Tuesday, March 17, 2009

New Tunes, From A New Toy


I love music and I love hearing a lot of different music, but what I don't like is sitting around creating playlists and syncing music.

For me satellite radio was a godsend because I didn't have to do anything but pick a genre and the rest was done for me and on my ST1300 that works just fine, because I have the space and area to place a radio (or GPS with it built in) and an antenna.

But, when it came to my Uly and now my Night Rod the issue is space. Well, space and the fact that on the NR a bunch of electronics would just look plain stupid!

So when I found that Slacker Radio had introduced a radio I was intrigued and when I discovered that it would update via WiFi I was practically sold.

I found Slacker Radio about 3 years ago when I was invited to a suite to be shown their product and the owner of the company explained how the service worked and how their G1 Radio at that time would be working. That product was a little large for a portable, so I only considered it something usable on a touring bike.

A year and a half later they introduced the G2 Radio, it is much smaller, about 2" x 4" and a 1/2" thick. Perfect for an inner jacket pocket!

Well, I took the radio out of the package, went online and selected which stations (including my own custom ones) I wanted on the G2 and then told the G2 to sync via WiFi. I never plugged the unit into anything and I was ready to roll a short while later.

Now when I come back to the house my stations will update automatically or I can manual make them update.

The sound quality is good, I can see on the screen what is playing and the unit holds 4 Gigs worth of music. So, I'll play with it for a while and check back later.

So far, all smiles!!!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Master of "The Box!"



OK, no more cryptic posts and blogs about kicking cones and continued learning, after 80+ hours of classroom and range instruction I have finally completed my certification as a MSF RiderCoach.

I started this process a few months ago and even before I entered the RiderCoach Prep program I had to complete a Basic RiderCourse and then audit a course from beginning to end.

The process from then to know has taught me a lot about myself and re-enforced a lot of my own closely held beliefs.

As with anything when you break things down to a basic level and then rebuild step by step you help to make sure that you have a solid foundation and your fine skills get even better. I just completed a class with real live students (not other RiderCoach Canidates acting as students) and had an object lesson in the form of one participant that literally went from worst to first in 2 days.

I can't wait to continue to learn and pass that learning on as time goes by and doubt that kicking cones is ever going to get boring!

Congrats to the rest of the guys and gals in my class and I'll see you soon, be it on the range or on the road.