A funny thing happened on the way to the bridge...

[MAXIMAN]

...the Golden Gate Bridge. But more on that later.

I just completed my annual trek out west. Except this year I went a little farther and brought a couple extra friends. This trip turned out to be the ride of a lifetime. In 12 days I rode 5542 miles covering 10 states, 4 major physiographic provinces and 7 regions.

The scenery as you can imagine was spectacular and will be evidence by photos. The ride was near perfect. We encountered very little rain and no extreme heat. The warmest leg of the ride by far was crossing the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley in California.

Brent Hoovestol, and Xsive from the Atlanta area rode to my house August the 28th. We arose early on the 29th and rode toward Castlerock, CO to hook up with Miles Baker. On the way we met yet another Xsive, Bohn Frazier, in Salina, KS. He followed us west to Baker’s house where we “roosted”.

But instead of writing my normal bloated story I think I will simply post photos with captions. Besides, pics are so much more descriptive and there were so many to choose from I could only post a fraction of them. In any case I hope you enjoy them.

Here’s our first fuel stop in Kansas. That’s Brent next to his Road King.


Breakfast break in Dillion


Caravan parked at the Motel in Eureka, NV


The disappearing road trick west of Austin, NV. (L-R: Miles, Bohn and Brent with Zilla leading the pack)


Ray (Diver Ray) at the Motel 6 in Tahoe


Bohn at same


Mason and Dick at Tahoe

[MAXIMAN]

Pat!


Matt and Jody Katter at Carrow’s Breakfast


E. Liberty – Ed Darwin


11 Elevens before the ride


That’s right!!! If Ray and I counted accurately we had the magic number of Elevens for the Tahoe ride. And to think I feared no one would even show. If there’s one thing in the bike world you can count on it’s an Eleven..AND Xsives!

Dave Rockey, Bohn Frazier, and Ed in Virginia City on the Saturday ride.


Me, Mason and “Amp Man” in V City


Brent at the Fire Museum in Virgina City


Here’s some shots where we stopped on the east front of the Sierras.


Pete gazing at the wonders of creation with his slick ST1100 in the background.


Plane Dick on his Pathfinder (RIP Dave…we miss you!)


Uncle Spot

[MAXIMAN]

Brent Hoovestol and his Road King. Brent also has an Eleven in the garage.


Pat Kelly


Dave Rockey (Pop Rock on the board)


Ed Darwin – transplant from Texas!


Miles Baker with his “No Name”


What the He%$#!!! Ray must have photoshopped that goofy look! I don’t normally look that goofy….do I?


Pete and the “other Eleven”. The thing is so quiet I thought it was electric!


The funniest man in the world Bohn Frazier! Jack Benny has nothing on this guy.


This is BlkMage with a great looking flame job.


Mason and his Standard with the Uber bright HID headlight…OUCH!


Last but not least…fearless leader. Thanks Ray for the Xsellent rally

[MAXIMAN]

Dinner Saturday night at Stateline

Poppa Katt


Brent telling some lie


Ray looking distinguished. Believe it or not people…this guy not only looks smart…HE IS SMART.


The morning before we departed for the PCH. Ray has a funny way of scratching his face.


Down the mountain to the valley.


We rode from SLT to Placerville then onto Hayward to hook up with MRO. We crossed the Bay and up the ridge road to the world famous biker bar/café Alice’s.

Mike (MRO) at Alice’s


Brent dropped his Harley very gently in the Alice’s parking lot. The slope was very steep and I suppose he just lost his footing. No hamr to him or the bike but this shot clearly shows the “gods” were smiling on him.


Shot from high on the ridge road

[MAXIMAN]

We rode north into the mouth of the beast…San Francisco. Recognize this shot? Think Steve McQueen and “Bullit”.


Golden Gate Bridge tour








Tour Guide at the Golden Gate




That’s me pointing at the place I might be headed…and didn’t even know it. (Alcatraz Island).

[MAXIMAN]

A strange thing happened on the way to the bridge. We had just crossed under the first suspension tower…


When I heard this gawd awful noise creeping up from behind. I sounded like a big bore V-twin with a HUGE thumping stereo pumping out mega volumes of HIP-HOP I turned my head…lo and behold that is exactly what it was.

A massive white Harley…maybe an ultra-glide or some such. Or possibly an FXHDSGPYSRWK!!!…whatever Harley’s extraneous numbers system means. Any way it WHITE WHITE WHITE with red trim. Obviously a very pricey custom job. This guy had more money in this bike than most people make in a year. I guess it was a 120+ inch motor as I found out a few minutes later.

Bohn dubbed the driver “Rufus”…Miles dubbed his lady friend on the back “Little Miss B”. I’ll call his friends in hot pursuit “Big Timers” wink wink. So for purposes of this story we’ll use those aliases.

I was bringing up the rear as all seven of us crossed the bridge in tight formation. Rufus pulled up along side me as the traffic was knee deep and rolling about 40 across the bridge. His head was bobbing to the music like “Hell Yeah!”. He was looking over at me as if to taunt. Then the idiot tried to stuff me pointing his massive $80,000 machine toward the hole between Miles and I. I twisted the grip on Zilla and closed the gap so the ******* couldn’t squeeze in.

Then Rufus rolled forward splitting the lanes between us and the cars to the right and tried to stuff Miles and Bohn. He almost hit Bohn Frazier and that rose my ire. Bohn…unlike me…has very little aggression and is a perfect gentleman. If he had taken Bohn down I would have likely died fighting the fat maggot because he had two or three buddies following him on similar custom machines.

Finally he gave up…slowed, fell behind us and went around us to the right. As he did he revved his mega twin and flipped me off with some gesture I had never seen before. When people do crap like that it doesn’t set well with me. Zilla was feeling sparky at sea level…REAL SPARKY…so I stepped up to the plate to try and knock one out of the park so to speak.

The lanes had opened up for about a ¼ mile in front. I fell out of formation like a fighter jet headed for enemy aircraft. I pulled along side Rufus and Miss B. He was not smiling...neither was I. I stuck my hand up and waved bye-bye as I rolled the throttle. Rufus followed suite. I was in fourth and I jumped ahead for an instant...but then some very strange happened. The massive Harley pulled me about 5 to 6 feet in the roll on.

It occurred to me this was NOT your average 88 inch motor. Rufus was motioning for more so I accommodated him. So I pulled a long side dropped Zilla into 3rd (we were rolling about 50 mph)…and jumped out front. This time it was a different story…at the end of the roll-on Zilla was out front by a good bike length.

Rufus WAS NOT happy. His uber expensive Harley just got shaved by some old “glory days bike” from the late 70’s. Zilla was likely built before Rufus was even a twinkle in is daddy’s eye.

After this ostentatious display of old school Japanese muscle Rufus was very angry. He was motioning for more. I wasn’t real happy at the time either. Remember this a-wipe damn near hit a good friend on the bridge for no reason at all. So I obliged Rufus one more time.

It occurred to me Zilla should be able to utterly destroy this thing and I thought the 750 gearing might be hurting his ability to really do the V-Twin in for good. So this time I rolled up next to Rufus in 3rd. The idiot actually motioned for me to get the jump. So I dropped the big lizard into SECOND. This put the tach squarely into Mr. Zilla’s power band. At 50 in second with Chop’s drive mod Zilla’s trick engine is spinning about 6000 to 6500. I knew he’d wind to 10,000 and never float a valve because we did numerous times on a dyno. I also knew he would pulled like a freight train all the way out to 9000 rpm.

We had just entered a tunnel north of the bridge and the lanes had opened up more. Rufus motioned for me to roll. I twisted the throttle grip darn near off the handle bar and the big Maxim lept out front by a full bike length. Winding the 1200 cc powerplant to 9500 I simply fanned the clutch with the throttle wide open …much like I did as a teenager drag racing. Believe it or not Rufus was pushing his twin just as hard and speed shifting too. When Zilla hit 3rd at 9500 rpm the rear end squatted and the front wheel left the pavement by a good 10 inches. It felt like being shot out of a cannon. I let him wind to 100+ mph. As I shut down for fast approaching traffic I looked in my rearview and Rufus was easily 2-3 car lengths behind…maybe more. His overpriced cruiser just got thumped…decidely… by a 47 year old grandpa on a 25 year old bike.

Needless to say Rufus was not happy. He was cursing aloud and wanted more. I simply laughed and waved him off falling back into formation. I figured if I pushed the issue I’d either wind up in jail or the morgue and neither prospect was appealing.

Rufus rolled the throttle and disappeared into the Marin County traffic. His buddies rode by. Ray said they were laughing and waving at us when they went by. I didn’t notice as I was pretty “adrenalized” at that point. All I remember is the frightening sound of the big lizard and the massive V-Twin scuffing it out in the tunnel. The Harley sounded like dynamite going off reverberating through the tunnel. But Zilla’s high winding motor sounded like a P51 Mustang flying straight down the throat of the tunnel. It was an experience I shall not soon forget…nor repeat. My quick temper got the best of me that day and I could have easily gotten myself into more trouble than I and all of Zilla’s horses could have put back together again. In retrospect a common phrase comes to mind …”Don’t try this at home”.

A shot of me by Zilla at the Holiday Inn Express in Mill Valley after the fray.


Paying homage to the mythical beast the next day on the coastal ride.

[MAXIMAN]

What a perfect start to a perfect road trip. The PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) is beyond compare. This neck of the woods is utterly beautiful. Words can barely describe the scenery. The roads are twisty and full of life. Little villages dot the coastline for hundreds of miles. You could easily spend 10 days just riding up the coast and taking your time. But alas we had many miles to go and were forced to RIDE. Let the pictures do the talking.

[MAXIMAN]

Lunch at Salt Point


Dave and his “swimming pool” of Chowder at the Salt Point Grill


Pete on the uber silent ST11 ripping through the twisty forest roads.


Tourist Trap!




Three mythical beasts. Wonder which has the biggest nads? Hehehe


Me and Ray riding through a tree. Howdoya like those trick tail lights?




For all you UFO lovers what’s this??? Miles casting some voodoo hex in the tree? Maybe some apparition in the forest that only shows up on digital camera…wooooowooooowooooo (Twilight Zone Music fades into scene)….


Sorry fellas…it was just my cigar smoke!

Me and Zilla rolling north on HWY 1.


Dave headed into Oregon


Ray at the Oregon state line. Hey Dave you still haven’t made. Keep going north about 5 feet!

[MAXIMAN]

The ever present monoliths of the Oregon coast.


That’s photos of the trip going up. I think I had in xs of 1000 photos (my camera, Ray’s and Brent’s included). I still haven’t sorted through the pics for the return trip. Maybe I’ll get them up later.

In short this was the longest road trip I’ve done…almost 2 weeks and 6000 miles. And though I thoroughly enjoyed every mile of it….I was certainly glad to be home.

NEXT! Talimena Ridge October 6-7…BE THERE!!! Aloha.

For a slide show of these pics go here:

Tahoe-Oregon Slide Show

[dpotter58]

UFB!!! WOW!! what else can I say??? Makes my little east coast rides look like a put to the corner.

[MAXIMAN]

Hmmm...don't temp me. I'm considering a flying trip to the coast of Maine for some XSellent clam chowder! Anyone up for the ride?

[DiverRay]

Maximan,
The unknown rider is Blkmge. I don't remember his name either, but he is a new member, and is learning in a hurry!

[MAXIMAN]

Cool...since you're a MOD can you add that to the thread?

[DiverRay]

No, I'm NOT a mod for this area. I just have permissions on the lounge and XS/XJ discussion boards. Wayne is the only mod for this board.

[MAXIMAN]

Too bad.

OK WAYNE!!! If you could please add blkmge name to the thread ovr his photo.