We are leaving early tomorrow morning. Evren arranged a perfect bon-voyage party yesterday afternoon. Most of our friends came together to say goodbye. I had an unforgettable day. Seeing so many friendly faces, witnessing the looks in the eyes of loved ones, effected me deeply in a quite unexpected way. A very popular aspect of motorcycle riding is the romantic ideal of the solitary individual. I love too many people to get carried away with such a feeling. It feels like I don't belong to myself. There is so much in me that I owe to others. Seeing how they 'allow' me to go, gives me all the more reason to be careful and take good care of myself. [gallery type="slideshow" link="file" ids="1270,1271,1272,1273,1274,1275,1276,1277,1278,1279,1280,1281,1282,1283,1284,1285,1286,1287,1288,1289,1290,1291,1292,1293,1294,1295,1296,1297,1298,1299,1300,1301,1302"] Thanks to everyone coming... Special thanks to Ozan for his brilliant photography. Read More

Saying goodbye

I haven't felt this much excitement for a long time. Less than a week remains now. I come across the bike every day when I park the car behind it. A rush of fear and excitement fills me as I look at it. I don't see a 1000cc class M vehicle... I see the journey that lies ahead and it's too much to take in. Within a few seconds, I get overflown by this feeling and decide to attend some of the preparation intricacies. Focusing on details helps when you want to get away from the big picture. Three weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a friend of a friend in Turkey. He was asking about the paperwork required to ride a foreign bike in the US. I answered with the best of my knowledge and asked what his plans were. That same guy is now sleeping on my sofa as ...Read More

Excitement, fear, love and some other things I’ll be taking with me…

This is a test. I just installed a widget to send automatic e-mail updates to subscribers... This means you'll get an e-mail when I write a post. I hope it works... Read More

Test for subscriptions

I'm installing some applications on my blog so that the updates get carried over to Facebook. Let's see if this works. Read More

Checking WordPress Facebook connection

In the process of upgrading my front shock springs with progressive ones, I realised that the inner tubes are badly scratched. Under heavy load and bad road surfaces, the tubes may dive deeper and these scratches can damage the oil seals. Once these seals start leaking, it doesn't take much for the oil inside the forks to drain and become unrideable. So I decided to renew the tubes with new ones even though it would cost me $450. But it turns out that the tubes are backordered, meaning that theya re not available anywhere in the US for a long time. My best chance was to sand the surface with a fine wet sandpaper and polish them. You can still see the dents but they don't protrude as much. I'll be fitting an old style fork gaiter to avoid further damage from bits of rocks and gravel. [gallery link="file" ids="172,173"] Read More

Front Shocks

With each weeks post, I'm planning to include a slideshow from Picasa. Here is a sample of how the it looks and works. These images are from the Baja trip I did with Bintuğ and Burhan last year. [gallery type="slideshow" link="file" ids="1304,1305,1306,1307,1308,1309,1310,1311,1312,1313,1314,1315,1316,1317,1318,1319,1320,1321,1322,1323,1324,1325,1326,1327,1328,1329,1330,1331,1332,1333,1334,1335,1336,1337,1338,1339,1340,1341,1342,1343,1344,1345,1346,1347,1348,1349,1350,1351,1352,1353,1354,1355,1356,1357,1358,1359,1360,1361,1362,1363,1364,1365,1366,1367,1368,1369,1370,1371,1372,1373,1374,1375,1376,1377,1378,1379,1380,1381,1382,1383,1384,1385,1386,1387,1388,1389,1390,1391,1392,1393,1394,1395,1396,1397,1398,1399,1400,1401,1402,1403,1404,1405,1406,1407,1408,1409,1410,1411,1412,1413,1414,1415,1416,1417,1418,1419,1420,1421,1422,1423,1424,1425,1426,1427,1428,1429,1430,1431,1432,1433,1434,1435,1436,1437,1438,1439,1440,1441,1442,1443,1444,1445,1446,1447,1448,1449,1450,1451,1452,1453,1454,1455,1456,1457,1458,1459,1460,1461,1462,1463,1464,1465,1466,1467,1468,1469,1470,1471,1472,1473,1474,1475,1476,1477,1478,1479,1480,1481,1482,1483,1484,1485,1486,1487,1488,1489,1490,1491,1492,1493,1494,1495,1496,1497,1498,1499,1500,1501,1502,1503,1504"] Read More

Weekly slideshow

I was at Leif's this weekend. He was nice enough to spend his Sunday with me in the shop working on the bike. We installed the new shock and rerouted the electrical cable for the halogen lights. It doesn't sound much when you say it like that but this took almost all day. The Wilbers preload adjuster is not designed to go in the standard location on a V-Strom. Leif took his time to manufacture a steel bracket to host the adjuster on the original place. This is his art, and he does it with pleasure. I like people who give themselves to what they do. You can see it in everything they do. He had spent most of his time last few years on developing a clutch system. Patented and all... I saw the part. It is simply amazing. I can easily say that it is the most precise ...Read More

Leif Lewis