Monthly Archives: March 2009
March 27, 2009
SLO-Mo
I'm at the maximum allowable vacation time, 300 hours, so I've been losing time for the last few pay periods — which is really annoying. Today, I took off to go on a nice, long ride.
I left at 7:19am and blasted straight through to SLO, grabbed some coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Jack in the Box, and filled up down the street. I've always done CA-58 from east to west, and turned north on the 229, so the section from the 101 east to the 229 was new to me. The 229 is always a blast, and I made it all the way into town before I hit any other traffic in either direction. The 41/46 run to I-5 was the same as always - fast and dicey, with on-coming cars making passes right in front of me.
Google routed me on CA-46 all the way to the 99, then south to the 58 in Bakersfield, but the Zumo told me to go south on I-5 to Stockdale Highway and then east. I went with the Zumo. Stockdale Hwy passes through a nice area of Bakersfield, but the other way would probably have been faster.
The 58 is a freeway all the way to Mojave. I'm not sure why they don't do a few minor upgrades and renumber it as I-40. I stopped in Tehachapi for gas and tacos. As I was suiting up to leave, I heard my phone ring, and I answered Carole's call. She wasn't feeling well, at all, but told me to ride my ride anyway. I gassed up, and decided to ride a little further, but to skip San Diego county for the day — I wanted to get back home before Justin left for work, so Carole wouldn't be alone in the house.
I wound up taking CA-58 to US-395. The northern section is a lot like CA-46 west of I-5 — fast, but with a lot of dangerous passing in both directions. The downside of 395 starts when you get to Adelanto, when traffic and signals slow things down to a crawl. I hooked up with a full-dress Harley rider on I-15, and we made very good time over the Cajon Pass. He took I-215, and I stayed on I-15.
Northbound traffic on I-15, and later eastbound traffic on I-210, was at a standstill all the way into Pasadena. I'm not sure why, but heading off to Vegas after work would be no fun today.
The full ride plan was for 720 miles; the final route was 540, but still a bunch of fun.
March 15, 2009
A bike weekend
Carole is in Spokane for the weekend visiting Cindy, so I spent Saturday finishing up some little projects on the bike.
Since I got my SPOT for Christmas, the V-1 radar detector has been without a home. The SPOT mounts to the right handlebar using the RAM ball that used to be for the V-1, and there's really no other decent place to mount it. I've been playing with different mounting options for the V-1, but never came up with something usable until today. I cleaned off the top of the brake reservoir, and put on a strip of industrial velcro hook. I set up the audio adapter with loop on the bottom (it was actually already there from the previous setup) and hook on the top; the main V-1 has loop on the bottom. This gives me a stack, with the audio adapter stuck to the brake reservoir, and the V-1 itself stuck to the top of the audio adapter. Just for a little extra stability, I added a mini-bungee cord that wraps around the handlebar on one side and clips to the SPOT bracket. It's really pretty stable - the windshield keeps everything out of the wind, and both the V-1 and the audio adapter are tethered to the bike by the power cables. The SPOT mount also fits over the top of the V-1, for a little extra support.
Next, I connected up the audio mixer box I built. The mixer has two inputs - the V-1 and the Zumo - and one output for the headphones. The circuitry prevents the signal from one of the inputs getting to and damaging the other input - and vice-versa. The mixer is in a small Radio Shack project box, and just barely fits next to the cruise control unit under the front seat.
While I was under there, I also organized the miscellaneous junk under the back seat. A small zipper pouch holds some zip ties in various sizes, some extra audio connectors, and a couple of multi-tools. The pouch fits nicely behind the stock tool bag under the back seat.
On Sunday tested everything with a ride up to Santa Maria. I put my small hydration bladder into the new tank bag, and packed it up based on the checklist. I left around 9:10am, and headed out to Santa Barbara on the 101. I gassed up at State Street, then headed up SR-154 to Foxen Canyon and onto Pappy's for tri-tip and enchiladas.
SR-166 was pleasant, but I got stuck behind some traffic in New Cuyama. Once I got onto Cerro Noroeste I stopped to bundle up, and wound up with: a) a long-sleeve shirt; b) the Widder vest; c) a light sweatshirt; d) the Flex rain liner; e) the FLEX jacket, with the shell in place. I still wasn't warm. I also put in my glove liners.
Cerro Noroeste was fun, as always. A few places with rocks in the road, but no snow, and no traffic. I was going to be just short of making it home, so I gassed up at the Flying J in Frazier Park. I-5 was fast, as always. Only a few beeps on the V-1 in the first section, then free sailing the rest of the way.
A fun weekend with the FJR.
March 5, 2009
Can I get a witness?
After a weekend visit to the In-Laws up in Big Bear Lake, I was reminded that I hadn't talked to my friend Doug (doug5551 on the FJR Forum, who lives part-time in Big Bear) in a while. I sent him an e-mail with a list of my planned rides (CFR, WFO, and the Dam Tour), and asked what he was up to. His reply was something like awesome.
Back in January, Doug rode the Up-Chuck ride put on by George Zelenz. Up-Chuck was a seriously challenging 1K ride through the mountains of Southern California, from Palm Springs to the Mexican border. During the ride, Doug met a Gold Wing rider named Jack who was having serious GPS problems. Jack is a South Dakota native, working in So Cal on a six-month project, and a very accomplished long-distance rider - but he didn't know the back roads of Riverside and San Diego county well enough to ride them in the cold and the dark without a working GPS. Doug offered to ride the rest of the rally with Jack, and working together they both completed the ride successfully.
In Doug's e-mail, he told me that Jack was going to attempt a 100CCC - riding from the Pacific to the Atlantic, then back to the Pacific, in less than 100 hours. He also told me that he was trying to convince Jack to let him tag along as a pillion. (Doug recently bought an '06 FJR from a rider in Arizona, and he rode as a passenger with Jack to pick it up.)
In my reply, I told Doug it sounded like a strange but awesome ride, and to let me know if he wanted me to be a witness. (Iron Butt rides need to be meticulously documented, with witnesses at both the start and the end of the ride, and receipts for all gas stops, motel stays, toll roads/bridges, etc.) I'm a California Notary Public and an IBA member, so my signature on the witness form carries a little extra weight.
Over a couple of days time, Doug and Jack finalized their plans, and asked me to witness their departure from San Diego. I left straight from work on my FJR, working through intermittent rain and afternoon rush hour traffic. It took me two hours and twenty minutes from the time I left my office until I pulled into the house they were staying at pre-ride — not bad all things considering. I got there around 8:40pm.
I met Jack - a great, unassuming guy who really knows his stuff. He has a GL1800 fitted with everything necessary for comfortable long-distance rides - both solo and two-up. We chatted for a while, and I signed and stamped their forms. I wished them the best of luck, told them I'd follow their SPOT track, and headed back home. I-5 at night can be quite fast, and even with a gas stop I got home just after midnight.
I followed their progress on their SPOT page, and Doug and I traded voice mails. They made it to Jacksonville in about 42 hours, giving them ample time to get some sleep before the second block of 50 hours started. (On a 100CCC ride, each leg of the trip must be completed within its own 50 hour period.)
They made great time on the way back, too — so much so that they decided to head back to Los Angeles instead of San Diego, even with the added 100 miles. They asked me to sign them back in, and I agreed, hoping they'd make it into El Segundo around 12:30am. That wasn't to be, but they did make it in right at 2:00am.
I invited Justin to ride down with me, and slept for a little bit. We left in time to meet them as they came in, but some road closures forced us to take a slower route, and we were late by five or ten minutes. They were still there, with their friend Peter who drove down to be a second witness. We all chatted for a while, finished up the paperwork, and they took off to collect their sand from the beach while Justin and I set out for home.
We got home around 3:15am, and I went to bed around 4:10am — it takes a while to wind down from a high-speed run in the cold. I wasn't pleasant getting up with Carole's alarm at 8:00am, so I slept for another hour, which helped a little.
All in all, a great experience for me. Doug and Peter are now talking about doing a 50CC together (but on separate bikes), so maybe I'll do some more IBA witness duty soon.
March 2, 2009
Planned route to CFR
Here's today's planned route to CFR, subject to change at any moment:
Overnight stops are at (B) in Winnemucca, (E) near Hell's Canyon, (F) south of Philipsburg, MT, and (I) in Crowsnest Pass.