+ Week Those Were the Days My friend.

[klaviator]

Having loaded many a 46, 53, cobra on a c5, I never understood what the Navy vs Marine mission difference was for the 46?

You do your friends and their families honor when you mention them, thanks.

Anyone that passed in service to their country deserves the utmost respect and honor.

Thank you for your comments.

The Marines used the H-46 to transport troops and supplies to and from the battlegrounds. The Navy primarily used it to move people and stuff from ship to ship and sometimes ship to shore. I'll go into more detail later in this report.

 

[klaviator]

1987

One of the things I really liked about the Navy was the 30 days leave we got every year. That gave me the opportunity to take a number of vacations. Some of those vacations were not motorcycle related so I won't write about them here.

We had decided to do a vacation during the summer of 1987. Debbi wanted to go to Las Vegas. She wasn't so much interested in the gambling as all the shows. I was as much interested in going to Las Vegas as I was in getting a root canal. Of course I wanted to go on a riding vacation. So we compromised. We would go to Lake Tahoe. It has some of the same stuff as LV but on a smaller scale. It would was also a very scenic place and would allow for some great riding both in the area as well as the trip up and back.

So we made motel reservations and even packed a suitcase full of clothes and sent it to Lake Tahoe on a Greyhound bus. I remember it was not very expensive. When we were done in Tahoe we would send it back via Greyhound. Remember that bad luck that we had on our last trip? Well, it hit us again. Just before we were scheduled to leave, Debbi got a really bad cold.

So we had to come up with a plan B. We decided that I would ride up to Tahoe by myself. Debbi would take a couple of days to try to get over her cold then fly up.

I do remember the ride up but I don't think I took any pics. At least I can't find any. I rode up I-15 to 395 and then north on 395. It was very hot, over 100 degrees, riding through the Mojave desert on 395. It was a good thing Debbi was not along. She would have struggled with the heat even if she wasn't sick. I finally called it quits when I got to bishop. Due to the higher elevations it was pretty comfortable in bishop.

The next day was a great ride as the road started getting up into the Sierras as I got on 89 to Tahoe. The scenery was spectacular. Everything was just so huge and majestic. I wish I had taken some pics.

I got to Tahoe and picked up Debbi from the airport and our suitcase from the Greyhound station. Debbi was better but still sick. She spend some time in bed while I did a ride around Lake Tahoe. Another very scenic ride but no pics.

So what did we do in Tahoe? We took a cruise on the lake:

We did a ride around the lake together.

We saw at least one show which I have no recollection of......it was that memorable

And of course we were big time gamblers.

We decided on a limit of what we were willing to lose, I think it was 50 bucks apiece. So we headed to a casino and started doing some high stakes gambling. Yeah, that's right, we were playing the dime slot machines

I was in one Isle and Debbi the next. I was winning big and was at least a buck or two ahead when I heard the ding, ding, ding of a big winner in the next isle accompanied by a lot of excited screaming. So I went over to see what was going on. Debbi had struck the jackpot. $53 worth of dimes

OK, that wouldn't allow us to retire early but it was a lot of dimes

 

[klaviator]

After a few days in Tahoe it was time for the best part of this trip, at least for me. The plan for the ride back was to cross the Sierras three times going over three different mountain passes.

First up was route 4, the Ebbets Pass. The Ebbets pass was an awesome ride. It was a narrow road with a lot of hairpins curves as it climbed up the rugged mountains. It was a real wilderness road with no signs of civilization.

Somewhere after getting to the top we came by these beautiful lakes and had to stop and enjoy the view.

There was also this biker gang there. These guys really looked like serious bikers, black leathers, tattoes, long hair, beards, and most of them were pretty big. I'm sure that people would hide the women and children when these guys rolled into town. But we talked to them. They seemed like really nice folks. Look can be deceiving.

We followed 4 to 49, went south on 49 and then picked up 108 to go over the Sonora pass. Somewhere High in the mountains we came across this little resort in the middle of nowhere. It was such a beautiful spot that we decided to spend the night there. They had a room available in a small log cabin motel. I think that dinner that night was served outside behind the small restaurant. The name of this place was the Dardanelle resort. I just did a google search and it's still there. I wonder if you could go there today and just get a room in the middle of the summer without a reservation.

This place ran off of generator power and if I remember correctly after a certain time of night they shut off the generator.

 

[klaviator]

After a good night in Dardanelle, we got back on the road and continued over the Sonora pass. My recollection of the road is very dim but I do remember it was a great ride with plenty of curves

as well as more spectacular scenery. I only took a few pics:

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At the end of 108 we took a right and headed for 120, the Tioga Pass. I was really anticipating this because it would take us into Yosemite national Park which I had heard so much about. So we rode up the pass. I did take some pics. I'm not sure about these next two pics but they were taken somewhere in the area, Maybe 108, maybe 120, maybe in between??

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[klaviator]

We stopped to check out this rock:

Our venture is at the bottom left of the next picture.

We continued on. This was all very scenic but I was a little disappointed. Was this all there was to this really famous park?

So we rode along.

Then we came around a curve a and there was this huge drop off on our right and this spectacular Valley Down below

. Yes, I think my jaw dropped and hit the tank. Now I know why Yosemite was so famous. Sorry, I didn't get any pics.

Even if I had, no way would they do the actual view any justice.

We rode down into the valley. I'm not sure of the order of events after this but I think we went and found a room just outside the west entrance of the park and then came back to explore. I understand that now you have to ride a bus into the valley but back then there were no buses and we rode. We saw this really tall waterfalls and stopped to check it out. We were told that there was a really cool pond at the base of the falls and it was worth going up and seeing it. There was a trail to get there but we didn't know about it and took the more interesting route straight up over a bunch of rocks. It was a blast climbing over all those rocks and we had to work as a team to get up some of them but we finally made it.

It was well worth the climb. There was a great view of the falls, a really pretty pond with a big rock in the middle. There were some people out on the rock and I thought it would be fun to swim to that rock. As soon as those people left the rock I stepped into the pond to head out to it: That water had to be just a few degrees above FREEZING. Debbi of course started laughing at me. Then she worked on shaming me into getting into the water and swimming to that rock.

Then of course I worked on shaming Debbi into swimming out to that rock. It took a while but it worked.

I must say she looked much better on that rock than I did!

This ended up being the most memorable part of this trip for me.

After we finished up we took the easy trail back to the parking lot. It was much faster but not nearly the adventure of the climb up.

 

[klaviator]

The next day we rode some really great twisty roads

The first one took us out to Glacier Point.

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The next picture has a story behind it. Glacier point is an overlook 3214 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. There was a wall at the edge of the overlook that was around 2 feet high. I wanted to get a pic looking straight down and decided that I would get a much better picture from 3216 feet rather than 3214 feet. So I stepped on top of the wall to take this next pic. Debbi freaked out and started yelling at me to get down from there. I told her to not treat me like a child. Her answer was that she would stop treating me like a child when I stopped acting like one.

So here's that pic. As you can see, that extra two feet made a huge difference

 

[klaviator]

After Yosemite we rode to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon. It was a spectatular ride which we both enjoyed even more than riding through Yosemite. Yosemite had some great roads but also a lot of traffic. There was much less traffic in Kings Canyon. It is on my bucket list as a place I want to ride again someday.

There were some big trees:

Did I mention it had some great roads?

How about some great scenery?

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After we left the park we ended up riding through the town of Visalia at night. We suddenly found ourselves stuck in a traffic jam. The cars around us were literally jumping up and down and there were crowds of people watching from the sidewalks

It sure seemed weird but I guess it was the thing to do in this town.

 

[klaviator]

Trying to keep the timeline straight and match it up to the old pics I have which were never well organized has been difficult. I spent 3 1/2 years in San Diego. I did a lot of riding. I also had a 6 month period without riding a motorcycle, something that has not happened again since then. I order to finance my motorcycle addiction I did have a job. This job took me out to sea, across the Pacific, to the Indian Ocean and then North Arabian Sea and then back.

Towards the end of 1987 I was assigned to a detachment which would be cruising on the USS Wabash (AOR-5). The Wabash was what we jokingly referred to as a "Fast Attack combat Oiler"

In reality it was a supply ship that cruised with the battle group and provided supplies and fuel to the rest of the ships. In November I did a one one cruise to the Northern Pacific in the area of the Alaskan Aleutian islands. Then we returned for one month before going out on a six month Western pacific cruise. I won't go into great details since this is a ride report, not cruise report. We stopped in hawaii for one day and the Philippines for 5 before heading out for the North Arabian Sea. It was technically peacetime but tensions were high and we did have a one day shooting war with the Iranian Navy and Air force. It was a pretty one sided affair as ships and aircraft from our battle group took a out a number of Iranian ships and airplanes.

Just a few pics from the cruise before getting back to all the riding I did in California.

USS Wabash:

Aerial views at sea.

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On deck with one of our 2 helicopters.

Underway. I'm not sure where this was but obviously near land somewhere. Maybe Singapore?

Not riding for 6 months sucked and I spent a lot of time dreaming about riding. At least the flying was interesting. We flew regularly because it was our job to move people, cargo and mail to and from the rest of the ships in the battlegroup. We moved most of the cargo using a method called "VERTREP" Someone made a video of this. I wasn't in the video but the two helicopter we had were:

 

[klaviator]

Time for another vacation. I of course wanted to ride somewhere. Debbi wanted to go on a cruise or to Hawaii. I had already been on a cruise!!!

So we decided on Hawaii. I did a little research and it appeared that there were some motorcycle rentals available in Hawaii

Keep in mind that there was no internet back then. I think I saw some tiny ads in the back of some motorcycle magazines. We took our helmets with us.

We booked a package deal for our vacation, airfare, hotel, and a FREE welcome breakfast the first morning we were there. Our hotel was advertised as being 2 blocks from the beach. I had this picture in my mind of a hotel on a sandy beach but set back a ways with a few other hotels blocking part of our view.......


We got there and we might as well have been in downtown New York City. It was a tall building surrounded by other tall buildings in a very congested area. From our room we did see a small sliver of blue, so we could see the ocean. We went to the FREE breakfast the next morning. It was pretty lame and was mostly a sales pitch for a bunch of tours. I think this pic was taken there:

We did book a guided tour that would take us out on an overview of the Island. It ended up being a pretty good tour. It was done with a small group in a van.

Then it was time to plan out the rest of our time there. Debbi wanted to plan out every day and make reservations. I wanted to wing it and do some exploring on our own. We ended up compromising but in the end, the stuff we did on our own was the most fun and most memorable.......at least for me.

I checked the phone book to find some place to rent a motorcycle. I couldn't find much. The places that had advertised in the magazines were no longer there

There were a bunch of places that rented little 50cc scooters but I wasn't really interested in one of those. I finally found a place that had a Honda NX125 and a Yamaha Riva 125 for rent. After checking them out I decided that the Riva would be much more practical, especially 2 up. So I rented it for a day.

Debbi wanted to go to Hanauma Bay and go snorkeling. So we jumped on the scooter and headed off. At some point I took a wrong turn and ended up on the on ramp for the Interstate highway:eek1 This scooter was not legal on the interstate but I pinned the throttle and went for it. The speedo showed around 65 MPH and we kept up with traffic until the next off ramp

We didn't get caught so it was pretty cool. Despite it's tiny 10" wheels the Riva did just fine at those speeds.

We finally found Hanauma bay and went snorkeling. I think this was the high point of the vacation for Debbi. I was laying on the beach when she came up all excited

about this fantastic colorful fish she had seen. She said we'd probably never find it again but wanted me to come out with her and look for it. We did find it. I wish we had an underwater camera.

For me of course the scooter riding was the best part of the vacation. Here we are along the scenic coast:

Inside Diamond Head. ( I think )

 

[SandRdr]

Wow those are some skilled pilots! I always considered the 46 a wacky design, we had regular rear rotor ground contacts. Gave them a wide birth if on the flight line.

 

[klaviator]

Wow those are some skilled pilots! I always considered the 46 a wacky design, we had regular rear rotor ground contacts. Gave them a wide birth if on the flight line.

The twin rotor design of the H-46 and H-47 make a lot of sense. It is much easier to fly in many conditions than a helicopter with a tail rotor. For Vertrep that design made it easy to fly sideways or even backwards without worrying about the effects of the changing wind directions on the tail rotor. The flying you saw in the video really was a lot of fun.

 

[SandRdr]

The twin rotor design of the H-46 and H-47 make a lot of sense. It is much easier to fly in many conditions than a helicopter with a tail rotor. For Vertrep that design made it easy to fly sideways or even backwards without worrying about the effects of the changing wind directions on the tail rotor. The flying you saw in the video really was a lot of fun.

Have modern electronics eliminated the complexities of tail rotors?

 

[klaviator]

Have modern electronics eliminated the complexities of tail rotors?

I haven't flown a helicopter in 28 years so I can't answer your question however aerodynamics is still aerodynamics no matter how modern the electronics are.

 

[klaviator]

We spent a week in Hawaii. Most of the time we did the standard tourist stuff.

Debbi got me to make a fool of myself in front of hundreds of strangers.

Hawaii is probably best know for it's beaches. As much as I like the beach (and the scenery found there

), I have always been more drawn to the mountains.

Hawaii has those too.

A few days after renting the Rive for a day I got tired of the tourist stuff and was itching for another ride so i rented it again. It really was a blast to ride

Light weight, 10 inch wheels and a short wheelbase meant that you just had to think about turning and it would do it. It was also reasonably comfortable two up and handled a passenger with ease. It was perfect for running around in city traffic. But, city traffic wasn't really where I wanted to spend all my time riding. I had a map of the area and found something that looked really cool. This is not the exact map I had but shows what I was looking at:

Tantalus Drive. Now that looked like fun

So I went out looking for it. I found this fantastic, super curvy road that went up the mountain and into a rain forest. If you have ever ridden Deal's Gap, it doesn't compare to this road for tight curves and scenery. I would be riding along, scraping the floorboards on some super tight curves in the middle of a rain forest when suddenly there would be a break in the trees and a spectacular view of Downtown Honolulu.

Then some more curves

followed by a spectacular view of Diamond Head.

Without a doubt this was one of the most fun and memorable rides of my life. The Riva was a great bike for this ride. Anything much bigger would have been overkill. I think I rode it several times.

I did come back and ride it again with Debbi on the back. We went exploring and found this really good Italian restaurant in a residential area well off the beaten path. That ended up being one of the best, and least expensive dinners we had in Hawaii.

That was my first scooter experience and it was a great one. It planted the scooter bug in me although it would be a long time before I acted on it. I really thought it would be fun to have a small scooter but I just didn't see that it would be practical or that I would use it very much. When I got back to San Diego and took one of my motorcycles out, it felt like a huge, heavy, and clumsy beast compared to that little scooter.

 

[klaviator]

1988

Time for another old bike to be introduced into this story.

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Debbi decided to give riding her own bike a try. She took the MSF class and got her California motorcycle endorsement. She wanted a small and easy to ride bike to start on and we found this Honda CM200T Twinstar at a local dealer.

This bike proved to be a great learner bike as Debbi became comfortable riding it pretty quickly and really enjoyed riding it. She did have one complaint and that was the lack of wind protection. She just didn't understand that wind in the face and bugs in the teeth was part of the fun

I put this fairing on it:

Bernie tries it out for size:

 

[klaviator]

One of our favorite short rides was to go out Otay Lakes road and then ride the dead end road that ran along Lower Otay Lake. Looking at Google maps it appears that road, as well as the whole area has changed considerably. Back then the whole area was undeveloped and the road along the lake was a nice curvy and lightly traveled road perfect for practicing some corner carving. Debbi and I rode there so she could get used to her new bike.

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I rode the bike a few times. I was a little big for it, it didn't have much power, only a four speed transmission, drum brakes and a cheap suspension. It was still a lot of fun to ride. It could even keep up with traffic on San Diego freeways. It really made me want a small lightwieght bike like maybe the just introduced Ninja 250.

Remember this bike?

I really wanted one of these but I already had two bikes and getting a third was out of the question. I mean really, three bikes for one person?? That would be ridiculous...right?

All the toys in the Garage.

 

[klaviator]

One of my favorite and most common rides was out to Julian. The route was a little city traffic to Otay lakes road. Otay Lakes road was a two lane country road back then. The left on 94 and right on Honey Springs Rd, right on Lyons Valley rd, then Japatul rd to 79 out to Julian. Those of you familiar with the area know what a great ride that is....or at least was. Possibly it has become congested with lots of traffic by now.

Debbi and I did that ride one day. I was on the FJ and she was riding the Twinstar. It was a great ride and we even swapped for a couple of miles and she rode the FJ. Of course we got Apple pie ala mode in Julian

Debbi really enjoyed the ride and commented how much different and better the scenery was when most of it wasn't blocked by the back of my helmet. The Twinstar worked great on the twisty sections of road but really struggled on the uphill sections. The beginning of Honey Springs road was a long uphill. The Twinstar wouldn't pull fourth gear and the motor was screaming in third gear at about 35 MPH.

So I talked Debbi into looking for a bigger bike. She really liked the Twinstar. If only it had a few more horsepower and 5 speed transmission.

So we went around and Debbi test rode a number of bikes. One of those bikes was a leftover model Yamaha Seca 550. It was a great deal and brand new. I managed to talk her into it.

It was a great looking bike and a lot faster than the Twinstar. Debbi and I went on a number of rides.

The problem was that Debbi never really got confident riding that bike. She was probably faster on the Twinstar most of the time. I really liked the bike and rode it some but I didn't fit on it all that well. It needed some lower bars and more rearset pegs to work for me. Bottom line, it was Debbi's bike and she really didn't enjoy riding it. The Seca's days were numbered.....

 

[klaviator]

California is a great state for riders for a number of reasons. There are so many interesting places to ride. One of those places is Death Valley. I decided to ride there over the MLK Holiday weekend in 1989. I packed up the Venture and headed north on I-15. I don't remember the exact route but I ended up in Death Valley that afternoon. I did a little sight seeing and started looking for a place to stay. Being a holiday weekend, everything in Death Valley was booked. BTW, back then Death Valley was a National Monument, not a National Park. Despite the fact that everything was booked, Death Valley still seemed pretty deserted. I ended up going to Beatty, NV to find a room. I found a cheap Mom and Pop Motel. When I looked for something to eat I found very few restaurants. I think there was a McDs of something like that but if I wanted real food the only place to eat was in the Casino.

I woke up early because I wanted to catch the sunrise. It was Cooooooold. My bike's seat was covered with frost and the bike didn't want to crank. I rolled down a hill and bump started it. I took this pic in town that morning:

Then I headed back towards Death Valley. Back then I had pretty cheap riding gear. Even though I was bundled up like the Michelin Tire man, I started to freeze pretty quickly. I think I had to stop every 10-15 minutes to thaw out my fingers. It didn't help that I had to cross some mountains to get back into the Valley. Then, to make things worse, I wanted to ride up to Dantes View which is about a mile high in elevation. The road to Dantes View was a nice twisty road but I was too cold to really enjoy it.

The view was spectacular. Looking almost straight down was the valley floor at 282 feet below sea level. Across the valley was the snow covered Panamint Mountain range at over 11,000 feet high and off in the distance I could see Mt Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental USA.

This pic does not do it justice. I wish I could go back and retake these old pics with my current camera. If I had my current digital instead of a camera with film I would have taken a lot more pics as well.

Then I rode down into the valley for some more riding and sight seeing.

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On the valley floor 282 feet below sea level. Up on the hillside is a small white sign at sea level. I have seen more recent pics of this spot and it looks very different today.

There was this really cool looking dirt road going into a narrow canyon that I wanted to explore but it was one way and I didn't want to chance it one the Venture, especially after what had happened earlier with the busted crankcase.
I decided to take a road that looked real interesting on my map. It went up through the Panamint MTNS. It was a nice twisty and scenic road but not in very good shape. Eventually I got to a point where the pavement ended and the road crossed a frozen creek:eek1:eek1:eek1
It would be a long way to go back and around...

Keep in mind that I was on a 750+ pound full dress touring bike.

I decided to go for it. It ended up being pretty non eventful but it did make me think that maybe someday I should get a big dual sport bike. Come to think of it, I could have ridden that interesting looking dirt road earlier as well.

It was something to think about. It would affect my future bike buying decisions.

I had planned on making this a three day weekend but ended up pushing it all the way home that night. It was a pretty cold ride.

I really thought DV was a really cool place and that I should come back again and do some more exploring. Unfortunately I never did and I am not sure I will. Seeing all the rider reports done there and seeing all the cool off pavement riding there it is something I would like to do.

 

[klaviator]

Only a couple of years earlier I thought of Full dress touring bikes as boring old men's bikes. I was now doing a lot of riding on mine. It was just so much more practical and comfortable for long trips than the FJ. Having hard luggage especially spoiled me.

I did a Solo trip to the Grand Canyon. I headed west on I-8 to Yuma AZ. Then it was mostly back roads through Prescott, Sedonna, and Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. I spent the night in Flagstaff then rode to the Grand Canyon. The rest of the trip is pretty fuzzy in my memory. I do remember that it was real cold in the morning in Flagstaff. Just like in Death valley my bike was covered in frost and I had to roll down a hill and bump start it. Again, I had to stop and thaw out every few miles. I could have used electric heat and some decent riding gear back then. Once the sun came out it warmed up nicely.

For the ride back home I took a different route and rode through the mountains North East of Phoenix and then headed home. I thought I took more pics of this trip but i never found them so these few will have to so.

I think these where near Sedonna/Oak Creek Canyon.

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This next one was that cold morning north of Flagstaff.

 

[klaviator]

I went on a number of trips while I was in California. They were great and I will never forget them, however the best were those weekend rides in the San Diego area. Since I did so many of those weekend rides I don't really remember the individual rides that well. I remember bits and pieces. It is possible that I will get the chance to go back and visit all the great places again some day but there is no way I will ever be able to re-live the the exciting days of sport riding of that time. The roads were fantastic to ride on

The weather was great almost all the time

and I had a couple of really fun bikes!
A big part of the fun was the riders I had the chance to ride with and become friends with. I often wonder were all those people are today and how they are doing.

So, it's time to talk about sport riding again. Much of my sport riding was done on the FJ but the Venture also made a surprisingly good sport bike. After I got the Venture, I don't think Debbi ever rode on the back of the FJ again. The Venture spoiled her. So any sport rides that Debbi came along on were on the Venture.

The Venture had an Awesome V-4 engine that pulled really hard and sounded and felt great while doing it. The Venture was heavy at around 750 pounds but the steering was really light due to the wide handlebar and the steering geometry. The steering was actually lighter than that of the FJ. Cornering clearance was also very good for a touring bike. On top of that I would hang off on the inside to increase clearance even more.

Back to the people I rode with. There was a restaurant in San Diego that was a meeting place for riders on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Go there on any weekend or holiday and there would be one or more groups there eating and then heading out for a ride. I have no recollection of the name of that place but by using Google Maps to research it I'm pretty sure it was Giovanni's on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I wonder if it is still a popular rider's meeting place? Any San Diego area riders out there reading this?

Riding with these guys was an experience in itself. Most of them were really experienced riders with a lot of great stories to tell. As a relative noob I was in awe of these guys. I would meet these guys for breakfast, we would ride all day and then sometimes stop some place for dinner where I had the chance to hear all kinds of great stories.

I really regret not taking more pics of these rides and the people I rode with when I had the chance. I am trying to not repeat that mistake today.

At least I took a few pics. Here's a great one this was taken one of those days Debbi came along on the Venture:

There is a story behind this pic but first I'm going to talk about the people in this pic.

Starting on the left:

Kim rode an EX500 and rode it very well. She was a nurse and the GF of the guy with his thumb in the air.

Tony, sitting down, rode a GSXR 750 ( I think) with a personalized tag that read IKIKA55

Somehow he got that past the license plate censors.

Jonesy was one of the fastest riders around. When I met him he rode a BMW K100RS. Although the BMW was not exactly a super sport he ride it ridiculously fast. In 2 and a half years he put 80,000 miles on it. He then traded it in. If I remember right he paid $3500 and the trade for a new BMW K75S. He got a great deal but keep in mind that the 80,000 K100RS was still under warranty!
The K75S was no super sport either but Jonesy was even faster on that bike than he had been on the 1000! I remember riding with him one day. I was on the FJ and my riding had improved greatly. We were coming up on one of my favorite sections of road. Nice medium speed sweepers that I knew really well. I would finally be able to keep up with him

So I ran through those curves as fast as I dared and hung way off to the inside like the racers did. On the straights I used all 125 horsepower......

It wasn't enough. He still left me in the dust.

To add insult to injury he had Dunlop K491 tour Elites on his bike. He rode so much he couldn't afford to use sport tires!


Just to the right of and behind Jonesy was Big Bill. He got his nick name because he was.........BIG. He rode a Hurricane 1000.

Next was John. He was a real motorcycling celebrity and legend. I'll talk more about him in a separate post. After that was Debbi and me.

The story behind this pic is coming up...........