Sol Power–BrammoBlog.com

Brammo Blog Ver 2.0 : Three weekends of unrelated rides=One blog post as I am lazy.

Again, mostly photos and few words. Always a win win.

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WEEKEND ONE

A few riders get together on the 3rd Sunday to do a monthly ride. This month is was one of my favorite rides. From Albuquerque down along the Rio Grande to Los Lunas. Only six of us this ride and the group was eclectic…Scooters, a BMW, my Electric and a 70cc Honda (updated to a 125cc engine).

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25 miles south of Albuquerque

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After a burger I bid adieu to the group and headed back to take some photos of the ride (I didn’t want to stop on the way down and slow down the group. I knew I could get some nice photos on the way home. Riding with a group, even a small group of 6, is always fun, but riding alone allows for more stops and the personal freedom to take any path I want.)

You know where the river is by seeing the trees–turning yellow as Cottonwoods do.

Panorama…click to embiggen

We almost never have LOW fire danger. The rains that flooded Colorado gave us enough rain to help us out greatly. We actually went from 4 inches below average….to average. Still, a needed influx of moisture.

The Rio Grande. This is actually a TON of water for this time of year. Usually it is a stream.

Still this would hardly be thought a river in on the East Coast…or Midwest…or Oregon.

Looks fairly impressive…but likely 2 to 4 feet deep at the most.

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After crossing the river I decided to take a slightly different route. Instead of jumping on the highway and blasting home I took a new road that runs beside the airport. Much to my delight I found both an “Airport Landing Viewing Area”…which was so-so, and a much more interesting Airplane Graveyard

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Gif should move??

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Broken aircraft!!

I will have to come back and explore some more. I’m fairly certain that the chance of my being arrested is not zero.

Oh well, the things we do….

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Some time in the last couple of weeks I hit 4000 miles on the bike. Not bad for 6 to 7 months of riding and having a commute of only 5 miles each way. I’ve more than doubled my commute-only miles.

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SECOND WEEKEND: Just a couple of photos.

Fall is lovely everywhere. Even in the high desert. Though most of these trees are not really native trees.

I love Love LOVE this wall of Ivy in Fall.

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THIRD WEEKEND:

Big ride this week was the Marigold Parade/Day of the Dead Parade in the south valley.

Loaded up and ready to “head” out. And yes that is a high tech storage device of laundry basket and bungee cords.

The motorcycle-scooter groups have ridden this parade many years in a row. We are usually near the front, but this years application was lost and we were put in the back–almost not allowed to ride. We were number 83. We were 8 last year. It is much more fun to be in the front because: When you get to the end you get to see all the other floats and marchers go by at the end, and you get to be in the middle of everything during set up. We are at the back and on a dirt lots a few hundred feet from all the crazy people on stilts and bad drum circles. Hmmm, maybe the back isn’t so bad.

My candy basket. I had a bunch more in the back and threw every bit of it.

Parade participants need to throw candy to the children lining the streets. A fun idea, but the kids are crazy for candy and I always wonder what will happen if I run one over. Nothing good likely. This year I didn’t have any issues, but a guy on a horse almost took out a kid running into the street for a piece of candy. My heart skipped a beat, and the guy on the horse just about crapped himself. The kid? Didn’t even notice and kept running for more candy. Definitely not the Rose Bowl Parade security team. Heck I was grabbed twice as I drove by…and my peripheral vision was ZERO so both times where quite startling. One guy wanted to take a selfie with me. I said ok. The other guy…around 40 years old, grabbed me as I was actually moving and wanted me to give him candy. I used some less than kind sock monkey language about grabbing my %$&#* arm, reached into my candy basket and held it out toward him and then threw it to the kids behind him. I don’t like when the adults take candy that is for the kids…and I really don’t like somebody grabbing my arm while I’m driving and have limited vision. Yes, I was only going Parade speed of 1-2 miles per hour…still, I didn’t like it and I hope the big sock monkey head muffled my voice enough that the kids didn’t hear what I said to the guy.

Parade group 81 was an amazing family.

Parade group 80 had Oscar. Oscar was great, but a bit bored waiting for the parade to start…like most of us.

A Selfie.

Group 81. The family portrait.

The rest of Group 80, Oscar’s group, showed up just in time.

This guy walked by while we waited.

This low-rider VW drove by. Great convertible flat top. I have never seen a low-rider/low-topper before.

Moved from the dirt to the road…about time to go.

A posed shot. Sadly no photos from the Parade. Hopefully I will find some on-line. No way I can ride, throw candy and take photos with this head on.

And back home…well not home. This is my brother’s house. The parade is on Sunday and that is the day we get together to watch football.

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And the head is put, Indiana Jones like, on a protective pillar to sit for future generations to find and wonder over. What was “man” like in 2013? From this headdress we assume he was clinically insane.

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Till next time….Gavin.

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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Bonus.

I do the Day of the Dead paper-mache heads as it allows me to wear it to work for the sick kids (they love it), plus the parade (see above) and I can wear it for our family halloween party. Here I am in my Breaking Bad/Day of the Dead/Sock Monkey Head.

Three events helps to mitigate the hours put in making an oversized head.

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And here is a few bonus photos from this weekends Zoo trip.

I love riding the motorcycle to the Zoo as I get great parking. The down side is, unless I get there at the same time as somebody I know and can throw my helmet in their trunk, I have to carry my helmet around. I used this to my advantage yesterday as I was able to have a little photo op with the Zebras.

Of course the real reason I went to the Zoo was….

to see Addy and feed the ducks and “big fish”…

but also to see the new addition to the Zoo:

Daisy the baby elephant.

With Mom and big sister. She is hella cute. Skinny and FAST. Adorable.

Photo by Deanna Stevenson as all mine are in shadow. She is a much better photographer than I am. If only I could get her obsessed with taking photos of my motorcycle, well the photos would clearly improve.

Brammo Blog is going the distance, Brammo Blog is going for speed. Brammo Blog is all alone, all alone but I got no needs.

Brammoblog Ver 2.0. #7

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This will, like most of my blogs, be mostly a photo blog. Lots of photos and less of me. Trust me, it’s a good thing. There was a Classic Motorcycle show up in Santa Fe and a few of my friends were going, and a few of my friends actually had bikes in the show. So I hopped on the Empulse and headed to the Turquoise Trail. The trip would be about 65 miles and take an hour if I drove on Interstate 25. Or the trip would be 73 miles and take about an hour and a half if I took the Turquoise Trail. To me this was classified as a NO-Brainer.** I-25 is nice the first time you drive it. Fast and actually pretty for a highway. But it gets boring fast. On the other hand, I could ride the Turquoise Trail everyday and never get bored. **No-Brainer: Most would say just about everything about me could be classified that way.

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First short stop. Approx. 30 mins and about 6% added back to the bike.

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I was going to ride up with some of my friends, but most of them trailer-ed up their scooters to the show. The few that drove were on classic, older bikes and had a top speed of around 45 to 50. So I went ahead and stopped at Coffee at Dawn up in Cedar Crest for a snack and some charge. It was only 17 miles into the ride, but I knew the scooters would be another 30 minutes, so why not chill and charge?

Nice people, a tasty raspberry danish and a beautiful morning…I sat for a while till I heard the sound of two strokes riding up the road. I waved them on and went inside to pay my bill, thank the staff for the electrons and then hopped on Walter and took off.

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This bike ended up in the Classic show competition.

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Next hella short stop was in Madrid for this photo. I always have to stop in Madrid for some reason or another.

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Did you know that Madrid had the first Lit Baseball field west of the Mississippi?

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Here I am behind William and his beautiful Lambretta. He is looking for the train at this signal, or doing his Superman pose. Or both.

There was no train and we ended up going around the road blockers. Hooligan style all the way to Santa Fe.

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I got to the Classic Motorcycle show doing a large part of the ride at 65 mph and almost none of my riding at city speeds (7 miles in town, 1 mile though Madrid).

I drove 75 miles and got there at 13%. Showing off my mad math skillz: that’s 13% minus the 6% I recouped at Coffee at Dawn = I would have gotten to Santa Fe with about 7% of the battery. A bit close, but doable. Check out my charging amps, baby.

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Here I am getting some high power charge (24 amps). I looked ahead and found out that there is a clipper creek charger 2 blocks from the Motorcycle show at Go Solar.

I emailed the owner and he told me he would reserve the charger for me. Thanks PlugShare app….and….

Thank you Go Solar.

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Though the “CAR” Charger sign is discriminatory against electric motorcycles.

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Now that I knew I would have plenty of charge to get home, it was off to the show.

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Scooters, mopeds…Motorcycles

Some for sale…

Most not…

Blue bikes…

Dirt bikes….

Shiny bikes

Custom bikes

shiny custom bikes

Cannonball winning bikes

Panorama—click to embiggen—

and dang…look at what doing a panorama did to the gentleman in the middle. At least I hope that is a Panorama error. If not, I ain’t sleeping tonight

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Another Panorama, though not a scary one.

This panorama also includes the smartest person there. It was HOT and SUNNY

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So I decided that it wasn’t right for all these bikes to have fun and Walter was all alone. I went back and got him and figured I would charge later.

Now the parking at the show is only for Classic bikes, everybody else had to park out back. But when I drove up to the entrance the gentleman said, “Well that’s a Modern Classic. And the people will want to see it. So park up front in Special Vehicle parking.” And so I did…after I rode around the show once to give all the people a chance to do that double take they do…

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I parked next to this crazy little 3 wheeler.

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The Brammo and this car received about the same amount of attention.

Then the 3 wheeler left early

I stood around for a while answering lots and lots of questions. But I also wanted to walk around a bit.

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Some of my 2 stroke riding friends and their aptly named garage.

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Still I left Go Solar with only about 50% charge. That is the price you pay for wanting to show off your bike. Luckily at the Motorcycle show was a micro-brew…and I’ve never had a micro-brew tell me I couldn’t get some charge. Thank you Santa Fe Brewing for some charge and a beer while I waited.

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Well I only had a beer and then had to visit with people some more and wait some on the charging. Sadly the micro-brew only had 110 charging and I am an impatient man…so I ended up heading home with the bike only charged to 88%. I figured I got to Santa Fe with about 7% left (I didn’t plan to stop on the way back for charging), and I would be going from 7000 feet to 5000 feet at home. So if it took 93% to get to Santa Fe I should be able to get home on 88%. And I was correct. BARELY.

And yes, you can run a battery down to ZERO and be fine.

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I wasn’t overly worried as there are lots of places to get some charge on the way home. 110 outlets are like pimples in a middle school. Everywhere and more popping up each day. Still it was fun to come home on exactly zero.

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It was a fun day. Talked to lots of people. Put a fun and beautiful 150 miles on the Empulse. And got home with no problems. But dang it was a hot and unforgiving day. The clouds seem to stay on the horizon and never come overhead.

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till next time:

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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I don’t really have a Bonus…except to say I will be at Miller Motor Sport Park in Utah for the Bonneville Vintage Grand Prix.

http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/events/bonneville-vintage-gp.html

People should go. You get to see some great bikes in a very intimate, low key setting. And you get to see some Electric Motorcycle racing. And you get some side car racing and stand and run to your bike racing. Basically some cool and crazy stuff.

Go here:

http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/events/bonneville-vintage-gp/photo-gallery.html

and video

Blog 63: A perhaps too short blog with a perhaps too long video.

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My ride from Scuderia West, where I picked up the Brammo Enertia Plus, to Lombard St and then the Golden Gate Bridge. Only one wrong turn. Which was nice. Lots of bumpy roads. Which was not so nice. But it is San Francisco. Known for it’s beautiful sky line, lovely bridges, crazy steep hills and crappy roads for motorcycles.

The Video is about 13 minutes long…so I should have edited it a bit more…but I am horrid at editing.

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Take Care

Gavin

For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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Blog 58: Perhaps this is a sign that true Madness has set in…

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Haven’t posted in a while as I have been cage riding. The downside of driving a Test Bike is that sooner or later the company will want the bike back to do, well testing. The Upside is: FREE BIKE TO RIDE (till it is torn asunder from your grasping, confused and suddenly lonely throttle hand—and NO SUGGESTIONS from the peanut gallery about what I can do with my “lonely throttle hand”).

So as I slowly (and hella reluctantly) adapt to sitting in a Cage of metal, glass and sorrow** for my commuting and such…well I have not been posting here at all…

That changes today!!! Sadly this post is just silly whimsy and all fluff, no substance. But I hope to include some substance ASAP.

Hint Hint to Brammo…I want to ride again! And once you go Electric, it is hard to go back to riding a gas bike.

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As I wait and suffer, my mind has slowly (maybe not so slowly) been cracking like Arctic Ice on a hot August day.

And that unstable brain was doing a little Jingle/Song advertising for Brammo…I don’t think they will rush off to the presses with this idea any time soon.

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Sing along!

BIRDS DO IT!

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BEES DO IT!

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Even superfluous pseudo “World Leaders” DO IT…

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LET”S DO IT….

LET’S RIDE BRAMMO….

(just a place holder photo…need a good Brammo photo of many people riding Empulses)

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One other version was:

Birds do it,

Bees do it,

EVEN DINO’s INEBRIATED FLEAS DO IT…

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But: A) The Dean Martin reference is pretty old. B) Dean Martin’s mobster friends might not like me implying that “Dino” had fleas…and most importantly C) not sure you should ever use Inebriated in any motor vehicle ad.

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But there you go….nothing for a couple of weeks and this is the slop you get…

Sigh…don’t blame me…blame…heck, Blame Canada….

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Till Next Time…

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

**Actually driving my pickup isn’t horrid…but it just pales to riding that Brammo to work each and every day…

Blog 57. “It’s been a week and a day, since my baby went away.”

Being without the Brammo Enertia Plus has turned me into a BCS:

Bad Country Singer.

(No oxymoron comments about BAD not being needed with Country Singer.

See: Hank Williams SR, George Jones, John Hiatt, Johnny Freakin Cash.)

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Well today is a totally Brammo free blog…well other than the Title…and the blog’s first line…and that last sentence….but no more. Except one more: the Brammo Enertia Plus has been gone since last Wednesday…and:

“There’s been a hoot-owl howling by my window now

For six nights in a row,

She’s coming for me, I know,

And on T’Challa we’re both gonna go.”

Gah, must stop listening to the 70’s radio station at bed time….

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So “currently” no electric motorcycle for me. But I still had a ride planned:

The Marigold Parade/Dia De Los Muertas Parade.

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I couldn’t miss that. For one, I made a special Dia De Los Muertas Panda head just for the ride. And two, it is a nice time with TONS of people.

I did shoot a little video and I took a few photos. But I couldn’t take photos nor video while driving the Maxi-Scoot (horrid name) down the parade street with my panda head on. It felt very much like I was an 80 year old with glaucoma driving to the liquor store for more vodka. (Editor’s Note: A future not impossible to imagine for Gavin.)

Thankfully I was only riding at 1 mph hour. So, even 90 percent blind, I somehow pulled off, by the grace of God,  NOT running over any of the thousand or so kids jumping into the street trying to catch cheap candy. “Hey kids, it’s like 3 days after Halloween; no candy left at home? Willing to be run over by a near blind panda-headed moron for that piece of cheap off-brand Bazooka gum that you will just throw away when you get home?”

And it was HOT. Over 80 degrees….in New Mexico…in NOVEMBER!!! Not surprisingly, inside that Panda head it was much hotter. Sweat dripped into eyes as I tried constantly to re-adjust the panda head to allow some tiny amount of vision. Oh, and I had a passenger.

So that mile ride from the Isleta Police Station to the Southwest Community Center was a long, hot, mildly scary drive. And at one mile per hour that mile ride took….wait, I think I can do this math in my head…let’s see…carry the 1…divide by 1…correct for lowest common denominator (me)…and it took like eleven billionity hours…or it took about an hour. Gah, that part of the ride was painful and distressingly like WORK. (gotta stop saying Gah so much.)

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Jessi and I post ride, wandering around the community center. I was in immediate search mode for FLUIDS.

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Me and Jessi, my passenger. It was great having Jessi there. (photo from the Daily Lobo website–UNM’s college paper)

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http://goodtogrow.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/monday-2012-marigold-parade-in-albuquerques-south-valley/

The above link takes you to a site that has lots of nice photos Many that show the crowd some. None of my photos ever show the crowd 😦

The place was PACKED. Nice.

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At the “staging” area.

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Ron on his Spree.

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Ron, Panda Head and Jessi at the end of the Parade.

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Jessi, her date and the Panda Head 🙂

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My Video. Mostly of the Parade staging/set-up area (we were group 28 of over 100 groups).  I slowed down the beginning part as I was spinning around and it would have made everybody throw up on their monitors. Don’t ask how I know this. (memo to self: buy new monitor)

Then some footage (can we use the word footage any more? Everything is digital…no film footage to handle and splice together) of riding to the start of the Parade. You get to see Jessi coming up with my Panda Head just before the turn onto the street with all the humans. The person squealing like an 8 year old girl is me. 😦

I rode the scooter down to the parade and didn’t want to carry the head. Jessi said she would bring it, but was running late as the traffic was HORRID. So I almost didn’t do the ride in the head. (which would have made me hella sad, but it probably would have been safer and I would have had some video of the crowd)

And finally some “footage” of the end of the Parade site. It was starting to get crowded, and the Parade was still going. So that field at the community center was going to be packed by the time night fell.

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All in all, it was a nice time. I want to invite Brammo to do a group ride at the parade next year. A few silent and clean electric motorcycles riding down the road would get a lot of attention with this crowd. And tons more at the huge party at the ride’s end. And throwing candy to the kids is always fun. And you would get a nice visit to the beautiful Southwest. (Large, vision obstructing paper mache heads are optional)

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And you know it isn’t a Gavin trip unless I stop somewhere to take extra photos of the bike in nice scenery. Sorry, no electric vehicle photos, but here is my Fuoco 500 down at the Rio Grande River with the Cottonwood leaves turning gold.

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Dark shadow at top is part of my finger…I kinda suck at this stuff.

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Till Next Time…

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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Bonus

The Daily Lobo…Physical copy.

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The Road Warrior…In the Future he will be kicking ass, but he won’t be looking for gas.

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Blog 56: Parting is such sweet sorrow….Actually it is just sorrow, nothing sweet about it at all.

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So if anybody, other than the voices in my head, have been following this blog, those people will know a couple of things:

1) I take a lot of photos.

2) I am a few rungs low on the ladder of normal.

C) I don’t follow rules well

and

4) I have been riding an Electric Motorcycle (made by Brammo) for the last year and 3 weeks.

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I have put over 6000 miles on the two bikes they lent me (over 4800 on the first bike: a Brammo Enertia. Their first bike that is a city commuter with a 40 miles range per charge. And over 1300 miles on the second bike they lent me when they took back the Enertia : a Brammo Enertia Plus. This was a  newer version with double the range and other improvements). It also was one of Brammo’s Test Bikes (number 9 to be exact). That info comes into play today.

6000 miles in a year is pretty good for a city commuter. I rode just about everyday, either commuting to work or running errands or just going for fun rides along the river or up in the mountains. Good Times.

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My very first ride on the Brammo Enertia.

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https://brammoblog.com/2012/08/29/brammo-blog-new-computer-new-bike-same-old-me-sorry/

This was my blog saying goodbye to Enertie (the green Enertia) and hello to T’Challa (the black Enertia Plus)

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T’Challa at the Grand Canyon.

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Well the day has come that Brammo is collecting the Plus and I am no longer an Electric Motorcycle rider. And that makes me a Sad Panda.

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But the Plus was a “Test Bike” and Brammo needs her back to check on the batteries and such and possibly make a few changes, adjustments and update the software.

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So back she goes…sniff…I will not cry….

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And while I am currently EV-less and sad, I appreciate the time I got to ride both motorcycles. And all the people I got to meet and talk to because of those Brammo motorcycles (and believe you me, EVERYBODY will want to talk to you when they see these bikes. It is not the kind of bike you get if you are “overly shy”…or horribly anti-social). And HUGE thanks to the people at Brammo. Especially Adrian Stewart who made this all happen. And BrammoFan and all the people over at BrammoForums. So many people to thanks…but it is hard to see the keyboard as it seems to be raining on my face…

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Till Next Time…

Gavin

For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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Bonus

Ok…not way in hell I should put this here. But I just am not bright enough to know that somehow this will come back and haunt me. Dancing Panda (with my drinking head vs my day of the dead panda head that is impossible to drink while wearing)…A) I am a horrid dancer. B) Tequila is never your friend. C) I was not driving that night.

Somehow I think Brammo will not loan me anything ever again after seeing that.

Bonus 2

Ashton Kutcher might be interested in an Empulse…at least according to some rumors…so here ya go…

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Ashton Jobs

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Dude, where’s my Brammo?

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Blog 55: I decide to join Brammo on their Friday Afternoon Ride…well not in Ashland…That is FAR…But I went on my own little Friday Afternoon Ride.

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Every Friday (or most Fridays) Brammo goes on group rides from the Brammo Headquarters in Ashland, Oregon.

See here: http://www.brammo.com/blogs/?p=1671

Well it was a beautiful fall Friday here in Albuquerque and work was a bit slow…..So I said goodbye to the Hospital and jumped on the Brammo Enertia Plus and hit the streets of Burque. I just missed the leaves changing on my ride to the top of the mountain (seen in last weeks blog post: HERE) …but they are just starting to change down by the Rio Grande…so that was my destination. And I have some photos (surprising I know) and video to share. And, since it is Halloween time, a few bonus images at the end….Non Brammo related, but fun.

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Down near the river looking East toward the mountain. The Cottonwoods turn bright yellow this time of year.

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Panorama Time

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What’s my favorite phrase? I PARK WHERE I WANT

(unless it is inside JUMBO at the Trinity Site and the Military Police are super pissed at me)

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This path leads down to the Rio Grande Nature Center and the River.

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Panorama Time…It Panoramamonium…or something like that…

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And I did video the ride. I’m linking to two versions. They are exactly the same–so don’t watch both–, but YouTube might block the first one as it has a Fela Kuti song…

I wish YouTube and the record companies would work together and let me have the song in the video and YouTube mentions the song playing and gives a link to purchase the song and where you can find more songs from the artist and similar music…a win win you would think…

Anyways, try the first and if blocked, try the second.

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fela version

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Mash up Sex Pistols dance mix of Pretty Vacant…it’s fine, the song just goes a bit long in the middle…hence why I prefer the Fela version

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Till next time, ride safe.

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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Bonus Halloween stuff:

Ok, I did two pumpkins this year. I stopped carving and moved to scraping a couple of years ago.

One Pumpkin is a traditional orange, the other is a white pumpkin. That pumpkin was HEAVY. Next year I might try sculpting a pumpkin if I get one with as thick of flesh as that white one. For scraping a candle is usually not enough light (unless you scrap it really really thin. I leave mine a bit thick and use a light bulb. The orange got a standard 25 watt bulb…the white got a 25 watt green party bulb as the character is green.

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Pumpkins pre scraping…along with my Day of the Dead Panda head. I am riding, again, in the Dia de los Muertas Parade and will be wearing that head…sadly not on the Enertia Plus…but more on that in the next blog.     see how I added some tension there… 🙂

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The White Pumpkin scrapped. Interestingly the white flesh smelled like cucumber, not pumpkin.

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My niece loves Robert Downey Jr…so this was for her. And it was an easy design.

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White Pumpkin lit up. Both my youngest daughter and my eldest daughter’s husband love the TMNTs, so this was for them. Also an easy design.

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And together….

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I was trying to make the “Duck Face in the Bathroom Mirror” photo that everybody posts on Facebook, but all I could pull off was Sad Panda.

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And while I am a good 10-15 pounds overweight**, I make a dang skinny panda…need a pillow next time.

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If I get up the nerve I might post the video of me dancing in the Panda suit (with my drinking panda head) after a bit too much tequila. But it is sooooo over the top that I might just sell it to a Furry Lovers site online.

🙂

**Thanks to Brammo I never ride my bicycle anymore and it shows…sigh…why do desserts taste soooo very yummy?? Damn you red velvet cupcakes…

Blog 54: RIDE BABY RIDE. Or if you are watching too many bad movies from the 60’s. Faster Pussycat, Ride Ride.

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Ok, so Saturday I heard the great news for a good guy: Jeremy Dorn (aka. EmpulseBuyer) was officially named the Brammo Evangelist for 2012. Along with the accolades and recognition for his work promoting Brammo, he also gets a brand new Brammo Empulse R. A damn sweet ride. And a list price of 18K, so that is a super sweet prize. And now his name is EmpulseWinner. 🙂

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Of course his great news was a bit less great for me. I am extremely happy for him, but I have to admit I was feeling a little less than ecstatic on Saturday.

Because while 1st place is super super sweet, second place is….nada. It’s like when our children were born. For some time I was the most important person in my wife’s life. And then we had kids. And I knew I would be second to the kids, and had no problem with that. Still I was a bit unprepared as I didn’t think the gulf between 1st (the kids) and 2nd (me) would be quite sooooooooo huge. 🙂  She is just head over heels crazy for those girls. And that is what makes her just such an amazing mom. Me? She does recognize me most days as a sometimes mobile and breathing Carbon-Based Life-form, so I do have that going for me.

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So (and I’m not proud admitting this) I was moping around a bit. Kinda feeling a bit sorry for myself. Then I realized it was about 4:30 pm on a BEAUTIFUL Saturday and I was acting like an Emo kid on Prom Night. I thought: “Pull it together dude (i often mentally call myself dude…nothing to do with The Big Lebowski). Get out of the house, DUDE (see?), and do something to take your mind off it and have some fun.”

Now the question is: What do you do when you find out that you are likely the 2nd place finisher in being named Brammo Evangelist for 2012? What do you do when you find out you won’t “win”/”earn” an amazing free bike (and the press and accolades)???***

Now I’m not sure what you would do, my kind, indulgent and likely imaginary reader, but me? To forget and put the whole Brammo Evangelist 2012 announcement behind me, I  jumped on “my” Brammo Enertia Plus and rode 70 miles to the top of Sandia Mountain and back.

It was a little after 5 when I left. The day was still bright (brighter than me, but more on that later*), but the shadows were long on the ground and I knew I probably couldn’t make it up the mountain and back before dark. Especially as the way up to the top of the mountain is on the East Side* and the Sun sets in the West…so the Mountain will be blocking the Sun for my ride up. Still I grabbed my Icon Airmada Stack Helmet (I don’t know why but I seem to be giving free press to Brammo and Icon now-a-days) and my Contour Roam helmet cam and set off.

Now my helmet doesn’t yet have the connector for the camera, but I’ve been using it lately by driving one handed and filming anyways. It is actually much nicer. I get to pan around. And on this ride I got to hold it out in front by the tire, and lean over and hold it close to the ground. Fun stuff! And for Adrian who tells me the Empulse is too much for me…Hey, Enertia Plus, 50 mph and riding one handed and filming…So there! 🙂

Photos and Video up next.

Photos First.

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It was getting dark fast and I was using my iPhone. So the images will be a bit contrasty.

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A short panorama

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A full panorama. Curvy roads seem to baffle panoramas.

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The Video: longish at 15mins, but has some fun stuff when I decide to “drag” the camera.

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Till next time, ride safe.

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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*Why I am not bright: 1) I have lived in Albuquerque for 16 years. Albuquerque is to the WEST of the mountain. The way up to the top is on the EAST side. In the video I reversed this. 16 YEARS. Sigh. 2) The top of the mountain is 5000 feet higher than where I live. The top of the mountain is always 20 to 25 degrees colder than where I live. So Saturday was a beautiful day in the low 70’s. Perfect. But it gets cold fast when the Sun goes down. So…AND I KNOW THIS…when I was coming down the mountain after sunset is was quickly below 40 degrees. I did have my full face helmet. I did have my nice fall gloves and my fall coat. But under the coat was only a t-shirt. And the fall gloves are pushed to their limit at 39 degrees and going 50 mph…So it was a COLD ride home….I almost always forget to dress for the mountain top…even after all these years. A mental block…heavy emphasis on MENTAL.

*** To be fair and honest…Brammo has been super good to me and had let me use a Brammo Enertia for 9 months…and now the Enertia Plus for the last couple of months. So it is hard to “complain”.