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1 September 2010
One thousand two hundred and forty nine and three quarter hours...

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1249.75 That's how many hours it will take to pay my MV Agusta F4 1000R at my current rate of pay at the shipyard. It's just 52.072916666666666666666666666667 eight hour days of work. Just a full year of my working life, of course the payment plan spreads that over a five year period.

The value of the motorcycle is different, depending on who's perspective your looking at. To me I see a lot of work to earn the money to pay for it. My son probably doesn't see it the same way; of course like all sons he thinks the old man is hiding money in a shoe box under the bed. I sure wish I was but not until I win the lottery will that be true.

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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