Motodisiac

I left office late the other day. Even though it was warm in the morning and during the day the evening chill was already in full effect. Normally this sort of weather won’t feel cold, the Rev’it Ultimate pants are fairly warm even without both liners. However my legs felt cold, something wasn’t right.

The front part of each of the pant leg features an air vent. They are 10″ (26 cm) long vents across the top of each thigh. Unfortunately that day I forgot to zip them back up before I’d started moving.

While stopped at a light I tried to zip them back up. Unsuccessfully. The light went green and I had to roll on. I tried to zip them up a couple of times on each of the subsequent stop light stops. Unsuccessfully. Then as I was riding on a freeway I decided to give it a last try. And, oh miracle, it zipped up just fine. Apparently the zipper is meant to be operated when you legs are bent as opposed to when you are almost in a standing position.

I am not sure if this feature is there by design or just coincidental. Which ever the case might be it adds up to all the other nice things the Rev’it Ultimate pants have to offer.

How many times have you bought a car only to realize 5 minutes later that it is running on fumes and you need to hit the gas station NOW? When I purchased my 2.3-16 a couple of years ago, I was pleasantly surprized that the owner filled it up before handing me the key. I remember thinking that it was so nice of him.

This morning I sold my Mercedes. Before heading to the airport to pick up the buyer I glanced at the fuel gauge and noticed that it was very low, reserve light was about to come on.  My initial reaction was to hand it to him like this, but then I remembered the feeling of appreciation that I experienced when I bought this car. I decided to pay it forward. $50 in gas later, the lucky buyer picked up his new car. I hope he felt the same way I did. Pay it forward!

About a couple of months ago I blogged about different sorts of freedom that motorcycle riding offers. My post was called “Freedom of Movement with Less Freedom of Attire“. What I said then (and what I still say no) is that “motorcycle riding gives you the feel of freedom”. Mr. Baljinder Badesha begs to differ.

In September of 2005 Mr. Badesha was cited for wearing his turban instead of a helmet while riding his motorcycle in Brampton, Canada. Baljinder Badesha is a practicing Sikh. He says he understands the inherent dangers of riding withoug a helmet but is willing to take the risk as he follows his religion. The Ontario Human Rights Commission decided to back M. Badesha in his confrontation. Here is more information on the matter.

What do you guys think?

Boyd Coddington, the hot-rod innovator whose creations won the coveted Grand National Roadster Show’s America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) trophy a record six times, died Wednesday morning of undisclosed causes. He was 63.

Coddington was raised in rural Idaho but moved to Southern California as soon as he could to pursue his dream of building hot rods. He quickly earned a reputation for subtle, stylistic innovations on what had been an almost overdone theme–the ‘32 Ford roadster. That branched out to ’33s, ’34s and then all manner of surprising twists on iconic themes. Names such as Boydster, Smoothster, Alumacoupe and Chezoom redefined what a rod could be.

His wheels were equally well known, particularly those shaved from billet aluminum. He soon earned the nickname “Billet Boyd” for his techniques machining aluminum.

At first I have heard rumors that he fell at his So Cal home this morning and was hospitalised, however later reports confirmed that he died. His cars were one of few “hot rods” that I liked. RIP Boyd.

We all know that motorcycling is dangerous. Accepting that there is a possibility of crashing is easy. I’m ready to go down every second of my ride, it would upset me but not surprize me. How about dying in a crash? I refuse to even think about it. I’m in this state of denial when one thinks: “it will never happen to me”. However, deep inside me I know there is always a possibility not to make it home one day. Scary, this thought often gives me goose bumps.

Recently I noticed that a lot of people have little red dot on their driver’s license meaning they are donors. In case anything bad happened to them, their organs will be used to save someone’s life. Amazing. Unfortunately I can’t even bear the thought of registring myself, it would mean that I officially admit that I could die in an accident one day. I’m in denial.

I had already posted a review on my riding pants - Rev’it Ultimate. As I noted in that review “One of the best and unfortunately not used features of these pants are a full-length and short internal zipper for attachment to Rev’it jackets.” It has been unused because my winter jacket is not Rev’it. Now with a much nicer weather I switched to my Rev’it Airforce jacket.

I remember a while ago seeing Motodisiac wear suspenders to hold his riding pants. He also rides in Rev’it Ultimate and uses Rev’it Cayenne as his riding jacket. “Why don’t you use the zippers?” - I’d asked him. He had told me that he didn’t find them convenient enough to zip up and down (or left to right rather). At the time I left it at that.

A couple of weeks ago it became much warmer around here. And as I said earlier I started using Rev’it Airforce. I have to say that I got used to these zippers really quickly. The short zipper is an absolutely no brainer to use. The longer one does take some getting used to. But once you do it is awesome. Your riding pants never slide down ever again. Even the short zipper holds them in place. Also your lower back is much better protected from the wind.

No surprise here. Motodisiac and yours truly had an opportunity to test ride the 1098’s younger brother - Ducati Superbike 848. Looks like Ducati came way ahead of its competition in this contest.

What’s also interesting that Ducati completely dominates the list too. Read full story here.

Some people like having personalised licence plates. Every day I see dozens of them, each one meaning something. What if the plate you desire to have on your car is already taken? How much are you willing to pay for it?

 Abu-Dhabi resident Saeed Khouri just paid cool 13,638,848.35 USD (yes, 13.6 MILLION dollars and change) for the plate he wanted. Khouri said he bought it because he, “wants to be the best in the world”. Now I know why oil got more expensive.

With Grand Prix Zero now officially over, I’m still in a state of shock. How could Casey Stoner come out just for few laps, post the fastest time on 5th lap and never get challenged by the rest of the grid? No, they tried, but all their efforts looked pitiful considering the fact that after it was all done the gap between 1st and 2nd (Vale) was 1.5 seconds. Normally there is less than a second between first 10 places. 1.5 freaking seconds! Keep in mind that Stoner’s time was posted on wet track that was drying with every passing minute, so theoretically this was huge disadvantage. He completely demolished the competition, winning BMW Z4 in the process. Can anyone stop this man in 2008 season? I really hope so.

I was sitting at the light this morning when fellow motorcyclist rolled up to me and gave me a nod. He was riding Ducati Monster and looked like your typical city commuter, with black messenger bag across his shoulder. His gear was somewhat lacking in my opinion, with only black bike jacket providing any kind of protection. No gloves, sneakers and jeans. Well, it’s his choice. Then I looked at this helmet. First thing I noticed was a pair of $400 Persol glasses on his face. The didn’t fit in the helmet so they were “halfway” on which looked extremely funny. Something didn’t look right about it, it was like an eye sore in my eye. His helmet! It was unidentified brand, really beat old lid with the visor complitely missing. Can somebody please tell me why one that rides Ducati and wears Persol doesn’t use proper helmet? This is beyond me. Got $20 head?