Ride Report #22

February 2013. There is a BIG snow storm on the East Coast and everything there is blanketed out. California on the other hand is a mild 60F. Clear, crisp weather and a few hours of free time this weekend. Bobby invited me to go riding with his friend Russ, so we headed to the coast.

Our first stop was the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company where we all had the Mavericks Amber Ale. A pretty good beer to enjoy on a sunny Sunday afternoon while watching the waves break on the beach.

From there we rode down Hwy 1 South to Pescadero; Pulled over at the beach and took in some of the gorgeous views.

Bobby took some interesting pics with his iPhone

We rode into the town of Pescadero where Russ picked up some homemade bread. I had the brief chance to ride Russ’ Honda VFR800. Interesting bike, to say the least. Strong V-4 power with very smooth linear delivery. The bike had noticeably less vibrations than my SV and the ergonomics were not all that bad.

We rode up Pescadero and Hwy 84 to Alice’s restaurant. I rode Bobby’s GS on that part of the trip. The GS was heavy and vibey, but surprisingly easy to steer. It’s large front wheel is very forgiving and confidence inspiring. The handlebars on that things are very wide, and that’s the first thing you notice when you switch back to the SV. At the junction, we met up with this guy on a Brammo desperately hunting around for an electric outlet to charge his bike.

We rode up Skyline in true Fast & Furious style. The sun was setting and the weak sun rays penetrating the trees looked pretty cool. It got a little cold as we rode 92 and 880 home, but it was a fun ride overall.

New Windscreen

With my India trip in December and the cold weather in Jan, I’ve gotten very few chances to ride. While browsing the many forums on the Interwebs, I came across a retro looking front cowl, that sort of reminds me of the ZRX1200 front fairing. I was able to get my hands on it from a forum member on SVRider.com. It was a little tricky to mount up onto the original headlight housing. I used a 40mm stud and finished it off with an acorn nut on the ends. I rode about about 20 miles and did not notice any real difference to the airflow. The screen is a little flimsy and does vibrate a little. But clean air hits my helmet and I don’t notice much.





I like the look and I’m going to keep it on. I have a can of sunbeam yellow #2339 Krylon Fusion paint, and I might give it a try. I’m still deciding whether I like the original black or if it makes sense to color match to the rest of the bike.

Hope to post ride reports soon!

Ride Report #21

Thanksgiving 2012. The forecast for Saturday November 24th was 70F for the South Bay. I got together with a bunch of friends and we went riding down Hwy 1 and Hwy 25. This was arguably the best ride I’ve ridden in a long time.

We gathered at the Shell gas station on Auto Mall Parkway in Fremont. The sun was shining bright and there was no need of any warm gear (at the end of November).

We were six riders in all: Shobhit, Bobby, Roy, Alan, Tim (who joined at Carmel) and me.

Hwy 1 was superb. I’ve always hated driving on Hwy 1 because most people drive at 35 mph and often stop at the scenic spots. Our ride down there was a GP style spirited ride. We were passing cars left and right, averaging over 60mph and at times certainly going way over the speed limit. The curves on Hwy 1 are fabulous. The wider turns allow for higher speeds and a fun overall experience.



We turned off Hwy 1 and took Nacimiento Fergusson road towards Hwy 101. NacFer is very curvy, goaty and twisty as it climbs up and away from the ocean. In fact it was a little too twisty for my liking. Too many turns and a very rapid elevation change made me tired. After the first 8-10 mile section the road opens up considerably and turns into this beautiful wide open road with scenic vistas and relaxed turns. Traffic was completely non-existent, even as we rode through the army base.

NacFer ends at this very cool looking iron bridge. This was a nice rest stop. We were all pretty hungry at this point.

We returned to the Bay Area using Lonoak Road and Hwy 25. These two roads must be counted among my favorite roads ever. Lonoak goes through completely rural land, desolate and void of any major human developments. It is an extremely scenic ride and made the whole trip worthwhile. Hwy 25 is also very beautiful — not too curvy, mostly flat with wide expanses of farm land. Somewhere between Lonoak and Hwy 25 I felt at ease. I became one with my (speeding) motorcycle and the troubles of the real world disappeared. Pure Bliss.

There are a couple of long straights on Hwy 25, where I took the SV up to about 120mph. It handled flawlessly.

We rode back on 101 and got back a bit after dark. About 350 miles door to door and I was not very tired. My knees were a little sore, but my back and shoulders were fine. I think we all agreed that we should do this more often. With that, I’m already brewing up plans for next summer.

Some more pics from Roy:





Ride Report #20

A few hours free on Sunday and excellent weather (mid to upper 70s in November) usually equates to a ride around town.

I left home to get gas at the local Ardenwood station. While filling up I decided to try Fuelly — this website that tracks fuel consumption and mileage for your vehicles. I got 49.1MPG on my last tank. It’s going to be fun tracking MPG over the next several years!

FuellyI decided to ride a mix of freeway and twisties, mostly along familiar roads: 800, 680 and Calaveras.

Calaveras was superb! The weather was fine, not too cool but not too warm. There was very little traffic and I could ride at my own pace.

I’m starting to get the hang of this bike now. The engine is incredibly powerful (at least that’s what I think, coming from a DR650 thumper). The bike handles the curves very well. It is easy to lean over and confidence inspiring through the turn. The brakes are solid — in fact, sometimes a bit too harsh — and slow down the bike very effectively coming into a turn. I enjoy the engine braking too, and I’ve gotten used to that riding the thumper. But the biggest grin lingers right after the turn when I’m pulling away. The bike rockets away effortlessly, no matter what gear I’m in. In fact, I kept the bike in 2nd and 3rd for most of Calaveras.

After about 75 miles in the saddle, all I can say is that this is a wonderful machine. Quite comfortable, enough power, excellent handling. Looks pretty too!

2002 Suzuki SV650

WooHoo! Houston, we have liftoff! Here are pics of the new-to-me 2002 SV650. Bought on Saturday October 13th 2012 with 19,833 miles. What an amazing machine! Superb VTwin power, smooth revving engine with a wide powerband, retro naked looks and comfortable seating.

The bike was owned by the original female owner for the last 10 years. She bought it new from the dealer, kept it original and never raced, wheelied or abused it in any way. The bike was dealer maintained it’s whole life and came with fresh oil, adjusted valves, new rubber and a full tune up. How could I pass? 😀










Thoughts, more thoughts and decisions

Alright, it’s time to bring this blog back from the dead. I sold off the DR almost a year ago and I sorely miss riding. I’ve been itching to get onto a new set of wheels, scanning the used motorcycle classifieds and reading reviews online. At first I thought I’d get back into a dual sport, and to mix it up a little maybe a KLR650 or an XR650L.

I test rode a bunch of Gen I and Gen II KLRs. Between those two, I’d take the Gen I any day. Old school looks, which I guess, are not for everyone, beefy rugged stance and the lack of plastics makes for a great dual sport.

Somewhere in between I stumbled on a Super Sherpa, but quickly realized that small displacement bikes are not for me. My large (and ever increasing) frame and the inevitable need to ride freeways in the Bay Area just makes it an impractical choice.

Then one fine day, out of sheer coincidence, I decided to test ride an SV650. The seller was local and offered to meet me close by to test ride. As I rode it around the block a few times I was amazed at how well it rode. It had a good stance (not upright, but not a terrible crouch) and the power was amazing. It took off a LOT faster than the DR and was smooth all the way to 60mph.

I was hooked. Maybe a street bike is not all that bad after all. Maybe dual sporting can wait a few years. Maybe I need a dedicated dirt and dedicated street setup. And there we go. Sounds familiar?

I started researching 600 class beginner friendly sport bikes and the choices became obvious: Honda Hornet 599, Yamaha FZ6, Kawasaki Ninja 650R and the SV650. I’m not very keen on Monsters or Speed Triples — given their added costs.

I then test rode the FZ6. I really liked the modern fit and finish, the good looks, digital tachometer, underseat exhaust and centerstand. The bike definitely has better wind protection compared to a naked SV. When I started the bike up, I immediately noticed that the bike idles at a higher rpm than the SV. It tends to be smoother (less vibrations), but a tad noisier. I got onto the bike, rolled out in first and shifted into second at about ~15MPH — my first mistake. Then I twisted hard to WOT — my second mistake — … but, wait, nothing happened! The bike really had no response and felt slow and heavy getting to 50MPH. I probably rode about ~5 miles today. I was not very comfortable revving the engine too high on my first test ride. I probably hit 7000-8000 RPM tops in second at one point… didn’t have the balls to go beyond that.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I don’t know how to ride this bike properly. It seems that I’ll have to “learn” to ride this bike if I get it.

Now for another story. Right after I rode the FZ6 I test rode a Kawasaki ZRX1200R. Yes, your read that right, ZRex. I was thinking: I want a naked, standard bike — how different will this be? My God, was I wrong! What a motorcycle. That thing had 10x the torque of my DR650. It was downright scary, and I was keeping it under 6000rpm. While I was definitely all smiles and giggles after my test ride, I think that’s way too much bike for me.

Anyway, it’s time to decide and get back onto a motorcycle. More in my next post. Decisions, decisions …

Ride Report #19: Hollister Hills SVRA

Hollister Hills SVRA is the oldest and largest off-road park in California. I’ve been itching to go check it out, after having been to Metcalf and Carnegie. Unfortunately, HH is about 75 miles from home — a solid hour and a half on the super slab. Anyway with baby #2 due in less than 4 weeks, I thought the New Year break would be the ideal time to go check it out. I’m not going to have any time starting Feb. The forecast for Jan 1st 2012 was an awesome 73 F (~23C). Now that is nice for January in the Bay Area.

So I took 880 and 101, gassed up at Hollister and reached the park a little after noon.

Hollister is much bigger compared to the other two parks. And being a holiday, it was packed with riders. The parking lots were full and I could see kids buzzing around in their high pitched two strokes almost everywhere.

As a cautious newbie, I decided to try out the greens. I rode Rancho Road, Harmony Gate Trail and Field Road (all three greens). The trails here are long (longer than the other parks, i.e.) winding and certainly a lot of fun. A lot of tree cover makes for a picturesque ride. This winter has been unusually dry and so there was a lot of dust being kicked up.

I also tried a couple of blue trails (tighter, narrower and steeper), but nothing too adventurous. The good part of the Hollister Hills is that almost all the trails (the major ones for sure) are one way. So there’s little danger of running into someone at speed — a thought that makes me wince.

The DR did awesome — and I’m getting tired of repeating myself here.  It is however, heavy and a handful to manage. But it takes you where you want to go and has no complains doing so. In fact if you listen to your DR closely, it is begging you to go explore it’s limits.

I took the slab back home for the boring ride home and kept up a brisk 80mph speed. The DR did not skip a beat from being abused on the trails to grinding down the freeway miles.

Last evening I washed off the dirt. Now would be a good time to clean the air filter and chain. Maybe next week 🙂 Adiós!

Beware of Shinko’s!

I’ve not been happy with my Shinko 244’s.  It’s been less than 2000 miles, and I’ve lost several center knobs. See pictures below showing three missing center knobbies. I’ve now counted 6 lost knobs in all.

There is also a discussion on SBR here and I can find tons of links online pointing to problems with Shinko’s. I’m going to take this up with motorcycle superstore (where I bought the tires), but more importantly, I’m staying away from Shinko’s.

Ride Report #18

Last weekend, I rode with Shobhit from Fremont to the Berkeley Hills.The weather was cool (late December), the sun was shining and thankfully there was no rain.

We rode on Palomares, Redwood, Pinehurst, Skyline and Grizzly Peak. This was my first outing on Pinehurst and I loved it. There isn’t much information on Pinehurst online, but what a treat it was to ride. The initial curves are wide and sweep at a constant radius. This makes for great riding and pushing the bike to it’s limit. As Pinehurst gets into Alameda county, it becomes more winding, more narrow and sometimes more wet.

The last few curves on Pinehurst, before it hits Skyline are brutal. Some of the turns have the radius of just a few feet. Couple this with rapid elevation changes and it makes for very technical riding. A fun ride overall, but full attention and focus needed.

We took a break atop Grizzly Peak where we took in the amazing views of the Berkeley hills. I’ve been coming to these hills dozens of times, for about 10 years now and this was my second time on the motorcycle. My first ever, was also on a motorcycle, riding two-up with Keshav Dani on his CBR929, back in 2001. So there — a bit of nostalgia. How time flies!