At the Vancouver Motorcycle show, I glanced over the ZX-14, 2008 Hayabusa and B-King and set up a date with the Ducati 1098 R for later in the year. To a one the horsepower figures are astounding, driven upwards by a market with the “more is better” philosophy. I’ve some bad news for consumers and…
Category: Editorial & Blog
Passions Lost and Found
Occasionally you lose your way. That happened to me this fall in the context of OneWheelDrive.Net. In the intervening months this has lead to a lot of self-analysis, a foray into auto testing and a reconsideration of riding. In the end I think OneWheelDrive.Net may be better for it, allow me to explain.
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…
Gran Turismo – Grand Canyon: Day 4 – Zion National Park, UT to Grand Canyon, AZ : 373km
We’ve left the heat of the Vermillion Canyons behind and as we begin our final approach to our destination periodic bolts of lightning streak downwards to the Arizona desert floor. This is a storm, a proper one. Occasional lashes of rain cut through the sand’s blown grit as the wind tosses the Ducati GT1000 around…
Gran Turismo – Grand Canyon: Day 4 – West Wendover, Nevada to Zion National Park, UT : 1000km
It runs under the salt like electricity, but the GT1000’s tires can’t insulate me from this current. We’re on one of North America’s temples of speed, the Bonneville Salt Flats, which, damp in spots, is featuring tenuous traction as we play on the stark white moonscape.
Gran Turismo – Grand Canyon: Day 3 – Boise, ID to West Wendover, NV : 600km
We’ve cut the day short and landed in West Wendover, Nevada. I use “we” in a sweeping sense as I’ve come down ill and the GT1000 and I have been riding in the support vehicle for the day. No great sacrifice though, this transit of the “droneways”, our newly minted term for interstates, has taken…
Gran Turismo – Grand Canyon: Day 2 – Spokane, WA to Boise, ID : 750km
I’ve gone naked. By the time we reach the Old Spiral Highway outside of Lewiston, ID I’ve stripped the screen from the Ducati GT1000. The windscreen was slowing the handling, making the bike susceptible to sidewinds, and inducing a weave past 160kph. Removing the screen the Ducati GT1000 is transformed.
Gran Turismo – Grand Canyon: Day 1 – Vancouver B.C. to Spokane, WA : 793km
Stopping to take video of our group’s bikes as they ascend off of Diablo dam and into the Cascades along Highway 20, I’ve fallen behind. Mainly it seems because I miscounted the bikes and ended up waiting for a rider who didn’t exist. That’s okay, because our long-term loaner Ducati GT1000 is happily charging through…
1098S Testing: Lost and Found
Rolling out of Frazier Park I’m setting sites on Palmdale, CA for the evening. Lacking a detailed map, GPS or even coherent local instructions I’m at a bit of a loss as to the points between the two, but certainly don’t want the pounding drone offered by the I-5 or even 138. Fortunately there’s a rider waving…
Ducati 1098S Testing: Directions
The CHP officer is standing in front of the cruiser parked facing traffic in my lane, his hand out palm flat in the universal symbol for stop. I’m confused and more than a little worried. With no plate, and papers only in electronic form on the laptop, I’m thinking a world of not good thoughts….
Ducati 1098 Testing: Escape from LA
“We give bikes out without plates all the time.” I completely fail to understand this concept and explain that in British Columbia it’s a pretty big deal. Suddenly, I feel like a naive foreigner. Still I don’t have papers for the bike so that’s a good excuse to avoid slab on the 1098S – as…
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