Bought the new bike in december, and until last week, most of my
riding had been break in and commuting. Even that trip to SF (I got
into a car accident and ended up slabbing back down rather then taking
the pacific coast hightway)

This weekend, I had a guest, my friend Jason, owner of a now sort of
defunct '89 Ninja 1000RR (taken out by a cage on a rotary over 1.5
years ago). Turns out that the only thing one can rent out here at the
last minute that wasnt a Harley sportster was a Buell S2 lightening.

Woah.  :) rumble rumble. So I ahd to take him up my favorite road to
have lunch at Newcomb's ranch. We found Squid's Leap, a long left hand
decreasing raduis turn that involves either falling offa really nice
cliff (great view! dont let it distract you!) or slamming into
rock. Deceptive.

Turns out that I'm really not used to riding in a group - its
distracting seeing someone in the turn ahead of me, and I dont look
thru the turn correctly, and therefore end up going alot slower then
everyone else to compensate. Got the comment that when` I'm up front I
tend to go a lot faster then expected from my following technique.

I think its just that since I'm not used to riding with anyone, then
it makes sense that riders in front of me are distracting on the
twisties.

Heck, I even scraped a PEG going up. yea. me. whoohoo! :) 

Anyway, make it up to Newcomb's Ranch, and its COLD. well, colder then
we expected so none of us were wearing that one extra layer that would
have helped.

Ride back down, get stuck behind an absolute IDIOT of a driver in a
Jeep Cherokee who insisted on not letting us by (tho we werepolite and
didnt pass on double yellow) and would SPEED UP on the few passbys..

I couldnt help it. I had to flip him off when we FINALLY got to the
bottom. I spent the time trying to take every turn perfectly. *shakes
head* One of the guys on the trip thought he was not aware of what he
was doing, but he'd speed way way up to GET to a curve and then slam
on the brakes in the middle... anyway, we werent tailgating, nor were
we being overly rude, and its not like we wanted to go 100mph. just
not 40...

Saturday was the Triumph ride, but we found out that Ojai was near
Santa Barbara, and there was little chance tha we'd make it back by 4
30 pm to Anaheim to drop off the Buell.

So I call Brian at 9 am and tell him we're heading to Muholland
highway, meet us at noon at the Rock Store. Took Jason up Stunt Road,
a twisty fun bit of track that starts out with a sign that looks like
a squiggly road and says "Next 8 miles".

The view from the top is great. SOmetimes I come up here alone and sit
and eat a samwich and watch the birds. You can see the valley on one
side and Santa Monica and the water on the other. Fun part was
definately the ride down. Parts of the hills have been washed out so
some of the roads are Not There. Big signs taying Detour, until it
finally ended. One of the turns started out innocently enough, but you
know, how you are supposed to look THRU the turn? Well, looking thru
suddenly became looking as far over my right shoulder as I could. The
deceptive turn was a U Turn downhill, blind and sharp. EEEK! I did end
up on the wrong side of the road on the breakdown lane. *thank all the
little green goblins for luck that didnt have a cage coming upthe hill
at the same time...*

That was definately the only really awful thing that happened. Met up
with Brian at the Rock Store at noon, looked at the babes and
bikes. The Buell gets lots of attention... I was the only woman riding
and not on back.  *sigh*

Then the weirdest thing happens. A guy walks up to and looks at me and
says, "umm, I'm not sure how to pronounce it... Gay... Gay.."< I
finish it.. "Guy-a-three, hi, who are you?"
	
	"Oh, I'm soandso - read a post of yours on the Triumph list."

Flabbergasted. 

	um. I've been recognized 'cause of ONE post about my
bike. whoa.  (Guess there really arent a lot of asian indian women
riding, much less on british sport tourers...)

Saw a red VFR roll in.. gee, that Zleathers look familiar.. hey! its
another friend, Jim ! Drag jim along back up the hill and get the best
picture of the weekend (if only we had a ducati, it would have been
complete) - just north of the Rockstore is about two miles of some fun
tight turns that opens up into another vista... I pull in and three
feet behind me pulls in Brian, followed by Jim and then Jason. So we
had a British sport bike (triumph sprint), a German sport bike
(BMWR100), a Japanese sport bike (VFR750) and an American Sport bike
(Buell S2 lightening)

We NEEDED a Ducati... :)

Spent the rest of the day riding a few more roads, and convinced Jim
to follow me and Jason down to Anaheim to take me back to
Pasadena. (I'm not real happy about riding on the back of MY bike, but
I could ride on the back with Jim...)

Jason hands me the keys to the Buell on the last set of twisties
before we hit the 10 to the 5 to Anaheim..

oh. mi. gosh.

	rumble rumble... my bike feels like a sewing machine on speed
next to this 1203 cc engine.. my feet felt like they were going to
vibrate off. even at highway speeds.  The seating position was fine
for a short distance, but it could not be comfy for the kinda
distances I like to do... my wrists were really sore by the end of the
trip.

THe bike at under 1500RPM's would shake so violently, one wonders how
the pieces all stay on.. handles very well, pulling thru the turns
nicely, tho its definately heavier then my bike and a lot lower.

Get to Anaheim, get lost trying to find Cruise America *eek! lost in
anaheim!*

We drop the bike off and I found out that Jim's never taken a pillon
on his VFR. Um. okie. Good thing he's solid on the bike. Being a
pillion is weird, but the VFR is comfy.

What is it about Mercedes Benz's? Back east, volvo's try and take us
out. Here, Mercedes speed up, pass you, slam on their brakes in front
of you. Or in our case, try and drift into Jim's VFR. Thank goodness
for strong thighs... when that mercedes drifted, jim's bike lept
forward. Wheeee!!! I like this speed thing.