Ohlins is Swedish for "Oh Yeeeaaaaah"

This one was a long time coming, and in truth, most of the time, I thought it was just a personal pipe-dream. Impossible may be too implausible of a word for it, but knowing how unwilling I am to drop some serious coin on certain things, one day fitting the R1 with a set of Ohlins forks alone just didn't seem like an m.o. given their cost, even if used.

So to be able to fit these glistening legs AND a pair of billet monobloc radial calipers, well, this is the good side of pouring when it rains. :)


Ohlins forks from the donor bike, mine in the background,
transplant in progress. :)
In short, I found a same-gen Yamaha R1 being sold locally, already fitted with the bad boys along with other too-good goodies. It wasn't an option of buying just the parts that I wanted, but having a friend like Rob, who's in the biz of buying and selling bikes, he did me the favor of a lifetime by buying the whole bike to sell, but not before he swapped the parts that I wanted out of it and into my bike!


PVM 4-piston Radial Billet Monobloc Calipers - in layman terms,
if Michelangelo's hand was a CNC-machine,
this would be his painting.
I swear, at this point, I'd be happy to retire the bike and just keep it in a glass case from this day forward. :)

Normalcy

I seriously must be just a simpleton. Or a homebody.

Or unadventurous.

(Gasps! What??)


At the SSB Yamaha Sportbike Showdown,
participating as one of the Amateur builders!
Between Fort Lauderdale three weekends ago and MotoGP at Laguna Seca (Monterey) a couple of weeks ago, I was looking forward more for this past weekend than the other two. I really don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it was just really nice to not have to be anywhere, or committed to be doing anything. It's fun to be in demand every now and then, but it's the kind of fun that just takes up a lot of your resources.

The idea of vacationing to me sometimes sounds and feels exhausting, it kind of defeats the purpose.

But like I said, maybe I'm just too simple.

The Perpetual Gift (or "A Happy Anniversary")

Would you look at that?

Has it really been already a year ago when I first sat down and came up with the idea to turn my bike into a moving billboard for TAAF? Talk about time flying fast when having fun!

At some point some months ago I had probably thought of doing something to celebrate the anniversary of what I've done to the bike, but to be honest, I didn't really think of what it was I was going to do. Hell, I had only realized recently that it's coming up to a year now, and even then, I didn't get to the realization until an amazing thing happened recently :). I actually held off on writing about it until now, when the situation is the least bit official.

Well now that it's officially posted here, here's my official blog entry.

By no intent of mine, this bike is now due to participate in Yamaha's Custom Sport Bike Show during the Laguna Seca round of MotoGP next month!


Let me try and recount how this came to be...

I've been going to the Laguna Seca GP for the past three years now, and I always remembered seeing a Yamaha tent filled with what were clearly privately-owned custom bikes. I even remembered the Bostrom Brothers being associated with the gallery when Ben Bostrom was racing a Yamaha in the AMA. So, after the paint job that I did on the bike last year, I kept in mind to try and find out if there was a way to get my bike into the display tent, as part of my ongoing m.o. of raising awareness for TAAF.

Fast forward to now when the Laguna GP is upon us, I contacted Zoom-Zoom since they were Yamaha-sponsored, to see if they may have a contact that knows a thing or two about the upcoming Laguna Seca GP. They didn't, but they did send me the link I posted above for Yamaha Custom Sport Bike show, thinking that that's what I was referring to. I looked at it, and I wasn't sure if this was the same display I had seen, but I did see an email contact at the bottom, which I decided to contact.

I basically fired an email saying that I saw the show announcement, but that I wasn't really interested in entering my bike (hell, I didn't even think my bike was contest-quality), but was wondering if Yamaha had another tent or area somewhere to showcase customer/modified bikes as part of their regular display. I mentioned that the bike is modified, but particularly noted the custom paint job to create awareness for the foundation, and I included a link to TAAF for their reference.

A day later, Sarah Timleck responds to my email. Sarah is the person who runs STCreates.com. Basically, she's the one that is in charge of organizing and pulling off all the events for her clientele, with her two major clients being Yamaha and Icon at the moment. In her email, she says that they would love to have my bike in the show, and that they wanted to include it in their "other class." Before I could email her back to ask what she meant by "other class," Sarah actually calls me to touch base, and basically:

The contest is composed of two classes - the Pro Builder class, and the Amateur Builder class. Pro Builders are people in the industry of building and/or heavily modifying bikes; think of a motorcycle shop and the like, while Amateur Builders are regular Joes like me who DIY and just bolts on parts available that they buy online. She wanted my bike entered into the Amateur Builder class without even having seen a photo of it yet. I guess she must have taken a real liking to the fact that it's promoting a non-profit foundation and their cause. She practically guaranteed me a spot, asking me to complete an online submission as a technicality, but that she was going to contact Yamaha herself to let them know to definitely include me and my bike for the Laguna Seca GP contest. Apparently, they will accept 100 online submissions, and from there, choose 30 bikes to participate during the MotoGP contest next month in Laguna Seca.

She then tells me that as part of being chosen for the contest, each participant will receive $300 from Yamaha to cover the expenses to bring the bike to the contest, along with two (2) General Admission tickets good for the whole weekend (worth $80 each last I checked)!

AND, that she has a contact with Super Streetbike magazine (who are co-hosting the contest this year), and with my permission, she wanted to send them my bike and my contact info, cause she felt that they would be really interested in running an article or a column about my bike and its story.

I had to soak this all in while I was listening to her in the other line. I basically told her how floored I was, cause I would've been grateful if they just had a corner or something where they would allow me to put my bike on the stands and my self-made poster next to it (she even told me I can bring my poster ALONG with their display for my bike!). I didn't even think to think my bike and I could or would participate in something like this! And without sounding too eager, I even clarified that I will get the free admission passes, because at that time, my friends and I were finalizing our GP plans and were ready to purchase our passes. Sarah tells me on the phone:

"No. Don't buy your passes. You're getting the free admission passes. You're in."

Un-freakin'-believable!

So now I've actually been making arrangements and bolting on some new bits and pieces on the bike to get it ready for the show and contest. I honestly have NO aspirations to win (I will fucking FLIP OUT if I do! ), but I figured if Yamaha and Sarah are willing to put it in the contest for whatever their agenda, the least I can do is make it look like it ought to be in competition.

Oh, and if by some grace of the motorcycle gods my bike does win or whatever, any monetary proceeds I do receive will of course go straight to TAAF, including the $300 they will give the contest participants.

You know how they say that no good deed goes unpunished? If this is the kind of punishment I'll be getting for this deed, I'll gladly be a glutton for punishment!

I'm sitting here remembering that one of my key principles in having done this to my bike was to give a gift that would keep on giving.

I just never expected that my perpetual gift would be perpetually gifting me with such amazing experiences. :)

Do Not Go Quietly Into the Night

No matter what you do, no matter how little or common it may seem, TRY your damnedest to make it a hell of a ride. :)

In writing this entry, it means I've somewhat found some time and room to actually breathe, sit, think, remember, and then write about the craaazy two weeks that have just passed.

Yes, Belle and I got married the other weekend, but let's go a little bit further back than that.

Last year I was a best man for the very first time in my life for my cousin Jeff's wedding, which meant for the first time, I had to plan a bachelor party. I was freaking petrified. Not only did I not know the first thing about throwing a bachelor party, I had to throw it for a gang of Army veterans!

Whatever. Head in, balls out, fuck it attitude, and go for it.

Turns out, unless them Army boys were just being polite in patting me on the back when it was all over, it was a pretty epic bachelor party that included alcohol, a stretched SUV, alcohol in the stretched SUV, a gentleman's club, alcohol in the gentleman's club, a dildo in a blind-folded Jeff's mouth, more alcohol in the stretched SUV, three buckets of chicken wings, alcohol in Jeff's house, two private dancers in Jeff's house, and alcohol ON the private dancers in Jeff's house.

Innocence was ravaged on that epic night.

It was sooo good, it was partially the reason I didn't care to have a bachelor party for myself a year later for my upcoming wedding; I just didn't think it could get any better than that.

Lo and behold, I was wrong.



Take Yamaha, add it to Zoom Zoom Trackdays, and mix them both in at Laguna Seca for two days, and I had the quintessential Dennis bachelor party a quintessential Dennis could ask for. :)

Three days before my wedding (you read that right), I was at Laguna Seca as a participant in Yamaha's owner appreciation track days hosted by Zoom Zoom Trackdays. In the world-class racing circuit Laguna Seca. For 70-freaking-5 dollars per day! Normally I wouldn't brag about anything money, but when Laguna's regular track day rate averages $300/day, you've got to brag when you pay about 25% of that!



Laying down some track rubber for next month's MotoGP!
And to make it that much sweeter, throw in my good friend Rob who joined me for both days, even though he didn't own a Yamaha (!). Perks of being in the motorcycle service industry is you can just buy one at your whim, which is exactly what Rob did, just to be able to ride Laguna. I'd like to say he did that though cause it was my bachelor party :). Even one of my sisters and her boyfriend passed by, and FINALLY got to see what a trackday is, after the last three years I've been at it. She expressed her newfound appreciation for my hobby, which I appreciated myself. :)


My motley cru. :)

I really couldn't and still can't think of a better way to have spent my last days as a full-pledge bachelor, without crossing fantastical. I am so thankful to be surrounded with so many understanding and support friends and family; any other man might have been put on a straight-jacket for even thinking about spending a day flirting with Death at triple-digit speed, much less two days!


This is a portrait of a man who can die happy!
More importantly, I am eternaly grateful and indubitably blessed to have the love and trust of a woman who doesn't let her own fears get in the way of even my own happiness. I liken her to my own personal guardian angel, even when I taunt Death.

Kids, when you find a woman like I did with Belle, who will let you stick a red-hot poker on an already pissed-of and misandrist bull, days - nay! - HOURS before your wedding, yes, you better marry that girl.

You would be lucky to marry that girl.

Me? Well, of course I married her.



It's the least I can do. ;)

Belle's Adventurous Year

So even though this is supposed to be a trio of an adventurous journal between myself, Belle, and Rusty, truthfully, Belle's adventure entries have really been non-existent. It's there, but it's not.

Like a muffled fart silent letter.

Anyway, that's about to change with this entry, and in true DBR fashion, when Belle goes to have an adventure, she goes big. ;)

2011 is quite a year for Belle really, and in speaking of trifectas, she doesn't just have one or two, but three big achievements this year! Starting it off with our scheduled wedding in less than a month's time, she followed it up by finally becoming a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

And as if those two are not enough to assert that she's a full-blown grown up (which is really a never-ending quest), she goes and buys a house on her own. :)

the house


Not quite a white picket-fence, but it's the 21st century;
nothing says security better than heavy-duty chain links!
A bit of a short-sale find in the current buyer's market of houses, I think Belle found this little gem early this year, and since then she's learned the ins-and-outs of homebuying 101 until she finally took hold of the house keys about a month or so ago. Or at least, she learned them during the process, but has since purged them off her system now that it's all over with. She was quite traumatized throughout it, you know.





Fortunately, it isn't something of a fixer-upper project house; not something to be flipped then sold for a profit. In motorcycle terms, the house was a Turn-Key house; just get on the damn thing and go.

However, Belle, being the expert home-buyer that she is, was quick to set her mind on overhauling the interior floors and repainting the walls. With the exception of the kitchen and the bathroom, the living room and both of the bedrooms were covered in carpet, so the first order of business for Belle was to remove them, and depending on what was underneath, maybe put laminate flooring for the three rooms. Kitchen floor was with linoleum, to which Belle is apparently allergic to (no, not really, but yes, really), so she wanted laminate flooring in that room as well.

Seeing as neither one of us knew anything about flooring, we decided to commission my uncle Robert for the job, being of someone who does that line of work among many others. But until he was able to get started, we started up the process of repainting the walls.

the work

One of the four walls for the living room was adorned with faux-hardwood plywood, of which Belle wasn't exactly thrilled about. So she gave me the go-ahead to go ballistic on the damn thing.


Yes, those are flip-flops. I'm steel-toed though!
It's like putting a red blindfold on a bull, then letting it loose in a glass museum. :)


Then came hours of spraying and wiping TSP off of the walls to clean them, then spackling the spack out of the holes, all for the pain-staking prep-work process of painting. I got to prep most of the rooms and started to paint the corners of the wall in the master bedroom when my uncle finally arrived. At this point, Belle was already exhausted from the mental stress of the work she wasn't doing, so she gave up and just commissioned my Uncle to do the paint job as well.

The poor thing.

Belle, I mean.


Belle chose sage for both of the bedrooms.
I think it's peppermint!
Then my uncle tackled the carpet flooring, which was when we discovered we struck [tainted] gold.

the floor


Living room sans carpet.
Right underneath the carpet seemed to be the original hardwood flooring from when the house was built in the 50's. Tainted though not just for surface wear, but because some panels were warped, and worse of all, there were cuts perpendicular against multiple panels.


It's like someone got a hold of a reciprocating
saw too early too soon.
There were cuts in multiple spots for reasons we can't discern; at random places on the floor of the living room, and some minor ones in the master bedroom. No rhyme or reason we can tell.

Luckily, my uncle was clever enough to make do with what we had left; with some trimming where the major cuts took place, and rearranging the different sized panels, we were able to reuse the existing hardwood flooring to eliminate the gashes. The warped panel(s) were not salvageable, but we were lucky to find a lumber yard that still sold this style of hardwood. My uncle noted that like laminate flooring, hardwood floors nowadays were thicker than what we had, so it was great that we were able to source some needed panels from the lumber yard we found that matched the thickness of the existing hardwood.

It didn't matter that the replacement panels did not have the same finish, as Belle wanted the floors to be refinished a darker stain anyway.

So with the fixes in place, next up was sanding the old finish to make way for the darker stain. This in itself was a little adventure of its own; we had to do two trips to Home Depot for the rental orbital sander as the first one would crap out on us. Thankfully, Home Depot was gracious enough to reset our 1-day rental agreement at no extra charge, which worked out fortuitously because we over-estimated the process. In no way did the multiple-sanding it took for all the rooms took one day, unless maybe if we worked through the night.



In the end though, it all worked out as intended, and as of writing this entry, my uncle should be putting the semi-gloss finish on the newly stained flooring for all three rooms.


On top of that, the laminate flooring in the kitchen was knocked out of the park in one afternoon. We were a bit worried about doing this as the kitchen floor actually had a slope to it. To the naked eye it wasn't easily discernable at a passing glance, but drop a marble on the center of the kitchen floor, and you'll find it rolling down the slope. My concern was that the laminate flooring over the kitchen floor/slope would leave substantial gap in between, dipping upon load and maybe straining the laminate flooring in the long-term.


So far though, seems like the laminate flooring worked out better than I dreaded, and the darker finish on them helped to mask any sign that the flooring was uneven. We'll just have to see how they hold up in the long run.

the rest

We're due to start our move into the house in the coming week, so all that's left now is to put the finishing touches; finish off the paint to the corners, tack the mouldings back on the wall, repaint the window sills/door frames/cabinets/etc, install an iron screen door to the front, new curtains/blinds, and perhaps a handful of other little things to finish off the improvements done to the house.

It's never really done though, obviously, and next on the immediate list of things to do would be to pave a portion of the front lawn to make the space actually useable, and eventually install (an attached) deck in the backyard to the kitchen side, which means also installing a sliding door in the kitchen. There is definitely more to come. All in due time, however, cause for now I think we really want to just settle into what would be our first home.

the proud

Funny, as Belle actually gets a little irked whenever I refer to the house as hers.

"She bought her house."
"She wants to do this and that to her house."
But you know, I'm not detaching myself from her and this house. Of course it's going to be our home, but to me, this is her house.

And I'm proud of that.

I'm proud to say that because I'm proud of what she's done. She did this and she pulled it off. I'm proud of Belle taking charge of her life, in the world that she's making for herself.

It's Belle's world now.

Rusty and I?


Well, we're just living in it. :)







P.S. Maybe Belle's next adventure would be to write her own blog entry!

Speed Cripple

Honestly, I've been trying to do a write-up of my Speed Cripple since I finally got it road-going a couple of weeks back or so (DMV issues), but seems like every day I rode it, my impressions would change, and so did the write-up.

I've been using it mostly for commuting since getting it plated, which was really my intent in buying it, but yesterday I did take it out to the same roads that I would take my R1 to in the weekends, just to really get an overall idea of what it's like to ride the bike for the street. I also plan on doing a trackday on it, just to go full-circle in getting to know it.

Until then, here's what I got:


My previous Cripple experience was on the black one to the left,
on which I've previously spent a day riding.
I'm thoroughly convinced that there is no more-perfect real world engine than a triple.

Yeah, I said it

I say engine, cause regardless if its a supersport like the 675, or an upright like an S3/Tiger, it's the engine that really make these bikes super useful. For reference, I've had a parallel twin, a v-twin, and a lot of inline 4's, all in differing displacements. The triple engine is a real gem.

The engine is just bonkers in how composed and useable it is. I'm like, "WTF engine, can't I get a rise out of you or SOMETHING??"

I've tried wringing its neck on acceleration, or blipping and rev-matching the hell out of it at downshifts, and it just says, "Meh. Here's 70 ft.lbs of torque right from the bottom. Do whatever you want until you lose steam at redline. I DON'T BLOODY CARE."

I've said it before, but the whole gearbox feels like ONE gear in how consistent each gear's characteristic and torque output is; it's like Triumph just placed six gears for the sake of going through the motions of shifting. And because of its flat torque curve (is it still a curve if it's flat?), the bike thinks it's in a drag race in any gear everytime you shift - you feel all that torque, no matter where you are in the powerband.

It's omnipresent.


If all other engines are diamonds in the rough,
this one's a brass knuckle; just as nice to get your
hands on, but ultimately more useful in urban assaults.
The other thing that I really like about the engine is how docile it feels through the chassis, and ultimately, on the bars. The proverbial buzziness that an I4 engine emits is not there with a triple, I'm not even sure the engine mounts have or need any damping. It's just an overall pleasant experience to be riding on top of one. I could be nit-picky and say that the engine-braking isn't as pronounced as say an I4, but really that's just a testament to how linear the engine output is, in either accelerating or decelerating. For you to fault that, you'd have to be one of them riders who swears by needing to have "character" in your bike. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there's nothing wrong with this either.

Regarding the migration to an upright bike after many years on supersport ergonomics, it did take me a few seat time and riding types to get accustomed to it, and was a good reason why I wanted to do a shakedown in the twisties. It's given that you get more wind-resistance at freeway speeds, but I was more concerned with the spatial sense of being upright - going into corners and tipping the bike to its side where I then use my peripheral vision as a tool to determine how much I'm leaning in relation to the ground. Riding an upright bike has always made me feel like I'm leaning more than I need to, at the very least because my head's so high up to begin with. Yesterday's 3-4 hour shakedown through the twisties really helped me get acclimated to the riding style needed to ride upright, and I eventually figured out the proper BP I ought to be adopting when riding spirited on the Cripple. I do want to say that it really helped to get my upper body down and forward to really help load the front-end; prior to doing this, the Cripple's front end always felt light to me when leant over, and I didn't like that feedback. The bike also benefited from having a lower-profile (it's amazing what a few millimeters can do), but wider (Renthal) handlebars; the low-profile pretty much shifts more of my weight forward to plant the front end, and the wide stance lightens up the steering due to more leverage. I highly suggest this upgrade if you want even quicker-steering for your upright bike.


Upright and wide - I feel and look like I'm flying while flexing my upper body.
Them CRG bar-end mirrors are the bee's knees and tits though, I underestimated them!
Apart from these two traits I've written about, and an inherently more plush suspension than my R1 (still need to have the Cripple's suspension set up for me), it's just like riding any other supersport. Yes I know I've pointed out how much more gentlemanly in composure the Cripple is, say compared to my R1, but the sheer fun factor you could get out of it is just the same as what you would get from a supersport. I wouldn't be surprised if its strengths drop off when I ride it 'round a track, but for real world purposes - everything from commuting to weekend jaunts to short stints - the Cripple is a great bike to be on. I always said that every motorcyclists ought to also own a truck. Well, I might also start saying that every motorcyclist who rides the street ought to own a triple.


The R1 was already relegated to weekend riding after buying this, but after
yesterday's twisty jaunt, it was in hot water of becoming an actual garage queen...

I give my 12-year old Cripple three thumbs up.

(and maybe another couple for the pair of bug-eyed headlights, cause they do a great job of deflecting wind! )

Posing for a Cause

At The Aneurysm and AVM Foundation's 6th Annual Awareness walk in Fort Mason in San Francisco, which was the first time I was able to come out in support.

Following photos by the event photographer:




She was a volunteer and a motorcyclist; said that she was
going to send photos of the bike to her brothers back
home who road race. Very cool to know she was a road
racing fan herself! :)
Beautiful day for a good event, with a lot more turnout than I actually expected, and I met a good number of people who either enjoyed the bike, or were motorcycling enthusiasts themselves, which was very cool. :)


Accompanying poster I made.

Here's to hoping many more years in participation!