Motorcycle Alabama

Some more tourist stuff before I get to the BEST part of this vacation.

This is one tree:



Lots of nice scenery in Hawaii.



We went on a dinner cruise:



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We went to a big tourist trap type luau.



Debbi volunteered me to go on stage.



And make a fool of myself in front of hundreds of strangers :D



Hawaii is probably best know for it's beaches. As much as I like the beach (and the scenery found there ), I have always been more drawn to the mountains.

Hawaii has those too.

I ended up Renting that Riva for a day and then again a couple of days later. It really was a blast to ride Light weight, 10 inch wheels and a short wheelbase meant that you just had to think about turning and it would do it. It was also reasonably comfortable two up and handled a passenger with ease. It was perfect for running around in city traffic. But, city traffic wasn't really where I wanted to spend all my time riding. I had a map of the area and found something that looked really cool. This is not the exact map I had but shows what I was looking at:



Tantalus Drive. Now that looked like fun!

So I went out looking for it. I found this fantastic, super curvy road that went up the mountain and into a rain forest. If you have ever ridden Deal's Gap, it doesn't compare to this road for tight curves and scenery. I would be riding along, scraping the floorboards on some super tight curves in the middle of a rain forest when suddenly there would be a break in the trees and a spectacular view of Downtown Honolulu.



Then some more curves followed by a spectacular view of Diamond Head.



Without a doubt this was one of the most fun and memorable rides of my life. The Riva was a great bike for this ride. Anything much bigger would have been overkill. I think I rode it several times.

I did come back and ride it again with Debbi on the back.  Even with a passenger on the back it was still a great ride.  We went exploring and found this really good Italian restaurant in a residential area well off the beaten path. That ended up being one of the best, and least expensive dinners we had in Hawaii.



That was my first scooter experience and it was a great one. It planted the scooter bug in me although it would be a long time before I acted on it. I really thought it would be fun to have a small scooter but I just didn't see that it would be practical or that I would use it very much.

One final note. When I got back to San Diego and took one of my motorcycles out, it felt like a huge, heavy, and clumsy beast compared to that little scooter.

California is a great state for riders for a number of reasons. There are a lot of interesting places to ride. One of those places is Death Valley. I decided to ride there over the MLK Holiday weekend in 1989. I packed up the Venture and headed north on I-15. I don't remember the exact route but I ended up in Death Valley that afternoon. I did a little sight seeing and started looking for a place to stay. Being a holiday weekend, everything in Death Valley was booked. BTW, back then Death Valley was a National Monument, not a National Park. Despite the fact that everything was booked, Death Valley still seemed pretty deserted. I ended up going to Beatty, NV to find a room. I found a cheap Mom and Pop Motel. When I looked for something to eat I found very few restaurants. I think there was a McDs of something like that but if I wanted real food the only place to eat was in the Casino.

I woke up early because I wanted to catch the sunrise. It was Cooooooold. My bike's seat was covered with frost and the bike didn't want to crank. I rolled down a hill and bump started it. I did get this pic in town that morning.



Then I headed back towards Death Valley. Back then I had pretty cheap riding gear. Even though I was bundled up like the Michelin Tire man, I started to freeze pretty quickly. I think I had to stop every 10-15 minutes to thaw out my fingers. It didn't help that I had to cross some mountains to get back into the Valley. Then, to make things worse, I wanted to ride up to Dantes View which is about a mile high in elevation. The road to Dantes View was a nice twisty road but I was too cold to really enjoy it.

The view was spectacular. Looking almost straight down was the valley floor at 282 feet below sea level. Across the valley was the snow covered Panamint Mountain range at over 11,000 feet high and off in the distance I could see Mt Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental USA.

This pic does not do it justice:



Then I rode down into the valley for some more riding and sight seeing.



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On the valley floor 282 feet below sea level. Up on the hillside is a small white sign showing where sea level is.



There was this really cool looking dirt road going into a narrow canyon that I wanted to explore but it was one way and I didn't want to chance it one the Venture, especially after what had happened earlier with the busted crankcase.

I decided to take a road that looked real interesting on my map. It went up through the Panamint MTNS. It was a nice twisty and scenic road but not in very good shape. Eventually I got to a point where the pavement ended and the road crossed a frozen creek ??? ???

It would be a long way to go back and around...



Keep in mind that I was on a 750+ pound full dress touring bike.



I decided to go for it. It ended up being pretty non eventful but it did make me think that maybe someday I should get a big dual sport bike. Come to think of it, I could have ridden that interesting looking dirt road earlier as well.

It was something to think about.

I had planned on making this a three day weekend but ended up pushing it all the way home that night. It was a pretty cold ride.

Fantastic! Really makes me wish I had more pictures of growing up on two wheels!

Quote from: Fencejumper09 on December 07, 2017, 10:35:56 AM
Fantastic! Really makes me wish I had more pictures of growing up on two wheels!

You can't change the past but you can document your riding from this point on.  Someday you will be glad you did.  You will be able to show your kids and their kids what riding was like in the "good old days"  ;D

Only a couple of years earlier I thought of Full dress touring bikes as boring old men's bikes. I was now doing a lot of riding on mine. It was just so much more practical and comfortable for long trips than the FJ. Having hard luggage especially spoiled me.

I did a Solo trip to the Grand Canyon. I headed west on I-8 to Yuma AZ. Then it was mostly back roads through Prescott, Sedonna, and Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. I spent the night in Flagstaff then rode to the Grand Canyon. The rest of the trip is pretty fuzzy in my memory. I do remember that it was real cold in the morning in Flagstaff. Just like in Death valley my bike was covered in frost and I had to roll down a hill and bump start it. Again, I had to stop and thaw out every few miles. I could have used electric heat and some decent riding gear back then. Once the sun came out it warmed up nicely.

For the ride back home I took a different route and rode through the mountains North East of Phoenix and then headed home. I'm sure I took a lot of pics but could only find a few. 

I think these where near Sedonna/Oak Creek Canyon.



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This next one was that cold morning north of Flagstaff.

I went on a number of trips while I was in California. They were great and I will never forget them, however the best and most memorable rides were those weekend rides in the San Diego area. It is possible that I will get the chance to go back and visit all the great places again some day but there is no way I will ever be able to re-live the the exciting days of sport riding of that time. The roads were fantastic to ride on
The weather was great almost all the time
And I had a couple of really fun bikes!
But, a big part of the fun was the riders I had the chance to ride with and become friends with. I often wonder were all those people are today and how they are doing. I have only managed to keep in touch with one of them.

So, it's time to talk about sport riding again. Much of my sport riding was done on the FJ but the Venture also made a surprisingly good sport bike. After I got the Venture, I don't think Debbi ever rode on the back of the FJ again. The Venture spoiled her. So any sport rides that Debbi came along on were on the Venture.

The Venture had an Awesome V-4 engine that pulled really hard and sounded and felt great while doing it. The Venture was heavy at around 750 pounds but the steering was really light due to the wide handlebar and the steering geometry. The steering was actually lighter than that of the FJ. Cornering clearance was also very good for a touring bike. On top of that I would hang off on the inside to increase clearance even more.

Back to the people I rode with. There was a restaurant in San Diego that was a meeting place for riders on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Go there on any weekend or holiday and there would be one or more groups there eating and then heading out for a ride. I have no recollection of the name of that place but by using Google Maps to research it I'm pretty sure it was Giovanni's on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I wonder if it is still a popular rider's meeting place?  I guess I'll have to go back sometime and check it out.

Riding with these guys was an experience in itself. most of them were really experienced riders with a lot of great stories to tell. As a relative noob I was in awe of these guys. I would meet these guys for breakfast, we would ride all day and then sometimes stop some place for dinner where I had the chance to hear all kinds of great stories.

One of my biggest regrets is not taking more pics of these rides and the people I ride with.

At least I took a few. Here's a great one this was taken one of those days Debbi came along on the Venture:



There is a story behind this pic but first I'm going to talk about the people in this pic.

Starting on the left:

Kim rode an EX500 and rode it very well. She was a nurse and the GF of the guy with his thumb in the air.

Tony, sitting down, rode a GSXR 750 with a personalized tag that read IKIKA55 :D Somehow he got that past the license plate censors.

Jonesy was one of the fastest riders around. When I met him he rode a BMW K100RS. Although the BMW was not exactly a super sport he ride it ridiculously fast. In 2 and a half years he put 80,000 miles on it. He then traded it in. If I remember right he paid $3500 and the trade for a new BMW K75S. He got a great deal but keep in mind that the 80,000 K100RS was still under warranty!
The K75S was no super sport either but Jonesy was even faster on that bike.  I remember riding with him one day. I was on the FJ and my riding had improved greatly. We were coming up on one of my favorite sections of road. Nice medium speed sweepers that I knew really well. I would finally be able to keep up with him
So I ran through those curves as fast as I dared and hung way off to the inside like the racers did. On the straights I used all 125 horsepower......

It wasn't enough. He still left me in the dust >:(

To add insult to injury he had Dunlop K491 tour Elites on his bike. He rode so much he couldn't afford to use sport tires ???


Just to the right of and behind Jonesy was Big Bill. He got his nick name because he was.........BIG. He rode a Hurricane 1000.

Next was John. He was a real motorcycling celebrity and legend. I'll talk more about him in a separate post. After that was Debbi and me.

The story behind this pic is coming up...........

The story behind the pic in the last post.

Most rides that we did ended up on Palomar Mountain. The roads on Palomar were fantastic and then there was a restaurant and store at the top of the mountain that was a great place to hang out and get something to eat. The restaurant was called Mother's Kitchen. It was a vegetarian restaurant but the veggie burgers were pretty good and so were their pies. The best part of the place was the parking lot which was normally pretty full of bikes on weekends and was a great place to kick tires.  It was a lot like Deal's Gap was years ago before it got realy popular ans everyone started calling it the "dragon".

Palomar mountain was the big attraction for the local sport riders. Not only were the roads great but law enforcement normally stayed off the mountain. One of the guys who was a regular on the mountain was a middle aged squid who rode a Hurricane 1000. He normally had a few younger "squidlings" following him around. Why was he a squid? I'm not really sure. He did wear proper riding gear. He just had that reputation. He had done something that really pissed Jonesy off. I'm not sure what. Maybe a stupid pass?

Anyway, we were hanging out in front off Mother's Kitchen when we heard that this guy had crashed. So we headed down the East grade to check it out. We found the guys mangled bike off of the side of the road and then posed for that picture.

I'm not sure of the extent of the guys injuries except that they were nothing serious. I saw the guy at Mother's kitchen some time later. He was now riding a large cruiser. He was pretty bored with it but said that his wife wouldn't let him get another sport bike :D

Time to wrap up the story around that last pic I posted. Probably the most fascinating person in that pic was John. He's the white haired older gentleman standing towards the back next to Debbi. In his normal life he was an upstanding member of society. He lived in upscale Coronado Island. He sang with the San Diego Opera for 18 years, played the piano, was a trustee at his church and had numerous other accomplishments. He was a very mild mannered, soft spoken gentleman.

He was not the type of person you would expect to be out tearing up the twisty mountain roads on a motorcycle...........but he was.

John was the president of a local BMW club and owned a couple of air cooled BMW twins. Many of the times I rode with him he was on his Yamaha 650 Seca. None of these bikes were exactly state of the art sport bikes. When John was riding he normally looked like he was just out for a Sunday cruise. He didn't hang off or anything. He just looked relaxed on his bike. But, he was deceptively FAST. I couldn't keep up with him when he decided to ride fast. I heard many stories of him blowing by guys on modern sport bikes like Ninjas on GSXRs going up Palomar Mountain. Then he'd be waiting for those guys at the top of the mountain and they would realize they had just been blown away by this old white haired guy on a slow bike ???

John was also known as the "King of the Alps" He had done so much riding in the alps and other parts of Europe that he wrote and published several books about riding that area.

Those of you familiar with Southern California don't need to be told about how great the weather is there. I found it to be totally different from anything I had previously experienced so I'll talk about it here. I had expected that as far south as San Diego was it would be very hot in the summers. So I was shocked to find out that most people did not have air conditioning if they lived near the coast. The water off the coast comes down from Alaska and doesn't get very warm. Since the wind is almost always from the coast, it is normally a nice and cool breeze. On rare occasions the wind would switch and it would get hot for a few days. In the winter it never got really cold. I don't remember it ever getting down to freezing.

Of course this was near the coast. Go inland and things would change. A typical June ride would be like this: It would be cool and totally overcast when leaving in the morning. It would look like rain, but there was no need for a rain suit. Head inland about 15 miles and there would be no sign of clouds and it would warm up. Then we would climb up into the mountains where it would be nice and comfortable even mid day. continue east, down the mountain and into the desert and it would be 110 degrees.

During the winter the higher elevations would get snow. Some of the "local" roads I rode all the time got over 5000 and even 6000 feet in elevation.

The highest point in the county was Mount Laguna which was one of our favorite ride destinations. It had a great twisty and scenic road that went over the mountain.

Here's some pics taken there:

During the summer it would get pretty cool up there. We went up once to catch the sunset. Didn't quite make it in time.



And we also rode there in the winter.



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1988

We had a pretty nice collection of bikes. 




The problem was that Debbi never got to where she was comfortable on the Seca. So it was time to go bike shopping again. We decided that she needed something with a bit more power and performance than the Twinstar but smaller and lighter than the Seca. So we looked around and Debbi did a number of test rides. She finally decided on a bike that was bigger and heavier than the Seca.

But it had a lower seat and low center of gravity.



She got a used 1986 Yamaha Virago 700.



For whatever reason she was much more comfortable riding this bike than she was the Seca. The Virago was a pretty good performing bike. The motor made plenty of power. Dual discs up front. Shaft drive, Tachometer and centerstand.  All things you normally won't find on a modern cruiser. It also had pretty good cornering clearance, much better than most modern cruisers.

It wasn't long before we headed out for a weekend trip.  I think it was over Thanksgiving weekend but don't remember for sure.  I do remember it was cold as we headed east over the mountains.

We stopped to warm up and enjoy the view.  No smile here. I think she's giving me the "I can't believe you got me out riding in this cold weather" look :D



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Our first night was spent in El Centro which is in the desert east of San Diego and much warmer than up in the mountains.



The next day we rode up to Palms Springs where we spent another enjoyable night.  Then we headed up over the mountains stopping in the scenic town of Idyllwild.  There was snow on the ground which would probably have made for a pretty cool picture if only I had taken it :(

Although Debbi had her own bike, for longer trips we still rode two up on the Venture. We decided to go see the Grand Canyon. Would our normal Vacation luck continue?

Well, just before we left I came down with a bad cold :(

But I wasn't going to let that stop us. So off we went. We spent the first night in Yuma. The news weather reports were calling for snow at the Grand Canyon. So we changed our plan. We would just go as far as Oak Creek Canyon and spend more time there. I had been to Oak Creek Canyon a couple of time but Debbi hadn't. In some ways I liked it better than the Grand Canyon. You can ride your bike through Oak Creek Canyon :)

The ride there was pretty good also. There are some nice mountain curves and views on either side of Prescott and the neat little town of Jerome.

When we got to Sedona which is at the mouth of Oak Creek canyon we found this really cool Bed and Breakfast. But it was full up that night. So we booked a room for the following night and stayed at some generic motel the first night. By not going on the the G. C. we were able to spend an entire day exploring and checking out Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.

Debbi has accused me of taking more pics of my bikes than of her ::)
You wouldn't know it from this trip where I can't find a single pic of my bike but plenty with her in them.



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As I mentioned, you can ride your bike through this canyon. Here is the road as it twists it's way out of the north end of the canyon:




The B & B we stayed at the second night was pretty interesting. The owner was a collector of music boxes. When I thought of music boxes I thought of those little boxes that sit on a dresser or shelf and when you open them they play a tune. These where much bigger. These are what preceeded the record player and radio. They had huge metal discs in them that turned to generate the music. You can see part of the collection in the next two pics.



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More miscellaneous memories from riding around San Diego.

I met a couple some time in 87 who rode Kawasaki Ninja 750s. They were husband and wife. Phil and Tomi. Not long after I met them Phil's Ninja was stolen and he replaced it with a VFR750. We ended up riding with them a lot. On most Saturday mornings they would meet a few friends on the corner of 94 and Honey Springs road and then ride to Julian for breakfast. I/we often went with them. After breakfast some people would head home to do Honey Do's and some of us would ride some more.

Sometimes Debbi and I got together with them to ride or just do other things. Some pics from a day ride we did with them.

Debbi, Phil and our bikes:



Debbi and Tomi carrying on a conversation with one of the locals ;D



My mom and dad came out to visit us for a week. One day I took my mom for a ride into the mountains. Luckily mom fit into Debbi's riding gear.



We went out Otay Lakes road and then right on 94 which we followed for a half hour or so before taking a break then heading back. On the way back we got stuck behind a long string of slow moving cages. There was one long, straight uphill stretch of road. It was clear so I pulled out, downshifted and twisted the throttle. Despite being 2 up and going uphill the venture just rocketed past that line of cars!

Eventually we got stuck behind more slow moving cages. After the ride was done mom commented that it was to bad we got stuck behind those slow cars.

Some more local rides.

One of the more interesting destinations in the area was Dudley's Bakery in Santa Ysabel. At that time there was very little in Santa Ysabel. There was Dudley's Bakery, a gas station and a feed and grain shop. That was about it. All Dudley's bakery sold was bread. Their bread was so good it was not unusual for there to be a long line and hour long wait to buy bread on Saturday. Then around 2 or 3 in the afternoon they would sell out. Their bread was that good. Since I often rode to Julian and then to Palomar, it was right on the way. However, on a few occasions I rode out to Dudley's just to get bread. It was a mere 140 or so mile round trip but the bread and the ride made it worth it.

Highway 79 just north of Santa Ysabel was a common speed trap. How do I know this? I found out the hard way. I was stuck behind two cars. When i got to a passing zone I pulled out to pass but so did the second of the cars. So I had to wait for this slow cage to pass the even slower cage before I could really twist the throttle.

As soon as that cage pulled into the right lane I twisted the throttle. At around 125 I eased off and slowed down. About 30 seconds later I saw flashing lights in my mirror ??? Oh Oh!! Both myself and the car behind me were pulled over. He got me for 75 in a 55.

I felt like I had just committed murder and got arrested for shoplifting :D


I have mentioned Otay lakes road a few times. There was a small skydiving airstrip just past the lake. Sometimes we stopped and watched.



Sometimes I did longer day rides, up to 500 miles or so. One of my favorite rides was up to Big Bear lake or to the Angeles Crest Highway.

I still remember my first ride to Big bear Lake. I went up to the lake on 38 which is a spectacular ride which got up to over 8000 feet elevation if my memory is correct. Then there is the lake itself. At 6700 feet elevation it is surrounded by high mountains and even had a couple of ski areas. The lake was very scenic. Then to top it off was the return ride on 18 which was known as the Rim of the World drive. The views from that road where also spectacular. You could see all the way to the Pacific ocean. Well, you could if not for the smog and poor visibility. Instead you could see down towards San Bernadino and see some hills or tall buildings sticking up out of the smog.

I wish I took more pictures. I did get this one at the west end of Big Bear Lake:



I'm not sure if this next one was taken from 18 or the Angeles Crest Highway but you can see the high rises sticking up out of the smog.



One day I went for a ride out to Julian with Tomi. Phil was going to meet us in Julian for Lunch. I was cruising on a back road near Julian enjoying the absolutely perfect day and great scenery. I was doing around 70 and off the gas to slow down for an upcoming curve when there was a jolt in the front end and the bars of my FJ went into a violent tank slapper. I couldn't hang on to the bars and was now just a passenger:eek1:eek1 There was a slight bend in the road and I went off into the embankment and the FJ and I ended tumbling first in the dirt and then back into the road.

After coming to a stop I jumped up. I really didn't know what had just happened. This was my first crash. Tomi was a bit behind me and didn't see the crash. We went back to see what had happened and found a rock the size and shape of a brick on the side of the road. It looked scuffed up. I probably hit it with the edge of my front tire which caused the tankslapper. Anyway, the FJ was not rideable so it ended up getting towed away. Phil showed up and instead of me riding back as a passenger Tomi rode behind Phil and i got to ride her Ninja back home.

As for injuries, I had none. Not even a bruise. I'm glad I was wearing full riding gear. My leathers got a little scuffed up but not too bad. I did have to replace the helmet.

The insurance company totalled the FJ. Time to go bike shopping :)

Well, that would have to wait. I had a two week ride planned so bike shopping would be waiting for me when I got back.

On final pic of the FJ. It was a great bike and I still miss it sometimes. I think a sunset pic is appropriate.