2016 Renegade Rally

[racerrad8]

Saturday starts for me before the sun has completely risen. I push the bikes in the shop out the door in order by year. We still have a few guys riding in this morning before the scheduled kick stands up at 10:00 am.





At about 9:45 the phone at the shop rings. The caller is Mark O advising he is running a little behind his GPS is telling him he should arrive by 10:20. The decision is made to wait for Mark to arrive. We mingle around until Pat yells out at 10:40, "lets go". I leave note on the door for Mark for the lunch location and a shorter distance to get there than the group went. I was hoping he might meet up with us before we head for the little dragon.

The little dragon is 13 miles long, has an estimated 45 turns and takes almost thirty minutes to get from end to end.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/37.7101217,-120.1968215/37.5880354,-120.1241229/@37.5181043,-120.2561193,18346a,20y,27.56h,41.49t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!4e1

We rode to the rendezvous point at the bottom of the dragon. Stopped there for a look over the edge and to take a breather. There were several other motorcycle riders up there and they commented they have never seen this many FJ's in one place before. They were kind enough to snap a few photos of everyone standing at their bikes and in the group photo.





I overheard Robert asking Ramos, "So you think NYT TRN2 will be able to ride a wheelie the whole way?". Before Ramos gets the opportunity to answer, Andy interrupts and says, "I can do that while just resting my right wrist over the throttle like this".



While the tall tales were being told all around I took photos of all of the FJ's in attendance in no particular order.

Winddancer - Keary - 93 FJ1200 non ABS



Pat Conlon - 84 FJ1400



FJ Monkey - Mark - 90 FJ1200



This is my wife's 86 FJ1200 that Robert rides. He does not care for the license plate though...



Simi Ed - Ed- 90 FJ1349



Ron Oort - 91 FJ1200



My 93 FJ1200



ZOA NOM - Rick - 93 FJ1200



andyoutandabout - Andy - 86 FJ1200



Mike Ramos - 91 FJ1200



Cap n' Ron - Ron - 93FJ1200



We then suited up and headed back down the hill for the lunch stop. I grabbed the new Sena Prism camera for a short hand held video. I wish I would have had a proper mount for a better video. https://youtu.be/uGs_GgAZdd4 If you look closely at about 55 seconds, you can see Mark O going the other way on his FJ.

I did not take anymore photos during lunch or the ride. I saw many others snapping photos and hope they will post them up for all to enjoy.

Upon return to the shop, there was special surprise waiting for everyone. Bean just dropped in to have dinner and see the guys. The moments of Mark O and Pat not realizing his presence for a significant amount of time will go down in rally folklore for many years to come.

We gather at the table and enjoyed a great dinner. After dinner we retired to a show of dual thermite fire starter courtesy of Bean. He and monkey built a pyramid to let the light show begin to require rally fire.



The fire grew so big, Pam was giving thumbs up... still, I think her thumb got tired up being up so long so they put a cast on it to hold it there.



Sorry about the blurry picture Bean, I was shocked at the instantaneous size of the fire...



The fire was so big Andy had to turn away as he was yelling, "you damn Yanks are crazy with fire".



After the fire calmed down, he sat down next to Monkey and asked him, "What is it about you American's a fire...?"



Monkey just looked into the fire and thought, "I love fire".



I must agree with Monkey, what is not to love about the rally fire.



Mark O seems to agree. You can just read in his eyes he is thinking, "This is heaven"...



My youngest son Ryan on the right with his friend and boss, Anthony. Ryan again road his "scalpel" as Pat likes to call it and Anthony rode his BMW dual sport.



Time just flies by at any FJ rally. At one point I looked at the clock and it was about 9:30. The next time I looked at the clock it was early Sunday morning.

A few stayed behind on Sunday for some maintenance repairs to their bike as the rest of the group headed for home. That marked the end of another great FJ rally where strangers come toghter in the common denominator, the Yamaha FJ.

Just as my prior post, there might have been one or two liberties taken in the telling of the tale, but that is how I heard it all

Thank you all for coming and I am already looking forward to the epic 2017 West Coast Rally.

Randy - RPM

[racerrad8]

A thing I forget about...

This poster was hand delivered by Cap n' Ron upon his arrival. He had it coiled up in the pipe of PVC pipe. I reversed the scroll to flatted it out and put it in a piece of pipe. Last night I was sitting on the couch watching TV and I remembered I put in in the pipe.

So, here is is. Thank you guys for your thoughtful gift. I will be getting it framed and putting it up for everyone to see.

Are all of you guys going to be able to make it out for the 2017 West Coast Rally.

Randy - RPM

[andyoutandabout]

Get on that Groovy Train peeps

[winddancer]

Thank you Randy and Chandra for hosting this again this year it was fun as usual. Chandra welcome to the group forum  Randy you are on your own for the comments I sent it to Pam. Terry said to tell everyone he had fun and was a great ride and he hopes he can make it out to the West coast Rally in 17.