Dyna Makeover 7

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!