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01/29/2006: "Another Nice Day in the Santa Monica Mtns."

After last weeks ride, I was really starting to feel a lot more comfortable on the bike. Since I had some time to kill this morning, I went for another ride in the Santa Monica Mtns (my stomping grounds). I got to the Rock Store around 9:40 this morning and it was already packed.




Since I wanted to spend more time riding than hanging out, I walked around only for a bit to get some pictures of some nice bikes.




I had never seen an MV Agusta Brutale in person before. It's a very sweet looking bike. MV's styling crew, in my opinion, are amongst the best in the world. I'd seen a Ducati Monster before, but this one was nicely done. I also got to meet the owner of the '06 R1 LE that's pictured. Even he was impressed with Robyn

I had to get a picture of a fairly stock Raven R1 ('cause I've never seen Robyn stock) and a picture of a new '06 Raven R6. I must say that I like the Raven color scheme better than the Kenny Roberts livery. The owner seemed a bit too paranoid though (putting a Disc lock on your bike at the Rock Store on the weekend is completely unnecessary).

I chatted with the owner of the R1 LE for a bit before I headed out to do some actual canyon carving. I decided to head down Mulholland to Stunt Rd. Stunt Rd. is one of my favorite . . or was. It's still a fairly nice road, but seems to have deteriorated since the last time I was on it.

Despite the road not being as good as it was, I had a blast getting to the top for these pictures:





It was a fun ride. I just started reading Smooth Riding the Pridmore Way. He stresses riding smoothly in his book. That was my focus on this ride.

It's amazing how fast you can go when you're just trying to be smooth.