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

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.

Touracrap farkles

The Touratech store emailed me yesterday to advise that my ordered farkles had arrived. I was all excited today as I went to pick up my new shit: a seat, rear brake master cylinder guard, pivoting rear brake pedal tip, and a countershaft sprocket guard. 

A couple of hours later, I lugged the box of goodies into the garage to see how the the pieces would fit. As soon as I tried to fit the seat, I knew there was a problem... I didn't force it, rather, I just tried to line up the pin at the front to check the alignment. I was being very gentle and trying to see if the slotted hole in the plastic seat pan was actually lining up with the pin that it slides into. Before I knew it, the fucking thing cracked and a chunk of the plastic seat pan broke off. Jeezus Fucking H. Christ!!!  The thing is definitely defective as I absolutely did not force it. Fucking plastic snapped like a soda cracker. I took a photo and emailed the dude I had been dealing with at Touratech. We'll see what they have to say but I'm pretty certain they'll say I applied too much pressure or something. I'll have to MacGyver my own fix.

The Touratech seat is taller in the middle/forward part, but narrower 

in the rear compared to the Seat Concepts. While I do find the 

Seat Concepts to be more comfortable than the OEM seat, I made 

the really stupid mistake of getting the entire seat cover in the fake 

carbon vinyl option, which is slippery as fuck. I previously had 

Seat Concepts' products on my WR250R and my DR650, and I went 

with the "gripper top" vinyl both previous times. Not sure why I didn't 

go that route with the 690, I guess I thought the faux-carbon look 

might be cool. I've hated this slippery seat since the day I installed it.

SeatConcepts super-lubed slippery vinyl seat on the left. Touracrap 

on the right.The Touratech is a full 1" narrower at the rear. 

Not cool if you have a fat ass. Lengthwise, it's also 

about 1/2" shorter for some reason. 

Here's the plastic that broke way up at the front where it 

slides into the front pin.  Grrr... This shit makes me mad.

I traded a testicle for this fucking thing.

The guard for the rear brake master cylinder

Pivoting rear brake pedal. I didn't buy it for the trick pivoting mechanism, 

rather, it's just beefier than the flimsy OEM piece and it was reasonably inexpensive.

Countershaft sprocket chain guard

 

The pivoting mechanism

Yes, it pivots.

I need to spend a few minutes to see if I can slide the master cylinder 

forward a little while preserving the position of the brake pedal.  No doubt, 

I'll need to re-adjust the pedal position. I ran out of time but will 

investigate further tomorrow.

Canary Islands riding

The wife and kids and I spent Christmas on Gran Canaria, the main island of the Spanish "Canary Islands" -- which is just off the coast of Southern Morocco. We got a great deal on a last minute package deal for 9 days. It was nice to get away from the cool, damp, gray and gloomy weather of Berlin in December. Nothing but sunshine and warm temperatures -- not hot, but definitely nice enough for shorts and a t-shirt. We hung out at the beach (water was a little cool) but the sun was very warm.

My wife was nice enough to let me disappear on a rented motorcycle for a two days. I went out for a 5-6 hour ride for each of the two days. The bike was a 2006 Yamaha TTR600. With it's air cooled, carbureted single cylinder engine and smooth gearbox, it was low-tech but reliable and bullet-proof: a perfect bike for exploring the narrow and winding mountain roads, and dirt trails that snaked over and around the rugged landscape. The cost was €125 for two days, including a jacket, gloves & helmet. Quite reasonable and I had not made a reservation, rather, I just walked in off the street and picked up the bike with no advance notice.

Both days, I left the resort/hotel by 8am and made it back by mid-afternoon to enjoy a cold beer on the balcony before heading to the beach. How awesome is that? The only thing missing was a few riding buddies.

I made sure to also do some fun stuff with the family, too: go-karting, dolphin watching, camel rides, trekking over the sand dunes, and we also rented a car for two days and explored some nearby villages and popular sites.