Circumnavigating the Gorge…

Posted on April 29, 2017

You know, I’ve visited a few places in my time and I have a few favorites.   I have to tell you that the Columbia River Gorge is right at the top of the list.   This area, in a word, is beautiful.  We sure are having a good time, and tomorrow it’s over as we fly back to California.  But I’ll be back.  I love it up here.

Sue and I flew to Portland on Southwest (my favorite airline) for a quick 48-hour circumnavigation of the Columbia River Gorge, and it has been fantastic.  I wish I could tell you I did the ride on a motorcycle, but it was four wheels for us on this trip due to the limited time I had to do it.  We picked a Hyundai Veloster at the National rental lot in Portland, mostly because of car’s color and its styling…

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It’s an interesting car and it sure is pretty.   I’ve probably put a couple of hundred miles on it in the last two days and the gas gage tells me I still have more than half a tank of gasolina left.

The drill on the Oregon side of the Gorge is to stay on Highway 30, the Historic Route that roughly parallels the Columbia River.  The views are stunning and the road is just perfect for a motorcycle adventure.  We have to organize a CSC ride up here sometime.

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Most of the photos I posted yesterday were along this road.   The views today were equally as breathtaking…

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This is a premier wildflower area, and they were out in force today.

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A shot of the Columbia River in the Rowena Crest area…

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We crossed the Columbia (after riding east for most of this morning) at Biggs.   That’s the same place we crossed into Washington on the 5000-mile Western America Adventure ride.  Once we were in Washington, we turned left on Highway 14. That’s Mt. Hood (a snow-covered inactive volcano in Oregon), as seen from west-bound Highway 14 in Washington…

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Another view along Highway 14…

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Sue and I couldn’t decide which side of the Columbia River Gorge was more scenic.  The views and the roads are impressive on both the Oregon and Washington sides.

Hey, check this out…it’s the Bridge of the Gods, one of my favorite places on the planet.   Riding through this area without riding across the Bridge of the Gods would be a crime against nature.   Here’s the view from the Washington side…

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…and here’s what it looks like as you drive across…

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And one more photo, this time from the Oregon side…

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We’re staying in Hood River and it is a nice little town.  We just had a fabulous dinner in a local restaurant outside the tourist area.   Yeah, I’ll be back.  I love this place.

Our hotel is right on the river, and as it turns out, it is a favored spot for kite boarding and stand up paddling.  I shot a few photos of that earlier this afternoon.  It looks easy from a distance, but up close, these guys were working hard.  It was a lot easier just taking pictures than it would have been to do it.   Next time, maybe…

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And folks, that about wraps it up.

I’m thinking this would make for an ideal two-day adventure ride, and Hood River is the place to stage out of.    If any of you CSC riders would like to set this up, let me know!

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Columbia!

Posted on April 29, 2017

Nope, this isn’t an Andes Mountains story, like the adventure you can read about in the book off to the right (Moto Colombia!).   This is Columbia with a “u,” and I’m talking about the magnificent Columbia River Gorge that runs from west to east along the Oregon/Washington border.  This is my fifth trip to this magnificent slice of America, and as always, I’m loving it.

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The northeastern US has the Hudson, the South has the Mississippi, the Southwest has the Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest has the Columbia.  It’s magnificent.  Two of my five trips through this awesome region were on motorcycles (the Three Flags Rally with my good buddy Marty and the 5000-mile Western America Adventure Ride with our good friends from China).

So, back to the adventure du jour.  Here’s the Vista house, situated on the Oregon Scenic Byway above the mighty Columbia River…

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And another view of the Columbia River, looking to the east, from an opening in the concrete railing along the road leading up to the Vista House…

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The Scenic Byway is known for its waterfalls and magnificent wooded twisties and art deco concrete bridges.  It really is amazing…this is a perfect road for a motorcycle, as this lucky Triumph rider knows…

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We’re headed further east into Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River later this morning.  I remember riding south into this region after crossing the Canadian border into the US on the Three Flags Rally with my good buddy Marty about 15 years ago.   I recall that the lands running along Highway 97 in Washington were awesome.  We’ll find out later today if they are as I remember them (and if they are, watch for the photos here).

Okay, enough photo fun.   There’s a lot happening back at the ranch, folks.   Here’s the short list of irons we have in the fire:

  • We have our monthly company ride this Saturday (you can sign up for it on our Meetup.com page).  We already have 12 people signed up.  It’s going to be a good one…we’re going to Newcomb’s Ranch on the Angeles Crest Highway (the penultimate So Cal motorcycle ride).
  • We’re working on getting the Café Racer over here.  I invited you to submit your design concepts and names, and boy oh boy, have you responded.   Two of the best include a great set of illustrations from good buddy Stephen in Utah, and an absolutely dynamite name from good buddy Mike in Michigan.   We’re working through getting the bike configured as it needs to be to get through all of the regulatory hurdles here in the US, and our friends in Chongqing are working closely with us to make it all happen.
  • Good buddy Baja John is pointing his RX3 in the opposite direction (opposite, that is, to the heading we normally take).  He’s headed north, to Alaska.  That’s going to be an exciting ride.
  • Steve just took in a baker’s dozen of consignment bikes, including Harleys, Aprilias, Triumphs, and more.  There’s a Triumph Scrambler in that mix I thought I might have had an interest in, but it’s too big for me.  I’m sticking with my 250s, which I still believe are the perfect motorcycle size.
  • In my conversations with Zongshen, I found out that the Chongqing impresarios are working the 450cc engine issues that emerged during Dakar diligently.  That’s a different way of saying the schedule has moved to the right again.   The bottom line on this one, folks, is don’t hold your breath waiting for the 450.   I’ve ridden both motorcycles, and I’m here to tell you the 250cc RX3 is the better bike.
  • We have new 250cc RX3s in stock again, but they won’t last long.   Our four colors for 2017 include silver (my new favorite), orange (the fastest color), blue (back again for 2017), and pearlescent white.  They all look good, but they won’t last long.
  • Good buddy Joe G (my China traveling compadre) was off last week on a press junket for the Kawasaki 300cc Versys (odd, the people at Kawasaki somehow left my name off the invitation list).   But I studied the Kawi web page on their new competitor to the RX3, and I’m comfortable that the RX3 is the better-equipped (and better) bike.  And our bike costs a lot less than the Kawasaki.  I’ll post a comparo blog on the two bikes in the near future.  As you know, here in the blog and in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM I’ve pilloried the dealers for their larcenous setup and freight fees.   Surprisingly, Kawasaki is now posting the destination fee for their new small adventure bike right on their website.  I imagine they’re trying to control what the dealers are charging for freight, probably in response to my very valid criticisms of dealer practices in this area.  Or, maybe it’s just coincidental.

That’s it for now, folks.   I’m headed east with my Nikon and my sweetheart.  More photos.  More fun.   As always, keep an eye on the blog.

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Tanks, a lot…

Posted on April 27, 2017

Things seem to arrive in clusters, and currently, that cluster seems to be focused on Harleys.   We’ve recently taken in several on consignment, and with Wade coming on board we are seeing a lot of Harleys in for service.  Wade has a following in the Harley community just like Gerry does in the Beemer community.   I grabbed a few photos just walking around the plant today…

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Cool tanks, and we sure are seeing a lot of them!

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Sully’s TT250 review…

Posted on April 27, 2017

Here’s an interesting take on the TT250 by a fellow from Pennsylvania named Sully…

https://sullybiker.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/the-csc-tt250-smiles-per-gallon/

I thought I’d share the link here.

We’re out of stock on TT250s, but the wizards at Zongshen are building more and we expect to have them soon.  Keep an eye on the blog and the CSC site for when the next shipment will be here.

Sully, nice job on your blog.  I enjoyed reading it.

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Home Security

Posted on April 27, 2017

It’s an old one, but it still makes me laugh.  It goes like this:  A friend asked me what he should do for home security.  I told him a 9mm, a couple of clips, and a box of shells would do nicely.  A few days later he sent this photo and asked me how to make it all work…

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Off to Portlandia…

Posted on April 26, 2017

I’m flying up to Portland this weekend to shoot a few photos of the Columbia River Gorge for a magazine article.   The Columbia River Gorge is one of my favorite spots.  It’s scenic and it’s an amazing area to ride.   My first exposure to this magnificent was on the Three Flags Rally when my buddy Marty and I rode from Mexico through the American West and then up to Calgary.  On the return leg, we rode due west through Canada and then turned south through Washington and Oregon, and it was on that last leg when we rode into the Columbia River Gorge.

RX3s parked below the Bridge of the Gods in the Columbia River Gorge on the Western America Adventure Ride.

A view from the RX3’s saddle on the Washington side of the Columbia River.

I’m looking forward to getting up there again, and my good buddy Rob (who lives not too far away) is giving me good advice on the best spots to see.   Good times, and I’ll have some cool photos to post here next week!

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The Ringo Recovery Ride…

Posted on April 23, 2017

A cool TT250 video I saw on my Facebook feed this morning.   Nice work!

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Great reads this morning…

Posted on April 19, 2017

While enjoying a cup of coffee with my standard two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast today, I read two great columns. The first was in the Wall Street Journal and it was another interesting A.J. Baime article (you’ll remember that I mentioned Mr. Baime’s stellar writing last week).  Today’s story was about a retired high school teacher and his wife recently completing a coast-to-coast ride on (get this) a 1915 Harley-Davidson.  Folks, this is cool stuff. I’d give you the link to the article, but you have to be an online WSJ subscriber to be able to read it. If you are not a subscriber, my recommendation is to pick up a copy of today’s WSJ – it’s a great read.  The guy Baime wrote about is 67 years old, which is a milestone I’ll hit early next year (time does fly when you’re having fun).  And that guy is retired while I’m still glued to my laptop doing the blog, posting Facebook stuff, writing books, and doing all of the other fun things I like to do.  I suppose someday I’ll join the ranks of the retired. Just not today, though.

Which brings me to the next article I wanted to mention this morning…one penned (I supposed I should say “keyed”) by Steve Lopez, who is one of my favorite writers on the LA Times staff.  The Lopez piece today was on his getting older and falling apart, but having no shortage of role models who kept on working well beyond retirement age.  You can read the article without being an LA Times subscriber (here’s the link).  A lot of the Lopez piece made me smile, especially his line about pulling a muscle opening a box of cereal.  I had a similar experience picking up a rifle and giving myself tennis elbow.  Wow, that was painful, and it’s taking a long time to heal.  I suppose it’s funny because I don’t even play tennis.  It just seems like it’s easier to do damage as I age and it takes a lot longer to heal.

When you wrap up all of the above with the fact that most motorcyclists in America tend to be older folks, it makes for an interesting combination.  I should think about what all this means, but I’m not going to do that.  Nope, I’m going for a motorcycle ride.  I haven’t been out on the TT250 in a while, and that’s a situation I’m going to fix today.   Maybe I’ll even grab a photo or two.   Keep an eye on the blog, and you’ll get to see them.   Before I do that, though, I’m going to watch the China video one more time.   My good buddy Joe Gresh (who is also an old dude, although he is a few years younger than me) posted it on his Facebook feed earlier this morning.

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A couple of TT250 photos from Rob…

Posted on April 18, 2017

Wow, check this out!  It looks like our good buddy Rob, his camper, and his TT250 are making the rounds.   The first photo is from Big Bend, Texas…and the second is from Goblin Valley in Utah…

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Thanks for the photos, Rob.    I’ll bet you are having a great time with your TT250!

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Our next ride!

Posted on April 17, 2017

Don’t forget our next company ride on the 6th of May up to Newcomb’s on the Angeles Crest Highway!

Newcomb’s is a great destination and getting there is a great ride!  You can sign up for the ride on our Meetup.com page.  We’ll meet at the CSC plant, have a cup of coffee or two, and get our knees in the breeze.   We look forward to seeing you!

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