SoCal VOC

In 1984, I had just graduated from college that spring, and was slowly looking for work, but thought I deserved to enjoy one last summer.  The North American rally was in Tennessee, and Bill Easter, Ted Theiman, and I all rode Vincent twins from LA.  We had a tight schedule, and we made it to Albuquerque the first day, 800 miles, then two 600 mile days to the rally site.  On the way back, we hit a storm in New Mexico, and stopped for the night in Gallup, 1000 miles from LA.  Ted and I had no time constraint, but Bill was still working.  I think he had retired, but had picked up some contract work, and had to be back to work in two days.  Bill said he was going to leave early and do the 1000 miles in one day.  Ted and I said no thanks, we’ll take it easy.  Bill did the 1000 miles.  Ted and I split it into two 500 mile days, stopping in Flagstaff, then home to LA.

John Ulver had organized another ride that year, the No Wimps ride.  So just a week or so after getting home from the NA rally, I took off to the meeting place, Cedar City Utah, an easy 440 mile ride.  The Ulvers, Dan and Eileen Smith, Bill and Doris, and Pat Highsmith and I spent a week or two riding around Utah and visiting the National Parks.  It was a lot of fun.  Here is a sticker John gave the participants:

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At an overlook above Geneva, Peter after coming out of the Mont Blanc tunnel, an appropriate town to spend the night in, lunch somewhere between Milan and Lake Garda.

Peter Redmond and myself, starting off, along the road in France, and near the Mont Blanc tunnel.

Bill Easter has mentioned that we did not have many rides planned so I proposed a short ride last Sunday and got 5 of us out early and up to County Line by 9:30 AM. Here’s a picture that I cropped and blew up so it may be grainy.

This one may be better:

So we stopped for a bit and around 10 AM we headed up into the hills. We wound around for a while and ended up on Mulholland Highway and the Rock Store. Unusual to have 4 Vincents at the Rock Store so we got some attention. Until Antoine Predock, a So Cal VOC member, showed up on his Bimota Tesi, a very exotic bike. It’s front end is a swing arm and it is center hub steering. Way ahead of it’s time the bike is over 20 years old now. It was a treat to see him as well as another Vincent owner, Bjorn Nilsen. Bjorn saw us and mentioned that he had a “C” Rapide that he had not run for about 10 years. He had issues with backfiring that he felt were fuel related. I believe that seeing us invigorated his desire to ride his again and I think we will see him and his Rapide soon!

Antoine generously took my photo with my Rapide so here’s that prize.

Then we left the Rock Store and grabbed some chow. Tony, Patrick and me headed into the belly of the beast and started lane splitting about Tamp as we crossed the Valley and finally got back to Echo Park. Tony peeled off in Burbank and overall the day was a success.

Bill informed me the following today about the end of his ride:

After Derry and I left you guys at the restaurant, we went back
to Mulholland Hwy. and proceeded east. Somewhere on a straight stretch
after passing Las Virgenes Rd., Derry passed three cars with me catching
up and after pulling in front of them, his bike quit. He had a suspicion
what was wrong and he proceeded to remove the mag cowl to find a wire off
of the coil. That was fixed and we were off. Derry took Old Topanga
Canyon Road, which leads to Topanga Canyon Blvd., and I continued on with
my original plan to turn right at the end onto Mulholland Drive. After
crossing Topanga Canyon Blvd., Mulholland turns into a narrow,
residential road which some very interesting homes situated on the north
side. Eventually, a “Pavement Ends in X Feet” is encountered and then an
“Pavement Ends” sign is encountered and the pavement dose indeed end.
The dirt road has not been maintained for a long time and it is full of
ruts and it is extremely bumpy. After a while, “No Motor Vehicles,
Motorcycles, etc. are permitted beyond this point” signs were encountered
quite frequently. I could not determine if they were for the road or for
off the road. Eventually, I came to an impressive gate across the road
just beyond the top end of Santa Maria Road so I gave up on going farther
on Mulholland Drive. This is in Marvin Brade Gateway Park (per the mat
and some sign that I passed) which is totally undeveloped. Your tax
money at work. I checked the map which showed that Santa Maria went
through to Topanga Canyon Blvd. but it was signed private property,
permission to cross required from owner. This road was paved and went by
a number of ranches and I eventually got to Topanga and went to PCH with
a lot of traffic on Topanga. I retraced my route home via PCH, I-10 and
the I-405, arriving about 2:00 P.M. Derry would have hated the dirt road
as it was very rough where the ruts were not. There was no washboard,
probably because it had not been leveled for so long. I usually think
that the washboard effect is created by the bull dozer tracks to begin
with and then use and rain intensify them.

That’s all for this week, next week is Hansen Dam, BSA ride and the following week is meeting with ride preceding at Tom and Debbie’s. See K17 for more info.

Busy May, get those bikes ready!

Cheers!

Although I was not able to attend I did receive some action shots of some folks and their Vincent’s as they enjoyed the vistas around Cambria.

Guess who?

How about this guy?

What can I say, Bill is the man!

I will see if I can get someone who attended to try and update with particulars if possible.

Our S.O. showing it how it’s done!

Keep the Rubber side down.