The 2009 Songdog Ride May 1-3, 2009 By Catfish Photos from Jim, Laurel, Lisa, & Glen/John! The weather forecast was getting worse as the week progressed. I sent an email to the list Wednesday evening to watch for an email on Thursday with a CHANGE in route & meeting place for Friday morning. I sent the message out Thursday morning, breakfast at 9AM at Jerry's in Hollister and lunch at McClintock's in Paso Robles. I called (& left messages) for everyone on the registered list who didn't respond to the change email by Thursday evening. Friday morning was not wet inland & the commute traffic was "tolerable." A VERY-HIGH rating for 680 commute traffic from me. Got to Jerry's at 9AM and was the 6th person at the table; Laurel, Lisa, Scott Flores, Matt Brockway, & Gary Thomas beat me there! Matt's phone rang during breakfast and it was Steve Hursh wondering WHERE THE HELL we were! He was at the Chevron station in Carmel. OOPS!!! I told Matt to have him meet us at lunch, and Matt handed me his phone. THEN I learned about Steve leaving on Wednesday and Steve learned about his Thursday phone message, at home. I told him about McClintock's in Paso Robles at 1PM or so. Jim Cairnes walked in about 10 minutes before leaving time claiming to have rode by the place 3 times before spotting it. He ordered a QUICK oatmeal and woofed it down. Joanne rode up next. The eight of us then headed south on CA-25 with rain clouds to the west. 25 went by fast and I realized we'd get to Paso Robles too soon for lunch. I told folks about another detour we'd do at San Miguel. Peach Tree & Indian Valley were dry and fun! We got gas in San Miguel and noticed the Bask Cafe across the street. Many agreed we should stop for lunch there on Sunday. We took 101 down to San Marcos Rd. After I looked back & saw most of the group was turning, I accelerated briskly down the sweeping right curve. Just as I was exiting the curve I met a CHP entering. OOPS!!! I'm SURE he wanted to come get me, but I hoped the long line of bikes behind me discouraged him. It apparently did as I never saw him again! At the end of San Marcos the rain started and we were missing Lisa & Joanne. I sent the others to McClintocks while Jim & I returned on San Marcos to find the girls. Lisa & Joanne had stopped to don their rain gear. We all continued into town for lunch. It was drizzling a little in Paso Robles as we stopped for lunch. Steve Hursh sat alone near the end of a very BIG table. We joined him. Lunch was great & Steve disappeared before the rest of us were done. We hoped he headed towards Songdog without us again. CA-229 and CA-58 were mostly dry and empty of traffic. I counted the front tire leaving the ground 6 times on 229! I cruised at 80-85 on Hwy-58, just slow enough to keep Joanne's KLR650 in view. The roller coaster section was fun and without any of those pesky side winds. The box canyon had a couple of small moist spots, but otherwise was dry & FAST! When I reached the end of the canyon, I turned around to do the TRIPLE. Joanne followed and then Matt followed her! What a WONDERFUL stretch of pavement! While everyone but Joanne & I headed towards the Chevron in Taft, we took Randall Road to Mid Oil Road. What a fun roller-coaster-ride of a road! Oh, Lisa was headed to the grocery store to get margarita supplies & a birthday cake. At the Chevron, Laurel looked more closely at her noisier-than-usual Beemer. OMG!!! Both plates of the bracket that hold the Staintune can to the bike had broken and the wide rear one was tearing the can apart! Scott took a look and also noticed the guy (Sid) at the pumps with the welder & supplies in the back of his truck. Scott asked for some bailing wire to hold up the damaged exhaust. Sid asked to look at the bike. Sid offered to weld the can back together. Laurel & Scott followed Sid to where he was going to do the work. I waited for Lisa and told the others to go on down to the dog. Lisa arrived and we hadn't talked 5 minutes and here came Laurel & Scott ready to ride! Sid did a hell of a job, quickly and for FREE! Laurel got some good karma today. The rest of us rode towards the dark clouds to the south, but got to the mesa at Songdog with only a light sprinkle falling. I pitched my tent and stowed the gear quickly. Time to PARTY! Ben, Rachel, & Isabella got to the ranch just before we did. They were starting dinner a little later than usual. We didn't care. We drank, we smoked, we told tall tales of daring adventures. They grilled some sausages for appetizers and they were good. Then came some cheese, some chips & salsa, and more sausages. Mmmmm! The Herradura didn't even make it to dinner! Then we started on Laurel's "Horny-Toes!" ;-) The tri-tip dinner was excellent as always. Then Lisa brought the cake & candles and we sang Happy 50th Birthday to Matt! The cake was GOOD too! We hung around the wood stove in the Lodge Friday as the sprinkles continued and watch John sleep on the couch. They started taking pictures of him sleeping through EVERTHING! Just past midnight, the songdoggies gave us a few howls & yipes. Then we drifted off to our tents. Saturday morning looked MUCH better! The rains looked like they were gone! I hiked around the mesa before breakfast and noticed that Will's treehouse was still down in the SW ravine. I also noticed the construction site where *someone* was about to build something. Talked to Ben and learned that Jim was building another hay-bale house on the mesa so he had a place to stay when he was visiting the ranch. After breakfast I rounded up Jim & Gary to ride down to Malibu & the Rock Store for lunch. We headed south on Hwy-33. Just after we passed Lockwood Valley Rd, I noticed my radar detector was all lit up, just like it does for a second when it powers up. But it was like this continuously. I turned it off & back on, and it was still the same. Then it just went off. Weird. A few curves later I thought I noticed a flat spot in the throttle as I rolled on. Sure enough I had a minor flat spot at mid-throttle at the exit of each curve. I stopped (with the engine idling) to speak to Jim & Gary, but they just rode right past me. I took off and passed Gary, but the flat spot was getting so bad I couldn't catch Jim. Then it nearly died and I pulled over. I waved FRANTICALLY as Gary passed me on the side of the road again. He returned as I was taking the bike apart to see what was up. The battery measured 11.4 volts and would not spin the starter. FRACK!!! I checked easily accessible wiring and the fuses and everything looked fine. So, I either lost the alternator or the rectifier/voltage regulator module and the battery had discharged to the point that the EFI was NOT happy. Gary was offering a ride on his luggage rack (left the back seat at home), but that didn't look too inviting. Jim returned as I was buttoning the bike back up. I talked Jim into letting me ride his bike while he rode pillion with me. He reluctantly agreed that it would probably be safer for me to be on the front, but I could tell he was not going to enjoy this anymore than I would have. I must say, that Versys is an impressive little motorcycle. It did remarkably well hauling us down to Ojai. Amazing how lightly it steered. Good acceleration for 400lbs of riders on it! At the Ojai Union76 station I started making calls. Got a tow truck lined up and then found a U-Haul place with a 10-ft truck available for a one-way (expensive) rental. Ricardo arrived with the big tilting flatbed truck and I said good bye to Gary & Jim. They continued their ride, when Ricardo & I headed north on our rescue mission. The Caponord was still there and we loaded it up. Once I showed him the best places to attach tiedowns, he did a great job securing it for the twisty ride back to Ojai. We went straight to the U-haul place and parked on the street. The U-haul lady brought the rental out and I backed it up to the flatbed. Ricardo lowered and extended the bed to the back of the rental. We rolled the Caponord in. Squared up with Ricardo and gave him a $20 tip for the great service. The U-haul place was really a mini-storage place with a few U-haul trucks available. No tiedowns or ropes for sale. Only two pieces of rope less than 3 ft long were available. I asked where the nearest place was that might have rope or tiedowns. I walked to the auto parts store, but he sold his last pair of tiedowns the day before. He recommended the army surplus store. They had one package of rope (25ft). I returned to the truck and tied the bike in as good as possible with the rope and then drove to the hardware store and bought tiedowns. Then I headed north on Hwy-33 back to Songdog. Jim & Gary passed me heading north and I honked and waved. They had made it to Mulholland Drive and rode several of the canyon roads from the top down to the ocean. Missed the Rock Store by just 3-4 miles. They LIKED the roads and the views! Then I met Scott, Matt, & Joanne heading to Ojai at a very brisk pace. I waved like CRAZY at Joanne, but the dork in the U-haul wasn't getting HER attention! Jim Cairnes is a GREAT guy. He let me ride his bike to Ojai with him on the back. THEN he turned into the Tequila Fairy (for the 2nd year in a row!) and brought us another bottle of Herradura Reposado. Hymn, HYMN, FUCK HIM!!! :-) Saturday night was Songdog stew and Rachel's fresh-baked bread. Mmm, Mmmmm, MMMMM!!! Great dinner! We adjourned to the fire out back, while listening to Gary's eclectic tunes on his iPod. The songdoggies were howling at midnight again, but became very quit after that. Sunday saw the group split up into 2-3 smaller groups for the return leg home. I drove the Uhaul towards I-5 and pointed it north. GREAT ride, until my motorcycle broke. Catfish ...
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