Fancy a ride?

The Triumph Demo Truck came to town this weekend so a group of us rode up to Canby to take some bikes for a ride. Our favorite little shop in Eugene has a limited number of demo bikes so we thought this would be a great opportunity to test ride some of the bikes our own group doesn't own. Among us local riders we have my America, a Scrambler, a Street Triple, a Thruxton and an older Tiger that I am sure any one us could take anyone's bike for a ride. Rod's shop has a Tiger 1050, a Bonneville SE and a Thunderbird. I don't know how often we could take his bikes for a test ride before he got suspicious we weren't serious buyers, although we are loyal customers. I've bought two bikes from him and plan to buy my Dirt Triple and Trobairitz's 450 in the future, Stacey bought her Triple and Sean his Thruxton.

Rick, Trobairitz and I rode out to Lebanon to meet up with Bluekat and (Mr. Bluekat) Ron, Andy and Josh. Andy led us north along some beautiful, scenic backroads which I would never have found had I been leading. We shuffled through the traffic and pedestrian obstacle course of Davenport Days in Silverton and arrived in Canby shortly after 10:00.



We made our way over to the truck and started signing waivers and reserving a bike. Evidently, they had too many Thunderbirds and little of anything else. Out of 9 Thunderbirds, 2 Rocket IIIs, only one of each other model and no Sprint GT, I waited 2 and a half hours to ride the next available bike.......one of the 9 Thunderbirds.

Tbolt had a 9:00 service appointment at the Salem Suzuki dealership and would be running late, but Stacey met with us up there.



Tbolt finally made it after getting lost, although she blames it on poor directions. After entertaining us with a rant, they both sat (sans Monarch chairs) and visited with us until our scheduled ride times.



They found out most of the rides were booked and neither one of them were up for waiting until after 3:00 to ride a bike they didn't want to ride.

(The "Hero" walk)

Triumph did a piss poor job of coordinating this event; they had two rows of bikes so that meant two separate ride groups, but only one lead rider and one sweep for both groups. While one group of riders were out on a ride one row of bikes were just sitting and people were standing around waiting.



We deduced that this would be so bikes were present at all times for everyone to sit and pet. It made for frustrated attendees and impatient riders. If I were King, the host dealer Cascade Moto would have had all of their floor models there ready for purchase and the demo rides would have had a lead and sweep for each group with 10 to 15 minutes between rides rather than the half hour intervals we were forced to endure. Twice as many riders would have been through the ride portion and Cascade Moto would've sold a bike or two.

Andy testing the Scramber (he was first in line to sign up).


Josh on a Thunderbird.

Josh's "Hero" walk.



Rick saddled up on......yup another Thunderbird.

I think Ron got a Speedmaster, (the blacked out, drag bar sibling to my America), he was the first one of us to go for a ride.
Click for video.


Here is Andy on the Scrambler, Josh and Rick on a couple of Thunderbirds.
Click for video.

All and all I had a great time visiting and laughing with friends and I got to ride a Thunderbird.



Nothing against the Thunderbird, nice bike and plenty of torque but my America would outrun it on a twisty road. I scraped my boot twice on a couple of easy sweepers. It's sure fun to wick it up on the straights but a lot of bike to push through the turns.



This bike was definitely aimed at the Harley crowd.

My "Hero" walk.

After my ride (I was last in line), I expressed my feelings about the Thunderbird then we packed up and headed down the road to Pat's Acres go cart track. Several of us are signed up to take Team Oregon's Advance Rider Training course in a couple weeks and we wanted to scope out the track. We stumbled upon a couple of kids on their bikes staging for a few laps.


We thought this would be fun to watch and stuck around.
Click for video.

Little did we know the surprise we were in for.....VESPA RACING!!!!
Click for video.

These guys were in full leathers and full knee sliding, floorboard scraping, muffler dragging leans.












Now how am I going to swing a Triumph Dirt Triple AND a Vespa racing scooter?



-PS

"The Hero Walk"

What's in your wallet?

Coming back into town from Bend last weekend we stopped for gas so Bobskoot and SonjaM could top up before heading over to the coast, Trobairitz would be fueled up before our next ride and I would be good to go for my daily commute to work.

We all pulled up to separate pumps and when I removed my gas cap, grabbed my wallet from my pocket and opened it, a paper gum wrapper I had stuffed in my pocket earlier that day fell out and would you believe, scurried down into my tank. Aww crap, now how am I going to get that out of there? I decided not to top up so if I had to remove my tank I wouldn't have 30 pounds of fuel to heft off the bike, rode home instead and would figure it out later.

We had lunch with Bobskoot and SonjaM, said our goodbyes, then unpacked our bikes and gear from the weekend.


That evening, perplexed and wondering what sinks, what floats, I placed another gum wrapper in water and watched it float, but wait, isn't gasoline lighter and less dense than water? I put another wrapper a small jar of gasoline only to discover that it sinks to the bottom. So I grabbed a siphon hose and siphoned my tank, twice, hoping I would suck the offending matter up through the hose. No such luck. Then I pondered worse case scenarios by just leaving it and came up with a possible plugged petcock. If so, I could just switch to reserve, then I thought what if it plugged the reserve feed? Hmmmm, the wrapper sinks to the bottom, the petcock is gravity fed, not a lot of suction and the lines are higher than the very bottom of the tank so I hope not much chance of that happening.
It was getting late, I was tired so I left the other wrapper in the small jar of gasoline to see if it would break down, gets slimy or gummy overnight and it gave me a chance to think about it.

The top of the tank has a flange around the filler hole so simply turning the tank upside down wasn't going to work.



Someone suggested siphoning the tank and taping a piece of garden hose to the end of the shop vac and sucking it out. This brought up some urban legends and a question for Mythbusters, will sparks from electric motor brushes ignite fuel vapors?

I didn't need a visit from Fire Marshal Bill.


My only other option I could think of is to remove the tank and the petcock, drain it and flush it out through the petcock hole. All I needed was an extra hand and on the second attempt my assistant plucked it from the tank.

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Several weeks ago I ordered a topcase for my bike so I'd have it for the Bend weekend. It was the same case that Bluekat ordered for her bike, unfortunately for me she got the last one that Sears had so I had to pay a little bit more and order one from JCWhitney.



The only problem, I thought I was buying a large topcase but bought the medium case in error and it arrived the day after Bend weekend. I mounted it anyway and will use it until we ge a rack for Trobairitz's bike. I think it looks alright.



I took these pics on my way to work last week as I had to stop and commemorate a milestone of 20,000 miles on my bike.



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This weekend we headed to the coast to beat the 95º heat. There seems to be a little game of photo tag homage developing between certain bloggers, so this one's for you Bob.



I captured this rare sight.




We came across this old barn, the coastal air has not been kind.



And we got lost chasing forestry roads that I am going to have to return to and explore on my dual sport next spring.

International Moto Blogger Convention 2010

Well I guess it is my turn to add my story and photos to the International Moto-Blogger Convention pile. It's been four days now and I have a terrible memory but I know that I had fun.



We headed out after Saturday morning coffee, a straight shot East across the valley floor to meet up with Bluekat and Ron. Then it was along the back roads, behind Foster Reservoir and around Sweet Home to Highway 20. This is a beautiful road with plenty of twists, turns, trees and scenery. A pleasurable ride with the group, four of the slightly quicker riders went on ahead while I stayed back with the novice riders. I didn't know what temperatures to expect over the Santiam Pass so I insisted we put our liners in our jackets and pants before leaving. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it although it wasn't nearly as cold as I was expecting and was not long before we were shedding layers. Tbolt led the whole way and scooted us around Sisters as there really is nothing there but traffic with traffic on top of traffic with a dash of traffic thrown in for good measure. A short jaunt to our destination town and we were at the Bend Inn and Suites greeting fellow bloggers. Waiting for us was Richard from Fairbanks, Alaska.



I can't believe he drove all the way from Alaska to attend our function but he did. Good thing he was able to amuse himself for a couple days with some sort of motorcycle rally in Redmond until we arrived.

It didn't take more than a few text messages to have Bobskoot and SonjaM arrive.



And before I could check in, unload my bike and turn around, Conchscooter was shaking my hand goodbye and we were off to make our lunch reservations. It was good to meet you, even if it was a short visit. Evidently, when you run with tech geeks just a few swipes on a cyborg phone gets you a table for 9 at the most exclusive restaurant in Northern California faster than than you get your helmet on.



I learned that we were in the Old Mill District at Flatbread Pizzaria, a fantastic place and very good food. Thank you Stacy and Stacey for the suggestion.



Rick left to catch up with some other friends of his to catch a Bare Naked Ladies concert in the park across the river and then to Portland in the morning.

It only took a text message or two to catch up with Irondad and we were "on our way" to meet up at his motel room.



We spent the hot afternoon ducking the heat until the sun set and then we were off seeking a late dinner. We went back to our motel to park our bikes, drop our gear and change clothes before walking over to Shari's for a bite to eat.



The next morning we were already seeking shade while repacking the bikes.





You don't need ATGATT when you're just scootin' across the parking lot.



Then we met up at Black Bear Diner for breakfast.



Stacy and Stacey were off on their own way while I led the group of six back over the pass.



It was much too soon to say goodbye to Bluekat and Ron, we were having so much fun. We took time to have one more laugh, a few photos and we were off again.




Trobairitz and I led Bobskoot and SonjaM home where we hopped in the car and went for a late lunch/early dinner at Cafe Yumm. We were all tired of oversized portions of American road food and opted for light sandwiches.



We saw Bob and Sonja off, promising to see them again soon.




All in all, a great weekend with some new friends and familiar bloggers.


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What a croc...

All this talk of crocs, pink crocs, yellow crocs, green crocs, new crocs, so if I'm going to talk the croc I'd better be able to walk the croc.

Introducing one croc,



two croc,



old croc,



blue croc,



Received as a gift from brother Bear, I've had these crocs for a couple years. They get used in the garden and me being the frugal Scotsman that I am, too cheap to buy another pair, I cleaned them up and added some Canadian flair by means of some Jibbitz.



I was messing around with the camera last weekend looking for that Corona commercial vibe. There isn't a tropical beach nearby and I prefer my own backyard anyway...less people, here's a shot of us relaxing on the back deck avec crocs.




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