Zech in Japan

2013年10月20日日曜日

Picking up the NSR

Going to Yamanashi to pick up the NSR and at the same time decided to sell the D-tracker to get a better bike for riding two up. It was a long ride, probably like 1.5 hours on the highway, since I was speeding a bit.

Packed up the D-tracker to take to Yamanashi to sell

Got to Apexmoto, which is who I got both the D-tracker and NSR through, and took a look at all the bikes they have lined up for sale, holding for customers, and working on as project bikes.

Got the NSR into the van by myself and went over to Autobacs to register my ETC reader and then to my buddy Pete's house to try and install my ETC. While installing it we watched the MotoGP race at Phillip Island, where Lorenzo got a bird stuck on his bike while doing the fastest lap in practice.

When I started up the bike I was pleasantly surprised to hear the dry clutch of an MC28 for the first time. Can't wait to race this sweet bike!

Stoked to ride this beast

On a secondary exciting note, I took Pete's Kei-truck down to the pharmacy to grab him something and got to use manual transmission in Japan for the first time. I'm pretty used to driving on the left side of the road but using your left hand to switch gears is just weird~

On my departure I backed into a tiny wall at Pete's house, first day riding in the Kei-van and I've hit something for the very first time with a car. Still not a real accident, which I've also never been in, in a car.

2013年10月13日日曜日

GoPro fail

My friend let me test out his KTM Duke 690 and obviously in exchange he rode my D-tracker. I attached the GoPro to my front fork thinking I would get some solid footage of me on the 690 beast but instead all I got was a lot of trees, feet, and asphalt....

Thanks Pete

2013年10月8日火曜日

ドレッドロックが大変だね

今日は三回目、ドレッドロックを洗った。今度結構時間たったから超痒かった。それにちょっとにおいが強いと思う　(>_<)

写真を取るのはマコのアイデアだった。

ドレッドロックがすごく長くなるときにこういう写真がある方がいいよね。

僕はそんなに写真取らないから、マコがいつも助かる〜

クリップと皮膚がタッチするとすごくいた

2013年9月14日土曜日

Sold my VFR

Today was a sad day. I had to say goodbye to my beautiful VFR 400R. We had a good 6 months or so together and this is one bike I hope to never forget.

It was time to give up my bike because of my decision to move to a separate track and street bike. The VFR's 18in rear wheel limits tire selection, the fact that it is an '89 doesn't help with finding parts and maintenance, and well I figured I could get something better as well :-D

We'll see how that goes...

2013年8月30日金曜日

Ebisu Driftland, a distant paradise

AFG Motorsports arranged a track day at Ebisu Drift Circuit so I shared the cost of going up with a new friend, by hitching a ride in his van 5 seconds after meeting him ^^;

It looked like it was going to rain at first, but the day cleared up and it was a full day packed with left turns and getting smoked on the hill before the back straight.

We stayed at a lodge owned by Scottish (if I remember correctly) professional drift racers, and wake up to a simple breakfast and a 2 minute drive to the track.

I grabbed a couple crappy videos while the fast guys were out riding.

There was a professional photographer there who got sweet pictures of us, so I got my first legit, hi-res picture to show just how far my knee is from the ground on this turn. T_T

During lunch we headed over to the Zoo part of the drift paradise (wtf....right?!) and hung out with the lions and tigers, oh my! ...some of which looked a little too unhealthy and a bit depressing.