Monthly Archives: October 2010

Episode 51: Free, and worth every penny

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Episode 51
October 31, 2010

Standard Podcast [ 1:48:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
This week, the show ran long and was rife with technical difficulties. Please try be patient with the audio quality.

Despite those issues with varying internet connections, Skype and audio equipment we interview electric drive experts Eva Hakansson and Bill Dube. Eva & Bill are the designers, builders and owners of ElectroCat, KillaJoule and KillaCycle. ElectroCat is the only fully electric bike to finish the Pike’s Peak climb. Bill & Eva give us insights on some of the newer battery technologies, charging and discharge rates and costs to operate the various types of e-drive vehicles. They also talk a bit about their plans for the future with their current bikes, and new and updated machines, including taking a run at several Bonneville records in the coming season. And they do all this while reconnecting dropped Skype calls. That’s talent and patience.

After talking with Bill and Eva, Chris & James talk about the newly announced CBR250R – Honda’s entry into either the beginner bike market, or the lightweight sport bike market… or something. Price will have a huge impact on the success or failure of this bike, and on what market segment it seems to fit into best. Bottom line – time will tell.

Scott Bolton weighs in on email to clarify Ben and Erik Bostrom’s place in racing in 2010 and 2011.

Remember, we’re looking for more voice mails about your planned trips for Spring of 2011! Tell us what you have planned – 484-748-0042.

Episode 50: One Year!

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Episode 50: One Year! [ 59:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This episode celebrates one year of The Pace Motorcycle Podcast.

I broke my jacket and got a new one, Scott sent us another clip, the big GS is available in black, black and more black and the FZ8 comes in any color you want as long as it’s black. Yamaha says you gotta put up or shut up if you want a Super Tenere in the States and Honda might bless us with a new adventurer tourer based on a smaller version of the VFR1200′s mill. Oh yeah… NEW CONTEST!

Beautiful Weekend to Ride!

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Paris Arkansas

This past weekend was one of those rare perfect weekends. The weather was about as perfect as it could get and I had a 3 day rally in the heart of Arkansas based out of the little town of Paris.  Well actually I had to work a 1/2 day but this rally was only about 250 miles away so it was about a 4 hour run. Most of my route was going to be either interstate or 2 lane straight roads so I took the interstate down and the 2 lane back home on Sunday. Great thing about this was that meant on Saturday I was going to get to ride the twisties of Arkansas all day long. 

This is one of the MSTA’s smaller rallies due to the fact that Paris only has one hotel.  However we take it over and it’s a nice size group to hang out and get to know the other riders.  We had a great cookout in the parking lot and kicked tires until late into the night.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and clear with just a slight chill that promised to become a beautiful warm day with a high of 81 and little wind.  Even with only 30 riders we broke into different groups depending upon riding styles and choice of route.  I had put together a short, medium and long route out to our lunch stop.  Our group chose the medium loop which was around 140 miles.  While we ended up being a pretty big group 16 total on 15 bikes with 5 of the 6 ladies on their own bikes.  After running the south 1/2 of 123 we take a break at Hankins Country Store and the Blue Mountain Deli which while closed on Saturday still makes a great place to stop.

Break at Blue Mountain Deli.

Then it was on east on 16, 27, 333 and a couple of other roads to our lunch stop which was on the Buffalo river and was aptly named Tater Bugs on the River.  A group that could not make the entire weekend had ridden down for lunch from St. Louis and a couple of the other groups from our rally showed up also.  We all take different routes but always end up at lunch about the same times.

Lunch at Tater Bugs on The River in Gilbert Arkansas

After lunch we decided to do a variance of one of the routes so that we could do the fun part of 123 from Mt. Judea south with it’s cimbing switchbacks.   Going back we broke into 2 smaller groups so that the faster guys could go play and the rest of us could just enjoy the ride.  Their route apparently was a little different than ours as they passed us about 10 miles from the hotel. 

After a beautiful day with great weather, no LEO’s and no incidents we had logged about 260 miles of twisties.  So it was time for the banquet and more tire kicking in the parking lot. 

The overlook on Mount Magazine

After a short ride south to go over Mt. Magazine to a local cafe for breakfast and then back over for the fun of it the time had come to point the bike west and head for home.  I will admit that I had a few sprinkles before I got home but not enough to hardly notice.  At some point on the way home my bike turned over 178k and I’m around 16k for the year.

I’m hoping to do a larger MSTA rally the weekend of Halloween down in the Texas Hill Country but that one will depend upon the weather since it is right at 500 miles down.

Episode 49: Triumphantly Honda!

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Episode 49 - Oct 17, 2010
Standard Podcast [ 1:18:48 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ok, this is the last week we rag on the VFR. Really. I mean… we’ll try. But seriously, the VFR is rumored to be getting a big trailie sibling. That’ll be interesting to see. Right?

We talk about how the EPA nerfs bench racing the ZX-10R, but the good news is no one will notice. I mean… who’s gonna wind that thing up that high, right?

Triumph continues to be Triumph, and this time they’re doing it with a cruiser – giving away thousands of dollars worth of touring upgrades to the Bonne America. Speaking of Triumph, James talks about his test ride on the Sprint GT and by the sounds of it, one is headed for his garage soon

Suzuki gets tricky with pricing on the GZ250, their entry level cruiser-esque bike. Looks like they’re blowing out old stock.

Did we mention Triumph? ‘cause we get to see pictures of the upcoming 800 twin in its dirty clothes. Look out F800… The Tiger’s got its eye on your lunch!

Guzzi updates the Norge/GT with suspenders and an engine update. Is this the first of the “full line revamp” we talked about a few weeks ago? Or is this maybe Guzzi parts-binning some updates on it before a big change…? Stay tuned. Great things could be headed our way from Carlo’s legacy.

We’ll depress you with crappy sales numbers, then lighten the mood with helmets, pictures and contests. We’re like your cranky bipolar uncle, like that.

Colleen gets the nod for the tool kit contest, with Sara getting a runner up mention. Rock on Sara! Craig… loved your kit, but hey… Barbie box. ‘nuff said.

Stay tuned for more contest news, product reviews and more news about the upcoming video offerings. Big things in store!

Tool kit pictures.

Colleen’s winning kit:

barbie box

Colleen's Barbie Box toolkit

barbie open

Colleen's Barbie Box tool kit opened up

barbie tools

Colleen's Barbie Box tool kit ready to use

Sara’s runner up tool kit, rock hammer and all!

sara's tool kit

Sara's joke entry, complete with rock hammer!

Episode 48: Loaded up in the wrong gear

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Standard Podcast [ 1:27:03 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, fresh off the PodCamp Philly afterglow, Chris & James talk about Kawasaki. Some little bits of news… new bikes, awesome bikes, fast bikes, powerful bikes, pretty bikes… you know, more of the same old same old.

There are a few other things, too… like a four wheel motorcycle that seems to make far more sense than the Tomahawk, a naked Gixxer, a sport-tour dressed Bandit breaks into the US market place.. wait, wasn’t Suzuki out of business last year?

Those whacky Germans join the lid race in the US – Schuthbert comes back not only with helmets, but with a whole factory! Right here in the US of A! Madness, I tell you! Chris is still convinced this is the harbinger of great and wonderful things – that the US will finally see motorcycles as something more than hooligan toys. But James and his pesky reality squash those dreams.

Oh… there’s some Kawasaki news, too.

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Tool kit contest pictures

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Get those tool kit contest pictures in before 10/10/10!

To give you an idea of what we’re looking for, here’s my kit. I used a RoadGear tool roll and replaced most of the OEM tools with better quality stuff, then added things that I know my bike needs and that would make most road-side repairs easier. This includes a ratchet, a selection of the right sizes of sockets, some hex-head sockets, pliers, wrenches, wire cutters, screw drivers, etc.

Tool roll, closed up

Tool roll, closed up

Tool Roll, opened up

Tool Roll, opened up

And for good measure, here’s a link to the Road Gear tool roll…

http://www.roadgear.com/Accessories/Bike_Maintenance/Sport_Touring_Tool_Pouch/

Episode 47: We’re not that pretty

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Standard Podcast [ 1:41:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the immortal words of Jed Clampett “Weeeell, doggies!” have we got a show for you this week. Of course we do. We have a show almost every week. This week, however we open with a contribution from someone who actually know stuff about stuff we don’t know all that much about. Then we talk about a whole bunch of Kawasakis including a potential partnership with Bajaj and KTM. We’ll talk about a couple Italians and there are leaks-o-plenty from Triumph and BMW. My bike lost it’s spark, Chad’s prizes are on the way and we have an announcement or two.