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Todays ride

23K views 453 replies 29 participants last post by  VFR4Lee 
You landed a great looking SV Lee, I especially like the black with the gunmetal tubular frame. It will be a lot more fun when you can ignore that 5k rpm ceiling. Mine never goes that low :D I keep it between 6500 and probably 9k, it seems happy up there.
I miss these individual ride-report threads. I wanted to do one last Monday as I got my SV out for a bit for the holiday. I didn't take photos though, so that would be boring.
 
Yeah, definitely getting on to a good season for riding here in SoCal 👍It's been about perfect this weekend.
I'm partial to the one with blue sky, looks like my riding route 😀
 
I'm sorry Lee, I just can see California as being a bastion of screaming rodeo fans. Maybe it's geared to Texans who have been displaced by the escaping Californians defecting to the Lone Star State. LOL
The first rodeo I ever attended was in Poway CA and I can attest to the presence of a LOT of California cowboys (if you want to call them that) in my end of the state. Picture everyone strutting around wearing the entire Ariat catalog 🤠
 
CA has a long "Wild West" tradition / history.

Saturday and Sunday afternoons they have rodeos with horses and sheep wrestling and stuff. Plan to check that out too.
CA is not all LA and San Fran and big cities. ;)
Ain't that the truth. I've noticed there's LA, San Fran, then there's the rest of California.
 
Good point. But that perception dominates outside opinion.
Yup, and opinions are worth as much as you wanna pay for em. Coolest thing I ever found out about California, Louisiana, Texas, New York (probably a few other notable states in there) was from the individuals I talked to who were not homogeneous. There's real people all over, and we all keep getting distracted by perceptions of red and blue. Call that crips and bloods, R and Ds, whatever, but I don't think any of us are here for that. We're here for the riding! :LOL:
 
...and a killer topbox. I used to rock one of those and I still swear by them: one of the single most practical pieces of bike luggage I've ever used. If only they didn't look like a ufo.
 
Short ride of about 30 miles today to bring it to 4000 miles and warm up the oil to change it.

Shade tree mechanic sounds sort of nice. In reality is sucks. Set out a piece of old plywood so I had a surface not dirt to work on. Did not want to set up by the tool shed, the ground is uneven and there is no shade. Made multiple trips back and forth for tools. At least the wood soaked up most of my oil spill. Hopefully next time I will have a better area to work. And I will either find my large funnel or buy a new one. :rolleyes:

Mission accomplished at least.
My garage may not be as new and pimped out as my old one, but at least I have one. I'm counting my blessings (y)
 
I have a beat old mesh jacket from leatherup.com (weirdest name... and odd place to get a mesh jacket from). It's like wearing an air conditioner. It worked perfectly in that Midwest humidity I no longer deal with. I would NOT want to crash in it. It has armor, but it doesn't strike me as holding up to asphalt.

I actually find my current leathers quite comfortable in the heat out here.
 
I used to live in Lake Forest, SoCal and ride to Idyllwild but stop here at "the Lookout" overlooking Lake Elsinore.

I miss those skies and temps. now I'm back in the UK. For the last 2 weeks and with no change in sight we are on the "wrong" side of the Jetstream, so while southern Europe bakes we are in upper 60°F temps with frequent rain or showers.
That's my neck of the woods! I'm not far from Lake Elsinore at all, and we go up to Idyllwild quite often. California sure has the scenery... just lots of people and cars and stuff blocking it :LOL:
 
I sure like smooth paved roads and a warmed up set of Pirellis... and I have great hiking boots for the trails :p

I fishtailed my old CBR600 good riding some of the coastal roads along Lake Michigan. Something about 6" of sand right over asphalt makes for terrible traction!
 
This picture has been bugging me. I could be and hope I'm wrong but would you check the direction arrows on your front tire. Different makers have different rules for how their treads should be mounted. Fitted the wrong way puts undo stress on the tire carcass.

HTH :)
The older Pilot Roads (3 & 4 I believe) looked backwards to me too. Different makes, different methods, but some sure look counterintuitive.
 
I've been riding with a buddy who rides an Electra Glide. It's been a helpful reminder to slow down and appreciate the terrain I'm riding through; not every ride needs to be a shred session after all.
 
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