Ed

For the last day or so I have been doing double-takes when I open up my email folder, and see the title of the one from my parents: 

"Ed's Funeral"

Even though I know the sad reality, it still jars me. What? ED? There's a funeral for ED???!!

Ed Smith was a friend of ours for many years, the husband of my wife's best friend Pat. Since our daughter was born almost twenty-three years ago, they had spent a lot of time with us, even though they lived about eighty miles away, joining us for birthdays, holidays (they were the first non-family members invited to share Christmas with us), summer vacation excursions to Maine, and so forth. Ed was an important part of one crew who restored our barn and another crew which, a few years later, built our house. He did a lot of work for us over the years, helping with maintenance and upkeep, and kept my motorcycle collection running smoothly.

When I started "Team Mirage", the privateer motorcycle racing team I sponsored, back in the 1990's,  Ed was an enthusiastic participant, going to motorcycle races to see the guys we'd sponsored battle it out on dirt and on pavement. I remember riding with him and a small group of other dudes out to Ohio, to the Mid-Ohio race track, to see our racer Dale Quarterley dicing with the best of the AMA Superbike class… and I believe Ed was there the following year when Dale -- against all odds -- actually won that race. (Unfortunately, I missed that one!)

Ed loved motorcycles, and I think that was one of the things which drew us together when Jeannine -- who'd taught at a high school with Pat when we'd lived in Connecticut for two years -- introduced us. We both had Honda Gold Wings, and started riding together occasionally, sometimes as couples. One memorable ride took us up to the Shelburne Museums in Shelburne, Vermont, a fascinating place.

But the trip I remember most was not one that our wives went on (though they DID fly out to our destination to spend a few days with us), a twenty-three day excursion out to California -- San Diego, to be precise -- and back. As I recall, it was originally Jim Lawson's idea, and I think he was considering going out by himself, but for some reason the thought of a cross-country motorcycle trip got me fired up. (This was a couple of years after I had sworn off flying.) It ended up being seven of us -- me, Ed, Jim, Rob, Ken, Jay and Craig. I'd never gone on a trip that long, and I'll be honest -- I was more than a little nervous.

But it was great to have Ed along. He knew so much about taking care of motorcycles that I always felt that if we'd had mechanical problems with any of the bikes, we'd be okay. (We didn't have any breakdowns, fortunately.) But more than that, Ed was just a pleasure to travel with. Always up for the ride, even when he got some bad seafood in a restaurant in Utah. And he dealt with that by lying down on a strip of grass in a parking lot until the worst of the queasiness passed. That was Ed.

(Here's a photo from that trip, taken at the edge of the Grand Canyon. From left to right: Rob, Jay, me, Ken, Craig, Jim, and Ed. Notice that almost all of us are wearing long-sleeved t-shirts with the same design? That's something I did for the trip -- I thought it would be cool to give our group a name, and came up with "Digital Demons". Rob did the design work in consultation  with me, and we made the t-shirt, small travel bags, and pencils with the logo and artwork. Kinda goofy, but fun. And Ed was into it... though, the more I look at this photo, I think he must have cut the arms off his t-shirt... probably to get a better tan.)

On our return leg from California, three of our comrades decided they'd rather get home sooner than later, and left the group to head directly back to Massachusetts. But Ed stayed with me, Craig and Ken, as we perambulated north up through the Dakotas, into MIchigan and around the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. I'll never forget that trip.

We had many more good times in the following years with Pat and Ed, who watched our daughter grow up. They loved her, and she loved them.

Pat passed away about three years ago. Ed stayed with her, helping and supporting and loving her through her long illness, and then entered a darker world, one without his beloved Pat. But lately, he had found new happiness with his friend and co-worker Vivian, had lost some weight and started looking less stressed and lonely. These were great signs to those who cared about him.

And then a few days ago, I got a call from Vivian, who was crying. "Ed had a heart attack! He's on his way to the hospital right now!" And no more than thirty minutes later, a second call from her told us that Ed had died.

I -- we -- were stunned. ED?! I always thought the guy -- phlegmatic, strong, low-key and kind -- would outlive us all. I'd just talked to him on the phone the day before about a heating issue in my workshop, something he was planning on dealing with the following day.

Now we're just a few hours away from going down to Connecticut for Ed's memorial service. I still can't believe I am typing those words. It just seems so… wrong.

We'll miss you, Ed.

No --  we already do. -- PL

2010 Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Show at Look Park

This past Sunday, it was time for another display of vintage Japanese "iron" at Look Park in Florence, MA, and this time Steve Lavigne came down from Maine to join in the fun. He stayed with me, and in the late morning we rode to Williamsburg to hook up with Jim Lawson. It was a pleasant surprise to run into Mike Dooney there (even though Mike was not going to the show).



Jim, Steve and I headed down to Look Park, where we met up with Eric Talbot, who'd ridden in on his Triumph Scrambler, which he is progressively customizing. Then we started walking around and checking out the cool bikes.



One of the first bikes to catch my eye was this beautiful Kawasaki Mach 3, from the era when powerful multi-cylinder two-strokes ruled the road. I've never ridden one of these beasts, but maybe someday...



Not too far away from that bike were these two lovely little Hondas, a CL175 (also known as the "Scrambler" model) and a CB175 (the "street" version). I always lusted after the bikes in Honda's CL class -- I just thought those shiny, high exhaust pipes were so cool.



While we were walking around, three guys on immaculate Honda CB750's rode in and obligingly posed for the crowd.



It was a beautiful day and a fun display of cool bikes, and after heading off for lunch at a roadside joint in Haydenville, we tried to hook up with Mike Dooney to go out for ice cream, but, alas, he was not around. Jim, Steve, Eric and I did a bit of bike-swapping for a short ride before we headed home. I took Jim's Yamaha FJR1300, Jim rode my Honda NT700V, Steve piloted Eric's Triumph Scrambler, and Eric tried out Steve's Honda Fury. Here's a shot of Eric on that bike.



I'm looking forward to next year's show! -- PL

Fun with the helmet cam

Last week I finally got a piece of equipment I've been thinking about for a long time -- a helmet-mounted camera. I saw this particular model -- the "Contour HD" -- reviewed positively in a motorcycle magazine, and decided to try it out.

So far, I like it a lot. It's very small and light, and has simple-to-operate controls. And the quality of the video is excllent (although -- perhaps unavoidably -- the microphone in the camera picks up a lot of wind noise). You might not be able to see that from this example, as I had to reduce it in size and resolution to make it a feasible upload.



The video here is of a short ride on a local dirt road through some woods that I like to take occasionally, especially when I'm riding a more dirt-oriented bike than the street bikes I usually ride. In this case, that means my BMW 650. -- PL

More old photos

For the last five years or so, I've had a project which I've been promising myself I will do, and that is to scan all of the pre-digital camera photos that I have accumulated over the last three or four decades. I recently purchased a small photo scanner called the "Pandigital Photolink" and just started testing it out. It's very convenient and fast (I think it takes only about three seconds to scan one photo), but I'm not yet convinced it's the way to go. The quality is a bit shaky (of course, the quality of prints from some of those cheap film cameras back then is also pretty shaky), and the scanner has some annoying quirks, like not wanting to scan dark images (it tends to cut them off at weird spots). I'll have to do some comparison tests with a flatbed scanner to see if it makes sense to go that way, which would be a lot more complicated and work-intensive, but might give better results.

In any event, the reason I mention this is that in testing the little photo scanner last night, I grabbed a box of photos sitting next to my chair and pulled out a few to test with, and they brought back some nice memories.

Back in 1986, when we moved Mirage Studios from Sharon, CT up to Northampton, MA, my wife and I ended up living in a small apartment in Haydenville, a small town about seven miles outside of Northampton. I think we lived there for a couple of years before moving into the first house we bought in Leeds, MA.

It was while living there that Mike Dooney came for one of his visits (before moving here permanently a few years later), and here he is in my tiny studio in that Haydenville apartment.



If I remember correctly, Mike split his time during that visit between my place and Kevin's, and I'm pretty sure while he stayed with me he was helping to ink zombies (among other things) in issue #8 of the original Volume 1 TMNT comics.

Sometime in early 1987, with snow still lingering on the sides of the roads, Jim Lawson showed up at our apartment, pleased as punch with his new motorcycle, a Honda 700 Nighthawk.



Jim offered me a chance to ride it, and it just so happened that although I hadn't ridden a motorcycle or had a motorcycle license in over a decade, I fell just within the Registry of Motor Vehicles' time rules in this sense -- I could go in and renew my motorcycle license simply by taking a written test. If I had waited another two months, I would have had to go through the whole road test thing again.

So when Jim came up with his new bike, I got to take a spin on it, just around the neighborhood. But it immediately awakened the love of motorcycles that had been slumbering inside me for a decade, and within a few weeks I had bought a new bike, a Kawasaki KLR650. And I never looked back. Thanks, Jim! -- PL

Hey Eric!

Motorcycle + camera + almost Spring-like weather = fun

We had another very nice day here yesterday -- sunny and around 52 degrees. I was going to take the NT700V out again, but developed a craving for the Victory Vision (probably for its seat and grip warmers as well as its superior wind protection). The only problem was the fact that the space where I store most of my bikes during the winter always develops a large, compacted lump of icy snow which blocks the doors (it slides off the high roof and packs itself quite densely). I usually just wait until it melts.

But for whatever reason, yesterday I got obsessed with the idea of getting the Vision out on the road, so I spent about half an hour chopping, hacking and shovelling a just-wide-enough path through this snowpack, and managed to get the Vision out without falling over or getting stuck. Here's a photo of said path (taken the following day, so a little of it has melted).



So after a short bicycle ride in Northampton with my friend Rick, I headed up to Shelburne Falls to grab a coffee and a pastry at McCusker's, followed by some wandering around taking photos. I always like looking at the "Bridge of Flowers" in Shelburne Falls, ever when it's out of season and aboslutely nothing is flowering. It's still a beautiful bridge. Here's a little panoramic view looking at the south side of the bridge...



I like this bit of impressionistic color I caught in the ripples of the river below the bridge.



Of course, I had to go look at the glacial potholes (always fascinating for me), and noticed these dead plants backlit by the setting sun.





On my way home from Shelburne Falls, I noticed that the light was getting very pretty as the sun set, and I stopped near a marsh with the hope of getting some interesting shots. I like this one of an old cattail starting to fall apart.



And of course I had to take a shot (actually several, to make this little panorama) of the bike.



When I got home, the sun had almost set, and I noticed some lovely clouds out of our back window, so I grabbed the camera again and took some shots for this panoramic view.



All in all, a good day. -- PL

NT700V near snowy beaver pond

I took the Honda NT700V (aka the Deauville) out for a nice, albeit short, spin yesterday, and stopped near the beaver pond I've mentioned in past blog posts. I am happy that spring seems to be coming, slowly but surely, although as my wise wife reminded me today, I should be prepared for the possibility of more winter storms dumping yet more snow upon us.

But for the nonce it is nice to take these opportunities to get out on two wheels aagin. While stopped here, I took some photos that I could later stitch into a panorama with Panorama Maker4, and this was the result.



It's interesting how the program distorts what are, in reality, straight lines, like the egdes of the road and especially the overhead wires. -- PL

Steve Lavigne, Herald of Spring

Who needs red-breasted robins when you have Steve Lavigne, who graced us with a visit these past few days, and perhaps brought a breath of spring along with him? Steve hung out with me and the Mirage dudes -- he, Dan, Mike and I (along with non-Mirage friends Rick and Rob and my daughter Emily) went to see "Wolfman" last night (capsule review: "A very nice-looking empty movie.") and went out for a nice dinner in Northampton later.

Steve also had fun setting up his new office at Mirage -- he's hoping to come down from Maine to use it occasionally, and we're all for that! Here's a photo of Steve relaxing with some fine graphic literature after completing the basic set-up of his new space.



Coincidentally, Steve's new office space is in Eric's old space, while Eric has been, for the last few years, in what USED to be Steve's old office space which he occupied before moving back to Maine about ten years ago.

Eric joined us for lunch and walking around today, and of course we started to talk about how all of us (well, except for Mike and Dan) are really eager for the winter to end so we can get out on our motorcycles, and discussed various trips we want to take this year. It got me so fired up that I had to take a VERY short ride when I got home -- there was just enough time before the sun set to take what amounted to a ride around the block. I stopped to take a photo of the bike I rode (the Honda Deauville 700) before reluctantly heading home. Look -- almost no snow in this picture! (Sharp-eyed viewers might see the towers of UMass off in the distance behind the Deauville.)



I would have ridden more, but I didn't want to risk hitting a patch of black ice in the dark. -- PL

A little post-Christmas miracle (of sorts)

Christmas 2009 is "in the books", as they say, and we had a good time. Jeannine made great food for Christmas dinner, my sister Chris brought wonderful desserts, my brother Bruce and I went crazy making juice with my new Jack LaLanne juicer, and it's wonderful to have Emily home, if only for a short time.

The celebration was a little more subdued than usual, without the energy of our dear friend Pat, who passed away this spring. But I was glad that her husband Ed joined us for Christmas again, an almost twenty-year-long tradition I hope he keeps up.

The house is quieter now, even with Em's friend and roommate Colleen visiting. The Fugitree is not long for the world (we'll probably leave it up for another week or so before I hack it to bits). I plan to carefully repack all of those 'Toids in their original boxes, maybe to use another year, maybe to sell. Anyone interested in a relic of the first (and so far as I know, only) Fugitree?

It rained pretty heavily last night, and continued into this morning at a lesser pace. I was startled when the rain stopped and the sun came out around noon today... and a thought crept into my mind. I stepped outside to gauge the temperature -- not bad, about 43 degrees. That's CERTAINLY warm enough for a motorcycle ride.

So off I went, after first bundling up warmly. I took the latest addition to the stable, a new Honda NT700V (aka the "Deauville" in the UK and Europe). I got this bike about a month ago, and only had a chance to ride it once before the weather got too cold and snowy. It felt great to be out on a motorcycle, even though I only rode out to the Williamsburg General Store for a coffee and pastry. The roads were clear (except for one back road I took which had a few icy patches, though only a few and they were very visible and easily avoided). I stopped on the way home by a swamp to take this photo of the new bike in a winter landscape which felt -- at least today -- like spring.



I don't expect this weather to continue, but I was grateful to get this unusual chance to ride on December 27... not something that happens too often in this neck of the woods. -- PL

Fall is here...

As we enter the first week of November, we face the winding-down of the motorcycling season. The air is getting colder, the leaves have fallen from many of the trees and the wooded landscape is beginning to take on the somewhat skeletal appearance of late fall. But it hasn't snowed yet, and there are still a few times to get out and take a short ride.

Such an occasion was enjoyed by me last week, when unexpected warm temperatures and blue skies beckoned. I took the Victory out to Pittsfield and, on my way back on some roads I am only slightly familiar with, pulled over when I spotted this location.



It looked like a fine spot to stop and eat my lunch... and it was. -- PL

Water crossing 2

I don't have any photographs or video to document this wet excursion, but yesterday I got caught in a fierce downpour while returning home on my motorcycle du jour (Honda DN-01).

I had gone down to the Mirage offices late in the morning to grab a bicycle and go for a ride. It was a hot, muggy day, and while the weather widget on my iPhone was predicting thunderstorms, there was not much in the way of heavy cloud cover to support that prediction. I finished my ride, ate a late lunch, took a little nap in my office, and around 5:30 decided to head home. It was already raining when I got outside, so I dragged out my rain gear and got suited up. In the few minutes that it took to do this, the rain increased greatly -- I hesitate to say exponentially, because I don't think that is literally true, but it sort of felt that way. Within minutes of taking off on the bike, I had to ride through the first of several semi-flooded areas, this one a dip in a road which went under a railroad bridge. The water there was pretty deep -- it came up over my footpegs -- and I had a few moments of trepidation, worrying that it might be deep enough to cause the bike to shut down. But the Honda plowed right through. It's always weird to produce a visible WAKE when riding a motorcycle on the street.

The next mile or so up King Street was somewhat nightmarish, as the traffic was fairly heavy and there were at least three long sections in which deep water had pooled. The storm -- which was still continuing -- had dumped enough water in such a short amount of time that the drainage systems had been temporarily overwhelmed, leaving standing water several inches deep all over the road, and giant puddles eight to ten inches deep in places. Under different circumstances (i.e. no other traffic, and on a different bike like my new dual-sport BMW 650), it might have been fun. But just then it was the classic "white knuckle" ride, made even more so by a number of clueless cage drivers who were acting like it was a normal day and not slowing down at all.

Fortunately, the bike performed admirably and made it through each flooded section, and although I did get wetter than I planned, I did make it home with no damage. -- PL

Watch out!

While my Mirage compatriots bask in the adulation of thousands of fans amidst the delerious cacophony of Comicon's great halls, and enjoy sampling the exotic delights of sunny San Diego, I must perforce content myself with humbler fare... such as a late afternoon ride through the hills of Franklin County, feeling the clean, cool air as I ride my motorcycle through lengthening shadows.

I was on one of my favorite rides -- coming home the slow way from a late lunch (early dinner?) at McCusker's in Shelburne Falls. I was not expecting to see this:



Of course, I did slow down. I didn't see any turtles, however... I suppose they had all already made it across the road. -- PL

Ride with Bruce

I had the great pleasure of a visit from my brother Bruce this past weekend -- he rode up on his new Victory Vision Tour (he'd traded in his beloved Gold Wing). I was a bit concerned that the weather wasn't going to cooperate, but we lucked out and got two beautiful days to ride. On one of those days, we took a blast up Mt. Greylock, enjoying the newly-paved access road.

There were some lovely clouds to be seen that day, and here's a panoramic view of some of them from the summit of Greylock, looking east. -- PL

DN-01, all dressed up

You may recall a previous post on this blog in which I talked about the new Honda DN-01 motorcycle that I bought this year. I thought it was a great bike -- and loved its fully-automatic HFT (Human Friendly Transmission). The bike was a bit let down by its impracticality -- its small windshield hardly blocked any breeze, and except for a tiny nook under the seat which might have fit a sandwich, it had no storage space.

Well, as you can see by this photo, I have addressed these two issues, and now I love this bike.


Thanks to Jim Lawson, who a couple of months ago turned me on to the aftermarket catalog "Twisted Throttle", I discovered that there was hard luggage -- both saddlebags and a top trunk -- and a bigger windshield available for the DN-01. I ordered all of these things right away, and got them within a few weeks. My friend Ed installed the bags and their requisite mounting hardware (I was thinking of trying to do it myself, but the more I looked at the instructions, the more I saw disaster in the making), and they work great -- they look good and hold a lot.

I decided to install the windshield myself, and I managed to get it done (although, as in any project requiring the removal and then reinstallation of large pieces of complicated bodywork, there were a few nail-biting moments) with only three fasteners left over... and everything seems to work okay, so may those fasteners aren't TOO critical.

The windshield definitely does a better job of protecting the rider from windblast, but I wish it were a few inches higher -- right now I get a lot of breeze directed at the top third of my helmet, which can be distracting. Still, I like it better than the stock unit.

I highly recommend these modifications for anyone with a DN-01. -- PL

More Mirage Moto Mania

I forgot to post these two photos in the "Rune has left the building" post of a few days ago. I took them while riding in Vermont.

Here's Eric putting the Triumph Scrambler 900 through its paces...



... and Steve cruising on the Rune. -- PL



P.S. If you click on each image to view a larger version, and look closely, you can see each of the dudes wearing big grins inside their helmets!

The Rune has left the building...

Regular readers of this blog may recall a post or two in which I mentioned my Honda Valkyrie "Rune", an 1800cc, six-cylinder beast which used to be Steve Lavigne's favorite ride when he came down to visit us in Massachusetts.

Well, no longer. Now it's going to be Steve's favorite ride in Maine. Yes, Steve took the Rune off my hands and is going to give it all the love and attention that it deserves. Maybe he'll even ride it back down here to visit.

Today was a beautiful day, and it just so happened that Steve came down to visit a couple of days ago, with the main intent being a group motorcycle ride with me, Jim Lawson, and the newly-licensed Eric Talbot. Yes, you read that right -- Eric got his motorcycle license last week! Yahoo! So for today's ride, we incorporated something which would have been illegal for him not too long ago -- riding out of state.

We met in Easthampton around 9:45AM, and decided to alter our original plan, which was to ride out to a big vintage Japanese motorcycle show in Rhinebeck, NY. Several things factored into this change of plan -- the distance, the weather, and the fact the some of us weren't feeling completely well. So we settled on a blast up into Vermont, then over into New Hampshire, where we would say goodbye to Steve as he took off on the rest of his journey back to Maine.

We hit one of our favorite motorcycling roads, Rt. 112 and then Rt. 100 heading north into Vermont, where we picked up Rt. 9 east. I was leading at this time, and I figured it was probably time to take a break, so about five miles up the road, I pulled over at the Hogback Mountain rest stop, where you can observe quite a dramatic vista. Here's a photo of Steve, Jim and Eric with our bikes.



From left to right: I was on the Victory Vision Tour (Tenth Anniversary Model), Steve was riding the Rune, Eric had borrowed my Triumph Scrambler 900 for the day, and Jim had his Yamaha FJR1300 (or "Feejer" as he affectionately calls it),.

After this break, we started off down the mountain, and no more than a tenth of a mile down we were delighted to see a medium-sized black bear watching traffic from the side of the road.Hurriedly pulling over, I tried to get my camera out quickly, but I only managed to snap a photo of the bear once it had gotten off the road and back into the brush. Here's the photo...



... and a blowup of the part of the photo with the bear. Really, it's a bear.



We continued on down to Brattleboro, where we stopped to get sandwiches and sodas at the Vermont Deli. Our intent was to drive across the river into New Hampshire and stop at "Madame Sherri's Castle" (another thing I have blogged about before) to eat this lunch, and so we did. Here's a little panorama of the boys enjoying their food al fresco:



After this pleasant repast, we continued on to Keene, stopped at Borders Books for a bathroom break (and to buy a couple of magazines), said our farewells and good wishes to Steve, then headed back home. All in all, a great ride. I look forward to doing more of the same. And I have to say it's very nice having a new member of our "club" -- Eric -- joining us now. -- PL

Mt. Greylock

Yesterday started out kind of overcast and threatening rain, although by the time I left my house to go to Mirage it was starting to clear up a little bit. Within a few hours the sky had lightened up enough that I felt it was worth trying to do something I've been wanting to do for the last couple of years -- ride up Mt. Greylock, the tallest mountain in Massachusetts.

For two years, there has been a project underway to improve the condition of the two paved access roads to the summit, which -- for as long as I can remember -- have typically been quite bumpy and potholed in places. During this process, the roads have been closed to the public... which is a bummer, because it's a great ride or drive to the top, with wonderful views.

Jim Lawson informed me a few days ago that he had ridden up to the top, and reported that the new pavement was a huge improvement. And he was right -- I rode up the Pittsfield side and came down the North Adams side, and not only had they removed virtually all of the bumps and potholes, but I could swear they widened the road a bit. They also added new guardrails in places which were pretty scary before.

Here's a shot of the bike I rode -- the Honda Fury -- about halfway up the Pittsfield side of the mountain.



And here's a panorama made from photos I took near this location, looking west.



Further up, abut a mile from the summit, I stopped and took some more photos to make this panorama of the view looking east, out over the town of Adams.



The weird kinds of distortions you can get when making panoramas with this method are evident in this image -- check out the wooden guardrail on the left, which is actually the same one as on the right (not the one closest to the Fury) and where I took the photos which make up this panorama, that guardrail is actually almost straight.

On the last leg of my ride home, I stopped near a little beaver pond. I always check it out as I ride by, hoping to see one of its Castor canadensis inhabitants. This time I was lucky, and even managed to get a little video of the action. -- PL

Ride to Worcester

As some of you may be aware, partly from reading about it on this blog, our friend Eric Talbot has gotten into motorcycling in a big way. He's been putting in as many miles as he can on the Honda Big Ruckus, and I would not be surprised if the dude gets his license before the summer is over.

Eric has been doing a lot of research into various brands and models of motorcycles, trying to figure out what bike would be best for him when he's ready to move on from the Ruckus. He's been intrigued by a BMW, the 650GS, and found a dealer out in Worcester -- Wagner Motorsports -- that he thought mught have one he could look at.

So we -- Eric, Jim Lawson, and I -- made a plan to ride out there this morning, leaving from Mirage at 10AM. My friend Rick joined us as well. It couldn't have been a much better day to ride -- sunny, warm, with a slight breeze. We decided to take the scenic route, heading out through Amherst to Route 202, then north to Route 122. That would take us all the way to Worcester (arriving just around the corner, coincidentally, from "That's Entertainment", the comics shop where we have done signings before), where we would pick up Route 9. We'd follow that for about five or six miles and until we got to Plantation Road, and then only a mile or two up that to get to Wagner Motorsports.

The first part of the ride was great -- Route 122 especially is a beautiful road, moging around the north end of Quabbin Reservoir. There are also a number of other, smaller bodies of water along the way... a lot of eye candy. Here's the crew (or 3/4 of it, anyway) at our first rest stop along Route 122, getting ready to get back on the road.



That's Jim in front on his Yamaha FJR 1300 (or "Feejer", as he likes to call it), Eric on the Honda Big Ruckus, and Rick on his Yamaha 1300.

We got to Worcester with no problems, though once there the ride changed dramatically. I don't really care much for riding in cities -- too much traffic, and on warm days you often aren't moving enough to stay comfortably cool. Bt we did make it to Wagner Motorports, after a small digression (a.k.a. getting lost) due to poor signage.

They had lots of bikes, but unfortunately no 650GS. Eric did sit on this Ducati Multistrada, which he kind of liked.



We were also disappointed that this dealership had just decided to stop selling Moto Guzzis and replace them with the new Indian motorcycles (yes, another attempt at revival of the fabled brand... wonder if THIS one will succeed!).

We decided to head back the way we came, and on the way we stopped at the Victory dealer in Barre, MA. They had a bunch of nice bikes, including this Victory 8-Ball which Jim sat on...



... and this big new full-dress Kawasaki touring bike, here with me trying out the saddle.



Rick liked this Victory cruiser (the "Kingpin Tour" model) with a full set of leather-look hard luggage.



After checking out these bikes, we wandered into the center of Barre (a smallish town) and had a nice lunch at the Quabbin Pizza and Seafood restaurant, before heading back home. All in all, about 150 miles of great riding! -- PL

P.S. I forgot to mention the bike I rode today. It's one I just got last week, and this was the longest ride I'd taken on it yet. It's the new Honda Fury. This is Honda's first attempt at a kind of "chopper"-style factory custom. It has the 1300cc motor from the VTX cruiser. It's not my typical style of bike, but I really like it. It's got a great sound, handles well, and its power is -- as Jim put it after trying it out -- "very grunty". (That's a good thing.)

Here's the Fury posing with some lilac bushes. -- PL

Coolest motorcycle trailer... EVER!!!

People who know motorcycles are aware that big bikes like Honda's Gold Wing have power to spare, and can pull small trailers with no problem. You will often see long-distance touring riders hauling these rigs, sometimes with small pop-up campers as part of the trailers.

Well, last week I was coming back from a coffee break with the Mirage dudes, and as we were crossing King Street heading back to the studio, we saw this amazing Gold Wing/trailer rig stopped at the lights. I was able to whip out my digital camera and snap a couple of shots before the bike took off.





In my opinion, this is without a doubt the coolest motorcycle trailer I've ever seen, both in conception and in execution. -- PL

Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Day in Look Park

Longtime readers of this blog may recall my tenth installment back on May 18, 2008. I wrote about discovering, by accident, a cool show of vintage Japanese motorcycles while bicycling in Look Park.

Well, it happened again today, although this time I knew about it in advance (thanks to Jim Lawson), and this time I rode a motorcycle there. The weather wasn't quite as nice as it was last year, so fewer people showed up. But there were still some neat bikes.

I think my favorite was this little Bridgestone twin -- I think it was a 200. It reminded me of my old Bridgestone 100 trail bike that I had in high school -- the gas tanks are almost identical.



Nearby was this intriguing Honda dirt bike. At first, I thought it was an XL model, but looking at it more closely in the photo, I realized it's not a four-stroke, which all of the XL's were, but a two-stroke. Which makes me wonder if it might in some way be related to Honda's ground-breaking Elsinore two-stroke motocross bike -- the first two-stroke that Honda ever made, I believe.



Speaking of Honda XL's, here's one in a pretty orange paint job and in great condition.



I was at the show for about ten minutes when Jim Lawson showed up on his "Rat Wing".



That's the affectionate name Jim has given to the old Gold Wing which he is slowly customizing to his particular tastes -- I think he's trying to get that perfect "rat bike of the Apocalypse" look.

Jim and I both dug this old Yamaha twin with custom exhausts and a cool "flat tracker" look.



Here's a panoramic view of all the bikes:



All in all, a nice way to spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon. -- PL