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!