Author: N.J.

Motorcycle and automotive, travel and adventure writer, when I'm not being an alpha geek, coder, or technical project manager.

2008 Ducati Hypermotard S Ride Impression – Hyperactive

The “236” leading to Big Basin outside San Francisco narrows from two lanes to what can generously be described as one and a half. The surface is a “squirm” of tar snakes, wetted to slickness by the morning marine layer. Corners fold on themselves, radii decreasing and elevations changing. Detritus litters the roads. I should…

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2007 Ducati Sport 1000 S – The Paradox Machine

Riding into the city the dome of the windscreen reflects the Lion’s Gate Bridge’s lights in a moment of cinematic grace reminiscent of David Bowman’s face shield in Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey. The clocks are marked with fine point font, thin elegant needles, and the chrome bezels reflect a glittering world.  The cowling amplifies the…

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Doug Polen’s US MotoGP Laguna Seca Track Walk

Have you ever wondered what goes through a racer’s mind as they dive into Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew?  On the cusp of the 2007 US MotoGP we may have the answer.  Last year we attended a track walk with Doug Polen, a man who should know.  In 1993, Doug reigned supreme over the American Motorcyclist Association…

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2007 Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – The ’07 King of Zing

In third gear I roll on the throttle of Suzuki’s 2007 GSX-R 1000. Within seconds my riding companions are reduced to pinpoint headlights in the rearviews by fearsome acceleration. This is not so much an engine as four inline “hell-mouths” on whose demonic intakes you sacrifice gouts of virginal 94-octane gasoline conjuring a howling outflow…

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2007 BMW F800ST – The Smart One

Thrrrazzziiinnnn! The engine spins up, the tach sweeping past 7000-red.  What a subtle thing motorcycle design must be?  Snic-klink – another clutch-less upshift then back on the throttle.  It’s the same chassis, the same engine, just a bit softer suspension, flat bars, some fairing and a taller windscreen…  Preload the shift lever, hit red line,…

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An ‘Excessive’ Fix

Constable Gillespie of the Squamish RCMP detachment has built to the denouement of the ticket issuing procedure, the mandatory tale of cleaning up a motorcycle accident on the Sea To Sky.

‘Speedism’

3 AM and thanks to red wine fueled tossing and turning sleep is eluding me, so I concede the hunt and pick up reading in the living room. Kingdom of Fear, is Hunter S. Thompson at his best and worst; disjointed, confused and on the verge of psychotic break, through to cunning lucid and sharply…

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Meet the Xs Part 2: BMW G650X Country – Softroader Brilliance

Watching the Dakar Rally I know the special gene that urges a man to self-flagellate across a desert for a month is missing in me. I respect these, and other, skilled dirt riders in a way reserved for potentially dangerous asylum escapees, because they inevitably suggest “locking the rear tire”, “giving it more throttle” or…

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2007 BMW F800S: S&M – Stalwart and Mannerly

Hurtling through a serpentine of canyons on British Columbia’s Crow’s Nest Highway, I’m shocked. The BMW F800S I’d discounted as having an accountant’s soft, sensible and conservative soul, and I are in the groove – smoothly entering the corners, snapping the throttle open at the apex, feeling the rear suspension squat a bit and the…

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