Archive for the 'Motorcycle' Category

Motocross Weekend

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on October 9, 2006
in Motorcycle, Personal and Venture Capital
. 1 Comment

This weekend, my friend Bob Lakes was kind enough to invite me to join him for a ride at the motocross recreation area. I haven’t ridden a dirt bike since I was a teenager and didn’t have a bike or any of the gear, but Bob took good care of me. He provided the bike (the blue Yamaha YZF 250 below) and all the gear.

We hauled the bikes out to the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area (S.V.R.A). The place was crawling with people and off-highway vehicles — 2,400 acres with 64 miles of trails, a few tracks of varying difficulty, and several hill climbs. It’s really a wonderful park.

I’ve been riding my sportbike for some years now, so it took me a few laps to remember how to ride through the mud and thick sand. Very fun! Especially since we had no deaths or injuries…

Bob works for Bell Sports where he does industrial design for motorcycle helmets. Needless to say, he’s a heck of a motorcycle rider. Bob is married to Alexis Lakes. Alexis is the CFO of RWI Ventures. They have both been great friends.

Many thanks to Bob for the fun weekend.

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A California Garage

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on September 29, 2006
in Gadgets, Motorcycle and Personal
. 1 Comment

I walked into the Toyota dealer yesterday and walked out with a shiny, new 2007 Toyota Prius. It’s white and it’s loaded. Not my color of choice, but they had one on the lot, there was confusion about whether it was a dealer demo model or not and amidst the confusion, I claimed it as mine! The guy next to me put a deposit down and waited 6 weeks for his.

When you buy a car off the lot, you get whatever colors and options that they have. When it’s a hot item, like the Prius in California, you often get no choice at all, even if you place an order in advance. Place a deposit, get a call in 4-8 weeks that says they have a car similar to what you asked for, but not exactly the same, and if you’d be willing to take it or keep waiting. Ah, free markets at work. I love it.

The garage now looks like a California garage:

The Porsche Boxster next to the 2007 Toyota Prius next to the Yamaha FZ1 motorcycle (upper left, behind the fridge). That’s two convertible speedsters and one emission-friendly car. I will let you know how it goes with the white whale. Call me Ishmael.

So, is it still possible to get the California HOV stickers for the hybrid cars that I wrote about here and here? Not likely. This report says that as of September 12, 2006, there were only about 6,000 stickers left to hand out. When I called today, there were only 1,500 stickers left. The very nice lady on the phone at the DMV indicated that there had been discussion about adding 25,000 more stickers to the program, but those talks have seemed to stopped. By the time I get my license plate, they will likely all be gone. That’s OK.

California.

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My Yamaha FZ1

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 9, 2006
in Motorcycle
. 0 Comments

Where are my manners?

I have not yet introduced you to my fine motorcycle. Blogosphere, meet my 2002 Yamaha FZ1.

It’s pretty much stock. Yamaha did a lot right with this bike.

I call it an old guy’s sportbike, because the handlebars are not clip-ons. They are regular handlebars, allowing the rider to sit more upright. It’s got a slightly de-tuned version of the Yamaha R1 high-end sportbike engine, yet still manages 141 horsepower. With a 0-60 speed of <3 seconds, it is certainly a poor-man’s Ferrari.

OK. That’s what the bike can do, not what I can do.

I was about 8 years old when I started riding motorcycles. I’ve owned 7 bikes since then. I’m a good, safe, and competent rider. I ride for fun, not glory (or death).

Drop me a line if you’re in the Bay Area and looking for a ride.

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Caltrain WiFi Access

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 3, 2006
in Mobile, Motorcycle and Technology
. 1 Comment

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Jose, to be exact. Much of my business takes place in Palo Alto/Menlo Park, and San Francisco. So, I get around.

I hate commuter traffic. My time is valuable and the attention required to navigate safely in heavy bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go traffic is not conducive to thinking clearly and advancing my business or the business of my clients. Life in the Bay Area somewhat forces you to become a savvy commuter.

There are many techniques I employ to keep myself out of traffic:

  • Telecommuting (working from home over broadband) when possible
  • Car-pooling with Amy when I go to Menlo Park (where she works)
  • Setting up meetings that allow me to avoid rush-hour travel
  • Riding my motorcycle gives me access to the HOV lane and lane-splitting, and often eases any parking-related hassles
  • Riding Caltrain when I go to Palo Alto or San Francisco
  • I’ll likely get a Prius with the HOV-lane access sticker someday (or maybe the Tesla Roadster)…

More and more of my business is taking me to San Francisco. Both startups and new Venture Capital funds are finding their headquarters up there. Caltrain offers a fantastic Baby Bullet train that gets you from San Jose to San Francisco in under an hour. And, it’s a great ride - very relaxing. I get a ton of work done on the train. This quiet-time allows me to prepare for the day in the morning and wind-up the day in the evening. I even have some of my most productive meetings with people while riding on the train (I love having a captive audience).

The Mercury News covered the Caltrain announcement that they have successfully demonstrated WiFi connectivity on Caltrain between Millbrae and Palo Alto. WiFi (802.11) antennas are used on the train cars which gateway to a set of WiMax (presumably 802.16) towers placed strategically along the route. I’m personally not a big believer in WiMax for the masses (3G/4G networks will be "good enough" with tons of existing infrastructure already in place), but this is a great application for it. Caltrain believes it will take one more year to fully deploy the system and have it cover the entire route from San Jose to San Francisco.

I fully support and encourage high-speed Internet access on commuter trains! There was no mention of cost of the service, but it’s pretty easy to build a business model that returns the $1M it might take to build out the service (selling per-day access or monthly access, say). Of course, I hope they decide to make it a free offering.

ABC7 News Video coverage here.

Other wireless train trials here.

For me, I get my Mobile Internet access through my Cingular service via my Nokia E61 smartphone. A bit slow today, but more than enough bandwidth for activities I need while riding the train. And, it works right now.

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