A nice view from the Go Go Bar, Reno Street Vibrations 2011

My old lady and I just completed a run up to the Reno Street Vibrations Biker Rally this past weekend.

It was around a 450 mile run each way from our home, and sure was an exercise in extreme weather riding for us Southern Californians, who are used to mild temperatures.

The route we took was from the 14 freeway to Highway 395  to the 80, and to our hotel in Reno.

The day we rode up to Reno, Friday, September 23, 2011, started out to be a mild day. The weather was calm at 5:30am when we left our home, around 75 degrees.

As we started riding north, the weather got hotter and hotter, cooled off, and then got hot again as the day went on.

You see highway 395 took us through the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, past Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in North America, up around 8,000 feet and higher, then through Carson City (Lake Tahoe is just above Carson City), and then to Reno which is basically in the Nevada Desert.

I usually wear a light long sleeve type of t-shirt on hot days to protect my skin from the sun, and blue jeans. I know I should wear an armored fabric type of jacket, and I am in the process of trying to find a good one.

My old lady also wears long sleeves, and usually always wears chaps as well.

On Friday, due to traffic conditions, an accident in a bad spot where a biker went down due to a defective road under construction, the heat, and the extreme traffic in Reno again due to construction and the fact that lane splitting is illegal in Nevada, Liz and I were totally spent by the time we got to Reno.

A view from the Reno Street Vibrations 2011

My new Electra Glide Ultra got so hot that it almost cooked that day.

We tried as best as we could to hydrate along the way, but I think that we over did it on Friday. We both almost suffered severe heat stroke by the time we got to Reno. We were both dizzy and sick upon arrival.

I was in such a rush to get to Reno; I ignored my basic riding principals!

In the future, I will make sure we take more breaks, hydrate more, and give ourselves more time to get to a long destination.

450 miles in one day riding two up, is a very long ride under any circumstances. In heat it can be tough.

On the way back from Reno, it was warm when we left, but soon, when we got up into the mountains, we suffered severe weather. There was lighting storms, rain, hail, and cold. Imagine going from warm to very cold in just a few miles.

I let Liz use my chaps since she left hers with a friend by mistake, I put a sweatshirt on, my leather jacket, my gauntlet gloves, and we proceeded through the severe weather.

Upon reaching Lone Pine, we stopped to get some food at the Mt. Whitney Restaurant. (A great local restaurant with damn good food.)

Lone Pine is a tourist town along the 395 which caters to people on their way to see Mt. Whitney and Yosemite.

When we walked into the restaurant to eat, we were all bundled up in leathers and more, all of the locals were in t-shirts and shorts. I took my jacket off and sure enough it was at least 80 degrees outside.

We went from warm in Reno when we left, to cold lighting storms, back to warm again, all within a 300 mile stretch.

I proceeded to take my leather jacket and gauntlet’s off again, and switch to light gloves, and then we got on the road again.

There was a 30 mile stretch after Lone Pine, just before Mohave and the 14, where I never was so afraid in my life while riding a motorcycle.

Out of no-where we hit cold, and 60-70 mile per hour wind gusts or more that literally almost knocked my bike over while we were riding.

The wind was hitting us from the side going north to south. When a gust would hit us it caused my head to jerk hard to the left. It also caused the bike to jerk violently, and I have a very heavy bike.

Liz and I had our intercom hooked up, and she was freaking out. I had to tell her to be quiet and not panic. The wind was so bad that I knew if I slowed down and tried to pull over there would be no way I could hold the bike up. I knew the wind would knock us over.

I knew the forward energy and centrifugal force of the tires turning made it safer for us to keep riding than trying to stop.

I was genuinely afraid like I have never been before in my life while riding. It was a horrible experience, especially in the pitch dark of the Mohave Desert.

When we got to a 76 truck stop in Mohave where the 14 hits the 395 we pulled over to get our bearings back. It was then that another couple pulled in on a motorcycle in a panicked state.

They were on a Harley Davidson Road Glide, they each had beanie helmets on with clear glasses on for eye protection, and they were even more panicked than we were.

The women got off of the back of her old man’s bike and literally hugged him and would not let go.

We discussed the fact that it was by the grace of god that we all made it through unscathed.

I put my leather jacket and gauntlet’s back on and we rode off watching the woman from the other bike hugging her old man like there was no tomorrow.

Moral to the story; when riding a motorcycle, be prepared for any weather.

I can’t wait for next year 🙂

Keep Both Wheels on the Road!

By California Motorcycle Accident Attorney, and Biker Lawyer, Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2011

The post An Example of Extreme Weather Riding, Reno 2011 first appeared on Biker and Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Blog.

Biker Lawyer Norman Gregory Fernandez at Yosemite National Park in California (picture edited to cover back-patch)

I was recently thinking about all of the motorcycle rides I have done on my motorcycle over the years, and what rides I would like to do in the future.

Sure it is fun riding to events like the Laughlin River Run each year, but in the end, it is always the same each year.

I was thinking, what would be the ultimate motorcycle run.

 I have read a couple of books by guys that have ridden around the world, however, why ride around the world just for the sake of riding around the world. Besides with the current political climate, and the fact that we are now in 3 wars, (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya) it would probably not be possible to do a round the world motorcycle run, especially with the whack jobs around the world not liking American’s right now.

So what would be a great motorcycle run? Then a thought came to my mind; one of the best rides I have ever done in my life was through Yosemite, then down the Tioga Pass south to north, then up to Carson City, NV, and up to Lake Tahoe in one marathon 19 hour day.

I have also ridden through some other National Parks as well, not really as a goal, but to get to another destination. Every one of those motorcycle runs was a great ride.

I wonder what it would be like to ride to and through if possible, each National Park in the United States? That would be some great riding right?

Why not ride to each National Park in the United States of America?

Due to my being a personal injury attorney and biker lawyer, there is no way I could do it in one run, let alone during one riding season, because I have to work.

However, if I made it a goal to ride to and through every National Park in the United States of America if possible, I could probably do it over a matter of years.

So there it is; one of the items on my bucket list of life is to ride to and through every National Park in the United States of America.

You have to understand, I came up with this idea this weekend, (March, 19-20, 2011) while looking out of my window at the rain coming down.

I have just decided that instead of always doing the same repetitive motorcycle runs every year, that riding to and through every National Park in the United States would be a great life experience; something that you could write a book about.

I have not even begun to plan or map out how to achieve my goal. I found a website that is simply called National Parks, located at http://www.us-national-parks.net/ that lists all of the national parks, and has website links to each. This is a private site, but it looks pretty good.

Here is the listing of National Parks on that site with their respective website link:

Acadia
American Samoa
Arches
Badlands
Bandelier
Black Canyon
Big Bend
Biscayne
Bryce Canyon
Cabrillo
Canyonlands
Capitol Reef
Carlsbad Caverns
Channel Islands
Crater Lake
Cuyahoga Valley
Death Valley
Denali
Dry Tortugas
Everglades
Gates of the Arctic
Gettysburg
Glacier
Glacier Bay
Grand Canyon
Grand Teton
Great Basin
Great Sand Dunes
Great Smoky Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains
Haleakala
Harpers Ferry
Hawaii Volcanoes
Hot Springs
Isle Royale
Joshua Tree
Katmai
Kenai Fjords
Kobuk Valley
Lake Clark
Lassen Volcanic
Mammoth Cave
Mesa Verde
Mount Rainier
Mount St. Helens
North Cascades
Olympic
Organ Pipe Cactus
Petrified Forest
Point Reyes
Redwood
Rocky Mountain
Saguaro
Sequoia / Kings Canyon
Shenandoah
Theodore Roosevelt
Valley Forge
Virgin Islands
Voyageurs
Wind Cave
Wrangell Saint Elias
Yellowstone
Yosemite
Zion

I figure that this summer I can knock out all of the California National Parks, and maybe even get in the Nevada and Arizona National Parks. I may even be able to do more!

I will be in Hawaii in September so I can knock out the Haleakala, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks. Obviously, I will need to rent a Harley while on the Islands.

The national parks in Alaska will probably be the biggest challenge; we will see.

So there it is; I think that I may have found a way around the dull drum of riding to the same events every year.

I will let you all know more about my plan to ride to and through each United States National Park as it comes up. I will report in detail on each ride. I will also take pictures and shoot video as much as possible.

See you on the road.

By California Motorcycle Accident Attorney and Biker Lawyer Norman Gregory Fernandez, © March, 20, 2011

The post The Ultimate Motorcycle Ride first appeared on Biker and Motorcycle Accident Lawyer Blog.