Pacific Coast – Not Your Average Engineer

March 20, 2019December 12, 2021

The 2000 Edition of TGPCHPCMY2KMR – The Mother of all PC800 Motorcycle Rides

This is quite possibly the most Honda Pacific Coast PC800 motorcycles in one place at one time ever outside of the Honda motorcycle factory in Japan. Photo by Neill Thompson who attended the ride on September 8th, 2000.

A true friend of the PC800, Neill Thompson, recently shared these wonderful photos of the year 2000 edition of the The Great Pacific Coast Highway Pacific Coast Motorcycle Ride on the Facebook PC800 group. This was the first official PC800 group ride organized by Leland Sheppard in a long-running series of rides. In total, there were at least 32 PC800 bikes in attendance. This was the high water mark year for the ride with the most PC800 riders drawn together that we know of.

This photo of the same scene comes from Leland Sheppard’s website about the ride. Wow what a day along the Pacific Coast Highway!

Neal’s beautiful black PC800 reflecting the light of a Pacific Coast sunset on his Pacific Coast motorcycle. It was a ride to remember.

To quote Neill, “The Great Pacific Coast Highway Pacific Coast Motorcycle Year Two Thousand Motorcycle Ride (inaugural) Sept 10 to mumble-mumble, 2000. “

The Y2K ride for PC800s was a *Big Deal* in the PC800 community. Even the local Milpitas Honda dealership rode out the red carpet.

A PC in every rear view mirror! Neill says that it was a strange experience seeing a PC800 behind him everywhere he went. These days, we don’t get to experience that very often.

The Year 2000 group of riders in front of a poster that says “Ride the Pacific Coast.” Neill thinks it came from the Milpitas Honda dealership.

Most of the bikes lined up at the Bayshore Mall. Neill says they were trying to line up the bikes by date order but I see a few white bikes at both ends. It does take quite a bit to get us PC800 riders to follow directions 🙂

Some of the Honda Pacific Coast advertisements the riders saw along the way. Neill mentions that this was at the Milpitas Honda dealership’s event for the PC800 ride.

If you have more photos or videos of this ride, please get in touch with me so that I can post them. Thanks again to Neill for sending us down memory lane and Leland for having that archival shot of the group.

November 26, 2017July 30, 2018

Afternoon in Newport

We popped over to Newport for the afternoon and to eat some crabs. As always, the harbor in Newport was gorgeous in the afternoon light.

The NOAA flotilla by the OSU docks.

Just a few sea lions on the jetty!

There’s that iconic bridge.

OFF OFF OFF OFF! Give us your pail, Jerold. Give us your pail.

Ship heading out to sea.

In case anyone forgets, Oregon is above California.

September 4, 2017January 4, 2018

Coasting Along the Pacific Coast

Just coasting along on the Pacific Coast riding my Honda PC800 Pacific Coast in pearl white!

After a wonderful weekend in British Columbia and passing over the ferry to Port Townsend, I followed the Pacific Coast Highway south toward Oregon. Somewhere near Ruby Beach along the Olympic National Park’s bit of Washington’s coastline, I pulled over to grab a couple of photos. Along the ways, I passed two red PC800s with Rifle windshields heading north. I still haven’t figured out who those guys were but there’s a good chance I’ve met them before.

Down in Oregon, I took US 26 back toward Portland in the evening when I ran into a horrible 20 mile long traffic jam that took several hours to slowly navigate. Other than being the end of a holiday weekend, there was no reason for bad traffic at 10pm. Riding through Forest Grove, I had ash falling on me from the big fires ravaging the Columbia Gorge to the east. It was a surreal welcome back to Oregon.