My recent carb swap was so successful that I was inspired to do a bit more work on the Duke. I finally fixed the broken left rear signal that’s been dangling there for months. The stalk breaks easily when swinging your leg over the bike - it’s just in the right place to knock it on the way over. I pulled the old part out and had a look - the replacement wasn’t _exactly_ the same… The new part had a much shorter shaft that fits inside the tailpiece, and I had to run to the hardware store for a 10mm 1.25 pitch bolt - hopefully it’ll do the trick in there, with the help of a bunch of Locktite.

Since I had to pull the plate bracket off to drop the mufflers to get to the tailpiece to replace the signal, it was a perfect time to do Team Incomplete’s Duke Plate Relocation. The plate bracket is cast junk and was already cracked in several places anyhow, so it wasn’t a difficult decision to scrap it. I did cut it down as they suggest and threw a ziptie around what was left of it, in an attempt to hold the remains together a little while longer. Basically all that is left of the bracket is the spacer between the upper and lower sets of bolts that hold the rear ends of the mufflers up under the tailpiece. The “industrial strength” Velcro that I got fit the plate perfectly, and the plate itself again fits perfectly up onto the airbox, as you can see in the pic. Sweet!

I’ve had a new Keihin FCR 41mm carb sitting on my desk for a couple of months, waiting for me to get around to putting it in the Duke. I finally got around to doing the swap a week or so ago, and then Friday got a new rear tire (Metzler Sportec to match the front - they seem to work plenty well) and fresh oil. The carb went in incredibly easily, and really makes a noticeable difference. Lots more power, and a cool little hisssss from the accelerator pump. Henry and I went for a ride on Saturday up over Tam, up to Olema (my favorite stretch, the banked uphill curves on the way from Bolinas to Dogtown), and then out thru Pt Reyes to Marshall, in to Petaluma, and then back over the mountain to Novato via “D” Street. Great ride, in part because the weather was just bad enough to keep the weekenders off the roads. I’ve had a fair number of bikes, and the Duke just keeps impressing me - what a great bike.

Sometimes when I wander down to Farleys I pick up a copy of <i>Bike</i> - a UK motorcycle magazine that simply blows away any and all of the US mags. It’s expensive, but they write in complete sentences and actually review bikes thoroughly and objectively. Well, as objectively as one might expect for a UK publication - their review of the new Triumph Sprint ST was nothing short of glowing with nationalistic pride.

Any bias aside, it sounded good, and a British (or German, or Austrian, or Italian) bike holds more appeal for me than, for example, a Honda, so it sort of stuck in my head.

…and stuck, and stuck. I read that review a few months ago… and then I started planning a trip to LA earlier this month — and I realized that since of course I _needed_ a new motorcycle (how else to get to LA?), it was time to get myself to the Triumph dealer.

It probably took me ten days to complete the process of justifying the purchase. Unassailable logic, I assure you. As I already mentioned, I did need a way to get from San Francisco to Los Angeles. What, fly? And, I already had two orange bikes… so I needed another color to balance them out. And I needed a road bike - a longer-distance road bike. A bike with hard bags. A blue one. One with three cylinders. Oh, and I needed a new helmet, and some leathers, and since I was going to the bike shop, why not buy a motorcycle while I’m there? Save some time, you know.

That’s how I found myself at Hattar Motors in San Rafael, playing let’s make a deal with Valerie. A couple of hours later I had signed the paperwork for a brand new 0-miles 2005 Sprint ST from back stock. $9500 + tax, including a free set of hard bags due to the current factory promo. That’s less than $1/cc — not as cheap as hard drive space (Moore’s law doesn’t seem to apply), but a lot more fun.

I picked the bike up the following day and put 100 miles on it, then turned it in for an oil change. Picked it up again two days later, and then took off the following day for LA.

My flickr photoset from the SF-LA-SF ride doesn’t quite tell the whole story, since it’s hard to bring myself to spot and shoot photos when blasting along the back roads, but it was a great ride. I put 1200 miles on the bike before turning it in again for first service back in SF. In case you’re curious, here’s the route (certainly not the most direct way to LA):

Leave San Francisco on 280 S to 35 (Skyline) to 101 to Hollister, 25 S past Pinnacles to 198 W across 101 to G14 (Jolon Rd & Interlake Rd) to Paso Robles to 46 W and then finally on Old Creek Road to Cayucos. Next day left Cayucos S on 1 to 41 East thru Atascadero to 229 S to 58 E to Taft & Maricopa, then S on 166 to 33 to SE on Cerro Noroeste Rd, then SW on Lockwood Valley Rd to 33 S to Ojai to 101 to 405 to Marina Del Rey.

Return: PCH/1 N to Ventura to Santa Barbara, detour N on 154 thru Santa Ynez Valley to rejoin 101 at Los Olivos. Cut over to Morro Bay via Los Osos Valley Rd, then N on 1 all the way up Big Sur and thru Santa Cruz, up Pescadero Rd (just repaved!) back to 35 to 92 to 280 back home. The return ride was all in one day - probably 500 miles due to a couple of detours. Thx to Pashnit.com as always for the great road descriptions.

Here’s a route map that I made on wayfaring.com.

I also picked up a new helmet (two actually!) - a Schuberth for long distance and an Arai Corsair “Haga Aztek” for the city, some armoured Dainese pants that match my jacket, a pair of boots, etc. I guess it was a bit of a spending spree.

Of course, the bike is useless in town (that’s why I have the Duke), and no good for riding to Baja — so I’m already thinking about an Adventure 950, or something else for #4.

And I said orange was dead. Ha! A few weeks ago I started thinking it might be time to have a motorcycle again. Started poking around the ‘net, thinking about what I might want. Even though I loved the 1974 R75/5 that I had for few years, and I would love a new R1100S, I haven’t managed to to justify a BMW yet. Something about paying five figures for a bike… Remembering the thumpers I rode growing up here in SF — starting with the Honda XL350 my dad bought me when I was sixteen (!) — I ran across some of the relatively recent supermoto bikes.

These are big European singles derived from dirt bikes and enduros (dual-purpose bikes) but set up for the street. I once had a Yamaha XT500 with a KZ650 front end that was a sort of early pirate version of this concept. I went down to Monroe Motors and suffered the usual motorcycle shop attitude to get a ride on a Husqvarna SM450R they had lying around. A beast - and not really set up for the street, but I got the idea. Unfortunately for Husqvarna, the SM610S isn’t shipping yet, and I didn’t want to wait…

Scuderia West had less attitude and KTM’s instead of Huskies. Lots of orange there! They had a load of SMR’s they were trying to unload, but when I descibed what I was looking for, the guy said I should look for a “Duke”. Not quite knowing what that was, I went back to the net and found at least one glowing review, and then checked for listings on Craigslist. I hadn’t noticed before, but once you do a search on CL, you can subscribe to an RSS feed of new search results. This is actually useful — a couple of days later, I saw a new item in my “KTM Duke” feed inbox. “2002 KTM Duke II, 1140 miles, like new.” Called, drove to Menlo Park. Just to check it out, you know.

An hour later I called X looking for a sanity check and asked her what she though I should do… “Buy it!” says the woman, and I did :464->image:. We put it on the truck :465->image:, and soon enough I was riding the old loop up to Twin Peaks. :463->image:

Now that I’ve had it a couple of weeks: wow. This is a machine. It pulls like a tractor, and has a serious bark. I finally got in a good ride last Friday, up over Tam to Bolinas, out to Pt. Reyes Station, back through Nicasio. Very light traffic let me open it up on the road to Olema and again towards Nicasio, and the bike loves it in the 30-90 mph sweeper range. Slower than that I haven’t figured out how to ride it smoothly yet… There are a series of uphill twists going North near Dogtown that are almost always clogged with cars. I hit it empty, and Big Poppa (that’s the sound it makes: “poppa, poppa, poppa, poppa”) ate it up.

Now, part of the rationale was to see the Vespa, and then the difference wouldn’t be that much. But I find so far that I still like the little bee a lot — it can’t be beat around town, especially downtown and in business clothes, etc. The Vespa is also a far better grocery-getter, with the under-seat compartment and space between the knees. I can easily carry 2-3 bags of groceries home on the Vespa, which would be impossible on the KTM. Anyhow — I guess for now I’ll keep them both. Besides, they make a nice little family :466->image: