Motorcycle Rain Dance

Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure to ride my motorcycle in the rain for the very first time. After putting on two layers of undergarments to keep me warm, my riding gear, a layer of goretex rain gear, and a layer of plastic rain gear I mounted my bike in a downpour. It was touch and go heading down my parents steep and twisty driveway. On the highway I ran into a big traffic jam going into Dundee. I stalled my bike about halfway through it but it fired right back up again. The clutch was being a bit touchy. Perhaps that’s the benefit of premium gasoline?

I discovered that I can keep my visor from fogging if I leave it open one click to allow air (and rain) to flow along the inside. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see on the way down. Even with my visor clear, it was still difficult with all the fog and water flying everywhere. When I got to Corvallis I was very happy to be off the bike but also a little sad. It was fun riding in the rain!

Route Map

A Pacific Coast on the Pacific Coast for the first time

On Wednesday I rode my motorcycle up to Newberg to check on the llamas and stay the night at my parents place. Rather than go up the normal route along 99W I decided to take the scenic coast highway. It just so happens that the motorcycle is named after the highway. Yes, I was riding a Pacific Coast on the Pacific Coast.

I went 146 miles total. I bought gas in Lincoln City. I had gone 138.4 miles on the last tank. The bike took 2.611 gallons and the gas gage was showing empty. The bike holds a total of about 4 gallons so I still had more than a gallon in reserve. It’s nice to have that sort of safety margin. Mileage on the last tank was 53mpg. However this was on a tank of premium. This time I decided to switch to regular to see how the bike runs. The manual says it should be only fed regular. I’ll report back in a few weeks about how the regular works and what mileage I get.

Coming back into the valley after the balmy sunny 60 degree coast I nearly froze to death in the low-hanging wet, dark fog. It was very nice to get to my parents place and thaw out.

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Newberg motorcycle run

This afternoon I went up to Newberg and back on my new bike. The windscreen is GREAT. I got just a touch cold coming back but nowhere near as frigid as I used to get on the old Shadow that had no screen. When I got off the bike at my parent’s house I wasn’t sore at all. The only thing that could be improved is the diameter of the grip. My right hand was a bit sore from holding the throttle the whole way.

In total I did about 125 miles. I also bought gas at the Chevron in Newberg. Currently I’m feeding it premium but I might be bumping it down to Extra or even Regular soon. No need for fancy gas if there isn’t a reason to burn it.

Route map