I had the chance to ride two BMW motorcycles while on vacation - an R1100RT-P and an R1100S. This was the first time I'd ridden either one of these bikes. Both are fantastic machines. I would happily ride either of these to Alaska, Mexico, or some other far-flung adventure destination.

Below is the R1100RT-P. The RT-P is BMW's police model (see here bike for more info on the RT-P).

Those Pia lights on the front make it look like a battle cruiser when you light them up. The bike is tricked out with much electronic gadgetry too. GPS, cell holders, map light, intercom system. If I had owned this bike, I'd get a black and white helmet and a reflective safety vest to ride around in. People just jump out of your way when they see you coming.

First Marathon

So I registered for the Seattle Marathon. The race will be held on Sunday November 27, 2005, which means I have 5 months to train. I'm going to need every bit of that time to get in shape. I heard that the Seattle marathon is pretty challenging because of the hills involved. I've never run a marathon before and I'm not really sure what to expect. If anyone has any good advice (or words of encouragement!), I'd love to hear from you. Post a comment below or drop me an email at paul@xs-adventure.com.

Been poking around on sailblogs.com. It's a nice site. I like their mapping feature. I started a blog over there at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/starbug/
We'll see how it works out.

Motorcycle Helmet Review: Jarrow Mono X2

I purchased a Jarrow Mono X2 flip up helmet a few months ago and have been using it daily since then. Here are my impressions of this helmet.

This is a flipup helmet which means that normally you ride around with the front portion of the helmet down and it looks like a regular full face helmet. When you are stopped however you can push up the front of the helmet to talk to people, take your glasses off, etc.. It's easy to operate the flipup feature with one hand. There is a single button in front to unlatch. I've never had a flip up helmet before and while I like this feature, I don't really consider it a critical one for me. Occasionally it comes in handy when you need to talk to someone but don't want to get off your bike (e.g. parking lot attendant, toll booth worker). I could live without it though.

An exciting Motorcyle Ride.

So I found myself today with a $2,500.00 piece of computer networking equipment that I needed to install in my datacenter 15 miles away in downtown Seattle. What to do? Strap it to the back of my BMW motorcycle of course! It was pouring down rain, but I managed to get it there in one piece. The box was a little soggy, but the electronic bits were dry inside and everything still worked. I wonder what people thought, watching me ride down the I-5 Freeway through the center of Seattle with this box strapped to the back of my bike?

Going to visit the family in a couple of weeks and my brother and I plan on going on a motorcycle day trip. He'll be riding his BMW R1100S and I'll be riding a borrowed BMW RT-P or a rented HD.

Anyone have any suggestions for great rides in PA/DE/MD area? We'll be starting from Newark, DE which is about 30 miles south of Philly.

I read a lot. I always have. I read fast too and that means I always have piles of books overflowing my bookshelves. Here are some good ones I'm looking at on my bookshelf right now.

Fastnet, Force 10: The Deadliest Storm in the History of Modern Sailing, New Edition
by John Rousmaniere.

Why I ride a BMW motorcycle to work everyday.

Check out the Snoop Dog Shizzolator . This is what it spit out when I fed it this link .

Have yo' ass ever pulled an izzall-nighter? Two in a row? How 'bout running
non-stop through da night? This is da story of a mutha who routinely
does that 'n much mo' n' shit. Read on fo' a review of this book n' shit....

I posted this review of my motorcycle boots over on http://www.advrider.com

I bought a pair of combat lite boots from Aerostich last year and have been wearing them on a daily basis. Mostly for commuting, though some longer rides.

I went to my local BMW dealer and checked out all the boots they had. I didn't really like any of them, so I decided to order online with Aerostich.
Aerostich service was the usual top notch, including one return for a resizing.

I switched the site from slashcode to php based drupal software. Drupal is far easier to configure than slashcode and slashcode is near impossible to host anywhere because of the mod_perl, daemons and other requirements.