has been out of competition due to an elbow injury (ironic for "Elbowz")Ben Spies is from TennesseeSpies and Colin Edwards will be the two American riders at Indy this weekend, since Nicky Hayden lost his ride with DucatiDucati is spelled "Ducatti"

Interesting. I'm surprised by how many crashes happened on the city streets right next to me.

I have two Triumphs, but neither is a 1050, so I don't have direct experience. But my older Triumph has 92,000 miles on it and has never had a major problem. The two people I know who had Tiger 1050s had no issues and the bikes stood up to some abuse. In my opinion (I'm not a mechanic), those three-cylinder engines of that era are overbuilt. I wouldn't worry much about mileage, low or high. On my older Triumph, I soon found that the 12,000-mile valve interval was overly conservative. They never needed adjustment that often. I understand your dilemma. The Gold Wing is nice, but I would never choose it for a one-up tour. And less so if I lived on a gravel road. The Explorer is a good bike and it has the shaft drive you want, but only you can decide if it's worth the extra money to you. That's a personal decision based largely on finances. Ordinarily I would say keep the Wing and add the cheaper used Tiger, on the belief that two complementary bikes are always better than one more expensive one. But since you're only riding 3,000 miles or so a year, that would be pretty low mileage split between two bikes and probably would not feel satisfactory to you. I guess in all that the only useful thing I have to add is don't be afraid of the Tiger 1050.

Here's one experienced rider who can and has pulled it off safely and would do it for sure. As for experience, I've probably ridden more miles on more different bikes in more places in the world than all but a few here, and for eight years I lived in Puerto Rico, lane-splitting every day. I rode more than 50,000 miles on that little island and never owned a car, so I could easily have lane split a couple thousand miles due to the congestion in urban areas. Never had a problem because everyone in cars knew to expect it. So that's my experience based on thousands of miles and several years riding in a lane-splitting environment. How much experience is your opinion that it's dangerous based on?

Well, my favorite roads are all in the very eastern part of the state, probably too far for the amount of time you have: U.S. 33 from Judy Gap into Virginia and U.S. 250 parallel to it further south, 39 around Marlinton to the Va. line further south yet, 42 south from Mt. Storm, even that section of U.S. 50 along there, and all the roads that connect them. Can't go wrong anywhere around there. Ride up to Spruce Knob, highest point in the state, for some good views. The road is now paved all the way to the top. You can't go wrong with the route Bliz suggested, and if you want to extend it, you can reverse it and go south on 16 down to the Hawks Nest S.P./ New River Gorge area. I have had a far different experience from Tonik on the section of 250 he mentioned. Every time I've been on it I've been behind a parade of four or five slow-moving pickup trucks driven by farmers who are clearly going to live to be at least 175 years old and thus have no sense of urgency.

I had a garage built on our property six years ago by Wooddell Builders. They're based in Westerville. If you don't want to try to do part of it yourself, he's a good choice. Very professional, laid out all my options and the costs, got it done on time, didn't leave a mess, etc.He took care of all the permits, too. Phone is 614.891.8477. I haven't had a single complaint or problem. Probably not your cheapest option, but maybe the easiest.

It's a parade across Ohio as they head for California.

My first bike was exactly the same bike, except in blue. I don't mind no longer having it.

The Iron Butt Rally starts and ends just outside Pittsburgh this year, and since I know one guy who's riding in it and had written about another who's in it (but I hadn't met him in person yet), I went over to see the start. I've always followed it from afar in the past. I posted a report and some photos if anyone wants to see them. It's fun watching them scatter all over the eastern part of the continent on SpotWalla.

Tire service has been available every time I've been there in recent years.

Well now that you survived all that, you need to clean out your messages if you ever want to receive PMs again.

Ah, yes, three bikes I've either seriously considered buying or I've bought something very similar. You, sir, are clearly a man of impeccable taste. My $0.02: In my experience, the 955 engine is underrated. My Speed Triple has 92k on it and is now in semi-retirement, has needed basically no work at all and I'm a lousy mechanic, so no credit goes to me. Just ask anyone who knows me. So clearly it lasts and it's a fun and torquey motor. Very nearly pulled the trigger on both an FZ1 and a ZRX and rode lots of miles on borrowed versions of both. I might give the ZRX a slight nod for 2-up riding, but you can't go wrong with a gen-one FZ1. I am a little less enamored of the Bandit. I did a 1,000-mile day on one once and my opinion is probably colored by the fact that I was riding one of the infamous early oil-burning models. Really, the ONLY hesitation I'd have about the Sprint, for your purposes, is 2-up comfort.

Sign up now, because who knows how long Motorcyclist will be around. The company that owns Cycle World bought Motorcyclist, Sport Rider and others. One way to get rid of competition in a crowded market is to buy them and shut them down...

Just a little article I wrote for Accelerate magazine on the Portsmouth murals and local "cycling" club.

That's the way I did it. One day non-stop around Lake Erie on a 125cc tiddler in the spirit of friendly competition. It was its own unique kind of fun. Frankly, for just taking a ride, I can think of about a thousand places in the U.S. and Canada that would be more interesting and fun than crossing northern Ohio and southern Ontario. JMO.

Yeah, I generally find that 650cc is plenty for powering through those 15mph rides. A pleasant sunny day ride where nothing goes wrong is fun, but it's the foggy, dark, deserted, snowy, breakdown rides that are most remembered. As long as you survive them. Both my foul weather waterproof motorcycle gloves (lightly insulated and heavily insulated) have the squeegee on the left glove. Works well. So you don't necessarily have to do it yourself.

I don't really know how long it will go on a charge. The Razor web site says 40 minutes of continuous use, but it seems like TwiztedRabbit has better results. Also, like he says, the suspension works surprisingly well for what's basically a toy. On the positive side, no oil to change, no carb to get gunked up over the winter, etc...