The Future Is ... NOW

Okay, this just blows me away. The next step in the evolution of the sport of motorcycling, which will be made available to John Q. Public : Electric bike manufacturer Brammo is planning to release their next vehicle, and this one promises to, well -- have promise.

MotorcycleUSA writes this about the new Empulse

Here’s a peek:

They are planning for this bike having a 100+ mile range and being able to achieve 100+ mph. It will be interesting to see how that all averages out on a standard ride where a 200lb person runs mainly in the 60 - 90mph range.

It’s still a year away, but the potential is finally here. This is the cutting edge of what may be the most important development our sport makes, transitioning into the future.

After reading various write-ups on this new motorcycle, I began to wonder what it would be like to be around in another 40 years, looking at the vintage bikes at the Rhinebeck meet or the Woodstock ride, and seeing an original 2012 Empulse sitting there. And hearing the comments like
“Wow, look at that old bike.” 
“Yeah, you remember those?”
“I can’t believe people used to ride ‘em. Man, those were the days.”

...and some guy will chuckle, pull the drip pan out from under his 1950-somthing Harley and dump the $28 worth of oil he collected back in, kick start it half a dozen times, and ride off...

Woodstock Vintage Cycle Ride 2010

For a change of pace -- well, I guess the pace was mostly the same -- or rather, a change of venue, we decided this week to meet up with a group of people heading over to Woodstock, NY for the annual Vintage Cycle Ride. 5 of us met up at a Stewart’s and then took a little trip south to C. & K.’s house, joining a group gathering for the trip. As I think of it now, I failed to count the total number of bikes, but we split into two groups, one planning to move a little quicker. Seven bikes left in that line with a couple fewer in the second wave.

The ride down was maybe 50 miles of back roads and pretty entertaining. I was thinking that today was going to be a slower, more vintage type day and was told there would be a crawl of all bikes from the assembly area in Woodstock over to the restaurant for lunch, so I brought the ZRX for it’s more moderate riding position and cushier seat. I got lucky and was in second position in the line and it was a brisk pace all the way. Luckily, I was riding fairly well for not having spent a lot of seat time on this bike lately. Even with a couple diversions, missed turns and double-backs, our group arrived about an hour early.

I can’t remember the name of the meeting place, but it looked like this:

I do not know today’s definition of a vintage motorcycle, but I’d estimate half the bikes here were less than 25 years old. Quite a few were clearly older than that, but many seemed to be from the 70’s - 90’s. About noon everyone mounted up and rode 30 miles or so to the place arranged for lunch. Traffic was blocked off for everyone to exit and parade through town. A couple miles along, our group chose to go our own way and this leg of the ride was still quite a bit slower than desired, partly due to wet roads and a few minutes of rain. We still arrived about 15 minutes early and got first shot at the way overpriced sandwich buffet!

A group of 5 of us left for home on a circuitous route, on some great roads and back on pace. That was going along very well until Ed suffered a mechanical failure. He was able to get home, but is likely facing some rebuild effort on the RZ350. Overall, a good ride day and I racked up 176 miles.

Look who’s watching now...

Here it is, another 4th of July weekend -- I hope everyone had a great holiday and was able to get out in the sun doing things they enjoy. I attended a family BBQ, scored some pool time, played some games and enjoyed a lot of conversations over a couple cold beers. Good times.

Speaking of which, our Sunday morning ride was moved forward to Saturday this week to allow for holiday activities. We met up at the usual location and our normal crew was joined by a few other riders, some who have ridden together in other groups. There was quite an eclectic mix of machines represented and we decided to introduce our new friends to the northern loop we often run.

This ride heads north along a highway and then breaks off onto some secondary roads, skirting scenic though developed areas for the first half hour or so. Eventually we move back to the east and again head north into the more rural areas. The main feature of this run is two sections of farmland featuring longer straights and plenty of corners. There is a mix of long, fast, sweeping corners, all the way down to tight near-hairpin turns. Once up at the top of the run, we turn around and double back. Same roads, different experience.

One of the guys on the ride today was trying out a new app on his phone which utilizes and records GPS data. He started it up and had it running during the first leg of our ride and later uploaded the information to a site for processing. The result is a statistical breakdown of time, speed and location, which can be plotted over satellite imagery. Here’s a zoomed-out view of this portion of our ride:

Data granularity increases as you zoom in. This reminds me of plots I’ve seen from GP races. I am, amused. Speed increase below shows a nice drive out of that corner...  :)

And appealing to my inner geek, the data keeps coming:

Switching gears... Perhaps it’s a sign of the economic times, but the list of hazards to motorcyclists is increasing rather dramatically. A major hazard we have encountered in rural areas has been the practice of oiling a stretch of road and then dumping tons of fine gravel over that, placing a sign saying “Loose Gravel” and leaving it for cars to pack down over the following 6 months. Come around a bend in the road and run into this crap and you are about to have a very bad day.

I personally have noticed that I’m having more difficulty with the increasing use of tar snakes around our area. They are far more numerous than ever before, sometimes making a stretch of road look more like a spider web. I’m finding that the issue is no longer confined to dealing with this menace in corners, but now while traveling in a straight line I can feel my front tire in particular responding as I ride over these patches.

We had some conversation about this at our rest stop and someone offered up that perhaps they are being applied a little thicker now, so that there is more noticeable “give” in them as you ride over them. Maybe it’s partly the sensitivity of my sportbike allowing me to feel the squirminess as I cross them. But there is no mystery at all when the tires jump sideways in a corner...

Be careful out there.

Indiana : “Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes.” “I hate snakes.”