Sunday morning (05-01-05) ride photo links
_Bob_Nixon
http://extexltd.com/bigrex/05-05/TTF%2005-01-05A.jpg
Anyone else out riding. Please don't be shy about ride reports
(however trivial) in this group. We are riders 1st and talkers 2nd -:)
A nice ride makes this old busted up geezer feel about 1000% better.
BTW, thanks to Saddle for his BMW ride report from Columbus OH,
yesterday.
Bob Nixon, Chandler AZ-deer strike recovery-(completed)
01 Sprint ST "RED" 45K miles
03 GSXR 1000 "SILVER" 7K RIP (deer slain)
Saddlebag
> http://extexltd.com/bigrex/05-05/BOB%2005-01-05A.jpg
Where are your bags? No theifs in Phoenix?
> BTW, thanks to Saddle for his BMW ride report from Columbus OH,
> yesterday.
Yer welcome.
_Bob Nixon_
> _Bob_Nixon wrote:
>> http://extexltd.com/bigrex/05-05/BOB%2005-01-05A.jpg
>
> Where are your bags? No theifs in Phoenix?
Took them off to see if I could tell any difference. None that I could
tell. As to theft, There was an off duty Lady Motorcycle cop/ccs
racer/friend not more than 30 feet away, the whole time we were in
the restaurant. Out there (TTF), I always just leave the key in my
bike, anyway.
>> BTW, thanks to Saddle for his BMW ride report from Columbus OH,
>> yesterday.
>
> Yer welcome.
--
01 Sprint ST >45K miles
Troy the Troll
"_Bob_Nixon" <bi...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:kb7a71lui1qsk7sab...@4ax.com...
> http://extexltd.com/bigrex/05-05/BOB%2005-01-05A.jpg
> http://extexltd.com/bigrex/05-05/TTF%2005-01-05A.jpg
>
> Anyone else out riding. Please don't be shy about ride reports
> (however trivial) in this group. We are riders 1st and talkers 2nd -:)
> A nice ride makes this old busted up geezer feel about 1000% better.
Its snowing again here Bob. First MRA races of the year were this weekend,
they were cancelled.
~kurt
>
> Its snowing again here Bob. First MRA races of the year were this weekend,
> they were cancelled.
Thanks for reminding me why I got the hell out of Denver. Snow after
Feb is supposed to be rare. It just shouldn't happen in May.
Although I didn't get much riding done. A kid from the gym just bought
a GSXR600 and I was keeping an eye on him for a little bit. Despite
everyone's recommendations so far, no MSF course, or anything else -
although he plans on taking it soon. Then I took a short ride in the
nearby back roads. That actually wasn't too much fun today as the ground
was still wet from a heavy rainfall last night and things were just really
slick. I've been in pouring rain with more traction. I think there was
just enough combination of wet, and crap on the road, to make is so slippery.
- Kurt
Troy the Troll
"~kurt" <actino...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:5Phde.2821$7F4....@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> Troy the Troll <f4...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> Its snowing again here Bob. First MRA races of the year were this
>> weekend,
>> they were cancelled.
>
> Thanks for reminding me why I got the hell out of Denver. Snow after
> Feb is supposed to be rare. It just shouldn't happen in May.
I once woke up early in the morning over Memorial day to 6" in the
driveway...must have been 4 years ago or so. I took pictures because back
then, it was amusing. Now its just irritating when I've got the bike in the
garage all ready to go to work and I can't take it.
But then, April is the second snowiest month around here, March is the first
I think. And USUALLY it all melts within a day and its back to riding. This
happens in January and February as well.
_Bob_Nixon
Well, at least you don't need dual AC unit's in your house and pay
August electric bills high as $200.00;) In the car, AC is nessesary
from April thru late October, around these parts. Then again, were
both pretty close to cooler high altitudes.
~kurt
>
> I think. And USUALLY it all melts within a day and its back to riding. This
> happens in January and February as well.
Yes, quite often it melts away quickly. I noticed in the earlier part of
winter, the snow would quite often stick around for a while because the
sky would get overcast for some time. In the middle of winter, snow
would tend to stick around because there would be short periods of
extreme cold. But yea, most of the time the snow on the road at least
melts quickly. People over there just seemed overly optimistic about
the snow not remembering all the times it would stick around - or how
often it would come down.
- Kurt
Troy the Troll
>>Its snowing again here Bob. First MRA races of the year were this weekend,
>>they were cancelled.
>>
>
> Well, at least you don't need dual AC unit's in your house and pay
> August electric bills high as $200.00;)
Well....this is true. Evenings here, even on a 100F day, mean by the time
the sun goes down you can just open the windows and let the evening breeze
do the work.
> In the car, AC is nessesary
> from April thru late October, around these parts. Then again, were
> both pretty close to cooler high altitudes.
Yeah, that little red truck of mine ( the TWITT ) didn't even have A/C, and
the only time I really missed it was when I left the state and headed out
towards Vegas during the summer, or even across Kansas back east. I just
didn't really need it around here during the summer.
It gets cold here occasionally, but its still nice enough for almost
guaranteed January and February trackdays, so I'll stay I guess.
Peckham
> http://extexltd.com/bigrex/05-05/TTF%2005-01-05A.jpg
>
> Anyone else out riding. Please don't be shy about ride reports
> (however trivial) in this group. We are riders 1st and talkers 2nd -:)
> A nice ride makes this old busted up geezer feel about 1000% better.
Ride report, eh?
Well, as you know, we no longer do much of the sport bike thing. Instead,
we truck the trials bikes out into the forest in search of gnarly roots and
rocks and nastiness. I always like to warm up with a few wheelies:
http://128.95.90.110/images/moto_01.jpg
Then we take off into the deep forest:
http://128.95.90.110/images/moto_02.jpg. GW prefers the torquiness of the
280 (http://128.95.90.110/images/moto_03.jpg), and I've been "encouraging"
her to ride over the obstacles, rather than around them. After a few hours
she is beat and sweating like some kind of farm animal:
http://128.95.90.110/images/moto_04.jpg. Trials riding is one hell of a
workout.
Keep expecting to see wildlife out there, but the closest we've come to
animals are a bunch of toothless rednecks. There seems to be an endless
supply of 'em. Lots of other riders, 4 wheelers and quads too. We choose
twisty single track, as rough as we can find it to minimize our exposure to
other bikes - anti-social SOB that I am. By early afternoon we are headed
back to the city with dreams of pizza and beer!
>--
Peckham
Jamin Kortegard
> Anyone else out riding. Please don't be shy about ride reports
> (however trivial) in this group. We are riders 1st and talkers 2nd -:)
> A nice ride makes this old busted up geezer feel about 1000% better.
Yep, I went on a ride with a good friend and an assorted handful of his
friends. Those other guys I guess are my "friends" too, but I don't know
most of them very well at all, so right now they're just acquaintances.
The ride itself was good fun. My pal Jae and I scooped up his friend Jeff,
and Jeff's girlfriend, then met up with James and Chris a little later on.
Jeff still has the temporary plate on his 2005 GSX-R1000 (blue & white).
Nice looking bike, and the girlfriend says the passenger seating position is
more comfy than the 2003 he had previously.
Another new bike in the bunch was James's 2005 CBR1000RR in the Repsol Honda
paint scheme. He swears the paintjob adds something like 10 hp (kidding).
The truly funny thing is that when I first saw the bike and mentioned the
name Valentino Rossi he looked at me, puzzled, and said, "Who's that?" (not
kidding). Apparently not everyone keeps up with racing.
I did get to ride the CBR1000RR for a little bit as James and I traded
bikes. It's more slender at the knees than my R1, similar in feel to the
2005 R1 I rode not too long ago. Overall the CBR felt very nice, although
the fuel injection was as smooth as that on the Yamaha, especially when just
starting to pick up the throttle for a corner. Who knows, though. He'd just
put a Yoshimura pipe on it, and maybe there was tuning that needed to be
done to smooth it out. In any case, you can feel the extra ponies in the CBR
compared to my 2002 R1, very much like the 2005 R1 compared to my 2002. And,
while not necessary in any way, more ponies still feels good.
Once we'd rounded up the gang, I led them on a brief jaunt up through some
of my favorite country roads: Union Hill Rd, West Snoqualmie Valley Rd,
Tualco Loop Rd, Ben Howard Rd. To my astonishment, about half of these guys
hadn't been on these roads before. They had a good time.
After riding through cow country we headed back toward Seattle, and
specifically West Seattle, which is a little peninsula of land across the
harbor from downtown. West Seattle has many beachfront condos, and a
dwindling number of small individual beach houses between the condo
buildings. About a mile and half of sandy beach where folks play volleyball,
lounge about with friends, enjoy a good beach bonfire at night. When the
tide goes out all the little kids have fun running around in the kelp beds,
picking up crabs, clams and whatnot.
As you might imagine, there's a lot of slow cruising traffic on Beach Ave,
everyone's looking for parking or just watching all the people walking and
skating up and down the beachside path. We ended up having an early dinner
at a local place right there across from the beach, spending the time
talking about the ride and ogling all the people going by.
We didn't get crazy during the ride. Speeding, yes. People that have ridden
with me know that I keep a very level head on street rides. Fast enough to
have a good amount of fun, and maybe scrape a boot now and then, but never
flat out speed blasting down the highway. I actually tend to slow down in
the straight parts, as that allows the group to form back up and lowers our
risk of getting nabbed in a speed trap.
Speaking of speed traps, I recently installed a platform mount for my radar
detector. I got the electrical wiring done last week, and Sunday was the
maiden voyage out in the world. It did pretty well, and I could easily hear
the alerts at anything below 70 mph or so, even over wind noise and through
earplugs. Still, I'm considering an upgrade to the alert system, either an
amplified audio signal (Radar Screamer) or the HUD LED visual alert
(H.A.R.D. device). I'll be sure to comment on either once I make a choice.
And before you ask, no I don't have any pictures. Sorry.
--
Jamin Kortegard
a popular motorcycle / a popular car
"Hokey 600s and trackday usability are no match
for a good literbike at your side, kid."
- Michael
Saddlebag
So, did you happen to scope out a good one for the wifey and I to rent
in August?
_Bob_Nixon
Thnaks for sharing, Jamin. Sounded like a fun all day ride and
pictures are always optional. I suppose it's my own vanity that drives
me to post photos so often, or maybe just to add a bit of credability
to my posts. Thanks.....
PS. I also use a radar detector on longer trips now. My own plugs
right into the Sprint's, built in, 'lectric plug. My cheapie GPS unit
gets used in the truck most imes but it too can and has been rigged on
the bike as our slock speedo's are so wildly optomistic -:)
Saddlebag
> Thnaks for sharing, Jamin. Sounded like a fun all day ride and
> pictures are always optional. I suppose it's my own vanity that drives
> me to post photos so often
Hey Bob, I'm proud of my Pecker too. Wanna see my wife two handin him?
http://www.members.aol.com/saddlebag/Pecker.jpg
Bet you wouldn't a guessed he'd have such an ebony hue.
Jamin Kortegard
> So, did you happen to scope out a good one for the wifey and I to rent
> in August?
>
There are some nice little bungalows out there, and you can bet we'll go for
a cruise down the strip when you guys are out visiting. I gotta take you to
my favorite biker bar, after all.
PC Paul
The pictures are in the Yahoo Photo site in my sig line.
Saturday 4/30/2005:
Left the house in San Jose at 6:30am, jumped on 101 south accelerating
to about 70...get on the brakes, traffic is dead stopped a mile from the
on ramp. Arg! Turn on the PC's radio...uh oh, we have a fatal rollover
accident blocking all but one lane. Cruise by slowly, saying a prayer
for the victim(s) and family. Looks someone headed out camping for the
weekend.
Headed on into Gilroy and breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. After
filling up on a waffle, sunny side up eggs and sausage, we hit the road,
turning off 101 onto 25 south of Gilroy to Hollister. The beauty of the
morning is compensating for the grim beginning. Hollister looks like it
is already preparing for Bike Week (July 4th!). The valley south is
still verdant green from the unusual late rains, it soon enough will be
brown. Vineyards have pretty much taken over from the fruit orchards,but
there are still lots of cattle ranches. Make a couple of stops for
photos and coffee downloads. 54 miles to Hwy 198, make a quick
left/right jog onto Peachtree Rd. Rustic little one lane road that goes
another 35 or 40 miles, morphing into Indian Valley Road before coming
out to Hwy 101 at San Miguel. The wildlife is active here, I avoid
numerous ground squirrels and one cat. A small hawk is surprised as I
come around a corner and takes off with a large chunk of roadkill in
it's talons, it decides that I'm closing too fast and lets go, scoring a
direct hit in the center of my windshield! Ewww!
There is a parade in San Miguel (Cinco de Mayo?) and I have to detour
around it.
Blast south on 101 all the way to Buellton, home of Anderson's Split Pea
Soup. A quick 3 miles down Hwy 246 brings us to the quaint tourist trap
of Solvang, packed with Japanese tour buses. Arrive at the Motorcycle
Museum at 12:00.
Stroll through this great collection, taking lots of pictures, wishing I
had the time and money to enjoy these machines on the road.
Decide to grab lunch at "The Mustard Seed" restaurant in Solvang. Ugh!
Worst Monte Cristo sandwich I've ever had! This place gets a black star
rating.
Head west out of Solvang to Lompoc and Hwy 1, through Guadaloupe past
the "Far Western" Steak House on into Nipomo and my dad's house.
We had dinner at "Jocko's" in Nipomo, the best Steak I've had in a long,
long time.
Dad joins me the next morning for a ride to Morro Bay and breakfast at
"Carla's Country Cafe". Good eats! We ride together as far as Hwy 46,
where he heads off to Paso Robles and back home. I continue north on Hwy
1, enjoying the morning and blitzing a few corners. Just south of
Ragged Point I try to pass a BMW 318is that has been holding me up. As I
come around after the apex of a sharp left hander, he decides that he is
going to block me, coming several feet over the line. I instinctively
grab a little too much front brake and BANG, I'm down hard, coming to a
stop with my back up against a low curb. My left side is in agony and I
can barely breathe. All I can do is make painful noises and try to get
up. People were there almost instantly, but not the twit who cut me off.
He, according to witnesses, made some comment about getting the
paramedics and took off, never to return. Bastard. As I try to get to my
feet, a guy holds me down and says DON'T!, crawl forward first. What?
Crawl forward, you are right at the edge of the cliff! What cliff? OH!
the 100' one on the other side of the 6" curb! OY!
Hobble over to the bike, stand it up and coast down to a safe place.
Then I take a personal inventory, Ribs are main attraction, very painful
to breathe but not broken, both knees are roadrashed because I just wore
jeans (dumbass). Several folks were very helpful and told me what the
asshole did (leaving the scene). Nobody got the plate, damn. After
waiting for the Paramedics, I decided to head on to the Ragged Point Inn
and wait there. The left side of the bike was trashed, but it ran fine
and rode ok. The Paramedics finally showed up (20 mile trip for them),
cleaned and dressed the knees and confirmed the ribs bruised but not
broken. I decided to ride the 150 miles home. That was the most painful
ride I've ever made, but I'm very thankful that I could!
--
PC Paul
Trip pics at: http://photos.yahoo.com/paul1cart
"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to
society" - Theodore Roosevelt
Jamin Kortegard
> I instinctively grab a little too much front brake and BANG, I'm down hard,
> coming to a stop with my back up against a low curb.
I'm stating the obvious, but you might want to work on those instincts of
yours. :) That did look like a nasty drop-off in your pics. Thankfully you
didn't find out just how far down it was.
--
Jamin Kortegard
popular sportbike / popular car
PC Paul
> on 5/4/05 11:01 AM, PC Paul wrote:
>
>
>>I instinctively grab a little too much front brake and BANG, I'm down hard,
>>coming to a stop with my back up against a low curb.
>
>
> I'm stating the obvious, but you might want to work on those instincts of
> yours. :) That did look like a nasty drop-off in your pics. Thankfully you
> didn't find out just how far down it was.
>
krusty kritter
PC Paul wrote:
> Headed on into Gilroy and breakfast at the Black Bear Diner.
There's a Black Bear Diner chain in California. At least 20 restaurants
and expanding. Two of them in this county...
It's a gimmick restaurant chain. Big carved or stuffed black bear
outside. Maybe an old tractor with a big stuffed bear on it. Family
style food, no designer low-cal entrees, nothing for light eaters...
They sell a lot of black bear T-shirts and stuffed toy bears and their
menu is on a newspaper where they tell you the Gold Rush origin of the
restaurant and its philosophy that it's better to serve you $10 worth
of breakfast and send you on the road with a greasy doggy bag than to
serve you half the food at half the price and win twice as many
faithful customers...
Even the breakfast on the senior menu is too much to eat, it's two or
three days worth of greasy groceries to a sensible eater concerned with
cholesterol. The $1.29 special at Burger King is more food than I
really should eat!
A new BBD had a grand opening here in here in Cowpoop, so I gave it a
try to see if I liked it. Actually I tried it twice. Everybody was so
overbearingly nice at BBD, trying to make a good impression. I just
couldn't walk out of there after looking at the high menu prices and
seeing nothing particularly special either. And, with 16% unemployment
in this county, the servers need all the tips they can get...
I think I was waited on by at least half a dozen concerned waiters and
waitresses and the restaurant manager actually brought my food. He
negated all the good will the waitresses had built up when he said,
"There ya go, chief!"
That seems to be some kind of New Jersey-ism, calling people "chief",
or maybe it's ex-Navy vets that call strangers "chief". I dunno, I
don't look like an Indian chief, a police chief, a fire chief, or a
Navy petty officer, so I think it's just rude. "Sir" would do just
fine, as in, "Enjoy your breakfast, *sir*, if you need anything else,
just let me know."
> After filling up on a waffle, sunny side up eggs and sausage, we hit
> the road, turning off 101 onto 25 south of Gilroy to Hollister.
> The beauty of the morning is compensating for the grim
> beginning. Hollister looks like it is already preparing for Bike
> Week (July 4th!). The valley south is still verdant green from
> the unusual late rains, it soon enough will be brown. Vineyards
> have pretty much taken over from the fruit orchards,but
> there are still lots of cattle ranches. Make a couple of stops for
> photos and coffee downloads.
I like Hwy 25, it has far fewer big trucks and passenger car traffic
than
Hwt 101. I remember all the hawks and eagles, and I even saw a weasel
ducking into its burrow in a pasture last time I went through there...
> 54 miles to Hwy 198, make a quick left/right jog onto Peachtree
> Rd. Rustic little one lane road that goes another 35 or 40
> miles, morphing into Indian Valley Road before coming
> out to Hwy 101 at San Miguel. The wildlife is active here, I avoid
> numerous ground squirrels and one cat. A small hawk is surprised as I
> come around a corner and takes off with a large chunk of roadkill in
> it's talons, it decides that I'm closing too fast and lets go,
scoring a
> direct hit in the center of my windshield! Ewww!
Last time I rode north on Hwy 25. I approached it the other way, coming
from Coalinga across 198. In the tight twisties as 198 began to climb,
I passed a local in a pickup truck. As the road straightened out, he
felt more confident and began trying to keep up with my FZR-1000. Of
course I had power-to-weight on him and I was heroically hitting 100
mph on the straights, but I didn't know the curves like he did, I was
taking the curves cautiously and he would catch me and I would squirt
away like a squid...
We came up upon a Golden Eagle standing in the road, feeding off of
road kill. It was the first GE I ever saw that wasn't in a flight cage
at a zoo.
It flew away, and I wished that I could have stopped to watch it, but
that pickup truck was right on my ass! I finally stopped at a viewpoint
before Peachtree Rd., and let Mr. Thunder Road go by...
Hwy 198 crosses the Diablo Range, and Peachtree Rd. runs down along the
Gavilan Range that John Steinbeck wrote about in "The Red Pony" and
"East of Eden". Somewhere along Indian Valley road is where I think I
saw the non-official sign that says a particular ranch is the actual
Trask ranch that John Steinbeck tried to buy so he could write "East Of
Eden", which was
semi-autobiograpically. EOE was his big life work, though most readers
think it might be "Grapes of Wrath". I mention GOW to a local, and he
said he wasn't impressed, since Steinbeck had seemed so critical of
local farmers. This is still GOW country, some of the Okies'
grandchildren are still as hard up as their grandparents...
"Gavilan" means "hawk" in Spanish. You will see hundreds of Red-tailed
Hawks soaring with their broad wings held motionless, Red-shouldered
Hawks sitting on power poles, and American Kestrels sitting on
telephone wires.
Of the three, it's the tiny robin-sized American Kestrel that is most
likely to land on the road, trying to catch a lizard or a grasshopper.
They get run over and squashed often...
About two or three years ago, I was on an e-mail list, and one of the
listers said that he'd been riding on Peachtree Rd., when a bale of hay
fell off a rancher's truck, right in front of his VFR. He said that he
knew he couldn't stop, so he jumped off the bike, breaking one
handlebar off. But he rode the bike home...
> Blast south on 101 all the way to Buellton, home of Anderson's Split
Pea
> Soup. A quick 3 miles down Hwy 246 brings us to the quaint tourist
trap
> of Solvang, packed with Japanese tour buses. Arrive at the Motorcycle
> Museum at 12:00.
Follow Alisal Rd. south out of Solvang and it take you up to Nojoqui
Falls
park. The highest waterfall in southern California is there. It's a
travertine falls, some sort of calcium carbonate or silicate has been
deposited by the falling waters. Approaching Nojoqui falls, the oak
trees are covered with Spanish moss, like Carmel Valley Road...
> We had dinner at "Jocko's" in Nipomo, the best Steak I've had in a
long,
> long time.
Jocko's is well spoken of, I will try to remember it if I ever approach
Nipomo with a bunch of hungry carnivores...
> I continue north on Hwy 1, enjoying the morning and blitzing a
> few corners. Just south of Ragged Point I try to pass a BMW 318is
> that has been holding me up. As I come around after the apex of a
> sharp left hander, he decides that he is going to block me,
> coming several feet over the line. I instinctively
> grab a little too much front brake and BANG, I'm down hard, coming to
a
> stop with my back up against a low curb.
Highway 1 is fast and open from Morro Bay to scenic Piedras Blancas,
the bird rocks where there are just a few curves. Then it's fast again
up to just after Ragged Point, where the road suddenly narrows and
switches back with a 25 mph advisory sign. Then Hwy 1 is a bit of a
goat trail...
Unfortunately, the sporty car people and the sportbike people know
about Hwy 1 and they regard it as a sporting road, not a scenic road,
while the tourists poke along at low speed, looking at the scenery and
pulling out everywhere they can to see if they can look down at the
scenery that they've been told was along the Big Sur coast.
The best scenery on Hwy 1 is actually up around Point Lobos, far to the
north. Personally, I would stay off of Hwy 1 on a Sunday. If I wanted
to go north, I would take County Road G14 up past Lake Nacimiento and
Lake San Antonio and avoid the egomaniacs in their fast cars, then I
would find Carmel Valley Rd. and cross the Santa Lucia range to Hwy 1
again...
Fortunately, your crash wasn't all that serious. In a contest of wills
between two wheels and four, you lost the battle at the expense of
bruises, scrapes and some plastic. Nobody want to read what a Thursday
morning quarterback types about their mistakes but it's raining here
again and I has time on my hands...
Sure, there's a law that says the vehicle ahead of you is supposed to
move over to the right and maintain his speed if you flash your lights
or beep your horn, but it also sounds like you and the BMW driver were
already in a contest of will before you attempted the pass. I wouldn't
even flash my lights or beep my horn, I would approach the vehicle
ahead of me, and if he showed no signs of moving to the right, I would
just back off and ride at his pace on that rough goat trail with its
blind corners until I got to a
long straight where I could use my power...
> He, according to witnesses, made some comment about getting the
> paramedics and took off, never to return. Bastard.
The "bastard" would have a felony hit-and-run charge if anybody had
gotten his plate...
> As I try to get to my feet, a guy holds me down and says DON'T!,
> crawl forward first. What? Crawl forward, you are right at the edge
> of the cliff! What cliff? OH! the 100' one on the other side of the
> 6" curb! OY!
Yes, there are miles and miles of cliffs between Ragged Point and
Carmel, you could go over anywhere and never be found...
> Hobble over to the bike, stand it up and coast down to a safe place.
> Then I take a personal inventory, Ribs are main attraction, very
painful
> to breathe but not broken, both knees are roadrashed because I just
wore
> jeans (dumbass). Several folks were very helpful and told me what the
> asshole did (leaving the scene). Nobody got the plate, damn. After
> waiting for the Paramedics, I decided to head on to the Ragged Point
Inn
> and wait there. The left side of the bike was trashed, but it ran
fine
> and rode ok. The Paramedics finally showed up (20 mile trip for
them),
> cleaned and dressed the knees and confirmed the ribs bruised but not
> broken. I decided to ride the 150 miles home. That was the most
painful
> ride I've ever made, but I'm very thankful that I could!
Plastic is replaceable, scrapes and bruises heal. Fortunately, you
still have all the body parts you started with, and maybe you will ride
the G14 next time you go down to Solvang? There really isn't that much
to see on Hwy 1 between Piedras Blancas and Sand Dollar State beach
Park...
PC Paul
Actually, I've ridden G14 a number of times and enjoy it and most of the
other roads in that area. The traffic on Hwy 1 was actually quite light
for a Sunday. I ride down to Nipomo fairly often to see my dad. As far
as having "a contest of wills", there was no indication from the BMW
driver that he was even aware that there was anyone behind him. I could
see that the road ahead was clear for a long distance and even waited
until we were past the apex of the corner. You can see from the pictures
that he had to make a deliberate move into the oncoming lane when there
was no need to. Neither of us was "speeding". I was doing MAYBE
25-30mph. I've been riding a long time Krusty, and I was not being that
aggresive. It was a case of unprovoked assault with a deadly weapon in
my opinion.
krusty kritter
PC Paul wrote:
> >>I continue north on Hwy 1, enjoying the morning and blitzing a
> >>few corners. Just south of Ragged Point I try to pass a BMW 318is
> >>that has been holding me up. As I come around after the apex of a
> >>sharp left hander, he decides that he is going to block me,
> >>coming several feet over the line. > >
PC Paul wrote:
> As far as having "a contest of wills", there was no indication from
> the BMW driver that he was even aware that there was anyone behind
him.
> I could see that the road ahead was clear for a long distance and
> even waited until we were past the apex of the corner. You can see
> from the pictures that he had to make a deliberate move into the
> oncoming lane when there was no need to. Neither of us was
"speeding".
> I was doing MAYBE 25-30mph. I've been riding a long time Krusty, and
> I was not being that aggresive. It was a case of unprovoked assault
> with a deadly weapon in my opinion.
Well, only you know what really happened there, Paul. I got the
impression from your first statement that "he decides that he is going
to block me" meaning that he knew you were there but your second
statement is that "there was no indication from the BMW driver that he
was even aware that there was anyone behind him".
And you go on to say "It was a case of unprovoked assault with a deadly
weapon in my opinion," and I do agree that leaving the scene of an
injury accident without helping or exchanging information is a felony.
Since you didn't even get a license plate number, that issue is
probably dead, unless the other motorist feels pangs of remorse and
turns himself in.
Perhaps the BMW driver was totally unaware of your presence and was
startled and moved toward you as you passed? Just the other day, some
young girls in a car passed me at four times the speed limit, and
scared the heck out of me, as I didn't know they were coming until I
heard the whizz of their tires. I been enjoying the scenic beauty of a
drive around a local lake and wasn't expecting them to be driving 60
mph in a 15 mph zone.
I'm not trying to defend the BMW driver, though. It's not my job, I'm
not a judge or lawyer and this is not a court of law, so all I can do
is say I'm glad you weren't seriously injured and hope that you don't
get into such a position again.
One way to do this is to watch the driver's head through his back
window, to see if he seems to be looking at the rear view mirror. And
drivers will usually telegraph their intention to make a sudden move to
the left by looking left, or they might just fake you out by moving to
the *right* before grabbing a big handful of steering wheel to turn
*left*. A rancher towing a cattle trailer did that to me near Corcoran
last summer. I was passing him at 80 mph and almost got killed for my
impatience. I thought he was going to turn *right* at the intersection,
and I shouldn't have tried to pass him there at all.
PC Paul
All good points! Passing agricultural equipment can be deadly,
especially if the vehicle is long or towing something long, because they
will often veer right before turning left. Following a livestock trailer
or truck can be very unpleasant as well as dangerous! ;-)