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Lee Parks Total Control clinic
I enrolled in the Lee Parks Total Control riding clinic and attended the session in Olympia, Washington on Saturday, May 14th. Because it was an all-day class — 9 AM to 7 PM — I decided to make a weekend trip out of it. I took Friday off of work and rode across the Portland metro area to Scappoose on Highway 30 before heading away from the Columbia River and into the hills of Northwest Oregon. The road is a nice bend of tight curves and broad sweepers but the surface is somewhat rough in spots and blind corners demand
New site format
I am experimenting with an entirely new site structure and engine. I am currently using WordPress for this blog, but am contemplating switching to Drupal. Please check out the new site at www.ruckerworks.com and let me know what you think.
Ride report: Steens Mountain, Southeast Oregon
I just got back from a 6-day, 1,600 mile trip through, across, and around southeastern Oregon, with a visit to the highest road in the state at 9,700 feet — Steens Mountain. After camping my way all the way across the center of the state and down to the southern border for a couple of days, I met up with Mark and Janice, two new friends from California. I met Mark in a diner in Weaverville, CA back in June. He and I both ride V-Stroms and had stayed in touch all summer, talking about taking a trip together. His
To fish or ride?
I just got back from a fishing trip to Central Oregon. When driving through Redmond I saw BMW after BMW riding around town. Once I was south of town I saw them riding north on Highway 97, obviously part of the annual BMW MOA rally. Back when I was self employed I went fishing a lot. I didn’t have a motorcycle and taking the boat out to catch trout or kokanee was my biggest form of summer-time recreation. Once I started working full-time and got into riding motorcycles, my fishing activities got cut back dramatically. This year I’m trying to
Culture and sophistication
I walked over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA as the banners all over town call it, and got a healthy dose of culture and sophistication. One of the things I find convenient about modern art museums is you can tell very quickly what you like, and more often than not, what you don’t like. Modern art can be very ‘odd’. Some of it kicks ass, though. I did get to see a Picasso, some Jackson Polluck, and a couple Diego Rivera paintings, one of which I really like. Modern art sculpture seems to be where
Planning a birthday ride
The two-wheeled astronaut will be turning 40 this year, and I’m leaning toward a long trip to celebrate. But where to go? I’m a big fan of the HBO show Deadwood and thought about taking a 12-day loop trip there (Deadwood, South Dakota) and back. Or perhaps jaunting down Highway 101 to San Francisco and adding a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to my trip repertoir. What about heading north into Canada? The possibilities are limited only by time and distance. I get a lot of vacation where I work but because I work in IT it’s not feasible
It was a good thing I wasn’t armed
I had a real close call yesterday. So did the other guy because if I had been armed at the time he would have gone home with a pronounced limp and a severe speech impediment. I was riding along highway 224 from Eagle Creek toward Clackamas, following a green SUV. Traffic was slow primarily because there were so many people out on the road. We entered the small town of Carver, and immediately after taking the slow right hand turn in the middle of town, Mr. SUV turned on his right-turn blinker and pulled over onto the gravel shoulder, completely
Another motorcyclist killed by a stupid cager
A 50-year old woman passing in a no passing zone caused a multi-car accident that killed a motorcyclist last night north of Salem on Highway 221. (You can read the news report at KGW.com) Her car clipped the back end of an oncoming travel trailer, causing her to go into that lane and hitting a 47-year old man riding a Harley-Davidson head-on. The motorcycle then struck a Toyota Tercel with two men inside. Both the motorcycle and the Toyota caught fire. The two Hispanic men in the Toyota were able to get out of the car safely, but apparently walked
Going really fast without leaving the building
Last night I was able to go really really fast around a race track without ever actually stepping outside. A fellow V-Strom rider buddy of mine named Keven is friends with one of the chief engineers at Motoczysz in Portland, Oregon (pronounced “moto-sizz”). They are a custom race bike manufacturer coming out with a revolutionary new bike called the C1. The specifics of what makes it revolutionary are hush-hush — we had to sign non-disclosure agreements before entering the building — but I can tell you it is definitely not an ‘also ran’ like the big bike manufacturers. We were
To video or not to video
As some of my readers know, I have a history of creating videos. My repertoire includes videos of sports teams, life retrospectives of the bride and groom played at wedding receptions, family reunions, hunting expeditions, and my biggest production of all, an original short film that I wrote, directed, and produced (“A Cup of Joe”, link). Despite being paid for most of my work, I would still consider myself an amateur videographer if for no other reason than the fact that I don’t currently make a living doing it. Still, it’s something I enjoy and I frequently look for ways
