The Ride of my Life.

[klaviator]

Top Gun was released in 1986, the year I moved to California.



There are some similarities between the character played by Tom Cruise in this movie and my life at this point. Like "maverick" I was a Naval Aviator who rode a fast sport bike.



OK, that's probably the only similarity.   Maverick flew a supersonic F-14 fighter jet. I was flying something just a "little bit" slower. I did however, probably have more landing on the USS Enterprise than Maverick did.......and I didn't have to use a tail hook as a crutch.... ;D

After returning from the vacation to San Francisco and back. I checked into my first Fleet Squadron, HC-11 and was flying the H-46 Sea Knight Helicopter.



I checked in well after Top Gun was filmed but some many of the guys had been in there when the movie was filmed. I heard an interesting Top Gun story from some of them:

The primary mission of the Navy H-46 was to haul people and stuff from ship to ship and ship to shore. All passengers carried on the helicopter had to wear a inflatable life vest as well as a cranial. The purpose of the cranial was to provide hearing protection and head protection in case of a crash. I got someone you may recognize to model one for you ;D



During the filming of Top Gun HC-11 was used to carry members of the film crew as well as crew to and from the USS Enterprise which was off the California coast. Tom Cruise was going on one of those flights but refused to put on a cranial because it would mess up his hair.

The aircraft commander gave him the choice to put on the cranial or stay behind. He ended up putting it on.

I wonder if his hair stylist had to work overtime that day. ::)

In the movie, maverick spends all his time doing glamorous things like flying F-14s and romancing his love interest. The reality of the life of a naval aviator is that you spend most of your time doing your ground job. My first ground job was squadron legal officer. It was not nearly as interesting as flying.

In the movie maverick has to bail out of his fighter and his RIO in the mishap. That is one aspect of the movie (one of the few) that is fairly truthfull. Being a naval aviator is not the safest job in the world. During my first year in the squadron, one of our helos deployed on a ship in the western pacific auto-rotated into the water due to a mechanical malfunction. All four crewmembers managed to get out. It was the second H-46 crash for one of them.

Other than flying, most of my time spend at work at that time was pretty boring. The exciting stuff happened on the weekends. The next part of this report will be about the adrenaline pumping, high speed world of sport bike riding in Southern California and my introduction to and participation in that world.

To get into the mood for that, this soundtrack from the movie is just about perfect:

[klaviator]

When I got to San Diego I had six years of experience riding motorcycles. I had been reading a lot of motorcycle magazines and owned on the the fastest motorcycles available. Soooo........I was a really skilled and fast rider.......right?

Well, that's what I believed. My first few rides in California did nothing to change my beliefs. I headed out into the mountains. I had no knowledge of what was out there. I just looked at a map and headed for the mountains. I quickly realized that I had come to sport bike heaven endless curves, spectacular scenery and very little traffic. This was completely different from any riding I had done in the past. One of the things that amazed me was the contrast from the heavily crowded cities to the transition of being out in what felt like the wilderness.

My first few rides I just rode by myself. I would come up behind slow moving cars, motorhomes and the occasional Gold Wing or cruiser and blast past them using all the 125 horsepower available in a twist of the wrist. I was faaaaast

Then I started riding with some other guys I met in the squadron. Some of them were faster than me in the curves but overall I don't remember having trouble keeping up.

Then my friend Phil invited me to ride along with a group of local riders he knew. So I went. We met at a restaurant, had breakfast and then headed off. Many of these riders were "old" guys riding old BMW twins. There where also a few riders on more modern bikes but without a doubt I had one of the fastest bikes. We started on some city streets, then some highway. I had not problem keeping up because I was FAAAST, remember?

Then we got off and into some twisty back roads. Before knew what happened these guys just left me in the dust. How could this happen? Even though I was twisting the throttle to the stop and doing triple digits on the straights, I couldn't keep up. The only reason I didn't end up lost was because the front runners occasionally stopped and let the rest of the group catch up.

It was a HUMBLING experience.

Despite this experience I continued to occasionally ride with these guys. I also scared myself a number of times by riding over my head in the attempt to keep up. My ego had a problem with having a much faster bike than these guys but not being able to keep up. Somehow however, I managed to keep the bike upright and on the road.

One notable difference between me and these guys was that I was still dressed like your basic squid while they mostly had proper riding gear.

Here's a pic of me still wearing the same stuff I wore in Florida. Arai helmet, Members only jacket, jeans, work boots, and some kind of gloves.



One day I was following Phil and a group of the guys from the squadron and Phil took us up Palomar Mountain. I had not ridden it before. For those of you not familiar, here's a map:



We went up the S7, the east grade. It's pretty much constant medium speed sweepers. We took a break and rode down S6, the south grade which is constant downhill hairpins. Those curves pretty much wiped me out. I couldn't keep up and lost my confidence and ended up going really slow. It was not fun. I was a nervous wreck.

After I got home I decided i needed to do something. I couldn't go on riding the way I was. The fun factor was gone and I would likely end up crashing. So I went out by myself. I had a plan. I found a nice road with constant medium speed curves nearby and decided to ride through it at a nice, comfortable constant speed. I think I picked 35 MPH as the speed. I concentrated on properly riding the curves, not blasting down the straights. A few times through and I added 5 MPH. The another 5. Then I went off and rode some other roads but by myself. Again, I concentrated on the curves, not the speed on the straights.

It didn't take long to get my confidence back and started riding with others again. The fun factor was back! and my riding really improved. I soon got to where I could easily keep up with most of the other riders although I still had no chance of keeping up with the fast guys who rode out front.

I also decided that I needed to get some real riding gear. First I picked up two matching riding jackets at a motorcycle show in Anaheim. One for Debbi and one for me. I think I got them for 100 bucks each. Then I later found some pants and gloves that sort of matched the jacket at a local motorcycle shop.  A pair of actual motorcycle boots from Miramar Cycles completed my new riding gear.

[klaviator]

Highway to the Danger Zone

You may want to replay that soundtrack I posted earlier. It fits with what I'm about to post.

The world of sport bike riding is a foreign world to most people. Thee idea of going out and riding as fast as you feel like riding or as fast as you feel safe with only casual regard for posted speed limits is just not what most people do. Most people couldn't imagine going 120+ MPH on public roads. While most of my riding was not done at that speed, I rarely went for a ride on my FJ without hitting triple digits at least once.  I seldom went over 140 but then my FJ was about topped out at that speed.  With a faster bike I'm sure I would have gone faster.  It really didn't seem that big of a deal doing this way out in the mountain with no one around. Most of the time however, speeds where in the 40-80 MPH range depending on the roads we were on and sometimes less on really twisty roads. And this was not just me, the people I rode with did the same. Most of us were smart enough not to ride this fast in traffic or near civilization. As a result tickets and accidents were rare.

Many of my early group rides in CA were with guys I knew in the Navy. Here are two of my riding friends:



Both were introduced in a previous post. I am on the left followed by Phil, Chuck and Chris. Chris was a Marine H-46 pilot. He would ride down from the southern LA area to ride with us. The marines required all their motorcycle riders to wear reflective vests at all times. Before going riding he would brief us that if he were to crash, we should pull out his vest and throw it over his body to make it appear he had been wearing it. He didn't want to get into trouble for not wearing it.

I had some great rides with this group. We rode all over the mountains outside of San Diego as well as down into the desert. 250+ mile days where the norm. We would often ride up to Julian for breakfast or lunch and then have dinner somewhere else before the ride was over.

So how dangerous where these rides? I don't remember any crashes even though we were pushing pretty hard.

One day Chris was out riding, not with us. He was going around 100 and realized that a corner was coming up too late and ended up crashing at pretty high speed. I don't remember the details except that he walked away, bruised and sore but with no serious injuries.

So, he totaled his bike in a high speed crash. What do you think he did next?  Buy a slower, safer bike?

Hell No!!  He got a Honda VFR700. He had been fast on the Vision but now he was really fast.

One day we rode through Borrego Springs and then up S-22, the4 Montezuma grade. We stopped at and scenic turnout and then took turns taking each others pictures.

Here's me and my mighty FJ:



Chris and Phil:



Phil came up with this idea:



We were pushing so hard that one of us crashed :D



I wish I had taken more pictures. Both of the riding as well as my friends. At that time I just didn't think ahead to the time when I wouldn't see these guys again.



Unfortunately that day came sooner than I ever expected.



Not too long after this ride we got the word that Chris had been killed :'( :'( :'(

No, it wasn't the fast bike that got him. He died in a Helicopter crash. It may have been peace time but flying military helicopters really is a Ride into the danger zone.

One more pic of with Chris in it:



I often forget to take pics of the friends I ride with.  I hope this will remind me to do that. 

Chris had so much of his life ahead of him but he made the most of the time he had.  I'm glad I had the chance to know him and that I have some pics to help me remember him.

[klaviator]

Not long after Chris's death we got more shocking news. Andy, had been my roommate and was a good friend had also been killed in an H-46 helicopter crash in the Phillipines :'( :'(

I'm not trying to through a wet blanket over the mood of this ride report but Chris and Andy were an important part of my life and I will never forget them. All this happened nearly 30 years ago so I am over the pain I felt at the time. However, I will never forget them nor do I want to.

Andy was at my wedding:



The last picture I have of him, with his girlfriend outside our townhouse in Chula Vista.



What happened to Chris and Andy reminds me that life is short and can end at any time. Don't waste it.

From what I knew of Chris and Andy, they took full advantage of the time they had and were both living the life of their dreams.


Going back to the riding part of this report, I really was living the dream when I was in California. I'm not sure I fully appreciated that at the time but as I write this report and look back at all that I did and all that I had at that time, I can fully appreciate it now.

So while it sucked losing two good friends it didn't stop me from enjoying the fantastic riding in Southern California.


Unfortunately, sometimes the Navy did.  The Navy brought me to California and gave me the money to be able to afford some cool bikes and ride them.  In return, sometimes I had to work.

Towards the end of 1987 I was assigned to a detachment which would be cruising on the USS Wabash (AOR-5). The Wabash was what we jokingly referred to as a "Fast Attack combat Oiler" :D :D   In reality it was a supply ship that cruised with the battle group and provided supplies and fuel to the rest of the ships. In November I did a one one cruise to the Northern Pacific in the area of the Alaskan Aleutian islands. Then we returned for one month before going out on a six month Western pacific cruise. I won't go into great details since this is a ride report, not cruise report. We stopped in Hawaii for one day and the Philippines for 5 before heading out for the North Arabian Sea. It was technically peacetime but tensions were high and we did have a one day shooting war with the Iranian Navy and Air force. It was a pretty one sided affair as ships and aircraft from our battle group took a out a number of Iranian ships and airplanes.

A few pics from the cruise:

USS Wabash:



Aerial views at sea.  The Wabash next to the USS Enterprise.



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On deck with one of our 2 helicopters.



Underway. Not sure but I think this may have been near Singapore.



The flying was interesting and fun.  This video shows what we did.

[klaviator]

Other ports we visited where the Maldives, The Philippines again, Hong Kong and Korea. Debbi was able to fly out and see me the 5 days we were in Hong Kong. We had been separated for 5 months so I will leave what we did there to your imagination

As I mentioned before, this was technically peacetime. The day before pulling into port at Hon Kong, an S3 Viking Rolled over and crashed into the water immediately after a Catapult Launch of of the Enterprise. None of the 4 crew members survived. I was told that losing an airplane or 2 on a six month cruise was normal. ???

One more pic.

Interesting road sign in the Philippines:



The cruise was interesting but the best part was getting back home to Debbi and of course being able to ride again

Shortly after getting back we took another trip. 

Preview Pic:

[klaviator]

One of the things I really liked, and miss, about the Navy was the 30 days leave we got every year. That gave me the opportunity to take a number of vacations. Some of those vacations were not motorcycle related so I won't write about them here.

We decided to do a vacation during the summer of 1988 after I returned from cruise.  Debbi wanted to go to Las Vegas. She wasn't so much interested in the gambling as all the shows. I was as much interested in go to Las Vegas as I was in getting a root canal.

Of course I wanted to go on a riding vacation. So we compromised. We would go to Lake Tahoe. It has some of the same stuff as LV but on a smaller scale. It would was also a very scenic place and would allow for some great riding both in the area as well as the trip up and back.

So we made motel reservations and even packed a suitcase full of clothes and sent it to Lake Tahoe on a Greyhound bus. I remember it was not very expensive. When we were done in Tahoe we would send it back via Greyhound.

Remember that bad luck that we had on our last trip? Well, it hit us again. Just before we were scheduled to leave, Debbi got a really bad cold. :(

So we had to come up with a plan B. We decided that I would ride up to Tahoe by myself. Debbi would take a couple of days to try to get over her cold then fly up.

I do remember the ride up but I don't think I took any pics. At least I can't find any. I rode up I-15 to 395 and then north on 395. It was very hot, over 100 degrees, riding through the Mojave desert on 395. It was a good thing Debbi was not along. She would have struggled with the heat even if she wasn't sick. I finally called it quits when I got to bishop. Due to the higher elevations it was pretty comfortable in bishop.

The next day was a great ride as the road started getting up into the Sierras as I got on 89 to Tahoe. The scenery was spectacular. Everything was just so huge and majestic. I wish I had taken some pics but I know they wouldn't have begun to capture what it was really like.

I got to Tahoe and picked up Debbi from the airport and our suitcase form the Greyhound station. Debbi was better but still sick. She spend some time in bed while I did a ride around Lake Tahoe. Another very scenic ride but no pics.

So what did we do in Tahoe? We took a cruise on the lake.



We did a ride around the lake together.



We saw at least one show which I have no recollection of......it was that memorable:D

And of course we were big time gamblers.

We decided on a limit of what we were willing to lose, I think it was 50 bucks apiece. So we headed to a casino and started doing some high stakes gambling. Yeah, that's right, we were playing the dime slot machines ;D

I was in one Isle and Debbi the next. I was winning big and was at least a buck or two ahead when I heard the ding, ding, ding of a big winner in the next isle accompanied by a lot of excited screaming. So I went over to see what was going on. Debbi had struck the jackpot. $53 worth of dimes
OK, that wouldn't allow us to retire early but it was a lot of dimes ;D



After a few days in Tahoe it was time for the best part of this trip, at least for me. The plan for the ride back was to cross the Sierras three times going over three different mountain passes.

First up was route 4, the Ebbets Pass. The Ebbets pass was an awesome ride. It was a narrow road with a lot of hairpins curves as it climbed up the rugged mountains. It was a real wilderness road with no signs of civilization.



Somewhere after getting to the top we came by these beautiful lakes and had to stop and enjoy the view.



There was also this biker gang there. These guys really looked like serious bikers, black leathers, tattoes, long hair, beards, and most of them were pretty big. I'm sure that people would hide the women and children when these guys rolled into town. But we talked to them. They seemed like really nice folks. Look can be deceiving.

We followed 4 to 49, went south on 49 and then picked up 108 to go over the Sonora pass. Somewhere High in the mountains we came across this little resort in the middle of nowhere. It was such a beautiful spot that we decided to spend the night there. They had a room available in a small log cabin motel. I think that dinner that night was served outside behind the small restaurant.  We ate at a picnic table.  The name of this place was the Dardanelle resort.  A google search showed that it's still there. I wonder if you could go there today and just get a room in the middle of the summer without a reservation.

This place ran off of generator power and as I remember after a certain time of night they shut off the generator.

[kylepeterson]

I like how that guy brings it in at 7:32ish.

[klaviator]

After a good night in Dardanelle, we got back on the road and continued over the Sonora pass. My recollection of the road is very dim but I do remember it was a great ride with plenty of curves as well as more spectacular scenery.



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At the end of 108 we took a right and headed for 120, the Tioga Pass. I was really anticipating this because it would take us into Yosemite national Park which I had heard so much about. So we rode up the pass. I did take some pics. I'm not sure about these next two pics but they were taken somewhere in the area, Maybe 108, maybe 120, maybe in between??



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We stopped to check out this rock:



Our venture is at the bottom left of the next picture.



We continued on. This was all very scenic but I was a little disappointed. Was this all there was to this really famous park?  It really wasn't much more scenic than the last two passes.

So we rode along.

Then we came around a curve a and there was this huge drop off on our right and this spectacular Valley Down below Yes, I think my jaw dropped and hit the tank. Now I know why Yosemite was so famous. Sorry, I didn't get any pics :(.   Even if I had, no way would they do the actual view any justice.

We rode down into the valley. I'm not sure of the order of events after this but I think we went and found a room just outside the west entrance of the park and then came back to explore. I understand that now you have to ride a bus into the valley but back then there were no buses and we rode. We saw this really tall waterfalls and stopped to check it out. We were told that there was a really cool pond at the base of the falls and it was worth going up and seeing it. There was a trail to get there but we didn't know about it and took the more interesting route straight up over a bunch of rocks. It was a blast climbing over all those rocks and we had to work as a team to get up some of them but we finally made it.

It was well worth the climb. There was a great view of the falls, a really pretty pond with a big rock in the middle. There were some people out on the rock and I thought it would be fun to swim to that rock. As soon as those people left the rock I stepped into the pond to head out to it:eek1 That water had to be just a few degrees above FREEZING. Debbi of course started laughing at me. Then she worked on shaming me into getting into the water and swimming to that rock.



Then of course I worked on shaming Debbi into swimming out to that rock. It took a while but it worked.



I must say she looked much better on that rock than I did!

This ended up being the most memorable part of this trip for me.

After we finished up we took the easy trail back to the parking lot. It was much faster but not nearly the adventure of the climb up.

[klaviator]

We started out the next day by riding some really awesome twisty roads through Yosemite to Glacier Point.

Half Dome is in the background to the left.



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The next picture has a story behind it. Glacier point is an overlook 3214 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. There was a wall at the edge of the overlook that was around 2 feet high.  The view is really spectacular and I really wanted to try to capture that on film.  I wanted to get a pic looking straight down and decided that I would get a much better picture from 3216 feet rather than 3214 feet. So I stepped on top of the wall to take this next pic. Debbi freaked out and started yelling at me to get down from there. I told her to not treat me like a child. Her answer was that she would stop treating me like a child when I stopped acting like one :D

So here's that pic. As you can see, that extra two feet made a huge difference ;)

[klaviator]

After Yosemite we rode to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon. It was a spectacular ride which we both enjoyed even more than riding through Yosemite. Yosemite had some great roads but also a lot of traffic. There was much less traffic in Kings Canyon. It is on my bucket list as a place I want to ride again someday.

There were some big trees:



Did I mention the great roads?



This lloked like fun but we didn't stop to swim.



Somewhere in the park.



After we left the park we ended up riding through the town of Visalia at night. We suddenly found ourselves stuck in a traffic jam. The cars around us were literally jumping up and down and there were crowds of people watching from the sidewalks ???

Not sure what the deal was. I think that the local car people just came out one night a week and drove around in circles to show off their cars which all hydraulics to let them jump up and down and we happened to pick that night to drive through.  It was definitely weird.

One last pic.  Debbi modeling the t shirt I got her on cruise when we stopped in the Maldives.  Not sure where this pic was taken.

[klaviator]

Debbi enjoyed being a passenger behind me but sometime in 1988 she decided to try riding from the front seat.  She took the MSF class and got her California motorcycle endorsement.  She wanted a small and easy to ride bike to start on so we looked around we found this Honda CM200T Twinstar at a local dealer.



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This bike proved to be a great learner bike as Debbi became comfortable riding it pretty quickly and really enjoyed riding it. She did have one complaint and that was the lack of wind protection. She just didn't understand that wind in the face and bugs in the teeth was part of the fun ;D

So I put this fairing on it:



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One of our favorite short rides was to go out Otay Lakes road and then ride the dead end road that ran along Lower Otay Lake. Looking at Google maps it appears that road, as well as the whole area has changed considerably. Back then the whole area was undeveloped and the road along the lake was a nice curvy and lightly traveled road perfect for practicing some corner carving. That's were I went when I was struggling with the FJ and that's were I went with Debbi so she could practice.



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I rode the bike a few times. I was a little big for it, it didn't have much power, only a four speed transmission, drum brakes and a cheap suspension. It was still a lot of fun to ride. It could even keep up with traffic on San Diego freeways. It really made me want a small lightwieght bike like maybe the just introduced Ninja 250.

Remember this bike?



I really wanted one of these but I already had two bikes and getting a third was out of the question. I mean really, three bikes for one person?? That would be ridiculous  ::)

Yes, I was young and still had much to learn :D

All the toys in the Garage.

[kylepeterson]

it's so cool to follow along you and the wife's journeys.

thanks for continuing this, suuuper cool thread :-)

[klaviator]

it's so cool to follow along you and the wife's journeys.

thanks for continuing this, suuuper cool thread :-)

Thanks Kyle.  I'll be continuing for quite a while.  The thread is at 1988.  That means nearly 30 years to go.

[klaviator]

One of my favorite and most common rides was out to Julian. The route was a little city traffic to Otay lakes road. Otay Lakes road was a two lane country road back then. The left on 94 and right on Honey Springs Rd, right on Lyons Valley rd, then Japatul rd to 79 out to Julian. Those of you familiar with the area know what a great ride that is....or at least was. Possibly it has become congested with lots of traffic by now.

Debbi and I did that ride one day. I was on the FJ and she was riding the Twinstar. It was a great ride and we even swapped for a couple of miles and she rode the FJ. I took off and a little later she blasted past on the FJ!

Of course we got Aplle pie ala mode in Julian :)  No fighting over it since we both got our own piece.

Debbi really enjoyed the ride and commented how much different and better the scenery was when most of it wasn't blocked by the back of my helmet. The Twinstar worked great on the twisty sections of road but really struggled on the uphill sections. The beginning of Honey Springs road was a long uphill. The Twinstar wouldn't pull fourth gear and the motor was screaming in third gear at about 35 MPH.

So I talked Debbi into looking for a bigger bike. She really liked the Twinstar. If only it had a few more horsepower and 5 speed transmission.

So we went around and Debbi test rode a number of bikes. One of those bikes was a leftover model Yamaha Seca 550. It was a great deal and brand new. I managed to talk her into it.



I was a great looking bike and a lot faster than the Twinstar. Debbi and I went on a number of rides.



The problem was that Debbi never really got confident riding that bike. She was probably faster on the Twinstar most of the time. I really liked the bike and rode it some but I didn't fit on it all that well. It needed some lower bars and more rearset pegs to work for me.

Bottom line, it was Debbi's bike and she really didn't enjoy riding it. The Seca's days were numbered.....

[klaviator]

Time for another vacation. I of course wanted to ride somewhere. Debbi wanted to go on a cruise or to Hawaii. I had already been on a cruise!!!:D
So we decided on Hawaii. I did a little research and it appeared that there were some motorcycle rentals available in Hawaii:evil Keep in mind that there was no internet back then. I think I saw some tiny ads in the back of some motorcycle magazines. We took our helmets with us.

We booked a package deal for our vacation, airfare, hotel, and a FREE welcome breakfast the first morning we were there. Our hotel was advertised as being 2 blocks from the beach. I had this picture in my mind of a hotel on a sandy beach but set back a ways with a few other hotels blocking part of our view.......


We got there and we might as well have been in downtown New York City. It was a tall building surrounded by other tall buildings in a very congested area. From our room we did see a small sliver of blue, so we could see the ocean.

Then we went to the FREE breakfast the next morning. It was pretty lame and was mostly a sales pitch for a bunch of tours.

We did book a guided tour that would take us out on an overview of the Island. It ended up being a pretty good tour. It was done with a small group in a van.

Then it was time to plan out the rest of our time there. Debbi wanted to plan out every day and make reservations. I wanted to wing it and do some exploring on our own. We ended up compromising but in the end, the stuff we did on our own was the most fun and most memorable.......at least for me.

I checked the phone book to find some place to rent a motorcycle. I couldn't find much. The places that had advertised in the magazines were no longer there :(  There were a bunch of places that rented little 50cc scooters but I wasn't really interested in riding around at 30MPH. I finally found a place that had a Honda NX125 and a Yamaha Riva 125 for rent. After checking them out I decided that the Riva would be much more practical, especially 2 up. So I rented it for a day.

Debbi wanted to go to Hanauma Bay and go snorkeling. So we jumped on the scooter and headed off. At some point I took a wrong turn and ended up on the on ramp for the Interstate highway ???  This scooter was not legal on the interstate but I pinned the throttle and went for it. The speedo showed around 65 MPH and we kept up with traffic until the next off ramp.   We didn't get caught so it was pretty cool. Despite it's tiny 10" wheels the Riva did just fine at those speeds.

We finally found Hanauma bay and went snorkeling. I think this was the high point of the vacation for Debbi. I was laying on the beach when she came up all excited about this fantastic colorful fish she had seen. She said we'd probably never find it again but wanted me to come out with her and look for it. We did find it. I wish we had an underwater camera.

For me of course the scooter riding was the best part of the vacation.

Here we are along the scenic coast:



Inside Diamond Head.