So the good news is there’s another sequel to Faster, the excellent Mark Neale documentary about MotoGP. The bad news is, if you live in the U.S. – unless you went to the single showing of it somewhere in the West Coast… You won’t be able to see it for a while. Well here’s a little clip to tide us over, and incidentally, to remind us that Valentino Rossi used to actually win races… I’m sure “Faster“>Fastest” is an excellent movie – and I’m going to go see it as soon as I can – but I feel like he shot too early. Because 2011 was so action packed…with a great Rossi cliffhanger for 2012.
Anyway, sorry for the downtime. Hope you’re all coping in the rain out there! Peace!
Because otherwise they hang out at the Honda museum in Japan… On a different note: Honda sucks when it comes to promoting its own story. Even this “museum” looks a little dry. Short version is: Soichiro Honda built the company out of a bicycle repair shop, and a dream of wining the Isle of Mann TT. He basically used his company to fund his passion for racing. In doing so they made some pretty good machines, because racing enthusiasts know: if you can build machines to endure races, you can build machines that will last on the road. It’s the only motorcycle company that’s been fueled, by its founder, out of a passion for racing. So maybe the turkey was onto something.
It turns out that the president of Dennis Kirk isn’t just the president, he’s a gearhead, and here’s his latest creation. A cafe racer from a CB750…on a reasonable budget no less! What’s your jones: Streetfighter, cafe racer, chopper, race bike?
[a rather boring but informative video of how a Valentine radar detector fares against POP radar]
Let’s talk radar. I don’t know a lot of people who use radar detectors on motorcycles, but for long distance adventures it’s a MUST-have in many states… If you’re not a regular radar detector user, it seems like there’s a lot to know and a lot of contradictory advice out there – so here’s a little primer on the basics if you’re curious…
Regular radar: Radar detectors DO detect the presence of police radar when it’s on. Most cheapo units today read all three (X K and Ka band) frequencies that are used out there… But if the police radar gun is ON you, and you happen to be speeding, then having that expensive detector doesn’t help you any. Fortunately radar detectors can “see” radar guns before you’re actually in range. So as the police car reads the speed of vehicles ahead of you, your radar detector can tell you that there’s a speed trap ahead. (Advantage: radar detector). Continue Reading »
Speaking of street races… MotoGP riders would never race on a F1 street course. The standards for safety are generally a lot higher in MotoGP than for auto racing: more run off space in the corners, barriers are further from potential crash spots… But fortunately there’s a breed of motorcycle racer that doesn’t care about those things. Mostly they race IOMTT and other ridiculously fast street courses – but Macau brings it down to street level in the middle of a city. Think: a street course around the FDR (which would actually be pretty cool). Instead of runoff space in the corners they have steel barriers and fences… Continue Reading »
A couple of years back there was talk about bringing Formula 1 to Monticello (MMC), or maybe building a new track in Liberty State Park in NJ… For a lot of CityBikers, it would have been like we died and went to heaven to have a world class racetrack 5 minutes outside lower Manhattan – with a view of the Manhattan skyline. But like lots of great things – it just wasn’t meant to happen. Then around a month ago we got news that F1 WILL come to NJ, on a road coarse like Long Beach or Monaco… Maybe it’s not as good as a world class race track, but at least the price of admission is cheaper… You can go check out the route yourself… Let us know what you think.
Why didn’t we think of this before? This certainly makes it to the top of the list of fun/silly things to do on a scooter: ahead of scooter jousting, and scooter polo; and right under scooter paintball.
[here's a slightly sped up tour of Barcelona - looks like a nice place to ride!]
I wouldn’t say riding is always “THE” high point of the week, but commuting by two wheels sure makes everything a little more fun… We’ve had pretty good riding weather all week. The only thing that could make it better is some nice views of Barcelona… Although the NY skyline ain’t bad either when you’re riding in from the boroughs or NJ…
Lots of people have mixed feelings about using electronic devices while riding; but if you’re to actually get places – at some point you’ll need GPS directions. And actually, I think audio GPS directions are less of a distraction than the ‘paper directions taped to my arm’ that I used to use… The nice thing about using your smartphone for directions is – a) it’s the most up to date map out there… b) it’s free if you already own a smartphone and data plan, and c) it’s hands free – and eyes free. I use an iPhone with MapQuest for turn-by-turn directions… I disable the auto-shutoff timer, shut off the screen, and put the phone in my pocket. Most of the time I ignore the directions until I get to the last couple of miles of my destination – and the MapQuest voice just keeps me company chattering suggested directions for my route. The question is: how are you going to be able to hear the voice directions from your phone? You can use your headphones in your helmet, but mine were way too uncomfortable to wear for more than a few minutes. For $15-$35, you can rig up most helmets with speakers that you can hear through your ear plugs… Continue Reading »
Like the cash in your pocket, your ten bucks worth of attention (to use the Twist of the Wrist metaphor) can go quicker than you think. In street riding, what you want to be able to do is invest all “ten dollars worth of focus” on normal riding… things like your line, throttle control, body position, breaking, your position in traffic. That way, when there are unexpected events on the road – you can react and not pay the price for someone else’s mistake. But other things take up our attention and distract us from the business of riding… So here are my Top Ten Riding Distractions around this time of year… Continue Reading »
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