I know my weekends are so amazingly exciting for all of you. Click the pics to see all of the evidence of all the fun I had. Live vicariously through me. You know you want to.

back | next
back to archives | bluepoof.com
email me

 

February 3, 2003

whew.
Knock on wood, we're finally done with the Superhawk's carb mods. I haven't heard back from Peter about whether he feels the bike is still running rich, but we turned the pilot screw back in to about a quarter-turn yesterday. I'm still somewhat confused about this, since I've read in other places now that people have turned their pilot screws out anywhere from 2 to 3 turns, and this just doesn't work on Peter's bike. At 3 turns out, his bike was coughing up white smoke and gas was literally pooling up in the cylinder heads. So, I'm not sure if our Superhawk is just naturally more rich, or if these other people were all smoking the good crack, or what.

The good news for all of you is that since we're done, you get new write-ups. They're under the VTR1000F section, which hopefully surprises no one.

Man. We have that procedure down to two hours now, including time for pictures and farting around with Mark (who was wrestling with his own bike in the driveway). I think I can pull Peter's carbs in my sleep now.

luckily, it's not all work.
Yesterday was a freaking gorgeous day here. It was around 65 degrees, with bright sunny skies. There was hardly any haze at all, either, which is fairly unusual in the SUV-filled valley. So, after lunch, Peter and I decided to go on a quick ride before coming back to work on the bikes (yes, I realize that this entry is now chronologically backwards. Makes you realize why no one pays me for my articles, huh).

I'd suggested Alice's, as I freely admit an addiction to their garlic fries. We quickly dismissed that idea, both because of the likely squid saturation due to lovely weather, and because we figured we'd better keep our ride to under an hour. We weren't sure how long the carbs were going to take, and wanted to be done by dinnerish. Peter suggested just going up and down Page Mill, but there really isn't a good place to turn around at the top of the road. So, we decided to go up Page Mill to Skyline, as though we were going to Alice's, but to stop at the first vista point about a quarter-mile down Skyline. Behold the powers of compromise!

This ended up being a really good decision. The clear weather held all the way up the hill, and the view from Skyline was amazing. It was the first time I'd been able to see the skyscrapers in San Francisco from Skyline. The pictures we took really don't do it justice. We could see both of the peninsula bridges and the greens of the East Bay hills. It was gorgeous.

I was surprised by the number of motorcycles we saw going up and down Page Mill. Normally I see maybe one or two other bikers, but we must have seen a dozen or so yesterday. Fortunately, they were all good riders and not squids -- I really wouldn't want to see a squid on Page Mill. There are no shoulders and the road surface is all crappy (yes, yes, I know, you have it worse. I remember your emails from the last time I wrote about Page Mill).

The powers that be are finally paving the middle section of Page Mill, at least, and it's gorgeous. Absolutely amazing. Unless, of course, you live in the Bay Area and are a squid, in which case, it sucks. Don't ride there. You'll hate it.

I drove Peter insane by riding too slowly up the hill (I was leading), which was, I dunno, maybe around 25 or 30mph. My excuse, which is actually true, is that I was practicing my form. Ceej came back from her track day telling us to keep our RPMs up more in the turns, and so I've been practicing. It really does seem to help. So, I was tooling up the hill in first gear at around 8000rpm, trying to move around on the bike as much as possible. I have the nagging feeling that I probably looked a little bit ridiculous (Peter won't 'fess up), but it made the turns easier, so there you go.

Peter led on the way down the hill, which was going well until we got stuck behind bicyclists. It sounds funny, but the road is so narrow and steep that bicyclists really do go just as fast -- if not faster -- than motorcycles and cars, so we get stuck behind them. We finally got around them, but then hit (figuratively) the ass end of one of those really irritating processionals of cars that just won't use turnouts. The bicyclists were tailgating me the whole time, and one of them nearly rear ended me a couple of times. He kept glaring at me whenever I'd move into the righthand third of my lane in order to execute a lefthand turn -- I'm not sure why he insisted on riding directly next to my rear wheel as opposed to, say, behind me. It's a mystery.

There is a special place in hell for people who drive in the foothills at 10mph and allow 10 vehicles to line up behind them.

the week in bikes.
Mark and I are probably going to get together and putter around the neighborhood again tonight. I should be good and take the Nighthawk; stretch its legs a little bit. We'll see.

I've got Kim's bike in the garage now, to look at her mysterious now-it-works-now-it-doesn't shift mechanism. She was stuck in 1st gear for a while, but was suddenly able to upshift again on her ride over to my place. So I'll take a look and see if anything's up with that.

I bought more tour books on Alaska this weekend. I justify this by buying them at the used bookstore, instead of from the full-priced place. See? Look at all the money I'm saving.