A couple from church, Don and Yvonne, and I had planned a Saturday ride up to Oakhurst for lunch by way of back roads through North Fork. I was excited because it would be the first ride on my heavily modified Savage. I had just purchased the Honda ACE a month earlier but was experiencing heating problems with it (which turned out to just be a bad radiator cap). So I decided to take the Savage on the ride.
The Savage had been at my parent's home where my youngest brother was doing some mods for me. I had purchased some full fenders made of fiberglass and was having problems getting the back mounted. So he modified the frame so the fender fit better, along with cutting down the seat posts to make the Harley Davidson Sportster seat fit better with the flow of the bike. He also helped me get the floorboards mounted. The bike had been out of riding shape for 4 months so I was really excited to get back on it to ride.
The Savage is a light, powerful bike. In stock form it can coaxed to pop a wheelie. Mine has an after market turnout pipe, a cone air intake, and converted from a belt drive to a chain drive with better highway gearing. It will easily cruise the freeway at 70, but still climb highway 41 to Oakhust at 65. I found no problem leaving Don's V-Star 650 in the dust. Of course, my bike weighs in at least 150 lbs less, and I was riding single to their double. My wife has yet to ride double with me and has not expressed any interest at all to any of my querries to do so. Some day I'm hoping to get her on either the back or front of one of my bikes. So far though, I've been without luck.
We meet up on a Saturday at the Starbucks at River Park and headed up the 41. We took the North Fork turnoff but saw that we were going to go through some road construction. We had to travel a 2 mile stretch of dirt road where they were reparing the old road. It was kinda fun doing a little "dirt tracking" on the Savage. The bike was holding up find and I was very pleased. The only thing not holding up well was my rear-end. Unfortunately, the HD Sporster seat was the stock one of the two sportster seats I own. It looks really good, but the padding causes my hinder parts to numb. I have a second seat with modified padding for better comfort, but had left the better looking seat on for the looks. A decision that would cause me pain and many stops for relief. I've ridden on the other seat for 2 hours without having to stop. This trip 15 minutes was a very, very long time.
Passing through North Fork we took the road to Bass Lake. We stopped there at a cabin owned by the owner of the company Don worked for. One of his coworker and her husband were staying there for the weekend. Her husband was also a motorcyclist and an owner of a HD Softtail. I was curious to see what he thought of my bike. He came directly over to it and stared it over good, asking what kind of bike it was. I asked him what he thought it was and he answered that it looked like an old Harley. Bingo! The very thing I was hoping he would say. Of course when I asked him if he knew of any singles that Harley made, he admitted he was stumped. So I told him it was a custom based on a Suzuki Savage. When he found out it wasn't a HD, he lost all interest in it.
From there we continued our ride up to Oakhurst for lunch. While we were enjoying our lunch we decided that such a nice day needed some more riding time. So Don and Yvonne suggested we ride up to Glacier Point in Yosemitee park. I hadn't been to that part of the park in several years so I was game. So we jumped on our bikes only to find out that the 4 months of inactivity had taken a toll on my battery. The Savage would not start. With no cables jumping it was out (needless to say, I now take cables with me on all trips). So we decided to push start it. It is interesting to note that hills are plentiful in the mountains. So having found a good one, we were able to push start it. That was a short trip though, because our next stop was a gas station on the other side of the street. And, yes, we had to push started it again after getting gas. Don and I were starting to get a work out, with more to come as the day went by.
We took the short ride up to the entrance to park, paid our day fare, and started toward Glacier Point. The traffic was heavy, being a nice summertime Saturday, and slow. My bike had the highway gearing on it and I was finding I had to constantly shift between 2nd and 3rd with the slower traffic. The ride took longer than we expected, but being it was such a nice day, we didn't mind much. Once we arrived at Glacier Point, I found a nice spot an the upside of the parking lot, expecting to need it for the expected push start we would have to do later. It turned out that this would be the only time it would actually start for me without pushing it. Maybe the higher altitude helped.
The view from Glacier Point is spectacular. If you are ever thinking of visiting Yosemite National Park, this is one vista you don't want to miss. The drive is a few miles off the main road from the south entrance. From this view you can see Half Dome, the whole Yosemite Valley and many of the main geological features of the park. There is also a snackbar and store if you want to get some souveniers or something to eat. Unfortunately, we were there right after a forest fire had occured just outside of the park which had disrupted the electrical power. The store had a very limited amount of "cold" drinks and food, not good on a hot day. They did have some frozen ice cream bars that were being bought up pretty fast. We were fortunate enough to get us some.
After enjoying the view we headed home. But before we left we did a few poses on a turn that allows a clear view of half dome from the road. You'll see those pictures below. The ride home was pretty uneventful, other than having to push start the Savage again in Oakhurst after getting gas. What started out as a simple lunch ride turned into an all day event. As is usually the case, I found another great place to ride in my neck of the woods. I'm planning a ride back with some more friends again this summer.
Hope you enjoy the story. I know you'll enjoy the pics....
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