Had an interesting day. I was having dinner with a good friend on Friday evening. I had rolled up to the restaurant on my CB1100, and he commented that he hadn't seen this bike before, and said it reminded him of a Nighthawk 650 he had ridden many years ago. I said that the CB1100 was just the kind of bike to rekindle thoughts of vintage Honda models.
As we chatted over dinner, he asked me what keeps me riding, as he gave it up years ago. He also never rode in California, and started in with the old chestnut of how dangerous lane splitting must be. I said that one of the things I enjoy the most is the funneling of all of the jumbled up thoughts that usually occupy my feeble brain into a singularity of thought and concentration that comes with riding, and especially lane splitting.
I mentioned that it would be nice to find something else that also gave me that sense of concentration. He suggested that I try shooting, and invited me to the firing range that he was planning to go this morning, Sunday. I haven't fired a gun in years, but thought he had a good point about the concentration and focus required to hit a target with any degree of accuracy.
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I saddled up the CB1100 this morning and met him at the indoor range in his neighborhood. After a bit of coaching, I think I did fairly well for being so rusty. I did get into the same Zen-like focus I experience when I'm riding, and especially splitting. Might be something I need to look into further. Afterwards, my friend and I had lunch, and he gave me some good advice and direction.
After lunch, I headed to the Bike Shed. In another thread I mentioned the Verge electric motorcycle, made in Finland and coming to the U.S. soon. The company rep invited me to come take a test ride whenever I felt like it, and being such a beautiful day, I figured why head home. With a target price of $34k for the entry version, it's not something I'd really consider obviously, but hey, why turn down the chance to check it out?
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It was a very unique ride. Being electric, there's no shifting of course. Rather than a standard rear brake foot pedal on the right, rear brakes are controlled by the left hand like a scooter. With the standard riding mode, called "Range", there's so much resistance on the rear wheel due to regen when off the throttle that the rear brakes itself quite a bit. "Zen", another mode, eliminates regen and lets the bike freewheel when off the throttle. "Beast" mode offers the most acceleration, and gives a ton of neck-snapping speed. There's also a Custom mode that can be configured by the rider.
These modes can be viewed on an iPad-like screen on top of the "tank", and a small, aftermarket, and cheap-looking digital speedo tucks into the nacelle under the tiny windscreen. The rep assured me that by the time the bike comes to the U.S. market, both the dash and tank-top displays will be TFTs. And, they might install a foot pedal for the rear brake for the production version.
The bike felt interesting. A bit heavy. The hubless rear wheel motor felt smooth on acceleration and cruising, but slowing, you hear a sort of grinding noise, which the rep explained was caused by the resistance of the motor against the several magnets driving it. In fact, pushing the bike around, the rear wheel's resistance against the magnets give it a ratcheting feeling as it rolls. A very unique experience.
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