Stopped by to check out Stuart Parr’s collection of olde skool Italian Motos over the weekend.
Tag Archives: moto
Something bad happened
Last Sunday I was out for an evening ride to Bear Mountain, and it didn’t go as planned. I took a low speed low-side spill near Tarrytown. I was apexing a slow left hand twisty and the front end just let go. I’m guessing it was gravel, or something in the road. The bike and I slid into the guard rail. As much as it sucks, I still feel lucky to have walked away with only minor injuries.
The Ducati, however, is apparently done. These are some snaps from Saturday, when I went to the tow yard to retrieve my license plate and EZ-pass from the bike. It actually doesn’t look like it is in that bad of shape considering that it hit the guard rail and bounced back into the road. Anyway, I loved this bike. It has brought me a lot of joy, and I was very sad to see her in this condition. I’m hoping that she will go on to be someone’s superstar track bike.
The puncture wound in my quad. So much for marathon training. :/
While driving to the tow yard to retrieve my plate, I stopped at the spot where I crashed to gather my clutch handle from the roadside. I had seen it laying in the gravel as I was being loaded into the ambulance. I picked up this, along with some pieces of my helmet and my shifter. Keepsakes from an event that could have been much worse, I suppose.
A moment of silence for Preta.
Some celly snaps from the weekend
I put new tires on the moto about 3 weeks ago and have not had nice weather during the weekend since then, until last weekend. The new tires, sunshine and temps culminated in one of the best Bear Mountain runs I have had so far this summer. I wish that I would have taken a real camera with me.
GS Weekend Part 2
Here is the second installment of the images from my BMW adventure to Lake Placid and back from New York City. To give a little bit more context about the ride, Saturday we started off taking the Sawmill Parkway to it’s northern extreme before passing through Vermont, then jogging west parallel to the Canadian border until we arrived in Lake Placid NY. The weather for most of the day on Saturday was basically perfect until we started into the last 30 miles, climbing the canyon to Lake Placid. As we gained elevation, I could see where the cloud line was on the mountain. We ended the day riding in cold, wet and dark mountainous conditions.
When we woke up the next day, the clouds still hadn’t dispersed and there was still light precipitation. But as we wound our way through the Adironacks, the clouds gave way to more beautiful weather for the balance of the ride back to NYC. One of the highlights of the ride home was a series of twisties along the Delaware River. We ended up going back and forth through that section 5 or 6 times.
GS Weekend Part 1
Weekend before last, some friends of mine arranged to borrow some bikes from BMW and take a ride upstate. I was lucky enough to be included in the activities. We were all riding various iterations of the GS model. I had a 2014 R1200GS. This is probably the biggest motorcycle that I have ever ridden. For its size and weight, the bike is surprisingly fast and nimble. We left the island of Manhattan around noon on Saturday and rode just under 400 miles to Lake Placid. We left Lake Placid early Sunday AM and returned to NYC by a different and slightly longer route. We came back covered in insect carnage and bearing CF cards full of images from the adventure. I took a Canon 5d Mk III with a 50MM f 1/1.2L and the Fujifilm X100 S. Since I snapped so many photos over the two day ride, I’m going to break them up into a few different posts in chronological order.
Riding Upstate NY
I took my bike out of winter storage recently in anticipation of spring. Saturday was a nicest weather that New York City has seen so far in 2014. Prior to Saturday, I had taken a few solo rides upstate along the Hudson. Then Saturday, I was joined by two friends. We ended up riding for close to 9 hours. I’m throwing up a couple of snaps from our ride, as well as a couple from my other 2014 rides, so far. Apologies that these are all iPhone snaps. So the quality is not fantastic. The photos that I appear in were snapped by my friend B. Swiss.
‘matador’ by radical ducati
I am on the fence when it comes to the ‘street fighter’ aesthetic. I feel like it is really hard to get it right. Radical Ducati, a Spanish custom shop, nailed it (IMO) with this “Matador,” based on the Monster platform. More photos and all of the specs over here.
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moto x in md
Saturday I took a trek down south to Mechanicsville, MD with the RedBull KTM moto-x crew to shoot some outdoor track action. It was a really good time. For one, we took Amtrak to get to MD. Something that I have not done in my adult life. I have taken regional trains since then (here and in Europe), but nothing over like an hour or so.
As far as the race goes, there wasn’t much competition. Ryan Dungey (above) detonated both rounds with a gap of almost 10 seconds at the checkered flag. But the atmosphere was very fun. The weather was beautiful. Plus, I love motorcycles. Here is an overview of the track.
My friend A-Raj, who also came along–
Trusty 70-200 f/2.8–
Fave shots from the ride back–
new fott vid– ‘motorcycle. better than breakfast’
This video was the perfect start to my Friday. The Video is by Fott, called ‘Motorcycle. Better than Breakfast.’ The title sums it up. I doubt that there are many red-blooded males out there who would choose shoveling down some oatmeal over blasting around a pre-dawn Moscow atop a cafe racer before morning rush hour. If that was my breakfast, I would eat breakfast every day. Anyway, check out the vid.
PS: My brother arrived safe and sound this morning. He also brought along his lady friend, who I was able to meet for the first time this morning. I think it is going to be a good weekend.