Diary of a motorcycle addict

I should have invested in baby products co

2010-07-29T04:45:00.000-07:00

Caught mysefl looking at Recaro baby seats .... they also make Bride ones ....

I beleive I am now screwed ....

I need to create a baby specific blog ...

Back to the madness, dry carbon: http://www.carbonfibergear.com/carbon-fiber-childrens-car-seat-prototype-by-rory-craig/

Perfect for the Cayenne Turbo S the missus wants ...

And then there was one

2010-07-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

It's with mixed emotions that tonight we delivered into the hands of its new owner Flame's bike.

I say mixed because as much as she is now into the hands of it's well deserving new owner, not collecting dust and spiderwebs in the garage, I will miss its familiar sight and sexy curves.

It is now time to get to better(?!)and bigger things (?!) .... Fatherhood 0_0;

Not to worry, the K6 remains, I have not totally given up.

No biking for you!

2010-06-03T08:28:00.001-07:00

This weekend will bring me to southern shores of Nova Scotia. The plan was to take the bike.

Call me a fair weather biker if you want but when 2/3 of the trip be in 80%+ chances of rain, I take the cage.

I don't have a Rukka Suit nor a Wing so riding for the sake of riding does not cut it.

Now I was riding the brand spanking new Multistrada 1200S with heated grips, nice windshield, TCS, ABS and DES, I believe I could be convinced otherwise.

Cage its gonna be!

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all my faithful readers!

January just rolled in an the first signs of withdrawal are already showing up.

Sigh ... its gonna be a long winter.

Is it me or ...

2009-12-15T05:52:00.000-08:00

The motorcycle offering for 2010 has nothing that even remotely gets me interested?

You know you are an addict when...

2009-10-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

You complain about the lack of a neutral light indicator on your car.

Brakes bleeding

2009-08-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we bleed both rear and front brakes on my, as preparation for the handlebar install on the '08.

Out of having to run to CT to get some smaller tubing and a lot of bubbles at the nipple, it went pretty well. After putting the bike together, I went for a test drive to ensure I still had braking abilities.

I have to report that we must have done a good job because I felt no loss of braking power, just more nose diving thanks to the wonderful shitty stock forks.

We are almost ready for the big job on the '08!

I am officially hooked up on True Blood, damn you woman! At least its on HBO :devilgrin

Best piece of car related entertainment ever

2009-07-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrk6vsb77xk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uc4Ksz3nHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfZDtC9kjVk&NR=1

If I my income was exponentially increased, I would buy it and keep it as a piece of my collection.

If I ever start my own guerrilla/revolutionary force, I will make sure we get Hilux's.

Karma finally paid off

2009-06-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Big Big big shout to my new friends from the constabulary force.

All the pain, sweat, spilled blood, strained back paid off last night.

Best Invention ever

2009-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Work related wiki's!

I can now quench my thirst of random knowledge with actual useful work related knowledge.

On the house front ...

The never ending story

2009-06-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

Its an allegory for owning a house.

It never ******* ends!

40% Done

2009-06-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

Almost there. Appliances should show up early next week. Big push this weekend!

Yey!

Silly things I have done on two wheels

2009-05-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Oh crap I need to finish my break-in ASAP!

Cue in worst plan ever to cram in as much KMs as I can in one evening:

View Larger Map

It sounded like a very good plan, except:

It was early May
I left town at 5 pm
I had no idea what my range was and if there was enough gas stations along the way.
It get dark quite fast in early May
This was not the best way to accomplish my goal
The bike was 2-3 weeks old

In the end I made it back in town just in time to call my wife good night. I had been driving in the dark for the last hours, I had broken several speed limits and was cold.

That night I broke 800km on the odo and finally was able to rev past 6.5k

But the huge smile I had on my face made it worth it's while!

If I were to do it again, I would probably be stupid enough to try to cram as many KMs in one evening, but this time I would plan my ride using Google Map and would definitely hit the 300KM mark!

Shopping list

2009-04-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

The following is now off the shopping list:

Givi E41 hard luggage

The following is now on the shopping list:

House supplies

Yeah, that's right. I am not putting down the shopping list for the house, I would kill myself.

New word suggestion for the English dictionary

2009-04-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

Craptacular: Spectacularly crap. See Craptastic or Chevrolet Cobalt.

Craptastic: Fantastically crap. See Chevrolet Cobalt or Craptastic.

Scamtastic: Scam of a fantastic scale. See Craiglist.

How could GM screw up the Delta platform is beyond me. The Opel/Saturn Astra is light years ahead.

Zzzzz ...

2009-03-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

The following is now off the shopping list:

Pants for the SO
Boots for the SO
Back protector for Dainese coat
SW Motech rack

The following is now on the shopping list:

Givi e41 hard luggage
Arai Profile M Aluminium Grey

Life Skills

2009-01-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

Don't know if I should be ashamed or not ...

I had to google to find where the cookies are stored in IE 7.

You'd really though I would remember that from my teenage years ...

Or may be I have been using Firefox for too long ...

You be the judge!

Apple stuff working OOTB

2008-12-19T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hah ...

I just got a new machine at work and since I had to rebuild everything, I though I'd give a shot to iTunes.

I should have known better, there is a reason why I don't have a Mac. Mac and I just don't work together ...

The download part was easy but god d*mn Quicktime found a way to sneak in. Sadly I knew this was going to happen ...

After iTunes was done messing with my music, I was able to listen to my tunes and went on my merry way ... until I tried to skip to another song. Multimedia keys on my deal keyboard not working?

WTH? Maximize Itune, press next. Next song plays. Minimize iTunes, press next, nothing! Now what? Look at all option cannot find anything. Arrrg!

Google to the rescue informs me that I need to install a dll somewhere in order for my multimedia keys to work. Install said dll, restart iTunes, press play, minimize, press next ... Victory!

Now WMP had this neat tool bar that could be used to control the player. iTunes has one too and enabling it is as simple as adding to your tools bar for the taskbar as long as you did not turned on "Minimize iTunes window to system tray" when trying to make your multimedia keys to work.

My take on this, if you have PC use pc stuff. If you have a Mac, use Mac stuff. Hybrid stuff sounds cool but its not always working.

That being said, I decided to give iTunes a whirl for the time being, because maybe one day, I might replace my Zen with a ... gasp ... iPod! The horror, the horror.

For all those out there reading this, Merry eks-mas! Futurama for ever!

I <3 RIM

2008-12-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

Long live my new masters!

Too bad I never bought any shares of my soon to be ex-company.

Massimo Tamburini retires as head of MV Agusta's engineering and design center

2008-12-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

This people is what we call sex on wheels:

Even people that could care less about motorcyles agree.

I'd own one as a living room ornament ... or at least swap in a wet clutch.

Oh the blasphemy!

I find myself lusting after this

2008-11-14T10:03:00.000-08:00

Holy Crap! An update! 4 months later!

My recent trip Europe has stirred all sorts of feeling in me (it did not help that I was unable to find a 2 motorcycles to rent).

After buying my first die cast of a Ducati SportClassic GT1000, I find myself lusting after this amazing piece of Italian art. Styling to die for, maintenance schedule now at 12 000 km, wet clucht ... not to shabby.

Further digging on the ducati.ms discussion forum and I learn that the bike suffers regulators problems, heavy spoke wheels negatively affects handling and stock suspension is terrible.

Now it may have been naive of to think that the Sport 1000s would be the perfect bike but I found out that my next bike will need to fulfill the following requirement:

Ergos for the long road.
Range of 300 km.
Stock suspension that will not require extensive modification to make the bike handle like it should.

Now fitting these requirements might incur a higher purchase cost but then you got two choice: get it right the first time or fix it afterward. As much as I would like to fit in the second category and enjoy the journey to discovery and satisfaction, I like things that work out of the box.

Quick note to my single reader, please leave a comment to show that you are still alive!

Two bikes I will never buy

2008-06-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Yamaha Powertour was in town to showcase their 2008 offering. I had signed up in advance for FZ1 and WR250X but ended up taking an R1 and the WR for a spin.

I was slated for the FZ1 but at the last minute since whoever had signed it out didn't show up, I jumped on it. Holy s***! Clutch engagement was so far out, you had to carefully dose the throttle and slip the clutch. Took some time to get use to it. Front brake were one finger only otherwise I would have been endoing at every stoplight... The bike was ludicrously fast. This is not something I would put in the hands of a newbie. In the straights the bike was just a beast that wanted to be unleashed. I never got out of 3rd gear nor did I reved passed 7k. There was no need. The bike finally became manageable in the twisties where it really showed me how much the suspension on the SV is crap. This is the kind of bike that will get you in trouble, as below 90kmph it is very touchy. Short shifting was my solution to keep myself out of trouble. I do like torque but not that much. The bike was really too much for my taste, ~100hp would be plenty for me. The bike left me with an impression that I would spend most of my time riding it in fear and not enjoying the experience. I would probably get used to the ludicrous speed but would chicken out when things go curvy a bit.

After parking the R1, I took a small break before jumping on the WR. 250cc of no power at all. First gear was unridable and the absence of tachometer got me very confuse about which gear I should be in. I resorted to ride the crap out of it waiting for the limiter to kick in. The long suspension travel was nice with the bad road we have but the awkward riding position was not attractive for me. This is the first bike in my life that I felt I could ride the crap out it and never get scared.

All in all, it was a good day, tried some bikes I was curious about. I can conclude now that I like my SV, it's powerful enough for now but next year the suspension is getting upgraded one way or another.

The Polyphony Digital Placebo effect or how Gran Tursimo taught me how to drive

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

I will assume for the sake of my post, that you have lived under a rock for the last 10 years. The fine folks at Polyphony Digital launched in 1997 a racing game that changed the world of driving simulation, raised the bar and paved the way for amazing racing/sim games.

I remained loyal to the Gran Turismo franchise over the years. I played my share of arcade racing games (read NFS when it got crappy, Underground, Underground 2, Most Wanted etc.) but always came back to GT.

Why?

Because the game did more than entertain me, it taught me about obscure Kei JDM cars but mostly it taught me about driving techniques. I cannot remember if it was a copy of GT or GT2 that came with a little booklet that educated me about grip, mass transfer, correct corner line, entry speed, braking, oversteer, understeer, how high power MR cars are evil, how 4wd cars tend to understeer, how much FF cars sucks (except for that red EG6 that I built and set up god knows how, to handle like an FR) and that good tires will make any car 10x better. GT also taught me how to intelligently mod a car and that stage 4 turbo kit are very very lagy.

I suffered the corkscrew at Laguna Seca, the turn in the first tunnel in Deep Forest, high speed cornering of Apricot Hill, the hairpin in Grand Valley, the night mare of Special Stage Route 11 and so on.

At the same time I was discovering this wonderful game, I was also in the process of getting my driving license. I was appalled to how much of the physic behind the racing techniques could be applied to driving a car and how much I wished I had been taught that when I was getting my license.

Now your gonna ask, what does this has to do with motorcycles. Gran Turismo went on to produce several sequels some of which I own ( still waiting for the slim version of the PS3 with a 200 gig hd) This spring, while waiting for the snow to melt away, I picked up Tourist Trophy. TT is made by the same fine folks at Polyphony Digital but instead of cars, you pilot a motorcycle.

My first approach to going around the track was to use the same bearings that use when driving car on the same track. The results were less than stellar, minds you, I still can drive anything with more than 599cc. At first I struggled but then after paying attention to the license tests, using the brakes where supposed to and getting on the throttle when I should. And lo and behold, I got better. I got around the track faster and finally beat my opponent.

I have not been satisfied about my riding skills for some time. I ran wide in the turns, always in the wrong gear, etc. Then it hit me. If GT did wonders for me on car driving skills, what if I applied what I was learning in TT, on the street on my bike ...

I run less wide in the turns, I make sure I brake where I should and bet back on the throttle when I should and I feel my riding skills have improved! Have they really or is it the placebo effect? I don't know, I still got some bad habits to get rid of but I do feel better about myself.

And now I got the itch, each time I see pictures from a track day.

Post removed

2008-05-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

Due to intense pressure from my one and sole reader this post has been removed.

Seriously, I am not even sure I have one soul reading this place.

More updates

2008-04-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Received the Sargent Seat.

Last Friday instead of going to the gym and washing the car, my wonderful wife-to-be convinced me instead to take the bikes out of storage. I guess she had enough of me complaining :p

Two oil filters, 6L of oil l, couple of bleeding knuckles and 3 hours later, I was on merry way, freezing, at no more than 80 kph going home with the biggest grin on my face.

F*ck it was good!

Took a nice ride on Sunday down the St-John river, grand total around 200km, nothing spectacular but oh so therapeutic. I'll be back! I just love that quote, too bad my Gobernator impersonation is horrible.

Updates

2008-04-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

Bought the Sargent seat.

Almost bought a house.

Instead

Bought a new car.

Old one died (brakes failed, need bearings in front, cross member rusted out).

Car payments are on the way :(

Snow is melting :)

It's been quite a while ...

2008-03-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

Yet there is still quite a lot of snow on the ground and things don't look good for an early season.

On the other hand, I have a chin spoiler on the way. It will need some paint and fabricating some bracket.

I am set on getting a pair of A* SMX-4 Waterproof, still debating for what material for my new pant/jacket combo.

Last night in an attempt to retain what is left of my sanity, I sat down, took the helmets off the shelf and proceeded to clean them. A can of Plexus is on my shopping list as my visor is getting scratched and might explain the sun glare I get.

As much as a menial and annoying task cleaning helmets can be, I did wonders for my sanity. It took my mind off the need to ride and made me think about all the other things that need to be done on a regular basis during riding season. I also fixed the headlight for the missus bike, a tab needed to re glued.

Next step is to go shopping, try some stuff on and make my mind. I still gotta order the Sargent seat.

$$$

Last night Simpsons Episode - That 90's Show

2008-01-28T05:11:00.000-08:00

It is widely discussed whether or not The Simpsons have jumped the shark. I am still on the fence on that one, the quality has gone down in the past seasons but there have been some pretty good episode in the bunch.

Last night episode was of the latter. Awesome!

Maybe its because I am a product of the 90's but I could not find anything wrong with this episode, the cultural references were good and the music choice was representative of the 90's. To see Homer in a Cobain character was just brilliant.

After watching the Simpsons Movie, I really lost my faith in the show but after watching this episode, I guess there is hope.

It seems to me that the 90's is the unloved child of the 20th century. It seems it passed under the radar, I guess its the faith of all transitional decades. However as time passes it seems the 90's are getting the recognition it deserves.

Long live the 90's!

Feeling Old School

2008-01-24T04:40:00.000-08:00

We live in an age we everything is digitally supported. Movies are stored on plastic disks, music can be bough online and put on you mp3 player with a flash based memory. Everything is tiny, everything is down behind the scene.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my tiny 4gigs Zen V, my Blackberry Pearl that can do more 10x more than the first computer I ever laid my hands on.

The demise of HD DVD reminded me of the VHS-Beta battle of the early 80s (Sony finally got back to the world) and got me thinking about the good old k-set. I look at my mp3 player cranking tunes and all I see is a tiny piece of plastic with an lcd screen showing me the song info and I see no magic.

Now looking at a cassette player was something to be amazed of, you could see all the mechanisms need to produce the sound, the motors turning the spools making the magnetic tape travel in front of the reading heads. Once you were done with one side you had to take it out turn it around, put in back and press play unless of course you had auto-reverse and then you were good for 60 min of none-stop play. High-speed dubbing was great invention because otherwise you had to sit there for 30min per side.

My biggest wish as a kid was to own a reel-to-reel audio player and when I watched Pulp Fiction for the first time, I was stoked to see one when Uma Thurman's character is dancing around to Urge Overkill's version of Niel Diamond's Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon.

One day, I will acquire and install it in my living room. I will then proceed to pour myself an Amaretto Sour on the rocks, sit down comfortably in my preferred chair and enjoy my favorite tunes while looking at one spool unwind itself onto another.

Yup I am that old school. Yet I could care less about carburetors and will make sure I never own another carbed bike.

Joyeux Noel and a Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T06:23:00.001-08:00

The fun is over, back to work I am.

What does 2008 has in store for me? Right now, a lot of snow!!!

When I thougth it had it all or Things you find while browsing the Japanese website of Honda motorcycle

2007-12-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

Holy Cr*p!

The JDM Goldwing has a windshield wiper and 2 nozzles

And I though the Wing had it all: reverse, ABS, heated seat, heated grips, foot warming system, 6 speaker cd player sound system, com system, electronic cruise control, motorized headlight aiming system, air bags, gps nav.

You know what, I don't know what to expect from them Japs any more ... AC and traction control are probably on the way!

Xmas shopping list for the bike

2007-12-20T06:44:00.000-08:00

Here is my dream/Xmas shopping list for the SV:

Bagster or Sargent seat
OEM chin spoiler
Extender CF front fender
CF Hugger
Full TI M4 with CF can
PAIR removal kit for the above
PCM III for above the above
GI Pro Gear indicator with TRE
Heated Grips
Puig DB Smoke
Rizoma short stalk clear led turn signal
Penske/Ohlins rear shock/spring
Full cartridge/emulators with springs and oil
and what the heck, we are dreaming here, bronze aftermarket lightweight wheels.

Withdrawal Syndrom

2007-12-18T07:20:00.000-08:00

Yup it's back again.

It's not a good time when your mind start wondering what you would be ready to do just so you could take your bike for spin ...

New rules in F1

2007-12-13T17:56:00.000-08:00

New rules in F1

I might get back into watching it. Maybe.

I could care less about the constructor championship ...

I want a driver's race.

That was a driver's race: Gilles Villeneuve Vs. Rene Arnoux

I must have pissed off the Chinese or something ...

2007-12-13T06:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently, according to my friend that is in China right now, in the eyes of the Chinese government, my blog is off limit.

Oh well, my dreams of having a worldwide readership are being crushed by the authoritarian dictatorship of the Communist Party (there, that's a reason to block my blog).

I should get some Hollywood star to protest so my blog is allowed to be read in China ...

Cabot Trail moto trip

2007-12-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

This is what I did last night, took me most of the evening.

http://www.pashnit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14851

I wish I took more pictures but I can't help myself. I keep on riding 'till the day is over. What can I say, I'm hardcore!

Still no pictures added to the blog.

Eurobeat, Para Para and other JDM shenanigans

2007-12-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of this millennium, I was introduced to Anime. Yeah I am that old school! Back in those days Anime was stuff you had to download from obscure file sharing networks. I saw the birth of DivX, looked for impossible to find codecs. In those you had VHS rips none-of that hi-tech DVD rips.

'Nuff with the nostalgia, the first real Anime I saw was Neon Genesis Evangelion. That stuff was ahead of its time. The only thing that ever came close to it was GITS and GITS had a real budget. Being that old school, I of course watched Initial D before everyone and must admit, I enjoyed it. The story was crap, the drawing was average but the battle were full CG. I was pretty serious about it, I watched the entire Battle Stage and Extra Stage RAW! Hardcore!

I have to credit Initial D for my foray into J-Pop and J-Rock. My listening to Eurobeat was a direct offshoot of all that Anime watching. There is just something about high BPM and sucky English lyrics that makes no sense but all in all, it works. I got a kick out of it and listened to it for a while.

A collection Anime/Japaneses related mp3 on one of my friend server led me to a song called Endroll (remix) by some Ayumi Hamasaki. Even though, I could not understand the lyrics (maybe a good thing, J-pop is not renown for deep and meaningfull songs) but somehow I could endure the annoying voice and enjoy the music. Looking for more of her songs, I stumbled upon her Trance re-mixes and discovered Trance music.

More anime, meant more OP and Ending, meant more artists to discover. The final chapter came with FLCL and the Pillows. That was a brillant work of art and t0 this day, the only anime that I will watch again (I talk about re-watching EVA but can't bring myself to do it).

End of Part One, gotta run to the gym.

Procrastination, Oversights and Frustration

2007-12-04T08:10:00.001-08:00

Went to check on the bikes this weekend. Mine was missing the front stand and hers needed a front stand. Because of some crap design of the front stand and/or the forks ( I blame the stand, I paid very little for it, I should have known), I had to find a way to lift the bike high enough so I could slide the front stand under the fork and lower the bike onto.

My trusty CT yielded the perfect solution to all my issues for less than 50$. A small piece of wood placed under the engine (long live engines as stress member), a strategically placed trolley jack and voila, up goes the bike. Problem solved! Hers is equipped with a center stand, therefore pushing down on the tail lifts the front. One jack stand went on the left and piece of wood went on the right. Took us about an hour. I just forget about draining the carbs, hopefully the fuel stabilizer will prevent gunking.

Now to the complaining part, cause thats what the Internet is for. I have been playing that old game that a friend lent me some time ago. The game has been working without a hitch, but now that I have reached the final strech, it constantly crashes on the 4th or 5th race. Last night after the third try, I gave up. Stupid game can kiss my ***, I'll find another way to waste my time ... err entertain myself, like let's say update my blog.

This blog was supposed to get some pictures. This blog was supposed to get updated yesterday. This blog has been updated.

We got snow last night, lots of it, had to shovel this morning ><;

Addictions, we all have one (or more)

2007-11-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

In March of '06 I bought a motorcycle. When fall came that year, I thought I was gonna go crazy.

Ha, little did I know!

11 months later, I bought a new motorcycle then proceeded to put over 14.5K km since, go around the Cabot Trail, twice and put a new set of tires on.

I put the new steed to rest mid October, because frankly there are two things in the world that are stronger than my motorcycle addiction: my hands being congealed by the wind chill and my ... hum ... you know what ... resting on that frozen metal gas tank.

Its been more than a month since I fired that sweet six fifty cc v-twin of mine, enjoyed that kick in the arse low-end torque and sweet tractor sound. Sad part is, that usually is my answer to life, the universe and everything (42 doesn't do it any more).

Well now, I am left with XLII and believe me, it ain't cutting it.

I gotta find me a seasonal (read winter) addiction.