brand new bag(s)...baby

First I'll start with a couple of updated photos of the new ride. :D I recently had the suspension dialed in by Dave Moss at Catalyst Suspension in San Carlos. The bike used to push wide in curves, but now, it banks and turns and seems to float on a dime. Very good setup at the moment.

So a few months back, I scored some used hard luggage for the Multistrada for long distance trips, and so I don't have to haul my messenger bag everywhere I go (as it gets painful after about 500 miles).

Picked these up for about 300 bucks, used, scratched up, and had them prepped (sanded), as seen above with the old Ducati Red. I got them back the other day, and went to town with some primer and black gloss paint......

....and finally

some clear coat to match the bike. not to shabby for a garage rattle can job. The clear coat is about the best you can do with a rattle can, UPOL-#1 Clear. depending on how you spray it, you can give it a gloss look, or a wrinkled look.

Finally, I mounted the luggage rack and hardware to the bike (about 30 minutes of easy bolt on), and latched the bags on the bike to see how she stands.

She's looking pretty good...even with a nice wide ass. hahaha junk in the trunk. :D

Soon, heated grips, and a custom seat, so it doesn't feel like a plank after 200 miles.

Had to purchase new tires recently, with 6,000 miles on the current ones, after finding a screw in the rear tire when I got home from Nevada. Can't say enough great things about the Michellin Pilot Road 2 tires.

A day at the range..

Saturday was pretty slow, and since I wasn't going to get a chance to go to Laguna Seca for the races this weekend, I figured I'd go and do something fun. :D Like shooting guns at the range. First stop, Jackson Arms, in South San Francisco.

Firing some rounds at the zombie targets...you know...just in case. HAHA Lin, on the right learning to fire the .45

After we were done, I got a call from my friend Will, who wanted to go to Bullseye range in Larkspur....so we threw the bicycles in the truck, and picked him up and tried to make it down to the ferry on time. Missed it by 5 min, so we just drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin Co. Traffic was horrible, being a Saturday and all, but we got there, fired another round of shells, and made our way back. Thru bumper to bumper traffic....took us an hour to go what normally takes 10 minutes. lame. but at least we'd gone shooting, and it was a good day.

Will checking his shots.

Great times instructing a newb shooter (Lindsey), and firing off a few rounds (200).
afterwards, we were starving...as shooting usually works up an appetite. So we stopped by the In & Out burger, and I got two cheeseburgers and tons of fries. :D a good day for sure.

SF Armory.

I had a chance 2 days ago to stop by the old Armory in SF. 14th and Mission. The building, surprisingly enough, is pretty inocuous and slips your sight if you don't pay much attention to it. It is surprisingly bigger than what it appears while driving by it too. The building was built over Mission Creek, which still runs under it, and housed the National Guard, after being completed in 1914, in the style of an old Moorish Castle. It stayed in use until 1978, when it was designated as a historical site. Some much planned condos were put by the wayside, after they encountered much community resistance. Eventually, it was quietly sold to a company, which now leases it to it's current occupants.... Kink.com :D


Parking outside, with seemingly no entrance, and no signs anywhere.
The indoor photo is of a window, lining the side of the 39,000 square foot drill court. The windows housed anti-aircraft guns that could fire over the city and into the bay. pretty cool shit.

Underground/basement walk through shows, on the right, the indoor rifle range, which is pretty significant in size, and to the rear of that photo is Mission Creek.

On the left is a movie prop, used for...well.....you can distinguish, that that is a chainsaw belt, with tongues attached. :D haha Johnny Five, is alive!! There were underground horse stables, which have since been converted into movie sets.

I'll have to go back for the official tour, but it was still a great day to get inside such a historic building. As well, as touring along with it's current occupants. :D