When do you ride?

As the seasons come and go I notice my self riding for the ride less and less. Last year if I wasn't using the bike to commute it was hard to get out, this year even the commuting rides are less and less. One by one my friends stop riding(at one point there was 14 of us that had and rode our bikes) and there is less and less bike nights. Currently I honestly don't know where even ONE active bike night is any where near me. Its honestly breaking my heart and feeding into this early mid life crisis I find my self in. I think starting this blog has actually pointed out to me even more how sad it really is. I don't even ride enough right now to make worthy posts.

I get to some extent, I mean why others stop riding or ride less. Some of my friends have kids now, our work schedules suck (I literally work every weekend while my friends mostly do not), and as I mentioned before Ive lost a pair of riding buddies...that's not only taken two away but in some cases more. Its hard for some to continue riding after that. I even lost a lot of time with my wife on my bike as a result. Roll these things up and add the fact that me not having a face book some how prevents people from talking to me any more and the result is my bike collects more dust then miles these days. First couple of seasons for me ended in an average of around 15k miles. Especially when Kevin was here and had a bike. When rides would happen on a moments notice and never had a destination. I think Ill be lucky if I put 8k miles on this year. Hell Ive been saying "my bike has almost 30k miles on it" for what seems like ever now. Maybe this year it will hit it.

Ok ok ok, I'm done ranting now. I mean for Christ sake I SHOULD be out riding, its gonna rain the rest of the week.


Live Fast LIVE Fun!

The Day After....

Well as you, my 3 reader long list or readers  would know...I had a too close for comfort run with a Chevy pick up truck yesterday. I promptly parked the bike after partly because I had things to do and partly because my heart was racing. I didn't pull it out today due to work and laziness after but the good news I feel fine. I was a little worried Id be sore today after some sleep and less adrenaline, but I feel good.

I never had intentions on making a big deal out of the whole situation, legally but the more I think about what happened and relive it in my mind the more mad I get. I still wont "go after" the driver but I intend to pick up the police report and ask some questions. I can still feel the "woosh" from the truck going by as it clipped me and it blows my mind. You figure it was a game of inches, six or less inches further into the shoulder at that point and its a whole new ball game. This guy doesn't even realize what he did, he swore the whole time that it never happened. He never saw me and he never clipped me. I cant believe he was apparently sober, and no drugs were found in the truck. Even more so I'm a little stunned he wasn't being arrested. He tried an illegal pass on the shoulder, struck a person and left the scene of that accident, not to mention had another accident with in minutes. I used the phrase "struck a person" because according the Trooper due to me being completely geared up and in the process of getting on the bike, I was at that time a motorist, not a pedestrian. Maybe if I was a pedestrian the drive would have been locked up?  I know he was getting a fist full of tickets and was still dealer with the troopers when I left, just surprised me when he got back in his truck on their order.

Well what ever the case...I'm just glad to be OK.

Live Fast, LIVE Fun!

A cager almost took me out.

A web site Im on does a motorcycle picture game. Great fun and gets me out for rides when Id be stuck in the house usually.

Today I needed to get a picture of my bike with a hidden drive way sign, which I did....

I took the pic to get the win and almost got taken out before I could even post it. The next pic I took to post up was this one...

First, what you dont see is, in front of the black p/u is a red p/u. Black pick up driven by shirtless tough guy, red pick up driven by old retired fire chief, yellow bike in the weeds ridden by me.

I was pulled over on the side of a 2 Lane "highway" to get this challenge. I honestly thought when I started to get off the bike "this isnt a good spot to be". I knew Id be quick though, the shoulder is big and hey...they are meant for people to pull over on. I had terrible service there so the plan was quick pic and go. I didnt take ANY of my gear off, even my gloves. I got off, snapped the pic and went to get back on the bike. I had my left hand on my left grip, right hand on my tank and started to throw my leg over. Next thing I know Im on my back side. Something hit me in my left shoulder/back and spun me off the bike to my a$$. My grip still in my hand. I look behind me and the p/u is completely in the shoulder. I see the red pick up in front of him and he is REALLY close to him.

I paused, heart racing realized I couldve been killed. Im shocked but Im ANGRY. I tried to give him benefit of the doubt (target fixation or something) but Im mad and my adrenaline is going. This section of road is no passing and red lights back to back so I know that with out being a jerk rider I will see this truck again. I planned on giving him an ear full. One red light up the traffic isnt moving. I see the truck ahead and I see ppl going around him. I thought his POS broke down. I was going to go around him, give him a lecture and go from there. Nope, he rear ended the red p/u. Turns out he had been trying to pass the old guy for over a mile despite the old guy doing the speed limit. I got off my bike and the fighting began. Never got physical the cops came too fast.

The guy swears he never hit me, he didnt even know where I was because every excuse he tried to use didnt work for where it happened. The red p/u driver saw it happen as he watched him try to pass him on the shoulder. He wanted to leave the scene so the red p/u stayed blocking him in and I kept arguing with him. When the cops pulled up they asked the drivers to move their trucks....the idiot hit him again! On the side of the road he rear-ended the red truck again!

Passed the field sobriety test, cops searched and found no drugs, even brought out the dog.

Im REALLY lucky. I dont even know what else to say.

I limped it home, going slow and steady. Nothing was wrong with the bike, she didnt even get touched it was just too much. My heart was racing and blood was pumping. I parked the bike, and she will remain parked for the night. I have some stuff to do today as it is, but it was just time to go home. 

Oh...my bike is only so far away for its own safety. At this point I didnt wanna assume I was safe any where. 

Be safe riders....and remember, ride like your invisible. Most of the time we are. 

KTM; The new Harley?

Maybe your a HD fan and maybe your not, say what you want about their bikes you can not deny one thing. They are doing something right. They've been in the game a long time and their following is, well as far as I can tell, second to none. The only thing I can think of with even half as close of a colt like following in the motor sports world would be Jeep.

 HD has product support and accessories line that's way beyond that of what I see available for in line "Super Sport" bikes. They take it one step further though with their never ending line of swag. T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, pet accessories, furniture, Zippos, baby clothes, automobile accessories and even a Ford truck edition all its own. The list is much longer then that however. It seems to me that KTM wants in on this action, and Im thinking good on em for getting the money how ever they can.  Last two times I went to my dealership for parts Ive notice the KTM accessories display growing in size. In fact last time there I noticed they had more KTM stuff not related to actually riding then they did KTMs on the sales floor. In KTMs defense this particular dealer ship sells just about every manufacture they can cram into the building and stocks maybe 2 models of each. I should have snapped some pics of the display while I was in there but lets look at some of the stuff easily found at other dealers and on the web.

Dog bowl is cute, and I could see why youd want one, I guess. 

Keeping your pet KTMed out starts here.

This kind of Swag I can understand, its the usuall kind of stuff.

Pretty much every company makes a Cozzie now-a-days

LED flash lights ARE pretty handy

USB memory stick. Again handy, but while out on you dual sport?

Handy and practical. Good for track days.

Childrens lunch box

Sure...why not?

This is just too much no?

This one is listed as a diaper bag, starting to get a bit much?

Gotta carry your books in something.

Ummmm, ok?

My personal fav!

Now I ride one of the more popular SS bikes out there, the "Gixxer" is a popular bike among track riders, street riders, stunters, squids and even girls. The particular year and model I ride is widely considered the best liter bike they have produced even today. With that being said I have to special order a oil pan or even sprockets but if I wanted a KTM pedal bike, baby binkies or a USB stick Id be in luck! 

Its no ones fault really, and can we really blame KTM? They are in business to make money. I personally cant fault those buying the gear, Im a known brand whore. I have more clothing articles that sport Suzuk Rock Star Makita, Alpinestar or Icon then most teen age girls have Hollester.  

All I know is, if the rain holds out today I promise Ill ride instead of posting these rants to you guys ;-)

Power commander fail boat.

For the last going on what? 3 seasons now...Ive been dealing with an intermittent problem with my daily rider(2005 GSXR1000). Long story short on hot days and/or pretty spirited rides my bike would die. It wouldn't loose electrical power but it would cut off as if no fuel delivery. The gauges would read "check" as if the key was on and switch off despite the switch still being on. The bike would crank and crank and never start. No FI light, no code in dealer mode, no abnormally high temp, no obvious issues. Clutch switch checks out, kick stand switch checks out and kill switch appears to be OK too.

Time goes on and I try numerous "fixes". I went over all fuel lines to ensure no kinks. I change my after market gas cap just to ensure no "vapor lock" type issue. I cleaned the in line fuel filter, removed the fuel pump and cleaned the screen filter on it as well as cleaned up the pump and inside of the tank. I continued to go over all normal maintenance stuff(plugs, coolant, air filter etc) while the bike was apart with the exception of a valve clearance check. I just did that a lil over a year ago and they were well with in spec. Not enough miles since then to concern me. My next step was charging system as I have heard issues with R/Rs over heating and causing something like this. The battery is brand new as it did not make through the winter. I removed all electrical accessories (LED accent lighting, Cig lighter plug) and tested the charging system. Stator was removed and visually inspected as well as all tests listed in the service manual for the stator and R/R. Everything checked out good.

This season I go for a ride on the first real warm day and whammo...same damn thing. This is where I noticed the key that I posted earlier. When it happens the bike will say "CHECK" on the gauges which indicates key on, and switch off.  If that were the case the bike would not crank, mine does. That's all it will do. The fuel pump does not prime and bike will not start. This lead me to think Power Commander. I promptly called Dynojett and ran this by them to see if this sounded like anything they have hear of or dealt with before. The less then helpful tech simply said "Take the PC3 off and see if it still happens". The PC has been off every since, completely off and the bike has not acted up. Now I haven't been out on too many hot days since but to my surprise the bike is running noticeably better with out the PC. I have a custom tune by the 8 time super street drag race world champion and I love the power the bike puts down with few mods (166whp, and 93ft/lbs at Sport Bike Zone Dynojett dyno) so to me there is NO way I should feel this way. I'm sure some of it could be the tunes fault but I'm thinking the PC is toast.

My nest step is if the bike remains free of issue through another 1 or 2 hot days I will connect the PC3 again, I will wait till the bike acts up and immediately lift the seat and disconnect power from the PC and see if the pump primes and starts. If so then I'm done with PCs. Ill look into either a stock ECU flash or Bazzaz.

What do you think? What has worked or not worked for you?

Rain rain go away....

So yesterday was pretty much a wash...literally. Rained almost all of the day and it came down in sheets. Pretty typical for my days off. I was able to get out on 2 for a little bit (its honestly a goal every day) but only to the bank, and to get a hair cut.

Today was a bust but not because of the weather. I had work 6a-3p which naturally turned into 6-445p and by the time I got home I was entirely too lazy and too close to the Phillies game to go anywhere. Remember, Im from South Jersey so its Philly sports down here. Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets fans can find a new blow now please. Take the odd Dallas fans with you too. Hmmmmm, On second thought I guess the bond of brothers on 2 can erase your poor choice in sports teams. Carry on.

The good news is the weather forecast is looking great for the rest of the week. I should absolutely get some time on 2. Ill see if I can get some GoPro footage from around my area.

We have touch down.

Ran some errands on2 today and then for a lil ride. Saw this small helicopter landing on a dolly being pushed by a pick up.