Colombia, Canada, comments, and more…

Wow, so much to discuss.   It’s an early Sunday morning here in southern California and it is raining cats and dogs.   That doesn’t happen too often out here, and we need the rain.  I’m sitting near the back door as I type this sipping a cup of Colombian coffee (thinking about my upcoming adventure in Colombia), and listening to the rain pounding the aluminum awning.   I like it.

Lots of stuff to share with you this morning, my friends.

For starters, Duane, Tuan, and I went for a ride yesterday on the RX3s.  The plan was to ride Sheep Canyon Road across the mountains, take Angeles Crest over to Glendale, and head on back.   The first part went well, except that the dirt road heading over the San Gabriels (that would be Sheep Canyon) was in much worse shape than it used to be.   It’s a steep downhill descent, and in one spot there was a sharp drop over some exposed rock that was a real e-ticket ride.   I was right on that fine line between enjoying it and being scared too much to enjoy it.

Here are a couple of photos of Duane and Tuan after the descent…

Both these guys are interesting people.   Duane is one of Gerry’s techs in our Service Department, and he rode with us on the run to Overland Expo in Flagstaff earlier this year.  That was a great ride.   Tuan is a mechanical engineer.  He was a student of mine at Cal Poly Pomona, and he is doing very well engineering high-tech environmental control systems in a plant not too far from CSC.   Both guys are RX3 riders and both are fun to be around.

A quick comment on Sheep Canyon Road…it’s a rough run, and I always take it very slow.   Break bones out there and you’re screwed, blued, and tattooed.   It’s very steep in some areas, and as you view it in this video, bear in mind that the video really doesn’t show just how steep it is…

One thing I noticed during the ride yesterday is that with the 10-weight oil in my forks (thanks very much, Gerry!), the bike handles the rough stuff way better than it does with the stock oil.  There was no topping/bottoming out on the rebound cycle as occurs with the stock oil, and it was a much better ride.

Angeles Crest Highway was closed yesterday due to a rock slide, so we opted to follow the road around the northern side of the San Gabriels.   That’s a great ride, and we stopped for photos in front of the Valyermo Post Office…

Cool stuff.  I photographed the road, and then I converted that photo to black and white…

We rode up to Devil’s Punchbowl State Park, and we discovered that Tuan was getting a flat tire.  It happens, and it probably happened as a result of heading over Sheep Canyon Road through the mountains.  That road was gnarly.  It’s the second time I’ve seen guys get flats as a result of riding that trail.  That curtailed our plans a bit, but we still managed to ride close to 200 miles yesterday.   It was fun.

I told you a day or two back that I’d been invited to ride in Colombia, and I guess that started a trend.   There’s an active RX3 discussion over on the TW200 board, and I weighed in with comments of my own.   Those boys are a hardy bunch, and one of them challenged me to ride with them on their 5000-mile ride next summer in Canada and Alaska.   Hey, that’s not a challenge….that’s an invitation, which I accepted immediately.  Colombia, check.  Canada, check.   What’s next?

Comments on 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM continue to pour in.   Yeah, I’ll brag a bit more.

This one is from my good buddy Rob, who rode part of the Western America Adventure Ride with us.

I couldn’t wait till winter to start reading your book and must say it’s very interesting and an entertaining read. Lots of good info on what you guys went through to get the RX3 into the USA. I’m only through chapter 6 so far but find it hard to put down it’s so well written and interesting. 

Thanks, Rob!

And here’s one from my good buddy Marty, whom I’ve ridden with many times throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico…

I just finished your book and what a story it is!  I could hear your voice in my head, and I said to myself, that’s Joe Berk, master storyteller.  You had me laughing out loud when I read about the wheel-sized pancakes.  A great ride in the West, with everything that’s good in long-distance motorcycling and everything that’s bad in a large-group ride.  I would have enjoyed being one of the troops, but there isn’t money enough to make me want to do what you had to do.  Joe, the old saying is that when one door closes, another opens; in your case three doors open, and somehow, you manage get through all three.  Thanks for a great read and a beautiful ride.

Marty, thanks very much!

My good buddy Robert is the RX3 importer in the Dominican Republic.  Here’s what Robert had to say…

When I first saw the Cyclone RX3 adventure/tourer motorcycle I knew right away it was a game-changer bike, and I put the gears in motion to become the distributor for the Dominican Republic, a long and difficult task.  When I saw CSC was bringing the bikes to America, I kept up with their journey through the CSC blog.

When I saw Joe Berk wrote a book about the process, I bought the book right away and haven’t been able to put it down yet.  Some parts I’ve read several times.  Joe tells an amazing first-person story of himself, CSC, and the bike.

Excellent story for Cyclone RX3 owners and motorcycle enthusiasts! Highly recommend!

Rob, glad you enjoyed it, and best wishes for your new venture in the Dominican Republic.   You may have noticed that I’ve already been invited to ride in Colombia and Canada.   I’ve never ridden in the Dominican Republic (hint, hint…).

And one more from my good buddy Bob in Oklahoma…

I’ve lost track of how many books I have purchased, started, lost interest in and never finished.

I received your book last week and finished it this evening.

I follow your blog nearly every day.

I debated about buying the book because I was afraid it would just be a re-hash of the blog entries. Yes a lot of the material in the book was familiar from seeing it on the blog. BUT, there was a whole lot of new material also. I received many strange looks from my wife when I started laughing out loud at some of the humorous things in it.

Many of the books I read, I have trouble maintaining concentration and wind up day dreaming about who knows what. Or getting drowsy and wind up reading the same page over and over and over again until giving up and going to bed. This was definitely not the case with your book.  I didn’t want to put it down. Then when I did, I often wound up picking it back up and reading some more. I really enjoyed it from start to finish.

Thank you for writing it. You did a great job.

Thanks very much, Bob!   I’m glad you liked 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM.

That’s it for now, folks.   Ride safe, stay tuned, and buy the book!