Street Riding with YCRS
I feel like I’m a bit of a different breed when it comes to riding. Sure, all of us snowflakes want to feel different or unique or special in some way…but in my case, I think I truly am different. It’s a very rare thing for me to come across a motorcyclist like myself. I don’t just like to ride motorbikes. I don’t fire up my bike on occassion to make a run down to Jamba Juice or Starbucks to go shoot the shit with my friends. I don’t commute on my motorcycle to work to try and cut my commute times. I don’t load up everything on my bike on the occassional weekend to go smash out 15 states in 24 hours.
I LIVE to ride. I ride to live. It’s literally my life. And by “literally”, I don’t mean figuratively.
It sounds so god damned cliche, I know. And I’m sorry for sounding so freggin cliche! I’m not sure how else to put it. During lunch, David M—a multiple YCRS graduate—talked about all the cool things he’s done in life and how there have been diminishing returns on it all….everything except for motorcycles. He said that he feels as though over his 6 or so years of riding, the experience has gotten even better. He enjoys it more now than he ever has. I completely understood his words. I’ve been riding on the pavement for close to 20 years now, and I relate down to my very soul. My only reply to his words were that “if I’m not riding, I’m not happy.” Anything else would have just been more sappy drivvel. There have been a few times in the last two decades where I didn’t own a motorcycle. Short periods of time….but…dark times. Very dark times.
But back to my point…hehe…
The other day, I did a group ride. It’s very seldom that I ever ride in groups, let alone with even one other rider. I can’t even count how many times in the past I’ve done group rides and watched people cartwheel into oblivion in my rear view mirrors or right in front of me. People are so ego driven in our sport that it’s comically sad. Or it’s sadly comical…I guess it all depends on the amount of injuries said rider sustained in said crash. I can look back and laugh at 90% of them. Some, I don’t even talk about except to a few of my close, trusted people. I’m sure most of us can share in those sentiments…afterall, motorcycles are dangerous.
Our spot for the night on Angeles Crest Highway
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Chasing the California Super Bloom
Brianna and I stayed just up above Lake Castaic last night with the thoughts of getting up early to go for a ride up towards Neenach, CA to see if we could catch some super bloom action. Our original plan was to have done it last week, but after a sudden emergency—and costly—trip to the dentist on Tuesday, everything got pushed way back.
I woke up excited at 8:15am. I knew we weren’t going to the epitome of the super bloom, but I knew that we’d be able to catch some pretty sweet poppies, for sure. We were out the door by 10am. by 10:00:38am, we were already doing wheelies and hitting some sweet twisties. We took Hughes Rd up towards the Lake Elizabeth split and went north towards hwy 138. We rode west on 138 for a few miles before turning north again, and beginning our adventure.
We were so close, we could almost taste them.
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#RVLife – Almost Rear Ended Someone
It was close. Damn close. If it weren’t for Brianna saying “BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE!” I might not have braked and we very well may have plowed the car and truck in front of us.
I was cruising down the freeway in the slow lane. Traffic was moderate, but moving along at a reasonable pace. Suddenly, I see a “gator” on the road and it’s unavoidable. I can’t swerve in time to not run over this large piece of tire, so I hit it and yell “UNAVOIDABLE!” to Brianna.
It was a pretty hard slap under the RV, followed by a loud thump when it hit the trailer we were towing. I watched in my driver’s side view mirror as it spit out sideways into the lane to my left about 4 ft off the ground. I was fully expecting the car back there to hit it when it clicks that Brianna is yelling “BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE!”
I avert my eyes back forward and I’m doing about 60mph and the two vehicles in front of me are only doing about 10mph.
OH FUX.
Mt Lemmon, Tucson, AZ
I’d heard about Mt Lemmon and I’ve been wanting to go up there for about a year or so. Today was the day.
We were running a day ahead of schedule to get to Inde Motorsports Ranch, so we stopped at a friend’s house in Tucson to stage for a ride out to Mt Lemmon.
A quick summary: don’t go up there on the weekend if you wanna rip and have some fun. I’m pretty sure we saw every single license plate from all 50 states about 6 times each. However, the views are breathtaking. I wasn’t mad about the 35 mph speed limits or all the quacks in cages doing 27 mph because soaking it all in is well worth it.
If there was less traffic and less law enforcement, it’d be a decent run. It’s only about 25 miles of fun and there’s no outlet. It’s a there-and-back kinda ride. I don’t know of any other fun twisties in the Tucson area though.
All about that ‘stich life.
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I Just Got Robbed by Truckers
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EDIT TO ADD on Feb 26th, 2019:
These are the guys. I just found a youtube video with the same “roper” and grey 2007 Honda Odyssey Ohio plate # GTW 1060
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPA_vdYAGt0
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I’m gonna start this off by saying I feel like a total fucking idiot. I’ve never been played so hard in my life. I’m dumb, I’m stupid, I’m a moron, I’m a fool.
I woke up to excited knocking on the door of the RV in the WB Sacaton rest area off the 10 near Phoenix at about 8:35am. I open the door and there’s a guy all super excited saying “Didn’t you hear?! That guy just won $180,000 on slots and he’s just giving money away!”
I reviewed the dash cam…this was the guy that got everything going. The time code is off by 1 hour. It was actually 8:38am
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Yamaha Niken Review
I got to ride the Yamaha Niken today at the track with the Yamaha Champion Riding School. Niken means “two swords” in some language, I’m told, in case you were wondering.
But before I get into any of that, I want to preface this little review with a little known fact about me: I’m an oldschool dick.Especially when it comes to motorcycles, I’m very resistant to change. I’ve never owned a motorcycle that had a quick shifter. I don’t like slipper clutches or Rekluse clutches. I don’t want auto-blip. I don’t use traction control…I’ve ridden damn near every modern day motorcycle known to man, both electric and petrol based. All I need is for someone to gimme a motor and two wheels without all the frills and I’m happy. Now get off my lawn!
Back to the Niken review…the TL;DR version: WOW. FUCKING WOW.
The more in depth review: WOW. FUCKING WOW.
And to answer the number one question I’ve seen to date about the Niken: “Why yes, sir, it does do wheelies.” Photo: Anthony Sansotta
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Pima, Titan, and San Xavier
If I had to summarize the last 48 hours, it would look something like this:
A Week Off Grid
Well, it’s wintertime. Work is really slow. Brianna and I spent 3 weeks at Kevin’s house in Elk Grove for the holidays and before his HOA could get too mad that we’d been parked for 3 weeks, we decided to push off for a few days into the wilderness until we were scheduled to go down to Arizona.
Those plans changed as well…as with my line of work, you never quite know exactly what to expect until it’s happening because at any moment, things can change. Arizona has been pushed back a couple weeks…so we filled our time in one of my favorite places of all time: Mosquito Ridge Road. :)
The view from up high on the Rubicon River
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Photo Group Ride Dec 16 Lake Berryessa
RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER….
The last photo group ride up on Hwy 36 was a total success. We had a lot of fun and everyone (but me, damnit) ended up with super rad photos from the day. Don’t believe me? Check out the full gallery here: https://www.seppes.com/Motorcycles/OtherMoto/102718-Ride/
So, I’m hosting another one! $40 if you wanna be part of the action! :D If it rains, we’ll reschedule the ride. :)
When: Sunday, December 16, 2018, 12 noon, ready to go.
Where: Meeting at the Starbucks in Cordelia Starbucks: 4490 Central Way #100, Fairfield, CA 94534 to ride Highway 128, 121, and Knoxville Berryessa Rd, stopping at 5-6 various locations for professional action photos. There will be something for EVERYBODY.
Cost: $40
Sign up: Click here to sign up with paypal
What you get: at the day’s end, after an amazing day of riding some of the best twisties in California, I’ll email you your link to download all your high res photos from the ride!
Who: ALL motos welcome! If you don’t have a huge love for ALLLLL two wheels, then you’re missing out. Sportbikes, ADV, cruisers, and even scooters! Let’s do it! <3
Here’s the basic route where most of the photos will take place (click to enlarge):
Here’s a few images from the previous photo group ride action:
End of November Update
Well, in case you’ve been wondering what we’ve been up to… LOTS! We just recently wrapped up the final Rickdiculous Racing school of 2018…Also, we’ve shot a few expos! Totally out of our normal routine, I know, but still fun…in fact, I’ve learned more about side by sides and RV’s and travel trailers and such than I ever knew possible!
We’ve been shooting these expos and such for New Atlas, an online publication based out of Melbourne, Australia. My friend Loz is a writer there and he helped dial me in with the gig. I’m rather liking it.
A couple weeks ago, we shot the Mullin Auto Museum down in Oxnard, CA. Holy wow. Art Decco, but for cars. Check out the gallery here:
