Motorcycle Cop Skills Competition.

Just a Slideshow of pictures from the event. Went there with a few friends and watched the cops play on the motorcycles for a couple hours. It was nice - some of these guys do have some good low speed skills! You could however, smell the burning clutches and there were a lot more dropped bikes than I captured. The Harleys just layed over - the BMW's scraped the asphalt pretty good! No problemo - just taxpayer money. :)

Slideshow: Motorcycle Cop Skills Competition.

Enjoy! :)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Rally, Big Sky, Montana.

This is the report which was supposed to be inserted in between the ride reports to and from Big Sky, Montana. It was a beautiful and breathtaking ride through Idaho and Montana to get to Big Sky. That report here - Enroute to Big Sky. 
I have finally gotten around to writing about my experiences in the rally itself, but as the saying goes - "You save the best for the last!".

I look back and muse that this rally almost didn't happen for me. Other than the fact that I got very sick just a couple days before we were to leave for the rally, for the longest time I was not really sure riding 1000+ miles in a day was something I was ready to do. Add to that riding 1000+ miles in a day while hunting and collecting bonuses - Ha! Yea that was happening all right!

I will readily admit that I am a touring and stop for pictures kind of rider, although I have done many 700+ miles days. Do you know the find the best sights, the best angle, the best light and take dozens of pictures per stop and stop often for pictures type? Yea - that's me! Having said that, doing a Saddlesore 1000 was something I had been wanting to do, riding in an endurance rally was also on the long list of things to do (call it a bucket list). I never thought I was going to do both in one day!

It all started unfolding on June 1st as I exchanged a few words with the Rally Master, Bob Torter on his birthday and he invited me to come on up to Montana and have some fun! I then started scouring the LD Forums for information on how to condition myself mentally and physically for endurance rallies, also talked to my mentor Brian R. for his advice and we figured we could ride together and pick one of the "Good" routes and modify it to suit what we wanted to do. Since the bonus listings were emailed a week in advance, we already had a route planned before we left home, the goal in mind being to finish a successful SS1K and get a ride certificate from and photo op with IBA President Mike Kneebone. :)


Arriving at Big Sky it was great to see the smiling faces of friends and to get handshakes and hugs from some great people I only get to see a couple times a year. It was also such a beautiful location. From what I heard from everyone it was the most upscale and gorgeous locations for an endurance rally ever and I believed it.

View of Lone Mountain from my room. Big Sky, MT.

Exploring Idaho and Montana Enroute to the Big Sky Rally.

Introduction:

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly Rally was a 32 hour endurance rally organized by the famous IBR veterans Bob & Sylvie Torter (aka V-Twins) as a celebration and a thank you to the several years of motorcycling fun, friendships and camaraderie they have enjoyed with the great people in the LD rider community. No one could have said it better as the V-Twins did when they introduced the rally to friends..

Introduction to GBU Rally by the V-Twins.

I had always been hesitant to run LD rallies. Honestly, I have always doubted I had what it took to go a 1000+ miles in 24 hours (Saddle Sore 1000). I used to see what these riders did routinely and be in awe (I still am). One 1000+ mile day is just the bare minimum required to be considered one of their ranks. These guys have accomplished so much more than just the bare minimum, such as 1500+ miles in 36 hours (Bum Burner 1500 - BB1500), 1500+ miles in 24 hours (Bum Burner Gold - BBG). The toughest among them run or have run in what is called the Iron Butt Rally. An endurance armageddon of 11,000+ miles in 11 days.

Here, I relate the story of the journey to the GBU rally, and the journey home! The story of the rally itself, I will save for a separate blog post. The report is split up into two parts for the journey to Big Sky. The return home is an epilogue to the rally itself which is a separate blog post.

Part 1: The road to Stanley, Idaho.
July 20th, 2011.

I was riding with my mentor Brian R. We were going to take the scenic route to Big Sky, through some of Idaho's beautiful roads and sceneries. The plans was to get to Stanley Idaho, approx 520 miles away and the destination for the day by 4:30pm on Wednesday evening, (remember, we lose 1 hour going to Mountain Time from Pacific Time), just in time for the 15 minute Eucalyptus steam sauna and the 45 minute full body massages we had scheduled for ourselves at the Meadow Creek Inn and Spa in Stanley. We were going to rough it out enough while running the rally - so we decided to pamper ourselves a little on the way there!

This was to be the first day of running against the clock - the stops were minimal and all photography was on the move until we reached the destination. So please pardon the composition and the existence of some speed blur.

Wednesday morning brought us a sunrise start. We were supposed to be on the road as the sun rose, but here we were still in Brian's driveway as the sun first peeked out. We left 30 seconds after this shot was taken.

A Slice of San Francisco and Vicinity

Part 1: Off to join the traveling circus

My friend Mark (nicknamed Wheatie, as he is from Wheaton, IL), was finally riding his motorcycle to California. His first ever visit to California on a motorcycle. After spending some time in South and Central California, Wheatie's motorcade had rolled into San Jose on Friday May 20th, a few of my Sacramento riding brethren had taken the day off to join the traveling circus which was meandering it's way to San Jose for Friday night. Despite the obvious temptation to run away and join the traveling circus myself, I remained bound to work on Friday instead. From what I am hearing I missed some good times and opportunities for embarrassing photo ops to be used as blackmail fodder on the forum for years to come. On the flip side I might have been spared some blackmail myself, at least I haven't received any anonymous notes in the mail yet.


My adventure began on Saturday morning May 21st at dawn, I was riding out to meet the traveling circus for Breakfast at the famed Alice's Restaurant. As I was leaving Sacramento on I-80, I could already tell it was going to be a very beautiful day. The sky with it's scattering of clouds diffusing the morning sunlight was giving me quite the show. It also made me think of the "Rapture", which was supposedly going to happen this beautiful day, anyone who was home cowering in fear that the world was going to end, deserved to miss out on a beautiful day!

Mt. Hamilton Ride Report.

My friend Tom had planned a great day of riding for us this Saturday. I realize the word epic is oft used these days, for adventures not quite deserving, believe me though when I say this one truly was an epic day of experiences, it had all the ingredients - Diversity of moto roads, from smooth fast snaking twisties, to goaty one lane trails, to steep switchbacks while dodging sink holes from hell, scenic backdrops, and most of all great company and excellent riders to show me how it is done.

We met in Elk Grove for a planned start at 9AM. I rode up at 8:40AM and was surprised to see Hans already there waiting for us. I did a double take and had to check the clock on the bike, just to make sure that it somehow wasn't 11AM.

Also there waiting was Brodie, I had not met him before, but had heard of him on the forums, Mr Titanium himself! Good to see him ripping it up on his FJR again, these two gentlemen had come up to Elk Grove from the East and South Bay to join us. 

After Mike and Tom joined us, we were on our way, we jogged along I-5 till Lodi, and then headed for the Delta through the Vineyards in Lodi.

Death Valley and Beyond: Beautiful and Diverse California!

Chapter 1: Winter Wonderland.

I had been looking forward to the little get-away to Death Valley in March. Enjoy the early/intermittent Spring we had been enjoying till now, and what better way to live it to the max than getting on your trusted steed and heading out for the open road!

I caught a little break in the weather across the Sierra's and embarked on the journey Wednesday, a day earlier than my other FJR brethren who were riding on Thursday, but were planning on overnighting in Lone Pine. I was going to ride all the way to Death Valley and then a little further this day.


No early morning starts this time, didn't leave till about 9:30AM to give the sun a chance to start shining on the mountain passes. The roads were in surprisingly good shape, considering that a storm had just rolled through on Monday night, say what you may about them but CalTrans did a very good job.

I wasn't however taking any chances, kept the pace slow and steady even though there were only a handful of shoddy spots past Twin Bridges: sand on the road, melt from the stacks of snow piled high along the roadsides - the usual winter road hazards facing two wheelers across the mountain highways.

No pictures till I got to the Hwy 89 and Hwy 88 junction, then pulled over for a few shots. Hard to find good angles to shoot with the glare from the snow trying to white out any detail, I much prefer the colors of Spring, to the paleness of Winter. 

Found this peaceful creek flowing by the roadside with a thin sheet of ice and a sprinkling of fresh snow on top.

Quick run to the Ocean with friends.

Went for a quick run to the ocean today before the rain moved in this late afternoon, got back a couple hours ago, so I am a bit tired, but felt like firing off a quick ride report with a few pictures, didn't take as many this time because I was on a tight schedule before the skies opened up. I also apologize that my brain is a little mushy for clever prose right now.

A leisurely start at about 9AM, this time I finally got to take a decent picture of the Tower Bridge and Downtown Sacramento..