Two straight days of riding has yet to unwind me. For some reason even though we’ve had perfect weather and perfect conditions, I just couldn’t let go and enjoy the rides. Maybe this was just one of those weekend when I shouldn’t have even bothered getting on the bike. Maybe I’d lost the race before it ever started. I don’t know.
Usually riding is my one salvation. The one place when I can let go of everything else and just lose myself in the moment - the corners, the curves, …

Wow, I’ve been waiting for a weekend like this for what seems like forever. With picture perfect weather and fantastic road conditions, I hit the canyons for some much needed R&R. Only as it turns out while everything seemed set up for a perfect day of riding - I wasn’t up to the task. For some reason even though I felt very proficient in my riding, I just could stop thinking about non-riding stuff. From time to time this happens to me, but rarely. Usually the second I get on …

Took MotorMilt’s ‘04 out for a spin today - he’s been laid up with a knee injury for the past few weeks and I figured it was probably a good idea to run his 9 for a bit just to get the juices flowing. For some reason I have this image in my mind that if you leave a Duc sitting for to long it’ll never kick over again and even though the bike has been sitting on a tender, I just don’t have the greatest confidence in the battery. …

Looking down I was at 8,500 RPMs and I’m doing 75 MPH coming down Mullhulland when it finally hit me, having a fully broken in engine is as close to pure bliss as you can get. Coming off of two back-to-back hetic work weeks, the sensation of being thrown back into the saddle and having so much new found power on hand was just simply awesome. There’s something magical about how these bigs act when they’re close to the redline. They scream. They kick. They act so frigg’n alive it’s …

When I last left off it was around noon when MotorMilt and I left Los Olivos on Sunday’s Sport-Touring Sportbike Ride (Part 1).
We had stopped there for a few minutes to take a quick breather and rest the wrists from what already had become a rather lengthy morning ride for us. At this point we had already rolled up a good 150 to 175 miles and I sort of knew that we were beginning to enter that dangerous territory where we might be getting just a bit to far …

Sunday morning I woke up around 5:15 AM and I had never even set the alarm clock the night before. Even though it was still dark outside I just knew from the moment I got up that I felt immediately ready to hit the road. It was just one of those morning when you have no need for luxories like coffee or breakfast, you just want to get going. I’m sure this instant desire to get out and ride was in no small part due to a conversation that MotorMilt …

Sunday MotorMilt & I did a monster 340 mile loop, which took us from LA all the way up the coast to Oxnard, over the southern tip of the San Rafael Mountains, through Santa Barbara and Montecito, over the Southwestern edge of the Santa Ynez Mountains, through Los Olivos and eventually into winery laden backcountry roads of the Western Los Padres National Forest. It was a hell of a ride. Perhaps our first sport-touring experience on sportbikes… I’ve diligently been working on a write up and I had hoped to …

This afternoon I was able to steal a few of hours and get a ride in during the late afternoon and early evening. Heading up the PCH, I was only a few miles into the ride when I started to notice what a difference a few hours can make. On a normal weekend ride I tend to hit the road by 8 am at the latest, but today was unusual because I had to work for a bit during the early morning and I didn’t get to hit the road …

Man it’s good to be home. That’s got to be my overriding thought for the weekend. During the past forty eight hours I’ve continually found myself thinking about how getting away sometimes is the only way to remind yourself how much you really enjoy something or in this case, somewhere. Not so much because I dislike other parts of the country, but rather because I truly enjoy the LA experience. It’s a sick satisfaction I know, but flying in to LAX I actually was happy to see traffic on the …

Few things truly wake up your soul like going for your first ride after being out of town for awhile. Right now I honestly have no idea what time my body thinks it is, but after being on the road for the past nine days I woke up at an un-godly hour this morning and was able to hit the road a good two hours before I normally do. This turned out to be the blessing of all blessing as I was able to carve my way through the canyons …