Studio711.com – Ben Martens

My bike is full of geeky engineering and technology. It’s going to take me a while to discover and understand a lot of it, but one immediately apparent gadget is the KIPASS (Kawasaki Intelligent Proximity Activation Start System.) It’s similar to the Prius key if you’ve seen that.

The basic idea is that the key always remains in the bike. There is a key fob that must be within 5 feet of the bike to turn the key or even take it out. I keep the fob in my coat. As soon as I walk up to the bike, I can start it without fumbling around for my keys. If the bike is turned on and leaves the radius of the key fob, the engine will shut off after about 10 seconds.

The system doesn’t really protect against theft because most motorcycle theft involves four guys picking up a bike and throwing it in the back of a truck. I’m also a bit concerned about locking myself out of the house since there is nothing stopping me from leaving with my house keys. Maybe I can get my house to unlock when I’m within five feet of the door!

I’m happy to announce that yesterday I enacted my own economic stimulus package with the purchase of a brand new motorcycle. It’s a 2009 Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS. The bike is classified as a “supersport touring” motorcycle. It’s based on Kawasaki’s top of the line ZX-14 sport bike but it has a few refinements to make it suitable for very long rides. The seating position is more comfortable, the windshield is bigger, it has a shaft drive instead of a chain, and there are bags on it. It has a 1352cc engine which puts out roughly 140hp. For those of you keeping track, that’s about 85% of the power that my Subaru has and it was less than a quarter of what my car does. Yikes! Needless to say, this thing is crazy fast. My Mustang ran the quarter mile in 13.9 seconds. This bike will do it in about 10.5 seconds. It provides all that speed and power while pampering the rider with smoothness, gadgets galore, and comfort. I compare it to a Bentley. It’s a ridiculous amount of power and luxury that no one really needs, but we all want it.

I got a few accessories with it. I ordered a larger windscreen since I’m a bit too tall for this one to work effectively (it raises and lowers electronically!) I also ordered a rear trunk for even more storage. I’m hoping that Tyla and I can take some weekend trips and have enough room to be comfortable. Each of the three bags will fit a full helmet with room to spare. This is a major upgrade from my last bike.

Thanks to Greg at Waldron Kawasaki for making this deal happen. They are fantastic people, and they have been doing maintenance on my Vulcan since I arrived in Washington. I chatted with a few of the dealers in the area, but they ended up matching my best offer and I was very happy to give them my business. Their service department is absolutely wonderful. It’s great to have a mechanic I can trust.

I picked it up yesterday after dark so I don’t have any good photos, but I have added some photos from my garage. The Vulcan was part of the deal so that is long gone. I have fond memories, but it’s hard to miss it much when I have this to ride instead. The first few trips will be part of the break in period but I look forward to really winding this up and letting it run. This will provide a lot of fun in the months and years to come! Are you ready to ride Tyla?

On Saturday morning, SimeonC and I headed to Qwest Fieldhouse the 2008 Seattle Motorcycle Show. I had never been before and I wasn’t expecting much, but I was very impressed. They had both areas of the fieldhouse and the upper level filled with bikes, accessories, and a trials bike show.

I enjoyed checking out some of the passenger to rider and rider to rider headsets that are available. Now that I ride with Tyla a lot, it would be really nice to be able to chat with her on the ride. I’m not sure if I’m going to get a wired solution or a wireless headset package, but I’m hoping to pick something up for next riding season.

The motorcycle dolly I built has been working very well, but I’ve been wondering how the new bike will fit on it. The new bike will be a bit taller and I think it’s a bit longer as well. I saw a great new product at the show called the Park-N-Move. You fold the center stand on the bike down onto this dolly. The bike then rolls in any direction. It rests on this dolly and the front wheel. At $199, it seems like a very simple solution and much easier to maneuver than my large platform.

And last, but not least, the main reason I went is because I wanted to sit on the bike I’ve been drooling over: the 2009 Kawasaki Concours 14. They had two of them at the show. Yes, I sat on both even though they are identical. In short, I absolutely loved it. I’m a big guy so I’m conscious about how I fit on bikes, but this one seemed to fit me quite well. I can’t wait to put this thing in my garage!

In 2004, a TV mini series was produced that followed Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on a motorcycle trip around the world. The documentary starts months before they leave and shows all the struggles of planning a trip of this magnitude and then follows them around the world. It’s an amazing story, and if you’ve ever ridden a motorcycle, chances are you’ll thoroughly enjoy this story. Apparently there is a book about this trip as well which I may have to add to my reading list. This show brings back a lot of memories on that little two day trip I took last summer down to Vancouver, WA. I’m super excited to get the Councours 14 next spring and take some longer trips!

While I had a blast on my Syracuse trip, I was a bit disappointed to miss this year's Oyster Run. It's a huge motorcycle rally up in Anacortes and this year they had over 30,000 motorcycles there!

Jeff Henshaw organizes the big rides that I go on and he got a group together for the ride up to the rally. If you've ever wondered what it feels like to be in one of these big packs of motorcycles, check out the video blow or go straight to Vimeo for the HD version. The rider on the back of his bike was holding a camera for part of the ride and while it doesn't communicate the full experience, it's a great start. I think these big rides are about over for this year, but hopefully next year I'll get to join up on a new pair of wheels.

The first half of this video shows the bikes loading up on a ferry and then riding up Highway 20 and over the Deception Pass bridge. The second half has some shots from Anacortes.

27th annual Oyster Run highlights from Jeff on Vimeo.

I forgot to add photos into yesterday's post about the ride, so here we go. Head to the Motorcycle gallery and look at the newest 10 photos there for a glimpse of what we were up to. There were so many great photo opportunities along the way, but we were having too much fun riding to stop!

The longest ride I've made in one day was around 400 miles. I didn't break my single day record this weekend, but it was the longest overall trip I've ever done and my first overnight trip.

As I mentioned previously, the ride started yesterday with Tyla and I taking a trip through Stevens Pass to Leavenworth and ending at The Gorge in George, WA. I was a bit nervous about taking her on a 220 mile ride, but she did great and was even comfortable enough to fall asleep for a bit. (Don't worry, it's not as unsafe as it sounds. Ask Laura. She does it all the time with Matt.)

On Saturday, I met BenH (from work), MattM and Dustin (one of Matt's friends) in Ellensburg. I was a bit nervous about our 270 mile day since I had zero sleep the night before. I grabbed a one hour nap while the three of them ate breakfast in Ellensburg. You know you're tired when you can pass out in laying on blacktop in an Arby's parking lot. That nap refreshed me and we took off on a gorgeous ride down Canyon Road to Yakima. The scenery on the east side of the mountains is so different from over here. I wish I had more pictures but I really felt like I was in a miniature Grand Canyon. If I dropped you there, you'd swear you were in the southwest somewhere.

When we hit Yakima, we headed west on Highway 12 which provided some amazing views of both Rainier and Mt. St. Helens at the same time. I also spotted Mt. Adams and what I believe was Mt. Shushkan. If you look at those on a map you'll realize what an incredibly clear day it was. Those mountains stretch from almost Canada down to southern Washington.

The highlight of the trip was definitely NF-25 and NF-90. They are national forestry roads and they were a complete blast to ride. I wish I had some device that measured how often my bike was upright (traveling in a straight line.) I bet we were in corners 90% of the time and those roads stretched for about 60 miles. It's highly recommended. Keep your speed in check though. Those roads are not well maintained and contain many many bumps and dips in awkward spots. When you're on those roads, it's easily two thirds motorcycle traffic.

The three other riders took a trip up and back to view Mt. St. Helens. This was about 1pm in the afternoon and I was feeling tired again. I let them take that little spur and I caught a great nap on the side of the road.

We stayed overnight in Vancouver, WA and had dinner at Red Robin (where else?) I was anti-social and went to bed early to catch up on some sleep. 11 hours later I was finally feeling refreshed and ready for the drive home.

We took much the same route home except we came up the east side of Rainier instead of going back through Yakima. Unfortunately we got a bit split up, but we all made it home safely. It was raining pretty hard by the time we got home, but if it has to rain, it's nice to have it happen when you're an hour from home.

All in all it was an incredible trip. I wish I had more pictures, but I was having so much fun driving down those roads that I didn't want to stop. A motorcycle was the perfect way to experience this trip. It made me even more sure that it's time to upgrade my bike. I even got to chat with someone at a gas station who owned the bike I want (2008 Concours 14.) We'll have to see what happens in my bank account but this might be in my future. That 720 mile trip would have been much more comfortable (and fast) on the Concours. My bike held up well though so I can't complain.

Thanks to all the guys for letting me come along and thanks to Matt for planning everything. I only have one question: where are we going next?!

I had an interesting conversation the other day where a lady talked about how driving around motorcycles made her nervous. I actually notice that some drivers do change their driving styles when I'm around them. Sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's bad. Next time you're near a motorcyclist on the road, here are some things to remember:

• The main thing is that if you get in an accident, you'll have to fill out some paperwork and get a loaner car while yours is in the shop. If we get in an accident, we die. Therefore, in any argument, the motorcyclists wins whether you like it or not. That's not to say the rider is always right, but you must give way and let them do their thing if you have the choice.
• Always use your turn signals and check your blindspots, especially if you know there is a motorcycle around. I know firsthand what can happen.
• If it's rainy, we're probably miserable and less happy than normal.
• Don't wash your windshield if we're following you.
• Don't flick your cigarette out the window if we're behind you.
• If you're on the interstate and there's a large convoy of motorcycles, try not to get in the middle of us. If you need to exit, just slow down and get behind us. Don't try to merge into the middle. And if you find yourself in the middle of a pack, kindly pull out and get in front of behind the pack. Don't make us all pull out and pass you one by one.If you're driving down a nice windy two lane road and there's a rider behind you, slow down and wave us past when it's convenient. I'm way faster than you in the corners and I'm probably driving that windy road for the enjoyment of the corners.
• If I turn on my turn signal to merge in, back off. I can fit in just about any spot and I will whether you give me room or not. I can't count the number of times that I turn on my signal to squeeze into a spot, and when I finally do squeeze in, the driver slams on their brakes like it was a surprise. My bike is small. I use that to my advantage. Deal with it.
• I don't care how big your muffler is, you can't race me. My bike does not have a huge engine and I ride a cruiser instead of a sport bike, but I've still beaten Porsche's off the line. You can't compete with the horsepower to weight ratio.
• When following, leave twice as much space as you normally would. Few things make me more nervous than a tailgater. It's very dangerous. Besides, bikers have been known to have a stack of nuts attached to their bike which they will drop off behind them when a car is following too closely. You'll end up with a dent in your car or a cracked windshield.
• If you're waiting to turn onto a road and you see a motorcycle coming, look really hard before you decide to pull out. It's very difficult to judge the speed of the bike since there is only one headlight. Assume they are flying and if at all possible, just wait until they go past. As a biker, I really don't like following people and I always give a friendly wave to someone who waits a few extra seconds to let me pass before they pull out.

It's a lot to remember, and I know it's a losing battle. Even if there's one person on the road who doesn't understand these things, that's all it takes to get me hurt. As a motorcyclist, I assume that everyone on the road is out to kill me. It's a mentality that has served me very well so far. When you get on a motorcycle, you quickly gain sixth sense of knowing who the bad drivers are and predicting their poor choices.

Ultimately it's my responsibility to manage my own risk level, but you can help us out by paying extra attention when we're out there. Thanks!