Thought process review: BMW

Maybe it's finally time for me to make the jump and own a K1200 of some sort, perhaps an S or R? But from my last review and test drive, I can still remember what a boat those bikes are. And I would ideally like something with some semblance of handling. But it needs to be tougher than wrought iron.

Toughness: Great
BMW's have perhaps the greatest reputation for lasting for hundreds of thousands of miles, in hot weather and cold. They can be dropped, and are built like tanks with steel frames, titanium bolts (just kidding).

Handling: Poor
See my previous post comparing BMW K1200R to the Buell. It was mind blowingly depressing. This makes me incredibly concerned about city riding.

Coolness: Ok
If not poor. I don't know anyone that gets excited about talking about their BMW. Instead, you end up getting excited about the riding experience itself. BMW riders don't talk about their bikes, they talk about their incredibly long rides through the wilderness and back. Eh.

Comfort: Great
What more can I say? I could fall asleep on a BMW. The seats are somehow 3 or 4 inches thicker than any other bike I've seen. I'm convinced a woman could deliver a baby on the seat of a BMW - it's that good.


Summary: Something about these bikes don't do it for me. They're just too boat-like ... and ... easy. They're like the automatic transmission / drive of motorcycles. I think I'm looking for a manual drive... to bring me closer to the road.

What bike?

And here I am again, a year after I purchased my Buell, asking the most exciting question known to mankind: what motorcycle will I purchase? (ok, maybe second to "Will you marry me?")

I've spent the entire day browsing, and dreaming about the bike. It's come down to three options:

-BMW
-Ducati
-Japanese liter bike

I've chosen to evaluate my options along four dimensions:

Toughness - will this bike stand up to the rate of about 15,000 miles per year, which is about how much I seem to put on my bike
Handling - is the bike going to stand up in the city? The bike will need to turn on a dime, stop on an oil slick, and accelerate like a pedestrian inline from a cab's hood
Coolness - does the bike give me the thrilling feeling of owning a motorcycle I'm proud of?
Comfort - I need 100% of my attention for safety, so I can't be concerned with knee cramps or a sore butt.

My bike is done :(

Not officially toast, but it won't be ready in time for my trip :)

And that can only mean one thing: I need to make a choice between prolonging / canceling my trip until next year (since it's starting to get cold), or I need a new bike somehow.

This is going to be a tough decision. Yet somehow it's extremely exciting.

Option 1: Prolong until next year
I'm planning to ride cross-country. I have the route planned, and my best friend will be accompanying me in his car while I ride. This has been months in the making, and if I bail now, the trip will have to wait a year. I've already booked the vacation at work, and made all the preparations. Mentally, I'm checked in to this trip so much that it would be absolutely devastating not to go now. As I type this message, I'm realizing more and more that this isn't even an option. Which means on to option 2:

Option 2: Get a bike
This has sub-options. I could Craigslist a bike, but I intend to drive at least 5000 miles in a week, and I'd be scared that any bike I buy used won't make it. I could pressure the HD guys to fix my bike faster, but they genuinely don't know what's wrong with it, and I've been there in person multiple times so I believe them somehow. I could buy another of the same bike I have and make the trip on it. Or I could buy a new, different bike, own two for a period of time and do side-by-side comparisons, then sell the old bike once it's been fixed.

I'm sold. I'm buying a new bike. :)

Harley Davidson New York City

I just got off the phone with HD on Northern Blvd in Queens. My bike is toast, and will take weeks to determine what went wrong.

Normally, I would be furious. But somehow, I'm moved to write a review of Harley Davidson NYC. I'll say it simply: they are amazing. None of the staff there give you that weirdo creep-you-out feeling that many other bikes stores give you (that feeling like you're getting ripped off every time they open their mouths). Perhaps it's something to do with the Harley staff knowing that everything they have to sell is already ridiculously over priced (fat margins) that they're just happy that anyone's in the store at all.

Anyway, on to the review:

Customer service
Fantastic. I'm greeted at the door every time I walk in, and they make an effort to know me. The salesmen aren't sleazy, and they really do give you pros / cons of their different models. I do wish the Buell section were bigger, but they always have a couple bikes on the floor for the odd folks like myself to stare at.

Parts ordering
They do require a credit card, and that you show up in person when placing an order. It almost makes you feel like they've been really screwed in the past with faulty credit card phone orders. Nevertheless, I've done a lot of ordering to upgrade my bike, and have gotten to a point where they have my orders on file and now feel comfortable selling me parts over the phone. Like many New Yorkers, this is a huge blessing because I never have time to spare to make a trip anywhere in person.

Service
Frank. What more can I say? He's the most diplomatic service desk man you could ask for. He says it straight, yet somehow always makes you feel good. "It's going to be a while, but we'll get to it." "We're real busy here, and we're moving bikes pretty quick. But I don't see yours on the stand yet. It'll be up there tomorrow for sure." I've dealt with guys in the past who actually forget what bike is yours, but not so with Frank - he actually looks out onto the floor to make sure, and sometimes even walks over to the bike to check the status of the ticket - all while you're on the phone. The actual techs are simply world class. I can't tell you how many times I've swung by after hours only to find them working on their own bikes, and happy to run a diagnostic on the bike, or check the wiring. For instance, I blew a voltage regulator last winter, and my bike kept stalling. I stopped in late at night when the tow truck dropped me off, and sure enough two guys were in the back room. Now that's passion. That alone makes it worthwhile owning a Buell or Harley in NYC.

Location
Can you say $8 cab from Manhattan? It's perfect. My only complaint is that the cab ride back from the dealership to midtown can be a drag, since there aren't too many cabs that drive through Queens. And even fewer who want to pick up a guy that looks like he's only going over the bridge.

Summary
Great place, and they absolutely make the Harley / Buell experience in NYC. Without them, owning a Buell or Harley would be a miserable experience. The staff are worldclass, and they always go out of their way to help me.

Great work, guys!

My trusty Buell is giving me some troubles

It was really hot today. Like 95 with peaks around 100 or so. Celsius. Just kidding.

I went out on a nice ride with some friends, and noticed a problem - my bike started misfiring when it had run for a while (while = ~2 hours). If I let the bike cool down, I could start it up again and ride for an hour with no problems, but sure enough about an hour and a half or 2 into the ride, it would start sputtering.

This is a horrible experience. My trusty companion is failing on me. I rode it all the way back on the highway from Bear mountain, and on route 87, in the middle of peak traffic, the engine died at idle, leaving me powerless in the middle of traffic - ah!

I took it to the dealership, but since it was Sunday, they couldn't look at it. They were nice enough, though, to let me drop the bike off at the dealership until someone came back on Monday.

This is very, very bad timing given my planned trip coming up in three weeks!

NYC Transformer Explosion

A huge transformer just exploded down the street, and traffic is totally blocked on midtown east. Avoid Lexington avenue if you can! The pictures below give you a sense of the blockage - there are people fleeing the billowing smoke everywhere.

Good luck!

Updates:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/buildings-evacuated-after-midtown-explosion/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3391660


Here's a video I just uploaded...


Here's the discussion on Digg:

http://www.digg.com/world_news/Transformer_explosion_in_NYC_5_minutes_ago

You can zoom into the first picture - it's high resolution. If you download it, you can see all the firetrucks and smoke plumes.

Which GPS?

I've gotten a couple of emails about my recent GPS unit test on my bike (whereby I tested about 4 Garmin models, the TomTom, and a Magellan). My conclusion? The Garmin eTrex Vista Cx is by far the best motorcycle GPS unit available. Review below:


After a solid week of riding around with GPS units, I chose the Garmin eTrex Vista Cx. It's meant to be a hiker's handheld GPS unit, which makes it small enough to walk around with when it's off the bike, small enough to not obscure too much of the control panel on my bike, and it's backlight makes it bright enough in bright daylight. I looked at the tomtom, and the other models from garmin as well. They all tended to use custom batteries and chargers, and only gave something like 3 hours of use when the backlight was powered on fully. I didn't want to wire the thing into my bike, and it's been great just popping into the store when I get gas to also get AA batteries if I need them. The battery life on the Vista Cx is about 2 weeks on 1 pair of AA's - so I keep a spare set in my luggage.

Garmin beat out the other versions in my test because of the superior resolution maps you can buy (have to buy to make it worthwhile) - but it adds about $90 to the price of the device, since the built in maps aren't that great - they only show major interstates and large highways.

The only pros of the other versions were that they had larger screens and could speak out loud to you. That'll be the only thing that makes/breaks your decision I think. Otherwise, the vista cx also gives me turn-by-turn directions.

Next week I should be getting my motorcycle mount for it in the mail. In my opinion, it's the best GPS for bikes out there.

Hope this helps!

Lane splitting in terrible traffic

Today was a big day in NYC - there was a huge bike event, a fire / police parade, an Israeli parade, and a block party. Until about 4pm, huge stretches of the east and west sides were shut down and inaccessible to traffic.

In order to get anywhere, I found myself lane splitting between what amounted to a massive parking lot. I ran into a number of bikers - but not nearly as many as I saw yesterday (today was about 15 degrees colder) - who were also lane splitting, and so I wondered whether it was really legal or not.

Alas, it is illegal. A quick search on the AMA website: http://home.ama-cycle.org/amaccess/laws/result.asp?state=NY reveals that NY and CT have written laws forbidding lane splitting, while NJ has no reference, which means it's not specifically illegal. Here's a table form of the same data: http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/PrintLaws.html

Though I've never been ticketed or pulled over, and I've seen hundreds of bikers do it in the city, a quick internet search reveals that others have been ticketed - especially on the highways around the city. The BQE, 9A around midtown, and 495 (heading into the city, around the triborough ramp) are the most frequent highways where I lane split. Mostly, these stretches of road become parking lots, and I'll only lane split when the traffic is completely stopped. Any other time (even if traffic moves 10 mph), I'm religious about sneaking back into a lane and staying in a single lane.

In the city, it's a completely different story. I've lane split right up to police cars, and in front of traffic cops in order to get up to the front of a light, so that I can be in front of traffic when it turns green. For the thousands of times I've done it, I've never been pulled over, flagged, or questioned.

Ear Inn

I've heard so much about it over the past few months, that I just had to check it out for myself. Even though there was rain in the forecast tonight, I headed down to 326 Spring Street (between Greenwich and Washington) - down in Soho (thanks Aerostitch for the address). The easiest way for me to get there was to hop on the FDR, loop down around the island, and then head up 9a until I got off on Spring street. The bar is immediately on the right, before the end of the block.

I've heard that things pick up from 8pm, and usually go to 10pm. However, I arrived a little early, and so I suspect things probably start up around 7pm. (next time around, I'll try to get there a little earlier). I've been told this happens *every* Tuesday, which is incredible - I'm definitely looking forward to it.

I met a very nice couple who ride a Ducati 999. They're apparently regulars, and they mentioned how on good nights, there will be bikes lining the entire block. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

In terms of the types of bikes that showed up, there were lots of BMWs, Ducati's, and cafe racers. I asked around, and it seems this hang out is perfect for my type - lots of customs, odd-ball bikes, and all around non-Japanese makes.

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?