STREET BIKE USA

GONE TO THE DARKSIDE~!

2011-05-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Well I finally found my way into the realm of VICTORY MOTORCYCLES!!!

I just purchased a new 2011 Victory Cross Country model which is only the second year of this models existence. The Cross Models - Cross Roads and Cross Country are termed XR and XC by native "Vicsters" are based on the VISION forged aluminum frame and sport the latest 106 inch, 97 horsepower V-Twin Freedom engine. Hook all that up to a 6-Speed transmission and you are gonna find some fun on the roads someplace... fast!

Victory Motorycles are produced by POLARIS INDUSTRIES and they have hit another home run on their latest design setup yet again. Polaris is doing a great job with their new bike designs, their collaboration with the Ness group of guys, (Arlen, Cory and now Zach too) has definately given them a design advantage over the "straight and narrow" ideology of Harley Davidson. I think that once Arlen Ness got involved with the motorcycle engineering teams at Polaris it was a match made in biker heaven. The new and the old coming together and the results coming out of that relationship are pretty incredible.

I really fell in love with the Kingpin and a Hammer model back in '08 when I first rode them up in Oregon for a test ride, and my best friend bought a KingPin Tour model. I was impressed. When the XC came out it was a no brainer for me!... I needed a large bike with leg room length and HD just wasnt changing theirs in any way for long legged people. The HD Streetglide (HD/SG) was a bike I had ridden thru Glacier Park and although it was nice, it wasnt comfortable without having highway pegs that I could stretch my legs out on.

The XC has floorboards that are about 14" long and I can put my feet under me, in front or stretch them out to just my boot-heels and straight leg it without taking my feet off the boards. This was my main comfort reason for buying this bike. Then being lighter than the HD and able to carry more cargo, well thats a big plus too for me. I also found that the 106 inch motor versus a 96 inch motor as the stock offerring included in the MSRP was a huge VICTORY advantage. HD wants about an extra $5,000 for the 103 inch and up to $10,000 for the 110 inch motor options making a Streetglide CVO MSRP at $35,000!!!!! yea incredible... I know. And the bike and motor design are 20 years old!

I had a chance to ride the XC thru some pretty demanding terrain (Berryessa Knoxville Rd.) the past weekends and although parts of this road didnt allow for very high speed riding it did require some very demanding changes in speed and manuevering ability throughout the ride. Conditions changed constantly with speed, shifting and braking and the XC handled it great. The rear air suspension and inverted front was a big advantage to what would have been back wrenching on a HD/SG. The rear suspension is a mono-tube gas shock with constant rate linkage that reacts like a dirtbike. it has air assist for extra loading. It is very comfortable riding on these crappy CA roads!

Once onto the good portion of roadway outside of NAPA county, it was easy to roll on/off the throttle and spend some good times traversing through the sweepers in 4th and 5th gears. The torque is well suited to using one gear and finding your way through the turns nicely. In the tighter areas I found the constant downshifting messed with the EFI brain and it stumbled a bit, but after I learned to STOP riding it like a Harley that problem quit happening. Harleys require 'rapping the throttle before every downshift, the EFI does not like that!!!!

You can lean this bike hard into corners and it feels very light, it pulls (throttles) hard out of the corners with a very light front end but doesnt feel like its getting away from you, it feels very well grounded at all transitions from decel back to accel, in downhill or uphill situations. The braking is excellent with dual 4-pistons up front and a single 2 piston on the rear. Braking is very forgiving, must be ABS(?) because I was on it hard a few times and worried that it was gonna lockup, but it never did!

Stereo sounds great! and the seat is countoured enough to keep you in the right place. What more could I ask for? just some more time on it!

Dyna 2 is FOR SALE

2011-04-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

After much contemplation and decision making I have decided to sell Dyna and move on to a bigger bike. I have owned this bike since it was brand new in 1998 and rode it home off the showroom floor in Beaverton, Oregon. It has been a great bike and it needs another good home with someone that wants to enjoy it.

This will be a big change in my 'riding life' as I have always liked chopper style bikes and have enjoyed them and all they have to offer. But my wife and I want to do some more long distance cross country rides and having a full bagger will suit my needs a bit better than a hot-rod bike.

Now dont let the chopper/hot-rod nametag fool you, this bike is a good touring bike and will handle the twistie roads better than any other Harley Davidson model out there. Thats what is was designed and built for. Its been all over the western United States and has been a joy to ride with even two-up before my wife started riding her own. This bike will pack up like the best of them and go the distance, but I'm ready for something bigger and "couchier".... Im getting older and my arse needs some good support!

So any takers? I can guarantee that everything is top notch on this bike because I put every part on it and know its entire history. Check out the build writeup and you can see every step I took.

Thanks for looking.

DYNA 2 Finally Completed!!!

2009-06-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

DYNA-2 PROJECT COMPLETED

I want to give a big THANK YOU!!! and a huge acknowledgement to all the people that helped to make this project an overwhelming success in my eyes. I have owned this bike since it was brand spankin’ new in 1998 and when the time came to give the ole-girl a makeover the folks mentioned below came through and provided the help and things needed to make it all happen:

Thank You All for your patience in working with me and my ideas!

LOCAL FOLKS
Mid-Cal Cycle Supply of West Sacramento
Specialized Exhaust of Elk Grove
Mike Wilson Auto Body & Paint of Wilton
M-Pac Upholstery of Elk Grove
SJM Manufacturing of Portland
Davis Motorsports of Reno
AAA Plating of Sacramento
American Cycle of Orangevale
FinishMaster of Sacramento
Tri-C Machine Corp. of West Sacramento
Hose & Supply of West Sacramento

INTERNET SUPPLIERS
Demons Cycle Supply
KC International
2 Orange Harleys
American Classic Motors
Autodynamic / Motodynamic
Cyclehead
Robs Cycle Supply
Xtreme Cycle
Funk Motorsports
House of Harley Davidson
Woodstock Harley Davidson
Eastern Performance Cycles
MC Advantages
Total Performance (Formerly Daniel Boone)

CV Performance

NEW BIKE SPECIFICATIONS:

Billet Front End w/ 6 degree additional rake and 4” overstock length
Billet Headlamp assembly with HID bulb
Carllini Pullback bars
Arlen Ness Rad III Hand Controls
Billet Forward Controls
Billet Mirrors

Pro-Force Billet Air Intake w/ K&N Filter
21” x 2.15” 60 Spoke Front Wheel w/ Avon M90 Tire
18” x 4.25” 60 Spoke Rear Wheel w/ Avon 150mm Tire
Wilwood 4 Piston Brake Calipers – Front & Rear
Russell Stainless Braided Brake Lines, Oil Lines, Fuel Lines, Cables
Polished Mesh style Rotors
Billet Spoke style Pulley -1.125” x 70 Tooth
Secondary Drive Belt - 1.125”
Reworked Rear Swingarm – Shock mounts, Brake stop, Lower support
Reworked Frame – Removed struts & Passenger peg mounting points
200mm Rear Fender installed into frame, hidden struts, custom extension
Custom Rear Tail light Fixture LED with internal turn signals
Paul Yaffe Style Front Fender
Custom 3” Stretched flat top Gas Tank – Flush type cap
Custom Seat and Mounting
Custom Luggage Rack
Custom Chevrons on rack mount
Custom GPS Gauge Console with Garmin Nuvi 550

Modified CV Carburator
Rocker Mounted Speedo & Oil psi Gauge
House of Kolor Paint – Wild Candy Apple Red

THE DETAILS:

Dyna Makeover FINAL

2009-05-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

FIRST RIDE

OK well Dyna "2" was completed this past weekend and I am very happy with the results. Took it out on a short road trip up to Plymouth to shake things down a bit and thats exactly what happened. All was good until about 10 miles from home when the brand new billet shifter pedal fell off the bike as I was turning into a parking lot. Oh well S-hit happens!

Then after that I come to find out that the rear caliper is leaking fluid. I tried tightening it over and over again but to no avail. It was obviously a product issue and Wilwood and their suppliers were happy to help me out.

The bike doesn't handle much different with the additional 6 degree rake and 4" overstock extension on the front. But it sure feels different looking over the front end, the whole bike just feels a bit bigger.

So a few more parts need some work and I need to get the gauges and windvest installed, but otherwise all seems ok at this point.

Heres some pics: (Click below, then click on Slideshow)

HARLEY DYNA 2 by PAUL

Dyna Makeover 7

2009-04-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

FINAL ASSEMBLY

OK... So all the new parts that have had UPS and FED-EX delivering night and day to my little 'shop of horrors' is finally coming to fruition. It wasn't enough that my bike parts barely had time enough to dry in the paint booth and the painter never had a chance to see his final work product before I wisked them away to my shop. It was complete fervor working every night and getting everything together so that I could get back on the road and see my new ride twisting heads from every direction. This Dyna is going to be all that... and just when Harley Davidson decided to stop production on this model... Hmm what were they thinking???

Oh well they'd probably just steal all my ideas and make it into some new 'corporate chopper' for the metro-sexual crowd to try and take credit for in some shape or manner. Ok so I am rambling but nothing urks me more than some Wall Street college boy with a manicure, a pedicure and a "Harley"....

Back to the bike, I've decide to just leave the solid color (great decision) on the entire bike because what ever happened with this paint recipe and the application of it made it come out with so much personality that it would be a crime to cover up any inch of it with logos, pinstriping or any graphics. It is absolutley phenominal how it turned out.

So I made myself up a checklist of the installation steps and started going at it. Step 1-Wiring harness, 2)engine and 3)trans in first and connected up all the stuff.... and so on and so forth.

I got most everything put back together in about 1 week with only a couple hours here and there in the evenings. I wasn't in any hurry because the parts at the chromer would be the final holdup to this whole project due to being so busy. They weren't in any hurry to get my parts back to me. Not really a big deal to them, seen one chromed Harley part I guess you've seen them all. So I had time to burn.

Once the parts started going on and I could see the bike taking shape it was exciting to see. Alot of time was spent taping things up so that it wouldnt get scratched during the process. I used painters 'blue' tape and it works really well. It doesnt leave any adhesives or anything behind when you pull it back off.

Got all the "GO" parts on but came up a bit short on the "STOP" parts. Brakes lines were the wrong length and the fittings to make them fit right were wrong too. Had to re-order some more new parts. Had a shopping list of new chrome bolts and stuff to replace in the end and got it all figured out with my local guys Bruce and Robert at Mid-Cal Cycle.

The front end went on with all new bearings, forks went on without a hitch or a scratch... (Thank you God!) got to the rear end and got all the rear bolted up and WTF!!!! The rear pulley had zero clearance to the belt guard. It's always something right at the end, so I had to come up with different ideas on how to mount it without having to do any cutting or re-welding. I shoulda checked this on mockup but I DIDNT thinking it was no big deal. I got it figured out and actually like it better now with the bolt heads on the back side and chrome acorn nuts on the front. Added a larger wheel spacer and a new chrome axel nut and washer and No more clearance issues.

Wheels on, fenders and tank on, and all looking so damn good mmmm mmmm!

Did I mention that it looks good?????

The rear tailight is just freakin awesome, a company named MOTODYNAMIC makes LED lights for many metric bikes but none for the Harleys... (yet). I love this little bit of attention to detail and it is going to be the talk of the town. The turn blinkers are part of the light and blink with Yellow LED's. That is why you see no turn signals at the back end.

Only problem was with Harley Davidson (of course) designing their turn signal switching differently then everyone else. Can't make it simple and easy, they gotta do things the difficult way. I had to basically remove the turn signal 'smart-module' from the circuit and install a flasher relay instead because the smart module wouldnt "blink" the blinker! HD has some newfangled way to turn the lights OFF when idiot riders forget that they turned them on and it screws with the whole system. I got it figured out though... afterall I am an "E"-lectrician.

The LED lights look so nice and I think they are going to be much safer for bikers in the future. These lights are so BRIGHT!!! Night time aint no time to be messin with the likes of this here LED lighted bike.... White LED's light up the license plate frame too.

The light fixture itself was originally made for (dare I say it) a HONDA!... but I made some creative changes and made it fit my bike. The distributor thought I was nuts when I kept telling him "dont worry about what bike its for, I dont care, I just need one close dimensionally" and I found it. Then with some help from Tap Plastics I made it fit my bike the way I wanted it. Looks sic!!!!

More coming

Dyna Makeover 6

2009-04-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

PAINTING

Here are some photos from the paint booth of Dyna with her new paint-job provided by Mike Wilson Auto Body. It doesnt look like much here in the stripped down version but in person the paint looks like it is so wet you could take a bath in it.

The House of Kolor recipe is:

Basecoat: Black
1st Coat: Candy Apple Red Basecoat
2nd Coat: Transparent Candy Cherry Red
3rd Coat: Urethane Clear

This is the frame with the integrated rear fender from a 2009 Softail 200mm rear end.

Close up of the rear fender with the fender struts hidden inside the fender itself. The fender extension has also been customized as part of the fender and now extends to swingarm.

This is the front fender, it is a Paul Yaffe look alike. This came out real nice too.

This is the custom tank that was originally made for a Softail also. The tunnel had to be cut out in the rear and replaced with a square channel to fit the Dyna frame assembly. The rear mount was also added. All the mounting points will be hidden. No gauges on this tank either, just a flat top with a pop-up gas cap.

The other parts that were color-matched were the swingarm, the top motor mount bracket, the horn mount bracket and the custom rear luggage rack brackets that I hand made. The rack part is actually from the new Harley Davidson Rocker FXCWC model.

So this "New" Dyna is going to have multiple personalities from many different Models.

Coming soon.... The New Dyna.

Dyna Makover 5

2009-04-15T12:38:00.000-07:00

BODY WORK AND PAINT

Well the bike has been at Mike Wilson Autobody and Paint shop for the past 3 weeks and has undergone the unbelievable.... the idea that you can simply think up a paint color and have it come out as perfectly as your mind contrives it is... TOTALLY POSSIBLE!!!!

The color that my bike came out when it was finally finished was exactly like I had imagined it. I was almost to the point of losing sleep over this paint job because I was really worried that it wasn't going to turn out like I had planned. Let's just say that I'm sleeping very soundly now.

Before the paint got put on though we had some serious body work to complete. We had to fabricate and weld on a fender extension that typically on a Softail is just a cheap plastic piece bolted onto the swingarm. I didnt want a cheap ass plastic part on this bike, it's better than a Harley at this point! I found a donor fender from a Dyna Superglide and chopped it up. I did some pounding out and some welding here and there and it looked like a Frankenstein stitch job for a bit.

Then Mike got creative and did the beautiful body work that brought it all together. What a Craftsmen!. The fender extension now flows right into the vertical frame rails and looks just perfect. He added the continuation of the fender lip from the factory fender onto the extension also. You really cant tell where one stops and the other begins.

The guys at the shop worked some wonders on the other tins and then it was all sprayed out with House of Kolor paint provided by FinishMaster who helped me get the right colors together in a short amount of time.

The Painting Recipe: first we used a HOK Shimrin Black basecoat on everything, then a Candy Apple urethane basecoat, then on top of that we put a transparent Candy Cherry and then to top it off we coated it with many layers of clear urethane.

It came out so sweet I wanted to EAT IT!. I was playing with the idea of doing some graphics over the tops of the fenders and tank with some marbelizing and flames and then pinstriping it all. But... the color just came alive on its own and I didn't want to cover any of it up. So we left it just color only and it has an insane personality all its own with nothing else to distract your eyes away from it.

Pics of painted bike to come.... Final Assembly next

Dyna Rebuild 4

2009-03-10T14:20:00.001-07:00

FINAL MOCKUP:

New rear wheel 60 spoke 18" x 4.25" chrome Billet hub, new mesh style rotor and spoke chrome Billet pulley on the other side. The shock shown are stock but I am awaiting my new Ultima Billet shocks to replace them.

After getting the fender rails completed by boxing them in with 16 Gauge sheetmetal and welding everything up nice and tight, it was time to get the rear wheel assembly on along with the shocks on the relocated mounts. Just to see how it all fit.

The seat pan was being done by Steve at M-PAC Upholstery. The guy is a genius when it comes to putting anything together with fabric! We decided to use the Badlander seat bottom as a base and customize it to fit this new tank and fender setup. Should be sic!

Next was the front end. I have taken off the OEM triple tree stop that was part of the neck and used a hidden stop assembly instead. This required welding on a small piece of steel that had to be shaped to fit just perfectly to the bottom side of the neck. It also could not interfere with the bearing race installation. Quite a task, but it worked out perfectly.

These new trees are so nice. They are smooth on top and all sides. There is almost no hardware anywhere to be seen.

New front wheel -60 Spoke 21" x 2.15" Chrome Billet hub with AVON rubber on it 90/90 x 21e. The new caliper and mesh brake rotor will be added on final assembly. Still waiting for the front fender....

Here is the mocked up rolling chassis. Nice tank shape!!!!! Cant wait to hear that pipe by Specialized Exhaust.

Next we get ready for paint.... at Mike Wilson Auto Body

And I have some other very unique ideas for a back rest and luggage rack while not messing up that beautiful smooth rear fender.

Dyna Rebuild 3

2009-03-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

FABRICATION TIME

OK... the last couple weeks have been very busy with all kinds of things happening and bike shows and car shows to go and get ideas from. Went to the Easyrider Bikeshow in Sacramento and also the Sacramento Autorama that was just here. Lots of nice equipment out at both the shows. I talked with a few people in the business about painting, colors, pinstriping, graphics etc. I also met Paul Yaffe at the show and talked with him about bike building overall. They guy is really original! That's the way I want to keep my bike, "original" which in my book means not a bunch of HD bolt-on-chrome-crap. It means designing something different then all the rest and making your own. Now thats ORIGINAL.

Basically Im still on track with my "original idea" with some minor changes. Nothing life changing.

BRAKES:

I installed the rear brake bracket and caliper from Wilwood and made sure it was all going to work out OK with the new wheel and tire. This type of setup is a below the swingarm mount. Nice stuff!

SWINGARM:

Since the above picture was taken I have removed and relocated the brake stop and the shock mounting points. I purchased some steel stock and crafted my own shock mounts and brake stop brackets. Everything has been re-welded back into position where I wanted it to be located instead of the Harley factory. Makes for a much cleaner installation and the welds are all smooth, not a bead. I decided to keep the OEM belt guard as I couldn't find anything else that was 'custom' and would fit a Dyna... imagine that?

REAR FENDER:

After getting the swingarm back into working order, it was time to start the rear fender makeover. I purchased a Softail 9" wide fender that is used on the 2007 and newer models with the 200mm rear tires. I really like the style and the fatness... of it.

It obviously wasnt made for a Dyna so some serious fabrication had to be done to make it fit onto my bike. I also wanted to hide the struts so that the fender was all smooth and clean with nothing protruding from it. No Blinkers, No Brackets, No Bolts, No nothing.

Here are some shots of the rear; the Dyna struts had to be almost completely removed just after the upper shock mounting points. The new fender was tack welded into place and the struts that I fabricated were fitted. I used 3/16"x 1" strapping for the new struts and welded them from the inside. They protude from the fender at the shock mounting point and then fit in behind the existing Dyna strut ends that remain.

Then I took and welded up the sheetmetal cut-outs around the struts and continued with the fitment to the frame. This fender will be hard mounted and not remove-able. With a Bob-tail style fender and a swingarm it really doesnt have to be. Next will be fabricating a boxed in cover to complete the 'frenched' in look of the entire rear fender to the Dyna Frame rails. More on this to come also.

GAS TANK:

The tank was located and tacked into place. I fabricated hidden mounts for the front and rear of the tank so no hardware will show on the finished bike. This tank was actually for a Softail also. It took some coaxing but I got it to fit into place after some 'rework'. Basically had to cut out the entire back bone channel and replace it with a square one to get it to sit down low enough on the motor.

Next step will be finalizing the sheetmetals and getting the bike mocked up for final checkout.

In case you're wondering why I still have the engine and trans in the frame.... I didn't know this about Dyna Bikes but the rear swingarm actually mounts to the transmission case. It does not mount to the frame. So the engine, trans and rear swingarm are all one piece that moves together in the rubber mounted installations.

More to come...

Dyna Rebuild 2

2009-02-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

This past week I have completed the tear down of the bike to the point of just the engine and transmission. The front end and rear wheel was removed after taking it down to the shop for some pipe work...

I am doing some changes to the rear swing arm which are mostly just visual more than functional, but they lend to how the eye meets the bikes design and blends the swing arm into the frame. With a Dyna Model, this is difficult. I hope it works with the under-swingarm rear brake system I have chosen from Wilwood.

I purchased a new pipe for the bike but I wasnt happy with it's fitment. The design is almost exactly what I wanted so I brought in a local exhaust shop guy that has done a few exhausts on some bikes. The Hooker Fourbidden header is a great looking design but it is made for a SOFTAIL... as usual.

He was interested in working on the project and I gave it to him to go forward. The bike came back with a totally custom exhaust system with heat shields and baffle. I think that I may do a black ceramic coating on the basic pipe and then have the shields chromed instead of chroming the entire pipe. This will match the black and chrome motor design to a "T". Thank You goes out to Specialized Exhaust in Elk Grove, CA.

Next I received some of the parts from the suppliers that I chose to deal with. I didnt received some from others... more on internet parts later. I got the new 18" 60 spoke rear wheel and the new 150 tire and had that mounted. I got the new front end and put that together and got it onto the bike and got a look at the new stretch and rake.

Next will be the braking system and the drive system to make sure everything fits before the final tear down.

Wilwood has always been connected with auto racing brake products and I have used their products on my race cars with great satisfaction in the past. I was extremely grateful to find out that they now offer motorcycle brake components. In fact I connected up with a good ole friend from my racing past to connect up with Wilwood again at Davis Motorsports. Rich Davis Sr. has been in the industry since it started many many decades ago. He got me all setup with new Wilwood products for the Dyna.

Next will be the fitment of the tins... the new gas tank, the new rear fender and front fender. I will have to find a way to blend the tank into the new solo seat and then into the fender. It shouldnt be too difficult.

Stay Tuned

DYNA WIDE GLIDE MAKEOVER

2009-02-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a long time coming in the decision making process for me to take on a new project. I have wanted to build a ground up bike for about the past 7-8 years, but the 'design' has never really come to me. I have recently really been enthralled with the idea of doing a pro-street makeover on a Dyna series bike. The Dyna models have kinda taken a back seat to the Softail models over the past decade because... well I dont know why actually. The Softail model is certainly not 'soft' for those long road trips but they look good. Thats probably why you see so many of them on trailers going to bike runs. Silly Biker, Trailers are for Boats!!!

Anyway, I scoped out the use of a brand new Softail rolling chassis from a few different places and the costs involved with doing it that way. It came out just a bit more than I wanted to spend right now. So I have decided to take my perfectly good 1998 Dyna Wide Glide (FXDWG) and strip her down and give her a whole new look. She is after all more than 10 years old and still running strong. I love this bike! Here are some "Before-the-Makeover" pictures of Dyna just taken recently for a record of where we started.

THE IDEA: Take a Wide Glide and stretch the neck about 6 degrees and rake out the front about 4" over stock to give it that low slung pro-street look. Install a bigger rear tire and wheel set which involves totally re-doing the final drive. Update the wheels to 60 spoke all chrome hubs, spokes, rims. New tins with a stretched flat top gas tank and wide rear fender and of course new custom paint... Im hoping to do the fender over the struts for that hidden euro frenched in look. Hiding all the blinkers too. (I hate Blinkers) Im doing a bit of work to the rear swingarm, new billet brakes front and rear, billet forward controls, billet open primary belt drive, Carlini Bars (already on the bike), new headlight and LED turn and brake lights just to top it all off. The engine is going to get a freshen up by pumping it out to 96 inches with an S&S kit, S&S carb, and a radically custom designed ground pounding exhaust pipe. It has to be custom made because no one makes parts for the Dynas!... More Softail parts buyers out there I guess.

Finally a totally new dimension in electronics for a bike, with Navigation and a GPS speedo, tach and trip meters all together in a bar mount billet setup. Custom again of course...

So the stage is set, the bike is apart and in a few different boxes all over my garage at the moment and new parts are arriving daily. I will keep up with some updates here and there so you can see whats going on.

Getting Dyna undressed...

More to come....

Update to Blog

2008-12-24T11:58:00.001-08:00

Finally finished the SOCAL 2008 California Ride post, please have a look. Sorry it took so long.

We also did another ride in Northern California which included backroads of the Northern High Sierra, up into Mt. Lassen State Park, Lake Shasta and up into Crater Lake once again. We also made our way across Southern Oregon to the coast too and then home through California wine country. I will add that post and more pictures very soon.

Happy New Year

2008 SoCal Ride - Cruisers n' Curves

2008-08-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

For 2008 the group ride became the Central and Southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, Southern California desert and then out to the coast at Santa Barbara. Finished up by heading North again all the way up the coast to Santa Cruz before turning inland back to Sacramento.

Day 1 We rode to Lake Tahoe (The entire loop), then out through Luther pass to Markleeville then over Monitor Pass to 395 and into Nevada to Topaz Lake for the night. Topaz Lake Casino and Lodge - Great Food and Winnings!

Day 2 we headed south on 395 through Bridgeport and Lee Vining to Hwy 120 (Tioga Pass). This is the East entrance to Yosemite National Park and we started our trek over the pass and it was inspiring to say the least. The weather was perfect, the roads somewhat clear of cages and motorhomes. Sites were everywhere and anywhere you looked in all directions. We ended up coming down into Yosemite Valley and had a late lunch at the Awhanee Hotel Dining Room, Great food! and we headed off again down the road with our sites set on Kings Canyon National Park. This is where we would stay the night in our "rustic cabins"... and yes they were Rustic!

Day 3 We Split up with our friends from Oregon this morning and they headed to Las Vegas and we were on a site seeing venture into Kings Canyon.

We followed Hwy 193 all the way to the very end and it was well worth the 37 mile trip out and back again. The canyon is awesome and more than words can explain. It has to be experienced... on a bike. We paused to stop for some food and photos along the way, saw a baby brown bear coming right down to the roadside. Didnt stay long as we knew there had to be a mother bear around too.

Once back onto the highway heading south we headed into Sequoia National Park and rode through all the big tress... and I mean BIG TREES... they are everywhere!... So many more than even the Avenue of the Giants. These are huge groves of giant sequoias and they are truly magnificent. The road down the the mountain is switchbacks one after another and they are almost perfect enough that you can setup and ride them all the same way. We found a little hamburger joint along the way and had burgers and fries that were like no other! Excellent food. We made our way down the mountain and into the little bedroom town of Porterville for the night. This was a necessary stop as it was approaching 110+ degrees and we needed a pool to sit in and relax... we found one.

Day 4 Springville via Hwy 190, this is another great backroad... out to Kernville and then Lake Isabella, rode around the lake to east and then back south down to Bodfish and Caliente along the winding Bodfish-Caliente Rd. Great road by the way. We ended up coming out on Hwy 58 near Keene and then going towards Tehachapi. We thought we were going to stay in Mojave but there's no town there to speak of so we went into Lancaster... yea well we cant always stay in paradise!

Day 5 We found a really nice road out of Lancaster called Godde Hill Rd leaving from the south valley and ending at Elizabeth Lake Rd. Then we followed that until we came to Lake Hughes Rd. This would take us through some really nice twistys and through some scenic canyons and outlook areas finally ending up at Castaic Lake near Hwy 5. We took a short jaunt south on Hwy 5 until we came to the Hwy 126 turnoff and headed west towards the coast. The climate change was dramatic from when we left early this morning at Lancaster around 8am and 75 degrees already to about 11 am and now it was down to about 60 degrees. But not for long, once we reached Santa Paula we headed north on Hwy 150 towards Ojai. This is an awesome road and drops you right into downtown Ojai. There we stopped for lunch at a sweet little patio restaurant and I had a Reuben sandwich that was incredible. I think it was the Golden Moon Restaurant. It had a huge tree covering the patio, very nice place. It was getting warm again too.

Back on the road we headed west again for a short ride to the coastline at Santa Barbara (or so I thought). We ended up getting onto Hwy 33 heading northward into another mountain range and although it was very, VERY nice roads and spectacular views, I think we were all ready to find a cooler place to just stop and relax for abit. This little route change ended up being about 150 miles and brought us out to the coast near Santa Maria about 65 miles further north than where we wanted to come out. Hwy 33 took us to Cuyama and New Cuyama and about 30 miles of road paving work. And Oh was it nasty... and it was easily 110 degrees out there in the vast open area. We sat at a couple of road blocks for about 1/2 hour each waiting on the "follow me" car and then we had to ride on a gravel roadbed for about 10 to 15 miles at a couple different points. This wasn't fun at all and made us all the more ready to just park and drink heavily!!!.

When we finally got to some good roadway again it was very nice... long curving smooth roadway that let you just ride the throttle on as far as you wanted to pull it. and we did. We finally got into Santa Maria and found rooms at the historic Santa Maria Hotel. This place was real nice and we were treated very well. We had dinner in the restaurant that night and the service was not good, but it wasn't the staff's fault, I would blame this on mismanagement mostly. Too many tour bus people and not enough pre-preparation for all the people to feed at one time. Too bad. The bartenders in both bars were great! Nothing wrong here!

Day 6 This was going to be a day of back tracking and then running back north like a scalded cat to get back on track again. We headed south with our next stop being Solvang. We stopped in Los Alamos for breakfast and it was a cozy little place and just plain good ole home cookin food. It was ran by a guy with the name of Quackenbush, which is a name that goes way back in my own families history. He came out and talked with us all for a bit, we ate our food, and hit the road again. Solvang next!

Our day in Solvang included the girls shopping for this and that in way too many places to look through unless you have about a week to spend there. We also wanted to check out the motorcycle museum at the end of town. It was closed of course. There was a number listed to call on the door, so we called and they came down and happily opened the place up for us to tour at our leisure. What great people. We got to see like 100 + bikes and they are all in just unbelievable condition. What great history with some great bikes. That will fill another blog entry someday.

Back on the bikes we got onto Hwy 101 North and went slabbin for about 100 miles to San Luis Obispo with a stop in Pismo Beach for lunch. We turned off towards Hwy 1 and Morro Bay and made a short stop there to walk out onto the Pier and look out at "The Rock". The pelicans were dive bombing the waters around the Pier too, what a trip!... must have been a huge school of fish swimming around there. We loaded up one more time and headed north into Cambria where we decided this would be a good place to stop and make ready for the next day. Cambria is a great little town off the beaten path just south of San Simeon. This place has everything, great food , places to stay and the people are just awesome. We met a goldsmith there and looked in his shop for a ring for me to replaced my lost wedding band. He had some beautiful stuff and he had a ring that knocked my socks off. He had to re size it for me and since we were on the road he did it and delivered it to our table at the local restaurant we were having some dinner at. We awarded him with a few beers. Thank you so much!

Cambria also knows how to have a good time!... Mozzi's Bar was just reopening after having been closed for 2 years and these folks were letting it all out this night. We were fortunate enough to be there to enjoy all the fun with them.

Day 7 Cambria was a great town for visits and finding some great new friends, we went to breakfast at the local pancake house and ran into our goldsmith buddy, he wanted to make sure I had no regrets from my purchase the night before and also to check out our rides. We had a good bite to eat and hit the road again heading for Hearst Castle at San Simeon. This was a pretty short ride from Cambria and we had some time to burn so we made a couple stops along the coastline there to take in the beauty of Simeon Bay. We met another rider there that was on his way back east someplace on a Honda rice rocket that he had just bought out here. Didnt look too comfortable but to each their own!

We road up to the castle entrance and loaded up on the tour buses to take our tour. What an awesome place and awesome times to have lived in California during the Hearst years. This is really a "dont miss tour" if you're riding or traveling in the area. They have many tours all day long and you can pretty much just walk up and get on one without prior reservations. Weekends tend to be more crowded.

From San Simeon we headed north again on the Coast Highway 1 and into the Big Sur area which had just experienced the devasting fires about 3 weeks before our trip started. It was very sad to see the devastation and destruction that had occurred to a once very beautiful region of our planet. All the mountainsides were burned clean of all landscape and greenery for as far to the east as you could see, every mountain range behind another. It was just scorched earth that was left behind everywhere you looked. We saw lots of signs thanking the firemen and the crews that had come to help out. We saw a few crews still standing by some areas and gave a honk to them as we passed by. Thank You GUYS AND GALS FOR YOUR WORK!

Someplace along Rocky Point we rode into a rest stop and had some coffee and a sandwich. It was right on the shoreline and you could walk out onto the point and look out over the cliff edges to the churning Pacific Ocean below. What a great place on this beautiful coast to be and the weather was simply perfect this day.

After lunch we rode on down into Monterey and blew right on through town on the higway and around the bay towards Marina and Seaside. From there we headed into the traffic ridden oblivion of the outskirts of Santa Cruz or "Aptos" as we locals call it... We stopped at some friends for some downtime and some catching up on our weeks ride and all the things new and old that we had seen. Had a few cold ones and some WHORES-D'OVERS... and then we hit the road again to end up in Boulder Creek for the night. Had a great meal at the local grub-steak place in town and some vintners delights and then it was time for the sack. The next day would be traversing the south bay area freeways and into the central valleys heading for home.... sweet... home.

Day 8 Went to breakfast with John and Vicky and it was such a great morning in the mountains I didnt ever want to leave again. Tink and I set out from Glen Canyon Road to Highway 17 and headed down the mountain. This would be her first time on this highway on her own on a bike in her whole life. But she did a great job, held it just fine through the curves and kept up with me as well as anyone could. This road is one of my favorites, I grew up on this highway on bikes and in cars going to SC to surf. It was actually one of the highways my driving instructor took me up when I first learned to drive. I could probably drive it blindfolded without too much damage (to a car)...

We made it into Los Gatos and rode right on thru to 880 and then cut across to Niles Canyon Blvd in Fremont where it would take us to Hwy 84 towards Sunol. We made our way through Livermore and then up and over Vasco Road through Brentwood and Oakley to the Antioch Bridge. We headed north on Highway 160 or "River Road" and rode all along the California Delta Canals through some more great little towns. I would've stopped at each and every one, but this is our backyard and we see it all the time. Plus we were ready to just get home.

We made it home after many.... miles, I think it was about 1700 or so over the past 8 days discovering more of the beautiful state in which we live.

Epilogue; I have lived in California all of my life with the exception of about 10 years and there is so much to see here and so many roads to travel. There are also so many people, most of them very nice and welcoming when you're a traveller upon the road and have a story to tell. I have found and hope to find more time... time to tell these stories to many more people along my route in life.

I have so much more to see.

This is a version of the trip we made. The trip always starts as 'planned', but will always change along the way.

5 Year Anniversary Ride

2008-04-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

My wife and I hooked up with a few lone riders and made a ride out to Placerville for breakfast and then we went on to points along Hwy 49; Plymouth, Sutter Creek, out Fiddletown road to Hwy 88 junction and then back into Jackson with a short stop in Pioneer for some coffee to warm us up a bit, it was a bit cool. Reminding of our Honeymoon ride but without the rain!... thank you God!

We continued on our jaunt to 49 again and headed south looking for some lower elevations and some warmer weather (hopefully). We ended up in Sonora and found our way to the Gunn House Hotel. We had stayed there once before on our way down to the Laughlin River Run. It was the year of the "Great Casino Shootout" between the Hells Angels and some other group of banditos... Anyway... we found our way to the nearest watering hole there in Sonora after getting the bikes put away at the Hotel and grabbed us up a couple of chairs at Alfredo's Mexican Restaurant and started to celebrating the first five years of marriage together. (We've known each other for more than 30 years now but.... that's a much longer story)

Anyhoo... Had a lot of good drinks and starter foods there at Alex's, then we headed down to The DiamondBack Steakhouse and had us some fine dining. It was real good, had some good local Amador County Wine and then headed back to the room for some..... "TV time".... mmmm hmmmm yea right!

The next day was bright and sunny and COLDER!!!!! I think it was 44 degrees when we left Sonora at about 10 am. We stopped by Jamestown Harley Davidson for a peek at what they had in the window... nuttin special! So we headed off down HWY 108 towards the west and came to Oakdale via Hwy 120 and went around Woodward Reservoir on 26 mile Road to HWY 4 in a round-about way and then continued to head west again. We got to Farmington and met up with Jack Tone Road and followed that all the way into Galt. It's a straight shot without going onto Hwy 99 through the orchards and farmland around the south valley. It's nice if you're not in a hurry and we were not.

Stopped in for some lunch at the local TB and then made our way to the homestead again. All in all it was about 285 miles roundtrip and just a nice easy ride around the Sierras.

Happy 5th Darlin' !!!

Sorry I didnt take any pictures this time around... but if you got to look at something take a look at this!

2008 Trip Planning Again

2008-03-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well it's in the works again to take another trip around the California area again. This is a BIG STATE! This time; SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SIERRAS and THE COAST

It was suppose to be Colorado this year but that will have to wait until next year. Some friends are riding down from Oregon on their way to Las Vegas so we have decided to hook up with them and do a Sierra Moutain pass ride, (Yes all 5 of them) to show them the sites. We'll ride into and around Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks and then when we spilt up from there, we will head Southwest into more of Southern California and then out to the coast... They will head East to Sin-City!

We want to get into the Mojave/Tehachapi areas and further southeast a bit where there are ample goat-trail roads to find and follow for miles and miles. Finding our way into more little towns along the way, New places, New faces all waiting for our arrival. It's all about the adventure... the ride... the people... and the route to which you find your way there.

DEL is a Calendar girl!

2008-02-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

So my wife's bike gets some glory!... "DEL" (Deluxe) as she is affectionately known as, got a glamour shot in the 2008 Pashnit Calendar. This is the awesome shot that was taken by Tim "The Pashnit Guy" during our High Sierra Tour Ride in 2007 going over Monitor Pass.

Tim provides some great tours through all of California and is the best host for a ride anywhere. See all of his pics and read about all of his tours at Pashnit Tours.

High Sierra Tour

2007-09-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

Life Above 5000 Feet

My wife and I just finished with a 3 day tour of the Sierra Nevada Mountains put on by Pashnit Tours. Starting from the southern part of the range at Yosemite National Park, we rode into the valley with the granite mountains surrounding us on all sides, El Capitan, and Half Dome greeting us with such incredible beauty I just wanted to stop and drool... It's no wonder that people come away from this valley so inspired, it really is just awesome. We had lunch at the Awanhee Hotel which was built in the valley sometime in the 1920's I believe and it has been in operation ever since.

We got back on the road with our group of 11 riders, mostly on one sort of sport bike or another from Suzuki, Honda and even a Ducati. My wife and I were on the only Harleys on the trip this time. The mountain highways and passes we eventually would ride during this trip were:

Hwy 120 - Tioga Pass
Hwy 108 - Sonora Pass
Hwy 4 - Ebbetts Pass
Hwy 89 - Monitor Pass
Hwy 88 - Carson Pass

We would visit Mono Lake and also an old ghost town in the middle of Mono County called Bodie. It's now a National Park but it was once a thriving gold mining town of about 10,000 people at its peak in the 1800's.

Heres a few pics to start with:

Half Dome from Tioga Pass

Harleys in Black and White

Lined up on Monitor Pass

Hotel on Mono Lake

Sunrise at Mono

Kirkwood Lookout; Carson Pass

Chopper vs. Chopper

Icehouse Road Forest Lookout

2007 Oregon Trip

2007-08-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Awesome Awesome Ride!!!!! almost 2000 miles in 8 days roundtrip from Sac up to Portland, Oregon and then back again down the central valley. We saw everything along the coast from Jenner, CA up to Astoria, OR and then we went inland to Portland, then Mt. Hood and headed south down the central valley of Oregon's High Desert country into California's Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen and Tahoe National Forests and then back into the Sierra's and then home again.

Crater Lake!!!!! What an incredible site to see on a perfect day.

John and Vicki's new 2007 Victory Kingpin Tour!!!!....

Day 1 / So the trip up into Portland took us about 3 1/2 days and we stayed in Fort Bragg on first night out of Sacramento. The trip out to the coast that morning was up through Napa Valley via Hwy 128 from Davis, around Lake Berryessa and Lake Hennesey. From there we went into Calistoga and found Porter Creek Rd which would take us over the western mountains to Forestville and then to Hwy 116. This was a pretty nice route that I had never been on before, some traffic but not too bad for a Saturday. Hwy 116 would take us through Guerneville, Monte Rio and Duncan Mills which are all along the Russian River waterway. We stopped in at the Christian Brothers retreat (yes the ones that make the brandy) just for a look-see. We spoke with Brother Gus there and had a great view of the river where it comes down from the mountains into basically their backyard. From there we headed out to the seaside town of Jenner for lunch, then we had to put on the leathers cause the fog and overcast skies were setting in upon us.

View of the Russian River from the Christian Brothers retreat

After lunch, we set out on the famous Shoreline Hwy #1 headed north towards the town of Little River. With many places to see along the way and roads that twist and wind through the sculpted ravines of the norcal coastline it was actually a very pleasurable ride... for me anyway. I'm kinda like a 'cat in a bowl of cream' when it comes right down to two wheels and a twisty road, I love it!!! My wife is very trusting of my riding abilites (with good reason) and she enjoys it for the most part but I can sometimes feel her tension when she wraps her legs tightly around me going into a turn really hard. John and Vickie were mostly right behind us, but I know he was having problems with his bike handling abnormaly in turns. Even though it was a 1500cc he said it was still underpowered with two-up and weighted down with luggage. Not a good condition when you're trying to run through turns leaning on your pegs and being smooth at speed. He did just fine.

View of the California Coast near Mendocino

We made it into town and sat down at the Little River Inn bar to get a front row seat to watch the sun go down. We all had coffe drinks because we were all pretty cold at that point. It turned out that the sun was still pretty far up in the sky and we had alot more time to kill doing something more productive then sitting around a bar so we decided go on out and do some more riding. Fort Bragg was still another 20 miles away so we headed for our final destination of the day.

Norcal coast near Fort Bragg, CA

Day 2 / We ventured up Hwy 1 now north of Mendocino and the road heads inland to the Hwy 101 Interchange. This is a really extremely twisty section of road that lasts for probably about 30-40 miles and it was just incredible! We also finally caught the sunshine again after having alot of overcast skies since coming out on the coast in Jenner the day before. We rode into the "Avenue of the Giants" to get a glimpse of the most enourmous trees ever seen by man (or woman). Absolutely incredible is all I can say...

Avenue of the Giants

After wandering through the redwoods, taking lots more pics and video and then running into thousands of people at a Reggae Festival going on in Paradise (what better place to have it?) we headed back out onto Hwy 101 and went north to Ferndale which would be our stopping point for lunch. My sister and her family live there just outside of town so we met up with them to take in some sites and grab a bite at Curleys Grill at the Victorian Inn on Main St. It was real good, service was great and the sites were great too! Lots of old Victorian buildings and construction type stuff if you're into that and all the history behind it. (I am) After saying our goodbyes and stuff we headed off again down the road to find our way towards Eureka, McKinleyville and Crescent City and then cross the border into Oregon country...

Downtown Ferndale; all buildings are Victorian era

We made a quick pass across the border, I grabbed the camera out of my pocket a clicked a shot just as we passed the border sign, and then John and Vicki stopped to take some more 'professional' shots themselves with a little extra thrown in...

Underway again we passed into Brookings and then along some more coastal towns and came to the Thomas Creek Bridge which is the highest bridge in all of Oregon.

The View From the Bridge to the Pacific Ocean

We had originally set our sites on Port Orford for our stopping point for day 2 but it was getting dark and we were just coming into Gold Beach ready for some more fuel and ready to eat again. So we all decided to stop short and bed down for the night right there in Gold Beach which ended being only about 15-20 miles South of Port Orford and a great choice for places to stay and eat. We found a place called Jot's right on the Rogue River and our rooms looked out right over the river next to the city bridge. We had dinner that night at the Hotel Restaurant and it was perfection!, I had a Rib-eye steak and Alaskan King Crab legs....mmmm good! I dont remember what anyone else had I was so inthralled with my own food.

Day 3 / Bandon for breakfast anyone?... thats where we ended up...

Downtown Bandon

Bandon is a pretty cool little port side town that reminds me of Santa Cruz, CA a bit. Lots of little shops and touristy stuff, a few restaurants and a wharf with a bunch of boats all ready for their turn at sea.

We had breakfast here at local favorite obviously by the crowds there, we got in quickly though. Behind the bar there was a coffee cup rack with all the locals own private coffee cups hanging for whenever they came in to use them. Pretty cool idea. We ate and got onto the road again; saw a couple of nice lookin’Victory bikes there too.

From there on North it was Coos Bay, Reedsport, Dunes City, Florence and nothing but overcast skies for us all the way up the coast. We were hoping for some blue sky and sun to break through at some point along the way but we mostly just got clouds and drizzle here and there. I always remember the coast being hit or miss this time of year and we just missed it.

We ended up stopping finally in Waldport for lunch, but not before having another funny moment. We were just cruising along at a pretty good clip along the two lane and came into a small town, it may have been Yachats and I was pondering my own thoughts (as I mostly do while riding), my wife on the back and our friends on their bike behind us. Out of the corner of my eye I see this guy on a little scooter, maybe a Vespa or something along those lines coming from the other direction. I really wasn’t paying much attention to him or anything on that side of the street and all of a sudden he is waving one arm full swing over his head and jumping up and down on the floorboards of the scoot. I glanced over and kinda caught a glimpse of this and just kept on riding without a response… My wife says “did you see that guy?” I replied… “Yup! I think I believe what I saw” We giggled a bit and went on. Anyway we get into Waldport and go into a Burger King for a quick hamburger and we sit down. My buddy’s wife asks us “did you see that guy on the scooter” and we all start busting up laughing because it was like the first thing that came to mind. I said “yea, ya think he was trying to get our attention or something?” and the wives simply thought he was trying to get a couple of ‘bikers’ to wave back at him on his scooter… We just laughed because it was really funny that he was making so much effort to be seen and neither of us figured out that all he wanted was a wave possibly… It really didn’t occur to me at the time, because I was focused on the road ahead of me. Quite funny though.

Downed a Whopper and some O-Rings and then hit the road again!.. We went through Newport, Depoe Bay, Lincoln City and then into the Tillamook Cheese Factory just for a look and an R/R stop. Next stop would be Cannon Beach.

In Cannon Beach we shopped a little bit, I found a wine store and bought a couple bottles for the road ahead. We hoped to find a nice place to eat and a place to stay also. We did find a great place to eat, but didn’t, the staff there tried and tried to find us a of couple rooms in the local area while feeding us lots of appetisers and some good drinks, but everything was full so we had to go on into Astoria as that was the only place that had some rooms available and it was getting late. We stayed basically under the Astoria Bridge at the Holiday Inn Suites. Got a 2 bedroom suite for a ridiculous price! We found another nice local bar right there in front of the hotel and had dinner too… finally! Actually we met a generous gentleman that was having a big party there, he offerred to buy us a drink and sat down with us to hear our travel stories. He was so enamoured by our journey and adventures he offerred to buy our dinner too. We told him no and that he was welcome to our stories anytime without cost! He introduced all of us to his party going group of people and we had our dinner and then headed back to The Bridge Hotel...

Day 4 /Portland here we come

Oregon Trip Plan

2007-07-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

August 4th, 2007 - this time riding the Pacific Coast on Hwy 1 and 101 from California's northern areas and then heading leisurely northward into Oregon. Our travels take us through the California towns of Jenner, Little River, Mendocino, Fort Bragg and Ferndale before heading into the Pacific Northwest.

We travel through all of Oregon's Coastal towns with stops in Gold Beach, Bandon, Newport, Cannon Beach and Astoria. Then we will follow the Columbia River along Hwy 30 to where it meets up with Portland and spend some time with old friends that live locally.

Our travels begin again southward towards home via the high plains desert and mountain regions of Oregon's central valley to see Mt. Hood, the Three Sisters, Mt. Bachelor and another loop around Crater Lake before heading into the California central valleys. We pass to the east of Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen and the Lava Beds National Park areas, then down along Eagle Lake and Lake Almanor into the gold country towns of Quincy and Sierra City along Hwy 89. We tried to take in all the twisty roads we could find within the forested areas of the Sierra Nevada foothills further east of the area. Ultimately coming into Hwy 49 and 50 and heading back home after 8 days on the road and almost 2000 miles.

Here was our planned route, we made some minor deviations along the way;

Oregon Side

California Side

Glacier National Park

2007-06-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

See the Glacier Ride Video

TRIP START- AUGUST 2006:

Leaving Sacramento: We took a ride out to Glacier National Park in the State of Montana. It is located partially within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and includes 1000's of acres of pristine forest, gargantuan peaks of glacier carved mountain areas, panoramic valley views and just unbelievable beauty that is so absolutely awe inspiring. It should be added to the "7 wonders of the world" list. I guess that would make it "8 wonders of the world" then yes?...

My traveling partners for this ride were of course my wife, a very good buddy of mine from way back in my younger days John and his wife Vicki. (left)

John (II), another friend from even further back in my history. He just got a new bike and wanted to hit the road with it and enjoy the road life.

The five of us were to travel from California through Oregon and then into Vancouver, Washington to meet up with my other partners Gene & 'Big' Rick which I basically started life together with.

We were all itchin' for a good long ride, both our wives hadn't ever been on an interstate road trip and weren't even sure if they wanted to go at first. Mine was game for the ride, but Vicki was a bit apprehensive of being that far from home and on only 2 wheels. Plus I think everybody was tired of hearing of all my great road stories and wanted to live one themselves!!! Gene and Rick had both been talking about doing something like this for awhile and then one day Rick went out and bought a brand spankin' new 2006 Honda Gold Wing fully dressed out and Gene bought a older used model Gold Wing of his choice. John II had bought a new 2006 Harley Davidson RoadGlide back a few months earlier. John I rides a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 that's fully dressed out and we were riding my 1998 Dyna Wide Glide.

We started our travels from Sacramento, California with 5 people in an SUV and 3 bikes on a trailer... (that was quite a story in itself...) yea we know trailers are for boats but we wanted to get to Oregon in quick fashion with no sight seeing planned on this Northern California run. Our plan was to head into Medford and unload the bikes and make a run up to Crater Lake first thing. And that's exactly what we did.

We made it into Medford by early afternoon and then got the bikes all unloaded and we were off into the mountains of South Central Oregon. This is really a great place to spend many days with all the roads and sites that are available to bikes throughout the Rogue River Valley. Between the coast and Klamath Falls you could easily spend 5 days roaming around and visiting all kinds of beautiful places. We had about 7-8 hours to get up to the lake and take a look see, have a beverage at the lodge and then head back to the hotel before nightfall.

Here was our route the first day from Medford up to Crater Lake Lodge via Highway 62 and 230 and then back down the mountain the way we came. The weather was perfect, we were running basically in T-shirts through the forest on the way up and then enjoyed the beauty of the lake with blue skies as far as you could see. You just couldn't ask for a better day or better friends to enjoy it with. We had 10 days ahead of us and this was a great start.

To Vancouver / DAY 2:

After spending the night in Medford, and taking a captivating ride up to the Crater Lake Lodge for the view off the veranda and drinks in the lounge, we loaded up the bikes again and headed to Vancouver, WA. This is where we would ultimately meet-up with the rest of the travelling pack and begin our ride to "the park"... I must say that I would have rather been riding the bikes through the Rogue River Valley area of Highway 5 up from about Central Point to Roseburg, this is some pretty nice slab riding if you have to ride highways. The thought had crossed my mind a few times to drop the bikes, the guys could ride and the girls could drive. But that thought was soon lost as we blasted through all these small towns and we were into Roseburg before I knew it. Oh well. I'd been there done that many times before this.

We stopped in at Roseburg Harley Davidson just to have a look-see and grab some food close by and then onto the straight, flat and boring drive ahead of us for the next 6 hours up to Portland and then across the border into Washington and we finally arrived to meet up with Gene and Rick in the late afternoon. They had a BBQ steak dinner planned and we got all the bikes unloaded and were checking out all the new things everyone had and this and that and just caught up on some good old times again. Most of us had not seen each other in years. I hadn't seen Rick in at least 30 years and John-II in about 7 or 8. So it was a great time to reminicse on some fond old memories and fun times.

This was a day to actually relax a bit (6 hour car ride???) before the big-takeoff and we did and we enjoyed. Day 3 was going to be a big day for us all and we couldn't wait!

To Idaho / DAY 3:

The morning was phenomenal! as Pacific Northwest weather goes, it was absolutely clear out and the skies were blue as blue could get. There was a warmth in the air that already had most of us travelling lite. The day would definitely be getting hotter as we headed inland and away from the massive water source we would be travelling next to.

Our Planned route would be on Washington State Route 14 along the North side of the Columbia River Gorge. This is an incredible two-lane highway in and amongst the small towns along the shore line until you reach about The Dalles area where it breaks off into different directions. You can still travel along the river on Highway 14 as we did and continue on until we reached Highway 82 at Plymouth. We crossed over to the Oregon side briefly to catch Hwy 730 to the Wallula Junction where we would meet up with The Lewis & Clark Trail or otherwise known as Highway 12. This route actually traverses many of the areas that the Lewis & Clark expedition travelled during their exodus westwards in 1805. Our destination for today would be Lewiston, Idaho.

Our first stop of the day was at Beacon Rock. It's state park along the river that used to be a volcano. The caldera filled with lava rock and the mountain eroded away over millennia and just left this huge rock behind that juts out into the river. Its pretty cool to see. You can also hike up and around the rock to the viewpoint up on top. (We didn't)

We got on the road again and headed toward Plymouth, riding along the shores and through the small towns, we stopped for breakfast at some little place that I cant remember the name of but it was good and we were all hungry, George told us to stop there and ask for his waitress friend.

We crossed over the the river at the "Bridge of the Gods" to Biggs Junction just to get fuel as there is nothing on the Washington side. We then went back to 14 and continued our eastward journey viewing all the dams controlling the flows along this once uncontrolled body of water rushing towards the Pacific Ocean.

Once we got to Plymouth we crossed over the river and rode along the southern side for some more miles and the heat began to melt us. At Wallula we headed away from the waters of the Columbia and into the hay fields of Southeastern Washington. This would be our vision for as far as the eye could see for the next couple hundred miles. We stopped in at Walla Walla, the sweet fragrance of onions was in the air, it is a wonderful smell. All I could think of was onion rings and a big burger smothered in them and Hey look there! Its LUNCH TIME!... We ate.

After getting a bite to eat... We headed off down the road again and through many very nice farming communities Waitsburg, Dayton and Pomeroy. It was extremely hot out and the sun was out in force on this beautiful day. We saw corn fields that never ended and wheat and hay that was light brown waving in the warm breezes and ready for the cutting. We saw 'crop circles' all over the place as these farms are automatically watered with huge circular water rigs hundreds of yards long that move all on their own. Makes for a neat looking patchwork of land.

Soon we finally came upon an oasis in waiting... Trees! glorious Tree!... a covering to ride under... the highway again runs into some treed areas and alongside the snake river canyon. To say it cooled off a bit is an understatement. It was magnificent! We rode into and through Clarkston and headed directly into Lewiston, Idaho... just across the enticing Snake River.

We chose the closest motel that had a "POOL OPEN" sign out front and inquired within as to their availability. We were ready to take a break for the night right now. A twelve pack of iced beer, a pool and we all met right there after unloading for the days download of sights, sounds and information we had all gathered within ourselves during this days ride.

Just another perfect day!

To Montana / Day 4

This day was to start out very beautifully, end with trouble unfortunately and be the longest day of our entire ride. We would also ride the most miles on this day, with plans to meet up with a good ole friend from my days in the Portland area. We packed up all our gear and got on the road by about 8:30 am (or so) and started our trek up into the Clear Water River Canyon. Here we would see some of the most incredible scenery and experience some of the finest roadwork that man has to offer. This is the entry to Lolo Pass.

As we started heading out of the city limits and into the serenity of the wilds… cars became a thing of memories and we pretty much had the road to ourselves. There were a few big rigs and we would pass them as we came upon them but pretty much open roadway. The scenery along the river is nothing short of awe inspiring. The mountains rising up out of site covered with evergreen trees and the crystal clear waters flowing toward the seas right alongside us. I don’t know who named this river but they sure got it right! Clear Water!

A large portion of Highway 12 in this area runs through the Nez Perce National Historic Park and Reservation. Although you’d never know it by the people around the area, but the town names definitely told you that it was Native America.

We rode by the town of Orofino which is located just across the river from the highway and then on into Kamiah, about another 25 miles. Next town we came to was Kooskia. Hwy 12 cuts off here towards the east and takes you deeper into the mountains. Highway 13 goes to the south and then will end up in Grangeville and head back to Highway 95 for a nice loop back to Lewiston. We were headed east… We stopped for some quick hydration and gas for the bikes because this would be the last point before getting up across the state line of Montana. Signs depicting “No Gas for next 140 miles” means you have to be aware of your mileage out here. So we take off and all of sudden my bike kind of sputters and dies, no power. I pull in the clutch and we’re coasting down the road, I hit the starter and she fires right back up. I pull over and get a feeling of “oh boy”… and my wife… well I can feel the same thoughts in her. So I shrug it off and say “aw... I musta hit the kill switch or something… everything’s just fine" and we take off again. No Problem!

As you come to the end of town and approach the first turn, there’s this big yellow road sign with a squiggly line. The sign reads WINDING ROAD NEXT 77 MILES… All I can say to that is YEEEAAAAAA!!!! And now were headed towards Lolo Peak. Riding into the canyons and climbing the hills in this area, the roads are as smooth as can be. Real nice sweepers and then some tight winding areas and then more curves sweeping up and down to meet the rivers edge from time to time. An umbrella of trees above our heads makes it feel like we’re going through tunnels with shadows and sunlight dancing along side us. This is motorcycle heaven. If any bike was going to breathe its last breath this would be the road that it would have to be done on. Unfortunately for us this was going to be one of those moments that I probably wished I would have never thought about. What is it they say? Be careful what you wish for? Or think of?

We got to the top of the mountain and we saw a turnoff for some kind of lodge and gas and FOOD! It was time to eat and so we pulled off the road and headed down this little dirt road through the trees and came into this meadow like clearing with this little gas station building and then a huge log cabin lodge that was newly built. It was really nice. The open clearing and sun beating down on us while we filled our bikes up with fuel definitely added to the idea of sitting back and having a cold one to relax with. And so we did. We had a great lunch and sat back on the deck overlooking one the rivers in the area. The place was family run and they were pretty busy with everything going on. The food was good and the scenery was awesome as usual.

We paid the bills and went out to our bikes to get ready for the next half of our ride to Missoula. Well the bike Gods were not looking down favorably on “Dyna” again. She just wouldn’t start. We pulled the plugs and checked spark, nothing. The coil was bad again or there was an additional electrical problem. My wife and I could not believe this was happening once again to us on another trip. We didn’t have many choices out here in the middle of nowhere. It was either ride with a friend out to somewhere and get parts or call a dealer to come out and tow it to them and fix it. Both choices would take a lot of time and effort. We were pretty destitute.

There was a truck and trailer in the lot with a couple of bikes parked nearby. I figured I would go over and ask if they had any parts on board, maybe they would have a coil. Two guys and their wives were headed towards Sturgis, South Dakota and they also by chance just stopped in for a bite to eat. The guys’ names were “Big” John and friend Paul. What better names for a couple of guys helping others? Little did we know how much help they would offer. Big John owns and operates Mt. Hood Polaris/Victory Cycle in Boring Oregon.

and although he didn’t have a coil in his trailer to offer us he did offer to tow my bike all the way to the local HD dealer, which was in Missoula, still about 100 miles away. I was overwhelmed, to say the least! So he says "don’t just stand there looking at me get that bike loaded up and let’s go!"... and we did. They all rode the twistys and I rode in the truck with John and Paul’s wives and let me just tell you... Johns wife knows how to swing a big diesel Ford F450 around them turns real well with a trailer in tow. We got into Missoula and found our way to the brand new Missoula Harley Dealership and pulled right up to the front door.

Big John parked his beautiful Victory bike right on the front sidewalk and got off and walked over to a group of Harley Mechanics standing out front. He said to them “Come on over here guys I got a delivery for ya” and we all just had to crack up and laugh out loud... it was just classic, having to be towed into HD and unload ole Dyna from a competitors trailer even. Kinda hard to argue with that huh? Not that I was in a laughing mood, but Big John made my day, literally!

I wanted to pay him for his time and trouble, he wouldn’t let me, I wanted to pay for his gas at least. Nope! I said let me at least buy you and your friends a nice dinner. Nope! He wouldn’t even let me do that and his wife wouldn’t even take my money without him looking. He said that he was paying it forward and if I ever have the chance to help some else out to just do it. I said that’s the best advice anybody can take from another and that I would always remember his generosity. We thanked them again many more times and they packed up their bikes and headed off to parts unknown with their week starting in Sturgis in about another day or so. Thanks John!

The HD dealers are always busy during Sturgis ride week, before and after. We weren’t going to get anything done for a few long hours. I didn’t want to hold everyone up and I said either go on ahead and we’ll catch up tonight. Or …. Well the ‘or’ was more of a wish then a possibility, because I was thinking maybe we could just rent a bike from here and then pick up the Dyna on the way back. Well the wish came true and they had us setup with a 2006 Harley Davidson StreetGlide in a matter of about a half hour and we were packing our stuff onto it and back on the road again. My wife said “Dyna” will be the best lookin' bike in the shop… and she was for a whole week. Sorry Dyna! See ya on the return trip. I’m sure I coulda just bought a part myself and put it on but I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of that right now and we had already lost so much time. It was like 3pm and we were suppose to be in Townsend, Montana by 5pm. That was another 150 miles away… do-able but we still wanted to ride Highway 12. We jammed onto Highway 90 and pressed the Montana State speed rule to its limits… which is drive only as fast as you can!... We were running flat out, I had the StreetGlide up to about 125 when the wife tapped my shoulder and said “that’s fast enough”...

We got off 90 and back onto 12 East towards Helena into some more winding road which slowed our pace down alot more. We cruised on into East Helena. We didn’t get to Townsend till about 7pm. My friend “Weepy” had already taken off into Martinsdale which was our planned final stop for the night. That was another 80 miles out of town. A few of the crew decided that was too far and decided to stay in Townsend. So we had some dinner with them and then John and Vicki and my wife and I made the trek out there. We rode for a good two more hours, it was out in the middle of nowhere and the only light was from the full moon and our headlights. No city lights, no nothing as far as the eye could see, just darkness. We finally got to Martinsdale, where they were holding the town bar open for our arrival at about 10pm. Almost lost in oblivion, damn tired of the entire days goings on, and 450 miles later it was good to finally stop and see some friendly faces… Weepy & Carl.

What a day!

Leaving Martinsdale / Day 5

The cat meowing at the foot of the brass bed, the smell of coffee brewing, a slight breeze blowing the sunlit cotton drapes at the window. It was morning in Martinsdale, Montana. We were staying at the Crazy Mountain Inn, for me it was another of many times but for my compadres it was a first and they were beholding the generosity of folks that I was so proud to share with anyone that cared to appreciate it. The place is run by Cheryl and her husband Peter who are very giving and caring people like most others here in this small town.

I found it by mistake in 1997 while on the way to Sturgis, SD. Myself and 3 others were riding through and got lost off Highway 12 and ended looking for anyplace we could find to get gas. Martinsdale popped up out of the middle of nowhere and it was full of people having a good-ole time during their annual roundup days. We were lucky enough to be welcomed in and be apart of that celebration and I have never forgotten this little town’s enormous generosity since that day. This was my first trip back since around 1999. Times haven’t changed much around here, but it was good to catch up on all the goings on.

Cheryl and Peter served us all up a nice breakfast with all the fixin’s you can imagine and some great coffee to wash it all down with. Weepy and Carl were taking off first thing as they were planning on being in Sturgis this day. They had already been meandering around the countryside (4 States) for a few days trying to burn time waiting for us to arrive just so we could meet up here again.

I had brought Weepy here in 1998 when we saw him and some friends on the road that year going to Sturgis. My family and I were on our way to Yellowstone via Martinsdale that year! So it was a great time to meet up in a place that we all enjoyed and reminisce about old times. John and Vicki were the “new folks in town” so to speak and I’m glad they decided to make the trek out here with us the night before. So while Weepy and Carl loaded up their bikes, we sipped some more coffee, told some more jokes and enjoyed the warm sunlight already shining down.

We were in no hurry to leave this place. We waved “Goodbye’ to the Sturgis bound riders as they rumbled out of town. We could still hear a faint Harley roar as they made there way out onto the highway and headed south at the end of the road. The town was quiet now except for a few people working at the garage next door, where John and I found some older gentlemen sitting around in easy chairs and drinking their “coffee”. At least that’s what we think it was.

We spent the next hour or so just putting things back together and planning on where we would be going to next. We had to meet up with Gene, Rick and John II at a town just to the North of here. We would probably see them around lunch time.
With time wearing on we had to pack our gear onto the bikes again and bid farewell to our friends at the Crazy Mountain Inn and this great little place of benevolence which we all cherished. We wished them all well as we waved “Goodbye” again and for them another thundering exit of our bikes heading out through the end of town.

The two ‘couples’ now on the road again, riding together to meet up with the three single guys somewhere to the north. We headed out 294 which would take us to Highway 89 and ultimately north to White Sulfur Springs, it was the long way but we wanted to enjoy the ride, we were in no hurry. And that was a very good thing, because as soon as we got to Highway 89 we found that they had just finished oiling and putting down new gravel on the roadway… it was fresh! We had to ride at about 10 mph for the next 15-20 miles into town. We made it through with not much more than a little debris on the fender skirts, but I was on a rental. Dyna wouldn’t have like this at all...

We made it into White Sulfur Springs by about 11:30-ish and found the guys’ bikes parked just outside of town at an eatery. We pulled in and made ourselves comfortable and ate again. At least it felt like “again” because I was still full from our breakfast. So we caught up with them on what we did last night and all… and then got back on the road headed towards Great Falls via Highway 89. This is a two-lane road that takes you through some of the ranch lands of Montana before heading into the mountains again towards Highway 87. This is mostly grass and hay fields for as far as you can see and surrounded by mountains all around.

The Crazys to the Southeast, the Bitterroots to the West and the Canadian Rockies to the North. With the blue sky up above on this day I can see why they call it “Big Sky Country”. This highway eventually meets up with Highway 87 which is a bit larger and runs right into downtown Great Falls. We just filled up with some fuel and headed right on through Great Falls. We put a few miles on the super slab freeway 15 up to the 89 Junction and turned towards Vaughn. We could see off in the distance that there was a thunderstorm brewing and it looked to be right in our path. We stopped in Vaughn just to take a look; it was still early afternoon and too soon to bed-down. So we all decided to ride-on.

We came to the Sun River cutoff which would take us to the Northwest more but right into what looked like black skies and hailstorms dumping down ahead.

So we veered to the southwest on State highway 200 towards Simms thinking we could skirt this storm and get around the back side of it. We got into Simms and found that the storm was moving exactly that direction. And we started feeling the rain drops coming down, so we took refuge under the eaves of a large church, which was the only building around besides farmhouses. Although every person I’ve ever met in Montana has always been friendly I didn’t think they would want 5 bikes cruising up their driveway and into their barn without an invite. We did get approached by the pastor of the church as we tried to keep dry during the downpour around us. He was friendly but we could see he was apprehensive about us hanging around there. Once the rain stopped for bit and it looked like some clearing was about us we got back on the bikes and headed back to Sun River since the storm was now ahead of us. We didn’t want to ride back into that. As we were riding it started to come down again but we were right on the edge of it so I just rolled the throttle on and raced the clouds!.... everyone was racing right up behind me too so we ran as hard as we could and passed right through Sun River and ended up back in Vaughn again. Wow what a rush!

So we stop at this motel-type-looking-place but no one really wants to stay here, but the alternative is riding directly into hell… So Gene, Big Rick, John II and the wives go into the office which is also the bar for the place. The bar is filled with patrons seeking refuge from the storm too. Gene and Rick are both well over 300-350 lbs, Rick is 6’7” tall… Gene and John II are both about 6’1”. They all ask the gal at the counter if they have any rooms. She says yea but we only have 3 rooms and each only one has 2 twin beds… So Simple math says Couple 1 get a room, Couple 2 get a room and so Gene, Rick and John are looking at each other like one of us is gonna be on the floor and all of a sudden … Gene asks “So how big are the beds?”… and the entire bar busts up laughing because they see all these big guys in there trying to figure out how they are all gonna fit into a couple of twin beds!... oh it was so funny. Needless to say we decided to roll on again.

We got on the phone and called ahead to a couple towns to see if they had rooms for ALL of us and we got lucky to find a B&B in Fairfield, MT that was willing to accommodate us. Really nice guy, both he and his wife ran the place, Fairfield Park Inn and I think he was retired from the Navy or something like that. So we rode to Fairfield for the night. We didn’t hit anymore rain either. We had dinner at the local eatery and then went across the street to the local bar and had a good ole time chit-chattin’ with the locals and just relaxing at the end of another day.

Heading Into Glacier / Day 6

This is some video footage of entering the parks east entrance:

Click here to watch "Into-Glacier-06"

The morning presented us with a whole new vision of a clean, crisp day to start our ride. We all said our goodbyes to the owners of the B&B in Fairfield that were so gracious to take us all in. It was a real nice place to stay and the townspeople at the local restaurant and bar were fun as well.

Tinker started her m0rning by taking a little spin on John's Kawasaki 1500 Vulcan and Gene and John both wanted to try out the Roadglide I had rented. So it was a 'testride' morning for all who wanted... I would have liked to try Ricks new Goldwing, but I would have preferred about a 100 mile testride instead of around the block. Thats a big cozy, comfy bike!

We hit the road again and headed towards the north again on Hwy 89, we went through the town of Choteau and into the Blackfeet Indian Reservation countryside. The landscape is a bit barron around these parts but it is framed in mountains around all sides with the peaks of the Canadian Rockies far off in the distance. We stopped in Browning for breakfast at a place that appeared to be good by the amount fo cars in the parking lot. Well it was good, but they were a bit overwhelmed by all the patrons I think because the service was a bit slow. It was worth the wait though and we had a good meal to set us on our way.

We packed up the cold weather gear at this point and enjoyed the sun that was warming the valleys nicely now. There were some thunder clouds in the distance but they looked to travelling away from where we were headed. We never did run into any of them that day.

We headed again northwest on Hwy 89, which is also considered part of the Lewis and Clark trail, into Kiowa and then further on into St. Mary's. This is the entrance basically into Glacier National Park on the eastern side. As we began entering the forested areas you could smell fire, it was just days before that these roads were all closed to traffic and there was an emormous forest fire burning in this area and actually many parts of the area were burned clear through the roadway and on into the forest areas beyond everywhere we could see. There was still smoldering lands that we could be seen near the roadway and fire crews en masse were still roaming the roadways also. We gave a big thumbs-up whenever we saw them. "THANKS GUYS!" It was devastating to see all the damage to these pristine forests and all the landscape about us. In the movies I put together you'll see what I mean.

Once we got onto the "Going to the Sun Highway" which is the name of the road that goes directly through the park, it was beauty beyond belief!... the St. Mary's Lake waters and the surrounding mountains were so incredible in size and color... the pictures just do not do it justice. You have to actually be there to witness the enormity of the hugeness of everything around you. These mountain landscapes are enormous, they are rugged, they are sculpted, they are... for lack of better definition just God's beautiful creations that we are so fortunate to behold. It really does put you in your place as a human being in the scope of all things on earth.

Traveling from the east you start on some of the higher elevations and gain even more elevation before beginning to decend down into the bottom of the canyons below where the road ultimatley takes you. We could see the roadway.... way down below us in the valleys as we traversed the higher roads that were basically on the edge of the mountainsides. We stopped many times to take in the continuing beauty of the creeks and streams that flow out of these mountain crevaces. There are many 'pools' of ice turquoise colored waters that are so cold and clear you can drink directly from them. I woudl have swam in them if I had a wetsuit! and it was 100 degrees out, but it wasnt. We got down the mountain into Apgar area and into Lake McDonald, then we stopped at the Lake McDonald Lodge to get some beverages. This is a monument to the park and it is just another example of man's ingenuity in building places to live in extreme places and conditions. It is grand and it is beautiful!!!

After getting 'refreshed' we headed off into the mountain canyons again for about another 25 miles and then out onto Highway 93 north towards the town of Whitefish. This is a small community that is on the northern most end of the Flathead River Valley.

http://www.whitefishchamber.com/images/body/thumb/Fall-Snow.jpg

We made a quick spin through town and then headed south on Highway 93 towards Kalispell. Once into town we just gazed upon the beauty of the surrounding landscapes and I personally thought that I could live here very easily once retired... (Just a pondering moment) The Flathead Valley is named after the Flathead River and also Flathead Lake, which among other things is a gigantic body of water that provides for unending beauty as you ride along the western shores. It is the largest natural fresh water lake in the western United States, it has over 160 miles of mainland shoreline. The largest island within the lake is Wildhorse Island and it covers 2100 acres! The water temp ranges from 36 degrees F in the winter to about 68 degrees F in the summertime.

http://www.umt.edu/flbs/Images/FLBathymetricMap.pdf

We rode on along the waters edge most of the time with incredible views across the lake, there were giant puffy white clouds hanging above us with sunbeams of light streaking through them to the grounds below, lighting our way along the road. The green grasslands along the hillsides were fluorescent with color and the skies were so blue it made the waters of the lake look almost dark navy blue or black at times. The waters were very still and glassy for being such a large lake, it made you feel like you could just walk right on out on top of it.

We made our way down to Polson which is at the southern end of the lake and about 60 miles from Kalispell. It's kind of like a resort town with little hotels and motels along the roadside so you can take in the beaches along the lakefront. We found a great little place to stay and they gave us a great rate and we bagged it in for the night. We had dinner and drinks sitting on the lakeside dining deck of the restaurant, we did laundry and we slept off another long day. But what a beautiful example of this world we live in. This was quite a day!

Starting to Head Home/Day 7

This morning dawned for everyone with a bit of sadness because we all knew that we would be heading back towards home on this day. The thought of everything that we had seen, the beauty, the people, the miles we traveled and everything we had experienced was now going to be replaced with the thoughts of going back to work, dealing with traffic and just society in general... what a terrible thought... !

Back to our vacation... we still had a couple of good days of riding to get in before we got back to Vancouver and then begin the drive back to California with the bikes in tow. John II was seriously thinking about riding all the way home because he just wanted more time on his bike.

We left Polsen that morning all packed up with clean clothes again and headed towards Missoula where we would again be seeing the Harley Dealership where we left Dyna about 5 days before. It was time to pick her up and drop off the rental bike and get her headed in the right direction now that she had a nice rest, new tires put on, a new coil, and a bath from the shop crew there at MS-HD. My wife always says she's the best looking bike around... around the shop that is!

Anyway we got all that done and decided to go back down Lolo Pass again instead of heading through Coer d' lene Idaho to the north. Lolo is such a great place to ride, there are not many cars or trucks, and the roads are smooth and twisty. We made it down the mountain and through the woods and it was pretty warm but there were clouds on the horizon. I could see that these were not just some puffy white marshmellow clouds, these were fat dark, black storm clouds that were blowing in from the west. We figured we couldnt outrun these becasue the entire western skies were covered with them. So we decided that we would ride as far as possible and try and bag down before the rains started.

Well that wasn't very much longer before the sprinkles started and then all of a sudden the skys just went black, daytime turned to night and the rain began pouring down on us. There wasn't even time to stop and put on rain gear at this point becasue we were soaked within the time it took to pull over and see how everyone was doing. I was on point and I said what does everyone want to do??? We all decided to just make a run for the next town (about 3-5 miles) and find a bed. That town was Orofino that is right on the Clear Water River and we ran as fast as we could in pouring down rain, I could barely see the tailights in front of me and we made it into and under the town's gas station canopy to get a breather and wait the rain out for a bit. It let up about 10 minutes later and we just kinda had to laugh and take some pictures of everyone soaken wet!

We made it to the hotel down the road, a Best Western Inn and it was beautiful, they gave us towels and took us all in and had rooms waiting for us to get out of our wet clothes. They even let us park all our bikes under the entry porte cochere area to keep them covered too. Great folks there. We had dinner at the restaraunt next door, a great meal and then we just watched the rain fall for the next few hours from our balconys on the riverfront drinking some wine and taking it all in.

A day in which we had a little bit of everything.... but great all the same.

Leaving Orofino, Idaho / Day 8

Again leaving Orofino was bittersweet, because this was to be the last leg of the ride all the way to Vancouver, WA. We left under blue skies, the weather had cleared and it was very nice out. We gassed all the bikes up in town and headed onto Hwy 12 to the west for the last time this visit. Everyone was riding pretty spread out along the road behind me and I could kinda sense that each of us were all deep in our own thoughts about the trip, the scenery, the roads, the people and the incredible beauty that we had all just witnessed over the past 8 days on the road.

Once we got throught the Wheatfields of Eastern Washington we got onto Hwy 84 and ran the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge all the way into Portland and then across the bridge to Vancouver on Hwy 5. We took the scenic byways around the freeway at a few points and made stops along the way at Multnomah Falls, and Look Out Point. It was an awesome day for scenery looking, and picture taking.

This was definatley a trip that had involved just about everything you could have imagined could go right and wrong at times, riding long lengths of open road, twisty roads, mountains, plains, countryside and cities too. We met some more incredible human beings that certainly regained my faith in the human race again overall. We have all hopefully experienced some fruitful moments during this trip that will provide something within ourselves to pass on to our grandkids and beyond.

Ride to Trinity National Forest & Lake

2007-06-04T07:31:00.000-07:00

Trinity Alps Slideshow

Well we took a little "test-ride" with both of us and a full pack on the Harley Davidson Deluxe that we recently purchased up to Trinity National Forest. We wanted to see how the bike would ride through mountain terrain, curvy roads and the overall feel as compared to my Dyna Wide Glide. We found some really nice roads to enjoy just cruising along and some great scenery all the while testing out the handling and comfort of the Deluxe. Our trip took us up Hwy 99 from Sacramento thru Yuba City and Chico and then into Red Bluff where we connected with Highway 36 West towards Fortuna. This two-lane road (barely at times) is a rolling and twisting stretch of highway out into the hills for about 45 miles to the town of Platina, located at the base of Arbuckle Mountain. There is a little store/bar to grab a cold one or unload whatever you brought along so far…

From there we went further down the highway (about another 10 miles or so) to the next junction which is Wildwood Road. This is basically a shortcut to Highway 3 but it strings along through some great little areas that have some residential ranches, some beautiful meadows and all the while being surrounded by the Trinity Forest. Some spectacular areas to just get lost in your thoughts.

Once onto Highway 3 it was business as usual with a few RV’s and boat haulers going to the lake for some of their own types of recreation. Actually many pulled to the shoulders as we came up and let us pass them pretty easily… Maybe it was just a good weekend and people were in good moods… who knows but I’ll take it when I can get it. Hwy 3 is very pretty and runs along a chasm between two different ranges of mountains. With the sun beating down on us in the early afternoon it was really nice to have the wind in our faces.

We connected with Highway 299 West just before Douglas City and enjoyed the long sweepers and the higher speed turns through the mountains that this highway is known for. Hwy 36 was a tail-draggin, floorboard scraper of a road for the HD Deluxe and it was getting a little old having to slow down so much for some very basic turns. So with all that scrapin of the pipes, I’m sure I’m gonna have to get them changed for my wife because she doesn’t work well with that irritating noise. I don’t think she’ll ever have to worry about scraping the floorboards like I was though.

We got into Weaverville and made it to Motel Trinity; I would definitely recommend this place as a quaint little out of the way place with a lot of amenities within walking distance. Espresso and pastries right next door at Susie’s Bakery, the local hot dog and grocery store just across the street, and The Saw Mill was a great place for prime rib and extra cold beer. From here we went on up Hwy 3 to the lake and followed the lake road on our way towards Trinity Center. We stopped at a few of the campgrounds just to check them out; the water levels are so low right now it’s ridiculous. We headed down Road 160 at Covington Mill and found our way down a nice little residential area and then off into the natural surroundings of the lake wilderness. We came upon an old barn (circa 1878) of a settler that came here with gold in his eyes and ‘settled’ for ranching. His barn still remains and is a national historic monument for people to enjoy. We did.

The "Bowerman Barn" circa 1878

We finally made it out to the ‘water’…. Well the boat ramp made it to the water but the concrete didn’t… if that tells you anything. So this didn’t look like very good prospects for a boating vacation after all, in fact we never made it all the way to Trinity Center, But the ride weekend was really cool. We sped back to the barn for some great pic moments and then we headed back into town for dinner and a bottle of wine sitting in front of our motel room. A great finish to about a 340 mile day overall.

The next day we met a couple that was traveling through California from Missouri and had been on the road for about 12 days. They were beginning their travels back home and we wished them well and we headed off down Hwy 299 and made it to Whiskeytown Reservoir. This lake was filled to brim and was just a beautiful site from every angle!!!

We stopped in and made reservations for a campsite for our family vacation (in just a couple months) so the whole trip was worthwhile afterall. We then rode into Redding for breakfast at the Hospitality Inn, very good! From there we rode Interstate-5 down to Orland and then took off on Highway 32 East. We got to Hamilton City and then turned South down Highway 45. There isn’t much around here except some little towns and when I say “little” I mean they are not even towns... they are ‘intersections’! The only reason you even knew they existed is there was a stop sign and you had to stop and look both ways…

We did stop for a soda at “4 Corners Store" just about a mile from Butte City, otherwise we road along the two-lane with no other vehicles to be seen for miles and miles all the way to Grimes.

At times there were a few “S” turns along the Sacramento river which was always in view along the way. We took a wrong turn at the Grimes/Arbuckle intersection and ended up going west into Arbuckle and hitting I-5 again. From there we be-lined it for home instead of searching out more backroads like we had planned.

Overall for the two days we clocked about 597 miles. Good warmup for our 1800 mile trip in August coming up soon. Got to see lots of awesome California scenery and the ride on the Harley Davidson Softail Deluxe was pretty nice. I am used to a bike that handles the 'curves' much better and am not willing to give that up for a little extra comfort just yet. I must say also that my Dyna Seat was more comfortable then the stocker HD two-seater and my wife will second that opinion. We both wanted off of it as soon as possible.

For a fuel injected model it didnt get very good mileage, about 140 miles to the tank full at 4 gallons. My Dyna goes 160-170 before going on reserve on the same amount of gas. Power and acceleration through the mountains and uphills was more than adequate with two-up and packed down. I would say that with a real nice custom seat added and changing the pipes out to ones that arent as long (stop the scraping) and some work done to the "power commander fuel injection" this could be a very nice touring bike for any type of road you come upon. I'll stick with my Dyna for now though Thank you.

Trip into Locke

2007-05-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

So Tinker had a brand new bike sitting in the garage and it was a beautiful day out so what do ya think we did???? I bet you dont even need 3 guesses!!!!

We took off on the road and tested her out of course!... We headed out to the Sacramento River Delta along Hwy 160 and headed South.

Dont she look Happy!!!!

It was all I could do to keep up with her while trying to take pictures and keep my own bike headed in the right direction....

Here we are in Downtown Locke.... Yep its a one road, one-way town with lots of 'biker' visitors. It was originally founded in 1815... and some of the buildings look like they are still 'barely' standing on the original 1815 foundations! We go here quite a bit to visit friends and the people that run "AL THE WOPS" bar and grill.... It is the best little hometown bar you could ever find on the backroads of America.

Then we had to make a stop at the Ryde Hotel which is on the opposite side of the river a bit further down the road towards Isleton. This place is very nice and serves one of the best brunches available in the area.

This was just a photo op on the side of the road where we were riding across one of the many draw bridges along the river. Arent those 2 hogs just beautiful!

Tinkers New Bike!!!!

2007-05-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

We've been looking for a bike for Tinker for quite awhile... she most graciously gave up her Yamaha V-Star650 about a year ago so I could go out and go Dirt Bike racing once again after a long Hiatious from the sport (about 30 years!) I used the money to buy a Ymaha YZ450F and got the kids all involved with dirt bike riding.... anyway....

Well we finally found a willing donor of their used up goods and made it our own treasure.... isnt their some saying like that of some kind?... One mans trash is another mans treasure?

Like I said... here it is and what a great deal we found on this little beauty:

2005 Harley Davidson Softail Deluxe (FLSTNI) 88b cubic inch motor with fuel injection, power commander system installed, Vance & Hines Shotgun exhaust pipes make it sound real throaty... it has the two-tone glacier white and black cherry paint job, spoke wheels with white wall tires, chubby handlebars with custom grips and pegs. We received a full size Harley windshield brand new still in the box, a custom Wind Vest windshield, the stock solo seat and a two-up touring seat. We also got the stock luggage rack and the stock handlbars, grip set and there is all kinds of chrome accessories already installed.

Like I said this is a gem of a bike and its fully loaded!

Just needs some fine tuning and some adjusting of this and that and I think it'll be a fine addition to the ole stable of steel horses calling our place home for the time bein'.

Tinkers Happy!

Coastline California / The Beginning 2003

2006-10-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

In mid April of 2003 my new bride and I ventured off on a ride for our honeymoon for ‘our beginning’, although our first meeting was 30 years before. She thought it would be a great idea to do a ride out to and down the coastline of California from our home in the central valley. Being the avid biker I am and always wanting to please the wishes of my woman; I obliged her with this GREAT IDEA! We packed up the bike (directly after our wedding day) on April 26, 2003 and headed out on a path that I had spent weeks putting together so that we could see some of the greatest places and roadways along our travels.

We both had been reading and looking at some of the travels of others on a website called Pashnit.com and it was very intriguing to say the least. She had never really been on a long term ride, nor traveled more than about 200 miles on a ride in her life. We were now setting off on a 10 day trip that would take us from Sacramento out to the Northern Coast at Mendocino and then travel south on mostly two-lane twisties and coastal roads to Morro Bay ultimately. Not a cross-country ride mind you, but definitely more than just a breakfast ride to catch some fresh air. The spring of 2003 was a very wet one and we almost didn't think that we would have much of 'dry wedding day' more less a dry ride that lasted almost two weeks. We were forever hopeful on the days leading up to "our special day" and it was a beautiful one. There was rain the day before... it was clear and the sun was shining on our wedding day and then the rain came again the day after, which of course was the day we were leaving. So we dawned our foul weather gear along with our full face helmets and set out upon the road.

We crossed into the Napa Valley on Highway 128 about the time it really started coming down and we ran head-long into some rain that didn't seem like it was ever going to stop. My leather gloves were so soaking wet that we finally had to stop at a store and get something different. I bought some snow gloves that were at least waterproof and kept my hands a little warmer and dryer. I remember they were a kids’ size because my palms didn't quite fit into them all the way. But hey, they were dry! The ride through Napa was very wet and even though we were well prepared for this days ride out to the coast, we still got wet through and through. Even under the conditions we were presented I'd say my wife did a great job of hanging in there and keeping us both going.

From Napa we continued out westward on Highway 128, which is a beautiful two-lane road along a stream bed (at least there was one running at that time) that winds its way all the way out to the coast to meet up with Highway 1 just south of Navarro Point. We headed north on Hwy 1 until we came into the town of Little River. Some friends of ours had told us of small place there that is really nice to stay called the Little River Inn. This place has got allot of history and it is one of the most beautiful places on this earth, even in the rain. (uh yea it was still raining) We went into the office to get a room only to find out our friends had taken care of everything for us and we had the "special suite" across the road for the night.

We walked into a beautiful old style small home that was converted into this great room with a huge view of the wide open ocean right there overlooking Van Damme Beach. There was champagne on the table with a card and flowers with wishes for great time on them. It was awesome and we needed a good drying out next to the fireplace. We took our champagne out onto the private deck, popped it open and jumped into the already waiting and HOT Jacuzzi tub to warm ourselves back up.

Afterwards with the fireplace roaring we just watched the waves breaking in over the rocks and the beach down below us until going up for dinner at the Inn's Restaurant. There was great food and great people with some really interesting stories about the place. It was the best way we could have started off the trip!

Mendocino County Line / Day 2

The next day we headed into the town of Mendocino and found a nice little place in the center of town with some hot coffee. This is a place that is very rich in historical value with lots of old buildings and lots of stories behind them. We could have spent the whole day here but we wanted to get on the road and go someplace else. And that we did... We started heading south again on Highway 1 towards our next destination which would be our breakfast stop. It was someplace along the highway that we found and it was great food but I just can remember where exactly it was at.

We hit some more rain as we headed off down the Coast Highway again and had to suit up for the occasion. We took off to the east onto Highway 116 and into a little town called Duncan Mills. This destination would ultimately bring us some trouble...We had lunch there and it seemed like the rain was going to let up a bit. When we came out to leave… the bike didn't want to start. It’s like it was flooded or something. So we took a little walk around the shops and then came back and tried again a few minutes later. The damn thing started right up! very strange being this bike... but hey, she was running and we were on our way again. Little did we know that this was going to be a precursor to our entire trip?

We continued back out onto the coast highway (this would be our home for the next two weeks) and headed for Drakes Bay where there has always been stories told of Sir Francis Drake who came ashore here so many, many years ago aboard a 'pirates' vessel. Well some people called him a pirate and others say he was just an adventurer (just like myself) There’s a great lighthouse out there and more history to intake. I love history, it's what makes it all worthwhile to know that there were so many more people here before us and saw some of the same things we see now. We are stepping in their same footprints many 100's of years later… it's really all consuming sometimes.

We headed into a little town named Tomales; it’s located directly east of Drakes Bay on the inland bay channel aptly named Tomales Bay. Who would have thought of such a thing? Anyway, we grabbed ourselves a little something to drink at the general store there and nosed around just a bit. The weather had cleared by now and it was actually starting to look like a typical California day, sunny and bright. Then the storm started… and I’m not talking about any weather at this point.

The bike, as I have named “Dyna” over the years has decided to take on a mind of her own. Just like a woman… (I’m sure I’m gonna get in trouble here) when she is needed most, she decides to become ‘difficult’. She won’t start again. A combustion engine isn’t rocket science folks it takes 3 things to run; Air, Fuel and Spark. I had almost a full tank of gas, I could smell gas so it wasn’t lack of fuel. The air cleaner was off so there was no obstruction there, and when I check the spark I couldn’t see anything between the plug wire and the cap when I pulled it off. So I get the gear off the bike, I get the seat off, I start checking all the electronics for wetness or something stupid like that. My wife in the meantime is in a bit of a tiff, and at that point I try to start it again and the engine roars back to life!!!! So I figure I’ll get all this stuff back on it while it’s running (and I do), I tell the wife to jump on and we’ll be gone. She jumps on the back seat and the bike dies… Flat out dead. I turned to my wife and said “She doesn’t like you”.

That’s the last we hear from ole Dyna. So here we are dead in the water in the middle of no-where ( I thought) and I have to call a dealership… luckily we weren’t too far from civilization and we find a place… a great shop called Michaels Harley Davidson in Cotati, CA. This part gets long and drawn out but to make a long story shorter, they send a guy out for us with a truck and take us back to the shop and get us going again about 4 hours later. We are very grateful to them for getting the "Honeymooners" back on the road and we still get Christmas cards from them every year!!! Thanks Mike and crew!

We stayed the night in Petaluma as that was as far as we could get before nightfall after the repairs were made. They ended up changing the mag sensor, it was the only thing that didn't seem to be working at the time. More on this later.

After The Storm Passes... / Day 3

This is actually the point at which we finally get across the Golden Gate Bridge on Day #3 and it’s a beautiful day. The bike is running again (finally) and the wife is happy and that makes me happy. We make a bee-line for the coast again and get back out onto Highway 1 before the big traffic hits the area. We have been through the city before and that’s the last place we want to be right now. We take off onto Point Lobos Road after getting over the bridge and go west to "the Great Highway" which is actually the start of Highway 35. It is known to the locals here as Skyline Boulevard because it traverses the western most coastal mountain range at its peak and you can see both the inland valleys to the east and then the Pacific Ocean to the west. It’s a great site to behold on nice days and we had one that was working well for us now.

Once we made it up to the Highway 92 junction we took a break and looked back. This is the cutoff to Half-Moon Bay. I would have like to head down there but we had already lost a half of a day with the bike breaking down and we'd been-there-done-that anyway. So we moved on and continued our journey through the rustic woods of pine and oak that filtered the sunshine above us. You could see patches of bright blue off to the west as the Pacific waters met the clear blue skies. The valley to the east was as green as could be with all the winter and spring rains we had. The road was smooth and clear of any debris and it was like dancing through the winding roads.

We came into LaHonda, which is not a Spanish name for a motorcycle, but a town that it is famous for other things; one of which is Alice's Restaurant, the one made famous in the movies.

This place on the weekends is a mad-house of motorcycle mania and it attracts all makes and models of people and their motorcycles. This used to be my old stompin' grounds when I was a younger man and would run this mountain road with my friends at very scary speeds. We were much younger then with no responsibilities or brain content either... Anyway, we had breakfast here and it was very good and then we loaded up and went on down the road again.The bike was running good, the storm had passed... or so we thought.

We continued on our route through the coastal mountain range along the ridge highway known to every local as Skyline Boulevard, and to any map readers it would be Highway 35. We came to the junction known only as "The Crossroads" to most mountain road racing enthusiasts, which is the Highway 9 / Highway 35 junction. This leads you either into the town of Saratoga on 9 East or towards Santa Cruz on 9 West. We headed towards the coast again on our way to Monterey and beyond Highway 9 is still very much a mountain road with many twisties and elevation changes for the next 45 miles or so into Santa Cruz on the coast. But along the way you go through some of the most beautiful little mountain towns in the San Lorenzo River Valley like Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond and Felton. The highway also passes through a portion of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. There is a ton of California State history within this area and its communities.

(From the S.C. Site) Boulder Creek was originally founded as a logging camp. Timber claims were first made in 1865, and by 1870 there were a dozen claim camps. John H. Alcorn, son of Branciford Alcorn, built a hotel in 1870 near the river. Tilford George Berry was another founding father. Berry Falls are named for him in Big Basin. Boulder Creek incorporated as a village in1902, but voted out town government in 1905. Southern Pacific Railway chose the Boulder Creek site for its station and the town quickly grew. Boulder Creek became one of California's busiest logging towns, shipping out over 2 billion feet of redwood. Lumber was trained out 24 hours a day, almost every day. Boulder Creek was probably more infamous than famous: it had as many as 26 saloons, gambling houses, cat houses and hotels. The environment was almost wrecked by the clear-cut logging policies of the time. Very few old growth redwood trees survive today. With the advent of trucking and growing environmental concerns, the logging business slowed. Boulder Creek became a resort and hide out. During the late 1940s many summer cabins were built and the area maintained a fairly large summer population. It now serves as the 'Gateway to Big Basin.'

Big Basin is another of California's Redwood Forest State Parks. We headed into the general store at Boulder and Mt. Hermon for some refreshments along the way and then on down the road towards Santa Cruz. We came out onto Highway 1 again right at the Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park in downtown Santa Cruz. This is a place we visited on many occasions as kids and young adults growing up. The Boardwalk is one of California’s oldest with a 1924 wooden roller coaster named “The Giant Dipper”. We rode through town and along the coastal roads into some of the other little communities like East Cliff, Opal Cliffs, Capitola, and Aptos. We stopped in Capitola for lunch and enjoyed the coastal view from the deck of Margaritaville while enjoying their frozen melon margaritas. We got back onto Highway 1 and headed south once again, this is where Hwy 1 goes inland a bit and circles around the areas of Watsonville and Salinas before heading into the Monterey Bay Area.

Once into Monterey proper we headed down to the docks and on the frontage roads, down by the aquarium and onto Cannery Row. This place is filled with all kinds of places to eat and visit. We ended up at Sly McFly’s which just happens to be a legendary (fictional) race-car driver that left a legacy for bar patrons. You’ll have to read about the legend and check out some of the photos at the web link. He has a brother also that was a mad-scientist named Ely McFly and he had a bar in Cupertino, CA. Don’t know if that one is still there or not. Each of the brothers ended up in the saloon world somehow and the bar motif is that of their trades. Pretty nice setup.

We got done there and headed into Pacific Grove along 17 Mile Drive winding amongst million dollar homes and the tide pools surrounding them. This would lead us into the world renowned Pebble Beach Golf Course area. What a beautiful view of the greens with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop. I could see some beautiful shots taken out there with Dyna and my wife and I. Too bad I didn’t take any…. Oh well maybe next time.So onto Carmel by the Sea…. Oops, nope that wasn’t gonna happen either. All of a sudden the bike just goes dead again. Can you believe it????? Well we can’t and at this point we are fuming. But the story gets pretty funny here.

It Happened Along The Way...

Now I told you that there was a funny story behind this next breakdown and you'll have to just have an open mind on this one. So the bike is broken down on the side of the road, packed down with all our stuff and we're all leathered up in our biker garb. There's nothing but residential homes and such that can be seen from where we're at so my wife decides that she'll take a little walk and see what she can find. I'm gonna stay with the bike and fight off any would-be thieves looking to steal us blind. Ok so we're in Carmel, not much chance of that, and it is a NON-running bike so they're not going get far pushing it. But I decide to sit and wait.

So here's the story as retold by my wife, of her travels and what she finds to save the day. She walked up the road about 100 yards and found a driveway to a motel that wound up this long hill. She figured there’s got to be someone there that has a phone, (this was before cell phone mania mind you) and so she walks up this never-ending hill (she would come to find out) and when she reaches the top she sees this little 1950's period motel named The Tickle Pink Inn. Nope, no I'm actually not kidding... So she goes into the office and explains our situation to the gal there at the desk and she lets her use the phone book to find a local mechanic. She calls up this random Harley shop in Monterey, now mind you they're not your 'boutique' Harley Dealer types, these are biker shop guys that really know what they are doing, (more on that later)

Anyway she says "HI, My name is TINKER and I’m down at the TINKLE PINK INN and my bike is broken down, how would you like to come PICK ME UP?...” Well I don’t need to tell you that the phone went silent for a few seconds while the guys on the other end tried to figure out whether or not this was a prank. He was probably looking around to see if someone was filming him in his office. So he said something like "Uh … so you're kidding me right?..."Well after she explained things a bit more clearly it got much better from there on out.

They sent a guy out with a truck and retrieved us once again and brought us back to their shop. We were all still kinda laughing about Tinker at the Tickle Pink thingy and it would be something to remember for the rest of our lives.The guys found a bad coil and some wiring that was scraped on the main harness and made the fixes we needed and it worked like a charm. (I knew it was that damn coil!) Anyway the guys did us good and they all wished us well and we took off again just far enough to find a place to eat and sleep for the night.

Leaving Carmel / Day 4

So this time we feel the bike has really been repaired and we are ready to move on down the coast and see some more sites. We pack it all up and head South again down Highway 1 with a destination for the day somewhere near Hearst Castle. This place is a must see for my wife so I figure this will be a good opportunity for us to take some time away from the bike and do some other types of site seeing.Our travels were inland allot until we came out along the headlands. We stopped just before the Bixby Bridge which holds some kind of record for something... I don't know. Check out the link though, it is an interactive photograph of the bridge and the coastline by Brooks Leffler, a local photographer. This was a site to behold just like the many others we had seen.We get a little further down along the headlands near Big Sur and the views looking out to sea are just unbelievable. We are easily 1000 to 1500 feet above the rocks below and you can still hear the waves crashing against the land even with the Harley running, it's a pounding sound that's alarming a bit until you figure out what it is.

In the distant we could see a storm brewing and it was in the path that we would be journeying down. The clouds were immense and they were so black and dark grey in color that it looked like a different planet altogether. We stopped again and took some pictures down on a beach and then put our rain gear on, knowing that the sun was not gonna be shining on us for very much longer. There was no way to go around it, it was blowing in off the Pacific and it was already inland as far as we could see from this vantage point. So we toughed it out.We ran head long into what I would call a hurricane force weather front, only because we were running at 40-50 mph and hitting winds of probably the same speed. We dropped into a little canyon area that had a coffee shop, eatery and an art gallery. We found some cover for awhile. The major storm passed and we had mostly drizzle to deal with after that. We decided to hit the road again and get to our destination. Well we made one more stop at the Piedras Blancas Light House. What a beautiful place!!!We arrived in San Simeon and found a beautiful place called the Cavalier Resort on the beach side of the highway to stay the night and who knows how much longer. It was still raining and our gear was soaked almost through. We were dry inside so it was doing its job. Nothing like our sunny morning start from Carmel and our awesome beach party in Big Sur. San Simeon is a very beautiful place and we were both hoping that the storm would break and we would be able to experience it in all of its glory.We would have much more to experience... Stay tuned

San Simeon... and The Castle! / Day 5

San Simeon is a small town situated on the Highway 1 coastline of California's 'middle' section... not quite North and not quite South. The town was basically born by the Hearst family by means of building their magnificent 'home' in the hills overlooking the bay... Now this is no ordinary "home", this is truly a man's castle, and truly a man's showroom for all the wealth that they once represented in their day and age in the early 1900's. The San Simeon harbor sits in a natural cove along the coastline but it needed to have a pier built into the deeper water. Large ships would bring the necessary materials from all around the world for the construction of this elaborate castle. The pier still stands today.William Randolph Hearst was a newspaper man and made a very good business of it from the looks of this place. There are tours available that cover every aspect of the family's background and how this entire area came together due mostly in part to this man's dream.When you visit the castle known as "La Cuesta Encantada" - The Enchanted Hill; you are overwhelmed by its size and the workmanship because it is the best that can be had. There is so much history within this 127 acre estate that once encompassed more than 250,000 acres of prime land that was owned by the Hearst's. The living space alone covers over 90,000 square feet, 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms and 41 fireplaces just to name a few of the specs.

There were many things that inspired the design and construction of this 'palace of wealth' over a period of 28 years but the underlying effort was to have a place to stay when they went 'camping at the ranch'. The many gardens and pools and even a zoo of different exotic animals were built on the grounds to provide recreation for the family and their influential guests (which were many) over the years.Mr. Hearst died in 1951, the Castle and the entire estate were given over to the State of California in 1957 in order to preserve it as part of the history of this state and the man that helped build a part of it.
This is a great wonder of this state if you're interested in architecture and history, there is a lot to see and learn and more than you can do in a single day. I would have like to spend at least 2 or 3 days here and possibly taken more than just the Main tour but we had places to go and people to see so we boarded the bus ( no bike parking at the top I guess) and headed back down the hill.

Onto Morro Bay / Day 6 -7

Leaving San Simeon was unusually uneventful... thank God everything was now working well again, the bike was running perfectly, the sun was out and there were no clouds in site. The hotel staff had left a 'Bike Cleaning bag' with towels and cleaners by our door and that was pretty cool I thought. I polished up and loaded Dyna and we readied ourselves for the road ahead. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then hit the road again heading south.Highway 1 again leaves the coastline and heads inland a few miles at this point and there is not much to see except the coastal headlands which can be pretty boring if you're not in a glorious newly-wed state of mind like Tinker and I were. We stopped occasionally along the road just to take in the mood of our surroundings and to just stretch our legs a bit. We ran through a few small towns along the way and just kinda made glances at the sites as we rode on through.

As we traveled further southward, we could see at a distance Morro Rock which is basically a big friggen mound of rock that sits off the coast about a half mile. It is also known as "The Gibraltar of the Pacific" from a distance its looks more like a ten gallon cowboy hat floatin on the water. As the miles passed the 'hat' just got bigger and bigger until the town limits came into view and we arrived. We road on down into town and there was a car show going on, mostly hotrods and older vintage types that were right up my alley. We parked it and decided to grab a drink and take a walk through to view all these fine autos. We met quite a few car people interested in our adventures and swapped stories of our travels and vehicles with each of them. The day was perfect but it was coming to a close with the temperature falling and the wind was whipping up. We decided to go find ourselves a place to stay for the night. Close in town we found a small motel overlooking the Morro Bay Marina and unloaded our stuff and took a nap, it seemed like it was a long day.

We had a dinner at one of the many marina restaurants within walking distance that I don’t remember the name of but the bartender was really funny. Tinker wanted a 'cruise ship' drink with lots of fu-fu stuff in it and he made one up as he went along. The wind was really blowin by this time and we were watching the seagulls trying to land on the railings outside the windows. It was hilarious to see them come floating in on the wind and then dive bomb into a crowd of other gulls perched on a rail and knock them off just to start the whole process over again... and again.We had a great meal there and then headed back to the room with a bottle of wine and our thoughts of the day’s occurrences. Morro Bay is a very gorgeous area with lots of history to be found here also. Something I found interesting was the population of Peregrine Falcons that nest within the rock's protected crevices. Much can be learned of this area.Tomorrow; we’d be going into Solvang. Skole!!!!

Solvang... The Day Ride /Day 7

We decided to take a day ride into the town of Solvang which is an authentic Danish town established in 1911. It’s located about 80 miles to the south and then inland of the coast. We traveled on Hwy 1 to San Luis Obispo, then followed Hwy 101 to Pismo Beach, through Arroyo Grande and Santa Maria on the way also. There are many small towns on this route but we didn’t stop as much as we could have. It was a gorgeous day and we wanted to get to Solvang to partake in some of the great foods and wine they are known for. We were baggage-less and the roads were open and no traffic, it was motorcycle bliss!We entered to within the city limits of Solvang and found that road 'bliss' had ended... the town was full of people and cars and so we just made our way through the tangled masses and found a parking spot to call our own. "Dyna" would be happy sitting under a beautiful maple tree along the street with people taking looks at her while we found places of our own to enjoy.We found a couple of restaurants to eat some food, "you can't eat just one"... we found a couple wineries to do some tasting and we did some window shopping at some of the stores along the route.We found the Vintage Motorcycle Museum right in the heart of downtown also, so we took a look and found treasures of motorcycle history I had long forgotten. What a collection of bikes from around the entire world. This is a 'must see' if you are ever down in this area. It's worth the trip just for this.It was a very nice trip in all, we decided to get back on the road and get into Morro before it got dark. We packed up our memories of Solvang and were back on the road again... Motorcycle 'Bliss' all the way back to Morro!!!

Time To Head Back To The Real World

Well after another fine evening meal and a refreshing night kicking around Morro Bay it was time to start thinking about heading back home again. We both enjoyed our ride down along the coast but life had to go on and it was going to be a new life for both of us at this point in our lives. Lots of new challenges ahead for us to take on and overcome.

This ride into 'the unknown' was definitely a test drive into what life's little un-expected happenings can throw at you. I think we both came out better prepared to take on anything and to just deal with it and make the best of any situation. And now that I am writing about it and memorializing the events of this ride it's really quite funny to look back on. Isn't that the way it always is? It is never funny when it's occurring, but we always say that "we will look back on this and laugh!" and we do.

Our ride home was just as beautiful as the ride down and we didn't hit anymore rain the entire way. It took us about 4 days to get back to Santa Cruz and there we met up with some friends from Boulder Creek that rode up and had dinner with us that last night on the road. We stayed at the Sea & Sand Inn overlooking the Beach Boardwalk and Pier. We all had dinner down at The Crows Nest Restaurant. Very good food with very good friends and that made it a perfect ending to a great trip overall.

Thanks for listening in. More travels to come.

2006 Dyna "96"

2006-10-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is the latest 2006 Dyna model totally customized by Harley. This bike has the new 96 cu in powerplant and will be the upgraded design for all the Harley Model Lines in 2007. This little doll will produce some serious horspower for the street from a factory produced bike.

2005 Dyna

2006-10-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is a Custom 2005 Dyna Wide Glide from Harley Davidson

2004 Dyna

2006-10-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here are the 2004 Dyna Wide Glide Model with the 1450cc 88 Twin Cam Engine.

My 1998 Dyna Wide Glide

2006-10-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is my oldest daughter when she was only about 7 riding with me on 'Dyna', This was the last year for the Dyna 80 cu.in. model. 1999 Became the first year for the new 88 cu.in. Twin Cam Engine putting out 1450cc.

Moving Onto 'Dyna'

2006-10-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

After realizing I needed a bigger bike... (isn't that always the case?) I decided to look at the Dyna Model line that Harley had been building for quite a while. I was always interested in the "Low Rider" model which is the FXDLR. But my dream bike was to be the Dyna Wide Glide. This bike is a Cadillac compared to the other Dyna models. I purchased my 1998 Dyna Wide Glide brand new in Oregon from a dealership in Beaverton, OR. It was the custom color model for that year which is a teal and tan two tone combination. I didnt really care for it at first, but it grew on me. I had to come back into the showroom a few times before actually making an offer on it but I finally did. I love this bike!!! I still have it today, with many changes albeit, but it's a bike that I really enjoy riding on the street.

First Sturgis Run

2006-09-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

I travelled to Sturgis, South Dakota for the first time in 1997. Yep, and that was on the 'new' Sportster that I had bought in 1996. Many people thought I was nuts for riding a Sportster all the way to Sturgis from Oregon, but it was suppose to be an adventure right? And that it was.

I rode with 3 other friends, two of which had Harley Softails and one of them (like me) was nuts enough to ride a Sportster also. He only had a Peanut Tank though so we had to stop alot for gas. Not a problem because we got to meet alot of people along the way and thats what it was all about. I was actually pretty closed-up to talk much with folks on the road, but this trip regained my faith in human kind and it was exactly what I needed.

We rode the Lewis and Clark Trail Highway (Highway 12) through 3 States before entering into Northern Wyoming and it was a dream come true for me. We rode the Columbia River Gorge scenic byway along the Oregon/Washington Border along Highway 84 before getting to 12 and then headed off into Washignton's wheat lands and corn fields which is all you see forever out there. Then into Idaho at Clarkston and Lewiston and up into the Clear Water River Canyon. This is where we entered into the most beautiful mountain road riding I've seen in years. Up over Lolo Pass into Montana and you see some real beauty along the way. There's not much gas between points, so beware of your mileage in these parts.

Riding across Montana is like going through every topography you could imagine, we ran mountains that were 12,000+ feet in elevation and we ran through some plains that must have been below sea level. We found people in the smallest of towns that were ready to take us in and 'adopt' us as their own, feed us, fill us with drink, fill our tanks, and send us on our way. It was a pleasure meeting many of these folks in Montana. One of the greatest places we visited is Martinsdale, Montana.

It's right about midpoint of the state within the Crazy Mountain Range, which is what the Native Americans named them because they say they saw ghosts there. The Crazy Mountain Inn is a place right out of the old west and the Innkeepers there are the greatest. We make it a point to visit there every once in awhile to see what's going on. The town town has a bar, a church, an auto repair shop and a fishing hole, what more could you ever need?

We made it finally to Sturgis in 3 days at about 500-600 miles per day and stayed at the Bear Butte Creek Campground. Nice place with 3 bars, live bands, dance floors and an early morning cannon shot to get everyone riled up first thing every day. All we kept hearing was "MORE POWDER" from the crowd after they shot it off. We spent 3 days there running through all the local sites and towns and then hit the road back taking a more southern route through Wyoming this time due to the northern route through Yellowstone being closed for road repairs.

We made it back in 3 days, the last day being a total of 688 miles for me from Arco, Idaho and it was a jaunt.

Great ride guys!!!

Travelin' Oregon

2006-09-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

Since 1996 I have been on quite a few rides, mostly around the Western United States but hope to get further East with my travels as time warrants. I have also made it a part of my life to collect 'things' from places I get around to so that I have some little token of where all those places are. I'll put some of those up here someday soon.

1996 I was in Oregon and that is a beautiful place to get on the road and go places. It truly is "God's Country"... It has all the makings of what biking is truly about from all the sensations that you can exeperience; sights, sounds, smell and feel. We lived in the Northwestern region of Oregon towards the coast from Portland. We made many trips along Highway 26 (The Sunset Highway) to the coast to visit the coastal towns like Lincoln City, Seaside, Astoria, Newport, Tillamook and Cannon Beach just to name a few.

Many Bike runs are held in Oregon, we traveled state wide to join in the poker runs, campouts, support rides and toy runs that benefit many riding groups including Oregon ABATE, Harley Owners Group, Northwest Veterans Association and many others. The people of Oregon, the riders of Oregon are true blue Americana. I am proud to be able to say I ran with some of the best people available in this country right in that state.

History

2006-09-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

I began riding again on the street back in 1996 when I purchased a new Harley XL1200 Custom Sportster. I had to make some personal changes to it obviously because that's just what we guys do to brand new things... right? I added a 4 gallon tank and a bob tail rear fender, new bars and a new paint job. I see now that Harley produces the same bike from the factory in this style, Hmmm imagine what I could'a done with the idea years ago. Anyway, before that I was on a 1974 XL1000 (a beater) and a couple Kawasaki KZ900 and I started on a Kawasaki KZ400 when I was newly licensed at 15 1/2 year old. That was alot of bikes ago

Welcome!

2006-09-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

First Entry: Welcome to Street Bike USA, where I will take you on some travels that I've experienced over the years and plan some new ones for the future. Come Along!