Girls do it better?

Gilmore Vintage Motorcycle Trip.

Had a blast this last weekend riding out to the Gilmore vintage motorcycle show with PJ. The ride out was perfect minus a few missed turns. North Territorial Rd is pretty fun once you are past Ann Arbor.













We took in the sights around the lake and chomped some bomb ass brats that PJ's folks cooked us up.

 

The Sunday the Gilmore show awaited us. Probably the most bikes I've ever seen in one spot and this was just one of the 3 parking lots.

Lots of classic Brit and Jap bikes in the show itself were much better sight than the sea of HD Baggers and Goldwings out in the parking lots.

I'd definitely make the trip again.

Scala G9 Reviewed

A couple of weeks ago I picked up the Scala Rider G9 Power Set. The G9 is a really cool but complicated little gadget that lets me run my GPS, iPhone, and music all into my helmet without wires. Oh and you can use it to talk to other riders up to a mile away...

Opening the box after picking up the 2 unit power set I was greeted by enough cords, mounts, and adhesive pads to connect the units to just about any helmet. I then tore the padding out of my Icon Variant helmet and used the adhesive mount to adhere the G9 to the helmet (there is a clamp as well if you don't want it permanently on your helmet). After that it was just a matter of snaking the wiring for the 2 speakers around the helmet and sticking the speakers on. That, however is right where the easy stops.

 The pairing process extremely complicated with hooking up my GPS and iPhone. I'll spare the details but it was way too hard and took a couple of phone calls to get things in order. However if you use the G9 with just one device its fairly simple to connect. The sound on the G9 is good and the speed sensitive auto volume is great. This is nice because finding the volume button is hard once the helmet is on and the G9's 6 buttons aren't visible. Also Each of these buttons have multiple features depending on how long you hold them (pretty damn complex for riding in traffic). Luckily there are a few voice commands you can make to get to the majority of the features.

On to the good...

 Music through your phone or GPS is great and the FM radio seems to be pretty good as well. All you have to do is pop on you helmet and start you music. No more fiddling with headphones before and after each stop on a long ride. The communication system works great too. Clean Cut and I tested it out on the last ride in intercom mode. Intercom mode is like talking on a phone where no button push is needed to page the other rider. Up to 4 riders can talk this way with the G9. In the other mode up to 9 riders can talk by paging the other riders in the group. Another cool feature is that the unit auto interrupts the conversation or music when a call or GPS directions come through.

The G9 is about $290 for one unit but the system is backwards compatible with the G4 which has less features at $220.

All in all its a pretty sweet device with a pretty steep learning curve that I am slowly climbing. Devices like the G9 would make long rides much easier to coordinate directions, stopping points, and recovery of lost bike parts on the expressway. I'm looking forward to another rider to chat up on a long ride or to hit the best feature on the G9 the mute button...

Gay Paris

The Parisian bike scene isn't all that hot. The town is crawling with scooters instead. Every once in a while you'd see a Bonnie roll by if you were lucky, but most bikes you saw were sport bikes and the occasional oddball Parisian trying to be different by rolling on a loud Harley. Respect to those guys. But yeah, there are scooters every fucking where. And the worst thing is that they're modern 3-wheel scooters. Sick. 

Anyway, I did find this one gem. See the above pics. This guy did a lot to this bonnie. 

Some stuff I noticed: shortie front fender, no rear fender, mini front and rear turn signals, blackened headlamp casing, new exhaust and mufflers, different front foot pegs, blackened rear shocks, some custom engine cases, monza gas cap, custom decals, blacked-out Triumph badges, new seat, new gauge, new fluid reservoir cover, blackened triple tree, new mirror, clip-ons, new grips (I think), it might be lowered, and the whole thing was painted a matte black. Bravo to this chap, whoever he is. 

Ace of Spades

Best person to visit it with, of course.

The other pilgrimage I had to make in England was obviously to the legendary Ace Cafe in London.

Thankfully my travel companions accompanied me without complaint. We took a train for about a half hour to the northerly outskirts of London and made it to Ace Cafe in the late evening. We walked out of the train station and started seeing metal motorcycle cut-outs of vintage cafe racers lining the sidewalk every 50 feet or so. The two-dimensional cut-outs were pointing the way to the holy moto-grail.

I was super stoked to see it, and to see a bunch of bikes and a bunch of great classic cars parked outside on a random weeknight. I felt right at home.

We walked around the outside and I took some pictures on my iPhone. I really dug the old Jensen cars people had brought. We admired some Jags, Mercs and Rollers. Obligatory Minis and Austin Healeys.

Then we got inside. It rules in there. Very down to earth. Exactly what you'd expect, only surprisingly their menu had some fake meat options for us of a gentler persuasion. We had eaten dinner, so I didn't indulge, but I did have the world's worst milkshake. I kid you not it was inedible and unbelievable. It was just like a glass of white milk with a dollop of ice-cream in it, and a teaspoon of cocoa powder. I watched her "make" it. I know she was doing something and pulling levers and shit, but this was the worst excuse for a chocolate milkshake I'd ever encountered. So I ordered a sticky toffee pudding and that was amazing. 

It's definitely very Rocker in there. But the cool thing is that they don't cater exclusively to old codgers on Norton Commandos with greying pompadours. The bike scene is very diverse. Lots of street bikes and some cruisers. It's not just a hang out for cafe racers. And it's definitely not just a hang out for bikers. Car nerds are just as welcomed. There's always an event going on. Every night there seems to be a different gathering, party, show, or happening of one type or another. It's sweet. A really cool place and it exceeded the hype for me. I'd love to go on a super busy night or a cafe night.

Of course, I picked up a shirt (not the generic one, though) and a pin. And I brought stickers back for the FSMC. So next time I see you take your pic of the stickers.

Triumph, and defeat.

Bitch, I'm from Detroit. Let me in!

We stayed with my uncle in Barwell, which happens to be minutes from Hinckley. So, one of the only sites on the whole trip I had planned on visiting was the Triumph factory. It was right on our doorstep, so why not. I checked the site for months and contacted them trying to get a tour of the factory, but to no avail. Ultimately, we drove up there and I pleaded my case to the kind security guards knowing fine well there was no way I'd get in. And I didn't. So I took some photographic evidence and then we went to look at some boats and feed the ducks.

Fine.

Sidenote: Barwell is where they build the might Noble. I didn't see any on the road, but it's a funny old world. Who would have thought Hinckley and Barwell would be producing the coolest motorcycles in the world as well as a 6 figure supercar?

These guys don't know rain like we do.

Still a neat video. Can't wait till we ride out!

Amazing Saves

Headache

No Helmet, No Care

Premier Snyder signed the Michigan no helmet law today. Now you can be "cool" like Rosie...