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Laid Off. Time to take a ride


lazyeye

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My job was cut due to the global pandemic whatever. So once I get my affairs in order I'm taking a long ride.

 

That's about the extent of my ride planning so far.

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Possibly helpful... https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap This weather site has a coronavirus map at certain zoom levels. Not that your odds are high of contracting or spreading it on a bike, but it's a lot easier to find open businesses in areas less affected. Also, it's a really good weather map...

 

I've been trying for 3 years now to make a 2 week loop through western Canada, but it doesn't look like 2020 is going to happen either. 

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Sorry to hear about the job loss.  That really sucks.  Several years ago I was unemployed for just over a year.  I was fortunate to still have the means to do some motorcycle touring, and finished my tours around all the Great Lakes with the spare time I had.

If there's one good thing about the timing of your job loss, it's that since it's summer you can save some money by camping to save money while you're on the road, instead of staying in motels/hotels.  I didn't do that, but I'm not much of a camper.  😉 

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I don't care for camping either. My first couple places to visit I'll have family or friends to stay with though so that'll be nice. I'm considering riding down the sierra nevadas, or maybe riding north into BC/YT, but I have to look and see what's "open" right now.

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I don't think the international border is quite as friendly as normal to tourism, but I could be wrong. I just assumed it was out of the question.

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Sorry to hear that; I am in the same bot so I feel you. Please do take the ride and take care of yourself.. Once you get a job, you wish you had the time to ride!

It sucks hearing about all the layoffs and the economic impact. It's good that we have a therapeutic hobby. 

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3 hours ago, Marvelicious said:

I don't think the international border is quite as friendly as normal to tourism, but I could be wrong. I just assumed it was out of the question.

The last DHS update I saw effective 16 June was that "non-essential" travel between US / Canada remains prohibited, which includes recreation and tourism.  Even if open,  the risk is that a relapse or "2nd wave" hits and you can't get home.  

 

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I'm seeing the same thing on Canadian websites. Guess I'll do that trip next time.  Still lots of places to go. North Cascades, Sierra Nevadas, Monument Valley...

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  • 2 weeks later...
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When I first posted about my layoff on my socials, my first girlfriend from college (happily married now) said "If you're ever in *cityname*, I'll buy you a beer". I like free beer so I packed a change of clothes and plotted a somewhat twisty course down to South Central Oregon. We met at a pizza joint where she does Trivia weekly (they'd just started allowing dine-in in this county) and shared pizza, beer, and talked about our respective industries. She's one of my smartest friends and has the gift to be able to have a rational conversation without thinking that her opinion is the only right one. So we can talk about current events without arguing. After dinner I went over the hill to see my folks, and the next day had lunch with my brother and dad, then sped home to file unemployment paper work.

 

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The weekend before my layoff I had done a run out to Eastern Oregon that was fraught with bad weather, and my riding buddy had a breakdown. It was supposed to be a bigger group but as with group travel things always fall apart. Well one of the people that was part of that group planning to begin with said "Hey Lazyeye, let's do the Eastern Oregon thing since I have a three day break coming up".

Day 1

Good enough for me, lets go! He lives quite a bit north of me so we met in Prineville for lunch. Being a motorcycle person is funny because you attract attention from people that'd normally ignore you. At lunch a middle aged guy with lots of tattoos talked at us about how he used to ride (has osteoporosis now) and partied with the Hell's Angels in Oakland. After lunch we were off to more interesting roads. We didn't have a really firm plan and no motel reservations. Our first interesting road we had to scrub because of road work, but found some other cool roads near Dayville/John Day and eventually moved east through a collection of highlighted roads on my Butler map. We'd get to a junction, pull out the map, and choose a road. We stayed in Baker City which gave us a choice of cool roads in all direction.

Day 2

We set out to hit a gold highlighted road that lead us into Idaho to Cambridge. Turns out it wasn't that great and burned a lot of our time. On the way back we decided to hit the Hell's Canyon Overlook. If you're in the area you owe it to yourself to spend half an hour there just appreciating the view. On the way up we both got waved by a sheriff on the twisty roads. You don't get that in Western Oregon... We worked our way further on to Joseph for lunch at the base of the Wallowa mountains, another place you could plant yourself to watch the view for quite a while. Joseph doesn't have interesting roads in all direction though and we had to get stuck in slow traffic for the next hour to LaGrande. It was hot and we were kind of shot so we had cold drinks in front of Starbucks (No dine in). After 12oz of cold brew I felt like I could rip the arms off of The Rock and we got going again. 244 from Hilgard/LaGrande to Ukiah Oregon was a great way to finish off the day. We checked into a Cabin there and got a late dinner at the only cafe in town. Dinner and a show really because the bar tender had to throw out a belligerent drunk. At closing time in front of the bar we met a group from Portland and shared beers with them on main street. I love the wild west.

Day 3

The only retail gas station in Ukiah is a cash only place that looks like its closed, and the guy who runs it doesn't keep firm hours. So we cruised down the 395 highway (which has fresh asphalt and wonderful curves in this section) to the next gas station. The businesses in this area have gotten together to publish their own map for motorcyclists that shows paved/unpaved roads, because they want our business.  From there we hit the Blue Mountain Scenic Highway on over into Central Oregon. This is a beautiful ride with good pavement, just watch out for cows. Central Oregon was windy enough to be tiring to ride in. At lunch we parted ways. I cruised on through Fossil and checked out the new chip seal on 218 (its OK, needs time to cure) and on into the central Oregon slab for my way home. The more Portlandified the region becomes the more onerous it gets to get through/past central Oregon to get to/back from the good stuff.

 

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Great ride report and photos!  Thanks for posting them.  Seeing those pics, I really need to get out west on a bike someday.

 

Major props to your buddy for riding a Triumph (Daytona 675?) all that time.  My knees and back would've been screaming bloody murder after just one day, or maybe only a few hours.  😆

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5 hours ago, lazyeye said:

The weekend before my layoff I had done a run out to Eastern Oregon that was fraught with bad weather, and my riding buddy had a breakdown. It was supposed to be a bigger group but as with group travel things always fall apart. Well one of the people that was part of that group planning to begin with said "Hey Lazyeye, let's do the Eastern Oregon thing since I have a three day break coming up".

Day 1

Good enough for me, lets go! He lives quite a bit north of me so we met in Prineville for lunch. Being a motorcycle person is funny because you attract attention from people that'd normally ignore you. At lunch a middle aged guy with lots of tattoos talked at us about how he used to ride (has osteoporosis now) and partied with the Hell's Angels in Oakland. After lunch we were off to more interesting roads. We didn't have a really firm plan and no motel reservations. Our first interesting road we had to scrub because of road work, but found some other cool roads near Dayville/John Day and eventually moved east through a collection of highlighted roads on my Butler map. We'd get to a junction, pull out the map, and choose a road. We stayed in Baker City which gave us a choice of cool roads in all direction.

Day 2

We set out to hit a gold highlighted road that lead us into Idaho to Cambridge. Turns out it wasn't that great and burned a lot of our time. On the way back we decided to hit the Hell's Canyon Overlook. If you're in the area you owe it to yourself to spend half an hour there just appreciating the view. On the way up we both got waved by a sheriff on the twisty roads. You don't get that in Western Oregon... We worked our way further on to Joseph for lunch at the base of the Wallowa mountains, another place you could plant yourself to watch the view for quite a while. Joseph doesn't have interesting roads in all direction though and we had to get stuck in slow traffic for the next hour to LaGrande. It was hot and we were kind of shot so we had cold drinks in front of Starbucks (No dine in). After 12oz of cold brew I felt like I could rip the arms off of The Rock and we got going again. 244 from Hilgard/LaGrande to Ukiah Oregon was a great way to finish off the day. We checked into a Cabin there and got a late dinner at the only cafe in town. Dinner and a show really because the bar tender had to throw out a belligerent drunk. At closing time in front of the bar we met a group from Portland and shared beers with them on main street. I love the wild west.

Day 3

The only retail gas station in Ukiah is a cash only place that looks like its closed, and the guy who runs it doesn't keep firm hours. So we cruised down the 395 highway (which has fresh asphalt and wonderful curves in this section) to the next gas station. The businesses in this area have gotten together to publish their own map for motorcyclists that shows paved/unpaved roads, because they want our business.  From there we hit the Blue Mountain Scenic Highway on over into Central Oregon. This is a beautiful ride with good pavement, just watch out for cows. Central Oregon was windy enough to be tiring to ride in. At lunch we parted ways. I cruised on through Fossil and checked out the new chip seal on 218 (its OK, needs time to cure) and on into the central Oregon slab for my way home. The more Portlandified the region becomes the more onerous it gets to get through/past central Oregon to get to/back from the good stuff.

 

 

Great photos - thanks for posting.

 

Those roads in Eastern Oregon are a collection of "can't miss" roads - and there are just so many of them.  Intensely beautiful scenery, great roads with good pavement - it's like whoever designed them made them with motorcyclists in mind.  We're so lucky to have so much of that so near by.  My personal favorite is the Fossil to Shaniko run - I made that run once a couple of years ago and encountered 2 cars over the 35 mile route.  This past weekend proved much busier and I found myself passing more than a few cars and even a number of bikes.   I also love pulling in to those dusty, one-horse towns like Ukiah, places where the proprietor tosses a drunk out in to the street like a scene out of an old Western movie.  :cool:

 

Regarding the "Come Ride with Us" motorcycle maps, those are very handy.  Oddly last Saturday we were in John Day parked at a grocery store sorting out a few things and I happened to meet the man that publishes those.  He lives there, is 76 years old and owns 9 bikes which he rides regularly.  He said that he didn't really want to "retire", so he combined his motorcycling hobby with his printing abilities he had during his working career to make those.  He drives around distributing them.   The back of his car was full of boxes and he offered me an entire set, which I brought home with me.  Really nice guy.  I didn't get his name, but told him that he is an inspiration to all of us - and that "you don't stop riding because you get old - you get old because you stop riding! :tour:

 

 

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Thanks for taking the time and effort to post up the story.

 

There isnt much better riding than ripping around in Central Oregon !  I hope to do some more of that myself this summer.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Instead of being on the road I'm waiting for my shop to figure out whats wrong with my bike. Probably a result of filling up from too many gas stations with rusty tanks or something. New filter and associated parts are on the way 😞

I will probably borrow my Mom's Vulcan 500 and ride for a week or two on that.

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Plenty of sticker space left on them side cases:goofy:

 

 

I was made redundant in 2016 and went decal hunting as well...

 

 

 

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What's your profession Dutchy?

I'm in Information Technology. Regrettably when bad economic times hit the first things companies do is dump IT workers (after they worked me to death supporting the transition to remote working for the company).

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Governance Risk Compliance, audit.

30+ years with HP, means my age now seems to be an issue. Or the market was and is being flooded with more skilled and experienced candidates 🙂

 

I was halfway though selection to become a tram driver when Covid put all on hold.

 

Upside is plenty of time with my bikes and with my mum in her last year of life. She passed away last december.

 

Worry?

Would it help?

 

 

 

 

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21 hours ago, lazyeye said:

Instead of being on the road I'm waiting for my shop to figure out whats wrong with my bike. Probably a result of filling up from too many gas stations with rusty tanks or something. New filter and associated parts are on the way 😞

I will probably borrow my Mom's Vulcan 500 and ride for a week or two on that.

I bought one of these for my VFR a while back... https://www.guglatech.com/en/prodotto/honda-fuel-filter-m12006-arm-00/

 

Either it works well, or I've had good fuel... Peace of mind anyway. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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While I've been waiting to get my bike back and leave on another epic trip (its summer, all the shops are busy), I've done a few other things. I helped a friend with her new (to her) Street Triple getting new tires on it and a few other things. I borrowed my mom's bike, put a new rear tire on it, and i've been cruising around. Its a Vulcan 500 and its not comfortable to ride. The suspension is also crap so I can't ride nearly as sporty as I'd like. I took a day trip with family. I volunteered at my race organization as a corner worker. The last week I've been trying to get a decent picture of the Neowise comet (and mostly failing).

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Nice pix.  The comet pic is very cool!

 

I don't know about anyone else, but having my bike up on its centerstand or a floor jack while missing a wheel makes me nervous.  I know nothing will happen to it, but it still makes me kind of anxious, and I can't wait to get it back together.

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That's not a centerstand, that's the sidestand. The bike was supported on a front fork stand and rear spool stand. We found out while trying to get the rear wheel back on that my stand was skewed and was compressing the swingarm just a tad, making it impossible to refit. We had to do some bike juggling to get it right, but we got it without any drops 🙂

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9 hours ago, lazyeye said:

That's not a centerstand, that's the sidestand. The bike was supported on a front fork stand and rear spool stand. We found out while trying to get the rear wheel back on that my stand was skewed and was compressing the swingarm just a tad, making it impossible to refit. We had to do some bike juggling to get it right, but we got it without any drops 🙂

Oh, I realized there wasn't a centerstand.  Nicely done on your part, and kudos for helping your friend with her bike!

 

I was just talking about my own experiences.  I use the centerstand when taking off the rear wheel, but both the centerstand and a floor jack (with a piece of 2x4 between the jack and header pipes) when removing the front wheel.  Like I said, it just makes me a little nervous.  I have a friend who rigs up a hoist (I think using a tie-down strap) to hold the bike up by hanging it from a beam in the garage, but since I don't have that, I use the floor jack.

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5 hours ago, TimC said:

Oh, I realized there wasn't a centerstand.  Nicely done on your part, and kudos for helping your friend with her bike!

 

I was just talking about my own experiences.  I use the centerstand when taking off the rear wheel, but both the centerstand and a floor jack (with a piece of 2x4 between the jack and header pipes) when removing the front wheel.  Like I said, it just makes me a little nervous.  I have a friend who rigs up a hoist (I think using a tie-down strap) to hold the bike up by hanging it from a beam in the garage, but since I don't have that, I use the floor jack.

OK Gotcha. I use the centerstand on my VFR when taking off the rear with no other support. If I'm taking off the front at the same time I'll put an old worn out tire under the swingarm to stabilize it because the front fork stand makes the bike lean back a little on the center stand.

 

Last night the air was too polluted and too cloudy to catch the comet, but I caught a cool aspect of the moon.

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