Sujit Kirpekar

Yesterday I did my first long distance freeway ride. About 45 miles round trip from my home in Fremont to Mountain View, CA. My friend Suminder was riding his 1150GS alongside, so that helped my confidence. As I log more miles, I’m getting increasingly confident with the DR and have started to get a more intimate feel for the acceleration, braking and turning.

We set out on 880S; the traffic was mild and we kept it at about 70mph in the slower lanes. All in all it was a comfortable ride for me, enjoying the weather as I rode down. When we hit Rte 237, the wind picked up and I could feel the shaking (shimmy) from the blast. The DR did fine, but it confirmed what everyone says: The DR is not a freeway cruiser and was certainly not built for high speed cruising. The gel grips definitely improved the ride. As we got to Mountain View the traffic thinned out and Suminder & I picked up the pace a bit. Eventually we hit close to 90mph just before exiting the freeway 🙂 The DR did fine, with plenty of throttle twist left. I’m sure the bike tops off above a 100, but I have really no intention of exploring that range. Alright, everything on this blog is untrue and cannot be used against me in any form.

We had dinner at Taqueria Los Charros (an average burrito) followed by coffee nearby.

On or way back we took the Dumbarton bridge and the wind was howling! We reduced speeds, held on steady against the wind-blast and made it back home safely. A great experience on the whole. When riding the DR, I always return home with a smile.

Last evening, after Anushka’s birthday party, I rode out with a couple of friends to downtown Plesanton. Suminder was riding with me on his BMW 1150GS and Shobhit drove there in his Porsche Carrera 4 Cabriolet. Shobhit is an avid moto-enthusiast, looking to buy his first motorcycle very soon.

The ride was mostly uneventful, following the evening traffic at 45-50mph. There was one interesting moment though — when the DR came onto reserve. I could feel the engine cutting out and knew that I should turn it over onto reserve, but going 50mph and bending over to find the fuel cock is not easy. In the end I had to pull over, put it onto reserve and get back onto the road. Note to myself: I need to get familiar with the fuel cock location. It’s certainly not going to be fun on a freeway.

My friend Suminder (who originally inspired (pressured?) me into getting a motorcycle) rides a BMW R1150GS.

He came over last evening and we decided to go out riding. We started out from home, took Mission and hit 84. A little ways down on 84 there is a small turn off towards Palomares Rd. A narrow, winding road climbing the hills at a gentle pace.

Suminder lead and I followed him closely behind. Suminder’s a pretty mellow guy, but his pace was far from mellow! We were averaging 50-60 on the straights and 30-40 on the turns. He was really riding hard and I was pushed to the limit in controlling the DR. I’ve gotten better at cornering, anticipating the turn, leaning over and accelerating out.

We rode out about 15 miles on Palomares before it hits 580, at which we point we turned back. On our way back we switched bikes for a little bit. The 1150GS was superb, smooth as butter and a pleasure to ride. It felt a bit heavy, coming from the DR, and took me a while to make it turn.

Overall an awesome experience!

My first solo 50+ mile ride. Shruti & Anushka were out for the afternoon, so I had a couple of free hours of riding.

I started out from home in Fremont towards Mission and then took 84 through Sunol. There was mild traffic, but I kept good pace behind a Corvette doing 50-60 mph. Once I got to 680, I took Calaveras all the way to Milpitas. That was one amazing ride. Lots of twists and turns and absolutely no traffic. I must have passed 1 or 2 cars at the most, everyone else was on a motorcycle or a bicycle. I actually saw a couple of DR650s and a KLR650 even. Definitely learning the motorcyclist’s wave.

Some of the turns on the Calaveras are sharp and blind. I had to come down to 10-20 mph many times and used the horn liberally. I’m just starting to get the hang of the motorcycle and I’m still not comfortable bending more than 20-25 degrees. Maybe it’s a dual sport thing (soft suspension), or the worn out knobbies (replacing this week), but I definitely need more time to get comfortable cornering. Going downhill and turning sharply was especially tough.

Coming back I used Paseo Padre for the most as I wanted to stay off the
freeway. The traffic lights were actually a welcome relief to my arms
and wrists.

The bike did very well and I’m impressed with it’s peppy little engine. My butt did not do as well.

My first ride on the DR was from Dublin (sellers location) to Fremont (home). I chose to stay off the freeway completely and stuck to the inner routes. Getting out of Dublin was a little tiresome, but when I hit the Dublin-Sunol road it became real fun!

I stayed at about the speed limit, not pushing myself in any of the turns. I was home in about 30 minutes, smiling ear-to-ear. Shruti was waiting for me, and she too was impressed by the looks and sound of the DR.