What's in your Tankbag? Confessions of a Road Geek.
W e d n e s d a y , J u l y 1 , 2 0 0 9
This past Saturday I was out of the house for most of the day running errands and doing family things. When I arrived back home I walked into the kitchen and found a box sitting on the counter waiting for me. Kenny surprised me by buying me a Asus Eee PC - Seashell mini laptop. 'I thought you could easily just throw it in your purse or your bag when you’re riding or on trips,' he said. Isn’t he just a gem?
With a 10 inch screen, built in camera, Microsoft office suite and a web browser, I pretty much have everything I personally need to sit down and write something or upload photos when I‘m on the go. This light as a feather little bugger came dressed in a very spiffy high gloss black finish and I’ll tell you, if it isn’t just the cutest darn thing, I don‘t know what is!
Cut to this morning. As I sipped my coffee and got myself ready for work, I moved all of the things I had put in my tank bag the night before out on the counter to put into my handbag. That’s when it hit me. I’m a nerd. A big one. There may have been some key indicators prior to this, but clearly I must have been ignoring them.
Blackberry, Ipod, camera, backup camera I used to take the picture of my regular camera, 8GB memory stick, and now… a tiny laptop? Oofa, I think someone might need to stage an intervention and save me from myself. All this from the girl who won’t succumb to using a GPS!
So how about you? What’s in your tank bag? Are you a road geek or are you the no cords attached type when you hit the highway?
The number of wacky cars that we've been encountering lately is really starting to become comical. Is Long Island some kind of hotbed for art car activity? Will everyone soon be driving around in giant fiberglass highheels and riding banana bikes? If so, maybe I'll finally start to love this place!
We saw this gem on a family jaunt tonight. King Pow Car! Hiyaaaa!
Leather Pants, Not Just for the Village People Anymore!
M o n d a y , J u n e 2 9 , 2 0 0 9
I suppose that in the realm of fashionable clothing, leather pants can be pretty tough to pull off. Just ask Ross from Friends. Within the motorcycle world though, the same rules don’t really apply. Protection, not fashion is the name of the game. Sure, lots of folks are riding around in helmets with leather jackets, gloves and boots and the outfit finally rounded out with a pair of jeans. Hell, I’ve worn that very getup too many times to count when staying close to home or running errands. But over the last year or so I just can’t feel good about even riding around locally without having a proper pair of motorcycle pants on.
Outside of the obvious abrasion protection that leather offers in the unfortunate event of an accident, armored or padded knees and hips are a beautiful thing! What is it about their sittin’ muscle, their kneecaps and their hips that people are so willing to sacrifice to Tarmac the Destroyer? Have you banged your knee on a coffee table lately? That smarts, doesn’t it? Now add 40mph to it.
ATGATT:All the gear, all the time. Life doesn’t check your availability calendar before penciling in an accident which is precisely why we should dress for the crash each time we head out. If a rider didn’t come out of the gate fully dressed in protective clothing at the start of their riding career, it usually only takes one ass-grating slide down the blacktop to get a full understanding of how appealing minimizing the risk can be.
Top 3 annoying questions that I’ve been asked about my leather riding pants:
1.Aren’t you hot in those things?
Well, let’s just go ahead and think about this, shall we? If it is 90 degrees and sunny outside and I’m wearing a black cow on my rump then yes, of COURSE I’m hot!
2.Do you plan on crashing today?
I don’t know too many people that hit the ringing alarm clock and rub their eyes after a nice big stretch and say, “You know? I think I throw my ass down the road today.” I don’t plan on it, which is precisely why I want to gear up. Life has a funny way of unfolding without your consent.
3.Aren’t they only for people who race?
No, of course not! They’re for people who want to minimize the risks. Nothing is 100% safe. All you can do is try to lessen the hurt. Be kind to your behind!
Birthdays, Christmas, Fathers Day all elicit the same reaction from so many women. What do you give the man in your life when he already has so many of the toys that he wants? Motorcycle? Check, check and check. Tools? A definite maybe but, another torque wrench under the tree just doesn’t cut it.Sweater vest? Uh... no. After wracking my brain trying to find something neat for my better half Kenny for Christmas, I settled in to a gift certificate to partake in the Gotham Dream Car Tour.
The Gotham Dream Car Tour puts you in the driver’s seat of some of the world’s most exotic road cars for a day. The tour gives you the unique opportunity to pilot six exclusive autos out on public roadways,spending about a half an hour behind the wheel of each before moving on to the next car. I was fortunate enough to be taken along as a passenger on this great day of driving.
Much to the collective palpable disappointment of the 7 drivers participating in the Tour on that day, no one would be getting any seat time in any of their Lamborghini cars, which were all in some state of requiring mechanical attention. To their credit, Gotham knowing right away that this would be a major letdown to the group gave each driver a fifty percent off certificate that they could use on a daily rental or on another tour. Beggars can’t be choosers, so the drivers would have to suffer through a pair of Maseratis, the poor things. The lineup of cars that we would have the opportunity to ride in on this day was the Maserati Quattroporte, Maserati Gran Turismo, Bentley Silver Spur, Bentley Continental GTC, Ferrari 360 Spyder and the Ferrari F430.
The way that the tour works is each driver is listed on a driving rotation sheet, allowing each person to experience about 30 minutes behind the wheel of each car. After the safety meeting and car orientation the group received their driving badges and the driving rotation. You could see each driver excitedly scanning the paper looking for their name to see where they fell in the car driving lineup. Let’s face it, each of these boys wanted to pilot those Ferraris on the twistiest part of the route to get some understanding of the amazing handling that they’ve all read about since they were wee lads. It seemed that Lady Luck was riding along with us as Kenny got the 360 Spyder and the F430 while we were going to be driving in Harriman State Park which offered the most winding roads of the route and then the Silver Spur and the Gran Turismo on the to and from highway legs of the drive. Score!
When the tour leaves the garage facility in New Jersey the train of exotics tails a lead car that is a rather inconspicuous looking sedan. Following behind is a sweep car of similar non-descript ilk making sure that none of these very expensive sheep get lost. Each car is equipped with a CB radio to keep in verbal contact with the entire group. Route directions, road hazards, Smokey is hiding in the bushes type messages all come across the radio during your drive with a northeastern accent that had me chuckling at times. One of the messages actually included the phrase, “a couple ten fifteen minutes.” You just don’t hear that outside of the New York metro area.
The lead car radios the group to pull in to scheduled stops to make driver changes. What ensues is then something of high profile Chinese Fire Drill. Excited chatter about their impression of the car they are exiting flurried between the drivers. On this day each of the drivers was salivating over the Ferrari F430, wishing they could just get a little more time behind the wheel of the Italian beauty. The group could not escape without pictures, questions or just general awe at the collection of fine automobiles all congregated together.
As a passenger, my impression of the driving segments of the tour overall can be summed up in a single word: Terrifying. Admittedly, I am probably the worst choice as a front seat passenger. As Kenny, with an uncharacteristic giddiness, blipped the paddles and moved through the gears of the Ferrari F430 it rumbled a delicious guttural growl through the deep green surroundings of Harriman State Park, I sat gripping the door white knuckled all the way. The car skimmed across the roadway with agility at speed unlike anything I have ever experienced before and am unlikely to again. The term handled like it was on rails never meant anything to me until riding in this car. It was ferocious and manly and oh so exhilarating and being a passive entity in the ride was absolutely scary. Watching the man I love be truly overcome with the driving experience, wrapped up completely with an excitement that I don’t think I’ve ever seen from him before was hands down worth the price of admission.
What I came away from this event with was an understanding that giving the gift of an experience will leave a lingering joy unlike anything else. Clearly the people at Gotham Dream Cars understand this. I would absolutely recommend the Dream Car Tour to anyone with a thirst for exhilarating pursuits.
To read a firsthand account of the Dream Car Tour, visit Kenny’s blog on watermelon18.com.
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” More often than not, I tend to agree with that sentiment but on nights such as last, the destination really made the ride out along Sound Avenue worthwhile. On this crowded island with its millions of people, we’re always on the lookout for a place that we can ride our bikes to, sit down near the water and have a nice meal without rubbing elbows with the people at the next table. The Old Mill Inn with its casual outdoor dining deck fit those requirements perfectly.
The charming red building that is now The Old Mill Inn has been sitting amongst the rocks and the reeds along the Mattituck inlet since about 1820. Just a couple of years after the turn of the century the mill became a tavern and though it has changed many hands since, it remains a restaurant to this day.A laid back, waterside restaurant at the end of a lovely rambling road that serves the most delicious lemon coconut skyscraper cake for two.
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I suppose that in the realm of fashionable clothing, leather pants can be pretty tough to pull off. Just ask Ross from Friends. Within the motorcycle world though, the same rules don’t really apply. Protection, not fashion is the name of the game. 
As a passenger, my impression of the driving segments of the tour overall can be summed up in a single word: Terrifying. Admittedly, I am probably the worst choice as a front seat passenger. As Kenny, with an uncharacteristic giddiness, blipped the paddles and moved through the gears of the Ferrari F430 it rumbled a delicious guttural growl through the deep green surroundings of Harriman State Park, I sat gripping the door white knuckled all the way. The car skimmed across the roadway with agility at speed unlike anything I have ever experienced before and am unlikely to again. The term handled like it was on rails never meant anything to me until riding in this car. 
