Riding the Tail of the Dragon.....Again.

Carolyn and I are making a grand tour of the US by automobile, but halfway through the trip I met with Orv and Mike, who flew to Atlanta, and we rented motorcycles.  They had never ridden the famous Tail of the Dragon like I did five years ago on my bucket list ride across the US (see the Oct 10 and 11, 2011 posts on this blog).  I knew there were other good roads in the area and so I plotted a route for us and we planned on a two-day ride from the Eaglerider rental shop up into the Smoky mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

You get to choose what motorcycle you want to rent, and I had trouble making the choice because none of the available bikes appealed to me much.  The problem is that the adventure-bike craze has become so pervasive that that was about the only choice other than some big sport touring bikes or cruisers.  At first I chose a Suzuki Vstrom, but I went to a local shop in Vancouver and saw that it was going to be too tall and heavy......typical of an adventure bike. So I called the rental shop back and asked to change to a BMW F650GS.  This is also an adventure type bike, but is a lighter single cylinder model with, I hoped, a lower seat height.

Came the morning when we went to pick up the bikes and I find they do not have a BMW F650GS available for me.  The only choice was back to the Vstrom, but with a low seat option. I was not a happy camper, because even with the low seat I was on tippy toes, and the bike felt top heavy.   Here is a picture of it with my tank bag and tail pack on it:

Here are some pics as we were about to leave the rental shop:

Once we got underway, the bike was not so bad.  It was very comfortable, with great wind protection, and a natural "sit up and beg" seating position.  It was fine for traveling straight roads, but as I suspected, the bars were too high and far back for aggressive riding in the twisties.  The brakes were nothing to brag about either.  The single front brake on my CBR 500R is much better than the twin rotors on the Suzuki.  But, whatever, that was the bike I had and that was the bike I was going to make work.  Power with the Suzuki was no problem, as it probably had another 20 HP over my CBR. Every time I came to a stop, though, I had to carefully plan the point at which I would have to put my feet down so as to not fall over.......a bit stressful.

We had a fairly straight slog up to the north from Atlanta to get to the mountains, and the first road we did that was a true motorcycle road was the Cherohala Skyway out of Tellico Plains, Tenn.  I had also ridden this road before and I knew it would get the guys excitement up a bit.  In general, the roads in this area of the country are ideal for motorcycling.......besides the curves and scenery, the pavement is unusually smooth and traffic is light.  This is no secret and we began to see more motorcycles than cars, which was generally the case for the rest of the two days until we started back toward Atlanta.

Eventually we got to the Deal's Gap motorcycle resort, which is the start of the Dragon.  We checked into the motel there and then went to ride the famous "318 curves in 11 miles".  Tight curves they are, too, and I had the Suzuki in second gear much of the time with the engine screaming.  All three of us had helmet intercoms and I heard lots of whooping and hollering in my helmet. We rode to the end and then back at a more sedate pace, because it is hard to maintain that level of concentration and excitement for too long.  (might be an age related problem, though).  Here are a couple of pictures from the resort:

The rooms were pretty plain, but clean.  Our three person room had a double bed and a bunk bed.  Guess who got the top bunk?  Yep, the little agile(?) guy.

The shower curtain even carried out the theme:

We just had to get pictures of the famous "Tree Of Shame" that is made of crashed motorcycle parts collected along the road and even some rashed clothing:

I expected there would be a big biker party the night we stayed there and was looking forward to it, but it was actually dead quiet and dull.  The restaurant even closed at 6pm and we had to go down the road to get something to eat.  Maybe they have had problems in the past with too much rowdiness.

The next day we had about a 340 mile day and had to get the bikes back by 6pm, so we had to keep moving.  Normally it would not be hard to make that distance in the given time, but I was worried about the infamous Atlanta traffic at rush hour.  We got up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and I took a couple of pictures at viewpoints:

Notice the road below and the beginning of Autumn colors.  This was at about 5,000 feet.

At 3pm Mike's GPS had an estimated arrival time at the rental place of 5pm, so it looked like we were in good shape.  But then we hit the traffic and the ETA began to get later and later.  We ended up getting there about seven minutes late, but Mike had called ahead and got his wife to tell them to wait for us.

It was a great ride on good roads with good friends.  My only regret is that I couldn't do it on my own bike, or at least one that fit me better, but in the end I DIDN'T DROP IT!

My Baby is Gone

I reluctantly decided to sell the Triumph.  I just wasn't enjoying riding it, mainly because of my inability to get used to the reverse foot controls, but also because there was no future in kick starting it.  My right knee has been replaced, and it it going to need a "revision" next winter, so it might be a long time, if ever, before I can kick start the beast.

My Craigslist add was answered by Jim, who came by for a look yesterday, and came back today to pick it up.  Here he is on his new bike.  Interestingly, he used to own a 1968 Bonneville like this one back in 1974.

Loaded up and ready to go:

One last good by hug and a (fake) tear:

And down the road it goes:

What a beauty.  I owned it for 20 years, but it's time for it to go to a new caretaker.

We Did It!

After a half year of planning and preparation, Jenny and I completed the Grand Tour of the Good Roads of the Pacific Northwest.  She rode 3138.5 miles in nine days of riding and I rode 4738.6 miles in 13 days.  My mileage is greater because I rode down to San Francisco to meet her and then rode back home after we arrived back there.

Almost all the route consisted of roads I had already ridden in 20 years of exploring the area, and I think they are the best the Northwest has to offer.  It was fun to show them to someone who had not ridden any of them.  I think Jenny got her fair share of twisty bits and by the end of the ride her comfort level in negotiating tight curves was obviously greater.  I was amazed and impressed by her stamina, safe riding practices, and positive attitude.  She really jumped into the deep end with this ride, because prior to it I don't think she had ridden a single day with over 300 miles, and on this ride every day was more than that.  Most people need to get used to long hours in the saddle, but she seemed to adapt to it right off.

We had some really hot weather in the first five days, which added some stress.....check out the cell phone reading below:

We had actually seen 105 degrees on a building thermometer shortly before this.  Those are darn hot temps to be riding with boots, helmets, gloves, jackets and long pants.  It seemed like the mornings were fine, and we would usually start out with vents closed and jacket liners in but start shedding stuff until by mid afternoon the heat really set in, and made a cold shower and a cold beer the topmost thoughts in our minds.

 One of the ways we found worked for helping to cool down was to wet our shirts to get some evaporative cooling.  This was not a wet t-shirt contest:

A faucet in a campground was another opportunity to cool off:

I have a bunch of pictures, so rather than describe the ride in a day-by-day format, let me just show some pictures and a bit of narrative.

This is a selfie Jenny took as we were leaving her house.  We both had jackets with lots of ventilation, but also with liners that could be worn underneath to block cold air when necessary......such as riding in San Francisco.  We wore nylon rain over-pants when it was cold to block the air going through our vented riding pants.

We came upon this logging museum on the way from Susanville to Bend.  I always find logging museums interesting.  It was another type of Wild West that was just as exciting as cattle drives and gunslingers.  The interesting thing about this photo is that Jenny gets to hug a tree and a logger at the same time.

We spent one night in Baker City, Oregon, and then rode a beautiful road called Rattlesnake Grade that ran along the top of Hell's Canyon.

Then we took a break in Joseph, Oregon by this beautiful lake.  Carolyn and I took a look at this town when we were scouting places to live in the Northwest, but it was too remote from any major airports which we needed as Carolyn was still working and was going to sky commute.

At the top of my list of favorite roads is the Old Spiral Highway out of Lewiston, Idaho.  I have written about it at other times in this blog.  It was built when cars were just becoming useful means of transportation, and was designed as a way to go north out of the Snake River canyon.  It has been superseded by a modern four lane highway, so has very little traffic.  What really makes this road great, besides the curves and good pavement, is that you can see around many of the right hand corners and know that there is no car coming the other way.  That greatly increases my confidence in leaning over even further than normal, because a slide that puts you into oncoming traffic would lead to a real bad day. Here are a couple of pics of just parts of the road:

After an over night in Walla Walla where we got the biggest portions of Chinese food I ever saw (we could have split my order of Kung Pao chicken and still not been able to eat it all), we got back into territory that I can ride on a day ride from home.  This includes an overlook of the Columbia River Gorge above the town of Hood River.  I just had to show Jenny this sight;

 Looking another direction is Mt Hood:

Then we took the Wind River Highway, with a bunch of fantastic curves, to an overlook of Mt St Helens:

We arrived at my house on Friday in time to take Carolyn out to dinner for her birthday, and the next day Carolyn and Jenny picked up her kids at the airport.  The next couple of days were "Camp Grandma" time for Jonas and Adina, while I did bike clean-up and maintenance.  I spent a day doing an oil and filter change on my bike and a valve clearance inspection on Jenny's bike.  It takes a lot of effort just to get to the point of checking clearances and fortunately I didn't have to go the next step and change any shims.

There were still some good roads in the area that were not included in the original plan, so Jenny and I took a day ride to catch some more of them.  Big Mike came with us and led us on a route over to the coast.

We stopped to get gas at this fun little place.  Notice the sign on the building "Team Glock".  There are a bunch of firearms for sale in there, and Big Mike loves it.

Soon enough it was time to start on the second part of the PNW Grand Tour.  By this time the heat wave was over, and we had some company on part of the first day heading back towards San Francisco.  We met Orv, Ross and Leo at the traditional Krispy Kreeme meeting place.

We all rode together over some twisty local roads near Mt Hood until near noon, when they peeled off to start heading back.

After lunch in Detroit, Oregon, Jenny and I headed for the Mackenzie highway.  This is another curvy road, but it also passes through some interesting lava fields where an observatory has been built.  We stopped for a look:

Our over night that day was in Oakridge, Oregon, and we stayed in a little motel that is one of my favorites because 1) it's cheap and 2) it has this little picnic area which comes compete with a friendly cat.  It's a great place to have a beer and snack at the end of the day, but this is a picture of Jen having coffee the next morning:

The next day was a ride from Oakridge to Weaverville, CA.  We passed through little burgs with names like Happy Camp and Hoopa, where the women tended to have a single tooth in front and customer service in stores and gas stations was pathetic.  There was some great scenery, though.

That was our longest day at 418 miles, but the next day to San Francisco was over 400 miles also.  We rode the famous highway 1 from Leggit to Ft Bragg, and then took a road I don't remember ever being on before.......hwy 128 from just south of Ft Bragg to Cloverdale on highway 101.  It was also a good road, but this was a Saturday during peak summer vacation and there was some slow camper/motor home traffic tending to ruin the curvy parts.  Jen and I sometimes adopted the biker "stop and go" method where you come to a stop and wait until a vehicle comes up from behind.  Then you can take off and ride the curves until you catch back up to the roadblock.

On Sunday I spent a large part of the day cleaning the bikes, doing an oil change on Jen's bike and solving the sticking throttle problem that both our bikes developed on the previous day.

Monday Jenny went back to work.  As if she hadn't had enough riding, she took her bike:

After she went to work, I headed for home.  Just north of San Francisco on hwy 101 there was a massive traffic jam with stop and slow going, so I lane split for several miles and saved a whole bunch of time.  Since I used to live in California, I had no problem with lane splitting except that this time I was concerned that my bike was too wide because of the hard cases I had on it.  I took it slow and had no problems.

I had planned to stay on 101 to Crescent City, but the four lane stuff got too boring, so I cut down hwy 20 to Ft Bragg and rode the best part of hwy 1 again.  I finished the ride the next day in the rain.......typical motorcycle trip; heat, cold and rain, sometimes all in the same day.  But that's what makes it special.

I don't know how many of these long rides I have left in me, but I'm going to enjoy them while I can.

The Bike is Ready

I decided to put a new front tire on after all.  I think the one on there would have got me through the first seven days of the ride, but probably not the next five.  That means I would have to change it during the time Jenny and I are in Woodland, and we already have plans for that five day period that include a valve adjustment check on her bike.  This is a major operation and might take most of a day if shims are needed for the valves.  Plus there are lots of other things we plan to do during that time, including taking a day ride to the coast.  So I took the old tire off, and this time it only took me an hour and a half.....but I had some help from Carolyn at a couple of critical points.  One of which was getting the front wheel back in the forks.  It takes at least four hands because the wheel has to be lifted so that the axle can be slid through the forks and the hub, while the brake rotor slides into the caliper and the spacers at each side of the hub don't fall out.  Then the axle is threaded into the right fork leg while keeping all this alignment intact.  Crazy.  Anyway, I'm keeping the old tire in case I get desperate for a front tire I can re-mount it at some later time.  To remove the front tire I have to use both a front and rear lift, and while I had it up there I also installed the brackets for the Givi side cases:

Next, I mounted my Garmin GPS with the maps of the route already loaded:

All that's left is to do some yard work, make a dentist appointment, take a load of trash to the dump, and then pack and RIDE.

I don't think I will be able to keep this blog up to date during the ride.  I've been taking my pictures with a Windows phone, but I take along an Apple Ipad, and I can't see any way to download the pictures except by emailing them to myself.  Maybe there is a cable that connects a Windows device to an Ipad......I'll check into it.

Getting Ready......New Tire

The original rear tire that came on the bike would not make the PNW Grand Tour.  It is almost worn to the wear bars as can be seen in this photo:

I could maybe get another 500 miles or so out of it, but not the 2400 miles I'm going to ride before I return to Woodland.  So, after removing the wheel from the bike, I put it on my tire changing tool to break the bead:

Then pry the tire off the wheel:

First Side Off

Tire Off Wheel

I took a picture of  the new tire back on the wheel, but it was blurry, so here is the wheel on my balancer jig: 

And the wheel back on the bike:

Jenny found a guy in San Francisco who can change a tire, including removing and re mounting the wheel on the bike, in 20 minutes.  It took me that long to get the wheel off, and the total job of changing the tire and re mounting the wheel to the bike took just over two hours.  Oh well, I'm retired, right?  I should have all the time in the world, but still, I think changing tires is a bit of a hassle.

The front tire is not as worn, which is normal, so I'm thinking it can at least get me back to Woodland where I can mount a new one I have waiting, if I need to.

PNW Grand Tour

Last winter I was contemplating another ride across the country to celebrate my 75th birthday.  After I worked on it for awhile, even choosing a route, I came to the conclusion that the logistics were just too difficult.  Plus, I remembered how roads in the middle of the country are too flat, windy, and straight.  Jenny had wanted to go along on part of the cross country ride, but I think I convinced her that a grand tour of the Pacific Northwest, where I showed her all the good roads I have discovered since we moved here, would be more fun.  This is the route I developed:

The ride with both of us together starts in San Francisco and makes a counter-clockwise loop.  Each day is color coded, and the total mileage is about 2800.  After five days we will arrive back at Woodland where we will spend some time with her kids Jonas and Adina, who will fly up for a visit.  Maybe we will take a local ride while here, and I will also do some maintenance on her bike.  Then we will take three days to return to San Francisco, again taking some of the good roads I have discovered.  Of course, I will have to ride to San Fran and back, so I will be doing about another 1500 miles.  I leave on July 22 for San Fran, and we leave on the grand tour on the 25th.  Should be a great ride and I'm really looking forward to revisiting these roads and showing them to Jenny.

Vintage Ride and Bike Show

Orv and I decided to take our old crocks down to Corvallis for a ride and show put on by the Oregon Vintage Motorcyclists.  There would be a ride starting at noon on Saturday, and then a show and judging on Sunday.  Since Corvallis is about 100 miles from our neck of the woods, we would not be riding the Triumphs down there, but Orv has a trailer so we hauled them down.  This was going to be a family affair with the wives along for an overnight stay.

A couple of days before the event, I decided to ride the Triumph to a nearby gas station to gas up, so I would be ready to ride on Saturday.  However, the bike started running really crappy and I barely made it to the gas station, and it quit completely on the way back.  Since Carolyn wasn't home I couldn't call her for help, so I pushed the bike to a nearby house.  I was only about a mile and a half from home, so I was just wanting a safe place to leave the bike while I walked home to get my truck.  The nice old couple who lived there insisted on driving me to my house, and then helped me load the bike when we got back.

With only a couple of days to get the bike sorted, I asked Orv to help me diagnose the problem.  We checked for spark and there was a good spark at the plugs. so we thought maybe the timing was off.  After resetting  the ignition timing and checking for loose wires in the electronic ignition set up we tried again, but no joy.  We pulled a plug and checked for spark and now had none......an intermittent electrical problem, the worse kind.  Orv's intuition, or some miracle led him to check the ignition switch, where he found a loose wire.

Friday afternoon I rode the bike down to Orv's house and he had it loaded by Saturday morning when Carolyn and I arrived.  We got to Corvallis early and got the bikes unloaded:

The event was at the Benton County fairgrounds, and there was also a vintage tractor pull going on at the same time.  Lots of excitement!

Getting ready to ride

As you can see from the photos above, it was a sunny day, so I put my tinted shield on my helmet.  But, by the time the ride started it was cloudy and threatening to rain (it's Oregon!).  The next problem was that my mirrors had gotten knocked loose in the loading or unloading process and I had to remove the right one and put it in my tank bag that I had bungied onto the seat.  Nevertheless, the ride was going well and we were seeing some beautiful country and going over some covered bridges, which were the theme of the ride.  Orv was following me because his speedometer had quit, but about halfway through the ride I saw that he was not behind me any longer.  Turning around, I found him stopped alongside the road......no spark.  Fortunately, the club provided a sag wagon, and so they loaded him up: 

I would have ended my ride too, but the sag wagon was going back to the fairgrounds via the I-5 freeway, which I didn't want to ride on, and I had no idea how to get back to the fairgrounds by myself, so I continued on with the ride group.

We went thorough several more covered bridges and stopped at a park near one of them, where I took these pictures:

I really was there

This pic gives an idea of the number of bikes that were on the ride: 

When I finally got back to the fairgrounds I had ridden over 100 miles and was about as tired as I used to get after a 100 mile desert enduro.  That old bike is not easy to ride, plus there were periodic showers.  

I put the right mirror back on at the halfway gas stop.  While I was riding, Orv and the ladies were at the vintage tractor pull and Orv is worried they are going to want to do that every weekend (not).

We loaded the bikes back into the trailer to be stored overnight at the fairgrounds campground.  One gets a thumbs up for finishing, and the other a thumbs down for a dnf.

Saturday evening we had a nice dinner and I was hungry since I had had nothing to eat since an early breakfast.  Then a stroll around downtown Corvallis and a good night's sleep in a motel of Carolyn's choice (above my standards).

At the bike show the next day I found I would have to join the club if I wanted to show my bike, so I am again a member of a motorcycle club, the Oregon Vintage Motorcyclists.

We cleaned up the bikes from the road grime caused by the wet roads:

And then moved them to the display area:

As far as the contest was concerned, we were up against some pretty stiff competition.  There were professionally restored bikes and some pretty rare and valuable ones like that Vincent in the background.  The bikes were divided into categories of British, European, American, Asian, and the featured mark Honda.  Here are some pics of what I found to be the more interesting ones;

BMW sidehack rig for Ray 

Honda turbo.  Didn't sell well when new, very valuable now

Early Hodaka.  My old riding buddy Jim rode one of these when we first started riding enduros.

The crowd at the show

Neither one of us won anything, nor did we expect to, but it was a fun weekend.  After we got home, Orv quickly found the problem with his bike and guess what it was...........a loose wire in the ignition switch.  The same problem my bike had just a few days earlier.