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This year was somewhat different than other years -- had a lot going on this week, primarily a combination of construction work at my place (motorcycle-specific parking slot build - http://katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=94099) and client work both on-site and at home overwhelming my schedule. That and the literally freezing weather forecast for Tuesday morning made us blow off the Tuesday plans...
Thursday was the back-up day for BikeWeek for us, and although the concrete pour for the slot was set for Thursday (originally was supposed to happen Monday!), I decided my other half was qualified to supervise it better than I was anyway, so Malloc and I planned on rolling out around 5:30 AM for BikeWeek (Daytona). Best laid plans of mice and men... we dawdled, got on the road by 6:20 or so, and had to do very high speeds clear across the state to get there at a semi-reasonable time (that state trooper with the Harley just looked up at us and shook his head -- if he hadn't still been walking back to the bike from already writing a ticket, I'm sure he would have gone code-blue after us -- or maybe he would have realized that he could only catch us with our co-operation [we always stop for the nice officers, but I know we were already doing his maximum speed]).
We managed to arrive by 7:35 or so, which this year (like most) was "late" by any definition. Straight to Aprilia's tent and into line to sign up for their test rides - 20 or so riders already in front of us. By the time we get halfway to the front, the announcement comes that they've already booked up all of the true "sports" bikes (RSV, etc.). By the time we're number 6 in line, one of their reps comes up and says they'll run out of bikes by the time they get to the guy in front of us and only have late-afternoon rides left. We stare at each other, shrug, then the guy ahead of us (from Poland) decides to bail because he has other plans for late afternoon. So that leaves two of us with one bike to ride
Then we find out that unlike the other outfits, Aprilia is charging $20 for the rides, but that by the same token, they are also not doing 5 to 12 mile rides; they are taking their people on a fifty mile ride, with a picnic at the park in the middle, Tshirts and hats after the ride. Definitely worth $20 in my mind, so I pony up, and Malloc (although qualified as a rider) signs on as a passenger for free. We figure we'll switch at the mid-point so we both get to ride. Scheduled ride for 3:30, last ride of the day for them.
We grab some coffee and a couple snacks at Aprilia's tent, then wander off looking for BMW, only to be told that they don't have a tent this year -- they are doing their rides out of the local dealership about 10 miles down the road. We continue in our quest...
Next stop: Can-Am and the three-wheelers. There's a big line, but they aren't going to "sell out" of rides any time soon, so we bail out of line (after Malloc gets the spittle off his chin from the hot marketing girls they hired in).
Kawasaki and all their non-cruisers are booked already - we get qualified and on the stand-by list, but we'll never end up actually riding one of their factory bikes this year. Not that I'm worried about it -- I rode in on the ZX-14 already
We wander over to the Ducati catering tent and I produce the keys to get us in, only to be told that they are switching to a registration or proof of insurance scheme as proof of ownership this year (to which I reply that I'd have to be an idiot as a German to bring my paperwork for my German-registered bike to the USA). They let us in and stamp us to the Ducatista elite. Breakfast is on...
They had their candy bowls out, and Malloc, ever the candy-man, had to grab and stuff his pockets full...
Stop at Suzuki and look at the Gladius.
Back at Can-Am and he's drooling over the girls some more. We get some pics taken, do the sign-in (did that computer just scan my driver's license barcode and pull up all my data in under 1 second? Yup. Scary that they have access to it that readily). Scheduled ride for 11:30.
Hit the Givi tent and talk to their reps. Wish I had brought the racks with me -- they would have installed them for me for free (oh well). Leave the bike with them to see if they need to do any mods in advance of the install (my instructions said something about trimming the undertail for the install). We wander off to check vendors...
Back at CanAm and we're screwing around. Funny thing is they have both the fully automatic and the fully manual versions of the CanAm Spyders there, and the automatics are booked 3-to-1 compared to the manuals. We go through a very extensive training with the unit, teaching us things like the fact that we have to push a dash button every start to clear an safety waiver, and that no matter how you lean, you'll go straight if you don't steer it. They also made us all take breathalizer tests -- first vendor I've ever seen do that. Small parking lot set up like a go-kart ring for a small proof-of -skill that you comprehend the combined brakes (only foot pedal), parking brake and the steering, then once you get past that, you're cleared for the road ride.
And now for the ride report:
Can-Am Spyder 990cc V-twin (manual) - it's a go-kart with a high seating position and motorcycle-like controls. It shares nothing else with a motorcycle. You lean because you're being flung away from it's turns, and it doesn't care about your leaning. Grip is good (car tires), but those tires take some hellacious beatings in the turns. Electronic super-everything means it clamps down on burn-outs, on lifting wheels in turns, on locking brakes, on anything that would make it lose traction. I had to put the back end into the grass on the side of the road to get it to slide around and rooster-tail (ha!). 1 down, four up is the shift pattern. Does have a reverse (on the manual, you pull a choke-like control to allow you to shift into reverse, which is one below first gear, locked out without the control). Huge trunk in front of the headlights...
The hot little Can-Am hired marketing girls (Jessica, Natasha) asked how we liked it afterwards -- then said we were the only ones all day to say we didn't actually like them. We were probably also the youngest riders on them...
I'm kicking myself in the butt about not getting an earlier start -- most years we get in five or more rides in the day, but today it looks like we're down to two (Aprilia, CanAm) and one wasn't even a bike! If I could have gotten Friday cleared on my schedule, I would have been back to make up for it -- wish I could have done Tuesday to begin with (far fewer visitors during the freezing morning, vendors complaining their sales have been dead all week).
More vendor visits, recover the bike from Givi, free RedBulls for Malloc at their pavilion, and some discussion with Kawasaki about their ROK (Riders of Kawasaki) club benefits. Plus a ton of calls from my other half about the concrete and the work, including news that the concrete truck actually broke on-site half-way through the pour Just my luck, eh? The crew shored it up as a half-slot pour with a cold-seam and will do the rest hopefully Saturday...
More in Part 2 (next Post).
Thursday was the back-up day for BikeWeek for us, and although the concrete pour for the slot was set for Thursday (originally was supposed to happen Monday!), I decided my other half was qualified to supervise it better than I was anyway, so Malloc and I planned on rolling out around 5:30 AM for BikeWeek (Daytona). Best laid plans of mice and men... we dawdled, got on the road by 6:20 or so, and had to do very high speeds clear across the state to get there at a semi-reasonable time (that state trooper with the Harley just looked up at us and shook his head -- if he hadn't still been walking back to the bike from already writing a ticket, I'm sure he would have gone code-blue after us -- or maybe he would have realized that he could only catch us with our co-operation [we always stop for the nice officers, but I know we were already doing his maximum speed]).
We managed to arrive by 7:35 or so, which this year (like most) was "late" by any definition. Straight to Aprilia's tent and into line to sign up for their test rides - 20 or so riders already in front of us. By the time we get halfway to the front, the announcement comes that they've already booked up all of the true "sports" bikes (RSV, etc.). By the time we're number 6 in line, one of their reps comes up and says they'll run out of bikes by the time they get to the guy in front of us and only have late-afternoon rides left. We stare at each other, shrug, then the guy ahead of us (from Poland) decides to bail because he has other plans for late afternoon. So that leaves two of us with one bike to ride
Then we find out that unlike the other outfits, Aprilia is charging $20 for the rides, but that by the same token, they are also not doing 5 to 12 mile rides; they are taking their people on a fifty mile ride, with a picnic at the park in the middle, Tshirts and hats after the ride. Definitely worth $20 in my mind, so I pony up, and Malloc (although qualified as a rider) signs on as a passenger for free. We figure we'll switch at the mid-point so we both get to ride. Scheduled ride for 3:30, last ride of the day for them.
We grab some coffee and a couple snacks at Aprilia's tent, then wander off looking for BMW, only to be told that they don't have a tent this year -- they are doing their rides out of the local dealership about 10 miles down the road. We continue in our quest...
Next stop: Can-Am and the three-wheelers. There's a big line, but they aren't going to "sell out" of rides any time soon, so we bail out of line (after Malloc gets the spittle off his chin from the hot marketing girls they hired in).
Kawasaki and all their non-cruisers are booked already - we get qualified and on the stand-by list, but we'll never end up actually riding one of their factory bikes this year. Not that I'm worried about it -- I rode in on the ZX-14 already
We wander over to the Ducati catering tent and I produce the keys to get us in, only to be told that they are switching to a registration or proof of insurance scheme as proof of ownership this year (to which I reply that I'd have to be an idiot as a German to bring my paperwork for my German-registered bike to the USA). They let us in and stamp us to the Ducatista elite. Breakfast is on...
They had their candy bowls out, and Malloc, ever the candy-man, had to grab and stuff his pockets full...
Stop at Suzuki and look at the Gladius.
Back at Can-Am and he's drooling over the girls some more. We get some pics taken, do the sign-in (did that computer just scan my driver's license barcode and pull up all my data in under 1 second? Yup. Scary that they have access to it that readily). Scheduled ride for 11:30.
Hit the Givi tent and talk to their reps. Wish I had brought the racks with me -- they would have installed them for me for free (oh well). Leave the bike with them to see if they need to do any mods in advance of the install (my instructions said something about trimming the undertail for the install). We wander off to check vendors...
Back at CanAm and we're screwing around. Funny thing is they have both the fully automatic and the fully manual versions of the CanAm Spyders there, and the automatics are booked 3-to-1 compared to the manuals. We go through a very extensive training with the unit, teaching us things like the fact that we have to push a dash button every start to clear an safety waiver, and that no matter how you lean, you'll go straight if you don't steer it. They also made us all take breathalizer tests -- first vendor I've ever seen do that. Small parking lot set up like a go-kart ring for a small proof-of -skill that you comprehend the combined brakes (only foot pedal), parking brake and the steering, then once you get past that, you're cleared for the road ride.
And now for the ride report:
Can-Am Spyder 990cc V-twin (manual) - it's a go-kart with a high seating position and motorcycle-like controls. It shares nothing else with a motorcycle. You lean because you're being flung away from it's turns, and it doesn't care about your leaning. Grip is good (car tires), but those tires take some hellacious beatings in the turns. Electronic super-everything means it clamps down on burn-outs, on lifting wheels in turns, on locking brakes, on anything that would make it lose traction. I had to put the back end into the grass on the side of the road to get it to slide around and rooster-tail (ha!). 1 down, four up is the shift pattern. Does have a reverse (on the manual, you pull a choke-like control to allow you to shift into reverse, which is one below first gear, locked out without the control). Huge trunk in front of the headlights...
The hot little Can-Am hired marketing girls (Jessica, Natasha) asked how we liked it afterwards -- then said we were the only ones all day to say we didn't actually like them. We were probably also the youngest riders on them...
I'm kicking myself in the butt about not getting an earlier start -- most years we get in five or more rides in the day, but today it looks like we're down to two (Aprilia, CanAm) and one wasn't even a bike! If I could have gotten Friday cleared on my schedule, I would have been back to make up for it -- wish I could have done Tuesday to begin with (far fewer visitors during the freezing morning, vendors complaining their sales have been dead all week).
More vendor visits, recover the bike from Givi, free RedBulls for Malloc at their pavilion, and some discussion with Kawasaki about their ROK (Riders of Kawasaki) club benefits. Plus a ton of calls from my other half about the concrete and the work, including news that the concrete truck actually broke on-site half-way through the pour
Just my luck, eh? The crew shored it up as a half-slot pour with a cold-seam and will do the rest hopefully Saturday... More in Part 2 (next Post).
Haha
............on the great write-up comments, I'm a relative newbie on the bike scene but your words-eye view and descriptions gave a good sense of what the bikes you tested are like. And a pretty good glance of bike week events.
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