Ramblings of a Cynic

TLDR: Mostly this will be about the day I was left stranded by my Ducati, but the real lesson is never ride without a satellite emergency phone thing. My best story from the last few years is one of things going really well until they weren’t going at all. I was on my home from seeing the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s at the Hollywood Bowl. Normally riding home from the LA area can be done in one day, but I…

I miss writing about motorcycles. I do not know the last thing I wrote for this blog and when it was, but I know it was a long time ago. What can I say, life got hectic. I have a little person that needs their Dad’s attention. I also had a horrible job that sucked the life out of me or at least was trying to. So much stress and anxiety that it was hard to focus on things besides just getting…

Since I’ve last written anything my motorcycle adventures have been … adventurous.I’ve been stranded on the side of the road for 7 hours, in the midst of a epic road trip.The bike is back and running and I’m commuting again. I hope to share the details of my exciting times soon. Taking the long way home.

Returning to the Motorcycle Commute

About six years ago I found out I was going to be a father. This complicated my life and I worried that Motorcycles would become something in the past. My wife assured me that she did not want me to stop riding, and I was hopeful that I would be able to continue. Then my amazing daughter was born and the realities of being a parent soon began to hamper my riding.Since it is illegal to ride with…

I had a productive weekend at least in terms of finding motorcycles in my garage. I was mainly planning on digging out FrankenMonster and seeing if I could get her running again, but while I was down there I realized I should really get my wife’s Monster ready for a ride since it’s been sitting for a few months. I was pleasantly surprised that things went relatively well. My wife’s bike is on a…

FrankenMonster is the New Project

Just over a year ago I reclaimed custody of my first motorcycle. She’s been sitting in my garage unloved for that long and it’s time I changed that. Sadly the first step will be to find it under the crap that’s been accumulating in my garage for the last year. Made worse as we’ve been transistioning our daughters room from toddler stuff to preschooler. I’d be happy if we got back to this, but…

Hopefully this will be the worst crash I will ever experience. Since any worse and I would very likely be dead. I was heading south to LA, and I was traveling on Hwy 101 about 30 miles north of Santa Barbara when I felt a slight loss of power, as I glanced down at my dash to see what might be happening, I felt the rear wheel of my BMW locked up. I fish tailed for 30 or 50 feet before being high…

I rode the motorcycle down to Anaheim on Thursday and then back today. Thursday’s ride was amazing. I got an early start Thursday, and was in Santa Cruz by 8am. I topped off my tank and headed down Hwy 1. The next 3 hours were basically bliss. Traffic was light and while it was cool, it was sunny and everything is so green right now that sometimes I just slowed down and stared at the wonder I was…

I took the Monster back to Menlo Park yesterday. After almost getting a ticket for having it parked on the street for longer than 72 hours, it was too much trouble to have here. So we’re still not at the bottom of why it’s not starting easily. It’s running fine if idling a bit rough and threatening to die when cold. But the rides to and from San Bruno were incident free. I did end up having to…

So I’m cursed to never get to Death Valley… Looks like we’re not going to make it to Death Valley next week. Last minute cancellation and my friend from NYC can’t make it because of work. This trip has always been about us going to Death Valley with other people invited along it didn’t seem right for just me and another friend to go. I also wanted to have a slightly larger group… because of all…

It had been a long time.. Nearly Five Years. I’ve ridden 40,000 miles since, and in all those miles I haven’t been south of King City on a motorcycle since September 30th, 2010. I haven’t been south of Laguna Seca with out bad happening since then either. Let us just say that there was some anxiety from me and my Lovely Wife regards to this trip, but thankfully everything went smoothly. It was a…

About six years ago I started doing an organized spring trip. The first few I headed north, and after the miserable cold and rain made the second less than perfect I started heading south. This year the tradition continued and When I orginaly planned the trip it was going to be just a two day trip, but since I really wanted to ride the coast it wasn’t looking like much of an adventure. So at the…

Motocynic on: Track Days to get Good

In 2009 after owning the BMW for 6 months I went to the track for the first time. I’d always wanted to go, but the Ducati Monster just didn’t have the ground clearance for me to feel comfortable on it.  I’ve wanted to go back since then, but since I was back on the Monster for a long while I once again didn’t feel comfortable. With the new motorcycle I would have loved to have gone, but shortly…

I did another track day, it was amazing, and I want to do another soon. I went up to Thunderhill and did the West 2 Mile. The last time I  was on a Track was in 2009 and it was on the BMW F800S, yes the bike that a year later tried to kill me. That day was fun. Last Saturday was awesome.  I went with my brother, he’s been struggling to get up to speed on his Suzuki VStrom 650, so I decided we…

One Year Ago Today

Once was too many times, twice is just sad… and yet, there I was picking myself off the road. My wrist hurting and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pick the bike up and ride home. In fact it was hard to try and call for help. Eventually one of the people who stopped did call 911 and get me an ambulance to take me to the emergency room. I’ll admit to freaking out a bit when I saw blood, it was…

It was a long couple of days. My brother and I rode over 700 miles, and it was tough, tougher than I expected. I knew that it was a little ambitious, but we ended up cutting off 80 miles of the second day. I guess we are both a little out of motorcycle riding shape, though my brother more so than I. We rode from the San Francisco Bay Area, down via backroads to McKinnick and then out to Oakhurst…