Been working an insomniac/ work-alcoholics dream. Still working as a courier and have been putting in 18-20 hour days. Just have enough time to go home shower, nap and return to do the same thing over and over. It's a good thing the vehicle is comfy since I spend so much time in it! On Saturdays, I'm usually on-call so even though I would love to sleep in I don't have the chance since I usually get called in. Sundays are strictly my day off... need at least one to go hang with friends and especially go for a bike ride.
The riding around here is very different than I'm used to which is riding for pure enjoyment purposes - enjoy the people your with, the ride, nice scenery, etc. People around here are always rushed and you have to drive extremely aggressive or crash. It just amazes me how many people drive in the middle of two lanes, cut you off then slam on their brakes all the while honking at you because you almost collide with them.
When I first got here, I read in the paper and heard on the news about biker accidents - people just fall off their bikes. Now, I'm thinking a gust of wind pops you off the bike but literally people fall off and have been run over by tailgaiters. Or drivers aim for you and I have no idea why. But crazy drivers here have been making me really cautious especially since the posted speed limit is 65mph but the flow of traffic is going 80-90mph. Yup, crazy! Whew!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Weekend Ride
Time is flying by so quickly. I thought I had written an update about that ride. Apparently not. So the ride was last Sunday. I just figured it out... I typed it up but forgot to publish it.
What a quick weekend! Arrived back in LA on Friday and met up with a friend early Saturday to go for a ride around the canyons. Sunday was the ride for diabetes – Rip’s BAD Ride. I thought it would be only a ride but come to find out, there were vendors and entertainment too. Spent almost the whole day there checking out other bikes, chrome bike parts and accessories, clothing and of course food. I went with some friends and this was their first biker event. We also got VIP passes since we had earned so much in donations. As a VIP, we received a denim vest with the Rip’s BAD Ride logo, t-shirt, sweatshirt, better parking spot (in the shade!) and BBQ. Thanks to those that contributed and making this possible!
This is a Boss Hoss. Whew! Such a nice bike...
Overall, I think I put on about 250 more miles on the bike. The rest of this month is booked as far as weekend rides. I seem to forget that I’m a distance rider - I like riding to far places so 100 miles here or there doesn’t seem like much… more like a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, I met another biker. Chatting with her I found out we starting riding around the same time – back in 2000. I was telling her I don’t ride very much since I travel a lot and my bike is in storage for a majority of the time. But when I do ride, it’s to distant places or an all day ride. For other bikes my age, I really should have double or triple the amount of miles on it so mine is still in real good shape with abit more than 22,000 miles. It was funny that she did a double take when I mentioned the miles. I know, I said… small amount. Then with a half grin, she said for 8 years old her bike only has 5,700 miles. Wow, that’s more like a dust collector! (Sometimes thoughts just slip out of my mouth).
Friday, June 06, 2008
mini roadtrip
Went on a mini roadtrip. Oh what fun and more stories! Had to go home and get my bike so what better way to move it, than to just ride it down to LA? So I flew to Washington on Tuesday and began my roadtrip Wednesday afternoon. Of course, I should have planned on a full day home to visit the parents but that thought really didn't occur to me when I was planning this trip. All I thought was I had to take the least amount of days off from work.
I had a late start and left in the afternoon rather than the morning. It was a really good thing, I had planned an 8 hour leg versus the first day to be 12 hours. Leaving at 1 pm, I had projected I would get to my hotel room around 9. I forgot about the highway construction which added a few more hours onto my already tardiness. I really wanted to arrive in the day time - I knew the mountains would be cold as soon as the sun set. How cold, I just didn't know. Plus, I didn't want it to rain, snow or hail since most of my roadtrips tend to attract these elements. In May, it snowed and hailed while I traveled this route via car. I planned on going the exact route since during the car ride, I completed a recon of the area and wrote down the roads I needed to take as well as refuel stations. I broke the trip down into 3 days - first day 8 hours, second day 8 hours and the third day with 5 hours.
Anyway, after the road construction and high winds, it took me about 2 1/2 hours to get the the first town. (Under normal conditions, it would only take 75 minutes)... plus it took half my tank of gas. I really had to find a better way to load my bags since it was causing alot of wind drag and causing horrible fuel economy. If it continued, I knew I wouldn't be able to make some of these distances since there are not any gas stations along certain points along this journey. I was seriously tempted to turn back and spend the night at the parents house. The only thing stopping me was the construction - I didn't want to sit through it a second time around. Anyhow, I had hotel reservations that were not flexible. I did call though to tell them it would be an extremely late check-in, perhaps 11pm.
The day was quite nice - dry roads, cloud covering... nice ride. Oh! It was also a time to road test some new items. During that last roadtrip from Texas to Washington my luggage bags didn't make it... so I got new ones. The old set were made of leather and when full extremely heavy. Whew! I know I grew some muscles on that trip carrying everything up and downstairs at various hotels along the way home. I had seen some new luggage bags with wheels and thought it was a fantastic idea. Normal people suitcases but compact enough to fit on a bike. So that is the one I got for this trip. It's sooo cool! You just roll it around to where ever you go - well, you know how wheeled luggage works so I won't explain. Really convenient.
Then my other new article was leather pants. I've been wearing chaps in the past and they work great all except a certain area on the body where it doesn't cover... and that part gets cold too. Or in other instances when it rains, everything is dry except that one area - yup, the groin area... last time I went to visit a friend whom thought I wet my pants. How embarrassing. So these leather pants work great! I really like it a lot.
I had my map holder too. I got it on my last roadtrip and it came in really handy. It's a clear plastic folder with four magnets on each corner. It sticks on the gas tank so you can insert a map or directions in the pouch and be able to reference it while riding instead of having to stop each time for further guidance or like in my past, put the directions in my helmet and have it fly out. I thought it was a great invention whomever made it. I thought I was all high-speed with this cool gadget too... until other bikers passed me and had a GPS system hooked up to their bike.
But on with the story... I went along my planned route and had some really great views - mountains, rivers, couple deer, birds, etc. It started getting alittle cold in the early evening then after the sun went down, it was downright freezing! The temperatures were in the low 50's but on a bike with the windchill factor, it's approximately 20 degrees less. I started going faster and faster. Surprisingly, I didn't see any police which made me even go faster. I thought the faster I got there, the faster I could warm up inside my room but whew! It was cold. My new mantra was 80 more miles... I can do this... I've been colder (as my teeth started chattering). Somehow, in the cold I miscalculated my mileage and the fuel stations. I forgot... small towns close early. I had to bypass several fuel stations since it was late (only 7pm!) and really thought I was going to run out of gas. 60 more miles to go... My previous fuel record was 127 miles so I knew I could last a bit longer but had to slow down to conserve on gas (then my hands and whole body started shivering). 40 more miles... it really was cold out. I could see my breath on my helmet face shield. More mantra... it's cold, but I've been colder (and in all actuality I have but I had a passenger and a full tank of gas). Finally, I saw a gas station as my bike hit 133 miles, in the red zone... and they were out of premium. 10 more miles to town with no idea where the hotel was. I didn't know if the regular gas would ruin my tank so I only got alittle bit - enough to get me into town to find an open gas station with premium. It took me a few minutes to get back on the bike... inside of the refuel station was nice and warm and by then I was shivering really really bad. So bad, I didn't know if I could make it the last 10 miles... so close but still so far and soooo cold and I already had on all my layers of clothing I brought with me. Finally made it to the hotel room around 930pm and sat in front of the heater for a few hours.
Needless to say, I slept good that night with the heater cranked on high.
Day 2
I left Kalamath Falls, Oregon and planned on staying in Gilroy, California for the night. The weather was suppose to be real nice although still cold - high 50's/ low 60's. There was frost on my bike and bundled up in everything I had when I left. During the ride, I kept having to stop to remove an article of clothing - it was hot out! I still had on a jacket but had to wear it since there wasn't any more storage space anywhere on the bike. Left around 9 and arrived at 530pm. Great day for a ride. Met up with some friends.
Pic of my bike - road ready... this was taken in Oregon during Day 2 ride. This is the only pic for my whole road trip.
Day 3
So this was the final day of my ride. Left Gilroy around 11 and arrived home at 430pm. Whew! I forgot it was Friday and rush hour traffic begins at noon. Still made it in good time though with dry roads and hot weather. I was really happy I got to ride on Pacheco Pass - it's a really great bike road with lots of curves. You can't help but to go fast.
I got to Tejon Pass, which is almost an hour away from Los Angeles, in the hills when I saw several fire trucks. I admit I was rubbernecking. Lots of semi-trucks on the road and I was just searching for a semi blazing with a smoke bellowing engine and fiery shrapnel all over the place but was disappointed. I did see several overheated cars on the road side (but that's normal). There were at least a dozen fire trucks on both sides of the highway. I kept looking side to side, left to right, right to left... nothing. Then for some reason I looked up. Oh... fire. The whole hillside was on fire! There were some spots that were charred black, other spots with smoldering smoke but lots of fire. Holy smokes! Now normally, I don't like driving fast on grooved pavement but after seeing fire, I laid down some rubber and took off. Scary... fire was just a few feet above the highway... all over! So I guess that wasn't LA smog but rather lots of smoke.
Lane splitting is legal in California. It's when motorcyclists ride in between the lanes. I did this a few times before when I lived in San Francisco and stuck in rush hour traffic. I stopped because my mirror hit an SUV mirror as I was driving between an SUV and another vehicle. Never did that again my whole time in SF.
I had thought this particular interstate had a carpool section the whole way home. Carpool is great since there is very little traffic in this lane. Everything was great until it ran out into regular traffic for about a 20 mile stretch. My choice was to remain in the stop and go traffic or lane split. So I thought it would be okay to lanesplit as traffic was moving... the California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops do it all the time and they have bigger bikes. There was another biker that was zipping long so I followed him and my stress level went up 110%. For the most part, people realize there is a biker and scoot over a tad. Drivers of big trucks, utility vehicles are nice enough to move over. I thought I came close several times to several cars but the cars that tried to block me from passing were the hybird/ electric car drivers. They would shift all the way to the line so I wasn't able to pass although I'd just move to the next lane. Finally, I came upon a bus... do I lane split with a bus and several large SUV's? The bus was taking up alot of space... I chickened out several times and this was only 10 miles into it. There was another biker lane splitting too right behind me. I ended up going into the next lane. That biker chickened out too and kept following me. After 20 miles, my nerves were fried and finally the carpool lane opened up again. Whew!
So now I'm home. The bike has enjoyed a bath and a nice wax job. It's road ready for tomorrow's ride... and on Sunday.
I had a late start and left in the afternoon rather than the morning. It was a really good thing, I had planned an 8 hour leg versus the first day to be 12 hours. Leaving at 1 pm, I had projected I would get to my hotel room around 9. I forgot about the highway construction which added a few more hours onto my already tardiness. I really wanted to arrive in the day time - I knew the mountains would be cold as soon as the sun set. How cold, I just didn't know. Plus, I didn't want it to rain, snow or hail since most of my roadtrips tend to attract these elements. In May, it snowed and hailed while I traveled this route via car. I planned on going the exact route since during the car ride, I completed a recon of the area and wrote down the roads I needed to take as well as refuel stations. I broke the trip down into 3 days - first day 8 hours, second day 8 hours and the third day with 5 hours.
Anyway, after the road construction and high winds, it took me about 2 1/2 hours to get the the first town. (Under normal conditions, it would only take 75 minutes)... plus it took half my tank of gas. I really had to find a better way to load my bags since it was causing alot of wind drag and causing horrible fuel economy. If it continued, I knew I wouldn't be able to make some of these distances since there are not any gas stations along certain points along this journey. I was seriously tempted to turn back and spend the night at the parents house. The only thing stopping me was the construction - I didn't want to sit through it a second time around. Anyhow, I had hotel reservations that were not flexible. I did call though to tell them it would be an extremely late check-in, perhaps 11pm.
The day was quite nice - dry roads, cloud covering... nice ride. Oh! It was also a time to road test some new items. During that last roadtrip from Texas to Washington my luggage bags didn't make it... so I got new ones. The old set were made of leather and when full extremely heavy. Whew! I know I grew some muscles on that trip carrying everything up and downstairs at various hotels along the way home. I had seen some new luggage bags with wheels and thought it was a fantastic idea. Normal people suitcases but compact enough to fit on a bike. So that is the one I got for this trip. It's sooo cool! You just roll it around to where ever you go - well, you know how wheeled luggage works so I won't explain. Really convenient.
Then my other new article was leather pants. I've been wearing chaps in the past and they work great all except a certain area on the body where it doesn't cover... and that part gets cold too. Or in other instances when it rains, everything is dry except that one area - yup, the groin area... last time I went to visit a friend whom thought I wet my pants. How embarrassing. So these leather pants work great! I really like it a lot.
I had my map holder too. I got it on my last roadtrip and it came in really handy. It's a clear plastic folder with four magnets on each corner. It sticks on the gas tank so you can insert a map or directions in the pouch and be able to reference it while riding instead of having to stop each time for further guidance or like in my past, put the directions in my helmet and have it fly out. I thought it was a great invention whomever made it. I thought I was all high-speed with this cool gadget too... until other bikers passed me and had a GPS system hooked up to their bike.
But on with the story... I went along my planned route and had some really great views - mountains, rivers, couple deer, birds, etc. It started getting alittle cold in the early evening then after the sun went down, it was downright freezing! The temperatures were in the low 50's but on a bike with the windchill factor, it's approximately 20 degrees less. I started going faster and faster. Surprisingly, I didn't see any police which made me even go faster. I thought the faster I got there, the faster I could warm up inside my room but whew! It was cold. My new mantra was 80 more miles... I can do this... I've been colder (as my teeth started chattering). Somehow, in the cold I miscalculated my mileage and the fuel stations. I forgot... small towns close early. I had to bypass several fuel stations since it was late (only 7pm!) and really thought I was going to run out of gas. 60 more miles to go... My previous fuel record was 127 miles so I knew I could last a bit longer but had to slow down to conserve on gas (then my hands and whole body started shivering). 40 more miles... it really was cold out. I could see my breath on my helmet face shield. More mantra... it's cold, but I've been colder (and in all actuality I have but I had a passenger and a full tank of gas). Finally, I saw a gas station as my bike hit 133 miles, in the red zone... and they were out of premium. 10 more miles to town with no idea where the hotel was. I didn't know if the regular gas would ruin my tank so I only got alittle bit - enough to get me into town to find an open gas station with premium. It took me a few minutes to get back on the bike... inside of the refuel station was nice and warm and by then I was shivering really really bad. So bad, I didn't know if I could make it the last 10 miles... so close but still so far and soooo cold and I already had on all my layers of clothing I brought with me. Finally made it to the hotel room around 930pm and sat in front of the heater for a few hours.
Needless to say, I slept good that night with the heater cranked on high.
Day 2
I left Kalamath Falls, Oregon and planned on staying in Gilroy, California for the night. The weather was suppose to be real nice although still cold - high 50's/ low 60's. There was frost on my bike and bundled up in everything I had when I left. During the ride, I kept having to stop to remove an article of clothing - it was hot out! I still had on a jacket but had to wear it since there wasn't any more storage space anywhere on the bike. Left around 9 and arrived at 530pm. Great day for a ride. Met up with some friends.
Pic of my bike - road ready... this was taken in Oregon during Day 2 ride. This is the only pic for my whole road trip.
Day 3
So this was the final day of my ride. Left Gilroy around 11 and arrived home at 430pm. Whew! I forgot it was Friday and rush hour traffic begins at noon. Still made it in good time though with dry roads and hot weather. I was really happy I got to ride on Pacheco Pass - it's a really great bike road with lots of curves. You can't help but to go fast.
I got to Tejon Pass, which is almost an hour away from Los Angeles, in the hills when I saw several fire trucks. I admit I was rubbernecking. Lots of semi-trucks on the road and I was just searching for a semi blazing with a smoke bellowing engine and fiery shrapnel all over the place but was disappointed. I did see several overheated cars on the road side (but that's normal). There were at least a dozen fire trucks on both sides of the highway. I kept looking side to side, left to right, right to left... nothing. Then for some reason I looked up. Oh... fire. The whole hillside was on fire! There were some spots that were charred black, other spots with smoldering smoke but lots of fire. Holy smokes! Now normally, I don't like driving fast on grooved pavement but after seeing fire, I laid down some rubber and took off. Scary... fire was just a few feet above the highway... all over! So I guess that wasn't LA smog but rather lots of smoke.
Lane splitting is legal in California. It's when motorcyclists ride in between the lanes. I did this a few times before when I lived in San Francisco and stuck in rush hour traffic. I stopped because my mirror hit an SUV mirror as I was driving between an SUV and another vehicle. Never did that again my whole time in SF.
I had thought this particular interstate had a carpool section the whole way home. Carpool is great since there is very little traffic in this lane. Everything was great until it ran out into regular traffic for about a 20 mile stretch. My choice was to remain in the stop and go traffic or lane split. So I thought it would be okay to lanesplit as traffic was moving... the California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops do it all the time and they have bigger bikes. There was another biker that was zipping long so I followed him and my stress level went up 110%. For the most part, people realize there is a biker and scoot over a tad. Drivers of big trucks, utility vehicles are nice enough to move over. I thought I came close several times to several cars but the cars that tried to block me from passing were the hybird/ electric car drivers. They would shift all the way to the line so I wasn't able to pass although I'd just move to the next lane. Finally, I came upon a bus... do I lane split with a bus and several large SUV's? The bus was taking up alot of space... I chickened out several times and this was only 10 miles into it. There was another biker lane splitting too right behind me. I ended up going into the next lane. That biker chickened out too and kept following me. After 20 miles, my nerves were fried and finally the carpool lane opened up again. Whew!
So now I'm home. The bike has enjoyed a bath and a nice wax job. It's road ready for tomorrow's ride... and on Sunday.
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