The First Sip and the Second Tip: Proper Center Stand Use

This last Friday we finally moved to our new home in out new city and after a three day flurry of activity Anne and I (and baby de-facto as she is still in utero) are settling in nicely.

The Tuesday before we moved I took the opportunity to transport my motorcycle to the new place as the previous owners had already moved out and it would help things run more smoothly on the day of the move. Anne was already going to be in town teaching Violin lessons but would not be done for a few hours after I got done with work, so I left work on the motorcycle and decided to sample the one of the many local coffee shops: Barista Brew Cafe.

I must say Vacaville is NOT the city to be in if you enjoy local coffee shops, you've got Peet's, Starbucks and Pure Grain Cafe... at least the latter is not a chain, and when it comes to the chains the people who frequent them would sometimes really make me pause and wonder if we should just call off this whole human race thing. After a year plus in a caffeine desert and even at one point skewing too far to the ritzy on a trip to San Francisco; I have finally had a good cup of coffee in a place that was not pretentious, was locally owned, and had what appeared to be a good customer base of a caliber that I enjoyed being around. If that makes me an elitist, so be it.  I walked in the door and it was like I was home it was the perfect balance and the cup the house blend that I ordered... Outstanding. It was definitely a good first time experience in our soon to be new city!

But this update can't just be coffee related, I do have a motorcycle related top tip that I'd like to share with you if you have a motorcycle with a center-stand.  I have been riding my 2001 Yamaha FZ1 for a little over two years and for the most part have been using the center stand exclusively, and and apparently the wrong way!  Even though out of the hundreds probably thousands of times I have executed my incorrect procedure properly twice now I it has ended with the bike laying on it's side.  The most recent of which was this last Tuesday after my coffee shop experience.  Before I would stand next to the bike and with the bike in neutral put pressure on the center stand lever and rock the bike rearwards to pop it up on the stand.  This works most of the time except for when you forget to put the bike in neutral.  I have forgotten this a few times in parking lots and for the most part it does not make it onto the rear stand and the bike kind of springs forward and down off of the stand as the engine compression resists the motion.  I did this exact thing when I was parking the bike in our covered parking. While I don't have a good excuse having made this mistake in the past, I am going to blame it on being a little paranoid about the tighter confines; a parked car on one side and a wall on the other.  When the bike rolled forward I lost my the balance of the bike and it tipped over into the wall away from the side I was standing on and I was unable to counter the momentum as it started to tip.

Nothing too major happened but I did crack my windshield which I mended yesterday using some snazzy blue zip ties.  I may eventually replace it with a new taller one but I will see how it performs before hitting up the online cycle vendors.  The other time I tipped my bike over when trying to put it on the center stand was when it was raining and I had my waterproof boots on which have a pretty smooth sole. I leveraged my foot on the stand and as I was rocking the bike back my foot slipped off the lever and I fell to my knee and the bike fell over once again away from me but that time there was no wall so the soft bags and the handlebars cushioned the fall and no damage was sustained in that event.  But here's the thing after having this happen the second time I did a little searching on the internet and found out that I had been doing it wrong all along:

   

 So there's my little PSA on motorcycle center stand safety.

Adding Horespower By Shedding Pounds

Well my friends, I have to be honest, there have been no epic rides to pop up since my last posting all those months ago.  As of late I've been working on a different project all together.  A few days after my last post I took a health assessment which was part of the new Health Account Plan that PG&E has migrated our healthcare to.  The results weren't surprising but they did renew a motivation for physical fitness in my life, it seems that maybe I need to do these more often because if I go too long without one I always start to slack off.  I had pretty much been "phoning it in" since I moved here and while the weight wasn't too much out of spec, even before I took the assessment I knew that I weighed in at 215lbs and while I've been a healthy 215 before, this time I knew it wasn't that sort of weight.  The results echoed that feeling my % body fat was too high and my blood pressure wasn't out of the good spectrum but it was dancing on the line of concern so I decided that it was time to right the ship before it got too far off course.  At one point in my life (more than 9 years ago) I tipped the scales at 264 pounds and I definitely do not want to go back there.


So back in mid-November I set a goal to drop down to 190lbs.  I don't think I have been that weight since before high school even at my most fit I have always been comfortable at around 205lbs but I want to see how hard it would be to reach and maintain the 190lbs.  It's not that it would be odd for someone my height to weigh 190lbs technically... If you give the Body Mass Index any credence (which I don't) I should be at 180lbs to be fully "in-spec."  According to my scale that measures the % body fat, % hydration and BMI when I weighed in at 200.6 lbs this week (yay almost 15 pounds gone) I was at 19.6% body fat that would meant that I'm carrying around 39.3 pounds of body fat that.  So losing the next 10 pounds (of all body fat) would put me at 15% body fat which I think would be sustainable with the level of activity I am at.  In the back of my mind I am am setting a stretch goal of hitting the 180lbs and 10% body fat, we'll see how that goes that level of fitness may require too much time and effort to be sustainable I don't want to live in the gym and I don't want to have to say no to every sweet, glass of wine, pint of beer that crosses my path either.


I will say that I am feeling the effects of being on the better side of the fitness spectrum.  Last week I did four strength training days three of which I ran 2 miles in the process of and one of which I ran three miles in the process of.  On top of that I ran a 6.5 mile run one day and my first 10 miler since I have started this process on another day!

The real challenge is going to be keeping up a similar level of activity once I delve into our 12-hour shift rotations that my co-workers voted into place last year.  I start my first set of 12-hour shifts this week with a run of four night shifts.  I'm pragmatic about the switch... I definitely felt like I was always at work while working the rotating 8-hour shifts but it was much easier to find the motivation to do other things on a work day with that extra four hours of free time to yourself.  It just takes a different level of focus to force yourself to work out on those days when you'd rather lay around after working for 12 hours.  For myself "work" means being sedentary, sitting in a chair and thinking really hard so it's not a physical tiredness it's more that you're mentally drained and you're body is entrenched in that lethargic static state that you really need to harness your mental motivation to bust yourself out of not the easiest task when you're brain-tired.

I have experience with this before, my previous job was 12-hour rotating shifts and I was able to complete the P90X program and that takes a lot more time and intensity than the routine I am on right now and getting results with.  So I know that I am capable it's just a matter of the execution now.  I am confident I can reach the 190 and we'll see about the 180.

So that's the non-moto Juan update...


In solo-moto Juan terms things have been going pretty well.  There are times where I do really miss having a car, but they don't hang around too long.  When I am on the bike it always puts a smile on my face and I did add a little extra comfort to the FZ this last Saturday.  I installed heated handgrips on the bike.  Truthfully it's not necessary for the short ride to and from work but I can tell that if I was to go on a longer ride in the sub 40s that I my gloves would not be enough protection from the cold.

I actually bought the Trackside Grip Heater kit back on Dec 6th at the Cycle-gear store in Fairfield as an impulse buy of sorts.  I've written about my experiences at this store in the past and suffice to say I don't hate the place but I don't like it either, I nothing the place.  But the day before we dipped into the mid 20s overnight and that morning the FZ's battery did not have enough juice to turn the engine over.  No big deal I was able to push-start the bike relatively easily that day.  It's just like any older battery they start to show their age when the temperatures drop.  I had hoped that when I rode the bike that it would get enough charge back into it to limp her along until it got warmer and when I left work that day the bike did start with a little effort.  I figured by the time I got home it would be good to go the next morning.

WRONG!  Once again we had a mid 20's night and once again the bike did not want to start this time the relays just clicked there wasn't even enough juice for the starter to even attempt to turn the engine over.  So for those who ride all year 'round it goes without saying that if you are riding your super-standard motorcycle in the sub 30s you are wearing pretty much all you gear.  I bring that up because while that is fine and dandy when you hop on your bike thumb the starter button and go.  But after the fifth failed attempt at push-starting your bike you are sweating your ass off under all of those layers.  Add to that the frustration of trying to throw your leg over the moving bike without kicking the bags and ending up under the bike it's not the best way to start your day.  Thanks to my poor Wife (who had to deal with a tirade of profanity directed at my bike) and my obvious agitation I was able to jump start the thing and get to work on-time but that was enough.  At this point in my life there's no reason to try and "limp along" a dying battery until it gets warm again  I decided that after my shift I would be heading directly to the nearest cycle shop (Cycle-gear) and buying a new battery.  Of course that day was the day it decides to rain and rain hard.  Undaunted, after my shift I got on my drenched bike with all my gear and headed to Fairfield.  The gear did it's job and I stayed perfectly dry so that is a good thing.  It was about 40 degrees which with the rain and wind was enough to remind me that I should look and see about heated handgrips while I was there.

Seeing that the grip heater kit was only $29.99 I grabbed one while I was buying my $112 battery.  By the time I got back on the road it was dark and still rainy and the traffic was stop-and-go heading from Fairfield to Vacaville so I got my first taste of lane splitting on a 4-5 line highway, in the dark, in the pouring rain. Truthfully I felt much safer splitting than I would have in an actual lane stopping and going with the cars.  I kept my pace to roughly 10mph faster than the cars and kept my head on a swivel and made it through none-the-worse for wear. The next day I installed the new battery but didn't find the motivation to attack the hand-grips.


I did make one attempt a few weeks later but had no luck at getting the stock handgrips off and I gave up that day.  I feared that if I did manage to get them off that were the odds that I would be able to get them back on with they slight increase in diameter that the heaters would add?  Plus I was worried that I would need a compressor to get them off which I didn't have so they sat and waited for an increase in motivation.  So this last weekend I did a little research and found a youtube video of a guy with a Gen II FZ who was able to get the handgrips off with just a heat gun (which I did have) that was the inspiration I needed.




I went back to the cycle gear and bought a set of Pro-grip handgrips in case I couldn't get the old ones off (I'd just cut them off) or I did get them off and they wouldn't go back on I'd have a new softer set to try and put on.

I was able to heat up the grips enough to soften the glue and pull the grips off the bars with a lot of effort in the twisting and pulling department.  I did the same as the guy in the video I applied heat directly to the grips until I could see a little bit of shine on them from the heating then I switched to blowing the heat into the bar itself alternating between these two for a couple of minutes taking extra care when pulling the throttle side off so as not to damage the throttle tube.

You want to be mindful with this kit of the fact that the wire leads are just soldered to the heating elements so you don't want to have too much of a bend in the wires lest over time the soldered connection breaks.  You can see that the clutch-side I have mounted it pretty close but since this one is stationary (no twisting) I figured it would be okay.

The throttle side I mounted the heater a little more outboard so there wasn't such an extreme angle at the soldered connection.

Wiring up the kit wasn't very clear with the instructions provided.  I wired mine into the positive and the negative wires going to and from the right side-marker light in the headlight cluster the same strategy I used when wiring up the accessory socket to the left side-marker.

I placed the switch fore of the accessory socket on the left-hand side inner fairing.  You are able to tell what side of the three-position switch is the high and low by placing the hi-lo plate on the switch there is a key/slot on the threaded portion so you can tell which way to wire the switch. My kit did not come with an extra female spade connector to connect the two of the terminals to the shared middle male terminal so I just soldered them to the terminal but you may want to check your kit if you decide to buy one of these to see if yours comes with one and perhaps buy one if you don't want to solder the ends onto the switch. The kit also made a point to mention that you shouldn't place the ceramic resistor on anywhere that would be heat sensitive so I used some zip ties on the wires entering and exiting the resistor and attached it to the metal portion of the fairing stay that in my mind would get enough air flow to dissipate the heat and keep it away from any other heat sensitive wiring.  Other than that it was just a matter of making sure your wire routing does not conflict with the moving of the steering components and cutting away some of the sheathing on the positive and negative wires going to the side markers and soldering the other wires together.  All of the wires are black in the kit so make sure that you have the right ends going to the right places.

I decided to install the new handgrips.  I ended up having to use copious amounts of grip glue to "lube up" the handlebars/grips enough to get them to slide on all the way.  I would recommend either having an air compressor to ease them on or wearing some nitrile gloves for that part of the job because all that extra glue ended up on my hands and I had to spend a lot of time at the sink with the acetone to remove the dried (basically krazy) glue.

I am happy with the end result and so far have found that the best way to use them is to get them started on the hi setting and then adjust them to the lo setting once they get to the desired temp.  I normally ride covering the brakes and clutch with two fingers though so those two fingers still get cold.  If I were on a longer highway ride I would probably just hold onto the grip with my whole hand if the traffic was clear to keep warm.  It wasn't that bad of a project, I think I spent a total of 3.5 hours to get them installed and working.


In my last update I teased that I would cover my new seat cover install.  It's been a while and I almost forgot I did it.  A member on FZ1OA suggested I try an HT-Moto Custom Seat Cover when I had mentioned the idea of buying a new stock seat.  I realized that my previous repairs to the seat, while holding did not do enough and that other parts of the same seam were starting to fail due to age and brittleness of the seat cover material.  The new seat cover only cost $80 and I figured I'd give it a shot.  The results were outstanding and I can't say enough about the quality and finish.  But you can see for yourself...

All you do to install it is stretch the new cover over the existing cover (their recommendation) and staple as you go pretty darn easy.

That's the moto-update for now.  I hope to have something more interesting to share moto-wise with you on the next update.  Thanks for checking out the update none-the-less.  Until next time...

The 6-month Report

October 26 was the six month marker from when my motorcycle arrived in California and I commenced my solo-moto experience.  I don’t know why the first half a year of anything is an event to be marked, when I had ticked off significantly less minutes on my clock there was a point where six months seemed like an eternity, but after having been with my wife for more than seven years, owning the same motorcycle for more than ten years and working at the same place for 12 years, six months seems pretty insignificant now.  Still, when that day ticked past and I realized that I had reached six month mark since the start of life without a car I knew that inevitably I would have to sit down and take stock of how how things have gone thus far.  Am I where I thought I would be in six months?  Is it all that I hoped it would be and more?  Am I regretting the decision?  Am I having second thoughts?

Maybe that is why the first six months of anything can be such a significant event, especially in important undertakings.  In reality you are still in the middle of great upheaval but you desperately need to seek self assurance that you made the right call, that you are on track to great things.  Even through the self-professed insignificance of the moment for some reason there is still a desire to make it known that I have hit the six month milestone.  Part of that is because I am sure that there are some that feel that this is some sort of lark and that once I get it out of my system I'll be back in the "cage."  The six month mark is definitely my first real opportunity to wave the fact that I am still solo-moto and doing fine in their face.  It also provides the opportunity to solicit acknowledgement from people that do get the what living without a car which is more valuable to me than the opportunity to throw it in the face any detractors.

So what has it really been like thus far?  Frankly, I thought I would have been going on more long rides and and having more adventures than I have been.  A glance back on what I have written thus far shows that I have spent a healthy bit of my free time wrenching and not riding.  Part of that I am sure has to do with facing the reality of being stranded out in the middle of nowhere quite early on.  I think that gave me a laser focus on maintenance and impressed a real desire for everything to be right with the bike before going off and riding just for kicks.  Consequently most of the miles I have put on thus far have been commuting to and from work with the exceptions of a ride to Sterling Winery, my Clear Lake Ride, a couple of rides to SanFrancisco and my adventure to the Laguna Seca MotoGP Race.  I do feel that the FZ1 is now at a place where I have all the major mechanical issues addressed and hopefully that will mean more trips.

The truth is that there are still a number of things that I I would like to address when time permits that aren't keeping me for going on a long ride.  There are tell-tale cracks on exterior of the carb boots, I know that they are not leaking because I know what a bike with actual leaky carb boots runs like.  I'd like to have a project where I replace those and install some remote vacuum lines for easier carb syncing.  I need to get some brake pads to have on hand for the inevitable moment where the current ones wear out and truthfully the rear disc could stand to be replaced too.  I have ordered a new seat cover when I discovered that even more seams are starting to pull apart.  Eventually the rear tire will need to be replaced.  After servicing the front forks the thought that the rear shock probably needs a service or replacement with an acceptable spec low mileage rear shock off of a different model bike (which would probably the cheaper option) is in the back of my head all the time as well as the thought of replacing the swing arm bearings.  And then there is the never-ending cycle of drive chain maintenance (more on that later).

So there's a lot on the maintenance to-do list and I guess that brings me to the major overall conclusion that if I had it to do all over again I would have though long and hard about getting a brand new motorcycle or one just a few years old with very few miles on it.  I think about how much better it would be to be know the bikes entire history and have a clean slate to start with maintenance wise.  It would have been a much more fun first six months had I been able to just walk out to a brand new bike and just thumb the starter and be ready to go with the confidence that I know everything about this bike and not wonder what unknown issue might pop up.  Lets be honest; most motorcycles are garage queens that get taken out for weekend rides and trips to the local bike night.  When that is a bikes main use it's easier to ignore the little maintenance issues that pop up over time and start to pile up.  Now my bike was a 2001 with 30,000 miles on it.  Imagine if I had bought that same year bike with even less miles it probably would have been in much worse shape!  Now as far as the 2001-05 FZ1 as an all-around do-it-all bike I couldn't ask for more.  Obviously there are more refined versions available now; the 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 ABS comes to mind but the design thesis is pretty much the same between the two bikes.

As far as the actual act of riding goes I have now ridden in 112 degree temperatures and am currently riding in low 50s - high 40s at night time now.  Riding in high heat sucks there's no way around it and my riding motivation pretty much shrank to heading out only for the essentials on those days.  Cold weather is another set of challenges I have the proper gear to be comfortable riding in cool weather but with it still getting up into the 70's mid-day you end up trying to find the right spot of the fence to sit on.  Right now I am working swing shifts so I only wear jeans and the heavier riding jacket (vents open) with the non gauntlet gloves.  I still get a little warm in traffic and if I have to stop off in a store it can get pretty hot in the jacket and then when I am heading home at 10pm (jacket vents closed) it's quite nippy but that is the best balance.  When I was working nights last week I actually busted out the insulated over-pants, full gauntlet gloves and riding boots because the sun is gone and the temps are pretty consistent.  But then you get into the deal where it's taking me almost as long to get ready to ride to work as it does riding there.  The one thing that I haven't had to contend with yet is rain, so far I think we are still at 4 days with noticeable rainfall since moving to California with the rainiest (of course) being the day I decided to rebuild the forks for the FZ1 on the porch.  If I can make it through the winter which I am told will be much wetter I will be able to safely say that I can stand to live the solo-moto lifestyle, yes the biggest challenge is yet to come.

 

 

There are other little idiosyncrasies that I have picked up on since I started riding in here in California maybe they exist everywhere and the awareness comes from commuting full time on a motorcycle.  Probably the most frequent annoyance is at intersections with stop signs; I can roll up on one and the car will already be sitting there stopped and they will wait until they see me stop and actually put my foot down before they go.  When I was learning to ride back in Wisconsin one of the skills they taught us was called (literally) the "California Stop." Where you basically stop and balance without putting your foot down on the ground.  Well I've gotten pretty good at it now that I am in California but it would seem that no matter how good I am at balancing the person at the intersection is not going to go until they see that foot on the ground.  If they would just go after their car had stopped and they saw me stopping they would be through the intersection and I would be on my way without needing to put my foot down, it's petty but it's really annoying.

Another thing that is definitely a California thing, possibly a product of the higher volume of cars and the 4-5 lane highways (the HOV lane doesn't make it any easier either) is that basically any lane can be the "fast" lane at any given time or at all times.  In the Midwest there was a general rule that the faster traffic stays to the left and then the speeds get progressively slower as you move further right.  I can't figure out if I like this or not; at times it's maddening and I feel like I am inhabiting the same space with a bunch of self-entitled pricks who think their time is more important than others, other times I revel in the mêlée that is the California Highway System.  There haven't been too many times that I haven't felt 100% safe while riding on the Highways mainly because at any given them there is a good chance that I am the quickest, most agile thing that is in the general vicinity.

When I have gotten out onto the b-roads it is quite a different story there.  There are so many great roads that it's hard to pick which ones you want to try.  I have from time to time run into the problem of finding myself at the start of a road that looked really great on Google maps but then it turns out that it's unpaved.  But that has happened to me in Wisconsin to and that is all part of the adventure as far as I'm concerned.  But for as many times as that happens there are at least 10X more time you find yourself gnawing away at the last remains of your chicken strips tempted to put a knee down if only you hadn't traded in your leathers for more serviceable textile kit.  You see a lot more motorcycles and if there are cars a lot of them are out for a thrash too.  For some reason I haven't been too keen on checking hitting up the motorcycling must-sees maybe it's because of their proximity now but bing that it's cooler now it might be a good time to hit some up, there will probably be less Ricky road-racer types out there and more die-hard riders to meet.  The next weekend a moto-mecca may need to be checked off.

Have I mentioned how much Lucas Oil Products Inc. Chain Lube sucks?

Well it does, its sloppy and messy, I knew it was a bad purchase after the first 20 miles but I had it and I thought I would just grit my teeth and bear it until I ran through the can but enough was enough.  The product itself is messy and runs all over the place and then once it gets onto your swing-arm sprocket and wheels it acts like a magnet for dust dirt and grime.  The product that I am used to and have been using for years before this is Maxima Racing Oils Chain Wax and that was what I went back to but there was the issue of the shitty mess that they Lucas Oil Chain Lube had left behind.  I also picked up some MaximaRacing Oils Clean Up: Chain Cleaner.  

Getting the whole mess cleaned up meant taking off the counter-shaft sprocket cover and the rear wheel to clean both it and the swing arm.  You can see the gummy sticky globules of build up in there.

It took a lot of elbow grease and my hands and fingernails were dirty for about a week but the end result was worth it.  And a week later the swing-arm chain and sprocket all look pretty much the same as in this picture.

That's about it for now I did receive my seat cover and put it on the seat but this is already a long-winded update so that will have to wait till later.

Thank you to all who stop and read.

Twin Peaks And A Second Flat

It was hot in Vacaville this weekend; 104 degrees on Friday and the forecast for Saturday was predicting temps near 108 degrees.  One thing that I have noticed though as the temps have been rising is that there comes a point where it's so hot that you can wear your protective gear again and it doesn't make you feel any more hot that if you didn't have it on at all.  The air gets so hot that having a mesh jacket or no jacket to allow the air to flow over your skin offers no relief.  Logically that would be anything above body temperature (98.6 degrees) that was my experience on Friday and while I enjoyed the novelty of this new discovery I didn't feel the need/desire to investigate it in detail.  Something tells me that I'll have plenty of opportunities to take in the finer details of high temperature riding as the summer bears itself out.

I decided that rather than spend the whole day holed up in my room at the Extended Stay or the Library or a Coffee Shop that I would escape to San Francisco to beat the heat the forecast said that it was going to be near the mid-70s in the city and that sounded a lot more palatable than 108 degrees.  I left Vacaville at 1400 and it was 106 degrees.  I decided to wear my Tourmaster jacket over the Joe Rocket Reactor mesh jacket.  as I have started realizing that San Francisco's weather is anything but predictable.  With all the vents open the riding in the high temperatures was tolerable and didn't seem any less comfortable than when I was wearing the Joe Rocket mesh jacket in 105 degrees the bay before.  I took 80 to the city and I noticed my first bits of relief in the temperature once I got to the 680 interchange and by the time I made it to the Carquinez Bridge I was pretty comfortable.

As you may be able to tell from the picture at the top of this post I made a stop on Treasure Island again.   I decided to ride into San Francisco via the Bay Bridge this time since I wanted to see what it was like riding on the top deck.  Saturday afternoon had proved to bear a lot more traffic then when I took the bridge out of the city on my last visit.  This time I was lane splitting for a good 5 miles leading up to the bridge toll area.  Once I got on the bridge itself it wasn't too bad traffic was moving at posted speeds but I figured that Treasure Island makes for a nice place to stop, stretch my legs, relax and collect myself before heading the rest of the way into the city.  Above is just some footage of the Bay Bridge and the San Francisco skyline I took while I was on the island.

If you are familiar with San Francisco you can probably gather that the temperature was a little cooler than the predictions made by my Weather Channel app.  It did correct itself by the time I made it up to the summit of Christmas Tree Point and told me that I was enjoying a 66 degree temp not counting the wind which was gusting at impressive speeds.

The view justified all the tourists that were up there despite the fog, despite the wind and despite the cold chilly weather.  That corner in the above picture was quite breathtaking as well; at least photographically.  The surface was not that good and the posted speed limit was 25 mph I think.  I thought to myself that it was interesting that a lot of the people visiting Twin Peaks that day fell into two major categories; people who popped up for a minute or two took one or two pictures with a camera phone and left or people with large-lensed cameras who spent much more time up there taking many photos.  A few like me fell into the middle area wanting to take in the sights with their own eyes and enjoy the moment; at least until I couldn't bear the chill anymore.

Before I headed down I stopped and took a quick video of the scenery at the summit to share.

When I had pulled into my spot I was excited to see that I had a clear shot off the moto and the city below.  I had gotten my camera out just in time for a giant Dodge Ram to pull into the spot blocking my photo op.  When he pulled out I took advantage of the opening before a waiting car pulled into the same spot.  Not the best turnout but acceptable I guess.

I was chilled so I decided that I would stop at a Starbucks; no fancy boutique shops with thimble sized coffee cups this time.  I never get anything bigger than the smallest offering at Starbucks I try to bear in mind that in most countries our smalls (or "talls" for some unknown reason in "Starbucks-ese") are actually the size of a large in most civilized societies.  But the coffee I had the last time in San Francisco was probably maybe 3/4 - 1 ounce worth of coffee and that it just too little I needed to be sure I would have something large enough to hold in my hands and warm up with.  I still do not like Starbucks but until I do some real research and find a place I like (I know exactly what I want to see in my coffee shop) the consistency across the board at their establishments is welcome even though I feel like I'm selling out a bit.  I did a little writing on the iPad while I was at the Starbucks (stereotypes are abounding here today aren't they?) and decided that I would leave the city via the Golden Gate Bridge this time.  Hoping she would be less shy than last the time even though it was obviously a foggy day.

Well the true to form the Golden Gate is a classy girl from days-gone-by and wasn't about to give it up on first date and not even the second, though she did hike her skirt up a little bit for me.  It's time as riding across I did actually get the feeling that I was crossing a bridge though I couldn't see very far out into the bay, I could see all the oncoming lanes and was about to follow the large cables as they arced towards the skies to their towers just barely visible through the mist seeing some of the structural details up close I did think to myself, "You classy girl."

Having made two already I decided I might as well take a video while I was at the observation area on the north side of the bridge.  I should apologize for the wind noise in all the videos I tried to mask the speakers with my hands but it didn't help.  The gusts by the Golden Gate were immense!  One in the video blew so hard I had to take a step back to catch my balance.  I found myself riding down the hill from the bridge dealing with some of the strongest cross gusts I have felt in my entire riding career.  Some strong enough to push me from the center of the lane to the right paint stripe.  I made note of that and moved further left after that.

I encountered some more dense traffic before heading into the Dutchman Slough area on Hy 37 by the time I had lane-split through two miles of traffic to get to the two-way traffic portion it was still pretty bad and about twenty minutes later we cruised past what looked to be the remnants of a rear-ending. The offending vehicle was nowhere to be scene but the vehicle with the rear end damage was there along with the police lights a-blazing.  After we got past them traffic picked up again and I got on with the task of returning to Vacaville.

I am definitely going to have to look into a higher profile windshield for the FZ.  The sustained high speeds of freeway travel kicked the crap out of my upper body again.  I hit the 680 interchange and the heat was back much more like someone hitting a light switch this time but it was no triple digit temperature.  By the time I made it back to Vacaville it was maybe in the mid-80s.  Things had went smoothly I thought; little did I know that I had picked up a stowaway somewhere in my journeys that day.

I woke up that Sunday morning had a nice laid back purposeful morning and decided that It would  be cool to see if I could find any records at the local Goodwill. I don't have our turntable here yet but it was something to do and would maybe give me something to look forward to.  I took the bike down off the center stand and immediately knew something was wrong.  When I tried to wheel the bike back it felt like the rear wheel was in wet cement.  I looked down at the rear tire and sure enough for the second time since I moved to California and switched to solo-moto the fuggin' thing was flat.  I decided to make lemonade out of this lemon and made a series of videos along the way showing how I repair a flat tire, you can see that content below.

It only took me an hour to fix the tire it probably would have went much faster had I not stopped to shoot the video and had I known that my newly purchased tube of rubber cement had been torn open and leaked all over my toolbox and had I purchased a different medium for inflating the rear tire.  I think I am going to look into those CO2 inflaters this time around.

Well that's about it for my weekend adventures in solo-moto I hope you enjoyed my recounting of it and thanks again for reading.  Until next time!

Things Falling Apart

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't written anything in the last 12 days. Two weekends ago it was just too effing hot to get out for a recreational ride.  In truth; I may have went for on on Sunday but I spent Saturday riding around the Vacaville/Fairfield area looking at 8 different potential neighborhoods/houses/apartments that my wife and I had picked out and that basically burned out all motivation to be on the bike the next day.  That low-speed in-town riding just took it out of me.  Then the next weekend I had a special visitor so I rented a car and spent the weekend wine tasting and at the beach.  It was a nice break though there were a number of times that I would have rather been on a bike; mostly in traffic :-)

In the interest of keeping things fresh here I am going to share a couple of videos I had planned on adding to the end of a more robust post.  I'm not sure what the deal is, but I have had two gear quality issues in side of two weeks of each other.  See the videos and pics below.

A shot of the repair work.

A shot of the repair work.

This coming weekend I have a two day weekend with nothing big planned but the next weekend is a three day weekend and I plan a long slab south to see some college friends I haven't seen in ages and while I am in the LA area I plan on stopping by Chabott Engineering to try and meet Shinya Kimura (a motorcycle hero of mine).  So look forward to that!

Thanks for reading as always!

Lets Go to the Park!

Yesterday was a nice day; it was in the low 70s and just the kind of day that makes you want to be outside!  Now of course, not every day can be an epic motorcycle ride when you are existing "With Only A Motorcycle" and truthfully all days shouldn't be.  Maybe that is just me saying that to make myself feel good about being (like most people) entrenched in wage servitude.  I don't say wage slavery because when I do finally complete my training and I am back to being a system operator I am sure that I will find the job to be engaging and rewarding.  But of course there will be days that I'd much rather just hop on the motorcycle and go for a ride and since I don't have that luxury it is still a form of servitude although a willing one most of the time.

Once again I am getting a little sidetracked at the off but my point being when I'm not out on an epic ride one of the things that I like to do besides swilling down overpriced coffee so I can have internet access to publish this blog is to read a good book about Philosophy and if the weather is nice; I like to do it outdoors perhaps at a park.  If I was not at the Extended Stay America maybe I'd have a porch to sit on as well but for now the park is a good option.  In the first two pictures in this post you can see that I did indeed go to a park (Andrews Park to be specific) and it was indeed a beautiful day for it.  Unfortunately being solo-moto means that in order to go to a park and enjoy it as a park should be (in shorts, flip flops and sunglasses) you run into one of the ever present modern motorcyclist conundrums.  Do I really need all that protective gear?  What could possible happen?  It's too hot to wear all this crap.  Riding in shorts and a t-shirt feels awesome (it does).  I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I have never ridden without gear or that I will never do it again.  

In fact last summer I had a run of a few weeks where I rode my 1979 Suzuki GS425L in just jeans, t-shirt and sunglasses and closed toe shoes.  It felt amazing, for some reason the standard UJM format of the bike just made it easier to not take safety as serious as I would hopping onto my old...

...2002 Suzuki SV650s or my current 2001 Yamaha FZ1.  I felt like a badass and a rebel all at once rolling around on that old hunk of steel and aluminum with all of its 30-ish horsepower.  In fact the only thing that would have made me fee more badass would have been a pack of cigarettes rolled up in one of my sleeves and maybe one in my mouth (eat your heart out James Dean). 

Now comes the part where I complain; for the most part nowadays I ride with a bare minimum of jeans, my mesh jacket, gloves, helmet and steel toe boots (sometimes I go with a regular closed toe shoe if I am sick of the boots).  When I am going on a serious ride I wear more serious gear.  So I could go to the park in jeans but in my mind that just doesn't work I need to be in shorts so I got dressed in the way I wanted to be (shorts t-shirt) and then put on all the gear you see in the above pictures and the two below.  My textile riding over pants, mesh jacket, riding gloves helmet and closed (non steel toe) shoes.  I threw some flip flops and my Philosophy book into the tank bag and headed out.

Before I even got down the hallway down the one flight of stairs and out of the lobby; the back of my legs were sweating from the knee down.  Basically, for whatever reason whenever my skin makes contact with the material inside those pants my legs sweat and the material inside the pants then clings to my legs.  If I'm wearing full length pants underneath I wouldn't sweat in the same temperature; it's irritating to no end.  Now some have suggested that some light undergarment like warm weather Under Amour would be more comfortable than jeans and take care of the stickiness when I'm out for ride and I agree and will try that for my rides, but the last thing I want to be wearing when I go to the park is a pair of basically spandex leggings.

After I arrive at the park comes the next awkward portion of the endeavor I then have to in public take off my shoes one at a time and transition to the flip flops and then proceed to take off my pants, of course I have shorts on underneath but I can't imagine what it must look like to an onlooker.  It's just not ideal, lets say that.  Once I got changed and was chilling in the middle of the lawn you see in the second picture from the top I was at peace again.  I always knew that being solo-moto would complicate some things so I'm not disheartened but the trip to the park just venting a bit.  Maybe someone who has been solo-moto for a while will be able to share some ideas and strategies for this sort of situation.

In other news, I survived my first two rainy days with little real exposure to the elements; just lucky timing really so I haven't gotten a change to really test my riding gear's waterproofing yet.

I also received my official California driver’s license (complete with M certification)!  Slowly but surely converting to a Californian.

Thanks for checking out the blog today!  Hopefully I'll have another ride report for you after the weekend!