My First Motorcycle Rally

Friday night I rode up to West Linn to stay overnight with my friend Steve. Saturday morning we got up around 0400 and rode to the ANG Armory at PDX, where we embarked on a journey -- my first motorcycle rally. We were joined by a new friend Chris, and we all had a great time, although Steve may have been a bit late getting home -- sorry Steve! Chris & I arrived back at the armory around 7pm, and I was home by around 8:30pm. 500+ miles of beautiful Pacific Northwest Motorcycle Touring!

The rally was sponsored by Rose City Motorcycle Club. Here's our route, and then a few snapshots along the way...

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North Cove, WA

A couple shots from Union Bay

Back at the armory

~ Keith

Once Upon A Time (Again)

In November 2006, on the day after Thanksgiving, I bought my first motorcycle. It was a dream come true. Recently I sold that bike and today, the dream-come-true experience expanded as I rode home on my very own BMW R1150R!

When I bought my first bike, I posted about the CE armored, ultra-safe riding gear I purchased. Recently I got some new gear to go with the new bike. I got this jacket (bright enough for you?)

and these pants

and these boots.

I'd write more, but would rather get back out on the road.

Keep the rubber side down...

~ Keith

Summer Ride

Here is my route from today's ride.

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And as an added bonus, I rolled 15,000 miles -- that's 4,300 miles since I bought her in Nov '06!

~ Keith

A Bee on my Belly

I took a ride today with a friend from work. We cruised from Salem down some back roads to Albany, where we had a great burger at the Callapooia Brewing Company. Then we headed East of Hwy 5 and went North through the four "S" towns: Scio, Stayton, Sublimity, and Silverton.

About 5 miles before Silverton, I felt something smack my neck, and it hurt bad enough I wondered if I'd been hit by a rock. My glove came away dry (yea, no blood) so I blew it off. About 2 minutes later, I felt a pinch on my belly. Thinking a belly-hair was being tweaked by a fold in my shirt or something, I used my left hand to shift my jacket around. More pinching. That was when it dawned on me -- OMG A BEE FLEW DOWN MY JACKET!!!

I quickly got the (lame!) idea to try and kill the bee by smashing it against my belly. I know, I know, it was a lame idea. I already acknowledged that. So now I've got pretty much constant pinching as this stupid bee is waging a solo war against my belly flab (yes, yes, you can call it a battle of the bulge, ha ha, aren't you funny to have thought of that -- hey, I"M IN PAIN HERE!!!).

It settled down a bit and I thought maybe it had finally died. Just in case, I tried to keep my body as still as possible. But every bump (ouch) and turn (ouch) that made my body move (ouch) at all (ouch) brought a new onslaught from little Mister-I-Refuse-To-Die inside my jacket. As we pulled in to Silverton it had been a few minutes since the last sting and I thought the miniature militiabee had finally gone on to the great bee poppy-fields in the sky. Dave was in front, having no idea why I blew past him at a stop sign and made a quick turn into the nearest safe parking spot. I quickly got my gloves and helmet off, and got my hand ready to catch the bee as it fell.

No bee. Or so I thought until

OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!

The very much not-yet-deceased tiny titan wasn't in my jacket -- it was under my shirt, and he was angry as ever! I quickly untucked my shirt and out dropped the smallest bee I've ever seen. Seriously, the thing was small! I swear to you an adolescent housefly could've kicked this thing's butt. It was this miniscule bee and as he fell, he put out his wings...and flew victoriously into the afternoon.

I took a few deep breaths and let the willies subside, then we mounted back up to finish our ride. On the way home, we passed (no lie) Bee Road. And as we did, I remembered getting a txt from Cathy this morning before I left, which said "have fun, and beee safe." I had chalked that up to a typo before. Now I think maybe God was trying to warn me or something.

Word to the wise: if you think you have a bee in your jacket, stop as soon as safely possible and deal with it -- or you will suffer its wrath.

Still and all, it was a good ride. I went a little under 103 miles, and filled my tank with a little over 2 gallons -- 48+ mpg. Not bad for a 20yr old bike that needs a tune-up and is battling a slow oil leak!

If you are interested, you can view our full route on Google Maps here.

~ Keith

2-Up!

Today we did a little loop around our area -- on the motorcycle!I call these "Simpson's Clouds" =O)A nice local orchard, on a winding country road.

And here's our route.

~ Keith

Road Trip: Detroit Lake

Here is my bike all loaded when I arrived on Monday afternoon -- sorry it is a little dark. I didn't have time to tinker with the camera settings since I was too busy getting rained on!I filled the tank before leaving, and when I got there. Once more after a ride on Tuesday, and a last time when I got home on Wednesday. If I did my math right, I averaged over 53 mpg! Not bad for a fully loaded bike on the highway!

Here is camp all set up with things hanging to dry once the rain let up.Note the brightness of my reflective gear in the flash -- even my gloves drying on the rack by the fire! And here I am, happy to be there and done with the set-up. I wasn't dry yet, but I was on the way!On Monday afternoon, the lake was gloomy and foreboding -- kinda cool looking!Tuesday dawned clear and warm, yea! I went for a ride to see some of the national forest nearby:
I was hoping to get to Olallie lake (some of the signage is a bit nonstandard, put up by folks who don't work for the ODOT!):I rode about 34 of the 37 miles there, only to come to a sign that said "pavement ends" -- not wanting to brave 3 miles of hilly gravel roads, I simply turned around and headed back. Bummer.

Tuesday night I had a nice fire, and let it burn down to rich coals. I wish the picture did it justice. There's nothing quite like getting away from it all, and watching something like this for a few hours instead of a TV.After the coals died, I went out by the lake at around 11:30 pm. The sky was clear, and as I let my eyes adjust, I was amazed at the canopy of stars. It was dry enough to tinker with my camera settings, but I couldn't get the exposure right, so unfortunately I have no pictures of the night sky to share with you. I sure wish I could though!

On Wednesday -- another warm day, yea! -- I broke camp. As I was packing things up, I saw this:That's my sleeping bag, and the bright green is the air mattress. Beyond that is the door to the tent, and my watch on the floor of the tent. See it? Right there at the seam between the door and the floor? Here's a closer look, with my watchface in the foreground for perspective:I don't know if my impromptu roommate had been there all night, or if he'd come in at 3 am when I went to use the little camper's room, or if he had only been in there for the 5 minutes or so since I opened the tent flap to the world around me. Anyway you slice it it was pretty freaky. Normally I follow the catch-and-release policy with spiders, but this guy freaked me out a little too much. Look at the little spiky-pointed ends to his legs! I offed him with the edge of my flip-flop, and he made a loud sickening crrrrr-RUNCH as his exoskeleton crumpled. Here he is squashed, with my breakfast next to him for perspective. Two of his legs actually snapped off!Whoa!

This is my bike all packed up and getting ready to ride home on Wednesday.My trip back was uneventful, and I stopped at the DMV on the way home to get my Oregon license plate.

All in all it was a good trip. You can see the rest of the pictures here

~ Keith

PS -- for the serious inquirer's who just have to know, here is my route, and here are a few close up shots of how I attached things:

A New Helmet

The other day, Cathy bought some motorcycle gear: jacket, helmet, gloves and overpants. We got such a good deal at Road Rider, I was able to get myself a new helmet.

I had no real complaints re: my old helmet, but as it is a flip-face, the convenience is offset by the fact that it has less chin protection in a crash. Also, the new helmet is much better ventilated, and is overall a better made helmet!

Behold the Arai Quantum-2. The pattern is called "Stellar Red".

~ Keith

Another Road Trip

I went for a ride early Sunday morning, and shot these pics.
for bigger images, with captions, you can view the album here:

Another Road Trip

~ Keith

RN RIDR

I've had a few custom license plates in my day.

This one is my favorite!

~ Keith

Road Trips

My bike is in the shop for some routine maintenance. My plan was to pick it up this weekend, but it looks like it will be raining. Bummer.

As I sit and wish for the rain to stop (a new thing for me!) here are some pics of a recent trip I took near my home. If you'd like, you can use GoogleMaps to follow my route!

SW along Skyline Blvd (Hwy 35) there is a little turn-out. Looking East you can see the Southern Peninsula
Another person at the turnout was nice enough to take my picture
No matter where you look, the scenery is gorgeous!
You can see the Dumbarton bridge crossing the bay. In the center right of the picture you can see the bell tower in The Quad at Stanford
Same place, different angle. Beautful Bike!

Here's another turn out along Skyline. In the distance looking East you can see the tops of the Oakland hills.
If you turn and look West, you can see the ocean! (the glare was bad so you can't see it in the picture, sorry)

Looking North, you can see Hwy 92 winding away!

Here's another stop near the intersection of Skyline & Hwy 92. I pulled out my mini-tripod and snapped a couple self-portraits
Here is a 360 degree panorama VR of the view near the intersection of Skyline & Hwy 92!

Last stop along the route, on Hwy 92 near Crystal Springs Reservoir. This is looking South.
Same place, now looking back West from where I came.
Same place, now looking East along my road home.

Good times!

~ Keith

ps -- just in case the link above expires (I used a URL shortener) here is the original Google Map URL