Kenny's Speed Triple Far Away From Home

This photo of Kenny’s Speed Triple was taken on that cold morning as we made out ascent into the mountains. The feeling of being “away” was so strong on that trip. This photo always represents that to me and it remains one of my favorites to this day.

Last year in a stroke of genius (yes, I’m tooting my own horn) I got him a seat on the Gotham Dream Car Tour. He seemed to really enjoy that. Who wouldn’t want to spend the day tooling around some winding roads in a Ferrari F430?

Kenny and the Ferrari F430

This year as Christmas began approaching I started to wrack my brain again. What to do, what to do?

Throughout the year, he mentioned on more than one occasion that he would really like to go to Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. He also mentioned that he’d like to do some more trackdays in 2010. ::ding!::  I began searching the web trying to find some information on how to get him a chance to ride at Barber. That’s when I found the Kevin Schwantz 2 -Day Riding School.

Crudmop will be attending the 2 day Schwantz class in May. He’ll be flying in to Alabama to get acquainted with Barber’s 2.3 miles of rolling tarmac on one of the school’s bikes. The school offers small class sizes, 3 to 1 instructor ratio and well – it’s at Barber. I hope that he comes away with a great experience. Because I won’t be attending or even spectating I’m looking forward to seeing the photos that come back from the museum!

On a side note: When I told my dad what I’d gotten for Kenny this year for Christmas, he said, “Do you know what a Schwantz is? It’s a cock!” I love my dad.

Kunkletown, Pennsylvania

Who doesn’t feel just a wee bit silly when they say Kunkletown? Seriously. Say it out loud. Kunkle… town
A little chuckle?
A snicker?
Anything?
Where is the laughter? Doesn’t anyone remember laughter?

::sigh:: I don’t know about you guys.

• Google Maps – Kunkletown, Pa.

Kenny on his Honda CL350 in my Rear View Mirror

Quack Quack

Long Island’s Big Duck in Flanders is a local landmark. This photo was taken on a cold November day.

The CL started having problems with starting. Suspecting a bad head gasket, the bike went up on the left and parts started coming off.  As it turned out, there were two broken piston rings. Kenny took a quick inventory of anything else he might want to update while the bike is unbuttoned.

The current cylinders have a few cracked cooling fins. This would be the perfect time to replace them. Thanks to eBay, Kenny found a set for $30. Score! A little cleanup by sandblasting, some silver paint and the 40 year old engine will soon be looking extra spiffy.

Spiffy New Paint!

We communicate with each other on a frequent basis here, albeit kind of anonymously. I like to think of us as you know – a little community. No blog can exist without its cast of supporting characters to keep things interesting. The life of a post doesn’t stop when it’s published. It’s you the readers who breathe life into topics with your wit, quips and anecdotes. This is just a little shout out to some of my motorcycle friends and the frequent commenters here on FG.

The Supporting Cast

• Crudmop: Former beer guzzling frat boy turned impatient motorcyclist. Blondie here is too pretty for his own good. Has a vicious hate of fender breaking disc locks and squids in white sneakers. Thinks everyone is a douchebag.
• Novos: Conspiracy theorist who is convinced that the utility company is watching him through his thermostat. Able to take photos, knit a sweater and do long division on an abacus all while riding his motorcycle.
• OG: Currently building a margarine powered full scale working model of a lunar lander in his basement. Might have a touch of the “Charlie Brown” but that’s part of his charm.
• Duc748: Deep thinker. Could write a 35 page dissertation on the weight savings benefits of riding your motorcycle sans undergarments. An accomplished mime and comes with his own leather thong!
• Pimmie: The Dutch Menace. Former captain of his high school’s downhill clog-sledding team. He can make fun of you in 5 languages after he stuffs you in a corner. Don’t ask him about the “oven”.
• Soth: The best thing outta Brooklyn since the BK Broiler. He’s probably ridden his RC to Saskatchewan and back for a grilled cheese before you even had your first mocha-choca-latte of the day.

Without Further Ado

It’s always nice to put a face or in this case helmet to those internet nicknames we become familiar with. As motorcyclists with our faces covered all of the time our helmets become our calling cards. They become the face that we show to the world and how we most often see each other. Here are a few motorcycle faces I’ve met so far. I’m looking forward to meeting some more of you and getting a few more helmet shots. See you on the road!

Crudmop!	Duc748!	Novos!
OG!	Pimmie!	Soth!

Gravatars

Oh and hey! While we’re putting faces to names – If you haven’t already, why not mosey on over to gravatar.com and get one of those fancy little comment avatars of your own?

Every time that I read the word gravatar I immediately think of Grover. Grovertar. Everyone using the many faces of Grover. Definitely a better idea, right? No? Fine.

“How was your trip?” people ask. I don’t usually know how to answer that to properly do justice to the experience. I could say it was 40 different things and answer the question correctly, but not fully. Now as I type this, I think that the best I can say is that it was… life. It was amazing, it sucked, it was fun. It was easy, hard, hot and cold. It was too long and not long enough. I was happy to be away but missed home with every ounce of my being. It was indeed a slice full of life.

Wednesday June 11, 2008 New York to San Francisco, Ca

Let’s get the pre-requisite tourist landmarks out of the way Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Lombard Street, Fisherman’s Wharf & Pier 39. They’re all here, they’re all touristy and I loved them all.

We pulled up to our hotel in Japantown sometime around lunchtime on Wednesday. Although leaving New York so early was hard, I was definitely thankful to have the entire afternoon to do a quick tour of the city since we’d really only be spending 24 hours there. Hotel Tomo had a neat vibe with its great murals, fun décor and Godzilla movies playing in the lobby.

We unpacked some of our things and headed off on foot, huffing and puffing my chubbles up those famous hills for the first time to where? Why, Fisherman’s Wharf, of course. Where else would a tourist go right away?

There actually was a method to my madness. A few days earlier I had found a place called “Scootcar,” that offered rentals of 50cc scooter based buggies in which you could tootle around the city. Since we’d be on 2 wheels for the following 9 days, it seemed like a brilliant idea. But, like most of my brilliant ideas… brilliant it wasn’t. To say that a 50cc baseball carrying two people, drum brakes and San Francisco’s hills aren’t exactly the perfect marriage would be a bit of an understatement. I played navigator while Kenny dislocated his hip pressing the brake pedal to the floor to try to keep us from careening into traffic as we made our way down some of those crazy hills. Of course one of our destinations in the death defying Scootcar was Lombard Street’s crooked-est section. I won’t lie. I feared for my life.

This beautiful piece by glass artist Dale Chihuly was perched in the courtyard of The Legion of Honor. 

I found San Francisco to feel less like a “big” city and more like an outer-lying borough of a large city. It’s very sprawling but the buildings feel kind of low with beautiful neighborhood pockets that are a feast for the eyes. I would definitely like to go back again and spend some time exploring all that the city seems to have to offer outside of its outright tourist venues. I’d love to just walk the streets, look at the gorgeous Victorians and just feel the cities’ energy. It’s very beautiful.

I try to see love everywhere. Ice cream drip heart~ 

Thursday June 12, 2008
San Francisco to San Luis Obispo

We were at the Dubbleju Motorcycle Rental place promptly at 9:00 to pick up our bikes for the next 9 days. The three of us outfitted with BMW R1150Rs. Before I got to know my girl more intimately, I must say that the thought of riding something that appeared to be so big, heavy and wide with its sidebags seemed a little, I don’t know… like I’d feel like a fish out of water? But, as the miles ticked on, my pack mule proved to be a pussycat. She was generally well behaved and did as she was told and wanted to go harder and faster when she got warmed up. What more can you ask for?

We pretty much set this day up to be a nice leisurely roll down the coast. We’re from as far east as you can go in the US, now we’d be as far west. I had dreams of Big Sur dancing in my head like sugar plum fairies.

Friday June 13, 2008
San Luis Obispo to Bakersfield

We rolled out of San Luis Obispo and headed off towards route 58 to 33 where we met up with Novos in Ojai. Gentleman that he is, he took us to the Rockstore, which I guess is like someone wanting to visit the Empire State Building in NY. He tried to tell us he never goes there, but not 5 minutes after we arrived we hear… “Hey, Ed..” :lol He shuttled us around hill and dale, through the Crest, through tiny mountain roads that wriggled along the landscape like a rattlesnake and he did it all with a smile. We swung in to Bakersfield to see a muffler man Indian and ended up staying there for the night.

You could smell the oil in the air as we rolled by the creepy oilfields near Taft.

Saturday June 14, 2008
Bakersfield to Northfork

I guess Kenny’s zipper didn’t have the tensile strength to hold back the sheer force of his manaconda and ended up blowing out, so before heading out for the day, we had to make a pitstop at Cyclegear to get him a new pair of pants. Then we were on our way to Bodfish, Lake Isabella then on Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Park.

Sunday June 15, 2008
Northfork to Lee Vining

After staying in what was less than stellar accommodations at the “No Tell Motel” for the night where there may have been more bug inside the room than outside, the four of us headed off towards Yosemite, where we spent our day.

The massive scale and beauty of everything in Yosemite really made me feel like a speck in the grand scheme of things. Amazing.

We exited the park on 108 which dropped us down through the Tioga Pass and put us in Lee Vining & Lake Mono. We shared a nice meal, hugged a grizzly bear, grabbed rooms and took a ride down to check out the Tufa on the lake. Shortly after, we wished sad farewell to Novos who bravely faced a 400 mile slab ride back home.

Monday June 16, 2008
Lee Vining to Klamath Falls, Or

Bodie, California is a Ghost town. Literally.

After leaving Bodie, we hopped across the Sonora Pass which at nearly 10,000 ft elevation, was amazing riding.

As we climbed down out of the mountains, the heat began to settle in. It was hot, hot, hot. Things were just progressing at a pretty slow pace so after one of my cranky meltdowns which was accentuated by the heat, we had to make tracks towards Klamath Falls, Oregon on the slab if we wanted to squeeze Crater Lake in. It became apparent that if we didn’t, we’d never make it.

We took the I-5 to the town of Weed and on to Klamath Falls, Oregon where we stayed the night. By some weird planetary alignment Crudmop and I ended up getting a 2 room suite in a hotel which was really nice. Well…Except for the TV in the sitting room. Where do you even get a tv like that?

Tuesday June 17, 2008
Klamath Falls, Or to Crescent City, Ca

Crater Lake has been on my life’s to-do list for the last few years now. In my previously mentioned heat-induced emotional breakdown, I was pretty much ready to skip Crater Lake rather than sit on the toe-roasting boxer twin for 200 miles of slab. Sometimes I could probably use a good shake to knock some sense in to me. As DrD, Crudmop and I sat on the wall that rimmed the lake, I was thankful that I was encouraged to keep moving. The way that the sunshine sparkled off of the sapphire blue water looked like it was a layer of static hovering over the water if you just stared at it like one of those magic eye posters.

Wednesday June 18, 2008
Crescent City to Mount Shasta City

Thursday June 19, 2008
Mount Shasta City to Willits

June 20/21, 2008
Willits to San Francisco