Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Chicago 2015 - Progressive International Motorcycle Show

I took Friday off work and flew from Berlin to Chicago, arriving at O'Hare just before 5pm. Met up with 7 of my motorcycling buddies from various parts (Kingston, Ottawa, Picton, -- Ontario, as well as Wisconsin and St. Louis USA).  We enjoyed the Friday evening checking out the bikes at the Chicago Motorcycle Show, followed by huge slabs of red meat washed down with cold beer at Gibson's Steak House. On Saturday morning, after we filled our guts with bacon and eggs, we drove downtown into Chicago and made our way to the Chicago International Auto Show.

Overall, the bike show wasn't very impressive. Just a bunch of dealers (lots of makes and models, but nothing particularly special or exciting). Even still, an evening of looking at motorcycles with some buddies isn't a bad time.  The auto show, however, was impressive. Massive scale, almost every manufacturer you might imagine, concept cars, impressively flashy displays, sexy-hot looking car models with fake tits and long legs -- we eventually got tired from all the walking and it was also very, very crowded. So we went out for more food and beer (Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Gino's).

Sunday morning, the Canadian crowd was flying home, and the STL and Wisconsin delegation were driving home. After a leisurely bacon/egg brunch with Mr. STL, I made my way to the airport to catch my flight back to Berlin just after noon. I arrived back in Berlin just in time for work on Monday morning. Long day, that was.

It was a long way to go for just a weekend but it was worth it. Good times. Looking forward to seeing my buddies again later this year when a few of us will ride offroad for a week in Colorado in August, and a few will also come to Berlin in October as I lead them on a European road tour.

Oldschool Triumph racer

Ducati mp3 ??

Grom Wing

Batman bike by Honda

'Lectric Hog

'49 Indian Scout

steak at Gibson's


Rolling down the highway, eight grown men 
packed into O.J. Simpson's white Suburban

Porsche Spyder hybrid

Buick

Lexus Lemans

Acura NSX

Alfa Romeo

Alfa 4C Spider


old Alfa racing

Cadillac CTS-V sedan

Toyota Supra concept

Ford GT

Ford GT

the crew

downtown view


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Whooomp! There it is.... 1190, that is.

It's a long story as to why I missed my chance to order a Canadian-spec 2015 KTM 1190 Adventure R, but I managed to make a very good compromise in the end.  A very gently used 2013 "German-spec" model with a few nice upgrades. Won't be able to bring it back to Canada when my job is done but selling it in 2-3 years from now should be easy enough. A used bike of this type is highly sought-after, especially given the price of a new one.

Took a few days to get the license plate and insurance crap in order, but I finally went to pick it up today.

It's got 10,000 Kms on the clock, and came with KTM/Touratech Powerparts luggage racks and aluminum panniers, a Touratech seat, the KTM Powerparts skid plate, and an Akrapovic slip-on muffler. A few other little orange billet aluminum bling bits here and there, such as clutch and brake reservoir caps.

Rode home in sleet and wet snow. No big deal, just need to be gentle with throttle input.



Here's a photo as I was leaving the KTM dealer in Berlin. Great guys. This is me with John, a British dude who works there and helps me to communicate with the owner (who speaks almost no English).

I'll go back on Saturday to retrieve the OEM seat and muffler.