When you get a new bike you have to worry about the tires because there is always a protective coat on new tires that makes them slippery. The result of twisting the throttle is a bad spill. I have had some close calls with the bike dancing under me, but decreasing the throttle helps get the bike under control. You need to ride for at least 20 minutes to warm up the tires. To get rid of the entire coat on the tire you have to ride at least 100km (60 miles). And it isn’t about riding in a straight line, you have to get the coat off the edges of the tire.
Side note: burning out is fun sometimes, but it won’t warm up the tires. The middle part of the tire will be warm, but the edges will be cold. The edges won’t warm up like when you ride around a track or regular roads for 20 minutes. I have seen quite a few spills because people think their tires are warm after a burn out. And there is no grip on the edges because they are cold.
I wanted to go out the other weekend before taking Robo into service. So I decided to go out no matter how hot it is. And I did. It was great earlier in the day since the asphalt was scorching hot. But it was still hot no matter how fast I was going, and sometimes I was going fast!
The one problem I faced was getting stuck at a light! It felt like an eternatiy before the light turned green, so after a little while of riding I went to Starbucks and got me a drink to cool off. It was worth it though. I head my mp3 player going with updated songs, and a lot of old school songs. I felt my head was clearing up after riding for four hours, and I arrived home drenched in sweat so I decided to jump in the pool before lunch. That cooled me off right! The heat nor the cold will stop me from riding! hehehehe
So there was the MotoGP race at Catalan Grand Prix at the Catalunya Circuit this past weekend. It was a huge mess in the beginning over 4-5 riders crashed at the first corner taking out some of the best riders in the competition. I kept reloading online to see who was winning and what happened, but because of the crash they had to restart the race.
Melandri, Capirosi, and Gibernau had to be taken to the medical treatment center and hospital to be checked out because they got the worst of the accident. But at the end there was no permenant injuries, but they werent able to ride for that race. Some of the other riders ditched their bike or went into the dirt to avoid hitting other riders.
Even with all this mess Rossi managed to beat everyone and keep his concentration. Two people who I was expecting to do good really did and got on the podium! Nicky Hayden and Kenny Roberts Jr. because both of them seemed very happy about their bikes, and Hayden was confident of his team and their capabilities to get the settings just right for this bike.
Link: RossiWin@Crash.net
Link: Crash@Crash.net
This was back during my trip to the US during March. This is me and my friend Hamdy riding on the Yamaha R1, and the FZ6. These bikes are still in the states, but I have them parked at this place! I love the R1, and the FZ6 is such an easy and capable bike to ride during the day. If I wanted to run quick errands or get to Jack in the Box quickly I would take the FZ6 and a back pack. It was always nice to go at night when its slightly cold, and then have something warm attached to your back, but I could never buy drinks! hehehehe! So if anyone wanted shakes they were out of luck!
This was the slowest thing on the road! It was no challenge to any bike!
Me and Hamdy went riding by the coast on Highway 84 up to the Cafe, then we continued down 84 until we hit the 1 and road down the coast. This was an amazing ride, and I was on the FZ6 and he was on the R1. He was basically screwing around with me since he knew I could barely keep up. But since I changed the tires on the FZ6 to Diablos I could do a better job around corners. And I feel the bike is more confident! It seriously was amazing and exhilirating!
My backpack sitting on the FZ6
When we walked into the cafe, we took our helmets, and jackets off to get a nice cold coke! And we also ordered a cheeseburger! hehehehe!
Everytime I ride its such a rush, because your going at a decent pace and to your left is the mountain wall, and to your right is a decent drop that you wouldnt want taking. And your trying to go around corners fast, but at the same time taking into consideration what might be around the corner. My brain feels like its taking every input from the bike, and trying to predict all the possible outcomes while trying to be ready for anything. You can only prepare for so much, but still sweeping through those corners while getting fresh mountain air gives my brain a little tickle. But reaching the Cafe where all the highways intersect its like a little gold mine of bikes and other goodies! It always feels like I got the prize everytime I reach there. I may have dont this at least 30 times now, but everytime seems like a new adventure that you are setting out from dawn!
You could see so many bikes, and so many different types of people riding.
More pictures below!!!!
I woke up really early this morning to beat the morning traffic as well as avoid the scorching heat because I was taking Robo in for a his first service at 1100Km. I also had two more carbon fiber pieces to be fitted to the back, as well as a little bit of tweaking to be done. I havent had a chance to ride since that last time out. And I like riding when its sunny, but not hot as hell! So I went to fill up gas, because it was empty from my last ride and off I went to Shuweikh. The weather wasnt bad, and I was enjoying myself. Since the first two songs that came on my mp3 player were Will Smith -“Just Cruisin”, and Biggi ft. Bone Thugs – ” Notorious Thugs”. I was really enjoying myself, and said this is the way to start off a working day. Even though it was 7:30am.
I got there with no complications dropped off the bike at TriStar Motorcycle Garages in Shuweikh. Which needs a cosmetic redo. Because this garage doesnt fit the look of the bikes they sell! It will take them about two days to finish everything and Im in no real hurry so I didnt mind. I told them to take their time and do what ever they need to do. I dont want to drop the bike off again! So off I went home, changed and now Im at work. And I got here at 8:30am! Did all that and still got here on time!
This was a very interesting event! I mentioned the other week that there was a motorcycle meet and everyone was welcome to join. Well it was fun and an interesting way meet. We all met up at Tri Star motorcycle opposite Khaleejeya Complex. i got there by 8:40pm. I felt nice and hot. There were about 6 motorcycles parked up front so I parked next to them and kept saying hello to people, and being introduced for the first time. There were different types of bikes in this meet, not just BMWs and Ducatis, but really an interesting meet. It seemed like it was people of the same mentallity but just with different bikes.
I saw Jafar Behbehani and Salem from TriStar Motorcycles, and they were joining us on this adventure. And they were introducing me to people left and right to the point that I was forgeting the person’s name just after saying hello to the third person from the last name that I could remember. Basically mean I could only remember the names of the last three people I was introduced to! hehehe!
We moved out at around 9:20pm after waiting for Mr. Sury who graciously invited all of us to Pizza Hut in Bnaider for dinner. He was even nice enough to pay for gas for everyone that was filling up. Now this man seemed interesting to me, and I was wondering what he did for a living. But I could only go through so many people and ask question. When we left we all went to Mansooriya Gas Station to fill up our tanks, but I already filled up when I was leaving since my tank was empty in the first place. So we were about twelve bikes and two cars. We formed a one glob of motorcycles going in two by two form. I was taking it easy since I was new to the group and I was trying not to figure out who is a good rider and who isnt so I stayed all the way in the back and taking my time. The one thing that annoyed the hell out of me is I forgot to charge my damn MP3 player, but I was thinking it was going to be interesting just riding with this group in Kuwait.
The other funny part was how I was probably the youngest guy there, and I wasn’t the one being a bit of an idiot. In a group that size there is always a person is bound to make mistakes or do something idiotic. And there was that one guy, but he wasnt too bad, and they had a talk with him that straightened things out. This group was an international group about 6 kuwaitis, one french guy, one Bosnian, one Ukranian, one Indian, and another guy I didnt have a chance to talk to who wasnt Kuwaiti. The youngest guy there other then myself was 29, but most of everyone was in there 30s or above.
Its official! Ducati is going to put this bike into production. When I first saw pictures of this bike I thought that it looked fantastic, and I didnt even know who made it. When I realized it was a ducati I was stumped, the closest type of motorcycle they have to this is the Monster. But this bike looks amazing with the clean lines, and red design. I hope the price for this motorcycle will be reasonable, but if it rides just as good as it looks then I will be tempted to get my hands on one of these bikes! Its looks so freaking great, and its a Supermoto for the street!!!! I wish I was a test rider for any of the companies! Trying new bikes for work would be the best job period.
I have decided to start making bike tips to give people the benefit of the knowledge that I have acquired through practical experience, information gathering, and many many many mistakes! Even if your an experience rider or just starting to ride I hope at least one of my tips will help decrease the amount of headaches you may go through or mistakes you have to make before learning. I have read a lot of magazines, and practiced a lot of what they preach as well as learned from experience.
When you buy a bike the first thing you want to do is fly off and see how fast it is or how it handles, but doing that probably wont be to you or your bike’s benefit. They tell you not go past 5000 or 6000 rpm (on a sportbike, assuming redline is around 11000-14000). For the first 150Km or 90 Miles take it easy on the bike and shift smoothly. Because your breaking in a lot of parts on the bike. Be kind to the transmission let it get used to things, because you dont want something to happen to the transmission while your riding. Make smooth and comfortable shifts to break-in the transmission correctly. After the second gas tank you can pretty much go 1000rpm more then before, so if you were limiting it to 5000rpm then you could go to 6000rpm or 6500rpm. Keep increasing the rpm by those increments per gas tank that you go after the second one. Its just a very easy way to break-in the bike correctly and keep a progress of your bike. You dont want to thrash your bike from day one because it will only decrease the life expentancy of your bike. Treat your bike well and your bike will be faithful.
I love riding so much I dont care when I ride, but there is a very thin line of safety in Kuwait. I ride pretty comfortably and stay in my lane cruising down the highways or the seaside. Im always trying to avoid traffic. If cars are stopped at a light I will slowly move to the front of the pack so I can get away from the vehicles. I do this to keep myself safe so I can ride away from the pack of cars and enjoy myself. But I have run into problems doing this before. When I move to the front of the pack I usually ride at a very slow pace, because people are very unpredictable. One time someone decided they wanted to open the trunk so they suddenly opened the door, and I came to stop just before the door opened! You always have to prepare for the worse and I knew it was a mistake on the man’s part. But another time this happened the man did it intentionaly and gave me a dirty look! Trying to set an example of better riding manners in Kuwait is difficult.
I have had incidents when women would cut four lanes across without looking where they are going and almost hitting me. I’ve managed to get out of most of these situations, and some were close calls. And even when you tell these women to look where they are going they just ignore you thinking your hitting on them! Its annoying, but I live with it because I love riding so much. I wont let others ruin it for me.
Riding in the morning is preferable because there are no cars, but I cant do that every morning. And its difficult to find a comfortable place to go cruising on the bike during the afternoon, but I still go. The problem I had before the heat came along are all these idiots who are pulling stunts in the middle of the highway. I wont lie I like seeing stunts, but not the way these guys do it. They cause a havoc in the middle of the road making everyone come to a complete stop and act like its cool. I usually saw people trying stunts in huge parking lots in the US and sometimes in the highways for short periods of time or even in secluded roads. But these guys pull stunts in busy streets in the middle of traffic causing more traffic jams. And all this without wearing a helmet! They really do have a death wish riding without a helmet, because they will end up as road pizza.
So I have came up with a list of Hazards in Kuwait.
Hazards:
1) Veiled women driving (no peripheral vision)
2) Sand or Gravel on the road
3) Mud spots (water mixed with sand, water from the sprinkler systems)
3) Oil on the road (leaked from cars)
4) Lorry’s carrying debris in the back
When riding always make sure you have an air cushion around you. Meaning your not surrounded by vehicles so you can get out of a bad situation quickly. Always try to have routes planned out in your head so you have exit plan if you need it. I hope this information is useful to people to certain extent. Im going to keep posting information about different riding technics to help people ride in the Middle East or other places.
So I went for a ride the other night with some people from TriStar Motorcycle, which was very interesting to say the least. But I will be posting about that later. I had a previous post about the Ducati RR, which is the Ducati Moto GP bike for sale. Well TriStar motorcycles are the dealers of Ducati, KTM, BMW, and maybe a few other names Im not sure of. But since we Jafar Behbehani was there for the meet I decided to ask him how much he would sell the Ducati RR for. Since I was thinking “maybe” I could get it if its coming out next year. If I save up a lot (which probably I wont do). I know ducatis are expensive, and I know it would be a very limited bike. I was thinking in the 10’000KD or 12’000KD. I know I was dreaming, but a man can dream. Then he told it is going for 20’000KD! I was in shock, I almost choked on the food. I was like what! Then he asked if I wanted him to get me one. I was like nooo thank you, but if you have any left over I dont mind you letting me ride it for a day hehehe. Now thats way out there! But like I said piece of art!