Dan Crouch BlogMotoring Enthusiast and Web Services Manager

This blog post could also be titled, "How to Get an Awesome Sunburn on a Perfect Sunday in July"... Who would've guessed that not wearing suntan lotion on a partly-cloudy July afternoon and being in the direct sun for about 5 hours (at least) would do any more than add a little color. You'd think I was 14 or something.

Part 1

I started the day by driving the S2000 up to Portland (top up actually) to meet friends who were shopping for their first motorcycle. I was coming up to help out with the test ride and once over for overall condition. Twist my arm right?

{Mark 10:00am: Dropped the top after a quick stop for a bottle of water.}

Danno wanted a beginner bike that was somewhere between a standard and a cruiser. We went to look at a 92 Honda Nighthawk 750 and an 82 Yamaha Virago 750. To be honest, the Nighthawk looked pretty promising in the ad and I was secretly pulling for this one over the Virago -- mostly because it's newer, I know a guy who's put a ton of miles on one, and it's more familiar in terms of the riding position I'm used to.

Unfortunately as is the case with many Craigslist sourced leads, those re-sized (and generally crappier) photo's they host for you make it difficult to tell just how nice the bike really is. In short, the Nighthawk was generally not well cared for. Maintained just enough that all systems worked ok, but in general needed a thorough service front-to-back to be right. At $2000 it didn't feel right to me. One sentence review of riding experience: Even though it's power is pretty good for it's age, the bike didn't feel well balanced and in fact felt pretty heavy and a bit awkward during transitions.

So we decided to consider this bike as a 'maybe' and decided to break for a quick breakfast since it was still only mid-morning at this point. A quick stop by was needed at Fat City Cafe in Multnomah Village, where we were quickly served a great breakfast. Now we were ready to check out the next potential ride.

Next up was the Virago which was actually in Vancouver across the river. We met a nice retired man who had probably 6 Japanese bikes of this vintage in his garage, all in mostly good condition. Initial impressions were really good as the bike had obviously received some recent care with good tires, new starter, and very clean overall. Compared to the Nighthawk that had a brutally filthy chain, peeling paint, and a leaky caliper, this bike was ready for sale: clean, similar miles at under 15K, and was priced at only $1200. Granted it's ten years older and power was no comparison to the Nighthawk, it was really easy to ride. It can't weigh much and dipped into corners with ease. The riding position was somewhat new to me and I actually put my feet on the rear pegs the first time I sat on it. But after riding it for 15 minutes, I see the appeal. It's totally relaxing and I'll be damned if those vents on the front of your jacket don't work 100% better when air is actually hitting them head on instead of getting the leftovers just above the tank!

My advice was to sleep on it and offer $1000 the next day. Danno replied, "I've got a thousand on me right now..." and then walked back to the front door and made a deal. We're going back next week to get it. Congratulations guys, it's a great first bike!

Part 2

Then I continued top-down in the Honda to the racetrack for the Portland Historic Races around 1pm. This is a great event in our own backyard, and Bob and Joe from Sports Car Shop were racing as well. I was looking forward to putting the 70-200 F4 L into the field again and the weather was perfect.

Sports Car Shop got a great spot for their team and was in the parking lot just behind the clock tower. Plus their close friend decided to add to the general Feng Shui of their pad with his recently acquired Ferrari F430! Beautiful car!

I then puttered around the paddock and club parking areas while grabbing a quick bite to eat before Joe and Bob went out in back-to-back sessions between 3 and 4pm. Once they were out, I grabbed my favorite spot at the track even though the light was facing me. Nonetheless, it was worth the full frontal sun assault considering some of the resulting pictures:

Leaving PIR with the top up, I washed up in the bathroom before hitting the road and when I saw myself in the mirror, my cheeks were definitely a little pink, but not bad. But now that I've cooked dinner (on the BBQ outside, doh!) and sat down to edit photos and blog about the day, I've gone from pink to full on red -- all over. Like an idiot I failed to remember, like I do every year after the first good drive with the top down, that when the top is down = you're outside and getting burned. Maybe I'll remember next year...

dc

Partial Gallery of 2010 Portland Historic Races Sunday Afternoon

I had tried earlier this year to sell my Ducati 750SS, but admittedly it's a slow market and I was asking a premium. Fast-forward to June and the weather has finally turned to summer. Time to take the bike off the market and ride! Paul suggested the following route for this Sunday:

View Larger Map

As you can tell, it's a good day trip. But especially long if it's your second ride of the year! My body is tired after this trip, but so worth it. Here are the pics (click for hi-res):

Yep, this is what the Oregon Coast looks like when it's 70 degrees and sunny outside!

The beautiful Oregon coast

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Cape Meares Ducati 750 and VFR 750

Cape Meares Ducati 750 and VFR 750

Thanks for the great ride Paul!

dc

As usual I'm completely behind on my personal blog, but the last few weeks have been epic! We were very lucky to be able to part sponsor the Veloce Racing team at the Miller Motorsports World SuperBike weekend a couple weeks ago, and then my wonderful wife treated me to a long weekend at Sears Point (it still doesn't seem natural to call it Infineon) for the Wine Country Classic, which they now call the Historic Car Festival.

Each event deserves, and will receive, it's own blog entry. But for now I thought I would at least share pictures that have been posted elsewhere with some captions. Stay tuned,

dc

World SuperBike Weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, Salt Lake City, Utah

Our Moto Forza Veloce Racing Aprilia 250 Gallery from Rare SportBikes For Sale:

A giant gallery of the Miller SuperBike 2010 event:

Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival

And here are a few shots from the recent "1st Annual" (20th Wine Country Classic) Historic Motorsports Festival. As you can tell, I've been fooling around with alot of Photoshop and wide-screen-like formatting:

More to come!

dc

13 hours 20 minutes later, we have arrived in Salt Lake City for the SBK racing at Miller Motorsports Park this weekend. I have to say that this is one of the longest road trips I've taken in some time, but the XC70 was a really comfortable and capable car for this journey.

Paul and I are here to enjoy the races as RareSportBikesForSale.com is now an official supporter of the Moto Forza Veloce Racing Aprilia team! Keep an eye on the RSBFS Facebook page for some live blogging and pictures from the pits.

Here are some snapshots from our long day on the road:

Decals applied the night before (new logo coming soon!)

Freaking cold over the pass!

A stop for lunch in the middle of nowhere

Lunch done right on the road

We were treated to beautiful vistas like this all day long

Lame self portrait in progress

Arrival at the hotel! If I was a little dumber I would've waited for 9:16

A proper unwinding after a long drive: Pokerstars, Heineken, and deli plate

And ready for tomorrow's action

The Moto Forza Veloce Racing team heads out early for qualifying tomorrow morning at 8:30 and we're going to make a serious effort to be there -- and hopefully see them positioned in the top 10 in a field of 45 (17/45 today).

Good night all!

dc

Just a quick post with pictures from this years 2010 OVM vintage motorcycle show. Scott, Paul, Alex and I all came out to see our favorite local show of the year and the crazy weather we've been having didn't disappoint. Feels more like March as Brad mentioned with all the cold rain and hail we've had this week!

Here's a glimpse of all the enthusiasts that came out despite the wet conditions (click for full size pano):

And the complete and rather thin gallery (can't shoot in pouring rain):

Always a great show and a nice chance to catch up with like minded friends in the area. See you all next year!

dc

By the way -- what do you guys think of the new look of the website? I plan to rotate out the backgrounds with new pictures periodically.

dc

I'm a pretty lucky guy to have landed the webmaster gig for Sports Car Shop in Eugene. Not only do I get exposed to all kinds of great sports cars, I get to photograph most of them as well. My photos aren't pro yet, but good enough to represent the inventory. We take the pictures at Skinner's Butte Park, which is right downtown and only a few blocks from their showroom. And most times that means I get to take them for a short drive too. Last Friday, that was this amazing 2006 Ford GT:

Never in my entire life has the Ferris Bueller line been more applicable, "If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away?" Well I won't add any more drama; I did take it back right away. My Powerball ticket hadn't hit the previous Wednesday for $212mil, so I tip-toed downtown to the park and back... and loved every minute of it. But the drive back to the shop was a real challenge as there's an on-ramp to the Beltline just a block further...

Even in my short and pedestrian paced time in the car, it's very clear this car was built with a lot of care and thoughtful engineering. Not only is it capable of hanging with the best that Europe can offer, it's also totally easy to drive around in. As low as it is, the front clearance is actually quite good. The clutch that has to manage 550hp is easy to engage and is very light in fact. And the gearing is perfect for that big lump. I think first gear actually goes all the way to 60mph, but with all the torque available so early, you can just lump her along in second and still have plenty of power to make her jump with a squeeze of the accelerator.

Almost more impressive than the engineering and ease of use, is the cars wonderful body. It's low and very wide. And inside, it's the business: you sit down deep in the car and the cockpit is all about driving quickly. Sitting in a slung back position, you turn to the right and see the glass back window is right behind you. And right behind that is the supercharger pulley spinning behind your head. Awesome!

Then there's the sound. Crank it up and make sure to have big speakers attached for the best sound!

My previous benchmark for best performance had been to the Lotus Elise. This was a truly wonderful car to drive and a perfectly balanced platform. But this Ford GT takes it to a whole new level in terms of refinement, driveability, and raw performance. I mean with 550hp under foot, you can turn any situation into a tire smoking felony in mere seconds.

So you're convinced you have to have one? Keep an eye on the auction to be a part of the action:

Thank you to Bob at Sports Car Shop for the opportunity to sample such a fantastic vehicle!

dc

I've started a new website with a VWVortex member, Mr. Variety, who has a knack for finding extremely low mile classic cars on eBay. Introducing NewOldCaroftheDay.com:

Today's find, an amazing 736 mile 1973 Porsche 911 -- for an eye watering $185k!

This will be a really fun blog to follow and I hope you'll join us.

dc

Just a quick post to pimp out our new Soccer Mom ride, a 2002 Volvo XC70 Cross Country:

A quick side trip with Paul and his wife to Van Duzer Winery:

And the next day we hit Mary's Peak for a little hike in the snow with our St. Bernard:

As you can tell, we have fallen in love with this car! The e28 535 has been a great car to us, but it was time for my wife to get something nice considering how hard she works for it. Shana is so enamoured with the car that she's actually going to start her own blog based around our trips in that car. I'm really excited for her and eager to help her with her first blog!

dc

First of all I want to thank WOMWorld for giving me the opportunity to make my first ever product review blog post. It was really fun trying out the two devices and I appreciate you reaching out!

The product I was asked to review was the Nokia HF-510 Bluetooth speakerphone. With it they sent a Nokia N97 in white to test with. As soon as they arrived, I opened them both up and my immediate impression was that they were both very good looking and well made products.

My plan was to get the speakerphone out to my car as soon as possible to test everything out. But then my mechanic called and told me he had an opening to service my car that week and would need the car. All week. Not to mention it was raining anyway and I wanted a sunny day to photograph and video the speakerphone in action.

So in the meantime I swapped the SIM card from my Blackberry Curve to the N97 to try it on for that week. My initial impression was a bit soured when the back cover didn't snap in flush to the phone. Doing some research online thinking I was putting it on wrong revealed that this is a common problem for the device. Too bad because the overall fit and finish of the device was really nice - beautiful screen, nice weight, and good materials. The action of sliding the screen back to reveal the keyboard had an especially nice solid and click into place feeling.

In brief, I'd say the N97 was a good smart phone but I can tell I'm now a full-on Blackberry addict. While the Curve is quite outdated compared to the N97, the menu navigation is much more intuitive. For instance, I've become quite accustomed to typing in the first few letters of a contact on file to call, and felt constricted on the N97. You can set up contact icons for those you call most often, but my list of commonly called would really exceed what was practical for this menu. Maybe there is a faster way to do this, but in my limited time with phone I didn't find it by just looking around. I was also excited to try out the touch-screen on the N97, but found it very sensitive and often felt like my fingers were just too big for the interface.

That said, it was a joy to surf YouTube videos and enjoy the high quality screen and playback. The backlit keys were also really nice at night. The wifi connectivity was also very welcomed as my Curve doesn't have this feature and the difference in speed is considerable. It also has a nice camera built in that took pretty good images. Here is the before and after of lasagna I made for my friends Pat and Steph:

The real bad news for U.S. customers is that if the N97 appeals to you, I wasn't able to find a major carrier here that offered this phone in a package. As such you'll need to buy an unlocked phone at full price. Amazon is currently listing the phone for $512.94

On to the HF-510 speakerphone, this was also a nicely put together device. It has a great looking LCD display on the front that makes it pretty easy to see what you're doing, even in full sunlight. It also features a simple menu navigation via the main button on the front and the outer wheel that spins around the outside of the device to scroll through options.

Unfortunately my review of this device came at the very end of my trial period due to scheduling issues on my end, and my review of the actual device was quite short. That said, I was able to put together the following first time set up video for the two devices. Be kind folks, it's my first attempt at one of these:

As you may have noticed, the actual use of the device during a call was quite limited. I have to admit that I'm not a regular user of speakerphones and it wasn't totally intuitive to me on how to use these devices together. I have since figured out what I was doing wrong, but by the time that revelation occurred it was time to send the devices back. Long story short, don't touch the phone once in the car and synced. Almost any interaction with the phone when connected to the speakerphone will result in phone reverting back to the active device -- which of course defeats the whole purpose. I'm sure that I would've figured this out after the first day with more use, and I expect that it would've resulted in trouble free use.

In conclusion, I really liked the build quality, ease of installation, and easy to read display (which didn't show well in the video, but looked great in person). Had I spent more time with the device and owner's manual before getting in the car, I could've probably had everything setup as desired in an hour. And with Oregon's new hands-free only law, it will definitely help drivers stay connected, safe, and lawful.

Amazon has the Nokia HF-510 listed for a very reasonable $70.35

Thank you again to WOMWorld for the opportunity to review these devices and try my hand at a review.

Dan Crouch

{FTC note: these products were used on a trial basis for two weeks and sent back to WOMWorld after that. There was no monetary compensation for this review. -dc}

Nearly two weeks ago now, Shana and I made a day of the Portland Auto Show. We used to go every year to fantasize about new cars, but have missed the event in recent years. It's fun to check out everything up close and personal without the hassle of a salesman crawling down you neck.

We started our day by hitting up the S2ki Forum Hillsboro Honda meetup for S2000 owners. I only got a couple of quick pictures but it was fun to finally meet some forum members I had met online numerous times but never connected with in person. Great job getting 30 cars to come out in the middle of winter Ira! Check out all the pictures on S2ki.

We were fairly rushed at the meet because we had an appointment after that to check out a used Infinity QX4 for the missus. Looked promising in the pictures, but was a little too rough for us. We're actually having a pretty tough time finding a suitable car for Shana because we're so used to enthusiast vehicle shopping, which usually results in clean and documented cars to shop for. We were thinking of going with a more dependable Japanese variant, but they're just not cared for like the European rides we're used to looking at. Now we're thinking of going back to European shopping in the form of a Land Rover Discovery. We're back in Portland this weekend, so we'll probably stop and look a few then.

Then it was on to check into our downtown Portland hotel, Hotel Lucia. What a beautiful place and fantastic service! Not to mention it was in the center of everything we had planned and easy Max trip to the Convention Center for the show. Can't wait to stay there again!

After freshening up, it was on to the Portland Auto Show. Tickets were reasonably priced at $10 and at the ticket window we were reminded that many major manufacturers were not there due to cutbacks and slow sales. This was a bummer as BMW, Saab, Mercedes, and many others were definitely cars we were looking forward to jumping into.

{warning: really crappy images ahead. I've been too busy to post-process these but wanted to put up what I had.}

Ron Tonkin brought out a few new cars and a couple older ones from his collection. These were all front and center outside the main conference areas:

MotoCorsa was also in attendance with the latest Lotus and Ducati offerings. The black Sport 1000 was exactly like the demo bike I rode a couple years back.

Then it was on to the Audi and Porsche areas. I have to admit, I wanted to check out the Panamera because it looks so bad in pictures. It didn't disappoint, it's ugly and HUGE! First the blasphemy that is the Cayenne and now this abomination. So sad that a more true to spirit business model couldn't have been used to get them into the 21st century.

The local SCCA chapter also had a nice area set up. There were several car corral areas that usually aren't present, likely due to so many manufacturers pulling out this year.

And here are few more random snaps. You'll notice how crowded Saturday afternoon was. I think every Dad in town got babysitting duty as there were lots of kids running around. Reminds me that we prefer going on Thursday mid-day when it's super quiet!

After the show we met up with our good friends Danno, his wife Angie, and our close friend Julie who also happened to be in Portland that day. We had a fantastic dinner at Mother's Bistro just a few blocks from the hotel. What a meal! Plan on leftovers no matter how big your appetite is!

And by chance, another friend of ours was in town for a whirlwind 48 hour tour, my close friend Ed. He lives in Atlanta now, but amazingly we've managed to meet up several times in the past few years. We met for a nightcap at Pazzo and then stumbled upstairs to crash after a very long day.

We're heading back up to Portland for a wedding at Edgefield this weekend. That makes about 4 trips up there in 5 weeks. Maybe we should get a condo!

dc