Whats goin on with the team

First order of business, the bike is ready for race season. Cecil opens up at the end of February and the Naked Speed Team will be on it! We have plans to get ninja 250 front end, which is still in progress, actually the progress hasn't started. Justin also wants to paint the bike yellow, for some reason or another. We hope to see more naked speed fans this year, so come get involved its fun. All you do is drink beer and hang out and watch racing, or you can race if you want to.

Second order of business, I was at teh local gap and the park ranger flashed his lights at me as I was going around the 3rd turn on the downhill, needless to say I kept going!

Thats all for now, this weather sucks lets hope it warms up and doesn't snow on Saturday so I can take my test.

It's been a while but i'm still alive

Holy hell, it's been a while since my last post. ALOT has happened since that lame post also. First order of business I've discovered a really warm riding trick for these winter months. Winter coat liners under your leather jacket... mine is windproof and nice n thick, so it blocks the wind and keeps ya' warm and toasty. Just a lil tidbit I discovered.

Second order of business, I road up to Connowingo ( however you spell it) the day after it snowed, and it was cold may I ad. I go to take some pics, and my battery in the camera died, so that was an epic JOe move. So there are no pics of my Zook all sadlebagged up in the snow.

Thirdly, I got a new bike!!!!!!! Brand spankin new 2007 Honda 919. I shall post pics.

Things have been busy here in the homestead so stay tuned for something, we are organizing a ride to tennessee in the Spring, and since the only people who read this already know of the ride, there is no reason for me to post this.

Heres the pics:

Winter Bike Maintnence

This time of year can have very finicky weather. It could be darn cold, or not so cold, or there could be two feet of snow on the ground--like there is now.

The majority of us are not riding in these snowy and icy conditions, with the exception of the unhuman sport tourers. This is a perfect time to do some bike maintnence that no one wants to do when it's prime riding season. The first step is to have a decent work place. If you have a garage or access to one definatly use this oppurtunity. A nice accomodation for a garage is some kind of space heater to create a little bit of comfort for your work space. If you do not have this luxury, use your driveway or whatever. Check the weather and look for a gap of sunny weather for a day or two so you can get your project finished.

After your bike is in the garage or sitting in that shovled out space on your front deck, come up with a list of things that you want to get accomplished. This can be very basic stuff such as tire pressure, chain slack, oil, whatever. It could even be a front end swap, you never know!

Here is a fairly solid list of things to go over and look into while you're working on the bike:
Tire Pressure
Chain Tension and lubrication
Oil Level/Change it
Fork Seals
Steering Bearing and Components
Electrical Grounds
Valve Adjustment- very important, if you do not know the last time this was done look into it
Wheel Bearings
Going over the entire bike to make sure it is safe and sound

Different bikes require different types and amounts of maintnence. It is very important to make sure your valves are within the proper gap to ensure engine life and performance. It is not overly complicated, just do your homework first. Make sure you have the right tools and numbers to adjust them properly.

Don't forget the basic stuff either. It is easy to overlook proper chain maintnence and tire maintnence, but it is so easy.

A Reflection on Today's Ride

After walking Anna (who is a dog, who is not mine but I am around her alot), I realized that today is a good day to go try out my new knee sliders. I have previously touched my knee to the ground when turning aggresivley, and decided to get some sliders to capitalize on this possible skill I might be developing; what a hootinany these things are!

The temp today was in the high 30's so of course I was bundled up. I actually discovered that my winter coat liner works well under my leather jacket to insulate and also repel the wind. Anyway, I hopped on the bike and headed over to The Sisters. The bottom turn is still tear-jerkingly wet and slick with gravel and frozen stuff everywhere. I did a warm up lap to heat up my tires, and also get that nasty goop off of them. After briskly turning around after the top left turn, I was going back through that same turn and into my favorite left. TOUCHDOWN!!!!! on my first try.

I have had much practice on this turn and also through this entire section, and have touch my knee on this turn before. I did a few more laps, turning around just before the bottom turn because it's all wet anyway. I stayed here until my legs started cramping up and decided to head back.

When I got back into town (joppatowne) there was some catastrophe on Joppa Farm and I had to turn around. I figured that I would stop and get gas since I had to go by there anyway. While gasing up, I could have sworn that Rudolph passed by on his scooter, but he wasn't going towards his house so I figured it was some other stand up citizen.

I took a detour to get home, which didn't get me home, so I had to turn around again. While going through the hood near the highschool, I decided to do some hooligan maneuvers and drag my knees a bit in some cauldesacks ( however you spell it). I then hit up a freshly paved parkinglot at Joppa Elementary, then when finally getting to my neck of the woods, I did a few circles in the lil loop by Justin's house. Fun stuff!

Thanks for reading, until next time stay safe and warm out there!

Sweet Dragon Slayin' Vid

This video is of one of the original photographers at the killboy blog. Since we talked about knee dragging skills check this video out to see a perspective of knee dragging beyond the round-a-bout.

Following my BFF through the Dragon from killboy on Vimeo.

Suzuki RE-5

Between 1974 and 1976, Suzuki spent a massive sum of money, time, and energy into developing and mass producting the the RE-5. This was the only rotary powered motorcycle ever built.

During this time period, the other competing bike companies were working frantically on developing their in-line four cylinder "muscle bikes." Although the Japanese bike companies were new, they quickly gained a fan base and sold many reliable, fast bikes.

Suzuki went a different route during this race using the Wankel powered rotary engine instead of the in-line four cylinder. The engine made decent power-- 62 hp at 6,500 rpms. The bike weighed over 500 lbs, so this ended up as more of a touring bike and not a sport bike. The motor used alot less parts than the standard internal combustion motor. There were no pistons, camshafts, or valves, and since the rotors, well, rotated, the RE-5 had a superbly smooth ride.

"It is an incredibly smooth riding bike," says Jay Leno, from a Jay Leno's Garage episode.

The RE-5's production span was short because at the time period customers didn't appreciate/understand what the bike was about. Everyone was still caught up in the Honda and Kawasaki in-line four cylinder madness. There is a rumor that Suzuki threw all of the RE-5 parts into the local harbor because they were so fed up with the project.

Even though the bike's sales were low, it was still an engineering feat. The motor was liquid cooled as compared to all of the other air cooled motors. The braking system was composed of a hydraulic dual disc brake system in the front.

Thanks for reading, those of you who read this thing. Look foward to checking out my body putty article when I get around to that, tour of the damn's maybe later, and whatever else I conjure up.

A Good Bit of Knee Draggin' Instructions

Knee Dragging is the ultimate expression of bike control and handling. If you can properly touch your knee to the pavement in a safe and proper manner you will be a better rider and have more fun.

As talked about in the video, it is all about body position. First and foremost, you must get your toes on the foot peg. You may have experienced scraping your foot on the pavement when riding "aggresively" and this is actually a good start. Now you can get your toe on the peg and have that much more space to lean!

The next basic step to body positioning is learning what to do with your body. They explain it in the video, which I must ad is a great addition to this discussion. You can see people who have never had their knee down, get their knee down! Anyway, getting back on track... you must learn to twist your body instead of bluntly leaning off the bike. Keep your head straight and pivot on the foot pegs, twisting your body foward while hanging your shoulders off the bike. You must hang your upper half of your body off of the bike! Trust your bike and your tires.

I'm tired of typing, watch the video, have fun... see ya'll next time.

Look for the next history of bikes hoopla, some body putty fun time, tour of the damn's if I ever get around to it, and whatever else I can conjure up.

Oh, yea by the way I learned how to embed youtube vids-- whoo hoo!