thebaldgeek

Its a long weekend here…..ok, ok, holiday weekend. (I might get used to calling it that some time…. Or not). The occasion is Labor day. We have Monday off, its a rare event, so after going back and forth and around and around, the family decided that they did not want to do any thing, or go anywhere…… So, I thought it would be the perfect chance to explore some more back roads and show some of the family some of the ground I have covered.
Saturday night is the Palomar Star Party. I am thinking about taking a run up there on the bike (I think that road would be amazing at night on the Goldwing) to get some photos of the guys and scopes under the stars. This is to contrast last month were I drove up with the car and had a pretty average 4 hour sesion. I am thinking of sticking with my usual star-scape type photos and want to go back to try it.
So, that might be ride number one, its the one in the most doubt at the moment.
Sunday, Freddy’s friend is heading down about 11am for a vist and sleepover, so I was going to go for a ride with Freddy in the morning, but she is undecided about that one.
If she pulles out. I will take the fork springs out on Sunday morning and change the fork oil as best as I can from the top (ie, dont take the front wheel off and drain them from the bottom).
Sunday afternoon/evening I hope to do a ~3 hour run with one of the kids.
Then Monday morning, if someone will get up with me, we will have a crack at the following trip………

If no one will get up MOnday morning, I will head off on my own.
Its pretty similar start and end to AWR #1. The main difference is the extension at Julian. I have read some nice things about Mt Laguna, so would like to check it out.
According to Google Maps, its a 5 hour, 231 mile (371km) round trip.
I should think that I will take a bit longer to do that since I want to try and force myself to stop and take photos more often. (Its a constant battle I have (note the comment on that link, 6th sentance down from 2 years ago), to stop and take photos, I just want to ride! You get in the grove and not even food will stop you (Just ask Mr Meat Pies aka Gary, about eating on the ‘Wing)).
Anyway, they are the three rides I have planed. Not sure how many will get done, I hope the Monday one at the very least.
The Sunday one has not been planed as yet, it depends on who comes with me and when.

So, I think that sets a new blog record….. the blog with the most number of links in it.

Wow, oh wow. It was fantastic!
We left right on time and as I hinted in this blog, we went north to Hemet. Taking the back way, the traffic was really good (i.e very little for that time of day). Its a bit of a grind through the back blocks of Hemet with 4 way stops and lights impeding our progress. It also was a pretty hot, 36C (97F).
1 hour almost to the minute we broke free of Hemet and started up the mountain. Corners, lots and lots of corners. I missed my photo opportunity, the sign that says curves for the next 28 miles. Its actually 37, but I guess it differs depending on where you start and stop counting the miles of corners.
This road was built by bikers! The curves are perfect, nicely banked and just the right radius.
We have managed to grind the foot peg bolts down to nothing and started eating into the rubber. Will have to see about changing the bolts for something a little tougher soon.
Before long you hit the 25mph limit of Idyllwild. Thankfully its not too long before you are out the other side and start again.
No high speed stuff (from me anyway, I understand that it can get a bit crazy up there on the weekend with all the heroes on their crotch rockets), just smooth. This bike is just so smooth. Love the power and torque of the big flat six. Forget about changing gears, 4th or 5th is all thats required. There is no lugging in either, it just pulls a little less strong in top at those speeds. Leaving it in the one gear means that you are not up and down in speed all the time, and you a just less busy, it also means that you can leave your left foot on top of the peg and so can flip the bike from side to side very quickly and, here is that word again, smoothly.
Before long we were at Banning eating corn chips and having a little road side refresh.
10 minutes latter we were off again to do it all in reverse.
Its always a different road in reverse. You get to see all the things you missed the first time.
With the sun setting, both Amy and I oooo and aahhhh’ed the way back. The colors of the rocks, the pine trees, the corners, the temperature, it all was just about perfect.
We decided that neither of us wanted to spoil the ride with 4 way stops (have I mentioned how much I dislike those things?), so we went the back way, and what a fine choice.
The road opens up and you can put the cruise control on at 70mph (112kp/h), sit back and relax……. Well, a little, there were deer warning signs every few miles, so I was in kangaroo mode and keeping a very close eye out for things beside the road.
As the high beam went on, Amy requested some Armin Van Buuren from the CD player, I was only too happy to comply.
All the way up Amy and I had been chatting, its one of the things I love about taking the kids on the bike. They have nothing to do so they talk. I love listening to them chat away about all sorts of things.
Once Armin kicked in, the bike went quite. Very quite.
I patched him through the speakers and turned it up loud.
It was one of the best times on a bike. Ever.
The twilight colors in the sky, very little traffic, house lights dotted through the desert, a perfect temperature, the nearly full moon throwing our shadow onto the side of the road, we both slipped easily into a state of trance.
And so we rode the last miles home.

After Work Ride number two. (Photos here). Going to be hard to top it, but I am looking forward to trying.

I really wanted to go once a month, and now that I am getting used to the bike, I am even more keen to make sure we have one a month, but the service of the bike has held this one up……….
Tomorrow, Amy and I are going for an after work ride, the second one ever.

I guess there are two things to note, 1. Its a there and back and 2. its been planed for corners.
I am really getting into the way the bike handles. I really like going smooth around corners. Its not about speed, it never has been for me, the thrill has not been scaring myself (or passangers), its been getting it right. This bike really rewards getting it right, and it responds to getting it right. Its a real buzz to ride.
Anyway, its two hours up and two hours back according to Google Maps.
If we get caught with traffic it could take a lot longer. I hope by going east to miss most of the comute traffic.
We might tweak things a little by going up north and going through Hemet on the way there, more corners in daylight that way, we will come home the way shown on the map. (Unless we are really getting it right and are looking for more corners on the way home).
I know its a pretty lame ride compared with the last one, and I am a little disapointed that its not a loop (I like loops), but I just have this corner fetish thing at the moment. You know, if you have an itch………

Went to the DMV today take my off street motorbike license test.
Got through the paper work side of things pretty quick (No, Freddy does not have her license yet). I then sat outside next to my bike in the testing que, not another bike in site…… There were a few people milling around. After about 10 min we stuck up a bit of conversation, they were taking a bit of effort to tell me how hard it was going to do the test on such a big bike.
Really there was no need, I had been down twice to run through the course and I was not all that confident in passing. Its a big bike with a long wheel base, and I was super worried about hitting a cone with the back wheel. I had to go from hard lock to hard lock at walking pace to get around the cones. At the end of the cones is two 1 foot wide lines in a 10 meter parallel circle, you have to ride around it twice, keeping the front wheel inside both lines, back wheel does not matter. Then, after that, you come back though the salame with the cones.
After that test, you ride up staying inside some straight lines and then around the circle twice, then back down the lines again.
I was most worried about the cones, and my new ‘friends’ were not helping very much. One guy was saying that he borrowed a friends smaller bike for it.
The instructor came out in due course and after the formalities were done, he said, well, its a big bike, you might be alright, we will let you take a few goes at it to warm up if you like………

I was sweating like a …..well, what ever it is that sweats a whole bunch.

Anyway, we lined it up, and, applied the technique, and off we went.
Slip the clutch, ride the back brake, hold the throttle rock solid.
I made it through the cones!!!!!!!!!! Round the circle. If you dab a foot, you fail. I made it twice round, and then back through the cones!
Pulled up not sure if I had breathed at all the whole time……
‘Well, you look like you can handle it’. He said. ‘Now for the next test’
The straight lines were easy, the circle is hard, back down the lines and that was it. He wrote pass on the form.

I walked back to the office to finish the paper work, the guys just about gave me a round of applause. ‘That was impressive’ was the comment….. They have no idea how much of a fluke it was!

According to the guy in the office I should have my car AND bike license in about 3 weeks. Yah.

The family came into work to have a tour of the place and meet a few people. It was a good hour or so by the time we got through the factory and the two floors. They seemed to really enjoy the whole visit, and I sure enjoyed showing them were I work and some of the people I work with.

Terry and I did the loop tonight. I put a fork brace on last night (to help with the test mostly), and I have to say, now that I have passed the test, its better than I thought it would be. The handling is just so much sharper than what it was. The annoying thing is that I feel it is still twisting. I have a new front tyre, I will see how it goes with that on, but Im sure I can feel it twist still.
Anyway, Terry loves the curves and I let my hair down a bit, we had a really great carve up of the loop. The foot pegs lost a bit of metal off them…… It was a nice end to the day.