Motorcycling
 

I'm guessing they keep the same setup year-to-year, certainly it laid out almost identically to last year. 

Since I cage up to this event, I really hang onto the demo rides as a main attraction...lotsa of possibilities, all within easy reach. 

Here are some notes I took about bikes I rode this year. 

Triumph Sprint RS- not as extreme as a Daytona, but what a rocket. Ergos not too severe, still a bit hard for me to get comfy. Traded at midway point for a Sprint ST which fit much better. The Triumph guys still rock, a very nice route, major twisties and about 45 mins. 

Suzuki SV650- small, light, nimble, narrow. So many favorable reviews of this bike, and seems such a good value. Adapted to it quickly, about the same size as the SR. Nice muted sound something like a pint-sized Ducati.  Suzuki used much the same route as the Triumph guys, so for a nimble bike like the SV was just perfect. 

Or would have been, except for the 2 morons who were riding on the DR 400's. Not so hot arranging had placed the SV's and Bandits behind the DR's which might have been ok normally, but not with the two idiots they had riding them. As we rode the twisty bits, these pals would enter each corner by standing up the bike, brake to 20mph or so, then hang off halfway, extend out a knee 2 feet off the ground, then power on the gas on the way out, hee hee hee.  I guess they thought they were being racy, but mostly what they were doing was hosing up the smooth line and pace of the other riders. We'd just make a nice exit from corner 1, be readying a nice transition entrance to corner 2 when these bozos would start their nonsense again, causing 6 bikes to all bunch up and slow WAY down on the entrance. They sucked. 

Anyhow the SV was pretty much as advertised and would make a great city bike. 

Kawasaki Concours- This was my second Connie demo ride and I was a little more prepared this time out. Meaning, last time I started the ride treating the Concours as a heavy tourer and discovered late that it enjoyed sportbike treatment.  This ride started immediately with that same twisty road I'd been on twice already with the Triumph and Suzuki rides, and I did my best to make the most of it. I was following a pretty capable Quebecer on a ZX6R and it was just amazing how much the Connie liked to hang right in there with a real sports bike. Connie wants to rock, no question. Quickly set the lean, power thru, flip it over for the next turn. It turned in better than the Suzuki SV,  and it was a real kick to power it from one bend to the next.  It still seems weird (to me) to be able to move that much bodywork around so well. 

An aside, the Concours was the second bike at Kawasaki to completely fill its dance card, lots of folks interested in them this year for some reason. 

Honda ST1100 ABS- The timing of my rides worked out that I got to ride the Connie and the ST back-to-back, a perfect setup.  Like the Concours, I had demo'd an ST last year at Americade, but Honda had used a pretty limited route...basically a buzz up I-87 a couple of exits, then come back via a very tame business hiway.  Yawn.  I hoped to get a chance to try some additional ST capabilities. 

Was not to be.  Honda used the same, lame route as last year.  I got a feel for ST acceleration onto the hiway (it doesn't seem like it's doing much, but it's very stealthy...no fuss, no trauma, it just gathers speed nicely in a sort of magnetic-induction way).   The only curves we were able to try were the freeway offramps.  Sigh.  Still hoping to get to ride an ST in the twisties some time.  On the other hand, Honda was the only vendor to provide "giveaways" after the ride: a nifty "Honda 2000" pin, *and* a small can of Pro Honda Spray Cleaner and Polish, some of the most wonderful stuff on the planet. 

A lowlight of the Honda demo ride occured on the way back to the "corral".  We'd just taken the hiway exit to return to Roaring Brook Ranch home base when in front of our eyes, a young local in a small pickup managed to cut off an older K bike...the rider grabbed too much rear brake, swerved, then high-sided when the brake was released.  Scary to watch, the rider took one good bounce and a couple of rolls, then got right up, hooray.  Helmet, gloves, Cordura jacket and jeans, no rips in the jeans, lucky.  We all parked, helped get the bike upright (body work cracks and abrasions, one hardbag was snapped off and totalled) and the Warren County sheriff was there pronto since he'd been directing traffic just up the road.  Could've been worse. 

Ducati ST2- A big drawing card for me this year was the availability of Ducati demo rides...I hadn't seen them offered before at either Vintage Motorcycle Days or last year at Americade. 

When I rolled in on Tuesday, Ducati hadn't even opened their trailer yet, unlike everyone else who had bikes standing in the rain all day.  Ducati used Wednesday to set up, finally getting their rides going on Thursday.  Signups started at 8:00, I arrived at 6:45 and was the 25th person in line.  Very popular, they had 12 bikes and left on the hour so the spots filled up fast.   I wanted to try an ST of some type, ST2 or ST4 didn't matter to me, and got one for the 1:00 run.  Now if these new rain clouds will hold off. 

They did, and we left right on time.  Ducati used the same route as Triumph, hooray, about 28 miles and 40 minutes of riding.  I love that Ducati sound, and had a blast.   You sit very far forward on the ST2, it feels and looks like right over the front wheel.  And they weren't kidding about the handling, what an Italian dancer!  Light, lithe, turns in so easily.  Torquey powerband, I used third gear mostly and had nice, smooth transitions and good engine braking.  The ride leader dropped to 10 mph on one straight stretch as he said he'd do, then we had a 12-Ducati drag race thru a couple of gears, nice.  The ST2 isn't overwhelming power-wise (for that, there's the ST4 with its 996-derived engine and more hp) but plenty entertaining.  Only real downside were the ergos, leg room a bit cramped for me, definitely very sporty, and bars "too low" or lower than I would ever use for long distance riding. 

The had a 748SS there also, which looked like an office paperweight compared to the ST2...the perfect toy Ducati in bright yellow. 

TourExpo at Americade - for those of your who've never been, Tour Expo is what they call the vendor area at Americade, and it's a whopper.  You can get most anything you need done to a bike there, although once past tire mounting and suspension upgrades there's more of the custom painting, chrome doo-dads, and velour seating vendors than would be pleasing to the LDR crowd.  Nonetheless, it's still fun to walk around and see everything. 

I'd never seen a Uni Go trailer before, a sort of egg-shaped trailer with one wheel.  They market it as *the* trailer for sport bikes, as it's not a big ol' square thing and it leans when you lean.  Looks useful, well made, and pretty clever if you need the room...but expensive ($1500 or so). I hit the Cycle Care booth for some supplies, bought some Techna sunglasses, a couple of Super Towels, and got the heck out of there. 

Hertz NeverLost system - The cage I'd rented to get to and from unexpectedly included Hertz's Magellan-based NeverLost navigation system, so I thought I'd give it a whirl and recap about it. 

They've been using these for a couple of years, and I remember lots of problems with the first ones.  This one actually worked pretty well.  It's mounted on a nice dash swivel, just to the right and below the radio on my rental Taurus.  Clear, not too mechanical voice announcement helps you choose your routing, either by picking it from a list, or by city, intersection, or street address. 

Pretty accurate, too.  There's what looks like a CD-changer mounted in the trunk that holds the particular data cartridge for the area (NY - NJ - Conn in my case) and it's very detailed.  I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to set up a route, follow the route on the displayed map (sheesh, it even has the correct curves, rest areas, cross-roads), and have the system voice-announce the turns ("exit on your right") right on the mark.  Also pretty cool how it handles getting "off track"; a few nags at first "Please return to the highlighted route", then it displays a message to press "enter" to get a new routing based on your current location, and will recalculate one on the fly. 

Not fool-proof though.  On my way back, it had been doing just fine, until I got to White Plains.  NY-area folks know that junction of I-684, I-287, and the Hutchinson River Parkway well, and it's a little tricky.  Too bad that the NeverLost system picked that moment to lose satellite triangulation!  I kept waiting for a voice announcement of what to do, and the display kept saying I had 3.5 miles to the next turn...but clearly I did not, and I noticed the "locating satellites" message at the bottom of the screen.  Good thing I knew this area well and knew what to do...Joe Schmoe would have been cursing mightily at this point with an abundance of choices but no help from NeverLost!