Frost and test rides

On Saturday I went out riding Northeast of Lebanon. The roads were pretty messy with gravel and whatnot. As I got farther up into the hills the roads were wet and frosty. Wet was no big deal, my D616 rear seems to handle it well enough. The frost however was enough to make me slow way down and keep straight up through the turns. Some of my friends were going to ride Quartzville but turned back when they saw a crashed car off the road on a frosty corner.

My meandering ride took me north to Sublimity where I stopped in at the Power Yamaha dealer. They were gracious enough to let me test ride the Bolt. Its a fun little bike. Nice and torquey, a good seat, and some nice vibrations from the engine. It was very weird getting used to the riding position though, obviously quite different than the CBR.

I grabbed lunch in Lebanon then zipped home because my neck was hurting. I have this theory that its because of the ill fitting shoulders in the A* jacket I wear (I've gained a little shoulder size since I started lifting weights this year) and the high placement of the speed hump hitting the back of my helmet, tiring out my neck when I'm trying to get low on the bike. So when I got home I put on a looser jacket and went out again. Would you know it my neck didn't hurt. Guess I'll have to find a new jacket with a 360* zipper and some matching pants. The A* gear was pretty worn out anyway.

I rode out Decker road which was pretty clear most of the way. Once I got to the Philomath side I ran across some serious frost where the sun never hits during the winter. After that I doubled back, I guess its still winter even if its unseasonably sunny.
Pictured: Frost and the POV of the Bolt.

Trying something new

My first bike had some kind of horrible OEM tire. I don't even recall what it was. My second bike came with Qualifiers which I wore out, replaced with more Qualifiers (yay takeoffs!), wore out, then replaced with BT-003s (yay takeoffs!), wore out then replaced with Q2s, more Q2s, and even more Q2s.

My third bike came with Pilot Powers which might have been the originals, or the second set on the bike. I wore them out and replaced them with (drumroll) you guessed it, Q2s.

The BT-003s were nice and sticky if you could keep them warm, which was doable on the track but a little harder at my pace on the street.
The Pilot Powers were kind of old, so I can't fairly say much. They warmed up quick and had a nice even turn in though.
The Qualifiers, I was pretty new to the 600cc class when I ran them but they were good. No complaints.
The Q2s. Oh boy. I've basically ran Q2s most of my mileage since 2011. They're nice and sticky, warm up quick and have endless traction at my skill level. My complaint of them is poor wet road performance. I also complain slightly about the drastic tip in, but thats mostly because of my survival reactions. They are designed to tip in quickly for a reason.

After my Norcal trip my Q2s were running pretty bald in the center of the rear. The front looked like it had some minor damage and was close to the wear bars.

Being that its January and lots of wet weather lies before me I wanted to try out a road tire that advertised good wet road/dirty road capability. There are plenty of sport touring options, but I also wanted something that I'd probably wear out before June so I could replace it with Q3s or something for the track and twisties.

Opinions on tires on forums are almost completely worthless because its such a subjective topic and few riders have the experience to know the subtle differences. Publications don't do head to head tire comparisons in shitty real world conditions, that might be hazardous to their bikes and editors. Riding through a wet patch in a paddock in SoCal is different than riding a highway that got rained on and has some gravel/sand here and there. For that matter someday I want to try out some Shinko tires just because they're so much maligned by people online that have probably never ever tried them, but thats another story.

Canyon Chasers(http://canyonchasers.net/reviews/tires/dunlop/d616vSync.php) and Pursuit Horizon(http://pursuithorizon.com/2013/05/14/dunlop-d616-amandas-tire-review/) tested the D616 in shitty real world conditions. Pursuit Horizon even tested them on a CBR600RR like mine. Both reviews had good things to say although CC said it tended to be a tad squirrely at time. Freestyle rider Jason Britton uses them as well.

I reviewed some other options and decided to give the D616 a shot, because lacking anything other than online reviews I have to start somewhere in my own decision making process.

I got my tires mounted and wheels back on the bike as it was getting dark so I've only gotten about 30 miles on them so far, in the dry. Not enough for a review yet.

Winter Warrior

Today I rode up to Salem for political rally on the steps of the capitol building. There were quite a few motorcyclists there, and quite a few patched riders from various MCs/MAs/RCs/MOs. I commented to my friend who rode his Thruston to the rally that it was just like the motorcycle rights rally in May, just fewer bikes. Substitute one political message for another. Whatever.

Anyways it was cold as buck today. Gear wise I wore my new Icon Patrol gloves, new RSD "Mission" leather jacket, new-ish Fly Butane pants, and some other stuff I'd had already. The pants are great, no complaints other than that the placement of the inner liner means your crotch gets  little cooler than everything else. The jacket is nice, very comfortable, but has vent holes in the front so unless you have something underneath to block the wind you'll get cold, sizing is off (bought a large which fits like a medium). The gloves were nice, good wind resistance, sizing is off, order once size up, they have a squeegee built in which is nice.

At 32 degrees and foggy my poor little battery powered vest was just not going to cut it. I've been wanting to get "real" heated gear and decided now was the time. I rode from the rally over to Cyclegear in Salem and bought their house brand heated jacket liner, heated gloves, and controller. 30 minutes later I had it wired up in the parking lot. After chatting with the guys there about riding, life, the universe, and everything I set everything to high and kicked off.

Oh, my, god, have I been missing out! Riding down the freeway in 35 degree weather every part of me was comfortable except my head. Time to get a balaclava huh?

I just need to get my new rear tire mounted and I may actually start enjoying this winter riding thing!

Rants and cold rides

So I take my bike in to Fred's Honderp for the 16k service and fork oil change. On the work order it explicitly says fork oil change. I get a call last week saying my bike is done, but they didn't service the forks because its "labor intensive" and the manual doesnt call for it. No shit its labor intense thats why I was going to pay out the ass to have the fucking dealer do it. Same reason I paid them to do the valve check, because it exceeds what I can do in my garage. They also didn't replace the spark plugs like I specified, just checked the gap. Fucking dealers.

I was feeling super antsy tonight. Last night I'd watched "Why We Ride" and cried like a baby. Problem was, it was 35* out and starting to get foggy. But you know how the bug is, you're reading my blog afterall. I put on my adventure pants, A* boots, heated vest, A* jacket and went out.

Only a few miles down the road and my visor was somewhat misted. Even with my brights I couldn't see much more than a second ahead at 55mph. Good news, my bike still gets up and goes when you twist the throttle.

A day without triple digits is like a day without sunshine. I guess maybe I substituted the triple digits for the sunshine today? I'd be nice to have a full heated jacket liner and heated gloves. My legs and feet were OK though.

Wherever I May Roam

I was listening to Metallica the other day and started fantasizing about buying a cruiser. I know. What the fuck, right? Most of the cruisers on the market are traditionally overweight, over-chromed, overpriced, and in my eyes kindof ugly. In my meandering of the internet I ran across two new production "bobbers" (?) that actually excited my sense of imagination (consumer whoreness?). The Harley-Davidson "48" Sportster/Iron 883 model (same bike different accessories) and the Yamaha/Star Bolt.

The marketing must be working, or my beard is slowly convincing my brain that a torquey v-twin that's actually fun to ride at legal intra-city speeds might be preferable to riding stoplight to stoplight on my CBR. Part of my fantasy is being able to carry a passenger on it comfortably. Riding with a passenger on the CBR blows.

From there my fantasy wants to take some weekend long or longer trips to places I've never been that maybe involve slab. Or going to a "rally" like the Street Vibrations Rally in Reno (hey, who doesn't want to get in between warring 1%er MCs, right?).

Eventually reality slaps me and reminds me of two things. 1. The twisties and the track. and 2. My wallet.

Damnit. Freaking winter not-riding illness.

Results of my playing with their configurator: