Happy New Year

As 2011 draws to a close I thought I’d post about some of the memorable, and tragic, events that shaped the past year in the world of motorcycling.

Marc Coma

Marc Coma

Marc Coma opened the year by winning the 32nd running of the Dakar Rally (his third win) finishing 15 minutes ahead of defending champion Cyril Despres after Despres was assessed a 10 minute penalty earlier in the race. 15 minutes after 5,900 miles of racing over 13 days. There were 200 motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, 140 cars, and 67 trucks in this year’s event through Argentina and Chile. Dakar and the New Year go hand in hand for me and I cannot wait for this year’s race to start on New Year’s Day. Click here for some spectacular photos of Dakar. If you do, I’m sure you’ll be an instant fan.

Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner easily won the MotoGP championship as Honda and Yamaha dominated and Ducati continued to struggle to keep up.

Cori and I were at New Jersey Motorsports Park to watch Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes win the AMA Superbike Championship by a mere 5 points on the season’s final weekend over Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young. It was the first pro motorcycle race for each of us and were instantly hooked by the speed and sound and amazing display of courage and skill.

Ninja 1000

Motorcyclist Magazine named the Kawasaki Ninja 1000 it’s motorcycle of the year and Eric Buell its motorcyclist of the year.

Nancy Sabater was named AMA Motorcyclist of the year for leading a grass roots effort to repeal the motorcycle lead law which would have banned the production of ATV’s and motorcycles for children. Sabater and others convinced the government to exempt motorcycles from the law (given that there’s little chance the parts of a motorcycle that contain trace amounts of lead will ever end up in a child’s mouth). Thanks to Nancy and others logic prevailed over legislation for a change.

Pennsylvania finally passed a ban on texting while driving, making the roads slightly safer for motorcyclists.

Marco Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli

Marco Simoncelli tragically lost his life in a MotoGP race in Malaysia in October. This well liked 24 year old former 250cc world champion was a rising star in MotoGP. If you’ve not watched a MotoGP race you don’t know what you’re missing.

On a personal note I started this blog which has been a labor of love and Southeast Pennsylvania Adventure Motorcycle Touring, a group I started at the end of 2010 has grown to nearly 100 members. Cori and I enjoyed meeting and riding with new people and we finished the year incident free as a group and with big plans for 2012. If you’re anywhere near Philadelphia in 2012 drop me an email and we’ll arrange a ride, either with our group or with Cori and I, we’re both free spirits who love to ride together.

As 2011 draws to a close I find myself reflecting, much as I do after every ride, about how fortunate I am to have discovered a hobby/lifestyle/sport like motorcycling that satisfies, thrills, soothes, inspires and excites like it does. Whatever you ride, cruiser, dresser, sport bike, motocross, enduro, I’m sure you feel the same way. I love everything about all kinds of riding. Hopefully you feel the same. Stop in from time to time and I’ll try and make sure there’s something interesting or at least entertaining for you to read, watch or listen to about every facet of motorcycling in 2012.

I hope your 2011 was a safe one. Happy New Year. See you on the road in 2012. Dakar starts Jan. 1st!

Ride safe and thanks for stopping by.

Bud

 

5 Comments

  1. Bud Miller (Post author)

    I had a KLR for about a year and that's an apt description. I loved it but found I had no appropriate place to ride it like it demands to be ridden and it was too unlike my V-Strom. Miss the thumping single though…

  2. Bud Miller (Post author)

    BTW, thanks for the compliment. Glad you like the blog. If you ever feel like posting something let me know. I wanna get guest posters content in the coming year. Humor, sarcasm, video, anything to do with riding. I'm looking into helmet cam setups. That should be entertaining…

    1. molson

      Yeah, I like the idea of the motorcycle camping trip. I've never done that one before. Mr. Weale still needs to get his motorcycle endorsement. I know he's up for it. I don't know if he can swing the time commitment though.

      I also like the idea of doing a guest post. Let me think about that one a bit. Since I don't have a bike at the moment and I am not riding, I have to think of a source of material. Also, my creative writing skills are lacking. All I ever wrote was engineering test reports none of which was very entertaining in the least.

      I still find myself pining away for my old KLR650. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't fast, but damn that thing was fun to ride. It was just like a small farm tractor on two wheels. Too bad I had to flip it when I sold my house, but that's the way things go.

  3. Bud Miller (Post author)

    You, me and Mr. Weale need to do a motorcycle camping trip, rent some bikes and kick back. That'd be a riot. Happy New Year!

  4. molson

    Love the blog. Too bad if you see me on the road in the New Year, I'll be in a cage. Well that's not true. I can be seen trolling around Reston from time to time on my ancient mountain bike.

    Every so often I get an itch to track down another thumper along the lines of a KLR650 or a DR650. Then the thought of riding the streets of NOVA cageless kind of kills the notion.

    Happy New Year Bud. Ride safe.

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