New Bikes

On Thursday Duck delivered the 2023 Triumph Rocket 3 GT with mid-pegs, and a fourth motorcycle was added to our growing bike family. Bill got to ride it some while he waited for me to arrive so we could park it in the garage. Temporarily, we had three bikes in my parents’ garage; the plan was to get up early Saturday to move the Ducati Scrambler Fasthouse to my garage.

The perks to our early Saturday was I got to see seven snowy egrets heading out from their nighttime roost to start their days. And I spotted an early falcon beginning his day as well as a great blue heron stretching out on a spillway as I followed Bill back to the house.

When we returned for our joint ride, I was going to ride the R Nine T. I was a little nervous about this. While I’ve been doing much better understanding the friction zone in my field practice, I wasn’t sure I would be able to work in the friction zone while also turning the motorcycle from stops. Oddly enough, though, I found it easy to work the friction zone out on the road.

Since this was only Bill’s second ride on the Rocket, we were going easy and focusing more on just riding straight roads and turning around in cul de sacs rather than slow speed maneuvers. Thus I was able to get a better feel for the R Nine T too. I missed the burbles and pops of the LeoVince exhaust on the Ducati; the R Nine T was much quieter. And I felt I was stretching a bit to reach the handlebars, so I scooted up on the seat. I loved the smoothness of the acceleration and the gear shifts. My turns went well, and I found it easier to turn the wheel at stops and keep it turned as I headed into the turn.

The weather was a little nippy, and soon I will have to switch to my leather riding jacket. But despite the cool air, I did see a cabbage white fluttering by early in our ride. Lots of fun Halloween decorations were out including a 20-foot-tall skeleton with a skeleton dog. We stopped by the building with the mirrored wall to take a look at us on our new bikes. I’m still taller on my motorcycle than Bill on his Rocket, but we both are riding two gorgeous bikes.

I worked a little on pre-loading which is where I ride with one or two fingers on the front brake and the clutch. The clutch is too far out for me to comfortably pre-load, but I was able to pre-load the front brake. However, I struggle with rolling on the throttle when I pull in the brake. I might have better control if I adjust the brake closer, something I’ll try next week.

Next week we’ll have temperatures in the low 70s, perfect riding weather for our first November weekend ride.

Changes in the Air

In the autumn it’s natural to expect change in the air. The temperatures are becoming wonderfully, comfortably cool for our rides and the leaves are changing into their lovely fall colors. But changes are coming to our rides as well, good changes.

After the disappointingly high quote on the 2023 Triumph Rocket 3 GT, we contacted Moto Richmond. Their web site showed a black Rocket, but the description said the bike was red and black. So I asked if it were the 2023 carnival red and sapphire black; it was. I then requested a quote, and they came back with a price over $1,100 less than Sunrise! Now the issue was the logistics of picking up a motorcycle in Richmond and getting it back home. We took the chance of contacting Duck to see if Sunrise wanted to try and meet the Moto Richmond quote. Sure enough, the sales manager hates to lose a sale to Moto Richmond, so they told us they would match the MR quote. On Thursday Bill made it official.

No motorcycle yet, though. The GT model comes with forward controls, and Bill wants mid controls. So we have a delay on getting the bike, but hopefully not too long a delay. In the meantime we have to decide which motorcycle I’ll be riding. We already know we want to sell the Ducati Scrambler, but we have to move out the Scrambler or the R Nine T to make room in my parents’ garage for the Rocket.

An additional change coming for us is the loss of the school yard. For nearly 50 years, everyone in the neighborhood has been able to freely enjoy the large field behind the school. But now, someone’s decided they need to fence off the school grounds, which means I’ll lose my R Nine T practice field. Now the solution would be for me to just start riding the R Nine T on our regular ride; however, the tires are 50/50 off-road, so they aren’t ideal for a newer rider on the roads.

I do feel more confident on the R Nine T. I feel better able to handle the clutch and find myself wanting the challenge of riding the bike on the roads with frequent stops. I had no stalls in my practice this week, and I found myself accelerating up and down the field. I would like to feel more of the power of the bike, but whether I take over riding it will depend on some logistics.

Our ride was nearly perfect. Bill was able to quickly install the shoestring replacement having made it this week out of some aluminum. We rode out into a sunny day in the mid-60s. I found myself marveling at how we now make figure 8s in the cul de sacs we used to only make circles. I have much better control of my turn radius though I have not done a full lock yet. I did successfully walk the bike into a full circle while I looked the other way. This practice is to make it easier to look in the opposite direction when turning. I do this well on right turns, but I tend to straighten out the wheel when turning left. Today I had one good left turn where I could look to the right for oncoming traffic while turning the bike to the left. Some progress.

There were some interesting sites on the ride. Several people are decorating for Halloween by placing skeletons in lawn chairs out in their yards. We also passed two set ups for wedding receptions, one right in someone’s front yard. Toward the end of our ride, we saw an Autumn Gold Ginko tree letting loose a bevy of leaves. I had given up on seeing butterflies as we’d had some chilly nights in the 40s. But as we arrived back at the garage, a little cabbage white made its way over to flutter past, providing a beautiful end to our beautiful ride.

Yellow leaves on the road — Photo by Maksim Goncharenok on Pexels.com

Baffled

Today was another perfect day for riding, and we saw other motorcyclists everywhere. In fact our first stop was at Sunrise Cycles which is the local Triumph dealership, and we saw eight other riders. According to Cycletrader, an online motorcycle sales site, there were four Triumph Rocket 3s in stock. Since we hadn’t visited for several months, we decided to stop by on our way over to ride.

Inside we saw the same Rocket in Cranberry red that has been on the showroom floor for a year at least. But I was still hopeful that the Triumph dealer showroom might have the other three. No luck, though we did see the pretty Baja Orange Scrambler was still there. We did get to see the new Triumph Tiger 1200 adventure bike series. They had four of the five bikes in the series: the GT Pro, GT Explorer, Rally Pro, and Rally Explorer. These are designed to compete with BMW’s R 1250 GS and GSA motorcycles. Bill got on the Rally Explorer, the large competition for the GSA and wasn’t able to flatfoot the super tall motorcycle. I played it safer and sat on the GT Pro which I could flatfoot. I immediately felt the weight of the bike, all 540 pounds of it because the weight sits up high. I liked it better than the KTM Super Adventure, but I didn’t like it better than the GS.

We had fun with the little Triumph Speed Triples. These small motorcycles carry a large punch—1160 cc engine with 177 HP at a weight of 437 pounds. Talk about a zippy little bike! But we were disappointed not to see more Rockets. Heading back into the main showroom, we were meandering toward the door when I saw Duck, the Triumph salesman. I decided to check with him on the arrival timeframe for the 2023 models and confirm that my name was still at the top of the contact list. It was lucky I did so for two reasons: 1. My name had been accidentally erased from the top of the board during a misguided cleanup session and 2. There was a 2023 Triumph Rocket 3 GT in Carnival Red/Sapphire Black that had arrived a week ago.

I told Bill to follow us because there was a surprise. Duck took us back to the arrivals garage where the motorcycles are unboxed and assembled. Hiding in the corner like a naughty child was the glorious motorcycle. It was love at first sight for Bill. He has been admiring the Rocket for almost three years, but it was the Carnival Red/Sapphire Black color combination that pushed him over the edge into possible ownership. Duck kindly allowed Bill to sit on the motorcycle, and he even pushed it outside into the glorious sunshine where the motorcycle looked truly spectacular.

We asked Duck to work up a quote for us as we headed over to ride. Bill has told me several times that sometimes when you see a motorcycle, you just know that it’s what you want. I hoped the quote would be to Bill’s liking and laughed a little inside thinking on the irony. We’ve been discussing and looking at possibles for my next motorcycle, but it looked like the next bike purchase would be for Bill.

The day was glorious. I had on my longer motorcycle socks, so the wind chill didn’t ride up my pants leg. Before we headed out, Bill installed the baffle inside the LeoVince LV10 exhaust to tame the volume. The baffle slipped right in, but the exhaust would not slip back onto the pipe. Instead of being perfectly round, either the baffle or the exhaust pipe has a slight elliptical to it which blocked part of the pipe. Eventually, Bill was able to jerry-rig a setup using a shoelace that allowed me to ride the Ducati, but the frustration of the assembly took a little shine off the Rocket glow.

But once the Scrambler was up and running, the glorious exhaust sound soon returned the smiles to our faces. With the baffle in, the engine noise was now tolerable, and I could truly enjoy the rumble, grumble, pops, and roar from the exhaust. I found myself particularly enjoying the downshifts as the grumbles and pops are at their acoustical best. I don’t think the Canadian Geese care for my new exhaust, but the sound does help get them out of our way.

We rode most of our usual route though there was a lot more traffic we had to navigate around. Bill led us into a new parking lot that I liked a lot because there was lots of shade. I was fine cruising and doing our U-turns and figure 8s in the courts, but when we hit the hospital overflow lot for our straightening and stopping drills, I finally felt the engine heat and became uncomfortably warm.

So we didn’t stay long in that parking lot. As we headed over to the field for my R Nine T practice, we ran into traffic trying to turn onto the school’s road. So Bill led us up a little further and we turned into the office park and rode through the parking lot to get to our route. I had a glorious ride on the R Nine T with no stutters or stalls. I was having such a good time, I found myself hoping the deal on the Rocket worked out because then the R Nine T would become my next motorcycle.

We finished the ride and headed home. The quote came and it was over what Bill is willing to pay. But now that we know what he wants, we can keep looking until we hopefully find the right deal on the beautiful bike.

2023 Triumph Rocket 3 GT in Carnival Red/Sapphire Black

Featured

Making Lemonade

Crackle and crunch went the leaves underfoot as we loaded up the car to head out for our ride. With temps in the low 60s, the day promised to be a perfect fall ride.

The ride was delayed but for an excellent reason. Bill wanted to install my brand new LeoVince LV10 carbon fiber slip on exhaust. That’s the lemonade making; last week’s drop gave Bill the idea to go ahead and replace the scratched up stock exhaust (the lemons) with the delicious sounding LeoVince (you can hear what the exhaust sounds like here: https://youtu.be/BndvfPF-Nl0). Now my Ducati Scrambler rumbles and grumbles with a deep-throated roar.

The install took 15-20 minutes, so we were soon heading out. I rode the whole time with a smile on my face enjoying the engine roar even while I acknowledged that I would need to wear ear plugs on future rides. The best sound was when I downshifted; at those times, the exhaust popped and rumbled wonderfully.

I did make one mistake with this ride. I forgot to wear my motorcycle socks. My motorcycle socks are knee high and would have kept my lower legs warm from the wind chill shooting up my jeans’ cuffs. It was chilly enough to make me close my helmet vent and keep my visor down. I was also able to enjoy the slow speed maneuvers as the engine heat warmed up my chilly shins. One such drill was to turn the motorcycle to full lock and dab the feet while completing a circle. I was able to complete two full circles and was a little full of myself. After the ride when we were doing our ride reviews, Bill pointed out that in that exercise, I was supposed to be looking in the opposite direction. Oh well. Something to practice next week.

When I was practicing on the R Nine T, Bill took out the Ducati to enjoy the new exhaust himself. While on the R Nine T, I did have one stall, but I recovered quickly. The city had some digging flags out that I was able to use as cones for slalom practice. I was having such a good ride on the R Nine T, I half-hoped Bill would want to ride the Ducati home so I could stay on the BMW. No luck, but I did tell Bill I feel ready to ride the R Nine T on some pavement.

The roar of the exhaust helped to move along some Canadian geese who were determined to cross the road in front of us. After Bill’s turn on the Ducati, he said we would order the baffle to help mute the sound some. I managed to spot an Atlantis Fritillary butterfly, but there are more Halloween decorations out than butterflies now.

One aspect of this week’s ride with the new exhaust was the realization that just like that, I was having fun on the Ducati again. No doubt the cooler temperatures help but, after last week’s drop, I was questioning my choice in motorcycles. The new exhaust took about ten pounds of weight off the bike, and the deep roar gave me a new sense of fun and adventure on the Scrambler. Next weekend promises the same lovely weather; with the right socks, I’ll be all set to really enjoy my ride.

LeoVince LV10 carbon fiber exhaust. — The LeoVince exhaust on my Ducati Scrambler.

Well the Airbag Works!

It was a ride of good and bad luck. The good luck came in the form of the weather. The remnants of Hurricane Ian hit our area Friday but, with some patience Saturday morning, the roads dried out enough to make our ride possible. The bad luck struck soon after.

I was astride the Ducati and turning it around in the driveway to take it down to the street. Turning it around meant backing it up at a 90-degree angle, turning it, and heading down the driveway. I backed it up well enough and had started to turn it to head down the driveway which was a huge mistake. What I should have done was walk the bike back again at a slight angle with the front wheel angled toward the street. Instead, I turned the front wheel and immediately unbalanced the motorcycle. I was dumped over in the yard next to the driveway and, since I had already attached my Helite vest, deployed the vest.

As the drop happened, I had the sensation of desperately trying to get my right foot under me to keep the bike upright. Because I was on the driveway, and my parents’ driveway is very steep, by the time my foot connected with the concrete, the motorcycle was past the point of recovery. I dumped out into the yard and had a momentary panic. All I could think was that something was wrong because my core was being squeezed. I felt the back protector in my Alpinestars shirt shoving into my ribs. It was at that point I realized that my Helite vest, an airbag vest, had deployed. You can see the vest in action here: https://youtu.be/Q_6-MlqYpYw but essentially what it does is act as an airbag for the body when a rider comes off the motorcycle.

I came out of this drop in way better shape than my motorcycle. It landed on the right side, which meant the exhaust heat shield scraped on the concrete as did the right peg. My clumsiness comes just as we are starting to seriously look at trading in the Fasthaus Scrambler for a new motorcycle. Needless to say, I felt rotten, and I cast a pall on the ride. We sat in the garage to let me shake off my fall. I wanted to get out and ride to make sure I hadn’t done any unseen damage that affected the handling or running of the bike.

As we waited, a large monarch butterfly fluttered by overhead, and I took that as an omen that the day would only get better. Soon after seeing the butterfly, we headed out onto the storm-debris strewn roads. The fallen leaves, branches, and pinecones just added more to be aware of as we rode. The day was comfortably cool for cruising with temperatures in the mid-70s. The storm impacted the area as we rode past large branches downed and even some trees including a large pine that had fallen across the walking path near the pool and was propped up by the branches of other trees.

We rode past several tree removal services in the ritzy neighborhood next door. We were even stopped for a bit while a small backhoe attempted to load a large tree trunk onto a truck. I say attempted because, while we watched, the trunk dropped onto the truck and immediately rolled out the other side.

One obstacle Bill pointed out to me was placing our feet down on sticks in the road. As we sat at the stop sign, he pointed down to his boot resting on a stick and demonstrated how easily the stick could roll out from under foot. Unsure footing is a good way to drop the bike.

We didn’t get any gravel lot practice as there were workers setting up for a wedding, but we did do some slow speed drills. As I was working on straightening up from a curve to a stop, I started to feel the heat from the engine and changed tactics to a large loping figure 8 to generate some wind. Because of the storm, R Nine T practice was out as the field was a muddy mess. As I had hoped, the ride helped alleviate the bad mojo of my earlier drop, and we ended our ride smiling.

I did see one other butterfly during the ride. It was a small black one with bright blue coloring at the bottom edge of the wings. I think it might have been a pipevine swallowtail, but it may have been a juvenile red-spotted purple admiral. Whatever it was, it brought a bittersweet smile to my face as I realized the rides with the butterflies would come to an end for this year. However, we do get the cool autumn weather to ride in beginning next Saturday and the awesome fall foliage to look at.