Privateer's adventures

[Privateer]

OMG, I think I wanna have your babies.

haha, i'm flattered.


admittedly, that repair referenced above I eventually did have to send it off to Nick to be fixed, but I tried.  Once I started breaking tools it was time for a professional to take over.

[SDRider]

Nice!  I'm coming up on 2 years of ownership and I have just over 12,000 miles on my bike.

I work with a guy who has over 50,000 miles on a Multistrada and another guy I ride with has 55k miles on a Triumph 955... Triumph guy is having problems with it though.

[Privateer]

I work with a guy who has over 50,000 miles on a Multistrada and another guy I ride with has 55k miles on a Triumph 955... Triumph guy is having problems with it though.

I was having a spot of trouble around the 40-45k area.  It was bad enough.. there was a weekend wife and I were away from the house so my parents were spending the night watching the kids.  I told my dad "If the house starts to burn down, push my bike into the fire."



But since getting over the hump on electrical problems, it's been pretty smooth.

[lawbreaker]

I'm catching up to ya... I'm at 49,4XX on my S2R 1K and I'm responsible for (minus 3 dealer/mfgr miles) every mile. Didn't have an issue until 48k when an exhaust valve guide took a dump on me. Quickly fixed and good as new

[kendallb]

Went there the other week.. lemme know next time you go.

Great ride!!

[Privateer]

A while back someone had posted something about having more stories about riding, so here's my attempt at such:


For those who have never heard of it, Palomar Mountain is one of those riding areas in SoCal that is kind of the Holy Trinity of SoCal riding:   ACH, Palomar, Malibu.  Really there's probably more than a trinity but let's call it that.

A buddy of mine recently picked up an 09 Bonneville with 5 miles.  No, that's not a typo.  5 miles.  It was ridden home from the dealer and never moved, although the registration was renewed regularly.  So he picked up an essentially new bike for used bike price.  That said, he promptly hooked into the local triumph riding group and sunday they organized a ride to Palomar.  He extended the invite to some others of us, apparently even ducs were welcome, and I wasn't even the only one.

As I said it was my first time there and I'd always heard stories about it, mostly crash stories.  I was more than a little nervous.  The last time I'd planned to go to Palomar, was back in 2007 and I was to go with OCDC.  As luck would have it, I lowsided 2 days before and couldn't attend.  I always imagined it was some kind of sign to not go to Palomar, so since then I've kind of shied away from it.  Not for any reason really, just bad mojo.

Met up early Sunday and headed out.  Across Ortega, through some back roads, up through Valley Center, then hit the base.  Up through South Grade, a short stop at Mothers, across East Grade, down the mountain, then Mesa Grande over to Santa Ysabel.

Amazing roads by the way.  Great scenery not much traffic once we got off the race track portion of South Grade.  I was by far not the fastest in our group, nor the slowest, the good news I could tell when I was catching up the 'fast' guys because one of them was on a 2 stroke and I could smell them coming.  

All told it was about 320 miles, give or take, door to door.

Some pics here:  http://twoslow.com/2013/07/july-28-palomar-with-socal-rat/

Hope you enjoy.





and yes, i'll be buying the Rick Clemson photo, before anyone gets on my case.

[ChrisK]

How do you like the Variant?

[Skybarney]

You rode Palomar and did not get a ticket?  Good Man!  Even my CHP riding buddies from LA county avoid the CHP in San Diego County as the CHP office there has a mandate from up the ladder stating "Get those sport bikes off the road any way you can".

I have a nightmare story of running afoul of an air officer and ground officer there.  They setup a huge speed trap and every sport bike that day got a ticket.  I fought and won mine but the air officer was so angry he tried to arrest me outside.  I had to run back into the courtroom for help.

Long but whacky story.  I won't ride anywhere near SD county ever again.

[hbliam]

I've ridden Palomar a dozen times with everything from one to two others all the way to a 25 bike Monster ride. No tickets, no cops, no nothing for me or anyone else.

[Skybarney]

Maybe things have changed there.  The day I got nailed for a double yellow pass (ten miles from Palomar and pulled over at the split) there were about 60 of us that got tickets.  The SD CHP was running a plane and the ground guys were running a motorhome and not using turnouts.  As soon as someone passed, bam ticket at the top.  Both CHP officers perjured themselves at the hearing (lied about how it all came down) and despite all that I still won the ticket.

They also used to run equipment checks just for bikes down there.  I know that is now illegal but when my CHippy buds won't ride there neither will I lol.

[hbliam]

You are making a bunch of inflammatory accusations about something we aren't supposed to be talking about. Don't ruin the poor guys Palomar thread.

[Skybarney]

Not wanting to ruin a thread, Palomar was a fun place to ride.  Then off to Julian.  It was my old stomping grounds.  No accusations, just facts 

[Privateer]

How do you like the Variant?

I like it, except for when there are cross winds.  Visor is convex so it's optically correct, as near as I can tell, and it feels sturdy when I flip it up/down.  My other helmet, the visor twists when I flip it down, not this one.

My only real complaint is the white rubbery parts used above the "nose", the visor seal, and around the neck get dirty very easily.  I use one of those Mr Clean magic eraser things to scrub it clean every month or so.


I don't think I saw a single highway patrol the whole day.

And I can say, I'm sooooooo glad I wasn't doing something stupid when Rick Clemson took that photo of me.

[red baron]

Even better photos here Andy.


http://www.1904photography.com/Palomar-Mountain-motorcycle/2013/july-28/30795322_7pZm96#!i=2663393417&k=JR8SX8g





and my four cylinder Monster. 

[red baron]

I don't think I saw a single highway patrol the whole day.

Seemed like a pretty good day on the mtn, no crashes and good riding all morning, I left about noon.