Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > Timmy Topanga: Otei's So-Cal Adventure.

[Otei]

Day 3

The weather was much better today, so i decided to take the RSV for a Canyon run. The only problem was that Amy runs a race shift on her bikes, and had got some rearsets on the Aprilia that you couldn't just turn the linkage round on. So I found the original rearset for the gearshift side...which was in pieces, with the rod that keeps the footrest on the assembly missing. I bodged it together with various borrowed bits from other boxes, and generally made it ready to be ridden my a dopey Brit.



Now the driveway that leads to the main canyon road outside Amy's place is a bit of a dodgy affair, with sand and gravel mixed in large quantities and a nice uphill exit on a blind bend. I rolled up to the exit, gave the big twin a whiff of throttle, and promptly stalled it right in the middle of the road. EEEEEEEEEeeep! I thumbed the starter and wheelied it up the road in my haste to get out of the way of any traffic.

The Canyon roads are crazy, and to be honest, they're a bit much for a big bike with very worn tyres, so cornering wasn't the smoothest at times. The bloody great big orange blocks masqeurading as some sort of cat's eyes that stick up out of the road next to the centre lines weren't much help either and had the bike twitching about on more than one occasion.

I stopped off in Topanga itself on the way back and found a store that sold postcards. Having parked the Mille up at an eaterie, I sat and wrote a few out. The best one was to a mate called Steve, and it simply said "You're a girl, you're a girl, you're a great big girl...flip ya!" How's that for random? I then went to the post office and annoyed the woman behind the counter by paying for 6 stamps with a $50 note. I just informed her that I was a stupid tourist and she reached behind the counter, pulled out a Mack 10 and sprayed the whole of the post office interior with hot lead. Fortunately I had my trusty Roof lid in my hand and I was able to put it on and escape injury.Before I found the store with the postcards, I looked elsewhere. There was this guy in a little hippy gift shop, and when i asked if he had any postcards, you'd have thought I'd asked him for boil in the bag cat s h i t. I think he runs the restaurant next door that we're off to tonight, I hope he remembers me.



Amongst the hippy shops, spiritualist healers and yeti impersonators, I found a really cool little mountainbike shop. There was one bike that was so trick that I forgot to take a picture of it. I'll try and get one another day..It was Phat, er..yo!



There was a group of Mexican guys hanging outside this supermarket type dealio, and it was called "Abuellitas". Now as far as I recall, that means "Grandma" in Spanish, so I was surprised to find a bunch of Chinese guys running the place and this funky basketball lovers truck outside. It either basketball or Oranges...Hmmm!



Speaking of Mexico, we're off on a cruise around the Gulf of Mexico tomorrow, but I should be able to have internet access on the ship, just in case i find a Titty twister bar full of vampires in one of the ports we stop off at..because I just know you're gonna want to hear all about that!

Hasta la Vista, Gringo's,

Otei.