Case in point, my daily commute. The Motorcyclist garage might be bursting with 160-horsepower superbikes, but I typically ride something more practical. I've put hundreds of miles on Charles Everitt's long-term Ducati Multistrada 1000 and Mitch Boehm's Kawasaki ZRX1200R, for example, while my MV has only seen the lavish Primedia parking garage a couple of times.
Ditto the gear I wear: I got a BMW Kalahari textile jacket a decade ago and have worn it almost daily ever since; gotta love the zippered vents that run the length of the sleeves. Then there's my well-worn pair of Daytona Modul Vario boots, which transform into ankle-high paddock boots at the tug of a zipper. As for gloves, I've been wearing the same pair of basic-black (fading to brown) Olympias for as long as I can remember. In fact, the only new piece of gear I regularly don is my Schuberth S1 helmet, which I value for its integral sun visor that flips up beneath its clear faceshield. That sort of versatility is invaluable when you find yourself riding home from the orifice after dark.
I'm also something of a hypocrite. I often wear off-the-rack leathers at the racetrack, and would recommend a number of them for sporting street riding and the occasional track day. But whenever an aspiring racer asks me what brand of leathers I'd recommend, I tell him (or her) to spring for a custom suit. Why? Repairs. Racers fall down and go boom, and the best people to fix their leathers are the ones who made them. The finest custom suit I've ever worn was made by Helmut Kluckner of Helimot, who learned the ropes by repairing other makers' wares. Coincidence? I think not.
My Ludditeness extends to my toolbox, too. Anyone who works on his own bike appreciates quality tools, and I couldn't do without my Michelin Vigil tire gauge. It's probably 20 years old now, is still as accurate as the day it was new, and it doesn't talk like the one Everitt gave me to try for a while. Tire gauges should be seen and not heard.
Not that I'm immune to new products, mind you. I long swore by UniPro lap timers, but now admit that AiM Sports' MyChron system is superior-not to mention less expensive. I've also recently embraced frame sliders. Sportbikes that get totaled in tipovers cost us all money in higher insurance rates, so until such time as the OEMs make crashproof motorcycles-or subsidize the cost of replacement bodywork-these plastic appendages from companies such as Vortex and Pro-Tek are our last line of defense.
Of course, education is our first line of defense, and amen to all the riding schools that are doing their part to help motorcyclists improve their skills nationwide. I just took the Freddie Spencer High Performance Riding School at the new Miller Motorsports Park west of Salt Lake City, and would have to put both of those on my personal Best Of list ... though Boehm says the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School is really, really good as well.
Clearly, more research is needed.
Editors' Best Everitt
A geezer rejoices in motorcycling's stuff
You should know, kind reader, that what follows are the ruminations of the 52-year-old senior editor, who started riding motorcycles in 1969 at age 16, and returned to the fold about two years ago after a self-imposed 10-year exile in the Pacific Northwest, where I rode my bicycle far more than my motorcycle. That should help explain why the following observations range from the merely disingenuous to the bleedin' obvious.
Because, where my comrades in arms have taken pains to mention specific things they consider bests, these days I'm more thoroughly smitten by all the stuff associated with motorcycling. Certainly, the capabilities of current motorcycles are so far off any normal scale that it should go without saying riding itself tops my list of bests. This is truly a Golden Age for fans of performance on two wheels, with no end in sight.
Yet to me what's every bit as incredible are the number and quality of motorcycling's accoutrements. Apparel? Jaw-dropping. Everything from one-piece leathers for a track day to a complete head-to-toe ensemble for a 'round-the-world trek, and virtually anything in between. Just as remarkable is that the best of it fits, is functional and even comfortable. It wasn't that long ago such marvels simply didn't even exist, let alone being available and in-stock at your friendly local dealer.
Or on the Internet, itself another boon of inestimable value to motorcyclists in ways impossible to count. In an instant we can get up-to-the-moment weather reports, manufacturer-created and -maintained sites with new-model information and history of older ones, live video coverage of MotoGP races halfway around the globe, event calendars and reviews, near-limitless numbers of owner's sites with good, specific advice for practically every motorcycle ever made, and on and on.
There's been almost as much progress in the last 10 or so years I've been riding than in the previous 30: hundreds of books, dozens of magazines for every type of riding, potions and lotions to waterproof your kit or make leather more supple than the day it left the tannery, microfiber towels for ease of cleaning and polishing, one-step cleaners and polishes ... the list is endless. It's a positively mind-boggling glut of choices which we once could only dream of, and now have come to take for granted, as if they've always been there. I assure, they have not.
To many of you, this orgiastic outpouring of praise for what are everyday conveniences might seem little more than the simple-minded twaddle of yet another rheumy, myopic graybeard who apparently read by candlelight, ate dirt and was thankful for it, and had to walk to and from school in the snow, uphill, both ways. "Yes, Charles, we know things have changed since you started riding in, what, ought-69 wasn't it? Are you high or just stupid?"
More the latter, I'd guess. But stick around and keep riding for another 30 to 40 years, and see if the changes you witness don't leave you just as pleasurably astonished. I certainly hope they do.