Apple Pickin' and Motorcyclin'

This was a wonderful Saturday. I had planned on going to Oak Glen last weekend for apple picking with some co-workers, but eveyone bailed on me at the last minute. So last weekend was spent at Magic Mountain!

I still wanted to go to Oak Glen, so I called up Uncle S on Thursday and asked if he felt like a bike ride. Three missed calles and 2 neglected emails later he said yes. I told T about it and he was also up for a ride. We had planned on meeting up at S's at 9:00 AM, but (not surprisingly) that somehow turned into almost 10:00. We jumped on the 91E to the 215N to the 10E. There was a little confusion over directions, but we finally made it into Beaumont for a quick soda break. A fire truck pulled in next to us in the parking lot, so we had a quick discussion about the local Esparanza fire. I was expecting to smell the smoke and see some ash in Oak Glen, but we were told that the fire was pretty much contained, and two ridges over.

We finished off our drinks and headed up the canyon to Oak Glen. We stopped at Rio Los Rancheros for some really good BBQ Pulled Port and Tri Tip. I have to say the Tri Tip was better than the Pulled Pork this trip. T and S also got a apple turnover. We headed out to the trails to walk off lunch. S was a little put off that there might be rattle snakes inthe area, so the rest of the walk was discussions on rattle snakes, other snakes, and encounters there-of concerning them or others they knew.

After the walk we headed back to the ranch and took a gander through their Store. I wanted to get some pick-your-own apples so we headed down the road to Winebrook farm. On the way in I spotted an apple press and talked S into helping me press some Apple Cider. T and S were then distracted with the horse pinned up near by, so I didn't actually get to pick any apples. We went back to the Ranch to buy some, along with some Apple Butter, Pumpkin Butter, Jalapeno Preserves and dried apples. I got some really yummy Winesap apples to eat. They also had Apple Syrup, Apple Preserves, and Tomato Preserves! I wanted to try that on a Grilled Cheese Sandwich, but forgot to go back and get some.

Once we had reached S's again he invited me and T to the Orange County Police Canine Association 2006 Benefit Show that was taking place that night at the Fullerton University football field. T and I went home to shower (it was 89* in Oak Glen!!) and then went over to the stadium. Uncle KR and his kids were also there.

It was a really cool show! They had guys in trucks drive onto the field chased by 4 or 5 cruisers. The guys would jump out of the truck in full padded suits and be chased down by the K-9's and tackled! The did different stunts like this for about 2 hours, even threw some flash bombs at the vehicles. One didn't go off, so they had to call in the bomb squad to detionate the flashbomb so the helicoptors could land. That's right, helicoptors! They flew in all 6 OC helicoptors into the stadium one at a time. and they would fly to the center of the field, hover 1 - 2 meters off the ground, and do a full 360 revolution in the center, then take off. They even did a stunt where one of the "badguys" was running from a truck and a helicoptor landed in the field and a dog jumped from the coptor and ran after the guy! It was very exciting. The finished off the show with fireworks while playing the Cops song.

Afterward T and I met up with S and S at Chilies for a (very) late dinner. It was a very cold ride home. I saw a bank thermometer on the way and it said the temp was 55*! Add in windchill and things get VERY chilly.

As Tight As A...

(insert proper analogy here)

No more loose chain! I took Alexia over to Mach 1 and told him my chain was loose again. Long had a look at it and suggested just getting a new chain since it had streched so much, so often. I asked about the sprockets, and he recommended changing those out as well. I had intended to have this done in addition to my 12k mile service, but had a $300 price limit. The chain, sprockets, and hourly came to $250. However, I also mentioned to Long that my bike was slipping out of gear. He said it could be a transmission problem. I told him that I had read on the Honda Shadow forum (hey guys!) that a simple solution to the slippage was to just move the shift lever back to increase the leverage when shifting with your toe. Long said no problem, and when I got me bill I discovered he had not charged me the labor to move back my shift lever! What a guy!

While my bike does still fall out of gear, it only does it about 10 - 20% of the time now, verses almost 50% before.

So I now have 12446 miles on Alexia, 448 since the new chain, and have not felt any slack in the chain yet. Good news, but my other chain started to slack after 800 - 1000 miles. Alexia also needs new tires soon, like real soon. I noticed a small bald spot on my rear tire. So I now need to save up for new tires and 12k mile service. After this, I should be able to enjoy my bike for a few months without blowing $200 or more every other month on maintenance.

Alexia also needs a bath. A plastic bag on the freeway managed to land on my hot pipe, and now my motorcycle smells of burnt plastic. I tried to wash the plastic off, but it had become a solid piece of plastic that wasn't budging. I finally wised up and after riding into work the other morning, I got out my old pair of leather gloves and just wiped off the now hot, melty plastic off of my hot pipes. While this removed a lot of it, there is still some nasty stuff left.

Any suggestions for removing melted-on plastic?

As loose as a (insert funny analogy here)

Damn chain is loose again. WTF?!? I don't know what is up with it now, but since I have reached 12000 miles on Alexia (yea me!) and she needs to go in for service now anyway, I am just going to have Long Mach put on a new chain. Oh I'll ask as to why it is getting so slack so quickly, but I am insisting on a new chain. (please leave your analogies in a comment!)

The chain is so loose that the top position is resting on the frame when not moving. I can also hear it rub against the frame as I slow down. Yeah, not good.

Have I mentioned before how much I HATE chain drive?!!

In retaliation for Alexia misbehaving, I have started drooling over this beauty.
This is the 2006 Yamaha Road Star Warrior. This sucker is 1607 CCs and is about 600 lbs! It also has a 28 inch seat height, which my long legs love. Oh, and the best thing, its a belt drive! So far my favorite of all drives. And I love the exhaust on this thing. I test fit one a few weeks ago at Mission Motorsport and loved it. Alas, I may have to drool on this one for a while more. I think the jump from a 750 to a 1600! is a bit extream. Also, I need to build up my strength a bit to handel the additional 100 lbs. What do you all think?

--

On a slightly different note, I figured out this weekend that I have about 26,000 miles of motorcycle experience. 15k or so on my Vulcan, and now 9k on the Shadow. I have had a few minor, hairy moments, and hope that those experience are the extent and extream of what I have to face in the future. I was reflecting on what I have learned, and what I need to work on. I also committed to re-reading Proficient Motorcycling. I think I still have a lot to learn, especially about handeling turns. I want to work on slow speed manuvers as well.

The Price of Parking

T and I decided to head over to the LA County Fair on Saturday to see it before it closed. We head out on the 5 to the 55 to the 91 to the 57 to the 60 to the 71 to the 10 (= 339, he he). We get off at Fairplex and merge in with the rest of the fair traffic. It is getting hot, and I am in my full leather coat. We get up to the ticket person, and she informs us that parking is $8. No biggie. But wait...$8 a bike! That's $16 just to park, that's not counting admission! Needless to say I didn't see the fair. The OC County fair lets bikes park for free, and even has reserved parking for them. Just one more way that OC is better than LA.

The same thing happened two years ago at the Calendar Show at the Queen Mary. They didn't plan this event out very well, and the Queen Mary parking lot was full. The event planners didn't set aside any room for motorcycle parking near the motorcycle event. So they instructed everyone to go park at the structure near the Aquarium. We get there and notice there are warnings all over that motorcycles shouldn't park in the structure. T gets through the gate arm okay, but my Vulcan was so light it didn't trip the arm. I had to ride around, and didn't get a validation ticket. So we walk the mile to the show, hang around a few HOT hours, and then walk the mile back to the bikes. We ride down the spiral ramp to exit and have to stop on a decline to wait for the cars in front of us. I ask T the cost of parking so I can get my money out, and it says right there on the sign $9 per motorcycle. Absurd! We had parked with three other bikes in one spot, and they want $18 for the two of us, in a structure we were warned not to park in in the first place? Well the car in front of us needed to back up for something, and the dumbass parking attendant asked us if we could back up our bikes to let the car back up. Um, no. He wanted us to back up 400 and 600 lbs. of motorcycle up an incline? Yeah, no. So we just road around the car, past the gate arm, and out onto the road. No $9 per bike, and no struggling to straddle-walk a 400 lb. bike backwards up a hill.

Huntington Beach recently changed their parking rules for bikes. Not sure when the law actually changed, but when T and I road there during Labor Day weekend, I almost got ticketed. T usually backs in his bike into a spot, and then to make sure no one parks in front of us and blocks us in, I then pull in front of him. So we parked this way in HB, and then sat down for lunch, almost in front of the bikes. We were eating our appetizers when T pointed to my bike and asked me why a cop would be writing me a ticket. I jump up and run over there and asked the 'traffic enforcer' what the problem was. Apparently motorcycles have to be backed into a spot, and the rear tire needs to be touching or near the curb. Bikes are not allowed to park in front of other bikes. You can fit 3 sports bikes across in a space, but they have to be next to each other. I promised to move my bike right then, and he voided my ticket. The law makes sense, but it is a hassle now to find parking.

I'm just venting. In my reasoning motorcycles take up half the room, and should only be charged half the price of parking and toll roads, etc. Maybe one day.

A little something to know

I was reading a Full Throttle magazine I had picked up at OC Road House, and read an interesting article in there about DOT helmets vs. Snell helmets vs. skid lids/brain buckets/novelty helmets. They dropped a 30 lb brick on a full face helmet (DOT and Snell approved), a half or shortie helmet (DOT approved) and a novelty helmet (Satan approved). The first two helmets had a slight indent where the brick had hit, but held up otherwise. The novelty was crushed.

The article went on to point out that Snell only approved solid, full face helmets (they have yet to approve modular helmets), while the minimum thickness to receive a DOT approval was 1 1/2 inches of solid foam. The soft padding doesn't count, only the hard stuff. It also said that it is illegal to sell or purchase a novelty helmet with the intent of it being worn on a motorcycle. Even in states that don't have helmet laws, it is still illegal to wear a skid lid while riding.

I just thought that was interesting.


Edited to add:

Rider was nice enough to add the following link in my comments. It is from Motorcyclist Magazine, June '05 Issue:
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/motorcycle_helmet_review/
Very informative and in depth. If you don't know how your helmet was tested, I recommend reading it. More $ doesn't equal more safety.

A new learned trick

I seem to have a thing for getting motorcycles with sloppy shifting problems. My Vulcan would slip into neutral when I was trying to shift up to 2nd or down to 1st. I got really good at shifting up two gears so it would either slip into neutral and then into 2nd, or it would hit 2nd then 3rd and I would just chug along in 3rd.

Some of you may be cringing at this, but I asked my mechanic about it and he said Vulcan 500's had sloppy shifting and there wasn't anything I could really do except learn how to deal with it.

So now I have a Honda Shadow ACE, and while it too will slip into neutral, it has a few other annoying quirks of its own. It will slip out of gear if I don't flip it hard enough into gear. It will also not switch gears if I don't get it solid in gear. I will be in 2nd and try to shift up to 3rd, and nothin'. The gear shift will toe up okay, but it won't engage the gear change. I have to roll off the throttle real fast and then roll on, and then change gears. Not very cool sounding... nor is it very cool looking to be crusin at 40 and suddenly have your bike drop out of 4th into 3rd and you get all jerked around. Not cool at all.

So I once again ask my mechanic and log onto the Honda Shadow forums and come to find that Shadows are also known for having a bad shift mechanism. I was told to try and move my shift lever back and the added leverage of having it nearer the peg and closer to my toe usually (I don't like how they used the word usually) gives it the extra kick it needs to get into gear properly.

Or...

I figured out this one on my own... I can NOT use the clutch. For some reason the little tiny extra bit of resistance from not using the clutch seems to get the bike into gear. Who-da thunk it?

I know I can harm my bike from doing this, but I can feel and hear when it is time to switch gears, and my new mechanic (Mach One!) said he didn't notice any unusual wear on the clutch or the transmission.

I did want some input on it though. What do you all think? Do you even use your clutch to shift gears? I still use it to shift down, just not up.

Anyway, thanks all!

The easy way out

I gave in to laziness and took my motorcycle to Mach 1 for a chain clean and tighten. Best 15 bucks and 20 minutes of my week! They were a little concerned that my chain had gotten so loose so quickly, but couldn't offer an explanation. The chain looks good, the sprockets are okay, and my rear axel isn't loose. Mystery!

I will ask for a new chain when I hit 12,000, which is only a few months away. 11,361 miles on my baby!

And I need new tires soon. Does the money ever stay in my grasp?

Lefty loosey

As I mentioned before, I had to have my very loose chain tightened at about 9,000 miles. Well, it needs it again.

I was again riding into work, when I hit a bump and heard my chain hit the chain guard. When I deccelerated, I purposly rolled off the throttle real quick to see it the chain felt loose. Yup, it was. I then accelerated quick and felt the chain snap into place. Damn, again?

I can't believe it! Only 2,000 miles later and my chain is slack again. How did it manage to go from 3,200 to 9,000 miles just fine?

So I am debating whether I should try and tackle the job of tighening the chain myself, or taking it into Mach 1 for a clean and adjustment. It does need a good cleaning, and I just don't want to do it. Well, that and I ran out of red auto rags to clean the chain with, and don't feel like going all the way to 1 of 3 Costcos in a 10 mile radius to get another pack.

I know, I know, poor baby!

Oh, and I still haven't found my spare set of motorcycle keys. I had them when my aunt and uncle visited from UT, but haven't seen them since.

As promised...

Pictures!!!! From my 800 mile trip.

Here they are...

In 1990, Sea Elephants started inhabiting the beaches near San Simeon. The come here to molt, feed, have thier pups, and sleep. Mostly to sleep. Fences warn to stay at least 50 feet away. The whole beach looks like this, big mounds of seals, and seals half buried by the sand.

We have been spotted!

I think we are being watched!

This is the view from the pier that was used to ship in all the materials for Hearst Castle. The castle is amazing, and even more so considering they only had horse and carriage to haul all the materials from the ship to the building site on top of the hill.

This is the Morro Bay rock. Wait, let me put the size of this "rock" in perspective for you...

See Mr. Trailer at the bottom?

Last stop was to see the Ostrich Farm.

The brown ones are female, and the black are male.

There were also Emu's on this farm. They are evil, prehistoric looking birds with sharp, pointed beaks and dark red eyes.

And for the parting picture, the view from the look-out point just past Solvang going East on the 246.

The dangers of...The Chain

I get on my bike to go to work on Friday, and notice a little something different. When I accelerate, there is a snap on my chain, and when I decelerate, there is a chugging and I can hear slack in the chain flinging forward. Hmmm, that does not sound right. I get to work, and get off my bike to inspect my chain. It is loose, very loose, like 2" give on the chain. Yikes!!

So I call Mach One too see if they could accommodate my bike for the weekend. I was just going to have them quickly look at my chain, but since I have been putting of my 8,000 service for 1,000 miles now, I decided to have them just do it all.

So a new air filter (quick story: they didn't have an air filter in stock for my bike, nor did the honda dealer across the street. so they were going to do everything but that, and have me come in on wednesday and replace it when the one they ordered came in. when I arrived to pick up my bike the guy said he had checked online and called a few places and found one about a 1/2 hour drive away, so he ran out to get it. he said he had promised me he would have my bike ready on saturday), a new oil change, a new bulb for my highway lights, and $430 later ('nother quick story: they had quoted me $300 for labor, but had actually gone over to about $350. they guy had crossed out the $350 and written in $300, because that is what he had quoted me. parts came to $130), Alexia is back and in working order.

I can not say enough for the guys at Mach One. They are always honest, go way above and beyond, and keep their word. Extremely knowledgeable, and they let you into the garage to point out stuff and to show you stuff on your bike. As a biker that loves to know as much as I can about my bike, this is fantastic. Each time I have gone has been wonderful!

Now I just need to save up for my car's service...


Side Note: They never did figure out why my chian got so slack so quickly. They did tightened it down, but had found nothing wrong with the chain. Any ideas?

800 miles later

That is the most amount of miles I have put on my bike in two days!

So having nothing to do for the weekend, T proposes a coastal ride. Basically you head up the coast for as far as you can, spend the night, then ride back the next day. We packed up everything Friday night and planned on an early start the next morning. T was thinking something like dawn, while I was pushing for something around 8:30 ish.

So we headed out around 9:00. We went across the street to get gas when I realized I needed coolant. So we headed back for the apartment for a quick antifreeze refill, then finally headed out on the road.

The starting out was nice. Just a little chill in the air, or in other words, perfect leather gear day. T had been having problems with his new phone so we made plans to stop at a service place up by Oxnard to have it looked at. Besides that brief stop, it was smooth riding. We stopped every 100 miles or so for a re-fuel. Our first stop was just south of the phone place, and out second was in Buellton. We ate a late lunch at Buritto Loco (I had the pork tamales, and they were good! I recommend stopping there if you are in the area) and decided to stick to the 101 for the next part of the ride vs. the 1.

Next fueling was in Cambria. We thought we would try for Monterey to crash for the night, and Cambria is the last (reasonably priced) fuel stop until Monterey. So we headed out again. Just past the hotel that is town San Simeon is the San Simeon State Park/Beach. Sea Elephants began swimming up unto the beach there in 1990 and have been coming back to breed, feed and molt ever since. The beach is covered with mounds of seals piled together.

As we were getting back on the bikes from viewing the seals, a family was getting into their van parked next to us. The dad poked his head into the back of the van and pointed me out to his daughter and said something like "See honey, a woman motorcycle rider. She is riding her own motorcycle. Don't you think that is cool?" Being the girl was about 12 or so, and anything your parents think is cool automatically makes it not at that age, the girl just shrugged and went back to her book. Mom did give me a thumbs up as she got into the van. I was an object lesson!

About 20 miles further up is a small place called Ragged Point. It is a small hotel/restaurant with a tiny 2 pump gas station with gas prices at about $5.00+. Yeah. The view is breathtaking though! Ragged Point sits atop a section of cliffs on the coast that juts out, so you have 270 panoramic view from the hotel and a perfect view of the ocean that is 200 feet or so below you. We decided that we probably shouldn't try for Monterey after all. While it is only another 80 or so miles up, those 80 miles are all coast line twisties at about 20-30mph. At that rate it would take us at least another 4 hours to get there, and it was already 5:00. On top of that it looked like fog was rolling in, and I was already as bundled as I could get. It gets cold once you are above Malibu and are right next to the coast!

So we decided to head back down to San Simeon for the night. We would wait and see how early we got up the next morning to figure out our next plan.

The first place we stopped at wanted $269 for a double queen room, and they only had 2 left. Yeah right! I figured the rest of the motels there in town would be about the same situation, but T wanted to try a few more places. We asked at the Motel 6 and they had a double queen available for $104... But it was smoking... But it was the last room left...We took it. T got a can of air freshener and used up the whole can in the room. We opened a window and left for dinner. When we got back the room was spring fresh, with a hint of smokiness left.

We finally got up and ready at about 9:00 again. We stopped for a quick breakfast a the California Sur Cafe and decided to head up to Hearst Castle to take a tour. T had been the week before, but the place is so big the castle is separated into 4 tours. We found some motorcycle parking, changed out of our gear, and headed up. We should have gotten tickets first thing, but T wanted to look around the museum that is just off the ticket room. When we finished 20 minutes later and went to go get tickets, everything was sold out. A party in front of us got the last tickets for the day. Bummer! I was really disappointed. We went across the street to the pier and took out the maps. There wasn't much to see in that part of CA. I wanted to try for Big Sur which was 60 miles up. We needed to fuel up before heading up there so I bundled back up and we headed down to Cambria for fuel. Once we got there we realized it was already 12:00 and we should probably head south as opposed to north.

We stopped to see the Morro Bay rock. Man is that thing huge! It had been so foggy on the way up that I had completely missed it. We pulled off in Pismo Beach and went through 20 minutes of serious grid lock through down town. I never did see what had caused it. T wanted to take the 1 going south instead of the 101. We pulled off in Buellton again for another pit stop and grabbed some quick dinner from Taco Bell as it was already 5:00 and there was still another 200 miles to go. From Buellton we took the 246 across thorough Solvang and stopped at the Ostrich and Emu farm. Man those things are ugly! The eggs were the size of a cantaloupe! We passed by the StageCoach Inn where the Mild Ones had stopped the year before on our weekend jaunt up to Pismo Beach. Boy were those some good Buffalo Burgers! Since we had just eaten and had a lot of riding still to do we didn't stop. The 246 hits the 154 which we took back to the 101. Very beautiful riding, all canyon and trees, with look-outs giving incredible views of the valley below. I wouldn't mind just taking the day to ride up to Solvang and back for fun.

Just as we hit the 101, T and I realized that T's headlight had gone out. We decided to ride until it got dark, or until we needed fuel, which ever came first. We kept riding through the twilight and finally pulled off the freeway at Sunset to find a gas station. It had gotten dark before we needed gas. T checked his fuses and found the one that had blown. I was so relieved it was a fuse and not a headlight lamp as it was 8:20 on a Sunday night. Good luck finding a place that carried motorcycle headlights! We changed out the fuse and booked it home, getting in at about 10:00.

So with that little excursion, my motorcycle mileage was at 9854, almost triple what it was when I bought it in November (3200).

So now I will spend this weekend cleaning and lubing that stupid, blasted, damn chain and detailing the rest of my bike. I also need to take it in for 8000 mile service, and at the very least an oil change.

Ta-ta!

"Vacation, had to get away..."

Sorry for the lack of new content on here. My apologies. I went on vacation to SLC, UT and left all the cares of computers behind, except to order a gift online for Father's Day and to get directions from Google Maps. But that was it!

So now I am back to the daily grind. While I am pleased to see gas prices dropped almost $.20 while I was gone (from $3.42 to $3.22), I do miss the gas priced I saw in UT. The cheapest was at the Maverick for $2.71. I kid you not! (For those of you in the area, please confirm this). However, the lowest octane you can get in UT is 85 while the lowest in CA (at least in my area) is 87. The next highest octane in UT is 88 (wtf?) and then 91 I believe, while CA goes to 87 then 91. I just don't get it. I believe it has to do with a higher altitude and therefore thinner air and therefore something to do with the engine combustion, blah blah blah...

So while I was able to enjoy cheaper gas, I was stuck driving my Dad's Tank around, and boy does that thing go through gas! The 'Tank' is my and my sisters nick name for my Dad's truck. It is a 1 ton Ford F350 4 door extended bed truck. And it's gray (hence the name 'Tank'). I use to drive this thing back in my High School days. (And just to add salt to some peoples wounds, that was only 5 years ago. Neener, neener, neener!)

I kid. One thing that I was not use to in UT was the helmet laws (or lack there of). A helmet is required if you are under 21, but after that it is up to you. I am not going to get into a whole big discussion on helmet laws, but to me it was weird to see people cruisin' and speedin' around with no helmet on. Nuf said.

On a more positive note, I did see quite a few solo female riders! Kudos to you all! During my 10 day visit, I had to have seen 4 or 5 women out cruisin' about. It made me miss my bike even more.

So that is where I have been and some of what I have been up to. For a more in depth read of my vacation (more wedding, less motorcycle) visit www.angipants.blogdrive.com.

Ride Happy!

Mornin' Folks

Not much been happening in my little motorcycle world. Reading about my daily morning commute would get very monotonous, as well as possibly freak out my parents. Not that I ride dangerously, mind you, but I do have a tendency to lane split, and that freaks out my parents, especially my grandma.

So I will not remind them of that on a daily bases. I guess I could regale you with tales of my weekend (always a good fall-back plan!). This weekend was a holiday weekend *Yipee* so a lot of riding was accomplished. I spent the better part of cloudy Saturday cleaning my bike of all the awful grime that had accumulated when I road it briefly in the rain on Monday. I even went as far as taking off my saddlebags to clean the fender underneath, and gave my chain a good clean and lube.

Which brings me to a temporary rant. I hate chain drives! I hate them! It is such a pain to have to clean that blasted chain. You have to get down on all fours to reach all the nooks and crannies, stand up and slowly walk your bike forward a few steps, then get back on your knees and do it all over again.

Hate it!

The chain may very well end up being a reason for not keeping Alexia for very long. Not to say I will be getting rid of her anytime soon, she hasn't even hit 10k miles yet! I also do not have the funds to get another bike at the moment. However, should the opportunity arise, I may very well be tempted to move up to a 1100 of some other bike. I may even try out a sports bike for a short time. Hmmmm...

This may also be the fact I got beat by a corvette the other day. I got off the line first, but I was struggling to get the bike up into 5th gear when the 'vet zoomed ahead of me with a gear or two to spare.

Oops, mom and dad, don't read the part above.

Sunday was spent just riding and walking around the coast. First I went over to Laguna Beach. While I have cruised LB via PCH many a time, I have never actually walked around LB. So Sunday I did. There was a small artisans craft fair going on, a pro marijuana protest in progress, and a ton of people just there to hang on the beach. I found a great little bead shop, so now I won't have to order as much of my stuff.

I left LB around 3:00 and headed up PCH to Huntington Beach. HB also has a craft fair every weekend from dawn till about 4:00 pm. I found the Knucklehead Industries booth and bought a bracelet from him (www.knucklehead.biz), and also found a really fun shirt booth (www.alanscottdesign.com) that had some bleached out designs on short and long sleeved shirts, and some really nice hoodies. I normally hate hoodies, but did like these. They were similar to my Dragonfly hoodie (www.dragonflyclothing.com).

After HB I cruised around Balboa and then headed home, slightly tired and very satisfied.

"Time, is on your side. Yes it is."

As I attempt to spread myself even thinner and dive into more and more online motorcycle related stuff (the perfect marriage of at least two of my passions) I came across this website:

http://www.mbiweb.org/

Go and check it out and tell me that is not a perfect wedding gift for the marriage of my passion for computer stuff and motorcycle stuff. Go on, tell me!

Nice relaxing weekend, NOT

So I was asked by my Grandma J to come up to Bakersfield for the weekend to celebrate Mothers Day. Sure, put a damper on my birthday weekend! This is why I hate having my birthday on this date. It always falls around M-day weekend, and I have to set aside my entitled ond day of selfishness to accommodate the loving and caring maternal figures in my life. This will be continued on www.angipants.blogdrive.com.


So I road up to Bakersfield with Uncle T. Uncle S. was to have joined us, but alas his brilliant idea of riding up with us while his girlfriend follows behind in his truck with their two dogs was shot down faster than Michael Johnson running a 10 meter dash. (For those of you not in the know, that's fast.)

Now some of you who have blog hopped among my different blogs may remember mention of an accident T and I came across on one of our trips up. Well, now you get to hear about another.

We had stopped at the Magic Mountain exit to fuel up and eat, and jumped back on the road at about 1:00 PM. A little ways up we picked up a stray biker who decided to stick with us on our way. I would say we were 50 out from MM when as we were coming around a curve, a driver in the van ahead of us started to do the "slow-down" gesture. At first I was just surprised a car was giving a bike that signal, but then old brainy kicked in and I started to ease on the brakes. Traffic started stopping fast in front of me, so I changed into the the #1 lane, while T and the stray moved their bikes over to the #4 lane. I had a bunch of debris in front of me, and did a beautiful weave maneuver to avoid all the obstacles. I then realized that T and the stray were over in the #4 lane, so I cut across (safely, as traffic had stopped behind me) and passed a truck (dodge ram type) and trailer that had been overturned. I realized that everyone had stopped for that.

I pulled my bike off to the left shoulder, turned it off, and ran over to the truck. T was already on top of it, holding a woman by her arm throught the busted out window. I climbed up and looked in. There was a woman in the passenger seat, still buckled in, and hanging down from her seatbelt. A man was in the driver seat, and it looked like he was sitting on the ground, where his side window used to be. There was also a dog (golden retriever?) sitting in the back seat area, trembling.

Stray guy was standing by the back window, and T told him to kick out the window. He kicked in the bottom panel, and then someone handed him a towel, and he just pulled out the rest of the panes. After some maneuvering, two guys by the back window were able to get the dog out. A woman grabbed his leash and then sat with the dog by the divider, trying to calm it down. Thank (insert deity here) and all that is good that the dog was in the truck, and not in the bed of the truck.

With the dog out, the man could now twist around and crawl out the back window. That left the woman, still stuck hanging in her seat by her seat belt. A guy dropped through the passenger side window and then stuck his arms under her to cradle her. A box cutter was produced and T and I worked on the seatbelt straps to cut her out. Once she was free, the guy holding her pushed her up through the window and handed her up to us. A guy who said he is a nurse showed up and began checking out the guy, and then the woman once we got her out and sitting on the ground. CHP then showed up and said thanks for all the help, but if you didn't witness the accident, you need to leave. T and I took that as our cue. We got some bottles of water to wash the blood off of our hands, and then walked over to our bikes. Stray guy followed us over, and without a word, we all got on our bikes and continued heading north.

Stray guy took off on a different route after another 20 miles or so, and T and I made it to Bakersfield without any other drama. I never even found out the stray guys name, but I thought it so cool that he stopped with us to help out. Thank you stray guy!

Bike Gear

Here is what gear I have and why. For starters:

*Leather Motorcycle Jacket - Leather protects your skin from road rash. Most motorcycle leather is cow hide. My jacket in the picture is lamb. There are a bunch of other hides you can use. Like I said, Cow is the most common. Lamb is not recommended as it is thinner than and not as durable as Cow against abrasion. (The zipper on my cow jacket broke, so this is my fallback jacket.) I have heard that the ideal leather to wear is Kangaroo as it is extremely abrasion resistant and lighter than Cow hide.

Since my lamb jacket doesn’t have any quilted lining, I wear a light knitted/quilted jacket underneath it when it gets chilly. My cow jacket has a removable quilted lining.

The best jacket to get is one with armor or padding in it along the spine and at the elbows. There are also many synthetic alternatives to leather, most which come with padding.

*Chaps – My chaps are cow hide with a light nylon lining. While chaps are very important for safety gear, I have to admit that the main reason I wear mine is the warmth factor. If you insist on riding in jeans, which you might as well ride bare legged if you do, there is a company called Draggin’ Jeans that puts removable armor in the jeans at the hips and knees.

*Boots – I bought my boots at Sketcher. They are leather with a rubber sole and very durable. With boots what you are mostly looking for is ankle protection, and good grip on the bottom. I tried on a few Harley boots, figuring they would be especially designed for cruisers, but found them very stiff and uncomfortable. Few even had padding in the inside. My boots were bought for $60.00 total and that was for a brown pair and a black pair. I prefer the brown to the black as the black have buckles and a tongue on the front and a zipper on the side. When it is very windy or rainy, they both manage to work their way in around the tongue of the boot. The brown pair just zip on the side and are more weather resilient.

*Gloves – I am a glove fanatic. I must have at least 5 pairs. I have a fingerless pair; a regular leather pair; a nylon pair; a thick, padded, gauntlet style pair; and a pair of snowboarding gloves.
The snowboarding gloves were purchased during the rainy season I was riding my bike and said they were water proof. To test this I put my hand in them and stuck it under a faucet. On that test they passed. However, about a week after wearing the gloves in the waterfall that was California during the winter of ’04, the gloves were not even water resistant. In fact they seemed to adsorb the water.

The fingerless pair I wear when it is hot, as well as the nylon pair. The leather pair I wear when I don’t want my fingers to get cold, and layer them with a pair of felt gloves I bought at Old Navy on those slightly chilly days. The gauntlet pair are nice and padded and fit perfect over my jacket sleeves. They are the best for cold riding. The snowboarding gloves have been kicked out on their thumbs and are never to be spoken of again.

*Helmet – I know it’s not pictured, but I still wear one. I have a ½ helmet (size XXS), a full face helmet (size child S/M) and a shortie helmet (size XS). The full face is my oldest and my most worn. It is the best for cold days and for a quick jaunt around the neighborhood. My ½ helmet hasn’t been used much since the purchase of my shortie. I look like a mushroom head in the ½ since they use the same helmet shell as the medium sized helmet and just put more padding in it to make it a XXS. My shortie is my favorite. It fits really well, and matched perfectly the burgundy color of my Vulcan. I had it pinstriped black and silver at the Easy Rider show by Hot Dog and LOVE IT! It is not the best helmet for cold weather riding, even with a face mask.

*Other – My additional accessories are a dickie, a face mask, and several pairs of assorted goggles and sunglasses. The dickie is basically a mock turtleneck that keeps my neck nice and toasty. The face mask is made of neoprene and fits under my full face helmet in a pinch. It is mostly used with my ½ and shortie helmets. The goggles are used with the open helmets and the sunglasses used under my full face visor. I have yet to find a tinted visor for my full face helmet.

So, that is it!! I should make myself into a paper doll so you can dress me in all of my gear! That would be funny.

Please leave any questions or comments, or reminders of any gear I may hve left out, or any gear you CAN NOT live without.

Peace out.

A moment of silence

I have mentioned my friend Tay in here before. He is this big bear of a guy I meet in my jewelry design and fabriacation class last fall. He does ride (actually just got himself a new Harley) but he alos does custome metal and fabrication work for many of the builders here in So. Cal. He told me about this one guy named Johnny Chop who had a shop in Wesminister. I cruised over to his site and chaecked out his work. He had a bunch of really cool frames and handelbars. Tay wanted me to contact Johnny to see about getting some roll bars put on my Vulcan, since, as I have mentioned before, the Vulcan 500 had no after market accessories to speak of. Sadly I was very strapped for cash at the time and hesitant to even venture a call or a ride to his shop to even chat or get an estimate.

Anyhoo, Tay called me on Sunday to let me know that Johnny had passed away on March 28th of heart failure at the age of 33. Johhny spent the beginning of his carrer in Chica's shop in Huntington Beach.

Stop by the sites and take a look at Johhny's genius. I wish now I had not let money hinder my desire to learn about choppers and to meet some of the key people in chopper customizing right now. I won't let another chance slip by.

Rememberance Information is here.

Hair Glove

I had a request to post a picture of me in my hair glove. I am really sorry for not getting to this sooner, and actually still haven't taken a picture. So, here is a picture borrowed from the Hair Glove site.



You should go check out the site. I usually buy mine at OC Road House. I have a 8" one I used when my hair was longer, and bought a 4" one when I cut off 11 inches.

I love mine. I usually just braided my hair before I bought one, and the briad would fall out and my hair would get all ratty. This keeps it nice, and it looks cool. They have at least 20 different types of hair gloves on the site. They also sell some with a hole in it so you can put on your favorite biker pin, without damaging the leather. Very biker chic!

Not Much

There hasn't been much to blog about in motorcycle world. The new battery is working great, and I added a whole bunch of new links over on the side (check them out!) and I also was granted membership to the Biking Bloggers ring.

On a news worthy note, I have been offered membership to www.motorcyclebloggers.com! I will be one of the authors to the blog there! Yeah! So expect to see me there soon. I am the only girl (thus far) and I think the only cruiser rider there.

Other than that, it has been on and off rain here. I was able to ride to work once this week. I know, I have woosed out since getting a car, but Alexia hasn't yet been exposed to rain, and I would really like to keep it that way for as long as I can. Rhonda was ridden in the rain A LOT and the frame got quite rusty. Rhonda also had a belt drive, which fairs better in rain than a metal chain drive.

So I have been stuck driving to work. I just checked Weather.com and it looks like a clear weekend, but another rainy week. Jabberknockers!

It keeps going and going and going...

If you couldn't figure it out from the title, I will be installing my new battery. When last I left you my battery was charging up. I am happy to report that when I got home last night it was all charged up and ready to go.

So I set to work taking apart my bike seat to get to the battery. That is one thing I miss about my Vulcan, the seat had a seat lock. All I had to do was insert the key and pop off the seat. Instant access to my battery and wiring. No such luck on my Honda. I first have to remove the screw on the back of the pillion seat.

I then take off the pillion seat and have to unscrew the front seat.

Once both seats are off, I then have to get to the battery. Why do they need the cover on the battery case?

So off comes the battery cover. Can you see how tight everything looks in there? Well, it is. I tried for 10 minutes to pull out the old battery. I could not get a finger hold on it. The batter slips perfectly into its case with barely enough room for me to try and jam a screwdriver in along the sides in a vain attempt to try and leverage out the battery. I finally gave up and pulled it out with some vice-grips.

So out popped old battery and in goes the new! I attach the + and - terminals (always attach + first and - last!) and put everything back together again.

Just for kicks and grins, I attached the charger up to the old battery to see if any juice was sill in there. The charger actually started charging the old battery. I'll have to check on it tomorrow to see if it charges. So now I have a question. I know once you drain a battery you severly diminish the life of it. I also knew it was about time for a new one anyway, but what do I now do with the old? I guess I should take it to a car place or Mission Motorsport to dispose of it.