saturday.
Saturday was our monthly Wind Dancers End-of-Month Putt. I woke up early and rode down to Santa Clara to meet Laura. She's my mentoree, though she really does kick ass and doesn't actually need any help. I mainly just ride in front and get us lost.

Anyway, we gassed up and headed down and around the bay up to Fremont. Aside from Laura almost getting smooshed by some idiot who tried to change lanes into her, our ride was uneventful. When we got to the Starbucks, Laura laughed and told me, "my speedometer was at 80! I'd hate to see how you ride after your caffeine!" *whistles innocently*

It was a red-letter day, because three attendees were on their first group ride. Laura and Barb have both been attending meetings for a while, but didn't previously feel comfortable enough to attend a group outing; Betty is also a new rider (both to motorcycling in general and to our group). It was great to see new riders come out to ride with us.

We caffeinated and split into two groups, since there were fourteen of us. We decided to ride down Mission Ave to Niles Canyon Blvd, then hop onto Foothill Road in Sunol, go through Pleasanton to Dublin Canyon Road, and then end up at the very yummy Don Jose mexican restaurant in Castro Valley.

The only real excitement was missing a turn in Sunol; we doubled back for a mile or so along Niles Canyon until we found a small quarry parking lot to make a U-turn. I was pretty impressed with the new riders -- a U-turn in a small, sloped, gravelly quarry parking lot wouldn't have been my idea of a great time a few years ago. Still isn't, really.

I rode behind Barb the whole way to lunch, and thought that she was really doing well. It looked as though she was fighting that little 250 a bit, especially towards our lunch stop (we'd been riding for 40-some miles by that point), and we chatted at lunch about her trying out a friend's 550cc in a parking lot sometime soon.

Lunch was good -- mole enchilada, yum yum (that's "MOE-lay", by the way, not "mole" the animal). We sat around and exchanged stories of horrible mechanical failures, and that was pretty much that. The gals did some posing for me out in the parking lot after lunch, and then Stephanie and I headed off on our own.

saturday, part deux.
After leaving the group, Steph and I made a quick stop back at her place, and then headed up to San Francisco for the mother lode of all bath products foofy and girly and smelly: Lush. This was very exicting for me, as it was the whopping third time that I'd ridden my motorcycle to an actual destination in the city (not counting just riding through to cross the Golden Gate). I really really hate parking in San Francisco, and fortunately, we lucked out and got a spot on Powell Avenue right in front of Lush. This made for a much more relaxed poof.

We wandered around the store, sniffing and smelling and spending. As we bungeed our purchases onto the bikes, a trio of Asian teenagers came up to Stephanie and asked if one of the girls could pose near her bike. I offered to let the other girl sit on my bike, too, but I was stone-cold dissed. The giggling girl flashed a peace sign with Steph for the camera, and they all tittered off down the block. I swear, every time I've ever been anywhere with Steph, people just flock to her motorcycle.

We walked the half-block up to Union Square to get the historical marker, but were utterly unable to find the plaque amongst all of the people and tents and stages. We walked back to the bikes and headed for a couple more historical markers. Steph's battery, bless it, got a little funky after one marker, and we decided not to tempt fate. We got separated pretty quickly on the way back to the freeway, since we were both lanesplitting down San Francisco side streets, and it's pretty hard to stay together at lights and etc. But we both made it back to the freeway. I grabbed one more marker in Millbrae on the way home.

sunday.
Peter had been busy at work all of last week, so I guilted him into going out riding with me and the boys on Sunday. It was the first time I'd ridden with Paul since he went pavement surfing a few weeks ago, and we got to make fun of him and see his knee bandages and all sorts of fun things. His Thunderbird was still missing parts, so he was riding the Sprint RS. Dave's big purple Gixxer is still transmission-less, so he was on Paul's Bandit (it's like musical chairs!), which he's souping up to be the world's coolest Bandit 600S. Dave took the front fairing off, and they put on some double headlights.

We did the usual route: Highway 9 up to the vista point, then back to Hwy 35 and up to Hwy 84, 84 to the San Gregorio General Store, then over to Highway 1 on the coast, 1 down to Pescadero for lunch, and Old Pescadero Road back up to 84 with a stop at Alice's.

It was a nice ride. We all took it nice and easy (well, OK, Dave didn't), and it was a relaxing ride. At least, it was when we weren't stuck behind stoopid Labor Day traffic. I wish people would learn to love the turnout.

I felt like I was wrestling the SVS coming down Page Mill again. It's frustrating. Must reflect on why I'm not flicking it as well as I have in the past.

monday.
Monday was Happy Service Day in the garage. I finished up the SVS's 24k service (nothing exciting; just changed the oil and filter, tightened everything, blah blah). It seems much happier with fresh oil in it. The old oil hadn't been changed since before the latest desert trip, and it was all black and goopy and breeding pod people and stuff.

I also did the 16k service on the Superhawk, almost exactly a year after I did the 12k service. When I told Peter that, he laughed and said, "wow, I've only put on 4000 miles in the past year? How many miles have you ridden since then?" I had no idea, so I looked it up in the SVS service log, and apparently, the SVS also had around 12k in September 2002. So, I've done about 12,000 miles in the past year. Not too shabby.

The services went well; nothing broke or exploded or dripped gunk everywhere. None of our chassis bolts were loose; all pads and hoses and fasteners were in good shape. It was the world's most uneventful service. We even washed the bikes just for something else to do.

So that's that. Now I'm back at work. Andrea starts her MSF class this Thursday, so everyone think Happy MSF Thoughts for Andrea (and her pretty Vulcan 500 that's currently in my garage).