Modern Vespa

Any MVers up for the 3 Peaks Challenge?

VCLG is scheduling our annual 3 Peaks ride on Sat. April 7, 2007. We'll get to the top of Mt Hamilton, Mt Diablo & Mt Tam in 1 day starting from Bite of Wyoming @ 9:00 in San Jose and ending at Mt Tam.

We'll go over Mt Hamilton backside to Livermore -> Mt Diablo -> cross Richmond Bridge and south to Mt. Tam. From San Jose it's about 140 round trip back to SJ. We'll be stopping for lunch and breaks. The ride is full of twisties (Mt Hamilton and Mt Diablo) rolling hills and 1 scary, Richmond.

ET4s & P200s have made the trek. What about you?

This is the best ride of the year around the Bay Area.

If you want to be challenged, this would be the ride......Ah, well, perhaps,....maybe a little longer than that......

R














(273 last year)...........

I only completed one peak last year. It certainly kicked my ass.

(of course, I wrecked my motorcycle that morning, before the ride even started, so I was in bad shape to begin with).

That was in Feb last year and the weather was MISERABLE.

April should be much more forgiving.

All things considered you did great Jess.


This ride will give you your fill of the twistys!!!

R

How much of a challenge (danger?) would it be for a newbie? I've only been riding since early November, but have done almost 3,000 miles since (includes some twisties from weekend treks).

F-n yeah. you know it babe.

How quickly you forget, Rich. You wanted to do it in February last year, but your club complained, so you did it on April 15th. Tax day. Seriously.

I am hoping that this April will be more forgiving than last April, though.

Here's the post.

Felt like Feburary........

Thats my story and I'm sticken' to it.....

(doh)



R

You can say that again!

If you ride within your capabilities, you can do it. It was wet last year and a little slicker. With a dry road those twisties are fun to run!

Mike

Jebus. I'm marking this on mi calendar.

I'm in, weather permitting.

I'm in

13 days until this ride....

this will be the PRIEMIER ride for the bay area this year....

270 mile loop of which about 180 miles will be tight twisties.....

When you complete this ride you will have every skill needed to ride anywhere and everywhere you may want to.

This is a skill challenge and an endurance challenge.

You will be worn out at the end of this ride, gauranteed.

The nice thing is you can opt out when needed as this is a ride which circles the bay area. There will be a number of places you can exit the loop and retire home.

Please consider joining the Vespa Club of Los Gatos in the '3 peaks challenge of 2007'.

We will take good care of you, wait for you and ride like the wind when need be!...(this is gauranteed as I will be the ride leader this year).....and yea I asked for this job.....

join us for a ride not soon forgotten.....

R

I'll be riding the unstealth so are you sure you'll be "leading" in those twisties?

I can't wait!

bastard....

heheheheh

R

Like Mom told ya: Thems twisties is where all the vitamins are.

Must trust my tires. Must trust my tires. Must trust my tires.

Trust, but verify

I trust the rubber, its the damn gravel that is a PITA (and cowls).

Hey guys and gals,

Be VERY careful of gravel on the North Side of Mount Hamilton from the top and along Mines Road. I'm not sure if they will have spread road base when this rides takes place, but someone should definitely pre-ride the stretch from the top of Hamilton, along Mines Road to Livermore.

Hmmm... I want to go but I think my GTS will still be under its 600 mile break-in. Unless I do some serious riding over the next few weeks and get rockridge two wheels to do its first maintinece real quick!

Think the scooter would be okay if it is still in its break-in period?

Not a problem.

This ride is quite slow really.

There are very few places you can run fast, but there are some tasty fast bits.

Actually this would be a great ride to break in a motor, IMHO.

ET4's and LX's are fine for this ride too.

R

Awsome. I'll plan to come along then.

It is right after my end of term and the begning of my spring break, so I'm 100% free!! Woo.

I've been riding up and down the twisties near my house, including Mount Hamilton Rd. since buying my new GTS, and I may or may not have 600 miles on the odo by April 7, but that won't stop me from going on this ride! BTW, what will the exact route be? I recently rode to the Observatory and there was a fair amount of gravel on the road near the top. Hopefully the recent rain will have washed it away.

Cheers,

Bob

This ride will be my doom!

(still in, so far. Wont' be doing Mt Diablo 2 up again tho heh)

Doesn't that involve pushing them until the slide out on me, and then trying not to push past that point again?

At least, that's how they figure the weight limit on bridges. They build the bridge, then drive successively larger trucks over it until it falls down, and then they rebuild the bridge exactly as before, with a weight limit just under the truck that made it fall down.



(I should really go to bed now...)

where's all this coming from? I've seen you tear shit up on your GTS.

Is this ride suitable for an LX150? I'd love to join, but not sure I can make it to the top of the hills...

-Dan

Then you've never seen my ride in wet conditions. Easily my worst ability. I freeze up and can't bring myself to lean even a little. It's miserable, and last year's Three Peaks challenge was pretty abysmal for me. Really, truly humbling, and I limped home after the first hill. Even then, I was out on my bike in the cold and rain for no less than 8 hours.

Not to mention I dropped my Guzzi as soon as it started to rain, before the ride even started. Teh suck.

The back side of Mount Hamilton is pretty treacherous. Much more so when wet and filled with wet leaves and muck. Sure, I'm a better rider than I was one year ago, but I'm still a bit on edge about the whole ride. Rich isn't kidding when he says it's a real challenge.

Ah, so that was a rainy day huh. Do we anticipate rain this time?

I mean, end of day, I guess all you can really do is just take it nice and easy on those parts huh...

Weather forecast for Saturday the 7th (admittedly, we're ten days out) is for rain. That could all change several times between now and then, though.

I'm still game for it, but I'd like to see the exact route planned for this ride if someone could fill me in.

Cheers,

bob

Hmmn. 270 rain miles, huh.

...

Hmmn. Makes me double think this. Richmond bridge isn't that fun. Actually, none of the bridges are. Heh.

An LX150 will do fine. I've made it twice on my ET4 albeit kitted. We had a stock ET4 make it.

My suggestion is to get ready for a long ride and a long day. Get your scoot in order beforehand. Get a good sleep and breakfast. I like to bring water and snack bars. We'll stop for lunch, but it's nice to get a little boost when you need it.

Ciao!

Mike
El Jefe
VCLG

Damn, do I have to be looking at that white scoot ahead of me again?
As if chasing it 3300 miles cross-country wasn't enough!

Really if you haven't seen Patrick's unstealth on the road, you're in for a treat!

OK, so if not the entire route, can someone at least tell me where the starting point of the Mount Hamilton section will be? At Alum Rock and Mount Hamilton Rd?

Cheers,

Bob

see above for......That resturant is just west of Jackson on Alum Rock.

They have a decent breakfast...arrive early for breakfast, ride leaves at 9AM.

Basicly we cross Hamilton then ride thru Livermore to Walnut Creek. Over Diablo then to Richmond, crossing the bridge. Then up & over Tam on the way to crossing the Golden Gate. Then either down 280 or work thru El Camino.

Easy peasie......

But a long day.

R

Thanks, Rich for the info. I read about the Bite of Wyoming restaurant meeting place but was more concerned about where the actual ride up the mountain started. Now that I see the eating place is on Alum Rock road, I assume that we'll be going up Mount Hamilton road from there. That's all I wanted to know. Thanks.

Cheers,

Bob