Starcher Scene

Last week was Daytona Bike Week. I guess one of the perks of living in Orlando is being within an hour of a huge motorcycle event that happens twice a year. The coolest part of Bike Week is that all of the major manufacturers are there offering test rides on latest models of their bikes. Basically, you get there as early as you can in the morning (we were there before 8 a.m.) to sign up for a test ride at each vendor’s tent. After signing your life away on a waiver form, you pick a bike and a time. It felt kind of like registering for classes trying to make all the times fit.

My staff mentor and fellow biker, David Nagy, both told me about the event, and, thanks to his 7 or so years of experience, helped us get the most out of our day. We managed to get 5 rides, each of which averaged about 30 minutes in length plus a 5 minute lecture before hand telling you not to do anything fun (wheelies, stoppies, “sling-shotting”, burnouts, etc). My first ride of the day was on a beast of a bike appropriately named “The Hammer.” American made by Victory, this bike packs a 100 cu. in. engine (~1650cc for the metric folk). This bike competes for my favorite of the day, and the ride was definitely the most fun. Part of that was because traffic was light early in the day, and part of it probably had something to do with getting up to 100 mph in 4th gear (who knows what 5th and 6th could do…).
With a back tire as wide as the tires on my car, it didn’t exactly corner well, but it was a fun bike with plenty of raw power and style.

My second ride was on a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14. Not having ridden many sport bikes in my life, I don’t have much to compare this to. With 1352 ccs on a sport bike frame I didn’t even begin to get a feel for what this bike could do on our little test ride that never took us much above 60mph. I can say that I never really got out of second gear (touched 3rd briefly, but really didn’t need to). The highlight of this ride was the one real curve we found (keep in mind how flat and boring Florida landscape is). The curve was posted at 35, and we took it at about 60. When we pulled up at a stop light on the other side one of the Yamaha ride captains turned around and apologized for not going faster, but apparently a motorcycle cop had decided to join our ride. 60 on a 35 probably would have been dragging the pegs on my Magna, but on that Ninja I didn’t even feel like I was pushing it. Now I understand why people on sport bikes kill themselves. The bike sticks to the road, making you over-confident until one day you push it just a little bit too far.

Next came the Honda VTX 1800. The biggest engine of the day, and also the most boring ride. Honda definitely didn’t do anything to help their image of designing cruisers for the older crowd. Both of the road captains were motorcycle safety instructors that Honda hired for the day. We never exceeded the posted limit at any time, never accelerated quickly… As for the bike, I guess it was nice enough. The seat was the least comfortable thing I sat on that day, but that seems pretty typical of Honda. I’m glad I had a chance to test ride that bike because prior to that ride I had thought I might want to buy that bike some day. Maybe I haven’t given it a fair chance, but I wouldn’t say it’s on the top of my list anymore.

The next bike tied with the Hammer for my favorite bike of the day. Actually, this bike won because it’s significantly cheaper and I might one day be able to own one (used). The bike is the Yamaha Warrior. It’s a power cruiser, with a similar mentality as my Magna. It has the same 100 cu. in. as the Hammer, but there’s just something different in the style. I guess it’s the way they balanced the power with the handling ability to create an overall pleasant ride. Unfortunately, this was the one bike we forgot to take a picture of, so you just get the stock photo.

The last ride of the day was on a Moto Guzzi Breva. I almost feel like I could have just gone home early and not missed anything. Almost… It was still worth the ride for the experience of riding a bike with an identity crisis. It might look like a sport bike, but if you compare the picture of the Breva with the Ninja you’ll notice the riding position of the Breva is much more upright, but the foot position is still tucked away beneath you. In fact, I don’t know if you can see it in the picture, but they managed to put the peg right above the pipe making it very difficult for someone with size 12 feet not to melt some rubber. The most interesting thing about that bike was probably when I turned the key and watched an onboard computer boot up with a message in Italian. Ok, so I know modern motorcycles all have computers in them these days, but you don’t have to shove it in my face in a language I don’t know…

The day as a whole was a lot of fun. I’m already looking forward to Biketoberfest so I can go ride some more bikes I’ll never be able to afford to own. A special thanks to David Nagy for taking me to Bike Week, and taking all those lovely pictures for you guys to see.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006 at 1:52 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.