Topic: 23 Rides in 2023, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[ofreen]

I think people smoke them!

 

[budman]

Nothing like a bonus ride when you think all hope was lost! But those are some strange looking cattle!

Like cows from another planet.

Native to North America.

[budman]

Ride #67, 66 miles.

Yesterday the winds from the south started blowing in, raising the temps.  The wind was still blowing this morning, but the guessers said they would be slowing down by the afternoon.  I decided to wait it out in hopes of being on the road by 1:00PM.

This morning a dude bought the flyscreen I had purchased for the Scout in October of last year.  I've had it listed on Facebook Marketplace for a few months.  I had to ship it to Oklahoma.  I was able to get it packed and strapped onto the sissy bar to take it to the Post Office.  It was a much bigger box than the package I shipped earlier this week.  Looked pretty comical on the bike.  I forgot to take a pic.

I had been planning a longer ride, but I ended up leaving too late.  After I dropped off the package I rode down to the Old Bat Tunnel to eat the lunch I had packed for myself.  The sun was out, but as I got closer to the Bat Tunnel there were a lot of clouds rolling in.  It really cooled off.  Good thing I brought another shirt with me.  After I was done with my lunch I headed back home.  I figured it was going to be a cloudy ride, but the clouds didn't follow me.  I got back in the sunshine quickly and I had the wind to my back.  It's bright, sunny and warm now with no wind at my place.

Just two more rides to go.  Tomorrow looks like it'll be a good day.  Not sure about Sunday.  They're saying rain and cooler temps for next week.

[jgger]

Annnnnd #22 is done!  Here we are December 9th and I  was able to get a mid day start with 70°f/21°c, imagine that. I was planning on about 80 or so miles, but after turning Eeyore's reins loose I ended up with 173miles/ 278kms. But that's ok because I found some new to me roads to enjoy.

The plan was to go up to the Mount Baldy ski area, there is no snow yet and temps were predicted to be about  57° f/13°c . Nice and sunny but a little bit of gusty winds in a few places. I was pleased with the lack of cagers up there today too. Usually a run up to Baldy is a go up, turn around, and go back down the way you came. However as luck would have it the cross mountian road was open. This was something I  have been wanting to travel for years, it has always been closed because of fire danger when ever I have tried it in the past. What a freaking awsome ride it was.the road is I think about 15 miles of skinny, but we'll maintained, mountian awesomeness! I think I saw 3 cars and a group of about 11 of those 3 wheeled spider thingies, and that's it!

So I cut across from Mt Baldy Village to the East Fork of the San Gabriel River in the Azusa canyon. Down the canyon to the town of Azusa and hit up one of the original In-N-Out burger places,  only drive through or walk up to the window. Grabbed a Double Double with grilled onions and some fries ( or chips). Hit the freeway to Riverside to help the wife baby sit the grand kids,watched cartoons, then headed the last 15 miles home.

It was a great ride with great weather and no issues,,,,,,,,,,,who could ask for anything more?

One more to go!
9

[PeWe]

You are soon there jgger!
Must be fun to be able to ride with those views.
Feels strange with not freezing weather as I got mid October that only got worse and still does 

[Kevin D]

Excellent Jim and to have it all to yourself is a special bonus.
I’m not a bridge engineer, but I’d say that it has had a rebuild/stiffening.

We had a record temp of 63F yesterday with a storm front and winds, beating the old record old of 58F.
Too bad for me I’m under the weather for a week, or I might have ventured out a bit.
Even if I can’t do it, a nice ride report will make do.

[budman]

Awesome photos, Jim.  Wish we had a mountain or two here.

I was planning on #68 yesterday, but it was really windy and I had some work to do.

Temps are dropping, but if I need to bundle up for my last two rides I’ll do what needs to be done.  I don’t think we’re going to see anymore 70 degree days this month.

[jgger]

Thanks guys, the local mountians do offer a lot of cool stuff. The nice thing about the less traveled road I was on yesterday is you can take your time and enjoy the scenery and even stop in the middle of the road for pictures. The other nice thing is if you go over the mountians there is the Pacific ocean going one way and wide open Desert with it's own " for miles and miles" views, which I love too if you go the other way. So much history to explore.

The sad thing is that no matter where you go it seems there is a special breed of jackwads that think it is their duty to EFF things up.

I'm only 50 miles away from completion, woo hoo!

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Jim, day 3 of my annual leave and the weather might let me finally go for a ride. Was wet and cold on the weekend then stinking hot the last two days but even though it’s overcast today it should be in the 70’s, so might be a good day for a ride. I had to replace the tarp on my temporary carport where my Z1-B and Fireblade are parked, luckily I had a new one in a box so got it up yesterday before a storm hit. It’s a lot better than the previous one and was only a third of the price, so when Vevor get some more in stock I’ll buy 3, 1 to replace the other one that’s pretty trashed and 2 spares.

[Terry in Australia]

Well my Christmas holidays haven't quite gone like I'd hoped, it was wet all weekend, then stinking hot (in the 90's) on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday my mother in law (91) rang at 0500 to say that she'd fallen over and couldn't get up, so the wife drove over and called the paramedics who carted her off to the ER. I've been nursing a cracked rib so the wife didn't want me coming with her and possibly making it worse, but the weather was still crap, so I replaced the tarp on my temporary carport that was torn asunder over the weekend.

Anyway, yesterday the weather was fine and warm, so I jumped on the black Triumph, and roared off into the midweek traffic. I was glad when I was away from the busy weekday traffic on the freeway and back on my favourite backroads, and was happy to see the Christmas decorations in the little towns I rode thru. I always look out for the decorations outside one particular farm, and always stop for some pics. It's great to see folks as excited about Christmas as I am.

Rocket III ride 14 December 2023 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Rocket III ride 14 December 2023 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I continued on and stopped again for a pic.

Rocket III ride 14 December 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then on to Kilmore for lunch. Sorry, I forgot to take a pic of my dim sims and sarsaparilla as I was distracted by the amount of semi's driving past me while I was sitting out in the street, I thought the pipes on my Rocket III were loud! Anyway, a few passers by admired my bike, and were astounded when I told them that it's a 2300cc 3 cylinder engine, they didn't know that anyone made a motorcycle that big.

Rocket III ride 14 December 2023 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, another 120 trouble free miles on my cheap new (to me) Rocket III and ride #30 is done. I'm not sure how many more I'll get in before the end of the year, but I'm happy, and hopefully next year I'll have a few other bikes on the road to do my 24 rides with.

 

[jgger]

Good on you for getting out Terry, it will ail what cures you( or something lie that) !  Interesting Christmas decoration, I have never seen " Roo-deer" , or is it "Roo-dolf " before. Must be a local thing.

Looks like the weather was just right for a nice relaxing wind therapy ride too. Hope the mother- in- law is ok and nothing broken, parts are hard to come by for the classic models.

[PeWe]

Nice ride x2 Terry!
Green warm Christmas coming days for motorcycle rides.

The black Rocket is a growing favourite bike?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, yeah I love those Christmas decorations, here in our multi-cultural suburbs you don’t see much anymore, which is a shame. The black Rocket is a beast, I don’t know if a PO has successfully removed the speed limiter but my stock R3 tops out at 220 Kph (around 140 MPH) but in one quick squirt on Thursday it indicated around 230 before I regained my senses and dropped back to legal-ish speeds. Without the bags and fairing etc it just feels like a bigger version of my Sportster and is quite easy to throw around corners too.

I shouldn’t keep it because I keep saying that I’m trying to thin the herd, but every time I ride it I really enjoy it. If I do keep it I need to upgrade the rear shocks to new Ikons or something similar as the OEM shocks are too hard and a decent pothole slams my spine, but apart from that there’s nothing really that I need to change.

[BallAquatics]

Greetings from sunny Ohio!  Was a lovely day for December in Ohio.  Sunny blue sky with the temps hanging around 50.  I split 50+ miles between the CB550 & the Seca Turbo.  Just cruised around the back roads close to home.  Sorry no pictures.  It's mostly bare fields this time of year.  Some of these massive soy bean fields look like lunar landscape stretching off into the distance.

Going to move some bikes around tomorrow with most going out to Pop's garage for the next couple of months.  Planning to bring the CBX home and give it some much needed TLC.  Carbs, brakes, tires, that sort of thing.  If the market is looking good, I might do some down-sizing next spring...

Good to see those of you with decent weather out on the roads.  I'll be cheering for you Jim, just one more to go!!!

[Terry in Australia]

Good job Dennis, cold weather riding is great if there’s no rain around, that’s where I draw the line, I don’t like tip toe-ing around corners and hitting potholes full of water, but if the sun’s out then it’s good enough for me.

[jgger]

Go get 'em Dennis.

 Perhaps this should be in the pissed off thread, but I missed a great weather day to pick up my 23rd ride today. The frickin' warden watches too many home improvement shows and thinks ANY job around the house can be done in 30 minutes to an hour, depending on what flipping channel you are watching! She had me building a peg board thing for her sewing room. That was bad enough, then I needed a pitchfork to clear a path to install it!  Oh well maybe tomorrow,  we might be getting some rain the first of the week. Boo hoo hoo!

[Terry in Australia]

Well you’ve got the best bike here for wet weather riding Jim, so stop making excuses and get #23 done and dusted. I rode my FJR1300 in atrocious weather when I lived in Canberra and it was the only bike I’d contemplate riding in the wet. Brilliant handling, excellent brakes and plenty of weather protection, especially with the taller screen I bought from the US, at anything but stopped I could see the rain coming over the top of me and only my boots would get wet. Pirelli Angel GT or Michelin Road Pilot 4 tyres were very popular with the Canberra folks who rode in all conditions and while I try to avoid the rain it was probably the only bike I’d venture out on, on an otherwise boring wet day.

[jgger]

Drum roll, please! I'm probably the last one to complete Frank's Challenge for 2023, but I did it on Saturday.  247 miles/ 398 kms so now I  can apply for the cool kids club.

I really wanted to ride on Friday instead of Saturday, I had a plan for Friday,  but it didn't work out.  I was not inspired about going anywhere, so that meant I really NEEDED to ride. Started with a few chores around the house, and having to talk myself into a ride. I didn't even have a destination in mind whenever I left. Headed out for gas and an air check and just headed " thatta way" , then did the imaginary coin toss while riding, turns out Joshua Tree won out over Julian. Either one would have been fine as the starting weather was clear and 77°f/25°c when I left around 11:30, and the distance is about the same. I was actually wanting to go to Pioneertown but  misread the map.....but that's ok. Out of Yucca Valley there is a road called Old Woman Springs that goes to Lucernr Valley, which was one of my stops during my Thanksgiving weekend ride and I have been curious about going that way for a long time. Well I didn't go all the way to Lucerne Valley because of the horrible traffic experience from that previous ride. I did go through an area called Landers where their claim to fame is U.F.O. sightings, but didn't see any myself. After Landers I headed down a typical desert road that just begs for doing the ton and then some. There were too many little dirt roads intersecting and I could just picture myself as someone's trunk or door decoration so I kept it to 85-90 m.p.h. This turned out to be a good idea because the road just ended with a 90° turn and a sign with an arrow that suggested 10 m.p.h., that could have been ugly.

Anyway after making a giant loop around the desert I was sorta heading home when I saw the sign for Joshua Tree national park and figured I would exercise my get in free pass and putter around the rocks and stuff. Only went in about 5 miles and the sun was dropping and decided to call it a day. Rode back to Yucca Valley,  gassed up and off into the sunset I go! Hit the rest area at White Water to finish off my thermos of coffee, White Water is a standard stop for me each way, then 70 miles/113kms to home. The coldest it got was 54°f/12°c , but only for a short while. All in all, it was a good and needed ride!

Pics to come.......

[BallAquatics]

Congratulations Jim!!!  Looks like a great day out on the bike.

I was hoping to get in a ride, but it took most of the day to get bikes moved around and the CBX home.....

This should keep me busy until spring gets here LOL

Congrats again on getting in your 23 in 23.  Well done   

[Kevin D]

Excellent, Jim
Send me a PM with your address
You have earned what’s coming your way.
Saturday was a good day in SoCal.

[PeWe]

Congratulation jgger!
You did it!

A nice ride to envy, the tasty looking burger too

You'll feel good with the key ring.

I have mine with the CB750 K6 keys.
Protected the surface with clear tape when keys will fly around in the wind while riding.

[Kelly E]

Nice job jgger from one of the other cool kids.

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Jim, I was getting a little worried that you were gonna be stuck on 22 with all those jobs the “Ball and chain” was making you do, so glad you got out and got #23 in the books. I seriously doubt that any other Aussies are going to get 23 rides up so I’ll use my spare keyrings that Kevin sent me and piut one on each of the bikes I rode the most this year. I don’t have enough keyrings for all of them, but the Sporty, black Rocket III and maybe the K0. It hasn’t been out much (if at all) this year but it was my go to bike last year, so deserves one.

[jgger]

Thank you gents, all of your stories have been Solis when I couldn't ride, and inspiration when I could. I looked back and my first ride wasn't until June 21, so right at 6 months.

My personal accomplishment was to beat Budman, and I did! I got my 23 rides before he could get 3 times as many as me! Just kidding Bud, you're doing awsome, keep it rolling you're almost there!

Now just for insurance I did # 24 today. I had to get some tile grout and when I got there I saw I was about 2 miles short of 25...........so I did what any self respecting rider would do, I TOOK THE LONG WAY HOME! No pics just 52 miles of errands, but it is still fun.

[Kevin D]

Snow on the ground here today.
It’s a good day for AWD and ABS