Roll Call - California hwy 1, Friday 07/11/14

GreenMachine · July 08, 2014, 07:17:33 AM

We only get the opportunity to do this once a year, if that. RSVP and PM me your cell phone number if you want to go. RG500nut and I will be riding hwy 1 again this year. After all, we'll have the bikes at the track and the weather appears to be shaping up to be perfect again.

I'm intending the route to be Monterey to Hurst Castle and back, or thereabouts. There's usually a fair amount of traffic going south and virtually no traffic going north. I go for the coastal scenery alone.

Who knows, we may even ride again on Saturday depending on what RG wants to do.

RG! Over here. No, over here.

Mel · July 08, 2014, 08:12:51 AM

The comfort of 4 wheels is what you use for enjoying the scenery on a road

! Damn touring riders on sportbikes LOL!!

GreenMachine · July 08, 2014, 09:19:05 AM

It'll have to suffice with three. I can only get one knee down at a time. Four wheeled vehicles be damned!

Mel · July 08, 2014, 10:53:30 AM

GM, you need to learn the advanced technique of dragging both knees. As you're getting into the corner, swing your opposite leg back over the seat and land on both knee pucks, just like bulldogging a steer

!!

GreenMachine · July 08, 2014, 01:27:53 PM

But then you guys would give me grief for doing "that" on the street. No thank you!

dub · July 08, 2014, 02:36:48 PM

CHP MONTEREY AREA TO DEPLOY A MOTORCYCLE AWARENESS ENFORCEMENT OPERATION ON STATE ROUTE 1
California is home to more than 1.3 million licensed motorcyclists and has some of the best riding weather year round. California's diverse geographical composition offers many scenic places to explore with miles of twisting canyons and mountain roads. Unfortunately, the state has also experienced an increase in the number of people injured or killed in motorcycle-involved collisions. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) Coastal Division will deploy additional officers on State Route 1 from the Monterey and Ventura Area offices, in an effort to reduce the number of fatal and injury traffic collisions involving motorcycles. Officers will be looking for violations made by drivers and riders alike that can lead to collisions. They will be cracking down on all violations, including driving under the influence and distracted driving. The operation will begin on Friday, July 11, 2014, and will end on Sunday, July 13, 2014.
To assist the CHP in this traffic safety effort, Coastal Division has received a federally-funded grant titled, "California Motorcycle Safety Enforcement and Education III (CMSEE III)." The CHP Coastal Division plans to hold future enhanced enforcement events and public education campaigns to increase drivers' awareness of sharing the road with motorcyclists and motorcycle safety between now and September 30, 2014.
Data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System during the last three years for which statistics are available show there have been 1,492 motorcycle collisions resulting in 57 fatalities and 1,458 individuals injured, on the roadways where the enforcement campaign will occur.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Mel · July 08, 2014, 04:32:05 PM

I bet they won't be on any of the goat roads that branch off of Highway 1...just sayin'

!

Mel

GreenMachine · July 08, 2014, 05:17:56 PM

Thanks for the tip Dub. Maybe I'll ride on Thursday instead.

GreenMachine · July 09, 2014, 08:25:37 AM

GreenMachine · July 09, 2014, 08:25:50 AM

GreenMachine · July 09, 2014, 08:27:01 AM

So long suckers! Enjoy the heat!

Mel · July 09, 2014, 10:07:08 AM

Are you riding down like a hardcore motorcyclist, or driving down like a tourist

?

Mel

GreenMachine · July 09, 2014, 01:56:07 PM

Am I expected to then sleep on the ground using my helmet for a pillow? Of course I'm trucking the bike down. The bike, gear, tent, pillow, air mattress, stove, BBQ, lantern, dishes, silverware, beer, chairs. Oh hell yeah! I'm bringing all that sh*t! Not sure that makes me a tourist though. But if that's the standard, I'm a tourist.

Mel · July 10, 2014, 06:27:02 PM

This is definitely the soft generation of modern times

! I remember back in 1968 I was in the military and stationed in San Diego at the time, and would hitchhike up to Carlsbad and out to Carlsbad Raceway to watch the MX races. One time I had gotten a ride with a family in downtown Carlsbad headed out towards the race track. It was just getting dark when they let me out and I had told them I was just going to sleep in the hills till the morning. They felt sorry for me and my lack of any gear and gave me an old Indian style wool blanket. I headed up the hill off the road and bedded down in the dirt and crawled under the old wool blanket. I woke up in the morning, stuck my head out from underneath the blanket and it was all foggy and damp, and I saw that I was in a tomato patch

. I brushed myself off, rolled up the blanket, and headed to the track entrance to enjoy a great day of racing.

Another time my buddy and I went to special services on the base and checked out a couple sleeping bags and started hitchhiking up to Carlsbad. We got into town and bought some wine, French bread, jerky, and headed out to the track. We got there at dusk and hiked over to a section of the track in the sand and built a campfire. We were drinking our wine and eating French bread when along comes Gary Bailey and a couple other guys and they joined us and sat around the campfire. At the time Gary Bailey was one of our best pro MX racers and was there for the race. We had a blast telling stories and drinking wine before crawling into the bags for the night

!

Back then we just didn't need all the luxuries to enjoy life and have fun...it was a different world that all the young techie boys nowdays will never know...too sad

!

Just giving you shit about taking your car GM, but figured I would throw in a couple stories for the hell of it

!

Mel

GreenMachine · July 11, 2014, 07:04:58 PM

Cool stories Mel. You got me smiling more than my 2014 Free Pass is. What's a Free Pass, you say? That's when your busted, dead to rights and you still don't get the attention of those enforcing the law Ur breaking. Well, technically, I don't consider it breaking the law when I pass a train of cars, but here's the story. These cage lumps are dragging trains 20 cars deep. They won't pull over. They only speed up just enough to keep anyone from passing them and in 25 MPH corners we're forced to take those in 1st gear, at about 6 MPH

After RG500nut and I finished having lunch overlookinking the ocean cliffs in Lucia, he decided his 2-stroke wasn't comfortable enough to make the whole trek, so we agreed to split up, him returning back north and me continuing on headed south. We were doing our best, but there's always so much traffic headed south. 100 miles later I had my clear run going north thwarted, but only after making it almost all the way back, but still on SR1. There's somehing beautiful about having the road and sights all to yourself; an occasional lone vehicle doesn't even cause a break in stride.

So i'm following the lead of another set of riders four cars up. When they start to pass, so do I. This was working well enough, I mean, if it's safe enough for them to pass up ahead, so should it be from farther behind. It was working. As their lead rider would head over to pass, that was my que. Only he ducked back in and I didn't really understand why, so I proceeded forward. Out of sight behind a hill o my left were three sheriff vehicles on the shoulder and nowhere for me to go, i was along side one of the cars I was passing. They were all looking out over the ocean at something right as I streaked by in silence, clutch pulled, but they had to of heard me accelerate prior to that. Swoosh! Nothing. No response or eye contact.

I couldn't get off SR1 fast enough.

Only saw one CHP SUV today. Both times in the same area, but with anybody pulled over.