Hello fellow RAT’s and friends of RAT’s,

For our ride this month we rode to Monterey on a quest of sorts. First; we had already planned to go there and second; we delivered a beautiful new Bonneville America to a new member Carl. Carl bought the bike at San Jose Triumph needed to get it to it’s new home in Monterey. From the grin on his face, he seemed to enjoy having it personally delivered by the RAT Pack.
I’m sure his neighbors wondered why a dozen motorcycles were in his driveway. I was happy to ride it down there as it only had about 2 miles on the odometer. I was careful to consider Triumph’s break-in recommendations.

Maya (our Pack Leader) rode my America which was a first for her. One would think with all the years of riding and her very “Large” stable of bikes (double digits), she would have ridden every model Triumph ever made! Her Tiger and Speed Triple stayed home today. I hope you enjoyed riding the America Maya! I certainly do!

Quite a few bikes in all; it was a nice turnout of members this month. We had Graham and Linda on his new black and white T100 (see his photo on the main page), Roy rode Speedy instead of his Rocket 3 ( I assume trying to console Speedy’s feelings). Jean Luc our
Pack photographer and his sidekick Haan were on his Daytona, Sue on her Bonneville, Peter on his nice Triumph, Jeremy on his nicely accessorized Speedmaster and Dennis on his America. Victor rode his trusty Sprint after making a small repair/adjustment to his real shock.

Even though we arranged to start a little earlier, a few things crop up as they do and we left San Jose Triumph about 11:30 am. Not knowing the Monterey area and exactly where we were going took us several missed streets and U-turns, Sorry guys no GPS! But we made it after several misguided attempts by me.

After delivering Carl his new “baby” we stopped at El Torritos for lunch. After some food and fluid level checks we headed back up Hwy 1 toward Santa Cruz through the fog and considerably cool air. Most of the pack took a planned detour up in the mountains and
came out on Summit Road back to 17. Maya and I were considerably behind them at this point and we just took the easy slab route. As we approached Capitola and Santa Cruz the temperature rose up to a comfortable level. We had to wave as we passed Moto Italiano, Santa Cruz which is the sister store to San Jose Triumph. As we came down the hill to Silicon
Valley it was warmer yet (reminiscent of Tucson) as you all know we have experienced some really warm days this past week.

So we did our “Good deed” for the day and made one new Triumph owner happy. If you’re in the Monterey Bay area and see a shiny new Black and Red Bonneville America with a grinning rider, give a beep and a wave it’s got to be Carl.

Hope to see you at next month’s planning meeting on June 11th.

Ride safe,

Jim

PS

For all you new Triumph owners, or those who have yet to make it to our meeting, please come. We would love to have you as a part of our RAT Pack. E-mail the address on the main page and we would be happy to provide you with more information.
 

Riders: Jean Luc (Sprint), Victor (Sprint), Maya (America), Jeremy (Speedmaster), Roy (Speedmaster), Jim (America), Carol (Bonneville), Graham (Bonneville), Charles (Sprint)

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