Macau GP Time

It’s the middle of November and that means it’s time for the Macau GP. The last big motorcycle race of the year. The motorcycle race at the Macau GP is an “exhibition” race to support the car racing that is the main attraction. It takes place on a road course through the city with almost no run off and armco lined walls. You don’t want to crash there. I think it’s one of my favorite races because you get an interesting group of racers and bike and also because it reminds me a bit of the OnRamp GP riding I did growing up, except turned up to 11. Apparently this is one of the largest sporting events in South East Asia every year with millions of people tuning in to watch it on their TV’s. Take a look at a few of these videos bellow.

To find out about the Macau GP check out the official website.

2011 Macau GP commercial

2010 Macau GP pt. 1

2010 Macau GP pt. 2

2010 Macau GP pt. 3

2010 Macau GP pt. 4

2010 Macau GP pt. 5

More Pics of the Monster 796 Racer

Recently Brandon Bones of Studio 819 Photography, who happens to be one of the best Motorcycle Photographers in the USA saw my post about Ducati Bellevue’s Monster 796 Racer. He had taken a bunch of photos of the bike while it was down at Laguna Seca on Ducati Island at the 2011 Red Bull US Grand Prix. Bellow is a few select pics from his photo album and also a link to the full album. They’re way better then my crappy cell phone pics. Make sure to check out some of his other photography as well. I think he’s one of the best in the biz.

Check out more pics of the 796 Monster Racer (including ones with pretty ladies) by following this link to the Studio 819. LINK

 

Take a look at some of his other photography too. 

Also make sure to check out Ducati Bellevue’s website since they built the 796 Monster Racer and I hear they have more plans for this bike in the future.

 

 

 

Oh Yeah! Ducati 1199 Panigale

This week Ducati finally launched their newest Superbike, the 1199 Panigale. I’m a big Ducati fan so it was really exciting to see the new bike.

This bike has all the newest technology that is expected in top flight Superbikes now; traction control, quick shifter, and power modes. The S model even comes with electronically adjustable suspension.

The 1199 is radically different the most of it’s predecessors. Gone is the steel trellis frame. In it’s places is a aluminum stressed air box/front subframe. The cams are driven by a chain and gear combination. There have been many other changes the separate the Panigale from the bikes that came before it, but the most important ideas carry through. It’s still a 90* V-Twin (or L-Twin as Ducati like to call it) Superbike squarely aimed at being the top of it’s class and winning races. To get an idea of how the Panigale compares to the previous Ducati Superbikes take a look at this chart Ducati Bellevue put together. A 25 Year History of of Ducati Superbikes. (PDF)

Bellow are some great videos about the 1199 Panigale. First is their “Checkmate” video. I’m sure it’s sending a message to their competitors, perhaps specifically their follow Italian Superbike Maker.  The second video highlights the beauty of the new 1199. Both are great videos.

Stay tuned for more info about the 1199 Panigale. I’m hoping to test one out and take some video myself once they make it to dealership.

Pictures, Video and Technical Info via Ducati.

Ducati Superbike history chart via Ducati Bellevue. 

Best Video About Motorcycle Suspension

Motorcycle suspensions are tricky, or at least they seem really tricky. I think that I’ve had an idea of what compression, rebound, preload etc were, but wasn’t ever that sure. There have been lots of videos made explaining how to set up your suspension but I think this one by MCN (Motorcycle News) is the best out there. They made this video for the average rider, explain in plain english what the different components are and what they do. I’d feel comfertable messing with my bikes adjusters after watching this video.

Thanks Ducati News Today

This post is a bit overdue. A few weeks ago Ducati News Today wrote up a piece about the Eastside Motosports Ducati Monster 796 racer. In the Sources section of his blog post be mentions that he found info about this bike via my blog post about the 796 racer. Just wanted to give him thanks for the shout out. It was the first time that I know of that my blog has been the source, or helped contribute to someone else’s blog. Make sure that if want to know whats going on in the Ducati world that you check out his blog. It’s very good.

Whoa. Déjà vu

Yesterday I was kicking it around my old motorcycle shop, Eastside Motosports, and went into the used bike section to see what new, used bikes they had. I saw two 2004 Matrix Edition 998′s. Reminded me of the déjà vu quote from the Matrix. Kind of funny.

Here are some pics of the bikes:

Both are priced at just under $9K, which isn’t too bad I think for a special edition, rare Ducati 998. If I remember correctly, the only 998′s Ducati built in ’04 were the ‘Final Edition’ and this Matrix Reloaded edition. All the other SuperBikes of that year were 999′s. For more info about these bikes, and other cool used bikes, check out the Pre-owned section of the Eastside Motosports Website. 

Monster 796 Racer

The other day I stopped by my old motorcycle shop, Eastside Motosports, and took a few pictures of their latest project/race bike. A Ducati Monster 796 turned into a racer to compete in the WMRRA 650 Super Sport Twins class. If you are a customer that is racing a Monster, you could qualify for a contingency program that Eastside Motosports is running called the Monster Cup. You can read their story of the bike by clicking on this link. I wish I had better pictures, but I only had my crappy camera phone with me at the time.

Here’s a front view of the bike. The Desmosedici RR bodywork fits really well on the tiny Monster. I don’t think the full size Desmosedici RR is that much bigger then this bike.

Front 3/4 view of the bike. I think they did a great job on the MotoGP inspired paint job.

Full on side view of the bike. You can see the fit and finish of the bodywork is really good. Almost close enough that it could have come off the factory floor like this. The stock tail section and tank integrate very nicely with the Desmo bodywork as well.

Besides the bodywork they’ve installed the full Termi pipes, new rear sets, clip on bars, and reworked the suspension including brand new full adjustable cartridge fork kit.

I’d love to have a little bike like this for the track and ripping around on the streets. Good suspension, brakes and about 80+HP. Sounds about right. All it needs is a head light and some turn signals to get back on the street. I’d probably need to shrink a bit to as evidenced by the hilarious picture of me sitting on the bike before the bodywork.

Twitter Lists, They’re a Good Idea

I’m a big Twitter user. Have the official Twitter app up all the time when I’m on my Mac, have multiple Twitter apps on my iPad and a few on my BlackBerry too. (Yeah, go ahead and make fun of me for using a BlackBerry, but I’m waiting for the iPhone 5). I really enjoy the instant news and chat I get from Twitter.

One of my favorite things to do on Twitter is create Twitter Lists. I have quite a few of them. (You can check them out here.)  I’ve made lists for my interests, the towns near by, all sorts of stuff. They’re a great tool to keep who you follow organized and can be used to power cool tools, my favorite of which will probably require it’s own post.

I’ve also started to use lists to keep track of accounts I want to keep in touch with, but don’t necessarily want to follow. I just found out that Twitter has a built in follower limit of 2000 accounts (unless you meet some sort of criteria). I decided to trim back who I follow on a regular basis have have kept most of those accounts accessible in Twitter Lists.

Effective list management and organization has allowed me to cut down on a bunch of the ‘noise’ that comes with following lots of accounts on Twitter. If you set up your lists right, you can get great information about specific events. Recently a big, international motorcycle race was going on in the U.S. I wasn’t able to watch the race live, but through my ‘Motorcycle People‘ Twitter List I had a pretty good idea what was going on in the race from the people who were able to watch it.

Using lists is a great idea for business on twitter too. Especially those hoping for some B2B communication. I run the social media for the real estate company I work for and created many twitter lists for different aspects of the business we need to be in contact with. (BHGExecutive Twitter) Lists for home inspectors, builders, contractors, other local businesses, and other agents. If there is a group of businesses you do work with, or would like to work with, I’d create a list containing those accounts so that you can easily communicate with them and hopefully create some relationship that you can take offline and into the business world.

If your looking to more effectively manage your twitter account, I think lists are a great tool to use. I don’t think I would be as much of a fan of twitter if it wasn’t for the list function.

Now that I’m trying to blog on a more regular basis I’m hoping to have another post up soon about one of my favorite tools to use with lists. Have a good one.

Back At It…I Hope

I haven’t written a blog post for this blog in a long time. I’ve spent lots of time working on my Facebook Page for my real estate, and building my twitter account. I made myself two Tumblr blogs, one about Coffee, the other about Motorcycles. But I think it’s time to finally get back to work on my WordPress blog. My friend Jenni also kind of guilted me into getting back to blogging on a regular basis. 

In the past I’ve treated this blog as a bit of a test bed to try things out on before I tried them on other blogs, but now I’m thinking (hoping) I’ll give this blog the attention that it deserves.

Part of the problem is that in the past I’ve always tried to have a specific theme for my blogs, but now I’m just going to write about whatever I want. I plan to put up content about whatever I feel like. Hopefully some of it will be good and useful.

While I’m back here I’ll also probably try out some new themes. Maybe some widgets or plugins too. So if you have anything good that you think I need to use on my WordPress blog, let me know.

Going to #NARDIGRAS

This weekend is the annual realtor convention and this years its in New Orleans. This will be my first time going to the annual convention and first time in New Orleans. It should be a great trip. On Thursday I’ll be at a RE bar camp and that evening I’ll be going to the inaugural ball where Ron Phipps and the 2011 national leadership will be installed. Friday the convention really kicks off with panels, presentations and discussions, as well as the expo where all the latest and greatest real estate ideas and technology will be on display. I even hear David hasselhoff with be at one of the booths.

The real highlight for me will be the YPN reception on Friday night. It will be a great to to network with other young REALTORS and catch up with friends from the YPN leadership retreat I attended in Chicago this past August.

My local chapter of YPN, the Seattle King County REALTORS chapter is up for chapter of the year and I think we have a decent shot of winning it. The winner will be announced at the reception.

Just because I’m out of town doesn’t mean I’ll be out of touch. I have my iPad and Blackberry with me so I’m wired up and ready to take care of any emails or calls. Make sure your following me on Twitter @garrettnelson. I’ll be updating that pretty frequently. Look out for the tag #nardigrs for news about the convention.