Scheduled maintenance: Oil changes

Both motorcycles have gone 6k+ miles since the last oil change. We are at Diane’s parents in the bay area so before we arrived I called various BMW dealers to make sure they had the oil and filters we needed to do an oil change. A&S BMW Motorcycles near Sacramento had a special on oil changes – cheaper than if I were to buy the parts myself.

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SR-36

California State Route 36 – from Fortuna on the coast to Red Bluff inland. This road is legendary and considered by many one of the best motorcycle roads in California. It has everything, big sweeping turns, technical switchbacks, 180 degree turns along the mountain side. Like SR 96, the road follows every single terrain feature especially on the eastern end where the section is know as the ‘roller coaster’ for the frequent up and downs in the road. Continue reading SR-36

Lava Beds National Monument

Another ‘cold hands’ morning – it was only 43F (6 C). The warm coffee and breakfast felt really good. We left the park around 9:00 heading south, via Klamath Falls to Lava Beds National Monument. We weren’t sure where we would go after that but probably further west towards IH 5 to get situated for exploring more of northern California.

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Crater Lake National Park

Sunshine in the morning! What a welcome relief and change of pace from the last couple of days. I would never survive in the Pacific Northwest – too much bad weather, too depressing ;-). Crater Lake National Park is our destination for the day and we are eager to get on the road looking forward to taking one of Oregon’s scenic byways. Continue reading Crater Lake National Park

Along the Oregon Coast

The weather didn’t improve overnight though it felt a little warmer this morning. Low clouds hovering over the mountains greet us in the hotel parking lot as we get ready to ride further south on U.S. 101. The day’s goal is Reedsport, OR or there about.

Traffic is still heavy, especially through the resort/tourist towns of Lincoln City and Newport though there seem to be fewer RVs on the road today. Riding along 101 it seems there’s a beach or state park every other mile. Simply amazing. Even more so is the fact that a lot of the state campgrounds have the ‘FULL’ signs out! Call us whimps but we have no desire to camp in this sub 70 degree weather. Sitting around the picnic table in a jacket to keep warm isn’t my idea of fun. I have been living in hot climates too long I suppose.

Hence we are staying at the ‘Economy Inn’ in Reedsport. The room rate is anything but ($81) for an old (though clean) room. The Best Western in town only had smoking rooms – pass on that. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is nearby so that’s not helping with the prices.

Todays route.

South bound on U.S. 101

Lovely. Low clouds and drizzle, a whopping 59F (15 C) outside great us in the morning. The ‘high’ for the day was 61F in Tillamook. Not the best riding weather. Maybe that’s why we got a late start this morning, continuing down U.S. 101. RV’s (towing cars) are evil ;-). Too many on the road, too much traffic.

A short distance day (150 miles) but we still managed to be tired at the end of it. The combination of high traffic volume and gloomy weather with sometimes wet roads takes just as much effort riding as cruising all day for hundreds of miles on straight dry road.

Todays route.

Riding the Olympic peninsula

Overcast skies greet us in the morning. After a brief test ride yesterday afternoon I felt the seat was hard so I wanted to go for a longer ride early in the morning. If more adjustments were needed they could be done before we left. I was on the road by 6:30 for a 90 minute ride (temps in the fifties with drizzle). I felt the seat was firm but at least I wasn’t getting butt burn/numbness anymore. I thought all was well.

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Seat adjustment

Diane has an appointment to get her custom seat adjusted on Tuesday which gives us all day Monday to get to Kingston, WA from Seattle. Kingston is on the Olympic peninsula which means a ferry ride from Edmonds just north of Seattle. Although we waited until 9:30 to get on the road we still hit traffic and congestion on IH-5 northbound. Crazy traffic.

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