Agent3012

My Vino 125 would likely be on the slow side compared to any 250s and up participating. I could always duct tape it to the side of my CB350F, but I suspect that would be cheating.

I had taken a few days off for a mid-week trip away from Cleveland to the more interesting southern Ohio roads. The tires on the 1978 Kawi KZ650 I had picked up in January were starting to wear thin, and I wanted to be able to take advantage of those twists and turns once I got down there. I reached out to Hoblick via these forums, and we found a set of Spitfire S11 sport touring tires that would work for my vintage bike. Shop Dog Cycles is a one-man affair, but owner Ryan puts great care in his work. An older bike like mine meant more work to pull 34 year old tech apart, but Ryan did so with patience and professionalism. You can tell Ryan loves motorcycle gear, because he was keen to show me some of the gear he had available that he thought I could make use of. I can see a few more orders on shopdogcycles.com in my future. I have to say, the back country riding with those new tires was certainly smoother, and I'm absolutely glad to have made the detour to Shop Dog Cycles!

Hah! I have a grey Vino 125, we should form a scooter gang and terrorize the neighborhood. Usually, I am on the lime green KZ650, though.

When looking for gear, I like to start with Revzilla and SportBikeTrackGear for their video overviews of many of their products. Both sites have a Summer 2012 gear video series up now.

Hello from Painesville!

I recall seeing a piece somewhere that noted that insurance rates can actually go down in states without a strict helmet law. The reason being that accidents without a helmet end up being cheaper for the insurance company as the chance of death is higher. A dead rider means no ongoing medical costs, and in most cases, there's no claim for repair or replacement of the bike by the family. Personally, after getting hit in the helmet by at least two rocks thrown up by traffic in front of me, a few nuts and berries falling from trees, and a plenty of large bugs this weekend, I have more than enough reason to keep wearing my helmet regardless.

Is the option of having reflective vinyl possible? Could be interesting for additional visibility on the bike or helmet.

A game I will play sometimes when the fair-weather Harley riders are out is to take my scoot onto the roads and give the dorkiest wave I can to see if they'll wave back.

My Interphone iPhone 4/4S kit arrived a few days ago, and I've been riding with it on my KZ650. Some impressions after some trips with it ... When I first took the kit out of the box, it looked kind of big, but when I put it on my bike, it fits the handlebars well. The only needed tool is a Phillips head screwdriver. The handlebar mount itself has an adjustable stalk that raises the phone about an inch and a half above, which helped keep it out of the way of cables and other obstructions. There is a tightening ring around the stalk that can easily be griped and hand-adjusted to lock the phone in whatever angle you need it to be to read. The case for the phone has a built-in screen protector in the flip down cover, as well as external button to hit the Home button. That makes it easy to hit when your iPhone has gone to sleep if you just want to quickly wake it up check the time. The other buttons have rubber extensions that allow you to control them (volume, power). There is a rubber stopper that protects the headphone port when not being used, and a window in the back for the camera. The flip down cover has latches that help lock the cover in place. That case can be easily removed off the mount, but not in a way that I was worried about it coming off while riding. The case itself is very large, larger than even a "rugged" case like an Otterbox. Much of this is to provide plenty of protection, and internally, there's a rather large rubber piect that encases all but the front of the phone. There is space to route a normal iPhone 4/4S charging cable, protecting it as well as the phone. That's a plus, because I quickly found that I actually started using my phone to help with my rides. It functions reasonably well as GPS with the right app, though you do need to turn your brightness up a bit when the sun is out. Even on a normal ride, the case helps with the Speedometer Pro app for all the info it provides. Now I can see just how off my speedometer can be. It's not as universal as some other solutions I've seen, but I'm happy with it on my ride.

I happened to stop into Iron Pony while visiting a friend in Columbus, and it was pretty eye-opening for me as well. I've only been riding a motorcycle for a year, so my experiences with motorcycle retail has been limited. However, I've grown disappointed at how many local shops in the northeast have a very (very) small selection of items, and are often do most of their sales as online middlemen for distributors. Now, if only they could open up a store in Cleveland ...

Even if you end up not needing the potential features the rumored iPad has, you'll be able to get much better deals from craigslist and ebay once the current owners start selling their iPad 2s and 1s to pay for the upgrade. Also, seconding any suggestions to check out Apple refurbished items. Repaired items go through a pretty strict quality control process that is, in many ways, more involved than the one new items go through. The external cases are often completely replaced, so other than the cardboard box not having the same full color photos, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, and you get the same warranty any new device has.