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01/21/2006: "First Group Riding Experience"
mood: pleased
RhymeSayer of SCS posted a thread to see if anyone want to carve up Angeles Crest Highway (ACH) today. Since it rained last weekend, and I was itching to ride ACH again . . but for the first time with Robyn so, I thought I'd join in. Turns out that CanyonBall was bringing out his brand new 2006 R6. Naturally, everyone wanted to see it, so there was a big group (16 of us in total). 
I got there a bit early, feuled up, and hung out with some friendly, motorcycle loving/riding familiar and unfamiliar faces. The increasing popularity of the sport and being away from riding for 8 months can created many unfamiliar faces.
As you will see in some of these pictures, it was a little chilly this morning, but not too bad (nothing some thermal underwear under the leathers didn't fix) 
Once CanyonBall arrived with his R6 everyone naturally wanted to see it up close. He let me throw a leg over it and I'll tell you, it almosts feels like I had a beach cruiser between my knees. Very tall seat height but also really light weight.
Once everyone stopped drolling over the R6, we decided to head up to Newcombs Ranch. I ended up being the reluctant lead rider to Newcombs. Since it had been a while, I was a bit apprehensive about being the lead.
But, after I thought about it for a bit . . I figured that I would rather have the better/faster riders pass me, than be stuck behind a less skilled/slower rider and fear them losing it in front of me. 
We hung out at Newcombs for a bit looking at the other bikes that arrived. Some of us decided to drink some coffee and/or have some breakfast. Once we were all ready to go again, we decided to take Big T to the tree on AFH. This time, I got James aka Shrewd to lead
We hung out at the Big Tree for a bit, bench racing, sharing riding tips, general 'biker' chat. Once we were ready to roll. We took Big T back to ACH down to the Shell station we started at.
It was a great day. The temps were a bit cool when we started, but then warmed up nicely (especially since it's winter time). No one got a ticket or wadded their bike. We all got to meet some cool new people, see some old friends and see some nice bikes.
What can get better than this.
To see even more pictures . . go here