Charm City Motor Bikes

Pete’s Cycle — A review

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:08:33 +0000

A general review on my past and recent experiences at the Baltimore location of Pete’s Cycle. I can honestly tell you that I will never be using them for the purchase/sale or repair of a bike of mine. Nor will I ever recommend them to anybody, nor will I be purchasing any parts of any sorts from them.

Pete's Cycle Customer Experience Review
Service Department
Terrible. I had an oil leak the 2 times I dropped the bike off for oil changes. They forgot to attach the lower part of the fairing, so the middle plastic connector got pressed against the headers from the wind and melted. They took 1 month to get my bike back to me last time.

Accessories Department
Friendly staff, mediocre selection

Parts Department
Friendly staff, and knowledgeable. They can get what ever you want in a timely manner.

Sales Department
Mediocre and lackluster.

Overall
I have made it a decision to never shop here again.

MotoGP 2009 Kicked Off

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:43:52 +0000

After the cancellation of Sundays event due to severe showers at Losail, MotoGP 2009 kicked off the following Monday morning.

Stoner had an amazing start and immediately started pulling away from the pack, Capirossi pulled ahead excellently snatching second, with Rossi in third and moving to fourth when Lorenzo pulled in front of him. Rossi was forced to race, battle and pass Lorenzo and Capirossi which lost him valuable time and tire traction loss. This early abuse of the tires caught up to Rossi, even as he started making time against Stoner’s lead, unfortunately for him he had to slow down to conserve grip and he settled for second place. Capirossi lost ground to Lorenzo and then to Dovisioso and then lost control of the bike due to front end chatter. Lorenzo and Dovi fought for a while, Lorenzo pulled ahead, then Dovi lost the fight to Colin Edwards who finished the race a solid 4th place.

Those bikes looked beautiful under the floodlights of Losail, their scintillating finishes were amazing to behold. I can only imagine how beautiful they looked standing next to them.

Results follow:

1 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team
2 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team
3 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team
4 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team
6 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini
7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
8 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing
9 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini
10 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP
11 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team
12 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team
13 Sete GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando
14 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team
15 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP

A dual reign for Haga – Valencia Results

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:06:16 +0000

Number 41, Haga, stole the show this past weekend at Valencia, Spain. Pulling out a double first place finish, Haga showed the world his kingship. In the first race Spies lost his front wheel and subsequently crashed his bike, ending with a DNF. In the second race Spies battled his way to second place from 5th and even battled Haga at one point. 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th were hotly contested in the second race, with Hopkins going from 8th to 12th in the last lap of the race. What a wonderful weekend. Final results shown below.

Race 1
1. Noriyuki Haga JPN Ducati Xerox 1198 23 laps
2. Michel Fabrizio ITA Ducati Xerox 1198 +3.677 sec
3. Max Neukirchner GER Suzuki Alstare Brux GSX-R1000 +3.959 sec
4. Regis Laconi FRA DFX Corse Ducati 1198 +4.210 sec
5. Leon Haslam GBR Stiggy Racing Honda CBR1000RR +13.824 sec
6. Yukio Kagayama JPN Suzuki Alstare Brux GSX-R1000 +14.562 sec
7. Tom Sykes GBR Yamaha WSB YZF R1 +15.155 sec
8. Max Biaggi ITA Aprilia Racing RSV4 +16.316 sec
9. Shane Byrne GBR Sterilgarda Ducati 1198 +20.361 sec
10. Broc Parkes AUS Kawasaki World Superbike ZX-10R +23.878 sec
11. John Hopkins USA Stiggy Racing Honda CBR1000RR +30.902 sec
12. Ryuichi Kiyonari JPN Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR +31.298 sec
13. Ruben Xaus SPA BMW Motorrad S1000RR +32.660 sec
14. Makoto Tamada JPN Kawasaki World Superbike ZX-10R +36.588 sec
15. Tommy Hill GBR Hannspree Althea Honda CBR1000RR +43.040 sec
16. Karl Muggeridge AUS Celani Suzuki GSX-R1000 +45.204 sec
17. Ayrton Badovini ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R +52.023 sec
18. Luca Scassa ITA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +52.474 sec
19. David Salom SPA Team Pedercini Kawasaki ZX-10R +55.755 sec
20. Matteo Baiocco ITA PSG-1 Kawasaki ZX-10R +56.202 sec

Race 2
–Pending WSBK Data–

WSBK – Valencia SuperPole Results

admin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:56:37 +0000

Ben Spies once again grabs super pole, and this time it is on his spare bike with settings he had not yet tested. Lol, this guy is insane. His 1min 33.270sec lap placed him 0.685sec ahead of Regis Laconi of DFX Ducati in Super Pole 3.

Looks like the new bikes (BMW and Aprillia) had some troubles on this track, they were no where to be found in the final super pole.

1 19 B. SPIES USA Yamaha WSB Yamaha YZF R1 1′33.270
2 55 R. LACONI FRA DFX Corse Ducati 1098R 1′33.955
3 41 N. HAGA JPN Ducati Xerox Team Ducati 1098R 1′34.908 1′34.082
4 84 M.FABRIZIO ITA Ducati Xerox Team Ducati 1098R 1′34.259
5 71 Y. KAGAYAMA JPN Suzuki Alstare BRUX Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′34.755
6 76 M.NEUKIRCHNER GER Suzuki Alstare BRUX Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′34.903
7 65 J. REA GBR HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.056
8 7 C. CHECA ESP HANNspree Ten Kate Honda Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.346

WSBK: Valencia

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:55:27 +0000

The first round of qualifying is in from Valencia. No surprise as to who is in the top 3. Free practice showed some definate timing diferences to what actually happened when the numbers really counted during the qualifier.

Biaggi surged to first, with Spies and Haga following suit, separated by a mere thousandths of a second. John Hopkins first appearance at 18th, and his fellow MotoGP’er Shinya Nakano at a solid 11th in the Aprillia RSV. The numbers are below:

1 3 Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′34.775
2 19 Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1′34.907
3 41 Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1′34.908
4 84 Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1′35.243
5 66 Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1′35.270
6 96 Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1′35.278
7 76 Neukirchner M. (GER) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′35.285
8 71 Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′35.316
9 65 Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.328
10 9 Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.372
11 56 Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′35.416
12 55 Laconi R. (FRA) Ducati 1098R 1′35.489
13 11 Corser T. (AUS) BMW S1000 RR 1′35.516
14 91 Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.535
15 7 Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.541
16 23 Parkes B. (AUS) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′35.662
17 24 Roberts B. (AUS) Ducati 1098R 1′35.755
18 121 Hopkins J. (USA) Honda CBR1000RR 1′35.868
19 67 Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1′36.051
20 25 Salom D. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′36.086
21 100 Tamada M. (JPN) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′36.189
22 31 Muggeridge K. (AUS) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′36.266
23 111 Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1′36.404
24 86 Badovini A. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′36.745
25 99 Scassa L. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′36.758
26 94 Checa D. (ESP) Yamaha YZF R1 1′36.906
27 33 Hill T. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1′37.041
28 77 Iannuzzo V. (ITA) Honda CBR1000RR 1′37.509
29 15 Baiocco M. (ITA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1′37.541
30 88 Resch R. (AUT) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1′38.225

LCR Honda Liveries

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:14:26 +0000

Randy DePuniet’s LCR Honda Team acquired PlayBoy as a sponsor and unveiled their bikes new colors emblazoned with PlayBoys sponsorship. The team took some colorful photos the bike, Randy, and some PlayBoy model. Some of the photos were quite showy in the skin department, with both Randy and some girl partially nude.

Playboy’s USA site had no information on the sponsorship. Looks like this is a Playboy Italia deal, and all information concerning this advertisement deal can be found within the Italian website.

Im curious as to how Playboy intends on promoting this at the MotoGP events, considering that the events are kind of “Family” oriented.

Welcome to Charm City Motorbikes!

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:34:04 +0000

Welcome to the site. I hope this to be an informative source of all things motorcycle as it relates to Maryland.