Member Contributer Grum Posted October 14, 2024 Member Contributer Posted October 14, 2024 54 minutes ago, FromMaine said: Grum: You will stay after VFRD school today and write on the chalkboard 100 times. "I will not make fun of other members bikes" When done, erase it, and do it again.😁 Ok I'm sorry..... I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes I will not make fun of other members bikes Dear FromMaine will that do? My fingers are worn out! I'm sorry, Mea Culpa. Happy days! 6 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted October 14, 2024 Author Member Contributer Posted October 14, 2024 11 hours ago, Grum said: Terrible amount of oil leaking from your bike mate. Better get that checked ASAP. Lovely looking 1200. The irony is that, although the first two photos are indeed from Arkansas, the last pic is actually taken on the road down from Mt. Hamilton here in the bay area. So that is actually CA crud and tar snakes on the road. The fog in the distance is covering San Jose. I have now added a proper 3rd Arkansas photo below (with my 6th gen this time), with no oil outside of the crankcase! Anyway Grum, I would have made the same joke if I'd thought of it! 1 Quote
Member Contributer Lorne Posted October 15, 2024 Member Contributer Posted October 15, 2024 (edited) Did someone say Mt Hamilton? I stopped there on my way to the 1999 AMA races at Laguna Seca, then after the races I rode Angeles Crest hwy on the way to Mt Palomar. This pic is about 8 miles west on Mt Hamilton road from the observatory. I seem to recall that road being rather twisty. Edited October 15, 2024 by Lorne add space between photos 2 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted October 15, 2024 Author Member Contributer Posted October 15, 2024 60 miles or so on a perfect day, heat wave gone but not much rain yet. The north side of the hills where the backroads hug close are getting greasy from the lack of sun, but the tourists are few and far between, and, TBH, I only saw two bikes today. Weird. I think I've at least passed 3K miles this year, have to check, not great but better than last year! Edit: planning a trip to nor nor norcal next week if the weather (and fires...) cooperate. 😎 1 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted October 25, 2024 Author Member Contributer Posted October 25, 2024 Yesterday I check tire pressures and oil level, a quick visual walk-around, roll it out of the garage, pull out fast idle, press that little black button below the throttle, and...vroooom! Gotta love Hondas. (and FI) As usual I had bumped into one of the rear view mirrors sometime during the previous month, so I'm adjusting the right one with my left hand on the way to the gas station. Filling up is always a pain since a) every gas pump in America seems to only have two flow rates, Dribble and Blast, and b) the "bottom" of the RC tank is maybe four inches below the cap. Dribble takes forever so try my best to modulate Blast, more or less successfully. And after that, a really fun ride on a beautiful day. 5 Quote
mello dude Posted October 25, 2024 Posted October 25, 2024 Awesome RC51! A bike thats on my bike lust list! 1 Quote
Member Contributer Skids Posted October 26, 2024 Member Contributer Posted October 26, 2024 5 hours ago, mello dude said: Awesome RC51! A bike thats on my bike lust list! Me too, but they are soooooooo expensive. 1 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted January 8, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted January 8, 2025 High pressure has arrived in NorCal and winds are offshore. Great for surfing, sucks for fires in L.A., but it means the north coast will have blue skies right to the Pacific, light winds, and warm temps. And not a lot of tourists in January. Time for a quick trip up to Humboldt County! Now, where is that heated vest anyway? Hopefully a quick trip starting tomorrow that will look like this: 4 Quote
Member Contributer Lorne Posted January 9, 2025 Member Contributer Posted January 9, 2025 22 hours ago, St. Stephen said: Time for a quick trip up to Humboldt County! You lucky dog! Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted January 9, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted January 9, 2025 1 hour ago, Lorne said: You lucky dog! Woof! Great day, about 220 miles, sunny near 60F but every now and then 40's in the valleys. No pics, I'll try tomorrow. Thanks Lorne. 1 Quote
Member Contributer Hingley Posted January 9, 2025 Member Contributer Posted January 9, 2025 What a amazing area you have to ride in, to be honest I never knew Cal ( I assume Northern ) had such county, sure would like to see it someday On the east coast of Canada today it is warm 🙂, -2c with snow on the ground 2 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted January 9, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted January 9, 2025 31 minutes ago, Hingley said: What a amazing area you have to ride in, to be honest I never knew Cal ( I assume Northern ) had such county, sure would like to see it someday On the east coast of Canada today it is warm 🙂, -2c with snow on the ground Well, I only post the good photos! Lot's of very cool rivers in NorCal: My route first followed the Russian River, then after crossing a pass I was in the Eel River watershed, and followed the Eel for about 100 miles to where it meets the Pacific. The pic with my 7th gen a couple posts above is the Klamath River before it meets the Trinity. Roads that follow rivers are very enjoyable. 1 Quote
Member Contributer Lorne Posted January 9, 2025 Member Contributer Posted January 9, 2025 (edited) 6 hours ago, Hingley said: What a amazing area you have to ride in, to be honest I never knew Cal ( I assume Northern ) had such county, sure would like to see it someday My biggest surprise about California is that most of its great motorcycling roads have such little traffic. For example, PCH - the coast road, is emptier than the Oregon coast. Plus, you see more coastline per mile in California. Look up Cal Hwys 96, 49, 108, 89, 25(south end), and 3 on a map, or at pashnit.com for some details. (or check some of my videos on YouTube) Edited January 9, 2025 by Lorne hit save too soon 1 Quote
Member Contributer Captain 80s Posted January 9, 2025 Member Contributer Posted January 9, 2025 Oregon coast (mostly the northern section) is usually a slog. Couldn't wait to start heading east the last time. 2 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted January 10, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted January 10, 2025 Well this was just an up-and-back, not even 500 miles in two days, but hey it's the rainy season (up here anyway) and the weather was pretty perfect. NorCal is pretty scenic, and even when on the 101 I could go minutes without seeing a car going in my direction. As always, sorry it's not a VFR, but...motorcycle...red...V cylinders... Tall and red(wood)...42 F when I took this though Lush and green 4 Quote
Member Contributer Captain 80s Posted January 10, 2025 Member Contributer Posted January 10, 2025 God I'm itchin for a ride. I've just been painting wheels instead. Not quite the same. 1 Quote
Member Contributer FromMaine Posted January 10, 2025 Member Contributer Posted January 10, 2025 1 hour ago, St. Stephen said: Well this was just an up-and-back, not even 500 miles in two days, but hey it's the rainy season (up here anyway) and the weather was pretty perfect. NorCal is pretty scenic, and even when on the 101 I could go minutes without seeing a car going in my direction. As always, sorry it's not a VFR, but...motorcycle...red...V cylinders... Tall and red(wood)...42 F when I took this though Lush and green Glad to see you guys out west riding, and posting! Since it has not been above freezing here for the past 3 weeks and has struggled at that to hit 20f this past week, and yeah that whole snow thing, its time to enjoy riding vicariously through all of you. Certainly better than the alternatives. Lornes post was interesting as I have a friend in Trinidad CA who took me and my daughter for a tour when I showed up on my 85VF1100 Sabre about 12 years ago. I know 96 was one of the roads and I suspect 3 was also. It was a great day for sure. Capt. 80's captured my feelings exactly on Oregon's Coast road on that same trip. I found that headed north on 101 that traffic headed south was absolutely cutthroat when it came to turning left, doubly so when it was just a motorcycle in the other lane. At my daughters request ,after she slammed my helmet 4-5 times, we got off at Lincoln City? and retired to Portland via interior roads for a couple of days break. Coming from Maine I am certainly no expert on great Calf roads for bikes, but I have to say I am a bit surprised I never hear about Rt 20, specifically between Willits and Ft. Bragg. Yes, the first few miles from Willits is nothing special, as is the last few to Ft. Bragg, but in between............Oh Boy. I have ridden pretty much every road worth riding in NC, TN, WV VA etc. and I would consider the middle of 20 to be comparable to Rt 129, or even Rt 151 in NC,, which I consider a to be more difficult/harder to ride. Yes, there are logging trucks, but, I'm used to that up here. I'm curious if anyone here has ridden that road? 1 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted January 10, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted January 10, 2025 12 hours ago, FromMaine said: Glad to see you guys out west riding, and posting! Coming from Maine I am certainly no expert on great Calf roads for bikes, but I have to say I am a bit surprised I never hear about Rt 20, specifically between Willits and Ft. Bragg. Yes, the first few miles from Willits is nothing special, as is the last few to Ft. Bragg, but in between............Oh Boy. I have ridden pretty much every road worth riding in NC, TN, WV VA etc. and I would consider the middle of 20 to be comparable to Rt 129, or even Rt 151 in NC,, which I consider a to be more difficult/harder to ride. Yes, there are logging trucks, but, I'm used to that up here. I'm curious if anyone here has ridden that road? Yes I've ridden 20 a number of times, and it's a great road--good paving, lots of elevation changes, tight 2nd and even 1st gear corners. But like many norcal roads it gets really greasy in the winter as the sun never makes it through the tree cover to the road, and it's one of the few east-west roads in the region, so lots of commercial traffic and rv's heading to the coast in the summer. Maybe that's why you don't hear as much about 20. As you mention, 96 is one of my favorite roads, generally not crowded and it goes on forever following the Klamath. A great loop I've done a number of times is to start in Eureka, 299 to 96, then south on 3 from Yreka, and loop back on 299 or, better yet, 36. A long but really fun day, or split it into two days by heading off on great side roads just as you would do on the BRP. And for the record, my very first multi-day motorcycle trip was in Oregon; Eugene-->Crater Lake-->Coos Bay-->Eugene. I was 17, what a blast. 1 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted April 17, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted April 17, 2025 Well, top trunks... I recently posted on another thread that it took me many years to come around to top trunks. Well, I still think they take away from the garage appeal of any bike, but they sure are useful! My Multistrada is now almost eight (!) years old. When I bought it I splurged on the OEM luggage and top trunk--which is huge. So today is day 2 of a four day ride to and through northernmost CA. I didn't even bring the saddlebags, just the you-know-what. BTW Rt. 96 is just heaven for motorcycles. 😎 5 Quote
Member Contributer vfrcapn Posted April 17, 2025 Member Contributer Posted April 17, 2025 I added the trunk box to my MS and later the wife bday surprised me with the side bags. Barely used them, they still look new, the trunk box gets used every ride. Perfect weather to take a trip, enjoy. 2 Quote
TimC Posted April 17, 2025 Posted April 17, 2025 I have a Hepco & Becker rear luggage rack on my BMW, and have considered adding one of their top boxes for trips. They're spendy but I would love to have waterproof and lockable storage available for long days and trips. Quote
Member Contributer Lorne Posted April 17, 2025 Member Contributer Posted April 17, 2025 On 1/9/2025 at 7:54 PM, FromMaine said: I never hear about Rt 20, specifically between Willits and Ft. Bragg. I'm not sure where I'd rank Cal 20, but definitely below Cal 1 (coast to Leggett) or Cal 128 (coast to Cloverdale). 22 hours ago, St. Stephen said: BTW Rt. 96 is just heaven for motorcycles. 😎 Oh my, yes, Cal 96 is a terrific road. The whole ride is scenic and, as I recall, the twistiest part is between Weitchpec and Hoopa. Which you can view right here - also on a red v-twin back in 2003. 2 Quote
Member Contributer MBrane Posted April 18, 2025 Member Contributer Posted April 18, 2025 Top cases are ugly, but they rock for utility. I didn't like any of the available racks for 5th gens so I made my own out of some spare 1" DOM. It's handy when your hard bags aren't easily removed. Pack street clothes/toiletries in the top case, and you can pop it off to carry into the room. 2 Quote
Member Contributer St. Stephen Posted April 18, 2025 Author Member Contributer Posted April 18, 2025 1 hour ago, Lorne said: Oh my, yes, Cal 96 is a terrific road. The whole ride is scenic and, as I recall, the twistiest part is between Weitchpec and Hoopa. Which you can view right here - also on a red v-twin back in 2003. There's an incredibly over-used phrase in U.S. sports: "the best ability is availability." In other words, talent isn't enough, you have to be able to play all the time. Well, I live near the PCH, one of the great roads, but it can be a tourist/RV parade in the dry season. 96 is the best of both worlds: 130 miles of just great riding with no one else on the road. Every curve is available. Great vid Lorne. My ear worm was Blondie's Union City Blues tho. I do enjoy those tight sections on either side of Hoopa, 500 feet above the Trinity River canyon, but honestly, I really love those 3rd and 4th gear sweepers that just go on forever further north. An opinion that was reinforced a few hours ago... I quietly parked behind Bigfoot this afternoon: 3 Quote
Member Contributer Lorne Posted April 18, 2025 Member Contributer Posted April 18, 2025 1 hour ago, St. Stephen said: My ear worm was Blondie's Union City Blues tho Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time… a long time. Well that’s enough Star Wars trivia. NorCal has so many great motorcycling roads that are usually nearly empty. And Hwy 96 is top notch. We have some good roads in BC but the engineering falls down in the tighter bits. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.