Int’l Motorcycle Show [day 2]

Today’s highlights:

Inspired

I chatted with Gary Eagen for a long while at the Ducati booth. He’s the guy that broke the world record, riding 5,632-miles from the northernmost road in Alaska to the southernmost tip of Florida in 100 hours certified by the "Iron Butt Association". He completed the ride on a Ducati Multistrada. He was just the person I needed to talk to, after all I already made the Decision to ride around the world on a Muli a few weeks ago, even though everyone that had done that kind of riding said to get a BMW or a KTM. But I don’t adventure tour, I don’t ride dirt, so why would I get a different type of a bike to do one trip, when I can do the trip on a bike I’m more familiar with. Needless to say, Gary though that the muli was capable of a trip like that and added that he had more BMW’s break down on him than Ducatis.



It’s always great to talk to a legend.

BMW



This is also the second year in a row that I’m drooling over the K1200S. This bike is sharp and it’s low, although it’s not very light at all. This will probably be one of those bikes that I will always dream of having, but for me, I just can’t justify it. It’s expensive and my ST3 is so much lighter and probably handles more like a sport bike. But it’s nice to have something to dream about in case I do win that lotto some day.

Buell

Back on the Buell, I really enjoy the displays. The Lightning which I call the iPod bike, is my favorite Buell. I think I’d like to ride one again at femmoto this year.



Suzuki



GXSR 750, does this bike make my butt look fast?



GSXR 1000, red is my least favorite color scheme for the gixxer.

I had to re-visit the gixxers today. I like to play this pretend game where I figure out which color of bike I would get if I was to get one, but that’s usually the easy part. With the gixxers, I had a hard time figuring out which bike I wanted, the 600, 750 or 1000cc. All very similar, they all fit me well. A 600 would be great because I could do some track days on it, the 1000 would be super fast and the 750 some where in the middle. I sat on all 3 and I though the 1000 was the most comfortable, then the 600 then the 750. I don’t know how, they look the same, except for the exhaust.

Kawasaki



I sat on the new parallel twin Ninja 650R. I’m not sold on the looks and I can’t say I’m sold on the way the bike feels. I’d imagine it would be comfortable with handlebars and upright seating position, although the Suzuki SV650 fits me just right and I like the more aggressive seating position. Maybe the new 650R will grow on me.



This year total all around winner (in my opinion for whatever that counts) is the Z750. I actually really liked the bike last year when I sat on it at the show and then again when I sat on it at Femmoto. I hope to get to ride it this year if Kawasaki attends again. And I even though of replacing the F4i with the Z750, but I really wanted a touring bike so I‘m glad I got the ST3.

I love the way the Z750 looks, especially in this black/silver sparkly color scheme. This bike is the most comfortable of all the bikes that I sat on at the show. It’s low enough, the seat seems soft, the seating position is upright but I still end up leaning forward. Just seems like a great all around bike.

Int'l Motorcycle Show [day 1]

It’s that time again, I made it out to the Chicago IMS in Rosemont tonight. I never get bored of these things. A room full of pretty, shiny new bikes, no matter how many bikes I have and how much I love them, I can always make room for more in the garage.

Todays highlights:

Ducati



This sharp looking Paul Smart 1000LE, was actually one of the most uncomfortable bikes at the show.



749 Dark in this matt black is still one of the most sexiest bikes, but also very uncomfortable.



This is the second year that I’m totally drooling over the Multistrada 620, but I’m not ready yet. Maybe in the next couple of years I’ll pick up a used one. As much as I want to get a cheap dual-sport like the Yamaha XT225, which would be more for dirt riding, I just don’t see how I can utilize one living in the suburbs of Chicago. I think the Multistrada 620 would be great for what I want to do. I can ride it to Wisconsin to the twisty roads and hit some dirt roads also if they are not too beat up.

BMW



I honestly have to say, that I would have never thought of the R1200ST as a possible sport-tourer for me until I saw ST.Ns http://rocketbunny.blogspot.com/ Rocket Bunny get one. It’s very comfortable, and has a lowering option. I even like the looks of it too and BMW offers 6 colors schemes for this bike. Maybe when I get bored of pasta and rice, I'll try some potatoes :)



HP 2 Enduro is one sharp bike although much too tall for me. It’s lightweight and equipped with a race-ready suspension. With 105 hp, it’s BMW Motorrad's first pure dirt bike.

New trend in Japanese bikes… glitter/sparkle paint

I love it. Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki are all doing it. I didn’t see any Yamahas but that doesn’t mean they don’t have sparkle paint this year.

The Kawasaki Z750 looks sharp in black/silver sparkle, so does the Honda VFR. The silver shimmered on the Suzuki GSXR.





Kawasaki



I’ve always liked the Z1000, but this years color is amazing, bright blue with a matte metallic finish.



The new ZX-14 with estimated 200 hp at the rear wheel is a beast of a bike, big and heavy and made for speed.

Suzuki

I might have been smitten by the gixxers at the show tonight. They look really sharp, I really love the flat tail section, although I’m not sure I care for the graphics. The colors are nice.



I sat on the 600 and I couldn’t believe how nice that bike fit me. It’s so low and light, very comfortable.

Women riders: love of the sport

Are women less accepting of other women when it comes to motorcycling? All motorcycle riders judge other riders to a point, whether it be based on looks, wearing gear or not wearing gear, the type of motorcycles they ride, or the style of riding they do. But it seems like women have even more criteria that they use to judge other female riders. The hot discussion topic right now is pink motorcycle gear for women. It’s the new trend right now and some women love it and some hate it. The ones that love it say it’s more feminine, it separates them from the guys, the ones that hate it, say it’s just a way of getting attention, “hey look at me, I’m a chick riding a bike”.

This made me think. If a woman rides a pink bike, or wears pink gear, is she any less of a rider then a woman that wears gear in a the standard colors, like blue, red, yellow, black, and what about the woman that doesn’t wear any gear at all? But does color really matter, or is it just our perceptions of what one does with a motorcycle? Women wearing pink gear get pegged as posers, but what if they race, or tour, or do moto-cross, or day rides, are they less serious about the sport? Whether you care about color of bikes or gear or the types of riding women do, we're not all equal, but are we that different? And who decides which women get the “real rider” stamp of approval?

How many times have I heard a woman motorcyclist say “I have yet to meet a woman that is riding because of the love of the sport and not for the look at me I'm a girl on a bike”. I say that exact thing to myself sometimes, but what does it really mean? It means that I have not yet met a female rider like me. I have a hard time relating to many female riders, they don’t ride for the same reasons that I ride, but that’s OK, we can all be different. So how do you measure “love of the sport”?

Maybe there is no way to accurately measure if someone is a “real” rider because you have to define what this “love of the sport” means not only to you but to others. A person only knows what that means to them, it means many different things to many different people. People can love the sport just as much, but in a different way, a way that you might not approve of. I think that’s what it’s all about. If you don’t approve of something, you tend to dismiss it, put it down, make it less significant, or make fun of it.

I’m very guilty of this. It’s really hard for me to take any rider (male or female) seriously when they only put on 1/10th of the miles that I do a year. I measure “the love of the sport” by annual mileage. The more miles someone puts on their bikes, the more they love the sport, the more I give them props for being a real serious and passionate rider. But that’s me. That is my way of measuring “the love of the sport”. In my head a rider that rides for the love of the sport gets on the road before sun rise to avoid traffic, rides until sun-set, rides in all kinds of weather, chooses to ride a bike over any other activity. But we all know that is not how everyone is, and I know that other people enjoy their motorcycles too in a way that I can’t comprehend, because it’s not me, it’s not what I like.

But is measuring the “love of the sport” based on just your criteria such a bad thing? I don’t think so. This is what brings people together and why people choose riding with people that have similar riding styles. They want their friends to understand them, to connect with them emotionally. I have to admit, I’d never waste a perfectly good riding day standing outside of Starbucks with my bike, and I can do about 3 track days a year but that is my limit, after that I’m bored of going around in circles, I need changing scenery. It’s easy to think all other kinds of riding is insignificant, when you’re so busy focusing on only one aspect of it. For me it’s sport-touring.

My passion is the open road. While I ride with many types of people and I can usually adjust the duration of the ride for them, riding 50 miles in a day, 500 miles in a day, 1,000 miles in a day. Nothing beats packing up my bike and taking off to unknown places, for 2 days, for 10 days for a few months. For me, there is nothing else that you can do with a motorcycle that compares to the excitement of a motorcycle road trip. The discovery of new roads, enjoying the changing scenery and sharing that experience with friends, is what it’s all about for me. When a hobby becomes an obsession and not a day goes by that you aren’t thinking of those machines that are parked in your garage, the need to take them on the open road, that’s when you forget about all the other types of riders. Maybe that’s why when I see other women riders out there; I still feel I’m alone in this sport. Still, any woman that gets on two wheels has a bunch of respect from me, it doesn’t matter why she rides, what she rides, or what she wears when she rides. Because whether it’s riding fast laps on the track, touring the country on back roads or sitting in front of the mall on a Saturday evening looking pretty, we’re all motorcyclist. We all ride for the love of the sport.

RoadBike Magazine on Femmoto

On page 60 of the February/March issue of RoadBike Magazine is an article on Femmoto. It’s written by ST.N’s own Carolyn Boyce (bluepoof) bluepoof.com

The picture on page 60 was taken at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway at the riders meeting. If you look really hard, you can see me in the orange-red shirt :)

Great article Carolyn, keep them coming!

Safe international touring?

Where to tour or not to tour, that is the question.

Currently there are over 60 disputed borders or territories in the world. First step in planning a world tour is figuring out where we don’t want to go. This map shows the world, the black “explosion” icons are troubled nations aka places we want to avoid.