Let's Ride! NorCalTT on Tiger, Titan, R5 ...

[SFMCjohn]

The Feather River and Route 70 is an alternate way to get from Oakland, for example, to Salt Lake City ... It crosses the Sierras on Beckwourth Pass, which is 2000' lower than Donner Pass ... at the turn of the last century a railroad was built, and both Hwy 70 and the railroad are used today when Donner Pass is impassable due to weather or other closure ...


A highway bridge and train trestle over the Feather River ...

In any event, we had a beautiful day to ride down the Feather River Canyon ...


How to mount a license plate on your vintage Ducati ...


A covered bridge off Cherokee Road near Oroville ...


Some typical NorCalTT adventure routes ... Oregon Canyon Road ...


Scot's Moto Guzzi and Matt's Victor 441 on Oregon Canyon ...


We had a nice awards banquet when we got back to Auburn ... Barry, Anton and Jason with the ride trophies they won for participating on the 2012 NorCalTT ...


We loaded up the bikes after the awards banquet, and made it back to the city around 1:30 pm on Sunday night ...

This ride was super fun ... looking forward to next year!

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn

[larryboy]

Hey, I've ridden with that Anton guy before. He crashed hard one time on his XL500 Honda when the dirt went to ice all of a sudden, good thing he had on his leathers.


Love the old bikes, thanks for posting!!

[killfile]

Originally Posted by dilandau

you lazy cuss! you taking the T or are you going to get the norton done in time for 49? im thinking of putting the sport away as I get the tank fixed and work through some issues it has, and maybe drag out the strada and see if i can get it going in time. be fun to change things up- albeit only slightly i suppose.

I'm very keen on taking the Titan, but I will admit it isn't the funnest bike for the city. I don't think I told the BAVR guys, but I also picked up a Lambretta about a month ago. I love the lammy and I might just ride that instead. Truthfully, the CB350 is the idea bike for the city, it is just so nimble and quick around the corners!

I think you should ride the FZR, but I realize that's breakin rules. Would love to see your strada in person after all this time!

Originally Posted by larryboy

Hey, I've ridden with that Anton guy before. He crashed hard one time on his XL500 Honda when the dirt went to ice all of a sudden, good thing he had on his leathers.

Love the old bikes, thanks for posting!!

Anton is a great guy, and pretty infamous around these ADV parts because of that whole scooter engined BMW debacle a few years back. Great story though! Anton also won the 'best rider of the year' award by a landslide.

come on a ride with us, larry!

Originally Posted by SFMCjohn

The Feather River and Route 70 is an alternate way to get from Oakland, for example, to Salt Lake City ... It crosses the Sierras on Beckwourth Pass, which is 2000' lower than Donner Pass ... at the turn of the last century a railroad was built, and both Hwy 70 and the railroad are used today when Donner Pass is impassable due to weather or other closure ...
We loaded up the bikes after the awards banquet, and made it back to the city around 1:30 pm on Sunday night ...

I'd like to ride more of route 70 and the feather river, how soon do we need to head back up there in order to avoid the snow?
Loaded up after the awards banquet but it was 1:30 AM when we rolled into town, and I was dead asleep, apologies for the snorin'. Next year I either need Monday off, or I'll bring a truck from the get go.

I'm still proud of the Titan making it from San Francisco to Nevada under it's own power!

[jbcaddy]

sure wish I knew you folks were going to be coming through, I'd of baked a cake! or at least said howdy as you went through town. a good loop if you come back up this way is 162/Oroville Quincy Hwy from Oroville to Quincy and then back down 70. or turn right at Quincy and then take the road through La Porte back over the hill to either Oroville or Marysville. either route will be OK untill it snows. if you trailer up to Oroville, you are welcome to park it in front of my place. JB

[vtwin]

It's great to see old bikes out where they belong, racking up miles and not o a trailer.

[dilandau]

crap, after all the pics here and on other forums I really want to do this next year. Now I just need to get a pre75 bike.

[SFMCjohn]

Originally Posted by vtwin

It's great to see old bikes out where they belong, racking up miles and not o a trailer.

Hi vtwin,
Thanks, we're going to try to ride from San Francisco to Death Valley (Amorgosa) in late October on the Tiger and a '48 Chief for the SoCal AMCA's Death Valley Rally ... I rode the Tiger a couple of years ago and got the Long Distance Rider Trophy ... ha.



See you on the side of the road,
-- SFMCjohn
PS: that's a pic of my friend "Let's Ride" Pete ... there's dedication for you!

[XS500RUS]

Originally Posted by killfile

I've heard a ton about cranks seals that go when these sit too long. I believe I'm running the original crank seals and I haven't had any issues with that so far, but I'm always suspicious. If you are restoring a '75, then you probably already know about the 1200cc / 1400cc oil issue that was delightfully solved by '74. The earlier bikes did not have enough oil to lubricate 5th gear at all, or 4th gear as well is it should. The factory issued a service update that added a rubber dam in the gear box to allow the oil level to be increased to 1400cc, lubricating 4th and 5th gears. The '75 should have it, so you should be running 1400cc of gearbox oil.

Yep I've read about the gearbox oil capacity at length! My parts bike '70 has the 1200cc capacity, the '75 1400cc. Haven't looked in the gearbox to see if there was oil in it, but the oil tank has plenty! This give me hope that perhaps the crank seals are in decent shape. Currently putting in new fork seals and cleaning carbs (gotta pickup some PineSol on the way from work!)

[SFMCjohn]

Originally Posted by larryboy

Hey, I've ridden with that Anton guy before. He crashed hard one time on his XL500 Honda when the dirt went to ice all of a sudden, good thing he had on his leathers.


Love the old bikes, thanks for posting!!

Hey Rob!

Thanks for reading and commenting ... Kalle and I are getting ready to ride the old bikes from San Francisco to Death Valley ... see if we can do Titus Canyon and not suffer too much ...

I think Anton still wears the same leathers ...

see you around the campfire,
-- John A

[SFMCjohn]

Originally Posted by jbcaddy

sure wish I knew you folks were going to be coming through, I'd of baked a cake! or at least said howdy as you went through town. a good loop if you come back up this way is 162/Oroville Quincy Hwy from Oroville to Quincy and then back down 70. or turn right at Quincy and then take the road through La Porte back over the hill to either Oroville or Marysville. either route will be OK untill it snows. if you trailer up to Oroville, you are welcome to park it in front of my place. JB

Hi jbcaddy,
Thanks for the route tips and hospitality! Here's a pic my friend Blaise took from his old BMW of one of the tunnels on Rt 70 ... we got a bit lost and rode a long way up 162 before we figgured out that if we kept going we'd wind up back at Quincy, which would have been back to square one ... ha. Super nice road up from the big reservoir ...
Hope to see you next year when we come back through that way,
-- SFMCjohn

[SFMCjohn]

Originally Posted by dilandau

crap, after all the pics here and on other forums I really want to do this next year. Now I just need to get a pre75 bike.

Hi dilandau,
Enjoyed seeing your FZ600 being brought back to like here and on BAVR ... I think the Morini or CB350 in your sig would both work on the NorCalTT ...
see you on the 49 Mile Ride,
-- SFMCjohn

[dilandau]

;) I should have said a pre75 bike that runs! The cb is a project that I'm hoping to get running and then sell. My morini are both 1977+

but yeah, I want to get the strada ready for the 49 as I've brought the sport the last two years.

[SFMCjohn]

Originally Posted by dilandau

;) I should have said a pre75 bike that runs! The cb is a project that I'm hoping to get running and then sell. My morini are both 1977+

but yeah, I want to get the strada ready for the 49 as I've brought the sport the last two years.

Well, I suppose they should be running ... I think '77 is close enough ...

Here's a few pics from my friend, Blaise:


My '73 Tiger, without its headlight ... I've gotten it fixed since ... ha.


Felicity's Honda ...


Anton (BMW), Jason (Titan) and Scott (Moto Guzzi) ...


Barry's Yamaha R5 ...


Dave Halprin on his OIF Triumph Bonneville 750 ...


Blaise's BMW on the Feather River Canyon ...

More of Blaise Descollonges wonderful photos, here.

see you around the campfire,
-- SFMCjohn