I saddled up my 2009 Yamaha FJR1300A and headed down to Georgia last Thursday. I needed to take a break and was anxious to meet up with some of my favorite people. I was also ready to put Apollo up to his first mid-distance road trip.

I have a rule: never install anything new or change anything a week before a motorcycle trip. I followed that rule (mostly), but did do a few upgrades before I left. The most suspicious was adding a set of auxiliary lights low on the forks. I did this well before my trip, but had finally gotten them positioned where I wanted them and secured with blue Loctite. Would the mounts hold up to over 1000 miles of highway travel? Would my ass hold up to over 1000 miles of highway travel?
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I bought my first pair of Held Ninja gloves a little over three years ago. They had a manufacturing flaw where the stitching around the fingers began to give way. I returned them to the Held distributor, who sent me a new pair that was sewn together by Igor. Less than a year later, the right glove began to deteriorate near the wrist. A small hole developed, which eventually grew into a larger hole. If the gloves fell apart under normal wear and tear, what would happen in a crash? I started looking for another glove.

I researched a few other full gauntlet gloves with the help of Web Bike World, ADVrider.com, and the FZ6 forum over on sportbikes.net. I was chugging the Motoport Kool-Aid and bought a pair of the kevlar motorcycle gloves. I tried two pair but the fit was off (omen), and I returned them.

I purchased a pair of Teknic Speedstar full gauntlet leather gloves from NewEnough and have worn them for about 1500 miles. Priced at $99 on closeout, the Speedstars won out against the Alpinestar SP-1, Cortech Adrenaline, and Shift Carbine gloves. I considered some of the Rev’It gloves, but the lack of full wrist protection steered me away.
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My friend Ghost Rider passed away on July 4th, 2007. The following fall his mother and family put together a benefit ride to Yorktown, Virginia. We did it again this year, this time heading up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The weather called for rain for most of the day. I was not deterred for a moment — I’ve ridden in the rain plenty of times and have specialized gear that goes on top of my protective clothing — but I was afraid the event would be postponed until the next day. I already had plans for Sunday, and didn’t want to miss out. I put on wicking bottoms and top, my Motoport mesh kevlar pants and my Teknic perforated leather jacket. I stuffed my waterproof gear in the side case and motored off to the rallying point: the Starbucks where Ghost Rider used to work, and where we met for the first time.
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Things work out if you give life enough time and something to work with.

I found out today why Wachovia (my bank from 1995 on, when they were First Union) hadn’t called me back this week regarding my motorcycle loan.

They denied it.

I had to wrest this information out from another loan officer, the lady I worked with apparently knew yesterday and didn’t contact me. She was in a conference all day today.

I had to scramble for financing less than 24 hours from when I wanted to pick up my bike. The funny thing is, a week ago I paid off, canceled, and shredded my Citibank card, which had more than enough limit to just charge the bike onto. Take that, forward thinking!

To compound the issue, my leather jacket wasn’t going to be here until Friday. I had plans to borrow Bond’s jacket, and while he is a verifiable stud, he’s not the same size I am. I think he wears a 42 or 44 jacket, I needed a 48.

Well, sometimes you just have to roll a hard six.

I called the Yamaha dealership in Charlottesville and told them my lender was dragging their heels. They were, technically. Dragging them to a full stop and giving me the finger. But the dealer didn’t have to know that. “What can y’all do for me?”

Thirty minutes later, the head of the financing department called me back with a 2% better APR than Wachovia and a $99 a month minimum payment — similar to the types of financing you see at Best Buy or department stores for big purchases. The term? 60 months, just like Wachovia. Booya, bitches.

Problem one out of the way. Problem two was solved with a loud rumble outside my window and the FedEx man scampering away from my front porch. My jacket (and bike cover) arrived a day early.

I put it on to celebrate:

Here’s the jacket with my military spec reflective vest on. The jacket itself is all black.

Same setup with the flash on, see the difference with the reflective from the first pic?

Lady Jaye was cracking up at work — I was instant messaging her with my gear on and pajama pants. So I said what the hell and took one with my helmet on:

Bask in my dorketry.

By the way, the jacket is dead sexy. The smell of the leather is awesome, and is totally out of a Mad Max movie.

If I don’t have to use it on my way back tomorrow, I’ll do a write up on it when I return. Well, even if I do turf it I’ll write about it :)

Wish me luck,

Doc