Short But Sweet

Well, winter is upon us. We recently embarked on a trip to Honda Powerhouse to sit on the pretty, pretty bikes and check out the new Honda CBR 250. Though we should have expected it, we were surprised to discover that they actually won't be in the showroom until spring. At that time we will be going in to the showroom and taking some coverage- if they will allow us to photograph or take video. We may even go for a spin! Oo.

The redesign of the CBR line is actually growing on me. I kept imagining it worse in my head than it actually is- and I am assured that they are actually more aggressive looking in person than they are in the photos. I've never been a fan of the single headlight, and I really loved the hornet-inspired look of the previous line of CBRs, so the new unified headlight really took away the fierce look it had before.

We also learned that the 250 and the 125 are now physically the same size- the difference is merely in the engine. You will likely find the speed capability on the new 125 is slightly less on the newer model, because of the weight difference. However, I'm told that the handling and comfort are improved by the increased body size.

Now, the debate is ongoing- because we love Honda's products, and performance wise, Honda definitely outperforms Kawasaki. That said, you are paying the extra dime for that improvement. Kawis are also carbureted, whereas Honda has been using a computerized system that is more accurate for quite some time. Oh Honda, why don't you have a 400CC model in North America?

Cost-effectiveness is very important to both of us, so weighing the tag and the cost of running the machines (gas, insurance, maintenance) is a very important factor to the both of us.

We have spoken to some reps at Honda (which is excellent news!) and we have been asked to write a letter and make a proposal (we're planning to film a short video) for our trip. The proposal will then be sent to the big men upstairs and we just might have some bikes for the trip! If anyone wants to contribute to the trip, we will likely be setting up a paypal account. We don't want to make money from the trip- but we do need to make sure that we don't lose our house, and we have food to eat. We'll probably be shelling out for our support vehicle (a motorhome) so we can avoid staying in hotels or hefting tents on our backs, as it is. Costcutting! Next post, we will be bringing you some valuable links for the charities we are hoping to raise money for on the trip.

We are looking around for a radio/bluetooth system for our helmets. I have a bluetooth Sigi helmet, but the speaker is this cheap thing that sits next to the ear in a fabric pouch. With wind and road noise, hearing anything that comes out of it is a joke. Great sound indoors, when not on the bike, but used where it was meant to be used: Sorry Sigi- but your volume levels suck. Also looking for affordable helmet cams, preferrably ones that are fairly small- we don`t want conspicuous add-ons that will have people trying to saw our helmets off of our bike locks during the trip.

We need to contact Unicef for donation envelopes to distribute, so that the people we meet may write cheques or money orders to Unicef and mail them off themselves.

Next major project: The Long Way Across on Facebook! Conquering the world, one social network at a time!