Ride Report---May 28th, 2006

Sunday was the DSB Hooters ride. I was pretty impressed with the turnout when I rolled into the Hooters (Roseville) parking lot. Was unsure of how it was going to turn out, but there were already a lot of bikes, and more showed up after me. All in all, there were 27 bikes to roll out. And except for a stretched, lowered, chromed and polished Hayabusa who turned off pretty early, everyone made it to Flint without incident.

We managed to stay off any real interstate, expressway or even highways for the most part. Two lane roads all the way. It wasn't a burn up the twisties type of ride having that many bikes, but it was fun and had to be pretty cool to see nearly 30 bikes riding through town.

After some grub and photo ops with the Hooters girls in flint, it was a nice ride down I-75. Please ignore the reports of a wild hooligan sport bike gang terrorizing motorists on southbound 75. The stories are wildly exaggerated.

Now to address why this post is Tuesday instead of Monday. I went riding monday, too! Did a local loop through three counties and put on another 125 miles. Hit some twisties, ate some lunch and drank alot of water. It was 92 degrees out there and I could feel everyone of them.

Well, while we were out, my headlight quit working. The guy I was riding with, also noticed it was wierd that both the hi-beams and low-beams wouldn't work. So when we got back to town, we rode to his house and proceeded to pull the bike apart and test fuses, connections, sockets and the like. He was great and traced the problem to a wire broken of the Hi/Lo beam selector switch, and then soldered it for me. He is definitely a good guy and a great motorcyclist. The riding community is pretty awesome. Arpad, I do owe you!!!

Well on to the pics. I'll put a few here (including yesterdays mechanical issues), but to see the full bunch, just click here. Enjoy, we all did!!!!

and my electrical problem.....

Oh, yes. I am back on two wheels. The first ride wasn't long. Neither was the second. But I was riding and it was my bike. After some worrisome waiting, my bike finally arrived at my home. My first ride was only down to the back of my apartment complex, turn around and come back. You know, make sure it runs, shifts, stops. Those sorts of things. I can already feel a huge difference it the mannerisms of an inline 4 cylinder compared to a v-twin like the Hawk has, but haven't any idea yet how different they are. Unfortunately I couldn't get into her really at all Saturday with other things going on, so it was time just to take it to a safer place. For now, she is staying in my parents garage.

I get to explore her more on the ride over to mom and dad's house. The tachometer says redline is just past 11,000 rpm as opposed to the 8,500 rpm I was used to with the Hawk. Cruising at 4-5,000 rpm's, you can't just twist the throttle and scoot outta there like you could with the Hawk. The low end grunt just isn't there. But when the revs spin up to 7 or 8,000, you can really feel the extra horsepower the fizzer has buried underneath all that plastic. Yeah, this is a different animal, for sure. And this animal absolutely screams through the powerband. The Vance & Hines exhaust note is piercing upwards of 5,000 rpm. It appears the 1992 edition of the FZR600 has around 75 hp, which is 30 more ponies than any stock Hawk GT. I can only imagine the new 600 sportbikes such as the fizzers newest sibling, the R6, and their 110 horsepower. Those must absolutely go like crazy. Don't even care to imagine what the close to 160 horsepower that their big brother, the R1, feels like under full throttle. Insane!

I have already noticed the more aggressive riding position. The placement of the footpegs a just a bit higher and inched back just slightly. The bars are narrower and a bit lower to grab. I already know those will take a bit getting used to. Have to make sure not to hold my weight up with my arms, or my wrists will be killing me. Not to mention you just can't control the throttle as well if you have all your weight on your hands. Must have that gentle touch, especially when leaned over in a turn. All in all, though, it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

I love the styling of the Hawk. "Naked Aggression" I like to call it. Now here I am on a fully faired sportbike. I love the streetfighter look. Simple than, you say. Tear off the plastics, throw on a headlight, and your well on your way. Well here is where I'm torn. I am digging this bike, even if it is just because it is new to me. I have ideas brewing in my head. Some involving fairings, some not. So I'm torn on the aesthetics side of the argument. Whatever I do, it won't be for a while. So for now, she is what she is, and that's the way she'll stay. Maybe I'll have a better feel for what I want to do after a season of riding.

There is only a few days to get ready for the first group ride of the year. I am hoping to get her out around town a little before this weekend. So I definitely have some stuff to take care of in the next couple of days. Where are all the suspension adjustments at anyways? Yeah, I got work to do.

Whatever you are doing out there, do it safe and have fun doing it.

Two Wheel Freedom

The address is the same, for now, but the change has been made. Check out the new title of this thing I call my blog. "Two Wheel Freedom" is what I feel best conveys how I feel about motorcycling. Everything about motorcycling, good and bad. From finding the perfect twisty road clear of all traffic to commuting to work on a busy freeway. The beautiful Sunday morning rides or the times you get caught in a downpour 80 miles from home and continue onward. From being elbows deep in the bowels of your machine, to one day, your sweetest babydoll's arms wrapped around you as you enjoy the sun setting over the countryside while putting along a deserted backroad. On my bike, it is all good. It is all freedom.

With the title change, I hope to improve some other things as well. The main thing being a consistant posting pattern. There will be at least one post a week. Some times I might accomplish something in the middle of the week that I might want to share with the world, than I'll post then, too. My target day for my weekly post is Monday. That way I can share any weekend ride, track day or other event experiences while they're fresh in my head, since most of those things happen on the weekend.

I will also work on my links on the side. I had them pretty well arranged, but I want to get more emphasis on some "entertaining" links. Certain sites that have great motorcycling pics, such as Killboy's incredible Tail of the Dragon photography, or videos. That will come in time.

That covers most of those hairy details, so let's get on with the good stuff.

I GET MY BIKE IN TWO DAYS!!!!

Yes, on Saturday morning, the fizzer 6 will be in my possession. I absolutely can't wait. I can't wait to sit on it, start it, rev it, look at it. I can't wait to wash it, to check her over, to work on her. And I really can't wait to get some more pics of her. I've already got a location picked out for the "shoot". I know my kids can't wait because they want me to take their pictures of them on the bike. Hopefully I can get my wonderful wife in for a pic or two, also. Man this is going to be a long couple of days!

I jumped on an ebay auction last night. This is a 1992 Yamaha FZR600, in ummmmm, an interesting color scheme. We'll figure out a way to fix that. Maybe it looks more red in person. I was waiting to hear from someone on a fantastic deal on a '98 Honda CBR 600F3, but wasn't hearing anything. Of course I'm not the most patient person so I gave this a shot. It was sitting at $1325 so I put in a bid of $1426 when there was about 20 seconds left. Turns out that was just enough and $1425 later, I'm back on a Yamaha. Hopefully I'll get to see it in person today. I'll give more details of the bike later, right now, I'm just happy I'm gonna have another bike. But here are the pics.

Well the jury is in and the verdict is
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$1600 and some change!

That is after my $500.00 deductible. Would have been close to the $2200 that I paid for her. But now the search is on. Craigslist, Ebay, local forums and word of mouth are all my friends. I have a lead on an the awesome possibility of getting a '98 Honda CBR600F3 for a great price. The pic above could be a close resemblence. Just waiting on some details so I can jump. If that doesn't work out, something will. I know that for sure.

Well, it's been more than two weeks since my bike was reported stolen. This week, I should be hearing more from my insurance company about whatever they might give me for the my bike. I still would rather hear from the police.

Thinking about whatever the insurance might give me, causes me to contemplate my next motorcycle. Let's face it, the little Hawk was 18 years old. I really don't expect to get that much for it, so it is almost a definite I won't be able to buy another Hawk. Well, right away anyway. I will have another Hawk someday but the most important thing to me this season is riding now. I have been looking at what has been out there for sale but I just have no idea what I might be looking at next.

If a Hawk is out of the question, I hope to find a cheap older sportbike. Maybe a Yamaha FZR600 or an older Honda CBR 600. If I can't find something like that, I'll have to go way off the board and check out something like a Honda V65 Sabre or V45 Sabre. With the smaller V45, I could see some drag bars on there, chop the tail, do something with the exhaust and have myself something different till next year. Of course, any bike I find isn't going to be in as good of shape as these appear, but people don't throw any ratty machine up on bikepics.com.

I really hope this mystery is solved quickly. So many good weather days I should have been out riding but haven't been able to. No to mention, May 28th. That is the day of the DSB Hooters ride. I missed last years ride by one weekend because I hadn't found The DSB website yet. Ya know what, I really don't want to miss a good ride with some good guys that involves some good looking ladies, and that's all I've got to say about that.

All of that being said, I have had an eye opening thought. I think I am going change the title to this blog, one and final time. Yes, it's all about improving in baby steps. My world on two wheels has taken a huge turn, and I have always known that I would own more bikes than only the Hawk, so I do believe I need to make a change. I will wait till I have finally purchased something else, but the new headline won't be bike specific, it will be life specific. Hopefully it has a nice ring to it.