This week I passed an important milestone for myself and my bike. I have completed 20,000 miles in the saddle of of my BMW R1100RTP, my first bike. I purchased the bike back in October of 2009 and have ridden it a heck of a lot since then. I’ve enjoyed almost every minute of time [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Motorcycles category.
Ride Friday: Why motorcyclists don’t honk
If you drive a normal 4 wheeled vehicle (what we motorcyclists like to refer to as a “cager“) then you might not have noticed, but the motorcyclists on the road rarely honk at you – especially when you’re trying to kill us. I only mention this after a conversation I had with a coworker. I [...]
Ride Friday: Adding a Givi E55 top case
The 4th of July is coming up soon, and that means summer is here! I decided that the holiday would be a perfect time for me to take a few extra days off and take a little motorcycle road trip. The thought was to take the motorcycle down someplace nice and scenic like the coast [...]
Arduino Makes Halloween Better!
Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. It’s a fun holiday where people get to mess around, have a good time… and family isn’t involved. For me, since about middle school, it’s been all about the decorating. I’ve done a lot of different decoration effects over the years, once I went as far as [...]
Ride Friday: Unconscious lane splitting is bad
If you look back on the number of Ride Friday posts we’ve had, you’d think there isn’t much motorcycle riding going on. Fortunately, that isn’t true, just not a lot going on that is noteworthy. I ride my motorcycle almost every day now, though, to be fair it isn’t very far. I take it from [...]
Long Way Round and Long Way Down
Recently, I watched Long Way Down, which is the sequel to Long Way Round. Both of these star Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. You probably recognize the first name, but possibly not the second (unless you are a huge fan of Deliverance). I’m not sure if a documentary about guys riding around the world is [...]
Ride Friday: On Pedestrians and Traffic
Recently, I found myself on my motorcycle enjoying a pleasant ride through Kings Beach, CA. Kings Beach, in case you are unaware, is a high traffic (for Tahoe) touristy area. It features 4 lanes of traffic, and a plethora of crosswalks, so that pedestrians do not have to walk very far to safely cross the [...]
Ride Friday: People trying to KILL ME
“I got TWO god damn blocks from my house before idiot tried to kill me.” This sums up my feelings about riding motorcycles a lot of days. I mean, I occasionally “joke” about people always being out to kill me when riding a motorcycle… but it really is true. I behave nicely when I ride [...]
Ride Friday: Alhambra Valley Rd
View Larger Map General Area: Back side of Pleasant Hill, Pacheco and into El Sobrante Difficulty: Easy Ride Length: ~20mn one way Special Note: None. Route Points: Point A to Point B – This is actually Reliez Valley Rd. It is a bit windy but has a number of stop signs. It really isn’t anything [...]
Ride Friday: Why motorcycles don’t honk (much)
I’ve noticed that even on the nice summer days when there are lots of bikes out, you rarely hear them honk. I asked myself, “why is this? Why don’t motorcyclists honk much?” I’ve come up with a few reasons and I thought I’d share. Stock motorcycle horns suck – Let’s be realistic, taking one of [...]
