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Hells Angels and twisties

Posted on August 26th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: motorcycle.

Woke up this morning at about 7am. Yes, I woke up early on a Saturday morning. But I had a reason. I’ve been wanting to go out on weekend rides with my motorcycle, and decided that now is as good a time as any.

So I set out on the freeways (60W to the 101N to the 202W) to get to the Beeline Highway (SR 87). For a while, the ride wasn’t really anything special. Flat scenery of the desert, straight roads.. blah. But not too far past Fountain Hills, it got fun. Lots of curves in the road back and forth. I finally got a taste for what bikers call ‘twisties’. I started off a bit cautiously, taking the corners about the same speed as the cars on the road. Then I got passed up by the Hell’s Angels, and decided - hey, I can keep up with these guys - after all, they’re on cruisers, and I’ve got a sportbike. And keep up I did. I started taking corners faster, and I started having even more fun with it.

Before I knew it, the scenery changed from brown to green, and I was in Payson in about an hour and a half. Since I was by myself, I just dropped by Burger King and grabbed a quick bite. I haven’t had those french toast sticks in quite some time. Good stuff.

The ride back was about the same - lots of fun curves in the road; lots of bikes to ride with, pass, and be passed by. I did remember to stop for some pictures a couple times, though. I noticed a few spots that looked good for pictures, but I didn’t stop. I’ll have to hit those areas next time. Until then, though, here are a few from today’s trip:

And here’s a link to the whole set on flickr.

0 comments.

Drive safely, everyone

Posted on July 10th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: motorcycle.

I came across this list on ride2die.com (WARNING: the site contains some extremely graphic images - but a good reality check for riders and motorists alike), and thought I’d share. Please be aware of motorcycles on the road.

1. Look for motorcycles, especially when checking traffic at an intersection
2. Because of it’s small size, a motorcycle may look farther away than it is
3. Because of it’s small size, a motorcycle can be easily hidden in a car’s blind spots
4. Motorcyclists often slow by downshifting or merely rolling off the throttle, thus not activating the brake light
5. Motorcyclists often adjust position within a lane to be seen more easily and to minimize the effects of road debris, passing vehicles, and wind
6. Don’t expect a motorcyclist to always be able to dodge out of the way
7. Stopping distance for motorcycles increases quickly when the road is wet
8. When a motorcycle is in motion, don’t think of it as motorcycle; think of it as a person

2 comments.

C’est la vie

Posted on January 30th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: motorcycle.

I’m learning that even when everything seems to be going well in life - that can never be the status quo. Things will go well for a bit, but then you have to deal with some crap. I probably realized this some time ago, but part of me wants to see things in an ideal perspective and think that things should be fine almost all of the time.

But really - in this life, if it’s not one thing - it’s another. Just when things were going great with my new bike - I got my insurance taken care of, I started riding in traffic and on the freeway to get used to those things… and then last night the bike just up and decides that it doesn’t want to start.

As far as I can tell, there’s either some sort of electrical problem or the battery has conked out on me already. Either way, it’s entirely unacceptable for a bike that I’ve now owned for a little over a week. I called up the dealership, and though the repairs should be taken care of in full by the warranty, I need to get it there myself. Which means calling a tow truck. Which means paying more money to get a brand new bike with some sort of manufacturer defect repaired. That just doesn’t seem right at all to me.

So instead of just shelling out $50 or whatever for a one-time tow, I decided to get a AAA membership - something I’d been discussing with my dad anyway - for both my car and my bike. But of course - despite letting me sign up and pay online - they tell me I have to wait 72 hours before I can use any of their services. Which is crap as well. In my mind, at least it is. I tend to expect technology to be used to the fullest, and for things like this to be processed instantaneously. I’ll be the guy in the Dane Cook joke about an instant world (what? the DMV is going to take 9 seconds?! I have to teleport to work in 3 seconds!! arrrrgh!!!!).

In the end, my bike will be in the shop late Thursday, they’ll work on it probably Friday or Saturday - and hopefully I’ll get it back to ride some more this weekend. I figure it’ll be a good opportunity for me to get an alarm installed and go in to talk to them about financing - which is like hitting three birds with one stone. So it all works out okay. I just have to deal with the pains of not being able to ride til at least this weekend. Ha. No big deal, I guess..

9 comments.

Break-in period

Posted on January 24th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: games, flickr, motorcycle.

Just a quick note before I start: I’ve noticed that my site looks funny in Explorer. It probably has for a while, but nobody’s bothered to tell me. I rarely use Explorer these days, except when at work to test that my web app renders fine in it. I’ll look into the problem this weekend - it’s probably just some CSS tweaking that I’ll have to do. Anyway, I’m starting to delve into Nick Burns-ish territory, where nobody knows what I’m talking about..

Something I had never heard of until I got my bike is a break-in period for an engine. Apparently, within the first x-hundred miles (in my case, 300), you are to introduce an engine to a variety of speeds and throttle force.

So far, it’s been mostly between 15 and 30 mph at the local parking lot behind my gym. But last night I found a stretch of street where I kicked it up to 50mph in a matter of a few seconds - what a rush of adrenaline! That was the moment when I really discovered why people love motorcycles so much.

Just riding around a parking lot gets my adrenaline going enough that when I get home I can’t just sit - I either run over to the gym or have to do something else like bust out with a couple mean guitar solos on Guitar Hero. But when you start to speed up - wow.

I think I’ll be taking the bike to church this Sunday morning when the freeway is nearly empty - a) in an effort to properly break in my bike, and b) because it’ll be fun just to get up to higher speeds! (Yes, I’ll be responsible about it, and no I won’t speed like I do in my car..)

1 comment.

Motorcycle!

Posted on January 22nd, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: flickr, motorcycle.

Well, I did it! I am now the proud owner of a 2006 Suzuki Katana 600!

Scroll over the top or bottom part of the slideshow to access controls and an index of pictures:

6 comments.

M is for motorcycle

Posted on January 15th, 2006 by Josh.
Categories: motorcycle.

Some of you know I bought a motorcycle helmet like 2 or 3 years ago. I decided at that time that I wanted to get a bike.. but after further consideration that Tucson would suck for a bike (pothole-tastic) and since I wasn’t making enough money at the time to support both getting a bike and my drinking habit (*cough* I mean, school) - I put that idea on the backburner for a while.

Well, now I have a job and I’m making decent money, so it’s time! Last Thursday night I went to my first class of motorcycle training. We sat in a classroom and just went over a ton of stuff. Then, yesterday morning and this morning, we rode around on a practice course for about 5 hours each session.

Never when I started it all did I think I’d be riding figure eights, swerving the bike in a short distance, or riding over blocks of wood.. but I can do all of that now!

After this weekend, I’ve come to have a tremendous amount of respect for motorcyclists - it’s tough! I think I especially had problems because I’ve never driven a manual transmission before. I highly, HIGHLY recommend driving stick shift on a car before even attempting to ride a motorcycle. Learning how to control and handle a bike is enough to learn - let alone learning what a clutch is and how to shift gears constantly.

Now that I passed the class, I have to bring my certificate of completion to the MVD to have them issue me a license, and then I’ll be off to the dealership to buy a bike! I figure I’ll find some good big empty parking lots to practice on after work and during the weekends. It’s going to take a lot of practice.. but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, and I figure as long as I approach it with a respect for the bike and a good knowledge of safety, I’ll be an awesome rider in due time. Just riding around the course was so fun, I can’t wait until I get better and can take it to work and drive around town a lot!

But first, I have to figure out exactly what bike I want.. stay tuned!

13 comments.

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