James Burleigh
Well-known member
After velcroing to my dashboard all my special trip accessories (see photo), suiting up, and pulling away from my house at 7:55 am, I arrived back home at 6:10 pm, having put (only) 187 miles on the Feejer. So while it was a lot of hours (about 10), it was not that many miles, which should ensure my membership in the Candy-Butt Association for a while longer. Nevertheless I was beat, and a cold beer as soon as I closed the garage door on the Feejer sure hit the spot.
After leaving the house at the start of the ride, I stopped at the Rockridge BART station before crossing into San Francisco to meet up with jwhite518 and the Mrs. (Jerry and Sally). But after waiting about 20 minutes they didn’t show by the agreed-upon move-on time, so I pulled away and headed into the City. I was running late, so I moved pretty briskly across the fast-moving Bay Bridge and then through San Francisco.
I pulled up to the rendezvous point at the Presidio at about 9:15 am, worried I was late. But when I looked ahead to the parking lot of the rendezvous area, I was disappointed to see there were no bikes there.
I stopped at a booth with an attendant before parking the bike, and as I was "discussing" :glare: with the lady in the booth why the 20-minute parking limit didn't apply to me and my no-show buddies (and how it wasn’t what her colleague had said during my scouting ride), up behind me appears a parade of three 2005 FJRs—it’s was the Sacramento contingent: Weekend Rider, rsvlfeej, and FJR Hopeful.
We parked (photo), and I heard how Hopeful had taken them on the "scenic" route, somehow managing to miss the Bay Bridge (uh, it's the size of the Empire State Building on its side :blink: ), with the result that they took a tour of Berkeley before finding their way across the bridge and into the City. And even after getting into the City they somehow managed to visit all the sights before apparently by accident stumbling on the rendezvous point. Okay, so here's lesson 1: Choose a more convenient rendezvous point (thanks for the tip, Silent).
2005 FJRs Lined Up at the Presidio Rendezvous
But the weather and the rendezvous location (photo) were beautiful. I handed out the free-coffee passes and the route maps, got emergency contact information from everyone, and sent them off to get coffee.
Presidio View Toward the Palace of Fine Art (View From Coffee Shop)
Then Lisa showed up on her Suzuki 650 single-banger, and we got her introduced all around. But still no word from jwhite518, not even a call. But just as we finished our coffee and headed back to the bikes to suit up and head out, here comes Jerry and Sally in their matching red-and-black Aerostitch’s. I talked to Jerry about the rendezvous, and it seems we were an hour off on our understanding of the rendezvous time. My bad :headbonk: —mistake and lesson number two: Make sure everyone’s clear (including yourself!) on the time.
In the mean time I got a call from Kurt. He would meet us at the Golden Gate Bridge overlook on his Sportster. So I gave the ride briefing, saying how we were going to take it real easy because we had a fairly new rider (Lisa), and jwhite518 was with his wife who hadn’t been for a ride in a while. Boy, would I catch hell for taking it easy!
We were finally off at about 10:30 or so. We did a quick tour of the Presidio and Fort Point, then got on the GGB and headed up to the overlook. We stopped for a couple of pictures, and picked up Kurt.
Golden Gate Bridge Overlook (L to R: Weekend Rider, rsvlfeej, the jwhite518s, Lisa, FJR Hopeful, Kurt)
Yours Truly with (at left) FJR Hopeful (I'm actually standing on a boulder, which is why Hopeful looks shorter
)
Soon we were back on Hwy 101 north heading for the Hwy 1 exit. But because it was such a beautiful day, and all the tourists were out, the off-ramp and the two miles from there to the Hwy 1 turn-off was completely backed up. With nods all around we exercised our God-given right :innocent: as Californians to “share lanes,” and toodled through the stopped traffic to gain a large space and time advantage.
That’s about when I noticed that suddenly there was a burgundy 2007 FJR among our group. It was Silent from San Jose, who after much tribulation trying to find us, finally caught up with us.
From there it was a beautiful, 35-mile ride to Pt. Reyes Station. That’s when I took off my helmet and ear plugs, turned, and noticed the Sacramento contingent, lead by rsvlfeej whom we all know loves to go fast and BTW goes fast really really well, like Mr. ExSkiBum himself—approaching me with torches and pitch forks (I have no idea how they got those on such short notice).
It seems I was taking it too easy, waaaaaaay too easy. Everybody was upset with me and questioned my manhood, my motorcycle-riding ability, whether my children were really sired by me, and whether I shouldn’t be shot in the back of the head right then and there. (Anyway, Sally said the pace was just fine .)
Asking “What part of ‘take it easy’ didn’t you understand” was to no avail (we were riding FJRs after all), so instead I promised to dial it up on the next 20-mile leg of twisties to our lunch stop at Dillon Beach. Which I did, crossing over ONLY one double-yellow to pass an ass-hat who wouldn’t use the turnouts, while rsvlfeej stopped to instruct him after he lamely slowed to the right without fully pulling into the turnout. Do NOT piss off rsvlfeej—are we clear on that point?!
BTW, Jerry and Sally had to head home from Pt. Reyes Station because Sally was getting too much pain in her knees from having been away from the bike too long. But it was great to see Jerry and meet Sally, and we’ll look forward to doing it again, only next time with Fang. Jerry was glad for the chance to have taken Sally out again.
The remaining contingent pulled into Tomales and parked in front of the Tomales deli to grab some sandwiches, and—behold!—there was a 2005 FJR parked in front, along with a BMW K1200GT. We chatted the guys up, and it seems they’re from Southern California, doing a long weekend. The FJR rider, Frank, isn’t on the Forum. But it seems he has the long-sought-after solution to the heat problem. Seems a couple of aerospace engineer friends of his scoffed at the idea of stuffing 500,000 Q-Tips down either side of your farings, and designed him a top-secret, new-fandangled, metallic mystery spoiler that somehow attaches to the bottom of the engine compartment. We gathered and gaped in amazement, while Frank nodded sagely, as cool as a cucumber (photo--rsvlfeej may have more details, as he talked to Frank at length about the fix).
FJR With Final Solution to Heat Problem (see wing under bike; background, L to R, Kurt, Silent)
We got our sandwiches and took off the two miles down to Dillon Beach. We paid our $3, and gingerly husbanded the bikes through the dirt and gravel parking lot to the edge of the sand. There we lamely sat on towels or posts or just stood while eating our sandwiches, til Weekend came up and said something to the effect of how we can stand and eat like a bunch of troglodytes, but for his part he was going to sit at that nice picnic table right over there; and he trudged off through the sand. We looked after him and were amazed to see a table where moments before there didn’t seem to be any. So we all picked up our stuff and followed him over (photo).
Lunch at Dillon Beach (L to R, FJR Hopeful, Kurt, Lisa, Silent, rsvlfeej, Weekend Rider)
Silent Taking a Photo of the Amazing Bumper Sticker Car
After lunch the Sac Boys continued north on Hwy 1 to experiment with the twisties at speed and get out their pent-up frustrations after following Burleigh the Pussy for too many miles (they decided my new Forum handle should be Aunt Bessie --there goes my reputation! I may have to re-post my commute and "Can't Ride 55" videos to get out of the hole :glare: ), while Silent, Lisa, Kurt, and I headed southeast for some more scenic Marin County scenery (and, uh, silly cars) before heading home.
Lisa and James Burleigh Stand in Front of Odd Car Sighting No. II in Nicasio
All told it was a great day. We had good weather and a good turnout: eight bikes altogether, mostly 2005's, with Silent on his new 2007 (with the light scratch that'll just buff out from its parked encounter with a bus the previous weekend); and then there was the 518's BMW and the two cruisers. Here's who made it:
Hans
a.k.a. James Burleigh
Last Look: JB's '05 and Silent's '07 FJRs
After leaving the house at the start of the ride, I stopped at the Rockridge BART station before crossing into San Francisco to meet up with jwhite518 and the Mrs. (Jerry and Sally). But after waiting about 20 minutes they didn’t show by the agreed-upon move-on time, so I pulled away and headed into the City. I was running late, so I moved pretty briskly across the fast-moving Bay Bridge and then through San Francisco.
I pulled up to the rendezvous point at the Presidio at about 9:15 am, worried I was late. But when I looked ahead to the parking lot of the rendezvous area, I was disappointed to see there were no bikes there.
I stopped at a booth with an attendant before parking the bike, and as I was "discussing" :glare: with the lady in the booth why the 20-minute parking limit didn't apply to me and my no-show buddies (and how it wasn’t what her colleague had said during my scouting ride), up behind me appears a parade of three 2005 FJRs—it’s was the Sacramento contingent: Weekend Rider, rsvlfeej, and FJR Hopeful.
We parked (photo), and I heard how Hopeful had taken them on the "scenic" route, somehow managing to miss the Bay Bridge (uh, it's the size of the Empire State Building on its side :blink: ), with the result that they took a tour of Berkeley before finding their way across the bridge and into the City. And even after getting into the City they somehow managed to visit all the sights before apparently by accident stumbling on the rendezvous point. Okay, so here's lesson 1: Choose a more convenient rendezvous point (thanks for the tip, Silent).
2005 FJRs Lined Up at the Presidio Rendezvous
But the weather and the rendezvous location (photo) were beautiful. I handed out the free-coffee passes and the route maps, got emergency contact information from everyone, and sent them off to get coffee.
Presidio View Toward the Palace of Fine Art (View From Coffee Shop)
Then Lisa showed up on her Suzuki 650 single-banger, and we got her introduced all around. But still no word from jwhite518, not even a call. But just as we finished our coffee and headed back to the bikes to suit up and head out, here comes Jerry and Sally in their matching red-and-black Aerostitch’s. I talked to Jerry about the rendezvous, and it seems we were an hour off on our understanding of the rendezvous time. My bad :headbonk: —mistake and lesson number two: Make sure everyone’s clear (including yourself!) on the time.
In the mean time I got a call from Kurt. He would meet us at the Golden Gate Bridge overlook on his Sportster. So I gave the ride briefing, saying how we were going to take it real easy because we had a fairly new rider (Lisa), and jwhite518 was with his wife who hadn’t been for a ride in a while. Boy, would I catch hell for taking it easy!
We were finally off at about 10:30 or so. We did a quick tour of the Presidio and Fort Point, then got on the GGB and headed up to the overlook. We stopped for a couple of pictures, and picked up Kurt.
Golden Gate Bridge Overlook (L to R: Weekend Rider, rsvlfeej, the jwhite518s, Lisa, FJR Hopeful, Kurt)
Yours Truly with (at left) FJR Hopeful (I'm actually standing on a boulder, which is why Hopeful looks shorter
)
Soon we were back on Hwy 101 north heading for the Hwy 1 exit. But because it was such a beautiful day, and all the tourists were out, the off-ramp and the two miles from there to the Hwy 1 turn-off was completely backed up. With nods all around we exercised our God-given right :innocent: as Californians to “share lanes,” and toodled through the stopped traffic to gain a large space and time advantage.
That’s about when I noticed that suddenly there was a burgundy 2007 FJR among our group. It was Silent from San Jose, who after much tribulation trying to find us, finally caught up with us.
From there it was a beautiful, 35-mile ride to Pt. Reyes Station. That’s when I took off my helmet and ear plugs, turned, and noticed the Sacramento contingent, lead by rsvlfeej whom we all know loves to go fast and BTW goes fast really really well, like Mr. ExSkiBum himself—approaching me with torches and pitch forks (I have no idea how they got those on such short notice).
It seems I was taking it too easy, waaaaaaay too easy. Everybody was upset with me and questioned my manhood, my motorcycle-riding ability, whether my children were really sired by me, and whether I shouldn’t be shot in the back of the head right then and there. (Anyway, Sally said the pace was just fine
.)
Asking “What part of ‘take it easy’ didn’t you understand” was to no avail (we were riding FJRs after all), so instead I promised to dial it up on the next 20-mile leg of twisties to our lunch stop at Dillon Beach. Which I did, crossing over ONLY one double-yellow to pass an ass-hat who wouldn’t use the turnouts, while rsvlfeej stopped to instruct him after he lamely slowed to the right without fully pulling into the turnout. Do NOT piss off rsvlfeej—are we clear on that point?!
BTW, Jerry and Sally had to head home from Pt. Reyes Station because Sally was getting too much pain in her knees from having been away from the bike too long. But it was great to see Jerry and meet Sally, and we’ll look forward to doing it again, only next time with Fang. Jerry was glad for the chance to have taken Sally out again.
The remaining contingent pulled into Tomales and parked in front of the Tomales deli to grab some sandwiches, and—behold!—there was a 2005 FJR parked in front, along with a BMW K1200GT. We chatted the guys up, and it seems they’re from Southern California, doing a long weekend. The FJR rider, Frank, isn’t on the Forum. But it seems he has the long-sought-after solution to the heat problem. Seems a couple of aerospace engineer friends of his scoffed at the idea of stuffing 500,000 Q-Tips down either side of your farings, and designed him a top-secret, new-fandangled, metallic mystery spoiler that somehow attaches to the bottom of the engine compartment. We gathered and gaped in amazement, while Frank nodded sagely, as cool as a cucumber (photo--rsvlfeej may have more details, as he talked to Frank at length about the fix).
FJR With Final Solution to Heat Problem (see wing under bike; background, L to R, Kurt, Silent)
We got our sandwiches and took off the two miles down to Dillon Beach. We paid our $3, and gingerly husbanded the bikes through the dirt and gravel parking lot to the edge of the sand. There we lamely sat on towels or posts or just stood while eating our sandwiches, til Weekend came up and said something to the effect of how we can stand and eat like a bunch of troglodytes, but for his part he was going to sit at that nice picnic table right over there; and he trudged off through the sand. We looked after him and were amazed to see a table where moments before there didn’t seem to be any. So we all picked up our stuff and followed him over (photo).
Lunch at Dillon Beach (L to R, FJR Hopeful, Kurt, Lisa, Silent, rsvlfeej, Weekend Rider)
Silent Taking a Photo of the Amazing Bumper Sticker Car
After lunch the Sac Boys continued north on Hwy 1 to experiment with the twisties at speed and get out their pent-up frustrations after following Burleigh the Pussy for too many miles (they decided my new Forum handle should be Aunt Bessie
--there goes my reputation! I may have to re-post my commute and "Can't Ride 55" videos to get out of the hole :glare: ), while Silent, Lisa, Kurt, and I headed southeast for some more scenic Marin County scenery (and, uh, silly cars) before heading home.Lisa and James Burleigh Stand in Front of Odd Car Sighting No. II in Nicasio
All told it was a great day. We had good weather and a good turnout: eight bikes altogether, mostly 2005's, with Silent on his new 2007 (with the light scratch that'll just buff out from its parked encounter with a bus the previous weekend); and then there was the 518's BMW and the two cruisers. Here's who made it:
- James Burleigh
- jwhite518 & wife
- Silent (San Jose)
- Weekend Rider (Woodland)
- rsvlfeej, Roseville
- FJR Hopeful, Sacramento
- Lisa (colleague from work on a Suzuki LS 650), San Francisco
- Kurt (buddy from high school on a 1200 Sportster), San Rafael
Hans
a.k.a. James Burleigh
Last Look: JB's '05 and Silent's '07 FJRs
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