+ Week Those Were the Days My friend.

[klaviator]

The story behind the pic.

Most rides that we did ended up on Palomar Mountain. The roads on Palomar were fantastic

and then there was a restaurant and store at the top of the mountain that was a great place to hang out and get something to eat. The restaurant was called Mother's Kitchen. It was a vegetarian restaurant but the veggie burgers were pretty good and so were their pies. The best part of the place was the parking lot which was normally pretty full of bikes on weekends and was a great place to kick tires.

Palomar mountain was the big attraction for the local sport riders. Not only were the roads great but law enforcement normally stayed off the mountain. One of the guys who was a regular on the mountain was a middle aged squid who rode a Hurricane 1000. He normally had a few younger "squidlings" following him around. Why was he a squid? I'm not really sure. He did wear proper riding gear. He just had that reputation. He had done something that really pissed Jonesy off. I'm not sure what. Maybe a stupid pass?

Anyway, we were hanging out in front off Mother's Kitchen when we heard that this guy had crashed. So we headed down the East grade to check it out. We found the guys mangled bike off of the side of the road and then posed for that picture.

I'm not sure of the extent of the guys injuries except that they were nothing serious. I saw the guy at Mother's kitchen some time later. He was now riding a large cruiser. He was pretty bored with it but said that his wife wouldn't let him get another sport bike

 

[klaviator]

Tine to wrap up the story around that last pic I posted. Probably the most fascinating person in that pic was John. He's the white haired older gentleman standing towards the back next to Debbi. In his normal life he was an upstanding member of society. He lived in upscale Coronado Island. He sang with the San Diego Opera for 18 years, played the piano, was a trustee at his church and had numerous other accomplishments. He was a very mild mannered, soft spoken gentleman.

He was not the type of person you would expect to be out tearing up the twisty mountain roads on a motorcycle...........but he was

John was the president of a local BMW club and owned a couple of air cooled BMW twins. Many of the times I rode with him he was on his Yamaha 650 Seca. None of these bikes were exactly state of the art sport bikes. When John was riding he normally looked like he was just out for a Sunday Putt. He didn't hang off or anything. He just looked relaxed on his bike. But, he was deceptively FAST. I couldn't keep up with him when he decided to ride fast. I heard many stories of him blowing by guys on modern sport bikes like Ninjas or GSXRs going up Palomar Mountain. Then he'd be waiting for those guys at the top of the mountain and they would realize they had just been blown away by this old white haired guy

on a slow bike

John was also known as the "King of the Alps" He had done so much riding in the alps and other parts of Europe that he wrote and published several books about riding that area. Perhaps some of you have read his books.

 

[klaviator]

Those of you familiar with Southern California don't need to be told about how great the weather is there. I found it to be totally different from anything I had previously experienced so I'll talk about it here. I had expected that as far south as San Diego was it would be very hot in the summers. So I was shocked to find out that most people did not have air conditioning if they lived near the coast. The water off the coast comes down from Alaska and doesn't get very warm. Since the wind is almost always from the coast, it is normally a nice and cool breeze. On rare occasions the wind would switch and it would get hot for a few days. In the winter it never got really cold. I don't remember it ever getting down to freezing.

Of course this was near the coast. Go inland and things would change. A typical June ride would be like this: It would be cool and totally overcast when leaving in the morning. It would look like rain, but there was no need for a rain suit. Head inland about 15 miles and there would be no sign of clouds and it would warm up. Then we would climb up into the mountains where it would be nice and comfortable even mid day. continue east, down the mountain and into the desert and it would be 110 degrees.

During the winter the higher elevations would get snow. Some of the "local" roads I rode all the time got over 5000 and even 6000 feet in elevation.

The highest point in the county was Mount Laguna which was one of our favorite ride destinations. It had a great twisty and scenic road that went over the mountain.

Here's some pics taken there:

During the summer it would get pretty cool up there. We went up once to catch the sunset. Didn't quite make it in time.

It would snow up here in the winter.

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[kickstandsup]

Tine to wrap up the story around that last pic I posted. Probably the most fascinating person in that pic was John. He's the white haired older gentleman standing towards the back next to Debbi. In his normal life he was an upstanding member of society. He lived in upscale Coronado Island. He sang with the San Diego Opera for 18 years, played the piano, was a trustee at his church and had numerous other accomplishments. He was a very mild mannered, soft spoken gentleman.

He was not the type of person you would expect to be out tearing up the twisty mountain roads on a motorcycle...........but he was

John was the president of a local BMW club and owned a couple of air cooled BMW twins. Many of the times I rode with him he was on his Yamaha 650 Seca. None of these bikes were exactly state of the art sport bikes. When John was riding he normally looked like he was just out for a Sunday Putt. He didn't hang off or anything. He just looked relaxed on his bike. But, he was deceptively FAST. I couldn't keep up with him when he decided to ride fast. I heard many stories of him blowing by guys on modern sport bikes like Ninjas or GSXRs going up Palomar Mountain. Then he'd be waiting for those guys at the top of the mountain and they would realize they had just been blown away by this old white haired guy

on a slow bike

John was also known as the "King of the Alps" He had done so much riding in the alps and other parts of Europe that he wrote and published several books about riding that area. Perhaps some of you have read his books.

Too funny...it LIVES on my coffee table...

 

[klaviator]

Too funny...it LIVES on my coffee table...

It's a small world.

John really was an amazing guy. Here is some more info on him: http://www.voxprof.com/kota/default.html

Since I'm thinking about him, I just remembered a story. One day john was out riding through Wildcat Canyon outside of San Diego which was in or near an Indian Reservation and he got beat up by some Indians. I don't remember the details of the story. So he decided to lead a ride through Wildcat Canyon and it became an annual tradition that went on for many years.

I'm really glad I had the chance to ride and spend some time with him.

 

[klaviator]

1988

We had a pretty nice collection of bikes.

The problem was that Debbi never got to where she was comfortable on the Seca. So it was time to go bike shopping again. We decided that she needed something with a bit more power and performance than the Twinstar but smaller and lighter than the Seca. So we looked around and Debbi did a number of test rides. She finally decided on a bike that was bigger and heavier than the Seca.

But it had a lower seat and low center of gravity.

She got a used 1986 Yamaha Virago 700.

For whatever reason she was much more comfortable riding this bike than she was the Seca. The Virago was a pretty good performing bike. The motor made plenty of power. Dual discs up front. Shaft drive, Tachometer and centerstand

. All things you normally won't find on a modern cruiser. It also had pretty good cornering clearance, much better than most modern cruisers.

It wasn't long before we headed out for a weekend trip.

No smile here. I think she's giving me the "I can't believe you got me out riding in this cold weather" look

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We did a big loop spending one night in El Centro and the next in Palm Springs. We even took Bernie along. It must have been warmer when we got to El Centro since she was smiling

On the way back we rode through Idyllwild which had snow on the ground. It was real pretty but I didn't get any pics

 

[klaviator]

Although Debbi had her own bike, for longer trips we still rode two up on the Venture. We decided to go see the Grand Canyon. Would our normal Vacation luck continue?

Well, just before we left I came down with a bad cold

But I wasn't going to let that stop us. So off we went. We spent the first night in Yuma. The news weather reports were calling for snow at the Grand Canyon. So we changed our plan. We would just go as far as Oak Creek Canyon and spend more time there. I had been to Oak Creek Canyon a couple of times but Debbi hadn't. In some ways I liked it better than the Grand Canyon. You can ride your bike through Oak Creek Canyon

The ride there was pretty good also. There are some nice mountain curves and views on either side of Prescott and the neat little town of Jerome.

When we got to Sedonna which is at the mouth of Oak Creek canyon we found this really cool Bed and Breakfast. But it was full up that night. So we booked a room for the following night and stayed at some generic motel the first night. By not going on the the G. C. we were able to spend an entire day exploring and checking out Sedonna and Oak Creek Canyon.

Recently Debbi accused me of taking more pics of my bikes than of her
You wouldn't know it from this trip where I can't find a single pic of my bike but plenty with her in them. In a recent thread on this forum about ride reports I talked about people doing "stop reports". Well this post is a good example of a stop report. Unlike today, i never took pics while riding back before I got a digital camera.

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OK, this next pic is actually riding related. As I mentioned, you can ride your bike through this canyon. Here is the road as it twists it's way out of the north end of the canyon:

The B & B we stayed at the second night was pretty interesting. The owner was a collector of music boxes. When I thought of music boxes I thought of those little boxes that sit on a dresser or shelf and when you open them they play a tune. These where much bigger. These are what preceeded the record player and radio. They had huge metal discs in them that turned to generate the music. You can see part of the collection in the next two pics.

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One thing I do remember about the riding was something that happened to me on the ride home. I still had a cold and when we rode down the mountain West of Prescott I got an ear block from the change in altitude and pressure. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get rid of it. It went away by itself in less than a day but it was pretty weird.

 

[klaviator]

More miscellaneous memories from riding around San Diego.

I met a couple some time in 87 who rode Kawasaki Ninja 750s. They were husband and wife. Phil and Tomi. Not long after I met them Phil's Ninja was stolen and he replaced it with a VFR750. We ended up riding with them a lot. On most Saturday mornings they would meet a few friends on the corner of 94 and Honey Springs road and then ride to Julian for breakfast. I/we often went with them. After breakfast some people would head home to do Honey Do's and some of us would ride some more

Sometimes Debbi and I got together with them to ride or just do other things. Some pics from a day ride we did with them.

Debbi, Phil and our bikes:

Debbi and Tomi carrying on a conversation with one of the locals

My parents came out to visit us for a week. One day I took my mom for a ride into the mountains. Luckily mom fit into Debbi's riding gear.

We went out Otay Lakes road and then right on 94 which we followed for a half hour or so before taking a break then heading back. On the way back we got stuck behind a long string of slow moving cages. There was one long, straight uphill stretch of road. It was clear so I pulled out, downshifted and twisted the throttle. Despite being 2 up and going uphill the venture just rocketed past that line of cars

Eventually we got stuck behind more slow moving cages. After the ride was done mom commented that it was too bad we got stuck behind those slow cars

 

[300man]

Great stuff thanks for sharing.

 

[klaviator]

More local rides.

One of the more interesting destinations in the area was Dudley's Bakery in Santa Ysabel. At that time there was very little in Santa Ysabel. There was Dudley's Bakery, a gas station and a feed and grain shop. That was about it. All Dudley's bakery sold was bread. Their bread was so good it was not unusual for there to be a long line and hour long wait to buy bread on Saturday. Then around 2 or 3 in the afternoon they would sell out. Their bread was that good. Since I often rode to Julian and then to Palomar, it was right on the way. However, on a few occasions I rode out to Dudley's just to get bread. It was a mere 140 or so mile round trip but the bread and the ride made it worth it.

Highway 79 just north of Santa Ysabel was a common speed trap. How do I know this? I found out the hard way. I was stuck behind two cars. When i got to a passing zone I pulled out to pass but so did the second of the cars. So I had to wait for this slow cage to pass the even slower cage before I could really twist the throttle

As soon as that cage pulled into the right lane I twisted the throttle. At around 125 I eased off and slowed down. About 30 seconds later I saw flashing lights in my mirror Oh Oh!! Both myself and the car behind me were pulled over. He got me for 75 in a 55.

I felt like I had just committed murder and got arrested for shoplifting

I have mentioned Otay lakes road a few times. There was a small skydiving airstrip just past the lake. Sometimes we stopped and watched.

Sometimes I did longer day rides, up to 500 miles or so. One of my favorite rides was up to Big Bear lake or to the Angeles Crest Highway.

I still remember my first ride to Big bear Lake. I went up to the lake on 38 which is a spectacular ride which got up to over 8000 feet elevation if my memory is correct. Then there is the lake itself. At 6700 feet elevation it is surrounded by high mountains and even had a couple of ski areas. The lake was very scenic. Then to top it off was the return ride on 18 which was known as the Rim of the World drive. The views from that road where also spectacular. You could see all the way to the Pacific ocean. Well, you could if not for the smog and poor visibility. Instead you could see down towards San Bernadino and see some hills or tall buildings sticking up out of the smog

I wish I took more pictures. I did get this one at the west end of Big Bear lake:

I'm not sure if this next one was taken from 18 or the Angeles Crest Highway.

One day I went for a ride out to Julian with Tomi. Phil was going to meet us in Julian for Lunch. I was cruising on a back road near Julian enjoying the absolutely perfect day and great scenery. I was doing around 70 and off the gas to slow down for an upcoming curve when there was a jolt in the front end and the bars of my FJ went into a violent tank slapper. I couldn't hang on to the bars and was now just a passenger: There was a slight bend in the road and I went off into the embankment and the FJ and I ended tumbling first in the dirt and then back into the road

After coming to a stop I jumped up. I really didn't know what had just happened. This was my first crash. Tomi was a bit behind me and didn't see the crash. We went back to see what had happened and found a rock the size and shape of a brick on the side of the road. It looked scuffed up. I probably hit it with the edge of my front tire which caused the tankslapper. Anyway, the FJ was not rideable so it ended up getting towed away. Phil showed up and instead of me riding back as a passenger Tomi rode behind Phil and I got to ride her Ninja back home

As for injuries, I had none. Not even a bruise. I'm glad I was wearing full riding gear. My leathers got a little scuffed up but not too bad. I did have to replace the helmet.

The insurance company totalled the FJ. Time to go bike shopping

Well, that would have to wait. I had a two week ride planned so bike shopping would have to wait.

On final pic of the FJ. It was a great bike and I still miss it sometimes. I think a sunset pic is appropriate.

The FJ had over 23,000 miles on the odometer, 20,000 of them were put there by me.

 

[klaviator]

Debbi and I had conflicting schedules for the summer of 89. She was teaching summer school the first half of the summer and I couldn't get away the second half due to work. I decided to go for a 2 week ride in June through the west, particularly Colorado

and then maybe Yellowstone.

I had no definite plan except that on the last few days I would visit Debbi's brother in Sacramento and some old friends in Monterrey. I thought I'd head east and ride Arizona including a stop at the grand Canyon and then head towards Co where I would just wing it. A few days before leaving I saw an article in the travel section of the newspaper about Bryce Canyon and Zion NP. There where a few nice pics and the pics of Bryce Canyon in particular interested me.

But I really wanted to ride through Arizona.

The night before I left on my trip I still hadn't made up my mind which way to go.

During breakfast the morning I was leaving I finally decided that I would ride........

To be continued........

 

[mikegc]

Your photo was taken on the Angeles Crest Highway. I stopped at or very close to where you did back in 2014:

Great story! Thanks for taking time to do it.

Mike

 

[klaviator]

Your photo was taken on the Angeles Crest Highway. I stopped at or very close to where you did back in 2014:

Great story! Thanks for taking time to do it.

Mike

Thanks for posting that pic. That's pretty amazing! I wonder how many other places there are where we both took similar pics?

 

[kickstandsup]

The story behind the pic.

Most rides that we did ended up on Palomar Mountain. The roads on Palomar were fantastic

and then there was a restaurant and store at the top of the mountain that was a great place to hang out and get something to eat. The restaurant was called Mother's Kitchen. It was a vegetarian restaurant but the veggie burgers were pretty good and so were their pies. The best part of the place was the parking lot which was normally pretty full of bikes on weekends and was a great place to kick tires.

Palomar mountain was the big attraction for the local sport riders. Not only were the roads great but law enforcement normally stayed off the mountain. One of the guys who was a regular on the mountain was a middle aged squid who rode a Hurricane 1000. He normally had a few younger "squidlings" following him around. Why was he a squid? I'm not really sure. He did wear proper riding gear. He just had that reputation. He had done something that really pissed Jonesy off. I'm not sure what. Maybe a stupid pass?

Anyway, we were hanging out in front off Mother's Kitchen when we heard that this guy had crashed. So we headed down the East grade to check it out. We found the guys mangled bike off of the side of the road and then posed for that picture.

I'm not sure of the extent of the guys injuries except that they were nothing serious. I saw the guy at Mother's kitchen some time later. He was now riding a large cruiser. He was pretty bored with it but said that his wife wouldn't let him get another sport bike

Kickin tires at Mothers...

 

[klaviator]

Kickin tires at Mothers...

I spent a lot of time there kicking tires. I wish I had taken more pics. I do have a couple coming up later in this report. If you have more feel free to post them!

 

[klaviator]

The morning of day one of my trip I sat at the breakfast table with maps in front of me as well as the article on Bryce Canyon and Zion. My dilemma was one I had faced before and would face many times again. The decision between doing something that I had done before and knew was great or try something new and take a chance

This time I decided to do something new. So I got on the bike and rode north on I-15.

And I rode.

And rode some more.

Interstate riding is not exactly my favorite. Eventually I crossed into Nevada. When I got to Las Vegas I decided to stop for a quick look. I had never been there before. I found the Casino District, parked the bike and took a look into one of the big casinos

It took me about 10 seconds to realize there was nothing of interest for me there so I got back on the bike. I stopped at some fast food place, got lunch then got back on to the interstate. It was mostly boring but there where two things that surprised me. One was the fact I had not noticed I would be going through a small piece of Arizona, making this a 4 state day. Second was the Virgin River Gorge. Quite a scenic change. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics. I continued on to St George where I had no problem finding a nice inexpensive motel for the night. There was also a good restaurant right by the motel. It was my first time in Utah and it was off to a good start.

My real reason for coming to Utah was to see Bryce Canyon. Zion NP happened to be on the way so I thought I might as well see it too.

I had no idea!!

A preview of day 2 of my trip:

 

[klaviator]

As I rode from St. George to Zion I had almost no idea what I was about to experience. Back then there was no internet. I couldn't just google Zion NP and find thousands of pics and videos of the place like I could today. I suppose I could have gone to a library and maybe found a book. But I didn't. I just had that newspaper article which had one or two pics.

So when I rode into Zion

I was glad I had a tank bag on my bike to cushion my jaw as it dropped down from the scenery. Like I said earlier, I had no idea. I rode into the park and took a left down the road that ends at the Narrows. I hiked into the narrows as far as I could without getting my feet wet and then turned around. It looked like it would be interesting to hike further but I wasn't dressed for it. I have since found out that it is a spectacular hike.

Then I backtracked and headed out of the park to the East. I did take some pics but keep in mind that these were taken with a cheap 35mm camera by someone who knew nothing about photography. These pics don't do the place justice. Also I took these pics so long ago that they are probably out of order.

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The Narrows.

I just loved this view of the road.

The scenery was just so different from anything I had ever seen before!

 

[klaviator]

After Zion I headed over to Bryce Canyon. The biggest difference between Bryce and Zion, in my opinion, is that you ride through Zion while you ride Up and look down into Bryce. Very scenic but I liked Zion much better.

This was between Zion and Bryce.

Looking into Bryce Canyon:

I wasn't the only one enjoying the view:

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After Bryce I headed West on 12. I planned on stopping and getting a room since it was getting somewhat late but I didn't see any motels that looked very inviting so I kept on riding. Again, I had no idea what was ahead. Those of you who have ridden 12 know what I was in for. It was simply one of the most scenic roads on the planet. I hardly got any pics. The best way to describe it is that it was like riding on another planet. At one point 12 runs along a ridgeline with rock landscape in every direction as far as you can see. I'm pretty sure this next pic was taken fro Hwy 12.

The road suddenly dropped into a canyon and back out.

Then the road climbed up to a much higher elevation and totally different landscape.

I stopped at a scenic lookout and enjoyed the view for 100+ miles into the distance. There were a couple of young guys on motorcycles there as well. I talked to them a bit and then we headed North to find a place to spend the night.

When we headed off it was getting dark and the road was overrun with deer and cattle! We had to ride real slow. At the end of 12 we took a left I found a cheap motel room in a small town, I don't remember which one, maybe Torrey. They went looking for a campground. Then I headed out for dinner and ran into these guys again at the Restaurant so we had dinner together. They were on a real interesting adventure. Both were poor college students. One was on a Nighthawk 650, the other on a beat up old Yamaha 650 twin. They had left California and were headed to Pennsylvania to visit someone. They had little money so they planned on eating only 2 meals per day and camping. The guy on the Yamaha had all his stuff in plastic trash bags held on with bungees. They had credit cards and said they would end up deep in dept but didn't want to waste the opportunity to do an epic ride like this while they had the time. I really enjoyed the chance to meet and talk to these guys. They were true adventure riders.

 

[klaviator]

The next morning I headed out toward Colorado. Before I left town I saw the two guys I had met the previous day at a gas station so I pulled in. We were all going the same way and decided to ride together.

While this day was not nearly as spectacular as the previous day it was still a great ride with some nice curvy roads and plenty of scenery.

I think this was Capital Reef.

Somewhere in Utah.

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We ended up riding to Cortez, Co. where I found a totally forgettable motel room and the other guys went their way. That was the last time I saw those guys. I don't remember their names. I wonder how different things would have been if all of this had happened today. For one thing, today there would have been a pretty good chance that we were all on the same motorcycle forum. I know I would be doing a ride report and would have given them a link. Back then there were no cell phones so we didn't even think to exchange phone numbers.

I recently had a thought. How cool would be if one of those guys was on this forum, saw this ride report and responded? I doubt that will happen but I have been surprised before by people responding to my ride reports.

 

[klaviator]

From Cortez I rode to Durango and then up 550, the Million Dollar highway. It is another one of the top scenic roads in the country. I took some pics but they are probably not in order.

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