Takin' a GPz up to 250kph ansd signaling iyt with one hand.

Here a video compilation I made some time ago...

Here are some of the scenes I saw along Route 66 in Arizona and California, during my recent wonderful motorcycle ride around the Southwest.

The video also includes some examples of the Burma Shave ads.   more... Here are a few websites that talk about these famous, highly entertaining ads, which were seemingly EVERYWHERE on the highways “in the old days”:

http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/mthomas.htm

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave

http://www.signindustry.com/outdoor/articles/2000-02-15-giveusbackourburmashave.php3

The "Hollow Mountain" store and gas station is actually on a road that's north of Route 66, but it's funky nature fits right in with many of the quirky places on Route 66, so I included it in the video as well. There's an entire store carved into that mountain, with restrooms and storage rooms, etc. The store owner confirmed for me that the rock is a great natural insulator, so they never have to use heat during the winter, and only need air conditioning in the summer because of the heat that the refrigerator cooling units put out.

The song for the video is three different versions of “Route 66”, one by Depeche Mode, one by Chuck Berry, and the final version by the Rolling Stones.  less

This is the sequel to “Into The Desert”. After a few days in the heat of the deserts of Southern California and Nevada, I worked my way back towards San Diego, by motorcycling up into the mountains,   more...to ride by Lake Arrowhead, Silverwood Lake, Lake Gregory, and along the beautiful “Rim of the World Drive” to Big Bear Lake. Rim of the World Drive is the two lane Highway 18, located northeast of San Bernardino, and, as I found out, FILLED with OTHER motorcyclists on weekends! It was QUITE a change bein’ around so many other motorcyclists again, after bein’ in the solitude of the deserts on my own. And once I got FURTHER back into civilization, it was even MORE of a change, havin’ to be impacted by damned TRAFFIC LIGHTS again!!, after ridin’ for DAYS without seein’ even ONE of those truly annoying inventions from Hell! LOL I wonder how many YEARS are wasted out of people’s lives by havin’ to sit still at traffic lights? . . . . but I digress LOL . . .

On Memorial Day I head out from San Diego again on the motorcycle for a few weeks, and ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to the San Francisco Bay Area, then east through Yosemite National Park, then by Mono Lake and east on the wonderful two old U.S. 50 through Nevada, which is a GREAT motorcycling road that I’ve loved bein’ on many times over the decades. U.S. 50 was part of the old 3,400 mile long Lincoln Highway, which was a famed transcontinental highway, and the first practical automobile road to link the East and West coasts of the United States. The Nevada portion of U.S. 50 is rarely used any more, with most travelers opting to use 4 lane Interstate 80 to the north, which is fine by ME! since they leave U.S. 50 to the bikers and people in enclosed vehicles who have more time on their hands to enjoy the incredible vistas :) :)

Once out of Nevada, I’ll wander around Utah and Arizona for a while, then spend a few days in Las Vegas, before headin’ back to San Diego.

The song I used for this video is “Let It Ride” by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals.  less

Mike is going to UCSB and can't take his car, so we bought him a prope mode of transport.......a BIKE. The Kawasaki Ninja 250 is a perfect motorcycle to learn on and I'm having a blast running it in for   more...him.  less

An introduction to my motorcycling video blog.

I just got back from 5 days of motorcycling around the deserts and mountains of Southern California and Nevada, so here’s a video of some of the scenes along the way.

The song for the video is America’s   more...great desert song “A Horse With No Name”.  less

Here are some of the photos I took Monday and Tuesday on a 540 mile motorcycle ride on the desert and mountain backroads in Southern California. The route generally circled Salton Sea, with side trips   more...to places like Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Indio, and Calexico. I’ve been motorcycling for almost 40 years, and it’s by far my favorite way to travel around the country, so shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that most of these photos include my current motorcycle LOL

At one of the places I stopped to take a break, I met a Sheriff Sergeant who told me about a REALLY unusual area known as “Slab City” (which includes something called “Salvation Mountain”). Slab City is an area outside Niland (at Salton Sea) and is frequented by land squatters and RV owners. The “City” gets it name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from an abandoned World War II base and Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap. The area is also near a live bombing range called Chocolate Mountain Impact Area. Some of the recent movie "Into the Wild" was filmed at Slab City. Here are a couple of websites about the place:

http://vagabonders-supreme.net/SlabCity.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City

The song I used for the video is “On The Road Again” by Canned Heat.  less

Valentino Rossi - Star Quality ESPN documentary

Come for a wee scoot around the Taupo race track on board my KTM Superduke-R

Short review of new TourMaster Winter gloves and silk liners I just bought.

I had a good time chatting and having great conversation over the weekend with some friends. Most of it was light-hearted, but there were a few serious topics. If this vlog has made you aware of yourself   more...and helped you on your way to resolving your personal issues, please let me know by making a comment (or a video).  less

Who needs 4 wheeled vehicles?!

I stitch my unsewn Cortech leather pants back together

On the road to Smithfield, I talk about the meaning of "Lynnah," and how I got into motorcycling.

Here are some more scenes from various motorcycle trips around the Southwest. The song for the video is “Baggage” by Eva Cassidy, from the movie “Anywhere But Here”. The lyrics go really well with a   more...road trip type video :)

“Sitting by the side of the road
Doing nothing but keeping time
Moving forward toward the setting sun
Leaving my worries behind

I sit upon a precipice
Throwing wishes to an old tin can
Got the world at my nicotine fingertips
And a ball of clay rolling in my hand

The past is a dream that haunts me each day
So many memories so far away
The baggage I carry weighs a ten ton or more
No one said it’s a picnic but why such a chore

Leave it all behind my friend release it to the wind
There’s other roads to walk along and places you’ve never been

The days of cotton candy have long since disappeared
And the counter where I licked my ice cream cone
Is now a bar where I sip my beer

The Ferris wheel still turns around but I’m too old to ride
I watch the bright lights glimmer
And I feel the pull of the child inside

When your dreams have turned to nightmares
And the sky is a cold black sun
When trees bow down to chainsaws
And you read obituaries for fun

Leave it all behind my friend release it to the wind
There’s other roads to walk along and places you’ve never been
Leave it all behind my friend release it to the wind
There’s other roads to walk along and places you’ve never been.”  less

I had a good time hanging out with the sisters from another mister.

I always try to motorcycle on the “road less traveled” whenever possible, so here are some scenes from another of those wonderful roads. It’s such a joy having such vistas pretty much to myself, without   more...a sea of RVs, trucks, and cars all around me. This narrow, winding, seldom used, 9,655 foot high, snowy mountain pass is on Highway 31, between Fairview and Huntington in the Manti-La Sal National Forest in central Utah.

The song for the video is “Snow” from the CD “Eventide” by Grey Eye Glances.  less

Here’s another of the national parks I motorcycled through on a recent trip around the Southwest. This national park has always been my favorite for seeing arches, natural caves, and huge monolithic   more...stone spires, so I wanted to share it with you. It’s difficult to fully grasp the enormity of how many millennia it took for erosion and weather to create these amazing works of art.

On a side topic, non-motorcycling friends have asked me over my 40 years of motorcycling why I SO much prefer to travel by motorcycle versus inside my 4 wheeled vehicles. I was really happy when a friend recently sent me the internet link to a great article by a motorcyclist that states the many “whys”. I’ve made this article website one of my browser favorites for the next time somebody asks me “why?” :) Here is a great quote from the article: “No longer isolated, huddled behind a wheel disconnected from nature, motorcycles bring you into the world at large. It's Lawrence of Arabia in Cinerama versus a daguerreotype of a camel.”
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=518431&topart=pickups

The song for this video is “Come Along” by Titiyo. I had never heard of this musical artist until today. I found out about her via a serendipity moment, by listening to one of her songs that happened to be on the MySpace page of a person who had linked to one of my videos, and since I enjoyed that song, I went onto iTunes to listen to more of her interesting music, and I found this song which I really liked for this video project.  less

Here are some scenes from my favorite stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, in California, which is the dramatic, rugged, winding, cliff-bound portion running from Morro Bay up to Carmel; this section   more...has, and always will be, a favorite among travelers and particularly among motorcyclists like me, who has been motorcycling this beautiful stretch of highway for 40 years now. The highway is also known as “PCH” and “Highway 1”, and the vistas along this portion of the road are truly breathtaking. As a journalist once wrote: “"Traveling Highway 1 is more than just a scenic drive, it's a pilgrimage, a reconnection to California's history, environment, mythology - its spirit."

One of the bridges in the video is the “Bixby Creek Bridge”, constructed in 1932. This bridge has been used in countless TV commercials, movies, and TV shows (like the short-lived 1969 “Then Came Bronson”, about a nomadic guy wandering around the country on his V-Twin motorcycle (GEE, I wonder why I always related so well to THAT old TV show!? LOL)). Here is a good website that talks about the bridge: http://www.pelicannetwork.net/bigsur.bixby.bridge.htm , and a website that talks about “Then Came Bronson” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Then_Came_Bronson

The quote at the beginning of the video, is a fragment of a larger poem by Lord Byron. Here is the entire quotation:

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

LORD BYRON, Childe Harold

The song for the video is “The Wanderers” by Lacy J. Dalton, from her CD “The Last Wild Place Anthology”.  less

Some racing footage from Arroyo Seco Motorplex, the track I will be riding on during my first track day the day after this footage.

Victor leads me home. I'm very grateful to him for inviting me on the scooter cruise.

Sheldon turns out to be a really nice guy and a great rider. He leads the way up Waimea Canyon. My lowered Hayabusa had trouble keeping up with his nimble Suzuki GSXR750. No commentary in this video.

I wish I could have changed the angle of the clutch and brake lever... but I had no tools with me.