Puma and the VFR search for mustard...lots of pix!

Well, we had another beautiful day in Northern California yesterday. NorCalBoy mentioned in a PM that he got out and had a great ride. The Napa Valley Mustard Festival Photo Contest is coming up in March, so I went out to scout for mustard for possible photo opportunities for the contest (took an Honorable Mention in the Professional Division the year before last).
I did the same basic ride as last weekend, but took some different routes this time and a lot more photos.

Started out again on Suisun Valley/Wooden Valley....the mustard was fuller now, and more widespread than last weekend. Pulled off at the intersection of Wooden Valley and 121 at the turnout, to take some pictures of the mustard.



Just as I was about to walk up and get some photos, another 5th Gen VFR rider, Craig, came by stopped to chat....we chatted VFRs for a bit, Craig just got his a few weeks ago, a 2001 with about 32K on it. Here's Craig waving as he's about to ride off for Berryessa. I mentioned that he should join the board, he said he would soon.



Craig heads off....



Here's the mustard along Wooden Valley Road...


The Viffer was looking like it wanted to romp on these great roads. This is Hwy 121, the intersection with Wooden Valley is just down to the left.



Rode out to Hwy 128, past The Corners, and down Sage Canyon Road to Lake Hennessy. This is the boat launch at Lake Hennessy. The lake looks low, we've had some rain, but not nearly enough so far...



Rode out Sage to Silverado, and this time went left to Yountville for lunch.

Stopped at Vintage 1870 for lunch.



Had a really good burger for lunch at Pacific Blue Cafe.


As I was leaving Yountville, I remembered that there was a vineyard down a quiet road that typically had very good mustard, so I went by to scout it out.

My memory served me well...this vineyard is typically an "early bloomer" and was in full force already.


There's nothing like a bright red VFR to set off the mustard in all it's beauty. :wink:


Looking back at the bike....


Road down this road a little bit, to set the bike off in afternoon light. The Valley is visible in the distance.



Rode down to Calistoga to fuel up, and ran into another 5th gen rider at the Union 76! He stopped to say hello. He and his buddy had come from the coast via Skaggs Road and down from 128 from Geyserville (a beautiful ride). I know that there is a brotherhood amongst all riders, but VFR riders seem to exemplify this. They all want to stop and meet other VFRiders and talk about how great their bikes are!

Ran back out along the Silverado Trail, now in evening light...stopped to take some shots in the last of the light.








Just a beautiful day...

 

Nice pics PC thanks for sharing.....you know I'm terribly jelous....long winters suck :sad:

 

Nice... I remember a great romp on128 a long while back, beautiful country if you can handle the traffic in places.

 

Yeah, I guess the Nor Cal you live in and the one where I live are different worlds. I left Susanville yest am at 10, it was 32 degrees. Went to Alturas, same there, flew into Redding...54. Bastages. Flew back to Suzi Land, 32 still. It was warmer in Reno at 4 am than it was here all day. I am jonesing big time. Rode for 1 mile just so I could say I did. The ice still has not left from the big storm a couple of weeks ago. It's snowing.

 

Great ride thread, I promise the Washington riders will start contributing in a couple of months. The odds of running into two 5g riders have to be astronomical, you should probably play the lottery tonight.

I haven't seen a stock muf on a 5g in a long time, but kudos for you for doing the suspension upgrade first, it tells me you know what's really important and what kind of rider you are.

You truly have an eye for great pics, this year I hope to become a better photographer with my new DSLR, but that picture of Hwy 121 with the 20 mph sign really puts some evil thoughts in my mind of some knee dragging fun :eyebrows:

 

Thanks for the comments on the photos, RW. I hope I can come up with something decent for the festival. It's hard, there are only so many photos you can take of mustard that doesn't look like something else everyone has shot. And the judges get jaded seeing the same old, same old every year.

Hopefully the suspension work will be done next weekend at Kyle Racing. Strangely enough, I thought the bike handled a bit better last weekend with the top case and laptop in the back. I'm probably off on the preload for riding solo a skosh. Hopefully, there will be an Ohlins on it next weekend at this time.

As for the stock muffler, chances are 99.5% that it will stay on. I actually have a Remus end-can that came with the bike, but I haven't put it on...I'll probably polish it up and sell it. I doubt I will ever install it. I like my bikes quiet, even though I know that VFRs sound fantastic with an aftermarket exhaust. It's much less tiring to ride a quiet bike on a long trip than a loud one.

As far as stock is concerned, I'm "Mr. Stock" when it comes to my bikes as a whole, suspension improvements notwithstanding. My friends kind of tease me about it, because I am the kind of guy that will track down the stock sticker that goes on the swingarm that specifies the chain slack, and make sure it is on there. My experience is that bikes hold their value much better when they are stock. Not that I'm planning on selling the VFR. The only modification I ever did to my F4i (other than getting rid of stupid HMAS) was to install a custom Corbin seat; the stock one was a piece of pool table slate with a vinyl cover. It actually made the bike much more rideable for touring, at least in some sense. That reminds me, a Corbin saddle came with the VFR, too, but I haven't put it on yet either. I guess I should try it out some day.

 

I'm starting to get the impression you don't like the HMAS :lol: You got some serious will power not to put on the Corbin...

 

No, I don't like HMAS. Honda took a very good cartridge design with shim stacks that could be valved for excellent performance like they did in their '94-'96 CBR600s, and ruined it with valves with holes that are too small to pass oil in a high speed compression bump when they implemented HMAS. The irony is that Honda owns Showa, and Suzuki uses Showa suspension on it's Gixxers; and Suzuki uses a valve design with large holes like on a Gold Valve or Axxion Valve, and has none of these issues (well, the original 1000 did because it used KYB forks that had the same flaws as the Honda design).

Using a very good shim stack design that you deliberately sabotage with a valve design with holes that are too small to pass appropriate amounts of oil is just stupidity in my book.

Regarding the Corbin, I will try it out....my experience with them is they can be less than ideal when they are not custom molded to one's derriere.

 

Did I mention that it was snowing in my part of California? Still.