james

I started out the weekend in the “Street Group” but my best day was the second when I ran with the”Advanced Group”. I was, frankly, somewhat apprehensive about running in the fast group because I didn’t want to hold everyone up. But I decided that in order to learn more (which is what I signed up for) that I needed to follow some fast guys and cue off what they were doing. Humility is a great teacher in my experience.

Miles gave me great advice on the first day about turn 8 (this one was a nice right hander at the end of a decent straight but led into a really tight left) which was to carry as much speed as I wanted to into it and initiate my slowing at the end of that turn as I transition into that left. I followed Miles and one of the instructors (who was on a B-King) for my first session and what an eye-opener that was! I found that you really could carry much more corner speed which allowed me to actually make a smoother transition into that left (I no longer had to think about turn 8 and could concentrate on that sharp left). This actually allowed me to sorta catch up to some of those who passed me in the straight. I made one session in the street group that day because we missed ours waiting to ride with Jason Pridmore and that technique was something that was not being practiced in that group which meant I probably would not have learned it if I stayed in that level.

I ended up really working on each turn individually. Practicing my lines, trying new ones. Which, was one downfall about the weekend. I am at a certain level in my riding in which I am comfortable with the bike and comfortable with going fast leaned over so most of what I learned was specific to Spring Mountain as opposed to generic riding. That is not to say that I could not apply these techniques to other tracks or to my street riding. Instead it meant that I never once had this epiphany of knowledge in which all became clear.

The school was good. This is the second formal school I have taken. The first was Keith Code’s school two years ago. Both had their advantages and disadvantages. One thing that I really liked about KC’s school was the one on one attention that you received from it. At Star you really had to seek one of the instructors out. When they did talk to me they really were not critical enough about my riding. The curriculum was also a little more structured in KC than it was in Star. Star was all open track sessions and you could bump from level to level without needing permission or showing any improvement in skill (i.e. it was the honor system). One thing that I saw the street group not doing was looking through the turn and at where they wanted to go. Many riders that I saw were concentrating on the road directly in front of them which gave them less time to react to what was happening. I definitely feel that is one thing that should have been pressed a little more. But, I liked the casual atmosphere and the price was not bad ($625). I am not sure I would take another Star school class simply because the format did not work as well for me but I think that a lot of folks learned a lot and it is a great introduction to track riding.

Overall it was a great weekend and I had a great time. But it ended on a bit of a sour note. On my last lap of the day my bike suddenly died mid-turn. Luckily it was at the last turn right by the pit entrance so I did not need to walk the bike far but it was frustrating to me. Now I gotta take the bike back to the shop (it just completed it’s 30k service) to find out what is wrong. Well, that is the way of Ducati sometimes….

So, why not head over there today!

Much of the weekend was spent doing spring cleaning but I did take the opportunity to take Atlas to the dog beach out in Coronado so he could enjoy the sun. There was also a Great Dane Meet-up happening and I like to get him used to other large dogs (for some reason he doesn’t really like other big dogs).

Atlas is not much of a water dog really. But he will get in up to his knees which isn’t really too bad I suppose considering that he has not spent too much time around water. Here are some pictures from the day.

The latest work that I performed was installing a new clutch and clutch basket. You know that it is time for a new on when the clutch begins to slip and/or when the clutch starts making more noise than your exhaust. The noise that you typically hear is the “teeth” of the clutch banging against the clutch basket. Typically the basket is soft metal and the clutch is a harder metal and these two are not in constant and even contact. This means that the basket tends to take the brunt of the punishment.

This picture illustrates this:

As the basket wears out the is more movement and thus more noise. I also noticed that my clutch started slipping a bit. So I make the trek over to see Chris Kelly over at California cycleworks. Chris always provides great service to me and I like patronizing a local shop. I bought a Barnett clutch pack and a Nichols clutch basket. I was really happy with how well made the basket was. It is a quality piece and it shows. Unfortunately it will be hidden from site but sometimes the most important pieces are. here is a pic of the old and new one side by side.

You can really see the damage on the old one.

Removing the old clutch and basket is relatively straight forward. Removing the basket is tricky only in that you need something to hold onto the basket as you bust the nut loose. I actually used the old clutch to form a tool instead of buying a custom made tool. I mean no need to buy something that you don’t use that often and that you can fabricate yourself.

I used an impact wrench to hit the center nut and it came off pretty easily. Below is what the nut looks like. I simply inserted my newly minted tool into the basket, used a breaker bar in between the two bolts, and used the impact.

This is everything taken apart. My buddy Kyle came over and we had a couple of beers and did some work.

Here is everything put back together.

Overall this was really straightforward to do. There were some things that were tricky though. The clutch pack thickness had to be experimented with. The pack came with some replacement plates of varying thickness and I had to experiment with it in order to get it right. Also, don’t forget to get new springs while you are changing your clutch. I use stainless steel ones so they don’t rust out. This was a bit experimental also as some springs were tighter than others making the clutch pull tough. But I think that I have finally gotten it right and it feels good again!

Happy wrenching!

While we were there we took a quick look at our bikes to make sure everything looked ok. We paid particular attention to our tires and everyone concluded that we would all be close but that we would all make it home. This is an important part of the story so remember this.

Again it was to a back road kind of day. What we like about them is that they might take you out of the way but they are usually not crowded and they offer up nice views.

Here is the group as we started to leave.

We actually came across some other riders a little later on this road. Well, we didn’t actually run into them in the literal sense of the phrase.

The bottom of the road opened up to reveal wide open spaces and we all stopped for a rest. From this picture you can get a sense of how large the group was. This is definitely not typical for me but this was a good group and everyone did well.

Well, we had our first casualty of the day just after this. Nothing big, just a flat tire. Luckily we all had tire kits and Robert had a small compressor. We actually got back on the road pretty quickly. Now, look at Vern’s tire. Looks pretty good doesn’t it?

Our second casualty happened just a bit later when Rick had a bird smash into his windscreen. Now, I won’t publish those pics but suffice to say that it was not pretty.

Miles and I had traded bikes just prior to this point. Actually, we traded just before Vern got his flat. His is a Speed Triple which is made by Triumph. I like the bike a lot and it is a lot of fun to ride. It is a naked bike meaning that it does not have a windshield or any bodywork. The lack of windshield really put a hurting on me at speed. It gets hard to hang onto a bike after a while which I guess you get used to but it was a bit much for me. Especially since my helmet is pretty tight and the shape of it means that it presses against my nose. But, it is always fun to ride another bike.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Parkfield. Please note that Google maps does not even show a road there until you zoom in a bit. That is how you know it is a good road. Besides having a great BBQ place it has the claim to fame of being the most closely monitored earthquake site in the world. The creek bed marks the North American plate.

Luckily there were no earthquakes when we were there because the BBQ place had farm implements above all the tables. Not just any farm implements but heavy pointy ones.

This is Miles on my Multistrada.

This is Vern on his VFR. He was the one who came up with the route this year.

All of us in front for lunch.

Again, after a nice lunch we all went and checked our tires to see how they were doing. Everyone looked just fine and we went on our merry little way. Well, after less than 100 miles my tire looked like this:

And we had to ride through this:

Yup, those are cords and that is ice and snow. Fun, fun, fun. We pressed on to the town of Taft where we took inventory again. This time we noticed that Vern’s tire was only marginally better than mine. It did not appear that either of us would be able to make it all the way home on our tires. So, we made the call to ride to Lebec (just north of where 5 goes up and over the mountains) and make the final decision on what to do. Our options were pretty slim. Our first thought was that Vern would ride on the back of Ken’s bike to his place where he could pick up his truck and trailer. I would hang out with the bikes and wait for him. When we reached Lebec Vern called his wife and let her know what was going on. Then in a moment of supreme coolness she offered to bring the truck up herself. This would save us several hours. So, we waited at the local Starbucks and waited. When she arrived we loaded the bikes up and went on our way.

But, the story does not end there. Miles had called me when we were waiting and offered to come up to Vern’s place to pick the bike and I up. Now, this is a 1.5 to 2 hour drive and it was almost midnight. Talk about cool! I took him up on the offer and I finally made it home around 2am.

Overall it was a great weekend and a great ride. I learned a lot about my friends this trip and was more than impressed by their thoughtfulness and unselfish behavior!

I did a great ride a couple of weeks ago with some good friends from www.sport-touring.net. This ride took us to Monterey via a bunch of back roads (as is always the case with these guys). This was the 5th annual run but my first with this crew. The plan was to leave Saturday morning (early) and be back Sunday evening. Well, the ride took a little bit longer than it was supposed to but it was certainly an adventure!

Miles and I headed north at an ungodly time of 4:30am to meet the rest of the folks up in Orange County. It was raining when we left which was pretty ominous. I mean it barely ever rains here in San Diego and it wasn’t really supposed to. It was raining surprisingly hard until we got past Oceanside then it subsided and we rode the rest of the way up with pretty dry conditions. Our first stop was going to be Santa Barbara for some coffee and to meet up with a couple of other riders.  I always welcome that first stop because it gives me a chance to warm up a bit.

This is the group:

From here we headed up into the hills above Santa Barbara and specifically a road named Camino Cielo. This was a fun road with some great views when we had them. The pavement was poor but we are all used to that kind of riding. We were treated to some amazing views of Santa Barbara and the coast.

You can see how poor the road was in this picture.

We quickly lost our views though as we headed into the fog. Now you can call me a wimp all you want but the cold fog just sucks! Imagine driving with your head hanging out of the window of your car and that is what it is like as you have to have your face shield in the up position. But, we soldiered through it and eventually got into warmer and sunnier climes.

Another road that was really noteworthy for me was Naciemento-Fergusson Road. This road runs through Fort Hunter Liggit (the grey part on Google maps) and really connects 101 with 1. Wow, what an amazing road! Again, the road itself was in really bad shape and was really slippery but it was still fun and challenging. Here are a few pics from it.

Not far from here was Hwy 1 and the coast. This is the view we got:

Yeah, pretty amazing to say the least.

The rest of the ride was just us blasting up 1. I was really surprised about how light the traffic was on it. It is always nice when you can ride that road without the burden of having to pass a bunch of drivers so we made good use of our luck. At dinner we all toasted to a great day.

To be continued…

The ride to Fresno was pretty uneventful aside from some foreboding lightning. That was truly to be the hallmark of this trip. Rain, and lots of it! Normally I try not to do a lot of rain riding as I am not geared up for it but this time I threw caution to the wind and went for it. I am glad that I did too. It was really a bonding experience (yeah, that sounds really, really lame) and it gave me a lot of confidence in my wet weather riding.

On Friday we got up early and rode the 10 miles or so to our first gas stop. Well, some of us rode the whole 10 miles. I ran out of gas with about 100 yards to go. This would not have been a big deal. In fact I could have possibly coasted all the way except it was an uphill (of course). So my weekend starts with me pushing my bike. Damn! The Multistrada’s have a faulty fuel gauge that makes it read as empty really early in the tank. That means that you simply have to guess how far you can travel on each tank. Some times you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong. In this case I got it wrong!

The rest of the day went really well and we were able to enjoy some great roads. The only downside were the crowds as we approached the Reno-Tahoe area. We picked the weekend that Street Vibrations was going on to ride through the area. Street Vibrations is a pretty big motorcycle rally that takes place in Reno every year. The primary style of bike in the area is cruisers but that is not what is annoying. What is annoying is their group mentality and how basic road rules are forgotten. It happens in all groups though and is not limited to the Street Vibrations crowd.

I didn’t take any pictures of our ride up on Friday so you will have to take my word that it was fun!

Saturday morning the clouds rolled in. We weren’t sure how much rain we would get but we had a full day of riding planned and we were not going to let a little water stop us. Robert had a route planned out for us and loaded it into his GPS. GPS doesn’t give enough granularity into the roads to tell us which were paved and which weren’t. It also doesn’t show all of the small roads. This proved problematic both Saturday and Sunday. I would put a map up of the route we took but I have no idea what the route was. We totally changed our route on the fly. At one point we were wondering if a road went all the way through so we asked a local. They said it didn’t so we forged ahead anyway! Good thing we did because it did actually go through! Here is the group on that road:

The road was tough but the views were well worth the effort. Luckily it did not rain until we were off that road! It was hairy enough with just the dirt. It would have turned into a slippery mess that would have been a bear to ride on. We finally got off this road and we headed to Oroville for lunch. That was not in our original plan but we had to do some improvising as that dirt road took much longer than we had expected. Right as we got into Oroville it started to rain and it continued to rain for the rest of the day. We continued on our back road adventure and at one point even hit a clay road. I should say that I hit the clay road. Twice. Luckily there was no damage to the bike aside from some mud.

Here are some more random pics of that day:

We were really cold, wet, and tired when the above picture was taken. This was toward the end of this crazy dirt and gravel road and it had been raining most of the day and my boots were not waterproof. Luckily there was a town 20 minutes from this shot and we were able to get some delicious chili and warm up some. They had a wood stove going and we all put our gear next to the fire. Man, nothing beats that!

We ended up getting back into Chester around 9ish. Luckily Robert has really, really bright aftermarket lights on his GS and they really lit up the road well. We went to the 50′s diner next to the hotel for dinner and Chris decided he was hungry once we got back and ordered this hearty meal of two chili cheese dogs…

Somehow he managed to eat it all…

The next day we took the scenic route home. It continued to rain on us but I was able to grab a couple of shots.

Overall it was a great weekend. One of my most memorable. I am typically not a cold or wet weather type of guy but I enjoyed this trip for some reason. Part of it certainly was the company. It is always nice to go out with a group of riders who you like and who you trust. Part of it was being able to muscle through the weekend with neither heated gear nor waterproof gear. I will certainly be looking for some waterproof overboots and maybe some gloves for the next rainy day ride though.

My next long weekend ride will be December. For some reason I let these guys talk me into heading up to Monterey. In Dec? What am I thinking???

james

A couple of weeks ago we dug it all up. I substantially underestimated how hard this job was going to be. It was one of the most physically demanding tasks that I have undertaken. We have clay for soil and the roots really clung to the soil. Combine that with a lot of rocks and it just spells disaster. The best way to illustrate the magnitude of the work is to say that we actually bent a shovel trying to dig. This is what it looked like when we removed the bamboo:

We spent some time at a local nursery trying to find a good plant to put in the place of bamboo. We wanted something that was going to be fairly thick and provide us with a good amount of privacy from the apartments that are behind us. We ended up choosing Cherry Laurel:

This past weekend my father in law flew down to help us out with some of the work. The original plan was to plant the trees into the dirt along the fence and then put in a drip line to water them. Well, that was until we ran into a small snag. Well, not so small actually. Come to find out that we had a cement wall that was buried. Not just any old wall either. This was a foundation of some sort. There was no way that we were going to get that wall removed so we decided that we would build upward instead of digging. This was the wall that caused us so much grief:

Did I mention that we happened to pick the hottest weekend of the year? Yeah, we were in the middle of a heatwave here in San Diego and we were going to be digging holes and planting trees. Saturday we had the trees delivered and moved them into the backyard. We also went to Home Depot and picked up the retaining wall material. Luckily they also rent trucks (Ford F-350 flatbeds) so we were able to get the rock home with a minimum of fuss.

This is Dennis and I moving trees:

Did I mention that it was hot? Really, really hot. We moved the trees into location then it was time to build the wall. Dennis did the work of putting the first layer down. It was really just a matter of digging to get the ground as level as possible. Once the first layer was down it went relatively quickly.

Missy and I even managed to smile through it all:

This is what it ended up like when all was said and done:

We also installed a bamboo shade above our patio, installed a complete sprinkler drip system, and rearranged some of our potted plants.

Overall it was a very, very productive (yet exhausting) weekend. Needless to say I think I definitely earned this:

Next task is to move dirt into the space behind the retaining wall and remove the boxes that the trees came in. We are hoping that goes smoothly!
Huge thanks to Dennis for helping out with this project. there is no way that we could have done it without his help!

Read about it here in his blog. Twisting Asphalt