Same Bike, Different Rider

My friend Ray had been looking for a Triumph Tiger adventure bike for quite some time. Since Brian had one of them, and was not riding it much, I had been trying to get the two of them together for awhile. Brian kept waffleing about selling it because he wasn't really ready to give up the idea of riding. Finally, Ray made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He offered to buy the bike for a bit less then Brian was asking, with the agreement that Brian could borrow it back whenever he wanted. Kind of a win-win situation for both sides. So last week Ray and I went on a two-day 665 mile ride over to John Day, Oregon where he got to spend some quality time on the Triumph to see how well he liked it. We did the usual great roads of Central Oregon that I have ridden quite a few times, but never get tired of....smooth, curvy roads, awsesome scenery, and almost no other vehicles. A plus this time was good weather, as it often gets pretty hot over there in the summer. Here is a pic of Ray with his new ride:

You can see the same bike when Brian owned it in the post before the last one. Of note is the fact that it has about the same mileage as my year- old Z650RS (11,700 miles), even though it is a 2008 model. That shows how little Brian rode it. (Kind of also shows how much I ride!) And here is a pic of me with said Z650RS and my home-made matching helmet paint job.

When we went to dinner in John Day, we chose one of the few places within walking distance, which was turned out to be a bar populated by the locals. It was pretty noisy inside, so we went out to the patio in back for a post-ride beer before we ordered something to eat. One of the local guys and his dog followed us out and proceeded to entertain us with his life history and philosophy. His name was Jerimiah and I forget the name of his dog:

The patio was enclosed by a fence and I suppose it was the outdoor smoking area, but there was a sign on the fence that said "no marijuana smoking". The locals had a way to get around this restriction and still participate in the party going on in the patio. This pic shows how it was done:

Yep, the woman went outside and got a ladder to peek over the fence while she smoked. She had a lot to say, and about half of it was f-bombs. It was quite the entertaining dinner hour, and when we eventually ordered somne hamburgers they turned out to be really good and reasonably priced. Here is Ray and I in a selfy with our after-ride beers:

So the bottom line is that Ray dicided he liked the bike and I had another fine ride on the good roads.