From: bill@wsuaix.csc.wsu.edu (William E. Johns)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Strange Weekend
Date: 22 Jul 92 00:00:49 GMT
Organization: Washington State University
Originator: bill@wsuaix.csc.wsu.edu

Yes, it was a very strange weekend.
 
I was asked if I was interested in helping Stefan pit for a race day
at Portland International Raceway (PIR) on the 19th.  Always
enjoying the races, of course I said yes.  Remember, the Portland area
includes lots of strange people and visiting and going for rides is a
"gotta" when visiting such places.
 
I left Pullman on the FJ at 6:55 am on Thursday and rolled into a friends
driveway about 20 miles east of Portland around 12:30 pm, an elapsed
time which included 2 slow gas stops.  Let's see, 340 miles, 5.5 hours
less 2 gas stops . . . .  Well, hey, it was a great ride.
 
After a visit there, I rolled into the Portland area proper to crash at
Jeff Earls place.  He is a fresh WSU grad and now working at
Tektronix.  When he moved he said I could come by whenever, and by
golly, it seemed like a good time.  Scott Larson, a non-netter, fellow
riding buddy and squid (it's OK to tell Scott Larson jokes guys, he
doesn't get to read any of this stuff) was to come in Friday morning.
 
Strangeness 1.  Running up the Columbia river gorge east-to-west I
had a fierce *tail* wind.  For those who know the area, when was
the last time that happened.
 
Strangeness 2.  It was hot in Portland.  Y'know that city with all
that natural is conditioning and lots of rain, it was in the 100's for
2 days, and 90's the third.
 
After a brace of beers and some great barbecued hamburgers we
settled down to figure out what we were gonna do.  Scott left
Spokane around midnight, figuring the best way to beat the heat was
to ride in the dark, and made broadly comparable times.  I said he
was a squid.  We all had ideas about what we wanted to do on Friday
but the 100+ temps plus the natural humidity made anything more
vigorous than breathing a core.  Full leathers were downright
uncomfortable.
 
I spent Friday bumming around the Portland area, visiting Powell's
book store.  I don't know about you folks, but in almost every
bookstore I go into I check out the motorcycle section.  If lucky even
great bookstores will have less than a half-dozen titles.  Powell's
had 2 shelves, perhaps 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall full of biking
books.  They carry both used and new books and they had a bunch on
all types of stuff.  Lots of books on racing techniques and set-up.
Quite a few history books were there, i.e. the history of Ducati's,
Harley's, Triumphs, etc.  I got a Haynes on late model boxers,
figuring that not all that much will have changed between 1990 and
1992 on my PD.  I actually got out of the place with only $77 worth
of books (only one biking book--so what am I gonna do with a History
of Racing Ducati's book anyway) and figured I got off light.  A great
store.  (Powell's is near the corner of 12th and Burnside right across
the street from the Jaguar dealer.)
 
That night we got on the phones and did a little organizing for the
Saturday ride.  Chris Perez was busy with baseball games, but Martin
Golding was ready, as were Pat Loughery, Brad Hepler, and Dave
Wise.  After a good breakfast, we decided that a run to the coast was
in order, the sea breezes promised a break in the heat, so off we
went.  Jeff has spent his relatively short time in the area well and
took us to a bunch of great twisties.
 
It wasn't long before we were trading bikes.  I traded off with
Martin.  He had never been on an FJ and I had not been on a Ducati.  I
don't know exactly what he thought of the FJ, but I have many strong
impressions about his Duc.  The most impressive is on my butt.  The
black painted pine board that passes for  a padded seat
is a joke.  I learned that this type of seat was an absolute necessity.
Without it anyone riding the bike would leave a huge pucker in the
padding because of the Stay-Puff Marshmallow brake pads.  Scared
the Whoopee outta me more than once.  I will say that the Duc is
torquey and the handling is incredible.  I never anticipated a bike
which felt at light and flickable as that to also be stable in turns.
 
I have no idea what Martin actually thought of the FJ.  I do remember
him get on to my bike, rev the motor up, check out the brakes and all
and then look up screaming "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" just before
letting the clutch out.
 
We were all doing a bit of trading off.  Dave Wise has been lusting
after a new bike, and an FJ was on the list.  I got on his CX500 Honda
and he got on the FJ.  I never thought I would actually see a full face
helmet smile, but I did when he motored by me after a stop.  My
impressions of the CX500:  It's a bike that just begs to be ridden at
about 10 below the speed limit.  A bit later Dave and Martin traded
and we set off again.  I was riding sweep when I saw Martin pull off
the road in front of me and start peeling off all his clothes.  "Gee, a
party!" I thought and pulled up next to him looking for the rest of the
mob.  Nope, no party, a bee got into his underwear and stung him.  He
hopped about for a bit, cursing bees and honey and insect life in
general and we started off again with Martin in back on the CX500.
 
Strangeness 3:  About 10 minutes before my drop a month ago, I was
stung by a bee which hit me business-end first on the neck.
 
We set off with Jeff, Scott and Brad leading, I was 4th, behind me
was Pat, Dave, and Martin bringing up the rear.  I was having a great
time on a twisty just outside of Astoria when I came around a
corner, hit a walnut-sized rock with my front tire and did a brief bit
of serious riding to keep everything upright.
 
Strangeness 4:  I corrected my bike, went about 4 seconds on and had
an incredibly strong feeling that a rider was down, and that rider
was Martin.
 
I pulled off the road shaken by this feeling and just waited for a bit
to let the others behind me catch up.  No one came.  I pulled around
and went back.  I got back to find Pat in the middle of the road
slowing traffic.  I pulled around and he yelled that Martin was down
and that I should stay and slow traffic while he went back to help.
 
It got kinda hectic at this point.  I ended up holding Martin's head
while the medics strapped on the neck braces, did all there normal
checking of things and got him ready for the ride to the hospital.
Martin was more or less alert, all arms and feet worked.  It took him
awhile to figure out who was who.  Obvious damage was a couple of
attention-getting scalp wounds which appeared _under_ his helmet and
some road rash on his back.  He had no idea what had happened, and
why he was laying in pain on the edge of the road.  The medics got
him loaded and off and we sat around wondering.
 
A good check of the drop site revealed that the bike had slid perhaps
30 feet.  At about 40-45 mph, mine slid about 100 feet on smooth
road.  There were no tire skid marks, no sand or gravel, no animal
hair on the bike.  He went down in the middle of a turn, a decreasing
radius left, but dropped before he got to the part where it tightened
up.  The bike was minimally damaged on its right side.  We have no
idea what happened and can only assume that the road up and
thwacked him for allowing a couple of Yamaha/Honda pilots ride his
Ducati when it wasn't perfectly clean (I had noticed a little smudge near
one of the carbs but didn't want to say anything).
 
The hospital emergency room found Martin ready for some chatter,
apologizing for ruining everybody's ride, muttering "Better the
Honda than the Ducati." and bemoaning the loss of his Harley
Davidson riding goggles.
 
After a couple of minutes of conversation with Carol, Martin's wife,
she got ready to come and get him.  Dave left the CX500 with a local
farmer and we set off for home.  I rode with Dave Wise who ferried
the Ducati to his home.  We were stopped by a cop because he was
riding the Ducati without a head light.  We explained that it was a
Ducati, an Italian bike, that the electricals were right up there with
Lucas, that we could not find a Ducati dealer in Astoria on a
Saturday night that had a fuse bracket for a '73 860 GT and other
painful groveling.  Well, painful for Dave as I was riding the FJ,
which had functional headlights.  As fate would have it, a drunk
rolled by just then, people came by and asked the cop to throw the
rascal in jail so he peeled out and left us to get the bike to bed at
Dave's.
 
Whatta day.
 
Sunday saw us at the races.  Stefan and his gang never showed up so
we had the day off to wander around.  PIR looks like a nice track.
Saw lots of good racing and some _fast_ bikes.  Met some other
folks we know, Brad showed up as well as other local DoDer's.  Had a
good time.
 
The ride home for me was bizarre.  I left Portland in the more
traditional light rain and took 9 hours to get home.  Spent the time
dodging thunderstorms (rain I can handle--lightening is another
matter).  Had wind so bad I would have gladly stopped the bike and
got behind shelter if there was any around.  Whatta day.
 
Recent news has Martin home and healing and the weather is clearing
up.  Jeff Earl is taking up after Chris Perez, Martin Golding and
others in his excellent hospitality.  Jeff, I thank you for the beer,
burgers, beer, the pool, the beer, and in general, excellent time.
 
It is nice to know that time has not changed Jeff all that much.
He just installed a new SuperTrapp Superlite on his FJ and was
having fun terrorizing the locals.  I'm not gonna say that thing is
loud, but he was about a third of a mile up in front of me on a twisty
when I heard him engage passing gear.  That I can understand.  Going
through the Oregon 26 highway tunnel, about a 300 foot-long tunnel
full of traffic, at 8500 rpm in second earns him another half squid
point.  Come on Jeff, you might have earned a _whole_ new squid
point if you were in 3rd doing a wheelie.  :-)
 
There you have it folks, just another weekend of riding in the Pacific
Northwest.
 
Take care, y'all.
 
Bill
________________________________________________________________
bill@wsuaix.csc.wsu.edu if you feel compelled to send email
johnsw@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu if you seriously expect an answer
AMA #500924   DoD #00314   WMTC #0002   SR= 2.125
FJ1200 R100GS/PD 740GLE  KotV KotRR KotD #0001  :-)
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
 
True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all
in this together.  Hugh Prathers
 
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