It’s been a month since I took these photos, so I apologize for that. But I still hope you’ll enjoy the random smattering of bikes I encountered on this overcast Sunday morning back in September:
Today’s ride was to catch up with some industry folks – Nic de Sena of Motorcycle.com and Jenny Smith (formerly of Rider but she’s left the industry, she just happened to be back in town so it was a good excuse for us to meet up).
Me, Nic, Jenny, and Brian (Iconic’s new Service Manager)
I’m going to focus on the bikes we saw at the Rock Store and start with my favorite bike and my biggest regret of the day – a Honda CB750 that’s been customized in a gorgeous way. My regret is that I was not able to figure out who the owner was to learn more about it!
I used this as the feature image but I still feel like I have to share it again. What a beauty! Hopefully I’ll see it on a future trip so I can get you more details.
Vincent from Motorcycle Mover looks on as I capture a shot of a Moto Guzzi V7 III Special.
The owner is apparently trying to make a Ferrari connection.
Speaking of Guzzis, there was alos a first gen Racer on site.
These have some of the shiniest tanks I’ve ever seen in person from a production bike. It’s vibrant even on an overcast day.
I would be remiss not to mention that over on Iconic we recently put the show bike that Moto Guzzi used for the V7 III Racer up for sale – it’s the bike that they took across the US and Canada as part of the IMS show and I’m sure several of you probably saw it at the Piaggio booth if you were out for the 2020 running of the event at your local convention center.
I saw my first BMW R1300RT in the wild:
I liked the paint but…that is not a pretty face. Makes me think of a whale.
While we’re talking about paint, this Harley-Davidson Road King has got quite the custom paint job going on.
Keeping the Harley theme going was this beautiful vintage piece, the owner was heading out as I arrived so I was only able to get this photo but it looked and sounded great!
MV Agusta Brutale 1000RR. I owned one of these for a few months, it’s a crazy bike but I usually found myself wanting to put more miles on my RC30 instead.
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14. Doesn’t feel like Kawi updates this model anymore but they’re still getting a few sales here and there.
Fun Fact: I went to Kawi’s website for the ZX-14 to see if they say anything about changes and I felt like the photos were familiar:
So I used the Wayback Machine to see what the page looked like for a previous year (in this case, 2023), and…yeah, they’re just photoshopping colors in to show what the “new bike” looks like. Yikes.
Ducati Monster 1200S with all kinds of bling.
Aprilia Tuono (one of the early V-Twin models). I absolutley adore the “Red Lion” livery with the gold frame and blue wheels, it’s one of my all-time favorite Aprilia liveries.
A unexpected but pleasant sight was this street-legal Yamaha YSR50. I missed if someone rode it in but it did have a California plate!
For today’s ride, Nic would be on a Honda CBR1000RR-R SP press loaner.
One of our stops for the ride was Neptune’s Net. My Aprilia RS660 loaner is treating me very well.
I can’t help but have fun every time I ride this bike…including the occasionally wheelie while out on Angeles Crest Highway. Note how the chassis reacts when I shift from 2nd to 3rd mid-wheelie:
Unfortunately, as we were wrapping up our morning, Brian realized that the phone fell off of his mount while he was riding. Jenny went back with him to check but they didn’t say anything to Nic and I so we waited on the side of the road and admired the cars/bikes that went by. I only bothered with a photo of this one car cause I saw there were dogs in it.
Turns out it’s called the “Faux-Rarrie” or “Fur_Rarrie” cause of the dogs. I liked that this little guy looked back at me. You can check them out on Instagram here.
Brian was sadly not able to track his phone down but he lives near me so I made sure he got home safe and then went back to hang out with Vy for the rest of the day. On the way back to Vy I found someone who was getting in the Halloween mood early, maybe it’ll inspire you to do the same. Hope you enjoyed the smorgasboard of bikes!
