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| A pair of bikes at opposite ends of performance scale :D |
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| It's all accessorized for long road trip storage |
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| Looks as beautiful as it is comfortable! |
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| 1198cc of goodness |
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| Nice looking tailpipes |
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Added another 100km seat time alongside a buddy
This Sunday, I finally met up with a buddy visiting from hundreds of kilometers away. We picked the perfect time for our ride as it stayed dry - dry enough for most of the time anyway. Here are some snapshots after our moderate ride covering ~100km round trip.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
1st group ride since "graduating"
Today I went on my 1st group ride (link to forum post) since "graduating" from PRS and completing my class 6 license. What an experience!! I must say it felt pretty cool to be one of the group riders that people were turning head to look at (some may be haters, but who cares LOL)
I was in awe with so many bikes and riders there at the starting meet location; only to be told that while it was a good turn-out but there have been and will be bigger attendance in group rides! It's so exciting to see and hear all the cool bikes, I am glad I wasn't too excited and was able to ride safely :p
Even though I didn't ride the entire route (I did~80% [correction: more like 65% in ride time] before departing at a pre-determined spot), the parts that I rode were already great; with some types of routes I had yet to experience before! So far on all the solo rides that I have done, I did mostly open highway plus short distances on suburb residential streets getting on/off the highway. Today, it was open highway: same stretch I have done prior, so no biggie, it was a nice warm-up; then some moderate twisties around the West edge of the city... next up, through the heart of downtown core... the busy intersections could get intense but that was all nice and good.
The next big highlight was some more twisties uphill and downhilll, fairly narrow at parts... one lane each direction. I have never even driven a car through that part of town, so I was in for a bit of a surprise while winding my way through them. I am sure I could have done better (i.e. smoother, NOT faster) and caused less worries for the tail rider (whom I still have to id and contact to thank!) in my group; but overall I really enjoyed it and fairly pleased with how I rode. I will be back to ride that stretch and be better and better at it!
I was in awe with so many bikes and riders there at the starting meet location; only to be told that while it was a good turn-out but there have been and will be bigger attendance in group rides! It's so exciting to see and hear all the cool bikes, I am glad I wasn't too excited and was able to ride safely :p
Even though I didn't ride the entire route (I did
The next big highlight was some more twisties uphill and downhilll, fairly narrow at parts... one lane each direction. I have never even driven a car through that part of town, so I was in for a bit of a surprise while winding my way through them. I am sure I could have done better (i.e. smoother, NOT faster) and caused less worries for the tail rider (whom I still have to id and contact to thank!) in my group; but overall I really enjoyed it and fairly pleased with how I rode. I will be back to ride that stretch and be better and better at it!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Rider visiting autox
June 12 was the 3rd sunny Sunday in a row before Summer even officially began. That was too good to pass up, so I rode out to a local autox event. It was also the first time using my tank bag carrying a smallish DSLR for some autox photos. That trip added 86 km to my riding experience, it was a nice day!
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| Two of the fine sports cars by Honda |
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Flashback: adjusting shift pedal before taking it on the road
When I got my Ninja 250R rode up to my place by the previous owner, the shift pedal angle was not working for me to safely ride on the road. I would likely have struggled very badly to get my toe under the shifter and then it would be stuck there! These are all the before-adjustment pictures.
Here is the YouTube video I found and followed to do the simple but very important personalized adjustment to the shifter angle. Since then it not only becomes much safer for me to operate the shifter (crucial to riding properly), it totally feels to be MY motorcycle!
Here is the YouTube video I found and followed to do the simple but very important personalized adjustment to the shifter angle. Since then it not only becomes much safer for me to operate the shifter (crucial to riding properly), it totally feels to be MY motorcycle!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Twin Ninja 250Rs
My garage neighbour's and mine, even the same colour!! Have to arrange a group ride!
Another nice Sunday (2011 June 5th) for some good riding!
Rode around not too far from home and overall did about 40km on some fairly quiet open roads with some moderate twisties, even some good elevation changes too :)
One of the checkpoints was a newly developed industrial park area with nice wide open access roads and empty parking lots with brand new asphalt, so here are couple pictures under the sun.
One of the checkpoints was a newly developed industrial park area with nice wide open access roads and empty parking lots with brand new asphalt, so here are couple pictures under the sun.
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| Did some practice "panic" braking in a wide open empty lot (trucks all parked) |
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| Went and did a hang-out at McD for a $1 soft drink |
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
GT5 vs iRacing impression
The Background
I have been a Gran Turismo fan since its first installment way back on PSX. In fact, I bought my original PSX because of GT. Since then I have got all the console versions (i.e. no PSP for me) of Gran Turismo ever released in North America. As most people who enjoy GT would agree, GT is different than the usual arcade style racing games (think Need For Speed here). It is a driving simulator (as its creator calls it) --- but is it really??
I used to truly believe that yes - Gran Turismo is THE driving simulator to swear by in terms of driving realism and attention to details. Well, in January a buddy of mine finally convinced me to try out iRacing (a PC online racing simulator); since then, my belief has been shaken and I have not touched GT since.
GT fans, hold off on the hate mails, flaming comments :) Please read on...
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the track of my comapro.
Last night I finally fired up GT5 for the first time since January and ran races around couple of my favorite real world tracks (Suzaka and Laguna Seca). I needed to find out for myself if I actually still enjoy GT like before.
The Verdict
I still love Gran Turismo and to me it is still a good driving simulator and not an arcade game (for the most part). It is just clear to me that there is something iRacing delivers that GT does not. In a nutshell, iRacing is an even more accurate and no-compromise driving AND racing simulator.
The Breakdown
Driving simulation-wise, there is no setting to provide artificial driving aid (such as reduced traction loss on track edges, etc. that GT5 allows). So driving in iRacing requires the same level of concentration and respect to the law of physics (minus the risk of bodily injuries) as one must have in the real world.
Racing simulation-wise, well, iRacing has no CPU car to race against so one could argue that is an unfair comparison. However, that is also the essence of why iRacing can be (but not always) so engaging as the racing is done against real people around the world (grids with drivers around same skill levels) who typically exhibit real world racing etiquette (again, not always).
Last night on GT5, I used a RX-8 and then a Elise R111 racing against "Pro" level CPU at Laguna Seca. I am by NO MEANS a professional race driver, I am far from that but I was able to beat the "Pro" handily: 20+s over 3 laps on a rolling start from back of the grid! That has got to be a deficit for GT5 in terms of racing simulation.
The Drive Ahead
I will undoubtedly continue to play GT5 but not as much as when I first got it because in GT mode, the "racing" with ultra high performance cars (Professional Series and up) becomes closer to arcade style than a racing simulator. I will play it to primarily do time trials on real world tracks just to challenge myself to run consistent laps with cars of different levels of performance.
As iRacing is subscription based and the fact of it being a no-compromise racing simulator, it really takes commitment and time to extract the enjoyment and reward from it. So I will decide if I will renew my subscription when the next expiration is near; in the meantime, I have not spent much time on it and also do not have plan to commit almost every other night on it to run practice laps, qualifying and races like I did during the first 3 months I tried it.
I have been a Gran Turismo fan since its first installment way back on PSX. In fact, I bought my original PSX because of GT. Since then I have got all the console versions (i.e. no PSP for me) of Gran Turismo ever released in North America. As most people who enjoy GT would agree, GT is different than the usual arcade style racing games (think Need For Speed here). It is a driving simulator (as its creator calls it) --- but is it really??
I used to truly believe that yes - Gran Turismo is THE driving simulator to swear by in terms of driving realism and attention to details. Well, in January a buddy of mine finally convinced me to try out iRacing (a PC online racing simulator); since then, my belief has been shaken and I have not touched GT since.
GT fans, hold off on the hate mails, flaming comments :) Please read on...
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the track of my comapro.
Last night I finally fired up GT5 for the first time since January and ran races around couple of my favorite real world tracks (Suzaka and Laguna Seca). I needed to find out for myself if I actually still enjoy GT like before.
The Verdict
I still love Gran Turismo and to me it is still a good driving simulator and not an arcade game (for the most part). It is just clear to me that there is something iRacing delivers that GT does not. In a nutshell, iRacing is an even more accurate and no-compromise driving AND racing simulator.
The Breakdown
Driving simulation-wise, there is no setting to provide artificial driving aid (such as reduced traction loss on track edges, etc. that GT5 allows). So driving in iRacing requires the same level of concentration and respect to the law of physics (minus the risk of bodily injuries) as one must have in the real world.
Racing simulation-wise, well, iRacing has no CPU car to race against so one could argue that is an unfair comparison. However, that is also the essence of why iRacing can be (but not always) so engaging as the racing is done against real people around the world (grids with drivers around same skill levels) who typically exhibit real world racing etiquette (again, not always).
Last night on GT5, I used a RX-8 and then a Elise R111 racing against "Pro" level CPU at Laguna Seca. I am by NO MEANS a professional race driver, I am far from that but I was able to beat the "Pro" handily: 20+s over 3 laps on a rolling start from back of the grid! That has got to be a deficit for GT5 in terms of racing simulation.
The Drive Ahead
I will undoubtedly continue to play GT5 but not as much as when I first got it because in GT mode, the "racing" with ultra high performance cars (Professional Series and up) becomes closer to arcade style than a racing simulator. I will play it to primarily do time trials on real world tracks just to challenge myself to run consistent laps with cars of different levels of performance.
As iRacing is subscription based and the fact of it being a no-compromise racing simulator, it really takes commitment and time to extract the enjoyment and reward from it. So I will decide if I will renew my subscription when the next expiration is near; in the meantime, I have not spent much time on it and also do not have plan to commit almost every other night on it to run practice laps, qualifying and races like I did during the first 3 months I tried it.
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