Archive for 'motorcycle' Category

2012.12.20

13000

I’ve hit 13000 miles on the moto. Another milestone of sorts.

2012.10.13

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride

I know it’s been an age and a day (or two) since I posted here. It’s been quite busy. That being said I won’t even promise to try and keep up here… Try to find me on Twitter @dooglahs.

I wish I had known about The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, though. I would have tried to make time for that! Especially since there was one here in San Francisco. I could have even dressed up in my Victorian duds. I put it on my calendar for next year…

2011.11.11

11,000

It’s been a long, long time since I wrote anything here. Being a father and working full time is one way to be very preoccupied. That being said, here’s a picture of passing 11,000 miles on my motorcycle, posted on 11/11/11 (even though the mark was made yesterday morning).

2011.08.05

Best Dual Sport: Tiger XC

Cycleworld has released this year’s best motorcycles list and the Triumph Tiger 800 XC has won best dual sport. Having test driven this bike, I can say that I really, truly want one. I don’t know if it deserves “best” but it certainly earns serious credit…

2011.07.01

Motorcycle Kid

The Future?As time gets closer to our child being born I can’t help what sort of person she’ll be. What will her interests be? Will she be interested in science, music, writing, culture or working-her-ass-off? Maybe none of the above or all? I don’t know and I guess I’ll just have to be patient and find out at about the pace she finds out herself. I do hope she picks up at least some of the interests Rosa and I have like language and travel, and for some perverse reason I hope she really like motorcycles.

It’s funny because I only started riding myself about four years ago, and even though in that time I’ve hardly been able to do any proper distance traveling, I’ve loved it. I look forward every morning, rain or shine, to riding in to work and riding home. On the few times I get to ride out somewhere else, somewhere new, I’m like a kid inside. I would love that the Little Monkey get to know that feeling, too. Of course she might discover it in another way, like horses (which I hear is very popular with girls), but I hope its motorcycles.

2011.04.09

Cafe Cowboy

I found this simple but inspiring (?) video called Cafe Cowboy yesterday. It’s about Dustin Kott, a motorcycle builder. He is inspired by American hot rods to build English-style cafe racers out of old Japanese motorcycles. It is a blending of cultures that appeals to me greatly, and the shots of him riding some of his bikes make me want to ride.

2011.03.17

Preparing for the Worst

By now everyone has heard of the devastating earthquake in Japan, preceded by the one in New Zealand and almost exactly a year earlier in Chile. These three earthquakes have the coast of California bordering on the paranoid, and maybe with good cause. There are a couple things you can do to prepare as best you can. The first is to go through this excellent website, 72 Hours, and read and prepare what it recommends.

I don’t know about other areas, but if you live in San Francisco you can also sign up for Alert SF which can communicate with you via cellular text and email about various alerts you should be aware of. You can also volunteer for NERT, the Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams. They can help train you to help others in the case of an emergency. In the case of a city-wide disaster emergency vehicles will be hard pressed (and overloaded) so if you own a motorcycle you can volunteer for MERC, the Motorcycle Emergency Response Corps. NERT and MERC require training, but think about what happened in Japan and realize that if volunteers hadn’t been available the death toll wouldn’t be in the ten thousand range, it would have been much MUCH higher.

I don’t think paranoia serves anyone, and living in fear is a way to give yourself an ulcer. That being said, it’s not a matter of if an earthquake happens in California, but when. Preparing for it can help you feel more in control of yourselves and help your loved ones through the calamity. If nothing else talk with your family and friends about evacuation routes and meeting points; it could save your lives and give you hope.

2011.03.15

10000 Miles

2011.03.14

Triumph Tiger XC Test Ride

Last year I was dreaming about the new Triumph Tiger 800 motorcycles coming out. Over the weekend the Triumph Demo Days truck rolled in to Munroe Motors and, well, I couldn’t resist. I had to go take a ride.

The Tiger 800s are a new pair of motorcycles geared to fit the enduro market with the Tiger 800 XC fully enduro and the Tiger 800 leaning more towards road use. On Saturday I lined up and was surprised to find no line for me to demo an XC (with road tires, not knobblies). I couldn’t wait. I’ve never done a demo ride, and my group riding is practically nil. George, the Triumph employee that drives the Demo Days truck and sets up the rides walked us through the basics and my nervousness subsided to simple excitement of riding a freshly designed machine.

I wasn’t disappointed. Oh no.

The moto is easy to handle, lighter than I expected, and had good punch for the road but not so much that I would expect to slip in off road conditions. It took me a couple tries to get used to the back brake (I’m used to my Thruxton’s forward seating position) but it didn’t take long to adjust. Sitting up higher was a treat, and the drive took us up Twin Peaks and back down which had a few fun twists and an amazing view.

I love this machine, and perhaps I’m just an easy mark for Triumph but I have the feeling that someday down the road I just might have one of these Tiger 800s… Now I just have to convince my lovely wife (not so subtle hint, neh?).

Looking up links for this article I came across the blog of Moto Saint (Ricardo Gomez) who wrote about his own experiences and loved the XC, too. I was so chuffed to be riding I didn’t think to take pictures so you should definitely go see his post!

2011.01.29

Electric Motorcycles

As we slowly run out of oil (either literally or by way of cost) there has been a greatly increased amount of interest in electric vehicles. The car industry has been variously innovative (like the Chevy Volt, Honda FCX Clarity, Subaru R1e and the sporty Tesla Motors) to cynical (all but Tesla still pump out gas guzzlers, including a few SUVs). There hasn’t been a lot of focus on electric motorcycles, however, at least not in the larger press.

My friend Josh was out and about with his brother recently, and visited Scuderia West where they are now selling the Brammo Enertia, an all electric motorcycle. After talking about it I wanted to look a bit more into how practical electric motorcycles are and, after reading some specs from Brammo, Zero Motorcycles and Native, and my conclusion is these things aren’t ready. At least they aren’t ready as marketed.
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