This must be scooter hell. There are SOOO many scooters in Taipei.

Looking to go to CH Moto tomorrow and meet up with a couple of MV Agusta peeps.

Other than that, spent a few minutes wandering around that big Taipei 101 building. It’s pretty nice!

Got some of these recently. I’ve only tested them out in the living room, perfectly waterproof there!

These are replacing an older pair I got a few years ago when I just started riding, been looking for a similar pair for ages, as the old pair is a bit manky now….

Considered the A* Stormriders, but these showed up and sounded like what I wanted, gore-tex, but unlined (i.e. not winter gloves).

Interesting on these is that the ring and pinky finger are attached. Doesn’t seem like an issue, so I guess that’s cool. A little tight, but fits all right, finger lengths good.

Gotta get some tours going and test these bad-boys out!

Picked up a OGK FF-5V from Yahoo. This is the new version which is Snell certified. It’s apparently a bit heavier than the older model. Looks pretty good, fits well, I like it.

The Vermuelen I bought earlier was a tad small, so went for this bad boy.

OGK FF-5V

It comes with a pinlock visor, similar to the type that Arai uses. Haven’t installed that just yet, looks relatively easy. Much easier than the sticky fog-city types anyway. Not sure if this will become my new touring lid or not, have to see how much space there is for helmet speakers first.

Last week I went to the rained out Kushitani Riding Meeting at Tsukuba Circuit.

Not too much going on since it was raining. Kurt went out tho. Brave man.

Anyway, we won some free hats!

My old Fog City HyperOptiks visor insert decided to leak last year, had to cut it out from the visor. Went to find a replacement today for it.

NAPS didn’t have the HyperOptik inserts. Just some colored Fog City ones. Don’t want a tinted visor for my touring lid. Saw the Arai Pinlock kit. Never saw that before. Looked like a PITA to install, needed to drill holes, etc.

Gave up. Went to 2rinkan on the way home. Saw they had an Arai visor WITH the pinlock insert! Also had a helmet there with it installed, same style of helmet as mine. Seemed to work, of course, the air vents above the eyes won’t work, but that’s all right if I can see!
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Went to Speedstar today to get some new tires for the trip to Kyushu.

Trying out the new Pirelli Angel ST…. Looks kinda funky, let’s see how they perform! I don’t worry quite as much about life of the tire, they last long enough for me usually. Don’t really count miles these days, when the tire gets low, I get new ones!

Had to wait a bit to get the tires on. Didn’t go as early as I wanted to, as the NBA playoffs were on and it was a good game between the Celtics and Heat (Celtics won!)

Picked up a Shoei X-11 from Mango. Always thought the Vermeulen Race Rep was pretty nice. Never thought about spring for one till this came up.

Nice finish, as you’d expect. I have the Kiyonari Race Rep already. That was from about 4 years ago. This one is the same size, but feels a bit tighter. Maybe because it is new? I noticed that on my older one says M 57-58. This one says M 57. Hmm. Let’s see how it goes….

Got some new shoes for the CBR. Step #1 in actually riding this. Soon I’ll get those put on and the fluids changed and I’ll get it out on the track.

Got the tires at Speedstar, great guys, in Setagaya-ku.

Tires!

I spent a day at the GMax Race shop, neat place, as I mentioned in my last blog update.

Gmax Race

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I spent the past couple of weeks in Singapore, met up with some biker friends as well. Will post more up soon on some cool stuff there, but for now just a quick update.

Friend of mine spends a lot of time at GMax Racing in Singapore. Cool shop, they specialize in Berik leathers and Leo Vince stuff. Cool shop, couple of Italians run it, Claudio and Luca. Nice guys.

Guy I know has a couple bikes, most recently a KTM 690SM. Nice bike, I took it up and down the alley….