EZ Rider Bike Show Ride Report

What a great day for a ride. It started off with frost on the rooftops, but warmed up nicely as the day progressed. We began meeting at the Devil Mtn. shop at around 7:30 this morning. As always, Daisy & Bruce were there with goodies. And today we were treated to some home made breakfast burritos to warm us up for our ride. Thanks guys, you're the best!

By the time we pulled out of the parking lot there were 37 bikes in two groups. We merged onto Hwy 4 and veered north on 160 over the Antioch bridge. We followed 160 up through Freeport and all the way to Sacramento, where it turns into Freeport Blvd. We made our scheduled mid-point stop at the Starbucks on the corner of Freeport Blvd and Pocket Rd, and after some coffee & such we continued on our way. As we rode north on Freeport Blvd our group got broken up several times by the signal lights. Seems the front half of our group couldn't catch a red light while the back half couldn't catch one green. It all worked out though and the group got back together as we made our left turn onto 'L' street. From there it was just a couple of blocks down to the convention center and a couple of trips around the block to find parking. From here the group split up, most going in to see the show and some choosing to pass it up for more riding.

The small group I was with stopped for breakfast at the pancake house, then took a leisurely ride via I5 to Twin Cities and Hwy 160 back to Antioch. We saw lots of other motorcycles on the road today. Some heading to/from the bike show and others just out enjoying the unseasonable January weather. I hope everyone got a chance to get out and ride this weekend, even if you couldn't join us today.

1st Annual 'Kick Off' Ride Report

What a great day for a ride. The temp was in the high 40s to low 50s under mostly overcast skies, though we did see some sunshine and even some fog along our route.

We had 30 bikes show up for this first ever New Year Kick Off ride. We split up into two smaller groups to make it easier to navigate through town and then we headed south on 680. The traffic was relatively light on 680 and we pretty much had our choice of lanes as we headed for Danville and the Sycamore Valley Rd exit. We turned east on Sycamore Valley and followed that to Highland Rd where we turned east. We turned onto Collier Canyon Rd and followed that south for a couple of miles before turning left onto Carneal Rd and then right again onto Manning Rd as we maneuvered our way along the base of the hills. Somewhere along here we found some sunlight, but it didn't last long. We zig-zaged a couple of more times before we emerged on Vasco Rd in Livermore. We turned north on Vasco Rd and headed up and over the hill past the windmills. It wasn't long before we found ourselves enveloped in fog, but the visibility wasn't too bad. We rode through the fog for a few miles and then descended the hill and broke out on the Byron side to see overcast skies again. The overcast stayed with us for the remainder of our ride and it was accompanied by a drop in temperature to around 40 degrees. We turned left onto Camino Diablo Rd, north onto Deer Valley Rd and then onto Lone Tree Way and into the parking lot at Sylvia's Country Kitchen.

As we pulled into the parking lot we noted that the parking lot was nearly full and the place was packed. We scattered to find parking and then made our way inside. We had called ahead but they still weren't ready for us. They did have a large party finishing up so we would have to wait for a few minutes. Nearly half the group decided not to wait and took off to find nourishment elsewhere. A few of the riders decided to eat at the counter and a couple of minutes later the remainder of the group was seated. We ate, we chatted, and then it was time to head for home.



This was another great day spent riding, eating, and chatting with friends. And on a first time event to boot. How could we possibly go wrong ...

December GAR Report

Even though the day started out on the cold side, it was a great day for a ride. But because of the current cold snap we didn't take our original route through the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. We figured that black ice, snow, dirt & debris on the road would present an insurmountable challenge. So we went with our alternate route staying to more heavily traveled roads at lower elevations.

We began assembling at McGuire's in Walnut Creek and by the time we staged in the parking lot below the BART tracks we had 12 bikes. We made our way over to 680 and merged onto the southbound lanes. We followed 680 to Sycamore Valley Rd, turning east, and rode over to Crow Canyon Rd. It was a right turn onto Crow Canyon followed by a left onto Dougherty. Then we turned right onto Bollinger Canyon Rd and followed that all the way to the end where we made our scheduled stop at Las Trampas Regional Park.

After we took a few minutes to use the facilities and introduce ourselves we headed back down Bollinger Canyon Rd to Deerwood and over to San Ramon Valley Blvd. We turned north and rode through Danville. Our trek through Danville proved to be a bit of a challenge though. Due to the quick cycling of the signal lights our group got broken up. Then as the last part of the group worked its way through the traffic we had a near miss. Some large white sedan lurched out from a side street nearly colliding with the bike leading the trailing group. Fortunately the sound of squealing tires on pavement caused the sedan to stop and collision was averted. With some masterful riding the bike was able to recover from the skid and continue on safely. I'm guessing there were some pucker marks in the seat cushion though ;?)We finally connected with the rest of the group and made a left onto Hillgrade Ave, then ultimately over to Tice Valley Blvd. We followed Tice Valley over to Olympic Blvd and then on to Reliez Station Rd. This took us to St Mary's where we turned left, riding through Lafayette to Moraga. We turned right onto Rheem Blvd, riding up and over the hill into Orinda. From there it was a right turn onto Moraga Way and into the parking lot at the Europa Hofbrau. The parking lot at the Hofbrau was surprisingly crowded so we had to scatter to find suitable parking.



We made our way inside, ordered our lunches and enjoyed some great company. All too soon our lunch was over and we split up, heading for home.

If you opted to stay home in front of the fireplace instead of riding, you missed out. It was a great way to spend a day with friends as we head for the holidays.

Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year. Ride safe and we'll see you on a ride next year ...

November GAR Report - Farmington

The weather today was surprisingly mild for November with temperatures in the low to mid 60s and nothing but sunshine for our ride to Farmington.

We started gathering at the Devil Mountain shop at around 9:00 and were treated to coffee and breakfast goodies thanks to the crew at Devil Mtn. After our pre-ride brief we had 19 bikes lined up at the back driveway ready to ride. We got on Hwy 4 at Railroad and made our way east to the Hwy 4 bypass. The Hwy 4 bypass is now complete and we followed that onto Vasco Rd, down to Camino Diablo where we made a let turn towards Byron. We rode over to the Byron Hwy and turned south staying on Byron Hwy for about 9 miles before turning onto Bethany Rd. We zig-zagged our way over to Howard Rd which we followed all the way into French Camp for our scheduled stop at the 76 station.



After a short break we headed down French Camp Rd, turned left onto Jack Tone Rd, followed by a right turn onto Farmington Rd (Hwy 4) and over to Lagorio's Grill & Bar in Farmington.



We parked the bikes and headed for the grill in search of nourishment. The food here is good and not too expensive, but don't order the oysters! They're billed as "Eat at your own risk". Really ... on the back of their menu is a disclaimer to this effect and that if you choose to have the oysters you do so at your own risk. That being said, the rest of their food is good.

After eating we made our way back to the bikes and headed for home. We followed Hwy 4 back across the delta and home. Another great day spent riding, eating, and chatting with friends. I think I'll do it again tomorrow. Hope to see YOU there.

One last note. We would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to Larry Manzano's family. He will be missed.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory Ride Report

Well, we did it again. We found some of the nicest people to go riding with. And on such a nice day too!

We started out at McGuire's, where we counted 33 bikes in the parking lot. It turned out that some of those bikes were not there for our ride, so we actually wound up with around 28 bikes. After our pre-ride briefing we staged in two groups on Pine St and then made our way through town, heading over to Civic, up to Oak Park, then zig zagged our way through Pleasant Hill emerging on Reliez Valley Rd. We followed Reliez, which turned into Alhambra Valley Rd, cut over to San Pablo Dam Rd at Castro Ranch Rd, and followed San Pablo down to Hwy 24. We jumped on 24 heading west and took the Fish Ranch Rd exit heading north. Then onto Grizzly Peak Blvd, Shasta Rd, Wildcat Canyon Rd, Central Park Dr and Euclid Ave down to Cedar St in Berkley. Somewhere around Shasta Rd we made an impromptu stop, but not till we'd taken a tour through a parking lot where we amazed a couple of unsuspecting tourists and their young child as we all turned around and headed back out. We eventually found an appropriate place to pull over for a couple of minutes to kill some time. Turns out we were making good time and would arrive in Berkley too early for the tour. After folks used the facilities, and we'd killed enough time, we continued on our way, descending the hill into Berkley and onto Cedar. We turned onto 6th and followed that for about a mile before turning onto Heinz Ave and into the parking lot at the chocolate factory.

Several of the riders stayed for the tour, some opted to eat at the cafe there, while others opted to find nourishment elsewhere.

It was a beautiful day with clear skies, temperatures in the mid seventies, and some fantastic people. The scenery looking out over the San Francisco Bay as we rode along the ridge line was spectacular. It was so clear that we could see a blimp over the Golden Gate Bridge. Another great day spent with friends. I hope to do it again real soon.

Schultz Museum Ride Report

Well, if you listened to the weather man and stayed home today you missed out on a great ride. There were 5 bikes that showed up to brave the storm, rain gear ready, and we didn't even get wet! The closest we came was a few sprinkles as we rode through the Sonoma area.

We departed McGuire's and headed north on 680, over the Benicia bridge, across 780 and onto I-80. We took the Hwy 37 exit off of 80 and then turned north onto Hwy 29 through Vallejo and American Canyon {Hi Al!} From there we turned west onto Hwy 12 then onto Napa Rd to cut the corner over to Broadway and up into Sonoma. So far the roads were relatively dry with a few areas of wet pavement and small puddles. Just enough to get the bike dirty so your friends would know that you went riding. We tuned left on Napa followed by a right onto the Sonoma Hwy up into Santa Rosa. When we got to Santa Rosa we turned off of the Sonoma Hwy onto Calistoga Rd followed by a left onto Montecito and a right onto Fountain Grove, which we followed all the way to Hwy 101. From there it was a short ride down 101 south to the Steele Ln exit and over to the museum. The traffic was light and the weather good for the entire trip with temps in the low to mid 60s under partly sunny skies.



It was warm enough in Santa Rosa that we peeled off some layers before heading inside the museum. We took our time going through the museum, reading the numerous comic strips on display and taking in some of the various displays. One of the items on display was a German WWII helmet the Schultz had brought back from the European Campaign. Yet another reminder of what others have done so that we all may enjoy our freedom.

Now it was time to eat. We made our way over to the cafe and ordered. The cafe was your typical arcade type cafe with hot dogs, nachos, fries, etc. on the menu. After what seemed like hours, we got our food. It was OK, but nothing worth going out of your way for.

After we ate we walked through the gift shop and checked out the wall, which was a huge mural with all the peanuts characters, and collected our free gift. Yes, we got a free gift, a small pin with a peanuts character on it. It turned out to be very appropriate too as it has Snoopy riding on a bike (ok, it's a bicycle, but we can pretend it's a motorcycle). We call them our ride pins ;?)

Then it was time to head for home. We rode down 101 to the Lakeville Hwy, to 37, 780, 680 and home. The weather was still cooperating for our ride home. The temps were in the upper 60s with partly cloudy skies.

A beautiful day for a ride, and another great day spent with friends.

Halloween Ride-n-Dine

Wow! What a great day to ride-n-eat.

It was a little on the chilly side when we started off in the parking lot at McGuire's this morning, watching to see who showed up in costume. We saw a fat old lady with a dog stuck in her butt crack, a grim reaper & his gruesome assistant, a dead couple, super girl, beer keg man with a dog humping his leg, a couple of punk rockers, a county prisoner, heidi the beer maid, a sailor, a cowgirl, and some others. It was great to see them ride in. There was even one bike that was decorated with tassels pumpkin and a skull.



After ohhhing and awwwwing over all the cool costumes we had the pre-ride brief and lined up under the BART tracks. There were 21 bikes in attendance as we pulled out of the parking lot and made our way through town on surface streets. We zig zagged over to Pleasant Hill Rd and up to Martinez on Alhambra Ave to find our way to Diane Harlan's house for our first stop. We had coffee, several different kinds of quiche (I had to let Diane know that real men don't eat quiche. But I had some anyway, just to make her feel better ;?)several different kinds of muffins, bagels, sausage, did I mention the coffee?, and way too much other food to finish. I almost had to take a siesta before joining the rest of the group on the second leg, but I managed to stay awake with another cup of coffee.



Once we'd gorged ourselves on all that great food, we saddled up and began our trek to Butch & Trinnie's. It had warmed up significantly by the time we were ready to leave and everyone was shedding layers to get comfortable. We rode through Martinez to hook up with Alhambra again, then to Bear Creek, to Camino Pablo. Along the way one of the sweeps was having a mechanical problem. Every time we stopped at the engine would die. The group pulled over and the problem was assessed. It was determined that the fuel tank had been overfilled, causing a problem with the evaporative cannister. The solution was to loosed the gas cap slightly to allow the tank to vent until the excess fuel in the cannister evaporated. This seemed to take care of the problem so we continued on to Moraga, over to St Mary's, to Tice Valley, to Danville Blvd, to Stone Valley, over to Tassajara. We made a short stop here so folks could get a drink and use the facilities, and then we were back under way. We rode down to Highland Rd and crossed along the foot of the hills to Vasco Rd where we turned north and into Brentwood/Antioch where we made a stop to purchase pumpkins for the pumpkin carving contest. We had a little trouble finding the Safeway store at first, but after touring one unsuspecting shopping center and not finding it, we made our way down the street to the 'Safeway' shopping center.



After everyone that wanted to purchased their pumpkins we rode the last few blocks over to Butch & Trinnie's in search of more food. When we went back to the patio area we were greeted to the welcome sight of Rocky, Melanie, Todd and Julie waiting for us to arrive. It was great to see them moving around so well. We were not disappointed with the food either. The theme here was Mexican food, beans, rice, burritos, quesadias, chips-n-salsa, and of course, some cold drinks. We ate and chatted for awhile and then voted on costumes and pumpkins. Once the votes were counted the big winners were, drum roll please, Mike & Kelly Gelbman for best costumes (appliance and cutting board (?) with severed heads) and Laurel Bart for best pumpkin (hamburger. yeah, you gotta see this one). These are too hard to describe accurately, so you'll have to check out the pics when they get posted.

Shortly after the voting we headed for home. It was another great day spent with friends.