2 November 2006
WWWobble writes:
Chris tells his tale of woe below, and wonders “Now, I’m waiting to hear about this rain ride that I was so looking forward to myself.” WWWobble responds:
OK Captain, this is how it really went down.
Marc, Bill and I cruised the 280 to Cupertino and arrived Bobbie’s to find Al pacing around in his banana suit tapping his watch. He was probably impressed at how close we came to being on time!
An excellent breakfast was consumed and nobody shortchanged the bill, so we can actually go back there again sometime.
Anti-rain dance
The bikes look dry
Marco then led us UP UP and AWAY, on this road and that, over chip seal, or at least that’s what Al says, (but he ALWAYS says that). Anyway, we wound up on Hwy 9 and Marc set a nice pace right up to where the tree had fallen onto the road.
The nice CalTrans man let us through, and we arrived at the top in fine spirits. Only a drop or two was coming down. I have an Anti-Rain Device installed on the VFR and it works great. We continued down Hwy 9 and the VFR was running in fine style between the scattered drops of moisture. At the bottom of the hill we turned onto Hwy 236 and rode the narrow gauge road into Big Basin, the air fresh and clean, fall color everywhere, beautiful leaves decorating the roadway – you really should have been there Chris, I think you would have enjoyed it.
Should we do a Wendy?
But we’re not done. From the Park to Boulder Creek where Al returned home because he thought it might rain. Marc, Bill and I continued over Bear Creek and I’m nearly certain it was very beautiful but I do have to work on the visor misting problem.
Down the other side and into Los Gatos where we found a beautiful residential neighborhood to park in while socializing about how perfect a day for riding this really was. The sun shone fully upon us. You could tell it was a rich neighborhood. Marc noticed his motorcycle was a touch soiled, so we thought it best to depart for a spin around Almaden via the Hicks loop, then south a bit on G17, around a lake, over Willow Springs Road (don’t you just love that name) and on toward the freeway, home, and a quick rinse. No crashes. No tickets. No close calls. Perfect traction. No really, Chris, you’ll see when Marco posts the photos. OF COURSE there’s photos. We wouldn’t let you down Captain.
Dirty GS
How come the VFR is clean?
Frankenbike: R90S meets R90/6
WWWobble
PS: With luck, most of my shit should be dry by Saturday, you goin’ to
breakfast?
Chris writes: The tale of woe
Well, I WAS, until one of our erstwhile group called at about 7:30AM to say he was stuck in San Pablo with a defunct M/C. Ergo, I called the Major, explained my nonappearance and moved the Jag out into the rain (top’s always down mind you…), so as to drop my M/C trailer. Loaded the gray RT onto the trailer, tied it down, threw in some jumper cables and headed-off for San Pablo (up the East Bay, across the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge at rush hour), to find Randy Bush and his kaput motor. He jump started right away. Badly leaking fuel line observed at that time.
He took me to breakfast in El Cerrito after which his motor wouldn’t start. Re-jumped and rode back to my place, a 16 mile’er so jaunt in the rain (downpour in places). We moved the Jag out into the rain, backed my RT into the garage, off-loaded it and put the trailer away. We moved a now damp Jag back into the garage and hooked-up a battery charger. After nearly two hours and a conversation about gas-soaked boots and a call to Rick Weber, an independent tech, we tried to start it. Sounded like a weak battery!
Volt/Ohm tester said 13.5 volts in the battery. Jump started the engine, charging system was behaving just fine. Turned the engine off and it restarted just fine 5 times without assistance.
What’s going on?
Randy made arrangement to be seen by Rick Weber immediately upon his arrival in San Mateo. He left.
Randy called later to report that his problem was discovered by Rick, an internal break in the battery post itself (Neg Terminal). He’s since been fitted with a new battery and only mildly upset that he missed his first divorce hearing.
Randy’s malfunctioning battery (sealed), uses a phillips/hex-head screw that goes straight down. Randy said he’d tried to clean it here this past weekend and couldn’t break the screw loose, even when using an impact wrench. He deduced that his battery died a little prematurely (3+ years old) at his own hand.