In the meantime, have adorable photos of Kira’s first motorcycle.   She rides like I do — she scoots her butt way over in the seat, puts her left foot down, and dangles her right foot way up in space.  I reassure her that she doesn’t need to flatfoot, but she does need to pay a bit more attention to how she parks.  Right now her dismount method is to just stop and let the bike fall over…which, granted, was more or less how I rode the SV650S.

We took our first long sport-touring ride yesterday: from the playroom into the kitchen and almost fully around the kitchen island.   She got bored near the kitchen table, though, and dropped the bike (sorry, she “had to lay it down”) to go over and inspect the cat dish.  Ride to eat; eat to ride!

Team: Triple Double Trouble (R6)
Player: Carolyn Bierman
Number: 119
Games Played: 24
Points: 20
Goals: 11
Assists: 9
Penalties in minutes: 2

I was also voted Most Sportsmanlike Player on our team, despite being one of only two people on the entire team who took a penalty all season.  Apparently we were a team of pacifists.

I had breakfast at the Paso Robles Inn’s coffee shop, where a very talkative man named Erik sat by me at the counter.  He was very nice and did a lot of driving around California for both his job and his wine-making hobby, so we compared notes about favorite roads and vistas.

Heading out of Paso Robles on Nacimiento Lake Drive, I realized I’d taken very few pictures of the Ninjette on the trip so far.  Oops!

Lake Nacimiento was formed by a dam of the same name and is used heavily for fishing and other water recreation.  For some reason, there weren’t a lot of people out boating and swimming on this chilly, windy morning…

After the lake, Nacimiento Lake Dr peels off northeast towards Highway 101; I took the northwest fork and continued on Interlake Road.

My allergies were really bugging me (probably because I was lying in flowers to take photos like the above) so I stopped in the booming metropolis of Lockwood to chug some OJ and blow my nose.  The proprietress was running errands in the back for a few minutes; I chatted with her friend Charlie, who was manning the store while she was out.  I think they were both somewhat surprised to have a customer.

A few miles down the road lies Fort Hunter Liggett.   The fort provides Combat Support and Combat Services Support to the US Army.  It’s a live training facility;  signs warned of possible traffic delays due to field exercises when I rode through, though I was never stopped.  It’s the largest US Army Reserve command post, though there are only 250 permanent military and civilian residents.

I don’t think I’d win this standoff:

Another cool — and very little-known — thing about the military base is that it houses one of the best-preserved missions in California.   Mission San Antonio was founded in 1771 and was the third mission started by Junipero Serra.

There are huge fundraising activities going on at the Mission right now because the state of California is requiring a $12 million earthquake retrofit that must be completed by 2015, or the mission will be closed.   According to Wikipedia, there are 35 private families keeping the mission open.

I didn’t take many pictures of the mission itself because I was thoroughly distracted by the flower fields on the drive in.   I have a huge love for poppies and the purple…bluebonnets?  Not sure what the other ones are…made a great color contrast.  I made my allergies angry again by spending a lot of time crawling around in this field.

There were signs around the mission warning of rattlesnakes, which I cheerfully chose to ignore while crawling around in the flowers; not a quarter-mile away, a HUGE rattlesnake lay in the road.  I couldn’t get a photo in time, but it made me think that perhaps I should pay more attention to the signs next time.  Eh, probably not.

After the military base, Nacimiento-Fergusson Road heads towards the coast over the Santa Lucia Mountains.   The Santa Lucias are part of the Coast Range that stretches from Alaska to Mexico (my local Santa Cruz Mountains are also part of the Range) and Nacimiento-Fergusson is the only road that crosses the mountains.

Heading towards the Santa Lucias:

After the crest of the Santa Lucias, the road heads dramatically towards the coast.  The ocean is bright and wonderful around every bend and fortunately, there was very little traffic so I could enjoy the view.

It’s always a little disconcerting to see vultures circling around…

You can see Highway 1 hugging the hillside along the coast far below Nacimiento-Fergusson Road:

OK, that was a lot of pictures from Nacimiento-Fergusson Road, but I think you can see why.  It’s an amazing road, especially east to west.  I love being in the flatlands and foothills near the military base, then climbing over the hill, and BAM, there’s the ocean.  It just takes my breath away.

I didn’t take many photos on the rest of the ride; I headed straight up Highway 1 from the intersection with Nacimiento-Fergusson all the way up to Santa Cruz (just about 100 miles).  I stopped for lunch at the Lucia Lodge, in Lucia — go figure — which had a good BLT.

It was starting to get quite windy so the riding was more strenuous, especially on the little Ninjette.  Around Monterey, there were a few times where I was actually concerned that a wind gust was going to sweep the bike out from under me at 60mph.  I’ve been in some nasty winds before (New Mexico, I’m looking at you) and I’d never truly thought that before…dunno if it was just the lighter weight of the Ninjette or if I’m out of practice (or both) but it was very disconcerting.

I stopped in Moss Landing to photograph the motorcycle sculptures for the Equinox to Equinox Rally:

And that was pretty much that; I took the interstate home (at a significant listing angle due to the wind) and arrived home at almost exactly the same time as Peter and my in-laws got home from the grocery store.  Hooray!  A fun ride, a nice night out, and I avoided having to go to the store!  A win all around.

Anyway, my in-laws are in town for the week, so I took advantage of the offered grandparent babysitting and hit the road.

I didn’t take any photos of my first 60 miles down Highway 101 because it looks like an interstate that goes through a major metropolitan area.  Feel free to visualize eight lanes of commuter traffic.

My first stop was for an early lunch just outside of Hollister.  My original intent was to have brunch at Flapjacks in Tres Pinos, but I learned upon arrival that they’re closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Oops.  Fortunately the little family-owned Mexican restaurant next door was open (the next town big enough for a restaurant after Tres Pinos is literally Paso Robles, which is 100 miles away, and I didn’t feel like backtracking to Hollister).

Beautiful downtown Tres Pinos:

I continued on Highway 25 down through the Central Valley.     Hwy 25 runs parallel to the Diablo Range, upon which sits the San Andreas Fault, so the road is twisty and scenic despite going through farmland.

Always a good sign to see on a motorcycle ride:

Highway 25 is also known as Airline Road; I always wondered why that was because, to the best of my knowledge, there’s no airport anywhere along its length.  Wikipedia opines: “One story of where the highway got its name is that before the advent of radio navigation, airline pilots flying north-south routes between San Francisco and Los Angeles would use this highway as a visual aid to confirm that they were on the correct route.”

At the intersection with Highway 198 in Monterey County, Highway 25 continues as a two-lane county road called Peach Tree Road (which itself becomes Indian Valley Road a little farther south).

From the southern terminus of Indian Valley, it’s just a short hop on Highway 101 into Paso Robles.

Day 1 stats:

I absolutely love riding to Paso Robles (as is evidenced by many prior ride reports) and a big reason why is the Paso Robles Inn.   I like to splurge at the hotel and get a mineral springs hot tub room — when I’m with Peter, I get the outdoor balcony rooms, but since I was by myself, I settled for an in-room hot tub.  ;)

I had a small adventure before dinner — upon arriving at the Inn, I realized that my Kindle battery was dead.  One way you can tell a mom traveling alone: I was SO EXCITED to have a night to sit and read a book.  Alone!  With no crying!  I grumped for a few minutes and then remembered that I had The Power Of The Internet and used Google to find a used bookstore only a couple of blocks from the hotel.  I walked on over and listened to the proprietors gossip about their love lives while I perused the books; I wound up picking up a David Sedaris book for $2 and was instantly happier.

A great dinner, complete with Firestone beer on tap and David Sedaris:

Day 2 to be continued, hopefully later today or tomorrow…

There isn’t actually a lot to say about this ride; I rode over to the East Bay to have breakfast in Sunol, then puttered down Calaveras Road and into San Jose.   I spent quite some time taking photos in San Jose and environs for the Equinox to Equinox Rally, then headed home.

First, here are some general ride pics.  It was a gorgeous spring day; really perfect riding weather.

Niles Canyon:

I ducked into the Sunol Water Temple for the E2E rally:

Calaveras Road:

I have a very strong memory of coming home from the hospital after Kira’s birth last April and seeing the poppies in bloom along the roadside.  It makes me smile to see them again this spring.

Can you believe that this is my first official Muffler Man?  And I call myself a roadside kitsch connoisseur, pfffft.

And the ubiquitous ride stats photo:

Anyway, I’ll try to be more interesting next time. I figured any blog post is better than no blog post at all!  :)

(Disclaimer because this is the internet and someone will get butthurt: it’s an April Fool’s joke)

One of the items on the list is a covered bridge, so I hopped on the newly-not-a-death-trap Ninjette and rode 50 miles south to Felton to the tallest covered bridge in the United States.

(Note crappy photo quality; I’m using my cell phone camera for the rally pics as I am WAY too lazy to take “real” photos, download/process them, and email them into the contest back at home.)

While down in Felton, I also snagged a fire house, post office, “Welcome to…” sign, historical marker, and a static train car.   On the rest of my ride, I grabbed a couple more fire houses and another “Welcome” sign.

Because these are not the most exciting photos you’ll ever see, I’ll just point y’alls at a link.

Here are all the galleries of rally participants:  http://thepacepodcast.com/archives/2429

My gallery is obviously “Bluepoof”, but since the rally riders are all over the country, it’s cool to see everyones’ photos and their different scenery and parks and markers and etc.  So go check out the other peeps, too.

The rest of my ride was fun, too; I puttered around the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains, which is a particular favorite of mine.  As always, I’m digging the whole “riding on Tuesdays” thing — I can actually ride in the hills and not be crowded by sportsbikes and sportscars and people who want to go faster than me (disclaimer: everyone).

Not a lot else to say about the ride, and Kira just woke up from her nap, so here are this week’s “So, hey, how was YOUR Tuesday?” photos:

This was totally accidental, but I like it:

Ride stats:

Seriously, kids, this was really embarrassing. Not only was the chain in horrific shape (Andrew said he didn’t even have to break the chain to pull it off the sprocket) but the carbs were out of sync and the motor mount bolts were finger tight.  Andrew also re-did my valve adjustment to try to get rid of the noise (more on that in a sec), replaced the rubber dampers in the cush drive, and replaced the fuel line that I had Band-Aided with Rescue Tape (yeah, the same fuel line that I said 6 months ago that I was going to replace right away…)

The valve re- and re- and re-adjustment didn’t get rid of the ticking noise, so Andrew’s current theory is that I need a new cam chain tensioner.  I confirmed with him that this was not a “replace this tomorrow or risk a fiery death” item (see above about taking six months to replace a fuel line) so I guess the bike will just have an annoying tick for a while.  Andrew said that the stuff he read about replacing the tensioner all referenced splitting the engine, which….yeah, we won’t be doing that anytime soon.  Next time the bike is mothballed for a while, maybe.

All that said, the bike is running really nicely now.  Riding back from Half Moon Bay yesterday was super fun; the bike actually felt like it had acceleration and everything just felt tight and dialed-in.  I guess a lot of the idiosyncrasies that I’d chalked up to “a 250cc thing” were actually “a loose motor mount bolts thing” or “a worn cush drive thing” or “an ass-tastically synced carbs thing” or “your chain is about to fly off the sprocket thing”.  Go figure.

Tomorrow is supposed to be chilly (well, for Bay Area standards) but sunny, so I’m going to try to get out and take some photos for the Pace Podcast’s Equinox to Equinox Rally and play around with the Ninjette some more.  :)

Why have Andrew do the wrenching?  As I learned the last time I worked on the bike, it’s just not the best use of my time these days.  I only have one “day off” per week, and it’s not usually enough to get all the work done, which means it drags on forever and I get frustrated and grumpy and say things like, “christ, this is so not the best use of my time”.   So….off to Andrew’s it goes.

The ride over was horrible.  The scenery is terrible.  No one should ever ride here.

When I arrived at Andrew’s, he was in his front yard with his son Frank and the sidecar.

I want a sidecar.  There is absolutely no earthly reason why I should have one.  They are huge and cumbersome and a pain to ride and they don’t lean and I have too many vehicles that I don’t ride enough as it is and I WANT ONE.  They are just so cool looking.  Plus, orange!  They come in orange!

Bah, this is not a battle that I’m going to win anytime soon.  But if the magic Garage Fairy showed up and cleaned out space and a sidecar were to magically appear…I wouldn’t complain, is all I’m saying.

After leaving Andrew’s, we drove down to Half Moon Bay, where Kira had her first meal at Cameron’s.  Yum yum coastside pub food!

So, no rides for a little while until the Ninjette is back.  Luckily I timed it well and it looks like it might rain for the next couple of Tuesdays anyway, so I don’t think you’re going to have missed anything.

I had the incredible foresight to buy a used motorcycle from someone who fabricates and sells windscreens.  Mike doesn’t do a lot of work anymore for various reasons (though his website still says you can email him for a Ninjette or Versys screen), but fortunately he still had some Ninjette screens in his workshop that he was willing to send me.

I knew I wanted something a little bigger for the interstate but I didn’t want a humongous touring screen yet.  Mike did actually send me a humongous screen as well, but I haven’t installed it.

Instead, I installed the “goldilocks” screen:  not too big, not too small!  Here it is with the screen that Mike included with the bike (the new one is the bigger one):

Old and new profiles:

And old vs new from the front:

It doesn’t look like a huge difference, but it’s enough to make interstate riding a lot more comfortable.  When I rode the 70ish miles home on the freeway a couple of weeks ago, I barely noticed the wind at all.  If I wind up ever doing cross country on this bike, I might try swapping on the humongous windscreen, but I think this one will do nicely for up to a couple of hundred miles a day.