Spring Fling 2000

May 19-21, 2000

It started out by loading the bike into the back of the truck[1] and went to work for about an hour and a half on Thursday morning. I left at about 10:15. I took the scenic route of I15 to I10 to I210 to I5 and stayed on I5 up to the Elk Grove area, where my Mom lives.

After filling up at the I5/58 junction, I headed back north on I5. I got about 40 miles from the gas stop when I heard a strange sound. At first I thought it was just the road surface, but then decided it was something coming from the back end on the left side.   As I was taking off my seat belt, I saw smoke coming from the tire area. My first thought was that the rearend was on fire! I jumped out to discover the tire had blown. I hassled with changing to my spare, only to find the spare was not in *that* good of condition. I limped in to the Cattlemen City turn off and had the spare replaced. The guy tried to sell me a $60 tire and I asked what was wrong with the $50 tire and he said, it was a discontinued tire. I'll take the $50 dollar tire...thanks! Duh!

The rest of the trip up was uneventful and slow due to the smaller tire in back.  Had to keep it down to 70! )-:

Friday late afternoon, I rode the bike over to Dave's (my brother), we jumped on our bikes [3] and we were off! While we were making the I80 west transition to the Hwy50 East, some idiot who was in the right lane decided he needed to make a offramp that was going off the left lane.  He pulls toward Dave, Dave sees him (thanks to years of riding) pulls away, and the guy cuts Dave off completely and goes off the offramp! Grr...  After 50 for a short time, we jumped on Hwy 16 after gassing' up. 16 was fairly clear for a while. We were stuck behind a slow moving truck with three cars behind him. At one point the road was clear for passing, so I motioned for Dave to follow and I jumped on it. Dave was right behind me and we were both at the ton by the time we got around them. We took the Sutter Creek road up to Volcano (from Sutter Creek). What a road, it was very rough and windy, but not as rough as one of the other roads as we later found out.

As we got up to Volcano, there were many people/bikes already there! What a sight, seeing 95% V4 Hondas! Dave and I checked into the hotel, then walked around talking to folks and checking out the bikes! We had the riders meeting and then chatted some more before turning in.

The next morning, we (after having to wait for the community shower) had the Hotel breakfast and then went and gassed up. Upon returning, the gathering of Maggots was getting bigger! Pete Springer yelled, to get ready to ride, so everyone suited up and after a few minutes of waiting for some of the slower suitors, we were off. The faster riders were soon to take the front and we were in and out of the curves heading were ever they were taking us. At one point we came across where the county was patching the road surface with tar and sand. Good thing we didn't get charged for what we took of it. We and our bikes were covered with the sand/tar mixture.  )-: 

We came to the first rest stop and waited for the back end to catch up with the rest of us. We waited, and waited and then a couple more came up, and they said that a whole group behind them disappeared and had no idea where they were. So, we took off and Dave and I wound up behind Pete Springer and Randy Maz... .  We (Dave & I) stayed behind them fairly well, until while on Sheep Sh*te road, where we got caught behind a SUV that had pulled over for Pete and Randy, but waited about 15 minutes before we could get around her...grrrr...  Anyway, by that time, Pete and Randy were way ahead of us. We keep pushing it and even took an educated guess as the direction to go at one point.  A while later, I saw a glimpse of a helmet/jacket, so I knew we were on the right road. Well, a few minutes later, we over took them! They had been slowed down by a Hardley group that didn't believe in letting anyone by them. Of course, that didn't stop Pete and Randy and so Dave and I started around this bunch.  As I started around one of them, he pulled out in front of me and I had to go farther to the left, I had about a foot of road on my left side, so I kicked it down another gear and flew by them and all but one which was their leader.  He tried to stay with Pete and Randy, but soon was overtaken by Dave and I, so he gave up. We then made it to the winery and had lunch. That's when we found out that there was an accident with two of the riders. That disappointed us all, but not much we could do about it.

I talked to Dave and we decided that we didn't want to nuthammer behind Pete and Randy and wanted go a little slower on the next round so we decided we would stick with Ron and Doe. Well, this time, Ron nuthammered the 26 and Dave, myself and a fellow named Kim (sorry, can't remember the last name) followed him through some great twisties! We wound up like 10 minutes ahead of the next group! That was the highlight of the whole day for both Dave and I!  One curve was pretty sharp and as you came up on it, you could see lots of sand and rocks just waiting for you. We went wide of it (marked for 10 MPH). But overall, what a ride!

After this leg, we regrouped and headed down towards Jackson and took the "easy" road back to Volcano. After more talking and checking' out bikes, we all headed for the BarBQ behind the hotel.  Tracey and her staff did a great job! Very enjoyable! We once again continued the chatting after eating, some later than others. Dave and I hit the sack around midnight and the festivities were still going on. (There was a cast party at the hotel from a play that ended it's run that night...they partied for quite sometime)

Sunday morning hit and we went down stairs to the food. We sat and talked to everyone coming down for the same. Then it was time to leave...)-:   We loaded up the bikes and headed out.  After we filled our bikes, I followed Dave as we headed out of Jackson. As Dave came to an intersection, the light turned red pretty darn fast. I wasn't sure if Dave could make it or not, and I expected him to go for it, so I gunned it only to see him stop. I hit my brakes, and hauled it down without skidding. This was a very fast stop and right after I stopped, the top end made a really weird noise, like it wasn't getting any oil.  It only made it for a second or so and then stopped.  Once the light turned green, we started up again and I could feel the power of the bike just wasn't there and the noise came back again. I pulled over to the side of the road, turned it off, let it sit for a few seconds and started it up again. No noise, so I started out slowly and checking it as we went. It ran all the way back to Sacramento just fine and we even hit the ton a couple of times on the way. So I am still not sure what happened or if there is any damage to the bike, but I've started it up several times since then and haven't heard the noise. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I drove home on Monday, no blowouts just cruising between 75 & 85 the whole way and made it back to San Diego in 8 hours.

First I want to say thank you to Ron and Doe for a great weekend! It was well planned and except for the accident, everything else went great! Also, Tracey and her Hotel staff at the Volcano Hotel were just fantastic! They made sure that you were well care for the whole time!

Now, for the great news. My brother, Dave when first asked to go to Volcano with me agreed thinking that he wouldn't really care for it too much, but he would be able to spend some time with me. Well, he had such a great time that he's already looking forward to next year! He now wants to clean up his bike and make it look like it should and not a "rat/commuter bike". And he wants to bring his wife along too! Thanks to everyone that helped make our trip so enjoyable! I wish I could go to Colorado, but I was pushing my luck (with the wife) on going to Volcano.  (-:  Until next year!

[1] Yeah, I trucked it up to Sacramento and glad I did! [2]
[2] Actually, I was having problems with the carbs, no more time to work on
the bike, so I felt that it would be better to just truck it up there.
[3] I'm riding my '85 V45 Sabre and Dave's on a '83 V45 Sabre. As we found out, they were well matched bikes.

Pictures:

    Friday night's riders meeting. Kate, Karen, Barb &  Ken (1st pic), My brother, Dave, then Mark, & Pete (2nd pic), various other maggots.

    Up on the third floor balcony looking down at the bikes., Various shots outside of the hotel.

    More shots from the balcony and around the hotel.

    First and last stops during the ride.

    A good shot of the hotel, Lenard(sp?), Ken & Barb (2nd pic), Mark, Cliff and Jason.

    I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a good shot of Uncle Milt...but got him going away..(-:   Here's Pete & Rhonda and Ron & Doe enjoying their lunch.  Pete and Scott(?) relaxing after eating.

    The bikes after the ride in from of the hotel. Then there was the BBQ! Yummm!

    More of the BBQ and group shots!