Roserunner's Motorcycle Page

Here is a video demonstrating traction control shot April 6, 2007 at ~~Sears Point~~ Infineon. I shot the attached video with my little camera from the top of Two. Small lens from far away, less than Broadcast Quality. It'll be more satisfying if you think of it as an audio file. Listen to the engine note of each of the three bikes as the TC does its thing. The first bike is a Kawasaki. I think the next two are Yamahas.

I have several bikes, so it is only natural to have a page for them on my site. I like to ride street bikes in the Summer when it's hot, and dirt bikes in the Winter when it's raining. I wanted to check out the USA, so I rode thirty-five states in forty-eight days. I've done the Cabo Run twice. It was an illegal street race from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas. 1059 miiles of route Mexican Highway 1, two lanes the whole way.

The image above is Ben Bostrom racing his Factory Ducati at Misano. It's an evocative image. Not only that, but it looks cool, too :-) Speaking of cool,, there are a bunch of pictures of riders doing unexpected stuff at bikepics.com.

Although I raced flat track, hare scrambles, and enduros, I mainly consider myself a roadracer. I recently discovered that track days are even more fun than racing. I get more track time, and there are a lot less red flags.

Check out Roadracing World and Motorcycle Technology which features fearless reporting.

The best racing news is at superbikeplanet.com. Ever wondered about what a Big Bang engine is, how it's built and how it affects rear wheel traction? Well, Yamaha has come up with some very interesting ideas. In addition to motorcycles Yamaha makes world class musical instruments. Yamaha had the brilliant idea of having an expert in harmonics assigned to the Big Bang Puzzle. Not a mechanical engineer, a harmonic engineer. No other motorcycle company has harmonic engineeers withing the corporate umbrella. He approached the problem with New Eyes. Here is a report on his findings.

Always wondered what all the fuss about California roads is about? Check out the California Motorcycle Roads site.

The best California roadracing is with the AFM .

We all know that Hell's Angels are naughty boys. Well, here's proof, an Angel on a BMW! This image was captured October 2002 on US101 just South of San Francisco. Just to prove that there's instant Kharma out there, here is a picture of a biker chick just waiting for the naughty Angels.

I have some fun with my friends on The Sunday Morning Ride. Another "Rider" wrote a book about The Ride. Amazingly, I'm one of the Riders in it, quotes and pictures and everything - Oh My! Regardless of my minor presence, Tales From Over The Edge is a good look into the high performance street motorcycle culture.

The Cabo Run, like the Mille Meglia, doesn't happen any more, so don't wait for me in the desert with a radar gun. It was great while it lasted ,though, because there are riding experiences on it that could never happen anywhere but Baja. Where else does the government put up signs telling you to pin it to get a good drive onto a long straight ("Esta Highway no esta alta velocidad"), or that some nice twists are coming up? ("Cuerva Peligroso") You gotta love a place like that! There is one part where I ran my FZR1000 at 150mph for thirty minutes straight! The engine needed a rebuild after that. I'll never do it again, but it was really stimulating at the time. It was wild catching up to and passing cars with a hundred miles an hour on them. Even wilder is that the Mexicans like it!

I pulled into a desolate gas station 400 miles South of the border. A local was gassing up his pickup from the only pump. The owner came over and smiled as he greeted me with "Quatro!" (four). Huh? What? Why is this guy in the middle of nowhere calling me Number Four. The scene is very dry, quite unlike The Prisoner (Old TV joke, sorry kids), so I didn't ask him who Number One is, I just looked confused. Right then Steve-a-Reno went flying by on his BMW brick (flat four). The owner frowned and said "Cinco." He was telling me I had been passed for position. Now I got excited! I immediately thought of how I was screwed because I was going to have to wait for that pickup to fill his tank and pay for it before I could start gassing up. Steve would be leaving me at 100+mph the whole time. I looked over at the truck, and its owner was standing there holding the hose out to me! He had pulled it from his truck to give to me, because he knew I was racing and he was supporting me. The station owner quickly reset the pump. It was gas and go from there. Ten bucks cash and no waiting for change later I was redlining after Steve. Caught him after a while. No way was a flying brick going to stay ahead my FZR!

-cut to- Six hundred miles and eight hours later, the last gas stop outside La Paz. I pull in and a full NASCAR crew runs out to service my bike. Really, one guy is cleaning my headlight while another is holding the gas hose out to me while another is cleaning my windscreen and yet another guy is running around trying to find something to do. He finally cleaned my brake light. Gas and another redline takeoff into the desert as my "pit crew" urged me on with cries of Vamos! Vamos!!!

The finish was in Cabo San Lucas. I didn't know my way around Cabo very well, but I knew I had found the Finish when I spotted a Corona Beer banner hung across the street proclaiming "WELCOME MILLE MILLAS DE BAJA RACERS!!!" I finished fifth. I had covered 1059 miles of two lane Mexican road in 13 hours, 6 minutes. Not good enough for a trophy, but good enough to enjoy lots of free Corona before the last finisher came in, many hours later.

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