Valdez, AK – Everything for a Reason
“We’re going to get wet.” That’s pretty much Glenn’s end statement on the matter as we look down the Richardson Highway from Gakona and into a black wall of cloud veiling the mountains in the distance and Valdez, AK beyond.
Denali Highway – One Yurt, Hold the Testicles
Can you really go wrong with a morning that starts in a yurt? Especially if the evening before was 100% boiled goat testicle free and featured a nice red wine rather than fermented yak milk? The yurt at Carlos Creek Campground in Denali is a long ways from roughing it in Mongolia and is more Ikea does yurt…
A Life in 66.6 Mile Increments Part 5 – A Matter of Necessity
Will the marine layer ever relent? Into Crescent City the “jumps” have been lengthened to the 1098S’ maximum safe range, 120 miles, out of necessity. In response, my body is betraying me. That’s making it hard to keep a positive attitude. A nerve in my hip has been pinched. In the cloying cold mist [...]
A Life in 66.6 Mile Increments Part 4 – 80 Miles
I’ve made navigational errors before, tons of them, but this one feels profound. The fog is so dense I can hardly make out the cat’s eye reflectors on the road in the 1098S’s projectors and we’re reduced to near walking pace, down a road with no discernable name cloaked in 10 feet of visibility. It [...]
A Life in 66.6 Mile Increments Part 3 – Here There be Turkeys
L.A. … The 1098S slices northwards on the 405 out of Irvine between columns of traffic trudging forwards like workers in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Even with the Ventura luggage, I’m the widest thing on the bike – my shoulders inches from SUV mirrors as we split lanes. The 1098S is due in Portland 3-days from [...]
A Life in 66.6 Mile Increments Part 2 – The 1098GT
“They took my Allen keys from my at security,” on the phone photographer Kevin Miklossy sounds disgusted, “you need a 6mm and a 3mm. Does the Ducati toolkit have them?” I laugh, “You’re joking right.” The 1098S toolkit philosophy is one of insert gold card and swipe. Kevin is flying to meet me with another [...]
A Life in 66.6 Mile Increments Part I – The World’s Fastest Sport-Tourer
Sitting long, low and sepia-lit in the evening sun at Alice’s on Skyline Road the 1098S projects sensuality and anticipation of acceleration so pure it borders on erotic; needing only to shed vestigial street fitments to reveal its true track-borne nature. A fellow rider walks up, “That’s gorgeous, where are you riding to?” Hefting a [...]
Return to the Lost Coast
It is September 2003, and the chugging of my new VTEC VFR’s ABS, normally so subtle and elegant as to be unnoticed in all but the direst of conditions, gives me notice that we have taken a wrong turn. I stand up on the pegs, advice given to me by a former BMW stunt rider [...]
OWD Roadshow: Ridge Crest to Las Vegas
130 mph is indicated on the speedo as the bikes shoot arrow-straight across Death Valley’s floor. The road may be linear in direction but the warning signs of dips are not to be disregarded. Over one rise the bars begin to wobble a bit indicating an oncoming tankslapper. The VFR, it seems, was never set [...]
OWD Roadshow: Buttonwillow to Ridge Crest
It’s 0 Celsius, we’re navigating though the occasional bout of slush and the bikes are now thoroughly coated with sand, gravel, salt and road spray. I haven’t had time to plug in the heated vest, I’ve been too busy working the bike and that’s warmed me up naturally. No, I’m not having flashbacks to a [...]
OWD Roadshow: San Francisco to Button Willow
It’s 7:20AM and we’re burning down the freeway with Evan Leung, OWD contributor and friend, in the lead. Our destination for the day is Buttonwillow, CA, but for the moment we’re more concerned with Mission Motorcycles in Daly City, just outside San Francisco. The shop is the starting point for the Top of the Hill [...]
OWD Roadshow: The City by R1200GS
Life moves pretty fast in “the City”, or so I’ve concluded. Charlie Rauseo is on the phone, aside from that little Paris-Dakar thing he attempted recently he’s been a contributor to OutDrive.ca on a few occasions. The words “meet for coffee” vaguely sink through my hangover and the dodgy cell reception. So do “Just back [...]
OWD Roadshow: Streets of San Francisco
It’s an all-out sprint… actually it’s more than that. It’s an all-out chase, through traffic with lane splitting, in the dark, on fresh tires, at periodically baffling speeds, and the only thing it needs to be cinematic is a scene heading down a one-way street in the wrong direction and sirens. This is our introduction [...]
OWD Roadshow: Vancouver to Ukiah and then Some
It’s dark out on the fourth day of the trip and we’re still riding. It’s all part of a hastened “push” to reach Ukiah, California, but still night riding has its own charms. Everything changes at night; sight diminished you end up having to trust your bike more. In fencing we called it the [...]
