The Cheap Cali report...

[cheapbastard]

So what the hell, I figured I'd write this shit up for all of you 's that didn't make the rally, especially you ***** ass locals that didn't show up.

So prepare yourselves for the longest post in history. This is an epic tale of the great adventures I just had in Cali and will prolly be loaded down with hundreds of pics, so be prepared. It's a story of 4 great friends from each end of the US(Cali, Michigan, NC, and Florida) that love getting together and tear'n it up and making more friends along the way.

Dan, Jim, Gino, and me.




Day 1
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Jim picked me up from LAX and rushed me to the hotel where we had these waiting...





so we figured why waste time when we had atleast 5 hrs to pickup Gino, so we jumped on the bikes and headed to Beverly Hills!







After we remembered it was legal to lane split in Cali, it was on back to the hotel! I have to admit, that shit is an adrenalin rush from hell. We made it back just in time to go pick up our boy Gino, and after that we just had a few drinks and tried to prepare ourselves for the ride to Monterey the next day.

Day 2
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We actually had a few more show up for the ride to Monterey than I expected, all in all, a great group of guys here, as usual.





after the meets and greets it was up the PCH!!!





made a few stops at some of the famous places...







and of course we had to stop for some of the breathtaking views...



me and Gino...



this Porcshe almost wiped out right in front of us!!! We have the aftermath on video, he was trying to outrun us.





more beautiful scenery...









then we had a little problemo when Brenden's Speedtona sprung a gas leak...



Dan says he was wash'n the gas off his hands, but it doesn't look that way!





was just a pinhole in a hose that we patched right there on the spot. And looky at who had the next problem for a stop. My damn gear shifter almost fell off my rental Gixxer.



so we steal a bolt off the rear passenger peg, and I'm set.



now back off to try and make Monterey before dark. No more problems getting there, and we actually met up with 2 more peeps from the site once there, so then it's off to dinner right down the street...



after quite a few pitchers of beer and some pizza there, the drunkeness just escalated. :lol: let's not forget how funny one of these places are when you're drunk. :drunk:



yes, that's Jim busted coming out.



and everyone got a kick out of the cheap cigarette sign for me.



on with more drunkeness...















poor DJ somehow managed to put up with us for 4 days!

[cheapbastard]

Day 3
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so what do me and Jim awake to with a bunch of drunk hooligans around and an adult theatre place down the road?!?









then it's off back down the PCH try'n to figure out how to dodge the rain that they are saying is down south.





Some more beautiful stops...







There were 10 of us on the way back down, I think this be all the playa's.

Joe



Gino



Jim



yours truly



Chad



DJ



Brenden



Brenden's brother



Joel



and I guess Dan was too chicken shit to put his pic on photobucket , so more scenery...





so then everyone wanted to see a couple of wheelies, and we figured where better than the PCH. So I tried my first few wheelies on the Speed4 because I still sucked ass on the Gixxer.









not the greatest wheelies, but a few decent ones. After this, the ride got interesting. We hit some good twisty bits off the PCH thru the desert try'n to avoid the storms, and we got some good video footage thru here, Missy has a few up on youtube now, not many pics thru there. So we finally make it back to Dan's near 10pm and 450 some odd miles later. Drink a few , hit the sack, get ready for the next day.

Day 4
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Wow, these Cali guys know how to make us out of towners feel welcome. Once again, more of the crew from TheSpeedTriple.com







hit some awesome twisties this day, as a matter of fact, my favorite road from the trip was on this day, and the next! Taking a breather...





After our 1st run down Montezuma's pass, it was time for a lunch break...









Gino looks hungry!



Slow down Jim!!!



After we let the food digest a bit, how about some action pics?

no not this one.



Go Jeff go!





tried to get everyone coming thru a time or two...



































but alas... me and Gino are camera hogs. :P We made more than a couple of passes.



























So how can we get lovely DJ to look thru the turn? You know, the lovely lady that's already been put'n up with our BS for a couple of days... well, we figured it out.





she really picked the pace up after that one.







so finally time for to get some pics of Dan the camera man.

















I even got some pics of the cop from Utah(jpip) cross'n the double yellow line.









so the copper rode all the way in from Utah(700 miles one way), and he's need'n a new tire before he heads home on Monday. So we decided to run by Joe's house and take his wheel off to get a tire mounted, but not before Joel has to make a routine police stop on the way...





The famous pics from the "neighborhood thread" that Joe had no idea about until we posted the pics online. Gino swore he could get his knee down...



^ not quite bitch, a little farther(notice me in the background cheering him on).



just a c*#t hair more.



mission accomplished. And Joe never knew until we posted the pic on the forum that night. But we did tell Joel, and I think he tried to accomplish the same feat leaving on a brand new tire.



notice the scrape in the road?



yes, new cold tire with dumbass operating it = dumbass on the pavement. Luckily, speedy wasn't even harmed, frame slider took it all.



but he didn't hide that from Joe, he got to witness it all.



so then it was off to Chili's(in the cage of course) to forget about the mishap.







Then DJ thanked us all for coming so far and Dan for pulling this thing together, and she covered the bill!!! And many thanks to Hockeyfan for donating the cash for a round for all of us.

[cheapbastard]

Day 5
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The group started dwindling down little by little, DJ had to get back towards home, and Jim had to prepare for his flight 1st thing Monday AM. But we still had a decent group of locals meet up for a ride up Palomar Mtn!!!

Jim seeing us off his last day with his rally shirt on backwards.



up at Palomar Mtn...







Palomar was a great ride, another one of my fave's while out there. Had some really technical turns going up. Here are some pics as we were coming down the backside of Palomar.









Mr Poser.





the group that day...



after Palomar, we hit Montezuma's again since I loved it so much, then off to Chaparral to see if it was all Dan kept saying it was... AND MAN WAS IT!!!



the pics don't do the place justice, just the store part, is atleast as big as a Walmart or Sams, not to mention they own practically every building in a 4 block radius!

SuperDuke R



me triking it on a CanAm


a blurry pic of a few bikes they had...



overstock in the back!





their small service dept.



after we left there, we called it a day and went back to Chili's for some more Long Islands.

Day 6(The final day )
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It was rather cool this day, and Joel was headed back to Utah, so it was just me, Dan, and Gino meet'n up with a few locals. I was surprised any of the locals showed up, as it felt like winter time to them.









so off up a beautiful road that was 6000 ft. in elevation, and we thought we were freezing before, but we eventually called this one off once we saw sand and all on the roads from snow that week!

here we all are at the highest point we made it, prolly around 5000 ft...











so we headed back down the mtn, and decided to warm up with some Denny's and call it a day... well........ almost. Me and Gino didn't have any of our side by side wheelie shots yet, so we went out for a little wheelie session, even Dan wanted in on some pics this time, he was just learn'n some 1st gear wheelies with the S4.

But I had to get a few wheelie pics in on the S4 1st.



Gino on the CBR.





me and Gino...























I love this one of Gino, the bike looks jacked up.



gotta few shots of Dan on his own bike.















back to the squid bike for me.





it's a shame they missed that 2 up squid wheelie pic.



triple wheelies(and not 1 damn speed triple. )









































I was really struggling with the Gixxer if ya can't tell. That bike has no power until 10k rpm. But I still had some decent one's.

After that, we headed back to Dan's place and cleaned the bikes up before we had to return them, well... we got Dan to clean the bikes up.







and that was pretty much it. If we would have actually ridden that last day, it would have been really close to 2k miles when we turned the bikes in, but I ain't complaining with 1700. Had the time of my life, if you ever get the chance to make a trip out there, DO IT!

Hope ya'll enjoyed the story and pics.

[cheapbastard]

Thanks to all for coming out and meeting us and showing us a good time. Special thanks to Dan for making all of this possible. You da man Dan.

[J-Pip]

But Cheap really played down just how gnarly that corner I fell in really was. It was brutal, I'm definitely goin back to tackle it again.

[Razorback]

Man, I'm bummed I missed you guys, but it looks like you guys had a shitload of fun.
Good stuff.

[cheapbastard]

Man, I'm bummed I missed you guys

no worries, you can make it up to me by posting this pic...



on Trat.

[Razorback]

I would but...
BANNED

4

EVER

[crashmasterd]

And not a moment too soon.

[TheMoke]

Great write-up Cheap.