1 September 2010
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This is the MV Agusta 1090 Brutale demo bike at Steelhorse
Classics![]() she is sporting and upgraed exhaust system ![]() A lower cowling with air dam ![]() Passenger seat cover, and the upgraded seat. ![]() |
What made me think of this was a conversation I had with a young
man about how he gets to ride his dad's Harley whenever he wants. I just found
it hard to believe that anyone who spent that kind of money would let a young
inexperienced rider take off with his motorcycle. Certainly not me or any of
the folks I ride with. But some people today just see it as a possession, like
a hammer or an old car.
I don't allow anyone to ride my motorcycles.
Yes there are exceptions, some times I switch bikes with friends with the
understanding if you crash mine I keep yours
. There are some folks who do
get to ride; the mechanic who works on it, gets to test ride it, but then
that's me
Only those folks who I really trust and know they have respect
for other people's things and have the skill set to make it back alive, might
get to take a spin.
Let me tell you I keep a close eye on those rare occasions. What
is funny is how folks seem to always want me to ride their bikes. I have never
felt comfortable on someone else's motorcycle. I was very nervous when I took
out Mike's $120,000 MV Agusta F4 CC. I have ridden it several times and each
time it scared me to death; not because it's faster or it handles any different
than my own MV; it's because it costs as much as I paid for my house
My
insurance man would pass a brick out of his butt hole if he heard I crashed on
that motorcycle.
I've tested a lot of motorcycles over the years and I
have been lucky not to have crashed one or had any kind of mishap that ended in
damage. That's not to say there weren't some very close calls.
My
friend came up from Florida to visit and brought his, then brand new Harley
Davidson Fat Boy. Of course he wanted me to take it out and see what it was all
about. Off I went down Jefferson Ave enjoying the ride when the car in front of
me ran over a dead cat.
As the car's rear wheel rolled up on the dead
animal it shot out from under the tire and got airborne about 2 foot off the
ground; it was headed directly at me and the new Fat Boys front wheel. I
couldn't believe how slow the dead cat seemed to be traveling in the air. It's
one of life's phenomenon's when you're about to meet sudden death. The clock of
life slows down so you can see every second of the end of your life. I managed
to do a weave and miss the dead cat impact; immediately the clock went back to
real time and my heart rate accelerated. The dead cat body did make a sick thud
when it hit the ground alongside of me. I did a U turn and headed home with my
heart in my mouth.
Value is what we place on objects and each one of
us places a different value based on different things, yes money is part of the
equation but not all.
Perhaps you've heard about the woman who
was pulled over for having heavily tinted windows
when the officer asked
her why her pants were down she admitted to having some self stimulation, of
course the vibrator laying in her lap explained it to a tee. She then went on
to tell the officer that she was also watching a porn movie on the lap top her
friend was holding. It seems incredulous that anyone would admit to all of that
but then some folks aren't that smart.
Just imagine having to explain
that to the judge after running over a pedestrian or one of us
how you
just didn't see the pedestrian or the motorcycle because you were in the grips
of a powerful, self induced orgasam and just could not take your eyes off the
porn actors on the lap top's screen.

Me posing with the MV Agusta F4 CC just a mere $120,000.00
If there is any justice in the world the Judge will embarrass the
hell out of this woman before handing her the maximum fine allowed. But, I'll
bet that she doesn't see anything wrong with what she's done, it's obvious her
value system is a lot different than that used by her local community and ours.
It's always good to have a plan which has
alternatives built in. I rode over to Steelhorse to pick up some oil and a
filter for the MV. I've gone over the 6,000 mile oil change mark. I'm not
worried about oil changes having to happen on time. With synthetic oil you can
go a lot longer than 6k miles between oil changes, it can be stretched out to
9,000 miles without a problem. But I want to stay as close to the book as
possible.

Like the R1 the MV lives a life of luxury and torture at the same
time
most of the riding is done under 5,000 rpms. But when I do spin the
engine up, it will go right to 11 or 12,000 in a micro second. The high rpm
abuse will happen allot during any ride. That's part of the fun of a sportbike,
but when it's being ridden in the city or heavily populated areas it's then
asked to grind along at idle rpms.
Sustained extremes in rpms, both up
and down, are tough on any engine. Along with high and low rpms is engine heat;
high performance engines make heat and controlling it is no small matter for
long engine life. Engines live with drastic changes in the coolant temperature;
even air cooled eninges suffer the same way. Using high quality synthetic oil
can help reduce oil temperatures. They also don't break down as quickly as
mineral oil does under continued heat. I wouldn't think about riding under
these conditions with any of the mineral based oils or cheaper synthetics that
are on the market. Only the best synthetic oil you can afford should be used.
Well my oil changing plans are now on hold; my favorite dealer is out
of the oil I need so I will just have to re-plan it for the long weekend coming
up.
Saturday night I huddled up in front of the
tube with a cup of coffee and some snacks to watch the qualifying for the Red
Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix
. Who would take the coveted pole position,
Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Stoner or Rossi; it was all a mystery as riders zoomed around
the course.
You never know what's going to happen, Rossi, Hayden, and
Spies all crashed during practice. The riders go out and do laps, come into the
pits and have changes made, then go back out on the track to see if the setup
was just what they needed. This rhythm continues at a frantic pace because
practice time is short, and qualifying time is only one hour.
It's
pretty intense but then racing is pressure in all directions, it's just not
getting on the bike and being fast. If that's all they had to do then it would
be easy, but then someone would have to be faster than the rest and the rest
would work to get the golden setup to be the fastest. By the time you read this
the race will be history.
Ben Spies took his first MotoGP pole with a
1'40.105, he shared the front row with Lorenzo and Hayden. Two Yamahas and a
Ducati made up the front row
I thought it was funny that Lorenzo
on the factory Yamaha loses his teammate, Valentino Rossi to Ducati to be
Hayden's new mate; and Spies moves from the Tech 3 Yamaha to the factory team
to become Lorenzo's new mate. Would they help each other's new teammates or
would it be a knock down dragged out fight to the end?
![]() Valintino Rossi |
![]() Ben Spies |
Sunday's MotoGP race ended with Honda's
Dani Pedrosa taking the win with Ben Spies taking second with Lorenzo in third
and Valintino Rossi finishing fourth. No one gave an inch of space, each rider
fought for his finishing position.
The second race they televised on
Sunday was the Moto2 race. If you're not familiar with this class it's new this
year. The 250 class is gone and the Moto2 class consists of spec engine
motorcycles; everyone in the class is running a Honda 600 engine. They are
allowed to use any frame and suspension parts they want.
The class is
very tight; from the pole position to the last man is just one second
difference. There were over 30 bikes lining up for the race. The ranks were
quickly weeded out by accidents and crashes. With that many bikes running so
close to each other it's bound to happen; add to that, the traction problems
they were having. Not only in the Moto2 race was tire traction a problem, but
earlier in the MotoGP class the ranks were thinned out by crashes due to tires
sliding out due to traction problems. Dorma the MotoGP promoters and the FIM
wanted the racing action in this new Moto2 class to be close and so far that's
exactly what we're seeing.
At least this week I got my ride in before
I watched the races. Although in those sections where I was, was free of
traffic; I could have been on the mountain course at the Isle of Mann.
I did ride one of my favorite roads which was full of rollers. Rollers
are when the road surface has small hills a foot to three feet high. Rollers
are fun because if you hit them just right in third gear and accelerate hard
just as the front wheel peaks the roller it will stay airborne as you ride down
the other side of the roller.
I made one pass through the Twilight
Zone and had to slow down for traffic, for some reason this Sunday was full of
cars traveling around on my back roads
.
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