The Bear Facts! - CA-C
Transcription
The Bear Facts! - CA-C
The Bear Facts! The OFFICIAL Journal of GWRRA Region F’s Capital City Wings! Join Us At Our Next Meeting—February 21, 2016 Chapter CA-C “Capital City Wings” meets the 3rd Sunday each month Elks Lodge #6, 6446 Riverside Blvd. (@ Florin Rd.), Sacramento, CA. Friends for Fun, Safety and Knowledge—What Else Is There? Volume 12 February 2016 Issue 2 Barri & Mike Critzman, GWRRA Directors of Motorist Awareness, asked each chapter in Region F to submit squares to be made into a quilt. The quilt will be raffled off at Wing Ding in Billings, MT to raise funds for the Motorist Awareness Program. The theme of the quilt is “Winging the USA”. Following the specifications given, I’ve sent them a 9 inch square from our chapter. Based on the vote from the last meeting, here is a picture of what I submitted. Nancy Redding In This Issue: Hello California! ……….... 2 Greatest Tool Ever? ……….... 5 Helmet up for the crash? ... 4 18-Wheelers The Fun Side ………….....… 5 Breakfast! And much, much more!!!!! 1 .………………… 7 ……………………. 8 Hello California! W ow!!! What a ride! We had the best time at Officers Conference. If you weren’t able to attend…I’m sorry. We weren’t sure what to expect, or how everything was going to work, (especially since we weren’t able to begin set-up until 1am). With everyone’s help, it was a great success. We were honored to be able to serve California, by installing some wonderful new officers. California is in good hands. Be sure to thank your Chapter team (officers and support staff) for all they do for your chapter, but better yet, join the FUN they have by volunteering to assist in any area…You can’t have FUN if you don’t participate. If you weren’t at Officers Conference, you may not know that this year’s Rally theme is Football. We are already having a lot of FUN with this. One of our slogans is “Don’t be Sidelined… Participate”. Your chapter has chosen an NFL Team for the District Game and also to represent your chapter at our California District Rally. Yes, we can call them Rallies again, because our goal is FUN. We also introduced our new mascot and retired “Dude” to a life of leisure with Vince and Pam. Our mascot is a bear, and he wore a turtle hat in honor of “Dude”. We had many good suggestions for a name for our mascot, but we settled on “Huggy-bear” or “Huggy” for short. This being appropriate since this year’s theme is “The Year of the Bear-Hug”. Little did those who suggested this name know how special that name “Huggy-bear” is to the both of us. Our first Foster baby, which we dearly loved, but had to release after 8 months, was named Huggy -bear, and has always had a special place in our hearts. As soon as that suggestion appeared (numerous times), we knew that was the name. “Huggy” is looking forward to spending a lot of time having FUN with you all throughout the year. As we start this year out riding, we hope to see many of you out supporting chapters, attending gatherings and rallies. Our first rally is coming quickly - the Valentine’s Run with CA-1I, on February 13th. Hope to see you all there. There will be the announcement for the Chapter of the Year and possibly another big surprise. We look forward to a great year. Thank you California! Nancy & Bob Clark 2 Is Your Helmet Up to the Crash? Tom “Hammer” Whitson CA-C Chapter Director S ome interesting facts I ran into. We all wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle - it’s the law in California. Have you ever asked yourself, “is my helmet up to a crash?” How many of you have read the care instructions provided by your helmet manufacturer? The general rule is to replace your helmet every five years, but what if you drop it, sweat heavily or wear it every day? The biggest myth is that if your helmet falls off your parked bike, you should change your helmet. That is probably put out by helmet retailers. Certainly you should check it and it depends on how far it has dropped. Most helmets will easily withstand the general knocking around they get in daily life. That doesn’t mean you can throw your helmet around. You need to treat your helmet with respect and care and store you helmet in a cool dry place. General helmet use means a helmet will last for about five years. The glues, resins and other materials used in making of the making of the helmet can lose their effectiveness and also deteriorate the lining. Another good reason to replace your helmet every five years is that helmet technology is advanc- ing all the time and a new helmet is going to offer more protection than something five years old. It goes without saying if your helmet is involved in a crash replace it. Remember, take care of your helmet and it will take care of you! SOME HELMET STATISTICS In 2008, 43 percent of all victims fatally injured in a motorcycle accident were not wearing helmets. According to the Department of Transportation, only the District of Columbia and 19 other states mandate universal helmet laws, even though research has proven that helmet use is the easiest way to save lives in a motorcycle accident. In 1997 seven states had repealed the universal helmet law, leading to an increase in motorcycle deaths with Louisiana leading with a 108 percent increase. In 2004, nationwide helmet use increased. As a result, motorcycle accident fatality rates drastically decreased. 3 4 The Fun Side of the Officer’s Conference... Diane Knox K en, Hammer, Kathy, Gordon and I left for the conference in Bakersfield on a stormy Friday. The weather improved in Fresno and it was sunny in Bakersfield. We checked into our rooms at the host hotel, the Doubletree, and rested in our respective rooms - enjoying our warm chocolate chip cookies provided by the hotel. We then traveled .3 miles to the Buck Owens Chrystal Palace for dinner. We had a fabulous dinner, met new friends from Bakersfield (Hammer even shared some of his delicious ribs with the people at an adjacent table) and enjoyed wonderful country music from the Buckeraoos. Most of the band members had played with Buck Owens for years. The walls of the restaurant were display cases of Buck's coats, hats, awards, gold records, pictures and thousands of other mementos. We would have liked to have stayed to see more and enjoy more of the band, but had to be ready the next morning for an 8:00 am meeting. The new District Directors, Bob and Nancy Clark, started the conference on time and kept to the agenda! The theme for the next year is Bear Hugs. Bob and Nancy announced the new chapter game, gave the oath of office to the new officers, introduced the new District team, etc. Come to our next Chapter meeting to hear more about the game and some of the great ideas that were shared at the conference. To everyone's delight, the conference ended an hour early! Kathy and Gordon had a commitment on Sunday morning, so they had to leave right after the conference. Chip and Charli Chipman joined us for a great steak dinner at the Hungry Hunter. It was another evening with good friends and good food, plus a wonderful Russian River wine Charli introduced to me. Early Sunday morning, we drove up Highway 99 and made it home in time to watch the playoff games. 5 Greatest Tool Ever Invented??? A Rick McCusker nyone who knows me well also knows I’m not afraid to dig in and get my hands dirty. I have always maintained my own vehicles (unless they have a maintenance contract) as well as just about everything around the house. My favorite subjects in school? Shop classes, of course. They taught me just about everything I know about fixin’ stuff. My favorite toy store? If you ask my wife, she will say it’s Best Buy. But if you ask me, it’s the tool department at Sears. I can walk around that department for hours and dream about my next gotta-have-it tool. Sound familiar? The big problem is the speed at which stuff “improves” and becomes harder and harder to work on. Two examples – back in the early sixties Chevrolet had the 283 and 327 small block engines. Those were a DREAM to work on. I could tear one completely down and rebuild it with no problem at all. Do I want to work on a modern car with all the fuel injection and smog stuff on it? No way! Couple that with all of the computers involved in a modern car and it has put the shade tree mechanic like myself out to pasture. Sure, there are a few things I can fix like the brakes, but that’s about it. Another example is the electrical panel for our hot tub had this device in it that burned out twice and required replacement. I called the manufacturer of the part and found out it was no longer available. I had a few options to consider – one of which was to get a similar part for about $250 – which wasn’t going to happen. So I spent $90 and installed a new subpanel for the hot tub. Electrical problems don’t scare me unless there is BIG power involved. I’ll call a professional for that stuff. Last week I tore into my Goldwing and did some of the maintenance items mentioned in the owner’s manual. I’ve changed the spark plugs, oil and oil filter and brake pads. Thanks to Ken Knox, I have a shop manual that pretty much covers my 2010 Goldwing. A year or so ago I added some LED lighting to my ride and found that Tom Jefferies had a wiring diagram for my bike. Checked out the schematic and easily found what I wanted to tap into for power at the back of the bike with ease. Tom was amazed that I can read a wiring diagram… Let’s talk about tools. I have a pretty complete set of woodworking and mechanic’s “toys” to play with that makes it relatively easy to get stuff done – usually in a fairly short amount of time. However, one task had me sweating bullets last week and was absolutely NO fun at all…. Changing a headlight bulb on the ‘Wing. Getting my fat arm down the tunnel, not being able to see what I’m doing and getting that damn retaining clip put back was taking a long time. So, being the resourceful individual my wife knows and loves, I went to Harbor Freight and bought the longest set of needle nose pliers they had. Once back at the bike, I had that clip in place in a couple of minutes… No problem! Now I’m going to divulge one of the greatest resources available for those of us not afraid to get our hands dirty…. Youtube!!! There is a video for just about anything you could ever want to do to anything on that website! When we bought our Goldwing, one of the concerns was, “How am I ever going to pick that monster up if it falls over?” Found the answer on a Youtube video. Piece of cake – if you’ve seen the video. If you haven’t, you’re going to hurt yourself! Next up on the maintenance schedule on the Goldwing is changing the air filter. Some of you would rather take it to a shop, but I’ve seen the Youtube video on how to do it and it doesn’t intimidate me one little bit. The moral of this story is don’t be afraid to just jump into a project – AFTER you’ve used the greatest tool invented in the last 10 years – Youtube!!! 6 18-Wheelers—Often Good Riding Buddies! James R. Davis W hen I was on jury duty a few months ago I had occasion to spend a lot of hours with a trucker who explained to me many of the things that I have always been curious about. Not the least surprising of which, considering the setting, was how many truckers manage to accumulate far more miles in their rigs than the law allows with the illegal use of a second set of log books. (The message here is clear - many truckers out there are TIRED - morning, noon, or night.) [I have only been inside the cab of an 18-wheeler once in my life, when I was a kid. The driver had allowed me to ride with him between LA and Monterey along the California coast. I could not believe how hard it had been for him to drive that rig - it had a 'brownie' (second shift-lever) that he managed by looping his arm through the steering-wheel. Well, technology has come a long way in longhaulers and brownies are a thing of the past. But the driver's job remains a tough one, and motorcycles often just add one more worry for them to have to deal with.] This trucker that I mentioned above claimed that two-wheelers, particularly those driven by women, (though they often get 'cat-calls' from his friends), are actually held in high regard by truckers - especially if they seem to know what they are doing. Motorcyclists, he said, are smart to keep their distance from the trucks. He said that though retreads have been banned from automobiles for many years, there are still trucks that ride on them and if one should blow the energy released is roughly equivalent to a stick of dynamite. A motorcycle that happens to be nearby would not stand a chance. And though it is not possible to completely avoid riding on one side or the other of an 18-wheeler, he said, a smart motorcyclist would not linger there and would pass as soon as they could. He also said that motorcyclists that pass a truck only to then pull in front of it are smarter still if they do not pull in too quickly. He described a nightmare accident he once had where a small Toyota had pulled in front of him on the open highway then hit its brakes. He was hauling a load of steel rebars and there was ab- solutely no way he could even slow down before running over that car. Mass and inertia have their own rules. As to motorcyclists in general, he said that he was no longer surprised at the number of times he would say something about a 'good looking bike' on the road near him to another trucker in the distance only to have that biker thank him with his CB. This, because he has come to understand that most touring bikes have CB radios and that they seem to have realized that truckers can make good 'riding buddies' when the motorcyclist is riding solo. He described dozens of times riding 'escort' for a solo biker, and sharing a meal with a few of them along his way. That they invariably talked about their bikes (and he about his rig) while eating and how impressed he had been that they were really 'into' and knowledgeable about what they (the bikers) were doing. I thought I would post this here because we often hear bikers describe 18-wheelers in rather nasty ways - like they were generically dumb, illiterate, drunk, mean, and dangerous. Truth is they are just people with a hard job and they are on the roads with people that do not have sufficient respect for how much time it takes to slow/stop those rigs so are constantly put in risky situations as a result. My experience with truckers has been almost universally good. Hope this little Tip causes a few readers to re-think their attitudes about them. A trucker can be a life-saver in time of need. Why not maximize the odds? Reprinted by permission msgroup.org 7 Breakfast! Good Food! Wayne Bellows H ere is a compilation of area diners that serve great breakfasts at reasonable prices. I frequent several of them. CAC members may wish to try them when on nonchapter rides, as seating and parking may be too limited for a large group. Babs Delta Diner 770 Kellogg St. in Suisun City is the only one that isn't local, and I have not been there. However, it recently received good reviews by Sam McManis of the BEE. Bud's Pub & Grill 110 S. 1st St, Dixon does not serve breakfast, but offers lunch and dinner. It is an eclectic 'local's' spot and has a large collection of mounted big game heads. The dining room is separate from the bar and is nicely appointed. Cricket’s Country Kitchen 4745 Auburn Blvd, Cartmichael serves breakfast and lunch only. Several of CA-C’s members have been here several times and the breakfast menu is excellent. If you leave here still hungry, it’s your own fault. Uptown Café 1121 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento Pitts Stop 6610 Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd. Sacramento Brain Teaser Can you name the 10 states in the United States of America that only have four letters in their names? Find the answer somewhere in this newsletter 8 CA-C Level Achievements III MARGARET MARSHALL DENNY ALLISON BOB FLEMING BEVERLY BARBER JAMES BARBER WAYNE BELLOWS JAMES BONDESON EDWARD BROWN JAMES CHIPMAN KENNETH COLEMAN GARY CONKLIN MYRNA ERNST STEVE ERNST JON INGENTHRON JOYCE MCCUSKER KEN KING VIRGINIA KING ROBERT ONO LAURIE PARQUER BESSIE WONG TODD WRIGHT II PAUL BARBER ANITA BROOKS BILL FOX RICHARD JAMES III KENNETH KNOX JENNIFER HUGHES MARILYN KASPAR KENNETH BECHTHOLD RODNEY BROOKS RANDY DAVIES CATHY FLOWERS GORDON FLOWERS NANCY HARRIS EMERICK KASPAR LEE MARSHALL MELANIE MAYO NOLAND MAYO SENIOR MASTERS NEAL GRAHAM BOB HARRIS RICK MCCUSKER IV MICHAEL PAETZOLD ERNEST PALMER THOMAS ROCCO ERNEST SCOGGINS SHARON SCOGGINS KATHLEEN STEPHENS ROBERT STEPHENS ELMER TIVNER JOAN TIVNER THOMAS WHITSON GRAND MASTERS BARBARA JEFFERIES THOMAS JEFFERIES HARRY KARNOFSKY LINDA KARNOFSKY 9 And the “Winner” of the Wingnut is…. Neal Graham Want to check and see if Neal has it on him? Call (916)454-5290 (Home) (916)996-4336 (Cell) 3rd Judy McHugh 4th Jim Bondeson 7th Ernie & Sharon Scoggins 13th Anita Brooks 15th Dean & Barbara Donnelly 17th Peggy Marshall 18th Harry & Linda Karnofsky 21st Neal Graham 28th Ginny Allison 10 Chapter Director Tom Whitson 209-744-8560 [email protected] Ken Knox 916-261-1768 [email protected] Diane Knox 916-261-1768 [email protected] Chapter Educator Gordon Flowers 916-612-0978 [email protected] Chapter Educator Noland Mayo 916-276-8397 [email protected] Treasurer Cathy Flowers 916-363-4349 [email protected] Newsletter Editor Rick McCusker 916-201-9543 [email protected] Chapter Auction Bob Stephens 916-372-2260 [email protected] Rich James 559-901-0092 [email protected] Rick McCusker 916-201-9543 [email protected] Bill Palmer 916-416-8423 [email protected] Sunshine Coordinator Joyce McCusker 916-203-9543 [email protected] Chapter Photographer Rick McCusker 916-203-9543 [email protected] 916-682-3469 [email protected] 916-682-6869 [email protected] Assistant Chapter Director Membership Enhancement Coordinator After Chapter Meeting Ride Coordinator Chapter Stores Webmaster Tom & Barbara 50/50 & Raffle Jefferies Wing Nut Spike Redding 11 FEBRUARY 2016 SUN 7 MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 Business Mtg. Denny’s 7900 Collegetown Dinner 5:30 Meeting 6:00 9 10 11 12 13 El Novillero 4216 Franklin Blvd. Sacramento 6:30 PM 14 Chapter Mtg. 15 Elks #6 6446 Riverside 8:30 Breakfast 9:00 MeetIng 16 21 23 22 Dinner Ride CA 2N L8 7:15 AM 17 18 Day Ride 19 20 Training Casa D’ Harris 759 Morgan’s Ranch Galt 9 AM 24 25 Dinner Ride 26 Barn Café 8976 Grantline Sheldon 6:30 PM 28 Day Ride 29 Alice’s Restaurant Woodside, CA L8 8 AM 12 27 MARCH 2016 SUN 6 MON 7 TUE WED THU FRI SAT 1 2 3 4 5 8 Dinner Ride 9 10 11 12 Overnight Calistoga L4 9 AM Kobe Sushi & Steak 9134 E. Stockton Elk Grove 6:30 PM 13 Overnight Calistoga 14 Business Mtg. 15 16 17 18 19 23 24 Dinner Ride 25 26 Denny’s 7900 Collegetown Dinner 5:30 Meeting 6:00 20 Chapter Mtg. 21 Elks #6 6446 Riverside 8:30 Breakfast 9:00 MeetIng 22 27 29 28 Dad’s Kitchen 8928 Sunset Ave Fair Oaks 6:30 PM 30 31 13 Day Ride CA 2K L4 7:30 AM Capital City Wings Departure Locations L-1 Interstate 80 @ West El Camino Blvd. (2738 El Centro Rd—49’r Truck Stop) L-2 Hwy 99 @ Laguna Blvd. (8296 Laguna Blvd.) L-3 Folsom Blvd. @ Power Inn Rd. (8098 Folsom Blvd.) L-4 Interstate 80 @ Enterprise Blvd. (4800 West Capitol Ave.) L-5 Elk Grove Blvd & Interstate 5 (9615 West Taron Drive) L-6 Sierra College Blvd & Interstate 80 (4211 Sierra College Blvd. North side of freeway) L-7 Sunrise Blvd & White Rock Blvd. (11250 White Rock Blvd.) L-8 10420 Twin Cities Rd., Galt (Raley’s Shopping Center) 7343 Home Leisure Plaza Sacramento, CA 95823 www.norcalmotorsportshonda.com (916)714-1350 14 15 16 Goldwing Cornering Class July 24, 2016—Stockton, CA Click Link below for information http://www.superbike-coach.com/events/cornering-goldwings-day-1 17 18 19 20 21 GWRRA California Chapters 22 Got a story? Send it in!!! Do it—NOW! Can’t write? I can fix it! [email protected] Brain Teaser answer: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio Tennessee, Iowa and Utah Thanks, Carl Blattenberg for the mind exercise! 23