Don't mess with this man

I encountered this man east of Reno, just before the sun was down, on a recent road trip that I took on my recently purchased "couch", an 04 FZ1.

Despite the stern look on his face though, he was very nice and posed for the camera...

Ok, so he is not some red neck yahoo trying to chase me off his property, although that almost did happen to us a couple weeks ago on another trip.

It's Joe at the Supermoto races that were held at Reno Fernley this weekend, and the reason he is holding that gun is because he just got done starting off the 1 hour Supermoto team endurance race.

The start was done LeMans style which was refreshingly old school (is that an oxymoron?) and very exciting to watch. Here is a video of it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2I6NBVNx9YM

Make sure you turn up the volume. Sounds like a stampede when everybody running toward their bikes that are leaned against the wall, then jumping on them, kick starting the bike and then taking off like bats out of hell. Fun!

Brave Travelers

You all have read these great travel stories by brave people that we admire for doing it, and you dream about doing it yourselves, but never do.

See, there is always an excuse: no time, can't get off work, don't have the right bike, since what you *really* need is a BMW R100GS, KLR650, Harley, Goldwing, Big Tourer of any make or an Enduros bike, right?

But not Michael Lohr, seen in this picture: he has a 2006 Suzuki GZ250, and he just drove it up from San Diego past San Francisco and is now on the way back. He says he needs to take a break every 50 miles, but hey, he's on vacation, so no rush, and he is definitely having fun, so that's what's it all about!

So whatever you have, don't let yourself prevent from a road trip. Everything is possible, you just need the right mind set.

And there is a good amount of people doing it, seems like it's getting more and more, and some come by here, for an oil change, new tire or repair to keep going, and it's always fun to talk to travelers.

I have a soft spot for traveling. After all, that's what I was doing when I fell in love with San Francisco, and got "stuck" here, meeting a good man and opening my own business.

That's what I love about traveling. You just never know what's going to happen. Finding the sweet spot. The Serendipity Factor. I love the serendipity factor.

My next adventure: Mexico over Christmas. 4 weeks of going where the weather suits me. Too cold? Drive closer to the coast. Too warm? Let's go to the mountains.

I'll be sure to make lots of pictures to share with you. And if you know of a great hidden away place to go in Mexico, let me know? Thanks!

Air Filter Issue

What's smiling at you here is a Kawasaki air filter that is rotten. The missing portion was probably sucked into the engine.

Since that missing smile chunk is so warm and fuzzy it'll just burn and do not too much harm, but if you get into the dusties, with a smile like that, the dust is going the past of least resistance, right through that hole, and into your engine.

So washable air filters are pretty great as long as they last, but eventually they rot.

And paper air filters? They usually don't rot like that, unless a mouse gets to it (and I have seen that, but don't have a picture of it) and they can't be serviced, so when they clog, they look like this:

Another nice one from my bad bad air filter collection: you can see nicely how your air filter should and should not look like....pictures do speak more that words...

So no more words. This is a short one. Until next time...