 |
 |
|
I was born at Westover AFB in Chicopee, Mass for the princely sum of $7.00. Who says that you can't find a bargain anywhere? I'm the gift that keeps on giving! I have been riding motorcycles since I graduated high school. I bought my first bike - a brand new 1985 Suzuki GS550ES - and never turned back. After putting 16,000 miles on that bike in one season and crashing it twice ( locked the front wheel in sand and flipped it over doing a wheelie) I graduated to a Kawasaki GPz-750. It was on this bike that I had my first serious bike accident - Yes? I'd like some target fixation? To go! . And it was this experience that prompted me to buy..... a GSXR-750! There is a lot to be said for young, a paying job and a good credit rating. My GSXR-750 was my pride and joy. A two head light bike! Those things rule! This bike raised my insurance points to resemble a NBA game final score but what a blast. It was also my first road racer. This bike was eventually traded in its 7/11 form for a FZR1000 and a GSXR-1100. And on and on. I've had all kinds of bikes including a ZX-6D, KLR-650, RF900R, two Concours, four GSXR's, three FZR1000's, two CB400F's and a CBR600F. Bikes are like shoes - you can never have too many and each one serves a distinct purpose. The KLR-650 is still the best bike I ever owned. It was with Aaron, coming of a bad experience with a Ducati group he started that I harassed him to start SRNE. I was the brains - STILL AM I might add - and he was Senor' HTML. From a small webpage with a mailing list to the headache causing monstrosity that it is today, SRNE has allowed me to meet lots of great people, whom I will call friend for the rest of my life. This group has also showed me that the state will give anyone a license, and that idiots don't just ride Harleys, they also ride sportbikes. Besides SRNE, I'm also a certified MSF Instructor. I've been across America and Europe on motorcycles. My primary streetbike is a 2002 Yamaha FZS1000 Fazer. If I'm not riding motorcycles or playing games I'm probably stuck in Europe in 1944.
Responsibility - This is the very first piece I ever wrote for SRNE. It's now six years old, but I left it alone. I still believe in the point I was trying to make, but the style bothers me. I feel I bounce around a bit. Riding Gear - This piece I wrote after seeing how my first MSF students didn't understand why gear was important. This article has had great feed back for me, almost all positive. The only negative I do get is from the idiots who feel that a helmet will not save you in a fall. You want to press my buttons? Tell me helmets don't work. I'm proof that they do. I think... This piece is being updated as I write this. New info coming. HJC Symax helmet - I have been in the market for a new flip-up helmet for a long time. I was looking to replace my three year old Shoei Duotech as I usually replace my helmet every two seasons. However, I had waited because I couldn't find something I liked. I found one.... Helmet Test Video - if you don't think you need to wear a helmet, you are probably right. Note - this is a 2 mpeg file. It puts a funny spin on why a helmet is so important to a motorcycle rider. NASCAR 4 - Released by Papyrus Design, NASCAR 4 is the latest installment of racing simulations created exclusively for the PC by developer Dave Kaemmer and team. Having previously released NASCAR 1, 2, and 3, it was only natural to utilize the fast paced PC hardware market to create a sim with all the eye candy and realism the latest CPU can handle. A lot was expected from this sim, as it was based on the physics engine from the world renowned sim " Grand Prix Legends ", widely regarded as the best driving simulation ever produced. STCC2 - You can blame Speedvision for this. They have me hooked on Touring Car racing! And World Rally! And Formula One! But not boat racing. Nope, just cannot get into speedboats. To me, a boat is a fiberglass hole in the water into which someone throws money. Vanson Leathers - Six feet, two inches. Two hundred eighty pounds. Oh yeah, shopping for riding gear is a snap for a guy like me. For that " full figured " man who loves to ride. When I stood next to Chuck Graves in the tech inspection line at Willow Springs in 1995, I was thinking about how a guy this small can hustle a F-USA bike around the track? He looked like a 4th grader next to me! I bet I could take him in a pizza eating contest, though! Probably kick his ass, too! Small riders have an easier time shopping for gear than larger riders and I was no different. I had wanted a set of street leathers for a long time, and had to go custom made. Since I'm less than two hours from Vanson Leathers in Fall River, Mass the choice was simple. What would you do - I wrote this after a friend of mine had an accident in her group. And I realized that most riders don't carry anything around for any type of First Aid, not even a cell phone. Everything in that article goes with me wherever I ride. Tank bags rule. Formula One in Montreal - Speedvision has to be the best television channel on the planet. Yes, I said the planet. And it really is the only product worth watching anymore - next to The Simpson's! It's due to Speedvision's carrying of Formula One live that really hooked me on the sport. And after speaking to friends who have seen it live, they all said the same thing - TV does those cars no justice and you have to hear them in person to really appreciate a 18,000 RPM revving V-10. An e-mail to the Concours Owners Group mailing list looking for someone to ride up with found a taker in Bill Oakland. We both had the same desire - to see Formula One in person. A plan was hatched. Yamaha FZ-1 riding impression - I have been pestering my friends for about twelve months. On-line and off, I was in a constant flux about buying another motorcycle. Not just a bike to have sitting in the back of the garage, but one to be a daily rider, or at least one that I will really have fun on. Asking questions, test riding bikes, reading reviews, and changing directions and priorities every other day. Well, the wait is over. The questions are answered. The decision is made. My new Yamaha Fazer - Today was the day I picked up my new motorcycle! Yes, my first new bike in five years. I was running in circles for years about what I wanted to get next. What kind of riding was I going to do, what kind of riding did I actually want to do. The FZ-1 was NOT my first choice. I fact, when the bike came out I was not very fond of how it looked. Initially, it looked like a parts bin bike. To me , it screamed " R1 on a budget "! And then, as my wants and needs became more defined, the Yamaha came into the picture. Givi hard luggage installation on a Yamaha Fazer - When I sold my Kawasaki Concours, I gave something up - carrying capacity. Granted, in my new Yamaha FZ-1 I gained power, handling, and just a whole new fun factor. But the Concours came with excellent factory hardbags, plus I installed a Givi E460 top case. I could carry the kitchen sink, plus the bathtub on the Concours. Having had very good luck with Givi products in the past, one of the reasons I bought the FZ-1 was that Givi made hard luggage for it. Zero Gravity Double Bubble on a Yamaha Fazer - One of the weak spots you immediately notice on the FZ-1 is the windscreen. In fact, calling it a windscreen is embellishing a bit. In reality, it is a cover for the gauges, because that is all it does. The gauges stay dry, and you get a nice blast of air right at the middle of your chest, up to your helmet. However, there is an easy fix.... Givi luggage rack modification - I have made no secret of the fact that I was not very happy with the way Givi designed the hardbag mount system for my 2002 Yamaha FZ-1. It was way over-built, and just plain ugly. Yes, it did get the job done and well, but the rear directionals were mounted to a bracket that extended out past the entire rear of the bike, with the wiring exposed and just hanging there. Though the system was functional, it did nothing for the lines of the bike, nor was it easy to remove. I knew I could fix it, and I did. Throttlemeister Installation on a Yamaha Fazer - Since my sportbike is being set-up as a sport-touring mount, I thought it was time to install a nice throttle lock. I never had one in the past, and always regretted not getting a nice unit. Riding for long distances on the highway can be very fatiguing on your hand/wrist, and a throttle lock is a nice way to hold your speed steady. Plus, they are all fairly simple to install. I had no intention to go crazy and use an available electronic cruise control, so the bolt-on lock was my choice. Fox Shock review for my Yamaha Fazer - Here it is, right on Yamaha's website - "Front and rear suspension is fully adjustable for preload, compression and rebound dampening to help fine tune the ride." Now, they say nothing wrong here, as it is true that the suspension is fully adjustable. However, what Yamaha doesn't tell you is that the rear shock on my Fazer was designed to hold up someone the size of a supermodel. Formula One in Montreal 2002 - In June 2002, Montréal will play host to one of the Formula 1 races being staged in the world. A Formula 1 Grand Prix race has been held in Canada almost every year since 1967. The first-ever Canadian Grand Prix was run on Sunday, August 17, 1967 at Mosport Race Park, northeast of Toronto. Blast from the Past - Against my friends advice, I went out and bought a 1986 GSXR1100 that had seen better days. After about ten months of work it now has a new home. The journey to get there was quite interesting.... Hack! Sportbike with a sidecar! - I'll be straight about this issue - I had never given sidecars a second thought. Yes, I would see them on the street occasionally and while they looked neat I just moved on. But now, they have really captured my interest. I was looking for another way to enjoy motorcycling, and sidecars seemed like a diversion that would give me an entirely different perspective on the sport. Sportriding really lost the luster for me, and sidecars seemed like just the thing to re-ignite my old passions for riding. Test Ride! 2002 Ural 750 Tourist - After having too much fun with my FZ-1 sidecar combo, it was time to look at a dedicated sidecar machine. The Fazer is just too much fun to leave a three wheeler, and a true sidecar machine can be extensively tweaked to handle well and be easy to steer. These types of mods would ruin the Yamaha, and so the search was on for a new ride. Honda GL1500 Gold Wing Clean-up! - Three seasons with just a sidecar rig was quite enough. Don't get me wrong now - Tammy and I loved the machine, it was fun to ride and we always got waves and smiles from people who saw us on it but I was also very honest with myself after a few years.... It was a LOT of work! So, the hunt for a two wheeled machine that would be a great two-up weekend trip machine was on the radar, plus I wanted a radio so that really narrowed the search. One of my customers had this Wing on his floor for almost four years and after so haggling back and forth it now sits in my garage. Did I get a good deal? We are going to find out! Last updated
|
The Graphics And Text On This Site Are Copyright © 1996 - 2006