A movie about a motorsickle…

I bought The World’s Fastest Indian when it came out on DVD last week, and am halfway through it now. I’m at the part where he is at the little hotel in Bonneville and using boot polish to fill in the cracks on his 25 year old tires. :'(

What a splendid movie! And Anthony Hopkins is so very good. I don’t know what the original Burt Munro was like, and how accurately this movie portrays him, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve teared up over the things he says and does, and how very genuine he is. Just a quiet, unassuming, charming man with his quaint expressions and his single-minded devotion to his old, 1920s “motor-sickle”. Do they even make people like him anymore?

Whether you like motorcycles or not, watch this movie. Ignore the idiotic DVD cover, reviews, and the occassional Hollywoodized soaring background music. It is a good story, with good scenes, good dialogue, interesting characters and a truly historic gorgeous machine. And in the youth worshipping culture that we live in, how often do you see a movie that has an 80+ year old man as a central character?

I sold the bike two days after I placed the ad, for about a hundred dollars less than what I had paid for it. A nice, middle-aged couple bought it and they didn’t try bargaining the price down much. Indeed I knew I had sold it when he came to check it out on Sunday evening and I saw the glow and longing on his face – the same I’d had when I first went down to Seattle to buy it one rainy fall evening two years ago. Funny things motorcycles…

(more…)

Experienced Rider Course

My Experienced Rider Course is TOMORROW. TOMORROW!!! So not only was it sprung upon me out of the blue seeing as I’m scatterbrained as all heck these days, but it’s going to be typical Seattle weather with “cloudy skies with a few showers later in the day”. Seeing as Murphy’s law is dead on when it comes to me, guess when the choice few showers will choose to… uhh… shower?!

Now I need to spend the rest of the day mentally preparing for the class. Did I mention my U-turns were crap?

…

Panic now?

The weekend…

In other news, I’ve practically sold my Icon red and white Tuscadero jacket to another woman at work who just bought a spanking new SV. And I bought the Teknic Violator jacket from Seattle Cycle last Saturday. They need to order it for me and hopefully I can go pick it up this weekend and drop it off at Eugene’s who will zip it up with the pants for me.

Last Sunday I went on a loooong ride by myself on the SV. It was the first time I took her out on the freeway and I was amazed at how well she handles as compared to my Virago. So stable and hardly any vibration. Of course, the first plunge on the freeway on a motorbike is always scary to me as I feel the wind blasts on my helmet from both sides. I try to crouch down as much as possible, but that feeling of utter panic carries itself into my handling of the bike as well.

In any case, about my route – I took the ferry frm Edmonds to Kingston on Sunday morning and rode on WA-101 along Hood Canal. From there I turned back up north to the other side of the canal to the little town called Tahuya.

My intention was to do the Destination Highway from Tahuya to Gorst, but I think I missed the turn someplace and got in North Shore Rd. instead that goes by the water.  It was gorgeous and twisty and there was hardly any traffic!! Don’t get me wrong – it was lovely to see so many bikers out there, but after a while I got tired of waving. :P

I rode as far as I could, but it ended in a rather steep, un-engineered, uphill, one lane route and I stopped and turned around. I don’t like heights, and I wasn’t keen on turning a corner to see a car directly in my face.

From there I rode back to WA-3 and took it all the way north back to Kingston. There were almost 20+ bikers on the 5:45 ferry back to Edmonds! I think I rode almost 250 miles in one day! Suffice to say, I’ve broken the SV in! :) The curious thing is that I was having so much fun riding that I never actually wanted to stop and take pictures! So not much of a photo record this time.

Ranting…

You know it’s going to be a lovely day when you drop your shiny, new bike in the frontyard when you are leaving for work. Fortunately, it didn’t exactly crash – I just lowered it onto the ground when I felt it falling down, and it was on some soft grass, so no scratches or things breaking off.

After I got it up though I was horrified to find out that the screws fastening the front seat to the bike were missing!! They weren’t anywhere to be found on the grass (and I’d have been very surprised to have seen them there). I know I fastened them pretty tight when I replaced the seat a month ago, so it’s either some screw gnomes that took them, or they weren’t tight enough and had fallen off while I was riding it. Can that even happen?!

Either way, I should be relieved that I found out sooner rather than later. I can imagine it’d be quite dangerous if the seat slipped around under me or even slid out or something while riding. Now I’m going to have to find the right gauge screws for it before I’m able to ride it again. Trip to Sears hardware then?

Good thing I had another bike to ride to work, although it felt almost like a toy bike after a week of riding the SV. So low and so… puny! I felt like a right idiot riding it, and it took some guy riding a red Hayabusa waving at me enthusiastically from some crossstreet to cheer me up again. :) *grin* Wow… hmmm… let’s revise the part where I said that biker guys don’t do anything for me anymore, shall we? ;)

Oh, and I had at least two feckin’ idiots in cages trying to race me. The speed limit is 35mph and I’m going 40mph in the left lane, and they *still* overtake me from the right. WTF? I thought this only happened when I rode the SV, but apparently morons find even a little 250 bike threatening. I mean really, are you an idiot? What the hell do you want me to do? Go 55+ mph on a 35 mph street in peak hour traffic?

Not to mention the fucking idiot in the minivan yesterday… I decided to take the long way home and rode by Lake Sammamish, which is normally a pleasant non-eventful, less traffic-y route where I pass lots of bikers. What I get is this giant, blue, ugly fucking minivan tailgating me for the entire length of the ride. Keep in mind that this is a very narrow street with only one lane going either way. There’s no way I can pull away to let him through. To my left is the lake, which is not an option, and to the right is just steep, uphill private driveways. What the hell is one to do? I just rode the entire way feeling hot and bothered and pissed off as heck. What I’d give to have had a gun, stop, and shoot his tires out under him. Yay for road rage!

Okay, so I thought I had calmed down from this morning’s fiasco, but I obviously haven’t.

More on leathers…

Last night was the first night that I’ve actually slept well without once coughing my lungs out. I’ve been sick for an entire week now with a really bad head cold. Thankfully, the worst is over, although I did manage to pass on the virus to my manager as well.

I think my leathers conundrum has finally been solved. Vansons leather pants would have cost me at least $650 less armor, and a one piece would have been close to $1400. If I were a serious racer, I might have considered it, but it just seems overkill. Besides, if I really were a serious racer, I’d probably go the extra mile and spend $2000 on a Spidi kangaroo skin suit – so much ligher and more abrasion resistant than cowhide leathers. Plus Vanson are notorious for not delivering on time. Even the BMW guy said that if I were to put through an order, it would be the last order they would take because they were planning to stop dealing with Vanson entirely. He told me to expect a 3 month wait (something had warned me about), and there’s no way I’m going to wait that long.

Next up I called Barnacle Bill to get his prices, and ended up speaking to Barnacle Bill himself. :) He seemed like the loveliest guy with that charming Southern accent that I’m such a sucker for, and I really wanted to go through him. He also guaranteed that he would have them ready in 8 weeks. I told him that I would go home and look up the designs and think about whether I just wanted pants made or a one-piece. I really, really just wanted to order with him because little one-man operations like his are so rare to find and seem so much more human and endearing than gear churned out by some factory.

As luck would have it though, I happened to wander back to Renton Motorcycles a couple of weeks ago and found a pair of Alpinestar Stella track pants that fit okay. They were a bit loose around the waist, and the knee armor was positioned such that it was just an inch below my knee, rather than covering my entire knee. The knee puck too was so low, that a racing boot would not fit over the pant leg. I bought the pants anyway “just in case”. I figured I’d see what Vanson said and decide what I wanted to do.

I rememberd an acquaintance of mine from Eastside Motosports mentioned that her husband had had his leathers altered by a tailor who worked very close to where I live – guy by the name of Eugene. I got his contact info and called him this morning and he said that he did indeed do racing leathers. His shop was open from 9-5 but he offered to work late if I couldn’t make it during that time (how many times have you ever had that experience?). I rushed out of work at 5, got home, picked up the pants and went to see him. He turns out to be this really nice Russian guy (original name Yevgeny :P) who said that he could cut the pants at the knees and raise the lower halves so that they fit like they were supposed to. It’s going to cost me $150 but I figure it’ll be worth it, as the overall cost of the pants will still be way lower than what customs would have cost. Plus Alpinestars is a good enough brand and the leather is good quality.

I need to go find a jacket and bring it back to him next Monday so that he can set up the zipper so that the jacket and pants zip together correctly. Fortunately, I have a wide choice to pick from. On my shortlist are the matching Alpinestars Stella Dyno jacket, Teknic Violator or the Dainese Trax jacket. I’m leaning toward the Teknic jacket because it seems reasonably priced, has good specs and is decent looking.

I’m eventually also needing to get some boots. My Oxstars are just fine for commuting and touring but they don’t have any ankle protection. It’s a little confusing though because there are so many different types out there. I’m thinking about the Sidis obviously, but they make so many different types of boots!

Oh and finally I should mention that I finally feel comfortable on the SV and am LOVING riding it. I rode it for a couple of hours yesterday around Lake Sammamish and thought I would burst with happiness! It handles so wonderfully and my cornering and braking and throttle control has improved dramatically. Lying sick in bed and reading Sport Riding Techniques really helped, it seems! :P There is so much more to riding a sportbike than I had even dreamed possible. :) I finally feel like the bike doesn’t own me.

Sometime soon when I sit down and calculate exactly how much money is going into this little hobby of mine,  I think I am going to silently curse Liz for creating this monster, what with all her links to Femmoto and Mike Sullivan’s school and making me watch Faster. :P

I love them! I love how the palms are so thin that you can feel your bike. I love how it is so well armored for a glove. And I love the little squeegee that you can use to wipe the rain off of your visor! It really works! ;)

Making plans…

After having the most delightful weather for most of this week, it looks like it’s going to be raining all weekend! Grrr…

I had been planning on going down to Port Townsend for the weekend and staying at the youth hostel. I promised myself I would return after spending a night there last November, and this weekend sounded like as good a weekend as any. Not so sure if I can do it if it’s going to be pouring rain though. We shall see… I guess I’ll just leave it until the last minute. It would be so delightful though… it’s down by the water and there’s lots of boats and dock type things. There’s Fort Warden itself that I never really got to explore the last time I was there. There are lots of delightful little rides in those parts. Lots of little theatres and coffeeshops too, just like in Portland. And the youth hostel itself is dirt cheap.

Maybe if it really comes down to it, I’ll drive. Yeah right, says the person who goes green with envy at the very sight of another biker when she is behind a wheel. Not sure I could stand not riding for an entire weekend. Speaking of which, deep down inside there is just slightest twinge of annoyance inside me when I see hordes of fair-weather riders out on the streets now, especially after I’ve been riding in all kinds of shitty weather.

In other motorcycling news, my SV is in the shop at the moment, as I’m getting the handlebars replaced with Heli bars – let’s see if that alleviates the bad ergos a little bit. I also got the frame sliders I had ordered from Ron Ayers in today. I’m scouting around for a used service manual and tank bra. Have I mentioned that I find the shiny red of the bike embarassing? :P The last extravagant thing I might purchase is a slip-on exhaust to make her sound like she doesn’t have a bad cold. I mean really, my Virago sounds better than a machine that has almost 70% more bhp!

Finally, I really need to get Outlook working on my laptop so I can organize my calendar for this year, especially in terms of various motorcycling events, like my MSF Experienced Rider course, the Mike Sullivan’s class that I still need to sign up for and fervently hope is not full, the motorcycle maintenance class, NESBA’s trackday schedule, and all the assorted rides I want to do.

My long ride for this year is definitely going to be doing the Cascade Mountain Loop. I did the northern half last year by car and it was the simply one of the best weekends I had last year. I promised myself I would return with a bigger bike the next year, and I intend to keep my word. The only hitch is that it’d probably take me a week to do the entire loop while still have the time to stop and smell the roses, and I’m not sure I would have a week to spare anytime soon. Perhaps a long weekend of four days would do the trick.

*sigh*

It’s going to be a great summer. :)

Motorcycle Maintenance class

I registered for this class at Lake Washington Technical College yesterday:

Motorcycle Maintenance

COVM 048 Non-credit $189

Roll up your sleeves and get ready to get your hands dirty. This basic course for enthusiasts includes engine theory, electrical and fuel systems, lubrication, brakes, tires, and tools. This course is not manufacturer specific. (7 Weeks)

Item 9375 4/24-6/12 M 6:00pm-9:00pm Rookaird D E158

It’s taught by the service manager over at Eastside Motosports, so that should be interesting. I’ve never actually spoken to the guy, only just nodded at him whenever I’m down there, but he has a good reputation among bikers on the Eastside. I’m hoping this course with finally get me started toward doing all my own maintenance.

Hunting for leathers…

Woke up later than I expected, considering that I’ve been waking up at 6 everyday during the weekday as it’s getting light out earlier and earlier. Made a list of all the dealerships with the gear they carry and their addresses. See it would be wonderful if there was one store which stocks every known brand of women’s gear, but noooo… the way it works is – RideWest BMW carries Vansons and RevIt, Ducati Seattle carries Dainese, Seattle Cycle carries Tecnic, University Honda carries Joe Rocket, Icon, Firstgear et al, Renton Motorcycles carries Alpinestars, Eastside Motosports carries MotoGP and so on…

Since folks had highly recommended the Vansons, I headed to RideWest BMW first thing. The thought of seeing all the lovely, lovely Beemers had absolutely nothing to do with it. :P Turns out that might as well have been the only stop I had made that day. I tried on some men’s pants and they fit okay except they were looser at the waist and longer. I thought I might as well buy them and get them altered, but the guy helping me said that they could order the women’s fit for me instead. Apparently they run in the same sizing as jeans sizes, so he could order me pants in my jeans size or we could take measurements and he could fax them over to Vanson’s and let them decide which ones would fit best. I decided on the latter, little realizing what lay ahead.

The measurements took the better part of 45 minutes. He (Josh) had a form, on which he had to fill out the minutest details. While he was kneeling down and looking up at me, he asked me if I was totally okay with having the measurements done (aww… what a gentleman!). I shrugged and said that it wasn’t a problem at all (I’ve only ever had male tailors so it wasn’t really a big deal), and he said that they didn’t get too many women in there (meaning none. :P). I tried to remain stoic throughout the measurement, but it was hard to not burst into giggles when he read things from the form like – “Measure around the fullest part of the hips” without a change in expression. There were various other assorted measurements of an even more awkward nature like butt, inseam (literally measured from crotch to ankle – fear not, I had to hold the crotch end of it :P), crotch to beltline on both front and backside, and two different bust measurements (oh and the one priceless moment where he asked me to kneel down, and when I did, he hastily knelt down himself). In hindsight, I wonder, wouldn’t it be a *lot* more embarassing to measure a guy’s hips and crotch? :P

When it was finally done, we both exclaimed – “Finally!!” and J. started to say – “You were a good little…” I think he was going to say “girl” but then changed his mind quickly and said “lab rat”. :P Hehe… it didn’t hurt that he was a bit of a cutie in a way that I don’t really fall for, but was rather appealing. I remember there was some other guy who walked close past me in the middle of our measurements when J. was writing down something and when he came around me to measure my shoulders from the back, he quietly asked – “Did that guy run into you?” which I thought was rather decent of him. It’s strange – I can’t stand guys who come across as overly protective and obnoxious, but it did feel nice to have him be concerned in a – “If that guy was messing with you, I’m going to go kick his ass.” sort of way. And yet, it just cracks me up so much at how self-conscious he was throughout the measurement thing and how concerned he was at not wanting me to feel uncomfortable. I almost told him that he now knew my body better than any of my boyfriends had ever done, but thought better of it. :P

He went to send off the fax, while I wandered into the bike display room and sat on some of them and I found a used F650GS that FIT ME PERFECTLY! It was factory lowered and fit my well in every possible way! I could have ridden it out of there and never have had to alter it in any way, unlike with the SV which is still far from optimum. *sigh* If not for my wanting to do trackdays, the 650GS would have been THE bike for me. :|

I wandered back to the front desk and asked J. if they had any gloves in my size (without much hope really). He showed me a pair of Held gloves in size 6 which were a perfect fit and were made entirely of kangaroo leather. Only hitch – $185. Worse hitch – cute guy selling them to me. I bought them.

I left the dealership after almost an hour and a half of being there, went to my car and laughed till I cried for a good five minutes at the measurement fiasco. Two days later and I’m still giggling. If that suit ever gets made, it’s going to be one nice fitting suit! ;) He said he’d call me in a couple of days and let me know what Vanson said so I can decide if I want to order or not.

Next I went to Ducati Seattle and tried on some Dainese pants which fit me okay but were a bit too long and $500. :P The customer service was really awful (typical motorcycle dealership if you happen to be female). I left sooner than I expected and headed to University Honda Yamaha to meet and . We hung out a bit, tried on a couple of things and chatted with the salespeople who are the absolute nicest out of all the motorcycling places I’ve been to. I’ve bought a major part of my gear from them just for this reason. I found a nice white Tecnic women’s jacket that fit very well, had good back armor and a full circumference zipper. They said the thickness was 1.2 mm and that many women wore the Tecnic suit on the track, but I think I was spoiled after looking at the Vansons which were almost 1.5 mm thick and looked much less flimsy. I’ll have to think about this one.

It looks like I will have to decide between getting Vansons or a Teknic suit. My instincts tell me that the former would be the better option, although much more expensive, and only in black. Let’s see what they say…
Later in the weekend, I also rode the SV around a good bit. Took it to a parking lot (same one I took the Virago to last year. :) and practised slow speed manuevers and got to know it better. I’m still lusting after the BMW I didn’t buy though and it still feels very weird to ride such a shiny bike that sticks out. I’m going to buy a dirty, grungy used tank bra to cover up some of the shinyness in the vain hope that it will look used and gritty. :P

Misc shopping…

This Saturday is going to be devoted to doing the rounds of all the motorcycling stores withing driving distance of Bellevue in my quest for racing leathers. I’ve already tried Renton Motorcycles which reportedly has the largest selection of gear, and yes it had a HUGE variety of 1 brand in women’s leathers ( the Alpinestars which were a lousy fit). I’m planning on hitting University Honda, Ducati Seattle, RideWest BMW, Aurora Suzuki, I-90 Motorsports, Cycle Barn and Seattle Cycle (correct me if I’ve left anything out. :P). Of course, I’ll call them and check that they stock what I’m looking for to avoid an unnecessary trip.

I also need to shop for new gloves – my current HD ones are falling apart. The velcro has come off and I’m not sure if I should just have it stitched back on or get new ones. Not surprisingly I have a hell of a time finding gloves that fit my tiny hands *and* look decent and offer good protection.

Look out for bikers…

Please take a moment to watch this video: http://ruiner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/howclose.mpg. And make others watch it.

It might make you flinch but it’s important. Motorcyclists die because people driving cars ‘didn’t see them’.

Musings…

Today has been the most splendid weather we’ve had for a long time. It was bright and sunny, and even a little bit warm if you were wearing three layers. I took off early from work to ride over to main campus for a brownbag on Windows Vista globalization, which was suprisingly good (compared to the last dismal seminar I attended on Software Design Patterns). I got to see sneak peaks of Vista, plus heard a little about their globalization strategy, and got links to some good resources, all of which I am going to need seeing as I am responsible for i18n quality for a brand new product for Windows Live.

Incidentally, I had one of the hairiest moments of my riding life trying to find Building 26, when I turned into what looked like a freshly tarred driveway, but was a gravelly death-trap instead. I skidded and wobbled before my brain worked out the details, and it was a miracle that I didn’t crash. I suppose it’s a good sign that my sub-conscious instincts kicked in and I resisted the panic-stricken urge to stick my foot out and balance, rather just kept my eyes straight ahead and braked gently. I managed to back out slowly and get back on the street and rode all the way round the building to find the parking lot.

The brownbag ended at 5 and I went on home rather than going back to work. It’s the first time in months that I have ridden back home under a sunny sky. Speaking of which, how crazy is it to see motorcyclists back on the street and waving to them and then pulling into the motorcyclists’ area in the parking lot and finding it *full* of bikes, rather than just the forlorn one or two faithful regulars? :) I don’t even wave these days – more like punch the air with my fist. I think the sentiment is echoed by my fellow riders as well. ;)

The Harley Riders at Microsoft are having a ride meet tomorrow and they have kindly invited all other bikers as well. ;) I’d go, only we’re celebrating another team mates’ birthday and am already booked. I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty amusing to ride with the Harley guys sometime on my naked Suzuki. :)

When I got home, I tried starting up the Suzuki again, this time leaning on the start button like my life depended on it, and it responded and started up! :D I let it warm up for a bit and then took it out for a first ginger trail run. It’s a good thing nobody was out watching, because they would have busted a gut at the sight of the bike and I fighting each other, with the bike clearly winning. :P It seemed surprisingly lighter than I had expected, but clearly looked like it would throw me off and kick me in the shins if I took it for granted even for a fleeting moment. By the time I rolled it back into the carport (5 minutes later *ahem*), my fingers hurt from clamping down onto the clutch for dear life, and my legs were cramped from the unnatural position and scrapping around desperately to find the damn rear brake! :P So – not a very pleasant first experience, but even so, my heart beats just a little faster at the thought of riding it again.

Later on in the evening, as I was driving to Starbucks to catch up on reading some specs, I pondered on the irony in the fact that I never wanted to own a cruiser again as I did not like shiny chrome, but my new bike is a big, flashy, mid-life-crisis-red machine. *sigh* I mean, the Virago looks exactly like what a bike should look like – used, dirty, mud-splattered, old and dependable. I suppose that given time the Suzuki will take on that appearance, but right now it looks exactly like the bikes I see in the Microsoft parking lots and cringe at – expensive toys owned by rich yuppies with too much money to spend. Guess their ranks are going to be inflated by one more when I ride it to work. Some sort of poetic justice? :P

Motorcycle movie reviews

The Great Escape: All I can wonder is why did I wait so long to see it?? It’s WW2 related plus it’s got motorcycles!! The movie is set in a WW2 prison camp where the prisoners (Allies – American + British) are treatly exceedingly well by the Commandant and German soldiers in the camp – a fact that just did not make sense to me throughout the movie. In hindsight I suppose it does make some sort of a twisted sense – the prisoners were POWs and not Jews. (It’s also a little sad to think of times of war when Americans were the good guys and looked up to by everyone as true heroes.) The Germans just want to sit the war out in the camp where it’s safe, while the Allied soldiers try their damndest to upset this idea by devising new and desperate ways to break out.

It’s a longer than average movie and inspite of the theme, it failed to hold my attention until Steve McQueen comes into the picture. Now here’s a man who personifies every Alistair MacLean hero I ever read about. He radiates charisma and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scenes in which he appears. As for his motorcycling scenes where he did practically every stunt (he even played the German soldiers chasing himself on motorcycles :P) except for that timeless scene of him jumping the 12 foot tall fence toward the end of the movie, all I could do was go omg omg omg OMG. I believe this is where the last traces of my fascination with cruisers fell away – no away could I do any of the things he did on a cruiser!! (I am now obsessed with dirt bikes and enduros).

If you’re a motorcycle enthusiast, there is no excuse to not watch this classic. And Steve McQueen… now there’s a man I would drag back to my cave. :P

Faster: While On Any Sunday, a very similar movie, didn’t really do anything for me, this one had me watching from start to finish with a mixture of awe and envy as I saw the limits to which a human can push a motorcycle. I really need to start watching MotoGP one of these days. Out of all the racers shown, I must admit I am more of a Valentino Rossi fan – everybody likes a winner, right? And here’s where I consciously made the decision to get a new bike that would be track-worthy.

On a personal level, I also couldn’t rid myself of this underlying feeling of anger at the thought that here’s a world that will never be open for someone like me. I wonder how many talented female racers are denied the opportunity to break into this world due to lack of sponsorship. :| This is one of the biggest reasons why after 5+ years of being a rabid Formula1 follower, I finally quit watching. I think it all started in some F1 rag I was reading that did a story on Jarno Trulli’s wife – a racer in her own right, who quit after a few years of trying to get a break. The writer of the article said something on the lines of – “she finally accepted that racing was a man’s world and there was no place in it for her”. And no, the writer wasn’t angry on her behalf, rather he was applauding her sensible decision to quit and settle down and be a good little wife.

The movie was splendid though, even if it was more of a documentary of sorts.

Long Way Round: I had expected this one to be a movie, but it turned out to be a reality tv show type thing, with Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charlie Boorman riding around the world on their motorcycles – starting from England, going through Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Canada, Alaska and finally winding up in New York. Unlike Faster, this one at least is something most of us motorcyclists can dream of doing somewhere during our lifetimes. You get to see past Ewan McGregor the moviestar and see the Ordinary Joe/Jill who gets giddy about motorcycles and is happiest in his saddle, going through strange places and meeting new people.

My respect for Ewan went up tenfold after watching this – he is so exceedingly funny and giggly, making fun of himself and his experiences and engaging the viewer every step of the way. He makes you giggle along with him and lays to waste the macho male testerone-laden image that the word motorcyclist usually invokes. Not to mention that he also makes a full beard and thick, black rimmed geek glasses look sexy. :P Oh, and I’m pretty sure that he’s read at least a fraction of the tomes of slash featuring him, seeing as there are references galore to the man-love between him and Charlie. I didn’t even have to read between this lines this time. :P

I was a bit disappointed to see that they had a big-budget backup crew help them across some of the stickier areas. I also wonder, why on earth would a guy like him want a FREE MOTORCYCLE from BMW?

Another plus of watching this – you will never again feel bad about dropping your bike. If Ewan can do it inspite of a TV audience watching, there is no shame in doing it yourself occassionally. Oh, and I finally learnt the correct way of getting onto a bike that has a huge pack strapped to the back – and trying to swing your leg over it is not it. :P

To summarize, I loved this entire series, until the part where they got to America, where it suddenly became much less exciting, and more of going through the motions to finish. In any case, watch this!

Or how I spent my vacation…

Motorcycle Diary 1: Olympic Peninsula, WA

Summary

Motorcycle: Virago 250
Days travelled: 4
Miles covered: ~550 mi
Destination Highways ridden: 6

Detailed breakdown:

Bellevue – Edmonds – 23.4 mi
Kingston – Port Gambol – 8 mi
Port Gambol – Port Ludlow – 11.6 mi
Port Ludlow – Port Townsend – 18.2 mi
Port Townsend – Sequim – 31.2 mi
Sequim – Dungeness Spit – Back – 7.4 mi one way = 14.8 mi
Sequim – Port Angeles – 16.8 mi
Port Angeles – Fairholm – Back – 27 miles one way = 54 mi
Joyce – Sekiu – 36.8 mi
Sekiu – Neah Bay – Back – 18.9 mi one way = 37.8 mi
Sekiu – Ozette – Back – 24.6 mi
Clallam Bay – Forks – 31.3 mi
Forks – Kalaloch – 36.1 mi
Kalaloch – Hoquiam – 70.7 mi
Hoquiam – Aberdeen – 5.2 mi
Aberdeen – Olympia – 50 mi
Olympia – Bellevue – 63.7 mi

Click to read the entire account and see lots of better resolution pictures on my homepage:

http://www.adventuresinfinite.com/Motorcycling/images/motorcycle_diary_olympic_peninsula.html

If wishes were horses…

What I really want is a vintage looking bike that is cheap to maintain, handles like a sports bike, sounds like a cruiser and is comfortable on long road trips.

AMA Membership

I received my AMA membership info in the mail today.

It’s the first time that getting a piece of plastic made me feel happy. :) (Not to mention that it’s also the prettiest piece of plastic in my wallet now. :P)