Art from old motorcycle chain…cool!
AWWWHHH… the smell of 2 Stroke Oil…in a candle!
Will a Spyder scare a Kardashian away?
If you follow me on Twitter (@IJUSTWANT2RIDE) or Facebook you know I post and retweet a lot of cool motorcycle pics. At least what I think are cool pictures.
I went through those and picked out the 20 that I liked the best then sliced those down to my favorite nine. Why 9??… because everyone does 10 and 11 is too many!
The wife and I have had the Nolan N104 Evo motorcycle helmets for about half a year now. We have worn them in a large variety of conditions including 100+ degree (F) days, monsoon rains and cool but not yet frigid temperatures (I am sure we will get that soon here in North America).
OK…so what did we like about the helmet.
1) Fit was good. Tight but not uncomfortable. As we wear it more, the padding is conforming to our heads well.
2) Easy to use “controls” (sun shield, buckle system)
3) Ventilation was good, up to a point (see below).
4) Communications, the speakers could be of better quality but they work. The microphone is good, people could not tell I was on the bike when I made a phone call.
5) Not too heavy on our heads…at the end of a long ride we were not unduly tired.
Now what did we not like.
1) Ventilation, when the temps hit the upper 90s(F) and above the vents were not enough. Even locking the chin bar up (creating a ¾ helmet) it was not enough as the tight padding would not allow air to flow around our heads. Up to those temps the vents worked well and I had no issues. During one of our trips the temps were over 100 for many days… we had to get new half-helmets to compensate.
2) Fogging was an occasional minor issue. I am not a big fan of the pinlock system in general and I know this would fix my problem.
3) There is an occasional wind induced rattle that I cannot find or recreate…it just happens for no apparent reason at weird random times. The wife has not had this issue. UGH!!
Overall we like the helmet. Other than during high temps it is comfortable and works as advertised. At this point I would recommend the Nolan Helmet to friends with the caveat about the ventilation. I give the Nolan N104 four stars.
BY: Ania Todua
After helmets, biker jackets are the essential accessories for the motorcyclists’ safety. Thankfully, while protecting you, these armors accentuate your style quotient as well. Of course, like most other niches, the biker jackets market is also swarming with immense styles and designs. Making a buying decision is often very confusing. Here are some basic things you should ensure about your jacket:
Some of Ania’s other works:
It was a great day for a motorcycle ride like this, a cool but not crisp morning. Large puffy clouds in the blue sky and large passenger jets taking off and landing at Dulles Airport serving as a poignant reminder to why we were gathering. An awesome day to Rattle the Runway.
It was a morning, not to unlike this, that terrorist commandeered Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon. There were a couple of men I knew killed that day in the Pentagon.
This ride indirectly follows the flight path of Flight 77 from the airport to the side of the Pentagon impacted by the airliner. It stages behind the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum and runs down to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. Proceeds from the memorabilia sold at the staging area (the ride is free) is given to the Pentagon Memorial fund.
This year the turnout was quite low in comparison to previous years. Normally there is five to six thousands bikes lined up eight across for hundreds of yards. I would guess that this year there might have been half or less than normal. The ride coinciding with the National Labor Day holiday most likely affected the turnout.
As usual, the ride itself was broken into groups with a few minutes between each. This is an unescorted ride once you leave the airport police jurisdiction. The groups, of about 200 bikes, is an attempt to alleviate the traffic issues that a ride of thousands would engender in one of the most congested cites in America.
Overall, I had a good time and would gladly recommend that you ride in this event if you are able.
I have always been interested in going to Shanghai but a trip to China is not in my future. So a motorcycle ride to Shanghai West Virginia would have to do.
Leaving the house the early cool air hid the fact that it was going to be hot, the mid 90sF according to the weatherman. I headed west toward Martinsburg, WV where I stopped for a quick breakfast.
SOMEWHERE between getting off the bike and getting back on the bike I lost a glove. I back tracked into the restaurant and searched all the places I had walked and sat and then back out to the bike but, NO GLOVE…what the heck?!?! There was only so many place the glove could be and it was nowhere to be found. Dang. This made no sense, how do I lose one glove!
Giving up on ever finding my glove in the Bermuda Parking Lot of missing gloves, I rode out of Martinsburg on US Route 9 looking for WV Route 7. Somehow I missed the turn onto Route 7, maybe it was the awesome rolling road and wonderful scenic vistas. But no worries…….it is the journey not the destination, right?
Route 9 took me into Berkley Springs, WV were I turned onto several different roads ending up on WV 13 which was also Shanghai Road. Shanghai Road climbs up the and over the steep mountainside with a lotof switchbacks.
If the pavement had been in better condition this would have been an INCREABLE ride. Shanghai Road has MULTIPLE 150-170 degree turns with serious elevation changes, both up and down the mountain, and almost no traffic! The tarmac on Shanghai Road was so poor that that a good bit of fun was sucked out of the ride, some but not all. A better conditioned road and this would be a sport bike heaven.
Dropping down the other side of the mountain you end up at the cross roads of Black Creek Valley Road and Tuscarora Pike which is also SHANGHAI, WV. Not too much in Shanghai other than a small scrap yard, a Mom and Pop country store and farms. I stopped at the store for some water and a snack. Back on the road I rolled back through Martinsburg and on to home.
A couple notes of interest. First is, part of this ride was on the George Washington Heritage Trail (an American Byway) and second I went past the Morgan County Observatory. The Observatory was closed but it looked very cool way out in the middle of nowhere.
There is not a lot of pictures from this ride as my wife/photographer was out of town. After this 175 mile ride I can now claim I have been to Shanghai….. Shanghai, West Virginia.