Archive for the ‘Rides’ Category

No Wimps ride

Tuesday, June 27th, 2017

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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Ireland to Italy 2

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2015

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.

IMG_0873 IMG_0884 IMG_0889 IMG_0897

Ireland To Italy

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

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

Start InFrance Alps

Shadow’s turn

Friday, April 3rd, 2015

Peter Redmond and I got out for another ride, this time up in the Wicklow hills, despite the cold and drizzle.  I’m glad neither one of us are worried about getting the bikes dirty.

Ride

East coast of Ireland

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

EastCoast

Impromptu Ride thru Malibu and the Rock Store

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

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.

Vincents in Malibu

This one may be better:

Neptune's

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.
Bones at the Rock

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!

Cambria Ride

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

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.

gregnlu.jpg

Guess who?

 tom2.jpg

How about this guy?

bill.jpg

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.

mitch.jpg

Our S.O. showing it how it’s done!

Keep the Rubber side down.

 

Rally in the Rockies Sept 3-7 2012

Sunday, August 26th, 2012

See the link for all pertinent information:

http://www.vincentworks.com/rally.php

 

 

 

Rally 2012!

Venue information:

Echo Basin Ranch

43747 County Road M

Mancos, CO 81328

970.533.7000

echobasinranch@gmail.com


 

Annual Picnic and Prince of Darkness Ride August 11,2012

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

The Annual Section Picnic starts at noon and is held at Chevron Park in El Segundo. Please RSVP with Bill Easter if you have not yet done so. See Julys K 17 for further info.

then

6PM at Glory 4659 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles just east of Vermont. Ride leaves at 7 and goes through Hollywood and over Mulholland  Dr. to Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake

It will be a hot day in many respects. Shine em up!

Here’s another pic of Steve Batesole, the Rollie Free trophy winner from last year and his stock Shadow. Get that bike out of the shed. The trophy could be on your mantle!

Steve and his Shadow

May Ride and Meeting in Redlands

Saturday, May 12th, 2012

A long but amazingly enjoyable day that started bright and early with a 8:45 AM arrival at Tom and Debbie’s place. Tom rode his Velocette as his Vincent stable is currently under construction.

Tom’s Velo 

I will leave the specifics for newsletter, but here is a shot of the group gathering. Bill Easter’s Shadow is on the right and Greg McBride’s Series B Shadow is next going left. There are a few Velos and a few more Vincents farther to the left.

May Ride - Before

That’s me in the middle with my overalls in flux.

Not lot after we departed Derry had a gremlin pop up in the engine and although the bike would run, the sound it made was not desirable. Derry trucked his bike back to Tom and Debbie’s place to wait while we did a run to Idyllwild.

The ride was amazing. We were now separated from the bunch and it was just four in our group now. What a beautiful ride. The valley as we rose up. Then over the ride and into another valley. Then seemingly out of no where a small town. It looked like it was a town that had been frozen in time. Motorcycles everywhere. We relaxed a short while and then blew back down to the superslab and a great meal and meeting at the Gross’.

When we returned there we found that Bill and Derry had nearly field stripped  Derry’s Shadow in a search for the elusive gremlin. Bill had returned earlier with some clutch slipping issues not much farther into the ride then when Derry had turned back.

They had the Primary case off, the clutch disassembled and the generator disconnected.

Derry’s Primary

They also had the Timing case open and the current theory is that the issue may be related to the distributor.

Derry’s Timing

Here’s and after shot of the bunch.

After the ride

Two Rapides, two Shadows, a Velocette Venom, Shadow in the pickup bed, Bill’s Shadow lurking in the back of the drive.

 

Speaking for myself, it was a great day. I have been riding many years. Never have I seen the comraderie and friendship that the So Cal VOC show to each other. A bike breaks down and within two hours a group of club members already have the motor apart and are well on the way to finding the gremlin.

A truly special experience this Vincent one is.