The next day, my new coworker John brought his 2000 Aprilia Pegaso over, complaining that the engine cuts out at low RPMs. A bit of research on the World Wide Interweb (what did we do before it?) showed that this is a fairly common problem. It seems to be an extremely lean fuel mixture for some folks and a faulty CDI for others. Since even the CDI people reported running lean, I figured I'd play with the carbs first, and see where we're at from there. So...more carbs!

Then, I ended up with some free time yesterday afternoon, so Peter left his Superhawk at my apartment while he took my car home. Out came his carbs again. I took out the jets and cleaned them, measured the float heights, tightened everything back up, and put it all back. This should solve his "running rich" problem. One of his floats was slightly out of spec (roughly 15.5mm, where spec is 16.1mm - 17.1mm), which is annoying, since the float height in the Superhawk is non-adjustable. Thanks, Honda! A new float valve is $18, which could be worse, but I'm not going to worry about it right now.

I'm starting to have dreams about jets and needles and floats. I think I'm inhaling too much carb cleaner.

i actually ride, too!
Occasionally, they let me out of my garage, and I actually ride my motorcycle. It's true!

Saturday morning found me waking up at, literally, the crack of dawn. I managed to sleepride to Pleasanton (about 30 miles from my apartment) in time for a 7am breakfast before the Wind Dancers Long Ride to Lunch. There were, miraculously, seven of us who grunted at one another and downed coffee for an hour or so.

We left the diner at 8am, taking the East Bay highways up to the Benicia Bridge. Once we were in the North Bay, we hopped on some local twisties until Napa. We took the Silverado Trail up to Calistoga for lunch -- I don't have my map with me right now, but I'll make one up for the next entry. It was a great route.

I took the freeways home from Napa with some of the other gals -- it's always such a let-down to get back on the freeway after being in the twisties all day. I hadn't slept well on Friday night (even aside from having to get up at 5:30am), so I was pretty much asleep by the time I got home. I pretty much just parked the bike, walked into my apartment, and went straight to bed.

I'll elaborate more on the ride once I have my route map, but it was really a fun ride. It ended up being just about 300 miles (including the part from my apartment to the meeting place). If only I could come up with some sort of transport device that would cut out the miles and miles of annoying East Bay freeways.

It was really exciting to me how much fun the ride was. True to form, we were going relatively slowly in the twisties (not as bad as usual, though, since it was an experienced-rider-only ride), but that was fine by me. I was riding third out of eight, and concentrated on my form and line through the turns. Sometimes it worked a little too well, and I'd end up tailgating Diana out of the turn (sorry, Lusty!!).

I felt really comfortable on those roads; even the tight uphill right-handers were coming naturally for me, which was very exciting. Jamie, the woman behind me, teased me at a gas stop because I was hanging off at 30mph, but, heck, that's when I need to hang off. If it's straight enough that I'm going 80, I don't need to hang off at all! Who knows. I probably look like a funny monkey, but hanging off in the slow turns makes me corner better. I think it's because the bike isn't as leaned over as it would be if I weren't hanging off, so I don't feel like I'm going to slowly tip over. It also helps me lean into the turn and keep my uphill arm relaxed (a hint from David Hough's new book, More Proficient Motorcycling).

eleven more to go...
On Sunday, I dragged Peter out, and we went historical marker hunting. We puttered around Palo Alto, and I got four more markers, bringing my total up to 39. Very exciting.

(this is, incidentally, what I'm talking about)