Merry New Year!!!

If the Mayans taught us anything, it's that if you don't finish something, it's not the end of the world.

Feliz Happy New Sun Circling!

Merry Christmas!

I know it's a day late but...Merry Christmas!!!

The XB9s undergoing another metamorphosis

The XB9s is coming up on being 10 years old and with the amount of goat road riding and general hooliganism that the bike is put through, I'm surprised that the steering bearings have lasted this long. Since the front end needed to be removed to facilitate the replacement of said bearings, I decided now would be a great time for the bike to transition to its new phase, that of street tracker.

I replaced the bearings last week and I'm now mocking up the new front end. The clubman bars are gone and replaced by Renthal dirtbike fat bars. I currently have a cheap dirtbike headlight mocked up now but I'll be making a custom flat track number plate style flyscreen with built in projector headlights. I will retain the stock gauges but will be moving them to the top of the triple tree. I'm going to also be adding number plates to the rear quarters of the bike as a finishing touch. I'll be posting more pictures as the project progresses.

This is the temporary dirtbike headlights on the bike.

These are the Renthal dirtbike fat bars installed with my custom bar clamps.   All the control wires and cables seem to reach without issue. 

Cambria

These are pics from a tour to Cambria on the central coast of California.  It's a little beach town with the typical beach town shops and business.  Close by is San Simeon which is home to the Hearst Castle.  I recommend seeing it at least once if the opportunity arises.  But the real highlight of the trip is the stretch of Highway 1 known as Big Sur.  Nothing compares to the combo's of curves that that are laid out before you on this stretch of road except maybe the spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and California land that meets it.  That's where most of these pictures are taken.

My XB9s as my touring mount.

This is the waterfall at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.  Although I prefer to call it Butt Crack Falls.

Here's just one of the many views of the ocean and the cliffs.

This is the girlfriend on her then bike at the time, a Kawasaki Z1000.  This was on a road just off of Highway 1, Nacimiento Ferguson Road.

This was taken from my bike of my girlfriend and her Z1000.  This was taken just south of Monterey on one of the few stretches of Highway 1 when it bows inland.

This is Bixby Bridge.  One of the bridges that help to arch over some of the gaps in the coastal landscape.

My Buell 1125CR

When people normally think of Buell's they of underpowered bikes with Harley Sportser derived and archaic aircooled motors, like the one in my Buell XB9s.  Not a lot of people know about the 1125 series of Buell's powered by an 11125cc liquid cooled V-twin with puts out 146hp at the crank.  With the bike weighing in at only 375lbs dry, it has one of the best power to weight ratios of any naked bikes ever released.  Add some agressive geometry, like the 21 degrees of rake and the 54.5 inch wheelbase, and you get a bike with some serious power in a 250cc GP racer package.

My 1125CR has been my most ridden bike in the last couple of years.  She's had commuting duties, piled on some touring miles, left other riders behind in the twisties, ran to the ragged edge at the track and of course posed for me in pictures.

Here she is atop Twin Peaks with custom top case installed.  I know the case is ugly but it's very useful and completely removable.

This is her just on Highway 1 near Tomales Bay.  This was taken with my old Nokia N82.

This is a pic I took on a rainy day commute.  Also taken with my Nokia camera phone.  I added the fog effect later on in Photoshop.

Add caption

San Francisco

Lest anyone thinks that I only take pictures of two (or three) wheeled vehicles, here is a picture I took of the city skyline last night.  The vantage point is from Telegraph Hill.  I wish there were more clouds or the moon in just the right spot but maybe next time.

Can Am Spyders

While not truly a motorcycle, the Can Am Spyder line of trikes do find a special place in my heart.  They 'drive' more like a small, agile, lightweight car than a motorcycle.  There is no counter steering involved and the electronic aids cut in too early if you want to break into the crazy hooligan territory but up until that point they are an entertaining, involving and gratifying ride that I would recommend to anyone that hasn't tried it.

These pictures are from a photoshoot I did for a Cam Am Spyder rental company based in Alameda, Spyder-Rentals.com.  The pictures were used on one of their Groupon deals.  I highly recommend keeping an eye out for one of those deals as not only is the ride a great experience, but the company itself is a wonderful place to rent from.

Took my other bike out

I went out of town this weekend and I had to take a car there, but somehow I still managed to take a bike with me.

This is said bike at Tomales Bay

It's an 1125R, similar to my 1125CR but this one is a little bit smaller.  Here she is at the town of Tomales.

Lasty, a stop at the Cheese Factory in Novato for a picnic.

Unfinished Projects

These are from the last Unfinished Projects Bike and Art Show at SF Moto.  They had a collection of vintage bikes in various states of undress for the viewer's perusal.

Speaking of the Bay Bridge

Here is a another picture I took with the Bay Bridge as the backdrop.  Most people will not be able to guess the other bike in the picture.  It's a Laverda Ghoststrike, a 668cc parallel twin Italian naked bike.  It was a sweet little bike with adjustable WP suspension fore and aft, Marchesini wheels, and huge Brembo brakes.  It was a sweet little machine, if you like your bikes racy with on/off throttle response and brakes that had no idea what modulation meant. We got it as a first bike for my girlfriend and in retrospect, it was a great bike but not a great first bike.

We got it for a song and let it go for a little more than a song.

Shiva the Destroyer

This was taken at the San Francisco Civic Center.  This monolithic statue was on display there for a few months and I made sure to get a picture of it.  In front is my Buell XB9s and a Kawasaki Z1000.

The Bay Bridge and My Bike

I like using the bridges that span the San Francisco Bay as a backdrop for photos and realized that I haven't utilized them in sometime.  So I went for a ride last night and rectified that.  Here is my XB9s again in front of the Bay Bridge.

Also I took my hard backpack vest out for a test run.  Right now it's still in the prototype stage but it's proving to be useful and comfortable.

My Buell XB9s

I currently have 3 bikes, a Buell 1125CR, a non street legal KTM 450SMR and the bike below, a Buell XB9s.  It's got close to 30K miles now and still running well.  It's gone through many incarnation's including being a naked city bike, to mini adventure bike, to its current cafe racer interpretation below.

I've since cleaned up the rear fender, it's a lot shorter now.  The subframe ends right around the rear axle leaving much of the rear tire exposed.

This is her as faux adventure bike, taken from the top of Twin Peaks.

Keeping her clean is a constant battle that I never win.  Taken from Marin County looking back at San Francisco.

This her from her last trackday at Buttonwillow.  I'm mostly using the 1125CR now for trackdays so she's getting put back to adventure trim soon.

 

Logo

Logo has been updated! It's still not final but it's definitely an improvement.

The Girlfriend as Motorcycle Venus

This was a picture taken on my last day with the Harley. I was attempting to recreate the Birth of Venus painting by Boticelli using the Harley on the right and the girlfriend's bike on the left instead of the figures that flanked Venus in the painting. This was taken at sunset and even though I used a graduated filter, I still had to blend 2 exposures to get the balance right in this photo.

One more IMS picture

One more pic from IMS.  They had some MotoGP bikes on display.  This one in particular caught my eye, its Ben Spies' Yamaha M1.  Sadly it will probably be the last time we'll see it as he is moving to a different team next year, after suffering through one of worst strings of bad luck ever seen in one season at the top level of racing.  The bike held so much promise at the beginning of the season but now it's become a symbol of a season disappointment. 

International Motorcycle Show - San Mateo

The International Motorcycle Show rolled into town this week.  I had hoped that the show would be making a turn around this year but it actually continued shrinking as it had it since 2008. There were even fewer companies demo-ing bikes, just Harley Davidson and Yamaha (and their cruiser line, Star). Demo stalwart Kawasaki did not bring their demo bike's this year.  There were fewer vendors, one hall smaller than last year. No Supermoto races.  No exotic bike area.

But the bike's that were in attendance were awesome as always.

Here's a few pictures from the event.

Ducati Streetfighter 848

Here's a friend on the sportbike version of the Streetfighter 848, the Ducati 848 EVO.

There were some custom bikes at the show.  Here is a Harley Davidson powered motard.

This one is a Honda powered custom.

Here's a fellow blogger, Joanne from Gearchic.com, giving a great presentation on the how to shop for gear.  Remember, fit before budget!

I try to keep my gear choices unique and functional.  My current helmet, a Caberg Hyperx that I ordered from Europe, fits my requirements as it is unique and, with its removable safety rated chin-guard, functional as well.  And it definitely rates high on the cool meter. I only know of one helmet that has the removable chin guard that is available here in the US (the Nolan N43 trilogy series) so I was surprised to see this new from helmet from Nexx, the Nexx X40.  As an owner of one of their previous helmet models, the Nexx X30 (a great looking but flawed helmet design), I am interested to see if they've applied any lessons learned from the X30 to this new helmet.  I'll be looking into this and posting my findings, as well as some more info on my other helmets soon.

Overall, I'm still saddened to see that the IMS show is continuing its decline in size and attendance.  Hopefully with the record sales numbers that the european bike manufacturers are currently enjoying, those same manufacturers will translate that success to a much bigger presence at shows to come.  For now, I'm still enjoying the shows like a kid in a candy store. Even with the candy store getting smaller, it's still an awesome candy store.

Blog Logo

Blog logo is up but I'm not quite happy with it yet.  Expect revisions in the next few days.

Quick Updates and some Harley pictures

I'm currently working on the logo for the blog. I've got the outline completed and I should have it done in the next couple of days.

Also the International Motorcycle Show is rolling into town this weekend, I'll be posting up some pictures from the event (hopefully from my new camera :D).

Lastly, I have my Carbon Fiber Vest/Hard Backpack hydration pack/camera bag project (yes that's a mouthful) that I'm building.  I'll be posting up progress pics soon.

Here's another picture, I got a loaner Harley Davidson Dyna Fat Blob recently and I made sure to get some pictures before it went back home.

Dirtbag Challenge

The Dirtbag Challenge was this past week.  It's a low rent chopper contest where the winner is determined just as much by style as how well they can do burnouts on their bikes.

Here's a picture I took from one of those events a couple of years ago.

Welcome!

First Post!  First step, let's see how this goes.

Oh and first pic...

Pic of the girlfriend's Buell XB12s and my Buell 1125CR after a trackday.  There was a huge grassfire nearby and it made the sky red like it was sunset.

I'll be posting pics of bikes, and places you can ride bikes to.

Also there's going to be info posted regarding for the discerning motorcyclist that dont like to roll in the same old gear everyone else rolls in. Stay tuned!