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Even a little fog won’t stop Bakersfield HOG from riding and having fun!

Fog is a normal part of the winters in the Southern Valley. With good safety practices and a little help from our Chaplain, 43 bikes made it safely to our destination in McKittrick. Our friends at the Penny Bar welcomed us with their unique atmosphere and good food. It all made for a great ride.

We all ride throughout the year here so “winterizing” our rides consists of dusting them off and putting on some leather and a heavy jacket before we ride.  We are fortunate to be able to ride all year round but we often forget those little winter hazards that can crop up at a moment’s notice.  Here’s a little reminder for us all in regards to those nasty little road hazards…

CROSSWALKS AND OTHER PAINTED LINES

ANY painted surface on a roadway can be extremely slick during the winter.  A small amount of moisture can turn these lines into an experience you won’t soon forget!  Be very cautious when it’s foggy as the moisture collects on the painted surfaces and is not visible to the rider.  Watch those lines on the curvy roads because you won’t have time to react if you happen to cut a corner a little and get that front wheel on the wet line!

RAILROAD TRACK

It’s not like you haven’t seen these before.  These can catch you front wheel and dump your bike.  Pay attention to the angle the tracks cross the road.  Use as much of the road as necessary to get a safe attack angle.  Be aware that occasionally tracks cross roads at a weird angle (Highway 43 near Poso) and this can ruin an otherwise great day of riding.  Also watch the crossing areas as some have metal or wood instead of asphalt between the tracks.  If you’re crossing one of these in a turn, you’re in for a surprise.

CATTLE GUARDS

We have a few of these in our area.  Always try to cross these at a 90 degree angle and be very cautious if they might be wet.

OIL, ANTI-FREEZE, GREASE, DIESEL FUEL

If you encounter any of these on the road, chances are you’ll have an issue before you can react.  Always scan the road ahead for spots that look wet or different from the rest of the pavement.  I once hit diesel fuel as I was approaching a stop sign.  The bike slid through the stop sign and across 2 lanes of traffic onto road side.  This happened at Lerdo Hwy and Porterville Hwy.  Yeah, I know, it wasn’t my time.

RAIN AFTER A LONG DRY SPELL

This can turn the roads into a skating rink.  Let the rain wash the roads clear before you ride them.  A half hour can make a huge difference.

GRAVEL ON PAVEMENT

This can be deadly.  Gravel is more common as the road becomes twisties.  It seems cars have a hard time staying on the pavement when there are corners.  Gravel problems tend to be worse in spring due to winter rains.  A little bit of gravel should be avoidable if you’re not riding too fast.  Unavoidable gravel covering the entire corner can be taken in stride if there is plenty of asphalt showing and you are prepared to let the bike slide around a bit. The key is to relax, don’t over-react and keep steering towards the exit line. Bikes are surprisingly stable and will usually ride it out. The real problem is a heavy gravel patch in a corner. Surviving that is mainly luck given you were already going too fast to stop or go around it…my best advice is to treat it like light gravel and hope the bike rides it out. If the back-end washes out, steer like a dirt bike and hope the rear tire doesn’t suddenly get traction!

Having said all that, most “gravel crashes” were unnecessary. Usually the rider is lacking in fundamental skills. Common physical errors are not looking far enough into a corner so not picking up the gravel soon enough, not being able to brake at the bike’s capabilities, not being able to turn at the bike’s capabilities and over-reacting when hitting the gravel (a one inch slide feels like a mile so people panic). Common mental errors are missing signs of probable gravel (tight corners, earlier history, gravel shoulders or embankments, hills that might have been washed out etc) and riding without regard for suitable error margins.

LEAVES

They look innocent but are worse than gravel…ESPECIALLY IF WET!

STANDING WATER

Don’t just charge through water like you would in a car.  Depending on tires you can hydroplane which will make the bike feel like it’s on ice.  If you are unlucky enough to experience this, make no steering inputs and ride straight through.

REMEMBER, WHEN YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, THE UNEXPECTED IS EXPECTED SO IT’S NOT A BIG DEAL!!!

RIDE SAFE…

DAVE FISHER
SAFETY OFFICER

Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early and treated myself to a good omlet breakfast before suiting up. I had told some HOG members of my plans but nobody met me at the 7am departure time so off I went. I didn’t head back on Hwy 15…instead, I rode into Las Vegas and took Hwy 160 over towards Pahrump. Once there, I stopped for fuel and headed for Shoshone on Hwy 352. From there, I hit Hwy 190 and rode north to Death Valley Junction. Although it was a little cool when I took off, the sun soon rose and the temperature evened out at a comfortable 80+ so I dumped my chaps and coat and rode on. I stopped at Furnace Creek in Death Valley and toured around a little before heading to Stovepipe Wells. There I bought a souvenir and had a soda before heading up the grade towards Panamint Springs. Just before Panamint Springs, I turned off on Hwy 178…yep, you guessed it, and rode towards Ridgecrest.

Another stop in Ridgecrest for lunch and fuel and up over Walker Pass and through the canyon into B-town. I got home about 4pm after a 431 mile ride on a beautiful day. The bike ran great and it was rather pleasant to be lead and sweep in my own little world. Although group riding is a blast, sometimes it’s fun to get out alone and savor the reasons we ride. This was one of those days!!!

Next year, I’m going to advertise this ride a little more and get some others to join me. It’s a great run and done right, not too awful long. Hope you can join me because this may become a yearly thing for the Calico run.

Dave Fisher
Director

Speaking of the State Rally, Stephanie and I are heading up next Wednesday so we can be there when everyone arrives.  We also want to get some pointers on setting up the rally even though we helped in Victorville.  Our presentation will be made on Saturday morning and from what I hear, there are some other chapters competing for the event.

I did finish our written proposal and sent it off to J.T. Hasley, our Regional HOG Director.  J.T.  has begun his review and let me know that we look pretty good to him. Hopefully we’ll look better than the rest.  I know one thing for sure; the other chapters will have to work pretty hard to top our DVD that will start the presentation.  If you’re making the trek to the State Rally, we’ll be camping somewhere in the fairgrounds…just look for our HOG banner!!!

Our annual Christmas party is shaping up to be another great evening.  I would like to thank John and Katie Houchin who stepped up and offered to cater our dinner.  John and Katie were at the party last year when we had the “snafu” regarding the meal and promised a better meal this year.  (The Houchin’s own a large catering business here in Bakersfield and have a lot of experience into this area.)  For dinner this year, we’ll be treated to Prime Rib and Montreal Chicken with a host of other great sounding side dishes.  We’ll be meeting at the Heritage Dante Hall on Wilson Road and once again, HOG will be buying the price down for each HOG member and their guest to $20.00.  We’ll have a short program and the same DJ will be playing music for our entertainment again this year.  He did a great job last year and kept the dance floor rockin’ so we decided to leave that part alone.

If you’re interested in doing some riding, October will be a great month.  Val and Gary Crawford will be hosting the Fun Run to Porterville.  I think we’re headed to the Black Bear Diner!!!  That’s always a great ride and good meal.  I haven’t heard where the Dinner Ride will go but Gary is also working on that.  If that isn’t enough, the Crawfords are planning the annual Calico/Stateline Run on Halloween.  HOG will depart BHD at 9:00am and head to Peggy Sue’s in Barstow for breakfast.  We’ll visit Calico Ghost Town and then make a dash for Stateline to spend the night.  This was a helluva party last year so come join us and have some fun this year.  Make your reservations at Buffalo Bill’s and spend the night laughing and doing that other part of our HOG motto…HAVING FUN!!!

Speaking of riding, HOG will also have a Hot Dog Run on October 24th.  Again, this will be an open ride so invite any of your “non-Harley” riding friends to come along.  We’re going to head over to Morro Bay and enjoy a day on the coast.  There is a small hot dog vendor on Harbor Avenue so I’m going to hold true to the run and have a hot dog.  Don’t worry, if you want to go down to the harbor and have fish and chips or clam chowder, I’m sure nobody will mind.  We’re not sure how we’re coming home but who really cares?  Hope to see you there.

We did recognize our Member(s) of the Quarter at the last meeting.  HOG felt the Crawfords had been working to make our chapter one of the best and awarded them our 3rd Quarter Member of the Quarter award.  Val and Gary really deserved our recognition and will enjoy our annual Christmas Party on us.

Lastly, I want to again let you know that we’ll be having our first ever November General Meeting.  I’m working on some special plans for this meeting as it’ll be our last meeting of 2009 and we deserve to have a great time.  HOG will be giving back to our chapter by awarding 3 gift certificates to HOG members who just show up.  Nothing to buy, just show us your current local HOG card (your annual membership must also be current and we’ll have an up to the minute list) and you’ll receive a raffle ticket.  During the meeting, we’ll draw tickets to win the gift certificates.  Oh, by the way, each gift certificate will be worth $400.00.  Mark the date on your calendar…NOVEMBER 19th…the week before Thanksgiving.

We’re quickly running out of great riding weather so get out and ride while you can.  Pretty soon you’ll be wishing it was warmer so you didn’t have to wear all the leather!!!

Gotta run…

Ride Safe…
Dave Fisher

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I got there about 6:15 and checked the area out with Mike Long. As we stood there, more and more bikes began pulling into the parking lot and before we knew it, we have over 55 motorcycles there for the picture. Bakersfield Police was nice enough to block the intersection and in a short ten minutes, HOG moved all 55 riders into position under the sign, filmed our presentation, and had all the bikes pull out. ALL IN UNDER 10 MINUTES.

The HOG members that came were very quick to line up, more than 3 deep, and left the gathering safely and orderly with no mishaps. Quite a feat when you have so many bikes in such a small area.

The enthusiasm of the crowd was contagious. Everyone had a great time and we didn’t hear one complaint about how early the shoot was. Some of our members came from Frazier Park to make it into the picture.

This activity is indicative of our HOG organization. We have a great group of quality people willing to take a few moments out of their morning to make our presentation to the State Rally Committee great.

I want to thank everyone who showed up for this event. I also want to thank HRC John Clevelend, HRC Wes Coble, and RC Mike Coble for creating and working on the film. From what I’ve seen, it’s great and should go over well.

See you on the road…
RIDE SAFE

DAVE FISHER
DIRECTOR

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