Motodisiac

Unbelievably, it has been almost two years since I quit my job to pursue my dream. It was arguably the worst time to start new business from scratch, but here I am, still around and kicking. Of course there are some things that I wish were different, but overall I’m very happy with where I’m at.

Every reputable company is on Facebook these days. I also signed up a couple a weeks ago, and I find it pretty addicting. No, I do not play Mafia Wars or grow my own garden there. I just enjoy sharing my quick thoughts with the world. Check it out for yourself and become a fan here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marina-Del-Rey/Beach-Moto/111105122265174

So you are one of the guys who enjoys real adventure riding. Not the one that involves all black top riding, leave that to Goldwing owners. You want to travel off the beaten path, exploring abandoned roads and riding where no roads exist at all. If you happen to live in USA, your bike choices are pretty limited. You have gigantic GS that could handle some light off roading at best, Suzuki V-Strom with similar issue or all new Ducati Multistrada that comes with 17″ wheels. You can always settle for KLR but it was designed in 80’s and isn’t much fun on the road. There are many bikes that could possibly work for you, but each one of them presents some kind of compromise. BMW F800GS sounds like a good all around choice but you want something more exciting than anemic Beemer. I think your prayers have been answered. Please welcome Aprilia Tuareg.

It has all necessary ingredients to become perfect adventure bike with the character:

Eye pleasing style
Italian designed and made
750 cc V-Twin engine that is perfect for adventure duties
21″ and 18″ wheels to handle the roughest terrain
Good suspension

It will be fun of and off the road. It will be exciting to look at. It will sound great. You will be able to take it to the most remote places on earth. Aprilia has a potential winner coming if they get few things right - fuel economy, gas and luggage capacity and wind management - white keeping the bike lightweight. If they are able to create perfect blend of necessary components, this bike will sell like hot cakes. Can Aprilia do it?

So here’s a little story. I have a friend who’s a surfer. He’s never ridden a motorcycle in his entire life (although he claims he did it successfully once when he was 10, and it was a piece of cake for him). I am obviously a motorcycle rider. Never surfed. The other day he sucked me into this argument about what’s easier to learn - to surf or to ride a motorcycle. I personally think that it’d be easier to be a beginner in surfing than in motorcycling. He of course thinks otherwise.

My reasoning is that motorcycling involves more things to be taken into account as an activity than surfing. Also the situation could change way faster in riding than in surfing. At least beginner surfer has almost zero chance of hurting himself, so that makes it easier. Generally you should progress faster if there’s less fear of getting hurt.

What my friend and a few of his backers were saying that you could teach someone how to ride a bike during a weekend course. And the same could not be done for surfing. Therefore it’s easier to pick up motorcycling.

While we could not find a true measure of complicity or ease of either of the sports we decided on the following. He’ll post this question on a surfer forum he’s a member of to get the feedback from surfers who ride. I on the other hand will do the same on a motorcycle forum to see if there are riders on here that surf who could share their opinions and experience with both sports/hobbies.

Of course we are not talking about professional and/or competitive levels in either of the sports. We both agree that pretty much any sport has virtually the same level of difficulty the closer you get to the top.

So there you have it. Please feel free to voice your opinion. I am not opposed to be proven wrong. It’s just so far I am not too keen on admitting that only because a couple of my friends told me so. They also tell me I am a douche because I ride a motorcycle to begin with, i.e. they can’t be trusted.

This is going to be a really long and very detail oriented post about an ordeal I just went to with the KTM dealer in Santa Monica, California. So please brace yourself if you want to share my pain. Otherwise please move along. No hard feelings.

My KTM 950 Supermoto was coming up to a big 10K mile service also known as the 15K kilometer or every 2 year service according to the owner’s manual. This is a major service that pretty much includes anything and everything. Namely an oil change, new spark plugs, change brake fluid, valve clearance check and adjustment, bleed fork legs and the whole bunch of assorted checks. After conferring with my rider friends we made a collaborative decision that it would be best if an authorized KTM dealer performed this big service. I did not feel like doing all this work in my parking garage with limited to no tools. Neither one of my rider friends is a mechanic skilled enough to perform the valve clearance check and adjustment. Also the owner’s manual suggests that “all service work on your KTM should be performed by a qualified KTM dealer”.

I made some research and found two KTM dealers in my area – KTM of Santa Monica and KTM of Thousand Oaks. After spending some time on the phone with both, getting price quotes for the service and posting on advrider about which of the two my fellow ADV riders would recommend the choice has been made – KTM of Santa Monica.

The person from their service department I was talking to reassured me that everything and anything that the 10K mile service entails would be taken care of. The price quote for this big service was 640 dollars in labor (8 hours of labor at $80/hr) and approximately $100 in parts. I was sort of surprised that the labor part had a fixed price independent of whether the valve clearance should be adjusted or not. Basically if you see that the valves require no adjustment the time spent working on a bike is way less than 8 hours. Oh well … I was told that they do not necessarily need to charge me for all parts as they might use something like brake fluid that they already have in their shop. That later turned out to be an outright lie. By the time I had to drop it off my KTM had developed an acute case of a clutch slave cylinder failure. I had also asked them to take care of that and replace it with the new Evoluzione clutch slave cylinder. That added another half hour of labor ($40) plus the cost of the part itself, roughly $200.

The stage had been set. I dropped the bike off last Saturday, 8 days ago. What happened next was something I would never expect from an authorized KTM dealer performing an almost 1000 dollar service.

I dropped the bike off on Saturday, 8 days ago and got a call the following Sunday. My service adviser told me that the big 10K service had been done. And all they need now is to order the clutch slave cylinder. However they could not proceed until I pay for it. That sounded slightly ridiculous to me. It wasn’t like I randomly called them and asked them to order a part for me. My motorcycle was sitting at their shop already. They just performed an $800 service that I would have to pay for. Yet they wanted me to prepay another 200 something dollars “just to be sure” I won’t back out of this deal. I asked my service adviser if it was absolutely necessary for me to come in person and pay for it. He promised to talk to his service manager and call me back. Never happened.

After waiting the rest of Sunday, Monday and half of Tuesday I decided to take matters into my own hands and called them. As before it had been confirmed now by the service manager that I did need to come in and pay. I promptly showed up at their front gate with my Visa out of its holster. I got presented with two invoices totaling almost $1100 – one for the 10K service, another for the clutch slave cylinder and half an hour of labor to get it installed. I paid everything in full and took off.

When I got home and looked at the invoices things stopped making any sense to me. First of all despite the fact that there is no sales tax on labor in the state of California the invoice for the clutch slave cylinder had sales tax added on labor as well as on the cost of the part. “Honest mistake”, - I thought. And then I looked closely at the 10K mile invoice and noticed something strange. The invoice listed oil, oil filter, some small items like 2 o-rings for like a dollar each. However some items that should have been present like a new air filter or brake fluid were missing. And I had a charge for … 8 spark plugs in there. Also there was no reference to whether shims were used or not to adjust the valve clearance. I became really suspicious. Just by looking at the invoice it pretty much seemed like I got a $640 dollar oil change. I refused to believe what I saw.

I was back at the dealership the next (Wednesday) morning. I wanted clarification of what had been done to my motorcycle under the 10K mile service as well as understanding why my bike needed 8 spark plugs. After a very few apologies I had received a $62 refund (6 spark plugs plus tax on labor). Then I got a chance to talk to the mechanic that worked on my bike. He told me that he had looked at the air filter and it looked clean enough. So no replacement was needed. Pretty strange given that my motorcycle endured a 1K mile trip to Baja and a 1K mile trip to Death Valley. He also told me that he looked at the brake fluid and it looked alright to him. Therefore he did not feel it had to be changed. Well, the KTM owner’s manual begs to differ. It clearly states that the brake fluid needs to be changed during this service. Both the mechanic and the service manager reluctantly agreed with my previous statement and told me that they’d do that as well if I WANTED TO.

I left the dealership that morning with mixed feelings. On one hand it seemed like things that happened were just honest mistakes. On the other hand they looked like a complete lack of professionalism. I was inclined to think it was the latter. If it’s in the book it has to be done. If you call yourself an authorized KTM dealer first thing you do is look in the book to see what is it you have to do in a given maintenance procedure.

I got a call few days later. Everything was completed and the bike was ready for me. I went to pick it up yesterday, Saturday morning. Upon my arrival I was presented with yet another invoice. This time it was for the brake fluid. I can’t say I was pleased. Just a few days ago I was essentially schooling these very employees of this very KTM dealer about the ways of the 10K mile maintenance and what that maintenance includes. I was expecting that I would not have to be charged for something they had forgotten to do. Especially in light of the mistakes they made the other day. Well, I was wrong. I began to slowly boil up. The tipping point came when I went to pay the invoice. The cashier told me that the service manager made a mistake yet again. The total for the brake fluid should have been slightly less than what the invoice showed. That was the precise moment I decided I was going to be very meticulous and pedantic with them.

My motorcycle was already rolled out of the service area when I got back with the paid invoice. My service adviser causally handed me the keys and began to wander off. As previously stated I had just turned into a meticulous and pedantic bastard. So I began checking every little bit of the motorcycle. What I noticed immediately was that both of the front orange fairings were really dirty. Also I spotted a scratch a few inches long on the rear orange fairing. And to top things off the tire pressure in the rear tire was 7 psi under what it should have been. That’s despite them telling me prior that they had checked everything and anything INCLUDING the tire pressure.

I kept my cool on the outside. However on the inside I was fuming. I brought all these three things to their attention. The mechanic rolled my bike back into the service area. Some 10 minutes later he had told me and shown me that I had a tiny cut on a rear tire. I could not legitimately say that the cut wasn’t originally there when I brought the bike in a week ago. So I decided to let that go. However I was not going to do the same with the scratch situation. We went back to the service manager. A few vague statements later I had him say that they will replace the part. He just had to look into the cost and availability. I am unsure why at that point he would want to look into anything other than making me happy. Whatever the cost is they have to be ordering it pronto and keep apologizing profusely for their terrible service. The service manager promised to call me as soon as he had any information. As of today, Sunday’s morning I haven’t received a call.

I am not going to let it slide though. I am really pissed off. And will keep the pressure on. Almost forgot one detail. As I was walking out the service manager said this: “Of course we are going to replace the scratched part. We are not a pop-and-mom shop; we are an authorized KTM dealer”. I did not feel like starting a pissing match. However the irony of the situation was that they did everything that would qualify them as nothing but a pop-and-mom shop.

Here is the bottom line to this story. I am utterly shocked that something like that could happen at an authorized KTM dealer. The whole reason I decided to to go to a dealer was to make sure all the little things and tweaks that this service entails would be properly done. I paid $680 in labor and my total was well over $1000 including parts. It is a lot of money to pay for a service. And when you pay that much money for a service you are not expected to double check what the dealer is doing to your vehicle. At this point I am absolutely unsure of what exactly was done to my motorcycle. Probably what they did do was just the oil change, the valve clearance check with no adjustment (the mechanic said I did not need one, however understandably I have to take anything those guys say with a grain of salt), clutch slave cylinder, clutch and brake fluid change and chain maintenance. The last two items though got included in the service only because I had explicitly requested them. And all of these things do not require 8,5 hours of labor.

At this point I am contemplating contacting KTM of North America and filing a complaint. This was a terrible brand representation on the KTM of Santa Monica’s behalf. This would not reflect on my love for the brand though. I still love my KTM Supermoto and still think KTM makes terrific motorcycles.

Fellow riders be warned – stay away from Honda, Kawasaki and KTM of Santa Monica.

To wee or not to wee, that was the question. And here is the answer. For the last few weeks I have been semi-frantically looking for a good deal on a used Wee-Strom. I have found a couple of really good offers neither of which was within a 600 mile radius from my house. I was totally open to a fly and ride option, i.e. fly into a city, pick up a new bike from its owner and ride it back home. Motodisiac has done it a few times.

While I was looking for a good deal I kept reading various information sources on the bike. Advrider.com and stromtrooper.com were the best resources. The more I read the more I became infatuated with the Wee. Tons of farkles, ease of maintanence and versatility made it a great bang for a buck. I was dead set on the purchase.

Last night I went out to look at this one Wee-Strom some 20 miles away from my house. The ad said it was a silver 2007 non-ABS model with 1400 miles on it. The bike was all stock except for the added handguards from the DL1000. The original owner had purchased it because a couple of his neighbors owned motorcycles and wanted him to ride with them. The mileage shows that this idea did not really come to life. The bike was in an absolute showroom condition and the owner was very much open to part ways with it right then. We made a deal and I rode it back home. This is how I have become a one happy strom trooper.

I decided to take it for a spin today to see what this machine is like. As already proven in my trial run of my friend’s Wee the bike feels solid and well built. It did not feel foreign while I was lane splitting on my morning commute. The engine comes alive at around 6000 rpm. In other words you will not feel a decent acceleration unless you rev the engine a bit. No problem there as it redlines at 11000 rpms. As mentioned in my earlier post the brakes are so so. So is the suspension in comparison to my other bikes. The stock exhaust is really quite which made me suspect I was absolutely invisible to the cagers. I did not have any close calls though. Just from my experience an aftermarket exhaust would enable cagers to hear you coming a bit earlier. Note to self - order a Yoshimura slip-on.

All in all this bike reminded me of a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla. Can’t really say too many bad things about it. At the same time far from being spectacular. Just a well built good bang for a buck kind of machine.

The only thing that was pretty annoying was the wind noise. I believe I get less wind noise on my KTM that does not have a windshield at all. No wonder virtually every used V-Strom that was for sale had some sort of an aftermarket windshield. The factory windshield is adjustable and per owners manual “can be adjusted in 3 positions”. I am yet to try that though I am suspecting a purchase of an aftermarket solution is imminent.

I am really excited as I am about to venture myself into the world on adventure riding on a proper machine. My adventure motorcycle project has started. And if you thought that my semi-frantic online searches were done you would be horribly mistaken. My Wee is pretty much rigged the way it came out of the factory. Translation - nowhere near ready for an adventure trip. An adventure motorcycle is the one loaded with various farkles - crash bars, skid plate, luggage, GPS mounts etc. Luckily there are plenty of aftermarket solutions for a Wee-Strom. I hope I don’t max out my credit card in the next few months to come.

As my previous post suggests I am strongly considering buying a used 650cc V-Strom. Probably I will never do really tough off-road excursions. But it is always nice to know what your noble steed is capable of. Today I found this video on youtube that provides proof that a V-Strom could easily go amphibious. A quality definitely worthy of being called an adventure motorcycle, don’t you think?

Yes my first off-roading experience was not pleasant. My second time was last October when we took a trip to Baja California. Our attempt to conquer the road from San Felipe to Gonzaga Bay failed largely due to my nagging and my fear of dropping my bike. I was riding the KTM SuperMoto which is clearly not an adventure motorcycle. I was afraid to damage it. Besides it was only my second time doing an off-road excursion. Well, among other things the road was tough. Anyway my third time came around last weekend when we took an adventure trip to Death Valley. I rode the KTM again. For whatever reason I felt more confident and fearless on off-road stretches. I could not do certain things as again I was afraid to damage my Orange Beast’s tires and suspension and did not feel like dropping it on loose gravel. Surprisingly though I did enjoy the off-road experience we had during our Death Valley run. And this is when I felt that maybe adventure riding should not be thrown out of the equation for me. The question was - what kind of motorcycle would I be doing that on?

Currently I own two motorcycles - 2003 Aprilia Futura for my sport-touring needs and 2006 KTM 950 SuperMoto for my sport-commuting needs. Motodisiac implied that I should sell the Futura and buy a Caponord. I rode his Caponord a couple of times and was impressed by its handing and versatility. The only problem - I thought and still think it is really ugly. I love the way the Futura looks and feels. My girlfriend also loves the Futura and told me not to sell it no matter what. And on top of those arguments the seat comfort of the Futura is far superior to anything I have ever sat on let alone ridden :). So at this point the Futura is here to stay. The KTM is the ultimate commuter as well as the soon to be my race track bike. So can’t sell that one either. Clearly at this point I am in need of an adventure aka enduro aka dual-sport motorcycle. Enter Suzuki V-Strom DL650.

Our Death Valley trip group consisted of 4 riders - Motodisiac and one more rider had Aprilia Caponords, yours truly rode the KTM and the 4th rider had a Wee-Strom (pictured below).  Wee-Strom is a nickname for the 650cc Suzuki V-Strom. As opposed to the 1000cc version that has a nickname Vee-Strom the little brother is obviously a Wee. Anyway I took my friend’s Wee for a run. The Wee has the same engine as my first bike - the SV650S. It feels potent for a 650cc engine. It redlines at 11 thousand RPMs. And while you can travel along at 3-4 thousand RPMs you can rev it up and get a fairly nice acceleration out of it. The bike corners pretty well too. The brakes are so-so. However this isn’t a race track motorcycle either. So that should not be a show stopper. The bike can easily go 250 miles on one tank of gas. Something of a high importance on adventure trips. There are tons of aftermarket farkles for it - crash bars, travel cases etc. And the best thing - the bike is inexpensive and easy to maintain. Perfect. I would not be too scared to drop it if I hit a sand patch or something.

I have been checking craiglist and advrider motorcycle for sale sections ever since I got back from our trip. I found a really good deal in San Diego that I was a bit late to. There are plenty of offers out there. However I am in no immediate rush to buy one. From my own experience I know that good deals do happen and it is not a once in a lifetime occurrence. At this point I am looking around. I am still considering - to wee or not to wee. I am leaning towards the first one.

I just came back from a motorcycle adventure trip to Death Valley. As a true adventure rider I was equipped with some adventure riding gear. Among those - the Cayenne Pro jacket and pants.

For those of you who don’t know what Death Valley is and the name did not give you any hints I will say that it is a desert located on the border of California and Nevada. And deserts are known for huge temperature fluctuations. I was quite interested how the Cayenne Pro combo would perform under those conditions.

We hit all kinds of temperatures on our 4 day excursion.  As all motorcyclists know the biggest pain in the ass is to stop and layer up when you get cold or layer down when you are hot. You would much rather keep rolling. The terrain and roads in Death Valley are such that they go up and down the local mountains. So one minute you are hot, the next one you are cold. We saw temperatures ranging from 65F(16C) to 85F(26C) within 30 mile stretches. And this is when the design of the Cayenne Pro jacket and pants proved to be far superior than any other motorcycle gear I have ever worn.

The pants have vents going along the sides of your thighs. The zippers are conviniently located and are very easy to operate when you are seated on a bike as well as when you are standing up. Unlike the same kind of zippers on my previous REVIT! riding pants I was operating those with ease. And would close and open these vents multiple times during our trip.

The jacket’s vents system is far more complex. It features two zippered vents on each of the sleeves. Then it has the chest vents that close up on velcro and stay open with the clip buttons and the zippered vents in the back. Clearly you can’t unzip the back zippers unless you either ask you friend or take your jacket off. However the chest vents and the sleeve vents are operated easily even while you are riding. Two big thumbs up for that. And yet another interesting way to add more airflow is to release the velcro-ed cuff of the sleeves and make the cuffs really loose. It would draw a lot of air in your sleeves thus creating more airflow.

These venting  features came really handy on our trip. All 3 of us wore the same jacket-pants combination. And neither one of us could say enough compliments to the quality of the Cayenne Pro jacket and pants as well as the utilitarian nature of the gear. The combo works amazingly well for the needs of an adventure rider. Highly recommend!

Well, it seems like Jonah Street’s Dakar is over. I was really rooting for him, and he was delivering mind blowing performances day after day. Competing on nearly stock KTM he was beating factory riders with multi million dollar teams behind them. It seems almost unreal that regular construction worker from Washington could achieve that in the hardest race on the face of planet earth. Talk about talent and heat. I’m sure his racing career is just beginning and somebody will surely notice him. Get well soon!

I never would have thought I would be interested in a riding suit. For some reason I thought it was impractical, inconvenient to wear and would never be a good fit. I have been hearing a lot of buzz about the Infinity suit although was still reluctant to invest in it. But my natural curiosity took over. After all I had to live up to the REV’IT! junkie moniker that I proudly wear. Besides the fact that I am friend’s with Motodisiac enabled me to be the first in line in the Beach Moto Inifinty Suit order queue. The long wait was over. Yesterday I got my hands on a beautiful brand new Infinity suit in light grey. Even though I am not exactly a big fan of riding gear in light colors I decided to experiment for once. Most of my gear is black or really of darker colors. Besides I got sold on the fact that this suit’s Nanosphere will not let it get dirty.

One of my friends (who like yours truly happens to be an inmate on advrider.com) is pretty good with the ways of digital photography. So I asked him to come by Motodisiac’s store the other day to take pictures. No, not because of my godly physique or irresistible looks. But mostly because I wanted to take really good pictures of the overall fit and features of the suit for my fellow riders to see. I know it is pretty hard to find a quality REV’IT! dealer. Let alone the one which would stock various products and sizes of REV’IT! gear.

So without further ado here are the pictures of the suit:

frontal view of the suit

the view from the back features reflective stripes in action

side view, the fit is quite close unlike the Olympia suit that I had tried once before

adjustable straps make it easy to fit the suit right on your waist line, the range of adjustment is quite wide too, there are 3 waterproof (yet to be battle tested) pockets - 2 bottom ones and one chest pocket on the right side, there is a waterproof opening for an electric cord in place of the left side chest pocket

front pockets are big enough yet don’t spoil the suit’s profile

there are also side pockets on each of the bottom pockets

the chest pocket is a bit wider than the bottom pockets, but not as deep, yet big enough to easily fit a cell phone

waterproof chest vent

another view of the chest vent

two chest vents are evenly matched up with two back vents, I haven’t had a chance to truly test this venting system, but if it is as effective as the one on the Cayenne Pro jacket then it would be pretty impressive

sleeves are adjustable by way of two adjustment tabs and a cuff velcro

two adjustment tabs up close

cuff up close and personal, the velcro is ultra thin allowing glove gauntlets to be fit over easily if needed

sholder areas have extra laminated material for protection

stretch panels on the lower back and elbows and knees make the suit extra comfortable to wear, of course they are fully waterproof

knee stretch panels up close

collar curcumference could be easily adjusted thanks to adjustable snap, the color lining is soft and feel comfortable

tizip zipper looks durable enough to be used on scuba gear, definitely looks waterproof

even though the zipper is pretty tight it is not hard to operate due to the big t-shape puller

the bottom tab on the right leg holds the zipper puller in place

right leg zipper half opened

right leg zipper fully opened

to take the suit off it is easier to fully open the outer zipper on the left leg

and then pull the main zipper almost all the way down

another option would be to just open the main zipper all the way down, however that would imply that you would have to bend over to close the zipper next time you want to put the suit on

sas-tec back protector comes standard with the suit

so do sas-tec hip protectors

and the knee, elbow and shoulder protectors, when you have the suit on it does feel like it offers really good protection

just a glance on the suit’s inside lining shows an incredible level of attention to detail

the quality of materials and stitching makes a good impression and gives confidence in the suit’s safety features

I have not had a chance to ride in it a lot though I am looking forward to that. I will say this - it definitely looks like a million bucks and is worth what I paid for. I am sure some minor gripes could come up. But all in all it looks like a high quality product that would definitely offer high levels of protection and comfort.