A man, a motorcycle, and America…

Well, it was five men, and it wasn’t all of America.  It was just one of the best roads in America, the world famous Angeles Crest Highway!

So I’m retired now, but I’m busier than ever. My son-in-law told me I’m already failing at being retired, and maybe he’s right.  I’m sure having fun, though.  Like today, for instance.  It’s the first Saturday of the month, and you know what that means:  It’s our monthly CSC company ride.

Glorious day, today was, and I was up super early in anticipation of the good times I knew I would have this fine Saturday.  Not that I needed to be up early, but I turned the alarm clock on last night and I forgot that I had set it to 4:00 a.m. for a flight I needed to make last week.  Gotta remember to change that.  Anyway, the alarm worked, and I was up like a bolt of lightning at 4:00 a.m.  I could have gone back to sleep, but hey, I was up and I wasn’t going to let the day go to waste.   I had a quick cup of coffee and a quick read of the newspapers (will they ever get tired of bashing President Trump?), I did a quick once-over of my RX3, and then I had a relaxed ride in on the 210 freeway.

My RX3 is running great and it was an easy lope into Azusa.   My ride was smooth as glass.  There was no traffic and I love early morning rides.  I had told everybody to arrive for our ride with a full tank and that meant I had to do the same, so I stopped at the Shell station around the corner from CSC.  Just for giggles I checked my fuel economy…

You know, I’ve always maintained that the RX3 returns better than 70 mpg.  That’s still the case with mine. I’m at about 15,000 miles on my RX3 now.  We sometimes see posts from folks who aren’t getting the same mileage as I do, but folks, I’m not making this up.  I ride in a pretty relaxed manner, and I guess my riding style optimizes fuel economy.  I tend to shift at moderate engine speeds and when I accelerate I’m not trying to win a drag race.   I weigh about 180 and I don’t have a lot of extra stuff hanging off my bike (other than the stock luggage, guards, windshield, etc.).  I keep my tires inflated to the proper pressure and the air cleaner clean, I keep the valves in spec, I keep the chain adjusted and lubed, and I don’t overfill the crankcase with oil (which we sometimes see when bikes come in for service).   All of these things will affect your fuel economy.

Anyway, back to the ride today. Steve always brings donuts in on Saturday, and today was no exception…

Ah, decisions, decisions.  I went with the coconut one and I had another cup of coffee, but I only ate half of the donut.   I don’t want to hurt my RX3’s fuel economy,  you know.

We had a good crew show up for the ride today, and we left at 9:00 a.m. for the Crest.  The weather was perfect, the roads were clear, and the scenery along the Crest was simply stunning (as it always is).   Much to my great surprise and delight, as we rolled into the parking lot at Newcomb’s, I saw my good friend Arlene.  Wow, talk about happy coincidences!

Arlene is the CEO of Go Go Gear, and she told me business is great.  That’s awesome.   You may remember Arlene from some of our other adventures, not the least of which was our round trip to Cabo San Lucas on the CSC 150 scooters a few years ago.   Here’s one of my favorite photos from that trip…

I shot that photo right at the edge of the Sea of Cortez in Santa Rosalia.  Good times.

Okay, back to the present…we had a great breakfast at Newcomb’s Ranch this morning.   Good times, good riding, good friends, good food, and great conversation.  I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

Here’s a shot of Duane and Peter in the restaurant…

One of the best parts of any motorcycle ride is the conversation at meals like this one, and the food was great, too.  I normally get a couple of eggs with extra crispy bacon (man, that sounds good just typing it), but I went healthy and had a granola yogurt with fresh fruit (and it was awesome).   Our conversation centered on cameras, videos, the Internet forums, the media, politics, President Trump, and all the usual stuff motorcycle guys talk about.   We all agreed the country is going to hell in a hand basket (but hey, that conclusion has spanned my entire 50-year riding career), and that the news media has degenerated into a huge propaganda machine (pick your politics, and then watch the news and read the papers that pander to your position).  The joke is that if Trump walked on water, tomorrow’s LA Times headline would be “Trump Can’t Swim.”  I told the guys the real problem is this:  All the guys who really know how to run the country are out riding their motorcycles.  That got a good laugh and we left to continue our ride.

As we were leaving the restaurant, I stopped to chat with a guy who looked even older than me (which I guess is still possible) and I asked him if he came up to Newcomb’s on a motorcycle.   Nope, he said…he drove up to Newcomb’s in his Ferrari.  A Ferrari.  Wow.  I told him about my RX3, and that brand new it cost less than 1% of what his Ferrari cost (and I didn’t think he was having a hundred times as much fun as I was).  It was good for another laugh.

We posed for a few more photos in the parking lot…

I wore my Nikon around my neck for the ride to Wrightwood, and as we left the parking lot I spotted the Ferrari the old-timer told me about earlier, along with two more matching Italian stallions…

I don’t know.  A Ferrari.   I just don’t think you can trust anything made in Italy.   I heard they use kids for slave labor and chain them to the production equipment.  And I heard those Italians are currency manipulators who just copy other people’s designs.

Nah, all kidding aside, I think Ferraris are beautiful.  I’m just having a little fun with my comments, you know, pretending I’m posting on an Internet forum about, well, never mind.  I left out the intermittent capitalized words and the emojis so you know I’m not being serious.  You know what I’m describing:  It’s the apparent inverse correlation between intellect, and how frequently Internet trolls use capital letters and emojis.

So, back to the Ferraris:  There’s a ton of cash sitting in those three cars (my guess is well over a million bucks), and they are indeed beautiful.  If I had a Ferrari, it would be red.   Like orange on an RX3, red on a Ferrari would make it faster.

Riding the Crest from Newcomb’s to Wrightwood was again amazing, and Lone Pine Canyon from Wrightwood back down to the Cajon Pass was similarly awesome…

We went through a couple of tunnels in quick succession, too…

It was weird, as I couldn’t remember a tunnel on the Crest from my previous rides.   I don’t like tunnels.  When I rode across China last summer, we went though a lot of tunnels, and the tunnels were long (as in 10 to 20 miles long).    Here’s a shot of one of probably more than 200 tunnels we rode through on that epic trek across the Ancient Kingdom…

The China ride was cool, but I sure felt uncomfortable in those tunnels that seemed to go on forever.  You can read all about it in Riding China.   And you know what?  I’m going to be back with the guys in Chongqing in a few more days (more proof, I guess, that I’m not very good at the retirement thing).  I’m really looking forward to seeing my Zongshen buddies and talking about the new models we have coming down the pike (and yes, that’s “models” with an “s”).

At the end of Lone Pine Canyon, there’s this really cool rock formation on the other side of Highway 138…

The area is called Mormon Rocks.  They used to film old Western movies out here.  Cool stuff.

We made one last stop, and I grabbed two more photos.  One is of Duane and Steve…

And the other is after I filled my tank again…

Good times, folks.  You have to ride with us on the next CSC ride.  It will be the 1st Saturday in July, which my calendar says is 1 July!  I hope to see you then!