Will he ride?

He digs the wheel ...

... but will he dig the clip-ons?

Speed bleeders

A few years ago I did some brake work on a Honda Civic that required draining the fluid system completely. I used the task as an excuse to try out the Speed Bleeder product. Thanks to those tricky little bleeder valves, I was able to bleed that Civic's brakes by myself.

Fast-forward to last week: I decided to take my ZX6R out for the first time in a month or so.

Warm one in #NoVA! Let's do lunch, ZX :) o-`o

— walk_n_wind (@walk_n_wind) January 24, 2012

I pulled away, squeezed the front brake lever, and found the lever traveled way more than I expected. "Wow, I guess I forgot how late the brake lever tightens-up on this bike," I thought to myself. I learned later in the trip that I was a fool for taking it out and that the brakes were failing.

Anyway, back at my non-garage, I determined I needed to drain and refill the brake fluid system. The reservoir was empty and the fluid looked ... old. Not looking forward to tightening/loosening the bleeder valves for each squeeze of the lever, I called upon the Speed Bleeder product again to make my life easier.

If you've never tried Speed Bleeders, you might want to consider them...

IMS DC 2012

After skipping 2 years, I decided to return to the International Motorcycle Show in DC this year.

I finally met an RC8!

My wife and 8-month-old son joined me, and the youngest of us pretty much set the pace :)  I didn't get as many photos as I had hoped, but I snapped a few and got the chance to sit on some pretty wicked bikes.

It was great to see Motus Motorcycles showing DC some love and bringing their MST to the show (at Battley's tent)!  The other small-time start-ups that I follow didn't seem to consider DC a necessary stop (I'm talking to you, Zero and Brammo).  I'm totally excited about what Motus is bringing to the table, and it's great to see their president in-person when they take to the road.

I was really surprised to see the Erik Buell Racing 1190 at the show.  The Dream Pavilion, which featured a handful of you'll-probably-never-see-one-of-these bikes, had Erik Buell's latest 2-wheel jet on display in all its carbon fiber glory.  I only managed a picture of the front squeezer...

Good times - 2012 is not going to be a sleeper on the motorcycle front!