A Saturday morning ride…

Yesterday morning I went for a ride on Glendora Ridge road with my good buddy Marty.   Marty has a superbike…a BMW K1300S…

I took my KLR instead of either the RX3 or the TT250, mostly because I haven’t ridden the KLR in months and I wanted to color match Marty’s bike.   Nah, I’m just kidding about that color thing.   Truth be told, I like the handling of my two CSC bikes much better than the KLR.  But, I still enjoy riding the beast…and it is running better than it ever has!

I was really surprised at how top heavy the KLR felt yesterday.  I guess I’m just used to more nimble bikes like the TT250 (the air-cooled TT250 is incredibly light to the touch…you just think where you want to go, and the TT250 is there).    Don’t get me wrong; I still enjoy riding the KLR (especially after Gerry made it a new bike again for me).  It’s just that the RX3 and the TT250 are so much better motorcycles.  And a note to all of you guys out there who ride KLRs…if you want to get your Kawi purring better than it did when it was new, Gerry is your guy.   He went through my bike and touched everything, including:

• Cleaning and adjusting the carb.
• Installing a new air filter.
• Installing a new battery.
• Changing the oil and the filter.
• Flushing the radiator.
• Replacing the fork oil.
• Replacing the brake fluid front and rear.
• Adjusting the clutch.
• Checking and tightening the spokes.
• Installing new fork seals.
• Fixing and remounting the windshield (the KLR cracks windshields on a regular basis due to its high vibration levels).
• Installing a new chain.
• Adjusting the valves (actually, Gerry just checked my valves; they were still in spec).

I probably missed a few things in the above list, but you get the idea.  The bike runs extremely well now.

When we were about halfway through our ride in yesterday morning’s crisp and cool mountain air, we stopped for the photos you see above at the intersection of Glendora Mountain Road and the East Fork Road, and to my surprise another guy on an RX3 rode by.  It was my good buddy Mike, who was out doing the same thing we were…

Mike has over 16,000 miles on his RX3.  He’s done that in just a little over a year.  In contrast, I have just under 15,000 miles on the KLR and I took 11 years to do it.    And for those of you who are wondering, I have about 12,000 miles on my RX3 (and maybe another 12,000 on other RX3s, like the ones I rode in Colombia and China).

That’s it for now, although I may post another blog later today.   There’s a lot happening around here.  I’m wrapping up an article on the China trip for one of the motorcycle magazines, and I’ve got another cool topic to tell you about in the next blog.   The writing thing is a hobby for me, and there is a lot more to it than just sitting down and banging out stuff on the keyboard.  Writing is both a joy and a burden…I love the writing, but I hate it when I’m not happy with what I write (which is what always happens with the first draft of anything).

There’s an old saying in the keyboard-punching business:  There are no good writers; there are only good rewriters.  I sure agree with that.  I don’t write anything without rewriting it multiple times, including every one of these blogs.  I always worry if I am clearly stating the message I want to communicate, if the writing flows, if the paragraphs make sense, if I screwed up the spelling anywhere, and on and on it goes.   When I do the “Destinations” pieces for Motorcycle Classics, they are only about 600 words, but I put an enormous amount of time into those 600 words.   And then there’s the actual visits to the places I write about and the photography.  I’ll send the magazine the 15 or 20 photos I like best, knowing that they are only going to use two.   It’s always fun to guess which two photos my good buddy Landon at MC will select.   I’ve been doing it long enough that I can usually nail which ones he’ll pick.  The latest issue of MC (the one hitting the stands now) has my story on the Naval Air Museum in Tillamook, Oregon (one of our stops on the 5,000-mile Western America Adventure Ride), and the next issue will have my story on…well, you’ll have to buy the magazine to read all about it!

This writing and rewriting business is the same with the magazine article I’m doing right now on the China trip.  It’s only 2,000 words, but I’ve spent several weeks trying to select the perfect 2,000 words.   And I took about 7,000 photos during my 40 days in China.  I’ll pick the best of those and give the magazine maybe a hundred to pick from.   The photos help, but the real story will be the article.   We’ll see if the editor likes it.  I will when I’m done with it, but it’s not my vote that counts.

So I got off track for a bit and I didn’t mention the most important development of our ride yesterday.   After our morning ride, Marty and I stopped at the CSC plant, and there’s exciting news there:  We’re going racing!  Yep, we are, but you’ll have to wait just a bit to read about it.  Stay tuned, and I’ll tell you about that in the next blog!