From: txd@Able.MKT.3Com.Com (Tom Dietrich)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Gather trip report
Date: 25 Aug 92 20:30:29 GMT
Organization: 3Com Corporation

Two weeks vacation, the Great Pacific Northwest Dryside Gather and
3,036 miles in the books, I guess that we owe a trip report. I'm going
to leave the detailed report to Beth, as she kept a journal for the
entire two weeks. I won't slack off entirely though, and you probably
want to hear from the pilot anyway....

What was the riding like?? Oh ya, that's why I'm writing this, huh.
Beth bought the Connie a brand new set of Michelins and I had set the
preload up for the load, so the Connie was behaving beautifully. We
had both saddle bags packed to the hilt, a sleeping bag, pad and tent
on top of the right bag and a sleeping bag, pad and my sweatshirt on
top of the left. The sweatshirt wound up being where we put "overflow"
gear. Behind the seat rest was our drop cloth and water bottle. The
tank bag was stuffed with the clothes that we were planning on wearing
day to day on the road, toiletries and the like. As always, the
Concours had plenty of power. 101 has a lot of hills and two land
areas that require some horsepower to pass cagers. I pulled the rubber
bumper off of the center stand to buy us a little more clearance
there as we always seem to drag the centerstand on rides like this.
There were lots of times that I expected to hear and feel it, but only
once did we touch. Damping was perfect, dips and bumps were ridden
through without upsetting the line I had selected. The steering input
required was as always minimal, and line changes to avoid obstacles
were easy. We maintained 75-80 ^H^H^H^H^H a good rate of speed through
all but the twistiest parts of 101. I suppose I could have had more
fun with an all out sport bike, but it wouldn't have been as
comfortable. A combination of the radar detector, sharp eyes, quick
reactions and good brakes kept us out of altercations with the local
law enforcement agencies.

We left on Sunday, 8/9, and didn't get on the road until much later
than I had wanted to. It was sometime around noon. We took Hwy 85 to
Hwy 280 into the city. Traffic absolutely sucked! It was worse than I
had seen in the past. We spent more than two hours in stop and go
parking lot traffic. It didn't bother me too much though, we were
starting two weeks of blessed vacation on the motorcycle. It's hard to
kill that sort of good mood. We talked to a guy that was going from
San Diego to Seattle on his Heritage Softtail. About an hour into the
slow grind, his Harley was pinging loudly at every start. I commented
to him that it didn't sound like his bike was appreciating the traffic
or the heat. Up until that point, he had been pretty friendly, but he
got quiet. His next comment was that my "little rice rocket" must be
really wanting to go about now. he followed that a little later by
saying that he was going to decline on our offer to ride together for
a ways. All the better, I don't think that he'd have liked the pace
that I set. Traffic began to clear, and we made it across the Golden
gate and up the road a few miles, only to stop again. A cage had
decided to add to the heat and all that was left was cinders and two
CHPs keeping the left lane of 101 closed. A few more miles after that,
with the road pretty much open, the Concours was saying that she
needed gas.

We stopped for gas for the Connie, lunch and something to drink for
us. Getting back on to the freeway, the only vehicle that I needed to
take into consideration for the merge was an FZR 600. I wacked the
throttle and we merged in front of him. He was satisfied with the 75
mph that we were doing and he followed us for quite a while. There were
quite a few times when I think that he was surprised at the cornering
speed that we held, as he was losing distance in corners and gaining
it back in the straighter parts. He peeled off and we kept it up to
Rio Dell. The gas guage said that it was time for gas, and we were
ready for a break. I noticed that the guage is reading empty after
4.5 gallons being gone. I figured what the hell, it's a good safety
margin and didn't worry about it for the rest of the trip. Beth and I
held a gas station conference and decided that we'd sleep there for
the night.

The next day was Rio Dell, Ca. to Newport, Ore. Beth wanted to check
out the new aquarium there, so that was our goal. We were lazy again,
and didn't get done with breakfast and on the road until late again.
We got to Newport about 40 minutes before they closed the aquarium,
and made a whirlwind tour. Dinner and early to bed was the plan so
that we got an earlier start the next day.

I figured that as we were going to have the coolest leg of out journey
on this day, that making it a long one wouldn't be too bad. We
followed 101 up to Astoria and across the Columbia. For those not
familiar with 101 and Washington, 101 makes a loop of the peninsula.
We decided that the whole loop would be a bit excessive, and opted to
head east and pick 101 up at the south end of Hood's canal. We stopped
at Port Townsend for the night. 

Day four held a road that I've always wanted to travel on a bike, but
never was able to, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We got up in the
morning early again and were on the road by 7:30. We caught he ferry
from port Townsend to Keystone and picked up the westmost end of Hwy
20. This is a beautiful two lane highway through some of the greatest
forest covered mountains in the country! (Hell no, I'm not biased! :{)
) We had the road pretty much to ourselves as it was Wednesday. There
were a few portions that had road construction, but the waits were
short and having brand new blacktop all to ourselves twisting through
that beautiful country was worth every minute waiting. We got to Twisp
and mom's ranch about 2:00. 

We stayed at the ranch most of Thursday and headed down 97 towards the
Gather on Friday. This was easily the hottest portion of the entire
trip. We made quite a few stops to drink and soak t-shirts. The Just
Leather vent design works very well at keeping us cool like this. By
the time we were close to the campsite, I was more than ready to get
off of the bike and have a beer. We found the turn off fine and were
creeping down the gravel road to join up with the rest. Have I
mentioned that the Connie and I have an agreement regarding gravel
roads?? No? We made this agreement a long time ago, I keep her off the
gravel, and she keeps *me* off of the pavement. This is because she
doesn't do gravel... But here we found ourselves on a gravel road...
The second one of the trip. She was letting me know that there was a
good reason for her dislike of these marble covered roadways in the
most polite terms that she could muster when we came upon an
"intersection" that was not marked with the characteristic double
pink flags. I was still creeping forward, but looking back. I had been
looking away from the roadway for long enough to make me wonder what
was ahead and touched the front brake out of habit. I *KNOW* it was a
big mistake, I knew it then too. The front locked, I wasn't looking
ahead yet, and the Connie started to fall right. I got my foot out and
tried to catch her, but she was too far gone. I gently laid her down
on the right saddle bag and told Beth to bail out. I then dismounted
also, and we stood the Concours up, and inspected the damage. There
was a minor scratch on the right saddlebag where she came to rest, but
that was all. We proceeded to the campsite without further incident
other than the front tire pressure check. I came in at 43 PSI! =8{O
Hmmmmm, lets see, we were at what 3,000 feet? I had 32 PSI in it at
sea level and had been running twisties in the heat all day... I guess
that that's enough excuses... :{)

The Gather itself was a lot of fun. Got to meet folks face to face,
drink lots of beer and tequila, battle the dreaded chipmunks for food,
and in general have a good time. My hat's off to Bill, he did a fine
Pasker of a job!

We split Sunday and headed for Spokane and my uncle. Unfortunately the
only way to do this seems to be to slab it across the desert, so we
wicked it up and were there in the late afternoon. We spent an extra
day with Uncle Bob, and needed to make time, so again, we slabbed it
for Eugene. 90 to 395 to 32 and along the Columbia gorge. At some
point, Beth mentioned that we hadn't attained DoD nominal as yet, the
gorge seemed like as good a place as any, the Oregon state cops were
nice and stayed out of sight and the Concours was quite willing. The
deed was done, cages  were blown by and highway was eaten up. We made
Eugene at about 6:00.

Friday, we couldn't bear to slab any more, so we headed for Crater
lake, via 138. This is a great two lane highway with everything from
fast sweepers to corners posted at 20 mph. As we approached Crater
lake, the temperature took a nose dive, and by the time we were at the
rim of the crater, we were both cold. We both opted for warmer clothes
and headed for Medford. We go to Medford and it was nearly 6:00 and I
didn't want to ride in the woods on 199 to the coast in the evening.
We'd already seen enough of Bambo's relatives and didn't want a close
encounter.

Saturday was to be the last day of the trip, I took 99 north to
Grant's Pass, hooked up with 199 south to Crescent City, and 101
south. A little south of Crescent city, the radar detector went into
alarm mode, and as much out of reflex as anything else I rolled off
the throttle and touched the brakes. A copstang comes around the
corner and proceeded past. phew! A bit later, after doing battle with
the dreaded winnabago's and VW vanagons, I made a spectacular 6 car
pass. As I began to round the next bend, again the radar detector goes
into alarm! Reflexes took over again, and the driver of the CHP
cruiser only could glare... Radar in Ca.!?!?!?!? Hmmm, damn decent of
them to warn me like that! :{) The rest of the trip was uneventful if
not tiring. As I exited the freeway to go home, one more stupid cager
had to try and ruin our vacation, but stopping at the end of the off
ramp was far too amateurish a move to catch this biker, even if he was
tired and road weary!

The high speed slabbing and overloaded trip took it's toll on the new
rear tire  on the Connie, there may be enough to go to the air races
and back there though... We'll see. ;{>

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'86 Concours.....Sophisticated Lady            Tom Dietrich             
'72 1000cc Sportster.....'Ol Sport               DoD # 055
^^^^^^^^^^^It *LIVES*!^^^^^^^^^^^^              AMA #524245
                                    Cool as a rule, but sometimes....
Two Jousts and a Gather, *BIG fun!*            (H. Lewis)
e-mail txd@Able.MKT.3Com.COM                   Ma Bell (408) 738-8301
Disclaimer: 3Com takes no responsibility for opinions preceding this.

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Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles