RiderX

The Bicycle

Jul 032011

While I have been riding the motorized bikes this year, I’ve been bicycling also. It seems that every few years I get on a bicycling kick. I ride a lot for a month or six weeks. Typically I wind up hurting myself and then backing off. This year going to be different?? I hope so. I’ve been the bicycle to work from Phoenixville to Limerick a few days a week. On the weekends I’ve been hitting one of the many local trails. One downside of this much activity is that I’ve been needing more sleep. Typically I get 6.5 – 7 hrs. The last week of heavy activity I’ve easily needed 8.5. I believe it will even out once I acclimate to the increased activity level.

On my rides to work, I’ve been taking the newly opened leg of the Schuylkill River Trail. It goes north towards Postttown from the hamlet of Cromby. Gravel rather than paved it runs through a relatively industrial feeling area north of the coal power plant. It follows an abandoned rail bed of the Pennsylvania Rail Road, last operated by Conrail. I’ve only ridden it from Cromby to Bridge St in Spring City, a paltry few miles. I then take Bridge into Royersford up to Ridge Pike.

I’m enthusiastic about the number of bicycling trails I’m finding. There are far more than I realized. I typically find them by either looking at google maps, or looking at map detail tags in openstreetmaps. It’s turning me into a bit of a map dork.

If I can summons the energy, I may ride one more time today. If not I’ll absolutely take a ride tomorrow. Quite probably from home, I’ll take the Schulykill River Trails to the park and then go 23 back to Phoenixville. (map).

Gathering of the Nortons

Administrative, Motorcycles Comments Off

Apr 252011

The Delaware Valley Norton Riders 18th annual Gathering of the Nortons, Washingtons Crossing Historic park was Sunday 4/17. Sure we’ve all been riding here since the thaw, but this event signifies the true beginning of the riding season. There’s a breakfast hosted by a one fo the Philadelphia Riders, and typically I go. But this time I decided to design my own route that and not scramble and slab it to the breakfast.

My The route can be seen here. I’m still trying to work out a better way to show/ share my GPS tracks. For now we’ll deal with OSM GPS tracks. The gathering was nice. Always a good collection of bikes. I don’t recall if I went last year, but this is the furst year Duffner was not, that I can recall. He passed this year. His Vincent was a bike to see for sure. Ran into some folks I’d not talked to in a while. Ran into others suggested rather unconvincingly that it was nice to see me. Eh… So about 12:30 I rolled out and headed for some domestic duties in Pottstown.

Sunday Ride

Motorcycles No Responses »

Apr 102011

The plan was to catch up with some of the guys from the Philadelphia Riders. I woke before dawn and didn’t want to wait to start riding. So about 30 or so minutes after sunrise I hit the road. The route? Loosely thought out. I’d go 143 up toward Hawk Mountain and then peel east and south back down toward home. Turns out it was only about 114 miles, 3.5 hrs, at a whopping average speed of 33 m/h. Old age becomes me.

The start of the ride took me through some familiar roads near the Limerick reactor. The number of cars in the parking lot struck me as high. I ride past the place regularly, don’t ever remember there being as many cars in the lot. Likewise, when I came to the stop sign at Evergreen Rd and Sanatoga Rd, a semi courteously waved me past the intersection. As this was happening, I noticed a materials sign on his front bumper. It said “radioactive”.
The truck didn’t appear to be any different from any other truck. I’d kinda expect trucks carrying radioactive payloads to be escorted, or at least look like a rolling Fort Knox.

Some good information came from this ride. The bridge over Maiden Creek in Vriginville has been completed. No more temporary bridge. This is kinda nice. I think that bridge had been closed since the mid 90s. Google maps still has areal photos of the incomplete bridge.

I also had a pretty nasty stop sign miss way out in the middle of nowhere near Fleetwood. The intersection of Keller Rd and Blick Rd is home to a four way stop and a very, very badly placed stop sign. My GPS trace show me approaching the intersection at 34 mph. As entered the intersection I saw the stop sign, and quickly surveyed the scene. A four way stop, and no traffic. Whew. I pulled off for a hot minute, shook my head and went about my business. These things happen.

All in all one of these great meandering rides on roads both open and tight, technical and non, clean and still graveled from the winter months. I’m clearly off my game because from only 3.5 hrs of riding I was beat and ready to get off the bike. Gotta get into better shape for these things.

If you’re interested in the GPX, have it is on OSM, here, on a map here.

Will WSBK hold my interest in 2011

Motorcycles, Racing Comments Off

Feb 272011

The inaugural 2011 SBK race at Phillip Island was this weekend. I caught superpole and am going to watch the races here today. The SBK season begins about a month ahead of MotoGP. When MotoGP starts, I tend to have a difficult time keeping finding the time to follow both series. My interest in motorcycle racing has been slowly growing since around 2000 but has ramped up considerably since 2007. If you follow racing for any period of time you’ll have interest in riders that move between series. This is primarily where my SBK interest resides.

In short, I hope I can maintain my interest level in SBK. It’s a great series that with terrific racing. The coverage is lacking some of the quality of MotoGP coverage with the helicopter and on board cameras being the major aspects I miss. I’ve been hearing that the on board camera is likely to emerge in SBK. I’m not holding my breath. We’ve been hearing this for a few years now.

So I’m off to watch the Phillip Island races here. With any luck I’ll walk away from this race weekend with a keen commitment to SBK. The real test will be when GP begins.

Chip Yates Electrics

Motorcycles, Racing Comments Off

Feb 262011

There is a lot of activity in the electric bike arena right now. Mission R, Moto Czysz, Brammo, and the SWIGZ bike being developed by Chip Yates. Two recent interviews with Yates on the motopod pod cast can be found here, and here. They’re both fantastic and inspiring. Jim Race engages covers a lot of what Yates is up to and it’s amazing. His story is worth knowing. He’s a late starter in motorcycle racing and has undertaken a development project to build an electric racer which will hang with the gas bikes. The results are an impressive bike that’s as fascinating as it is difficult to look at.

There are several aspects of the project that I’d like to highlight. The first is the surprising level of support he’s getting. While Yates is clearly putting gobs of his own money into the project he has sponsorship. The good folks at Infineon raceway were good enough to help out with track time. Ohlins, Yoyodyne, and Swift Engineering are all on board as sponsors as well. It’s refreshing to see names like that on board an independent project. It nice to see the support.

Another interesting tidbit is how the bike has been excluded from many of the electric race series. According to the interview with motopod, Chips bike is the only major project excluded from these series based on a weight limits. Yates seems to have been emboldened by this happening. He’s put it behind him and has put is focus on beating gas bikes.

It’s clear that the man is driven. His level of devotion and the results are an inspiration.

Some resources worth checking out are:

A gizmag article from December, 2010
The motopod interviews mentioned above, parts one and two
Chip Yates debuts his electric motorcycle at Fontana
Test at Infineon
Chip Yates Electric Superbike 2010 Program

And because it’s just so super cool, here’s a video of him competing in a WERA heavyweight twins race.

Bing using Google’s results? Nice….

Administrative Comments Off

Feb 052011

A coworker passed this on. I thought it was interesting enough to pass along further.

Apparently, Google has determined that Bing is recycling their search results. I guess
the decision engine decided their search algorithms kinda blow.

http://goo.gl/Bi0JH

April 17 18th Annual Gathering of the Nortons

Motorcycles No Responses »

Jan 232011

Yep, just announced. Check the web site for the Delaware Valley Norton Riders if you don’t believe me.

Generally this is a really, really great event. Be there.

The Kutztown University DMZ hot spot

Nostalgia No Responses »

Jan 232011

My home is heated by oil fired hot water baseboard heat. In the upstairs hall way there is a warm spot on the floor where I presume the hot water pipes are close to the floor. Each winter I walk over it my bare feet detect heat I’m thrown back to my college days.

If memory serves me, it was right about here (40.508530, -75.782007)‎. A campus heating steam pipe warmed a concrete walk way. Heated enough that during winter months you could go out there and sit in shorts and bare feet. On several occasions I would run from JB White House to the hot spot in bare feet despite there being snow on the ground. Once you on the hot spot warmth and comfort abound. Many an unmotivated student hung out on that hot spot at all hours of the day and night. Good times they were. Most of the folks I met on the hot spot didn’t last too long at Kutztown. The quality time they spent lounging in the wasted heat of the university heating system should probably have been spent studying. Generations of kids probably hung out on this spot. As far as we were concerned we’d found it. There were none before us, and certainly non after us. The hot spot was “fixed” when the steam pipes were replaced on that area of the Kutztown campus.

When the steam pipes were replaced, the hot spot was no more. I pretty quickly lost contact with the dozen or so regulars that I’d become accustomed to hanging out with. We attempted to hang out sans our thermal anomaly. It didn’t work out. Our commonalities didn’t extend beyond a wistful desire to spend aimless time hanging out in a neutral. I found most of the folks and I didn’t share any commonalities much less my affinity for computers and bad poetry.

Still every winter when we turn on the heat and I unwittingly detect a wam spot in my upstairs hall way I’m taken back to those great few semesters I got to hang out on the KU DMZ hot spot. Good times, good times.

Hermy’s Valentines Day Open House

Motorcycles No Responses »

Jan 232011

Hermy really knows how to be hospitable. While his loccation can be tough when there are big crowds, it’s well worth hitting this up. Highlights of this event look to be a smooth riding seminar as well as a Shoei and HJC helmet seminar.

From their facebook page:

Hermy’s BMW & Triumph ‎~ Save The Date!!! ~ Hermy’s Valentines day Open House, Saturday February 12th, 2011 9am – 4pm ~ 20% off in-stock Parts, Accessories & Apparel ~ Breakfast starts @ 10 ~ The Riders Workshop – The Art of Riding Smooth presented by Jim Ford starts @ 12 ~ Following the workshop there is a Shoei & HJC Helmet Seminar w/ Heath Rooney of Helent House – covering helmet features and fit….Hope to see you there….!!!