End of April Meanderings

By now I should have a race weekend and a few trackdays under my belt to talk about. Alas everything's getting cancelled and June might be the first track weekend I get, hopefully. During the last OMRRA board meeting the likelihood of the June 12-14 race weekend happening sounded low. Unless the state/city/hospitals/ambulances start going back to normal early enough for the club to prepare for the round, it just won't happen.

Being that I already have that Friday off from work I've started planning a contingency, if the race weekend doesn't happen I'll go to Central/Eastern Oregon with my moto-friends. The problem with that is that my VFR is in bad need of an overhaul and I've put it off to the last minute when shops are busy. It badly needs refreshed suspension, brakes, and some engine bits. I guess that's what happens when you ride it like a sport bike for four years and 38,000 miles.

Pictured: Once in a while I clean off all the bugs and mud

In 2018 I did two trips (Fossil and NorCal) on the Ninja because the VFR was down for fork seals and it was last minute, and none of the shops could get to it. Riding 300-400 mile days on a ZX6R is painful. One day in NorCal after a hundred miles of barely paved single lane suck I was ready to abandon the trip and just blaze home. I digress. I'd rather take my sport touring bike on a sport touring trip.

When you have two street legal bikes you can usually ride one when the other is down. But sometimes they're both down due to bad timing/luck or bad planning. On a ride last weekend my ZX took a rock to the radiator and I had to limp it home. I swapped bikes for the VFR and hauled ass back to intercept the group still on route. Big groups take a long time to get going again after stops, so I was able to pull that intercept off successfully. On that trip it was really apparent of the maintenance items I'd neglected, so even though it goes, it doesn't go well enough to be considered ride able.

Well I fixed the ZX radiator with my friend JB Weld (don't judge me) and I'm waiting for a radiator guard. But I miss having a bike I can cruise around on and not need to go a hundred miles an hour to have fun on. Tomorrow I need to get in touch with the only shop to seem to be willing to do work on a V4 and get my bike into their queue.

Pictured: Test ride to see if the leak is fixed

Instead of agonizing about stuff I can't change or won't make a decision about I suppose I need to think about stuff to look forward to that hasn't been scrubbed due to C19.

-Central/Eastern Oregon trip in June or whenever it ends up

-MotoAmerica at the Ridge in August

-Highway 20/Cascades Highway in Washington (probably before or after the MotoAmerica round)

-OMRRA/Track season whenever it starts

-Maybe a fall ride into NorCal after Labor Day. I've been kicking around the idea of hitting some of the sierras on the east side