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Oregon - 5th Annual Last Ride of the Year (2020 Edition)


keithu

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On 12/29/2020 at 8:00 AM, keithu said:

Bump.

We're officially On for this Thursday, December 31, 2020 at 12:00 noon. Location:

See See Newberg

101 East 1st St.

Newberg, OR 97124

 

The weather forecast says there's a 50% chance of rain, but temps will be in the mid to upper 40s so there's no chance of ice. Put on your rain gear and meet up with some forum members to send this godforsaken year off in style.

I'd join Salish900 and head south to join you guys, but the oldest daughter is heading home to France about that time.  I don't think she'd appreciate being left at home and missing her plane home.

Chris

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4 hours ago, daboo said:

I'd join Salish900 and head south to join you guys, but the oldest daughter is heading home to France about that time.  I don't think she'd appreciate being left at home and missing her plane home.

Chris

Hey Chris,

Will miss meeting you and best wishes to your daughter. Does she live in France as an expat or is she native? My older son will be doing a year abroad there next academic year. So excited for him. In Pau, where we have close friends. Excuse to visit and once again revel in France! 

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4 hours ago, daboo said:

I'd join Salish900 and head south to join you guys, but the oldest daughter is heading home to France about that time.  I don't think she'd appreciate being left at home and missing her plane home.

Chris

Too bad, next time! 

I might have a work assignment in France this year if the EU ever allows us in. I've never been to France so I really hope it works out.

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2 hours ago, Salish900 said:

Hey Chris,

Will miss meeting you and best wishes to your daughter. Does she live in France as an expat or is she native? My older son will be doing a year abroad there next academic year. So excited for him. In Pau, where we have close friends. Excuse to visit and once again revel in France! 

I'm not sure if you would call her an expat. Whenshe graduated from Brandeis, she got a job in Japan with the JET program. After a year she went to a French speaking island in the Carribean. Then to the south coast of France. She's found a really great guy and has lived outside of Paris for the past eight years.

We use our Worldmark points to fly her home a couple times a year under normal conditions.

Hopefully a bunch of us from the PNW can get together later. Oregon is only a state away.

Chris

Edited by daboo
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2 hours ago, keithu said:

Too bad, next time! 

I might have a work assignment in France this year if the EU ever allows us in. I've never been to France so I really hope it works out.

Well I sure hope you can go. I've been there a few times, once doing Paris and touring the WW2 Normandy sites and Brittany. Another Paris the summer they won the World Cup!!!!!!!!! and then in the South. I've never experienced such a city wide celebration as what Paris was like when France won the World Cup. For that day, the young and old, the natives and the visitors, the Arab and the African, all hugged and celebrated and partied all over the city all night long. Way beyond what we do here for Super Bowl wins. I'll never forget the joyous nature of it. It's just such a stunningly beautiful country, and the food is all as good as you hear and CHEAP. We can't get over how cheap it is to buy pastries and great food all over the country. We've become Francophiles even though I hardly speak a word. 

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Sister lives in France, Daughter in Scotland... Love to visit them and have them here whenever possible. Sadly not possible right now. Will settle for a visit with moto friends in Newberg for now!

Raining like stink where I am right now, but the weather gurus claim Thursday will only have occasional showers and "Possible rain". But as any North-westerner knows that is always a safe thing to say any day of the year!  I look forward to seeing you hardy all weather riders for a socially distanced lunch Tomorrow. We can all discuss GoreTex and heated gear, and why we wear glove gauntlets inside of the jacket cuffs in the rain---Hey, you learn stuff like that when you have to ride in the rain often.

 

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15 hours ago, daboo said:

I'm not sure if you would call her an expat. Whenshe graduated from Brandeis, she got a job in Japan with the JET program.

My son really wanted to get into JET when he graduated, but he ended going into Teach for America instead. So he spent a couple of years as a middle school teacher in Memphis; that's almost as nice as Japan, right? 🤔

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She was assigned to the very bottom portion of Japan.  It took hours to get out to the touristy spots.  So while she enjoyed it immensely, she wanted to leave after a year to get somewhere else.

Chris

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A good time was had by all! As always, thanks. Keith for starting this custom. 

And good for you Salish900, for risking life and limb riding to far Newberg from Olympia in dead of winter, and joining Keith and I in what has been a  pretty exclusive, last day of the year tradition, that was all our own for the last few years. 

As it turned out, the weather was fine, with only a few drops of rain here and there along each of our routes. See See Motor Cafe was a fine destination with good coffee and outside table that allowed for proper physical distancing, and socializing. I hope you all had a good day as well and can find the time to join us on the last day of next year... 

And while I'm at it. Here's hoping for better new year for all of you and your families!

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I'll complete the triumvirate and also say a good time was had by all. My ride down from Olympia was uneventful with only the usual downpours between Chehalis and Vancouver. I swear it always rains along the Columbia River. Once I got to Vancouver and south, it was dry and pleasant. Same on return, clearing after Chehalis. About 250 miles round trip. Got the old girl over 2,000 miles! 

Really appreciated the excuse to get out and once again confound my colleagues and relatives who are convinced the only sane and safe thing to do is to sit on the couch watching TV. If I listened to my relatives before any of my grand adventures, I'd be dead already from diabetes and heart disease, not to mention a broken heart and utter collapse of will. 

So thank you gentleman. The cafe was new to me and had a nice vibe as a motorcycle spot. While there two guys on Smoke and Noise machines came in. As we left a guy on a Do U Cnow A Troublefree Italian bike came in. 

Riding my 900 always makes me think the whole darn thing is just a bunch of necessary crap around a super star engine. Smooth off the line and cruising happily at 85mph. What more can be asked? My Aerostitch heated vest had me toasty, and even my old Olympia jacket remains waterproof. It's the neck gaiter that really makes the whole thing work. Keeping that wind of the neck is the difference between cozy and frozen. 

May your 2021's be filled with things you love! For me, may I be able to ride back down to Berkeley to catch Cal Football games in person again this Fall. If you don't know, my photo is Marshawn Lynch, more famous as a Seahawk, but I watched him at Cal and as a freshman he was already a man among boys. He carried 2-3 dudes on his back for 10 yards. Got a picture next to him once, and his bones and frame are about 2.5X that of a normal human!!!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

In thinking back to the Last Day of the Year Ride I am struck by a comment made by @keithu who, standing in the drizzle and puddles of the  SEE SEE Cafe parking lot, comment that he could not believe how clean my bike was. So, I thought I would comment.

I suppose I am a bit obsessive, but simply being on this and other forums makes us all sort of de facto obsessives… Like many or likely most of us, I really like to ride, to ride long distances is even better. And, I like my bike(s). And indeed, the bike is a part of the experience, so I take care of it. My routine is simple after a long day’s ride I unload the thing and wipe it down with a wet terry shop towel. That puts me up close to it and lets me both clean it off and check for anything that might be amiss. Then at the end of long day, say over 400/500 miles, I reapply chain lube. Easy, quick and simple. Doesn’t take much time and is an opportunity to re hydrate, and to safely bring up my blood alcohol level.

My FJ is one of the black and gray matt finish units. We are admonished not to use regular wax stuff on such finishes, so in my quest for a way to shine it up I found that there are now many protective finishes that will work. The one I tried is called F11, but there are lots of them and I’m sure they all work. Basically I washed the bike well, and applied the stuff per instructions to every surface including the pipes and windshield. The on line ads showed Harley guys pouring it on like it was just a pail of soapy water… that is not at all necessary. Once your bike is clean the first time, a very light application, rubbed in well, and then wiped off works just fine. Well, it really works. Cleaning, even when covered in mud, dead bugs, and even road tar… it cleans up with just plain water. I reapply it very lightly and buff it out with micro fiber towels after wiping the bike down with wet terry shop towels… that’s it. I admit to being lazy so places like shocks and other parts hard to reach are neglected, so a regular very complete wash is necessary once or twice a year. I use so little of this stuff that one bottle lasts over a year and a half.

I know there are others such finishes as @salish900 mentioned the one he prefers. this is just the one I found first.

Another thing I use is something called MOTUL CHAIN PASTE, which comes in a tube much like toothpaste. it simply does not fling off onto the rear of the bike and back wheel like many other lubes. I also use it at the end of day event when the chain is still hot. It does not drip, and goes on with the little brush attached to the squeeze tube. It does not seem to attract dirt and does not seem to build up, so generally there is no wiping-off or cleaning necessary. From time to time, usually at oIl change time, I clean the chain and sprockets with Kerosine.

I do clean off my windshield and mirrors often, and reapply the F11 then as well as I like to have a clean shield, and the stuff also stops the deal bugs from sticking.

That’s it. I do not wax it, polish the shiny bits, or “Detail” it with tooth brushes. My yearly wash is a soap bucket and hose kind of job. But I do like a clean bike and chain and this routine does the job.

I know this sort of thing is like motor oil, everyone has there own special stuff. One of the things I like best about forums is hearing about how other obsessives deal with these things. I am entertained and educated by it.

Sorry for using up the band-with, raining hard outside and stuck at my desk—-Working.

 

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