The Daily Rider Motoworks

3800 miles later I finally found some real maple syrup while literally looking at the Pacific Ocean. With that accomplished I can finally go home.
-Ben

Lunch at a motorcycle themed vineyard, finish line in Oceanside CA and a bit of the Pacific Ocean. Finding parking for a truck and trailer on the coast is almost as difficult as riding a 95 year old bike there! Wish I could say the last day was a good ride but the bike really didn’t like the hills and the traffic was a bit intense. Much to my surprise the best day of the trip for me and the bike was in the flat desert a day before. Great to be across the finish line though.
My class was won by a 1926 Rudge which I’m happy with. Both candidates to win that class (the other being a Scott Flying Squirrel) were almost as unusual as my neracar and ridden by very clever guys who deserved a trophy.

Forgot to post yesterday, went through Zion national park before having a gas leak near Saint George Utah where I decided to hop on the truck again. Turned out to be a good decision, the riding got very hot and windy after St. George. Spent a lot of the afternoon holding an umbrella over a couple other riders by the side of the road as they changed a tire tube and then a chain. Zion was incredible, I’ve camped in the bottom of the Grand Canyon and I might rate Zion above that even. Roads so twisty I didn’t get photos though. Except the gas station afterwards. Ended up in Vegas (more or less) at the end of the day. Vegas isn’t really my speed to put it politely, but I liked the fake sunset on the ceiling of the casino.

Stunning scenery today, wish I’d been on a bike. 300 miles on the route tomorrow, Ner-a-car is theoretically ready to go for it. If it goes all the way that’ll be the longest day I’ve ever done on it.

Took the day off and had a nice drive over the Rockies and then investigated the phantom brake problem. Lots of work as you can see. Couldn’t find anything wrong in there. Got a close look at all the working parts so I have to assume they’re ok to put back together. But that’s another several hours and the sun is already down so I’m skipping tomorrow too. Supposed to be some beautiful national parks on the route, might be better not to be riding them because I’d only be hurrying past them at 40mph.

Another 270 miles down, and I got a tiny train as a gift. Another big event at the end of the day in Colorado Springs.
Made the painful decision to skip tomorrow’s ride. The bike has an intermittent brake issue that I think might be dangerous and needs investigating. But I felt like I was done at mile 180 today, I don’t have the energy to spend four more hours after dark pulling the rear wheel. And also the schedule is even more grueling tomorrow and includes an 11000 foot mountain pass. It helped that Bob (sponsor/truck driver/Ner-a-car enthusiast) was supportive of that, I expected he might be disappointed that he was hauling all our gear around for me to skip a day.

Forgot to take photos again! Here’s someone else who had a worse day than me too. Everything was solid today from Wichita to Garden City Kansas. Really nice reception in Garden too, we were all lined up on Main Street. Didn’t like the roads though, 65mph two lane roads packed with 18 wheelers. Horrible for riding at 40mph.