Posted by Stephen Waits Sun, 02 Jul 2006 20:16:00 GMT
Progressive has release some new statistics about motorcycle theft.
Most Likely to be Crashed, Gixxer.. Stolen, Gixxer - are you surprised? No. And San Diego is the 3rd highest in crashes, 4th in theft. I must say it is a rather squid infested town. On any given day there’s a good chance you’ll see some stunters doing stupid things right here on Mira Mesa.
Via webBikeWorld.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 01 Jul 2006 15:15:54 GMT
And my friend Nate video taped it.
I’ll set this up.. It was last year, the first year MotoGP came back, and Laguna Seca was a giant mess. Parking was a horrific situation, but we avoided that by taking the bus in and out of traffic. People in cars, and even on bikes, were screwed, and many actually turned around and left after sitting in traffic for 3 or 4 hours.
Once you got into the track, you had to deal with foot traffic. Now it was ok pretty much everywhere except the narrow area between Dunlop bridge and the main food vendor and souvenir shop area. That had so many people in it it was bordering dangerous. It was probably taking 15 minutes to move a few 100 feet.
Anyway, we saw Tommy Hayden come through after an autograph session, and thought to ourselves, man that sucks. Then a few minutes later Roger Lee came through and I yelled out at him to just hop the chain link fence and he’d be right in the paddock.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 10 Jun 2006 08:18:03 GMT
Here’s a very short video I shot while I was up at Sears Point with my friend Ralf.
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 02 Jun 2006 06:35:00 GMT
The AutoBlog guys found a story with pics of Jeremy McWilliams riding what looks to be a BMW GP bike. This would be sweet.. but tough. I mean, BMW knows how to make power in their car engines. But they are a long way off when it comes to motorcycles, particularly racing.
Via AutoBlog.
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 31 May 2006 16:05:36 GMT
Check out this analysis of oil prices. The interesting thing is that compared to the 70’s crisis, oil today is still a bargain.
I’m all for $8/gallon oil. It helps reduce traffic, gets more people on bicycles and motorcycles, and reduces giant (empty) SUVs. It’s good pressure.
Sadly though, it really screws over lower-income people.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 20 May 2006 08:28:46 GMT
Some video shot by my friend Nate of a really talented guy stunting the superbike driven Monster at the ‘05 Laguna Seca MotoGP event. This guy was sick.
Posted by Stephen Waits Tue, 16 May 2006 17:56:00 GMT
So another E3’s come and gone. I didn’t quite break my record low enthusiasm mark this year. I was slightly more interested than the last few years. I did spend more than two hours on the floor this time around. That’s mostly because I got there before Ralf and HK and then resaw everything with them after they arrived.
My friend Tim managed to get us into the Gears of War playable room. I didn’t play, but both Ralf and HK did. I’m not sure about the gameplay, but I have to say after seeing the live demo, I’m convinced this can be the next Halo – the 360 pusher. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if all of the Halo-buying-mass-market-homos in the world will be able to open their eyes wide enough to see anything other than Halo 27: More of the Same Crap for Wal-Mart Shoppers Everywhere.
MotoGP on the 360 looks great. I think a lot of the next-gen graphics are a little crazy. Everything has incredibly high-contrast edges, so that what should be smooth fields of grass end up looking like a Photoshop experiment gone bad. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should do something everywhere! Producers and Designers please take note of this!
Otherwise it seemed to me that MS had the usual sort of decentralized unfocussed booth we’ve become accustomed to seeing from them.
PS3 had more playable games than I expected. I liked Warhawk and will definitely play it - though it clearly had some issues. Gran Turismo HD looked really good, even if it’s just a hi-res version of more of the same. The PS3 F1 game looked fantastic, but didn’t play so well. Madden looked like a bad joke.
Sony needs to seriously do some crowd/fluid dynamic simulations on their booth design. The relentless MGS trailer was always causing the entire PS3 area to be swamped. If you were interested in the PS3, but not MGS, you would find yourself in a mass of people staring up at a giant screen – all of them perfectly in your way of just getting close to one of the PS3 titles. You could wait in line to go upstairs, but nobody waits in lines do they?
Wii. As of now, non-existant for me. Nintendo, being highly fanboy-driven, has always had the most packed booth at E3. I think this always added to their hype-level, in a good way. This year they closed the booth down, and you had to stand in line to get in. No. I’m certain they’ll have 2 or 3 truly great games on the platform some day.
PSP had a decent showing; many more games than I’d expected. Some looked great. However, this show was about PS3 and Wii.
DS Lite looks cool. I’ve wanted one for awhile and it was nice to see it in the flesh. I still think touch and dual screens (and Wiimote) are completely gimmicky; however, I want to play Brain Whatever it’s called and Animal Crossing.
Kids. I saw kids at the show again. WTF. There’s already enough of us idiots who work in the industry but don’t really need to be there packed onto the floor.
As were were trying to escape the lunacy of the floor, heading toward the doors, Michael Madsen grabbed my arm and told me to take a picture of him with a fan. I didn’t realize who it was at the time, and thought to myself, fuck you. Then his son or whoever was with him said, “it’s ok, I’ll take it”. But MM reiterated, “no, I want him to take it”, pointing at me for no logical reason other than unbalanced brain chemistry. Ralf says, “it’s ok, he’s doing it”, talking about the kid, and we left. About 15 feet later we realized who he was. Whatever.
I really enjoyed hanging out with Tim, Ralf, and HK. We weren’t able to connect with Jeppe for some reason, but I’m sure I’ll see him soon enough.
Tim and I had scheduled a 40 or 50 mile bicycle ride for the Saturday after the show. I planned it all out. Of course that fucker flaked on me. I’ll see him this coming Friday where I can give him more shit about it, but he should consider this his public flogging!
Finally, I spent the 4:30 hours on Amtrak (about 2:15 each way) watching Long Way Round which I’d ripped onto my PSP the night before. Not many people know what this is.. but it rocks. It was a seven part TV series where Ewan McGregor and his best mate Charley rode their motorcycles from London to NYC – only they went the “Long Way Round”. It was fantastic. I got through 6 of the 7 episodes on the train and watched the last one at home. Highly recommended!
There you have it.. My E3 ‘06. Not sure there’s any reason for me to go to E3 any more, so this may have been my last – at least for awhile.
Posted by Stephen Waits Sat, 22 Apr 2006 04:01:24 GMT
I guess this was at Laguna last year, but I missed it. Sounds sweet!
Via The Kneeslider.
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:55:42 GMT
This is a huge racing weekend. Yay! AMA, SBK, and F1. There goes Sunday.
Head’s up to those of you in the U.S. Speed is carrying the usual Practice and Qualifying sessions; however, the Sunday Race is on CBS.
Yes, that means some awfully ignorant commentary. Yes, that Daly fag.
Anyway, make sure your TiVo’s are set!
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:12:00 GMT
WSBK starts back up this weekend, in Doha, Qatar. It should be a kick ass season too, with lots of MotoGP talent trickling back down. I’m looking for Bayliss to get back to his old WSBK form!
Posted by Stephen Waits Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:36:45 GMT
Schwinn is making scooters now. And they’re pretty cheap too!
I’ve observed a rise in scooters out and about in this time of fuel price pressure. That’s a good thing.
Posted by Stephen Waits Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:26:01 GMT
Wow, I can barely believe this news! Anthony Gobert will ride World Supersport in place of Checa who just broke his arm in a crash!
Please, Anthony, kick some ass for us!
Posted by Stephen Waits Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:29:35 GMT
This beautiful machine is getting some props. Deservedly so…
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 15 Feb 2006 15:26:00 GMT
Check out this helmet video of a girl being taken out by a cager. I think she handled it pretty well.
In the video you can observe people’s natural reaction to a motorcycle accident – trying to remove the rider’s helmet. If you ever come upon a motorcycle accident, LEAVE THE RIDER’S HELMET ON PLEASE! They may have a severe head or neck injury, and this is a job for qualified EMTs only.
Via reddit
Posted by Stephen Waits Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:28:51 GMT
Ducati sent the guys over at Kneeslider some detailed specs for the new S4Rs. This thing is luscious!
Posted by Stephen Waits Thu, 02 Feb 2006 16:14:17 GMT
After spending his first day in the kitty litter, Rossi manages either 9th or 11th on his second official day of F1 Testing, depending who you believe. Either way, it’s pretty good.
Update: I guess it’s 9th after all. Nice going!
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:20:40 GMT
Checa is in, and he’s on Dunlops! And what happened to Mad Max?
Posted by Stephen Waits Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:09:45 GMT
He spins to end his first real day of F1 testing. Can he live up to the hype? I’m betting tomorrow will be different.
Posted by Stephen Waits Mon, 30 Jan 2006 03:35:20 GMT
Looks like Carlos may have a ride in the works. And it looks like we have a fifth American joining the fray. Check out the entry list over at the Soup!
Posted by Stephen Waits Mon, 30 Jan 2006 02:58:44 GMT
Rossi, if nothing else, will continue to fuel the rumors of his future involvement in F1. He’s in a full test next week, mixed in with other drivers, from other teams; though, he’ll be driving last year’s Ferrari.
Via Autoblog.
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