So the only real motorcycles news this week has been the various MotoGP and World Superbike teams announcing their official line-ups, news that has been known unofficially for months now. Ho-hum, its a slow news week.

There have been a couple of items in those announcements that I think deserve a quick “word up”.

First, the Xerox Ducati World Superbike team of James Toseland and Regis Laconi where announced today with a big webcast splash. Same team, same riders, yawn. But Ducati does deserve the credit for having cultivated a multi-year sponsorship agreement with a company that is neither involved in the motorcycle market nor part of the tobacco/alcohol money monster. With worldwide political pressure steadily restricting tobacco and alcohol advertising, those companies which have historically propped up the bulk of motorized competition, are scaling back their support. For Ducati to bring in Xerox as the title sponsor of their World Superbike effort (Xerox was already involved with Gary McCoy’s privateer team in 2004) is something worthy of a news splash. Better yet, Ducati is showing continued success at bringing in outside money since they have had Fila and Sony as their title sponsors in the past. Lets hope the other World Superbike teams can have such success. That outside money is the holy grail of both race teams and race series and an infusion of dough is something all series could use to help them grow.

Its not just in WSBK either. Gone are the days when big cigarette companies virtually funded Grand Prix racing. Ducati still has Marlboro money and the Yamaha teams still have their Fortuna/Gauloises backing but its rumored that Yamaha may run self-sponsored machines in 2006, partly at Rossi’s insistence since he *hates* tobacco sponsorship. Oddly enough, Rossi has no such problems with alcohol money, since his favorite sponsor is Italian beer company Nastro-Azzuro. Anyway, there is bright news in the MotoGP world as well, as Makoto Tamada will be sponsored by Minolta this coming season. Just as with WSBK, having a company not traditionally associated with motorcycles willing to fork out cash to a team means the sport’s growing in status. If other companies can successfully court big companies, they may yet weather the bad financial times that have been forecast when tobacco sponsorship dries up completely.

Bravo to Honda and Ducati for leading the way…

[image from Ducati web site.]

I posted recently about my quest for a new GPS. Well, this has led to another round of bike modifications since I hope to power my new toy off the bike’s 700 watt alternator rather than a steady (and expensive) diet of AA batteries.

My Beemer came with two Powerlet jacks or perhaps a better term is receptacles. What, you might ask, is a Powerlet receptacle? Funny you should ask…BMW (and some other European manufacturers) decided to go to a standardized connector for electric accessories such as heated clothing and optional factory accessories like GPSes, portable music and the like. The Powerlet connector looks like a half-sized cigarette lighter adaptor but with a more pointy ‘male” connector. In the US, there is a psuedo-standard for DC wiring with the two prong SAE connector but since BMW isn’t American, they have never heard of SAE. So, back to the story. My BMW already has two Powerlet receptacles (the “female” portion of the adaptor) so both the rider and passenger can use electric clothing. If I add another electronic device to the bike like a GPS or MP3 player, I’d like to have a Powerlet adaptor cable and an available Powerlet receptacle to power it. Additionally, since the BMW uses Powerlet, it makes since to either install Powerlet adaptors on my other bikes or build SAE-Powerlet adaptors.

Thus I have been spending money left, right and center to accomplish this job (fortunately, the parts are relatively cheap…). First and foremost, Powerlet themselves may well be able to make this month’s building lease payment thanks to my obsessive nature. I’ve been buying male connectors, female connectors, 90 degree male connectors, inline fuse blocks, “T” molex kits for the spade connectors on the back of the female receptacle, fancy drill bits for making holes to mount female receptacles, pre-drilled mounting plates and pre-made Powerlet kits with everything pre-built.

Second, Gerbing have made a few bucks because I wanted a new adaptor cable to go from SAE to Gerbing’s proprietary “coax” connectors. (Their connectors, by the way, suck bilge water since they come apart with the slightest pressure. You have to use shrink wrap to keep them together. If you end up permanently connecting them with shrink wrap why bother with a connector in the first place? Why do I give them money, I hear you asking…because their electric jacket liner is one of the great wonders of the world.) As long as I was giving them my credit card number I bought a real thermostat so no more on-off-on-off switch games while I’m riding. Whoo hoo, at least I’m spreading the wealth.

My riding buddy Todd gave me an old pair of old Widder Lectric-Heat electric gloves a few years back, probably to buy off his own guilt at having watched me crash over a cliff he led me to on my dirt bike or something. Anyway, he didn’t have the power cable, so I called both Gerbing and Widder in an attempt to cobble together something to power the gloves from my Gerbing jacket liner. Unfortunately, the Widder gloves are designed to be wired in series with their other electric gear where Gerbing’s gloves are wired in parallel with theirs. There is also the fact that the jacket liner is 12V where the gloves are 6V. Rather than melt my hands to the (already heated) grips on the BMW, I shelved that project. I could get a separate cable to power the gloves independently but that will cost $50. Then I’d have to add yet another Powerlet jack to power the damned things. Gerbing, on the other hand, sells their electric gloves for $130 and they work with the liner. Ixnay Idderway. Anyone want a pair of used Widder electric gloves?

Finally, I’m certain to be helping fund Garmin GPS R&D department’s budget once I get around to buying a new GPS. As if the purchase price of the GPS (and software) wasn’t enough, I’ll also be springing for some sort of handle bar mount and, naturally, the power cords and adaptors necessary to power the thing off a Powerlet receptacle. Cha-ching.

I don’t know yet if I’ll bother building adaptor power cables for the Rio MP3 player or the Chatterbox FRS intercom/radio unit. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it.

My current plan is to add two more Powerlet receptacles to the Beemer, both pulled directly off the battery with a separate 15A fuse. If I get really fancy, I may see if there is an unused terminal on the fuse block and wire it through there. More sano and easier to destroy major parts of the bike if I screw up. Oh wait, that wasn’t a reason… Both Powerlet receptacles will be installed up on the “beak” in front of the gas tank and below the instrument cluster. On the fancy R1150GS Adventure, there are two additional Powerlet jacks installed there from the factory…hummm…wonder if the R1200GS has those? Maybe it would be cheaper to upgrade the than to keep buying all these damned parts! In the meantime, I’ll have to hope the temperature in the garage gets above freezing at some point so I can actually install all this stuff!

[image from my photo archive.]

Last week both AOL and CNN have posted stories about how the average age of the victims of motorcycle fatalities has increased to now be 38 years old. Hmmm…this summer I will be turning….38.

Should I be worried?

Well, for whatever reason I’m not. First, there are a lot of different reasons why this statistic has changed over the years. The number of re-entry riders coming back to motorcycles after a long break (and driving the boom of cruiser sales over the past few years). Second, the popularity of “life style” shows which show how Real Men ride, party and live life on the edge. Third, the increasing number of large personal vehicles like SUVs which help stack the odds against riders. Add in the higher performance of bikes, the fact that medical science is helping people ride longer, the fact that the gathering and processing data is continually improving, and long list of factors I’m not even thinking of. Mix all this together and its obvious that more people are riding, more older people are riding and more people are probably doing stupid things like riding after drinking, riding bikes that handle like crap and ride bikes while wearing fashion statements rather than protective gear.

All that said, I don’t think I’m immune. I don’t have any particular bargain with the Grim Reaper to make sure we don’t meet until its on my terms. I do try to the manage the risks as I see them by continually taking motorcycle training courses, by wearing the best gear I can afford, by trying to make smart decisions about when to ride and when to leave the bike in the garage and by trying to maintain my bikes in the best way possible. There are also times when I consciously make the decision to take extra risks. I ride faster than is probably safe at times. I sometimes ride in conditions that aren’t ideal for two wheeled travel. I even ride with my buddy Todd which may well be outright crazy (I’m convinced he’s trying to kill me every time I get on my dirt bike around him!). But I try to balance risk taking with being fool-hearty.

Maybe 2005 will be the year the odds catch up with me but ultimately I believe the bulk of fatality statistics are driven by the exceptions of the motorcycling community. I’ll continue to do what I can to improve my odds while still enjoying everything I can get out of motorcycling. Hopefully I can then help the unpublished statistics of people riding motorcycles at an older and older age.

[image from my photo archive.]

Looks like two folks may be coming back from the brink of MotoGP extinction…

Rumors posted this evening on superbikeplanet.com hint that Kenny Roberts’ Team KR may have gotten a last minute miracle fromDorna, KTM and Michelin and will be able to run a one rider team for the 2005 MotoGP season. That one rider? Ex-Aprilia rider Shane “Shakey” Byrne. This means that one of GP’s eldest statesmen and one of its newest stars are still gonna be with us for another season.

It seems that Dorna, the rights holder for MotoGP, wanted another British rider in the series for 2005 to help satisfy the folks that agreed to pay for the five year television rights for the series in Merry ‘Ole. KTM presumably wanted to see their engine actually run in race competition and can’t fund their own effort with the Team KR frame they traded for an engine. Michelin wanted….uh….I have no idea. I can’t imagine what Michelin is getting out of this deal, unless they are committed to only provide their second string tires.

Unfortunately, they have already missed the first test of the season at Sepang and may well miss the second if they don’t get their act together quickly. Like WCM, these small teams need twice the testing of the big companies to be competitive and are only going to get half. That doesn’t bode well for MotoGP ever expanding their appeal beyond the established and well funded factories.

Still, if this rumor is true, it will be great to have TeamKR and Shakey around for another summer if only because of King Kenny’s “straight shooting” style and to have another underdog out there trying to stick it to the man.

[image from Shane Byrne web site.]

Its been a late night at work tonight, so not much time is available to put together a blog entry.

However, the news that has surprised me the most today, and probably the most shocking over the past few months, is that Honda and Mick Doohan have apparently parted ways.

Doohan, the five time world champion, was generally regarded as the greatest motorcycle racer in the world until Rossi came along. Not only was he completely dominant in the last two seasons of racing the brutally powerful two-stroke NSR500, he did so against competition like Gardner, Lawson, Rainey, Schwantz and Biaggi. The era in which Doohan reigned supreme was perhaps the most hard fought championships in the history of Grand Prix motorcycling.

Honda hired Doohan as the General Manager of their HRC racing organization soon after he retired from racing due to his leg injury at Jerez in 1999. Doohan was first hired by Honda in 1989 to race Grand Prix. 5 world championships in 10 years makes for an impressive career! What makes this so remarkable to me are two different aspects: First, Doohan and Honda are synonymous. The guy raced for them for 10 years, as been a high profile employee for a total of 17 years and won all five of his world titles while racing for Big Red. He was General Manager over HRC for the championships of Criville (’99) and Rossi (’01, ‘02, ‘03). What company would dare loose that marketing goldmine? Second, the Japanese in general and Honda in particular have a strong corporate history of life-long dedication to their employees. For Honda to take someone that high up the corporate chain off the payroll is very significant.

While I doubt that Doohan’s leaving will big a huge blow to the team itself (I think his roles were more administrative, and perhaps even symbolic, more than technical) it still shows just how desperate Honda is to get things turned around for next season. Then again, Doohan has always spoken his mind and was clearly impressed by Rossi. He repeatedly complemented Rossi’s 2004 performances on TV while criticizing Honda riders like Biaggi and Gibernau. Maybe that is what ultimately garnered him a pink slip.

I hope this isn’t the end of Doohan’s involvement in the sport. I’m sure he has enough money to comfortably retire to the Gold Coast of Australia (perhaps even enough to *buy* the Gold Coast of Australia) and never been seen again but that would be a loss to the sport as a whole. Here is hoping he’ll be back to help some other teams, to commentate or just to visit the paddock.

[image from Mick Doohan web site.]

I regularly complain about the seemingly rampant consumerism here in the US. It seems like everyone is generally focused on what to buy next, whether its new clothes, a new car, new toys or all the other things that indicate status and success in our society.

Despite my hippie ideals, in the interest of showing honesty and hypocrisy, I’ll admit that my own motorcycle obsession brings with it a certain amount of consumerism so ultimately I’m guilty too. Just a few weeks ago I posted a blog entry about looking for a new bike this summer and now I have a second example of this in that I’m ready to upgrade my ancient Garmin 12 GPS with something newer. Oh well, just color me an alpha consumer when it comes to bikes.

I have a few requirements for the new GPS:

1) Must have memory and downloadable maps, including European maps.
2) Must have a motorcycle mount available, preferably from Touratech.
3) Must have an external DC power option.
4) Must be usable both on a motorcycle but also handheld for hiking/geocaching.

Additionally, it will be a bonus if the GPS runs off generally available batteries like AA Nicads and I think color screens are usually easier to read that the black/white ones.

So far, I’ve only been looking at Garmin because I like the products I’ve seen from them in the past. I currently have the search narrowed down to four models: The Garmin GPS V, the Garmin 60CS, the Garmin 276C and the Garmin Quest. The V is an age old design and has become a standard in the motorcycling community but its also nearing the end of its life span. It’s block design is also not the best for hand held use. The 60CS is exactly the opposite in that respect, perfect for hiking but maybe not the best for mounting on the bike. However, it also is rumored to have a better antenna which is nice for both hiking and riding. The 276C looks to be the ideal motorcycle GPS but I need to check around to see if its price is really justified by it’s functionality. Finally, the new Quest seems to be a great compromise but its so new there aren’t many people with firsthand experience.

I have a motorcycle friend who works for Cycoactive in Seattle, so I’ll have to check with him to see what an actual trusted salesman has to offer on the subject. I hope to come to a decision soon so I get the new GPS in time learn it before heading to Spain in March. If you have any opinions about GPSes, please post a comment as I’m thankful for all the information I can get at this point.

[image from Garmin web site]

The 2005 MotoGP season officially opened this past weekend with a three day test at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit. Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Ducati and Kawasaki came to Sepang to start their winter testing program and see whether the off-season has resulted in improvements to the bikes or a step backwards.

The first impressions offer a couple of surprises and some confirmations of what was predicted. First, as expected, Yamaha has come out strong. Both Rossi and Edwards have been near the top of the timing chart, whether testing suspension, tires, engine or suspension changes. With both Yamahas running so strong, the other teams better take notice because last season Rossi carried his pre-season speed into the first race and blitz’ed ‘em all.

The first of the surprises was Ducati’s return to the top of the timing charts. Capirossi has consistently been the fastest guy on track, showing that Ducati may have found the way out of their engine/chassis/tire quagmire of last season. However, with teammate Checa injured, its hard to tell yet if this is a drastic improvement in the bike or if its just Capirossi riding harder than anyone else.

The second big surprise was Biaggi’s competitiveness considering his lingering leg injury. Despite walking on crutches in the pits, Biaggi has turned in lap times in the top five and within half a second of Capirossi. This bodes well for Honda’s commitment to build their 2005 RC211V around Biaggi (no matter how much this decision has been questioned by everyone outside, uh, Biaggi’s living room) since it means Biaggi can start developing the bike now rather than having Gibernau handle development duties for this first test. This is undoubtedly bad for Gibernau and probably for all the other Honda riders since none of them seem to have the same riding style as Biaggi.

A third surprise was the fast lap times turned in on the first day by both Suzuki riders. While they are still down on speed compared to the other teams, at least they haven’t taken a step backwards after having tuning legend Erv Kanemoto leave to help Biaggi and Hayden at Repsol Honda. It seems that Suzuki’s development cycle is still moving to slow too keep up with the competition but they are still improving and the two riders can put in fast laps when taking advantage of the soft Bridgestone tires and the bike’s excellant handling.

The final surprise was to see Barros as the fastest Honda rider for both days. Barros does have the advantage of being on the same bike as last year, something only Gibernau can also look forward to, and that has probably allowed him to work on going faster rather than adapting to a new bike. Bayliss and Melandri have to figure out how to ride a Honda, Tamada has to learn the Michelin tires, Hayden and Biaggi have to test the new parts for the 2005 bike but I thought Gibernau would have been the one to come out swinging. We’ll see if Barros stays fastest at the end of day three, which is when everyone puts aside some of the component testing and goes after fast laps.

While not a surprise, it was sad to see that Kawasaki didn’t immediately make a mark with their test times. After Nakano’s spectacular rides in 2004, there was always the hope that the smallest of the Japanese manufacturers would make another quantum leap and jump up to the Honda/Yamaha level this season. Perhaps the next few test seasons will bring about that surprise.

Also not a surprise, but equally sad to see, is that Team KR Proton still don’t have funding or a rider in place and thus weren’t able to make this first test. These test sessions are probably more important for these little teams than for the big guys, so missing this test will pretty much crush any chance that the KTM powered Proton will have a snow ball’s chance in hell at being competitive.

And finally, not a surprise at all…both Melandri and Xaus have already crashed.

[image from Ducati web site.]

Last week I commented on how dominant RC is already looking in the 2005 AMA 250 Supercross series and predicted he would run away with the series. Well, I’ll start this week off by talking about Kawasaki’s Ivan Tedesco and his performance thus far in the 125 series.

With three races in the bag, Tedesco is proving to be consistently fast. Like RC on the big bike, Tedesco has appeared remarkably smooth throughout the race weekends while still running a pace the other riders are having trouble matching. The major contenders thus far (Short, Hepler, Ramsey and Sipes) have had moments of impressive riding but always appear a little ragged. At this early stage in the series, I think Tedesco can comfortably run a pace that pushes the other riders to the ragged edge when they try to match it. As a result they are missing their jumps, running wide on corner entrance, loosing traction on corner exit or just plain crashing.

The 125 series has been so dominated by Stewart over the past few seasons that other talented riders have been just off the radar. It appears that Ivan is now showing he is deserving of that attention for this season and hopes to put his own stamp of dominance on the series for 2005.

While I don’t think the 125 series will be a Tedesco riding clinic, I do think he’s showing he’s a notch above the rest of the riders straight out of the gate. I hope the others can make the leap necessary to challenge him as it will make the 125 class a more exciting race class than the supposedly main event 250 “Carmichael show”.

[image from the MX web site.]

I’ve heard repeatedly the claim that the AMA Superbike series the best in the world. However, recent news about the British Superbike series (BSB) should prove that otherwise.

First and foremost, there is simply the size of each series. The AMA Superbike series currently has 9 events scheduled for 2005, seven of which are double header events, for a total of 16 races. The British Superbike series, on the other hand, will run 13 events and all of their events have two legs totaling 26 races.

The quality of the tracks could also be argued as a factor since three of the English tracks are truely world class (Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Donington Park) while only one of the US tracks currently hosts an international motorcycle race (Laguna Seca). New tracks in the US like Barber Motor Sports Park could help swing this difference but dropping a track like Virginia International Raceway from the 2005 AMA calender while keeping a track like PPIR isn’t helping the cause…

Both series have roughly the same number of registered riders (based on the assignment of race numbers) but many of the American riders are reserving a race number just to compete in a single race, either the Daytona 200 or the event on the AMA calendar that races at the same track as their regional race series. As a result, the number of racers at a single event in the US fills out the grid with more riders than the British but the British series has roughly the same number of riders when comparing how many race at every event.

But the largest difference for 2005 will be the depth and variety of their respective fields. The 2005 British Superbike Series has the best line-up they have ever had with at least 14 factory riders representing all five major manufacturers: Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Ducati. The AMA series has only 11 factory or semi-factory riders on four brands (Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati). The British teams also run a wider variety of tire brands (Dunlop, Michelin and Pirelli) where the US series is dominated almost completely by one (Dunlop with some second tier teams running Pirelli).

And the final nail in the coffin is the talent level of the riders. While no one can argue that some top US riders like Mladin, Duhamel and Bostrom could be world class riders there is really only two with with recent experience in a world class series: Kurtis Roberts and Neil Hodgson. The British series this year has become a home away from home for many ex-GP riders including Leon Haslam, James Haydon, James Ellison, Shane Byrne and perhaps Jeremy McWilliams as well. The list is even longer if you consider events like the Isle of Man and the Macau road circuit races as world class races, since BSB riders always dominate both events. Finally, the Japanese factories are even sending their star riders like Kagayama and Kiyonari to the BSB as a stepping stone before going to World Superbike or MotoGP.

The AMA Superbike series is a great series but it for 2005 I believe the British have the bragging rights for the strongest series in the world. I hope the AMA will soon regain the clarity in their own program required to raise the bar and hopefully return to the brilliance of being the national superbike series which leads the world.

[image from British Superbike Championship web site]