Adventures on the First Coast Run of the Year

Going into the weekend I was looking for something interesting to do since the weather forecast promised no rain. The only idea I had was to go on the Road Maggots M.C. poker run. I've never been on a poker run so I thought "why not?".

Then Friday night one of the Brat Pack suggested a coast run to which I replied "hell yeah". I haven't gotten enough HWY 34 in my life lately and the last time I did I got a speeding ticket.

Late Saturday morning I buzzed out to our meeting spot in Philomath. I spotted a CBR1000RR and an FZ6 parked there so I parked next to them and went in. There I met a nice couple from Eugene and we discussed routes and winter gear (you meet the nicest people on a Honda) while I waited for my buddy.

We took our usual route out Decker to 34. The county has fixed Decker nicely. The ride out was nice. Nothing really of note. The road was wet, the traffic was slow, but what do you expect on a Saturday in January?

On the way back I got ahead quite a bit. After waiting at Alsea for what seemed like forever I turned back took look for my buddy. I found him, he was riding, but we didn't pull over to discuss what happened (as it turns out his tire plug had come loose).

Anyways nothing else of note, light was failing, traffic through Corvallis was stop and go due to a sporting event, and we separated. On HWY 20 I went to pass a slow vehicle and my bike stalled while wide open throttle during the pass. I pulled off the road and started troubleshooting.

http://youtu.be/h3yJlL04o8o

I called my girlfriend to pick me up so I could get my trailer. She ferried me home, I changed, got my trailer hooked up and headed back to the highway.

Not the fun kind (track days) of trailering.

I got my bike home and put away and went on with my evening. As it turns out my bike had merely run out of gas. There are two lessons to learn from this: 1. gas gauges can be wrong and 2. use the trip meter!

Winter sucks.

I'm thankful for heated gear, warm base layers, balaclavas, and the occasional dry enough day to ride. Not that it happens much. I'm going stir crazy here. Going to the gym regularly helps but not enough.

Recently I had the idea that we (the boys) should take a spring road trip. My initial thought was to run Hwy 3 down to HWY 36 in Northern California. Then reality (my dad) said that HWY 3 will probably still be in bad shape in spring. He suggested that we instead to a run down to San Francisco for a photo op.

So that's the tentative plan. Looking forward to it. I could go to a shakedown day at T-Hill sometime this winter, but the logistics on that would suck.

The most riding I've done lately is two miles out to bike night.

Two lovely rider ladies playing with my bikes at my Solstice party.

For an enthusiast like me the Winter Solstice is a bigger deal than Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving combined. It means a turning point, more light in the day, and a countdown until the nice riding season is at hand. Although technically the 21st of December is the start of Winter, in the Pacific Northwest Winter really starts in Mid November. The 21st of December is the reminder that the sun god will return, as will MotoGP parties, Pre-Rides, TrackDays, Sport Touring, and minivans holding us up in the corners.

Corvallis Oregon is a unique place. It is the juxtaposition of the rural and agricultural roots of Oregon with the modern University town growing too fast for its own good. One quite unique facet of Corvallis is a parking ordinance dating to 1971 that prohibits motorcycles from parking in a normal automobile parking spot in downtown (which there were no available committee minutes to support the reasoning). Corvallis has a handful of motorcycle spots in the corners of downtown.

This ordinance is intermittently enforced and is not indicated with signs anywhere in downtown. This ordinance is also unique in that no other Oregon city has one. In summer of 2014 the parking enforcement lady ticketed my friend Paula. Paula happens to be politically active and a legislative director of BikePAC (political action committee) of Oregon.

Fast forward to January. Paula raised enough hell with the downtown subcommittee that they added an agenda item to review the ordinance at their next meeting. Paula used social media to make sure hundreds of motorcyclists in the Linn-Benton-Lane area knew about the ordinance and the meeting.

My pictures don't do it justice. There were 50+ bikes at the meeting. Ten of us (including me) gave comment during the public comment portion. Two community members asked the committee to keep the ban in place. The committee voted to recommend repealing the ban to the CC.