A Day Like No Other

What was planned as an ordinary Sunday ride, turned out to be anything but. Aside from riding to work, neither Randy or I have been on a ride since the GP. So we decided to ride to Idyllwild and back last Sunday. It was also my first real ride with my new pipes. After the GP I put on titanium Arrow exhaust and midpipe. They didn’t come with instructions, so a little time was spent figuring out where everything went and which bolts to use. But after I got them on and fired up my bike for the first time, all I could say is wow! They look awesome, like a couple of silver cannons sticking out the back end of my Italian baby. The sound is deep and raspy. Get her revved up to 5 grand and pure music pours out of her sweet cans.

And then I took the baffles out.

A sleeping dragon was awakened and she begged for me to ride her. With the baffles out, she is beyond loud. Almost too loud…almost. But loud enough to piss off the neighbors and to get a ticket in Laguna or some other city cracking down on loud pipes.

Sunday morning comes, the alarm goes off, dust off the leather suit. Yeah I know I'm not going to the track, but its been awhile since I had a chance to wear it so I'd figure I'd take it. And this is knowing that it is going to be scorching hot day. But I try to live with the philosophy of "dress for the fall, not the ride". Today my belief in this will be put to the test.

We met at 7:30am at the Coffee Bean and the temperature was already starting to rise. We got on the road by 8am. By the time we got to Ortega Hwy it was already 88°. When we stopped for a short break on De Luz road it was 105° at 9:30. Temecula welcomed us in at a cool, 112 . It was at that point I stopped caring. My air-cooled bike was running around 260, and inside my suit, it was close to 184 degrees. I thought about ditching my suit and riding in my skivies. I'm pretty sure Randy and the other drivers were glad I didnt.

None the less, we kept on trucking. After getting thru Temecula, we hopped on Wilson Valley rd, and the ride became fun again. Aside from a genuine “oh shit” moment, involving a blind right hand turn, gravel in the road, going wide and of course an oncoming car. Luckily neither one of us was going that fast and we managed to miss each other.

Once we dropped down Cuhillia mountain the temp started to cool down. When we stopped in Idyllwild for lunch it was 86. Which felt like a cool spring day. As we were parking some guy came up and was looking at our bikes and he told us that Riverside just had an earthquake. A small one, but we didn’t feel it. I forgot the name of the restaurant we ate at, but it was some damn good bbq.

Flintstone Ribs

On the way back, dark patches of clouds were here and there. And off in the distance we could see it raining. It was finally a chance for us to stop and take a few riding pictures without melting into the asphalt.

When we got back to Wilson Valley, we could tell we just missed the rain there. The road was wet and there was gravel runoff on just about every corner. Needless to say it was a slow and careful ride thru it. When we hit Temecula we took the 15 north to Lake Elsinore to save some time and sweat. And then everything changed. The sky drew dark, fat rain drops the size of grapes started to fall, and then the sky opening up and it starting pouring the wind was strong enough to make you change lanes whether you wanted to or not. In the middle of a hot summer day, we were caught in a monsoon. It was the hardest I have ever seen in rain in California. Randy was wearing just jeans and a jacket and he was soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds. My leathers were repelling most of the rain, and causing it to run straight down my leg and fill my boots with water. We quickly turned into a gas station and hid under the roof and waited out the storm. It went as quick as it came and after about 20 minutes we were back on the road again, heading home. But since none of the streets in Southern California are designed with rain involved. All of the streets and intersections were flooded and made for an interesting ride.

When we got back to Ortega, the roads were a little dryer. But with the rain, construction and weekend traffic it was a long slow ride all the way thru it. When we reached San Juan Capistrano it was freaking hot again. For there it was quick ride back up the 5 to home. But not quick enough, with all the water inside my suit, helmet and boots it was like my own personal sauna. I’m pretty sure I felt the water inside my boots boiling.

It will be a day long remembered and it was another great day to be out on the road.