Go play in the dirt

As Colin's 5th birthday approached, I started to consider getting him a dirt bike partly since he was so adept with his bicycle and partly to ward off his unnatural desire for a quad, like everyone else on our street had.

I went in early that week and bought the Yamaha PW50, a bike that has remained largely the same for over a decade, since it gets the job done. That job is of course, introducing new young riders to the sport. Automatic clutch; 1 gear; point, twist and go.

A day after buying the PW50, it occurred to me that I was going to need some way of hanging with Colin as he was riding. As a friend of mine relayed having gone through this himself years ago, and the idea of jogging after him or chasing him from the pedals of a bmx bicycle didn't hold much appeal. So back to the dealer I went ...

We are very lucky to know someone, who knows someone, who has his own dirtbike track. Just short of actually having your own land with your very own track, this is the next best thing.

Having mastered the loop and hill in the backyard, it was time to move on to something a little more challenging. This section of the track serpentines around within a couple of acres. It had some nice 3 - 5' banked turns and several tabletop jumps that probably average around 4' in height. Hit a 4' tall pile of dirt at 15 - 20 mph and you will get some air.

Looking again to his rear wheel, you see the compressed suspension and the dirt kicked up upon landing. Boy, if only I'd captured some of the actual jumping. He was pretty amazing for a first time.

Americade report, 2005

Warning: Another Long Post

I spent Wednesday and Thursday at Americade. Made a run up Tuesday afternoon with my brother to get advance registration. On Wednesday we met up at a Hess station at exit 8 around 07:00 and were standing in line at the Triumph demo rides by 07:50. I'd estimate that there were maybe 40 people in front of us. Triumph hasn't been up there for 5 years or so and I thought it would be interesting to ride the Daytona 650, though with the dealer in Albany closing up about 3 years ago, the closest place to buy one is down towards NYC. They all start the registering at 08:00 and the first ride of the day leaves around 09:00. They had the expected 2 people working the desk, but the line was moving very slowly. Very slowly indeed. This fact was not lost on anyone in the line. We all wanted to get through and get into someone else's line, but we're all dying on the vine here. One of the Triumph clowns seemed to occupy his time passing out the waiver forms. He would load one on a clipboard and then walk it back to the next person in line to fill out, who then for some reason would hang on to the clipboard until reaching the desk where the two people were processing. One took the form and driver's license and made sure it was filled out correctly. Then after passing that test, he filled out a time-slip, put an ink stamp on the back of your hand and passed the form to the #2 clown who then asked what you wanted to ride and when. Once the monumental task of identifying a time was done, #2 transcribed a lot of the information from the form onto the OFFICIAL SIGN UP SHEET, while the original jerk put another form on the now empty clipboard and walked it back to the line.

After about half an hour of this, some guy broke from the line, stormed the desk and grabbed a handful of forms and clipboards and passed them around the line, utterly confusing the guy who had been doing it so far. It took 1 hour for us to reach the desk. By that time I had changed my mind and decided to step up to the 955 Daytona, thinking that John could take the 650. But Triumph had thoughtlessly divided the dozen or so bikes they brought into 2 lines and put a Daytona in each. Clearly they were trying to balance each line with a variety of bikes, rather than group them by function: slow people, fast people. So by me choosing the 955, John's choices were severely limited and he choose the Thruxton 900 which is a retro twin, looking to be about 40 years old. Had I fallen back to the 650 Daytona I originally planned to ride, he could have chosen a Speed Triple (same bike line), but apparently all of the time standing in the signup line had broken my mind. I’m a bad man. I apologized a lot over this the rest of the day for what I'd done to him. Our ride was scheduled for 13:30 and we headed off quickly to the Kawasaki line to see if we could still get a ride there.

There were maybe 20 people in line when we got there. 10 minutes later we were at the desk with our completed forms and I chose the newly revised ZX6R and John chose the ZZR600. They peeled the appropriate sticker of the master sheet, affixed it to our time slips, and off we went. I wanted to go back and bitch slap the Triumph jerks. I had expected that there would be multiple of each bike available but there was only one ZX6R. Turns out from talking with one of the Kawi guys, the other one had been dropped Tuesday afternoon and wasn't ready to be put back in the line yet. That ride was at 15:45 so we went down to the vendor area and walked around some with Scott and ate some bad food. It was freakin' hot; pushing 90 and I got a pretty good burn going.

We got back for the Triumph ride to find that the 955 was the first bike in line with the Thruxton right behind it, so John and I were following the lead rider. Pre-ride safety talk and then everyone to their bikes. Wednesday I made the terrible mistake of wearing my leather jacket up to Lake George, and sitting there suited up in the sun with the bike running for 5 minutes while they milled around in their Triumph Cloud of Confusion, was brutal. A great deal of time at Americade is spent sweating like a pig. Finally the leader mounts up and takes off. We get on the Northway at 21 and head south 3 miles to 20 and get off. They then pick up the route that goes up over the mountain into Lake Lazurne and heads north up 9something back to Roaring Brook Ranch. (that little 1' wide babbling brook has never, ever roared...)

We hit the Northway and gun it taking off after the leader. The 955 is okay, nothing special in the performance dept. I'd say it certainly out-performs Joann's 600 but would be fodder for most race replica 600s. The true joy of the Daytona 955 is that no one else has one (refer to previous sentence). You won't find your bike at every stop light. We start up the mountain. It twists and rolls and doubles back. This is the course I've described many times over the years, including a couple years back when a kid dropped an Aprilia approaching the hairpin. I'm doing my best to stay glued to the leader and notice a couple times that John was pretty far back behind me. I apologized more later. Didn't matter as about 2 miles into the twisties we came upon a Honda Accord doing 10mph. No kidding. They did eventually speed up close to 25mph, but that was it. We followed that car for 12 miles, through ALL of the rest of the mountain roads. I thought I might have an aneurysm. 

Our lead rider was swearing at them every time we stopped at an intersection, but he was following the company line and not blowing them off. I assume the reason they didn't pull over was that they were locals who didn't appreciate Americade and were willing to tweak our noses a bit. They finally pull off in the village of Luzurne and we sped away happily, only to quickly come up behind a school bus. The bus was observing ALL posted limits for the couple miles we followed. The bus soon signaled to pull off into the school, but not before -- and I'm not making any of this up, it really happened -- the driver waved a garbage truck out in front of us. We followed the lumbering garbage truck, at a distance, for a couple miles until it pulled off, and we then just followed a group of Harleys back to RBR. We were beaten men.

When we went over for the Kawasaki ride, again strangely the ZZR600 had found it's way up behind the ZX6R I was taking out. I was maybe 3rd behind the lead rider. Kawi took us on a route that was different from what they have done for the past 10 years; it was slightly longer and incorporated more of the back roads. At one point we all formed up waiting to get on the Northway after coming off a 3 mile section of twisty road, and John pulled up alongside and exclaimed "Wow! Is this what new technology is like? This thing would kill the 900." It took me some time to figure out he was referring to the Triumph he took out earlier. I apologized.

John who owns a 600cc v-twin and rode a 900cc twin earlier that day, had just had his senses assaulted by a 600cc inline 4, and it was good. My impressions of the ZX6R weren't quite as favorable. I like the new styling more than I expected to. It is also more comfortable with the revised seating position. But the severely raked windscreen cuts the top off the instrument cluster from your line of sight. I had to make a concerted effort to see how fast I was going or what the tach read. Also, the engine vibrated far too much starting around 8000rpm. I don't know if it was that particular bike or not, since they do take a bit of a beating. It handled like a dream though. It's hard to do anything wrong on that bike. I also tried a series of horribly sloppy downshifts to test the new slipper clutch and it was flawless. You can dump the clutch at high revs and it just purrrrrrrs down in each gear. No blatting, hopping, skipping or jumping. Still, I wasn't ready to run out and buy either bike I rode that day.

I went up alone Thursday and my plan was to hit the Kawasaki line early and sign up for a ZX10 and then shoot over to the ever-so-slowly moving Triumph line and get the Daytona 650. Traveling by myself up the Northway at a slightly faster clip, I pulled into RBR around 07:30 and as I move past the Triumph area on my way to park I see that the line is longer now than it was yesterday. I decide that I'd have to get into the line now if I wanted a shot at the 650. One hour and ten minutes later, I was at the desk. Just before I got up there they called the 09:00 ride and asked if anyone still in line wanted to take out the 955, 650 Daytonas or some 3rd bike. It seemed fairly common that the Daytonas got pulled from the line unused and I could have taken that ride on the spot .... but then I'd never get to the Kawasaki line in time to get anything, so I bit my tongue and signed up for the  2nd to last available 10:30 ride slot.

I then went and was able to get a ZX10 for 15:45. The Daytona 650 is newly redesigned a year ago and is a nice bike. I'd have to ride it back to back with the 636 to know which is better, but at least it didn't buzz like the Kawi did. I was the last bike in the pack for my ride and since all other bikes in the line were loser cruisers, my fun potential was severely limited. It was a nice bike overall and I didn't have any complaints. I liked the 650 better than the 955, but that could simply be the quality of the ride. No problems over the mountain, but we did have to be the run of the day that stopped at Stewarts to fill up on gas. It was damn hot out and even though I'd worn my mesh jacket, it was still a sweat fest. That stop added 15 minutes to our ride time. Then as we came up on RBR, I crested the final hill in time to see the father of a father/son duo drop one of the bikes right at the entrance to Roaring Brook. I didn't see what caused him to do that, just saw him go down and people run over to pick him up. That event added another 10 minutes of sit and wait in the sun time while the Triumph staff sorted that out. These guys truly are the worst. Then we proceeded back to the parking area.

I had earlier run into Scott who had signed up for 2 deadly dull Honda rides and a Kawi ride, then realized that the 13:30 Kawasaki ride interfered with his 13:40 Honda snooze-fest, which he wanted to take more. I’m starting to have concerns about this boy. He gave me his slip for a ZRX1200R which I'd never have signed up for, but what the hell. I showed up at 13:30 and went out, to find that they had fallen back to the same route they've used for years.

The ZRX is a standard style seating position, which doesn't appeal to me so much as I don't feel like I have the level of control I want outside of being in a tuck. Actually, it's a replica of an Eddie Lawson replica of a race bike. However, the engine was enlightening and the rearsets are well placed. I was soon repeating in my head that there is no replacement for displacement <heel click>... After the okay 955, the buzzy 636 and the pretty nice 650 Daytona, this was more like what I was used to: twist the throttle and go. Now. Doesn't really matter too much what gear you are in at the time either. There are 2 sections of the ride where they get on the Northway at exit 20 heading North and later at 23 heading south; the latter is a very long combination entrance ramp of at least half a mile with a nice left hand sweeper. The bike will power wheelie under acceleration in 1st and 2nd, and it sure got light up front and stretched my arms out in 3rd. That ride got me focussed back on the primal joys of power and psyched up for the monster ZX10.

I met up with Scott later after his Honda rides and he was on his way out, as were a couple other people he rode up with. I said I was waiting around for my 15:45 ride and might wander back over to the Kawi area in case there was any empty ride to get as standby at 15:00, and he said that Luke was bailing on his ride so there would be a ZX6R open. Hot damn, so off I go. Well, I waited through the rider's meeting and then watched as everyone went to their assigned bikes, and a woman went to the ZX6R... but do my eyes deceive me or is one of the ZX10s therefore now sitting empty? I paced the Kawi guy up and down the line as he was taking slips and asked if there were any standbys available and he found out the 10 was empty and I took it out. Well, eventually. I was the last to suit up and get the bike started and they sent out the row next to me, then my row with the middle-pack lead rider on the other 636 -- now back in service and right in front of me -- started moving and I let out the clutch and went nowhere, as I forgot to put the bike in gear... Damn! Clutch in, slam it into gear, let out the clutch and ... stalled it. Damn, Damn! But it was rolling so I popped the clutch and took off. Even though I remembered the problem from riding it last year, I was not initially prepared for the abrupt throttle response of this bike. Something that will do 105 at redline in first gear and hit 180mph is tough to move smoothly at 5mph. It has a bit of throttle lash.

Now see here

No worries once I got it moving, and I concentrated on being super-smooth with the throttle as we taxied out of RBR. We exit out onto 9something and everyone guns it heading toward the Northway 2 miles away. Shortshift to second to bring the front wheel down and start to shut it down at 70mph as I'm coming up on the pack fast. Just before the Northway we turn right onto some road that runs parallel but is 10,000 times more fun as it twists along. The ZX10 is kinda scary here in a couple of places due to the on/off throttle lash, which you really want to get a good handle on before getting into the corner and give real thought to before exiting, as it will upset the bike's stability and you have to anticipate that. On lesser bikes I'd grab a fistful of throttle at the apex and power out hard. Not on this bike. That would either break the rear end loose and snap a high-side get-off or just send you off into the woods. This one you get on the throttle gently at apex and give it a hint of gas while speaking softly and sweetly to the bike, which propels you around the corner very fast and then you can get into it a little more as you straighten out. This bike will do genuine, no clutch slipping needed thanks, power wheelies in several gears.

This beast doesn't handle with the 600's (no liter bike can) but will hunt them down later on. I cannot describe getting onto the Northway with this pack of clowns, while on this bike, but I'll try. As I turn onto the entrance ramp at exit 20 north -- a short sweeper to the right, I already know what is most likely going to happen, 'cause after all, I've been on this same ramp dozens of times before taking these rides over the years. I'll never understand why they don't place a fleet of cops there with one of those credit card sliders. All I can think about as I start to roll and turn left from 9something onto the ramp is that I have to stay calm and keep the front end down. Do not, repeat -- DO NOT grab the throttle. Ease up the ramp and into the first turn (at about 50) and accelerate to the right, short-shift to second then straighten out and look ahead to see where you will merge, start winding it up as you look back over your left shoulder to see what was coming -- not that anything short of a bullet train will make any difference -- then as you hit the Northway proper at about 90mph, shift to third and open it up. A massive burst of intake noise surrounds you as you flash by some pickup truck that seems to be moving backwards, and follow the other bikes out across the first and into the second lane. Hold it open for as long as I dare -- maybe another 2 seconds, then cut the throttle and fall into the group doing 130mph. Start to coast down to a more sane 80mph and shift up to 4th. 3 miles down in very short order. Can't even spot the pickup in my mirrors. Off at exit 23, turn around and head back down to 21. Lather, rinse, repeat....

I got the bike parked, got off, got my helmet off and like some newbie, could not stop myself from saying HOLY cow!! much to the amusement of one of the Kawi reps smirking as he walked by. And then, yup -- it's time for my 15:45 ride on the ZX10. No need to adjust the mirrors.... and I was much smoother all around the second time out and figure that after a thousand miles or so on that bike I'd have it down pretty well. If I didn't wad it and paste myself into some immovable object. That bike has no business on public roads. I'm definitely liter bike material. I'm still hoping that next year Suzuki upgrades the GSX-R600 like they did the K5 and brings the 750 along for the ride. A GSX-R750 may be just the ticket, so to speak. So at the end of the day I'd had 4 rides: one 650, 1 1200cc and 2 on the ZX10. I then mounted my 1100 and rode briskly home, having put 250 miles on my bike in 2 days.

Americade report, 2004

I went to Americade last Friday with Shelley and met Scott and a couple others up there. A primary reason she wanted to go up was to get a jacket and accomplished that. I’m kinda envious. She had signed up for a demo ride, sort of talked into this particular ZZR600 by the guy at the signup table actually. The bike is very similar to Joann's but Shelley was leery of taking it out since it differs so much from hers, and I was just as glad about that since this bike was in the sportbike line-up and not the cruiser grouping, so she would have been on the ride with the people like me. She decided to head home around 13:30 and from following up, claims to have had a good time, so I'll accept that.

Me, well, I went out on the 13:30 ride on the ZX-10R, and it is without doubt, the most amazing motorcycle I've ever been on. It is far too much motorcycle for street use, but I could make due in a pinch. It is 20lbs heavier than the ZX-6R but they claim 184hp (more like 164 bhp, but who's counting) . This thing accelerates like a rocket without even getting into it's powerband, has great brakes to haul it back down and handles phenomenally. You can make the numbers on the digital speedometer spin up in a blur and it was kinda mesmerizing to watch them move. Only problem I noticed was that it's just about impossible to be smooth in 1st gear. Going in and out of Roaring Brook Ranch (where the demo rides start/finish) in first, the drive-line lash is pretty severe, so if you just think about the throttle the bike either lurches forward or falls on it's nose. I guess that's a function of so much power, so just put it in second.

I sat with Scott and Luke after my ride was over, regaling them with tales of the ZX10R, which neither had ridden all week. As we waited around for my 15:00 ride, the one in-between came back and a few seconds later we heard this woman in 1-piece leather riding suit bitching loudly to the the factory guys about some slug she got stuck behind. It's possible that she was behind him all along or maybe worst of all, he got ahead of her when they bunched up at the first stop sign. She was livid. Going on about how this guy couldn't ride in formation and couldn't corner and couldn't ride worth a damn and you aren't supposed to pass in line and why doesn't Kawasaki monitor who they put out on their bikes and on and on for I'll bet 3 solid minutes. Then about a minute later we could hear her again as she was walking away and someone made the mistake of asking how she liked the bike and she said the bike was great and then launched into her issues again. I've had that happen, so I can feel her pain....

I took the ZX-6R out at 15:00 and there was a no-show for the ZX-10R in line right in front of me and the ZX-12R in the other line, so Scott got the 12 and Luke got the ZX-10. I was the 4th bike behind the lead rider and our group split at me. The guy behind me on the ZZR1200R faded like a distant memory about half a dozen turns into the ride, and before he disappeared, I could see in my mirrors that the ZX-10R behind him was falling back... We were flying down the road to exit 20 and even with one 1/4 mile stretch couldn't see anyone behind us. We slowed down to a crawl about a mile before the exit and then finally had to pull off the road to let everyone regroup. We subsequently got split *ahem* just behind me again as we were taking the light to get on the Northway for a blitz from 20 to 22. Since there were only a handful of us through the light, and the lead rider deduced that the other 2 factory riders got stuck, back there, he opened it up to around 100mph on the Northway.

Except for the part out on the Northway, anytime we were on secondaries or even the ramps, I could easily keep up with Luke and since I often corner faster, I was constantly having to make sure I didn't run him over as we approached the turns. I could have taken him anytime with the 6. I love that bike.

From my own back to back rides, I was very careful with the ZX-10R (though the guy behind me was never on my tail....) but with the ZX-6R being tamer, I was able to ride that much more aggressively; just crank the throttle open and the power was much more manageable than on the 10. But alas, the 6-series has been supplanted after all these years by the ZX-10R. While I still had a blast on the smaller bike, the 10 is soooo nice and it just feels so much more substantial all the way around. It is The Bike. I still think a 750 would split the difference nicely though.

I didn't get any other rides as no one else had the courtesy to not show up. Oh, I could have had some 1600 Mean something or other with floorboards that went empty, but I would have just been a menace out there, wallowing through the corners, trying to figure out how to steer the thing... Homey don't do cruisers   :)

After that I ate a bunch of hotdogs and worked on my sunburn and Scott and I headed back around 17:30, after they all went out on a Honda snooze-fest. While I was waiting for them to return, I sat on the CBR1000RR Honda brought along, but never lets anyone take out. It would be nice if the others brought the serious stuph to compare against the Kawi's. I'd reeeeeeally like to run the new GSXRs, but only Kawasaki brings the real bikes and lets Joe Public at 'em. Even Americade isn't perfect.

Americade report, 2003

Warning: Another Long Post

I took 3 days off last week and went up to Americade Thurs & Fri. Thursday was forecast to be showery and it had rained overnight, so roads were wet. It was misty when I headed out around 07:30, but by the time I got up to Clifton Park and was getting onto the Northway, the sun was periodically peeking out. I got up to Roaring Brook Ranch and in line for Aprilia demos by 08:25.

I asked for the sportiest thing they had and was signed up for a one liter RSV1000R Mille at 10:00. Then I shot over and registered for a Suzuki SV1000S for 11:00 and then managed to catch a Kawi ZX600R ride at 15:00, mostly due to low turnout because of the gloomy weather. Ducati and Triumph were not there.

While I was milling about (ha!), waiting for the ride to be called, there was a younger guy and his friend sitting on various bikes and snapping pics. When we left on the ride, I was 4th, behind some guy on a less sporty bike who wasn't that great a rider. Behind me were the two guys I mentioned.

Aprilia uses the same course mapped by BMW, which starts off taking a twisty road running parallel alongside the Northway, from exit 21 down to 20. Then it turns right and heads towards Lake Luzerne.  About 12 miles into this ride, you make a right onto a road that heads up the side of a mountain, making a series of switchbacks. There are a couple lefts and rights and then a longer sweeping left which leads to a 110 degree hairpin to the right. All of this while climbing. We were moving at a fairly brisk pace, though not the fastest I've gone since I had to keep slowing for the guy in front of me.

So we are in the long left, the guy in front of me slows for the hard right and I start to slow and am looking at some sand that has washed across the right side of the lane we are in from all of the rain and then I look towards the upcoming right turn and start to setup when I hear a loud BASH type noise. I look hard at the guy in front of me to see if he had touched down in the turn or something when I see peripherally, a bike sliding from right to left across my right mirror and then right to left across my left mirror, and I look back in time to see the bike go off into the woods. The guy behind me had gone down.

We were motioned to keep on going and we stopped to regroup about 1/2 mile up the road at a stop sign. The entire way there I'm trying to figure out what happened and am hoping that I had nothing to do with it. I asked a few others who were farther back what they saw and one guy says he was hard on the brakes and went down and another says it didn't look like he braked at all, just tucked the front end. A minute later the guy comes in on the chase rider’s bike and the factory guy has the downed one. It didn't look bad at all and the guy wasn't visibly hurt, and didn't walk over to punch me in the face, so I assumed I wasn't the cause.

A few minutes later and I'm over at the Suzuki ride and they use the same course. The guy gives the pre-ride talk and describes the course and says we'll be taking a nice ride and the usual about not going in over your head, it's no embarrassment to slow down; you don't want to crash and have to ride back in the "Van of Shame". This time I'm the first bike behind the leader and figure I've got it made with no possible clowns to get in the way. The SV1000 is also a 1 liter V-twin, like the Aprilia, but noticeably smoother. I don't care how much it costs, I wasn't that impressed with the Aprilia. Don't get me wrong, it was nice and all, but not with my money. As we are suiting up, I tell the guy getting on the bike behind me what had happened earlier.

Well, I've got position, but no where to go. The leader is riding like I'm on a Honda run or something. Too slow; everyone is bunching up. The most interesting thing that happened along the ride was trying to match gears with the leader as he rarely used his brakes. He did launch away after making a couple turns and I went with him and got up to around 80mph, but it was short lived. When we got to the spot of the crash, I pointed out the parallel lines running off the road, from where the engine guard and footpeg dug in.

Next day and I'm thinking about that. I told Joann that I had time to take my hand off the bar and point out the lines. A lot of time, before making the right turn. Okay, we were going kind of slow and it felt like I could have stopped, jumped off, flagged people to the marks on the road like I was directing planes on a runway, then got back on and made the turn. What I realized was that these marks began significantly before the right hand turn, so the guy couldn't have been leaning for the turn and lost it. That brought me back to the braking issue because of the guy in front of me. I later realized that what could have happened was that the guy saw the sand across the lane and either got into it and lost the front end or panic braked and swerved to avoid it. Either of those and not my fault.

I took out the ZX6R as I do every time I'm up there. I always enjoy that bike. Both Scott and Luke said they hated the redesign of the 6R due to severe, um, seat ergonomics.The 6R was upped to a 636cc this year and the seating position is pretty radical with big tank and low bars. The footpegs are pretty far up and rearward as well -- similar to my own bike. I think it’s really good looking this year, and am hopeful for the ride. It was a light turnout for the ride and several bikes were pulled from the lineup, including the 9R which I wanted to ride also, but I stuck with the ZX6. It's tradition. They had 2 of them and they were both at the end of the line so I took the last one figuring I could at least hang back a hair and give myself some room, particularly since the chase bike was a 500.

Kawasaki takes the twisty road to exit 20, then gets on and blasts up the Northway to 22, off and back on and down to 21. It's a fun ride. This bike was a blast. Totally dedicated riding position forces you to sit up on the tank and hang off, which is where you want to be for maximum control under hard cornering anyway. Not much fun under other circumstances though, so keep moving. This bike is so light and so nimble and so much more powerful, and in that position you feel like an extension of the bike. The guy on the other one was at least my age and a very good rider and we managed to have a blast, stay up on the pack and still leave the chase rider for dead the whole time. Part of the fun I have while riding is watching the rider I'm following, as it gives you a sense of watching yourself 3rd person. It was another great ride. I had much more fun than I did on either liter bike ride earlier in the day. Just wish Kawi would adopt the long course ...

Friday was a sunny day and is always crowded. I signed up for the ZX9R at 15:30 and then went to Suzuki and got a SV650 at 14:20. By the time I got back to the Kawi line, all good bikes had been taken and there were only abundant cruiser rides to be had. Against my better judgment, I was talked into and signed up for a 16:45 ride on a Mean Streak, which is some 1500cc sport cruiser. Scott and Luke raved about how much fun they had on it, but I sat on one and didn't even like that feeling. Good looking bike though (I've spent too much time watching Discovery Channel lately...).

So the morning went by and we were down in the village at the vendor area. Not much happening there anymore. Over the years, I've had tires put on my bike, Joann and I both bought seats from Corbin Saddles there, I've gotten gloves and Joann bought a leather jacket. Now it's acres of junk jewelry, cheap black leather -- mostly with fringe and tassels and low IQ tee-shirts. I did manage to buy another set of overpriced sunglasses though.

Some bad food and back to the tent. At 14:00 I realize I should be at Roaring Brook and head off, knowing full well there is no way I can make it in time. Long walk back to the field where we parked. I actually found my bike first try, which is much more impressive than it sounds. Idle along back to the beach. Idle along to RT 9. Back to Roaring Brook just in time to meet my ride going out. Killed some more time until the ZX9R ride.

The 9R is a more comfortable riding position. The reach to the bars isn't as extreme as the 6R and the pegs are lower and more forward. I was the 2nd to last bike in the line, followed by a ZX11. The 9R under way felt almost as light as the 6R did, though not quite. But the engine is far more powerful. This was also a lot of fun to ride. Kawasaki makes nice bikes. If I had to choose, I'd go with the bigger bike. It wouldn't be as sharp in the tight stuph, but would keep right up just by it's power and is a far more practical bike. You could ride this one for several hours whereas the ZX6 is one you'd like to trailer to the twisties, ride 30 minutes and trailer it back.

I waited around to see if there would be any no-shows for the final ride and the ZX11 was empty, so I took it out. This is not at all a dedicated sport bike, but was developed several years ago (7?) as a killer sport tourer. It's big and heavy and bulky and has a very mild riding position, which didn't fit me as my knees were hitting part of the frame and my left heel kept hitting the tang of the -- gasp! -- center stand. Sport bikes don't have center stands... The engine was a monster. Like the ZX9, I just put it in 3rd and left it there.

I don't know why I bother riding bikes other than what Kawasaki brings, as I always enjoy theirs the best. The European v-twins are not my thing right now, and until Triumph returns, I don't really want to ride many others. I definitely prefer an in-line 4. Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda never bring their serious sport bikes.

Americade report, 2001

Friday the 8th I spent the day at Lake George at Americade. Triumph wasn't there this year, which was a major disappointment to me. Didn't ride anything spectacular as I missed out on the Ducatis. I took out a Kawasaki ZX9R, some piece of shit Buell and a Suzuki 650 SV, which turned out to be the best ride of the day.

I started in the Kawi sign-up line and for the first time in forever, I got a ZX9. Hot damn, I'm on the 9:45 ride. I show up and am standing around while the mouthpiece gives the standard lecture about not having too much fun on this ride and I notice that there are a pair of gloves on the bike I wanted. See, there's 2 ZX9's; one is 3rd in the line and the other is 3rd from the end. I've positioned myself so that I'm standing real close to the first one when I notice someone has already staked it out. Hmm. Well, I fully intend to go over there and accidentally knock this refuse off the seat when I see that the owner is already moving for the bike and he's huge ... and I'm not so interested in arguing with him. So as I mount the one in the back, I notice that the ZX6 in front of me is being occupied by a woman (LadyRider) who can't figure out how to start the bike and clearly isn't familiar with sportbikes and I'm thinking that I am totally screwed.

There's some guy getting on the bike behind me who's saying something but I'm not listening to him as I'm wondering if I can just blow this woman off in Roaring Brook before we hit the road. So the line starts to move out and of course LadyRider does not launch smoothly but does get moving after a fashion. I never get an opening to pass her. We hit the road and what happens is that everyone is supposed to form a staggered line off of the factory leader. You can always tell who the problem riders will be by 3 things: first, they can't come to grips with a staggered column. Either they ride directly behind the person in front of them or they weave across the whole lane. Second, they leave their directional flashing the last turn they signaled, until they get to the next turn. Third, they brake to a crawl anytime anything that deviates from the Bonneville Salt Flats comes into sight. Shifting is driving? Well, cornering is motorcycling.

So it turns out that once under way, LadyRider is doing pretty well, no problem at all actually. The problem is the jerk in front of her. Out of stagger. Directional flashing the whole time. We turn onto a nice twisty section of road that runs about 2 miles and this guy brakes down so much that I expect flagmen to jump out at the turns, place cones and wave him through. We come up to where the road intersects with Rt9 and we all have to turn left onto 9. What's the number one rule of the road after you've been following a total jerk? That's right: The jerk in front of you ALWAYS gets through the light, and leaves you sitting there.

So the guy makes the light and LadyRider is the last one through. I stop at the intersection, Chatty Cathy pulls up next to me and starts telling me about how he had this bike yesterday and what do I think of it, there's another guy behind me on a Concours and then the factory chick on the chase bike. She says that the next light where we turn left and get onto the Northway is a long one, so we'll form up with the rest of the group there. Light changes and we move off. I see the turn arrow, downshift twice, swing across the lane and hit the ramp. I look in my mirrors and see that everyone else has stopped. Fabulous. So I'm sitting there on the shoulder, debating just taking off after the rest of the group -- but I'm a good boy -- and waiting for the light. After what seems like 90 minutes or so, the light changes, but they continue to sit there while 40% of vehicles registered in the state of NY proceeds past in the opposing lane, possibly in a loop. Another half hour or so later and they must have gotten the arrow again as I see them come loping up the ramp. I can't pull out in front of them as they are following a car, so as they go past, I fall into the rear. I cannot believe the turn of events that have transpired. At this point I’m hot and annoyed and considering just running straight into the first overpass abutment I come to.

We are coming up a long on-ramp and I see a Winebago-like vehicle towing a boat in the left lane, which goes past us. Our Factory Fearless Leader merges onto the highway and proceeded to pull up alongside the mobile home. And then paces it. She is in the left side of the lane and the person on the Concours is in the right-hand side, about 3' from the mobile mountain. I'm incredulous. This goes against everything you read in mags, common sense and a couple laws of nature. For several miles  this continues until finally the grade is so steep that the Rolling Storage Bin falls back and I zip past it up to the rest of this merry little band. The ride continues back to RBR where Concours leaves directionals on, slows to a walk for every turn and almost dumps the bike twice that I see. I'm fuming by the time we park. Scott walks up and says "What happened? Everybody passed you." And as I'm removing my helmet I see Chatty Cathy approaching as I say "That is the most f'd up ride I've ever been on!!" as CC spins on his heel and peels off in a U-turn while I explain all of this to Scott. Not a great start.

We head down to the village to meet up with Tim and a friend who came up with him. Patrick has just gotten his license and isn't actually in possession of it yet and he's on a Suzuki Intruder. We're walking down past the parked bikes and Scott sees a 1983 Honda 900F and says to me "Hey, didn't you used to want one of those" and I said yeah, an 1100, until I bought my '84 GPz1100. Patrick comments "In 1983 I was 6 years old" and I said "Really, I was married."

Scott has developed an interest in HDs and wants to go take a ride. I'm not interested in riding a Harley so we ended up on Buells as a compromise. I don't remember the model I was on but it was the first one in the line on the right side. I sit down and turn the key and push the starter and nothing happens. Over and over. Damn, I'm LadyRider...  Finally get it running and the Harley demo guy takes the first bike on the left and pulls out. After we finally get into traffic heading north in the village, Harley Man (no slam there, that's what his black t-shirt says) is riding in the left side of the lane so we stagger off of him. Then a while down the road he has moved to the right side. After he stays there for a little while I switch the stagger and everyone behind me switches. A few minutes later HM has switched again. Well, I can see where this is going... I reluctantly switch the stagger back. He does it again and I just assume he's oblivious and prone to weaving, so I leave it the way it is. The ride is uneventful. At one point we pull onto the Northway and HM squirts away so I go with him and suddenly the whole bike is sputtering and shaking worse than usual and I look at the tach and I've redlined the thing at 6 grand and need to shift before the rev limiter kills the bike, I assume. Since most sportbikes rev to 13K, a limiter is needed on Buells. I'd say that the performance from the bike I was on, if you overlook the shaking, lack of handling and lack of braking, is about on par with a metric 600cc, and not my cup of tea right now.

After some lunch and a circuit of the expo tent area, Scott and I are heading back to RBR for a final ride. I have the Suzuki 650SV at 15:00. This time I got the one up front in the pack and that was a good move as the line got held up by the guy behind me, so I finally caught a break. While we were listening to the pre-ride speech, the factory guy kept making references to and singing the praises of, a young gentleman who had taken this ride about a dozen times during the week. He was the person who ended up on an 1100 right behind me. We pull out and there are 4 bikes in front of me and we form up and take off. I look in the mirrors and the line behind me is falling away like it's parked, thanks to -- you guessed it, who’s directional is flashing profusely. This was a 28 mile ride over some seriously nice roads. At one point there are a series of uphill s-turns, some requiring 1st gear. Most of the ride was just us up front and when traffic interfered, the back of the line would join us. Briefly.

Americade report, 2000

I took Joann's bike today. After the requisite ribbing from the 4 guys I met and rode up with -- which is funny since MY wife has a sportbike -- we left for Lake George at about 07:00 and were at Roaring Brook by 07:30. Scott and I went right for the Triumph line and his nephew, friend and friend's brother-in-law went for the Ducati line. After about 30 minutes, the Ducati rides were filled for the day and the other guys had to find new lines to join, which sux.

I got up to the front and signed up for a 14:00 ride on a Speed Triple and then went over to stand in the Kawasaki line while Scott went to Honda. After a few minutes in the Kawi line, they made an announcement which sounded to me like "All of the good bikes that you really want are filled for today; only cruisers remain", so I switched to the Honda line and ended up getting a 15:30 ride on a Blackbird which is their 1100cc super sport tourer. A couple of years back, this was the fastest motorcycle you could buy off the shelf, topping out around 170mph. I then wandered back to the Triumph line to see if I could get through again and did, getting a 13:00 ride on some 900cc retro cruiser. My hope was that I knew they had a great ride and that we would stop and I could switch to a bike for the second leg.

Then we all headed down to the village to check out the Tour Expo tents and get some food. I wasn't really interested in the Tour Expo displays as there wasn't anything, other than food, that I wanted to buy. 90% of it is now black leather with fringe on it for the cruiser crowd or couch sized seats for the house-bikes. There has been a definite shift in attendance demographic over the past 10 years. I'd say unscientifically that it's now about 50% Goldwing types, 45% Harley and Japanese cruisers and maybe 5% sportbikes/standards. Yamaha hasn't even brought their sportbikes for demo rides for the past 5 years and they have 3 of the best.

We went back for the 13:00 rides that Tim and I were signed up. He had the Speed Triple and was up towards the front of the pack, whereas my 900 with the wheelbarrow bars was the last bike in line before the chase bike. Um, Surprise. Triumph had a great ride, going down the Northway to Exit 19 and then coming back over the mountain on some really twisty roads. Second gear corners in several places. We did stop for gas along the way and I ended up switching with the guy on a big dual purpose bike, which at least moved me 2 spots up the line, ahead of the 2 cruisers, and was more fun to play with.

We got back in time for the 14:00 ride to be called, so I just stepped back over and waited for the briefing. The ride on the Speed Triple was a lot more fun. If you go to Triumph's website you can see most of the bikes they offer, minus the newly introduced 600 TT. They have 3 bikes that share the same 955 engine and the Speed Triple is the least sporting riding position, which is a small handicap as you don't get the same level of control. The more you sit up straight from full-on sportbike going towards riding a cruiser, the more control you sacrifice.

The loop they took us on was around 30 miles and took about 45 minutes. They only took out 7 bikes at a time and the lead rider said that we should spread out some ( against the rules for most rides ) and that there were plenty of technical parts and straights to really get a feel for the bikes. Only problem that I had was the primary rule of no passing in the line. This is because you don't know how the person ahead of you will react and there could be a collision. Unfortunately, I learned on the first few corners that the guy I was following ( We'll call him Mr. Safety Sneakers ) slowed down dramatically and drifted to the center line in most corners ( the reason for no passing ).

I let this go as not everyone rides at the same speed and, oh well. Mr. SS was the one you could count on to leave his directional on for miles after the turn . . . But then on a couple of occasions, this clown was waving to people along the way, using his right hand to do it, slowing down again. I should have passed him. Anyone else would have. I decided that if he so much as flexed his fingers on his left hand I was going to take that as a wave-by and blow him off, but that didn't happen. It was still a great ride.

Honda is infamous for deadly dull group rides, as they are a bunch of reflective gear wearing, multi-rule touting, speed limit observing Safety Nazis. They get on the Northway at 21, drone north to 23, get off and right back on heading south to Exit 22 and then back on through the village. Well, somehow, we didn't all make the onramp at 21 due to oncoming traffic, so I fell seriously behind the rest of them... It was unfortunate, and I felt bad having to do it, but I was compelled to use triple digit speed to regain the group. Nothing for it really. Had to be done. The Blackbird is a nice bike.

Only 1 fatality this year, that I know of. A husband and wife were heading home post Americade to NJ down 9N from the village on Sunday, each on their own bikes, and a 77 year old woman crossed over the line and killed the woman rider. Last I heard she had been ticketed for failure to keep right. Ouch. That'll teach her. Wonder if her insurance will go up.

Americade report, 1997

Joann and I went up to Americade yesterday. It turned out to be a very good weather week -- stupid forecasters. We got there around 7:30 and waited in line to register, and were heading up to Roaring Brook Ranch at about 8:15. We went to the Kawasaki line first, as she wanted to ride the ZX600E, which was the bike she was considering buying before she saw the RF600R that she did buy. I wanted to ride the ZX7R, but of course, by the time we got to the head of the line, that one was booked. I took a ZX600R that was available at the same time slot.

While we waited in that line, I walked up to the hill to the Yamaha area to see if like last year, all they brought was a contingent of Stars; woo hoo. They are either marketing this new model very hard, or the market wants it very much. I am disappointed that they no longer bring the whole line as they always had the best sportbike rides, which is different than the best sport bikes...  ;)

I scoped the Honda line, which was huge, and eyeballed the Triumph line. By the time we finished with Kawi, the Triumph line had dispersed -- a sure sign that they were booked. They only had 6 bikes with them. We strolled up to the Honda area and I saw that they had two F3 600's and 2 what-ever XX's, but the big board showed that they were already booked up.

We then wandered up to the BMW area and as there was still a line, got in it. They ran out right in front of us, but we filled out the form anyway and were listed as #2 standby; show up at the time of the rides and see if anyone else didn't...

We went down to the village to the vendor area as I had allocated funds for getting the first new tires I've had since '95. I went to the Dunlop tent and stood in line for 30 minutes while incompetents took orders and when I finally got up there, I asked when the next appointment was and they said 6:30 that night... I said 'see ya'.

Then I spied the Avon tent and went over there. They had this knarley looking fat sport rear tire sitting there and I first asked if they were booked for the day, and they said "Congratulations, YOU are the next appointment". I bought a set of Azaro's, which are a new model, and I had to read up on them when I got home. The mags seem to like them and they are considered a little higher quality than what I intended to buy. So that cost me almost $350, which is quite a bit cheaper than at a dealer.

Next, Joann found a jacket she liked -- the model that replaced my current jacket -- and she bought it. She has wanted a good jacket since she started riding, and recently came to terms with the cost. Plus, she hates the one she has been using, and vowed to get a good one. That went $470+. They tell you that you are getting a 10 percent show discount.

Next, we hit the Corbin Saddles display where she bought a replacement seat for her bike. This is the first thing to do as factory seats are board hard and poorly contoured. Another buck-70. Then we went inside the big tent where I got a pair of sunglasses for $40. Then she bought me a pair of light gloves for my upcoming birthday for $50 (just like the ones she got last year; did I mention she is having a set of riding boots made by Z Custom Leathers...). All totaled we spent about $1200  that day by the time we got that last ice cream cone at a place along the way on the ride home. A $atisfying day.

So at this point we got some hot dogs and then went back to RBR for our 13:25 Kawasaki ride. I ended up right behind the ZX7 in line, which was being ridden by a woman, who came over to me as we were suiting up, and said she slows down for the turns a little, so I should be aware of that... Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to this. Over the loudspeaker inside my head I hear: "Flagman assist through corners 3, 7, 8... please".... She wasn't that bad, and the pace wasn't too extreme, so she kept up okay.

I love beating the little 600 as it turns quicker than mine, or at least gives that impression because it's lighter than my bike, or at least gives that impression because it's painted green, or something. 5 years running, the most fun I've have has been on ZX6's. When we got back, I was talking about the bikes with the woman on the ZX7, and she said it was too radical for her. She owns a ZX6E now and wants to get something bigger, but doesn't know what. She had ridden the ZX7 2 days in a row, by virtue of being in line at 7:15.

It was about 14:00 at that point, so we ate more hot dogs. We strolled up to the Beemer place for the 15:00 ride, and sure 'nuff, a no-show. There were 2 of us standing there, and by virtue of the fact that the guy wrote #2 standby on our paper when we were there in the morning, and the other person was #4, we  got the ride. The other vendors don't bother with this numbering, and otherwise I'm sure we would not have gotten the bike as he was standing there first.

So, they are running 3 strings of bikes with a lead and chase rider, sent out at the about the same time on the same route. About 30 bikes in all. They, unlike the other vendors, go for a 40 mile ride. The woman leading our group was saying that we would be on a variety of roads, and that we could choose to stay up with her or not, as we wanted or could. Hmph. Okay. Interesting. Later found out she was a rider for one of the factory race teams. She was faaaaaast. I was the bike right behind her. Unfortunately, hers looked impressive and mine looked like some Paris-to-Dakar on/off road deal. We pulled out and after some time, hit some very nice roads, and the pace was pretty lively. I'm sure that everyone behind me was grumbling in their helmets, dreading getting stuck behind the ugly bike with 2 people on it, but fear not, as I was keeping the pace, and far better than the rest were behind us as they kept fading in my mirrors. Our leader rode very aggressively. This was in total contradiction to all the other vendors, who mostly kept to the speed limit and said absolutely no passing in ranks. BMW flaunted the speed limit and said we could pass.

At one point, we came upon 2 bikes from the first line (we were second) who were going too damned slow and were wrecking what was until that point, a real good ride. To my unbelieving surprise, our fearless leader hit her directional and smoked them on a short strip of passing lane. I instinctively went with her, but no one else had time. She took it right up to 90 and we put the others behind us well out of site. I was impressed (as was everyone else) with my ability to get this pig, which looked like it should be plowing a garden somewhere, up to that pace, particularly with Joann on the back.

At the halfway point, we stopped for 10 minutes and were allowed to change bikes, and several people wanted mine. I was under the impression that it was a 650, since it resembled several 650's in the lineup that I passed as we were searching for our assigned bike at RBR, but it turned up to be an 1100, which just felt like the power of a metric 650. I traded with a guy who had some other 1100, which was a sportbike and at least looked like a viable motorcycle, and did turn out to be better than the first one. When we did the last 20 miles, I was now in 4th position and the group of us 4 left everyone else behind, again, at 90+. Best manufacturer’s ride I've ever been on.

At that point it was after 4 o'clock and we started home. A good day.

Backfilling this blog

Okay, it may not be totally pure, but I've got some entries from a couple of other, older sites that I'm going to consolidate into this blog. I'm sure that there is some unflattering blogosphere term for doing that, but, whatever.

An obvious example is the Americade reports. I will indicate the dates of the entries being described but will arbitrarily assign them posting dates during 2005 to keep them in sequential order.

Our bikes, circa 1995

I've had my license to ride street motorcycles since 1982. Because let's face it, after riding illegally for a few years, it was the right thing to do. In 1995 Joann decided that she was going to pursue her license and I spent several months working with her as she progressed from that first ride in a parking lot to riding on the street to passing her road test.

My 1991 Suzuki GSXR1100. Last time that I looked I think that there was around 32,000 miles on it, the first 25K of which I put on in the first 5 years I owned it.

From archives thought lost, here is a shot of Joann taken at her Mom's house, where she went on her first solo ride after getting her license.

This is her first bike, a 1992 Suzuki GS500E which she purchased barely broken in. This was a perfect bike for someone to learn on as it is standard riding configuration with a low seat height, relatively light and nimble and the engine isn't overly powerful for a beginner. Early on, I began to call this bike Timex. You know, takes a lickin' ...

But what's this... Over the winter of 95-96 Joann got to experience a common problem of motorcycle withdrawal. This is where you spend lots of time rereading the bike mags and watching the racing tapes and talking about the mods you're going to make to your bike in the Spring.

I aggravated this condition by finding a pic on some British website of a GS500E that had been done up with a full fairing, printed it off and gave it to Joann. By the time we were done ordering from local shops and finding someone to do the painting, the bike had been transformed into something rather interesting.

Two piece light-weight racing fiberglass fairing, replaced the directionals, clip-ons mounted below the triple clamp, ordered mirrors, tank bra, had it painted with 2 coats of Suzuki red and then the decals added to the bottom of the fairing and then the whole thing was clear coated.

In the Spring of '97 Joann bought a left-over 1996 Suzuki RF600R, shown here with the addition of a Corbin saddle. This bike is definitely a step up and has the potential to keep her amused for many years to come.