Last Ride

The air was getting colder, the leaves were turning, and I hated it. Hated it. Signaling fall, the end of summer, the end of the season. With this depressing thought in my head, I made sure to make the most of these last few days with my bike, before it was loaded up and put away in Webster for its winter slumber. The off season would be a time for detailing and upgrading, but I’ll get into that more as I begin to spend time working on the bike.

One of the things I most looked forward to in bringing my bike to school was exploring all the country and back roads around here. Plus, with the on and off road capabilities of the machine, I also wanted to try out some of the vineyard trails I see off the road sometimes (after some experience with these, I have decided to stay away from them until I get some more dirt-capable tires. The current sportbike meats don’t help out much in grass and dirt.) I decided one fall day to jump on, kick ‘er over and cruise. I like Route 60 a lot because it lets me wind out the motor, and really hear it. The high speeds put a lot of load on the motor and tires, letting them warm up from their idle periods when I’m forced to be sitting in a classroom daydreaming about riding. I like to ride a nice curvy route along Cassadaga Lake; there’s great scenery and even better curves.

No sir, theres no problem officer

It was a beautiful fall ride, with great views of all the leaves turning, and the lake looked a lil chilly though, so done with my other hobby for the season, jetskiing.

Cassadaga Lake

I thought this was a kind of artsy way to take a picture…..

Natural framing?

I think thats it for this entry… it is just making me sad. It was a great last ride, a great way to end the season. I even passed a friend who also goes to Fredonia who has a bike, and he pulled over to the side to let me by. As I passed him on the inside I counter steered a lil more to leeaaannn my bike way over and cranked around the turn, across the bridge wide open throttle, hearing my exhaust note echo against the cement sides of the overpass, and across the cold lake. He was out for a nice cruise, but I had different intentions in mind for my ride. I made sure to bring my front wheel up as i pulled away from the stop sign, hoping my friend saw it. I wanted him to know that even though my bike looks a lil funny, it is the most fun a person can have on two wheels. (except for the times I deem it acceptable to just have one on the ground.)

Next Purchase

hmm, this motorcycle thing sure seems to get expensive. As of now, I’ve been rockin’ a matte black motocross helmet with embarrassingly enough, snowboarding goggles. The helmet is pretty bad with wind whip at speed, lots of road noise, not great visibility, especially at night with the tinted goggles. So I’ve been lookin around, trying to find a helmet with comparable looks, and more importantly safer than what I have now. And after about 2 weeks of active lookin, I found a beauty. It’ll let me keep my hooligan look with the black and the dark mask, but its packed with tons of features and is a well built, inexpensive buy. I really want to order it now, but I’m thinking its gonna have to wait till the winter. We’ll see, as I shouldn’t cheap out on my bucket. Here it is

Review of GMaxx GM 68

Really GM?

Off topic from bikes today, but after seeing this I had to share.  Cruising the streets of Fredonia in my other mean ride, a Golden 95 Saturn SL1….

I’m minding my own business, when this thing rolls past me…

I wish I could find a better rear shot, but boy is it ugly. I was almost offended by that wing. It doesn’t fit, doesn’t make any sense, and doesn’t serve any purpose except give me something to complain about. The high belt line actually looks somewhat nice but is completely invalidated by that wing. I went to look up on line if you can order one without that wing, and it turns out you can, to the tune of this….(edit.. this picture took me forever to find.. apparently the new GXP cannot be ordered without the ‘hammerhead’ spoiler.. hammerhead? hmmm… more to come on that..)

Looks like a used bar of soap. This is actually the ‘street edition’ G6, with just front and rear GXP fascias, and the same anchor of an engine 3.6 liter pushrod v-6. And with a whopping 252 horses, this motor incredibly outdated. C’mooon GM.

After finding out that the GXP spoiler has come into the name hammerhead, brought to mind some Porsche styling…..

Porsche 911, with what was called a whale tail. Whats with the marine references?

The Begginning of My Venture.

I’m not really sure how I became so obsessed with Supermoto. Its such an obscure, not known motorcycle. They’re so rare to see on the road, and in the US they don’t have any tv time. So how did I even find out about these goofy lookin bikes? I can’t exactly remember how, most likely I stumbled on one on a jetski forum I frequent. Yeah, it was someone posting their new bike, and it was so different I was so intrigued. And I distinctly remember a quotation from the owner of the new bike, (street legal YZ450F) “Its more fun to ride a slow bike fast, than a fast bike slow”. This quotation has stuck with me, and although I’ve never even ridden another bike, it has to be true. I can also recall (barely) a evening of adult beverages at a friends place, and I found an actual Supermoto themed magazine in the bathroom. I think the exchange went something like this:

-just finished a few too many beer pong games me-

(with magazine in hand)”Yo Brad, what is this!? barr I love motorcycles, brahh brahhh brahh I love Yamaha arrr arrr garrr I want one so bad! (more drunk rambling)

It was a picture that looked something like this…

Soo, get to talking and his other housemate actually races supermoto, and has a race bike, AND ITS OUT IN THE GARAGE. I can’t get out there fast enough. I come to find out, this is way more than I was expecting.

For a bunch of 20somethings, this is one hell of an impressive display. So many bikes; YZ250Fs, ninjas, cbr. Such an assortment. And sittin in the corner, was this supermoto.

Similar to mine, but a newer 450. Spent the next hour in the garage talking, and from then on, I HAD to get one. I wanted a bike just like that, but i wanted to rip it around the streets, and have something that is so rare, that people will wonder, ‘why is there a dirtbike on the road? sure looks like your tires are bald.’