Once again it's time for a Maddevill's Breakfast Loop. No pictures , sorry.
This time we had 6 riders. Me, George (08 Hyper) ,Nick ( 15 Hyper), Steve (FZ1), Wayne (BMW GS1200RG) and Stephen ( Ninja 400).
It was super windy. Looking back I should have probably cancelled the ride. Lots of crap on the ground, branches and bark flying through the air, dirt, needles etc. It was easier dodging the debris than riding in rain so we set out.
Got to Alice's unscathed and settled in for eggs and coffee. Along with needles, twigs and various tree parts that dropped into our food.
Filled up we headed down 84. Not too bad, it's a more sheltered road, but we kept the pace a bit lower than usual. Which turned out to be a good thing as we saw 2 cops at a pull out. They were patrolling for downed trees etc.
Cloverdale and Gazos Creek were clean and we popped out at the coast at Hwy 1. Headed south to Davenport with a strong tailwind. Made riding a breeze.( nyuk nyuk)
Had our usual BS session and geared up for the second half. Pine Flat was a bit dirty but that didn't stop me from uncorking the big girl a bit. I just can't help it on that road. Got to Empire Grade on the ridge and it was like a war zone. Huge branches in the road. Spear branches flying through the air. I hit a chunk of wood and got airborn. Thought I bent a rim or popped a tire. Turned up Hwy 9 and the group got separated into 2 groups of 3 riders each.
We eventually got back to Skyline Trading Post and waited for the second group. They finally showed up and explained that, after we passed, a large tree fell across the road. They had to figure out a way around it.
So, everyone was safe. But after the ride, on his way home, George low sided in some branches at around 15 mph. Minor damage to the Ducati, no injury to him. Whew.
We are all looking forward to the next ride, hopefully with a bit lighter breeze.
We have a couple new guys joining us. Including a guy with a 1290 Superduke…(droooool).

Mad

Stay safe and have fun, Mad. I don't recall, do you guys crash every now and then? Glad it was a low speeder for your buddy and I hope he gets the bike fixed up soon. That's when it always gets you...when you think nothing could go wrong.

Wow Kwacker,
For your information, we have all levels of experience on this ride. Conditions on that road on that particular day were especially bad. We try to learn from any mistakes. Sorry we aren't as good as you want us to be. George is highly experienced.
In 10 years of the Breakfast Loop we've had... wait for it...2 crashes. One in water by an inexperienced rider and last weekend in debris. Does that seem excessive to you?
I stand by the quality of our riders as I stand by the record of this ride.

Mad

Any other crashes I report on were not on my loop.
And remember...
There are 3 kinds of riders
Those that have gone down
Those that are going down,
And those that are going down....again.
( I'm joking )

Mad

I hate wind

I love the wind...lol

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 2/14/2020 @ 11:20 AM *

Here, it's called the Santa Ana winds. Back in the mid 90's, before the housing tracks peppered the sides of the freeway, I would dodge the tumbleweeds flying across the freeway. They explode when they crash into you. Leave stickers in the clothes. Now with the houses blocking the weeds and such, I remember the tumbleweed days, a stuntman riding on the freeway on his bike lost control and died.

Every time the winds come up and I'm on the same freeway, I think about him and how I have to tuck once I feel a good one blast me in the side. And just the other day where Mad aborted the ride, I got shot with a good one on said freeway. My guess is it kind of pushed me off line maybe a half a foot, to a foot felt like?

Then again, the stunt guy might have used those XL Honda singles for work. If I was on that light a bike with on/off road tires, yeah, I could see the front end being taken out by that burst. Lucky I'm on a heavy bike and run under the speed limit when the wind comes up. Needless to say I like the action so I'll ride any day like a mailman; rain/sleet/snow/ice/wind/dog chase/fender weave/etc.

Fucking pussies! You're missing the whole sport of it.

Up here with the plains,the wind gets anywhere from 25 to 70+several times a year.Think passing a semi at 75 leaning SEVERAL degrees off vertical,then hitting the semi trailer wind block,and accelerating out at 80+ mph into that wind again.Think your front end is gonna give way.Shit.The whole BIKE feels like it's gonna slam down sideways.If ya weren't thinking about it..you would be slammed.Gotta love the wind....

I've thought about what everyone is saying. I think part of the problem was that on many of the roads, it was sheltered so very little wind and only small debris. On the ridges is where it got bad. We talked about it and everyone wanted to ride. We had no new riders on this particular ride. All were experienced. When I have newer guys, I let the fast ones go ahead, we have designated meeting points.
And to be clear, on the actual ride, we have had 1 crash. Any others were after we all had split up.
Unfortunately, crashing is part of the risk of riding. I have had a total of 4 on the street, 2 on the track in over 40 years of riding. Haven't had any in the last 15 years or so. I insist we ride "The Pace" .We don't push the limits AT ALL on the street.
Right now I've picked up my latest student. He's been riding 2 months, CBR600F4.
Both my other students have done extremely well. One is getting podiums in the 600 class in AFM. The other is now an accomplished track day rider and she recently bought her first dirt bike.

Mad