...................................................A Few Days in the Saddle.......................................
It looks like I still have a loose bungy cord to tie up somewhere. I was ready to ride for a few days. The plan was to go to the Willowsprings Raceway vintage motorcycle races on Sat, April 22nd, but first I had some work to do in a suburb of LA (Tujunga).
A friend of mine was getting back to his project of rebuilding an engine for his 72 Ford PU truck. Since we used to overhaul our Ford tow truck engines, back in the day, some 40 years ago, I said that I'd help.
The scene looked something like this....
I had this to start with. Scott's BIL had gotten the engine this far.
A few days later the engine looked like this. Believe me, our tow trucks never got a new set of Crane roller rocker arms.
Scott also had a Gate that he was replacing at his house so we went over there and looked at an example of what he wanted to do at his place. Quite a project. I'll make a gate frame and a basic gate rectangular steel frame, and he will fill in the pretty stuff inside.
That took several days, all spent at Mike Daugherty's house.
I'd made a crockpot full of beef stew on Thursday. The basics like Momma used to make. Damn, that was good, so I plastic storage bagged up a hospital sized portion and froze it so I could take it out to Willowsprings with me that evening
After finishing what I could on the engine Friday, I packed up the bike and lit out over the Angeles Crest Highway to the Raceway. What with quitting time traffic the 80 miles was a 2 hr ride. It'd been hot in LA but the 5000 feet of altitude cooled it off, and made a nice ride thru the Mountains. That was much nicer than a freeway drone of about the same length.
I pulled into the raceway. The kid at the gate didn't know what to do with me, as I wanted to camp for the night, and watch the races on Saturday. He made a phone call, and it was decided that for 25 bucks I could do all that....problem solved.
I quickly found an open place on the tarmac, and asked my neighbors if I was in their way. No problem was the answer. Especially Steve of this camp.
Steve made me feel at home. He invited me in and offered me a beer. You can't beat that for a neighbor. Steve was funny. He'd prepared that little race bike for this race. It hadn't been run for 25 years. He made one practice lap earlier in the day, and the bike almost didn't get back to home base as the motor was dying on him. He had a motor man coming in tomorrow to help him on Sat. ....even though, he wouldn't be able to run on the track as he'd missed making registration.
We talked till nearly dark, then I set up camp and cooked myself a noodle and Vienna Sausage dinner. My stew was still frozen so that would have to wait
I'd blown the air mattress up with the bike's exhaust, and was happy to find it still full of air in the morning. I'd found a half dozen leaks in the mattress a couple months ago (it had been going soft on me). I dabbed some Black plumbers ABS glue on those leaks and all the other similar seam endings. apparently, that worked....for now at least.
I was up early.
I made Steve and me a cup of coffee, and Steve shared his donuts. Then I was off to look at the different motorcycles.
A Bultaco electric bike....................................................A Britton, only 11 were made
The sun was getting higher and I needed some shade, and I decided to go watch the guys practicing on the track away from the loud speakers that were blaring instructions to the competitors. I went to the other side of the track.
Racing wouldn't start until 12:30 pm. I used the time to have lunch as my Stew was thawed.
As I chowed down, I got a text message that Harry and Ron E. had arrived, and it noted their location. Racing was about to begin so the 3 of us got together in order to do commentary. We spent 3 hrs together visiting, and being entertained by the racers.
I left the track at about 4pm, and backtracted over the Mountains the way that I'd come. Very little traffic this time, so I let the big boy loose. I was getting into the flow and really enjoyed the ride this time. I rode back to Mike's house, and kicked back for the night. I had PB&J for dinner. That only left the 100 miles back to Oceanside which I knocked out before noon on Monday.
It looks like I still have a loose bungy cord to tie up somewhere. I was ready to ride for a few days. The plan was to go to the Willowsprings Raceway vintage motorcycle races on Sat, April 22nd, but first I had some work to do in a suburb of LA (Tujunga).
A friend of mine was getting back to his project of rebuilding an engine for his 72 Ford PU truck. Since we used to overhaul our Ford tow truck engines, back in the day, some 40 years ago, I said that I'd help.
The scene looked something like this....
I had this to start with. Scott's BIL had gotten the engine this far.
A few days later the engine looked like this. Believe me, our tow trucks never got a new set of Crane roller rocker arms.
Scott also had a Gate that he was replacing at his house so we went over there and looked at an example of what he wanted to do at his place. Quite a project. I'll make a gate frame and a basic gate rectangular steel frame, and he will fill in the pretty stuff inside.
I'd made a crockpot full of beef stew on Thursday. The basics like Momma used to make. Damn, that was good, so I plastic storage bagged up a hospital sized portion and froze it so I could take it out to Willowsprings with me that evening
After finishing what I could on the engine Friday, I packed up the bike and lit out over the Angeles Crest Highway to the Raceway. What with quitting time traffic the 80 miles was a 2 hr ride. It'd been hot in LA but the 5000 feet of altitude cooled it off, and made a nice ride thru the Mountains. That was much nicer than a freeway drone of about the same length.
I pulled into the raceway. The kid at the gate didn't know what to do with me, as I wanted to camp for the night, and watch the races on Saturday. He made a phone call, and it was decided that for 25 bucks I could do all that....problem solved.
I quickly found an open place on the tarmac, and asked my neighbors if I was in their way. No problem was the answer. Especially Steve of this camp.
We talked till nearly dark, then I set up camp and cooked myself a noodle and Vienna Sausage dinner. My stew was still frozen so that would have to wait
I was up early.
I made Steve and me a cup of coffee, and Steve shared his donuts. Then I was off to look at the different motorcycles.
A Bultaco electric bike....................................................A Britton, only 11 were made
The sun was getting higher and I needed some shade, and I decided to go watch the guys practicing on the track away from the loud speakers that were blaring instructions to the competitors. I went to the other side of the track.
Racing wouldn't start until 12:30 pm. I used the time to have lunch as my Stew was thawed.
As I chowed down, I got a text message that Harry and Ron E. had arrived, and it noted their location. Racing was about to begin so the 3 of us got together in order to do commentary. We spent 3 hrs together visiting, and being entertained by the racers.
I left the track at about 4pm, and backtracted over the Mountains the way that I'd come. Very little traffic this time, so I let the big boy loose. I was getting into the flow and really enjoyed the ride this time. I rode back to Mike's house, and kicked back for the night. I had PB&J for dinner. That only left the 100 miles back to Oceanside which I knocked out before noon on Monday.
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