St. Stephen

Wet! Drought stricken, wildfire plagued norcal...and we get a washout! Only 170 miles for me but lots of fun. Thanks Jeff, really appreciate you calling the ride. Great to see you, TJ and Jim again, and meet Mason. Not an RC-51 day...

Mountain View, 253 and 175, looks like a great route for a Tenere 700. Hmmm Fine with me, I love all those roads. But you just eliminated all thoughts of bringing the RC-51! 😎 Thank goodness for 7 inches of Ducati suspension travel! I will not meet at the San Rafael SBUX, but will join the group in Point Reyes Station as I did a few years ago. Specifically, at the gas station at the north end of the main drag at 4th & A Street aka Rt. 1. I'll be there at 8:30. Looking forward to a great ride. edit: watch out for speed traps around the Nicasio reservoir!

Benvenuti Pietro! Good looking 6th gen, and the Ferrari is pretty nice also!

lol! I did notice it was the brake lever, but then I thought "shoot, it's Grum, as usual he must know something I don't!" When I got back to the U.S. from one of the great rides of my life in NZ, I told riding buddies that it wasn't too hard to ride on the left side of the road, but clutching and shifting with my right hand and foot was hell! Some of them bought my story for a minute or two. 😎

RC1237V better bring his 7th gen or we all might be banned from VFRD for organizing a ride without any VFR's! 😎

I'm in, confirmed. 😎

This popped up in my inbox this morning from Revzilla. I'm a fan of Ari & Zach, plus it is the RC30! https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/retrospective-review-1990-honda-rc30?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=08/21/2021_CT&utm_term=Common Tread | Combined

Hey Tirso, no membership required! I was the newbie in the group a few years ago when I moved to norcal (I was probably the tone-deaf guy who got to bang a tambourine, to stick with the "band" metaphor). Take a look at some of the archived rides here in USA - West to see some great photos by BrianF, a really good photographer and generally our fearless leader. Kernville to Roseville in 36 hours, fun stuff. Jeff has PM'd me and we have talked about a September ride, so let's stay tuned.

Hey, respect the toaster! Purchased new for cash in 2003, only 155K on the clock. This vehicle has funded many motorcycle purchases!

Shoot! Been reading your posts and was hoping I'd convince you to help get my Honda Element down to a 1:40 at Laguna Seca. 😎

Hey Jeff, aside from RC1237V--and honorary bay area hooligans sfdownhill and duc2v4--I don't see the rest of the "band" on VFRD much anymore. I agree a group text would be effective, happy to help out with some phone #'s if needed.

Haha, same for me! Heading south into Olema a Porche flashed his lights. Sure enough, there he was under a tree at the intersection. Made sure I put my foot down at the stop sign! Beautiful bike you have there. Red Honda paint always looks even redder in the sunlight.

Today I put precisely 77.9 miles on the RC51 on roads in my back yard, fantastic roads actually, but unfortunately during the summer occupied by vehicles both 10 times larger, and 10 times slower, than my bike. This time of year it is a know hazard, tourist season, but this afternoon I actually had above-average miles of perfectly paved winding coast road open to me and the RC. To be fair, our locals are very nice about pulling over into the frequent turnouts, as the signs tell them to. Tourists not so much (can you say Mustang convertible?) As always, the rule-of-thumb here is that the more cows you see, the more bugs you have to remove from your face shield. Rolling through Tomales I made a spur-of-the-moment left turn towards Dillon Beach, then cut through back roads towards Valley Ford. Looped back south through Nick's Cove, Marshall (I don't like oysters), with hardly a rolling RV roadblock to slow me down. What a great road! By the time I got to Point Reyes Station the parade had slowed to a crawl, but I turned east at Olema to the back roads that I know, bumpy but thinly traveled. I will never sell this bike, what a hoot. 😎

MBD can be a terrible wonderful disease! Good luck this winter, my bet is that it will be a keeper. Too bad you folks have to keep so much snow removal equipment on hand, there would be room for several more bikes in that garage! Every time I am about to post some really snarky comment on VFRD I stop and remember that my VFRD brothers and sisters are going to guide me every step of the way when I finally buy that 5th gen. Keep us posted on your progress.

Jeff! Hope all is well, sounds like it is. I will be on the east coast the weekend of the 28th, damn. Am definitely up for the follow-up ride.

Never seen that but thanks for posting Bowf. I use the Givi ring system, which is very good, but the Givi tank bag zippers suck! I'll take a look.

Say it ain't so Dutchy! Sorry to see that great SP-2 go on the block. The original bodywork and colors will sell better but of course I prefer the Castrol livery.

11 years ago my son spent the year in Indonesia teaching in eastern Java. My wife had the crazy idea that we should visit him when she saw a photo of the 18" lizard living in his house in Gentang. So we did. Two motorcycle photos. Sort of... ☺️

Captain, I'm drooling. The wheels, the case/coolant hose guards, the exhaust, clip-ons, and whatever you did to the clocks, just beautiful. What would you charge me to rent it for a month? 😎

Follow up: Of course to ride a demo bike you have to hand over your contact info. The emails have started flowing. Can anyone on VFRD translate this message from Livewire into English? 😬 Immerse Yourself in a New Experience Our goal is to create a bold new understanding of motorcycling in the collective consciousness of our cities and escapes by leading the electrification of two wheels and beyond.

Agreed, raYzerman. A solution in search of a problem. A little bit of old oil left is no big deal IMHO. The biggest issue I've seen is shops consistently adding too much new oil. I've had to siphon oil out after service. Excess oil:

Bent, you're no pussy, you just want to keep riding. Buy the bike that allows you to do that! In the back of my mind there is a Can Am in my (hopefully distant) future, when I no longer can balance or worse, when I lose that all-important confidence that I have all the skills necessary to hit the road with a helmet on. (hey, note to self: are trikes allowed at track days? Have to check...). Can't help you with your Wing purchase but please keep us updated and, of course, post photos.

Great point. When I moved to CA I assumed that DMV inspection and compliance for motorcycles would be incredibly tough. Instead there is nothing! Not even SMOG tests, or safety inspections every few years. Much more lax than for cars. Apologize for hijacking the thread PedalHead.

Dutchy, as I'm sure you know, Harley Davidson has never, ever, used plastic on their bikes. In fact, they have also never, ever, used suspension from a Japanese company owned by Honda. Or water cooled engines. Or manufactured HD badged bikes anywhere but the good old USA. Can't believe you even asked, geez.