2024 "Festar Rides Again" or "2024 Flat White Tour"

[Pterodactyl]

Posted as proof that Fester can and does smile. He just needs to be around the other smart, good looking and devious people.

[bigjohnsd]

Pterodactyl is also a few months older too!

[bigjohnsd]

June 7th - Ukiah to Shelter Cove, CA - ~ 250 miles - all day.
Brian, John Wilson, Jim Fontana and I left Ukiah at 0800. We rode a pre planned route to Shelter Cove hopping back and forth over the coastal ranges of California. It was cool along the ocean, hot as he'll as soon as we crested the first inland ridge as we moved back and forth.




Quite the Vista


Narrow two lane tracks, lots of tight curves and elevation change.



A cool respite amongst the Redwoods


Coffee stop in Mendocino



Flat White (well made) and an Almond Croissant.


L to R Jim Fontana, Yours Truly, John Wilson, Brian Maddy.


Ocean cool



More Redwoods Cool

Camp at Shelter Cove





Pterodactyl and the "Spousal Unit" (Kevin & Annie) are traveling in high style!



Kevin & Annie Enjoying the view and a little refreshment at the brewery behind the campground.

Brian and John hamming it up



Food Porn - Fresh Local Rock Fish (outstanding), Coleslaw (good), and Beer Macaroni & Cheese (meh).



Ask Festar to explain!





June 8th. - Shelter Cove to Shasta, CA ~300 miles all day



Early visitors



Heavy dew delayed our departure until after 0900, no o e wants to pack wet gear up.

Our breakfast views were spectacular!














Of course -Flat Whites!






We supported the local Willow Creek 8th grade graduating class raising $ for their graduation trip to San Francisco.
$10 for a wash, hot dog, chips, and a drink.



Another "goat trail" The Salmon River Road!






The Salmon River near Forks of Salmon





Stopped for Ice Cream at Callahan CA


And then back to Shasta for the evening





11 May - 8 June

~9,000 miles and counting.

New tires for me tomorrow, 17,000 plus on this set of Dunlop Trailmax Mission tires!

Stay tuned!

[LKLD]

What a trip so far!

Love this photo

[danh600]

Thanks for posting this trip John.

[wheatonFJR]

What a trip so far!

Love this photo

Your Aussie chairs don't work right in the Northern Hemisphere Uncle Fester!!

[El Toro Joe]

What a trip so far!

Love this photo

Beer happens

[Intech]

Epic! Thanks for taking us along.

[festar]

Surprised that you went right by Crater Lake. It is an awesome sight.

Been there done that couple times

[festar]

What a trip so far!

Love this photo

Entertainment value = 0

[bigjohnsd]

June 9, 2024 - MT Shasta, CA to Yuba City, CA. 175 miles
We hit the road early, 0700, to beat the Valley Heat.
Flat Whites at Starbucks in MT Shasta and at Gridley, CA. Arrived at JREW's at 1130.



JREW leading us down I-5


Lake Shasta, almost empty the last time I rode through, was full!



The Central Valley of California is truly the food basket of the United States, rice, fruit, small grain, nuts, tomatoes, etc are all grown here, plant it and water it, watch it grow.



When not irrigated one can imagine what the valley looked like before the 1849 Gold Rush and subsequent immigration.



Oleander bushes divide a lot of California highways - they stop cars as well if not better than guard rails or cables. They are in full blossom.



As we approached Biggs and East Biggs the "Smallest Mountain Range in the World" the "Sutter Buttes" comes in to view.



We had two major missions today - new tires on BigJohnSD's steed and an exploration of electrical gremlins in Festar's pony.

The tire change was easy thanks to JREW's (John Wilson) new Rabaconda Tire Machine. This thing was fantastic!

Easy off - Easy on!


Bead broken


One handed, no sweat removal


One handed installation too. As with so many things in life you never can use too much lube.



These tires have 17,576 miles on them, probably could go another 1,000 miles but I chose not to chance it. YMMV!


About 2/32" tread remaining


3-4/32" remaining but starting to wear funny.

New tires - always feel so good!

The electrical gremlins search on Brian's bike did not go so well. After initial elation after finding and replacing a fuse that was only making intermittent internal contact, On the ride to our motel the troubles returned. Symptoms are the Electronic Dash intermittently flickers and dies, ABS failure lights come kn, dash goes black, brake lights are constantly on, but the bike starts and runs fine. Google reveals this may be a common problem in BMW F700 GS motorcycles, and could possibly be related to the Ring Antenna which detects the key chip faiking. Others reveal that these symptoms are a precursor to total failure of the instrument cluster and bike failure to run. We are considering options.

Tomorrow - we will break in John's new tires with a run up the Feather River Canyon, Bucks Lake Rd, Quincy-Laporte Rd and end up in Nevada City with good friends Doug & Gayle whom Brian and I first met ten years and over 100,000 miles ago.
Forums of all kinds are wonderful things!

Stay tuned!

[Tyler]

We rode a pre planned route to Shelter Cove hopping back and forth over the coastal ranges of California.

You’re welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Hppants]

This is good stuff. Every bit of it.

Right on, man....

[bigjohnsd]

10 June update - it helps to have good friends on FJR forums.

Good Friend #1, Pterodactyl, loaned Brian a pristine 2013 BMW F700 GS fully tricked out and ready to ride with only 13k miles on it. The F700 gave great service until a few days ago when it started to experience random electrical issues seemingly related to a failing dash electronics. Our efforts to diagnose and correct came to no avail. Internet research predicts a total failure to run in the near future.

Good Friend #2, JREW, stepped forward with an offer for Brian to leave the F700 at his house in Yuba City CA and to have the use of his 2013 FJR.

After a little maintenance Brian, JREW and I are about to set out on a shakedown run before Brian and I end up at the Bugnatr's this evening.

After Festar returns to OZ SWMBO and I will trailer JREW's FJR to Yuba City, then visit JuniorFJR for a Lake Chelan boat ride before returning Pterodactyl’s F700.

Stay tuned!

[Niehart]

John, that's just to so cool. Good on everybody.

[bigjohnsd]

June 10, 2024 - Yuba City CA to Grass Valley CA and a change of Motorcycles.



We started our morning at Bridge Coffee for another round of "Flat White"



As previously reported the BMW F700 was having increasingly intermittent serious electrical/electronic faults. One of the FJRRiders Forum members offered his 2013 FJR to Brian to finish our trip. Brian greatfully accepted the offer. We spent most of our day performing maintenance on the "new" bike and after a test ride to lunch and back spent several more hours diagnosing and repairing an intermittent headlight fault. The left headlight would flicker on and off. We thought it was a wire but it turned out to be a loose LED Headlight bulb base. Once we had a new bulb the issue disappeared. We also fit a new phone mount, changed the oil, and installed a different wind screen. All this took most of the afternoon snd necessitated at least three trips for parts and pieces. We left Yuba City at 5:00 pm at the height of rush hour in 98 degree heat.



Lunch was Street Tacos along the Sacramento River near Colusa CA on our test ride.







On our way back to JREW's we once again passed by the Sutter Buttes, the world's smallest mountain range.





All finished and ready to go. Brian thanking John for his generosity.



After a hot 37 mile ride old friends and a great diner awaited us.










Tomorrow a day of the bikes and off our feet.

Lunch along the shores of Lake Tahoe with our hosts Doug and Gayle is the plan.

Stay tuned!

[bigjohnsd]

God new tires feel great!

[fontanaman]

After riding with Brian I know JREW's FJR is in very good hands.

[Hppants]

10 June update - it helps to have good friends on FJR forums.

Good Friend #1, Pterodactyl, loaned Brian a pristine 2013 BMW F700 GS fully tricked out and ready to ride with only 13k miles on it. The F700 gave great service until a few days ago when it started to experience random electrical issues seemingly related to a failing dash electronics. Our efforts to diagnose and correct came to no avail. Internet research predicts a total failure to run in the near future.

Good Friend #2, JREW, stepped forward with an offer for Brian to leave the F700 at his house in Yuba City CA and to have the use of his 2013 FJR.

After a little maintenance Brian, JREW and I are about to set out on a shakedown run before Brian and I end up at the Bugnatr's this evening.

After Festar returns to OZ SWMBO and I will trailer JREW's FJR to Yuba City, then visit JuniorFJR for a Lake Chelan boat ride before returning Pterodactyl’s F700.

Stay tuned!

The goodness in this post cannot be overstated. I'm going through my own "non-riding" friends and even family and cannot come up with ONE scenerio whereby this (or anything that resembles this) would realistically happen.

Not one.

Over the years, I've had many non-riding firends ask me if I get nervous or even scared traveling alone on the motorcycle. My answer?


(Pants) "I am hardly alone."

[Cav47]

Dougie,

Where is the wind chime? Right behind Brian and Gayle on the porch? That stay at your house was one of my favorite memories of the whole YFO trip. I concur with Pants and others about how un-alone we are out there on the road. I have told my family this same thing: If something hits the fan, I know the calvary will come to the rescue.

Shout out to JREW for coming through in such genererous fashion.