As some of you may remember, about a month ago I took a spill on my KTM Supermoto, resulting broken foot, bent exhaust and hurt pride. The cause of the crash was a plastic sign left on the road. I was quick to blame construction workers nearby, but it turns out it wasn’t them. For the past 30 days I’ve been on the lookout for similar signs left on the sidewalk, but all of them were complitely different construction. It all changed today, when I saw this sign at my crash site.
I’m 100% positive that I crashed on the same sign. I remember using that handle when I threw in on the sidewalk in anger. The question is what should I do? I didn’t take any pictrures right away, so I have zero proof besides my memory. Should I bother talking to them about at least buying me new Ackapovic exhaust? Or should I suck it up and move on?
It seems like it’s bad luck to do anything to the bike before heading to Baja. Last time it was broken spoke that caused the trip to be postponed. Well, tomorrow I’m heading to Baja to watch SCORE Baja 1000 race. After last Baja trip my forks felt softer than usual, so today I decided to change the fluid. Bad idea. After struggling to secure the bike so I can actually pull the forks off (it doesn’t have the center stand), I managed to make secure loop hanging from the ceiling. The forks were off, the oil change went successful and I was simply putting everything back together. Being professional mechanic I am most of the time I simply tighten the bolts by the feel instead of using torque wrench. For unknown reason this time I pulled the manual out, looked at all the torque specs and set the torque wrench. As I was tightening axle pinch bolts (10nm) I kept thinking that it seems to require a lot of force for just 20nm. Hey, I got torque wrench, no chance I will overtigten them. SNAP. Fuck. Here I was, witting on the floor next to the bike and staring at the broken bolt. I was about to hang myself on that secure loop that I made earlier. The bolt broke in the middle, and the other half was buried in the fork leg. Great, I’m going to miss Baja 1000.
This is when I remembered that I have bolt extractor kit that Sideout had bought earlier when he broke off the mirror on his Dakar. My sorry ass may be saved. After a bit of fiddling and a lot of cursing I was able to drill the hole in the broken bolt and it came right out. Screw you, Mr Murphy, I’m going to Baja no matter what you think!
Ewan McGregor is selling his Guzzi, sales proceeds will go directly to UNICEF.
Most of motorcycle enthusiasts know Ewan from his Long Way Round and Long Way Down series. Non motorcycling public is familiar with him from his roles in Star Wars and some other movies. I think it’s great that he is doing this, looks like traveling around the world really made him aware of the ways other people live. Now if more celebrities could do this…..
I’m driving through what seems to be the biggest state in the world. The road is pretty boring and the fact that the radio doesn’t work doesn’t help either, I will probably lose my voice by the time I’m home because I’m covering every song that I know.
I spent last night at the rest stop, slept like a baby thanks to a completely flat and spacious bed in my newly acquired car. When I got up at 6 in the morning and climbed out my sleeping bag, I realized that it was really cold. I’m actually quite surprised that iced tea that I had in a cup holder didn’t turn into ice. By the time I ran to the bathroom to wash my sleepy face, I froze my buttocks off. Cold water and even colder dryer woke me up better than any Red Bull would. My 6:15 I was on the road, shivering and waiting for the heater to kick in.
Thanks to generous Texas speed limit of 80mph I already covered 250 miles today. Going fast really affects my gas mileage; it dropped at least 4-5 mpg. By the way the further I drive away from Houston, the more expensive gas gets. It’s at least 70 cents more here in Van Horn, the place where I’m eating my disguisting McDonalds breakfast.
The car runs great; if it wasn’t for non working stereo I would call it poetry in motion. The winds seem lower than yesterday; the car doesn’t get thrown around that much. OK, time to fill it up and hit the road again.
Since I’m done with major construction project (more on that later) I spent most of yesterday cleaning the office from construction dust and junk. When I left at 10pm it was perfectly clean. This morning I came in as usual, and as soon as I walked in I noticed a spider web on little glass table by the entrance. I thought it was a little strange since I just cleaned up. OK, one little spider, let’s get rid of it and call it a day. Closer look revealed THOUSANDS of tiny spiders crawling all over the carpeted wall, busy building their traps. I have never seen anything like this out in the wind let alone in the occupied office. I keep cleaning up and they keep coming out of nowhere. I managed to snap this pic, the buggers move quite quickly and I wasn’t able to get perfect focus. I hope I get rid of them before they get to delicious REV’IT! clothing….. OK, I’m off to kill some more with the help of carburetor cleaner……
For the past 1.5 years I have been driving Honda Element. It’s been a great car, with tons of room and virtually no problems. Lately I realized that the car is getting too small for my purposes. I want to have my race bike in it, plus some promotional gear and maybe a couple of people. Sounds like I need a van. Me, the ultimate gearhead driving a van? No way, I cannot fall this low. I had to find something different that would work for me. After a little bit of research I came up with a solution:
It is German, drives like a car, small on the outside, big on the inside, sleeps 4 and will easily swallow my bike with all the gear. Did I mention it gets 20mpg in the process? I was sold. Welcome to Volkswagen Eurovan Weekender edition.
After short search on my beloved Craigslist and even shorter negotiations with the seller, the deal was done. Now it wouldn’t be me if the car was local. A little adventure and exploring of unknown territories never hurt anybody. The car is in New Orleans, 2000 miles away. And I already booked my plane ticket. The Adventure begins on Friday.
Everything is good in moderation. Lack of moderation leads to possible cases of obsessive behavior. And obsessive is neither good nor healthy. Obsessions could ruin lives, bring chaos and destruction. Sometimes obsessions have no cure. One just have to learn to let things go. That might be the only reasonable treatment to that kind of behavior.
Motorcycle related cases are no exception. However in rare instances they are quite the opposite - healthy, constructive and even productive. Now with all that said - no, I am not obsessing about yet another motorcycle. Or am I? Some of my friends have a betting pool going that I will buy another bike by March 2009. Despite the betting odds predicting the purchase to happen in the next couple of months I strongly disagree - I will not purchase another motorcycle in the nearest future.
After shuffling through a few motorcycles, trying off-roading and adventure riding I narrowed it down to the following two motorcycles (that I happen to currently own) - Aprilia Futura RST 1000 and KTM 950 Supermoto. They bring the best of the motorcycle worlds that I seemed to enjoy the most - fun street commuting and long haul one or two up sport touring. Futura is virtually unmatched in it’s styling, seat comfort and sporty character - arguably the best sport tourer I demo-ed. The Supermoto, aka the Orange beast, is the ultimate street commuter, very flickable, a lot of fun to split lanes on, fairly light. With that said it does look like I am in absolutely no need of another noble steed in my stable. And that is exactly how I feel. I have ENOUGH motorcycles. I do not need more. Or is enough really enough?
My friends are trying to get me to venture into adventure riding with them. This idea is very enticing. I drool over trip reports on advrider.com each time I browse through them. I want to push my limits and go in the unknown. Ok, not necessarily unknown. Probably an unknown road to a known destination. But still - a definite adventure. As I mentioned earlier after trying off-roading on the BMW F650GS Dakar saying that I did not like it would be an understatement. Now I might be having second thoughts. Obviously I sucked at off-roading. You suck at pretty much anything you do for the first time. So is there a possibility of me trying this out again? You never say never …
I have never been to a track day before. Although my friends (namely Motodisiac) keep pushing me to go do that. Frankly I am afraid to go there on either of my bikes. Futura is a bit too heavy, the Orange beast is too high and most importantly I do not want to drop either of them. I like them way too much (obsession?!). The likelihood of me taking a spill there is pretty high. From what I hear first timers often times get a bit too confident for their own comfort and begin to follow the more experienced riders. Then they start taking turns a bit faster than they should be. That is where yet another bike comes in the picture. Motodisiac owns this beautiful red Duc 749R for his track days.What do I own? Exactly. For a beginner like myself any of the big 4 sport bikes will do just fine. You can get a 650cc Suzuki/Honda/Kawasaki/Yamaha for around 4 grand. It will be in a shape good enough for a track day. And on top of all of that I would totally rock the Replica racing leather suit from REV’IT! :). So do I see me going to a race track on a track bike in my future? You never say never …
What do you think? Do you see a new bike in my future purchased within the next 4-5 months?
Every World Supersport race that I watched last season was dominated by young racer from Turkey Kenan Sofuoglu. I couldn’t wait for this year when he was supposed to move to World Superbikes. Unfotrunately his season didn’t go as planned as he was struggling at the end of the pack on one of the best bikes in the paddock. It turns out fast Supersport rider does not equate fast Superbike rider. Kenan was miserable. So for the last race of the year he was transferred back to Supersport. Right away he took the pole and won the race with little effort. Most likely Superbike requires different riding skills, something Kenan probably lacks. However I would think that Supersport riding style where momentum and high corner speed is everything if fairly similar to a style required to ride lightweight and lethaly fast 800 cc Moto GP bikes. Is it possible that the Turkish star could shine in Moto GP if given a chance? I think he would do very well. The question is will he get his chance……
I think we are up for unforgettable season finale tomorrow. It’s unbelievable how closely all the cars are matched. Going to 3rd qualifying session first 10 cars were separated by less than .4 of a second! Throw in possible rain tomorrow, the fact that Hamilton is starting off the front row with his enemy Alonso behind him, overenthusiastic Brazilian crowd supporting their man Massa and Felipe knowing his home track like the back of his hand, the chances are that Louis will blow it second year in a row and we will crown first Brazilian champion since legendary Ayrton Senna. Tomorrow we will have the most exciting race of the season. One thing that concerns me a little is the fact that Massa is known for his poor performances in the rain races. Will he prove it wrong? We have less than 18 hours to find out….
