mika
Still Wondering
Happy Birthday
US Forest Service: Fall color guide
urbanext.uiuc.edu: The Miracle of Fall ÔÇô About Fall Color
In the cage world BMW is trading 4 cylinder gas and diesel engines for their six and eight cylinder engines. In the motorrad world they are putting SPORT and SNARL in their offerings if the rumors are to be believed.
INTERMOT Rumors for BMW continue. Solomoto30.com along with motoblog.it and other European web sites is reporting that BMW will unveil a K1300S. The prediction is for the 1300cc engine to appear across the K lineup but their sources were not certain models would be ready for display at Cologne. The stories center around a K 1300 S with others to follow in short order if not ready for INTERMOT.
The bike is evolutionary with a snarl. The cc expansion is reported to ad more power bringing the rating up to 180 hp.
The chassis remains aluminum but is further refined. It will continue to sport a Duolever front suspension. Both suspension systems will have more settings and controls.
New LED backlit instruments and Japanese style controls are part of what the cockpit are reported to have in store for us. After twenty some years around BMW controls I still have troubles finding the horn at times. In almost every review in the general motorcycle magazines there will be some comment about BMWÔÇÖs control layout. What will Japanese controls look like with a German accent? What will reviewers find to write about?
A new appearance is promised. The GT model is rumored to have more volume and better venting to deal with heat issues. The styling queues are reportedly Hybusa in nature, but that is how everything is described in rumors such as this. No pictures have been leaked and the illustrations in the article are from the current model.
The seat is reported to have been redesigned. This validates in a small way Pieter de WaalÔÇÖs VP BMW Motorrad USA comments during this years rally that the designers had been listening to us and were working on them. Seats are not big deals in rumors for most bikes but it rated specific mention here. We live in hope that BMW designers finally sat on the bike they were building.
Spy drawings still have this as a shaft drive bike. Is there a point when the chain drive from the S 1000 RR would make sense to move into the general K model line up?
Stay tuned!
POTENTIAL INTERMOT RELEASES FROM BMW
S 1000 RR ÔÇô Street version of the BMW superbike is expected.
S 675 RR ÔÇô This is rumored to be a 3 cylinder version of the S 1000 RR. Logical in racing terms, has a historical link in the lineup but rumor.
K 1300 S, R, GT ÔÇô Rumor
F 800 R ÔÇô Rumored to be based on the GS frame and coming soon.
G 450 X ÔÇô planed appearance as a formal part of the line up for the first time.
Scooter ÔÇô Rumor but very likely more fact than rumor and expected to make an appearance soon. Reports give it an engine variant from the X line up but no automatic transmission. It will be built in Italy according to the rumor mill.
The R series is absent from the rumor mill. I have no information or inside line but that does not stop me from wondering when, not if, the technology in the HP 2 Sport engine makes an appearance in another part of the R line up and what size the engine will be. If you dig in the FIM rules supersport twins must be over 600 cc up to 750cc. A 750 HP 2 style engine would be a tasty morsel It would open another class for the endurance racers at BMW Motorrad Motorsport to race with. It is a capacity that plays in many markets that BMW is in including the US. Again keep in mind this is pure wondering on my part, but I think it has potential. It could be the sleeper surprise at INTERMOT.
Continuing to be absent from the lineup is a new LT. Pieter de WaalÔÇÖs comments during the Q&A with the membership in Gillette was it would be a very very very long time before the replacement would be looked at let alone appear.
INTERMOT rumors abound. This one is about an old favorite around her ÔÇô the VFR and it is reportedly going super sized also.
moto-station.com: Honda VFR 1200 ÔÇô Its coming!
motorcycle-web.com: BMW motorcycles great but not really green. [Editorial]
MotorcycleDaily.com: Getting to know Kawasaki in Japan
Part I
Part II
eruopean motonews.com GSX-R1000 no on 0% APR.
The European market often sees promotions that do not make it across the pond. The credit crunch has been hitting the industry for over a year now. Will manufacturers take on the credit risk to move their product? Suzuki is with a specific model and market.
thebikergene.com: US$8000 gets you the road fuel-free with the Electric GPR-S
Regulations in Europe have a way of affecting NA, that is why this is an important story.
motorcyclenews.com: New [UK] helmet tests flawed
thenewcaferacersociety.com: When is a motorcycle not a motorcycle? The TECA Microvehicle
Alert to all stunt riders!
cyrilhuzeblog.com: Florida House Bill 137 becomes law.
f1-live.com: BMW and Klien top and F1 testing at Jerez
motorauthority.com: U.S. House passes $5,000 tax credit for plug in EV
topspeed.com: Peugeot Design Competition ÔÇô The 10 fianlists
Spiegel.de: Piech is holding Volkswagen to ransom
worldofbmw.com: First race in Japan leads to HP2 victory
Thread: BMW Motorrad wants to hear from you. Survey link enclosed.
Stuff
reuters.com: Pickens says Wal-Mart to study switch from diesel
cmgonline.com: Amazon into motorcycle gear
Book Review ÔÇô thevintagent.com: Japanese Motorcycle Wars
Several things caught my eye over at gizmag.com
Motion capture in MRI
Sealegs amphibious boats headed for US shores ÔÇô now if they would figure out how to make portaging a canoe easier like this.
DonÔÇÖt sack the coach ÔÇô business application for you HR types?
The world from Berlin
Spiegel.de: ÔÇÿA crisis, but not the end of the worldÔÇÖ
Packers Blog ÔÇô jsonline.com
Packers.com ÔÇô News from the football shrine
Green Bay Post Gazette: Packer News, Commentary
Offical site of the Premier League
GasBuddy.com has gas temperature maps intended to let you see what gas prices are around the US and Canada. Areas are color coded according to the reported local average price for regular unleaded gasoline.
US
Canada
Channel 3 News: The Ian Schmeisser Phenomenon
Wonderings
I have taken up letter writing again. It is a very different form of communication than e-mail or posting on a forum. That may be obvious when you read it in print but when you sit down to write a letter you are stepping into another communications world. It can be humorous and hard work as the Xcd cartoon suggests.
My first letter efforts were hand printed letters to one of the Pit Crew in the Twin Cities. She is in grade school and has not mastered cursive. What a challenge. A pencil, a good eraser, a pad of yellow legal paper ore two that will stand up to rubbing out the errors, my constant writing companion a dictionary and an empty waste basket make up the tool kit for these letters. Upper and lower case letters are required to put words on paper and no spell check! I am a horrid speller and the computer has not improved it. Please donÔÇÖt let me get started on the effort simple declarative sentences require. Publishing one of these tomes takes time, effort and a nap when I am done writing.
Letters to friends are done on my computer then printed and mailed. I will not use the ancient portable typewriter still in my closet. Spell check is far too important for these letters. Friends are friends but not as forgiving of errors as the Pit Crew.
These letters present their own challenges. A letter makes you figuratively sit in front of the person and talk to them as you write. This is not the casual banter that happens over coffee or in our electronic e-mail conversations. This is print version of face to face conversation, but without the immediate feedback of facial expressions or the spoken word. There is no chance to include a clickable link to illustrate a point; you must craft that in the words themselves that you put down on paper.
So far this has been largely one way letter writing.
The Pit Crew member does write back. It is not a one to one ratio of letters. I have set a time and day to write her on a regular basis, but the life of a fourth grader is full of school, homework soccer and more. Letters to Mika (she is the one that gave me that name) are important but life must be lived in order to have something to write about.
I have yet to receive a letter from friends. They respond in emails. That is fine. Communication is the purpose of this exercise. Over the short time I have been doing this I have noticed a change in the emails.
We still exchange emails and messages as part of our daily lives. They are full of the things that these normally have. We continue to forward links, junk mail, jokes and more. Cell phones and text messages are still exchanged. There are issues that come up which in todayÔÇÖs world can not absorb the time a series of letter exchanges can require to resolve. We are not total Luddites.
Yet the emails that are in response to the letters seem different. They are more thoughtful in how they are put together. A friend who is as bad a speller as I and never uses upper case letters in his day-to-day emails takes the time to spell check and capitalize his letter responses. He has great sport, as always, in these emails but he seems to be taking the time to sit and face me as he writes.
Give it a try. I think you will find it worth the effort.
Bike Candy
THE END
US Forest Service: Fall color guide
urbanext.uiuc.edu: The Miracle of Fall ÔÇô About Fall Color
In the cage world BMW is trading 4 cylinder gas and diesel engines for their six and eight cylinder engines. In the motorrad world they are putting SPORT and SNARL in their offerings if the rumors are to be believed.
INTERMOT Rumors for BMW continue. Solomoto30.com along with motoblog.it and other European web sites is reporting that BMW will unveil a K1300S. The prediction is for the 1300cc engine to appear across the K lineup but their sources were not certain models would be ready for display at Cologne. The stories center around a K 1300 S with others to follow in short order if not ready for INTERMOT.
The bike is evolutionary with a snarl. The cc expansion is reported to ad more power bringing the rating up to 180 hp.
The chassis remains aluminum but is further refined. It will continue to sport a Duolever front suspension. Both suspension systems will have more settings and controls.
New LED backlit instruments and Japanese style controls are part of what the cockpit are reported to have in store for us. After twenty some years around BMW controls I still have troubles finding the horn at times. In almost every review in the general motorcycle magazines there will be some comment about BMWÔÇÖs control layout. What will Japanese controls look like with a German accent? What will reviewers find to write about?
A new appearance is promised. The GT model is rumored to have more volume and better venting to deal with heat issues. The styling queues are reportedly Hybusa in nature, but that is how everything is described in rumors such as this. No pictures have been leaked and the illustrations in the article are from the current model.
The seat is reported to have been redesigned. This validates in a small way Pieter de WaalÔÇÖs VP BMW Motorrad USA comments during this years rally that the designers had been listening to us and were working on them. Seats are not big deals in rumors for most bikes but it rated specific mention here. We live in hope that BMW designers finally sat on the bike they were building.
Spy drawings still have this as a shaft drive bike. Is there a point when the chain drive from the S 1000 RR would make sense to move into the general K model line up?
Stay tuned!
POTENTIAL INTERMOT RELEASES FROM BMW
S 1000 RR ÔÇô Street version of the BMW superbike is expected.
S 675 RR ÔÇô This is rumored to be a 3 cylinder version of the S 1000 RR. Logical in racing terms, has a historical link in the lineup but rumor.
K 1300 S, R, GT ÔÇô Rumor
F 800 R ÔÇô Rumored to be based on the GS frame and coming soon.
G 450 X ÔÇô planed appearance as a formal part of the line up for the first time.
Scooter ÔÇô Rumor but very likely more fact than rumor and expected to make an appearance soon. Reports give it an engine variant from the X line up but no automatic transmission. It will be built in Italy according to the rumor mill.
The R series is absent from the rumor mill. I have no information or inside line but that does not stop me from wondering when, not if, the technology in the HP 2 Sport engine makes an appearance in another part of the R line up and what size the engine will be. If you dig in the FIM rules supersport twins must be over 600 cc up to 750cc. A 750 HP 2 style engine would be a tasty morsel It would open another class for the endurance racers at BMW Motorrad Motorsport to race with. It is a capacity that plays in many markets that BMW is in including the US. Again keep in mind this is pure wondering on my part, but I think it has potential. It could be the sleeper surprise at INTERMOT.
Continuing to be absent from the lineup is a new LT. Pieter de WaalÔÇÖs comments during the Q&A with the membership in Gillette was it would be a very very very long time before the replacement would be looked at let alone appear.
INTERMOT rumors abound. This one is about an old favorite around her ÔÇô the VFR and it is reportedly going super sized also.
moto-station.com: Honda VFR 1200 ÔÇô Its coming!
motorcycle-web.com: BMW motorcycles great but not really green. [Editorial]
MotorcycleDaily.com: Getting to know Kawasaki in Japan
Part I
Part II
eruopean motonews.com GSX-R1000 no on 0% APR.
The European market often sees promotions that do not make it across the pond. The credit crunch has been hitting the industry for over a year now. Will manufacturers take on the credit risk to move their product? Suzuki is with a specific model and market.
thebikergene.com: US$8000 gets you the road fuel-free with the Electric GPR-S
Regulations in Europe have a way of affecting NA, that is why this is an important story.
motorcyclenews.com: New [UK] helmet tests flawed
thenewcaferacersociety.com: When is a motorcycle not a motorcycle? The TECA Microvehicle
Alert to all stunt riders!
cyrilhuzeblog.com: Florida House Bill 137 becomes law.
f1-live.com: BMW and Klien top and F1 testing at Jerez
motorauthority.com: U.S. House passes $5,000 tax credit for plug in EV
topspeed.com: Peugeot Design Competition ÔÇô The 10 fianlists
Spiegel.de: Piech is holding Volkswagen to ransom
worldofbmw.com: First race in Japan leads to HP2 victory
Thread: BMW Motorrad wants to hear from you. Survey link enclosed.
Stuff
reuters.com: Pickens says Wal-Mart to study switch from diesel
cmgonline.com: Amazon into motorcycle gear
Book Review ÔÇô thevintagent.com: Japanese Motorcycle Wars
Several things caught my eye over at gizmag.com
Motion capture in MRI
Sealegs amphibious boats headed for US shores ÔÇô now if they would figure out how to make portaging a canoe easier like this.
DonÔÇÖt sack the coach ÔÇô business application for you HR types?
The world from Berlin
Spiegel.de: ÔÇÿA crisis, but not the end of the worldÔÇÖ
Packers Blog ÔÇô jsonline.com
Packers.com ÔÇô News from the football shrine
Green Bay Post Gazette: Packer News, Commentary
Offical site of the Premier League
GasBuddy.com has gas temperature maps intended to let you see what gas prices are around the US and Canada. Areas are color coded according to the reported local average price for regular unleaded gasoline.
US
Canada
Channel 3 News: The Ian Schmeisser Phenomenon
Wonderings
I have taken up letter writing again. It is a very different form of communication than e-mail or posting on a forum. That may be obvious when you read it in print but when you sit down to write a letter you are stepping into another communications world. It can be humorous and hard work as the Xcd cartoon suggests.
My first letter efforts were hand printed letters to one of the Pit Crew in the Twin Cities. She is in grade school and has not mastered cursive. What a challenge. A pencil, a good eraser, a pad of yellow legal paper ore two that will stand up to rubbing out the errors, my constant writing companion a dictionary and an empty waste basket make up the tool kit for these letters. Upper and lower case letters are required to put words on paper and no spell check! I am a horrid speller and the computer has not improved it. Please donÔÇÖt let me get started on the effort simple declarative sentences require. Publishing one of these tomes takes time, effort and a nap when I am done writing.
Letters to friends are done on my computer then printed and mailed. I will not use the ancient portable typewriter still in my closet. Spell check is far too important for these letters. Friends are friends but not as forgiving of errors as the Pit Crew.
These letters present their own challenges. A letter makes you figuratively sit in front of the person and talk to them as you write. This is not the casual banter that happens over coffee or in our electronic e-mail conversations. This is print version of face to face conversation, but without the immediate feedback of facial expressions or the spoken word. There is no chance to include a clickable link to illustrate a point; you must craft that in the words themselves that you put down on paper.
So far this has been largely one way letter writing.
The Pit Crew member does write back. It is not a one to one ratio of letters. I have set a time and day to write her on a regular basis, but the life of a fourth grader is full of school, homework soccer and more. Letters to Mika (she is the one that gave me that name) are important but life must be lived in order to have something to write about.
I have yet to receive a letter from friends. They respond in emails. That is fine. Communication is the purpose of this exercise. Over the short time I have been doing this I have noticed a change in the emails.
We still exchange emails and messages as part of our daily lives. They are full of the things that these normally have. We continue to forward links, junk mail, jokes and more. Cell phones and text messages are still exchanged. There are issues that come up which in todayÔÇÖs world can not absorb the time a series of letter exchanges can require to resolve. We are not total Luddites.
Yet the emails that are in response to the letters seem different. They are more thoughtful in how they are put together. A friend who is as bad a speller as I and never uses upper case letters in his day-to-day emails takes the time to spell check and capitalize his letter responses. He has great sport, as always, in these emails but he seems to be taking the time to sit and face me as he writes.
Give it a try. I think you will find it worth the effort.
Bike Candy
THE END
