Riding alone

[Thruxton71]

I have three motorcycles I could easily ride right now, a 1970 Triumph Daytona, a 1952 Velocette MAC, and a 2009 Suzuki DRZ SM. Since they sat unused since March, I have been trying to bring them out and run them. It's funny... old British bikes don't seem to mind being not started for long periods of time, but the Suzuki needs to be run to avoid the hassle of a carburetor rebuild. I started it up a few times while trying to recover, and it seems fine. I have two other Velocettes; a 1966 Endurance that needs a new rear tire, and a 1970 Thruxton that is undergoing a conversion to electronic ignition, in the guileless optimism which leads me to believe that finally it will run like it should and not seize under hard use. But that is a different story, eh?

My motorcycles are packed into the right side of a typical two car garage, hemmed in by a very nice motorcycle lift (best tool I own) and all sorts of household debris that accumulates like dust bunnies under a bed. So, using the programming analogy, they are in a stack, and it is last in, first out. This Sunday the Triumph was at the 'first in' position, which meant a manual reshuffle of the stack. All motorcycles out until I could reach the Triumph, disconnect it from the battery tender, and wheel it out to freedom, near the compressor.

I have balance issues when pushing Motorcycles around, so I am very cautious when rearranging the stack. I started a little before 6am, and by 6:50 I was ready to air up and kick start. Then nature called, and my timing was completely ruined. I missed the 7am gathering, and after freeing the Barnett clutch pack (A fellow rider gave me the trick.. when you park your Triumph, pull the clutch lever in and tie it to the handlebar so the clutch pack doesn't glue itself together.. and it works!.. this is a small price to pay for a non-slipping clutch.. trust me) and prodding the little Triumph to life, I was on my way to buy fuel.

No one was still at the gas station, so I fueled up and headed up 33. Where else would I go? It was already getting hot in Ojai and it was not going to cool off, but heading up the hill might lead to pleasant riding weather.

There was little traffic, but I did encounter a white drop top Mustang who was just fast enough to hold me up, but obviously not familiar with the road. I paced him up the hill, until I came around a blind corer to find the Mustang stopped next to a bicycle pumping up 33. I grabbed a big handful of front brake and yelled. He might have heard me, as he pulled over a soon as possible, and the road was mine.

Wheeler's gorge was almost cold. A hint of Fall to come, and I enjoyed the feeling. What surprised me was how pleasant I found it to ride alone. I can set my own pace, not worry about the other riders, slow down or speed up when I want, and enjoy the lack of responsibility. Not that riding in our group is very demanding, everyone is used to one another, and as we age, I think we have mellowed quite a bit. I thought of this while negotiating the last hair pin before reaching the turn off for Rose Valley. There is a curving climb up to a point at the end of a ridge where the road cuts over to the other side of the ridge and continues to climb. Every time I navigate around this point the memory of racing my Endurance against a highly modified Royal Enfield Bullet comes to mind. The Enfield had, in addition to extensive breathing on the big single, a Suzuki front fork and brake and a visible lack of normally heavy body work. On the corner I have described the 'silver bullet' as the owner called it, always had an advantage when entering the straight on the other side of the ridge. Well, an advantage over the 500 Velo.

The solution to this inequity presented itself as a Triumph Daytona, which handles well, and if.. if.. you wring it's virtual neck.. has a band of power in the 'parts are shaking off' rpm range that can be described as peaky. This is something I admire about that Daytona.. the dual personality.. soft and gentle at putting around town RPM, and a banshee when it gets into it's cam at higher RPM. There was a day, coming around the point, when I kept it in the power band, and vanquished the Silver Bullet. I reflected on this as I rode up the hill, and thought about the pilot of the bullet who is hospitalized, maybe never to ride again, and who so relished the competition we used to foolishly engage in with our old crocks.

Not much further past the Rose Valley turn off, over the hill from Lynn's leap, I turned around, headed back down. I encountered a couple of cages, and the lead cage pulled off letting the little enconobox free to throw itself around, and it did a fine job, but ultimately pulled over and let me by. Who says that there is no traffic on 33 later in the day. Even leaving the gas station at 7:45 makes a visible difference in traffic.

But, all in all, a very nice ride, me and my memories on my Triumph.

Ojai

[Tetge]

Good thing that you were riding the Triumph in a group and were not alone when you crashed on the 33 last Sunday, or, instead of being in a hospital recovering, you might not be around at all. One never knows when a completely unepected event can occur, and, when one rides on fairly remote roads, cell phones do not work at times. So, there is something to be said for groups, especially if they happen to include a doctor.

The good news is that they already patched you up, and you are already making progress, so, hopefully, in a few months, you will be up and around again. It is always impressive how many medical advances have been made over the years in terms of successfully repairing the human body. Not so sure about the Triumph, as rumor has it that it got pretty mangled up as well.

But, for the info of your huge following, no further ride reports for the time being.