Motodisiac

I was riding home today, freeway is packed as usual, cautiously splitting lanes, don’t want to be too aggressive, I usually tend to learn my lessons fairly quickly. It seems to be a known fact to drivers that motorcycle riders “come out of nowhere” because they move faster than traffic. Well, tonight was not the case. I did not come out of nowhere.

I was probably half a mile away from my final exit off the freeway, the traffic was going approximately 5 to 10 mph as there was an accident ahead. A Lexus SUV with a woman driver (surprise-surprise) on my right and a Mitsubishi Lancer on my left.  I was pacing at the very same speed as them in between two right most lanes as I was looking for a chance to sneak through. We’d  been rolling on like this for at least 5 seconds when the woman driver on my right saw an opening in the left lane and decided to jump erratically on the opportunity. She initiated the merge, then as if it still mattered turned her blinkers. My peripheral vision helped me as I spotted a large gray body of steel approaching me rapidly. I reacted quickly, and swerved left while accelerated a bit. I saw her abort the maneuver and get back into her lane quickly turning off her blinkers. I think she must have heard my engine as I was accelerating, I was in the first gear. I don’t believe she bothered looking left. But again we were going side by side for some time …

Having a somewhat analytical mindset I wanted to review this situation closer. And then I decided not to bother. Did that happen because women can’t drive, or regardless of the driver’s sex sitting in traffic numbs your sense and you are no longer inclined to look around before executing a maneuver, or drivers don’t recognize riders as full time occupants of the road? Why bother. It’s happened before and I am sure it’ll happen again.

In any event I am home safe and sound. I am sure the woman got scared more than I did. And that will hopefully leave an imprint in her mind. Or may be not. She drives an SUV after all.

As you already know I had purchased a new bike recently. It is a 2003 Ash Grey Aprilia Futura RST 1000 with the Taylormade Racing exhaust system. Even though it’s already been a couple of weeks that I proudly own it I haven’t had a good chance to ride it. Last night and today’s morning were the first more or less real rides I did on it. First impressions - oh my God, the bike is awesome. The seat is probably the most comfortable seat my behind has sat on, ever. And I don’t mean motorcycle seats only. It is amazingly comfortable. Its smooth 1000cc V-Twin engine propels you well enough and I am yet to really push it. Last night Motodisiac and I had adjusted its suspension to be rigid, therefore more sporty (that’s right kids, adjustable suspension). We also adjusted the clutch and brake levers to be closer to the handlebars. You can do that too, it’s got 4 different settings. The handling is obviously much better than on my SV650S. After tweaking the suspension the handling became even sharper. And again I am yet to push it. As of now I am sort of getting used to the weight and size of my new toy.

Special attention in this review has got to be given to the exhaust note. I am not sure if the addition of this exhaust system added more torque and horsepower (to credit the first owner he did the installation properly with the ECU re-flash after) but the note itself is just sick. It is kind of a rumble when the rpms are low and a solid loud bass when you rev it. The stock exhaust produces a slightly higher pitch which don’t get me wrong also sounds great. We got to compare it last night when the two Futuras were standing side by side at Motodisiac’s garage. Oh, and each time I start my bike alarm goes off on a couple of cars in my parking garage :).

To briefly sum it up - looks like this bike is a great piece of Italian motorcycle engineering. So far there isn’t a thing I don’t like about it. Please bear in mind that it hasn’t been long enough for me to make a subjective statement on that. But even if I do find something I am sure it’d be minor and won’t change my mind about this bike. I love my new bike. I really do!

I’m one of people who are always paranoid about dropping the bike. Because of that I always pay extreme attention while riding and even moving the bike. I know how easy it is to loose your balance pulling it out of a garage or making a u-turn. I have crashed before but I never dropped my bike like that. Until this morning.

It was raining, and I know how slippery polished concrete floor gets when it’s wet. So pulling the bike into the warehouse (at work) I was super careful. As soon as I parked, I dismounted, for a second considered using the kick stand and decided to put it on a center stand. This is when it happened. My foot slipped, and the bike started to fall away from me. As any motorcyclist knows, once it starts falling, there is no saving it. Wet boots and the fact that the bike was falling away from me didn’t help the matter. In disbelief I was watching my pristine bike falling and all my efforts to stop it were in vain. Just when I faced the fact that it will hit the ground, the fall stopped. It turned out that the handlebar was resting on the the pallet jack handle that was parked nearby! There was a chance to get away with minimal damage. Nobody was around to help, and I couldn’t even bulge it. If I could only get on the other side……. However as I tried to move I noticed that handlebar is resting on 1×1 pad of the pallet jack handle, and if it moves an inch the bike will fall further. How is the parts availability for the Futura? I was holding for the dear life, hoping that somebody would show up and help. What is it about this bike, this is the second time I’m holding it trying to save it from falling. Scream? Nobody would hear me. After about 10 minutes of standing like that, someone from the office finally decided to check on the warehouse and I was saved. Damage to the bike? ZERO. This is my lucky day. Lesson learned? Be even more careful.

The title of this post can´t be called original. Sometime ago Motodisiac wrote the first one describing how he rode from Wisconsin. The bike he´d purchased then was 2003 Aprilia Futura RST 1000. The bike turned out to be great, he loved it and could not stop raving about how great the seat was, how rare this bike was in the US especially in the color he´d get it - ash grey.

Earlier this week Motodisiac calls me on the phone and is almost yelling at me demanding that I either get my ass in front of the computer or get my ass over to his house. Turns out he´d found exactly the same bike in impecable condition, exactly the same year, exactly the same mileage, exactly the same color, approximately 100 miles away. And it is being sold for a very good price. How could I say no. We got in touch with the owner. And on Thur night I became a proud owner of the 2003 Aprilia Futura.

Of course Motodisiac´s valor could not be matched by my mere 2 hours 140 mile night ride back home in 20mph winds and 50 degree temperature. But it wasn´t an easy task either. The bike felt great though. It was super stable, the seat is very comfortable, I didn´t even get tired. Just very-very cold.

Here´s where we´d find it - http://www.apriliaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138156. There will be posts towards the end that will describe what had happened to the item and when :).

So now I am obvisouly going to be selling my Suzuki. I will post more pictures of it with details on what has been done to it in terms of service and improvements. Any takers?

It has been a while since either one of us has posted something. Various things are to blame - busy work schedule, some travel time and so on. Not only we did not write all that much we did not ride all that much either. I think it was only a couple of times that I had my bike out of the garage in the past 30 days.

I decided to take some time off around X-Mas to travel. I spent X-Mas and New Year in a cold country where motorcycles could be used only a couple of months a year. And now that I got back in California I was anxious to ride again. First week almost went by and as of last night I still did not ride a single day in the whole 2008. Today was the day. I took my baby out, checked the tire pressure and off I went. It did feel nice to be back in the saddle. The weather complied. Just wearing my Fieldsheer jacket over the t-shirt was enough insulation. Hopefully the weather will be as good this weekend so Motodisiac and I can go riding for the first time this year. Can’t wait …