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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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,…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

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.