Traveling

Last week was a busy one.

On Thursday I headed out to the airport for my weekly trip Las Vegas. When I got back the next evening, I checked my favorite weather Apps, Saturday looked good for a ride. I bundled myself up and headed out early Saturday morning for my last ride out to central Oregon for 2020.

If felt good to get out and blast around on my old GPZ, but the weather was getting cooler and the fall winds were starting to blow harder across the flat plains the farther east I rode.

My two hour trip turned into an eight hours ride as I raced around on all my favorite roads, when I pulled into my driveway later that day I had knocked out 400 miles!

It was still dark at 5am on Sunday morning when the Uber driver pulled up to take me the airport. I was heading out for my four hour flight to Chicago to see my daughter for a couple days. We covered a lot ground together. Sightseeing, visiting the museum and just hanging out with each other. But before I knew it was Tuesday, and I had to head back to Portland.

It was a whirlwind week, but it was all worth it.

Fourth of July

The holiday gods blessed Oregon with perfect weather for the 4th of July weekend. I decided to get out to town for few hours, and headed east for the open roads of central Oregon. I was surprised with the amount traffic, I guess everyone felt like getting out of town too.

This time I took hwy 26, which takes you around the base of Mt. Hood. While the sun was out, the mountain air was cool and crisp, but as I drop elevation and headed closer to central Oregon it started warming up. While, it would have been nice to be enjoying a big celebration like in years past, getting out alone on the open road is a great way to celebrate too.

Ride around Mt. Hood was a shot of the mountain looking to the north.

Social distancing shadow.

Getting out

The dry weather has arrived in Portland just days after the summer solstice, hopefully our rainy June will be replaced with sunny days in July.

I did manage to squeeze one bike ride at the beginning of the month, I headed out of Portland in search of nicer weather in central Oregon. I was optimistic, so I headed east and managed to out run the rain. My luck held out the whole day until I was ready to cross back into Oregon at the Bridge of Gods. I got caught in one of the biggest, wettest rainstorm I’ve ever been in.

I got soaked! It was raining so hard the cars were pulling off the highway. I pressed on for the next thirty miles and was almost dried out when about ten blocks from my house, the Oregon weather gods emptied their clouds on me again.

I’m hoping to get out of town for another trip after the fourth of July, wish me luck!

A Very Special Delivery

Life is always changing.

Whether good or bad, things are always happening. In other words, things never stay the same. Otherwise, life would just get plain boring. Throughout the past 35+ years of my life; I have had some good times, bad times, and sometimes challenging times. But the fun times always outnumber the bad.

Some of the most fun I have ever had was on my first real high-performance motorcycle. In the spring of 1984, I bought my 1983 Kawasaki GPZ 750. Going on trips across the country, riding through the back roads here in the PNW, and best of all riding with my pack of long-time biker buddies. We had a great six years together before I sold it in 1990.

So a couple years ago, I started looking for another one. Maybe I was caught up in the fog of nostalgia. But I would always find myself checking out Ebay and occasionally traveling to motorcycle auctions and always coming home empty-handed.

A couple of weeks ago; though, my luck turned around. I found one on Craigslist, took one look at it, and I bought it. A one-owner bike with just 10K miles on it, it hadn't really been ridden much in the past ten years. Dirty and dusty, languishing in the corner of a garage of the original owner's son; it was a true barn find. Perfect!

It was all there, sitting in waiting for me. Now, all it needs is a little TLC. I can't wait to get it up and running, so I can take it for a real ride. More good times ahead.

Las Vegas Motorcyle Auction

This year I had the chance to attend Mecum's Annual Motorcycle Auction in Las Vegas. I happened to be working in Vegas anyway, so I met a bunch of friends a day earlier to catch up over a few bikes and beers.

It was Mecum's 25th anniversary event and they had an awesome selection of bikes this year; over seven hundred to be exact. Whatever kind of bike you were looking for or interested in, it was there.
The bikes that I'm most into are the ones that were produced from the mid-seventies up through until the early eighties. I have always felt that the bikes built in this period offer riders style and power; best of all appreciation in value.

One of the bikes that caught my attention was a 1983 Kawasaki GPZ750. I owned one of these bikes back in 1984. At the time, motorcycles were making the transition from bikes with just a straight-line speed and quick acceleration to what has now evolved into today's modern sport bike. The GPZ had uni-track suspension, ventilated front disc brakes, and a powerful 92hp motor. So is the second generation Kawasaki GPZ poised to take off in value? I think if you could find one for less than $4,000, it would still be considered a good buy. The one which sold at the Mecum auction, while not perfect, still went for $4,250.