Yep, yep, yep...it was a great ride and quite the adventure for l'il ol'me. It was my first real time riding with a group and I couldn't ask for a better group of people to ride with. No one was out to outride the others, break land speed records or try to impress the general public with their awesome riding skills. It was just a group of people out having fun, all on Triumph Americas. The best part was the beautiful sound of the exhaust of the different bikes. We had TOR, Bubs, Specialty Spares and Thunderbike all represented.
Had a scoot up to Snohomish with Bob. We ran into some drizzle in Bellevue, just to remind us that we were riding British bikes. The aftermarket luggage on that old Kawa was definitely more in my price range, althought appearance-wise, strapping a big old black plastic bag behind you is not really going to impress the ladies.
We had a great time at Picadilly Circus. Unfortunately, Kirk decided the flu was more important than the ride. However, we did honor Kirk, by admiring a lovely fern in a pot, and thinking how much it reminded us of his lid. Hope you're feeling better Kirk.
After breakfast, Bob headed south and we followed our fearless Ride Captain, Z.
Z is a tech geek and has one of those cool little GPS mapping thingies on his bike. You know, you enter a destination and it tells you how to get there. You ask it where the nearest Starbucks is and it will tell you and give you the directions, even if it's in a grocery store!!
Anyway, off we go. Z, leading the pack north, on his motorized, Freaked, lowered, and well oiled divining rod. Off to the west, I see blue skies and bright sun, north..well...clouds and lots of them. Personally, I would have preferred riding west, but I think Z had programmed "Rain" into his little GPS gizmo. Sure enough, his mechanized divining rod found rain and lots of it!
For a while, we followed a H-D biker. It was fun at the stop lights, watching his bike shake. I couldn't resist having some fun, at his expense, although I didn't want to be too obvious. I think he was a little bothered that he couldn't get away from us. And we sounded so ****** good!!
Coming around one turn, I twisted the throttle and felt my bike sputter and lose power. I checked my fuel petcock, knowing that I had filled up ~25 miles earlier, but she still sputtered and slowed down. I pulled over, onto some soggy dirt (yeah, not the smartest thing to do with a 500 lb bike). I then remember, reading on another thread here, about someone losing power whilst riding in the rain. Someone mentioned vapor lock and to loosen the gas fill cap. By the way, I've never pulled off my tank or messed around with the carbs. As soon as I loosened the cap, she fired back up and the sweet sound of my Bubs filled my ears. Fortunately, Larry was behind me and Z came circling back looking for us. We then continued on but later on I had the same problem. This time, I just loosened the gas cap and kept riding.
Then,as Z has mentioned, he had similar problems with vapor lock. It was a first for both of us and must have been something with the rain or mist blocking the vent tube.
Anyway, we rode on, in search of more rain and finding it. Toss in the very extended oil slick in the middle of a narrow road, as Z mentioned, and it was quite interesting.
Eventually, we turned off towards Whatcom Lake. And things finally started to dry out. It was beautiful over by the lake. We did cruise by some house/bar with a large amount of H-D bikes out front.
Entering Bellingham, we saw other bikers going in the oposite direction, including Mr. Death!! You had to see this guy to believe it. It was some huge guy, all in black. Didn't wave or anything.
We get to the Bike shop, definitely a guy's hangout. And time to dewater all the coffee I drank at Picadilly Circus. We checked out the new TBA's, still don't like the fatter tank, the Rocket Touring (maybe one day) and the other Triumphs on hand. Seems this guy does alot of business, just not sure where are these people. We could have a heck of a crowd if they joined us for a ride.
After that, we followed Z and his electronic magical water hunting compass to all kinds of interesting places. Seems we back tracked a few times or had to make sudden right turns at a light (when you are in the middle lane and cars are coming up behind you on the right). Eventually we ended up on Chuckanut Drive and enjoyed the great views. Some of Chuckanut reminded me of riding around Mt. Rainier, so we'll have to do that later this year. It's easier to, not so many roads to get mis-directed down to.
We enjoyed some grub at Conway Tavern and decided, given the time of day, it would be best to slab it down I-5 (south) to our respective destinations. Onto I-5 we roared, twisting the throttles and opening the bikes up. I got stuck behind some cars and the others got a head of me. I was able to get back up to them just before a speed trap, fortunately none of us were stopped.
As Z said, they got off on their exit and Larry and I kept going. Larry peeled off on his and I just kept my baby southbound. Picked up 405 S and eventually got home at 7 PM. I was wiped out. It was a fun day and hope we can do it again soon. Celt, I'm sorry you had to work and couldn't make it.
Yes, I did wash my bike today!! She needed it big time!
