Sunday, August 28, 2005

We had our biggest turnout in a few years for a SFBA VROC Ride. The total number of bikes was 11 and one auto.


We met at a 7-11 in Livermore, CA at Noon on Sunday, August 28, 2005. We rode Mines Road to the Junction, a tavern located where Mines Road from the north, Del Puerto Canyon Road from the east and San Antonio Road from the west come together.


The Junction tavern is the only place to get a soda or use a rest room for a radius of 25 miles. It is in the most remote spot of Santa Clara County which includes San Jose and the Silicon Valley. There is almost always more motorcycles in the parking lot than cars and pick ups.

    The organizer was
Tom "tc" Pansarasa - San Jose #1245
    on bikes were:
Darren "Steelman" Archer - Livermore #4709
Larry "Lars" Benanti - Hollister #2951
Karen "Cat" Benson - Fillmore #6724
Roy Coxen - Castro Valley #16477
Larry "Sky" Delfino - Stockton #14153
Rick "Racky" Eastman - Livermore #1870
Marc "Odd" Schifer - San Jose #862
Bill "BS" Snodgrass - San Jose #16804
Gary "Crazy Cowboy" Stenvers - Sausalito #2054
Howard "Nite Lite" Sublow - Petaluma #4234
    in the auto
Douglas "Tiny" Richards {driving} - Pinole #4685
Don "VSP" Inamasu {me} - Stockton #5569
    {Tiny was kind enough to drive me to this Ride while I am still trying to regain my balance control from an inner ear inflammation.}

Three photos at the Ride meeting place.

Racky, tc and Crazy Cowboy shooting the bull


Roy, Nite Lite and Cat pose for a picture. Cat has taken a 330 mile morning ride from Southern California to get to the starting point.


Marc "Odd" and Lars inspect tc's V-Strom, which Marc is riding today.


Four shots along the two lane portions of Old Mines Road. It is 25 miles long and about half is one lane road:
link to Mines Road Description by Pashnit




Tiny gets the deli sandwiches to the Junction



tc is deciding whether or not to eat his sandwich.



Marc eating and BS drinking since he had already finished his sandwich.


The back of Steelman's Tee Shirt says a lot.


Roy and Sky are discussing politics.



Steelman is telling a tall tale.


tc is trying to figure out why his bike is "acting up".


Just after our moment of silence.


Roy and Lars are relaxing, but Nite Lite is feeling the heat of the day.


Half of the bikes parked at the Junction.


Nite Lite suffers from a rare condition where his body can not tolerate hot weather.


After saying our last respects to Wolfman,
Marc and tc head over Mount Hamilton to San Jose. Lars, Nite Lite, BS, and Steelman also head that way. Racky and Roy and Crazy Cowboy head back to Livermore back tracking Old Mines Road. Sky and Cat and the car head east down Del Puerto Canyon Road to Patterson and I-5.

Tiny and I ride Sweep for Sky and Cat down Del Puerto Canyon Road.


I am glad that tc has organized this tribute to Wolfman.

August 28, 2005 - End

1 Comments:

Blogger VROC #5569-r said...

Ok, so did I miss you guys or did no one show up?
I "thought" that the meet time was Noon, but I cannot find any of the
original emails. Kay and I hung out until about 12:25p, then headed down
to Ness's. Was there for about an hour.

Hope the ride went well.

Brad
----------------------------------
I guess it just wasn't supposed to be. Double checked the meet spot, and
we had that down. There is only one Citgo/7-11 on Vasco that I know of
that matches the map Don sent out.
Now, I have my doubts about the time set on my Verizon cell phone. Verizon
has told me it's one time, and time stamped my incoming voice mails
another. So, I could have been there at 12:00 noon as per my cell, and
life actually could have been 10 minutes different.

Just as an FYI for anyone who is curious, though Arlen Ness's shop is
nice, I was not impressed. I like the old San Leandro store better. Now it
feels like walking in a Ferrari dealership or something. The main floor is
full of Iron Horse cookie cutter/rich boy choppers. The Victory bikes are
off to the side in a darker part of the show room. And the museum was
"average". Concidering that about 1/4 of his bikes were down at the
Pleasanton fairground for the Goodguys car show. Oh, and all things
bearing the Ness name (t-shirts, jackets, hats) were at HD appearal prices
or higher.

See you all soon.

Brad

9:54 AM  

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