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Brad Fitzpatrick

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Wherein Brad does ~20/30(?) mile ride around city [Mar. 18th, 2007|07:02 pm]
Brad Fitzpatrick
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Observations from long ride all over the city in the extreme fog & wind:
  • Heated hand grips are a lifesaver! Holy crap they're nice.
  • San Francisco is awesome. So pretty.
  • Wind is crazy. Damn. Felt like I was being pushed all over. Loved it.
  • Oh, condensation... that's what that is! You gotta wipe off your visor sometimes when it's all windy and foggy driving up & down the coast.
  • A 6th gear would be nice. I frequently found myself shifting into non-existent 6th gear.
  • Don't pull into a scenic rest area parking spot, facing downhill. Damn. Almost didn't make the turn back out. Would've been embarassing to ask adjacent car to back out so I could leave.
My route was:
  • Diamond Heights,
  • Market,
  • Fell,
  • the park,
  • beach, Cliff House, the baths, back down to Cliff House,
  • Great Highway (or whatever), down the coast...
  • Skyline...
  • San Mateo county line...
  • 280 back to San Jose avenue.
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Comments:
[User Picture]From: feren
2007-03-19 03:12 am (UTC)
Heated hand grips are a lifesaver! Holy crap they're nice.

I learned this lesson while I was growing up in Minnesota. Around age 10 I got hooked on snowmobiling, which is sort of the winter equivalent of motorcycling. After I got a sled with hand warmers I vowed never to go back.
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[User Picture]From: matthew
2007-03-19 03:14 am (UTC)
> A 6th gear would be nice. I frequently found myself shifting into non-existent 6th gear.

I have a non-existant 7th gear that I frequently try to shift into on my bike. After you've passed the break-in milage you'll be able to rev higher and it won't be such a problem for you.


As for parking, yeah... it would be nice to have a reverse gear every once in a while.
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[User Picture]From: uke
2007-03-19 05:00 am (UTC)
Soon it'll be time for your inaugural ride up to Alice's!
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[User Picture]From: uke
2007-03-19 05:01 am (UTC)
(Oh, you said Skyline; perhaps you already made it there.)
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[User Picture]From: brad
2007-03-19 10:49 pm (UTC)
No, haven't gone up there. Looks cool, though!
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[User Picture]From: dpb
2007-03-19 03:35 pm (UTC)
Where are the pics? You keep saying how beautiful the rides are, I need to know just how beautiful!
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From: djwatson
2007-03-19 05:10 pm (UTC)
Missing 6th? It's not a car, you probably just need to rev higher. I tend to stick around 5-6k on my VFR, and she's just getting started with the HP around 7k.
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[User Picture]From: brad
2007-03-19 10:49 pm (UTC)
Yeah, but I'm still at ~190 miles, so I'm waiting until 300 or so until I take it past ~4k.

The few times I've gone up to 4.5/5k, it's felt great, though.
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[User Picture]From: vespa59
2007-03-19 10:25 pm (UTC)
What gloves are you using? I have a reasonable pair of Tourmasters that are pretty good year round for San Francisco. Bonus is that they have a little rubber wiper blade on the thumb of the left one so you can squeegee off your visor while condensation builds up. Life saver round here.

My bike is running so awesomely since I got it back from the shop, so if you're up for another little ride around this weekend, then I am so down.
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