Neptune's Net

Since I was in Utah the past week, I was unable to ride for a whole 7 days! Can you believe it? I couldn't have ridden in UT anyway, because it was sooo cold and icy there. Cold as in 12* F when I landed!

So my two uncles decided to plan a ride to stretch my legs. Uncle S had just dropped something like 3 grand into his new Harley and was eager to try out his new Highway Bars. Uncle T decided a trip up PCH to Neptune's Net would be the perfect ride. Uncle S meet up at my place and we started out at about 10:30.

I was moderately bundled as the weather had said it was supposed to be warm. Moderately bundled = heavy jacket, fingerless leather gloves, full face helmet, regular socks, and no chaps. This was fine riding inland, but when we hit the coastal areas, it was cold! I had to quickly pull on my unlined leather gloves (over my fingerless ones, that was uncomfortable) during a stop light to warm up my hands and to stop the wind from blowing up my sleeves.

We made it up through OC alright, Long Beach was okay, but after that the moving got slow. I guess there was a bike race (bicycle) that day. I was passed a sign warning of street closures due to the "BIKERACE" and puzzled over what a Biker-Ace was during the red light.

Things picked up again and we were cruising right up along the coast. We hit Santa Monica and could see the ocean and the rocks. There was a cool house we passed under in Santa Barbara. The house was hanging off the cliff, over the road! I made friends with a guy on a sports bike who was trying to weave his way past all the cruisers. We were stopped for something and started up a conversation about my hair glove (http://www.hairglovecycle.com/). He wanted to know where he could get one for his girlfriend.

We continued along Santa Barbara, Malibu, and into Ventura. At this point it was very chilly and my butt was ready for a break. Right as my odometer hit 102 miles, we pulled into Neptune's Net. The parking lot was crammed! we finally fond a few spots somethat close to each other and parked. As I was walking away from my bike, I remembered my hat and turned around to get it out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this biker ride past with a bunch of long curly black hair following. I recognized that hair! It was Robert (10yearsafter)! I waved like mad and the he spotted me just before he turned the corner. I waited a few moments, and back he came. It is so weird, but Robert is the only biker I bump into when out riding. T and I had also seen him at the LB International Motorcycle show back in January? December? I can't remember. Sadly he was just leaving. We made planned to organize a ride past El Campion in San Juan Capistrano. We introduced him to it during a ride last year, and he loves the food there.

Lunch was a big plate of steamed shrimp and two steaming bowls of clam chowder with a few New Castles. Yummy, there were even left-overs.

Since Uncle S. had to get back for a date, we decided to head home via the freeway. We gassed up in Santa Monica and jumped onto the 101. It was slow going at times, but Uncle S isn't too comfortable with lane splitting so we just road it out. We separated at the 57 and continued down to the 55, the 5 and home.

A long ride, but beautiful. Great food at the end.

Re: Chain Lubing

Ray, the supreme creator of www.startriding.com was kind enough to forward this to me:

Regarding lubing the chain...

* Get a can of chain lube ($5-$10) and chain cleaner if you're feeling proper (some people use kerosene)
* Spray the cleaner on top of the lower part of the chain that's exposed then wipe it clean with a rag
* Roll the bike and repeat until you've cleaned the whole chain
* Spray the lube on top of the lower part of the chain that's exposed
* Roll the bike and repeat until you've covered the whole chain

Watch for the spray when you first ride after lubing. Do it often though, maybe every 300 miles or something. The chain can never be too clean or lubricated.

Ray

---------------------------------------------------------

I bought some lube last week just before I went to Salt Lake City. I had planned on using my car until I got the chance to lube my chain properly, but fate intervened. On the way home from the airport on Tuesday, we ran over a nail and I got a flat. So... I was forced to use my bike before intended. I didn't have time to thoroughly clean the chain the morning, but I did spray it good. I rolled it back about a foot at a time until it had all been lubed. I plan on giving my bike a good cleaning this weekend

As a side note, don't do this in your work clothes like I did. I now have some grease looking stains on my pants where the lube splattered.

As a second side note, I will be taking pictures of how to fix a puncture in a car tire (also good to know for bike tires!). I would have shown how to change a tire, but it's kind of hard to take pictures when you are worried about being hit by passing motorists while on the side of the freeway changing said tire.

Oops!

While I absolutly love my new(er) bike, there has been a few things I have had to get use to.

1. Quiet pipes. My Kawasaki had Jardin pipes and while not brain ratteling loud, they did have some rumble to them. I am trying to save up for new pipes. ( about $400!)

2. Turn signal light. My Kawasaki had a light for either direction, the Honda only has a light to let you know that your turn signal is on, and doesn't indicate which direction.

3. Highway bars. These I love having. I can just kick up my feet and cruise. I do need to put on some highway pegs.

4. Chain vs. belt. This I hate. I loved having a belt drive, no maintainence. Just had the mechanic look at it every check-up. I now have a chain and hate it.

So while I am very in love with my new bike (yet to be named), the only thing I would love to change is the drive. I was told that a chain needs to be lubed every so often, but neglected to really find out how often is often. So I have now gone 2000 miles without a lube. I know, very bad and dangerous. So I now need to figure out how to lube my chain on my own. Any suggenstions?

$500 spent and finally something for free

Nice weekend for a ride. Saturday was a little chilly (especially riding along the coast) but Sunday was PERFECT! The Motorcycle Gods were smiling down on those of us here in So. Cal.

Saturday found me getting lunch at Tummystuffers in Lake Forest. It is my favorite sandwich place ever! I got the BLT on Squaw bread with provalone cheese. Yummy! The day was so bright and sunny I had to get out and ride.

T and I opted to ride out to Huntington Beach. I know I am asking for parking headaches just thinking of going anywhere near HB on a sunny weekend, but I have a secret parking spot so it was no problm' mon. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking up and down the street window browsing while munching on a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Mud Pie candy apple. It is my mission in life to always get a Cookies and Cream candy apple when ever I pass a RMCF, but sadly this shop didn't have any. So I opted for second choice, Mud Pie.

It was about 5:00 when I headed back to my bike to head home. I had had a bit of a zipper problem when getting out of my "winter" leather jacket, but figured all would be well. WRONG! I got into all my gear and then tried to zip up the zipper. Nothing. So I pulled on the zipper. It got about half way up before stalling and then the bottom part that was zipped up split all the way to the zipper head. T tried to help, but it was stuck and split and nothing was going to change that. I ended up placing the zipper head at my neck, so at least that part was closed, and unfastened my belt from my jeans and buckled it around my jacket waist.

So now I need to find a leather tailor to fix my jacket before I go to Salt Lake City on Thursday where it looks to be cooooldddddd. *shivers*

Sunday was an even more perfect day for riding. The previous year I had spent about $500 to get my scuba certification. I finally got something free out of it. Aquarium of the Pacific had a free entrance day for divers on Sunday. T and I pulled out our c-cards and headed up to Long Beach. The AoP was packed! We found some spots in a parking structure across form the AoP and headed inside. We looked at all the exhibits, and even got to go in the aviary and feed the (evil) birds some nectar. The birds were evil because they bite. One got me where the skin webs between your pointer finger and your thumb and chomped down hard! I still have a little blood blister and my hand looks a tinsy bit bruised.

Dinner was had at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company across the street from the AoP. Warning, if you are looking for something light and refreshing, do not eat here. Everything was DRENCHED in butter.

After dinner we road along Ocean Boulevard to 2nd Street and pulled over so we could walk around. We had walked maybe 6 blocks before we came across a couple on their Harley pulled over by a cop. The cop pulled away really fast and the couple just stayed on their bike. T asked "What happened so I know whether to come this way?" and the guy replied they had been pulled over for loud pipes and illegal helmets. We walked another block or two down before turning around and heading back. The couple were still at their bike, so we asked what had happened. The woman said they cop was writing out the ticket when another, louder biker, road past. The woman had commented to the cop that that guys pipes was louder that theirs! The cop told the couple to stay put, took their license, and drove after the other guy. As we started to head back to our bikes, the cop came back and jumped out of his cruiser. He mistook T and I for the couple and told us "Well that guy is going to jail. Please step back next to your motorcycle please." We pointed to the couple behind us and just kept on walking. Another cop car pulled up next to the first as we were crossing the street. T and I decided to make a quick get-a-way. My pipes are still stock, but T's are LOUD! I warned a few bikers on the way back to the bikes that cops were pulling people over for loud pipes. Hopefully none of them got pulled over. T and I jumped back on our bikes and made a quick exit stage left. The rest of the ride home was uneventful.

In the Beginning

There was a website. It was called www.beginnerbiker.org. Don't bother going there, it no longer exsists.

But on this website there was a forum. And in this forum there was a page for regional events, rides, etc. There was a region called 'Southern California.' In this area of the forum, bikers from all over Southern California began to post. It was soon discovered there were a lot of bikers in Southern California on this forum, and that they really didn't have anyone to ride with because they were, after all, beginner bikers.

So they banded to gether in the summer of '04 and they began to ride. They road all over! They road ACH (Angeles Crest Highway), Mullholland, Santiago Canyon, Live Oak Canyon, Ortega Higyway, Pacific Coast Highway, and even went on longer, overnight trips to San Diego and Pismo Beach. They began to call themselves "The Mild Ones" and they would "ride to eat and eat to ride." One of them even started a website where they could post pictures of them on their rides.

They were so excited about riding! But suddenly their beloved BeginnerBiker forum went down. Something about fighting website hosts, though rumers were never confirmed. They were lost! What were they to do? Where were they to post about new rides?

There was a temporary fix in the form of a "Tag Board" on their website, but it wasn't enough. Finally one came to the rescue. Why not start our own forum?

And they did.

And 3 forums later, they still do.

www.socal-letsride.com

The End.

Pre Angi the Biker Chick blog

Prior to the creation of my Angi the Biker Chick blog, my motorcycle related posting are posted here:


AngiPants

The World of the Pants