To: labiker@ph.ucla.edu Subject: Re: LABiker: Re: Work sucks | Sunday ride? (rain) Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 15:09:36 -0500 From: gayathri Even without the rain, I'll bet there would have been few people at the RS yesterday. Seems like all the Harley's in the WORLD were at the Love Ride. :) Sammy -- thanks for leading us! man. Talk about CRAZY wet weather. I had so much fun anyway! First, Juli shows up at the house at 6:45, and we all head over to Glendale HD. I take a back way in, so we're not caught in lots of traffic, and its just a light drizzle. (this isnt so bad...) When we go to register, I run into Roland in his damp Stitch, and Juli's looking for her friends -- they are wearing black leather jackets and ride harleys, so I'm not much help finding them. Listen to the band trying to play and not electrocute themselves, and head on back to the coffeeshop where we've parked our bikes. What a ZOO! whoohoo!! :) Instead of being smart and having breakfast or coffee, I freak out about trying to find the mobil station and we head off to find it, and end up standing around for what seemed like HOURS waiting for other folks to show up. Thank goodness Juli's a good sport! Harley's _everywhere_ inall shapes, sizes, colours. Amazing, even in this weather! Finally the Labikers show up, get registered, and its time to ride! Sammy and his pillion (who's name I've blanked on) on Mary, me on Huckleberry, squidboy who was nice enough to pillion Juli on the way up on his zx-6r, BruceB on a MoldThing, some guy who looks like BruceB who'll be in all the pics that are supposedly Bruce, Rick E on his BMW, sporting his BMW shirt, Carol on her zx-6, Joe and JoEllen on his Harley, Bill on his Guzzi, Thom Irwin in his cool threewheeler! whoo! (did I forget anyone?) Squidboy and I saw SideCarMike in the morning, but I guess you were workin', right SCMike? Up the 5, and it starts to rain. Hard. *sigh* Should have put on my rainjacket. We take the turn off for the 14, and off we go on our Love Ride. Rain, no rain, drizzle, FOG! but no hail. I waved to as many folks as I could who were braving the weather to wave at us. THat was _awesome_ to see people on the freeway overpass waving like crazy. I'll let squidboy tell his story about the hot blond in the 'vette. It was definately neat watching bikes disappearing into the fog on San Fransquito Canyon road. BIG PLUS for me was that I had cleaned my visor up with straight dishwashing soap that morning, so it didnt fog up at ALL! whoohoo!! Get to Castiac Lake, and I notice a bunch of bikers on the right side of the road. I find out later they are a real patch group. After not running over pedestrians, we go inside, and Juli is in HogHeaven! She made me walk all over and look at different sportsters to see what they've done, so she can get some ideas for her new baby. We are hungry, so go hunting for food. Find the loudest BBQ serving chick and get our HUGE overflowing plate and head over to some picnic benches to eat. We inherit a few plastic bags, so our asses dont get any wetter then they are, and sit down to eat. Our tablemates are a buncha Harley people, and one asks us, "So, did you girls ride here yourselves?", and I said, "Well, she pillioned, 'cause she doesnt have her bike yet." More conversation ensues, where I'm deemed "OK", cause I have a Triumph, and Juli is harassed 'cause she's getting a sportser. "Its a girl's bike!" me: but she's a girl! what's wrong with _that_?? It was really a funny introduction to another side of motorcycling that I dont know much about. A lot of older guys in this group dont like to see women riding -- I think it interferes with their male bonding, or they really dont like independant women much. (I'm sure that was a factor in the convo with the guy at our table. Two single chicks with no guys around?!) I told Juli that I've seen similar reactions in the sportbike crowd -- many men are happy to see women riding, but I think because we are so few, our actions are more scrutinized. You hear a lot of, "Well, she's good, but not fast." and you dont hear that much about other guy riders -- the not fast ones are just not noticed at all. We walk back to where folks were hanging out and Juli goes off on her own and I hang out with Bill K and Bruce watching the stunt riders, and listening to some good music. An evil looking cloud seems to be heading our way, so when Juli comes back, we head on out... The ride home was boring, lots of traffic, lots of freeway, but Juli's a GREAT passenger. I told her we gotta go out again when its dry so she can see what a sportbike can do. :) She can't wait to take the MSF and come join us.... Gayathri >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #98 '88 FZR400 ('gurlzbike') '98 T595 Daytona, "huckleberry" As our desire is, so is our will. As our will is, so are our acts. As we act, so we become. -Bihadaranyaka Upanishad