A Merry Moto Christmas

‘Twas the Night before Christmas and all through the garage, not a creature was stirring not even Stegy.

The bikes were all snuggled, warm in their spots, while visions of carbon fiber and high octane fuel danced in their ECM's.

I had just settled in from dodging some birds when all of the sudden from above, I heard a great clatter.

It wasn’t a dry clutch, nor a really loud exhaust, but something different, while familiar in a way.

Across the drying irrigation water I saw the reflection of spoked wheels on the roof. Above I head the squeaking of race boots and the whirring of a generator.

I don’t have a chimney, so I was rather confused. I ran to the downstairs door and burst out on the lawn.

As I turned to the roof I heard the familiar release of velcro and saw the tire warmers being thrown in a trike.

What did I see but a round little man in red and white leathers. He gave me a wink and I heard his fuel pump buzz and then with a flip of his thumb his stead roared to life.

Up off my roof and into the sky I heard him declare “Merry Christmas to all and to all Safe Rides!”

Everyone Dreams, Yes?

Ah, the perfect garage.....it is a core dream we all have and trust me no matter what you have you always seem to want the next level. I mean when the owner of Barber Motorsports Museam talks about his next step you know everyone dreams.

Well, for me there has always been a balance better 2 bikes. And just recently I arrived at what I thought was the perfect balance and then.....well, a Redhead came along.

First, I wasn't looking for another bike, I just happened to ask for a display bike for the SWR Awards Event from Ducati Superstore. Since the event was an Italian Potluck I thought it would be cool to have a spunky Italian attend. I asked Steve Walker of Ducati Superstore if we could use one at the event and he said yes. All I had to do was pick it up the day of the event and return it on Tuesday when they opened again. What an EVIL plan!!!! (His, not mine.)

So, I pick the bike up ride it to my house and then I had a few questions for Steve...they were #1 - Can I wash i? #2 What type of gas does it take? #3 Can I take it on a ride?

I got my answers, Yes - HiTest - Yes.

Step one was washing the bike. For me nothing helps me bond and understand a vehicle better than detailing it. Not understanding how it performs, but how it is designed and how air will flow around it. If you have not figured it out, It is a Ducati Hypermotard and this bike has a very hidden beauty. I washed her very quickly and water flows off this bike in an almost magical manner. Being a naked small bike it was clean and dried quickly.

Well, the event went well and the next day I was anxious to discover this bike. I'll write a review of that experience a little later, but I'm currently looking at financing plans. LOL

BTW, the bike even fits in my garage almost like it was made to live there.

The lure is incredible and I think I've found the perfect mix of bikes. An American V-Twin with a German designed engine, A Japanese sport-sport touring bike and an Italian standard that rides like a sport bike.

Additionally, I think I have found the one and only one bike that makes me think that dealing with a chain wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Time will tell.

When Flowing Gas = No Good!

OK, so I rolled the Shadow that has been occupying the space between by two others bikes into the drive today and decided I probably start it.

I say this because it has been sitting for some time and well, it is for sale. (That's another story.) Anyway a person had called and said they would be trying to come by today to look at it and I decided it would probably be smart to make sure she was running OK.

The bike sputtered a little and was running like it need choke so I pulled the choke out and all of the sudden I see fuel pouring out from under the carbs.... UHG!!!

So, two hours later after pulling the carbs off of the engine and pulling them apart to clean out the vanish and gunk, the bike is running like a top once again!

I guess tomorrow I will pull out all the stop for the garage sale!

Don't Flinch

It is advice my father gave to me when I first was learning to drive. It was in reference to dealing with a bad situation such as hydroplaning and driving onto ice and it has become the one constant in understanding any high stress situation for me regarding just about anything but primarily driving and riding.

In a hydroplane situation you typically don't want to do anything, every high performance instructor I've ever had has always said to maintain inputs and wait the slide out. Any seemingly minor change of input will lead to a drastic change as the vehicle regains traction and it never ends well.

The same is true for a motorcycle, but the rules apply to a lot more than just major situation. Any drastic change of input can obviously result in a crash on a bike, but minor changes or the act of doing nothing on a motorcycle usually is what leads to a crash.

Over the years I have seen a lot of crashes and quite a few on motorcycles. Of all of those 3 motorcycle crashes have occurred directly in front of me and all 3 had a similar sequence of events that lead to the crash. In the last few seconds all 3 of these riders simply stopped riding. (One even put his arms into the air directly above his head.) All 3 could have simply stopped or looked through the turn and would have been fine, but they flinched in their mind and gave up.

I once took a bike down a trail only to find the road disappeared ahead into a 6 foot drop. I leaned back and gave a little gas and landed hard. I mentally had to say "Oh crap I am still going" and got on the gas or I would have fell over and crashed!!

I didn't only because I didn't give up.

On Sunday I met up with a group of guys to help support a triathlon by carrying judges on the back of our bikes. We arrived on time but the organization of the event was not exactly as we were expecting and the rider who was to show us the course gave a hurried description and then said to follow him.

He popped on his sportbike (with sneakers :( ) and jumped onto the course. Here is where me in a hurry, put myself into a very bad situation. I started out of the parking lot, he went straight onto the street and flopped right. I decided to round the corner a bit and then understood the reason he did what he did was that he was too close to the rise of the curb. I had a split second to decide and had to much forward motion to turn hard right onto the sidewalk, so I straightened and gave my bike some gas. The amount of gas I gave the bike saved me, as if I would have done nothing the oil pan would have cause the rear to lever and I would have fallen off the bike.

As you see above the concrete shaved a little off the pan, but not overreacting meant I continued on with the day and no one was the wiser.

Well, in reality I am better for sure. Never again will I be pushed to keep up with someone that didn't plan things properly. If not I know I will pay the price personally. It is in my control to do things the proper way and I should have done better!

On the positive side the guys that volunteered for the event had a blast, were highly professional and were rewarded in the end!

Thanks for a great day and I can't wait for the next one!!

Ride To Eat

They call it a Ride To Eat or RTE and it isn't one of my three letter creations, you'll have to blame someone else for this one!

I first noticed the RTE on a couple other websites, but it really grabbed my attention on ST-Owners.com, a wesite for the riders of the best touring motorcycle on earth of course, the Honda ST1300 (OK, and a few others.)

It wasn't until I actually participated on a RTE that I really got the deal. It isn't Bike Night and it isn't really a group ride, it is exactly what it says, a Ride to Eat! That means someone sets a place and a time (Breakfast, Lunch and sometimes a Dinner) and then everyone rides to eat there, at that time.

I attended a RTE on Sunday at the Rimside Grill in Pine, AZ. It was a nice little ride for me but others in attendance came from Yuma and Kingman, AZ and we even had a rider from California. It was a two day ride ride for those folks, some stayed in a hotel and others camped in the woods. In the end it was a great ride and awesome company.

To me this was a combination of different things that allowed for a good gathering of folks and a truly, Ride Your Own Ride kind of ride.

Next time you want to try something different give a RTE a try, they really are cool!

First Ride Complete!

Getting to know any new bike takes a little time and there is nothing like running it for a few hundred miles to figure out what's what.

After today's ride with a few friends I'm now starting to tweak the bike to me and adjust myself to it. I'm probably looking at at the least a handlebar change and I've already adjusted the suspension after finding I had a little bit too much sag.

All in all I'm happy with the return of a V-Rod to my garage and I might even wash her for the first time tonight!

Well, would you look at That?!?

Yes, that is a VRod and yes, that is my garage.......



But, nope....not mine! ;)

It is actually forum member Ricky's and today Ricky, Rix-ster, James K and I tore into his bike.

We increased the rear tire size with a swing arm swap, upgraded the wheels with custom chrome ones and did a few other things. It was a full day of fun, kidding around and having fun all while working on a motorcycle.

I'll let Ricky tell you all the modification we did on his bike today and you can find photos of our fun - Click here!

German Bike Night

SWR member mrogge offered to hold a Bike Night on Wednesday for members and is even offering a 25% discount on the total bill for coin holders. I would say I was being polite to stop by, but the truth is that the food is great and the beverages are very very tasty!!

While it was just mrogge, oddity and myself tonight I think this place should be a good stop for a lot of folks and look forward to the growth of this Bike Night.

With the TT Roadhouse on Tuesday, Zur Kate on Wednesday and the westside on Thursday, SWR is well on its way to a full week schedule.

Tag - You're IT!

Hey, if you have been stumbling around the site and haven't found the Tag Thread you need to check it out!

Click Here!

I was given the idea by one of the members of the site and wasn't sure if it would be embraced, but silly me of course it would be as what we have is riders and riders, they like to ride!

Of and running the game has already been far East, far West and back. Now the real fun should begin as the idea is easy to understand.

Now, I just need to figure out what the person holding the last tag will win and when it will end......

Accumulating New Stuff

I've been accumulating a bunch of stuff to put on my bike. Sometimes I wonder if it is just the way I approach things or if other are the same way, but I wait until I get a few items to add to my bike and then I do them all at once.

Never before a big trip however as I've learned that you have to learn gadgets and new things on short trips. A long trip is no place to discover that something you've added is annoying.

I'm kind of excited to put this stuff on, of course it will be after this weekend as before the Ironman event is not an "upgrade" kind of time.

Zooooom

Sometimes you can do the coolest motorcycle things, without motorcycles!

Here James shows that getting squirrely is fun.

Spring BBQ

All neighborhoods should look like this, right?

I had a great ride with about 12 riders this morning and then 40 come over for BBQ in my community park. The best part of tthe day was seeing 30 bikes, all parked nicely in a row in front of my house.

Good times and a lot for fun! As photo's get posted up I'll post their location.

It Gets No Better

We had our first "Coin Ride" for Southwest Rides today and I don't think it could have been better.

Lots of fun and 20 riders, I even gave away 7 more coins to members of the Rim Rider's BMW group.

The weather is perfect this time of year and the bugs are starting to show, but there are not that many.

The next few weeks show see even more people getting a coin, and hopefully they will be reminded to Ride Safe - Ride Smart

A Little Pahrump

All week I've be answering the same question.

Where's Pahrump?

My answer was that it was Northwest of Las Vegas. It is the eastern gateway to Death Valley and the home of all those wonderful brothel's, you know legal pay for sex places!!

Anyway, a bunch of folks from SWR were heading up to Pahrump for a trackday at the killer Spring Mountain facility there in Pahrump and I decided to tag along to hang out, watch and party at night. I originally was going to ride up, but you'll see about that in my next post.

The facility is awesome and the track is even better. All the riders were giving the place rave reviews and I am willing to bet there will be more trips there soon.



Here is the happy group at the end of the day.

Time for some tune up rides.

Well, the weather is now perfect for the nice just under 400-mile day rides in Arizona.

Today was an awesome ride for me. I started in East Mesa and rode to Tonopah, AZ to meet up with about 12 riders. We took a quick trip to Wickenburg, AZ to meet a few more.

From there we looped Northern Arizona, including the fun 260 and up to snow in the upper sections of AZ87.

Temps for the day ranged from 46 to 72... as I said, perfection!

For more photos - Click here.

Local Racing is Cool!

My wife and I headed out to Firebird Raceway to see the first race of the year officially sponsored by South West Rides.

Not only was it a lot of fun, I was so into it I forgot to take a photo!

But, photo or not I thought I would at least post up and say that I had a great time and it was an awesome day.

I wanted to do a few other things today so I was not able to stay for all the races, but the time there was pretty cool. I almost can't wait until the next session.

In the morning I will need to go get some new oil for the ST1300 as I thought it was low and overfilled her today. Oh well, the trip was short and it wasn't too much over. I'll post up my procedure tomorrow.

It Was A Good Day

Actually it was an awesome day to ride. It all started out when Tom a guy from Michigan that I met via ST-Owners.com called me up and asked if he could stop by so that I could look at his bike. He had brought it here to Arizona in the back of his pickup and wrapped in shrink-wrap.

Well, the shrink wrap had rubbed his paint and even worn through in a couple places, but all in all not that bad.

We decided to run down to Tortilla Flat on AZ88 (Canyon Lake Road) probably my favorite ride.



When we got to the town of Tortilla Flat it was packed, so I decided to show him the South West Rides secret which is the Canyon Lake Restaurant and Cantina. It of course offer good service and excellent food!

I have to say that the road is still not in really good condition, hopefully it will clear up soon, or I might have to start a drive to get it paved.

Back On The Road

After being sick for two weeks and dropping this very bike in my garage last week, I made a nice (at points) 300 mile trip today!

I say nice at points because the trip involved a lot of stop and go spots at times. When I hit Wickenburg, AZ I came to a complete stop about 6 miles from where I needed to be. It took me a good 45 minutes to get to my destination, but it worked out in the end and the people I was to meet actually waited for me, aren't riders cool!

From there is was a nice ride up Yarnell Hill and then through the White Spars to Prescott, AZ.

I had lunch with the crew and then needed to scoot home. Or course I was not planning on a 80 mile detour, but thanks to traffic again I had to find my way around the top of Phoenix, AZ to get home.

I made it in time to shower and head out with my wife for dinner with friends. It was a great day!!

Heated Grips

Today we had another tech day at my garage and it was centered around heated grips.

Dean from the South West Rides website was on hand and personally helped install about 5 sets of grips. I think a total of 8 got installed and several more folks bought a setbto install later.

It was fun times for all, motorcycle talk and plenty off cool bikes on hand. I don't think it could have been a nicer day. Much better than
hanging out at pre-Super Bowl parties anyway!

Yummy New Rubber

Nothing gets a rider as excited as new rubber, well I'm sticking with that thought anyways!

Today I stopped by the Kawasaki Superstore to get new rubber put on my Uly's wheels. It just took a little while to say goodbye to $300 but hey, you can't take it with you right?

I got back home and put the wheels back on and fixed a few little things and voila' she is back to new.

I've recovered from illness, the rain is gone, so tomorrow I might just have to tackle.....Emissions Testing!!!!

Time For Tires - Again!

Yes, I am finnaly well and as I was looking over my steeds I
determined the reason that my favorite route might have seemed odd
lately. I felt as if I was sliding around a little more than normal
and that something was wrong.

Well........at least this time the threads are not showing yet. :)

I ordered up some new traction and in the mean time I guess I'll take
it easy.

Or, I'll just ride my other bike!

Still Sick - But, Look At THIS!

Yea, I am still getting hammered by whatever this Virus is that has been running around, but I am getting better.


Meanwhile the rest of the world is rocking right along and check out what Buell Brought to the dance yesterday!!

Yes, a lowered version of the Ulysses with a fender. Something that the Buell forums have been begging for.

Of course, one day later and they are all posting how they would have made the bike differently and what Buell did wrong.

I just love how people get what they want and then they don't want it. Will wonders never cease?

Phoenix SUPERCROSS!

Supercross came to Phoenix and put on quite a show. While the
main event was all James Stewart, the Superlites stole the show. Good times, with good friends and $40 for beer and some food.

Little Places I Love To Eat.

Even when I am not riding I am always scouting out cool little places
that see comfortable and have good food.

Boulder City, NV has a few and Mel's not only has a great breakfast,
but an awesome burger as well.

Also, stopping before I roll into Vegas is always a plus. It fills my
tummy and gets me ready for the chaos of the strip.

Traditions

Starting the year off with a ride is something that we love here in
the West. So much so that traditions have evolved from the casual
ride. The best thing about riding is that with two wheels you gain
many friends.

My Ride today was an annual ride that ends up in the town Tortilla Flat on AZ88 in Arizona. The road is a local favorite and many riders bring out their vintage bikes. The best part of the day is that all types of rider's get together, talk and have fun looking at cool bikes.

I can't image a better start to the year!

One More Off The List

Bartlett Lake 12-29-2007, yep I finally have ridden this road!




Kind of interesting considering all of the places I have ridden that I had not yet been on this road. I mean heck, it is only about 40 miles from my house and within the Valley.



I guess I can chalk it up to not knowing the road and always waiting to go with someone else, but now that I have gone I can certainly say I will be going again and soon. Thanks to my friend Rick the ride was safe and enjoyable and without a performance reward.

One thing is for certain, I will be getting a RADAR detector in the coming year, it is just getting a little too easy to get nailed and liking roads with stupid speed limits does not help.

2 more days and we start another year....man they sure go fast!

The Countdown Begins

Yep folks it is that time of year, things are winding down and the end is near.



Not the end of days, just the end of the year. Yup, it is time to hang a new calendar and start fresh with a new year.

2008 holds promise as all years do, but honestly 2008 should prove to be a stellar year for fans of motorcycles and riding in the US of A.

The coming year will have more racing here in the US and even better coverage from abroad.

Now, if I could just find the police stealth mode on my bikes, everything would be fine.

Christmas Rocks

The best gifts are the surprise gifts that you never expect. Things
that you think are totally cool, but would never ask for. This year I
got the coolest ever from my wife. Heck, she even gave it to me early
so I could use it at track day. Nothing beats a cool pit vehicle. Now
does it?

Track Day Fun

Sometimes riders take it off the street. They do it for a variety of reasons, to go fast, to have bragging rights and then my favorite reason, to practice skills.

Practicing in an environment that is void of other traffic, pedestrians and the police has advantages. Attention still needs to be allocated to road conditions, but since the path is repetitive it certainly is not at the level of normal street riding.

If you ever want to hone your skills, practice in a safe controlled environment such as a Track Day.

I spent Sunday hanging with some friends and support TEAM AZ's track day by providing a tent and chairs for a new rider clinic. Hopefully this will grow in the future, because supporting safe riding is never a bad idea.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, that is One Fuzzy from the SWR Forums railing through the corner!

Riding Does Have Risk

Practice practice practice and always ride within your limits, leaving extra space and time for any unforeseen complications or conditions....why?

Because you never know when you will need that extra limit to be able to save yourself. If you ride at the complete edge you'll never have a chance.

Take a look here as a friend follows me on a simple ride. I even warn the guys behind me of the road conditions ahead near the end and even knowing the road throws me a loop. If I would have hauled ass into this corner the outcome would have been a different film for sure.

Be aware, ride safe and live to ride another day!

Bike Night

Hanging out, shooting the shit and having fun. Sometimes riding is
about the destination.

And, the friends you meet on the way.

Tonight I stopped by the TT Roadhouse in Scottsdale, AZ just for a
different pace.

We never listen, do we?

I think sometimes being a rider has to do with going places that just
don't or won't go. I had to not go to one of my favorite spots today
just to get this shot. But hey, it is the little things, right?