alfalfa

Beauty of riding bikes, YOU get to choose Where was this happening? Just seems out of the norm for most of Calif. I've seen the flag bears go a little Respect my Authoritay sometimes. Fun to school them on the real rules.

really? That doesnt compute. You arent lane jumping when you filter, so i'm guessing a heavy handed flag holder. We've been flagged to the front of stopped traffic in several states. Its usually Colorado where we run into the "sensitive" types and get 511'd. Next time that happens to me there, i'm getting the group to drive the speed limit in all lanes and let them sallies behind me stew Double fines dont apply if you arent violating a regulation. I would have instructed the yellow creature in the errors of their way.

oh, yeah!!

you werent in California? We've never waited in line at any construction stop like that. Most people dont even blink, when we ride to the front. No matter the state. There is zero impact on car drivers as you are gone much quicker when they let traffic start moving again.

Get the strange feeling we may have crossed paths last Saturday. Four of us were in Mariposa, on Hwy 49, just outside Yosemite. Saturday we rode Sonora Pass - west to east. If you were there on Saturday, i'm sure we passed each other. If not, then it was probably one of several hundred other bikes out there Sonora Pass has new asphalt and was great. We came back from Mono Lake (the one in your pic) over Tioga Pass and back thru Yosemite.

That's Mono Lake - never dry, tho. Laws that state that LA City has to maintain flows into it, before filling the aqueduct to Los Angeles. Good to see you hit some curves. Just rode over that last weekend, myself.

Jeez, i'm gone for 5 days and no one searches for me. Just for that, gonna rub another trip/rally into y'all's faces. BMW Club of Northern California does a weekend shindig called the 49er Rally. Probably the first one of the year, due to the kung flu. It has been a favorite of mine for some time now cause of camping, roads, Yosemite Park, roads, Sierra Nevada passes, roads, drinking and drinking! we dont need no steeking gps thingy. Pizza! Created in the newnited states. dont care what the italians claim. Mono Lake, near Tioga Pass. Branded with the FTroop sticker, cause we get lost and things. Some Sonora Pass pics Half Dome in Yosemite, from the back side. Bike games courtesy of the GS Giants. I prefer the tent Some dont

That was 2 hrs into an 8 hr ride on 8 miles of dirt road. We should have walked

amateurs...

What i thought i had read in one of the comparos was that there was the stock seat (two positions) and that they offered the Reach seat and the Tall Boy seat options. Not sure if they also have two seat heights. The Tall Boy gives you a 35-inch seat height, which is ginormous!

taken off to keep from breaking.

there are 3 seat types, low to high. should fit you, pretty easily

After the Pan America ride test, my buddy and i head south, towards San Diego. He had being searching out some new roads, and the ones he found were epic, as much as they were new. It's pretty mind boggling to get up into the twisty's and forget that you are surrounded by about 15 million people! T This was the route, i'm pretty sure. All the green is the hilly section. Some of the highlights included a few miles of dirt between two paved sections, a decent that was over 26%, and a stop at Josie's Hangout, a re-opened biker hangout near Palomar Mountain. Josie's is where Gary learned not to give me the finger when i am sitting behind a Hells Angel wanna be The day was capped off at a diveish motel, next to Del's Hideout where i had the best hamburger i've had in years!. Not to be outdone by Gary, i plotted Sunday's return route and we spent a good three hours in the hills, with maybe three cars: We did have to forgo tacos in Baja, but that will happen soon! The bonus of Sunday's route was about 15 miles or so of good dirt at the highest point, culminating in some knee dragging as we descended back to pirate territory. Lunch stop at Josie's was time perfectly as we arrived and ordered before the parade of about 60 of Milwaukee's finest chrome showed up. There was the requisite burnouts and wheelies, but the greatest was the wideglide with the German Shepherd riding in front!

So, made it down to Lake Elsinore on Saturday. My appt was for Sunday, but a friend had his for Sat afternoon and then wanted to go play in the hills afterwards. Riding the twisty's sounded like fun so i blasted down after breakfast, showing up at the test area just after 1. There was a pretty good setup going. As is almost always the case, there were more reservations made than ridres showed, so i actually got to ride one, instead of waiting until Sunday a.m. This dovetailed nicely into our weekend plans, so off i went after a quick course on how the bike worked. I chose a "special" model (the one with auto-lowering, crash bars, extra riding modes, etc.). The only rules were to leave in RAIN mode, until familiar with the bike and return it unscathed. They had a long, if not boring route around the lake. Probably a good 15 miles, i would say. All town riding, but it did have some long stretches with no stops. Half a block out of the staging area, i hit SPORT mode, and man, what an engine! Very peppy response, firm suspension! Fun to play with. The only thing that bothered me (strong word, as it wasnt that bad( was a little throttle lag when shifting. I think that would go away the more you got familiar with the bike. The bike was comfortable enough on the streets. Mirrors seems a mite small, tho. Ergos were good for a 32-inch inseam. The lowering was interesting and should prove very popular for the shorter legged, or when offroad. After returning, i saw my buddy talking to one of the GS Giant friends, who was overseeing the offroad section. Well, it wasnt paved, but it wasnt really offroad. I guess HD lawyers are just as anal as BMW ones. I understand from our friend that it was quite the battle to just get permission to take the bikes into a level gravel area for some "testing". One bike at a time on the course was the rule. If you dropped the bike, you were done. Speed limit was 25mph, but there was no radar to keep you honest. So, wink, wink. When it was my turn, i took off on the slow slalom, getting used to the feel in loose stuff. Then came easy 180s, followed by a circle test. Did both sets of tests sitting and then standing. Bike was good at maintaining speed by clutching. Power felt good, not as low end as the GS, but not bad. The interesting test was the acceleration and braking, using the offroad ABS for hard braking. Very impressive as the bike slid to a controlled, straight stop. All in all, i think Harley has a winner with this bike. Consider is an SUV and you will see what the market and use should/will be. Meaning, hauling your crap long distances so that you can get dirty. I'm just hoping that they get their converts from their own base, as well as those who have been dual-sporting/adv-ing all along. Case in point - amongst all the bikes that were there, waiting to ride, most were dual sports, with only one HD bike. Not sure if that was someone test riding, or an employee, tho. Now, to sit down and figure out if i need 7 bikes............. (p.s., the HD Branded Revit gear is really good looking and looks long wearing!)

Interesting point. Like our autos, our motorcycles are made for the type of traveling you can do, mostly in the western states. Wide open, huge distances (California is over 700 miles long. I have to travel 2300 miles to get to Tennessee to buy my moonshine). Roads are wide and flat for the most part. The spaces between the roads (in the west) are also wide open. Like the GS, this bike will be an SUV for most riders. For the merry band of #AGALOS, we will hurt ourselves riding them like dirt bikes. Sunday is my turn on the bike, at Lake Elsinore (of On any Sunday fame). I understand we get to play in the dirt, even if it is a level, gravel lot. Unguided road rides means i will get to test the bike in Sport mode, and enjoy all 150 horses! Y'all make it out to Cali and you will see why most Europeans we run into on the highway are on Harley's.

my bike gets tired, too

2nd stab yesterday, Moderna. Side effects were minor for me, but not so minor for friend's wife. She said it felt like a truck hit her. Probably because she doesnt ride a motorcycle.

Then, the right gets all pissy for being cheated on.

what a beautiful country!! and, oh my! those roads!!!!

well, hell! now i need to go to Portugal!!! Glad we have an expat from there in the club to lead us! (our local BMW club)

did you ever think you would see HD branded gear like this:

Yes, it does. i also like the grey model. Truth be told, the orange/white looks really good in person.

as you can tell from my avatar, i'm in total agreement with Mawsley on the whole scooter thing

My buddy, Matt took one for a test ride in Ohio. There are rumors it had the front wheel leave the ground (he is the friend on my KTM in Baja that has a hard time keeping it on two wheels). I need to find the video of him in Mongolia, during the GS Trophy competition. They have a long shot of the group transiting a stage across the desert, when one bike rares back on the rear wheel at about 60 and rides off

so, probably should go in Second Weekend in May thread, but i did mention checking out the new Harley Pan America here. Couldnt wait any longer, as the local dealer got two on Thursday. Friday, took a long lunch to go drool over new bikes (even if they are HDs) The first one in was a black Special Edition (includes ride modes, center stand, and other things i forget for now). That bike had a deposit, but the dealer never got an answer from the deposit holder, so as of yesterday (Saturday) it was available to anyone. Salesman took me and my buddy in the shop and showed us their demo, the orange and white one. In pics, those colors never looked appealing. In person, everything changes. The front doesnt looks a wonky and the orange is a great color! Went back yesterday (saturday) and got a quick pavement only ride on the demo. Very impressive effort, considering this being a entirely new genre for HD (ignoring Buell for the moment). They should be proud of their efforts. Motor is good and i'm looking forward to riding it again in two weeks, in sport mode. Initial thoughts: Cracking up on the HD labeled Anakee Adventure tires. Like that the wheels are same size as on the GS, so tire options are plenty. Engine noise is throaty and pleasing. Lots of buttons on the handgrips, will take a while to learn them all. Fonts on digital display are a little small, but you can use of the buttons to scroll thru the info, with is showing in the center of the display with each push. Quality seems really good. Handle bars remind me of a KTM - narrow than a GS. It feels lighter than a GS, especially when sitting on it and rocking it back and forth. Suspension felt soft, but i wasnt allowed to mess with many settings. I'm sure the Sport setting is nice and firm. The auto-lowering suspension was interesting and a great feature for height challenged. Dealer staff seem out of their element in trying to sell it. (Understandable, and not a complaint). We spent more time educating the salesman about why some features are on it. HD will use Revit gear, which looks really good. This is another point where the salesman was lost. During training on the bikes, gear and accessories, he was shocked about the price of the adventure gear. He is used to selling $200 -$300 jackets, and whatever assless chaps go for. I assured him that us Power Rangers generally dont have a problem spending $1500 to $2000 on good, safe riding gear (pants and jackets). overall, i would say the Pan America is 90% of a GS. That could change after the factory ride in two weeks.