Rick Long's Stories
August 18, 2006
Graduation Day
By Rick Long
You might already know that I am new to sidecars. My first “rig,� as they are called, is a 1974 BMW
R90/6 with early ‘80’s California Sidecar that I found on E-Bay after researching sidecar info for about a
year. I was hooked right away, rode often, worked on the R90 fairly often, and in general, developed my next
motorcycling love: sidecar driving.
August 6th, 2006, will be a date I won’t soon forget. I’ll call it “Graduation Day.� Here’s
the story.
For the past few years, I have been a member of The Chaparral Riders. This is a 90+ member riding club
attached to Chaparral Motorsports, a large Internet retailer of motorcycle gear with an equally large retail outlet
in San Bernardino, California. While mostly a cruising oriented club, I wouldn’t say we are slow riders by
any stretch of the imagination. The monthly ride for August, 2006, involved over 200 miles between the 08:00
meeting time and lunch, about 150 of which were twisty backroads. Not just any twisty backroads though. We
were going to “run the Crest.�
The Angeles Crest Highway (California 2) is well-known around southern California as sport bike nirvana. A
section on the northern end is closed due to severe damage of the roadway after winter storms. You can still â
€œrun the Crestâ€� to a point, then jog along other roads back around to the top end. No lack of challenging
curves in the detour either.
My rig had been on a Chaparral ride once before. My wife was riding in the sidecar that day, though she
usually rides her own bike. This was several months ago and while I didn’t do anything dangerous, let’s
just say keeping up with solo bikes wasn’t within my skill level at that time.
Last Sunday (August 6th – Graduation Day) I was alone on the rig. When the car is empty, I run 80 lbs. of
weight (a box of rocks from the mountains) as ballast to help keep the sidecar from bouncing. My rig is also a
bit wider than some, so I’m told, and this increases stability. All this helped when I took the tail-end of the
pack and we began our quest of the Crest.
The CB radio would crackle to life occasionally and the lead rider would ask, “Hey Rick, are you
keeping up back there.� The answer was always, “Yeah. Doing fine.� I hung off to the right and used
the front brake on right-handers then hung off to the left and used the rear brake when headed the other way. I
never flew the car and didn’t intend to. Luckily, I never flew the back-end of the bike either!
Once the ride leader called back and after I answered up, he said, “You sound like you’ve been
running on a treadmill.â€� My response was only, “Hey, I’m just having fun.â€� And so I was. I â
€œran the Crestâ€� with solo bikes and never lost sight of the pack, never scared myself (well, just once), and
put in well over 200 miles of twisties by the time I returned to my home in the mountains.
I felt as if I had graduated that day from “Beginning Sidecarist� to at least “Intermediate Sidecar
Driver.� That’s a big step for someone who during the nine month beginning phase occasionally thought,
“What am I doing. This is nuts,� but hung in there and knew that it would all make sense some day. It all
made sense at a roadhouse called Lloyd’s in Running Springs, California, where I toasted the day with a
roast beef sandwich and a glass of water with lemon (I don’t drink but I still have to eat). Tired and sore?
Well, yeah. Rig dusty and hot. Well, yeah. Smiling ear to ear and can’t stop? You bet! After all, it was
Graduation Day.
By Rick Long
You might already know that I am new to sidecars. My first “rig,� as they are called, is a 1974 BMW
R90/6 with early ‘80’s California Sidecar that I found on E-Bay after researching sidecar info for about a
year. I was hooked right away, rode often, worked on the R90 fairly often, and in general, developed my next
motorcycling love: sidecar driving.
August 6th, 2006, will be a date I won’t soon forget. I’ll call it “Graduation Day.� Here’s
the story.
For the past few years, I have been a member of The Chaparral Riders. This is a 90+ member riding club
attached to Chaparral Motorsports, a large Internet retailer of motorcycle gear with an equally large retail outlet
in San Bernardino, California. While mostly a cruising oriented club, I wouldn’t say we are slow riders by
any stretch of the imagination. The monthly ride for August, 2006, involved over 200 miles between the 08:00
meeting time and lunch, about 150 of which were twisty backroads. Not just any twisty backroads though. We
were going to “run the Crest.�
The Angeles Crest Highway (California 2) is well-known around southern California as sport bike nirvana. A
section on the northern end is closed due to severe damage of the roadway after winter storms. You can still â
€œrun the Crestâ€� to a point, then jog along other roads back around to the top end. No lack of challenging
curves in the detour either.
My rig had been on a Chaparral ride once before. My wife was riding in the sidecar that day, though she
usually rides her own bike. This was several months ago and while I didn’t do anything dangerous, let’s
just say keeping up with solo bikes wasn’t within my skill level at that time.
Last Sunday (August 6th – Graduation Day) I was alone on the rig. When the car is empty, I run 80 lbs. of
weight (a box of rocks from the mountains) as ballast to help keep the sidecar from bouncing. My rig is also a
bit wider than some, so I’m told, and this increases stability. All this helped when I took the tail-end of the
pack and we began our quest of the Crest.
The CB radio would crackle to life occasionally and the lead rider would ask, “Hey Rick, are you
keeping up back there.� The answer was always, “Yeah. Doing fine.� I hung off to the right and used
the front brake on right-handers then hung off to the left and used the rear brake when headed the other way. I
never flew the car and didn’t intend to. Luckily, I never flew the back-end of the bike either!
Once the ride leader called back and after I answered up, he said, “You sound like you’ve been
running on a treadmill.â€� My response was only, “Hey, I’m just having fun.â€� And so I was. I â
€œran the Crestâ€� with solo bikes and never lost sight of the pack, never scared myself (well, just once), and
put in well over 200 miles of twisties by the time I returned to my home in the mountains.
I felt as if I had graduated that day from “Beginning Sidecarist� to at least “Intermediate Sidecar
Driver.� That’s a big step for someone who during the nine month beginning phase occasionally thought,
“What am I doing. This is nuts,� but hung in there and knew that it would all make sense some day. It all
made sense at a roadhouse called Lloyd’s in Running Springs, California, where I toasted the day with a
roast beef sandwich and a glass of water with lemon (I don’t drink but I still have to eat). Tired and sore?
Well, yeah. Rig dusty and hot. Well, yeah. Smiling ear to ear and can’t stop? You bet! After all, it was
Graduation Day.