My latest motorcycle adventure was an early fall trip to the Ochoco Mountains with Paul, Scott and Keith. We were originally planning to take a repeat trip as last year to Paulina Lake but decided the weather looked better a bit further east. This is also the regular, all summer long, every weekend possible, and preferred spot for Paul, Scott and Keith.

This date had been on the calendar most of the summer and we were all committed. Good thing it was as it was the only camping I did this year. This is practically a sin living in the Willamette Valley and my wife is finally considering riding two up to make sure she doesn't miss the only camping trip of the year again next year.

We had a pretty wet week prior to the trip but sure enough the forecast held up for the most part and we were treated to low 70's once over the pass. Of course it got colder than shit overnight being so clear. When I woke up in the morning I could see my breath in the tent. But I was nice and toasty thanks to Matt's 20F rated bag and tent (thanks for the loaners!)

I also hate to admit I haven't really been east of Redmond before. I was expecting the same kind of landscape as in Sisters and Bend but once you're out in this country the subtle colors become so vivid.

Final admission is that I didn't take the 750SS this time, but once again enjoyed taking Paul's VFR 750 for this trip. The Duc is plenty capable of making the trip, but I also know that Paul's VFR is always at the ready to make a week long camping trip and decided to enjoy the speed and practicality of his mount. He took his R75/5 which he rides nearly as quickly as the VFR. Very cool ride.

I took some bad Blackberry pictures and I've also added some from the other guys. I hope you enjoy and if you need an affordable but stunning vacation, go east!

dc

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1. Motorcycle Roadtrip to Sonoma – Long Overdue! The last time Paul and I made this trip was...

When I first started getting into bikes in the early 90's, i did a lot of research. It's in my nature really and no wonder I love the internet so much! But before the internet, I went to the Corvallis Public Library and Linn-Benton Community College Library, which both had great collections of motorcycle magazines. I spent many afternoons reading them. After my thorough analysis (with no seat time) I really wanted a Yamaha FZR400 or an Aprilia RS250. They both had the performance and look I wanted, and I had rationalized that they'd be great first bikes. But to my dismay the 250 wasn't being imported and the 400's were very hard to locate as most of the public wanted the more powerful FZR600. But I figured at least they were available. Today the FZR400's are coveted for their aluminum frames, more pure sporting mission, and performance in amateur racing classes that made them nearly as fast as the 600's; all of which I knew then and was a large part of why I wanted one -- they were special!

I ended up with a ratty FZR600 as it's what I could afford at the time though. Here's my original blog post on that bike at an early age riding to Sonomafest with Paul from the Willamette Valley to Bay Area.

Sonomafest really opened our eyes to the amazing talent that road racers possessed. Being able to witness their skill at speed, up close and personal, was really inspiring. We started to follow the top road racing series around the world, and in particular would watch the 250GP class on rented VCR videos. The star of that series was Max Biaggi and he rode the Chesterfield sponsored bike from Aprilia.

Watching Biaggi's battles and victories only fueled the impossible lust that grew for the factory replica Aprilia RS250 that bears his race livery. But I never really thought I'd have an opportunity to have one considering they weren't being imported. Here's a picture of the race replica offered by Aprilia in 1995. I took this picture at the Barber Motorsport Museum:

Back to Sonomafest, it is one of my favorite road trip memories because we were essentially broke, had no proper gear, but made the trip anyway with great success as two wide-eyed enthusiasts joined up with what felt like thousands of our soon-to-be peers.

As we were staging up for the parade lap of Sears Point that was included with our Cycle World 'Sonomofest' ticket package, a guy pulled up next to me on an Aprilia Chesterfield replica -- and it even had plates, which certainly added to the excitement of seeing an example like this that was legal-ish to ride on the street! The guy probably thought I was nuts as I practically fell running over to him, motioning to him that I wanted to talk. I tried to ask him how you get an RS250 into the states and get it plated. You could tell he had been asked this a million times, but he wasn't giving up any secrets today and rode off.

Ever since I've been watching the ads. And sure enough, every now and again over the years, I would spot an RS250 that was for sale. Not often, but the more that surfaced, the more intent I became on watching the entire web to spot these rare opportunities.

After getting my job as a Web Services Manager in 2005, I started this personal blog that you are reading right now. And on occasion I started to blog car and bike classifieds I found from time to time that I found interesting and wanted to share. {sorry most of the images are broken on these ancient links!}

In some part, the RS250 and bikes like it, is what made me want to start Rare Sport Bikes For Sale and German Cars For Sale Blog.

Skip to 2008 and I actually blogged this exact bike when it came up for sale last time: http://raresportbikesforsale.com/1995-aprilia-rs250-chesterfied-replica/ Later I would find out that it was actually owned by an old childhood friend of mine, who is a part owner of SpeedyMoto. He invited me over to look at it and explained that he couldn't actually go through with the sale. It was his wife's bike and she got it from a family friend that went through considerable expense importing it into New York from Holland.

But on Tuesday last week he emailed that it was again available and asked if I could help list the bike on RSBFS. I said of course I can, but before we do that, I'M INTERESTED!

We quickly settled on a price and the bike is now in my garage with the Ducati 750SS. Now that I've been up close with the bike, it'll be a 7/10 cosmetically when it gets cleaned up. Long story short, it needs some serious time on the buffer. They used it as a backup track day bike and occasional Sunday rider. It's great mechanically, probably 9/10. Not to mention it came with crazy spares too. Like a full race body kit, a piston rebuild kit, and a factory decal kit that will allow me to restore the factory body work to new when I'm ready some day.

Luckily the day we went to get it in Portland, it was an amazing 60 degrees outside in January. That's unheard of but it made for an amazingly awesome test ride in the sun. It makes about 60hp at the rear wheel and weighs in at 308lbs dry. The gearing is very aggressive right now and as Paul said, first gear is silly. There is next to no power below 6k, but then it starts moving and showing some grunt as the revs climb. When you hit 8k the real magic happens and in an instant another 20-30hp kicks in. It screams to the 12k redline immediately as it tries to lift the front end up -- and I'm no lightweight myself! A very special experience was realized this day, and one not soon to be forgotten.

Since I read those magazine articles, it only took 16 years to get what I thought I'd never put my hands on. And this is going to sound corny but it probably wouldn't have happened if RSBFS wasn't created. The reach, connections, and friendships that the site enjoys has helped me to share what has completely exceeded my expectations and I feel very fortunate.

A quick shout out to SpeeyMoto and Christian Hanson. Thanks for the call!

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As you can tell, it's a good day trip. But especially long if it's your second ride of the year! My body is tired after this trip, but so worth it. Here are the pics (click for hi-res):

Yep, this is what the Oregon Coast looks like when it's 70 degrees and sunny outside!

The beautiful Oregon coast

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Cape Meares Ducati 750 and VFR 750

Cape Meares Ducati 750 and VFR 750

Thanks for the great ride Paul!

dc

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We took the back roads on Thursday for a killer ride up to Portland to visit with our SEO and PPC Vendor, Anvil Media Inc., on official OSU business. The weather on the way up was spectacular and we were treated to the best the valley has to offer while passing up all the various crops Oregon is known for: grass seed, wheat, filberts, strawberries, hops, grapes, green beans, corn, and many other types of organic produce. A ride like this reminds me why we live where we do!

Here are a couple pics from the Wheatland Ferry where we crossed the Willamette, and the current Anvil Media headquarters:

Here is the Google Map of our route up and pictures from the trip:

To follow up our trip, we assaulted Mary's Peak on Saturday morning via back roads again of course! Highway 20 leading to the peak has recently been repaved at the base of the mountain and the road to the summit is still one of the best hillclimbs out there in terms of corners per mile and scenic views. Here are the pics from the Peak:

Many thanks to Paul for loaning out the bike to Blake, the best in SEO and Social Media for hosting us: Anvil Media, and rural Oregon for best and most scenic roads anywhere!

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I'm going to quick post this entry with just pictures as I have a pretty full week ahead. Good thing we got out when we had the chance!

dc

A Laverda hiding in the parking lot:

A rare BMW R100RS:

A gorgeous BMW R90S in the parking lot:

An early 91 or 92 Ducati 900SS in the parking lot:

A vintage 1970 Ducati 450 For Sale:

A 1971 Honda CB 500 Four. Once upon a time I almost bought one just like this -- except it was totally clapped out. This one was perfect.

A perfect and original Honda CX500 Turbo:

A gorgeous vintage Ducati and exposed bevel gears!

An R90S For Sale at $5950:

And the shot at the top of Mary's Peak to cap off our day:

The entire 2009 OVM Vintage Motorcycle dancrouchblog.com Gallery:

Check out even more pictures at Brad's Blog, Troubadour on a Triumph, for more OVM coverage.

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Brad beat me to the punch posting the ride the 8 of us took this past Saturday. A great time and good group of riders. Here's the route we took:

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Brad's post handles the summary pretty well so check it out. Bikes included my Ducati 750SS, 94 Honda CBR1100XX, DR-Z 400, Triumph Thruxton, Brad's Triumph, Yamaha FZ1, and Paul's VFR750.

Great day, nice ride, and fantastic weather. Thanks for organizing Brad!

dc

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Nothing really that special about this route except that I had never been on Highway 242, which is actually the old pass highway to and from Eugene. The road isn't really maintained anymore and is actually closed most of the wet season. It starts out very inviting, similar to Highway 199 from Grants Pass into the Redwoods, or Highway 1 in NorCal: a thin strip of asphalt draped in the middle of a dense forest with corners ranging from 15 to 35 for at least 10 miles. It would've been pure bliss but nearly every corner had the gravel marbles dragged into the roadway by the oversized RV's littering our beautiful road. Nonetheless, the scenery was incredible!

After tap dancing through these tight and sometimes treacherous corners, we left the forest and ascended to the 5000ft summit where the road opened up a bit. Suddenly the vegetation was becoming non-existent as we crossed through the lava field. The landscape changes so quickly and completely, it was like being on another planet. Here's a picture I found on Flickr:

Highway 242 conveniently links right up to Sisters, where we would've ended up anyway had we taken 126 to 20. We pushed through the annoyingly crowded main drag (no choice) and headed onto Bend. And gosh, as long as we're in Bend, we better hit the Deschutes Brewery for lunch. I had the Ham wrapped Halibut, and washed it down with their Sagebrush Classic Pils. A really tasty lunch to say the least!

Not the Pils, but a shot I took of a Deschutes bottle a while back:

Then back to business as we headed home. Except the business of enjoying the 30+ miles of tight corners through the Santiam Pass that was practically ruined by the endless stream of RV's, dawdling sedans, and small trucks towing boats. It's a public road and all, but please use the turn-outs folks!

All and all though, another great day trip through western Oregon covering nearly 300 miles. And we beat the storm back home. It's been raining ever since I got home. Perfect timing!

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Our day 1 was absolutely fantastic! We did our best to avoid interstate and chose a careful route that not only ensured mostly back road twisties-a-plenty, but also happened to be in the opposite direction of most holiday travel. Highway 47 from Forest Grove to Astoria reminded me of the Gran Turismo stage titled 'Deep Forest'. Blasting through gentle 35-45mph corners between the dark forest and under train trestles, on many sections of new tarmac, made for one of the most scenic and delicious rides in recent memory. The last third of the road before Astoria turns to total shit, and is even more 'entertaining' when wet. But the majority more than made up for it. After lunch, we pushed into Washington and took a bit of a detour on highway 101 'alternate', and this road was also totally devoid of traffic, full of fast sweepers, with perfect road surface, and wide lanes that would make anyone feel like Ben Bostrom.

We ended the day at Lake Quinault. This wasn't exactly planned, but it was 5:30 and we needed gas. Pretty badly too after our assault on southwest Washington. As my anxiety built, I kept hearing Merlin telling Cougar, "[...] we've got to land this thing. We are way low on gas!" After miles and miles of absolutely no civilization in the beautiful Olympic Peninsula rain forest, we spotted a sign stating 2 miles to the Chevron, next right. So we turned in and checked out the lake. After filling up with the best gas I've even put in the Ducati at $5.09 a gallon (ouch!), we cruised past the lodge and general store, and found an open tent site. Having setting up camp, we went back over to the lodge for dinner. Little did we know the lodge was actually a really nice place in the middle of nowhere. A fantastic structure built in the 20's, it was quite opulent compared to the campground.

Walking in, you're immediately greeted in the main lounge area with a bar, huge fireplace, and lots of leather furniture. Past that to the open doors of the deck features a large manicured lawn leading down a gentle slope to the lake. The lawn is dotted with small groups of Adirondack chairs and small groups of people pouring wine for each other. A wedding had just finished and the photographer was finishing up with the shots with a fantastic backdrop.

We dined that night in the Roosevelt room, named after President Roosevelt who stayed there once. They were able to seat us immediately and after browsing the menu, it was clear we were going to eat very well indeed. $17 for camping, $85 for dinner. Oh yes we did, donning bug splattered leather jackets, helmet hair and insect repellant! I recommend the beef tenderloin, it was waaay better than my pork medallions LOL!

Our Day 1 couldn't have been more perfect. As we retired to the sounds and sights of a nice fireworks show over the lake, the rain forest began it's thing. It started to drizzle. And then rain. All night. Every time I woke up, the rain sounded more intense. I can't believe how dry we actually ended up considering our campsite had turned into a giant mud puddle. I guess that forestry sign that stated the region gets over 148 inches of rain a year was no joke. It was now about 8:30 in the morning and we had finally resigned ourselves to the fact that the 30% chance of showers had turned into a full on 100% downpour.

We suited up and broke camp in the rain. After a decent breakfast at the general store, we decided going around the Peninsula would only lead to an entire day of riding in the rain, and decided to head south, back in search of dry and hopefully warm weather elsewhere in the state. But after a bowl of soup at the Olympic Club in Centralia, and a search of the weather forecasts to the east, west and south via Blackberry, we realized we weren't going to find anything like that. So we blasted down I-5 to PIR to meet Paul's bosses, who were racing this weekend. Dodging most of the rain, we arrived just in time to see Bob take the checkered flag for his run group.

We treated ourselves to another fantastic dinner, this time at our one of favorites in Portland: Gustav's pub at the Rheinlander German Restaurant. Their fondue is fantastic and it's the only place in Oregon that I know of that serves the wonderful Spaten Helles. I had the prime rib and Paul had the schnitzel. I often consider moving to Portland just to eat here more often!

The last day of our trip, we headed out to our favorite back roads from the Portland area via Sandy, Estacada, Silverton, Mill City, Lyons, and finally back to Albany. We had a celebratory lunch at Calapooia Brewing (try the Pilsner, it's perfect!) and then parted ways to finish off our weekend.

The Ducati made the trip without any hiccups and is now in need of full detail to clean out all the grime from the rain soaked roads. But it was a great and spontaneous trip with some of the best riding I've done since I last rode regularly years ago. Thank you Paul, for insisting we make this trip. I had a great time!

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1993 Ducati 750SS Wallpaper Background for 1680 widescreen
1993 Ducati 750SS Wallpaper Background for 1152

1993 Ducati 750SS Wallpaper Background for 1152
1993 Ducati 750SS Wallpaper Background for 1680 widescreen

I didn't PS these very much, though the first one did get a blatent gradient overlay applied to the sky. But my intention was to make an 80's bedroom wall poster effect, and I think I got pretty close for a first effort. Please feel free to leave comments for suggestions and improvements. Enjoy!

dc

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Paul and I did the Ducati Demo Day at MotoCorsa in Portland this past Saturday. It was completely awesome! Their facility is a very cool place to hang out anyway, but getting to sample their brand new bikes was really amazing. It's a guided group ride with a dozen or so brand new bikes that riders can preview at no cost. Sharp marketing too because if I had a spare $12-15k for a new bike, I would've signed immediately upon our return. Later that night, Paul and I were still trying to convince ourselves it might be doable!

Before heading up, I checked the Ducati website for the current offerings and to make my pick. I wanted to try something vaguely similar to my 750SS, but in a brand new flavor. And the Sport Classic was my pick. I was very excited to find out they had not one, but two openings for Sport Classics for Paul and I to sample at 2 o'clock. His was the up rated S model with Ohlin's forks, full fairing, and full Termignoni pipes. Mine had the stock pipes, which were way too quiet. When Paul cracked the throttle on his, everyone noticed immediately and sounded much more the business. They really should come this way stock.

While we waited for our turn, the reality started setting in. If I scratched this thing, I would own a second Ducati, costing 4x as much as mine and with a big scratch to fix LOL! That'd be fun explaining to Mrs. Rubley! The butterflies started to swim around in my stomach... I was briefly comforted watching the earlier group leave with a couple of noticeably novice riders who came back unscathed.

Once underway it was a total breeze. There were many similarities to my own bike, and I was at home right away. Riders were guided at a very smart pace and given a great 20 mile tour of the Portland hills. Tour guides front and back made sure we stayed together and stopped traffic at intersections to keep us together. Fantastic route and great planning. By the time we got back, I was grinning ear to ear like it was Christmas morning. I won't miss it again!

My 20 minute review of the Ducati Sport 1000:

Pro's - Classic minimalist styling with a comfortable seat, spoked rims, cafe racer clip on's, and retro decals. Nice modern amenities like fuel injection, 6 speed gearbox, and the refinements that are now found in modern Ducati's.

Con's - Not so great on/off throttle response, a gas tank that's a tad uncomfortable to sit against, and those stock pipes are obviously engineered to be lame so you can upgrade to the Termi's. But other than that, she was a wonderful ride with very approachable power and controls.

A huge thank you to Ducati MotoCorsa for hosting and Ducati NA for generously loaning me a beautiful new bike that absolutely made my day!

Ducati Demo Day at MotoCorsa 2008 Gallery

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