Macumber Macblog

The Red Bull Moto-GP came to Indianapolis on the weekend of September 13th. This was a very eventful weekend because Hurricane Ike’s residual weather was making its way up to the Ohio river valley. Instead of riding my motorcycle up to Indianapolis for the races in heavy winds and a torrential downpour, James and I went up in the car on Saturday and stayed the night and went to the track on Sunday. The Moto-GP race was abbreviated to 20 laps due to standing water in places on the track. The 250cc race was cancelled altogether. Valentino Rossi won the Moto-GP race (note: and eventually goes on to win the 2008 Moto-GP championship, his eighth).

James and I went to all the vendor tents on the infield and still managed to have a good time despite the weather. I got a picture of James with Rossi’s M1 motorcycle and we had plenty of track-food and things to do.

Unfortunately, while we were at the track 80mph winds were devastating Louisville and we came home to no electricity. We were without power for 5 days due to Hurricane Ike. We fared much better than most places which lay in its path but Ike’s destruction downed trees and lines as far north as the Cincinnati-Dayton area.

written by mark

On our last day we slept-in. We grabbed the free breakfast (omelet!) and then headed out to Laguna Seca so I could take a look around. We drove right-in (only have to pay if you are camping or if there is a race going on). We drove on the access roads around the track and then stopped into the souvenir shop. It was a lot larger track and much larger park than I had realized. Unfortunately they had the service road which leads to the Corkscrew fenced-off so I was not able to get back there. I did get to tour over half of the sections of the track though.

  

The rest of the photos from Laguna Seca are here.

From the track we drove through Salinas and then up HWY101 to San Jose. In San Jose I drove Melissa around the Cisco campus; specifically by all the campus buildings on Tasman and then up McCarthy. Up at McCarthy Ranch we stopped for lunch at In-N-Out Burger where I had two double cheeseburgers, fries and drink. Melissa agreed that they make one tasty burger.

From San Jose we left for the Embassy Suites at SFO (South San Francisco). I wanted to get up there before 101 got too jammed-up and we made it to the hotel with plenty of time to rest and regroup before dinner. I didn’t have high expectations for our last meal on the trip because I didn’t particularly want to venture down to Palo Alto or up to San Francisco since we needed to leave so early the next morning. Since this has been a pretty charmed trip all the way around it stands to reason that we stumbled upon a killer sushi restaurant in San Bruno called Sunny’s Sushi. It was in a strip mall and San Bruno is not exactly the most eclectic area but it was really good. I had a sashimi sampler and 4 rolls with miso soup. Melissa had some of the aforementioned sushi and a vegetable tempura. It was super fresh, quick and cheap. Couldn’t have asked for more.

written by mark

I have been meaning to post some pictures of the new bike since I got it but have been too busy. Two Saturdays ago I traded-in the RT for a new BMW K1200GT. The RT was a little tall for me and I knew that if I ever wanted to ride “two-up” with Melissa I would probably either need to swap out the seat and lower it or deal with the handling issues inherent to being on your tip-toes at stoplights, parking lots, etc. Also, the RT was at 19821 miles and figured I would get what I could for it before hitting 20K on the odo. BMW of Louisville gave me a great trade-in and gave me a good price on the new GT. The GT has 152 horsepower compared to the RT’s 90. It also handles better and has more gadgets like heated front and passenger seats, cruise control, heated grips, electric windshield, electric suspension adjustment, auto canceling turn signals, ABS and all the other BMW engineering that makes their bikes so distinct. Anyway, the bike is still in the break-in period but I already love it. I want to get a color matched trunk, some PIAA driving lights, a GPS and maybe a BMW tank bag for it. Those will have to wait for awhile though.

   

written by mark

The day before leaving on my trip for Nevada I had some drama with the BMW. It had a leak in the final drive and was leaking gear oil slightly. Not good when you are about to drive the thing cross country for two weeks. BMW Louisville replaced the seal and got her road-worthy just in the nick of time. Also, I had some upgrades done on my R1. I got a Graves smog filter to reduce restriction on intake. I bought some Graves velocity stacks to improve air intake for the fuel injection. I got a race sprocket front and back and dropped a tooth in the front sprocket along with a new race chain. I got a new Genuine Yamaha Technology Racing exhaust and knocked the catalytic converter out. I only did the slip-on exhaust so I could keep my EXUP valve. Lastly I got some new Michelin Pilot Power race tires. The R1 sounds mean and with the new air/fuel map in my Power Commander it has much more torque and throttle response in the lower end of the rev range.

written by mark

I found a deal on a 2004 BMW R1150RT and through powers of persuasion (and bargaining and begging) was able to talk Melissa into letting me buy it. I wanted a bike that I could take on longer trips, that had a more upright riding position and that had some lockable luggage. I have always liked the BMW touring bikes and know several people who swear by the horizontally opposed twin “boxer” engine that has been a BMW signature. The windshield is electrically adjustable. It has heated handgrips. It has a plush aftermarket seat and aftermarket exhaust. It has an AM/FM radio and cassette player. I can get an adapter for the cassette player that will allow me to plug in an MP3 player. It has antilock brakes. The plan is to ride the new bike to Vegas for our annual sales meeting this August. I would like to ride through the Rockies and then drop down through the Sierra Nevadas into Vegas. I was toying with the idea of taking the old route 66 path on the way home. Either way, I see me and this bike covering a lot of ground together.

written by mark

Today I was able to get out in the morning and drive my bike over to Deal’s Gap on the Tennessee and North Carolina border. There is a stretch of road there nick-named “The Dragon” for the massive amount of switchbacks and curves that it has in an 11 mile span. Here are some great sites with more info on this wonderful piece of pavement:

Deal’s Gap Wiki

Motorcycle Playground

Dragonslayer Photos

It was only a 75 mile ride but I missed a turn and ended up in the middle of the Smoky Mountains National Park. The missed turn was not a total waste because I happened upon an observation point that the whole family would return to later in the day and I saw a bunch of great scenery along the way. At 9am and 5000 feet it was cold up in the mountains and I was not too happy about how long it was going to take me to get out of the park and to a gas station. I ended up taking Little River Road and grabbing the Foothills Parkway over to I-129. The Foothills Parkway is a beautiful ride in its own right. I took a few pictures from the top of the Foothills Parkway on the same disposable camera I used for my pictures of the ride down the Dragon. Oh yeah, did I mention that I also forgot to pack my camera in my tank bag? So the trip started out rocky – but it ended up completely awesome. Here are some pictures from my morning trip over to Deal’s Gap and riding the dragon.

written by mark