I was a bit skeptic about a heavy bike like a goldwing doing an Alaska trip due to the 400 mile long gravel road on the way. I find that many people take the wings and it gave me a great deal of hope.

Came across a very nice writeup of a 2-up trip to Alaska from Arizona: http://www.ride2up.com/page2.html

And another guy who is profoundly hearing impaired, teaches ASL at a college, and rides to Alaska every year: http://www.skihi.org/Riders.html

Combination Solidifies Ancra as Dominant Player in Cargo Control Products and Services in North America. (PRWEB Oct 24, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1516684.htm

Podestrians (that's pedestrians with iPods) trigger rise in road accidents by failing to hear cars (PRWEB Oct 9, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/car_insurance/ipod/prweb1446234.htm

G2 Ergonomics releases their latest throttle tube product. The new G2 Delrin Throttle Tubes offer riders an alternative to ball bearing throttle tubes which degrade over time. (PRWEB Oct 8, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/g2-ergonomics/throttle-tube/prweb1436664.htm

After getting my bone stock 2005 ABS Goldwing earlier this month, I had to spend a significant time and energy adding up essential touring accessories. Here is a summary of items added on the bike so far:

- Kuryakyn highway pegs
- Utopia backrest
- Khrome Werks armrests
- Big bike parts luggage rack
- Wingrider trunk support system
- Baker mirror wings
- Rear speakers (30w)
- Butler cup holder
- Ram mount for GPS
- 12v cig outlet in left fairing pocket and in trunk for small electronics
- 12v cig outlet tucked under left side cover for air compressor or heated clothing
- Bridgestone tires

Pictures: my flickr set

Update (8-Aug-08): Installed more stuff.
- Vertical hitch and 11�16 cooler rack

After getting my bone stock 2005 ABS Goldwing earlier this month, I had to spend a significant time and energy adding up essential touring accessories. Here is a summary of items added on the bike so far:

- Kuryakyn highway pegs
- Utopia backrest
- Khrome Werks armrests
- Big bike parts luggage rack
- Wingrider trunk support system
- Baker mirror wings
- Rear speakers (30w)
- Butler cup holder
- Ram mount for GPS
- 12v cig outlet in left fairing pocket and in trunk for small electronics
- 12v cig outlet tucked under left side cover for air compressor or heated clothing
- Bridgestone tires

Pictures: my flickr set

Update (8-Aug-08): Installed more stuff.
- Vertical hitch and 11�16 cooler rack

Full service motorcycle dealership, Cycle Dragon Motorsports, increases its line of cruisers and street bikes by adding Benelli street racer bikes, and Arlen and Cory Ness custom style cruisers. Cycle Dragon also carries a full line of Victory motorcycles as well as motorcycles and scooters from Hyosung. The Cerritos, California full service brick-and-mortar dealership and showroom is well complemented by the launch of a newly re-designed Web site (www.CycleDragon.com) that features an online showroom and photo gallery for each motorcycle product line. (PRWEB Oct 7, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/motorcycle-dealer/benelli-arlen-ness/prweb1435714.htm

We are officially a goldwing couple now. Got our GWRRA family membership through gwrra.org. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Quoting from the GWRRA website:

The Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) is the world’s largest single-marque social organization for owners and riders of Honda Gold Wing/Valkyrie motorcycles — and some would say, the world’s largest family. Dedicated to our motto, Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge, GWRRA members enjoy the freedom of belonging to a not-for-profit, non-religious and non-political organization.

Founded in 1977, GWRRA has grown to more than 80,000 U.S., Canadian and international members in 53 foreign countries in just 27 years. Over 800 active Chapters are managed by 4,000 volunteer leaders working with members to foster safe, enjoyable riding while also working to improve the public image of motorcycling.

Model EVD can travel at 55 mph with up to a 60 mile range using only electric power. New lithium battery EVD electric scooter is classified as either a moped or motorcycle depending on state regulations. (PRWEB Oct 2, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/electric_scooter/electric_motorcycle/prweb1414714.htm

We are officially a goldwing couple now. Got our GWRRA family membership through gwrra.org. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Quoting from the GWRRA website:

The Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) is the world’s largest single-marque social organization for owners and riders of Honda Gold Wing/Valkyrie motorcycles — and some would say, the world’s largest family. Dedicated to our motto, Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge, GWRRA members enjoy the freedom of belonging to a not-for-profit, non-religious and non-political organization.

Founded in 1977, GWRRA has grown to more than 80,000 U.S., Canadian and international members in 53 foreign countries in just 27 years. Over 800 active Chapters are managed by 4,000 volunteer leaders working with members to foster safe, enjoyable riding while also working to improve the public image of motorcycling.

Full service motorcycle dealership, Cycle Dragon Motorsports, increases its line of cruisers and street bikes by adding Benelli street racer bikes, and Arlen and Cory Ness custom style cruisers. Cycle Dragon also carries a full line of Victory motorcycles as well as motorcycles and scooters from Hyosung. The Cerritos, California full service brick-and-mortar dealership and showroom is well complemented by the launch of a newly re-designed Web site (www.CycleDragon.com) that features an online showroom and photo gallery for each motorcycle product line. (PRWEB Oct 7, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/motorcycle-dealer/benelli-arlen-ness/prweb1435714.htm

Lightning Gloves is receiving international acclaim as the leader in hand protection in the automotive industry. Advanced technology brings features that are required for automotive work. Innovative formulations makes Lightning gloves puncture, chemically, and tear resistant, perfect for any type of automotive industry arena. (PRWEB Sep 19, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/Lightning/Gloves/prweb1347324.htm

I somehow have this habit of tweaking (butchering) things to have them function exactly the way I want. Even a newly acquired fine motorcycle can’t escape that fate. I cut 2 inches off the top of the shield on my Concours just one day after getting it in my hands. Of course its stock shield was just plain horrible. Instead of putting on a regular aftermarket shield like everybody else, I had more fun in trying out my version and finally ended up having a terrible looking but perfectly working 4″x8″ extension bolted on it.

The ST1300 was lucky, it had electrically adjustable shield which worked fine till I started 2-up riding. Ofcourse an aftermarket shield could help, but the bike had to go so I could have my goldwing.

The wing has a manually adjustable shield, but the lowest position was still too high for me to look over. So it went through the same fate today. I was intimidated about doing this on such a fine machine, but after watching a few pics on someone’s blog, it was a matter of pulling the shield out, putting masking tape on and merrily using the jigsaw. The result came out pretty well. Time will tell how good this mod turns out to be.

Pic: cutting the goldwing shield

Update (7-Aug): The modified shield is working perfectly in town and not too noisy on the freeway. I can just pull it out to full height for the long trips if I want to ride without earplugs. So far this has been the best comfort mod on the bike.

[RANT]
Social networking sites are getting harder to trust these days. Orkut seemed to be somewhat better and reliable while sites like hi5, friendster, gazzag and many others had quickly found their place in my list of the most irritating and crappy sites of the internet. Oh and not to mention myspace - the sewer of the internet where every young guy and girl must be logged in. And finally the microsoft backed ASP achitecture of orkut.com crapped on me today. Refreshed my profile page today morning hoping to see some new scraps (which are merely timepass and excuse for people to not send a few lines of email), and there it was, a whole nice page in spanish, and my name was of a spanish female from Angola ! I also found my scrap counts were quickly decreasing with each refresh. Nice. Tried to change language to english. Didn’t work. Excellent website programming I must say. My google.com account settings page was also in spanish which kinda freaked me out. Luckily I could at least change my password, and complete the request to delete my orkut account immediately.

Anyone out there reading this - here is my 2 cents - orkut is not worth the time spent visiting it. Heck it still allows people to scrap arbitrary javascript (XSS attacks) stealing cookies and what not and as usual a piece of shit code from microsoft does not, or I think, can not take care of common security issues like this.
[/RANT]

We had a fantastic day ride with the CA2Q goldwing chapter last Saturday. The destination was a forest cabin of the GWRRA CAC (Sacramento) chapter director near the town of Kyburz, almost touching South Lake Tahoe. A bunch of loaded goldwings, trikes, 2 ST1300, a PC800 and a Shadow made it there. We had to fight a little bit of gravel road at the destination when I realized what a heavy behemoth this bike is. Wonder how some people ride this machine on the 400 mile unpaved stretch in Alaska ! Anyways, a fantastic BBQ and delicious swiss vanilla ice cream (a must in any wing meet !) filled our hungry potbellies :). We had fun chatting with the fellow wingers. Most all of them are in their 40s and 50s but with the energy of 30 somethings.

A small river was right in front of the cabin, and a few of us checked it out. Cold and refreshing water, wish I had time for a soak-in.

It was a 421 mile roundtrip day, but on the wing it seemed much less. We went through pretty decent hot weather, touching 104F in the afternoon on the freeway. Water on the butler cup helped a lot !

The group ride is what I loved the most. Like our chapter director I too believe in small groups, and we rode in a 3-bike group all the time. Perfect synchrony and predefined hand signals made it a pleasurable one.

Pictures:
-Priti’s flickr set
-My flickr set yet to be uploaded

Just back from our longest motorcycle trip together on the goldwing. The excuse to visit the goldwing rally at Canon City, CO made us do a fantastic 7 day trip covering 3200 miles.

Trip route: Sunnyvale CA - Wells NV - Longmont CO - Salida CO - Tuba City AZ - Needles CA - Sunnyvale CA

Trip summary: Colorado mesmerized us. The rockies are breathtaking. Royal gorge is awesome as well. We also visited Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Grand Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano national parks. This was supposed to be a camping trip, but we ended up taking motels and a friend’s place. So much for the preparation. A hitch and cooler rack to carry the tent, then the tent got melted by the straight exhausts. Elevated the rack platform as a temporary fix, then bought a 90 degree downward exhaust tip at the wing rally to fix the issue forever, and even bought a new tent. Still we didn’t hit a campsite at the end of a riding day.

Day 1: 615 mi, Total 615 mi, Sunnyvale CA to Wells NV on the boring I-80.

Day 2: 730 mi, Total 1345 mi, Wells NV to Longmont CO (record distance for me in one day so far). Stayed at my school senior’s place, they are a fantastic couple and we had a blast with two most amazing golden retrievers they have.

Day 3: 135 mi, Total 1480 mi, Rocky mountains.

Day 4: 235 mi, Total 1715 mi, Attended goldwing rally at Canon city, then visited Royal gorge bridge and park, then off to Salida CO. Beautiful mountain road (US-160) along the Arkansas river.

Day 5: 485 mi, Total 2200 mi, Mesmerizing US-160 through Colorado, visited Mesa Verde NP, then off to Grand canyon. Saw Four Corners on the way. Reached Tuba city at nightfall after catching magical glimpses of rainbows over the canyons. Windy, thunderstorms, no camping place nearby, barely checked in to Greyhills Inn, a student operated hotel, with common bathrooms downstairs.

Day 6: 435 mi, Total 2635 mi, Visited Grand canyon in the early morning with fantastic views. Spent a few hours hopping to the view points. Saw Little Colorado river gorge as well. Then went to Sunset Crater NP. I have been to both these places back in 2004 with parents, and the memory came up like it was yesterday. Off to home on the I-40. Had patches of rain. The moment we crossed Kingman AZ, the temps began soaring as we approached Needles CA. We watched the temps rise from 91F to 106F and at Needles I could not believe it was 108F at 7:30pm and I wanted to camp in the desert ! Motel 6 had a small pool cramped with people, and we happily jumped there right after checking in.

Day 7: 565 mi, Total 3200 mi, Needles CA to Sunnyvale CA. I finally found a solution to my drowsiness on the road. I could not drive or ride 50 miles without falling asleep, till I figured out that red bull actually works.

This is our best/longest trip together. Would not have been possible without an amazing bike like the goldwing.

Pictures:
- Priti’s flickr set
- My flickr set

H-D draws enthusiasts with videos of the 105th Anniversary Celebration and the new 2009 model lineup (PRWEB Sep 16, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/09/prweb1317614.htm

I was a bit skeptic about a heavy bike like a goldwing doing an Alaska trip due to the 400 mile long gravel road on the way. I find that many people take the wings and it gave me a great deal of hope.

Came across a very nice writeup of a 2-up trip to Alaska from Arizona: http://www.ride2up.com/page2.html

And another guy who is profoundly hearing impaired, teaches ASL at a college, and rides to Alaska every year: http://www.skihi.org/Riders.html

After getting my bone stock 2005 ABS Goldwing earlier this month, I had to spend a significant time and energy adding up essential touring accessories. Here is a summary of items added on the bike so far:

- Kuryakyn highway pegs
- Utopia backrest
- Khrome Werks armrests
- Big bike parts luggage rack
- Wingrider trunk support system
- Baker mirror wings
- Rear speakers (30w)
- Butler cup holder
- Ram mount for GPS
- 12v cig outlet in left fairing pocket and in trunk for small electronics
- 12v cig outlet tucked under left side cover for air compressor or heated clothing
- Bridgestone tires

Pictures: my flickr set

Update (8-Aug-08): Installed more stuff.
- Vertical hitch and 11�16 cooler rack

The Off-Road Expo offers a ton of entertainment and interactive features for those in attendance including exhibitions, demonstrations, hands-on activities like the Toyota Ride-N-Drive, the Off-Road.com girls and more. (PRWEB Sep 26, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/offroad/expo/prweb1387604.htm