Back roads of the Coast Range

Today I blew off work for a few hours to go have fun on my motorcycle in the central Oregon coast range mountains.  Out of the 150 miles I drove, I only hit really sketchy gravel and mud for about a mile total.  FYI to all the sport bikes: don’t take Highway 411.  Well, you can… but only if you want to have fun going up and over a tight windy pass in mud and gravel.

I filled up twice during the ride.  The first fuel up I took 3.02 gallons and had driven 134.3 miles.  At this fill-up I topped it off as high as I could for the coming ride.  Even so, I still averaged 44.7 mpg.

The second fill-up happed about 85 miles later.  I didn’t push the trip meter until about 10 miles after the first fill-up so I’m not 100% positive on the distance but it was something like 85 miles.  Another top-off brought me to 1.66 gallons.  That makes for 51.2 mpg.  That’s not bad considering I was going slow along some sketchy back country roads.

Every time I go out and ride my PC800, named The Tardis, it’s like falling in love with the bike all over again.  The Tardis might have a few nagging issues (need new clutch plates soon, back tire will need to be replaced sooner rather than later due to old rubber rot, underpowered stator, etc) but it sure is fun to ride.

In other news, I was having some trouble keeping my heated gear working throughout the ride.  One of the outlets kept cutting out.  I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the Heat Troller, the outlet, or the plug.  Until I get some right-angle plugs for my heated gear I won’t be able to tell for sure.

My Route Map

Riding in the Rain for the First Time

On Thanksgiving day I had to brave the rain to get back to Corvallis. I finally got around to getting the photos off of my camera of my outfit. Since these photos were taken I got a proper set of waterproof riding gear. At the time though I was wearing jeans, a pair of cheap rain pants, a pair of plastic rain bibs, a fleece jacket, a leather jacket, a cheap raincoat, and a plastic jacket. For shoes I had a pair of rubber farm boots. While I was quite warm and very visible, I also looked a little funny going down the road.

IMG_9153

The bright reflective vest is courtesy of a company I used to work for. The yellow plastic rain gear is from the farm as are the rubber boots. I used to harvest Christmas trees in that very pair of plastics.

IMG_9148

I was warm and happy but a little soggy.

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.

Route Map