Log Item: It's Saturday, so I drove to Canyon Lake (city of) to visit my daughter and grandson. Liam (3) likes motorcycles and can't wait until he's old enough to go for a genuine ride on the back of the scooter (with a child's helmet, of course). Without the back rest, taking kids on bike rides is just a bit dicey. There isn't much to hold onto but the fabric of my shirt.
Canyon Lake is a city built around a lake that's in a canyon... It's adjacent to the City of Lake Elsinore. I left my daughter's place without my grandson on behind and took California State Route 74, The Ortega Highway, which runs from Elsinore, over the coastal mountain range and ends at San Juan Capistrano.
Canyon Lake is a city built around a lake that's in a canyon... It's adjacent to the City of Lake Elsinore. I left my daughter's place without my grandson on behind and took California State Route 74, The Ortega Highway, which runs from Elsinore, over the coastal mountain range and ends at San Juan Capistrano.
Rant: San Juan is where the swallows return to every year. I think that there was a song written about it in the 1950's. Old men from the East Coast wear gaudy shorts and black socks with their sandals, sit next to their blousey old wives in outside cafes at San Juan and look at the swallows that dart and weave around, crapping on their food. And I suspect that they send selfies to their friends in Florida with the birds in background.
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| Ortega Highway |
Travelog: It's a popular motorcycle route with a lot of twists and turns. Leaving the city and lake of Elsinore, you wind up the side of the mountain to a place called the Lookout Road House. It's a popular place for motor heads to stop, buy a Diet Coke, a BLT and look at the scenery.
Lookout Road House, above. View from where I parked the Diavel, below.
This location is about 30 miles from where I live.
Stylistic Differences:
Ducati Diavel, Harley Davidson fat boy and BMW 1200 RT. They all work. It's just a matter of personal choice.
I tried to put my daughter on a stationary motorcycle once at a halloween festival-- a cute photo op, I thought. She screamed bloody murder.
ReplyDeleteYour grandsons and daughters are clearly a bit more adventure prone.
My daughter went first and said, "I want to go for a ride"...but she'd been on behind me a lot in her life and liked the experience. My grandson, at first not sure, got on the bike and ended up enjoying it himself.
DeleteMust say your Ducati is the sweetest looking ride there, please don't tell my son I said that. He's a HD man through'n through...
ReplyDeleteAll have their own looks and people have their prejudices and preferences. The Diavel handles much better than any Harley Davidson simply as a matter of balance and horsepower. The Harley has a plodding charm and a huge following of people that form a social network. I understand both schools of thought.
DeleteWere I to ride, it would be on a Ducati. There's something about them.....
ReplyDeleteYou need to ride. It would be good for your soul.
DeleteI spent a LOT of time researching machines. I've been riding for a very long time and have owned Hondas, Harleys, a VMAX and a BMW. I've ridden Suzuki, Kawasaki, Husqvarna, BSA, etc. I like the Ducati better.
None of these are my style (no offense). I don't like hunching forward on a bike (racing crouch). Don't like ape hangers (not pictured), too retro. Don't like those tiny little cafe handle bars, give me something in between, like they had on the Schwinn's of the 1950's. Kind of like hanging onto a Texas longhorn steer.
ReplyDeleteOf course, since I have used up all of my lives on that Kawasaki 750 death machine, I would be due for a horrible wreck the very next time I get on two wheels. Accordingly, and I have retired from motorcycling.
I think its a kharma thing.
You don't want karma running over your dogma.
DeleteI'm not into clip-ons/cafe style bikes either. I never really liked them because I felt that I gave up some balance and a lot of visibility options. Ape hangers give you reduced control.