チョコレートマシュマロピザ

MAX BRENNERのチョコレートチャンクピザの存在をアニキから聞いて、試しに食べにいった。思った通り美味しかった、甘党だからだね。もう一枚食べたかった。

列が長く見えたけど、５分以内に注文できて、１０分以内にピザをもらった。

表参道ヒルズっていうビルのなかにあって、チャンスがあれば食べにいった方がいいです！

焼き馬

今度は馬の刺身じゃなくて、馬の焼き肉！

さっきにハツっていうやつを頼んで、馬の心臓だった！  σ(oдolll)

美味しくなさそうと思ったけど、結局そんなに悪くなかった。後味はちょっとつよかったけど、食べれたから大丈夫！

次は上カルビっていう部分で、すごく美味しかった。マコは馬は可愛いから、ちょっとへんなきがするっていったけど、そのカルビは美味しくないっていえない。

見た目だけでも、美味しそうだね〜

ラブラブなクリスマス

クリスマスはマコの誕生日なので、丸の内に行って、夕ご飯たべた。ビルのなかは雪降ってないけど、Google様が自動にこのGIFつくってくれた〜

海外の美味しいビルと美味しい食べ物のあるレストランに行って、帰ってから家の近くのレストランでデザート食べに行った

キャラメルが苦かったけど、美味しい〜　お誕生日おめでとうマコちゃん〜

寒かったけど、ラブラブなクリスマスになったね〜　

I'm in MotoAddicts!

Representing Cornell to the fullest~

My friend was at the book store Tsutaya when he ran across the MotoAddicts magazine, and guess who he found.....

I walked up to the guys in the paddock area at Motegi during MotoGP, just to say what's up because I recognised one of them from a friend's Facebook post.  Didn't realise I would end up in a magazine.

Tomin Land

Finished getting my bike setup with the new Tyga Performance parts, barely, and headed over to Tomin Land in Ibaraki.  It was a tiny go-kart like circuit but still tons of fun on the NSR.

It was my first time out on the NSR so still not used to the feeling of a 2-stroke, nor the smell, but nonetheless it was fun despite how slow I was riding.

Half way there... I think

Sub frame on.  Taking everything off took way too long, and putting the subframe on was.... fun, no it was sweaty and annoying.

Anyway, got to finish by tonight for Tomin Land tomorrow.

Sorting through the Tyga Performance delivery

Tyga Performance does a pretty good job at packing things.  I forgot to take a picture of the excellent packaging and remembered just as I ripped open the last neatly packed item.

already ripped open but still looks protected

So I dropped about a grand on the whole setup, including shipping, and what I can see so far it was worth the money.

Solid set of rear sets complete with brake petal and clutch shifter. 

1 x Racing Step Kit, MC21/28 (STAA-0002) = $258.81USD 

I didn't really need these but decided to get them just because I was already ordering such a big order, and want to keep as much of the original OEM parts as fresh and clean as possible.

1 x Mini brake reservoir carbon (BPAC-0005) = $10.30USD

1 x Pro Arm chain adjusting tool (TYTO-0027) = $8.50USD

1 x Brake Lever CNC Black, NSR250/MC22/NC30/NC35 (LEVB-1011) = $26.40USD

1 x Clutch Lever CNC Black, NSR250, CBR250RR (LEVC-9011) = $19.93USD

I'm probably going to pain the bike so the fender's got to be part of that colour scheme :-D

1 x Front Fender (GRP), RSW style (BPFF-9001) = $45.45USD

The next 5 pictures are for the rear fairing set.  I was really tempted to get the one with carbon on it, but decided to save the extra $60 or whatever it cost and just get the straight fibreglass.

Rear sub-frame

Rear seat pad and ass-bumper (is what I like to call it as of 5 second ago)

I'm assuming this is for the battery to go into the new sub-frame.... ?_?

Pretty interesting that the seat is held in place by velcro.  The whole bottom portion is the soft velcro and the strips the hard part.

This rear fairing looks mad sexy.....

1 x Kit, Seat Set, budget (Race) MC28 GP Race (BPFS-0046) = $330.43USD

The next 6 pictures are for the front fairings (I think)...

Upper stay

This was the item neatly wrapped in the first picture

Various pieces for affixing things together.  I'll find out how this all works soon

More.... things...

Clean as a whistle, this windscreen.  Kind of wish it was smoke black though, but whatever

And the bulk of the cost!  Lower fairing designed for race machines, with a full bottom to catch oil (which I've heard is actually unnecessary for the NSR, but could depend on what track you go to)

And the sexiest piece of all the front fairing

1 x Kit, Fairing Set (Race), NSR250 RSW (BPFS-0002) = $337.90USD

Taking this all out of the box and taking the pictures was tedious, since there was styrofoam chunks sticking to everything through static electricity and fine dust from the white finish.  However, it was pretty damn exciting   (^_^)b


And to finish of the deal shipping was a whopping $150.97USD from Thailand to Japan via EMS Air Shipping.

NSR fairings arrived!

Last night my fairings came in!!!!

I've been waiting a couple weeks for these to come, and now I can finally get my bike in riding condition!

Ordered a full race fairing set, rear sets, front fender, new levers, brake fluid reservoir, and...I think that's about it.  I'm planning on making a video of putting the new fairings on and then I'll go over all the goodies I bought 

Tyga Performance fairings and other goodies!

NSRのフェアリング等がやっと届いた！

昨夜フェアリングが来た！

何週間もこれを届くのを待ってて、やっとバイクが乗れるようにできる！

フールフェアリングセット、フットペグ、フロントフェンダー、レーバー、ブレーキ油だめ等を頼んだ。全部をバイクに付けるビデオをつくるつもりだから、何を買ったか、全部ビデオで見せる。

Tyga Performanceのフェアリングとほかのいいやつ

日本のサトウキビの味

同僚が沖縄のマラソンにいって帰って、沖縄のサトウキビケーキの土産もってみた。サトウキビはCaribbeanだけだと思ったけど、日本にもあるらしい。

特のサトウキビの味わからなかったけど、美味しかった〜

初めてのVlog (ビデオブログ)

十月にNSRを取りにいく前にD-trackerを売って新しいストリートバイクを買おうとするところで、D-trackerで軽自動車にバイクを乗せるの練習した。

友達が家にきて、YouTubeでのトランポのビデオをみて、僕の録画もした。

結構前にVlogを作るかなと思って、ビデオがなくて、このビデオを作って後で話すのがいいかと思ったから、このビデオを作ってみた。だれかが、このビデオで何か習うか役に立つんだったらうれしい。これからいっぱい録画してみます！

First Vlog video

Back in October I went to pick up my NSR and was going to trade in the D-tracker to get a different street bike.  To get practice loading bikes into my small Kei-van I got a friend to come over, watched lots of YouTube videos, and then recorded myself loading my bike.

A while ago I decided to start a vlog but didn't yet have anything to put in it, so I figured I could just make this video with a voice over and make it my first attempt at making a vlog video.  Hopefully someone finds this useful, and soon they get more interesting.

First MotoVlog video

Gave it some thought and decided I would give motovlogging a chance.  So here's my first attempt at a motovlog, just an introduction to who I am.... blah blah blah

MotoAddicts雑誌に入ってる

たいすけから連絡がきて、つたやにって僕の写真を雑誌にみたって言われた。

MotoGPの時に茂木サーギットでMotoAddictsっていう雑誌が僕の写真とったって完全にわすれた 〜

Maintenance overalls

When my brother came to visit Japan he decided to get his buddy the Japanese baggy-worker-man-pants.  Basically pants that hug your calf and then fold over to form badass parachute pants.

While waiting for him to make his mind I browsed their assortment of maintenance-overalls as I like to call them, but called tsunagi つなぎ in Japanese.  I was really digging the pink one but decided to go with grey.

My friend and I doing the "standard" badass-Japanese-rebellious-youth-squatting-while-likely-smoking-a-cigarette pose.

Going to see Mt Fuji with my brother

It's the first time anyone in my family has come to Japan and the first and probably last time any of them would ride on the back of a motorcycle with me.  Since it was a once in a lifetime opportunity I decided to take my brother to go see Mt Fuji.

It was really cold so I gave him my winter gear and rode to where I park my van to go and get my leathers, which are significantly warmer than my summer gear I'm wearing at first.

For someone who is 5'7" with a 6'1 passenger I think I did a good job handling the bike.  It was much different than my usual 5'1"(156cm) passenger, but as long as he didn't move too much it was more or less the same.  Occasionally at stop lights he rocked the whole bike which was very annoying.

We stopped by a local festival, not really sure what was going on but for about 15 miles straight there were people walking the streets and tons of food stalls set up.  We ate some pretty tasty yakitory (chicken kebabs more or less) and yakisoba (fried soba noodles).  We got off to a late start so we were pretty happy to finally eat something.

About 3/4 of the way there he was miserable, freezing, and grumpy. I managed to capture his excitement while standing by a freezing cold stream.

We finally got to Lake Yamanaka where you can see the base of Mt. Fuji on the left.  Usually you can see a lot more, but Fuji was pretty cloudy this time....

So I caught my brother in a pic with just the base.  He was too cold at this point to try and get any closer, so we called it a day and headed back home.

Then when we got home my girlfriend decided to try on my leathers ^^  Slowly trying to get her to learn how to ride.  She looks pretty happy here so maybe it's working? :-D

Backup gas tank for the NSR MC28

Since I decided to go all out and get a full set of race fairings from Tyga Performance, to preserve the original fairings for re-sale or street use, I figured I might as well replace the gas tank as well.

I searched all around for weeks, even looking at eBay UK since the UK seems to have a lot of NSR 250 riders.  I even considered going for an MC21 tank, since they are significantly cheaper, and then modding it to fit on the MC28 bike.


But then I found this awesome deal on yahoo auction!

¥15,900 and ¥1,890 for shipping

In the listing pictures you can see a small dent on the left side and a bit of rust on the inside of the tank, and with that price it still seemed  a little too good to be true.

I went back and forth e-mailing the seller asking about the condition of the tank, etc and I got a more recent image of the rust, which still doesn't look that bad.

And much to my surprise when the tank came with overnight shipping today it was in better condition than I thought it would be.  I couldn't get a good picture of the inside of the tank but I'll try to get a good before/after when cleaning it out.

Now all I have to do is clean it out and swap it with my current tank.  Probably somewhere down the line I'll also be sanding it down and painting it, but I can leave that until I decide what colour or design I'll make my new fairings when they come in.

For now I'll just be riding white on white on white.

Registering the Ninja400R

So today is the day I decide to transfer the bike into my name.  I wake  up nice and early, about 8am, so that I can make it to the place by 9am, thinking it will all be over by 10am.

Since my brother, Sam, is visiting I decide to bring him along and take him on his first ride with me.  It starts off alright, a bit cold, but I soon got a feel for how the bike handles in city traffic.  The brakes feel a little weak, but that's partly due to the fact that my forearms still hurt from rock climbing on Sunday.

We make it there safe and it's time to go through the process of changing the Shaken 車検 and getting a new license plate.   I get to the first counter and pay my ￥20 for my documents, and I'm told to go to the next window.  When I get there the same guy runs over to the new counter (20 feet away) and is there to serve me.... weird.  So I hand him my license plate, he stamps something and tells me to go to the next building.

I line up and get called immediately, it's still early and not many people here today.  First thing she asks me is if I have my Jyuminhyou 住民票, which is basically an official document proving your residency in Japan.  With my luck I FORGOT IT.... but remember that I might have one extra copy at my house, a 25 minute ride one-way at best.

I head back home with Sam as fast as possible..... with no license plate on the bike, grab the last remaining document....phew... and head back to the office...still with no license plate.

I fill out all the forms and read a particular line where I have to fill my name into boxes, and my name is too long.  I'm sent an another round across the lot, to get a special form for extra boxes to fill out the remainder of my name, pay another ￥20, and trek back over to the second building again.

They make me wait a little and hand me my new Shaken 車検 and send me back to the first building where I get my new license place ￥520.

I'm done at around 11:30am and I'm able to make it into work at 12:30pm.

I'm so glad I didn't get caught by the cops with no license plate, because knowing Japanese police they would lecture me about how not having a license plate is somehow not safe or something (albeit riding a registered vehicle).... :-/

I really don't want to go to register any more vehicles ever again.....but at least it was cheap....

Getting an MFJ helmet

So according to race guidelines you need certain helmets to be able to race.  I thought my Shoei RF1100 (Snell) would be good enough but for some reason it wasn't at the list at Tsukuba.

So since I'm familiar with the helmet I picked the Japanese model the XR1100, which is more or less the same helmet..... more like exactly the same helmet.

It fits a little tighter and will probably need to be worn quite a bit before it will be more bearable from compressing the inserts a bit, but at the moment its a bit tight.

Decided on a Ninja 400R

So I've done A LOT of internet window shopping for bikes and finally decided on one.  I jumped around from Duke 200 to Katana 400 to Katana 600 to Ninja 600 to a million other bikes.

Then finally landed firmly on the Ninja 400.  Going to get it through the auction at ApexMoto and I'm pretty excited.

On my way to MotoGP

Japanese version of this post

I'm on my way to see MotoGP for the first time!

I left Tokyo a little late so I'm not sure what practice sessions I'll get to see today.  Looking forward to the finals tomorrow though!

There was a typhoon this weekend, lots of rain, so yesterday they stopped the practices.  Which means....today and tomorrow they'll get getting a lot of track time, which means more fun for us spectators as well.

MotoGPへ

英語のポストはこっち

初めて、MotoGPは実際に見に行ってきます！

ちょっと遅く出たから、今日は何見えるかわからないけど、明日のファイナルを楽しみにしてる。

今週末は台風でいっぱい雨降ってて、昨日中止したそうだ。今日も明日も走るといいね。