Posted by Mike Bradley on September 18, 2001 at 22:07:20:
Saturday I rode north from my home in Oakland CA to a friend's house near Mendocino on the coast. Sunday we rode through the redwoods on 128 to Boonville. Monday I rode home.
Gorgeous exhilirating ride. Did Skaggs Springs Road, 128 and sections of 1 in both directions. Skaggs Springs is legendary among bike riders here, and 128 and 1 have some great sections.
Skaggs Springs has 5 miles or so of long, constant radius turns that I could take comfortably at 50 mph and sportbikes take at 60-70. Just lean and go. Scraped my pegs a couple of times (actually, once it was the heel of my boot, which hangs lower than the pegs).
I should do these rides more often. I learned to trust the bike more--in slow and out fast; lean it over and roll on the throttle.
Several minor problems cropped up, only adding to the adventure. The bolt on the saddlebag support started rubbing on the rear tire. I found a length of yellow plastic rope in my friend's garage, so I took out the bolt and looped the rope from the boltless support, between the driver and passenger seat, to the other support, and tied with a trucker's hitch. Sunday the helmet lock fell off somewhere; Monday the end cap fell off the right handlebar. I used my new FET CATZ driving lights all day Monday and at my last refueling, the battery was dead. I guess the alternator can't supply juice to all the lights and the battery was being drawn down slowly. Lucky for me the gas station was near a hill. The bike starts easily at about 8 mph.