and so, in the summer of 2003 (i think), i took my first long bike trip, delivering miss vicky from palo alto to bellevue. jim accompanied me approximately halfway, on his little honda reflex 250 scooter (which, i have to admit, was also a blast to ride). oh, before we went up the coast, we took a short overnight trip down highway 1 to san simeon (one of my uncle's favorite rides) and took a tour at hearst castle. always fun, and a good way to get used to a bike, though miss vicky was not the ideal bike for such twisties that highway 1 can offer.
for the actual trip home, we also took the coast, a combination of 1 and 101 all the way up to crescent city, where we spent the first night. then we jumped over to grants pass on 199 before taking I-5 the rest of the way north. jim turned around at grants pass and left me to my own devices through oregon and washington. i thoroughly enjoyed my solo trip, spending the night in salem. a few things i learned on this trip: one, a cramp buster really helps your throttle hand. and two: i travel much better with music. i had no music on this trip, and basically spent the time singing through every song i could think of in my head. i got a little bored. but, i got to put 1000 miles on my dad's bike before he rode it 10, so overall it was a good trip.
about this time, i was starting to seriously hanker for another bike of my own. luckily, i didn't have to wait too long to get the opportunity. spring break of my sophomore year i headed back down to los altos to stay with my grandparents and find myself a bike. i know a week may be a bit of a tight timeline to find a bike, but i felt confident i could find one, especially because i wasn't terribly picky.
i test rode a honda nighthawk for sale by a private buyer and honestly, i remember being thoroughly underwhelmed. by the end of the test ride i was already bored and while it was a fine bike that would probably last forever, it didn't do anything for me. luckily, once again jim stepped in with his connections and wiles. at this point he worked part time at cal-bmw-triumph, and they, being the wonderful dealer they are, are filled with all the best bikes on earth (i'm betraying my bike preferences a bit here, more on that in future posts). at the time, they had a 2002 triumph tt600 sitting around the lot which, though more than i had intended to spend, jim somehow convinced me to try (i'm sure it was a very hard sell). i'm sure it's not hard to guess that i loved it. for those of you who don't know, the tt600 is somewhere between a sportbike and a standard. it looks pure sport, but is not quite as aggressive as a machine like a kawasaki ninja. in fact, here's a picture:
isn't she pretty? i called her my pretty blue sportbike (pbs). this bike rocked. after purshasing it, we took yet another ride down the coast to san simeon (the tt handled the twisties much better). among our riding group were a few of jim's friends who were absolutely crazy on their bmw GSs. the GS is the adventure tourer, but you wouldn't know it the way these guys rode. once we got out of the twisties and headed slightly inland before actually reaching the hotel, these guys apparently decided they needed to open it up a bit (keep in mind, i didn't witness any of this becuase they had left me in the dirt long ago). all i know is that when i got to the hotel, a few of them were swapping stories about getting pulled over for going 120 mph. yeesh. (for the record, i did take my pbs up to 106 on the way home, but this was an abandoned farm road, and that was as fast as i dared take it.)
after that nice little trip, i once again headed back up home, on my second solo bike trip in as many years. not a bad average, really. this time, however, i didn't go the coastal route. i was already late back to school, so i really had to put some pavement behind me and take I-5 all the way up. not the prettiest route, but my bike performed brilliantly. i stayed in ashland the first night with an old director of mine, having my first meal of taco truck mexican (awesome). the next morning when i woke up, it was raining. all right! i broke out the rain suit and headed off. the rain didn't stop. in fact, it got worse. by the time i pulled into roseburg, i had gone through sheets of rain, huge crosswinds and hail. let me tell you, riding in hail is about as fun as it sounds. especially when you're passing semi-trucks on I-5. by the time i hit eugene, i had stopped several times to change my socks and let my hands thaw. the weather finally cleared around 30 miles from salem (my final destination), and i rode a triumph-ant (ha ha) victory lane right up to willamette university's theatre building, parked right outside the door and headed into class in full leathers. it was, to put it mildly, somewhat of an entrance. i'm not sure jon cole appreciated it. oh, and i also got a ticket for parking outside the theatre. a fitting end to a day of crappy riding.
the tt became my primary mode of transportation, lasting me the rest of the school year, throughout the summer and into my junior year. unfortunately, a few different circumstances led to the forced sale of my beloved pbs during winter break. mainly, it was oregon weather. at the time, i worked at the campus cafe, often closing at 1am or later. too many nights of riding the bike home in late november at 1:30 in the morning, slipping on black ice with numb hands and feet made me pause a little, and the fact that i had an independent study in portland that spring (starting in january), i had to admit i needed a car. sad day.
this led to my biggest bike-less gap to date. there was a big gap with absolutely nothing, until some time in 2008 when i moved back in with my dad (way to be broke). once there, i had a few bikes i could occasionally ride. my dad had sold miss vicky by this point and had upgraded to a honda shadow 1100. quite the ride, and one i wasn't really interested in (that would change). also, dad had acquired a honda rebel 250, which was actually not bad for riding around the neighborhood, but anything over 60 mph, it would start to shake like crazy. it was not fun. my little brother actually rode that bike across the state twice, which i can't imagine doing.
flash forward once again to about 2 months ago. two things happened in quick succession that thrust me back into bike-dom. one, i decided to join my brother pat's ride down to california for our summer vacation (more on that later), and two, my good friend brad was leaving to teach in england for 2 years, needing something to do with his 2008 suzuki sv650. hmm...i guess i might be able to help him out. thanks to the bank of dad (great interest rates, easy loan applications), i managed to scrape together just enough funds to help out my friend brad and assure him his bike would be well taken care of. and so, after a 6 year hiatus, i am finally a bike owner again. here she is:
sexy, no? since she is an sv650 (svsix), quite sexy and definitely an enabler, i have christened her "vixen." i love her. she makes my commute so much better. right now i need to get some good winter gloves so i can keep riding her in the coming months, but don't worry. i will. she will also be getting some touring gear in the coming months but again, more on that later (probably a future post).
forgive me, but i am bypassing a long description of my recent california trip with pat. it could easily fill up several posts on its own, but i have already written about it somewhat on facebook, and posted many, many pictures (you can check it all out there). here are some bulletpoints for a quick reference:
-I-5 is lame. escape as quickly as possible.
-my dad's shadow 1100 is a beast, but great for cruising straight at 70 mph.
-the oregon coast was awesome. i'm sure the california coast was too, but we never saw it thanks to fog (same with the golden gaste bridge).
-construction on highway 1 can really slow you down.
-highway 128 through sonoma and boonville is absolutely gorgeous.
-12 hours is too long to spend on a bike seat.
for photos see my facebook page.
that's it for now! next up, i'll lay out a little rundown of my immediate plans, and the next step in my quest to conquer the world on 2 wheels!
rftc,
scott
ps- just a quick note. these posts have been quite long, since it's trying to get everyone up to date on my last 14 or so years of motorcycling. this should be the last ridiculously long post. in fact, from here on out, posts may be much more sporadic. and short. we'll just have to see.
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