Coast to Coast (and back?) with an Italian Supermodel

[RestlessRider]

Antihero that was a good getaway. North Philly is also as shady as Detroit, I remember an incident when a student was shot in broad daylight for refusing to part with his sportsbike to a local kid. In delapidated cities the problem is poverty and the huge divide between the haves and the have nots. Flashing one's expensive belongings in such areas is asking for trouble.

[Stixx]

Well that was a relief, timing on my post had me really worried , whew !!

[Mike_drz]

Italian Supermodel where!?

[AntiHero]

Originally Posted by OldBoldPilot

This ride report is rapidly approaching the quality (key word, that) of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which was the best ride report in literary history.

I don't take sentiments like this lightly and appreciate you for saying so. The happiest (and at times the most tortured) times of my life was when I devoted to writing. Then 15 years of all kinds of shit happened and here I am again, writing, happier than I've ever been.

[68deluxe]

Originally Posted by AntiHero

So even though I missed out on Sugar House, here's a couple snapshots of Slo's:





And here's where I downed some rather incredible libations in memory of all the crushed dreams I'd seen throughout the day.





Art Novelty Company? Ah yes, it's a speakeasy, and the sign on the door, just like the old, genuine speakeasies of the past, was meant as a ruse. Once within I was blind. It was bright outside and DARK inside. Everyone who'd came in behind me experienced the same issue, which began to get more and more amusing. But as eyes adjusted the senses were treated with a rich, dazzling, darkly-opulent Boardwalk Empire interior.



The cocktail menu was spectacular--lots of reinterpretations of old fashioned standards and no vodka! (Ok, they have it, it's just listed as a substitute....the idea being that Vodka is only for those who haven't refined their alcoholism to the point where they want taste, too.)

I got about half-way through the menu before I spotted "ghost pepper syrup." The name of the drink? Kaizer Soze.

3/4 oz Gin, Ransom
3/4 oz Aperol
3/4 oz Orange juice
1/4 oz Bénédictine
1/2 oz Ghost pepper syrup
(Served with ghost pepper salt on the rim)



And it was amazing. Prior to finishing the bartender offered me a taste of a couple other drinks, too, served in miniature-sized tumblers. All equally sublime.

In SF these drinks would set one back double what they did here. Like Detroit I do. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I was on my bike (drink limit: 1)....otherwise this was a place I could have stayed at all night.

Cool ride report. Did the drink turn you into Yoda?

[68deluxe]

I have not finished the entire report, did the high speed weave ever go away? I have heard about it from reviews in mags.

[lvscrvs]

went back and looked at the detroit pics again... saw that once, and only once, in north philly... as you said, truly eerie

interesting to see so much vegetation growing up around those decrepit buildings.... it reminds me of the maya civilization and the jungle growing up around the maya ruins .... human activity is so full of folly... we are resilient buggers though, as is nature... good thing

keep writing, and taking pics... great stuff!!!

[AntiHero]

Originally Posted by 68deluxe

Cool ride report. Did the drink turn you into Yoda?

Ha!

I'm not sure if the high speed weave went away. New tires, but I haven't gotten the bike up to the kind of speeds that I was able to in the desert states....and now that I'm in Canada, where they do roadside seizures of vehicles traveling over 90mph on the freeway I am not going to try!!!!

[vintagespeed]

Originally Posted by AntiHero

Back to the other night........And immediately I thought "GTA" as two guys walked over to look at my bike.....

and you missed out on your chance to share a bottle of Thunderbird and hear about all their riding stories.

[infresig]

Great story, but I'm curious as to why, once you saw the scene back at the apartment, you didn't just take off, get some other accommodations for the night and come back for your stuff in the morning under safer conditions?

Originally Posted by AntiHero

Back to the other night....

I got off the bike and up onto the porch without removing any gear (an armored jacket might not stop a knife or deflect a bullet, but armored gloves are like brass knuckles, armored elbows are like sledge hammers and a helmet will take blows your brain could not.) More importantly, the helmet gave me an excuse to pretend I didn't hear things like, "white boy," "yo, you gonna let me take it for a ride? (he's GONNA let me take it for a ride,)" "what the hell," "who's he think," etc.

Now just to be fair, it could be that they were just having conversations about their bosses or their coworkers and I was just delusional in thinking their words were directed at me. That's what people who don't deal with (or think about) danger and violence every day say to themselves. That's how our neocortex responds to threats ("this isn't happening!"). But my reptilian brain knew my white ass was about to get fucked. Spider-sense--we all have it, we just have to to listen each and every fucking time we hear it.

Once inside (and upstairs) I had a good view of what began to unfold below. And immediately I thought "GTA" as two guys walked over to look at my bike. Before they got there they veered off towards the people in the car parked in the middle of the street. That was my chance. I hadn't unpacked when I had checked in, so I grabbed my shit, hooked the Kriega to my backpack, ratcheted my helmet down tightly, secured my gloves and jacket, checked to make sure my folder was in place, and was out the door again.

Once outside I was committed: I had left the key to the house on the dresser and had locked the door behind me ("all to avoid a $25 lost key charge, what the fuck was I thinking?"). Then, as I hit the sidewalk I thought, "please don't have a starting seizure now. Anytime in the future, fine--BUT NOT NOW! One fluid motion later I was on the bike, ignition was a-go, the kickstand was up, clutch was in, first gear engaged and the starter button depressed. Two or three high pitched servo whirrs later and the Panigale fired back up before anyone could react to me being back. I paused momentarily, as if frozen by the feeling that I had done it. There was a ten foot radius of empty space around me and I was in the clear. And just as I released the clutch I heard a loud pop, a flash and then the bike died. Ignition was on, lights were off, no response.

No, I kid! The Panigale fired up angry as ever, and I rocketed the fuck off the street FOREVER. FOR FUCKING EVER! (Ok, I'd love to go back during the day, but at night it's the real life version of Escape From New York. for a white boy on an expensive piece of Italian metal.

Lesson is: there are some ideas worthy of validating with real-life experiences and there are some things that are not. This particular episode was idiotic and I should have known better.

[Mo-Tarded]

It's funny how close "fun, exciting, safety and danger" are connected. Also corollary is the perception of danger before a situation that has 20/20 clarity after the experience.

I stayed up WAY past my bedtime last night reading this entire report.

It influenced my dreams (perhaps unrelated, but I'm not sure why I had a Honda cafe racer and SCUBA equipment out on the same trip) and perhaps my life.

There is a point where admiration and inspiration coincide. I think it's probably safe to say that you've successfully taken most of us past that point. Thank-you...

Please continue ! See ya back in California !

[DGraham]

Good to see a moment of absolute insanity followed by clarity. Surely you would have never seen your bike again. OTOH, the bike, keeping your helmet on, in and out of the building, backpack, they probably thought you were a drug dealer or a hit man and were happy not to mess with you, lol! Cheers to getting out safe and sound, now let's hear about Toronto!

[keithg]

maybe you need the rapper from the CHRYSLER commercials for back up?

[zhukov]

Hard to believe that Detroit was once called the Paris of the West.

Deploy the world's biggest bulldozer. Up, down, left, right.

Problem solved.

[Stixx]

Originally Posted by DGraham

Good to see a moment of absolute insanity followed by clarity. Surely you would have never seen your bike again. OTOH, the bike, keeping your helmet on, in and out of the building, backpack, they probably thought you were a drug dealer or a hit man and were happy not to mess with you, lol! Cheers to getting out safe and sound, now let's hear about Toronto!

In keeping with the discussion on here about "posers" , this may have inadvertetly been one of those poser moments which worked out really really well for Anti Hero and as usual , I am....................................jusayin