KoiHoshi

Ducky is on the road again.

2011-10-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

I remember when my buddy David told me after my clutch failure that my slave cyl would fail soon after.

It finally failed!

I replaced it with an Evoluzione slave cylinder. VERY cool engineering and actually has everything in it to prevent the exact failure I had (which is apparently common).

Felt good to get out and ride a lot lately. I think I need to visit the Aufderheide again before the season is over :)

Every year gets more and more difficult.

2010-06-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

Man. Every year gets harder for me. I remember when I first got into riding I was so enthusiastic. Then we lost Chris. I kept riding, it was hard. I remember at work I would talk to him in passing. He was the nicest guy on the planet and was new to riding. I was excited to teach him the ropes and go for a ride. He was excited too.

One day I get to work and it's just silent. Our president sent out a memorial email for him. His family made a website. Flyers went out. He died in a motorcycle crash. It was hard. At first, I was left with no emotion about it. I didn't know the guy to great extremes, I think it was a callous instinct kicking in.

I kept riding. I lost more friends. Over the years the tally adds up. I remember one kid in specific, Allen. He would be 18 a few days ago. He was 15 when he died in a motorcycle crash.

I remember the kid being so enthusiastic. He was so eager to learn. You could tell he was going to be a great rider. So much self preservation. A safe rider. Great kid and not a bitter bone in his body. Then out of nowhere.

I remember when my friend went down on the auferderheide. Right in front of me. I couldn't believe my eyes. I remember saying "FUCK" as he went off the road. So many things went through my mind - "Oh my god what if he's dead." "What will I do? We're in no where, with no cell service, what if he needs an ambulance." "This was a bad idea." "Shit!" and more "FUCK! NOT GOOD." Out of God's good grace... he got up. Shook himself off as I ran off my bike freaking out. He was okay. Bike banged up, but he was 100% fine. I was blown away. I thought I was going to lose another friend.

Every year more people die. I'm so sick of losing friends. Tonight, I was browsing through group rides on the 250 club and saw Allen's memorial day ride and his birthday was 2 days ago. I had forgot. I felt so bad. I couldn't handle it. For the first time in a very long time I broke down and cried over the whole ordeal. I suddenly remember all my friends who have died. People I've crossed paths with who aren't here. I cried. Even my wife was surprised, she came to talk to me.

Sometimes I don't know. I love riding. But what if next time it's me? What if some dumb bitch turns left in front of me and takes my life and my life affects others like these people affected mine.

Someday I will die. I understand this. Every time I get on my bike I realize I am amplifying that risk 100 fold. I sometimes wonder if it's selfish to do so. I love riding and it is addicting, but I realize it could take me from the ones I love in the blink of an eye. Sometimes I ask myself if it's really worth it. Yet I keep doing it.

I see my friends who have been riding since my age, they are great people. They love meeting riders. They are so selective of who they ride with. So callous to a degree. One day it sunk in. They've been riding that long? They are probably tired of dealing with death. It's hard. And you never know what will happen, there are no guarantees. I can't go on a ride and PROMISE myself or my wife I'll be back. Yet we both accept it. But every year I lose someone, it's that much harder.

I've slowed down so much. I ride like a grandpa. Justifiably so perhaps. Sometimes I wonder if I should put on the brakes and hang up the keys and just go enjoy my Porsches instead.

RIP to all my riding friends. Never forgotten. Always missed. Every year without you is another year I miss you. Those rides will never be the same.

Oh and the Ducati is back up.

2010-04-08T21:45:00.001-07:00

I am not sure if I posted, but she's repaired and back on her feet after a massive repair.

Ride the fuck on.

2010-04-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

I almost sold my bikes and bought a Porsche 930. Why? Because I'm sick of the stupid squids. I'm tired of the community falling apart. I am tired of being demotivated. I'm tired of watching every part of what I enjoyed about the motorcycle world going to shit.

When I first started riding I remember what it was like. My first few weeks were awkward. I eventually got comfy with things. Learned more. I went through my squid phase and thinking I was a badass. I had close calls, I eventually got wise and stopped riding like a bat out of hell when I almost ended up in a swather.

I remember riding with a bunch of ass hat retards who taught me bad habits. One day I'll never forget, I went to visit my wife at the time at work. I walked in and a guy that was about my dad's age saw me walk in with my gear on and said "Hey, you ride huh?" and we talked bikes.

He saw I was on a 250. At first, I was embarrassed, I thought, oh hell he's gonna think I'm an idiot. On the contrary he said I was smart for starting small, and invited me on a ride.

I remember the first ride I went on. The first real ride I went on. Here I am in a group of 3. My friend jeff, my buddy ken. Ken was riding his Ducati. I will never forget it, I couldn't even hear my own bike over his insane exhaust noise. It was the most heavenly noise I had ever heard. I remember looking at the bike, hearing the bike, riding with them and going "I'm going to get a Ducati."

It was also at that moment that I made the first damn good friends that I would make that really cared about riding. Ken and his wife, and my buddy jeff.

From that point on, I went on a lot of group rides. I soaked it in. I was a sponge. These guys were a pool of knowledge and I was so eager to get into learn more and more. I was so enthralled by riding, so excited, I started oo2w. I won't ever forget it, we had so many people. People joined from all over. Shared the same interests. People wanted to help each other learn. It was something that for the first time in my life I felt really really solid about, really good inside.

Over the years, I kept riding with my friends. I upgraded to a Ducati 900SS (which I still love) and I met a lot of great people.

Of the friends I've met. The friends I've lost. The friends I've kept. And those who have kept me.... Jeff, Karen and his wife stuck with me through the thick and thin. Like a second family.

Over the years it has declined, the community got smaller. The economy took a hit on our local legendary shops. Some moved to other states and cities. This year, one of my friend's local Ducati dealer is on it's way out the door in June. He is probably the best damn bike mechanic I've ever met. I've looked up to him so much. They're planning on moving, and I won't see them anymore.

My friend jeff stopped riding. More people quit. More shops close. It's come crashing down. Even bike forums are so empty. So desolate. And those that are active talk more about politics and bullshit, than about the sport.

Indeed. The community has changed. The vigor, so drained. The motivation, so low.

Today I spoke to a longterm friend I met. He married me and my last wife. He's always been there for me, always lent an ear and his words. He's quite the wild child, but has always been a good friend.

I said "I think I may wanna sell my bikes. Get a 930. I'm on the fence."

We talked and talked.... and talked some more. About my frustrations, my disappointment and he said:

"Some people ride because other people ride and then they quit. Others ride to be cool. Other people ride because they think it's not risky and they're good at it. But I ride because I just enjoy riding. Every time I leather up I do it because I enjoy it. I can invite as many people on a ride but I expect no one to show up, and that's fine. I will still always ride for myself."

I looked back. Thought about it hard. I remember the first time I got on my Kawasaki Enduro and blasted through the street on my 2 stroke. I remember harassing my neighbors with the crazy noise. Maxing it out to it's whopping 50mph. Doing it with a smile on my face. Going through the banks and ditches with it. Enjoying the open road and going "I'm gonna get a real bike." and got my 250. I will never forget those first days on my 250. Riding by myself on the road, out and about, road to myself. Those twisties, those canyon roads. It brings me to a place of peace and self consolation. There's something to be said about a man and his car and how he's a part of it. It's another to be part of your bike, and the feeling you get moving through the road. It's something that has become a part of me. It can never be replaced.

Indeed. I ride because I enjoy it. To my friend who brought me back to realizing that.... thank you.

As to those who just don't get it and don't care...

Damnit, Ducati!

2009-09-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

On vacation, i noticed towards the end of the ride I was feeling a bit of a power slag. I figured hey i'm on a dusty road, probably clogging up the air filter, no whoop i'll clean it when i get home.

So i'm cleaning the porsche and rebuilding and refinishing the axle and forgot some stuff. I thought "Well hell, the 250 is behind the car, can't move it, guess i'll suit up and take the ducati." I go get the car parts, take off from a light at the way back and when going into second the clutch lever suddenly was frozen.

After gripping it with the strength of 10,000 nerds, finally a tiny squeeze and hint of clutch was there and i limped it home, only using the clutch if i had to, as it was slipping if i grabbed it.

After inspecting the issue, apparently the vast majority of the clutch hub bearings went out and were chewed up into duck crisp cereal, part of a ducati dry clutch well balanced breakfast. Wonderful hints of metallic glitter all over my pressure plate, and chewed up teeth. What a fabulous sight for sore eyes.

Needless to say, I'm disheartened and frustrated at such a huge failure as this is going to not only be costly, but has decreased my confidence in Ducati parts. The bike has less than 17k miles, and is now sitting with a wonderful clutch failure.

Ducati, I'm disappointed.

How do you explain how it changes...

2009-09-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

I remember when I first started riding. I thought I was fast. I wanted to be fast.

I wanted to impress people. I wanted to be expert. I tried and tried to become so good at it, and do it so fast, and started learning and my friends would say "You're getting so fast! You're getting there!"

Years pass. I've been riding now since I was 18. Since I got my 250.

With miles under the belt and lots of roads ridden, time after time... I find myself slowing down. How is this? Perhaps it's part of growing up and maturing. Perhaps it was the freaky close call with a swather when i was 18. Perhaps it was the lady who almost side swiped me. Perhaps it was the time I almost hurt myself going too fast.

No. It wasn't the close calls.

There's something else....

I wanted to post this with the information first about what I learned, and my vacation next. You see, I went on vacation with all my friends. We usually do it once a year, I missed it last year. But this year was different. This year I spent most my summer riding on my own. Pushing my bike a bit more to where I felt comfortable and getting used to the Ducati more. As I got there I found myself surrounded by all my old friends becoming NEW riders, looking up to me, asking me for advice and I realized that I had slowly become a rider that stopped worrying about being fast, and worrying about being just overall a good rider.

And a good rider doesn't mean fast... but it means safe. Self preserving. Preserving of other riders. Giving safe (sane) advice, and wanting to see other riders enjoy the experience.

This whole time as I grew up I just wanted to be fast. Then I found myself surrounded by an entire COMMUNITY. A family, if you will... of riders, people who share something in common. yes it's dangerous, yes sometimes it's even crazy, and the cagers are all out to get us, but the important thing is that many riders stick together. And the friends you meet and the people you meet and the experience and lifestyle behind it is all it's own. I found myself sitting down at this campfire on vacation and going "Wow.. you know.. I know these guys, most of them, but only know maybe FIVE really well, and out of those I can guarantee they'd be there for me on a spot. I can trust them. Ride with them. Enjoy their friendship. It feels like more than just riding buddies, it's like a family. And we all just enjoy the pace, the experience, our company and more."

Suddenly I took a step back after speaking with one of my good friends after a crash we had, and new things started blowing my mind in perspective.

It does not matter how fast you are on the street. At the end of the day you're still on 2 wheels. At the end of the day you're still riding with friends. And at the end of the day if you spend the ride riding a pace that belongs where it should, you'll live to ride another day. The experience itself can last a long time, or a lifetime (granted a cager doesn't take you out). I've learned to slow down and savor the ride, enjoy it and learn to be a smoother, safer, better rider (doesn't mean you can't have fun).

It was interesting to see my attitude looking back in time. And looking to myself of who I am now. And how much I've grown into riding, the miles I've logged. The roads I've hit. And the places I've gone.

The best part is not the miles I've logged, but the people I've had the pleasure of following, leading, and enjoying the ride with along the way. I guess then it's safe to say that riding is a life experience that you cannot explain to someone else. This is why we say "If I had to explain it, you wouldn't understand." and therefore is easier to explain that riders enjoy the company because in a way, sharing the life experience of riding with others, is like sharing the road of life with those that are the kindred spirit of riding.

At least that's my $.02. Perhaps it sounds cheesy, perhaps it sounds touchy feely and emotional. But it is. And I'm fine with saying it.

Knees - Ouch.

2009-06-27T10:04:00.001-07:00

Well, it's getting to the point where riding is pretty painful. Even if i work out. Even if i stretch. Even if i take it easy, my knees kill me. I guess all those years of street skating and snowboarding and skateboarding took their toll :-/ bit of a bummer, i'm only 23, gonna be 24 next month and I feel like I have the knees of an 80 year old man. Hindsight is 20/20 - kids, if your dad ever says "You're gonna kill your knees doing those sports" and the doctor even says "Son, you're gonna kill your knees." It's probably true.

Got to ride to work today and after that it's mostly painful to walk around. Thank god I work at a desk.

Kind of a bummer, years down the road i'll be saying "I've beenr riding for x years." and be in pain the whole time i do it. Oh well, the things we do and love.

On a positive side i think i must have done the wave almost 20 times on the way to work, TONS of bikes out today, BEAUTIFUL day. My coworker is looking to get a bike, 250 ninja, smart man to start out small like that.

Ah sweet sweet riding.

2009-06-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

So at a local car club, I met a fellow and we got talking cars. We talked a bit about his GTR and then got talking bikes, found out the guy rode.

Well, we end up planning a ride and headed out on my favorite nameless road. He brought his cruiser along and was keeping right up at a decent pace. Had a lot of fun.

All in all the GPS said about 100 miles. Great ride for the day, not bad at all and my god did it feel good to get out. I get home and my knees hurt, arms hurt, legs hurt, back hurts... it's that great hurt like "OW my freaking BODY, that was awesome!" kind of feelings you get when you just had a blast.

Is it bad that sometimes it sickens me?

2009-06-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

I've been riding off and on now this year a bit. The motorcycle community is getting bigger and bigger. As I'm going through it, reading forums on sites i normally frequent i'm seeing more squiddlies, more acts of hoodlums doing stupid crap and people doing random bs that doesn't promote the lifestyle, hobby and habits of good motorcycling.

Most my good riding buddies have moved away. My interest in the community remains. But sometimes some of the new population have made me go "ehhhh... seriously?" perhaps this is why i ride alone a lot now. :-/

this weather is crap!

2009-02-21T01:47:00.001-08:00

Not only is it crap from not riding but i can't drive the porsche either.

Posted from a bulletin...

_________________________________
So the weather is kind of poking it's head out. It was nice today, and then freezing cold tonight. Wishing i had rode, sort of glad i didn't.

Talk about withdrawls, my fiance caught me waking up twisting my wrist like i was using the throttle of my bike the other night from a dream. You know you want to ride bad when you dream about riding and you're emulating the throttle and clutch movements with your hands and catch yourself doing it when you wake up. I was telling her today "I had this kickass dream i was tearing up the twisties on my favorite road on my 250 after flipping a coin on whether to ride the ducky or ninja." and she said "Oh so THAT's what you were doing. You looked hilarious flipped over on your side twisting your wrist holding your hands like you were doing something weird.
"

I wonder if i looked half retarded doing it?

Then you have to ask yourself why you need it so bad....

Then you realize you don't care and you just want to ride.

And the season begins!

2009-01-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

Finally,

New oil, clutch lever and battery for the Ducati. Plans for track days this summer with a good friend of mine and a lot of riding planned.

This season is finally starting! Once it warms up, I'm hitting the road!

Been a fuckin' while eh?

2008-09-06T10:25:00.002-07:00

Been a long while. I've had very little time to post on here.

Don't you think for a minute that I've left, gone, or forgot about this blog. If you think riding has diminished, you're sadly mistaken. I'll be posting more as I get a chance to ride here and there.

The cafe project is coming right along, I'm riding now and then. However, I've mostly been concentrating on my Porsche. See my updated links list for more info.

Best ride of the season, ever!

2008-09-06T10:25:00.001-07:00

I've been couped up in the office for seemingly forever.

Due to the holiday i was in overtime as i didn't work monday (never do) so my normal schedule got me in over hours. My boss said i needed to offset the hours but we were too busy. I got all my work caught up and asked to take off early yesterday and amazingly he said yes!

I had rode to work so I took off.

Unfortunately, my oil light came on just as I was heading out the parking lot and got on it. I was immediately faced with a :( :( :( :( on my face. The ticking on the valve train still bothered me as I figured it was just on the looser side of things (much like the 250) but wanted a second opinion...

Off to the Ducati dealership I went. Handed the keys to one of the mechanics and asked if he could ride it and give a second opinion (these are really the only people i'm willing to hand my keys over to). He came back and said the ticking was normal and i'm just not used to the desmodue (remember that i bought this bike at a point where i had no idea what maintenance was done) and the noisy valvetrain, assured me it was fine (second person to say that).

Turns out the oil light was the oil pressure sensor having corrosion... same thing that caused the death of my turn signal flasher (this bike apparently was either owned in the valley at some point, or the coast). got it fixed, worked fine.

FINALLY... with everything out of the way I took off. I decided to keep my backback on and my work phone and say "SCREW IT! We're hitting the mountain!"

I headed out of town and hit the backroad twisties and on my way ended up passing a guy in a bmw who was really chugging right along... (that comes into play later) but thought nothing of it and kept going. 13 miles of twisties later i'm in town... unfortunately it's hunting season here and i hit a roadblock of campers coming down the hill heading into town. No openings, no chance to fit in. Up along side me comes the BMW guy with his left turn signal on. My thought was "WTF? I'm turning left... what a dick." and he rolls down the window. I'm thinking "Uh oh..." and he first kind of looks mad and says "You were driving WAY too fast man!" and i said "Eh, sorry about that!" and he smiled and lit a cigarette and said "Yeah that's ok I'd do the same thing if my car were that fast, besides, that's a gorgeous bike, enjoy it!" i said "Hey thank you! Nice BMW!" and then he told me to go ahead. So we waited for like another awkward 5 minutes.... and finally got into traffic.

I passed my way through town and headed out to my favorite road. Normally there is gravel, trees in the middle of the road, sometimes boulders and huge rocks, and dirt... but on the way up, there was none of that... apparently the road had been entirely cleaned off for the hunters. I stayed pretty conservative until halfway up which is where it usually transitions into garbage... and my favorite twisties came up, CLEAN ROAD! I started dipping right in and having a blast. No traffic, no gravel, no trees, no rocks, clean road... twisties, CLEAN ROAD! TWISTIES! CLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN FUCKING ROAAAAAAAAAAAAD!

Almost 30 miles up the mountain later I could feel my knees starting to bother me. The amount of fun I was having, plus the amount of focus and i'm going to assume adrenaline from not having ridden in a while and being in a state of having so much thrill really seemed to make it feel minimal. Back down the mountain I was REALLY starting to feel it. By the time I got home and hopped off the bike, it nailed me and I could BARELY wheel the sucker into the garage.

One hell of a ride. Not once in my entire LIFE has that road EVER been clean the whole way up.

If a perfect ride consisted of miles of twisties, a clean road, mountain twisties, and no traffic (ok maybe 1 or 2 hunters on the way up).... THAT.... was the perfect ride.

Now I'm really sore today but look back going "WHOOOHOOOO!"

Bike night and fuckin' bees.

2008-06-13T19:18:00.001-07:00

too tired to post a long entry. Bike night was great. Lots of bikes.

Had a tamale, hung out with some fellow bikers, went on a ride, chilled at my buddy's house then we rode today.

Then on our ride I got stung 7 times by a wasp that got stuck in my suit, FUN!

The rest of the ride was insanely awesome though. Miles and miles of twisties, we took my favorite road.

Pic at the end of the road.

My 100th entry. What a long day, but AWESOME!

2008-06-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Today was packed with projects. Got woke up by my buddy Brian to help him with his chopper project. I know how to do wiring to an extent, and I understand it for the most part but he is way better than me with it. I can solder, shrink wrap, tap into and run wires easy... he on the other hand understands timing advance and ignition and all the shit that you really NEED to know.

So I tell him a few days ago "If you need help with your bike, let me know. I'll help you out if you can help me learn this shit." so he wakes me up this morning knowing damned well I'm gonna sleep in and goes "Hey, i'm got some awesome fucking coffee brewing, you gonna get your ass over here and wire this bike or what?" HAHA!

So I get my ass up and go help him.

By the end of the day I've entirely wired this customer harley sporster chopper project bike of his and he's helped me immensely in understanding it.

We get that done and then he brings his dad's bike over and we work on the carbs on it because they weren't working on them. Whamo! Nother project. We got on that and I left after a while because I was beat tired (but him and his dad got them going).

I get home and worked on my bikes a bit and settled down with some rum.

My buddy chris came over to drop off my tools he borrowed (he upgraded his forks and put them back on today) and we took some pictures of all the bikes. Him and some buddies rode up and we had some fun with my Canon camera.

Got some updates on the site. Hoping the enthusiasm of bike night is enough tomorrow for a good turnout. I'm enjoying meeting so many local bikers lately. It's been a truly awesome experience lately. I just want my fucking cafe racer finished.

What's that smell?

2008-06-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

I can still smell burnt plastic in my nose from my dremel wheel :(

I think the grossest thing that has happened was when a nice flaming hot chunk of melted plastic flew into my mouth as I gave a grinning frown of displeasure as it was hitting my face. Only to scream "AH son of a bitch!" and spit it out.

Nasty.

Nice scoot on the backroads and a nice big project.

2008-06-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

So we finished my friend's clipons for his seca ii. On top of that he recently had it repainted.

We spent 3 hours (no joke) cutting up his bike to make things fit and customize it to his size. I admire someone who wants to make something "theirs" and isn't afraid to cut things up and modify them to make them one of a kind, and we definitely accomplished that.

Seca II Before:

Our project..

Positioning the clipons.

Done!

Cafe racer: Part..... I fuckin' lost count.

2008-05-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

Progress has been made!

See the progress of my ongoing cafe racer.

Click here to go check it out and remember the latest progress is always the last post.

If you're new to seeing this project and are feeling adventurous check out the progress from start to finish.

Tonight was one hell of a good amount of progress.

Been a while. But... the Cafe Racer is still going!

2008-05-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

last night i stripped the bars off the bike. Cleaned up the bolts that hold it on, found out i had welds on the stock bars that were CRACKED! Thank GOD it's only been up and down the driveway.

Most the stock wiring is stale, crappy, worn, and hell I just don't understand it. This isn't going to really be a Honda when it's done. But rather, it's going to be a frame with a CB360 motor that's got a lot of donor parts and custom work and my own god damned wiring. If you don't get the wiring diagram, say fuck it, start over and make your own!

Besides... I don't feel like digging for one and definitely don't feel like dealing with all the bullshit of having wires corrode and turn to shit 1000 miles after I'm done with it.

Sticky throttle.

2008-05-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

I noticed yesterday AND today my throttle is sticky if I don't "assist" in backing it off. Needs fixed, ASAP. Surprised me a bit. I think it's time to lube it up a bit lol.

Best sticker. Ever

2008-05-22T16:22:00.001-07:00

Need one of these to slap on my helmet!

My first and LAST time being a squid.

2008-05-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

SO a sonic just opened up literally a few days ago. At my work place we have a little industrial "drive-area" kind of like a private driveway up to our business and sonic is literally like 50ft away. I had a 15 minute break so i rode down there with just my helmet (going a whole 3-5mph) and plopped myself at one of the booths. The guy goes "What would you like?" and I go "What can I take with me?" he said "ANYTHING!" so I ordered a sonic burger.

The girl on rollerskates rolls up and kind of stops for a minute and i go "HEY! sweet my burger!" and she goes "Hmm, yeah, no one has shown up here on a bike yet... well... not in the booth or drivethru." and asks where i'm going to eat it. I took the bag and plopped it into my backpack and said "When i get back to work down the driveway (pointed to my work)" and she just laughed.

Squidly :P

I gotta tell ya. Riding like a squid is scary. Even at 3-5mph. To be honest, I'm not sure how these guys ride in sandals, a corona shirt and shorts. The thought of eating it on dry pavement with no gear made me cringe. Granted I'm a full believer in ATGATT (All the gear all the time) I was pressed for time. I know... I know.... PUT THAT SUIT ON. But... I was hungry and there was no traffic (i mean it's a driveway, come on). So it was like peddling a bicycle into the drive thru.

Dress shoes, slacks and a dress shirt with a helmet. I got some silly looks.

Now that felt good.

2008-05-21T18:28:00.001-07:00

Wonderful release. Went up to my favorite road. Used more tire on the 250 than I have before. Didn't drag a knee, didn't scrape peg. I was perhaps an inch or two from the knee actually touching down, and I was leaning off a LOT just to ensure I was leaving clearance for the bike. She loves to scrape peg and exhaust (which means lowside).

The road.

The bike.

The Chickenstrip. Says it all.

When everything in life pisses you off.

2008-05-21T12:55:00.001-07:00

You need to just go fucking ride. Even if the winds are at 35mph and it's 54F outside.

And now... which book?

2008-05-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Total Control?

Twist of the wrist 2

Performance riding techniques

?

They're all good lookin'

Twist of the wrist 2 sounds good but mostly a brush up technique out of MSF with some extra pointers. Total control sounds a lot like performance riding techniques... BUT Performance riding techniques is info from MotoGP and what have you.

I've read none of them, so I don't truly know the content, only going off of what I've heard.

Decisions, Decisions...

200 miles baby!

2008-05-14T20:03:00.001-07:00

Pain has never felt so good! I'm sore, I'm beat, I'm tired, I'm worn and I feel AWESOME! Went around 200 miles today, I think a bit more actually, filled up twice and just about ran out on the way home LOL!

We went all over the place, many roads were places I had never been on before. I was still scrubbing in my pilot power so I went pretty easy till the end of the ride. By the last 1/4 of the ride I finally was getting in the groove. Of course, by that point I was pretty worn down. My body was a bit sore from working out the day prior, my knees were taking their toll for being on a motorcycle from 1pm till 6pm, straight riding with a few minutes of break in-between for gas and a few chats of bike talk.

I kept fighting my bars. Towards the end of the ride I was finally relaxed and my tires were scrubbed in and I was finally getting with the groove. I kept remembering my friend Jeff saying "Drop the elbow and your head and just flow with the corner. Use your elbow as an anchor point." and was fighting some of the corners trying to keep up which I'm normally pretty fluid and realized I wasn't dropping my elbow. Finally started doing that and NOT fighting the corner and my Ducati wanted to just flow right through the corners.

I've found I tend to lean off my bike way more than it seems my friends do, except for Jeff of course. He said that's good, he's awesome about giving me feedback on that stuff. In his own words "It's better to leave a margin for error and use less of your tire and have the ability to use it more when you need it than have the bike leaned way over and not use your body enough." I'm still far slower than some of the guys I'm riding with, but they've also been riding for years and years and years and years. I'm in no rush to get to their level, I'll get to it or above it or slightly below it as time progresses. The street is no race track but good GOD it's fun to dip in those corners.

I can't even name the roads we were on as I hadn't been on them so I wish I could tell you where we went and explain the whole route. There were a few that had just phenomenally long straightaways and what have you and finally at the end of the tunnel was some light, some NICE twisties! All in all we went on 2 separate group rides today.

1 with me and Jeff and Chris ("BigChris" off the oo2w forums), we rode for not quite 100 miles with them, then rode back, rode some more and filled up, back to jeff's house. Then proceeded to ride with the bigger group later. I didn't get home till about 8pm. The second ride was awesome! Everyone there had a lot of experience under there belt, everyone rode within THEIR limits and I rode in mine. A few familiar faces and everything so I wasn't out of place. Jeff gave me a few pointers and back on the road we went.

Several of the roads still had cinder from the winter, there was a few roads that actually had some enormous potholes, it was like driving through some sort of crazy grenaded warzone road just to get to the twisties at the end of it. You could tell everyone had been out there before because they'd all line up in synchronization in a line to avoid them.

It's really something else to go on a group ride instead of by your lonesome. But it's really amazing and fun to go on a group ride with people who wear FULL gear, level headed who can ride who respect people who are still new and people who are better than them. I've ridden with a lot of them before and they always give me pointers and help me, some will even volunteer to ride behind me just to watch me ride and then give me feedback when we take our next rest stop. Riders having fun helping riders. It's really spectacular (at least in my eyes) when you have around 6 people all in staggered formation who all know each other and their riding styles, you come up to a twisty and everyone gets into single line, assumes position and dives on in. Everyone knows where everyone is at and is positioned in line based off of who knows who is faster than who or who takes corners differently than who and just goes on into the corner at their own speed. It's crazy to look through the corner and see everyone just going through it in a nice smooth fashion. No one riding like Rossi, everyone riding their own pace and just enjoying the road. Everyone meets up for everyone, we talk, bullshit for a few minutes and go do it again.

Today we did it for around 200 miles, maybe more.

Like I said. I'm sore, tired, worn out but I feel damned good! First BIG ride of the season, I can't wait to fine tune my form and get better and carry on with the next rides :)

Few pictures from today!

Scrub it in!

2008-05-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

Finally going on not one but TWO group rides today! One with a handful of friends, the other a large group of friends. Haven't done that since last year. Bringing my new friend Chris with me. Great guy. New rider and still learning (aren't we all?) and wanted to pick up some pointers and have a blast. Can't beat that!

So I'll be riding literally ALL DAY! I'm a bit sore though, last night was my first time at the gym in years. But I want to better my body and muscles and what not. I was lifting weights when i first got into riding and i felt way better and could really handle long rides. Now i've let myself go more and long rides take their toll. Time to get back into shape! (Besides, my girlfriend will appreciate it too i'm sure lol!)

Bringing my backpack as well as my camera and some equipment just in case I want to take some pics if i get a chance as well as my extra visor in case we're out past nightfall.

Preparation! Always.

Anyway i'm going to go finish this kick ass bacon and eggs i made and go have a hell of a day!

Always up late :( (and some reflections on riding)

2008-05-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Insomnia has the best of me lately. I even have eye spasms in my left eye from lack of sleep. I just can't sleep that well since my girl left in January. I got to see her in march... but she won't be here till June. Pile that on with massive amounts of work, errands, extra side work and being just absolutely slammed... I just can't sleep. Tonight will be no different. I just got in the house from out in the garage from spending whatever amount of hours detailing my bike.

Waxing... cleaning the engine, the fairings, the inside, the suspension, the dash, the seat, the insides... etc...

She's clean enough now to make any supersport owner envious, and definitely enough you could eat off of her.

I think I'll just sleep tonight, take tomorrow off sleeping more.... and maybe go riding friday or something.

I got my Kawasaki valve adjustment tool today from a guy off the 250 boards who gave it to me for $15 shipped. Cannot beat that with a stick. My 250 is beyond it's interval for a valve adjustment so I'm not riding her till I get her valves adjusted. I really need to go on a nice ride and just get lost. Go for a day and just take roads I don't know and ride them for 5 hours. Relax and get a cup of coffee and a nice warm meal and spend 5 hours finding my way home. I miss doing that, I need to more often.

There is something to be said about taking off with just yourself and your bike. Your machine. The road. Exploring. Relaxing. And the sound of that v-twin between your legs the whole way rumbling, pulling you through the corners and just pure thrill 100% of the way over and back. Something about that engine tone is pure magic. Every time I go up town or ride around people turn around to see what's coming down the road way before they see me and sometimes just stop. I had a guy today who was whooping and yelling as I was next to him in traffic giving me a thumbs up so I pulled in the clutch and gave the motor a few revs and got excitement from everyone in the truck next to me. I don't get it ALL the time, but it seems people enjoy seeing bikes and I LOVE riding them.

All I can say is DAMN YOU JEFF! Haha! Those words:

"Welcome to the addiction."

I laughed at first when I heard that and got my Ninja 250 as my first bike. There was no kidding about it. It's definitely an addiction, a hobby, a love, a passion, part of my life. Not just riding in itself but the people you meet, the places you go, the things you do, the feeling of experiencing all of it at once. It's like having a second family. Everyone waves, wants to talk, go ride, riders are riders and no matter who they are the just always want to be near other riders.

When is the last time you saw a dodge neon driver stick his hand out the window to wave at another neon owner like they were a family? Yeah they don't....

But rider for rider it doesn't matter if you ride a scooter, a cruiser, a dual sport or a sport bike, riders just wave at other riders. Its like an acknowledgment of sharing a way of life with that other person as you go by in my eyes.

Well. This lack of sleep is finally getting to me. I'm out.

Pilot powers. Mmmm

2008-05-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

4500 toasty miles later my rear pilot power is toast on my Ducati. I've ridden different bikes with different tires and sizes and I REALLY like my Pilot powers. Got another pilot power today. Happy tires.

I wanted to go riding for longer but it was extremely windy and i just fell out of the mood :(

Fixing the gear lever the cowboy way

2008-05-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

No... not with barbwire and duct tape!

tons of washers and a cement bolt HAHAHA!

No not my bike, but my buddy had his gear lever come loose today while riding, called me up, so we fixed it till he can order a new bolt :P

Changing the oil on a Seca II

2008-05-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

So my first experience with a Seca II came the other day when my friend Chris, who is new to Oregon On 2 Wheels came over for an oil change.

The oil filter was god knows how old, so was the oil. We went ahead and did a change but it was an interesting task.

You see.... you have to take off the headers and drop the exhaust to get to the oil filter correctly. And the drain bolt sits just on the bottom of the engine just up above the headers in a space so thin that it would be a PITA to get to. You could, I suppose, technically do it without dropping it but then you get your headers covered in oil and that wonderful burning smell from oil as you go down the road wondering what smells like burnt smelly feet.

We had to take the nuts off of each portion of the header (8 total), use a hammer and LIGHTLY tap it so any rust settling around the tips shook loose and wiggle it free. From there you can either let it drop, or pull it out, it's easiest to just pull the fucker out and set it aside so you have room for the oil pan.

From there, just drop the drain bolt, the filter, let it drain, put the new filter on, put the bolt back in, fill her up and you're good. We used around 3 quarts of oil, something like 2.8-2.9 quarts total and it was at the fill line. Might have been just a hair over, but not too much. We went with a full synthetic, the thing is at around 30k if i believe.

Neat little bike. Odd engineering but not too bad.

I found it was easiest to wait about 10 minutes after he stopped riding and the headers were cool enough I could touch them with my hands. The engine was still hot though so this worked perfectly so it made for an easy oil change.

Putting them back on was a bit more of a challenge. You sort of had to "finesse" the headers back on, talk to them and tell them how awesome they were and coax them into wanting to go back on the bike. But it'll get easier each time he does it now that all the crap that had settled around the tips of the headers was broken loose.

Interesting bikes. Doesn't seem extremely powerful, still a 600, pretty light. In my own eyes it seemed like a wonderful starter bike.

And the weather is WARM!

2008-05-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

Finally it's warming up! And it figures every day that it's nice that I'm stuck in the office.

That's ok, everyone is out riding that's all that matters. I need a new rear pilot power anyway LOL

oo2w gets some serious traffic

2008-05-01T11:03:00.000-07:00

As of last year, bike night was a huge hit. We had around 50 bikes show up at one point, it was HUGE! People were coming from all over the place just to show central oregon people that we were present. To get together, have a good time. It was wonderful!

That page on bike night got 500 hits from august till today. That's pretty good. That's several hits per day. So people were checking it out on a daily basis to see what was up. Lots of pictures.

Since then, all other articles posted have tripled in hits.

The Ducati fashion event ALONE since it was posted last week has had a record 305 hits for that SINGLE page. It will outdo bike night soon.

I can only say that I am very happy that we're getting this kind of exposure. I think it's good for the community and I'm glad that more people are learning about the site. Even if they don't register on the forums at least people are seeing inside of what we do, where we go and what has been.

As I get the site more options and features we'll have some great things for riders in Oregon.

I am just amazed at the traffic lately though!

I've got a few people that have said "Oh whatever! you want traffic for money!" yet I think people neglect to remember that I have no banners, no ads, no google ads, absolutely NO ADVERTISING on oo2w and the vendors on the forum are there FEE FREE, that's right I OFFERED those spots for them, they pay nothing. No one pays me a DIME for what I do, the cost is entirely out of my pocket. The site, is, indeed.... for the community. Maybe people aren't used to that in this modern age anymore? LOL! Go ahead, hate away!

Hunter S. Thompson - The "Gonzo"

2008-04-26T11:30:00.001-07:00

I sure do miss his writings. I found a good preserved article about his "Cafe experience" with the Ducati SuperSport 900.

"There is a fundamental difference, however, between the old Vincents and the new breed of superbikes. If you rode the Black Shadow at top speed for any length of time, you would almost certainly die. That is why there are not many life members of the Vincent Black Shadow Society. The Vincent was like a bullet that went straight; the Ducati is like the magic bullet in Dallas that went sideways and hit JFK and the Governor of Texas at the same time."

http://www.latexnet.org/~csmith/sausage.html

Always great to read that stuff. For those that don't know what a gonzo journalist is... it's a blend of journalism that mixes fiction with fact and centralizes the journalist so it ends up being near first person to a degree where they become the center of attention.

Some is true, some is not, it's stretched but entertaining, it's true but crazy...

Very entertaining read. "Song of the Sausage creature".

The 2008 Buell 1125R

2008-04-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

I know.... I know.... I don't NEED another bike in my stable.

But... this one is damn sexy. The Buell 1125R.

Now before you go telling me I've gone "xeno-patriotic" in my xeno-patriotic ways of loving my Ducati SuperSport 900 as my own child, let me tell you... I think this bike could get along in the same garage and they wouldn't fight. I THINK!

Now I fell in love with this dark maiden today as I went to Cascade Harley Davidson looking at their bikes and telling them about Oregon On 2 Wheels. I saw it there.... and drooled. (Mind you, my girlfriend obviously has my heart) but this bike took my eyes away from every bike in the room and for 30 minutes I sat and analyzed it while walking around it and just looking at all the interesting engineering on this bike.

Aerodynamic, light, powerful, v-twin, torque, looks, feel, ergonomics, speed, acceleration, handling... just... awesome.

I'm still debating if i want to save and get an 848, 1098 or this.... the 1125R.

Sex. On. Wheels.

Interesting moments of 2007....

2008-04-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

#1. Nearly being ran over by an oncoming semi passing another semi.

I won't forget this one... I was going to see my buddy who came from taiwan to see his parents and in the process I went to visit. On the way back after visiting I was on highway 97 for a good hundred or more miles... at about 2 in the morning i saw a double pair of headlights. I thought i was imagining things when they suddenly were getting closer. It didn't take me long to realize it was a semi passing a semi. Traffic goes pretty fast on highway 97... and when someone is in your lane it leaves you little room for error. I was quick enough to actually slow down and pinch off the tiny 1 or 2 ft of shoulder I did have and he barely missed tagging me... the only thing I could think was he thought that because I had one light I was a very distant car. Perhaps he was on crack, or he was just insane... I shrugged it off... I lived :P

#2. My first near lowside.

I actually had 2. 1 was from scraping pegs on my 250 from going way too deep in a corner way to fast and "bounced" out of the corner, scared the shit out of me. My own fault on that one.

The actual lowside scare though came from hitting my favorite road and a nice bit pile of sand that looked like part of the road that came up a bit too fast... before I knew it the rear tire was loose, pretty well behind me. I stayed calm and maintained my position, and it caught traction which nearly resulted in a corresponding highside... but I was fine. Thanks to a little luck... (ok a lot) and keeping a cool head. If I were a brand new rider, no doubt in my mind that I would have wrecked on that one.

#3. Soccer mom almost takes me out.

I was turning left into the local ducati dealership as existing traffic with the right of way. Soccer mom decides to pull out in traffic (I was expecting it so I was already ready for her) without looking back to her right (where I was), I was quick enough to blip the throttle and scoot ahead of here before the railed on the brakes with an "OH SHIT!" look on her face, she barely missed me and I JUST got a custom paint job on my bike... I proceeded to stop and bitch at her and to look where the hell she was going. Then went to the dealership, I think she felt shitty enough about the scare, she probably didn't NEED someone to bitch at her, but hopefully now she'll look right instead of being in a hurry next time ;)

#4. First wheelie :P Turned into wheelies... as in more than one. But no... not on public roads, there is a time and place for them. I'm not much for wheelies, kind of over-rated.

#5. Rain and power....

I'll never forget the first time I actually broke traction in the rain. Whoo! Power. No need to say much else.

#6. Found the perfect place.

#7. The imaginary ride.

Yeah... one of my most interesting moments was when we planned a 10 person group ride and 1 person showed up. So much for "Group ride". Assholes. :P

Weather can't keep me down.

2008-04-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

I say fuck the weather.

I got out the other day and thank GOD! It felt great!

It was pretty chilly, in the 30s actually, went down to the store, ate some lunch, toted around on the ducati a little bit and ran some errands. Wasn't a long ride, wasn't even a spirited ride, but i saw some other riders and it felt great to get back on the road again.

But i'm getting due for a new pilot power before the season begins.

Some good mental notes for new riders

2008-04-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

So due to an interesting thread on a forum I frequent I figured I would post up some mental notes for new riders, some good thoughts to ponder and some reality.

STEP ONE! It's DANGEROUS.

First off, you need to realize that if you are considering the motorcycle hobby that is dangerous and you need to be realistic with yourself that there is a serious potential to get hurt. You are extremely likely to crash, the odds are mostly against you, and it's a fact that a HUGE number of new motorcyclists crash within their first few thousand miles of being new riders. The reality is that a lot of people think "I'll be careful, it won't happen to me, it can't, I'm too careful and I'll be a good rider."

The mentality of that makes you "invincible" mentally and you are far more likely to ride out of your limits and you're just lying to yourself.

It IS possible to wreck, the possibility is high, and the likelihood is that sooner or later you probably WILL go down, even if it's at 5mph or 80mph, the probability of you being in the "Have not" crashed will be that you will sooner or later be one of the guys that "Will crash".

Don't let that scare you. A lot of the minor stuff is dumping your bike at a stop, lowsiding it into gravel, or a low speed bump from being a newbie. It happens to the best of us. My bad experience was when my ex wife crashed by bike from sitting on it and moving forward a notch... brand new bike with 5 miles. Yeah, I was pretty pissed.

I've also crashed on my dirt bike. I have yet to on the street but I realize and ACCEPT that it could happen.

THIS is the important part, acceptance with these risks. If you can realize the risk is there and ACCEPT that risk, and ride with that mentality "I'm frail, i'm human, I'm no Rossi and it's dangerous." and still move on to sit on that seat and go forward then you are on your way.

STEP TWO! Get some GEAR!

Contrary to the "Squid belief" (SQUID = Stupid, Quick, UnderDressed and Inevitably Dead....) gear actually DOES protect you. Yes, it's a difficult concept, I know... you put on armor and you're less likely to get hurt, but it works!

It is most important to remember this simple word.

ATGATT.

All The Gear All The Time

A lot of people think you can get away with just a jacket, gloves and a helmet. And you might, but remember your feet, legs, ankles and your ass are also important. While armor sometimes will help with impact, it most also importantly covers your ass from putting your skin to the sandpaper we know as asphalt.

If you can, for a moment, imagine jumping out of a car onto the highway at 60mph. Wearing nothing but a jacket, a helmet, and gloves. You can imagine first off how much it will hurt when you hit, you'll probably break a few bones, maybe you'll slide... it's basically the same thing when you go down. Every part of your body is exposed and unless you are able to fall in a way you don't go tumbling, anything is up for grabs for hitting that pavement.

I'd like to share with you a valuable link: A bike wreck and what happens when your body hits the pavement without full gear. It's a graphic and vivid reminder that we're all human and all frail and aren't as invincible as we think ourselves to be. This rider was kind enough to share their experience to remind us of that.

Helmets obviously protect your head and face, gloves protect your hands from rash and some impact, pants the same, jackets provide skid protection and if you get a good one can also come with back protectors, boots if proper can protect your ankles from getting broken and your ankles from getting viciously ground down to a pulp. They all help, and if you truly care about your body, wear it all the time.

For those that want to bitch about how much it costs:

Helmet $50-100
Boots $50-200
Gloves $20-100
Jacket $100-300
Pants $100-300

Total can be between $320-1000 depending on how extreme you want to go. Now you may think that's a lot now but factor in how much your hospital bill will be if you crash without that, skin grafts, casts, medicine to kill the pain, splints, and possibly surgery if you majorly fuck yourself up? Small price to pay. If anything, for at least the peace of mind.

Remember, it DOES NOT make you invincible, but it helps significantly.

STEP THREE! PRESERVATION!

There are some times where we just want to romp the throttle, feel that power and go "GOD YES!" or have fun in the twisties, just have fun. Who doesn't? However, remember there is a time and a place for that. It's probably a bad idea (wait no, i take it back, it's a fuckin stupid idea) to do a standing wheelie down the highway with traffic around. Also, it may not be a good idea to slam the throttle topped out in 3rd gear downtown because you're feeling squirrely. You may be smaller than a car and a truck, however, you are still responsible for your actions and still have the potential to put yourself and others at risk if you ride like a complete idiot.

That being said, self preservation is knowing when to step off, knowing your limits and knowing where they are at and not pushing them on a public road. If you want to go crazy, get a sportbike and go buy yourself a ticket to a track day, go nuts, get trained, have fun and learn what it's like to ride your heart out at over 100mph and sometimes more in a LEGAL and CONTROLLED environment.

Self preservation is also knowing when to just take the heat and be cool and level headed and live to ride another day. I can't tell you how many times someone has cut me off and i've wanted to shake my fist and flip them off (yeah, ok, i've done it once or twice) but since i've been riding for a while i also know when to just let it go. Inciting road rage when you're on a bike? bad idea. Don't forget also that if someone is riding your ass, pull over, it's not worth having to worry about whether or not they will see you or pay attention when it's time to stop. A rear end bike collision often ends up with a vehicle on top of a rider. We don't want that.

I'm not telling you to be a wuss and ride like a grandma. What I am saying is learn to know your limits, learn to know where you stand, learn to know when it's okay to back off and just let it be, calm down, cool down, slow down and do the right thing. At the end of the day you come home, you've got your 2 wheels and you got your ride in, that's all that matters ;)

STEP FOUR! FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!

Every rider wants to ride something different. You'll eventually sit on a bike, it'll fit you, and you'll "just know" it's the one for you. At the same time, when you're just learning, you may not be ready for that bike.

The first bike I wanted was a Ducati 749. Well, lets just say had I started on that, i probably would be severely hurt once or twice, and probably would have wrecked a gorgeous bike.

Modern day bikes make a LOT of power. The "600" class cc bikes from back in the day, carburated sport bikes made around 40-60hp, max, usually. Nowadays they make over 100hp, sometimes around 120, that's sometimes double what they used to, and many are capable of speeds between 120-160mph. That's damned fast.

Let me put it this way. If you were learning to drive right off the bat, had no idea how to drive a stick shift and had to learn how to control a car going around corners, shift, and had the potential to make the wrong smash on the gas and spin out to your death because you made a boo boo.... would you rather learn on something with more room for error? Or go face first into some crazy twin turbo supercar with 700hp that weighs nothing....

If you started in the supercar sure, you start with the best of EVERYTHING, but, at the same time you have no idea how to drive and shift, you make a wrong move and blip the throttle too hard in a corner and the back end comes out front under you and you wreck it. The concept of throttle control and steering is more difficult because there is SO much power that it can be intimidating and overwhelming.

Starting out on the best does not MAKE you the best. In fact, some of the world's BEST racers in the world started out on tiny little motorcycles, moved up to tiny little cafe bikes up through their career all the way up to some of the MotoGP world championship bikes they are riding now (which most the time are light weight and have over 200hp, they're MONSTROSITIES of the bike world, absolutely ungodly fast). They did not start out there on racing giant bikes and put themselves into a crash course.

So why would you?

Because it makes you more manly.

Wrong. Well, your buddies may think so, in fact, other riders may say you're a wuss if you start on a small bike. Well, let me tell you something, they can go fuck themselves. Pushing a rider into a zone they are not comfortable with puts them into a zone that is dangerous to them. What's important here is that you choose a bike that you are okay with learning on. Regardless of what others say, the most important thing is that you learn at your OWN pace on a bike you are comfortable with. If you are okay with learning on a bigger bike then so be it, it is your conscious decision to do so. I'm simply saying that you will have a greater comfort zone and room for error.

So lets review...

Learn to accept the risk, wear the right gear, have the right mentality and ride in your limits, be safe, and get the right back that suits you (not the one that suits your squid buddies) and you've got a good start.

I hope this helps.

If you have a question regarding motorcycles answered (generic, oddball, or even technical) shoot me an email!

derek@oo2w.com and tell me whats up! I may stick you on the blog.

I miss my friends.

2008-03-28T02:03:00.000-07:00

Today was a sad day for me. For some reason today I kept thinking of all the people that have passed on in my life. Of those, my rider friends I would like to recognize.

Chris Smoldt. You were a great co-worker, an outstanding guy with a good attitude. I'll miss you. I know we wanted to go riding. What happened to you was tragic. I'll never forget it. Rest in peace.

Allen Davis. You were so young. You were 15 man. You were such an inspiration to us all at the 250 boards and such a nice kid. My god. Such knowledge and a wonderful attitude towards life. I don't think I've ever cried so many tears over a lost rider. My god man. You'll never be forgotten, I always loved reading your stuff and you loved to learn and you had such a passion for the 2 wheeled world. Rest in peace.

Roger Ramjet. I never got to know you as much as I wanted to. I enjoyed your company and your humor when you were around. I'll never forget the fun times at sun river and hanging out with you. Quite the life of the party, you loved bikes, loved the people and everyone around you. And good god you were funnier than shit! I remember when you came to bike night and wanted to show off your badass R6. I was truly jealous, that was a beautiful bike. It's hard to believe someone so awesome, hilarious, nice and who loved their friends so much could be missed so quickly and so badly. You will be missed, always. Rest in peace.

Goodbye roger.

Sidestand screw: $31.50

2008-03-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

At least my sidestand works now!

Adventure!

2008-03-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

FINALLY after months and months of being cooped up I just could not take it. I've ridden now and then but only to commute to work and it just was NOT ENOUGH. My body wanted to hit some twisties and tear it up.

I finally heard my favorite road was almost clear till the top of the mountain. The road sides were packed with snow, entirely clear till you hit the top and then it hits solid ice.

From my home town, using the backroads around town which are miles of small 15mph corners, 30mph corners into a junction off our highway into another backroad that has even more twisties for miles I went to visit my parents, then hit my favorite mountain road. I must have rode for HOURS on end today and filled up twice! But my GOD was it an exhilarating feeling and SO relieving after all this time.

It was an instantaneous "I almost forgot what this feels like and NOW I remember why I love it" flashback soon as I got to lean off nicely into the first series of twisties. From there I was in the zone! Mind you I don't ride like rossi and i'm no rossi... remember, self preservation... BUT it doesn't mean I can't have fun! ;)

To top it off I finally got some revealing photos of my bike and it's paint job in the DAYTIME (for those that have only seen the tiny daytime pics, and the few night time pics) now you get to see her in her full view :)

Today, rest. Tomorrow? An adventure.

2008-03-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

I plan on finally hitting the twisties again tomorrow. Been a while since the evil side got out of me and hit the twisties and my god do I miss it! Taking my camera with me and getting me a small photoshoot for my bike.

3 rides and the world's most expensive bolt?

2008-03-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

Well it was a good one, the ride i hit yesterday, but a bit depressing when my sidestand broke.

My 1999 supersport has an auto retracting stand. Attached by a bolt, washer, bearings inside and a double sprung setup. The bolt that held it in came out. So it didn't create enough pressure to allow it to work so now the "auto-retracting" sidestand has to be manually put up and put back down. Not a big deal... not enough pressure to make it come off.

Went and rode around town for a while, hit some local twisties, had some fun. Went to Bend Euro Moto and bought the most expensive bolt i think i've ever seen for a bike. Little over $30 for the bolt for the sidestand. Oh well. LOL

While I was there I snagged some pics of not one... but TWO tri-colores! 1098 TriColore and a monster tri!

(sorry for the pic quality, this came from my camera phone)

And then the gorgeous 848 :)

So I headed back after I had my part ordered and headed back. Couldn't help myself, had to stop at jodie's bbq and get one of those badass smokehouse burgers and bring it home with me.

The 2008 Ninja... Dumbed down?

2008-02-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

2008 stock and then with yoshi pipes

2007 stock and then with two brothers exhaust

Just some info for the curious.

The wheelbase is slightly longer, the compression is down slightly, it is heavier. The brakes are barely different. The forks and rake setup are just barely different as well. The wheels are also larger (which may account for some of the additional weight). And obviously per dyno the 08 makes just a hair less hp.

So in essence... Kawasaki has managed to make a heavier, better looking bike with bigger wheels and less power. ????? The suspension and wheelbase is BARELY different with a BARELY larger brake on the front that costs MORE money. Dumbed down and beautiful. Kind of like a hotter blonder girlfriend. That's ok. I'll keep my 05 that weighs less with more performance thank you.

2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250R Specifications:

Engine Type Four-stroke, liquid-cooled, DOHC, parallel twin
Displacement 249 cc
Bore & Stroke 62.0 x 41.2mm
Maximum Torque 22 Nm (2.24 kgf/m) 16.2 lb-ft/9,500 rpm
Compression Ratio 11.6:1
Carburetor Keihin CVK30 x 2
Ignition Digital
Transmission 6-Speed
Final Drive O-Ring Chain
Cooling Liquid
Frame Semi-double cradle, high-tensile steel
Rake/Trail 26 degrees / 3.2 in.
Front Tire Size 110/70-17
Rear Tire Size 130/70-17
Wheelbase 55.1 in.
Front Suspension / wheel travel 37mm hydraulic telescopic fork / 4.7 in.
Rear Suspension / wheel travel Bottom-Link Uni-Trak® with 5-way adjustable preload / 5.1 in.
Front Brake Type Single 290mm hydraulic disc with two-piston caliper
Rear Brake Single 220mm petal disc with two-piston caliper
Fuel Tank Capacity 4.8 gal.
Seat Height 30.5 in.
Dry Weight 333 lbs. / 337 lbs. (CA-model)
Overall length 82.1 in.
Overall width 28.1 in.
Overall height 43.7 in.

2007 Kawasaki Ninja 250R 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.
Overall length 80.0 in.
Overall width 28.0 in.
Overall height 43.1 in.
Dry Weight: 304 lb.

Cafe Racer: Full log

2008-01-14T11:50:00.001-08:00

You can see my full cafe racer project HERE

Cafe racer: Round 2

2008-01-14T10:35:00.001-08:00

Ok so the cables should be here any day. i was able to remove the seat entirely (we'll make something up, that stock seat is ugly).

I was able to find some 1 inch bars from a friend who is going to make sure they fit (didn't take long) and should have these any day as well.

Removed the rear fender entirely (changed my mind about how I wanted it)

I'm getting ready to pull the engine and take a look at it. I was emailed by a fellow who used to do flat track racing who had some parts for the motor including pistons, springs, cam and cylinders. Got this ordered from him and they are supposed to be shipped today. Pretty excited!

so long as there are no unexpected surprises in the engine we should be all good to go. As to the tank, I'm going to the store tonight to get some bb's and shake them up and knock this rust loose and get the tank clean as i can before I try KREEM treatment.

Wheel gets here tomorrow.

Front wheel, ordered!

2008-01-11T15:01:00.001-08:00

Finally found a good front wheel ordered from Cyclepsycho! Special thanks to the folks at caferacer.net for referring me there!

scratched my itch finally

2008-01-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

It was about 40 degrees in bend today when i went riding. There was still slush on the ground, ice in some places, shitloads of water but enough temperature to make me finally scratch that itch to ride.

I went and did my errands, paid for the cables on my cafe racer project and got a new lip ring for my labret piercing.

All in all I got called "crazy" more than once walking into stores with a full riding suit on and people saw my bike outside.

One kid said "You're riding? TODAY? Out there? You're fuckin crazy man." and i said "It wouldn't be the first."

Sometimes that itch has to be scratched. It was an interesting ride. Had a few issues with traction in the gravel where there was cinder rock and the bike got a little shaky on me but I just didn't lean much and I was fine.

All I know is it felt fucking awesome to get out there.

That cafe racer buzz: part 1

2008-01-09T22:11:00.000-08:00

As I posted a while back. I got an old Honda CB360 to make into a Cafe racer. I haven't had much of a chance to touch it, but, I assure you I have intentions and the motivation to make it a dream come true. Tonight was proof of that.

As I sat on the couch on my laptop talking to my girlfriend, she said something that reminded me of motorcycles. Don't remember what. I thought "She's on her way to town to go shopping. I should work on my bike."

I went out in the garage and started just ripping shit apart. The only way to get there is to strip it down to the bare bones and see what needs fixed.

What I found is that the tank was rusted inside. I didn't like the centerstand (nor do i need it) and hated the toolbox. I thought "I can do something about this right now." and got out my tools and proceeded with ripping it to pieces.

All in all I shaved off a good 10-15lbs off it tonight by removing all this crap which doesn't look like much but good god the pieces must be made out of solid steel.

The bike all in it's own feels pretty light already. I'd say it's slightly heavier than my enduro. However, the old stuff weighs so much (the light, the tail light, the mullet fender, the solid metal fenders) that it won't be hard to chop this stuff up and shave off weight.

I don't like the turn signals. They stick out so far it looks ridiculous. I won't ever use the toolbox, and the only good it did was to hold some of the electric parts onto it with 10mm bolts, which actually is the same thread and bolt size to hold it in so I just repositioned them where the toolbox was and will fabricate a small bracket to hold them back on.

The fusebox looked great but had some stuff loose, I was able to fix it.

I know a lot of people would argue and say "NO! Keep the centerstand it's so convenient!" have you ever tried to put an old ass bike from 1975 on a centerstand that had a poorly designed centerstand that may as well be a folding brick? It's not even in the CENTER! It's entirely in the back so when you try to move it back it takes your entire body moving the ENTIRE front of the bike's weight back, prop it up, pull it back and pull with all your fucking might to get it up on it. SORRY I'll just use a rearstand if i need it that bad. Centerstand = gone. Want my old one? Take it.

OH. And I broke into my seat because it didn't come with a key. Now I need to fabricate a quick release latch.

So lets look at the progress.

Signals pulled off:

Toolbox removed and electronics relocated:

Broke into my seat:

(not that it does much good there isn't much in there)

And here's all the crap I pulled off the bike. It may not look like much... but with no way to prop up the bike (I WAS removing the centerstand) I had to work entirely from odd angles and had to use some finesse and thinking to get the centerstand and other parts out. To get out the toolbox the entire seat assembly and battery harness had to be removed. To get the centerstand out I had to actually loosen up all the bolts on the bottom, pry out the pin holding in one side of the rode that connects it and force it out with a giant prybar and a hammer, pull out the pressure spring, fold it at an angle and pry it out more and finally got it. To get the bolts out (because one side was propped up against the rear brake assembly) I had to actually bend the bolt and pull it straight up. Doesn't matter as I'll be shaving off the brackets anyway. Enough for one night.

When it's done it'll be stripped, light, awesome and one of a kind.

Somewhere out there a Honda fanboy is calling "BLASPHEMY!" for me tearing a "perfectly good original bike to pieces", whereas elsewhere a cafe racer nut is going "ROCK ON!" There's enough "fully restored" pretty original stock oem bikes out there from the 70s, it's time for something..... different.

Hooked on that feeling.

2007-12-31T09:35:00.000-08:00

And I miss it.

Dipping, leaning, hanging.

Nothing like it.

Is winter over yet?

2007-12-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

A few months ago there was nothing like getting up, hopping on my Ducati, hitting the saddle of mckay creek and seeing a sight like this from a view so gorgeous you could see all the hills and forest below with the sunrise.

Now, I'm stuck to seeing this :(

I hate winter.

RIP Roger "Ramjet" McIntyre

2007-11-20T18:57:00.001-08:00

RIP to a great friend. Roger was much older than me, but many of my riding buddies and acquaintances range of all ages. The wonderful thing about the motorcycle world is that I've met so many people of so many ages who all have a common interest who are a ton of fun. Roger was no exception.

I only got to ride with him twice. But had hung out with him on many occasions, he was an outstanding guy and hilarious. I'll never forget our weekend at sunriver when he was there. Partying, hanging out, bullshitting (and yes, drinking games) and all the fun all of us riders could have as a big group of friends. I don't think I have a single bad memory of Roger the short time I knew him. But everyone loved him.

Here's to a great guy. A great rider. A good friend. And the life of the party. It'll never be the same without him here. I didn't want to believe the news when I saw my friend Matt had posted about it, until I saw an 8 page long thread on sportbikes.ws about it, I saw his picture and knew immediately.

This makes me sad :( Nothing makes me more sad than a family member or fellow rider passing on, both are like family to me.

Rest In Peace Roger "RAMJET". I didn't know you for a long time, but you were an awesome guy, great friend to all, and a wonderful rider. You will be missed. I'll miss you :(

Here's a picture of him laughing with our good friend Neil at Sunriver.

Nothing but fond memories my friend. I hope you're riding to heaven on that R6.

All that and I got DENIED.

2007-11-18T23:19:00.000-08:00

I love rain riding. Its soothing. Comfortable. Sure... you can't go as fast... but I enjoy it.

Tonight I forgot to do something at work so I hopped on the bike to clear my mind and ride. I forgot my clear visor and it wasn't an anti-fog visor. The whole way over it hail/snowed/rained on me or whatever that crap was. At one point it was so hard to see I actually put up my visor, only to get pegged in the fucking EYE by what felt like a razorblade, the rest the way over my eye drooled and cried basically.

I got there to work, 35 cold minutes later in the rain. Put my badge up to the door detector... red light. "Fuck. This can't be!" *swipe again* red light. "FUCK! NO NO NO! FUCK!"

At least I tried. Hopefully my boss will see that I at least tried to come back to work to finish the job and had the motivation and the means, I can hope for nothing else.

The way back was fucking freezing. I was finally getting water through my gloves. My fingers were approaching the point of being freezing.

I pulled into a 7-11 when I got in town, trying to be careful on the brakes, rear started to lock up as I hit a huge puddle, backed off.... kept going "Next intersection i'll turn, just don't worry about it".

Finally got inside and bought 2 Heinekens, I needed it. On the way out some girls in a van had the nerve to ask if I was 21 and could buy them beer because "we forgot our IDs!" yeah, and get me in trouble for selling beer to minors? No... I kindly said "Sorry... i'm not buying anyone beer." she was actually polite enough to say "That's ok, thanks anyway." as her friends bitched at me (at least she had manners).

As I pulled out I gave it too much throttle (I'll admit.. I wanted to get home! I wasn't riding like a grandma) the rear tire slipped out and she fishtailed. I let off, grabbed clutch and let her get back under me and didn't panic (I've felt that feeling before... at least I don't panic) and we were back on the road with more throttle.

A couple minutes later I got home, cracked open a Heineken and thought "Why the fuck didn't I just come to work early and do it? Oh well. At least I got some beer out of it."

Access denied after 10pm. Fuck me twice.

I've become the recluse biker.

2007-11-15T01:53:00.001-08:00

I don't know what it is.

I don't go and ride with friends anymore hardly at all. Usually I just get on the bike, go hit the twisties, go nuts and come home. All my riding buddies I used to hang out with and ride with I don't anymore. And what's scary is that it hasn't phased me.

I sort of miss it but don't. I don't know.

Is something wrong with me?

It's COLD!

2007-11-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

Very little time to ride lately, even less weather to ride in it. I've ridden in some nasty ass conditions but it's just getting colder and colder now.

Almost time to put up the bikes for the winter.

The plus side to this? I should have my CB360 Cafe racer finished by spring!

Update and diagnosis of the bike

2007-10-29T22:40:00.001-07:00

Clutch cable is toast. Throttle cable is snapped. Centerstand needs to go (heavy as hell, ugly, and a pain in the ASS to use), probably going to put a different sidestand on it, this one is big and bulky. Gotta do something about those pegs.

No headlight... killswitch is ugly as fuck. That'll be an easy fix.

Front wheel is bent. Found a friend who has a parts bike, going to see if i can get one off of that, otherwise it's craigslist time.

Can't say about the brakes, the brake lever is missing!

Lots of little things. But all very easy things. Then I can start the heavy modifications.

Things I DO like. Almost all of the chrome is near perfect. The fender has NO RUST on it! The underside does, but that can be sanded or sand blasted and painted or coated. The shift lever is perfect.

It's official. I'm an addict.

2007-10-29T20:47:00.001-07:00

After wanting a cafe racer forever now, a vintage, old, cafe racer.... I finally decided to do it. I had a bike project I COULD NOT refuse and bit the bullet. It was super cheap and needed some TLC. A 1971 Honda CB350.

Here's pics!

She's going to need some serious TLC. They rigged up a ghetto fabulous kill switch, that's gotta go. Seat needs to be reshaped. Kill the mullet. New bars, make sure the forks have new oil and are in where they need to be. Need to check on the shocks, may even convert to mono shock (i've seen it done on these bikes). Then redo the exhaust, jet the sucker, mess with the carbs and the motor a little bit. Strip her down to bare bones.... and the end result should be a nice cafe racer. I'm aiming for something like this..

Now here's what it looks like BEFORE.

Prepare yourself.

Already after posting these, I've managed to clean it up pretty well and scope out what I and don't want on it and am in the process of ripping parts off.

Back to the garage I go... The project begins!

His name is Jim.

2007-10-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

I had to share this story today with everyone.

I went on my ride, headed to town to pick up a check and stick it in the bank...

On the way I went to visit my dad. I hopped off my bike and a guy in a wheelchair was sitting there looking at my bike. He said "That's a nice bike." I said "Thank you!" and he said "Is that a Ducati?" I replied with "Yes, it's a 900 SuperSport."

He started to talk about v-twins and said how much he loved v-twins. I said "You can throw Japanese bikes at me all day, but I'll take my v-twin any day." and he said "You're right! Nothing like a v-twin! I remember my old Harley. I'm kind of a Harley guy myself."

He started talking about how he used to ride so much. He stopped for a minute, I said "Have a nice day" and started to walk in the store. He started talking again, and I wanted to talk. So I closed the door and came back, this time, I sat down on the frame of the window next to the store and we chatted for a bit. Eventually, he introduced himself. His name was Jim. We shook hands.

Apparenly Jim bought a Harley back in the 1970s, rode for a long time. Even kept the sucker stock! Said it was brown and white. Sounded absolutely beautiful. He told me about as time progressed he managed to crash 3 times. Never because of other people, said every time was due to alcohol. He said the 3rd time was the charm, said he never did that again.

We kept talking and I talked about my bikes he talked about his. Then he said he wanted to start riding again. I obviously didn't think he was crazy, but was interested to hear how. He said he can't get on a bike anymore but wants to build a bike with a sidecart so he can ride. I had seen that before. A guy in Bend, Oregon took an old world war 2 bike, some old Norton or something and put a sidecart on it and rode like that.

He was such a nice guy to talk to. So down to earth. Talked about his riding stories and his crashes and how he learned from them and wizened up about them. He talked about how much he missed riding and how he got depressed when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I kind of felt bad for the guy, me being on my bike, seeing him in a wheel chair, even his handshake was a bit weak. But the guy was so damned determined about building that bike with the sidecart, I know he'll do it.

Jim is the example of a person that life can throw something at you, but it can't throw you down. No matter what it does, it can't take your dreams away and can't take what you love away. In his case, life can disable him to a wheel chair so he can't walk, but he'll find a way to get back up and ride like old times. Motorcycle with a sidecart.

I found it pretty inspirational really. Seeing someone who has had a life changing event happen to them, yet as happy as can be, not bitter at life, and so fucking determined to do what they love again.

Jim, if you ever read this, you sir are a great man! It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and may you be an inspiration to all who have had something life changing happen and not letting it get you down and finding a way to beat it!

Life can beat your body. It'll never beat your soul.

Remember. 4 wheels moves the body. 2 wheels moves the soul.

Ride report

2007-10-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today's ride was pretty good. First time in a while I got out and really got with it in the twisties, despite the rain and insane wind.

To be quite honest, I see the conditions as a challenge because the only thing I can get out of them are learning more about how to ride in them. I see a lot of riders that are only out in just broad day light when it's 90 degrees out with 0 wind. Yeah, who doesn't want to ride in conditions like that? It's almost perfect. However, not every day is going to be perfect.

So I went out and got with it in the twisties. Let me tell you, leaning into a corner, having a wind nail you hard and forcing you to lean more (or less) is quite an interesting experience. Although I enjoy it because I remember the first time I rode in real hard wind.

The first time was on my Ninja 250. I remember it being moderate wind. I was SO tense. I remember feeling like I was blown all over the damn road but I wouldn't let my body relax so it was worse than it really was. As time went on and I got better with my little 250 I got to the point where wind could come at me and I was relaxed and I'd just react as needed but just in a relaxed fashion and it was no big deal.

Also... it seems to me the "bigger bike is worse" in the wind thing seems a bunch of crap. My Ducati and my Ninja 250 BOTH get blown around. Though the way the tail is made on the Ducati makes it interesting because if you are behind something such as a semi and you are slipstreaming or drafting the back of the bike on the tail tends to feel a bit wobbly if the wind is just right. However, no matter what wind or direction even at high speeds the bike is totally stable... not sure how else to describe it. The 250 doesn't have this problem. I'm assuming it's something about the aerodynamics of the tail. The 250 is very straight, but the Ducati curves and shapes...

Any way... good ride. I got with it in the twisties. Didn't push my limits... but I was feeling good and feeling in the groove with things and had a blast. Felt amazing to feel like the only one out there, so few cars on the backroads and no bikes... just me. The road all to myself.

Wet leaves and ice and snow

2007-10-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again.

Last night I took my Ducati for a ride when it was freezing out. Probably not the best idea but i did it anyway. I went to fred meyer to buy rainbow six las vegas for my xbox 360.

In the process, it was raining/snowing lightly but the road was covered in water from raining hard earlier.

I managed to take it easy and get to the store and back okay but noticed a TON of leaves on the road. For those that don't know, wet leaves are death come winter. Make sure you steer clear of them.

I actually did manage to touch a puddle of frosty semi-iced slush or whatever you want to call it, at a stop. Thankfully it was as I was going, not coming to a stop and broke traction for a fraction of a second but I made sure to just go with it and not lean the bike too far, it was fine. I've ridden IN the snow before so I know all too well about being overly cautious in crappy conditions.

It was interesting to say the least, but figured I'd post it up as a reminder for those in these conditions. Be careful!

My experience with a Monster S2R

2007-10-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

For the most part I think these bikes are ugly as sin. They're a bike you either go "WOW that looks cool!" or "OH MY GOD, that thing is ugly."

Despite the looks... I rode one today. An S2R, 800cc Monster.

My bike was in for a valve check, new belts, spark plugs, air filter, new valve cover gaskets and some more things...

They said "Don't sweat it, come pick your bike up any time tomorrow when you want. It'll be ready."

My buddy had to go out of town and dropped me off at the dealer after they said "On second though, it'll be done at 1pm." so I showed up, "It's going to be another 2 hours."

So I asked if I could hang out. They were super slammed which is unusual for them for a wednesday so they said "You know what, take a demo bike, go ride it, have some fun and do your errands, we'll call you when it's done but it'll be done in a couple hours." I didn't sweat it, we are trading labor for labor (i'm doing computer work for them, they don't charge me labor, just parts, and vice versa for their computer stuff.) so I was like "no biggie." besides, they do excellent work and are the only ones I trust to touch my bike besides one other local joint.

I asked what they were going to let me take and he walked me over to the Monster S2R 800.

At first I wanted to ask for another bike because I thought they were just butt ugly bikes. But then I remembered the time they let me take a multistrada (which i thought was ugly as sin, but turned out to be a TON of fun) so I kept an open mind and hopped on.

First glance the bike felt really super upright, the bars felt really far out, the pegs were good on clearance but I felt almost inbetween a dirtbike and sportbike feel, it was somewhere inbetween. I thought "This is going to be a totally odd step from my supersport." which is hunkered down, thin, had a tad bit more balls and was a dry clutch. But... I took off.

I putted around town for a few to get the feel of it. The bike was REALLY easy to ride. Unlike my supersport which took a lot of oomph to move, I felt the leverage of those extended bars and the upright position let me really just have a nice relaxed ride.

I also noticed, even though this was a desmodue, and even though it had termignoni exhaust that it was AMAZINGLY quiet. I'm the kind of person who likes my bikes LOUD. But at the same time this bike was all black. Black frame, black wheels, black tank, black everything almost, carbon termi exhaust pipes and copper colored exhaust. Really... the bike to me looked sort of ugly at first. But at one point I hopped off when I got to my house, stood back and took some pictures and thought "You know.... this thing could grow on me. I'd have to keep my other bikes, but I could picture one of these in my stable."

For some reason I love the feeling of being hunched over, hanging off the bike and feeling like I'm on something that is meant to be super sporty. I don't know why. I guess I was never destined to be a cruiser rider. I bought that Ninja 250 of mine brand new and ever since then it's been a pure addiction and more than that... and a hobby...

But as I purposely took some backroads to go get to my errands which included some wonderful 15mph twisties, 20mph twisties, 25s.... 30s... 40s... 50s.... all kinds of wonderful banked corners, twists, s curves and rode all over and put some miles on the sucker it started to grow on me. The bike was so easy to get into the corners and roll out of that I was finding I was leaning TOO much sometimes because I was so used to my bars and my bike but the bike just would counter-steer and lean in so easily it was just too fun. Although at times it felt kind of lanky and loose, I think that was just me not being used to the bike because I found myself getting hot in corners and wanting to hang off a ton and counter-steer a lot but the long bars countered it easily so it took a while to get used to it.

The bike had oomph... but I wasn't used to not hearing the clutch rattle and clang and clatter at idle or in gear with the clutch in because it was a wet clutch. For the average person who isn't used to that "Ducati" sound, this bike is probably perfect. For some of us that love all the noises it makes it takes away from the experience. But at the same time, I didn't care, it was a fun bike.

The bike's gearing seemed a tad shorter than mine. I assumed it was regeared shorter because this desmo was a smaller motor but even then, just like my desmodue engine right at around 5k rpms you could feel that torque kick in and KAPOW you rolled on and you accelerated like it wasn't no thing. With that short gearing I found it more fun in the twisties because all I had to do was downshift once and I was in the powerband, roll on the throttle, pull out. Next corner, lean in, roll out.... twisty to twisty, lean to lean roll to roll. It was great!

I have to say that the setup on this bike was nice. It "seemed" tall but actually was pretty short, I think it was the upright bars and long ended bars that made it seem tall but the bike was really very comfortable to be on and ride around.

The looks slowly grew on me by the end of my short ride. I got to keep her for a good 3 hours or a tad more riding around, checking things out, taking backroads and just enjoying it. It was over before I knew it.

Although I still thought it was "a bit" ugly, but looking at it over and over and the bike I can see growing on me. Much like a mom having a kid everyone else thinks is ugly, it's a face that someone will either love or look at funny, but a mother will love. Just like the multistrada its a very deceiving bike. It says "I'm different, i'm upright! I'm for the casual rider!" but when you hop on it's a fun bike that wants to go quick and corner well and have a blast.

I was happy to be back on my supersport going over from twisty to twisty at the end of the day and enjoying it far more because I'm so used to my own bike (that's to be expected) but I won't forget the ride on the S2R, it really is a fun bike.

At first I was going to give it a 7/10 but as the day went on I'll give it an 8/10. My missing points simply go to the wet clutch and way the clutch engaged and the styling of the bike. If not for a few more things she'd be near perfect. I really liked it.

I can see myself owning one of these for something I would want to just go cruising on a long ride just for the hell of it for real tight twisties, she was a lot of fun in tight twisties. For those rides that would murder your back this bike would be fun. For anything else I'll take my 250 or supersport. In fact... in terms of how it felt, this bike was very comparable to my 250 Ninja in the sense that the bike was so upright and easy to flick through the twisties. However, the suspension was 1,000,000x better and the brakes had NO issues stopping. They felt sort of squishy at first, till you got on them and started to squeeze then "WHOA, there are brakes!" and you felt like you could stop on a dime.

IMO one of the smaller versions of this bike, like a 620 would be a fun bike for someone who doesn't want the insane horsepower of a japanese inline 4 but wanted more power but wanted something with TORQUE to have fun with in the twisties, something fairly light and something that won't kill your back.

Granted it is a bike that you will either look at it and go "Nasty... ick..." or go "Oh my dear God that thing is gorgeous!".

Something about the frames of these italian bikes to me is gorgeous, no matter what. But the headlight and mirrors, that tank, seemed so huge without fairings... But when you step back you look at it and go "Wow, that actually.... is really beautiful when it comes together."

What a wonderful ride. Perhaps someday if I decide to add something more upright to my stable I'll add a monster. Truly a fun bike. And to ride one of the newer desmodue engines was a fun experience to see how smoothly they've come with the fuel injection and mapping since my 99 supersport.

- Derek

PS: PICS

12k service at almost 14k

2007-10-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

I will update this when I have more info. The 12k service was just done today. The exhaust valves were out of spec quite a bit. New belts were put on the bike. New valves installed and adjusted to spec. New plugs and new gaskets were also installed.

I will update the full story on how bad they were out and what was out where when I get back from picking it up. For now I'm toting around a Ducati Monster 800 demo bike until I get it back.

I'm not a fan of the monster....

The Ducati is finished.

2007-09-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

Finally after a month the new paint is on. I love it.

Intimate with the road? Almost.

2007-09-18T01:47:00.000-07:00

Some people say "Riding a motorcycle gets you closer to the road than anything."

Well, tonight, I almost got real intimate with the concrete.

On a series of twisties locally by my house is a road that offsets into a small canyon like road with 15mph corners that go on for a few miles. Very pleasant ride.

It's been around a month since I've ridden. I've gotten so very used to the Ducati that the 250 has been like an alien. It feels awkward to hang off that bike because the bars are raised, the pegs are weird, you hang off and put a knee down and you feel like you're half retarded with your list cocked a bit to the side with an uncomfortable feeling as you hang off but know you're doing it well.

The Ducati is different. It sits you in more of an attack position, and leaning off feels so much more natural. Obviously they are two TOTALLY different bikes. Pegs, bars, suspension, etc... all different setups, obviously no two bikes are alike.

I wasn't quite "feeling it" today. You all know that feeling for those that ride. Sometimes you have an off day. You just aren't feeling in the groove, you take it easy. You just obviously aren't in your little zone we all get in. Today mine was off as I hadn't ridden in almost a month, and am having Ducati withdrawls.

Anyway... as I approach the corners I'm keeping a real nice pace in these 15mph twisties. I'm having an absolute blast, getting through them pretty smooth but something just felt odd. My posture was okay, but something was just funky.

Finally, my favorite banked corner comes up, it's a left hander, I've been practicing at them as I seem to have posture issues to the left.

I lean in, move my ass off, get my knee pointed out, start to get close to the ground and OH SHIT... sand.

A big fucking pile of sand. The corner isn't totally blind but banks. It's at an odd angle so you HAVE to start at the outside so you can stay on the road. Start on the inside and you move to the outside of the corner, very odd banking, but very fun.

I go to the outside, make my way towards the yellow line's apex and hit sand. Obviously having not ridden this road in nearly a month it was my own damned fault for riding as fast as I was for not knowing the conditions of the road. The back tire broke loose, I didn't panick. Instead, I held on and tried to keep leaning, the sudden break of traction broke my left foot off the peg and my foot bounced, I heard my boot make a barking sound like a tire, and in an instant the tire gained traction. Still leaning, I was able to hold onto the bike and did not lowside OR highside from the sudden gain in traction. Keeping my cool was the best thing to do, thank god I managed.

I was immediately transitioning into the next corner which included a heavy amount of sand AND gravel, immediately downshifting expecting it, slowed down and compensated. Got through it and moved on.

Moral of the story: I'm no Rossi. I consider myself a good rider, but I'm no Rossi. I'm still working on my technique (hell, even people who have ridden for 10-30 years still are) but we all need to check ourselves before we ride. Tonight I was far too excited to get out, didn't think anything of it, wasn't feeling it, and should have been riding 75%, instead I was more around 90% which was probably way too much considering I didn't know the road condition and hadn't been out there in a while.

Take it easy, back off, and if you have taken a break from riding make sure you gain back gradually.

Live to ride another day my friends.

Had I crashed it would have been very minor, I was moving between 30-50mph (can't tell you exactly what, I wasn't paying attention to the speedo, that's sort of the last thing on your mind when your rear tire comes out from under you) so it would have been scuffs and scrapes and me cussing at my bike. The important thing is that I kept my cool and stayed on.

Ride in your limits, and if you aren't feeling it, just kick back, relax and ride to live another day.

Take care all my riding buddies. Keep a good mentality on the roads, summer is closing up, so is the season and keep that rubber side down. You can get intimate with the road without kissing it ;)

Clutch feedback.

2007-09-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yeah so far the clutch springs and pressure plate are working great!

Wish I could test them out when the bike was running.

Standing still? Working great.

Yes, this entry is a joke.

Seriously though it's going to rock. That clutch is STIFF, nice and hard. Will have wonderful feedback now.

Ventilating the clutchinator in your duckinator!

2007-09-06T20:54:00.001-07:00

This is a how to guide WITH PICTURES on how to ventilate the clutch on your Ducati. Let it be known before doing this that this ONLY WORKS WITH DRY CLUTCH SUPERSPORTS. I know that may sound stupid for some people, but I also know that some people are more into riding than wrenching. If you are NOT SURE which you have please ask your dealer or someone you bought it from or a mechanic or check the manual FIRST.

That said...

If you've got a dry clutch and you've been drooling at pictures of other people's clutch covers, pressure plates, pretty springs and caps... well... this tutorial is about to take you down that road so you can do it yourself.

Total cost to do it the way I did it with my clutch cover? ..... $0.00 However, you CAN purchase clutch covers from a dealer or performance shop or online or what have you and I've seen those range from $100 - $300

Total cost with the accessories I used? $140.00 (this includes the billet pressure plate with the nice caps and new clutch springs which are far stiffer) and the cost can go anywhere from $140 to $300+ depending really on what you want for accessories, what plate, what springs, what caps...

Also keep in mind my setup includes speedymoto accessories, the springs are very stiff and makes riding in town difficult if not painful as the clutch is much stiffer, so if you want it to stay easy as stock then replace only the pressure plate and caps and not the springs.

The possibilities are as extensive as you want to go. So lets start off by beaming you up to the tutorial. Let it be noted this tutorial is for replacing the clutch cover and pressure plate and springs and caps and allen bolts.

Here we have a 1999 Ducati 900 SuperSport. Note the stock clutch cover.

Step one includes taking off 4 small allen head bolts that come out. I am unsure of the size, I just took out a huge package of allen wrenches and picked and chose till I found one that fit. Please note that the top allen wrench bolts will be very long, and the bottom 2 will be very small. Remember this if you choose to put them all back in.

Below is a picture of what it looks like with all the allen bolts out and with the clutch cover pulled off. Note there are still some allen bolts in, they did not actually hold the cover on, but the cover had a hole for them. It goes around them.

In the top of each cap circled below are more allen based screws. Loosen these up one by one. Use the ABSOLUTE CORRECT SIZE that fits and be VERY CAREFUL as they may be VERY tight. If you strip the head of them you will have to have them extracted at a shop. I was unlucky enough to have 3 of them stripped even though I used the proper size as they were so tight they would not come out. Alternatively I used a dremel and heavy duty cutting wheels to cut the springs and caps off and extracted them successfully with vice grips. This is in no way shape or form recommended unless you are very precise with cutting tools, very careful and very patient.

Easy story... just use the right size allen wrench and be very careful. Some of you will probably have absolutely no issues, others may have some tight ones where the bolts have tightened from the heat and what not.

TIP: If you see a lot of dust built up around the allen bolts and the caps you can try lightly tapping on the cap with a rubber mallet or a hammer LIGHTLY to see if you can possibly loosen up some of the dust that has built up. This may make it easier for you to get the bolts out.

Once you have loosened all 6 of the allen bolts you can now take the stock caps and springs out. You will be left with the STOCK PLATE exposed. You can pull it out slightly and using a rubber mallet and a screwdriver or a rod of some sort very slowly and lightly tap out the rod in the middle resting on the bearings. The rod is highlighted below in red in the center, around it i have highlighted all the allen wrench bolts you need to loosen.

Once you have tapped it loose you should now just have a big rod sticking out and the plates underneath exposed. TOUCH NOTHING.

Now, go get your new plate that you've bought, that's right, the pretty one.

Now in the same fashion you took it off, line it up. Wait, what? Line it up? But you took it off and they all fit the same right? WRONG, there are marks for the balance point! Note that one of the spots for the springs should have some slashes in it, or marks as you will, marking the balance point (yes, it's a balance thing) and one of the towers that you slide it over will have them to. But don't worry! I TOOK PICTURES!

In the picture below you will notice one of the springs and caps and bolts is missing. you will ALSO notice that the tower has grooves and the plate has grooves. NONE of the other spots on the plate or towers will have these. Line these up and it will look like below. Please note that I have already put my springs and caps on in this picture... you obviously have to line it up before you do that.

Once again using a rubber mallet or a hammer, LIGHTLY tap it into place so that it is tight as the stock plate was so that the rod goes into place in the bearing.

Now using a small torque wrench put your springs in, caps and the allen bolts and tighten them to 60 in pounds. Yes, this is VERY LIGHT, there is not a lot of torque on these. If there is too much the bolts will break.

If you do not have access to a torque wrench such as this you can still torque them down with your bare hands but it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to use a torque wrench. The secret is to get them all down and tight just barely to where your hand meets resistance (it stops turning), but not tightly, very lightly. Then using your eyes watch the allen wrench and turn it just a little till the allen wrench BARELY FLEXES, this should get the bolt tight but not extremely tight, its inbetween "snug" and "tight". Only do this if you know what I'm talking about and you are confident in doing this, otherwise use a torque wrench.

Zoomed out a bit this is what it should look like when properly tightened, torqued and put in place.

Now the fun part. I used a dremel and cut up my stock cover and used some metallic black paint and clearcoat and painted it and cut half of it off and put it back on. I put the long bolts back in plate and one of the short ones as well. The end result is this. The stock bolts just need to be snug for the clutch cover.

The 250 is getting FLOGGED... SHIT!

2007-09-05T20:31:00.001-07:00

Well, not quite shit. Just scraped pegs for the first time on this bike. Normally it's knee, and even that is RARE. Sometimes I do get spirited... but there is a series of 15mph corners out by my house that are an absolute BLAST to dip into. The very first one I got a little too hot and not enough body moving off the bike, rather than getting my knee down enough as a feeler i scraped a peg and WOW did it wake me up. I've "touched" peg, before, just a tiny hair once or twice, but never actually ground the suckers down like that. Ripped off the rubber right along with a decent tiny bit of metal on the peg.

But from what I've been told the purpose of dragging a knee isn't to "get the bike low" but rather for people to use it as a feeler to know how far you are leaned over. I've done it a few times, and generally if I even touch my knee down a tad little bit I back off because I know I'm getting a bit "too spirited" so you can imagine I backed quite a bit off tonight.

No need to preach! I know all about the "that's borderline lowside territory son!" crap because I actually preach it myself to my friends, but never got the bike that low before and it was all because I went too hot, too fast, had horrible posture and just really wasn't paying as much attention as I should and was being sloppy.

So remember kids! POSTURE! POSTURE POSTURE! Get the butt off, follow it with your shoulders and get that elbow corrected, get that knee out and if you feel like you're falling off, lean more! And remember if you're scraping pegs you are probably riding that 250 way hard for the street, or your posture needs some correction... usually one or the other. If you're scraping toe then you have a huge foot or you need to go toes in (thanks to BrianM from ninja250.org for teaching me that one) and last but not least RIDE TO ARRIVE ALIVE!

Not that I condone or promote riding hard on the street. Just wanted to share my experience with you all.

Ducati in paint again

2007-08-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

This time she'll have stunning results.

In the mean time I have polished up the pipes, frame, wheels, swingarm, etc...

Enjoy!

To change or not to change the rear tire....

2007-08-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

So my pilot power is finally coming to the end of it's life. I like the pilot power and how the bike turns in but have heard time and time again "Don't mix tires!" so I may just go with another pilot power when this one wears out but once the front is toast and the rear is toast WHAT should I get?

HMmmm debating debating.

I could go follow the pirelli cult and be cool because the wheel goes round... or I could keep where I'm at. I dunno, that pilot power is a damn sticky tire. I can't justify an 2-CT for the street that wears out in 2000 miles unless I'm on the track. The power seems to wear nicely for the street and has never once broken traction unless I locked up the rear tire which even then is hard to do unless I'm REALLY on the rear brake and the front? I don't think so.

I'm open minded so I want to find the perfect tire that will fit my riding feel and turn in feel so I am unsure what to go with next.

Although I saw a review on the Dragon SuperCorsa Pro tires and the results compared to all the other tires I saw were OUTSTANDING. It MIGHT just be worth a try but I don't know if I REALLY need that sticky of tires.

Well I THOUGHT I was fast.

2007-08-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Taking 40mph corners at 80... 30mph corners at 70... 15 and 25mph corners at whatever feels comfortable...

You begin to think you're fast.

Then you ride with your best friends who are already 10x faster than you and realize "I'm definitely slow, they're fast, but I'm not THAT slow, for fuck's sake I'm hauling ass around these corners... WHAT am I missing?"

Then they video tape you doing a 200 mile ride and it sets in.

We came back and had a couple sodas when we got back to my friend's place and watched the video and what I THOUGHT was a LOT of hanging off my bike looked like half of what they were doing. Then it hit me.... HANG OFF MORE. STICK THAT FUCKING KNEE OUT...

My buddies gave me some feedback, it was good... but it helped.

I immediately geared up, headed out the door as I was leaving and said "I'm going to go practice." my buddy said "When you feel like you're falling off.... hang off more."

He was right.

So out near my house is a set of 15mph corners, it goes on for 3 miles. I went up and down it 3 times. Hanging off more and more. And nearly drug a knee the final way up. I hung off more than i've ever hung off of a bike and it was EXHILARATING! What I thought before was "fast" around those corners was nothing like it. It wasn't just fast, it was the best feeling in my life, every corner, every time.

Practice... practice... practice.

I'll be practicing more. I'll be practicing my riding style a lot. I also learned some shoulder techniques that help my body point correctly and align correctly in corners. It made an instant difference.

What I THOUGHT was fast just got faster.

What's the difference between TIRED and EXHAUSTED?

2007-08-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

I was going to type up my ride report tomorrow but hey, i just rode 10 hours today and really I don't feel like waking up and going "Oh crap... i remember this and this sort of happened this way..."

As I said... there is a fine line between tired and exhausted.

What's the difference?

"tired" is an excuse. Tired means your eyes are a bit droopy and you're being lazy and don't want to go on. Being tired is a state, but it's an excuse.

"exhausted" is doing something till you can't physically handle it anymore. It's being so completely drained that you just cannot handle it anymore. It means your mind and body simply cannot do anymore.

I'm physically exausted to the point that I could not actually unzip my suit when I came home. In fact, I had grip it between my fingers and pull while holding my fingers together with my other hand, took me like 5 minutes... and I still had my wrists, my collar, my boots and the rest of my suit to unzip it was quite a chore.

It started out awesome. I was up till 4 am. Left at around noon and ended up heading out with my neighbor. I wasn't expecting to but he was headed to the same place I was so we went together. Small world...

I would have been in Medford sooner but my neighbor takes a LOT of breaks. With good reason of course, he has back problems... but hey I had al the time in the world so I wasn't too worried about it and took it easy.

The ride over was beautiful. I have what seems like a million pictures to upload. I'll post them up tomorrow.. well... that would be today technically.

On the way over I saw everything from gorgeous woods and wildlife to lava beds and lakes and reservoirs and even passed by crater lake. It was absolutely stunning to see that much of Oregon all in one day.

Some of you may remember my vacation where I did a 1500 mile loop around Oregon. It was a blast. But so was today simply because it was so eventful.

It was interesting on the 250 because it is so much more comfortable than the Ducati (am I allowed to say that? I know an italian somewhere in a Ducati shop is plotting my demise for that comment) and gets so much better mileage. I literally spent I think like $15 on gas today total? I may be wrong, it may be more but I'm pretty sure that's accurate, could be more. Either way, I hardly used much gas money and bought a couple snacks here and there. It wasn't bad at all.

The route itself went out of redmond, past la pine, into chemult and over past and around crater lake and eventually into medford and wrapped into grants pass.

My favorite part had to be around crater lake. There were some beautiful twisties that were gauged at around 30mph and me and my neighbor had a blast in them. He'd signal for me to just go and I'd jump ahead of him (he was on a cruiser) and go rip up the twisties. I haven't got the 250 leaned over like that for quite a while, it felt fucking AWESOME! Those pirelli tires are great.

I was having so much fun in the twisties I actually went way too hot into one and ended up with my tire on the yellow line and almost into the other lane and had to catch myself haha! The rest of the way I was careful not to go TOO hot into corners after that. But the twisties were so tempting. It was great!

I finally got out of there, me and my neighbor parted ways and I headed towards grants pass. I was told to take I-5 but I hate freeway traffic on the 250. It isn't that it isn't doable, it's that it just sucks... its no fun. SO I took the old highway that runs along I-5 into grants pass which is nothing but small straightaways and 30mph corners. The funny thing is that I was actually moving FASTER than the traffic on I-5 there for a while. I wish i had a camera for that. If you can only imagine being on I-5 and looking to your right to see and old twisty highway and some guy on a weeny looking 250 ninja is actually flying ahead of you and keeping up with traffic... it was pretty funny. But it was a blast.

Finally I got into the actual town...

From there I managed to get lost attempting to find my friend Elmer's house. I finally found it and met up with my buddy sam. I also got to meet Elmer's parents and his wife. They came ALL the way from friggin' TAIWAN to come visit Oregon!

I don't think I've ever met such a nice bunch of people. His parents were so hospitable and totally nice to me and sam both. We talked about a bit of everything and watched some hummingbirds feed on their hummingbird feeders out on their porch (don't worry... I GOT PICS!) and we took pictures of everyone and just hung out and had fun.

We headed back to medford after a couple of hours of visiting and visited Sam and his family and me and Sam went on a short walk around the block to stretch.... in full gear.... we kind of looked like power rangers walking around at midnight scouting the neighborhood for baddies... I felt kinda dumb wearing ALL my gear and walking around a whole block but it was good because I needed to stretch.

Up to that point before we got to Sam's house we had a lot of fun on some backroads. We finally got a chance to ride together for the first time in around a year. Our last ride was memorable but in a scary way when he went down and crashed. So this time it was much better, no crashes, haha! But seriously it was a blast. It was a lot of fun to hit the twisties with someone who has the same bike to see them go into the corners and keep up and flog the bike and have fun.

I found so many roads I never knew existed in Oregon. It was a blast!

The way back is where it got interesting.

On the way back it started to get very cold. With the change in elevation it got colder, and colder... and colder... and yet more cold as I came home. That's not it though.

On the way back I had filled up and prepared for the interesting haul. Before I headed out I realized "Shit. I'm still wearing a tinted visor". Thankfully Elmer was nice enough to let me use his. The funny thing is that HIS helmet was the EXACT same model as mine so it was a perfect fit. He told me to just ship it back to him when I am done, so sometime this coming week I'll just ship the visor back to him.

But WOW what a world of difference a CLEAR visor makes against a TINTED one at night. I've night rode before with a tinted visor and thought i was going to die from not being able to see shit.

The way back on highway 97 was a straight shot but it taunted me the whole way. Dead deer on the road every 10 or so miles it seemed, constantly seeing dead deer... crazy people on the highway. Although there was this one honda civic I kept passing. I'd fuel up, head back on the highway, catch up to him, pass him, move on..... take a break... head back on the highway, catch up to him, pass him, move on... i did this to him not once, or twice... but 3 times. I kind of wondered if he thought I was stalking him, it was pretty funny.

I finally hit chemult and fueled up one last time just so I knew I had enough gas to get home without hitting reserve.

I headed out of chemult and there was no traffic, totally dead. Till in the distance I thought I saw a corner, because 2 pairs of headlights looked to be in the same lane. As I got closer I noticed it wasn't changing. The headlights were getting bigger... I was starting to realize that the headlights weren't coming around a corner, nor were they from one vehicle. Yellow lights formed on both of the headlights... They were semi-trucks.

And both of them were taking up both lanes. And one was headed right for me.

I've been confronted with some situations. A swather turning left in front of me, nearly hitting deer, hitting gravel and drifting my bike and nearly losing it, and hell I've even hit oil once.....

But what the fuck do you do when you don't have any where to go and 2 semi trucks are in the oncoming lane and YOUR lane?

You say "FUCK", that's what you do. And then you try to think as quick as you can.

All I could say was "FUCK!" and I got on the brakes. My thought process instantly became shit tactics. "Fuck... brake, squeeze, slow.... downshift.... fuck, there isn't much shoulder... fuck fuck fuck move over, hold it steady and keep on the shoulder, there's about a foot, I can do this... downshift again... brake harder, dont' lock the rear, I can't afford to slide right now, fuck, brake..." before it began the semi truck flew by me with a couple of feet to spare and it was over. I was stabbing at my gear shifter trying to figure out what gear I was in so I could go on my merry way and had to just pull over and gather my brain for a minute because I wasn't even sure what gear I was in.

At first I was upset, pissed off and wanted to turn around and kick someone's ass till I REALLY thought about it and thought "My headlight is small, i probably appear way off in the distance, he needed to pass and had no idea..." but still, doesn't excuse it.

You know what is crazy though? Had I been in my car I'd have had NO ROOM to go anywhere, I'd have been screwed.

What a rush! I tell ya... nothing wakes you up from the cold wind and taunts of dead deer on the side of the road like a semi truck in your lane coming at you and you only have about 1ft of shoulder to work with. After that I was awake the whole fuckin way home.

Hours later, 3 am... I get home. I'm freezing... my face is numb, my hands I can't even feel... my toes tingle, my back hurts, my neck aches...

I sat down, took off my gear, called some people to let them know I was cool...

Then I thought about today and realized... I feel fucking GREAT!

How often is it you get to wake up say "I'm going to ride for 10 hours, meet up with my friends and ride, meet cool people and get out and have a blast. I'm going to go grab some kickass photos and have some cool photo opportunities, then I'm going to rip up some gorgeous twisty roads and ride my damn bike like I stole it." I generally can't vouch I do that one every day, but today was exceptionally nice.

And by the way... out of EVERYONE I know, only 2 people bothered to text me and say "Hope you're safe." and check on me.

Huge thanks to my SISTER and my friend AMANDA. What would I do without you? Always nice to know people care.

Well...

I feel great, I have some kick ass photos to share with you all tomorrow. But I'm extremely exhausted and sore and I really need to just go crash or I'm going to fall asleep before I type this.

Everyone go listen to The Prodigy - Voodoo People (pendulum remix)

Give yourself something up beat to listen to while you read this :)

Scared me!

2007-07-18T18:50:00.001-07:00

I came home after a decent ride today and couldn't figure out why the rear tire felt like it had a tiny little bump on the way home. I pulled over and didn't see anything at first.

Then... when I got home and pulled it in the garage I found this wonderful little thing in my tire.

I thought "Great. Time for a new pilot power."

As I looked closer at it, the nail was in not at an angle, but almost entirely sideways. I thought "The only way it could have done that, is from the tire spinning on it from a hard takeoff." and I thought about it and it made sense, there had been a few times I took off hard in the past few days and if a nail was under the tire it would be like doing a burnout (but not quite a burnout) and slipping the nail right into the tire.

The nice thing is, as I examined it MORE I noticed it seemed to be ONLY in the tread, not deep into the tire, so it wasn't enough to get in or past the actual tire itself, just into the tread sideways. Scared the crap out of me, I was expecting a "PFFFFFTTTTTTT" as I yanked it out but it came right out and wasn't in that far, thank god! I had my tire snakes ready haha.

RIP Supersport. 1970-2007

2007-07-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

I was informed today that this year is the LAST year the supersport will be made. My bike is a 1999 Ducati SuperSport.

The bike has one of the largest and most classic amounts of heritage behind it in Ducati history starting with the first supersports in the 1970s. The bike has a classic past, and a great reputation and has evolved over the ages, still being one of the most marked bikes Ducati has put out.

I am unsure if it is lack of interest, buying, or what have you. But the bike is being discontinued. My bike will be that of a dying breed. I'm proud to own my bike and it will be going nowhere. The usable power, the great handling, the good looks, that sound of an air-oil cooled desmo twin which is an enjoyable, evil powerhouse of pure joy.

Sure, the bike lacks the huge power of it's brothers, the 4 valver bikes (the superbikes) but is one of the most enjoyable bikes I've ridden, and a bike I'm damned proud to own and is entirely usable on the street. Mine was the first year they came out with fuel injection for it, the first year many major changes were made, a stepping stone in the future for the supersport and continued for another 8 years.

RIP Ducati SuperSport. 1970-2007, 37 years of Ducati history that won't be forgotten. (who knows, perhaps mine will gain value with time like so many of the other ducati bikes out there, i won't get my hopes up)

Perhaps some day the supersport will come back. If it does, count me in for another one in my stable. My bike just got that much more rare, but also that much more lonely. :(

Hear it. Love it.

2007-07-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

The Ducati has a new sound :)

Ride report - Ducati is FINISHED

2007-07-09T17:53:00.000-07:00

Been a while. I feel horrible for not having posted for so long. Its taken a very long time to get everything done and finished and it has finally came together.

First off, to satisfy your ducati craving, here are some pictures of the finished bike. Gloss black with LeoVince pipes.

The paint job was excruciating and took FOREVER to complete. Sanding, more sanding, wet sanding, more sanding yet and you guessed it MORE sanding.

After several weeks of sanding I finally was ready to paint. I managed to get it all primered and prepped and finally painted it. There was some orange peel and imperfections but it turned out nicely and the new LeoVince pipes give the bike a LOUD attitude. I love it!

VERY sick of sanding... still want to ride...

2007-06-19T19:12:00.001-07:00

Almost everything is sanded now. I have the front fender, one more upper fairing, a tail piece and the tank and she's ready for paint.

However, I'm sick of it. MY goal is to have it all sanded by thursday and hopefully ready for paint next week.

Wish me luck.

For all riding buddies locally reading this we are throwing a sanding party TOMORROW including pizza and beer at my place. Hit me on my cell phone if you want to come. Payment is in pizza and beer, lets get this shit DONE!

Pipes are HERE!

2007-06-09T10:07:00.002-07:00

Fairing sanded

2007-06-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

here's one of the fairings almost finished sanding.

Leo Vince pipes

2007-06-08T17:13:00.001-07:00

MY PIPES ARE FINALLY HERE!

HELL YES!

Straight from italy!

Ducati Damage

2007-06-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

No i didn't crash... its a long story but basically some fairing bolts came loose, fairing got wrapped around the kickstand and held it against the exhaust... and bam, melted lower fairing.

Here's the progress of the new paintjob.

First off here's the damage... ick..

Note the after picture after some VERY careful dremeling and sanding. (and the fact that now the edges are very round and perfected... where they were once mangled..

Awwww it has a cute little prop to hold up the gas tank while I work on it. Thank you Ducati :)

A post for the newbies

2007-06-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

So lately on some messageboards and blogs and also in person I've heard newly founded riders complaining a lot. They've also seemingly been "surprised" that motorcycling is so dangerous and have had lots of eye opening experiences. Some have crashed and it burst their "I'm invincible!" ego and they realized that anyone can crash. Others have had interesting encounters with road rage and cagers and been surprised.

So lets get down to the basics.

1. There will always be a driver out there that feels they either have something to prove to you (for whatever ungodly reason) that they need to beat you to the light, ride your ass, or "impress" you. All it takes is one idiot being careless to ruin your day for a day or for life. YOU need to be cautious, YOU need to be alert and YOU need to expect that these people are after you. Here are things you can do to be awake for these people:

- Don't challenge people at lights... especially ricers. They drive aggressive, sure, they're slow but it doesn't keep them from swerving into your lane because they're inexperienced. Although sometimes its funny to rev at people in blue miatas that think they're badasses ;)

- Don't try to race a cager to a light. Bad idea... remember its easy to lock up the brakes at the last minute, or run that light and have another cager pull out in front of you.

- Be wary of idiots that want to impress you by showing you they can weave in and out of lanes. Go out of your way to avoid them and the traffic around them. It's sometimes better to pull over at a gas station or the next turn at the cost of your dignity and leave them alone than to end up getting caught in an uncomfortable situation.

2. Road rage is to be taken seriously. You may be faster than almost any cager out there, almost guaranteed but it doesn't mean people won't go out of there way. Every day bikers get swerved at, tracked down in an attempt to "prove them wrong". Think I'm joking? You should really check THIS ARTICLE out where a local pickup truck swerved at and MADE CONTACT with a biker. Truck flipped of course trying to flee. Thank god the biker stayed upright. What can you do to avoid these things?

- If someone is going out of their way to pass you, let them. Do not speed up, leave them be, save your dignity. It isn't worth it.

- We all love to flip people off. Yeah, I'm guilty sometimes. If it's one thing I've learned it really is a bad idea. Its generally not worth it, you'd be amazed how far people will go out of their way through traffic (even though they were at fault for being an idiot) to try and get back at you. In fact, half the time with road rage with bikers we are perceived as "the damn fucking biker" even though the cager was at fault because we appear to come out of the blue because we are so hard to see. That all in it's own seems aggressive and a surprise to them, so then we flip them off and they think "That motherf**cker!"...... road rage.

- Be courteous in traffice. If a cager sees you and is trying to get into traffic, by all means, let them in, they'll most likely wave at you and everyone around you saw you let them in. Guess who just got seen in traffic and noticed? You. Still assume they're out to get you, but going out of your way to be courteous and making sure that your presence is known is the key to being safe. Always assume they're out to get you, always, but don't let it keep you from being courteous. Being courteous also deters assholes from having a reason to hate you.

- Leave jacked up trucks alone. Think I'm joking? I know, it probably sounds like I'm putting them into a category but I kid you not.... the 3 major incidents I have had with road rage were idiots in trucks full of people driving like yahoos and hillbillies driving aggressive, telling me off for no reason at a light because they seem to think they have something to prove. Most the time I assume its jealousy for them not having the guts to be on 2 wheels and them having giant monstrosities on 4 wheels seems to piss them off... I really don't know WHY they're like that, but they were. Thing is, truck or no truck, if they're going out of their way to tell you off at a light for no reason and challenge you, just leave them alone and don't give them the time of day. They clearly have issues as human beings and really don't need more of an excuse to be more of an asshat than they already are.

- Leave aggressive drivers alone. Don't try to catch up to an idiot cutting people off to "prove them wrong" and "show them", this may sound like common sense but honestly i've seen bikers do it... and nearly get run off the road.

3. Watch your driving conditions. City riding is dangerous... of all the places I've ridden the city has to be the worst. Gravel at intersections, construction, crazy people, crazy cagers... its horrible. Here are some simple things to remember and look out for.

- Intersections are a given, there is always one in the city and you'll always be there. Remember that intersections are one of the HIGHEST accident prone places to be a motorcyclist. They are the death spot for riders every year because people will always be willing to run it, turn left in front of you, try and beat you to it or not pay attention. Always look, come to a full stop, look again... double check... watch behind your ass in case there is a cager not paying attention.

- Lights are dangerous. Why? Watch your mirrors, ALWAYS. If you are at a stop pay attention and glance at your mirror often, have an escape route. Many bikers are hit at stoplights every year and either get hit hard or die. People don't pay attention, and you never know when that valley girl bitch will be in her escalade text messaging her idiot friend and look up, there you are... OOPS she can't stop fast enough. If you pay attention, glance at your mirrors, have an escape route you can at least be prepared. NEVER EVER sit at a light in neutral, it is the stupidest thing you can possibly do if you need to go. Unless everyone behind you has already stopped, be in 1st gear because you need to assume its time to go, always.

- Watch out at open intersections and go easy around the corner. Why? Because many times people will go over painted lines and oil will be on them and then they're slippery, or, there is gravel you won't see till the last minute. Swing wide and take the corner so you can avoid any possible gravel. Bigger bikes are more prone to breaking the traction if its gravel or oil if you aren't careful with the throttle. Be safe. Better safe than sorry and go slow than to jet around it and lowside your pretty bike.

- Stunts are stupid in town. Now... I think stunts in general on the open road are stupid and that people that do stoppies and standing wheelies and crap like that should be punched in the mouth for doing them in traffic. I don't care if you want to do it in a parking lot or where you can go hurt yourself without hurting others, and sure it gives us all a bad name, but there is always someone stupid enough to give us a bad name. But if you crash IN traffic you don't know if the cager behind you can or will stop. If you crash in town you could end up getting hit, easily. So if you are a "stunta!" do it where no one else is around.

4. Cut the attitude. You aren't invincible. You can wreck, its a risk for every rider and if you go out thinking you can't ride because you're too good you can come back and tell me you were wrong 3 months later when you burst your ego bubble. People who ride with that sort of ego WILL crash, why? Because those people ride with the assumption that if they can't wreck that they're good enough to push their limits. It's a simple thing called self preservation. If you think you're Rossi, you're more prone to ride like him, and hell, none of us are Rossi (i only wish). Ride to arrive at your destination and ride to live another day. Everyone needs to ride with CONFIDENCE, ALWAYS, but if you have an ego, pop it by coming to reality with yourself before you pop it by going down.

Recognized by a stranger

2007-06-01T11:36:00.001-07:00

So there is a new bar in town, Jerseys is the name. The owners are hardcore sportbikers.

I'm meeting up with my friends I haven't seen in about a year at 7th street bar. I'm getting my gloves on, getting ready to hop on my bike and a guy in what looked like a cook suit or something along those lines pulls up in a PT cruiser and goes....

guy "Hey, do you ride a ninja?"
me "Yeah?"
guy "its a 500 or a 250 right?"
me "Yeah.... a 250.."
guy "you've wrote some reviews and stuff, you post a lot on sb.ws"
me "Yeah that's me."
*expecting someone to be super pissed at me, beat me or something bad I wait for his next response*
guy "I recognize your leathers. You're local aren't you?"
me "Yes, yes I am."
guy "Hi I'm *ForgotHisName*, I'm from jerseys, i've seen you post and seen your stuff you've put on the net."
me "OH! Ok, you own jerseys don't you!"
guy "Yes, and we are having a bunch of riders show up on sundays to watch motogp and ama races."
me "Yeah I heard that but I work sundays.. you know *Friend'sName* right?"
guy "Yeah i've heard of him, my brother knows him, he rides a Ducati ST4s right?"
me "That's the one!"
At this point i was putting on my gear and heading out, he invited me to come again and i said thanks...

Odd, never been recognized for my online posts and presence before...

Jerseys dude if you're out there, hi!

Ducati... Italian... Rough...

2007-06-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

So here's a comparison of a few things and explanation of things for those that want to know the "hows" and "whys" of italian bikes.

1. Leave it to an Italian that makes a bike that the lower half of your fairing is held onto the frame by 1 screw. Weight reduction is important, apparently holding fairings on is not, and if you don't pay attention to that one screw, well, you were clearly an idiot.

2. Leave it to Italian engineering, it is more or less geared towards convenience and performance, not necessarily reliability or comfort... for instance, only an Italian would make a suicide stand for a bike so its convenient when you want to go, just not when you want to stop... or not drop your bike.

3. Leave it to an Italian to make the wiring on your tail lights to require you to remove the seat and the fender and remove all the wiring and harnesses and clips just to put the wires through one hole to change a light bulb. Clearly if you're going fast enough a turn signal for those behind you isn't required.

4. Leave it to an Italian to make you remove all of your fairings and screws and bolts on nearly half the bike just to remove the upper fairing to get to your dash. Clearly you shouldn't need to pay attention to the speedo anyway.

5. Italian bikes aren't made for comfort. Sitting on one is like asking Gabe Walker to sit down on the couch, he'd say "Fuck that, hang off!"

6. Italian bikes and electronics... Working electronics? We'll get to that later... after lunchtime. Wait, didn't we say that a couple months ago? Oh well, fuck wiring. Its a race bike, fuck electronics.

7. Italian bikes are like cubicles, there isn't much room to move around or hide behind... the windshields are just big enough to duck behind with the wind coming at you, oh well, if you can fit behind it, it's enough.

8. Italian bikes require extensive knowledge of dead languages, therefore clarifying that you have some sort of spec of intelligence in you. Things like "sinister" and "dexster" in old latin are used in wiring, if you don't know what they mean, well, it sucks to be you, hope you don't screw something up.

9. Italian bikes are like reverse engineering a space shuttle sometimes. Sometimes you'll dig in and realize you are staring into the motherboard of the starship enterprise, something will break and you'll fix it, only to realize you didn't know what you were doing and it cause something else to work because there was a wire looped into another board that was hidden.... only then realizing it didn't really affect the performance of it anyway and wasn't necessary in the first place, so you remove it and have about 10 bolts left over.

10. Italian bikes have an attitude problem. They're proud, arrogant and like themselves how they are. If you add anything to them they'll throw a fit and bitch at you. For instance if you add emissions to the tank they'll create suction and implode, clearly, emissions are for pussies. If they could speak they would say "Fuck emissions, I have no time for emissions, I want to go ride and have pastries when I'm done, fuck emissions. How dare you hinder my performance! Pussy! Its lunchtime, lets go ride again."

11. Italian bikes are arrogant, they only want to be ridden a certain way. If you don't like their position and ride them how they want them, they say too bad. If they could speak they would say "Ride me how i like it, if you don't like it, fuck you! You will hang off me in pain and you will like it! I'm beautiful! Fuck you! Its lunchtime again lets go ride!"

12. Italian bikes.... gah, I'd make up more but it's lunchtime... I'll finish it later ;)

With that said, I love my Ducati.

Took out the 250 and melted the Ducati :(

2007-06-01T09:45:00.001-07:00

So apparently during yesterday's ride one of the fairing bolts came loose, hung off, then caused the other half of the fairing to come loose. During some hard cornering i heard a creaking noise, like something was wrong. I stopped, nothing looked out of the ordinary.

Kept going, started doing it again, finally hit a stop sign in the middle of nowhere, all the sudden I smelled a burning sweet smell. I thought maybe someone was burning something in the field out in the middle of nowhere, kept going. The sound started, really pissing me off, pulled over, still couldn't find anything.

I was riding pretty hard so I figured maybe it was just the suspension compressing or something...

1 hour later I get home and my neighbor comes over and looks at me and says "Your bike smells like shit." i thought he said it sounded like shit so i said "Yeah whatever." and he said "no, it SMELLS like SHIT!", his dad came over and goes "Hey buddy your bike melted." i said "What?"

Went to put down the kickstand and low and behold it was tucked under the fairing somehow and wouldn't come down.. I thought "What the hell?" and reached down and physically moved the fairing back into place with my hand, put the stand down parked the bike and stared in awe as the very back of the lower fairing had melted. Mind you it was not warped, but bits and pieces where it was bouncing (that explains the noise) and had melted sections of it.

My neighbor who does fabrication for aircraft and does carbon fiber and fiber glass work came over and checked it out and said it will be no sweat to fix it and i can shave off the small bits that melted and it'll look like it never happened but i'll need to repaint it.

I guess this gives me an excuse to go through with the paint job I wanted :( Arg.... pisses me off so badly. I should be able to paint it very soon, I'll make sure she looks reborn :)

ON the flip side the carbs on the 250 are now entirely cleaned and runs great, took it out for a ride and she runs like a dream again.

Bike Night! Terrorizing Bend!

2007-05-30T00:30:00.000-07:00

Ok well not terrorizing but there was bikes EVERYWHERE!

Best time I've had in a long time. Unfortunately I did not have my nice camera, and my 1gb SD card JUST got here today.

Tonight there was Ducati bikes, Husaberg bikes, Harleys, all kinds of bikes. Although halfway through the meet a Lamborghini Gallardo drove by and all of the bikers turned their heads to it, too bad we couldn't get a close up look. GORGEOUS!

Tons of fun though! Coffee, drinks, tacos, bikes, more bikes and a hell of a lot more bikes! Needless to say we caused SO much attention that the cops were patrolling the area nonstop for 2 hours, there was that many bikes and that much noise! :)

We're doing it again every tuesday, its gonna ROCK!

Heaven on wheels

2007-05-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

At the pinnacle of racing, at the top of the chain, inspired by racing... somewhere out there is a bike that is so powerful, so amazing, so insanely fast and handles so well that it is something that would be on a whole new level.

The Desmosedici RR
The most amazing bike ever!

At least to me ;)

For $65,000 its a lot of bike. But its amazing.

THIS is the bike that makes me sigh and stare in awe, THIS is the bike that makes your heart stop beating, THIS is the kind of bike that will leave your face behind when it pulls you back hanging on for dear life when you get on the throttle.

Stunning.

The Miata badass...

2007-05-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

So the other day I'm going through town and doing my thing, heading to go on a ride.

This guy in a miata is driving pretty aggressively through traffic, and then we hit a light... he's next to some van and revs his engine at them. Real badass, has to buy a miata when he's 50 so he can race vans, clearly he's above us all. He TAKES off like an 18 second quarter mile bat out of hell.... I'm sure the people in the van were thinking "Erectile dysfunction? Maybe he's just dysfunctional in general..." Well no worries everyone, he DID win the race against the van, those Ford Aerostars are tough competition but he managed.

We continue along, I'm kind of just chilling in the slow lane and he cuts someone off... i think "WTF is this guy's issue?" traffic slows wayyyy down, I go into the fast lane and what'ya know I end up next to mister miata.

Now... I've seen this guy around town before. He drives this thing like it's a Ferrari 360 or something. Always toting around driving aggressive and clearly thinking he's mario andretti.

At first I thought "I bet he wants to race, because clearly, racing vans are no challenge."

He's busy over gawking at people across the street at burger king and looks back over and notices I'm next to him on my Ducati. He just looks straight. I beeped at him and he looked back over. I revved my engine and nodded like "Oh come on... lets go..." He looks back and mouths "No.. I'm okay! I don't race!" mister miata took off normally at that light.

I guess that van at the last light gave him too much run for his money.

Not to say that i'd have raced him, but I figured I'd get a reaction like that, priceless. Talk about an idiot though, you'd think the guy thought he was in a formula 1 car the way he was driving. It's just a friggin' miata buddy! My escort zx2 is about as fast as your car!

"Made out of unicorn and leprechaun blood, it must work like magic!"

2007-05-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah i know crazy title but man this stuff is AMAZING!

I got this leather conditioner/cleaner for my suit and jackets and man it works like a charm!

Go here if you want the link to it

Now this is just f***in cool.

2007-05-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Who wants to buy this for me?

I'm adding this to my future wishlist, that's awesome for the Ducati.

Veypor Features Include:
# Portable Dynamometer plots HP and TQ curves
# Full tree and Pro tree staged 1/4 Mile runs
# 0-60Mph Testing
# Braking Test
# Roll-on Test for any speeds
# General Datalogging
# Save up to 8 runs
# Average and instantaneous fuel mileage
# Separate fuel tripmeter
# Fuel level gauge (no additional sensors required)
# Distance used and remaining on tank
# Metric and Imperial Units
# Two independent and programmable Hour Meter timers
# Timers display a warning when maintenance is required
# Gear indicator (no additional sensors required)
# Lap Timer
# Course Analyzer
# Save up to eight different lap timing sessions of 30 laps each
# Save configuration data for up to 4 different vehicles
# Super bright shiftlight with two brightness levels.
# Programmable Shift light
# Programmable RPM launch window
# Programmable Speed light
# Dual stage shift light for multiple shift levels
# Download all data to a PC
# Powerful PC graphing analysis software
# G-Force Display
# Stopwatch
# Full data-logging
# High sampling rate
# Multiple on-screen graphing modes
# VIR Infra Red Laptimer support
# Universal Motorcycle mount or car windshield suction cup
# User upgradeable firmware
# Easy installation

Who wouldn't want that? My birthday IS coming up ;) anyone wanna contribute to my addiction fund? That is absolutely sick.

Biker patch wish list

2007-05-20T15:02:00.001-07:00

My wishlist of patches that fit me.

B.A.D.D.

Ride or what?

Never ride faster than your angel can fly...

Fallen Riders

2007-05-19T11:13:00.001-07:00

It nearly has me in tears to type those memorials for my friends and fellow riders I knew.

Please remember that many people die every year on motorcycles, please be careful out there. Remember to always be alert, always ride in your limits and always keep your ego at home but your confidence with you.

Do not let this deter you from riding, do not let this deter you from living life. Life always has tragic moments. I have had many friends die since I was a child from my friend Kyle who died in 3rd grade from being ran over by a van to my uncle who took his life when I was young. I've had friends die in car wrecks and friends die in horrible accidents, and yes, friends die on motorcycles. I do not want anyone to let these accidents keep you from doing the things you love.

Life is far too short to not enjoy your life, to live it doing the things you love to do. You could be going to the mailbox to get your mail and have a heart attack, you could be going to the grocery store and have a semi truck take you out at a light and maybe involved in a robbery at a bank just cashing your paycheck. Horrible things happen every day. It is a horrible fact of life that we all will die someday. Coming to this acceptance in life is difficult for many, but it is a truth that someday we'll all be there. The thing to ask yourself is whether or not you enjoyed your life, took advantage of it, did what you could and spent time with your loved ones and didn't go through life fearing at every corner whether or not it was your time.

Life is a constant mystery, no one knows what will happen.

Live your life in happiness. Remember those that have died.

For the fellow riders we know here that have passed on, we will miss you. Rest in peace my friends.

Rest in Peace Chris Smoldt

2007-05-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

November 6th, 1984 to July 8th, 2006 - May you rest in peace.

Chris Smoldt. Friend and co-worker. Fellow riding brother.

Though I did not know you for long you were a wonderful guy. I always saw you around the office and talked to you. You had just taken up riding. I recall hearing about it and was going to ask you to go on a ride. Monday morning when I came in the office I got a letter announcing your tragic death.

Chris died doing something he loved. He was an outgoing, fun guy and one hell of a great co-worker.

You will be missed by your family, friends and co-workers Chris.

Chris would be 22 this year. You will be missed but never forgotten.

Rest in peace.

In Loving memory of Allen "KawiDavis"

2007-05-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

6/24/92 - 3/27/07 Rest In Peace my friend.

Allen was a wonderful kid. For those of us involved in the ninja 250 rider's club we knew him as a young and energetic kid who had a great head on his shoulders who dearly loved riding and cared for the riding community. He was very active on the 250 boards and always opened his ears to learn new things. Allen was only 14 when his life was taken on a ride. No one deserves this and it is tragic to see someone so young be taken from us. However, even though we cannot have Allen with us in living spirit, he will always ride on with us in spirit and memory. You were a friend, a fine young man, you had great things going for you and you were such a kind person.

In Allen's memory his family set up a scholarship memorial fund. If you would like to donate to it the details can be found on the Ninja250 Rider's club HERE at this link where you can get the info necessary to donate. His family has also created t-shirts for people who want to have something to remember him by and all proceeds go to the memorial fund.

I will be personally adding a vinyl to the front fender of my 250 so that myself and other 250 members can always remember Allen "KawiDavis". I always read your posts, always listened to you and loved hearing from you my friend.

Rest in Peace Allen Wesley Davis. You will be missed but never be forgotten.

The Reservoir Ride!

2007-05-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

At first I thought I hadn't been here but I do recall riding at the reservoir 2 seasons ago. Small fine cinder dust made us take the road pretty slow but the 90% of the ride without the stuff was a BLAST!

Finally making more sense

2007-05-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well its making more sense now.

Now recently, on another message board I frequent someone posted up a thread saying "Post your mileage experience chart and rate it". A lot of people said something like this.

0-1000 - I don't know shit.
1000-5000 - starting to figure stuff out
5000-10000 - I think i'm learning a lot
10000-15000 - i'm a pro
15,000-20000 - doing amazing

Obviously, those were people that put lots of miles in small years and seasons of time..

The guys who do track days and have been riding for 10+ years said it more like this.

0-1k dont know shit
1k-5k figured some shit out
5k-15k think you know some shit
15k-25k think you are fast as shit
25k-35K may be the fastest little shit out there
35k-> slow as shit and dont know shit. welcome to the track.

So here I am, going on my 3rd season. Been on about 3 group rides now, already put on 2000 miles on the ducati in a couple of months, hasn't taken that long at all... (you know what's funny? The prior owner put 600 miles in 2 years on it, took me 2 months to rack up 2000 miles HAH!)

I figured "Man I'm doing really freaking good this season!", went on a group ride and felt like I was just the back of the pack. I thought "What the hell?" it just didn't feel like i was in the groove.

Then when no one was in sight and I was way behind it seemed like I was more in the groove but just not with it as much still.

Caught up to my buddies, we took a break, talked, bs'd the norm... and i said "I dunno, seems like every time i'm in a group its like i feel slower than when I'm alone. I'm not saying that to cope an excuse as to why i'm slower, and i have no problem BEING slower, but i don't know whats up."

Then it hit me... I'm looking at what the guy in FRONT of me is doing, not the corner ahead. I feel like corners just crawl up and then i have to react. I'm target fixating... then it started to make sense, when they leave, i feel "better" because I'm not focused on the people near me, i'm focused on the road.

So the next break we took I told them this and one guy who had been riding for 15 years said "You gotta break that habit. Its not a good one and it'll land you in a crash if you don't quit the habit. I had similar issues when I started riding, you gotta find SOMETHING that's passive that you aren't concentrating on constantly but something or a spot somewhere through the corner that is comfortable. For me, looking through the corner out of my eyes I see white lines and focus towards either the white line or yellow line or if there isn't any I focus through the corner to the slab of the road that nothing is in front of. You have to find what works for you and focus there but still be alert and keeping active and it'll come to you. No worries. You'll get it, but BREAK that habit."

So he was nice enough to follow me and give me pointers next break and I focused on trying to break the habit. I'll look through the corners sometime but I'm bad on target fixating. So I tried looking through the corner and letting my eyes see the white line as it passed through me on apexes and what not and I noticed I was reacting a lot better and keeping up with my friends too without the "Ah, corner!" reaction. For some reason last summer I wasn't like that but I guess I let old habits return, TIME TO BREAK THEM!

Although I'm feeling like my riding posture is a lot better now. It feels more natural at this point instead of being up tight and edgy like I was when I started, and last season was good too as I was getting more comfortable. And now having the chance to ride several bikes last season and this season I am getting more of a feeling for that posture and its starting to come together, BUT, I still have a lot to learn. That is a fact that is going no where. Tongue I'm also feeling more confident about leaning the bikes over more, that "It's gonna slip out from under me feeling!" has started to dissipate and is feeling a lot more normal now, haven't tried dragging a knee (have no desire to try unless I hit the track) but utilizing more of the tire and more cornering lately has been an exploration I have been taking cautiously and a bit more each time within my comfort zone. I think if I can get rid of this momentary target fixation and find "that spot" through the corner that I'll be a lot better.

"But cruisers don't HANG with sportbikers..."

2007-05-10T19:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah... I can say one thing to that. "Bullshit."

I cannot count how many cruisers I've ridden with on my "crotch rockets". Who says a cruiser doesn't like to hang out with a sportbiker.

Well, today my neighbor called me up and said "Get off yer ass and lets go for a ride!" I said "OK!" (yeah like you have to twist my arm)

The whole mentality that a sportbiker can't hang out with a cruiser or a cruiser can't hang out with a sportbiker is like saying friends who listen to rock don't hang out with friends who listen to country music because one of us isn't a fan of the other's music. RIGHT? Come on! WHO CARES? You'll still go share a beer with your friend whether he listens to whatever. So why wouldn't you ride with your friend just because they have a different bike? Some people I just don't understand. So people have different tastes!? However, we all have one thing in common and that's that we all love being on 2 wheels. Its like a second family for some of us, for many of us.

So anyway... Lots of fun. Rode a good 100 miles or so today. Of course, I can't let you go off thinking that we didn't do anything! NO! You need pictures! Who can turn down some gorgeous pictures.

We finally took a rest because my buddy's wrist was starting to hurt so we pulled over. As we were pulled over we were out admiring each other's bike and checking out each bike. He checked out my bike, I checked out his and I couldn't help but admire how nice and shiny it was, all the chrome, nice little cruiser. 800cc.... vtwin... Funny thing is, if you were a cager you'd assume "there's 2 bikers in the middle of nowhere, maybe I should see if they're okay?" nope... 5 people (no joke) drove by without blinking. Randomly.... a guy on a harley and his wife out enjoying the same route and admiring the scenery actually bothered to ask "Hey is everything okay?" of course we said "Oh yeah we're fine... nice day though isn't it!" and he continued on his way. Takes a biker to care about another bike sometimes I guess, but that doesn't surprise me.

Here's my buddy's cruiser. Just hanging out, taking a break, enjoying the scenery. I would have snapped a lot more photos but the battery light was on and I wanted to squeeze in pics.

Picture of the bikes zoomed out hanging out.

Me saying "Hey Gary! SMILE!"
Note the sarcastic smile as he grabs his cigarette ... "Heh, suuuuure...."

Cruisers don't hang with sportbikers... yeah... right. What world do these riders come from? Not one I live in. This reminds me of the guy who told me that because I couldn't "Even do a wheelie!" on my 250 that clearly the bike had no ability as a sportbike and that I clearly wouldn't be skilled until I have a bike big enough to do that. Yeah, we don't ride with those squid anymore.

In fact here's an illustration of what that guy looked like.

Note that he highly resembles a creature of the sea, a squid. Now... bear with me... the bike may look like a tractor but in my mind it's a blue suzuki. Now, not to say that all suzuki riders are squid, not by any means. But this guy was the definition of squid. He was utterly obsessed with breaking the law and wheelies, and if you couldn't do those, you clearly weren't a rider.

Well, time to go tell Valentino Rossi that you aren't a skilled rider unless you can only do wheelies and break the law. Sorry Valentino :( But the squid said so...

Feel that damn BURN!

2007-05-10T03:35:00.000-07:00

Out of shape is what I am.

Sure, I'm 120lbs. 120lbs of negative muscle mass right now. Last summer I worked off all of what little fat I have and worked it up to muscle. Last summer I had one hell of a stomach, mean legs and a great upper body and sportbiking was awesome! Needless to say after the first group ride of the season MAN did I feel the burn for a couple days, we rode a long ride and I rode the day after.

Today I looked down and realized "I am not fat... but shit... what happened to my stomach?"

I said "That's it. I'm gonna start working out, TONIGHT". Here it is 3:37 and i have been working out for an hour... lifting my free weights and doing situps to the point of where I was so tired and couldn't pull myself up that I supported my legs with my arms as little as I could and kept going till it was unbearable. I haven't felt that burn in a while and it feels GREAT! Gonna try and churn out a few more before I go to bed and get on the groove again. Can't sportbike all summer if I'm negative muscle mass.

I want a beer REALLY bad right now. I realize though I'd be intaking the calories I just burned, pointless.

Here's an imaginary beer to fitness! *TOAST!*

Seriously though I want a beer right now.

PS: Demon Hunter makes great music to listen to while working out. The Triptych is a great album.

What a nice ride!

2007-05-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

So I took a ride out of redmond, took o'neil highway to 33rd to smith rock way back onto hwy 97 and then onto lower bridge road... from there I continued on there back to 126 and back into redmond. Wonderful ride.

So here goes.... ride report...

Pretty good roads today. Pretty warm. 80F, was very fun. Felt great for the first time in the season not having to wear cold weather gear when I rode.

New tires were scrubbed in last ride.

About halfway through I hit some straightaways which were right next to some fields. Only thing I can compare it to would be a sandstorm out of the movie Dune. Honestly, there was more wind than I've ridden in for a very long time... it was very sudden. Out of nowhere HUGE gusts of wind. I was countering against the wind, it was blowing so hard the bike was tilted a bit up against the wind and it was hard to see due to the wind blowing up out of dusty, dry, empty crop fields that hadn't grown this year yet. So it was sand in your face for 2 miles... I wanted to turn around but I kept going and got out of it..

Kept riding and hit the rest of lower bridge. Actually saw more cops today than I have in a while. I spotted 6 cops. One in redmond, one coming out of redmond, another out on the way towards terrebonne, one hanging out in terrebonne, another on lower bridge and another one (state trooper) on 126. Dunno if there was some event going on in town or what but they were out like crazy, tons of speed traps today. All good though because i was just cruising and having fun.

Great ride.... got into some decent twisties and had a nice long ride today.

Intake/ECU/Pipes on the way!

2007-05-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

FINALLY are on their way!

I called up my friends who told me after many weeks of waiting (almost a month now) that indeed my Ducati Performance kit is ON THE WAY! They don't make these kits anymore although there is aftermarket kits. However, the official kits are now no longer made as my year of bike is considered "obsolete" as long as they're concerned. Who cares, I can still wrench on it all I want, this bike is going NOWHERE!

I thought the bike was cool now but it's going to be way better once she's all dialed in with the new goodies. Unfortunately I have to leave my baby overnight :(

Now... what I'm NOT sure of is whether it will be carbon fiber or titanium. Because the kit says "Carb/Tit" We're hoping for carbon fiber... not only because it looks sick but it's a little lighter. If I get titanium then so be it but it is a Termignoni set so one way or another it will sound like the ducati demon bike from hell when it's done.

Hints, tips, tricks and books...

2007-05-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

Meanings I won't be riding today because its freezing cold outside *cough* Yesterday would have rocked *cough* I figured I'd do and post something constructive.

Some books for some hints, tips and tricks for novice riders. Who doesn't like information?

1. Twist of the wrist 2
2. Proficient Motorcycling
3. Essential guide to motorcycle maintenance

First 2 books are wonderful for learning how to ride, 3rd is great on how to learn how to work on bikes, what to look out for, and the concepts of working on them. All great books. I've heard about and read these books off of forums and other riders, I highly suggest any of the 3. Twist of the wrist is great IMO.