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Forums - The lounge
Subject: PCH roadtrip musings
Original Message 1/37 16-Dec-04 @ 12:25 AM Edit: 16-Dec-04 | 02:19 AM - PCH roadtrip musings
I've been enjoying my new home by motorcycle camping around Southern California. Riding from the Coachella Valley to the San Joaquin Mountains through Idyllwild, The San Bernardino Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, and the Southern Sierras through Kernville to the Mojave has been a joy. I'll tell you about those trips another time perhaps because the coast is becoming my favorite (growing up in Florida, there's a surprise). I've ridden the PCH from San Diego to Ventura so far and its quite different from what I imagined in some ways. The southern coast has more cliffs than I thought, one right here at the very end of the Dana Point Harbor just to the northeast of where the sun sets is fabulous because I don't have to ride two hundred miles north to experience it whenever I feel the need. However, a trip north is already in the planning stages. Yipeeee! Then there is the weather which actually does exist here although its more in the form of fog than real precipitation. When I say fog, however, I mean the real deal not some patch of mist you run into while driving through a hollow on a county road or see off to the side obscuring a small herd of cattle as you drive by the family ranch. I mean all encompassing, lifestyle effecting, fog. Foghorn fog.
It rolls in off the Pacific at dusk, a tidal wave of mist slowly making its way to the shore, transforming the smaller, quainter, beach towns into moody and mysterious seaside villages from the pages of some brooding novel about small haunting hamlets on the Scottish moors. An amazing thing to watch, this ephemeral almost sinister looking form growing off the shore. An evolving gray line miles in the distance weds the frigid Pacific of late autumn and the ardent coming of the night's moon and stars. It begins as a thin line then larger and larger it grows, looming, until all around you is finally obscured: ocean, moon, and star lay on the other side of a gray damp quilt of swirling mist. A few blocks inland, less immediate but no less dramatic and almost imperceptibly at first, a few wisps wend their way between buildings and hover above in the premature darkness till, suddenly, spilling from the rooftops onto the streets its upon you and the town is engulfed.
Up and down the coast move vague shapes, surfers making their way up the cliffs from a shadowed Pacific Ocean, still wetsuited, boards at their sides, they head toward the dimmed lights of obscured parking lots and the veiled shoulder of the PCH filled and lined with SUVs, pickups, and minivans, many of them beaters that seem likely to fall apart at the turn of a key - the southern coast is as democratic or as exclusionary as one chooses to see it from Point Loma to Malibu. For those out and about on the streets of town, the holidays being especially busy, damp and chill encourage the location of someplace warm and inviting so the small taverns, pizza joints, taco shops, and cafes fill up with locals and tourists. A mile farther inland on the freeway, the visibility reduces to yards turning taillights in front and headlights behind into a phantasmagoria. Small, ghostly, red and white points of lights fade into and return from the mist rather than maintaining a steady warning of what may lie in wait ahead or be stealing up from behind the inattentive traveler.
The boat is as cozy and inviting to me upon my return as the cafe in Ocean Beach. I'll have another cup of tea, check my e-mail for the day, shower, sit down with a glass of wine and watch a movie. I really do miss my laptop's unhobbled ability as a composing and recording tool and can't think of a better place and time right now, on this sailboat after a great ride, to be able to compose and record but its not to be and its almost ten by the time the movie is over. I retire to the aft cabin v-berth and read until I fall asleep with a book on my chest and the lantern still on. Its been a good day in SoCal and despite the weather it was a good ride. Every ride is a good ride here and with a little luck and skill I'll be riding till my beard is as gray as dusk on the California coast and finally betrays the miles beneath my wheels. With a little luck I'll be riding till the fog rolls in and rolls out no more.
It rolls in off the Pacific at dusk, a tidal wave of mist slowly making its way to the shore, transforming the smaller, quainter, beach towns into moody and mysterious seaside villages from the pages of some brooding novel about small haunting hamlets on the Scottish moors. An amazing thing to watch, this ephemeral almost sinister looking form growing off the shore. An evolving gray line miles in the distance weds the frigid Pacific of late autumn and the ardent coming of the night's moon and stars. It begins as a thin line then larger and larger it grows, looming, until all around you is finally obscured: ocean, moon, and star lay on the other side of a gray damp quilt of swirling mist. A few blocks inland, less immediate but no less dramatic and almost imperceptibly at first, a few wisps wend their way between buildings and hover above in the premature darkness till, suddenly, spilling from the rooftops onto the streets its upon you and the town is engulfed.
Up and down the coast move vague shapes, surfers making their way up the cliffs from a shadowed Pacific Ocean, still wetsuited, boards at their sides, they head toward the dimmed lights of obscured parking lots and the veiled shoulder of the PCH filled and lined with SUVs, pickups, and minivans, many of them beaters that seem likely to fall apart at the turn of a key - the southern coast is as democratic or as exclusionary as one chooses to see it from Point Loma to Malibu. For those out and about on the streets of town, the holidays being especially busy, damp and chill encourage the location of someplace warm and inviting so the small taverns, pizza joints, taco shops, and cafes fill up with locals and tourists. A mile farther inland on the freeway, the visibility reduces to yards turning taillights in front and headlights behind into a phantasmagoria. Small, ghostly, red and white points of lights fade into and return from the mist rather than maintaining a steady warning of what may lie in wait ahead or be stealing up from behind the inattentive traveler.
The boat is as cozy and inviting to me upon my return as the cafe in Ocean Beach. I'll have another cup of tea, check my e-mail for the day, shower, sit down with a glass of wine and watch a movie. I really do miss my laptop's unhobbled ability as a composing and recording tool and can't think of a better place and time right now, on this sailboat after a great ride, to be able to compose and record but its not to be and its almost ten by the time the movie is over. I retire to the aft cabin v-berth and read until I fall asleep with a book on my chest and the lantern still on. Its been a good day in SoCal and despite the weather it was a good ride. Every ride is a good ride here and with a little luck and skill I'll be riding till my beard is as gray as dusk on the California coast and finally betrays the miles beneath my wheels. With a little luck I'll be riding till the fog rolls in and rolls out no more.
Message 2/37 16-Dec-04 @ 05:11 PM - RE: PCH roadtrip musings
what r you ridin ?
___________________________________
I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!
Message 3/37 16-Dec-04 @ 06:35 PM - RE: PCH roadtrip musings
Sounds cool. I've always wanted to do a driving trip out that way, especially now with the Porsche, but I'm almost afraid to drive the car that far... That'd be probably 3,000 miles easily round trip... Still if I was going to do it now would be the time, since I'm covered by warranty if it breaks, and it's still pretty low-mileage..
Maybe if I wind up buying that Ducati Monster I've been lusting over I'll make it a bike trip.
Maybe if I wind up buying that Ducati Monster I've been lusting over I'll make it a bike trip.
Message 4/37 17-Dec-04 @ 04:54 AM Edit: 17-Dec-04 | 05:14 AM - RE: PCH roadtrip musings
Craig, you seem to be doing well. 
K, I'm riding a Kawasaki Ninja EX250. I had some doubts when I first bought the bike, its the smallest displacement of any I've owned, but it has since proved to be one of my favorites, second only to a couple of GS450S twins I owned in succession (yeah, I liked that model that much) about twenty years ago. Its very light and nimble with a very slim profile (unlike me) which is a bonus for lane splitting in LA traffic. Although the power band is pretty much linear, very little torque until around 10,000-13,000 RPMs where even then it's only really enough to let you know where you are, the over all the handling goes a ways in making up for this. Its easy to manhandle and throw around if needed to avoid emergencies.
Ergonomically its imperceptibly smaller than the average 600cc sportbike but with a more upright seating position - very comfy over the long haul and very little engine vibration is transferred through to the rider. Lots of compliments which is always a bonus and I genuinely like the look - very retro, harkening back to circa 1980s repli-racers. I can't say enough good things about this bike. Absolute beginners and soon to be crusty riders such as myself (I had my 25th anniversary this past July) would both appreciate this motorbike. With a redline of 14,000 RPMs this is one of the few sportbikes that you can truly ride to its limits in every gear. There is something very visceral about the sound of an engine screaming beneath you at 14,000 RPMs.
That is not to say that you the EX250 won't kill you - the top speed of 105 MPH will do the job quit efficiently. There will probably be something left that closely resembles you for the paramedics to find and the mortician to work with so your family and friends can get one last look at you. Scraping you off the road for several miles after wadding at 200+ MPH is, however, asking a lot of those local paramedics and forget about a last teary kiss on the forehead from mom and the girlfriends. Its like this: walking away from a 105 MPH motorcycle accident unscathed isn't impossible its just highly unlikley; walking away unharmed from a 200+ MPH motorcycle accident is like winning the mortal coil lotto. If you don't end up being poured into an oversized heavy-duty zip-lock Hefty bag its a pretty good bet that you'll spend the rest of your days watching the Teletubbies, droolling, and shitting all over yourself and the bed you live in.
K, I'm riding a Kawasaki Ninja EX250. I had some doubts when I first bought the bike, its the smallest displacement of any I've owned, but it has since proved to be one of my favorites, second only to a couple of GS450S twins I owned in succession (yeah, I liked that model that much) about twenty years ago. Its very light and nimble with a very slim profile (unlike me) which is a bonus for lane splitting in LA traffic. Although the power band is pretty much linear, very little torque until around 10,000-13,000 RPMs where even then it's only really enough to let you know where you are, the over all the handling goes a ways in making up for this. Its easy to manhandle and throw around if needed to avoid emergencies.
Ergonomically its imperceptibly smaller than the average 600cc sportbike but with a more upright seating position - very comfy over the long haul and very little engine vibration is transferred through to the rider. Lots of compliments which is always a bonus and I genuinely like the look - very retro, harkening back to circa 1980s repli-racers. I can't say enough good things about this bike. Absolute beginners and soon to be crusty riders such as myself (I had my 25th anniversary this past July) would both appreciate this motorbike. With a redline of 14,000 RPMs this is one of the few sportbikes that you can truly ride to its limits in every gear. There is something very visceral about the sound of an engine screaming beneath you at 14,000 RPMs.
That is not to say that you the EX250 won't kill you - the top speed of 105 MPH will do the job quit efficiently. There will probably be something left that closely resembles you for the paramedics to find and the mortician to work with so your family and friends can get one last look at you. Scraping you off the road for several miles after wadding at 200+ MPH is, however, asking a lot of those local paramedics and forget about a last teary kiss on the forehead from mom and the girlfriends. Its like this: walking away from a 105 MPH motorcycle accident unscathed isn't impossible its just highly unlikley; walking away unharmed from a 200+ MPH motorcycle accident is like winning the mortal coil lotto. If you don't end up being poured into an oversized heavy-duty zip-lock Hefty bag its a pretty good bet that you'll spend the rest of your days watching the Teletubbies, droolling, and shitting all over yourself and the bed you live in.
Message 5/37 17-Dec-04 @ 12:39 PM Edit: 17-Dec-04 | 12:45 PM - RE: PCH roadtrip musings
Craig, you are a pussy who is owned by his car, thats funny.
You pay all that cash for a high speed western bauble ("we cant buy any more shopping honey - it wont go in the car") and what do you get for it.... a fear for being unable to use a device for the purpose of its function.
Is that crazy
I wish you fluidity to move around within your constraints. And thats being polite
You pay all that cash for a high speed western bauble ("we cant buy any more shopping honey - it wont go in the car") and what do you get for it.... a fear for being unable to use a device for the purpose of its function.
Is that crazy
I wish you fluidity to move around within your constraints. And thats being polite
Message 9/37 17-Dec-04 @ 08:17 PM - RE: PCH roadtrip musings
its not a 911 
and Cheds... wtf is with you now? had one too many, again?
and Cheds... wtf is with you now? had one too many, again?
Message 10/37 17-Dec-04 @ 11:29 PM Edit: 17-Dec-04 | 11:48 PM - RE: PCH roadtrip musings
[image file]
the idea that the name the blame and I owe it to the enjoyment of the multiple name being the same person
if you try to communicate thats way more than the content
catch you reachin for your slippers, cant bloddy have it in a public place
078
lL68
60
face the issues guys
'put x on the cross', i like that
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