Thank you India

Delhi belly. The ever feared special form of extreme diarhea that only Indian bacteria can give struck me hard yesterday. I seriously though I was going to die. My stomach was twisting with cramped and pain while any attempt at going to the bathroom was resulting in just liquid

Wholly shut

So I'm reminded of how you have to watch out in developing countries when the currency exchange guy at the airport tries to rip me off 400 rules by substituting 100 bill instead of 500 bill. I went back and pointed out this fact after I has already bought a prepaid taxi ticket for 215 rupees and that would not be possible unless he gave me 1 more 100 bill than he was supposed to because the amount that I took out was 9200 rupees. He was partially acting confused and not knowing what is going on but eventually gave me back the remaining 400 that he owed me. This isn't japan anymore that is for sure.

Spicy India

The first thing that struck me as interesting while lining up to board the plane was that the call for general boarding came way to soon after first class and business class passengers. The reason I discovered was that there as no first class and business class travelers ok this flight. A rare occurance I noted. Even on the emptiest of international flights there has always been some business class travellers. Well I guess not on air India flights to Delhi I suppose. The next thing I noticed was when I stepped on board, I was immediately hit with a smell of spice and curry. Not all that unpleasant, but interesting. Also interestig was the seats in the center row which was 5 seats across where coloured red and orange like curry. My taste buds could sense the culinary onslaught which will be the next couple of days. I just hope that India itself will be as forgiving on my digestive tract as this plane, mild spicy, but not unpleasant.

I'm Ducatista now

So, after 4 years of hemming and hawing I finally closed the deal on a Ducati. The GT1000, a sensible yet powerful bike, with understated beauty and a classic look. I'm come to realize that we pick motorcycles much like we pick our women. I don't like flashy girls, and thus a sleek sports bike isn't for me. My old KTM was a little too uncomfortable, and although she gave me lots of exciting rides, I've come to miss the comfortable, casual cruise of a standard bike with sensible ergonomics. Similarly, I don't like the large presence of Harley's. So draw your own conclusions there. My GT1000 has a strong and feisty heart, simple and air-cooled, has a beautiful purr, and has plenty of excitement when I want it. Just like my ideal girl. Bucking beauty. Shortly after I got here though, I discovered the joy of the 'Ducati Neutral'. For those of you who know, bear with me while I explain to the non-bikers (heck non-Ducatista out there), the ducati neutral is when the light indicates that the bike is in neutral gear, but it really isn't. Apparently this is common in Ducati's. So I parked outside a cafe on a nice and sunny day, had my coffee and relaxed and enjoyed the bohemian lifestyle of Tokyo, geared up, and made the mistake (which I'll never again) of starting the bike while standing beside it, without pulling the clutch. To my horror she jumps and lurches forward, and I catch her in time before she topples herself onto her side. Thanks to the servo-starter on Ducati's, the starter motor continued to turn and turn, trying to jump the engine into starting while I was holding onto her for dear life with my left hand on the left handlebar, and my leg holding her up and keeping her from falling down. As my left hand was busy holding her back I couldn't let go to pull the clutch in, thankfully in the 2 seconds that it all happened, I remained calm, and cool, and managed to hit the kill switch on the right side, before she managed to break free from my grip or burn out her starter motor. After 5 seconds, of calming my nerves, and a breath of relief after I checked her for any obvious damage, I slowly rode away, hoping that this was as close to an accident that I would ever come with her... given that she would be very costly to repair thanks to her Italian heritage. The only casualty was that I managed to loosen the left mirror stalk, and a little bit of pride. (and perhaps did the starter motor no favours as well) Ducati really really needs to fix this electronic hiccup. But after that, I am always sure to start the bike while sitting on her, and with the clutch pulled. Polishing her pipes for 3 hours. Somehow I managed to get some melted goop on her chrome pipes. I was certain that somebody had delibertely slobbered some gum or plastic goop on her while I left her parked in shibuya, but I can't be sure. Anyway, turns out that melted plastic is the WORSE nightmare for chrome pipes. In the past with the KTM, I would have scraped away with my fine grit sanding sponge, but now that the pipes are shiny and chrome, adding swirly scratches struck me as not doing my beauty justice. So I researched and researched on the internet. Apparently (I haven't tried) easy-off oven cleaner works, but to my chagrin, no easy-off is to be found in japan. So thankfully my co-worker who owns a Harley had some good advice. Some goopy solution used for cleaning pans was my salvation. Unfortunately salvation never comes easy. Even with soaking the stain in the solution painted onto the pipes for 1hour, it took a sum total of 3 hours of labour intensive scrubbing with alumninum foil for the stain to finally come off. At the end of the ordeal, I was quite totally shacked and exhausted. The only upside of the whole thing was that I was able to use the term 'I was downstairs cleaning her pipes for 3 hours' in a legitimate fashion. My advice is never ever ever get anything plastic touching your pipes when hot.

Starting to get some air!

Came back from motocross today, today was my fifth time. No spills. I'm getting the hang of the course. Since they remade the course this jan, it has been faster and easier as there are less straight up and down jumps, just a run of tabletops and mogul like straights. Today was the second time I brought my KTM 450 onto the track and I'm starting to get used to it's handling characteristics now. Riding bikes is like learning a new sport, you have to get to the point where you are comfortable enough not to be afraid but you only get that way by falling a couple of times. Sort of like iceskating or snowboarding. I started getting the hang of the sliding turn now, which is imperative to offroad biking. For those who ride in the street. Losing the rear end ( losing either end for that matter) can be scary and usually ends in a lot of hurt. On dirt though, losing the rear us the best way to navigate a turn at speed. The other key skill is keeping you weight on the pegs and not on the seat whenever you are running straight over bumps or going over jumps. Sitting is bad as it puts your weight rearward and if going up a jump, will probably result in you fliping backwards and losing the bike. I was surprised how much like jumping a snowboard it was. You have to use your legs to absorb the initial uphill climb and then stand up when you lift off. It's a great feeling. And easie to do than on a snowboard, because on snow, fear during the approach usually makes you check off too much speed. Anyway ridingbback on the highest was no gun on my KTM. The wind was gusty and I felt like I was going to be blown over. After riding the tall enduro all day, getting back on the smr was weird. I noticed that it has a tendancy to oversteer quite a bit and I felt a lot less control than than on the dirt bike. Not to mention the smr has a very weak low rpm torque and has the tendancy to stall unless I give it plenty of initial gas off the clutch. Completely the opposite with the grunty dirt bike. Time to nap now way too tired Djc out

With 60,000円, I'd be happy too

This is a $600 stamp. Yep. Why would you need a $600 stamp you ask? Well, in Japan, administrative fees for the government are paid via stamps. Aptly named stamp fees. Any of you who have had to deal with the DMV in japan will be familiar with the system. Basically, in order to make things efficient, in government offices, you go from counter to counter, each counter fulfilling a part of the bureaucratic process, very much like a assembly line. Inevitably, part of the process will be a visit to the cashier window, where you buy the stamps that will cover the fees for the bureaucratic service for which you are applying to. This particular process, is a apartment purchase. (not mine, but a friends) for that particular process, taking ownership of property requires a ¥60000 stamp. Would really really suck if you lost this stamp.

Ducati Monster 696 Test Ride

So after reading copious amounts of web reviews on the Ducati GT1000 i decide to see if I could get some riding time on it. So on a sunny Sunday I give the Ducati dealer at Nerima a call and ask him if I could test ride the GT1000 in my bad japanese. He probably didn't understand 'テストライド’ so he just answered to the affirmative. 40min later I arrive only to find out that the GT1000 they have there was not available for test riding, only for gazing. What I could test ride was the 1098, the monster or the hypermotard. After expressing my dismay at the fact that they expect people to buy a bike without even being able to ride it, I settled on taking the 696 for a spin, just so that I wouldn't feel like I left empty handed. At first glance, the new monster doesn't do it for me. The looks are compact, and remind me of a bike with too much tank and not enough dash. The short stunted rear end made any promise of a comfy ride for a pillion impossible. The plasticky feel of the fuel tank made the who affair feel cheap. As I am a camera guy, the best analogy I could give is the bike was like a nikon D40 compared to the sturdy heavier and more solid D3, which would be the GT1000. Static impressions aside, once underway, the first funny thing was that when I kicked it into gear and was trying to pull out into the road, the engine just rev'ed without moving as I let the clutch out. I thought that I had mistakenly left the bike in neutral or something. I kick the shifter again to make sure that I was actually in gear and try again... nothing, just engine revs. What the hell? Turns out that engagement point of the clutch is insanely far out, close to the top end of the clutch handle extension. What's worse, the dealer said that the handle was not adjustable on the 696. Lame. I suppose it is something you can get used to, but coming from a KTM690 where the clutch is a DREAM with progressive engagement through almost the entire play of the clutch handle (supermotos need this apparently to have fine clutch control rear wheel sliding turns). Bad clutch aside, the bike was surprisingly fun to ride, when compared to others in this range and seat ergos, for instance, the CBR600, which had more of a gaspy feel in the low end rpms. The monster pulled smooth with that ducati thumpy feel with lots of torque in the low gears, and the posture was actually a lot more comfortable once underway when compared to sitting still. Being more low to the ground and forward pitched, it encourages bad behaviour and a little bit of speeding, and probably wouldn't be too great to hop around town when compared to a more sit up bike. That being said, the engine was quite addictive and its a bike where revving the engine while stopped at the lights is just hypnotic. Strangly enough, more so than the harley davidsons that I've tried (thanks to japanese regulations). I only got a chance to open up a little (80kph) on a longer stretch of the road, (sadly middle of tokyo streets is not a good place for testriding bikes) but when you do ask for power the 696 lump does deliver it with urgency, not the crazy urgency of my KTM, but more controlled and full. I think it has a lot to do with the forward posture that makes you feel a lot more in control in high acceleration, plus the fact that the KTM given its dirtbike ancestry has a very light flywheel and primary drivetrain, so much so that it has problems at low rpms keeping itself from stalling without proper clutch control. Conclusions: Great bike for speeding around town and weekend blasts. I'm not a fan of the build quality, nor the clutch though, but the engine is a fun lump, so if you are considering a 600ish cc bike that is light with excellent handling but a strong pull and acceleration when you want it. The Monster 696 is a good choice.