Packing up the bikes, early muster

After a relatively early muster of 8 am, we hit 101 headed south.  I had read about a good breakfast stop in a local magazine, the Spoon, so that was our first stop.

The Spoon, in Langlois, Oregon

After eggs and about 3 pots of coffee, we hit the road again, south on Highway 101.  This stretch of highway is absolutely gorgeous, but we had portions of dense fog, and moments of scenery.

One drawback of motorcycle touring is the amount of messing around it takes to pull over, remove gear, and dig out the camera from the saddle bags for photos.  Many great photo ops whiz by, just memories on the internal hard drive.  That’s life.  We made a few stops for photos, but some of the best photos are in my mind.

We had portions of sun, and a lot of fog along the coast

The first hiccup came with the K bike.  I had trouble shifting and finally got stuck in 3rd gear.  We pulled over and Lance jumped into action.  Before I knew what was happening, he was under the bike fixing the cable tension so I could shift again.

Lance coming to my rescue and fixing the clutch cable on the fly.

Once repaired we were back on the road, continuing southbound.  From 101 South, we took the Prairie Creek State Park park that runs through some of the redwoods.  It was a very scenic road, with some blue skies and fingers of mist reaching up from the coast.

We stopped at one Big Tree.  It was impressive.

Continuing towards Eureka we followed 101 south until the turnoff for Mad River Brewing in Blue Lake.  Right after pulling off 101, Joe’s 1983 R100CS’s odometer turned over to 100,000 miles.  We had to stop and document this momentous occasion.

A pit stop for refreshments and Corn Hole, and then a short 30 minute drive to our destination.

We rolled into Eureka at about 5 pm.  The house we rented through vrbo.com was exactly as advertised and very nice.

A grocery run and we were in for the night.  We toasted a successful day (meaning all bikes were still running) and 100,000 miles.

After forty years of riding motorcycles I still had the capacity to learn some lessons.  Here is what I learned today:

1.  Preloading.  The manual art of a small amount of pressure on the shifter prior to clutch engagement.
2.   K bike right tilt.   After engine shut down, tilt the bike slightly to the right while you remove your helmet and gloves (30 seconds) to allow the oil in the cylinders to drain back into the crankcase.
3.   Earplugs.  I am now an earplug convert.  It makes for a much quieter ride.
4.  Reaffirmed the appreciation of heated hand grips.