Joy Dutta’s blog

A sweet short regular weekend ride with Piyush on his VFR. My first serious attempt at landscape photography, inspired by my friend Arup Biswas who shoots large format. I slowed down, used tripod, ISO100 and long shutter speeds to capture silky smooth water at the mono lake at sunset and sunrise. I am still amazed to taste the rewards of landscape photography.

Trip route: Sunnyvale - Lee Vining via Tioga road (CA-120) - Mono Lake south tufa - June Lake loop - Sonora pass (CA-108) - Sunnyvale

Day 1 (Sat 18 Oct): Early morning start at 7am. Uneventful ride till yosemite and then we started stopping often at the lakes. It was cloudy, so I missed the blue waters of my favorite lake - Tenaya. But we got some fine scenary at lake Elery, with some early snow on the mountains. Reached Lee Vining around 4:30 and went for the south tufa area of Mono Lake. The last 1 mile was packed gravel and I got really stiff when riding squirrely on it. The wing handled it very well and in the next trip I had no worries at all. When I started doing long exposures as the sun went down, I got addicted to the quality of images I was getting, it was pretty exciting for me. There was not much dramatic clouds, so I thought I could come back another day. Finished the day with a good dinner at Nicely’s restaurant opposite our motel.

Day 2 (Sun 19 Oct): Started at 6am for the tufas again, to catch sunrise. It was even better than last evening, despite the cold. We had wind chill upto 20F. I never enjoyed landscape photography like that before. I got seriously addicted. We went for the June lake loop soon after. This year the fall colors were not as intense as they should have been, due to an early cold spell. But I got enough to satisfy my hunger for landscapes. We got scenic roads all the way through 395 and Sonora pass. Took a cat nap at Cold Springs before the final ride to home via Oakdale.

Pictures:
- Priti’s flickr set
- My flickr set

Another fabulous trip in the same month. Piyush joined with his VFR and he turned out to be an excellent fellow rider and canyon carver. We camped all the 3 nights, with dawn temps from 9C to 3C. Our main targets were Crater Lake national park and Lava Beds national monument, but we also checked out some great roads in both OR and CA - shown in the route map.

Trip route: Sunnyvale CA - Alexander valley RV park, Healdsburg CA - Valley of the Rogue state park, Grants Pass OR - McArthur-Burney Falls state park, Burney CA - Sunnyvale CA

Day 1 (Fri 29th Aug): 130 mi, Total 130 mi, Sunnyvale CA to Healdsburg CA. Usual slow traffic on 101, but got some amazing fog around San Francisco, so dense at places we could hardly see traffic in front of us. Camped at a very nice place - Alexander valley RV park and campgrounds. Got temps going down to 9C at dawn and thought that was cold, till the next night.

Day 2 (Sat 30th Aug): 400 mi, Total 530 mi, relaxed ride through the redwoods. Visited the drive-through chandelier tree (21 ft dia, 2400 yrs old) at Legett, and then some detour from 101 through the avenue of the giants and later through the Prairie creek redwoods park. Tall redwoods making night out of day and great views of sunlight peeking through. And then some fantastic coast views as we neared Crescent City. Stopped at Trinidad state beach to enjoy the shore view. Then more mountain roads through Smith River NRA and we arrived at Grants Pass. Temps were going down like crazy, so bought extra fleece blankets. Camped at Valley of the Rogue state park around 9:30pm with temps already near 12C. Woke up in the dawn to find 3C outside. Brrrrrrrr.

Day 3 (Sun 31st Aug): 340 mi, Total 870 mi, visited our planned spots, namely the Crater Lake national park and Lava Beds national monument. Stunning views alongside the Oregon byways - Rogue Umpqua national scenic byway, Modoc Volcanic sb, Volcanic Legacy sb, etc. Hiked inside one of the pitch dark caves at the Lava beds, and it was a memorable experience. Thankfully we didn’t have to encounter rattle snakes which abound in that whole area. Afterwards a relaxed and scenic ride through 139, 299 and a part of 89 to Burney falls state park. We went to Burney for some delicious pizza dinner and Piyush had the idea of roasting corn and potato. It was indeed good over the open flame of wood fire.

Day 4 (Mon 1st Sep): 380 mi, Total 1250 mi, another chilly night later we woke up to a sunny morning and the sound of a waterfall. This time we had the chance to see a decent waterfall up close. A short hike later we were mesmerized by the huge white curtains of water. It reminded me of Shivasamudram in South India. The roar of the 120ft high falls, the mist and the view made me forget the steep 0.3 mile trail I was reluctant to do at first. Afterwards, the ride up 89 to Mount Shasta was like a roller coaster with the snow covered peak of mount Shasta playing hide and seek. It was the last good ride of the trip. A hearty Breakfast followed by riding on I-5 got me in my drowsiness mode very quickly. Had to stop every 40-50 miles to wake up from a zombie state. Ran into 2 painfully slow construction zones, and while lane splitting, saw the common goldwing overheating issue - 15-20 mph at first gear makes the temp gauge go up in a hurry. Stopped few times by roadside to cool off, then found out from Susie (fellow winger) that 2nd gear can help a little. Anyways, we made home shortly after sundown.

Pictures:
- Priti’s flickr set
- My flickr set

Just back from our longest motorcycle trip together on the goldwing. The excuse to visit the goldwing rally at Canon City, CO made us do a fantastic 7 day trip covering 3200 miles.

Trip route: Sunnyvale CA - Wells NV - Longmont CO - Salida CO - Tuba City AZ - Needles CA - Sunnyvale CA

Trip summary: Colorado mesmerized us. The rockies are breathtaking. Royal gorge is awesome as well. We also visited Mesa Verde, Four Corners, Grand Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano national parks. This was supposed to be a camping trip, but we ended up taking motels and a friend’s place. So much for the preparation. A hitch and cooler rack to carry the tent, then the tent got melted by the straight exhausts. Elevated the rack platform as a temporary fix, then bought a 90 degree downward exhaust tip at the wing rally to fix the issue forever, and even bought a new tent. Still we didn’t hit a campsite at the end of a riding day.

Day 1: 615 mi, Total 615 mi, Sunnyvale CA to Wells NV on the boring I-80.

Day 2: 730 mi, Total 1345 mi, Wells NV to Longmont CO (record distance for me in one day so far). Stayed at my school senior’s place, they are a fantastic couple and we had a blast with two most amazing golden retrievers they have.

Day 3: 135 mi, Total 1480 mi, Rocky mountains.

Day 4: 235 mi, Total 1715 mi, Attended goldwing rally at Canon city, then visited Royal gorge bridge and park, then off to Salida CO. Beautiful mountain road (US-160) along the Arkansas river.

Day 5: 485 mi, Total 2200 mi, Mesmerizing US-160 through Colorado, visited Mesa Verde NP, then off to Grand canyon. Saw Four Corners on the way. Reached Tuba city at nightfall after catching magical glimpses of rainbows over the canyons. Windy, thunderstorms, no camping place nearby, barely checked in to Greyhills Inn, a student operated hotel, with common bathrooms downstairs.

Day 6: 435 mi, Total 2635 mi, Visited Grand canyon in the early morning with fantastic views. Spent a few hours hopping to the view points. Saw Little Colorado river gorge as well. Then went to Sunset Crater NP. I have been to both these places back in 2004 with parents, and the memory came up like it was yesterday. Off to home on the I-40. Had patches of rain. The moment we crossed Kingman AZ, the temps began soaring as we approached Needles CA. We watched the temps rise from 91F to 106F and at Needles I could not believe it was 108F at 7:30pm and I wanted to camp in the desert ! Motel 6 had a small pool cramped with people, and we happily jumped there right after checking in.

Day 7: 565 mi, Total 3200 mi, Needles CA to Sunnyvale CA. I finally found a solution to my drowsiness on the road. I could not drive or ride 50 miles without falling asleep, till I figured out that red bull actually works.

This is our best/longest trip together. Would not have been possible without an amazing bike like the goldwing.

Pictures:
- Priti’s flickr set
- My flickr set

Our manager Scott once sent an email outlining some of the finest scenic roads around San Jose, Morgan Hill and Santa Cruz. Piyush wanted to try them out with his brand new tires. We planned to do a relaxed afternoon ride.

The highlight of the trip was the amazing roads as shown in the map: http://tinyurl.com/5dypfv

It was hard to believe we got out of the urban jungle and was out in the country in almost no time at all. We took CA-85 south till just after CA-17 at Los Gatos blvd exit and the fun started right away. Shannon road, Hicks road, McKean road, Watsonville road and then Hecker pass / Mt Madonna, with hardly any traffic made an excellent ride.

We had donuts at a small shop in Santa Cruz before taking CA-17 back to home around 7:30pm. Big mistake ! Most part of the 17 was a parking lot, and splitting lanes was a pain. Nonetheless the 140 mile trip is definitely worth doing any day.

At home Piyush was eager to download movies from his new bike cam, but it turned out that he left the SD card at home after testing the camera before the trip. Poor guy.

Pictures: priti’s flickr set
Video: will be uploaded soon

I somehow have this habit of tweaking (butchering) things to have them function exactly the way I want. Even a newly acquired fine motorcycle can’t escape that fate. I cut 2 inches off the top of the shield on my Concours just one day after getting it in my hands. Of course its stock shield was just plain horrible. Instead of putting on a regular aftermarket shield like everybody else, I had more fun in trying out my version and finally ended up having a terrible looking but perfectly working 4″x8″ extension bolted on it.

The ST1300 was lucky, it had electrically adjustable shield which worked fine till I started 2-up riding. Ofcourse an aftermarket shield could help, but the bike had to go so I could have my goldwing.

The wing has a manually adjustable shield, but the lowest position was still too high for me to look over. So it went through the same fate today. I was intimidated about doing this on such a fine machine, but after watching a few pics on someone’s blog, it was a matter of pulling the shield out, putting masking tape on and merrily using the jigsaw. The result came out pretty well. Time will tell how good this mod turns out to be.

Pic: cutting the goldwing shield

Update (7-Aug): The modified shield is working perfectly in town and not too noisy on the freeway. I can just pull it out to full height for the long trips if I want to ride without earplugs. So far this has been the best comfort mod on the bike.

We had a fantastic day ride with the CA2Q goldwing chapter last Saturday. The destination was a forest cabin of the GWRRA CAC (Sacramento) chapter director near the town of Kyburz, almost touching South Lake Tahoe. A bunch of loaded goldwings, trikes, 2 ST1300, a PC800 and a Shadow made it there. We had to fight a little bit of gravel road at the destination when I realized what a heavy behemoth this bike is. Wonder how some people ride this machine on the 400 mile unpaved stretch in Alaska ! Anyways, a fantastic BBQ and delicious swiss vanilla ice cream (a must in any wing meet !) filled our hungry potbellies :). We had fun chatting with the fellow wingers. Most all of them are in their 40s and 50s but with the energy of 30 somethings.

A small river was right in front of the cabin, and a few of us checked it out. Cold and refreshing water, wish I had time for a soak-in.

It was a 421 mile roundtrip day, but on the wing it seemed much less. We went through pretty decent hot weather, touching 104F in the afternoon on the freeway. Water on the butler cup helped a lot !

The group ride is what I loved the most. Like our chapter director I too believe in small groups, and we rode in a 3-bike group all the time. Perfect synchrony and predefined hand signals made it a pleasurable one.

Pictures:
-Priti’s flickr set
-My flickr set yet to be uploaded

The throttle on my wing was feeling a little sluggish of late. I knew a little bit of cable lubrication would make it much better but the Clymer manual showed the process to be a tad painful so I managed to procrastinate till Friday night. I have a GWRRA chapter ride Saturday (today) and really wanted to have crisp throttle response, so I got down to work at 11:45pm. A little bit of fight to disconnect the return cable from the throttle and the rest seemed pretty easy except putting that darn cable back to its hole. All done by 12:20am. Throttle feels like a sportbike. Can’t wait to get up at 6am to ride. Now this is what I call satisfaction - getting done what itches me, against a bunch of odds.

After getting my bone stock 2005 ABS Goldwing earlier this month, I had to spend a significant time and energy adding up essential touring accessories. Here is a summary of items added on the bike so far:

- Kuryakyn highway pegs
- Utopia backrest
- Khrome Werks armrests
- Big bike parts luggage rack
- Wingrider trunk support system
- Baker mirror wings
- Rear speakers (30w)
- Butler cup holder
- Ram mount for GPS
- 12v cig outlet in left fairing pocket and in trunk for small electronics
- 12v cig outlet tucked under left side cover for air compressor or heated clothing
- Bridgestone tires

Pictures: my flickr set

Update (8-Aug-08): Installed more stuff.
- Vertical hitch and 11×16 cooler rack

We are officially a goldwing couple now. Got our GWRRA family membership through gwrra.org. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Quoting from the GWRRA website:

The Gold Wing Road Riders Association (GWRRA) is the world’s largest single-marque social organization for owners and riders of Honda Gold Wing/Valkyrie motorcycles — and some would say, the world’s largest family. Dedicated to our motto, Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge, GWRRA members enjoy the freedom of belonging to a not-for-profit, non-religious and non-political organization.

Founded in 1977, GWRRA has grown to more than 80,000 U.S., Canadian and international members in 53 foreign countries in just 27 years. Over 800 active Chapters are managed by 4,000 volunteer leaders working with members to foster safe, enjoyable riding while also working to improve the public image of motorcycling.

I was a bit skeptic about a heavy bike like a goldwing doing an Alaska trip due to the 400 mile long gravel road on the way. I find that many people take the wings and it gave me a great deal of hope.

Came across a very nice writeup of a 2-up trip to Alaska from Arizona: http://www.ride2up.com/page2.html

And another guy who is profoundly hearing impaired, teaches ASL at a college, and rides to Alaska every year: http://www.skihi.org/Riders.html