Track Day @ Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA
Had a great day at the track today! Pictures show the fun! Pitted with 2 fine riders, Stu and Matt. The weather was perfect and after I got my tire pressures sorted out, I got very consistent with my lap times. Stu was riding a BMW with 60K miles on it and it was fast!. Matt had a GSXR track bike and he was was always out of sight. There was a TV film crew at the track filming Dean McDermott for some reality show called Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I guess I will have to tune in. He was riding in my group.
And my beautiful wife came to support me! She’s great help in the pits!
1972 Yamaha R5C
Here are 2 photos I scanned in of my R5C taken around September 1972. I bought this motorcycle in Okinawa and brought it back on the USS Blueridge LCC19. We had just completed a 9 month Western Pacific (WESPAC) deployment, most of which was spent off the coast of Vietnam. After unloading it off the ship in San Diego, I put low bars and a narrow fiberglass front fender on it and then rode it 1475 miles to Houston, Texas.
Humble, Tx December 1967 Honda S90
Scanned in this old poloroid of me taken in December of 1967, which means I was 13 years old. I was very fortunate to live in a quiet suburb near some oil fields by the San Jacinto River. I was also very fortunate to have many friends that also had motorcycles and we often rode each others bikes. The oil fields provided areas of hard packed sand that was excellent for making our own tracks and courses. The surrounding wooded areas had plenty of challenging trails as well. Growing up in the 60’s was good!
My Sons (Patrick & Franklin) on an Italjet 50
This picture was taken in Texas around 1980. The Italjet was an automatic and pretty pipey. Both my sons still ride, but not as avid as I, as they are raising families of their own now. My older son, Pat, was a victim of a left hand turn accident 3 years ago and nearly died, but has recovered and just recently rode a motorcycle for the 1st time since the accident and he says it felt as good as ever.
Nice Friday Ride on my XS2
Went for a nice ride in the gusty wind and twisty roads east of San Diego. Made it to the top of a little mountain (4805 feet above sea level) where a look out tower is, and met a nice man who was being the look out for fires and stuff. Was really nice to see my old Yamaha could even do some light trail riding and go up steep twisty one way roads.
Getting ready for a Track Day at Fontana
I plan on riding my VTR1000 the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Autoclub Speedway in Fontana, CA with the Fastrackriders.com organization. I need to be ready in advance, so today, I changed my oil and filter, put on new tires (Michelin Pilot Power 2CT) and installed new brake pads (EBC HH). Later, I will take off the mirrors, disconnect the lights, and tape over the glass and plastic of the headlight and tail light.
New Pictures from the Dirt Bike School
Got these in the mail today from Ramey Stroud, one of the fine instructors we had that day.
Plaster City-Ocotillo Desert Riding
Comments for each picture by John, who also took the pictures.
Base camp, Jeff’s camp on the left Paula on the right Phil’s truck center.
Jeff and Paula: What do you mean hot! This is nothing! I like it hot! The hotter the better! I could think of a million good captions for this shot. Thanks to Jeff we had a great ride.
Phil with coolest dune behind him, Phil went to the top of the hill and back. I think he was saying, “Hey come on I want to do it again!” “Why is everybody stopping?” Jeff checking out his cool boots.
You know that look a dog has when he brings back a stick. His tail going so fast it shakes his body like an earth quake. Give me more! (The Happy look) Phil you looked like you were having fun.
John and his TW200 meet Ocotillo for the first time.
Here is the trip as seen from my Garmin V GPS that logged the day. Over 60 miles for a single ride.
