Ride With Tank

I have been trying to get myself to post up some more about the Cycle World motorcycle show, but I just can not seem to get started.  I finally realized why this is happening.  There is nothing exciting to talk about.

Thats right, nothing exciting.  Perhaps it is because of the economy, but there just was nothing interesting to talk about.  I think with the state of the world economy everyone is just closing the shutters and trying to weather the storm.  If you happen to be lucky enough to still have a good income this will be a great year to buy a new motorcycle.  I have heard of many dealerships closing their doors and I suspect tthere will be many more this summer.

As I write this I am waiting to see the first World Superbike race of the year.  Normally I don’t follow WSB, but I am going to watch this year.  I think it will be pretty interesting with BMW and Aprillia involved.

Above is the BMW.  We have never seen a BMW like this one before.  At one time BMW was a leader in motorcycle racing, but that was a lomg time ago.  I think they have some great hardware to work with and a rider that can get the job done, but I suspect this will be a hard year for them.

Aprillia has a spectacular machine, and they have been in MotoGP for a while now, so they are not exactly starting out green.  The only problem I have with them is their rider, Max Biaggi.  I just don’t like him.  Yes, he is a very good rider and it helps that he is Italian, but I just do not like the guy.

I suspect the guy to watch this year is Ben Spies.  I like him a lot, and he is a excellent rider.  I got a chance to see him in action last year on a MotoGP bike and I was very impressed with his performance.

I don’t know if I will be able to stay interested in WSB for the whole year, but I am going to try.  Once the riding season starts it is hard for me to stay interested in too many classes of racing, but I suspect WSB may be very exciting this year.

Normally I don’t say too much about new models and gear because this site is about riding, not hardware.  We are in the dead of winter now so I can’t really talk about riding so here is my impressions of some of the new models on display this year.

First off we have the 2010 Honda Fury.

If you are into the chopper thing I suppose it is a nice looking machine, but I am not sure people are all that into choppers anymore.

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Cleveland IMS, originally uploaded by Tank Mobile.

I am at the Cleveland IMS right now taking pictures. In the next couple of days I will be posting up a full report.

Yes, it has been a long time since I have posted to the board!

I guess that is to be expected. The temperatures here in Ohio have been absolutely miserable. It has been snowing just about every day and we are buried under a ton of snow. The only good thing I can say is that we are more than half way through January.

One good thing happens in Ohio in the month of January: The Cycle World International Motorcycle Show.

I can tell that people are starting to get interested because the hits to last years writeup are going through the roof.  Of course, I will be attending again this year and I will post up pictures of everything that I found interesting.  If you are planning on attending you can download a coupon to get $3 off of the admission price at this link. You have to be a member of the RideOhio.org board to download the coupon, but if you are not a member on the board you should be!  It is a great bunch of folks and it will help you get through the winter.  Make sure you say hello, and DO NOT tell them that Tank sent you!

In other news, I have purchased a Lenovo S10 Netbook, and I am actually using it to update the site!  This is an awesome little device, and I can’t wait to go mobile with it this summer!  It is very compact, but still big enough to be useful.  In fact, I suspect this is going to be my main machine now.  I can’t tell you how much I love this thing!  I doubt if it would be much good for games, but for what I do it just can’t be beat!  I tried to sign up as an affiliate with Lenovo so I could make some money from everyone I talked into buying one of these, but Lenovo does not like ridewithtank.com nearly as much as I like their netbook, and they declined to accept my affiliate offer.  I am a bit offended by their rejection, but I really do love his S10!

Buying a motorcycle and choosing the correct motorcycle is not an easy task.  Often, we are motivated more by what we think we want, instead of choosing the bike we need.

The first step in choosing a motorcycle is that you have to be honest with yourself.  This is probably the hardest step of all.  You need to honestly look at yourself and determine exactly how you are going to ride the bike.  I know you have dreams of riding coast to coast, but are you actually going to do that?  Maybe you have visions of dragging a knee around the corners – but again, is this something you will actually be doing?  Is that something you SHOULD be doing?

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