Amateur Night

It looks like the Washington State Patrol is out in force again.

Typically, I'll see a state trooper about 2-3 times per week at most. Today there were 5.

Ordinarily, this would annoy me. The State Patrol usually succeeds in doing little more than making an already difficult commute worse. Today however was the Day of the Amateur Commuter.

Everybody knows the professional commuter. They see the same cars every morning, usually in about the same place, because you leave about the same time everyday. The amateurs don't know what they're doing, what anyone else is doing, what speed to drive, what lane to be in, and only in a general sense know where they're going.

In short, they're dangerous. But you probably already knew that. Didn't you.

Sidi On-Road Sympatex Boots

Mmmmm. New boots.

I just bought a new pair of boots, Sidi On-Roads. I'd always been a little ambivalent about the concept of the On-Roads since Velcro definitely wears out.

What shocks me, and definitely overcame my distrust of Velcro fasteners was how wonderful these boots feel. They have the perfect fit for the V-Strom, with the very tall tops and a good lug design on the sole. They feel fastastic on my feet, and it will be something to a novely to have dry feet, as they'll handle the rather cruddy weather we've been having much better than my 4-year-old water-resistant Hein Gericke sport-tour boots (think beta version of Sidi's Way boots).

MMMMmmmm.

Stereotyped? Pigeonholed?

With commuting on the new bike, I discovered something rather interesting and somewhat disappointed, that on my old bike which wasn't any niche in particular, everyone waved to me.

This is no longer the case. People that waved to me in traffic on a daily basis for months (even when commuting to my old job), now no longer wave to me.

Very strange, this turn of events.

The BMW R11/12GS (adventure-touring) riders no longer wave to me, but other BMW riders do.

Where the R-GS riders do not wave to me, the other Adventure-tourer marquees do, such as KTM.

Now that I'm on something new and red, the Harley riders as a whole no longer wave to me. Before, it could be counted on that the uptight lifestyle riders wouldn't bother, since they wave to no one (probably have to hold on for dear life), but now even the serious riders don't bother.

The 'Wing riders don't wave either, which is rather odd. They waved before when I had a ratty old bike that looked more like a cruiser...

The sportbike crowd always has though, and as much as everyone trash talks the sportbike crowd (who in turn trashtalks Harleys), I've never gotten a rash of crap from those guys about riding my old bike or the new one.

Funny how that works, eh?

Taking the Plunge: RED(!) 2006 Suzuki DL650 V-Strom

Yes, my dear readers, I finally went and did it.

The old Sabre1100 had acted flaky on me one too many times, and now that I'm depending on the bikes to get to work each day, the wife (She Who Must Be Obeyed) finally authorized the purchase of a 2nd bike.

Yesterday afternoon, I brought it home.



It's been a rather long time since I've had a new bike, but the new 350-400 mile/week pace is gonna require this, I think.

Combat Commuting: May 15, 2006

One truly infuriating aspect of driving in Bellevue: Drivers with extreme inattentiveness and lack of urgency mixed with highly aggressive drivers.

Everybody's aware of what happens with the latter class of cagers, road rage and fingers and verbal exchanges. Blah, blah, we've heard it all before.

For now, I'm going to focus on the first one. It seems to be be a common practice to sit in traffic over there while futzing with makeup, changing the radio, reading a newspaper(!), or (everyone's favorite) talking on the cell phone. Although the BDC is most definitely behind the wheel and in supposed nominal control of said vehicle, they're not paying much attention. It's quite common for these drivers to sit for 3-4 seconds before releasing the brakes after the vehicle in front of them had responded to the green light in turn.

The green lights in Bellevue are not very long, to say the least. And it never ceases to amaze me how a 45-second green light can manage to get only 9-10 cars through to a road beyond that is completely empty. You'd think, that after having waited as much as 10 minutes and through 3-4 cycles to get to that light, they'd be eager to get underway. Go figure.

New Job, New Traffic

Well, I suppose I'm technically no longer a Seattle moto-commuter. Today was the first day of my new job over on the Eastside (Bellevue, etc.), and traffic is sure different compared to Seattle.

The Eastside commuters are more uniformly mediocre compared to the Seattle cager. Whereas, Seattle's cager, as many of you well know, tend towards the two extremes of quite-proficient and hopelessly incompetent. The Eastside drivers are definitely more distracted, and have a tendency to take forever to make left turns through a green arrow.

The time consumed on my commute is much less than I expected however. The distance are further, and I spend more time sitting still while waiting in line to get on the freeway, but when I'm moving I'm generally moving along at a very brisk clip.

Today, albiet an unusual day where the South County traffic was extremely light, I got home from Bellevue in 53 minutes, in conditions that would've netted me a very reasonable 45 minutes from Pioneer Square. Not too shabby at all.

Best yet, I don't have to pay for parking....

Riverside -- Washington State Route 4

Yet another in the series from my trip to Vancouver -- Washington State Route 4

State Route 4 along the river is a very nice trip. A world away from the bustle of Portland just up the river another 50 miles.

Saltwater Fancy

Continuing the posting related to my recent trip to the Coast, here's Washington State Route 105.

Life is good.