walnuts
09-09-07, 06:12 AM
Hey peepl,
It's taken a while, but I did say I'd poke my head in on the .org once in a while during my abscence (I'm living in Canada with my girlfriend for a year for those short in memory).
Glad to see all the usual faces are still around (and a few new ones), and that you're all still in one piece of course. (I can't find any explantion of why Falc is in recovery [again!], what's the story fella?)
Any other big SV news I might have missed?
All is very good indeed with me, after a three week holiday in the US, we arrived in Vancouver and are loving every minute. I'm currently working in a bike shop (push-bike sadly), and living in an apartment in the middle of town. In a couple of months time we should be moving onto the mountains for the winter season (fingers crossed). Can't wait!
Definitely missing the motorbike though, but unable to justify the expense of getting one here.
Bikes are big in Vancouver, particularly Ducati Monsters for some reason, they're everywhere. Also a hell of a lot of 1098's too. The cage drivers make the british look positively competent though, so perhaps I'm better off bikeless for the time being.
I did get to ride a bike while we were in the US though. We rode an Electraglide (I know I know, don't all lynch me at once eh) across California from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park. It was an amazing experience, and I'll admit that a Harley does suit the right kind of road (ie. a long straight one) but rest assured I shall not be buying one on my return!
We've been doing email updates for our families whilst we've been away, here's the first half of what I wrote about the Harley experience. This may entertain you or it may bore you to tears, so feel free to click away now. On the off chance this does prove entertaining, I'll post the second half.
Anyway, ride safe guys, catch you soon.
Marc.
Saturday in San Francisco was taken up with seeing the last few sights we hadn’t seen so far and doing some shopping ready for our planned two night stay in Yosemite National Park, as we shopped we happened (somewhat deliberatly on my part) to pass by ‘Dubbelju Motorcycle Rentals’, and I managed to persuade Von to go in - ‘just for a look’ of course. Quietly, I was already really keen to get a bike for a day before we headed over to Yosemite as a more interesting way of taking a look around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dubbelju is run by a very friendly German guy called Wolfgang who was very helpful, and we started talking about the possibility of a days rental of any bike suitable for a passenger to ride. What he showed us a Harley Davidson Electraglide (http://www.motorcycleconnect.com/Harley_Davidson/2006/Touring/FLHTCUI_Ultra_Classic_Electra_Glide/FLHTCUI_Ultra_Classic_Electra_Glide_1.jpg), which pretty much had an armchair for a pillion seat. After a test-sit suddenly Vonny was a lot more keen. Result!
After some further discussion, and excitement on our part, a day trip around the area gradually turned into a 600 mile trip across Central California to Yosemite National Park, and a one day rental thus became a three day rental. This all seemed perfectly normal at the time, even though the price was about three times the cost of renting a car, but we decided we were already pretty tired of four wheeled travel having covered about 800 miles already over the last couple of weeks.
The following morning we returned to pick up our bike, jackets and helmets. Wolfgang sat me down with a king-size map of California so he could show me an ‘interesting’ route, punctuating his description with phrases like ’stay off this freeway, that’s where all the tourists will be’, ’stop here for lunch’, ‘take this road for sure, it’s my favourite, but look out for rockslides from the cliffs above’ and ‘on the way back try to take a detour to reach the Del Puerto Canyon road, it’s worth it trust me’. I asked him about the ‘position’ on speeding in general, and he said ‘They use helicopters to catch you, and they’ll approach from behind so you won’t even know it when suddenly a patrol car joins the road and pulls you over, but no doubt you’ll speed a bit anyway (wink), so just use your common sense’ He was right too, I couldn’t help but think that being able to say I’d been chased across California by a police helicopter whilst riding a Harley, was worth the cost of a fine. :smt077
(See Wolfgangs Route) (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=37.751172,-121.338501&spn=2.145486,4.9823&t=h&z=8&om=1&msid=115098412122943002351.000001134f327926f1f9e)
So that was that, on Sunday morning the sun was shining, we had three days worth of clothes jammed into two small pannier-boxes, and we were riding a king size Harley Davidson through Central San Francisco. It was a baptism-of-fire way to start. The bike must have weighed three times what my old Suzuki did, and I had city traffic and king-size hill-starts to deal with, but we managed to stay upright (just) and within twenty minutes we were cruising easy-rider style across the Golden Gate Bridge. (Vonny took some great video as we rode, which I’d post right here if only I hadn’t lost the damn camera, aaargh!)
We then passed over the San Rafael bridge, and were soon on highway 4 heading east. Traffic dimished so that we were alone on the road for much of the time, and the road wove very gently though farmland and low hills, it was actually a lot like riding through a much sunnier version of Brecon Beacons, and we settled in to the journey, both of us rather gobsmacked that we were actually doing what we were doing.
The hills then flattened out and the surroundings then began to alternate between huge sweet-smelling orchards, and scrubland. It was then that Von shouted in my ear ‘This really reminds me of that film ‘Duel’”. She was right too, the sun was scorching, the road was deserted other than the odd hillbilly driving a pickup and once in a while a Truck would loom into view and make me a bit twitchy on the throttle, ‘just in case there was a problem’.
About three or four hours into the journey we stopped for fuel, lunch, and some welcome air-conditioning at a tiny town called Angel Camp. From here we passed through several more tiny stereotypical small American towns, and through a few State Parks which made for some great views of mountains, cliffs, lakes and rivers. The lack of pictures really sucks.
Then came the highlight, the penultimate hour was made up of the best road I’ve ever ridden or driven anywhere, which starts with a sign saying ’severe bends for 31 miles’. The sign was right, the road is cut from the side of a cliff face and is an unrelenting series of tight curves and switchbacks, the road surface is perfect so it’s like riding a very precarious race-track. Best of all, the bends are either open-sighted so you know how tight they are before you enter them, or they have a sign before them with a suggested speed, and I soon figured out that if I did exactly 15mph more than the suggested speed, it was as fast as the Harley could go, with the bike lent right over and sparks flying up as the running boards scraped along the asphalt. With the accompanying soundtrack provided by the blubbing engine (and Von squealing as we teetered along the edge) I was having the time of my life.
We then entered Yosemite National Park, and travelled for another hour between huge giant sequoia trees, boulders, and dramatic cliffs (I’m really not exaggerating here, it’s almost unreal how extraordinary everything looks in Yosemite). We followed the river into the centre of the valley to reach our accomodation just as night fell.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8523/03430020is1.th.jpg (http://img356.imageshack.us/my.php?image=03430020is1.jpg)
It's taken a while, but I did say I'd poke my head in on the .org once in a while during my abscence (I'm living in Canada with my girlfriend for a year for those short in memory).
Glad to see all the usual faces are still around (and a few new ones), and that you're all still in one piece of course. (I can't find any explantion of why Falc is in recovery [again!], what's the story fella?)
Any other big SV news I might have missed?
All is very good indeed with me, after a three week holiday in the US, we arrived in Vancouver and are loving every minute. I'm currently working in a bike shop (push-bike sadly), and living in an apartment in the middle of town. In a couple of months time we should be moving onto the mountains for the winter season (fingers crossed). Can't wait!
Definitely missing the motorbike though, but unable to justify the expense of getting one here.
Bikes are big in Vancouver, particularly Ducati Monsters for some reason, they're everywhere. Also a hell of a lot of 1098's too. The cage drivers make the british look positively competent though, so perhaps I'm better off bikeless for the time being.
I did get to ride a bike while we were in the US though. We rode an Electraglide (I know I know, don't all lynch me at once eh) across California from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park. It was an amazing experience, and I'll admit that a Harley does suit the right kind of road (ie. a long straight one) but rest assured I shall not be buying one on my return!
We've been doing email updates for our families whilst we've been away, here's the first half of what I wrote about the Harley experience. This may entertain you or it may bore you to tears, so feel free to click away now. On the off chance this does prove entertaining, I'll post the second half.
Anyway, ride safe guys, catch you soon.
Marc.
Saturday in San Francisco was taken up with seeing the last few sights we hadn’t seen so far and doing some shopping ready for our planned two night stay in Yosemite National Park, as we shopped we happened (somewhat deliberatly on my part) to pass by ‘Dubbelju Motorcycle Rentals’, and I managed to persuade Von to go in - ‘just for a look’ of course. Quietly, I was already really keen to get a bike for a day before we headed over to Yosemite as a more interesting way of taking a look around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dubbelju is run by a very friendly German guy called Wolfgang who was very helpful, and we started talking about the possibility of a days rental of any bike suitable for a passenger to ride. What he showed us a Harley Davidson Electraglide (http://www.motorcycleconnect.com/Harley_Davidson/2006/Touring/FLHTCUI_Ultra_Classic_Electra_Glide/FLHTCUI_Ultra_Classic_Electra_Glide_1.jpg), which pretty much had an armchair for a pillion seat. After a test-sit suddenly Vonny was a lot more keen. Result!
After some further discussion, and excitement on our part, a day trip around the area gradually turned into a 600 mile trip across Central California to Yosemite National Park, and a one day rental thus became a three day rental. This all seemed perfectly normal at the time, even though the price was about three times the cost of renting a car, but we decided we were already pretty tired of four wheeled travel having covered about 800 miles already over the last couple of weeks.
The following morning we returned to pick up our bike, jackets and helmets. Wolfgang sat me down with a king-size map of California so he could show me an ‘interesting’ route, punctuating his description with phrases like ’stay off this freeway, that’s where all the tourists will be’, ’stop here for lunch’, ‘take this road for sure, it’s my favourite, but look out for rockslides from the cliffs above’ and ‘on the way back try to take a detour to reach the Del Puerto Canyon road, it’s worth it trust me’. I asked him about the ‘position’ on speeding in general, and he said ‘They use helicopters to catch you, and they’ll approach from behind so you won’t even know it when suddenly a patrol car joins the road and pulls you over, but no doubt you’ll speed a bit anyway (wink), so just use your common sense’ He was right too, I couldn’t help but think that being able to say I’d been chased across California by a police helicopter whilst riding a Harley, was worth the cost of a fine. :smt077
(See Wolfgangs Route) (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=37.751172,-121.338501&spn=2.145486,4.9823&t=h&z=8&om=1&msid=115098412122943002351.000001134f327926f1f9e)
So that was that, on Sunday morning the sun was shining, we had three days worth of clothes jammed into two small pannier-boxes, and we were riding a king size Harley Davidson through Central San Francisco. It was a baptism-of-fire way to start. The bike must have weighed three times what my old Suzuki did, and I had city traffic and king-size hill-starts to deal with, but we managed to stay upright (just) and within twenty minutes we were cruising easy-rider style across the Golden Gate Bridge. (Vonny took some great video as we rode, which I’d post right here if only I hadn’t lost the damn camera, aaargh!)
We then passed over the San Rafael bridge, and were soon on highway 4 heading east. Traffic dimished so that we were alone on the road for much of the time, and the road wove very gently though farmland and low hills, it was actually a lot like riding through a much sunnier version of Brecon Beacons, and we settled in to the journey, both of us rather gobsmacked that we were actually doing what we were doing.
The hills then flattened out and the surroundings then began to alternate between huge sweet-smelling orchards, and scrubland. It was then that Von shouted in my ear ‘This really reminds me of that film ‘Duel’”. She was right too, the sun was scorching, the road was deserted other than the odd hillbilly driving a pickup and once in a while a Truck would loom into view and make me a bit twitchy on the throttle, ‘just in case there was a problem’.
About three or four hours into the journey we stopped for fuel, lunch, and some welcome air-conditioning at a tiny town called Angel Camp. From here we passed through several more tiny stereotypical small American towns, and through a few State Parks which made for some great views of mountains, cliffs, lakes and rivers. The lack of pictures really sucks.
Then came the highlight, the penultimate hour was made up of the best road I’ve ever ridden or driven anywhere, which starts with a sign saying ’severe bends for 31 miles’. The sign was right, the road is cut from the side of a cliff face and is an unrelenting series of tight curves and switchbacks, the road surface is perfect so it’s like riding a very precarious race-track. Best of all, the bends are either open-sighted so you know how tight they are before you enter them, or they have a sign before them with a suggested speed, and I soon figured out that if I did exactly 15mph more than the suggested speed, it was as fast as the Harley could go, with the bike lent right over and sparks flying up as the running boards scraped along the asphalt. With the accompanying soundtrack provided by the blubbing engine (and Von squealing as we teetered along the edge) I was having the time of my life.
We then entered Yosemite National Park, and travelled for another hour between huge giant sequoia trees, boulders, and dramatic cliffs (I’m really not exaggerating here, it’s almost unreal how extraordinary everything looks in Yosemite). We followed the river into the centre of the valley to reach our accomodation just as night fell.
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8523/03430020is1.th.jpg (http://img356.imageshack.us/my.php?image=03430020is1.jpg)