Sunday was a great day for a lil' ride. When I was going north over the Gate my sixth sense said cops. And of course there was some guy in a Beemer coupe who wanted to race me. CHP got him right away at the Alexander off-ramp. Before I got to Mill Valley, the CHP had six victims pulled over on the Waldo including two bikers. Past Corte Madera, it was a little more relaxed, and traffic normalized for an early sunday morning--seniors doing ninety in cages. I headed west on 116 and despite my winter gear (think black leather Michelin Man) felt the chill. A snowfall or black ice would've been no great surprise. Well, nothing makes cheap horsepower like cold weather and coastal altitudes, and I was wringing the neck of my literbike. I know I'm a habitual short-shifter, but I was taking the tach right up to 8-9kRPM (12krpm redline, never been there)Especially when I got to this heavenly, sacred, and oft-patrolled bevy of curves: http://home.earthlink.net/~acuster928/creek_bike.jpg No cops, no spandex goonies, middle of nowhere, tweaking on Rockstars and coffee, I have rarely had this much fun. If you recognize this area from the picture, you know what I'm talking about. My winter gloves snafued halfway through the ride. My iguana had taken a chunk out of my left thumb on friday, and all the clutch-work re-opened the wound. When I stopped for cracked crab on 1 the inside liner was soaked in semi-coagulated gore. When I removed my hand the liner came with it. So yes I'm the guy standing alongside the road (Bodega) pushing branches into the fingers of the glove trying to get the damn glove back together all covered in blood. BTW--don't shoot dogs, even HA SJ rotts. (The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to block a civil rights lawsuit filed by San Jose Hells Angels motorcycle club members against local law enforcement officers over a raid in which three dogs were shot. The high court let in place a decision in which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in April that the Hells Angels could proceed with their lawsuit in federal district court in San Jose. The lawsuit against seven San Jose police officers and a Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy stemmed from raids conducted by the officers in January 1998 to investigate a beating death at the Pink Poodle nightclub in San Jose in 1997. A Rottweiler and two other dogs were shot at two residences and the officers allegedly seized "truckloads" of personal items. The appeals court said in April that the officers' alleged actions would amount to an unconstitutional search and that the lawsuit could go to trial. The appeals court said the shooting of the dogs was unreasonable because the officers "had a week to consider the options and tactics available for an encounter with the dogs." The court said, "Nevertheless, the officers failed to develop a realistic plan for incapacitating the dogs other than shooting them." In today's action, the Supreme Court refused to review the officers' appeal of the circuit court ruling) -----Take my guns, drugs, money, bikes, but touch my dogs, and even the whackos sitting on the 9th will help me kick your ass.......... Later!! Alex
That is a semi - regular event at the north tower. They plant a laser gun guy on a bicycle at the north end of the bridge, he picks 'em out and dispatches the chasers to ticket the baddies. just as well, if you are going any where close to the limit on the bridge (45 mph) you are likely to get a ford excursion up your butt. so I go 45 over the bridge, and wait till I get to the Shoreline or Panoramic before I increase my speeds. Up there you can practically go the limit (35-55) and still be going relatively fast. Of course if all those roads were nicely paved as they once were ( when was that?) we could go double the limit nad really have fun... Now only the motards are safe at those speeds, thanks to all the 8000 lb. SUVs that have chewed up the bay area roads. -- Jim Stinnett R1100RS VTR1000 YZF R1 http://moto-rama.com
