We had a short (450 mile roundtrip) 2-day trip to Lake Tahoe this weekend, which was also the first multi-day ride with Priti on the ST1300. The bike performed technically flawless on the ride, but some comfort factor for me went missing. I enjoyed the ride on the highway less than what I was supposed to, and found myself thinking more of the ultimate 2-up touring machine - the Honda Goldwing GL1800 !!!
What a fantastic way to spend the longest day of the year. Vipin of RTMC at Sunnyvale and Captain Nandu Chitnis of Bikenomads at SF, it is just impossible to not have a ride.
So it happened, Vipin rented a monster of a bike, a Harley Roadking 1400cc, a long jump from his 350cc Royal Enfield at home. It shakes a human like giving a reality check, but the v-twin torque is simply out of the world.
We had a pretty big gang ready for a day long fun. Pravin and Suyash of Bikenomads came on a rental car. Nandu’s wife Medini, daughter Rucha and son-in-law Sai also tagged along. Vipin and Nandu shared the bike rental and we were off to Big Sur.
We had superb lunch break at our favorite restaurant Dennys in Santa Cruz. After that the road was a bliss. The temps went down from a scorching 100F to 72F. It rained a bit while we were eating, and all we had was the refreshing smell of wet earth, a blue sky with scattered clouds and most importantly, hardly any traffic.
We enjoyed the CA-1 paradise all the way till Julia Pfeiffer state park when the temps went up as we diverted from the ocean a bit. So a quick U-turn and we were beside a pristine aquamarine beach. Incredible colors. Too bad the beach was private. We had the usual photoshoots and banter before Nandu and family took off for San Francisco.
Me, Vipin and the other cage went to enjoy the Carmel beach before the final ride home. Vipin was getting scared of riding in the dark but it was unavoidable. We had to take 101 and Vipin thought he must remain below the speed limit, no matter how fast the cars passed him. I tried to make him speed up to at least 65, the limit, but he somehow stayed around 50, arghhhh But I do remember how slow I used to be when riding with my local buddy, I used to ride the limit while he did limit+10 or more !
Back to town at 9:20pm after a 230mile of grinning ride.
Looking forward to multi-day rides with the gang sometime.
Special thanks to Rocky for introducing me to Nandu, otherwise this fun and camaraderie would not have happened.
Thanks to Dan’s super short notice, a wonderful ride happened today after a very long time.
Usual suspects: Dan, Ken, Ron, Jeff. I was surprised Jeff got Nancy along too. And what a guy, just because the ST is a great touring bike, he rode it non stop 130 miles to Cloverdale while Nancy on her first ride on the ST got a hefty dose of hypothermia. Took her a while to defrost !!! I guess at this rate Jeff is gonna ride that wonderful two-up bike one-up all the time, lol.
In short, 11 bikes, 12 people, twisties of CA-128 and CA-1, and an awesome feast at a private ranch on CA-1 near Stewart’s point made a memorable day.
Route: Breakfast meet at Star restaurant, Cloverdale. All the way on 101N. Then CA-128 to CA-1 and down to the ranch for a late lunch. Then CA-1 down to Bodega bay and catch up on 101S at Petaluma.
I rode really good this time, thanks to the ST’s sportiness. But I still got stiff on the sharp curves of CA-1, when I could catch a glimpse of the pacific far down below. Makes a lot of difference (and panic) in the mind.
Being in the still photography domain for over 5 years, I decided it was absolute time to check out the world of motion pictures. I love great movies with a solid story and always wanted to make a short one myself. I have recently watched some movies carefully and researched on the basics of editing. It is time put all the dreams in action, along the lines of both documentaries and short films.
The jump to videography could take longer if not for Alena, a budding actress with boundless enthusiasm in movies. She inspired me so much over a couple sessions of chat that it made the final push for me.
I have been eyeing on the 3ccd prosumer camcorders but decided to first try out a cheaper option. Picked a mint Sony DCR-SR200 40GB HDD camcorder for 370 bucks at half its new price, almost the same I paid on a Hi-8 tape version 2 years back for family.
Flying all alone to Alaska, in a single propeller super cub, with incredible photographs - there is nothing else that can give so much feeling of peace. I am a long distance motorcyclist, and I know how to be jealous of this guy. He is having an experience that is easily the n-th power of what I can get riding a motorcycle in those places. And I have to stick to the land, and only upto what can be remotely called a road.
Vipin, my fellow rider from the enfield riding days in India is here at Sunnyvale for this week. What better way to spend a Sunday than a ride, so we took off for a quick afternoon ride to Santa Cruz. In a sweet 40 miles we got some twisty roads (CA-17), a moderately cold mountain pass and finally the ocean. Great chicken shawarma sandwiches at the Falafal restaurant satisfied two big hungry bellies. Back home, we enjoyed photos of our past rides, especially the Kanyakumari trip back in Feb 2003. A Sunday well spent.
The opportunity showed up rather unexpectedly. Always wanted to ride a decent long distance on work. I had to give some presentation at our LA office, and while my coworker booked his flight, I proposed my cost-saving-idea to my boss. With a stunned look for a few seconds, he approved !
350 miles one way, maps suggested 5.5 hours. I estimated 6.5-7 hours with food stops. I really wanted to test the “mileage disposal” utility of the ST1300. Started at 5am, breakfast stop after 200 miles around 8am, and reached the LA office at exactly 11am. 6 hours with one stop, not bad, never done like this before. A cage came in right behind me, my coworker showed up :). I had temps ranging from 44F to 86F, with terrible LA traffic for the last 20 miles. The HOV lane helped a lot !
The demo went well. Did not really feel tired or sleepy. Started back around 4:30pm, and faced a brutal traffic for 30 miles, and HOV lane didn’t help this time. 6 choked lanes each way on I-405 was incredible to watch. Just outside LA the temps dropped from 75F to 55F in a matter of 5 minutes, took me by surprise. Stopped at Gorman to refuel and considered making a night halt nearby. Double checked weather on the iPhone, all good. Sky looked clear. I layered up and headed to Buttonwillow, my favorite place of stay on I-5.
Ironically I got the same room at the Buttonwillow Super 8 where I stayed on 2nd Jan 2006 on the final night of my cross country trip. Brought back some memories. Grabbed a footlong subway chicken sandwich and thanks to the wifi I could sync up with my mails. 480 miles for the day, not bad for a work day !
Reached home 9am wednesday morning, riding the last 220 miles in 4 hours.
Best part of the trip: The expense software at office won’t recognize gas expense, so I had to report 700 miles of “mileage” which pays 48 cents a mile. I am getting back more than triple what my total expenses are but still less than what office would have paid for a flight plus rental car.
Seeing a stranger ride my connie away brought some definite sadness in my heart. Almost two years of riding, tinkering and having fun on a reliable motorcycle will bond you very closely to the machine, no matter how much you want it to find another home and partially fund the next bike. It took me more than a month to sell it, but patience, like always, eventually pays off.
I am happy that my trusty concours now belongs to another experienced rider who will take good care of her, and more so as he owns another legend of a bike - an older KLR650. I test rode that bike for the first time yesterday and liked it very much for the kind of ride it offers, not to forget the unmistakable single cylinder thump, my first love from the royal enfield days. Definitely not the machine for me on the long road trips which is what the ST13 is for, but for some offroading and adventure riding. This will be my future toy (as a 2nd bike) if I get so inclined.
Some guy wanted to buy my concours and he drove down 250 miles from Redding on a pickup truck with his 16 yo son. I even knocked off a few hundred bucks from my asking price. He took a short test ride and came back with a disappointed face, claiming too much rattle in the fairing. It was nothing less than a surprise when I found out the fairing belly pan had 2 screws missing from the ends, a common problem on the concours. He declined the deal and drove away.
Today I found a pair of machine screws at home depot which matched the threads of the fairing screws, and had a beautiful fit with washers I already had at home. Problem solved, and all for 45 cents.
I feel really sorry for the guy, he must have spent near 100 bucks on gas and 10 hours of driving.
A shiny spotless like new red Honda VFR with abs and 4k miles. We both liked it, despite our limited knowledge on VFRs except that they are Honda’s legendary sport bikes with touring capabilities. Besides, owning a V-4 bike I know the beauty of a motor in that configuration, delivering smooth power all the way till redline. A VFR is for SPORT-touring whereas my ST1300 is made for sport-TOURING, and the difference in seating is night and day between them.
To avoid the nasty bay area traffic, we started late for Clayton CA, around 8:30, for the 60 mile drive. Took us over an hour, and we passed through some rainy patches which almost made us include a nightstay at a motel in the plan. After the deal, I did some quick drill to get to know the bike enough to take it down the street. We hunted for a cheap motel but two attempts got us atleast $70 rooms, and by that time we could see the sky clear up. We just hit the freeway and to our surprise it was already dry and clean. Had to stop twice to make some temporary earbuds out of tissue papers as the wind noise bothered me a lot. I forgot to bring mine from home, and it was a big mistake. I would have enjoyed the ride more if I had them.
The motor is absolutely a beast. Acceleration in lower gears is something I never experienced before. It gains speed like a rocketship, and pulls like a frieght train. I thought I would be rather slow on this new-to-me-bike but before I knew I was zipping at 70-90mph. At speed the wind tends to lift up the upper body and the hands feel less pressure. Nice, but still the body posture is a lot closer to sport riding and could only be good for moderate distance riding.
Now my only worry is how much control Piyush can learn and in how much time. Just one wrong wrist action can do a lot of damage, not only to him, but to me too. Seeing anything happen to a friend while riding is disastrous enough, let alone a roomie.
But I do remember how slow I used to be when riding with my local buddy, I used to ride the limit while he did limit+10 or more !
