Maya

Today I got a chance to meet Maja [Maya] Włoszczowska, a world champion in cross-country mountain biking. She also happens to be a high school friend of my coworker Damian who asked her to stop by for a quick poster signing session.

A few of us took a photo with Maja, naturally I provided a scooter for her to try out around the parking lot. I can’t officially say if she liked it or not, some sponsor bureaucracy stuff, but I’ll let my photos speak for themselves.

She’s a very cool and down to earth person, very easy to talk to, and we all wish her all the best in future races. Here are a few photos from her Facebook page. Cool as person, an MTB champion, and a good looking redhead? What a day!

TEDx Wrocław – My Thoughts

Last Saturday I attended a TEDx conference. The “x” in TEDx stands for “an independently held TED event”. Basically a conference deemed cool enough by TED to bear its name. Wrocław’s TEDx theme was “Unleash Your Inner Hero” and the entire day of talks was divided into four sections: hero state of mind, superpowers, having a vision, and call to action, in this order exactly.

My first thought just after showing up at the event was “damn I’m old”. To me it seemed as though the sold out theater in which the talks took place was filled to brim with university youth. Those days have long waved bye-bye to me. Don’t get me wrong, I can totally hang with the kids, except that I can’t, cause when I wanted to talk to someone about using the practices discussed in a particular talk the kids around me had no idea what a day spent at a full time job felt like. Maybe that was just me. The truth is that going alone to an eight hour talk with multiple breaks and a long lunch feels like crap. Somehow I couldn’t catch the vibe, find people to talk to… so I just left and watched the rest on a live-feed web cast back home. Turns out I should have done that to begin with.

Out of 16 scheduled appearances two were a musical number, one was a magic show, and one was a no-show altogether. The conference started off with a bang; there was a young man talking about how his video game playing turned into a riddle website with millions of hits. His presentation was just on the edge of creepy while keeping you interested and wanting for more. His website screenshots gave me goosebumps but everything made sense when he explained why things were the way they were. It was cool.

Presentation fallowing that was given by a woman who really wanted you to draw out everything you did at work. To draw out your plans, your daily schedule, your tasks, draw draw draw! It was a great talk, I learned a lot and really wanted to try the stuff she spoke off back in the office…except for the fact that she had microphone trouble throughout her entire speech and that was pretty much all I remembered at the end. That productivity at work begins with properly mounting your ear-mounted microphone. Sorry.

I did buy a CD from a musician Joao de Sousa after he played and sang four songs, each in a different language: Portugese, Spanish, English, and Polish. There was a woman of Jewish descent talking of preserving history, there was a double amputee teenager who spoke how he was motivated by a complete stranger to become the youngest person to travel to both the North and the South Pole. That’s right, a Pole at the Pole! Geocaching, woman stereotype in the mass media, how to dream and make money off of magic tricks… it was all there.

I felt that there was no connection at all between the divided topic (hero state of mind, superpowers, etc.) and the talks given in that slot. At one point I got a little irritated of the guy giving a talk on “Being an Expert” when couldn’t properly say the word “expertise” in English and kept mispronouncing it so badly even the youth around me was whispering the correct pronunciation. It was an interesting talk, I just couldn’t get past the broken English it was given in. That is of course my own opinion.

Overall the conference was a good experience, I enjoyed hearing the things I heard and give mad props to all those who have the cajones to go up and talk about their stuff in front of hundreds of strangers. But I do feel there was something missing and I just can’t quite put my finger on what it was. Maybe it’s the fact that on TED.com I can play and listen to whatever talk I want and if I don’t like it I can simply close the window. Here, when I was sort of bored (along with everyone else) of a talk, you still had to sit through the rest of it.

Am I glad I went? Yes I am. Will I go again? If they have a web feed… probably not. But I did learn a thing or two, for that I believe the conference has served its purpose.

Supermoto Sunday

This having no window shades in my new apartment does have its advantages… a blinding sun 6am wake up call!

Wait, why is this an advantage you ask? SUN, a commodity so high in demand yet not so much in-stock lately on the Polish side the globe. Once the WTF?? thought had passed, I jumped out of bed, made sure the temp outside was above five degrees centigrade, and boom, I knew it was gonna be a Supermoto Sunday.

The plan was to ride to Sobótka, the only local mountain some 50kms away, then park, climb the mountain, tea and crackers at the top, a short stop at my uncles, and ride back home. That was the plan, the execution however, not so much.

It started off smoothly. Ripping through an empty countryside on a Sunday morning was a blast. I decided to stop by a mausoleum I had passed many many times but never paid much attention to. Turns out it was built for one Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, who was a Prussian field marshal that led his army against Napoleon at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He retired to his residence in the nearby Krieblowitz, nowKrobielowice, and died there in 1819. The mausoleum once housed his remains, but it was heavily plundered by the Red Army in 1945 even though he technically helped stop Napoleon from taking over Russia to begin with. Irony.

I was surprised to see a wreath at the entrance, I’m curious who still remembers and who takes their time to drive out to the middle of nowhere to lay it there. But I am very glad I finally made the time to stop by and read up on this.

From there it was back on the road towards Sobótka, but as I got to the town itself I found the road had been closed off by local police for some sort of a cycling event. Alright, no biggie, there’s another way to get there… except there too I was met with a challenge. Somewhere along the way I forgot that even though it’s nice, dry, and semi-warm in Wrocław, road conditions and the temperatures at the mountain would be much different. I rode all the way to the point where snow and ice started… and turned back around.

I did end up literally pushing my bike up a snowy road to my uncles place in the mountain area, not something I’m ever going to repeat again. Coming back home I went through the city, not the side roads I had initially taken. It was my first time going through real traffic and God does a Supermoto feel great zigzagging among cars. The noise of my dual exhaust seems to push cars out of the way. It was a great day out in the sun, but I will be back for the mountain challenge soon.

Happy Easter

My sister sent this to me, “some-bunny loves you”, get it? She cracks me up! Happy Easter everyone.

GoPro Goal

Alright, so I’m not a sport bike fan, nor am I a fan of the entire country of Switzerland at the moment, but I saw this cool GoPro video today and it makes me aim at just that with my Hero skills.

I know where I’m at, and now I sort of know where I want to be, let’s hope I can use this season wisely! And speaking of season, today I was finally able to take my Funmoto out for an hour ride without getting cold or wet.

I don’t have many mountains in my immediate riding area, but there’s plenty of open space to ride through.

My Hero

Friday night. Ohh what a night. Sitting at home, sipping away my Corona with lime, watching a week’s worth of The Daily Show downloads and making my first GoPRO Hero video. Sure I could think of at least one better way of spending my Friday night, but until that person again comes along in my life, Stewart and that little dude from The Game of Thrones will do just fine.

Weather sucks here in Wrocław. I mean we’re a day away from having snow on Easter! BUT… I did manage to take my work issue GoPRO Hero3 camera out for a spin today. I had to borrow a couple of accessories from my buddy Cichy, but it’s a good way to test a whole lot of camera mountings before I get a set of our own. At least I know that the suction mount works wonders on our GOVECS scooters. I’m not completely one hundred per cent convinced that it won’t ever fall off, which is why I will surely make some sort of a back up ‘catch’ just in case. But as you can see here it did fine on a crappy day like today. Should work like magic once summer, shit, SPRING decides to actually show up!

So here it is, my first attempt at creating an ‘action’ GoPRO film. Please be sure to let me know what you think. Thanks.

Oldtimer Bazar Redux

I did a writeup on Wrocław’s Oldtimer Bazar back in October, but I’m pretty sure it will be a recurring topic as I keep finding cool new stuff every time I attend. The original write up is here: Oldtimer Swap Meet.

The most recent show took place a week ago and even though it’s still winter and there was quite a lot of snow on the ground the turnout seemed pretty solid. Not too many bikers, but a lot more gear and a lot more old school parts. From old Schwalbe frames to gas masks, that show keeps impressing me with sheer variety of crap for sale. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, so perhaps there’s someone that’s been looking to restore an old Simson scooter, from ground up no less.

I really admire people who can take a piece of crap frame and through hard work and patience come up with a scooter such as the one seen above. There are times when I think to myself that I could do that, too, and then I usually have to sit down, relax, and wait till that thought goes away. Maybe one day…but not any day soon, that’s for sure.

I did however catch the Supermoto bug recently, with my purchase of the FMX and all, and found a couple of cool Supermoto bikes at this swap meet. I actually sat on a Yamaha XTX-660 and didn’t find it to be too tall, that was actually why I never considered it for myself to begin with. But I found an even beter toy shown for sale on a trailer nearby. A BMW GSX 650. Wow, what a cool looking machine that was. Very pricey, but I think that’s just a BMW standard, and only meant for a single rider, ever, but overall that BMW was pretty nice.

One of the most odd thing to see was some WWII memorabilia, swastika on crates and stuff.

I was surprised to see that the motorcycle stunt guys were doing their thing even though there was snow all around. It seemed that all drifting was much easier, obviously since it was wet everywhere, but wheelie stunts and stoppie’s seemed borderline suicidal.

The only part I can’t quite figure out is what that old school motorcycle did under the same tent with the stunt riders. I can’t image it was used for any stunt riding, or was it?

The car selection was very small at this meet. I spoke to the owner of this Willys made for the Russian market (check out the instructions plates in Russian) and he told me that everyone backed out due to too much salt on the road. Poland salts their roads heavily in the winter season.

And last but certainly not least is my pop, who no matter who’s junk will always find something for himself.

Giant Wrocław

I was walking through Wrocław the other evening when I came across this giant lawn chair. I’ve seen it before, it just never occurred to me how big it was until I saw an illegally parked car directly underneath it.

The chair is 9 meters tall and is made of smooth concrete. It was designed by Tadeusz Kantor and completed on August 11, 2011, even though the project itself was set in place in 1970! Now that’s some serious bureaucracy for you. The chair looks pretty cool at night, but I will try and take some photos of it during the day as well.

I also came across a rhino sculpture, this town is full of weird surprises.

My Funmoto

And the winner of my motorcycle conundrum is… Honda FMX 650.

Truth be told, I was thinking of giving up on the idea of motorcycle ownership altogether. Somewhere between not knowing what type of a motorcycle I wanted and seeing my savings account actually have some money in it I wondered if a two-wheeler of my own was a good idea. But then as I did my daily Honda FMX eBay check I not only found one close by, but found one only 2 miles away from my home. Now I’m not a superstitious person, but if that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.

I visited the seller the next day with my buddy Tomek, my personal guru when it comes to motorcycles. Tomek graduated top of his class in mechanical engineering from Wrocław’s Technical Univeristy, has his own motorcycle garage where he services bikes, and spends thousands of miles every year on his Honda VFR. One wink from him that this FMX is a dud and we walk away. But that wasn’t the case. Besides some minor scratches and one big one on the left exhaust cover, Tomek gave the bike a green light even after admitting that riding a Supermoto is like riding a horse…it just felt weird to him. Yet that’s exactly what I was after.

With a green light to buy, I did it, and for the first time in my life, at 31 years old, I became a motorcycle owner. By the way, even though I officially bought this Honda a day later, I saw it, rode it, and made a small downpayment to buy it, all on the day of my 31st birthday. So Happy Birthday to me!

I rode it in to work the following day, a move I regretted at about the half way mark when it started to SNOW! In my defence, it did not snow when I left. But now that I got that first ride out of my system I have no problem letting it sit in my garage for another month or two. I actually got all my paperwork done today, taxes, registration, insurance, so starting today it’s officially official.

Seen here are a few mobile phone photos I took today, I will surely post something better once it gets at least 10 degrees warmer.

I simply love this thing. It’s exactly what I wanted coming from my dad’s old Honda XR250L. This has the same feel, same familiar ride posture, just a whole lot more oomph when you hit the throttle. And that dual exhaust with a deep thumping even when standing still…music to my ears. If there was one thing I could change it would have to be the speedometer. My dad’s ’94 Honda had the same exact thing, no change 11 years later seems a bit weird. But simplicity is sometimes key, and this Honda while not known for being best in class feature-wise, is well known for its reliability.

Of course during my first ride I did also manage to test its off-road capability, and failed. As it is now, this FMX does not do off-read well. But I found this photo online and am seriously pondering the same wheel change to my machine. Make it more endure than supermoto, but I kind of like it.

The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity

The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (GOCC) is Poland’s biggest charitable foundation, helping collect money for children’s hospital equipment. They’ve been saving lives for over twenty years now! Every year just after Christmas the foundation starts collecting donations, a charity drive that ends with concerts and events all across Poland, dubbed ‘The Great Finally’. Every year around this time the media is abuzz doing their part to promote the foundation, and while listening to the radio yesterday I’ve learned that in some hospitals across Poland if it wasn’t for this charity drive there would be no life saving equipment, period! Polish health care is a pretty broken system that’s been overhauled time and again with no real life results. The GOCC skips all the bull shit and tells the citizens of Poland the sad truth straight; we need to buy this equipment for this cause, this is how much it costs, and here’s where it will go if we get the money to buy it. And for over 20 years now people have reacted with passion.

Every donation is rewarded with a red heart label and today Wrocław was flooded with hearts! It’s such a great feeling to see how many people participated in this cause. Volunteers with donation ‘cans’ crisscrossed the city today and even police robots did their part in collecting donations.

GOCC is so well known for their great work that pretty much every major government agency, hobby club, dealership, etc., does their part in collecting money for kids. It was a little odd seeing soldiers patrolling the city today, in full uniforms, guns, grenades and all. There were full blown commando squads walking around, too. Scary looking dudes, with red hearts plastered on their automatic weapons. The police department, firemen, search and rescue squads, army, everyone was collecting even the smallest of donations. Smaller clubs did their part, too. A local motorcycle club showed up even though it snowed in a couple of inches of powder over night, and an off-road club gave rides to kids on a small obstacle lot. There were plenty of musicians scheduled to play throughout the day, I happened to be there when a young all-girl band was up, and they did pretty good for a garage band.

Seeing it all was great, but here’s what really made my day. The lady seen below casually walked up to this hobbyist with an old gun arsenal and asked if she could hold the automatic rifle. When the guy tried to show her how to use it she full told him “Son, I lived through the war and shot this before, have you?” People around couldn’t stop laughing as this lady kept talking about her shooting skills and basically schooling the guy on his on weapon. She mentioned some awards she got back in the day for her bravery and it was really interesting, albeit a bit funny, to hear her talk.