Without getting into a lot of detail, I moved to my mom‘s house December 2023 as full-time caregiver after she came down with a nasty case of dementia. Well, my daughter came down from Portland to give my wife and I respite and God bless Mel she wanted to go for a ride!
I booked a cool Airbnb in Glide, These folks have converted their garage into a single bedroom rental complete with a pool table. Pretty dang cool Cuz I just rolled up the garage door and parked the bike inside.
Now let’s talk about the ride! So last June you may know I bought a 2010 that had 6000 miles after the untimely demise of my 08. The owner had just put a new battery in it the day before I got there so when I put my distribution block in the bike I kept the new battery in there instead of transplanting the six month old Yuasa that I had, but I digress. Looking at a three hour ride ahead I made the trip from my mom‘s house to Eugene in record time in my truck. We started packing the bike up and I thought I should start this bitch. I unplugged the battery tender and it started right up! I waited for it to idle down and shut it off. We loaded the bike and ourselves and I went to fire it off and got the tick tick tick by now it’s 4:30 and we have a three hour ride ahead of us, the thought of swapping batteries right then assured me arriving in darkness, so I took the Yuasa and crammed it in the side bag. I jumped the bike and we headed out heading south on 97. Let’s just say speeds were in triple digits. We are just north of Lapine and I start to see lightning in the distance and the clouds are getting very dark It’s been raining for about 10 minutes at this point. I pulled into a Les Schwab truck service bay at the north end of Lapine and Ziploc bagged my radar detector, moved my phone from the bar to my tank bag and put the rain cover over my tank bag. Mel pulled out my frog toggs but I said no my Stitch is waterproof and it shouldn’t last long. She donned her raincoat and we headed out. South of Lapine it starts to rain much harder and that’s when I start spotting oncoming cars with hail piled up at the base of the windshield. Oh shit I think, why does this always happen to us? Well, it really starts dumping now, like inch of standing water on the road dumping! I see light at the end of the tunnel however and just keep hauling ass that’s when we hit it, between two and 3 inches of hail on the road apparently quite the hail storm had rolled through. At this point. It’s like riding in oatmeal and oncoming trucks are throwing walls of water and slush at us, I literally just laughed in my helmet as that’s all I could do . I looked down and it’s 36°. My gloves are not soaked through, but they’re definitely getting wet inside. I should’ve taken my wife up on the offer to put my Klim Snowmobile gloves on when we stopped. I’m pretty much passing everything on the road doing between 45 and 60. Side note the Pilot 6’s are da chit in the wet! We hit a long passing lane and the 18 wheeler in front of me refuses to get in the other lane. I passed him on the right and this shit is absolutely next level, literally white knuckling it and blind, I finally make it past the wheels that are throwing tidal waves at me, I “waved” at him as I went by.
We hit the Crescent junction and the hailstorm hadn’t come through here and it backed off to a reasonable just dumping rain. The digit counter gets back to triples and I head for Chemult as I need to get gas. Water is now in my gloves and they’re starting to get real cold but the temperature has climbed to 37° at this point so I’m celebrating the small wins. I pull into the pilot truckstop in Chemult, fill the tank, pull up to the front door to go inside and use the restroom. Thank God for pilot and the fact that they have hot water in the bathroom. I held my hands underneath the faucet for a good five minutes, taking the transition from pins and needles to this fucking hurts to hi hands how are you? On my way out I walk up to the front counter and ask for a container of Zyns, 4.99 he says, and I need to scan your drivers license. I tell him he’s more than welcome to look at it but I’m not having my drivers license scanned. He says I’ll have a manager come up to talk to you and gets on his headset as I turn and walk out the door. This is the second time I’ve been asked this, the first time was at Fred Meyers. Maybe I’m just old-school paranoid but the thought of having my drivers license scanned willy-nilly here and there just doesn’t sit right with me. But this is a ride report right? Not wanting to discuss speed. I’ll just say we held it at just over 7000 RPM to the cut off with 138 headed towards crater Lake, anybody that’s gone to crater lake knows what that road looks like when you take a right off of Highway 97, straight as far as the eye can see. I’m amazed at how fast we’re reaching as far as the eye can see! My haste is twofold one being I know the highway along the Umpqua river is a sweet ride and the second is I don’t like riding in the dark. We get over the summit by Diamond Lake and I am pleased at the 41° temps. We start heading down into the basin and while the road is wet it’s in great shape. We absolutely ate up the next 45 miles, from big sweepers to 35 mph turns nobody is on the road except us. That’s when I remember I love this game! We get to our Airbnb at dusk and are pleasantly surprised that it exceeds the pictures and is perfect for our needs. We unload our crap and I hose down the side cases in the driveway as they covered in red cinder and road debris. We’re both pretty hungry so head off to the local dive bar as we hear they have good food. I’m not sure if I thought my battery had magically fixed itself on the ride down, but it had not and push starting the bike in the gravel driveway did not yield the same results as in the pilot truckstop parking lot. I had brought the SAE alligator clip cord off the workbench and tried plugging it in with the Yuasa I brought to jump it, no go. If I was smart, I would’ve rolled the garage door up and brought it inside but instead I donned my headlamp praying I don’t drop a nylon retainer in the gravel. Since I have the battery tender lead, my power distribution box lead, making the connections is a bit of a PIA without pulling the plastic underneath the headlight adjuster. I opted just hook up the factory connections so we can get our asses to dinner. The dive bar was everything we heard it was, an interesting cross-section of America as far as the patrons go. I take that back, an interesting group of drug addled people and drunks.
The food however, was amazing and Byron the chef was super friendly. I had a steak salad and there must’ve been 8 ounces of sliced ribeye on top of this thing and he nailed all other aspects of it, Mel’s cheeseburger was equally agreeable. I play pool with the locals, remembering how much I like that game too! No ride plans for tomorrow but if nothing else, I’d be game just drive up the Umpqua back a few times that road is so saweeeeeet!
P.S. Friends don’t let friends buy shitty batteries so avoid this one at all costs!
I booked a cool Airbnb in Glide, These folks have converted their garage into a single bedroom rental complete with a pool table. Pretty dang cool Cuz I just rolled up the garage door and parked the bike inside.
Now let’s talk about the ride! So last June you may know I bought a 2010 that had 6000 miles after the untimely demise of my 08. The owner had just put a new battery in it the day before I got there so when I put my distribution block in the bike I kept the new battery in there instead of transplanting the six month old Yuasa that I had, but I digress. Looking at a three hour ride ahead I made the trip from my mom‘s house to Eugene in record time in my truck. We started packing the bike up and I thought I should start this bitch. I unplugged the battery tender and it started right up! I waited for it to idle down and shut it off. We loaded the bike and ourselves and I went to fire it off and got the tick tick tick by now it’s 4:30 and we have a three hour ride ahead of us, the thought of swapping batteries right then assured me arriving in darkness, so I took the Yuasa and crammed it in the side bag. I jumped the bike and we headed out heading south on 97. Let’s just say speeds were in triple digits. We are just north of Lapine and I start to see lightning in the distance and the clouds are getting very dark It’s been raining for about 10 minutes at this point. I pulled into a Les Schwab truck service bay at the north end of Lapine and Ziploc bagged my radar detector, moved my phone from the bar to my tank bag and put the rain cover over my tank bag. Mel pulled out my frog toggs but I said no my Stitch is waterproof and it shouldn’t last long. She donned her raincoat and we headed out. South of Lapine it starts to rain much harder and that’s when I start spotting oncoming cars with hail piled up at the base of the windshield. Oh shit I think, why does this always happen to us? Well, it really starts dumping now, like inch of standing water on the road dumping! I see light at the end of the tunnel however and just keep hauling ass that’s when we hit it, between two and 3 inches of hail on the road apparently quite the hail storm had rolled through. At this point. It’s like riding in oatmeal and oncoming trucks are throwing walls of water and slush at us, I literally just laughed in my helmet as that’s all I could do . I looked down and it’s 36°. My gloves are not soaked through, but they’re definitely getting wet inside. I should’ve taken my wife up on the offer to put my Klim Snowmobile gloves on when we stopped. I’m pretty much passing everything on the road doing between 45 and 60. Side note the Pilot 6’s are da chit in the wet! We hit a long passing lane and the 18 wheeler in front of me refuses to get in the other lane. I passed him on the right and this shit is absolutely next level, literally white knuckling it and blind, I finally make it past the wheels that are throwing tidal waves at me, I “waved” at him as I went by.
We hit the Crescent junction and the hailstorm hadn’t come through here and it backed off to a reasonable just dumping rain. The digit counter gets back to triples and I head for Chemult as I need to get gas. Water is now in my gloves and they’re starting to get real cold but the temperature has climbed to 37° at this point so I’m celebrating the small wins. I pull into the pilot truckstop in Chemult, fill the tank, pull up to the front door to go inside and use the restroom. Thank God for pilot and the fact that they have hot water in the bathroom. I held my hands underneath the faucet for a good five minutes, taking the transition from pins and needles to this fucking hurts to hi hands how are you? On my way out I walk up to the front counter and ask for a container of Zyns, 4.99 he says, and I need to scan your drivers license. I tell him he’s more than welcome to look at it but I’m not having my drivers license scanned. He says I’ll have a manager come up to talk to you and gets on his headset as I turn and walk out the door. This is the second time I’ve been asked this, the first time was at Fred Meyers. Maybe I’m just old-school paranoid but the thought of having my drivers license scanned willy-nilly here and there just doesn’t sit right with me. But this is a ride report right? Not wanting to discuss speed. I’ll just say we held it at just over 7000 RPM to the cut off with 138 headed towards crater Lake, anybody that’s gone to crater lake knows what that road looks like when you take a right off of Highway 97, straight as far as the eye can see. I’m amazed at how fast we’re reaching as far as the eye can see! My haste is twofold one being I know the highway along the Umpqua river is a sweet ride and the second is I don’t like riding in the dark. We get over the summit by Diamond Lake and I am pleased at the 41° temps. We start heading down into the basin and while the road is wet it’s in great shape. We absolutely ate up the next 45 miles, from big sweepers to 35 mph turns nobody is on the road except us. That’s when I remember I love this game! We get to our Airbnb at dusk and are pleasantly surprised that it exceeds the pictures and is perfect for our needs. We unload our crap and I hose down the side cases in the driveway as they covered in red cinder and road debris. We’re both pretty hungry so head off to the local dive bar as we hear they have good food. I’m not sure if I thought my battery had magically fixed itself on the ride down, but it had not and push starting the bike in the gravel driveway did not yield the same results as in the pilot truckstop parking lot. I had brought the SAE alligator clip cord off the workbench and tried plugging it in with the Yuasa I brought to jump it, no go. If I was smart, I would’ve rolled the garage door up and brought it inside but instead I donned my headlamp praying I don’t drop a nylon retainer in the gravel. Since I have the battery tender lead, my power distribution box lead, making the connections is a bit of a PIA without pulling the plastic underneath the headlight adjuster. I opted just hook up the factory connections so we can get our asses to dinner. The dive bar was everything we heard it was, an interesting cross-section of America as far as the patrons go. I take that back, an interesting group of drug addled people and drunks.
The food however, was amazing and Byron the chef was super friendly. I had a steak salad and there must’ve been 8 ounces of sliced ribeye on top of this thing and he nailed all other aspects of it, Mel’s cheeseburger was equally agreeable. I play pool with the locals, remembering how much I like that game too! No ride plans for tomorrow but if nothing else, I’d be game just drive up the Umpqua back a few times that road is so saweeeeeet!
P.S. Friends don’t let friends buy shitty batteries so avoid this one at all costs!
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, that was an awesome ride report JP!!! Glad you and Mel got out for some riding in such beautiful weather. I have the opposite down here. Its been between 60-85 degrees the past week or so, Terrible!
