Motorcycle Racing and Riding

The little guy will show up around 2:03. Either skip to there, or watch the whole video. Matt Osman rides really well here: smooth and over 100 km/hr (60 MPH) in some corners. It’s a good video with or without the gecko, so I would vote for “watch the whole video”.

I used to catch geckos and pretend that they were my pets when I was a kid in Florida. They can see quick movements from pretty far away. It’s likely that he is experiencing the movement visually. That said: obviously I have no idea what it actually looks like to a gecko.

Vernice Miller, a Gold Wing rider that we know from facebook, sent us information about Wide Open Motorcycle Magazine’s Bike Show. We don’t have experience with this show, and we doubt the roads will be clear enough to ride in Kansas City, but go ahead and go. What else is going on motorcycle wise this time of year? (I know, I know, for those of us with garages the name of the game is “maintenance”.)

Here is what Vernice said about the Kansas City show:

“This weekend, January 9 and 10, is the Wide Open Bike Show at Metropolitan Community College Exhibit Hall, Prizes including cash, gas, Sturgis trip & H-D bike, 1775 Universal Ave, Kansas City, MO, 800-792-9029. There are 27 categories and is sponsored by Gail’s Harley at Grandview, MO., Wide Open Magazine. This is a…”

January’s http://www.wideopenmag.net/ entry tells us that the shows are “family friendly” (and kids under 12 get in free), a “resounding success”, and that one person at each show will go home with a Harley Davidson Super Glide! It appears that they may also include indoor biker games. Read January’s http://www.wideopenmag.net/ entry for more information.

For more information please call: 800-792-9029 (copied from the poster below).

This fun music video is called Dray / Zabanov / lead “Dude on Gold”. The description’s translation is “Amazing Dude goes to the GOLD!”, and yes, I think that it’s great, even though I only understand one word in the whole video.

I don’t know Russian, but I imagine (this is where I make stuff up), that the woman is either asking the dude if she can have a ride on his Harley-Davidson, or saying, “I thought that the Wolf Brothers MC only rode two-wheeled Urals?” To-which he replies, “No, but the Ural | Wolf is named after the Russian Night Wolves MC.”

The Russian comments on the YouTube page are the usual Gold Wing = car, and only old people ride Gold Wings. The fact that such an amazing bike gets the same negative responses regardless of the language and culture barrier proves that people all over the world are unable to recognize excellence. Folks on Gold Wings lean just as far at a given turning radius and speed as everyone else does. Why people would assume that a more comfortable seat all of a sudden makes the bike less of a motorcycle is something that I will never understand. What are your thoughts?

This is an amazing video where a person, wearing a suit full of skate wheels, rides down an alpine pass while lying down. Bill Cleghorn over at the [SV/DL Riders] Google Group shared the video with us. Is it real? I don’t know. I assume so.

The site that hosts the video is not appropriate for children, but the video itself (below) is OK for all audiences. You can always share a link to this post, instead of the hosting site if that’s an issue.

The video takes a moment to load. The first time that I ran it (from both this page, and the [SV/DL Riders] page) it appeared to not be there, but then it was.

Have fun!

I keep trying to tell my wife that I can get her motorcycle fixed if there were more space in the garage. This video even demonstrates that motorcycles will build themselves if only you give them enough space, and they get it done in under 5 minutes (with a minimum charge of 1 hour labor). Video by iamthenoah on YouTube. Link found on MotoRaceReports’ facebook feed.

VisorDown.com has the following image for it’s caption competition. My entry? “DMG AMA Pro Racing has announced the use of a pace car in AMA Pro Wall of Death Racing.” Yeah. It’s like that. Clicking on the image, or the above link will take you to the contest.

DMG AMA Pro Racing has announced the use of a pace car in AMA Pro Wall of Death Racing.

MotoGP.com has a Fantasy MotoGP 2009 prediction game here. 2008’s winner, Willem from noord-Brabant in the Netherlands won a Shinya Nakano replica helmet. 2009’s winner will get a JogRR MotoGP official paddock scooter. This game has you picking the top 15 finishing positions each race.

Dainese shares a lot of fun stuff on their Web sites: and English is an option.  Dainese’ fantasy MotoGP game is called: D|CHALLENGE.  Each player chooses the top-5 for each MotoGP race, and is awarded points based on the results.  Winners may be given coupons to redeem at Dainese’s DStoreOnline.  The images of the coupons look like racer-denomination Euros; the Rossi coupon is worth “46″ euros, and has his face on it, for instance.

Dainese has an online Flash application called “My Valentino’s Face“.  Remember Valentino Rossi’s 2008 Mugello helmet?  It was the one with his face on it.  “My Valentino’s Face” is where you go to design an AGV-brand helmet just like that, but with your own face.  There is a “Buy your helmet” link there.  You can actually purchase the helmet with your face on it.

These links are US, and English Language specific, but other countries, and languages can be chosen from each Web page:

• DStoreOnline Catalog for Motorcycle Riders (Dainese sells non-Motorcyclist sports equipment also)
• D-Club: this page links to D|CHALLENGE and “My Valentino’s Face”.  It also has five other “Coming Soon” links. The D-Club link for “My Valentino’s Race” actually goes to “My Valentino’s Face”.