New Bike!

So after a week of waiting I picked up my shiny new pearl white Ducati 848! I've only put about 35 miles on it so far today, but due to all the dirt and gravel and water on the roads it's already totally filthy. Oh well, I'll just wash it tomorrow.

So far it's such a different bike from my old one. It's so much more nimble and more powerful than my old 620. I've been takin it real easy so far just trying to get used to everything.

Anyway, enough talkin, here are the pics:

My first crash!

They say there are two types of riders, those who have gone down and those who are yet to go down. I am now officially a member of the first group. The weather was gorgeous today so I decided to head out and get in some riding and check out some of the usual roads out twords Dewatto and Tahuya. I was on my way home taking the back roads out of Gorst up to Bremerton when it happened. There was a lot of dirt/gravel still on the road from all of the ice we've had lately so I was taking it easy, only going about 25mph going through a slight right hand bend, even thinking to myself "Ok, I'm gonna take it nice and easy cause of all the gravel" when my rear tire slid out from under me and I low-sided. I didn't slide very far and was able to get right back up and shake it off. Fortunately there was a guy who saw what happened and came over to help me pick up my bike and make sure I was ok. I was wearing full gear and it really saved my ass.

The bike was ridable so I rode home, but by then my right hand was really starting to hurt. I changed my clothes and called my friend Kevin and he gave me a ride down to the hospital cause there was no way I would be able to shift to drive properly. They checked me out and thankfully nothing was broken. My right hand is banged up pretty good and I'll prolly have some gnarly bruises tomorrow, but I'll be ok. They gave me some pain killers and sent me on my way.

After all that I was able to inspect the damage to the bike. Fortunately there is nothing that absolutely has to be replaced immediately. The frame sliders did their job and took the brunt of the damage. The bad news is that the rear brake lever for my bitchin CycleCat rearsets is bent, it's usable, but I'll probably want to get a new one. I'll need to replace the right side frame slider as well. The tank has a small scratch in it as does the front faring. I guess there goes the resale value. The front brake lever is scraped up at the end, but isn't bent and is still usable. Same goes with the right side mirror. The back of the mirror is scratched up pretty nicely, but it's usable. Most of my gear survived with only minor scuffs. The gloves, pants and jacket don't have any major damage at all. My helmet however has some nice scratches in it. I've heard that helmets are only good for one impact, so I may have to replace it. Buying a new $600 helmet is not something I'm looking forward to.

All in all I have to say I was god damn lucky. My only physical damage is relatively minor as is the damage to my bike. Full gear saved my ass.

Here are some pics:

Old Man Winter and Plans for 2008

Geez, it's been five-ever since I've updated my blog. Why is that? Well cause it's fucking cold and rainy out thats why! I don't exactly get a chance to ride much this time of year. My bike has been lonely sitting in the garage for the past few months. I try to get out and tool around town a little bit when the weather clears up a bit. I don't really get to ride except to the store or the bar or some place close. Anything more than 10-15 minutes and I'm freezing ass cold. Although it is VERY nice to be able to come home and jump into the hot tub right after riding and my body is still very cold.

I have however installed some new heated grips on my bike, and boy are they awesome. They make a huge difference this time of year. I can always put on an extra layer (or two) when I go out for a ride, but the one problem I've always had was with my hands. The new heated grips should help that.

It's a new year, and that means a whole new set of goals for the bike:
- Get a god damn radar detector. I accumulated something like 8 tickets (seriously) during 2007 so my goal is to reduce that drastically this year. I'm trying to decide between the Valentine One and the new Escort Passport 9500. Both are in the $400 range and are both considered the top of the line. I should be able to hook it up so I can move it between my car and the motorcycle, which is my ultimate plan. I know that the radar detector isn't a 100% guarantee that I won't get any tickets (especially with the way I ride/drive), but I know for sure it would have helped me in the past, so it can only help in the future.
- Get a new Alpinestars jacket that will zip to my leather pants. I have some really nice leather Alpinestars leather track pants, but I need a jacket that will properly zip to it if I am going to do any track days this year...
- Take my bike out to the track! I've been riding for a year and a half now and have logged damn near 19,000 miles and damnit, I'm good enough to go out on the track. I want to sign up for a beginner track school where I can get some good instruction and learn more about riding. I've heard that just one of these days at a track school will increase my riding ability drastically.
- Fabricate some form of passenger footpegs. Ok, this is mostly a vanity thing. Ever since I put on the new CycleCat rearsets I haven't had any passenger footpegs, and I've had a few girls ask me for rides when I simply can't. Girls like my motorcycle, and I like girls, so yeah. I'm a sucker.
- Plan a big ride for this spring/summer. I did a fantastic ride down to California last year, and I want to do something similar (but not quite as long) this year. There are some good rides out around the Washington/Oregon/Idaho/Montana border mountains so I'm thinking that if I can stay at my friends place in Pullman, Washington that would be a good base of operations to head out on a couple nice day rides.

Argh

Well, good news and bad news. The good news is that my bike will finally be ridable again this afternoon after being out of commission for THREE weeks. The bad news is that the local motorcycle shop only ordered one set of brake pads for a bike that has two front rotors (meaning it needs two sets). So now they have to order another set of pads and I have to take my bike in yet again once they show up. Fortunately it shouldn't take too long for the pads to show up and my bike is rideable until then.

The only reason my bike is even ready today is because I spent Tuesday afternoon busting my ass to get my hands on a rear sprocket from Ducati Seattle. I called my local guys Tuesday afternoon and the rear sprocket they were waiting on from Italy still had not shown up after damn near three weeks. So I called up DucSea and they had one in stock, but it was too late in the day for me to get over there to pick it up. Fortunately my friend Greg from desmonorthwest.com (great group of guys) was nice enough to swing by and pick it up for me and meet me at the ferry terminal. He drove up right out front, handed it to me all in time for me to haul ass and turn around and get right back on the same ferry. Saved me a good hour of fucking around.

New Rearsets

About two weeks ago I bought a new pair of black CycleCat Rearsets (foot controls for the lingo impared) from another Ducati owner in California. They didn't fit his bike so I got them for almost $200 cheaper than MSRP. Well they finally showed up last week and I installed them on Thursday all by myself. I was pretty happy with myself for doing all the work on my own without even needing the instructions. Part of the installation involved relocating the rear brake master cylinder which caused a lot of air to get into the brake lines. The one thing I couldn't do on my own was bleed the brakes as I had never done it before and wanted to make sure I was doing it right. Well last night my good friend Erick came over and showed me exactly how to do it. So now I can actually ride my bike again as the rear brakes finally work. The rearsets have about a million different adjustements that can be made to them so I have to spend some time tweaking everything to get the feel just right. The first time I took it out the shift lever was so high I couldn't even get it into second gear.

So after all that I took my bike into the shop this morning for some scheduled maintenance. The last time it was in was before I left for California over 4,000 miles ago. I had to order a new chain and both new sprockets because mine were just beat to shit. And of course even though they were ordered two weeks ago they still had not shown up yet to the shop. Gotta love getting parts from Italy! As I was riding to the shop this morning I couldn't feel my rear brake lever, so I looked down and it was just hanging there. I stopped and it turns out that the brake linkage had come loose so I had lost my connection to the brakes. Fun. So now that it has finally stopped raining and the sun has come out and I could actually ride again for the first time in a week, my bike is in the shop. Bummer.

Anyway, here are the pics of my new rearsets:

New Rearsets on my table:
Old Setup:
Right Side Installed
Left Side Installed
New Setup

Day Seven - Tuesday June 26

At long last my journey would be coming to an end. I woke up early and was determined to make it home by the end of the day. Riding out of Bend at 6am was by far the coldest I had been on the entire trip. It got so bad at one point that I was forced to pull over and warm my hands up on my exhaust a couple times. Eventually the sun came out and I was able to continue feeling somewhat warmer. I made my way up twords Mount Hood through the forest up there. I wound up on a paved logging road that was only ONE lane! The forest was thick and the road was barely wide enough for even a single car. If a car, or a fucking logging truck, were to be coming in the other direction neither of us would have much reaction time to get out of the way. Because of this I slowed down and was pretty cautious. It was a nervous hour or so, but I made it out the other side without seeing a single car the entire time. I just kept heading North and eventually made it to Hood River, Oregon for an early lunch.

From there I crossed the Columbia River into Washington and worked my way up to Mount Saint Helens. I could have just gone the easy route and hit I-5 to get home but that would have been boring as shit and I still had plenty of time. As I made my way closer to Mount Saint Helens I noticed that they had just opened the road up to Windy Ridge which goes up the East side of the Mountain. This was a VERY cool road as I rode right through areas that were still devastated by the explosion twenty years ago. All the trees were completely barren and grey and on their side, very erie. Once up closer to the mountain I saw Spirit Lake which had a large amount of trees floating in it still. I got some pictures and headed back. They call it Windy Ridge for a very good reason. It was so windy up there I was afraid my bike would actually fall over while I was walking around.

From there I made my final trek back home. As I was getting close to Tacoma I came upon two guys riding two-up on a little Buell. The two of us played follow the leader for a little bit passing cars and hauling ass around corners as much as possible. It was a lot of fun as I hadn't ridden with anyone else my entire journey. Finally, I made it home all in one piece after almost 3,000 total miles ridden. The bike was a complete mess and was covered in bug guts. I even pulled a full size dragonfly out of the hinge of my front brake lever. Considering everything it was a fantastic success as me and my bike were in one piece and I got in a fantastic amount of riding experience in just a week.

Day Seven Route

Pictures

Day Six - Monday June 25

At this point in my journey my main goal was just to get home. My goal for the day was to get to Klamath Falls, Oregon, but I was pretty sure that I would be able to get past that. So again I set out at the crack of dawn to get ahead of the traffic. I made my way up through the mountains and the forests to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Apparently Lassen Mountain is a dormant volcano that erupted not so long ago (in geologic terms at least.) The biggest thing I noticed about this park was the extreme elevation. I had been up and over numerous mountains and passes, but this was much higher than I had been previously on my trip. When I entered the park I was at 3,000 feet elevation, but at it's highest point I was all the way up at 10,000 feet! And yes, there is snow on the ground in June at that elevation. There was even a small mountain lake that was still partially frozen. The best part of all this was I had neglected to monitor my fuel and my fuel light came on while I was still climbing the mountain. I did my best to conserve gas and came down the back side of the mountain with the clutch in as much as possible. Lucky for me they had a gas station and market on the far side of the mountain so I was able to refuel on gasoline, snickers and beef jerky.

At this point I was pretty much out of the California mountains so I headed up to Klamath Falls at full throttle. All this speeding was bound to catch up to me, and it did. When I was only about 5 miles from the Oregon border I got tagged by CHP for going 80 in a 60 zone. I tried to talk him into letting me go because I was almost out of his jurisdiction, but he didn't care. Oh well, just the cost of doing business I suppose. It was still early afternoon by the time I got to Klamath Falls so I just got lunch and headed out to Crater Lake.

I had been to Crater Lake once when I was a kid, but I didn't really remember it so it was nice to go back and check it out. The lake is just an amazing color of blue. The only source of water for the lake is rain and the melting snow of the mountains that ring the lake so it is extremely pure. They don't allow anyone or any boats in the lake so that keeps it extremely clean and even from the ridge you can see way down into the water. I got some great pictures then headed off to Bend for the night. It took about two hours to get to Bend from the lake, and it was some of the most boring riding of the entire trip. Long flat straight roads with just enough traffic to make going very fast impossible. I got a room in Bend and headed to the local McMenamins for some dinner, ready to head home the next day.

Day Six Route

Pictures

Day Five - Sunday June 24

The first half of Sunday was spent at the lake packing up all our camping gear and just getting ready to head home. I got back to the cabin (where I had stored my bike and all my gear) around noon so I grabbed some lunch before heading out for the day. My goal for the day was Tahoe City along the North shore of Lake Tahoe. I left Groveland and made my way North to Jackson before turning East to head up Highway 88 to get to Lake Tahoe. This was another great road that wound up through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. At one point along the road I could see what looked like a large forest fire way off in the distance. I couldn't actually see the fire at this point, but I could see the massive cloud of smoke being generated. As I continued along the highway I could see the cloud of smoke getting bigger and bigger as I got closer. Eventually I realized that I was heading directly at it.

Once I got close to Lake Tahoe I merged with another highway and at that point everything changed. The highway I had been on had very light traffic with only a few cars, but now it was total gridlock. At this point the fire was just over the hill, very close to the road and it was obvious that there were some significant evacuations underway. Fire Trucks as well as Police cars were constantly moving through traffic to get to the fire. Because traffic had slowed to a crawl in both directions I just took off down the road along the shoulder. At one point I actually went right through the smoke from the fire and the entire sky was orange from the reflection of the fire off the smoke, it was very cool. I do regret not getting a picture of this.

Once I got through the fire the traffic lightened up considerably as I wound my way North along the edge of the lake. I did stop to get some good pictures of the cloud of smoke working its way over the lake. Once I got to Tahoe City I found a motel and got some dinner. After looking at a map I realized I was only about a half hour from Carson City, Nevada. It was still pretty early so I headed out over to Nevada and made a visit to the Sagebrush Ranch. I hung out in the bar and watched some of the local talent entertain me. I didn't partake in the full meal deal, but it was still a very unique experience.

Day Five Route

Pictures

The Cabin
The Fire
The Ranch

The Pedro

Every year for the past four years I have headed down to California to go camping out at Lake Don Pedro with some of my very good friends who live in California. In previous years I had always flown, but as you are well aware, I rode my bike down this year. This year my friend Chris had a big surprise for everyone when he showed up with a brand new seriously bitchin boat! We spent the next several days just playing on the boat and a pair of jetskis and getting shit hammered drunk at night. In years past we've never come close to running out of beer, but we were in serious jeopardy of running out this year. On Saturday night it was so bad that we were down to drinking Tecate beer. We were scavenging through all the coolers desperately searching for something else to drink, but we were unsuccessful and were forced to continue our drinking games with Tecate. It's all about the sacrifices.

Day Four - Wednesday June 20

Today was my big day to ride through Yosemite National Park. I got up bright and early (as always) and headed out to the park entrance. Fortunately my friends parents have a yearly pass to the park so I was able to use that to get in without paying. That's always a nice bonus. I started out heading East through the park across Tioga Pass Road. This road is closed during the Winter due to it's high elevation, but it's open during the summer. This was a great ride because there was very little traffic so early on the road so I was able to really haul ass. Once I got over the mountains it opened up into a vast meadow on the East edge of the park. There was a small market here so I stopped off and grabbed some breakfast before heading West back the way I came. This section had a great high elevation lake and I got some excellent pictures.

After heading back near the park entrance I went down into the main Yosemite Valley. This is where all of the famous landmarks of Yosemite National Park are located (El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and Half Dome). There was a lot of traffic now, but that didn't matter because it was nice to just roll along at 20mph and stare up at all the fantastic scenery. I got a couple great shots of my bike in front of Yosemite Falls here.

After venturing through the valley I went up Granite Point Road which wound its way up the mountains along the South side of the Yosemite Valley. This was a much nicer road as far as riding conditions went because the corners were perfect, there wasn't much traffic and the views were fantastic. Once I got to the end of the road there were several lookouts where you could get the best views of Half Dome. I got in some rest and some great pictures then headed back. This is another road that is closed during the Winter so there was a large elevation change across the 20 miles or so. Just as I was coming near the end of the road I passed a Jeep with a couple girls in it. I tried to get them to follow me, but they just couldn't keep up.

I spent the next couple hours winding my way down and around the various canyons and valleys to get back to the cabin. I swear ever time I thought I was getting close there was yet another hill for me to get over. I made it back to the cabin sometime in the mid afternoon after doing a little over 300 miles for the day. A few hours later all my friends started showing up for our camping trip. We stayed up late talking and drinking copious amounts of beer.

Day Four Route

Pictures