Product Evaluation from RoadBike Magazine

We earned another praise from another motorcycle magazine, this time it's RoadBike. We received a full evaluation and they recommended their readers to "get your own TPX... and you'll save a bundle in nervous energy."

You can read about the evaluation in the August issue of RoadBike, available now on newsstands nationwide.

Ride the Dragon

Ever since I've moved out East everyone here's been telling me how great of a ride the Dragon is and I have to go and experience it. So, when our friends at Twisted Throttle asked us to help them out at Deals Gap during Honda Hoot, I jumped at the opportunity.


The SV at the Gap.

I left at the crack of dawn on Thursday figuring that it'll take me about the entire day to ride to the Gap from New York, and that I'll hit the Dragon before the sun goes down. Sounded good while I was planning it but didn't turn out that way. I hit some traffic in Pennsylvania, where they were doing some road constructions and that held me up for some time, then, I didn't realize that I-40 didn't connect through Knoxville and I had to take a detour, and when I got there, I took a wrong turn and ended up missing Highway 129. After getting myself back on track onto Highway 129, I missed a turn off and ended up on Highway 411. By the time that I found my way back to Highway 129 again, the sun had gone down and I realized that my first encounter with the Dragon was going to be in the dark after about 800 miles of riding.

So, my first encounter with the Dragon wasn't under ideal condition by any means, and I knew that I was getting tired, so I told myself just take it easy and don't do anything stupid, especially with my poor night vision. So I entered the Dragon and took the turns easy. I see single tire skid marks on almost every sharp turn, and they were reminders to myself not to go too fast. After what felt like an eternity but maybe just about 5 minutes in reality, I was getting really, really tired, cold, and hungry, and wanted the ride to be over with. But no, there were more turns, and the Dragon just seemed to go on and on and on. Finally, after who knows how many more turns, I finally made it to the Gap. By then, it was around 10:30, and I was greeted by Erik and Matt of Twisted Throttle with pizza slices and cold beers.

The following day, I was tired from the ride and knew I had a long day of work, so I was off the bike. But on Saturday morning, I was rested up and went on a couple of runs on the Dragon. Man, did the Dragon ever live up to the hype! There were good mixtures of sharp, blind curves with tight sweeps that really made the ride fun. Not to mention the perfect weather and beautiful scenery, and riding fresh during the day was definitely different and better than riding tired in the darkness. I was totally enjoying it.

What made the trip even better was the outstanding staff over at the Gap. Brad, Ben, and all the guys there are all riders and not only do they take care of their customers, they are also a fun bunch. Make that a crazy bunch. If you enjoy roller coaster rides, try to find an excuse to have Ben take you through the Dragon in his Crown Victoria. It's well worth it. Just make sure you don't do it on a full stomach.

It was a fun weekend and I'm glad I finally got some fun riding under my belt. I would definitely recommend anyone a fun filled motorcycling weekend at the Gap. You can camp there or stay in their clean and reasonably priced rooms. They've got a great restaurant and friendly staff to go with it, and not to mention camp fire under the stars every night.

Oh, and the TPX? Sniffed out cops not only on the Interstates, but also on the curves. Yes, there are cops all over the Dragon to remind you to not to ride beyond your limits. They are not really there to spoil your fun, but really to keep the few squids in check as crashes come fairly regularly. There's even a Tree of Shame at the Gap, featuring destroyed bike parts and x-ray photos, to remind you not to go too crazy on the Dragon.


The infamous Tree of Shame.

Anyway, final tally for the trip: 1,752 miles, 6 passes on the Dragon, and no ticket!

Myrtle Beach Bike Weeks and Americade

Man, has it been hectic here at Adaptiv! We were at the two Myrtle Beach bike weeks last month and at Americade earlier this month. Got a lot of riding done going to the events and had fun doing it.

I took the SV down to Myrtle Beach and caught the end of the first bike week, the "cruiser" bike week. The weather was great and got to meet a lot of nice folks, and showed quite a few folks how the TPX works as I had several people checking it out as they walked by the bike.

The following week was the "sport" bike week, and we were at the East Coast Custom Bike Show at the Convention Center. The show had a great turnout and the weather held up for this outdoor event. Best part is that I got to meet one of the biggest names in stunt riding and host of the show Super Bikes, Jason Britton!


Me and Jason!

I had fun at both bike weeks, especially hanging out and talking to everyone. One crazy stat from the Myrtle Beach Bike Weeks: 3,000 tickets issued in the first week. Although I don't know how many tickets were issued for the second week, I wouldn't be surprised if twice that number of tickets got issued as I saw cops pulling people over left and right.

And speaking of tickets, I'm glad to report that I didn't receive one of the tickets issued over the two weeks. 1,664 miles for the two weeks and ticket free, thanks to the TPX.

After a week of resting up, we were on the road again. This time, Americade in beautiful Lake George, NY. The ride was short, relatively speaking, and scenic. We partnered up with two of our dealers there, Twisted Throttle and CycleGadgets. Unfortunately for me, I was so busy that I didn't get a chance to go on any of the rides, but still had a great time interacting with the people at the show.

Tally for Americade: 432 miles and again, no ticket!


Me, my SV, and the Twisted crew.


CycleGadgets' booth and their gadget filled Gold Wing, with the TPX on it!

TPX Featured in Cycle World's "Project Stealth Speed"

So what happens when you get yourself a high performance 08 Kawi ZX-14? Try to increase its performance even more, of course! That's exactly what the folks at Cycle World did when they got themselves the latest ZX-14. They souped up their cherry red ZX-14 with a bunch of inconspicuous aftermarket performance-enhancing products to make their ZX-14 appear stock, when in fact it's anything but.

And guess what, they added the TPX to the bike because "no motorcycle capable of smashing the national speed limit in first gear is public-road-ready without a radar detector... (and the TPX's) on-road effectiveness and ease of use earned high marks."

You can read about "Project Stealth Speed" in their Sportbike issue, available now on newsstands nationwide.

Thank you Cycle World for the props!

TPX and the 08 BMW K1200S

I had the pleasure of spending last Saturday with Shahram Shiva, a freelance writer for BMW ON, Backroads, and the man behind BMWSuperBikes.com. Shahram was given a 2008 BMW K1200S for evaluation from BMW and wanted to use the opportunity to evaluate the TPX at the same time. He had followed our progress since we introduced our products to the industry insiders last year, and being a radar detector user, he was eager to test out the TPX.


My SV kicking it in Brooklyn.

We met up in Brooklyn to install the TPX onto the K1200S. The installation went fairly quickly. We first removed the top panel on the tank and connected the Wiring Harness to the battery terminals. We then removed the left side panel and stashed the wires in the space between the frame and the space underneath the left side panel.


Wiring Harness hooked up to the K1200S.

We also hooked up the Visual Alert and affixed it on top of the instrument cluster, and it looked great, like it was stock with the bike!


Visual Alert on the K1200S.

Since we don't have a mount specific for the K1200S (yet), we used our Universal Mount Adapter with a Techmount. The whole install took minutes and we probably spent most of the time adjusting the Techmount to get it to the right angle and threading the Wiring Harness underneath the fairing.


Tada!

After the installation, we grabbed a bite at Bar Tabac and then went on for some urban riding around Brooklyn. I think Shahram really wanted to test our mount's locking mechanism to see if the TPX would really stay on the bike going over cobble stone roads and crater sized pot holes!


Great food and bikes!

Shahram also shot a video on the overview of the TPX:


It was a fun day, despite the cold and light rain that I encountered on the way to Brooklyn, and I had a great time riding around town with Shahram. Thanks Shahram and we look forward to what you have to say about the TPX!

For more images and what Shiva has to say about the TPX and the K1200S, check out the K1200S Long Term Test thread on BMWSuperBikes.com.

Miami Motorcycle Salon

Notice how good our booth looked with the TPX on our bike?

We were at the Miami Motorcycle Salon last weekend down in beautiful (and warm) Miami Beach. Using the show as an excuse, I got my first long ride in for the season. I took the un-scenic route of I-95 from New York down to Miami and back, as I had time restrictions (after all, it was technically work). It was my first long ride on the east coast. It took me two and a half days on the way down and two days on the way back, totaling 2,836 miles, and no ticket.

On the way down I had beautiful weather. A bit chilly in New York and New Jersey, but warmed up after Delaware. As always, I had the TPX with me. The Jersey cops were out in force as I went through the state, seeing them all over the road pulling over people. I just went along with the flow of traffic and was on good behavior. Didn't really see that many cops in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and traffic was relatively heavy, plus, I had my TPX off as I rode through Virginia because radar detectors are illegal to use there, so I was also on good behavior. It cracked me up a bit as I entered into Virginia because right after the "Welcome to Virginia" sign they had a "Radar Detectors are Illegal in Virginia" sign shortly after to remind you that you can't use them there. Once I got into the Carolinas though, a different story. I noticed that the flow of traffic was significantly faster and I could sense that I could open up my throttle a bit, so I did. I'll just say that my speedometer hit 3 digits quite often going through the Carolinas. I slowed down a bit in Georgia since I had a friend that lived there telling me of horror stories of how bad the cops are there, so I was pretty cautious. My cautiousness and the TPX saved me from a ticket there. I had my lunch break at B&J's Seafood in Darien, and as I was making my way back onto I-95 riding through Darien, my TPX went off. Since I was going at the speed limit of 35, there wasn't a need for me to let go of the throttle. Sure enough, about 2 blocks up the road there was a cop hiding behind a sign pointing his radar gun at my direction. The TPX didn't exactly save me from a ticket as I was going at the speed limit, but had I been going any faster, it probably would have. As for Florida, a lot of cops as I got closer to Miami. I noticed that not all cops would have their radar guns on. Seems like they would only turn their guns on if they have a vehicle targeted.

On the way back, I hit some rain and wind in North Carolina. The TPX held up fine as it is supposed to in the rain. I was pretty much doing the same thing on the way back, being cautious getting out of Miami, opening up the throttle a bit going through Florida, being cautious again in Georgia, then opening up again in the Carolinas, then from Virginia on just pretty much went with the flow of traffic. The TPX did its job again in New Jersey. I was definitely going faster than the posted speed limit and the general flow of traffic on the Turnpike. At around milepost 30, I was cruising along behind a pick up truck. We were both going pretty good, and I was about a good 3 seconds behind. We then approached 2 semi trucks on a slight-right bend on the road. Since the pickup was already in the left lane, it just kept on going, and I was in the right lane, I had to move over to the left lane to pass the semis. As I started to move over, the TPX went off with a weak Ka alert, and I instinctively let go of the throttle. The signal remained and I soon passed the semis and as soon as I got in front of them, I see a cop pulling out from the side of the road and the alert on the TPX stopped. I knew exactly what had happened. The cop was monitoring the traffic and he was either going after me or the pickup truck. I didn't see the cop because the semis blocked my view and I'm pretty sure the pickup truck didn't either. Surely enough, the cop sped by past me and the semis and pulled the pickup truck over. Phew!

It was a great first long ride of the season, and the TPX performed great on the ride. Yes, I'm biased, but I'm always happy to see the TPX work like it's supposed to when I ride with it.

Can't wait for the next ride.

Motorcyclist Magazine Ride Report

Aaron Frank of Motorcyclist Magazine is currently on a ride at Deal's Gap with the TPX. Here's what he said about the TPX so far:

"The system installed just fine (including the visual alert), very fast and straight-forward with no complications at all, which was cool... So far so good - I subject it to 550 miles of heavy, heavy downpour yesterday and it was unfazed! Good signal sensitivity too, and not too many falseies. Good stuff. And no tickets yet!"