Riding Scottsdale

I just got invited to the Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale at the end of the Easter weekend.  I get in early the day before so I'm thinking about getting myself on something appropriate for a lovely Sunday afternoon and evening around Scottsdale.  Eagle Rider has a place in Scottsdale and seems big on Harleys.  I'm not really a Harley guy, but when in Rome...

They have a little thing called a Harley Davidson Sportster 883, which seems ridiculously large for what it does, but then I guess that's kind of the point.  Riding around the hills near Phoenix would be a blast on a big blatting Harley.


Scottsdale area seems like a biker's paradise, with winding mountain roads and desert all around the city.  The Mesa, Globe, Punkin Center ride through Four Peaks Wilderness, Tonto National Forest and past Theodore Roosevelt Lake looks like a nice afternoon/evening ride on the big American bike.

Another great opportunity to expand my riding experience in an unexpected location, can't wait!  I only hope they have a sparkle purple Harley there waiting for me.

Rideback

I've been a Japanese animation fan since way back.  I've been casting around for motorcycle related animation and discovered Rideback.  If you're a fan of science fiction based motorcycles and ingenues (in this case think Buffy the Vampire Slayer mixed with Black Swan and Pacific Rim), this will definitely do it for you.

It's 2020 in Japan and post-world war three.  The left over technology from the war is finding its way into civilian hands, the Rideback transformable motorcycle is one of those devices.

Rin, the main character, is a former ballet dancer who is one of the only people able to ride the machine without all the electronic supports in place.  I'm only a couple of episodes in, but the story is very coherent for a Japanese animation (they aren't always).  The main character is already well developed and they aren't shy about explaining the technology.

The story arc looks like it's headed for a large political showdown with a despotic government, but ingenues on transformable motorcycles are just what you need in those circumstances.

The animation (if you're into that sort of thing) is a modern mix of computer and cell and shows off some very complex physics as well as excellent detail.

If you like anime, you'll enjoy this series.  If you like anime and motorbikes this one is a must see.

Some Rideback links:

http://www.madman.com.au/series/home/16127/rideback
The Australian site (in English!)
http://www.mxtv.co.jp/rideback/
The Japanese TV site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rideback
Rideback overview on wikipedia
http://www.funimation.com/shows/rideback
Funimation, the North American anime company that brought Rideback in

You can do what I did and get it on Amazon.  It's also available on itunes or through the Funimation site.

Thanks for Nothing Toronto Spring Motorcycle Show

On March Break this week my family is hanging out with my buddy's family.  He has been riding for years but didn't actually take his bike out at all last year.  He's thinking about getting a new bike so I pull up the Toronto Spring Motorcycle Show online.  I tell him how much fun my son and I have had attending the mid-winter supershow and the manufacturer's show this year.  I suggest we all go down, four professionals who earn over $300,000 a year between them and their three kids.

Special Guests?  Anything about
motorcycles?

My wife has doubts, the 'feel' of motorcycle shows online isn't always very friendly toward educated, professional women and she's also had concerns about our son going - it doesn't seem a very family friendly affair.  She pulls up the website to see what's going on there and this is what comes up.

Guess what?  We're not going to the Spring Motorcycle show.  My buddy with all that earning potential and a want for a new bike and his wife who is keen to adopt his old one but has no kit of her own aren't going.  My wife, who I think I can convince to get on two wheels if I can Vespa her up, isn't going and has had her suspicions confirmed yet again.  My son, who is on the verge of getting his first 50cc isn't going, and my buddy's kids, who are also two wheeled curious aren't going.

The irony is everything else on the site is actually motorcycle related and would have had us there, but you had to lead with the playboy model and list all the motorcycle related people below as an afterthought.  Not cool.

If motorcycling in North America would just grow up it would have a chance of becoming more mainstream and less an excuse for creepy old men to act like adolescents.  I live in hope.

MotoGP And The Dragon's Tail

I noticed that the US MotoGP race is in August at Indianapolis this year.  I've never attended a MotoGP race before, but it makes a great excuse for a road trip!

Mapping it out in Google, I immediately extended the trip to hit the GP first and then continue on to the Tail of the Dragon before riding up the Blue Ridge Parkway and returning into Canada at the Thousand Islands.

The round trip would be just over thirty-five hundred kilometres.  The race happens over the weekend of August 8th to 10th, so leaving on the Thursday morning would get us there Friday afternoon, we could catch Saturday qualifying and then Sunday's race and leave Monday morning.  But rather than head back north we'd be heading south east for The Tail of the Dragon!

Working our way up the Appalachian Mountains, we'd go from the Tail to the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Skyline Parkway before pushing back north to re-cross into Canada at The Thousand Islands.



The trip consists of three high speed sections (Ontario to Indianapolis, Indianapolis to Knoxville and Front Royal VA to Thousand Islands), and some slow sections (Tale of the Dragon, Blue Ridge and Skyline Parkways).


With a three night stopover for the Indie race, the schedule falls into about a ten or eleven day trip:

Leave on the Thursday, get to Indianapolis on Friday afternoon, Saturday qualifying, Sunday races, Monday morning departure and cover some ground, Tail of the Dragon on Tuesday, Blue Ridge Parkway Wednesday & Thursday, Skyline on Friday and then the run north for the border, we'd be back in Canada  on Sunday, August 17th.

Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee.

Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachians.

This would be a MotoGP event at a legendary venue followed by some epic rides in mountains that we simply don't have in Ontario.  The start is by my place, the finish is by my buddy Jason's place.  He didn't take his bike out at all last year, I'm hoping this changes his mind.

Putting The Ninja Back Together

We had our first above zero day this week and I giddily began rebuilding the Ninja thinking that I'd have a chance to take it out soon.  It's been snowing all day today and all hope it lost, but when the sun was out I could finally get to the paint touch ups needed.  The insulated garage isn't ideal for painting if the outside temperature is under minus ten Celsius which it has been for most of the winter.


On my first day of spring I popped open the garage door and touched up the headlight cover and fuel tank, both of which had imperfections in my initial paint application.  Now that they're clean and perfect, I can rebuild the front end.

With the temperature up the paint cures on the body panels very smoothly.  It needs to be well above 10° Celsius for the paint not to bead and bubble on the surface.  The front fairing and fuel tank lay in the warm March sunlight and cured perfectly - it was about 20°C.  The Rustoleum paint on the right covers fantastically well.   If you're looking for paint that will cover smoothly on plastic and metal, this is the stuff.


I'm going to two tone the air intakes on the fairings following a design that more current Ninjas use.  Unfortunately I didn't heed my own advice and I rushed in there yesterday morning when it was still too cold and the paint beaded.  Today I'm going to be sanding it down so I can get a smooth coat on in the heat.



It was nice to have the garage open and to be finishing up the winter repairs, maintenance and body touch ups.  It's supposed to be a warm (by warm I mean above zero) day again today.  With the insulated shop and the sun shining in I should be able to finish up the paint and begin to rebuilt the frame on the bike.

While casting about for a fairingless streetfighter option for the bike I came across some cheap options for replacing fairings.  I'd still like to try and source some of the bodywork from the fairingless ER6N, but it wasn't available in Canada in 2007 and I'd have to go to Europe to find the pieces.  It looks like the fairingless bike has small plastic covers over the coolant tank and that's about it.