Motorcycling

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Me and my Honda, 1977.

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Best surviving photo of the Harley, 1982.

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The BMW as it looked when I bought it in 2004.

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The newest ride, a 1970 BMW R75/5 with my daughter, the day I bought it. Currently it's in pieces - being restored.

Northwest Riding

I like to ride motorcycles. Someday I might get all philosophical about that point, like climbers do when you ask why people climb mountains, but for now I'll keep it simple: I like to see the country, and I prefer to be outdoors when I do it. Cruising around in a little box doesn't do it for me, and the constraints of modern life make it impractical to walk everywhere. Lacking a pair of seven-league boots, I can still take a stroll across the country with my motorcycle.

I also like to work on motorcycles. Here too philosophy is tempting, but for now I'll just refer you to Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," which is a book that you should read regardless of your feelings about motorcycles or mechanics. Or Zen, for that matter.

At any rate, I started riding in 1976, when I was 18, had finished my first year of college, and had found a sufficiently lucrative summer job to put a burning wad of cash in my pocket. That translated into a new Honda CB360T, a little road bike that I proceeded to start riding 24,000 km a year. Three years and 72,000 km later the Honda and I had visited 40 U.S. states and 5 Canadian provinces, it needed a new top end, and I traded it for a car. But by then I had been bitten by the bug, and as soon as money allowed I had a Harley under me (a very old Harley that broke down a lot). Money ran short again as grad school and a family developed, but in 2003 I finally had a little financial breathing space and bought at 1996 BMW R1100RSL with 67,000 km on it. I started riding again, 24,000 km a year again, this time mostly exploring the wonders of home, Washington, with occasional forays into British Columbia. There was also a grand trip through Mexico, described below. Now it's late 2008 and I've decided to finally start a website about motorcycling. The site is organized into disparate topics, so scroll down and check out what looks good.

Best Motorcycle Rides of Washington

This is the heart of this site. Requires Google Earth to view the ride description files. For many rides, it includes downloadable route files with waypoints.

Northern Mexico (2007)

The travelogue from a four-week, 13,000-km ride from Washington to Michoacán and back. This piece was published in the newsletter of my local BMW club, the WSBMWR.

1970 BMW R75/5 Restoration

When I bought the R75/5 shown at left, it was running, but didn't have much else going for it. Now it's in pieces. This page documents the ongoing saga of its restoration.