Sunday, 1 Nov 2020
Harry wrote:
We had eight riders for breakfast at Bell Tower, and a beautiful ride afterward, with temperature reaching mid 80’s for the first day of November.
Harry is mostly correct. Marc skipped breakfast and joined part of the ride after.
Jerry rode his Norton to breakfast. He was also sporting a 50 year old riding jacket.
Part of the fire damage on Swanton Road. The sides of the northern half of the road are littered with cut down fire damaged trees.
Mike writes:
I went out to meet the SMBC for the first time in the months since I’d left for Canada. I arrived at 7:05 to Burlingame to find Chris Weld and Rob Hyman. Some overdue catching up followed, and not long afterwards, we were on our way to Los Altos.
Between the Daylight Savings Time switchover causing our ride to feel like an hour later in the day, and some unusually warm weather for the first day of November, the ride over was lovely. Only dipping into the forties in the valleys, and otherwise, a cloudless sky with temps in the fifties.
When we arrived to the restaurant, a very sizeable group of riders was there, considering the ongoing pandemic has been keeping much of the group at home.
Carl Tyler had brought his classic Triumph Bonneville, our complement of KTM riders, Harry Bahlman and Pete the Cop (sorry Pete, I don’t think I’ve ever got your last name!) were there, along with several others. Jerry Grainger arrived unexpectedly, on his Norton Commando. I hadn’t seen Jerry riding in the past two years due to ongoing health issues, so that was a great sight to see.
Rob had also brought pin vests that had belonged to friends of his family that as a couple had attended motorcycle rallies up and down the Western US and even one I spotted from Canada. The vests were covered in pins ranging in years from the early 70s to the late 80s. Very cool to see. They must have been passionate motorcyclists!
Breakfast was very pleasant outside on the patio, including a spirited conversation with Pete on the topic of Law & Order.
After breakfast, it was a great ride up Page Mill Road, in which the entire gang left me in the dust. Sorry guys, I’m a bit rusty from 4 months off the bike! At the top, we said our goodbyes and the rest of the group headed down Alpine Rd. toward Loma Mar while I headed north on Skyline back toward the city.
When I arrived at the junction with Highway 92, the traffic heading toward the coast seemed unusually light, so I treated myself to a ride down to Half Moon Bay and up Highway 1 along the coast to get back to San Francisco.
It was great to see all the familiar faces again.