Black Sheep Bike Night

On Saturday night I attended my second bike night hosted by a local MC called the Black Sheep for Christ. Now from my limited experience, I find bike-nights to be pretty sedate in that all that really happens is a bunch of people on a bunch of bikes get together somewhere to socialize. That’s pretty much it.

In this case however it’s actually a pretty cool event. I rode in on my own ahead of some friends and took a spot at the end of a line of parked bikes. Immediately one of the Black Sheep guys came out and gently got me to position my bike such that it was in line with the rest which gave the entire line a very uniform presentation. Okay that was cool. Next my friends showed up and positioned their bikes the same way. After we ate the bike games started.

Slow Racing

Have you ever tried to slow-ride your bike? If you have a big heavy cruiser you will know the effort and skill that goes into something like that. If you’ve never seen it, take a look at this youtube video. Well these guys had their very own slow ride competition. Essentially the idea is to ride a straight line for a designated distance, side-by-side as slow as possible without putting your feet down. The moment your foot touches the ground, you lose! So with engines roaring and clutches being feathered and breaks being skillfully applied we saw some fairly skilled runs.

Bag Toss

Next was the bag toss. Okay so this one isn’t really as exciting as the slow race but cool nonetheless. In this case you ride two-up. The rider navigates a straight line next to evenly spaced buckets, into which the pillion rider must toss bean bags. Simple right? Nope… it’s much harder than it looks. Well judging bu the number of misses that is.

Now in this particular case the winners get bragging rights and that’s about it. But what it does to those watching is pretty magical. Everyone is together, cheering and rooting for their favorite competitor and sharing in a really good time. There were other competitions of this nature but you get the idea. So if you have never attended something like this I encourage you to do so. At least once in your riding career. It’s good fun, friendly people, camaraderie and neat watching the skilled riders.

Events, General

A few of us at the Lowe's, San Dimas staging point

Saturday January 9, 2010. This date marks the first group ride of the year for me and the SCRC (Southern Cruisers Riding Club). The destination for this ride was The Rock Inn in Lake Hughes, California. For those of you who don’t know the area well, Lake Hughes is a small agro community situated northwest of Palmdale, California and sits about 75 miles due north of Los Angeles International Airport.

About 18 of us met up at one of our frequently used staging points in the parking lot of Lowe’s in San Dimas. KSU at 9:00 AM. From there we took the 210 freeway west through Pasadena and into Sunland. And this will have been the only time we were on the super-slab until everyone headed home at the end of the day.

Once into Sunland the ride got interesting… The rout took us through SoCal’s High Desert and was filled with great twisties and lazy sweepers. Something for everyone. We started the trek on Little Tujunga road through Canyon Country and onto Bouquet Canyon road out toward Lake Hughes. Our ride leader, Tim, lead all of us flawlessly and at a nice enough pace to keep your adrenaline pumping while taking it easy (just enough) for the new rider on her Goldwing (Yes you read the right, NEW rider on a GOLDWING. I’ll talk about that in a bit).

And as is always the case, we stopped for lunch. The Rock Inn is a great motorcyclist hangout and serves diner-style

This good lookin man is yours truly, outside the Rock Inn

 food. Burgers, hot dogs, chili, assorted sandwiches. Basic stuff. The place was packed! When we got there, there were maybe 200 other bikes already lined up in front, back and the parking across the road and the owner of the place greeted each one of us with a hug or handshake as we entered the place. How cool is that?!

After lunch we headed back along eastbound highway 138 through Little Rock and the Cajon Pass. That part of the ride was pretty much just lazy sweepers the entire way until we made Interstate 15. Typically on the return leg of our journeys the group splits off little by little to head their own way. And as soon as we hit the freeway… I punched it! I hit about 90 MPH and was splitting the number 1 and 2 lanes within moments! I left the rest of the gang and opened it up for the entire ride home!

Pulled off on 138 to wait for the rest of the group.

Overall a great day, filled with a varied ride and surrounded by really cool people, in pretty decent weather. What more can a man ask for?

Side-note – The new rider on the Goldwing;

This was a woman who I’d say is around mid 40’s. She was riding a brand new Honda Goldwing. Which, for those who don’t know, is a fully equipped touring bike complete with 1800cc engine, long wheel-base, lots of storage with the hard bags and top-case, full faring, and weighs maybe 900 pounds. I learned later that she had had her motorcycle endorsement for only 2 months after having taken the MSF class.

Now I wouldn’t normally suggest a bike like this as being a new rider’s first bike. I have always been an advocate for learning on a bike you can afford to drop. Because you WILL drop it. Clearly not this rider. She went out and got her Wing and held her own really well. Though she did seem to love the middle of the lane and was timid in a couple tight switch-backs. Otherwise… she did very well indeed…

General, Rides