Dr Rich,
Thanks for the opportunity to enjoy the company of some wonderful new friends. :yahoo:
All in all it was a fine day for a ride saturday, I'm glad I was able to make it. This is a good group of people to ride with. We all behaved ourselves, nobody was out to prove anything, the company was great.
Brian we missed ya!
I started my day pushing snooze on my cellphone alarm, but thought twice about it- I didn't want to wake up again around 10am. Got up at 4:45, took a quick shower, got out of the house around 5:30. Tyler had mentioned O-dark thirty in her sign off post the night before and I had entertained the thought of catching her on the freeway as she rode past Milpitas. It never happened. I found out later when she showed up at the restaurant that her O-dark thirty equals 6:30.
I had a nice quick trip to the Chevron station rendezvous location and beat everyone there by about half an hour. That cup of hot chocolate sure hit the spot, it was chilly that morning (42 deg.) and I forgot my electrics. At about 8:15 five of us rolled out and headed toward the restaurant in Winters.
As a side note, it seems that gas station is a rather popular assembly location, there were a few Gold Wingers gathering there too. I had a chance to visit with a couple of the before we left. A half hour after we sat down at breakfast they strolled in and took a table near by.
Small world.
Weather wise you couldn't ask for a nicer day, blue sky, few puffy clouds, pretty warm weather - low 60's. Almost to the point of being boring.
Boring?!??
You decide...
We ended up at a gas station at Cache Creek, a popular casino on route 16, where we took a group photo and then went our separate ways. Tyler invited me to ride with her back to the San Jose area but I figured I'd call my brother in Placerville (east of Sacramento) and see if he would like a visit. I trust Tyler had a fine ride home.
Not knowing the neighborhood, I told my brother I'd be there in about half an hour. I teamed up with a couple of Mikes and some odd KLR rider
heading back to Sacramento and promptly got separated from them. About 20 minutes later I was in a grocery store parking lot attempting to set up my cell phone GPS when Mad Mike rode by and gave me a blast on his horn. I caught up with them and enjoyed a nice run by the river. We parted company when we reached US 50 in town. I pulled up in front of my brother's house about 2 hours after I made the phone call. :blush:
We had a nice visit, we sat and talked a lot about the trip we made last summer, and I spent the night. My brother and I are the bikers in the family, we are blessed with wives who are very understanding with our "need" to go out riding.
My brother decided to ride with me for a while and rolled out his Road King. He hadn't rode it for a while due to a shoulder injury and he was just looking for an excuse to get out and about. :hyper:
I got in a couple of shots of our ride in gold country...
Makes me jelous, these roads are in his own back yard...
He peeled off and headed back home when we reached highway 88 and the landscape got flatter.
The rest of my ride was nice, I took a different route than I normally do, west on highway 4 which runs toward Concord. I headed south on Vasco road into the Livermore valley - right near where I work. From there it was just another commute home...
Or so I thought...
Five miles from home the bike started acting squirrelly in the fast lane, I ended up on the side of the road with a flat rear tyre. :angry2:
I found out this pig is impossible to get up on center stand sitting down that low. With luck and by chance the side stand allowed the bike to lean just enough to remain standing. I tried using my air pump to inflate it so I could try the center stand again - but no go, just not enough air. After a few pushes forword I found the hole and was able to use my sticky string repair kit (others swear at it - I swear by it), and pumped enough air to drive on it.
The sticky string repair...
Would you believe it, 5 miles from home after a weekend of riding...
After half an hour on the side of the freeway, I was able to ride it home. I pulled up in time to see my son with the pickup truck in the driveway loading his track bike in the back getting ready for a track day monday. This truck is the anchor for my No-Mar tyre changer. He had a couple of hours so we pulled my wheel off and stole the tyre from the back of my daughters CBR600F4i - another Avon Storm. I get to buy her a replacement piece of rubber this week.
My son is heading off to Thunder Hill, my bike is ready for my commute in the morning, and my daughter will have to wait a few days before she can ride again. She says it's too cold to ride anyway.
All in all, I had a great weekend! :thumbsupsmileyanim:
Let's do it again sometime!
:hyper:
Brian, see what you missed out on? :clapping:
B)
Brodie