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Yamaha is delaying delivery of my Super Tenere.  The earthquake and subsequent tsunami did not directly impact Yamaha’s production facilities, but it has impacted Yamaha suppliers. 

So…

They are hoping to have all of the bikes delivered by November, 2011.  Which means my early release 2012 XT1200Z model won’t be.  It’s just a 2012. 

<sigh> 

I’m a bit disappointed but not surprised.  I figured that unless my bike had make it onto a container ship before the devastation, it would be very unlikely that Yamaha could meet their original production schedule. 

I can cancel my order and get a full refund of my earnest money, but I don’t think I want to do that.  I don’t want the BMW R1200GS/A.  It costs too much for what you get when compared with other models.  I didn’t like the KTM Adventure.  The Ducati Multistrada is a nice bike but it isn’t dirt worthy.  Maybe I just like bikes with “Super” in their name especially when they come in black.

In any case, I’m going to sit tight and wait. 

I’ve noticed this (One of ‘those’ days…) is a very popular page. Today I re-read it. I saw a couple more typo’s and places where I wasn’t very clear. But more than anything else it was frustrating and disappointing to revisit that moment.

I know the guy had a life before all of this. He made a bad choice, but his choices had consequences far beyond his limited world. I had multiple conversations with the insurance companies. I learned his name, Mason Andrews. I learned that the driver he hit was terrified to get back in a car and was vowing to never ride again. I know that it took me almost a year to stop thinking about what I saw when I got back on a bike. Maybe that is why I still feel that tightness in my chest when I think about it. It was a brutal moment. Exceptionally fast and infinitely slow.

Spilt blood, bent steel, torn carbon, shattered glass, falling tears, and bare feet.

I still ride, obviously. The SuperDuke is in the same class as the S4R. And I have been seduced by carbon, ti, and steering dampers. But I try not to make those kinds of mistakes. I know what I don’t know. I don’t know the KTM well enough yet to really push it. I do know that you don’t push in rush hour traffic, at least not like that. Sure I break the laws and occassionally lane split when it suits my purposes. I use the power of that v-twin to scoot past the cages that would block my progress. But I also know what happens if I make a mistake…

Live. Ride. Breathe. Feel every moment. And understand that one choice will cause those ripples to move away from you and impact other’s in ways that you never imagined.

The upgraded Pazzo levers showed up for the woman’s bike last week. It took me all of 10 minutes to throw them back on her Ducati. She seems to like the longer levers better. We really won’t know until she goes out for a ride and with rain in the daily forecast she’s not very interested in that idea just yet.

All of this reminds me of how nice it can be to deal with people and not corporations. I work for a corporation. I drive a car built by a corporation. Most of my food comes from a corporation. Read more…

So, it’s home. The days of lusting after a Hypermotard are over. I got an incredible deal on this new (yes new) 2007 KTM SuperDuke. The dealership took a loss. I tried to price match a two other places and one flat out told me it was $2400 under his cost. It was a demo bike, as in the service rep road it for 6 months, putting 1200 miles on it. Throw in a few weekends by other staff and test rides that came well after the break-in period and there it is. The Akropovic pipes were throw in. Like I said a screamingly good deal. Thanks to Chris and all the staff at KTM Northwest in Gresham. I’ve got some bits on order and I am sure the machine will change more than a little by the end of the summer. I’m thrilled to have it. Actually, I’m overwhelmed at the moment.

It is done. I can stop lusting after it and start riding it. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to write once I get a couple thousand miles under me. Frame sliders, heated grips, carbon?, tank bag, gel saddle?, more carbon, more sliders…

I guess I’m riding to work in the morning.

So how did I fall under the Ducati spell? As I said the other day, I finally rode the Hypermotard from Ducati. Uninspiring. Boring. Uncomfortable. Disconcerting. I got off the bike thinking there were a host of things I’d need to change if I was to buy one. In short, it just didn’t suit me.

Last night, the woman woke up at 2 coughing. She joked that she had swallowed a hair ball. The cats are usually in our face most of the night so that isn’t a wholly unreasonable idea. So she woke up coughing. I woke up. She went back to sleep. I stayed awake… until about 6:30 this morning. I was surfing around trying to figure out what I want in a bike. Ideally, I’m looking for an alternative to the FJR for commuting. I need the power to do the 75 mph assaults in the morning and crisp handling to survive the stop-n-go for my ride home. I’d also like something that I can play with on the weekends. I’m not looking for super-slab performance or off-road capabilities. I want something that works for me.

KTM SuperDuke? Read more…

Sixx: AM
Courtesy Call
The Heroin Diaries

*Dialtone, knocking, Mexican TV*
Female voice: Housekeeping…
*Knocking*
Female: Hello, housekeeping?
*Tries, door, knocking*
Female: Hello?

Well you found me, but I don’t know
Why you wanna save me…
Well, God is great and God is good
But God didn’t help me when he could
And life dances so lonely by.
Read more…

Note to self: Raspberry Fruit & Grain Cereal Bars == gross

My MP3 player was dead this morning. I didn’t have NPR or music during my morning commute. I was basically lost in my own thoughts, which really isn’t a great place for me to be when riding through rush hour traffic. I can spend hours just thinking about ‘stuff.’ I guess that is why I do what I do. I could have gotten an masters in Philosophy, but I ended up writing software. It is an exercise in self-disciple, curiosity, and hard-headedness. I sit in front of a keyboard, typing (just like I am right now) for hours and hours and hours. There are days when I really would rather be somewhere else. Riding. Swimming. Lifting weights. Working with my hands. Getting laid. Sleeping. But here I sit… typing, solving problems, thinking about ‘stuff.’

Anyway…

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. I’ve been spending a lot of time alone. Even when I’m around other people I’m buried deep in my own thoughts. Here are the top 10 contemplative thoughts of late. Read more…

Occasionally my German comes back… Usually at strange times and without context.

I didn’t sleep well. Too sore. I swam yesterday. I should get back to lifting weights. But neither of those are the root cause of my muscle aches. Friday night I slept wrong and woke up with a kinked neck which never really went away. Satuday was Crue Fest. After a couple hours of headbanging to my whole body was tweaked.

Maybe I’m getting too old to scream the chorus to various Crue tracks? Maybe. Buckcherry sucked. I skipped most of Papa Roach. The guy reminds me of a lame Green Day clone, which is course is yet another clone of the music I listened to in High School. Sixx AM was realy good, as was Trapt. I had a really good time. So, swimming was an effort to unwind the tension. It worked but only for a while.

Today is the first day without a contract. I slept in. I messed with the ceiling fan I have been trying to install. I need more parts. The ceiling angle is too steep. I talked to an auto parts store about picking up new seals for the slave cylinder on her Duc. It leaks. It has always leaked. $190 and it leaks because they shipped aluminum washers instead of copper washers. I am under-welmed to say the least.

I’ve got two more interivews scheduled for tomorrow and at least 3 more possibilities. This doesn’t include things that are already in-process. Something will turn up. It always does. I am still craving some moto-time, but I need to get my next gig lined up. That’s my priority at the moment.

Guten Tag

I reread this post tonight and realized it needs another edit, so here is a new version with fewer grammatical errors and maybe a bit more clarity. It wasn’t exactly a good day when I wrote all of this down. 28-Aug-2008

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Let’s skip the wind up and boring crap. Shall we? On my way to work I had front row tickets to the event of a lifetime and I really don’t mean that in a good way. I witness the spectacle of a Ducati Monster S4R 1000 slamming into the back of a Toyota Celica on I-5. This wasn’t a glance or a simple traffic incident. It was full-on high speed impact with a trip to the trauma ward. Read more…