What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[Gone in 60]

Finished the yellow base layer of decals when I got home from today's delivery run. 
On top of this layer will go the company logos and license info and reflective decals.
I should have that second layer done in the morning before I head out to a new pickup location in Beverly Hills. I've been there once so far, and the route takes me past Rodeo Dr. and the swankiest, most tourist-laden part of L.A. This is where the upper crust (I use another term, but it might be distasteful for our distinguished readers) comes to show off their fancy cars, and I find it delightful splitting lanes inches away from exotics. They might like to roll slow so the tourists can admire them, and hey, nice McLaren, but it's in my way.

[Gone in 60]

I’m liking this new Beverly Hills route. The city has some very lovely parks if you need a place to kill time between pickups.

[Lord Popgun]

Park in front of the Beverly Hillbillies' house and get a picture!

[pdedse]

While you're taking your breaks or at the gas pumps, do you get some curious folk asking about the bike?

[Gone in 60]

Park in front of the Beverly Hillbillies' house and get a picture!

I don’t think they’d let me on the studio lot. I have ridden to the Bat Cave, but that’s just a hole in the side of a mountain.

---

While you're taking your breaks or at the gas pumps, do you get some curious folk asking about the bike?

I’ve gotten all kinds of comments and questions. Sometimes at gas stations and sometimes from other cars in traffic.

“You really carry blood on that thing?”

[pdedse]

Gone, would you please, please, please consider wearing this helmet if I bought it for you?


It just seems an opportunity too good to pass up...


You could even go full-on CAPE:


People would give you p-l-e-n-t-y of lane splitting space!

[peterbaron]

Gone needs the entire costume/gear and including THIS helmet‼️

[Gone in 60]

Oh now that’s funny. However, we’ve got enough runs going that I’m passing our other riders on the freeway. Word might get back to the boss. In fact, I passed him today.

He’s all about consistency - the bikes and uniforms all have to be the same. Worst case scenario is that he likes it, and you’d have to buy like six of those for us.

Speaking of passing other riders, today on the southbound 405 around Studebaker Rd, another rider was behind me on my blood bike. I waved for him to pass, and it was a ‘14 standard CB1100 with rear fender eliminator and a red LED taillight strip.

Anyone here on the forum?

[Gone in 60]

Well, I guess the old saying is true.
There are those who have crashed a blood bike in the boss' driveway, and there are those who will.
Today, I joined the former. Ugh.

I had some parts I had finished working on and there were more to pick up, so after my delivery runs I swung by the boss' house for the exchange.
His driveway is ludicrously steep. It has to be at least 45 degrees, and possibly steeper in a few spots. It's a very hilly area, and his house is up on a rise above a street that's already at a fairly steep angle. There are two narrow, very steep driveways leading up to a somewhat level landing at the top, with room for two or three cars and the fleet of bikes lined up. You can't see anything from street other than the two driveway entrances. It's so steep that Mrs. G came to pick me up one evening, and her front-drive CRV wouldn't make it up the hill - it just spun the front tires. 

I've found the best approach as getting up some speed, and not letting off the throttle or touching the clutch or brakes till you get to the top. As the cars come into view, aim between them to get to the gaggle of bikes at the top. I've done an admirable job so far, on the various BMWs as well as Suprbird and my CB1100 - I wanted to make a great first impression, so I showed up on the CB for my initial evaluation ride to see if I was proficient enough to join. The boss kept commenting on how lovely the CB looks - brownie points! 

Today, charging up the driveway, one of the cars was more askew than I was used to, and I tried to course-correct half-way up. I felt the bike lean over to the downhill side, and realized that if I stayed in the throttle, I'd hit a car. I made the futile effort to stop to get a better approach, but she was already leaning too far over, and the steep hill didn't give me a place to put my left foot to stabilize. I kept a grip on the throttle and the clutch until right before I did a tuck-and-roll to get away in case the bike rolled over completely down the hill. From inside the house, the boss heard an engine zing to the moon, followed by a loud THUD.

I rolled and stood up, but my neck was frozen and I couldn't move my head. I thought surely I had hit my head on the ground, hard. The boss came out and after a chuckle, said "So, how do you like the airbag vest? Pretty effective, eh?" I didn't even realize it, but rolling away from the bike, I yanked the tether for the airbag, which puffed up on my chest and back, and put a solid tube from my shoulders locking into the bottom of my helmet. I hadn't hit my head, the airbag kept my neck from moving. Happened so fast, I didn't even realize it. 

He said "just wait a minute or two and the vest will deflate to normal." It did. The bigger problem was the bike. The big yellow mammoth was on it's left side, which was facing down the hill. So it was a lot more strenuous than lifting it from level ground. We struggled a bit but got her up and pushed her to the semi-flat area. She leaked a few tablespoons of coolant from the reservoir, but that was it. I felt dejected, but he said that everyone had done it, and that it was just my turn. We then went inside so he could show my how to replace the CO2 cartridge in the vest, along with the clip and pin that gets yanked out by the bike's tether cord to deploy the vest. He said he'd deployed his vest a few days earlier when the bike he was riding tipped over while he was practicing near-stop maneuvering between some tightly spaced dots in a parking lot and lost his balance. 

So no big deal to fix the vest, and thanks to the jungle-jim of hooped bars surrounding all of the bodywork on the police-spec BMWs, there was no damage to any of the bodywork on the bike I dumped. Good thing too, as I just finished all of the decal work, and if any of them got scraped up, I'd be pretty sore. The bars themselves are very scratched up on all of the bikes, and it's clear that they've all been over on both sides. The only plastic that was on the ground was the left mirror, which is hinged and spring loaded, so it just folded in and popped back out when the bike was  upright. 

I'm sure that left mirror was already scraped, but I suffer from "conditional visual perfection syndrome", meaning even if a bike has existing damage, if I cause something new, I am compelled to fix at least what I did to it. I told the boss I'd fix the mirror. He asked why, as they're all scratched. I said "because I have to." 

When I got home, I sanded it smooth, and used my technique of hitting it lightly with a spray can of matte black from a distance to replicate the slight textured pattern of the original plastic finish. Now I can sleep at night.

[Cormanus]

Oh, dear, Gone. Glad you're all right.