Motorcycle Ladies

My wife’s birthday was this week. It’s not right that it takes special occasions, like birthdays, for people to step back and contemplate how much someone means to them, but that is human nature. I’m surely guilty of this. I, for the most, part take her for granted, but I’m working on it. It’s a cliche to say that the right woman can make a better man, but in my case that’s definitely true. She loves me unconditionally, supports me when I need it, backs me up (whether I’m right or wrong), and she’ll definitely let me know when I’m being an ass!

 

Why am I bringing this up in a motorcycle blog? Well, it was motorcycles that brought us together (at least it was partially motorcycles). We started dating a little over fifteen years ago and that basically started with her riding as a passenger on my motorcycle. Little did I know how much she’d love it. It really clicked with me one sweltering summer day and all I wanted to do was sit in air conditioning. She visited my house and demanded we go for a ride. Here was a girl who wanted to ride even when I didn’t. I remember telling this to one of my buddies, saying that she might be a keeper.

 

Fifteen years, a motorcycle accident, multiple jobs, and two kids later, we’re still enjoying motorcycles together. Life responsibilities don’t allow us to ride as much as we used to, but rest assured, we still ride. So my advice to all you single guys is to find a girl who really likes to ride. Be careful, because in my experience some may be a bit crazy. If you find a beautiful, sane girl that loves to ride with you, she’s a keeper.

 

“My old man used to tell me, before he left this shitty world, ‘The right woman can make ya and the wrong woman can break ya.’ “ - Marlboro Man in the Motion Picture Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man

Blogging and Responsibility

I got a raise today. Actually, it’s my second raise this year, so I’m making considerably more money than I did last year at this time. Not only did I get a raise, but I was informed at my yearly review that the company I work for is restructuring and I’m going to be promoted when it does. I’m not saying all this to brag. I just want to show the results of my change in attitude toward work this past year.

 

Part of the reason I started this blog three years ago was that I was unhappy with my career. I won’t get into the details, but let’s just say that I was questioning whether I still wanted to be an engineer (my current job). I thought that through years of consistent content that this blog could lead to a career change. While I’d never say that this blog was a waste of time, it did not have that effect. What it did do was give me an outlet to voice my opinions, mostly about motorcycles, but a few other subjects have been discussed as well. I think that this has changed my attitude towards a lot of things positively. One of those things was work. Just having a platform to vent helps immensely.

 

Last year I saw a Joe Rogan Experience podcast which Dr. Jordan Peterson was the guest. I became intrigued by Dr. Peterson and began to listen to his lectures on YouTube. A theme that stuck with me was prioritizing responsibility over rights and happiness. I questioned whether I needed to be happy with my career. I decided to just take my responsibilities more serious instead. If a client emailed me and a group of coworkers, I’d answer instead of waiting for someone else to. I began volunteering for projects instead of waiting to be assigned to one. Next thing you know, I felt content with my job, not happy but content, which is much better than unhappy.

 

This better attitude bled into my family life and even this blog. Things are definitely better all around.

 

“Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.” - Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

Moto Fun in Winter?

It’s the second day of the first blizzard of the season. Winter is really here. I had an inkling of hope that I was going to get one more motorcycle ride this year, but Mother Nature decided otherwise. I’ve mentioned it earlier that it has been a pretty disappointing year for riding. Bad weather, work, and some home projects got in way of proper motorcycling time. Something encouraging is happening this winter, however. A good friend of mine has bought a Timbersled conversion kit for his dirt bike.

I believe I’ve described a Timbersled before, but I’ll risk repeating myself. It is a track and ski that replace the front and rear wheel on an off-road motorcycle. These types of kits have been around for quite a while, but Timbersled (who was actually purchased by Polaris) seems to have perfected the system. I’ve considered buying one in the past, but at a price tag of $4000 on top of needing a 400+ cc dirt bike makes it too rich for my blood.

Now why would I be excited that my friend has one? Because I know that he’ll demand that I take this out for a test ride. I know he’ll do this because it’s what he always does when he gets something new and it’s exactly what I do as well. The best thing about purchasing something cool (except experiencing it yourself) is seeing the thrill on your friends’ faces when they test it out. Now, before you decide to lecture me on not letting friends hurt themselves and wreck your new ride, let me assure you that my group of friends are very experienced when it comes to motorcycles, snowmobiles, and ATV’s. In fact if one of them isn’t comfortable riding something, they’ll decline your offer so they won’t wreck your property.

Anyway, I’m pretty stoked to take the dirt bike with the Timbersled kit for a ride!

“Winter is nature's way of saying, up yours.” - Robert Byrne

Motorcycles in Movies

Have you ever watched a movie in which the protagonist hops on a motorcycle (or steals one) and rides in the climactic chase scene? It always baffles me how skilled they are. Of course there’d be exaggeration, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. The movie Exit Wounds comes to mind. In it, Steven Seagal clotheslines a guy and steals his Ducati Monster. He picks up the bike and instantly wheelies it and rolls into a huge stoppie when he brakes. Unbelievable!

 

Another movie that stands out is Fled. In the final chase scene, Stephen Baldwin and Laurence Fishburne ride Ducati 916’s like they are professionals. They drag knees on every corner, wheelie, and split traffic (actually 2 semi trucks I believe). It’s very entertaining, especially to someone like me that really appreciates skilled riding, but come on! Anyone off the street trying to ride like this would become road splatter.

 

I guess I really don’t take much issue with scenes like this, but I just want to point out how unrealistic they are. I know it’s meant to increase the perception of the protagonist's skill, bravery, and overall badass-ary, but this could never even come close to happening in real life. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred a newbie would crash in the first 30 seconds. I guess that wouldn’t make much of a movie scene though.

 

Oh...and if you really want to get me going on stupid motorcycle scenes, bring up the girls’ motorcycle fight in Torque. Yikes!

 

“Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” - Jean-Luc Godard

Three Years of MotoBlogging

 

 

Last week I listened to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. His guest was Dan Carlin. If you haven’t listened to Dan’s podcast, Hardcore History, do yourself a favor and check it out. I especially enjoy his series on World War I which is titled, Blueprint for Armageddon. The conversation turned to how they both make most of their money from podcasting and anyone can do something similar, they only need to start doing it.

 

After hearing this, I instantly started to draw parallels to beginning this blog. It’ll be three years next month that I wrote the first blog post for KLK. At that time, I was pretty miserable at my job and I believed I had made the wrong career choice (engineering). I began to think of ways that I could build an online business that pertained to my passion, motorcycles. First, I wanted to create a YouTube channel (which I have and still might pursue more in the future), but after thinking about it, I decided a blog would better suit me. I asked two of my best friends to join me and KLK Cycles was formed.

 

Three years later, I’m still an engineer. Actually, I have been pretty content with my job lately and no longer feel a need to find another. While I haven’t turned blogging into another career, I do believe it has helped me a lot. In three years I have received quite a bit of free stuff to review, I’ve written for larger blogs, and recently I had an article published in a motorcycle magazine. The number of page views per post is now five times larger than it was two years ago and a following is slowly building. I haven’t made any money doing this, but I find it extremely fulfilling and enjoy both writing and seeing the number of page views progressively increase. Who knows what the future may hold.

 

"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back

Monster Love

 

The Ducati Monster is my favorite motorcycle. Well, that’s mostly true. Sometimes another bike can challenge for the top spot in my motorcycle hierarchy, but most of the time if you ask me, my favorite is the Monster. If that Monster is matte black, then look out, I’m reaching for my wallet. I mention the Monster because I just read this article from Motorcyclist. I hadn’t realized that Ducati has already been making Monsters for 25 years.

It was around 1996 when I first noticed a photo of a Monster. Prior to this, I was definitely interested in motorcycles, but I hadn’t had much interest in reading motorcycle magazines. That year, I was a junior in high school. For some reason, I was placed in a study hall with only middle school students. I literally knew no one. So, I spent that time in the school library, where they had a monthly subscription to Cycle World. I’d read that magazine cover to cover and anxiously await the next month’s copy. This is when I first saw the Ducati Monster.

I can’t say I fell in love with it instantly. I’m sure I thought it was cool and would’ve liked to have one, but I could say that about a lot of bikes. This did put the Monster on my radar, though. Two years later when I was traveling to Milwaukee to visit my Grandfather, I stopped in a Ducati dealership to check out the new bikes. There it was. A matte black Monster 750. That’s when I truly found my favorite motorcycle. 21 years later, I’m still riding a Ducati Monster.

If you haven’t seen a Monster in person, go check one out. Make sure it’s matte black, though. It’s not that I don’t like other colors, but yellow and red just don’t look as good on a Monster in my honest opinion.

“So that was it. This bike was really not like any other Ducati. It was just like the loud stubby powerful thing on its way into the ooze. A prehistoric beast. A monster. The kind of animal you thought they didn't build anymore.” - from Monster Story by John Burns, featured in Cycle World

Robots on Motorcycles

I’m not sure how I missed it for this long, but Yamaha has a robot that rides a motorcycle. Not only rides, but races. In fact, this Popular Mechanics article details the race between this robot (named MOTOBOT) and arguably the best man to ever race motorcycles, Valentino Rossi. I thought I was fairly up to date on motorcycle technology, but seeing as the first reports on MOTOBOT were back in 2015, I guess I was wrong.

I am not embarrassed to say that this thing kinda creeps me out! When I look at the photo in the article, I’m immediately reminded of all the sci-fi movies that have killer robots. If the next Star Wars movie had a droid character that looked like this it would surprise no one. One Day humanity could be slaves to such robots (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit).

If I overlook the creepy stuff, I can see the great implications that this could have for motorcycles. Imagine being able to road test a bike without worrying about injuring a human. If you remove the fear of injury or death, then a motorcycle could be ridden to its absolute limits. Now, you can argue that many of the people testing and racing motorcycles may not have that fear, but we cannot be sure of that. I repeat myself when I say this, but I’m really looking forward to what the future holds for motorcycles.

“In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.” - Nikola Tesla