My trip to Long Island

I recently purchased a GPS unit from Garmin, in an attempt to log my travels and also prevent myself from getting lost. I tried it out this past Sunday, and noticed that I felt much more comfortable taking different routes, knowing that I could always find my bearings and way home afterwards.

This is the log of the trip I took out to the Long Island beach lot, where all the cars and motorcycles head out every Sunday morning. The major roads are in yellow, and my route is highlighted in greenish blue. You can see that I took a different route out than I took going back, when I cut South/North across the island.

The software allows you to download logged track points of your trip onto the PC, and then to export those points to Google. I thought it was interesting that the level of detail was so high, you could see where I made loops around the beach circles.

I was intriguied by the cluster of dark blue in the picture to the left here, so I zoomed all the way in, and you can even see where I rode back and forth in the parking lot, admiring the different cars and bikes in the lot.

Next time I go up to the catskills, I'll take this with me to share the route I enjoy taking. Also, I'll have to figure out how to mount or velcro the device to the front panel of the bike, so that I can navigate while riding.

Can you control a high power bike?

Inspired by my ride a few days ago with the GSXR biker, I've been wondering - you read so many anecdotes and comments in online message boards about bikes being "too much, and you need to make sure you can control it." This was never satisfying to me, and I suspect to many others, who think it's a challenge, so take it on!

But here's the difference. Control can mean self control on a bike, and then it's a soft-skill, much akin to a philosophy or mindset. Control can otherwise mean right hand throttle angle-to-rev mapping. In other words, how much power do you unleash with a quarter turn of the throttle?

On a bike with 160+ hp, a quarter turn can practically mean adding 30 mph to your speed. On a bike with 100 hp, a quarter turn can mean adding 10 mph to your speed. Most bikers get into a knee-jerk reaction about more power being better, but consider this: 30mph / 90 degree turn = .33mph / degree. By comparison 10mph / 90 degree turn = .11mph / degree. One way to look at this is to say that the lower hp bike gives you more *precision* control over speed. You can vary the speed much more subtly. Don't get me wrong, on the lower hp bike, you can still always wrench a full 180 degrees of turn in urgent situations - but there's a practicaly upper limit on the road to how fast, and how quickly you want to accelerate. Accelerate too quick, and you lose your grip of the road - very bad.

The interesting thing is that Suzuki has picked up on this with their new bike, the GSXR1000 for 2007, and equipped it with a switch that allows the rider to decrease the power of the bike. In reviews and defense of such a button, people have mentioned that it is all about throttle positioning and hand position on the wheel. I would take this one step further and and assert that throttle position and granularity equate to safety as well.

So my simple advice to city riders is this: when evaluating a bike, make sure to consider a bike that gives you immediate, *precise* response and control over acceleration. This is the most practical, road-tested type of power out there, and the kind we need on the road.

Pushing the envelope of fuel consumption

The past two times out, I've ridden duruing peak rush hour, around 4pm. This was partly unintentional, and normally I would avoid rush hour at all costs, but I figured it might be a good way to sharpen my awareness skills.

As it turned out, I also learned what riding hard is all about. Accelerating around cars, and through traffic to avoid heavy zones meant hammering the throttle pretty hard at times. In fact, I pushed the rev limiter on a number of occassions to it's peak in each of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears (on the V-twin Buell, this is around 7500 rpm).

I also noticed that my miles per gallon fuel consumption dropped significantly. With about 3 gallons of gas, I can normally go around 150 miles - this doesn't include the reserve tank, which I believe would push me another 30 miles. This time, however, my 3 gallons only took my 70 miles total over two rides, or about 23 miles per gallon. This is what I used to get with my old Acura almost 10 years ago now - wow!

So I guess that means rush hour takes a bit more out of your gas mileage than your typical day in NYC.

5 great views of the city in less than an hour

I took a quick ride today after work, and only had an hour before sunset. So I put my mind on navigator-auto-pilot, and began wandering. Oddly enough, I instinctively went to all of my favorite road views of the city.

1) Head over the Brooklyn Bridge, exit to the right onto Old Fulton Street, ride to the end, and pull into the parking lot for magnificent views of the city

2) Park Ave at 81st Street heading south (at rush hour) for an incredible view of one of the most populated cab routes

3) South Point park on Roosevelt Island

4) E125th St on Randalls-Ward Island, continued to the dirt road that swings down to the south of the island

5) Head through the Holland Tunnel and turn off onto Hudson St in Jersey City for yet another view of the city

Buell XB12Ss vs. Ducati S2R and GSXR 750

Today was pretty unique. I got a chance to ride around the city with two fellow bikers, who also had no immediate plans. We wandered aimlessly around for some time up and down the major avenues, and truly playing in traffic.

Riding with two other bikers provided a unique chance to see how city riding can be made much more safe with team work, but that's a topic for another day.

Today, I'll just make some observations on the different riding styles of my temporary companions for the day.

Ducati S2R
With a tendancy to rev quite high at the light, he could just about keep up with me off the line. I could hear him revving high and downshifting quite often when it came to passing taxis, which was a potentially bad habit - perhaps inspired by the Ducati engine? In any case, I also got the sense that his turning radius was much larger than mine, and he had a more difficult time lane splitting then the GSXR and me.

GSXR 750
I'm pretty sure it was a 750, but then again can you really tell unless you're laying it out on the highway? Probably not. First, this guy looked miserable. He glanced around a lot less than the Ducati rider and me, which I can't imagine is a safe habit. This is most likely due to his riding position - which almost made it seem like he'd raised the footpegs. I guess I just never appreciated how awkward the posture is on a GSXR. The bike had great acceleration down Park Ave and Broadway, but the rider had a tendancy to open the throttle a bit too much and hit 60mph+. I'd say a safe riding speed around the city is around 40-50mph, so this bike was perhaps a bit unsafe for the city. But this brings me to a philosophical question:

Does the rider make the bike, or does the bike make the ride?

In almost every magazine review of the GSXR, you read about how quickly the bike opens to top speed, and how there's massive amounts of power on hand. But what good is this in the city? In fact, I'll wager it's a detriment, and possibly downrigt unsafe after spending an hour behind one. As for the Ducati - if you're lazy about turns because the bike is slightly sluggish, does this make you a less responsive rider?

Stopping at the line

By observing other riders, I've seen many different techniques for stopping at intersections and red lights. Since I believe the safest rider is the one equipped with the most options, here's a review of a few of them:

-Lane split down the center of an avenue or street, then reve the engine to announce your presence
-Lane split down the center dotted white line, but slow to a stop gradually beyond the white stop line, and allow yourself to ride into the crosswalk. Then let the cars and cabs fill into their lanes to the right or left of you, and then gradually walk the bike backwards into position, behind the white stop line
-If you're the first one at the intersection, it can help to take up as much space as possible in your lane. Allow a car to stop to your left, for instance, and then come to a stop to in the right third of your lane.
-If you're the first one at the intersection, as a car comes up in back of you, rev the engine and gradually advance forward a few feet. Then walk backwards when the car in back of you has stopped completely

Are there any others I've missed that you use on a regular basis?