Ride to Work

Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Pierre Terblanche Hired by Royal Enfield

Pierre Terblanche, the South African designer that created bikes for Ducati, Piaggio, Norton, and Confederate, has been hired by Royal Enfield.   This guy changes jobs more often than I do.

This is an interesting combination of an ultra avant garde designer with an ultra traditionalist brand.  What does it mean for the future of design at RE and how will it affect the RE fan base?  That fan base appears to be grounded in the Way of the Bullet and not likely to take kindly to radical changes to that icon.  Also, looking at Terblanche's résumé in the last ten years would lead one to question how long will he remain with RE.

Is this a good thing?  It could be, it could also be a disaster.  Only time will tell.
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Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Dragon on Montse

Hank's Place
Saturday morning my wife and I took a long ride on Montse to complete the Chester County Dragon loop.  We had done a portion of the Dragon before but had not completed the whole loop.  Saturday morning broke out beautiful and clear if a little chilly in the earlier part of the morning but by 11:00 the temps had risen enough to really make for a fantastic ride.  We left the house shortly after 10:00 and headed up Goshen to Garrett Mill Road for the run out to the Dragon.

Shortly after we crossed the West Chester Pike we ran into our first red Ferrari headed in the opposite direction on 926.  Not long after that we saw our second red Ferrari also on 926 headed in the opposite direction.  That was not the last Ferrari of the day, there was a black one on Creek Road.  We also saw a Cobra on 926, after the second red Ferrari.  As we passed Crebilly Farms on 926 a guy on a MGB gave us the wave.  Not counting the Bs in the exotic car tally but on 82 I had another B flash is light and give us the wave so we are going to record the MGs we see.  We got a lot of waves from folks in convertibles, I guess we are all happy to be able to go out with the top down for a long as we can.

On the topic of the wave, I customarily give the motorcycle two finger sign to any bike I see coming my way when on the MG.  Motorcyclist come in three stripes regarding this issue.  There are the ones that see the MG and give us the wave, thumbs up, and big smile before I can get my hand out to greet them; there are the ones that happily return the fingered wave without missing a beat, and then there are the ones that give us the "FU, you are not on a motorcycle" look.  Regardless, I will continue to salute all motorcyclist I see.

Hank's Place
Once we  got on the Dragon I wanted to stop at the Chadds Ford Historical Society to get a shot of the MG with that nice barn in the background but they had some activity going on and access to the parking lot was blocked.  We continued on and made an on the fly decision to stop at Hank's Place for brunch.  By then it was 10:45 and close enough to stop and get something to eat.  We had tried Hank's before but it has always been too busy.  This time we were lucky to walk up to the door and get two places at the counter right away.  We both had different frittatas which were really good. Hank's lived up to its reputation and is definitely a place to put in the rotation when doing the Dragon.

Garrett Snuff Mills
After brunch we continued on the Dragon toward Delaware but first we stopped at the Sunoco across Route 1 from Hank's to gas up. At that point we had put 128.9 miles since the last fill up and the odo read 2632 miles.  From there we headed down 100 to Delaware.  After we crossed the Brandywine, we pulled into the SW Farm Stand, along 100, were they had all their pumpkins displayed and they had set up for hayrides.  No hayrides for us, just rolling on the Dragon.  We continued on and stopped at the Garrett Snuff Mills for some more pics.  From there we pushed on to complete the loop and head back home.

SW Farm Stand




 On the way back on 926 we stopped at Goose Creek to check out the art shop in the old train station and take some more pictures.  We headed back home by way of the Wawa at 352 and then down Strasburg/Goshen.

A great ride with great weather.  We were out for a little over 3.5 hours with a break for brunch of about 45 minutes.  There were no issues with the car and she handled the twisties and hills of the Dragon without any problems.

The exotic car tally stands now at 8 Ferraris, 2 Lambos, 2 Maseratis, 2 Cobras, 1 Bentley, 1 DeLorean, 1 Teslas, 1 MGA, and 1 Unknown.







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Monday, October 13, 2014

The Way of the Bullet

My friend Phillip send me the link to this video on Old Delhi Motorcycles, a little restoration shop in Old Delhi that specializes in Royal Enfields.  These people are the philosophers of the Bullet.  It is a fabulous video that really highlights the mindset of the Bulleteer and their love for the machine.

Heads-up, there is definitely NSFW language all over the video.  But what is philosophy without strong language?



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Friday, May 16, 2014

Rain, Rain Go Away

It's coming down in buckets.  No riding today, that makes two days in a row that I could not get out.  Yesterday for other reasons, today because of weather.  I have heard the old saw many times before: "if you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride."  I don't ride in the rain.  I've been caught in it and ridden through but I never go out in it intentionally.  Riding is supposed to be fun and getting cold and wet is not my idea of fun.  That's my two cents, mileage may vary.


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