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Getting Your Ya-Yas Out
Since I’m the proud owner of a 2013 Yamaha Super Tenere, I guess I’m a data point in Yamaha’s CRM database, which would explain why I received an email invite to their “Demo Days” at Stamford Motorsports last spring. So on the appointed date—an otherwise grey and drizzly Saturday morning—I threw my riding kit into the…
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Starling on the Slipstream
What the hell do starlings have to do with motorbikes? Here’s what. From Wikipedia: Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds; the species familiar to most people in Europe and North America is the common starling. Starlings have strong feet, their flight is strong and direct, and they are very gregarious. From the band Pavement: I…
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Idiots’ Delights
Before we get to these two idiots, a brief meditation. It will help make this ride report make sense. Like many other suburban New York eighties kids, I grew up listening to Vin Scelsa on WNEW-FM in New York. And after hearing just a few of his shows (usually at the kitchen table over unfinished homework in…
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Tenner Lube
Oil changing. I’ve had the dealer do it for me before, which involves schlepping up Route 7 to Danbury and waiting…waiting…waiting. Ordinarily, it’s also an excuse to indulge in some fantasy bike shopping and gear fixation. But since I have a New England road trip coming up in less than a week, I decided it was…
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March Mapleness
When in March, most people’s thoughts turn to Madness. Mine turn to Mapleness. Not that I’m a basketball hater or anything. It’s just that there’s something about maple sap running down collection tubes—nature whispering about winter’s looming demise, and a sure harbinger of spring—that’s more exciting to me than a bunch of college guys running up and down…
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Ski and Ride
Skiing. Riding. Riding. Skiing. With the possible exception of surfing, eating Twizzlers, or doing the New York Times Sunday crossword, they’re easily two of my favorite things to do on this green and white earth. Some of these life-loves can easily be enjoyed in the span of a single day. But not skiing and riding. Twizzlers and crosswords? Easy-peasy—I…
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Airhead Ambling
It was a dark and stormy Sunday. What else to do but grab your bike and go for a ride? Once again, thanks to global warming, temperatures hovered in the mid-to-high fifties today—in mid-January. The only downside was the downpour and high winds, which made the Southport and Westport beaches pretty dramatic. The riding occasionally so, too. A few…
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2015: The Year in Rear View
‘Tis the season of the 5″x7″ personalized state-of-the-union address. Rejoice! Unless you happen to have a mild Grinch-streak and unlimited-space motoblog, in which case you’re rejoicing at the opportunity to dissect the holiday card phenomenon while you simultaneously indulge in it. (I may be a hypocrite, but at least I’m self-aware and honest). So here’s the thing. Every December, our…
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Ich bin ein Luftkopfer
Well, I done did it. After about a decade of web-surfing, forum-lurking, Craigslist-checking, and general Beemer-fantasizing, I finally did it. I took the plunge and got myself an airhead (luftkopf in German). For the uninitiated and to be clear, airhead does not refer to a bimbo trophy wife, at least not here. While airheads do inspire…
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British Jam and German Toasters
A perfect New England August Sunday. The banks of the Connecticut River at Haddam’s Neck. Dollar-corn-on-the-cob. And a shit-ton of vintage bikes, mostly British, but plenty of Euro and Japanese candy, too. I mean, how could you resist? I couldn’t. So on this fine August Sunday, I took a (car) ride up to the 30th annual…
Longitude & Gratitude 