Sunday, February 17, 2008

My Next Bike?



Kaneda's bike from Akira for sale - Hell For Leather
akirabike.jpgYes, that's right. While we were all daydreaming about how awesome we would be if we had a ride like Kaneda from the anime cult-classic Akira, the Japanese started an entire subculture of custom builders. We're not talking about full-scale models — that would be utter lameness. These folks are building and selling legitimate, licensed machines. Suddenly, we don't feel so cool anymore. We don't speak Japanese, but we're betting these replicas feature somewhat less than two ceramic rotor drives on each wheel.


I could kind of see it... really... well maybe if they toned down the red a little...

Thursday, January 24, 2008

HJC Wind Light

This looks like a great idea I might have to get... Afterall, I'm dork enough to rarely ride without a helmet anyway. Just as well look like a complete and total dork.

Bikes in the Fast Lane - Daily Motorcycle News
Called the HJC Windlight LED Helmet Light, it's a small gizmo that you glue on top of your helmet (any manufacturer, it doesn't have to be HJC). When you start riding your motorcycle, above 40 kph, the wind blows through the Windlight, and powers powerful LED lights. In fact, the faster you go, the more light it emits. There's very little wind drag, since the unit is aerodynamic.


Addendum:

Just wanted to let everyone know that I actually did get one of these. The weather hasn't really been such that I've been able to try it out very much so there may be yet another follow up here at some point but here are my first impresstions:
  • Build quality is decent
  • The LEDs flash which I wasn't expecting
  • The LEDs all face backwards and sideways, so don't expect this to help someone see you head on.
  • The instructions warn the the unit isn't supposed to be used in inclement weather. Now I don't know about you but I don't switch helmets when it rains so... could be that these lights will short out in short order. That would be disappointing.



Here is what it looks like on my helmet.

Friday, January 18, 2008

A Great New Helmet Idea from Givi

Bikes in the Fast Lane - Daily Motorcycle News
Normally, you have 4 different types of motorcycle helmets; jet, half jet, modular (flip-up) and full face. Italian accessories manufacturer, Givi Open link in a new window, have produced another one. The full face interchangeable X.01 helmet. The X.01 is full face, i.e., you can't flip it up, so it's homologated as full face, integral, but what you can do, is change the front bit.
I just got a new helmet part way into last season, but I'm not sure I can resist this one. What a great idea! I haven't yet read whether it will be imported into the US or not. However, my recent helmet purchase is a Roof Lemans which is also not imported here so that shouldn't be too much of a barrier for me to overcome.


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