Day 20 - 27 Miles

Destination: Mods vs. Rockers

Lucky needed to get to Kinko's to get some cards printed for the Royal Bastards 'Blazing Saddles' Lake Tahoe Rally in July. We had brunch at the In-n-Out Burger waiting for the printing. I've heard about them, thinking it was maybe like White Castle burgers. Think Char-Grill on a huge franchise basis. They have no mayo in the store but their own special sauce. If you know the lingo, you can get a special burger off the menu. Another tasty treat.


We stopped at the San Francisco Scooter Center. Barry, the owner has a collection of Lambrettas and Vespas upstairs that would rival a museum collection. Cyrus, an interviewer for NPR showed up to interview Barry about the increase in scooter ownership. He was busy with customers, so Cyrus talked to me. He was a perceptive interviewer, and spent a long time talking to me. Don't know when it will air, but I'm sure it'll chew a bit more into my fifteen minutes of fame. Thor, by the way, wearing his little Doggles rides on the scooter with Lucky.

Mod's vs. Rockers is a ride that has a history dating back years ago to the emerging conflict between the modern scooter riders and the leather rocking motorcycle riders. Now it's more like a Revolutionary War re-enactment. All the scooters meet in one side of town and the motorcycles somewhere else. We all ride to a particular tunnel, block the traffic on both sides, ride in circles in the tunnel until it fills with smoke, mockingly insult each other, drive out before the cops arrive.

There probably were 250 scooters and motorcycles riding through the city streets. Sort of like a bunch or rowdy kids on skateboards terrorizing the city. We don't stop at stop lights, or signs. Apparently this particular ride has such a reputation that all advertising is underground, otherwise the police would shut it down.

We made a stop at Ocean Beach for no apparent reason, then continued up to Twin Peaks. We ended up back at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club for chili and drinks. It seems one of the initiation rituals of the San Francisco Motorcycle Club is to suffer the humiliation of driving wearing silly rabbit and Leprechaun costumes. It really was humorous seeing a guy with bunny ears and outfit riding a motorcycle.


Many of the scooters and motorcycles were vintage. I noticed one particular very old Honda 90 that looked like the first shift motorcycle I learned to ride. Dean, the owner walked up while I was reminiscing. Cool bike. Brooke, Lucky's daughter needed sustenance, so we wandered up the street to Whiz Burger. Several other Bastards wound up with us.

We eventually made our way up to Dreaded Bastards house with the incredible view of the San Francisco Bridge. Colin, whom I stayed with last week was in town for his nieces graduation. We met up with him for a drink, and we wound up at Mel's Drive-in, made famous in 'American Graffiti'. Fresh sliced turkey on the turkey melt was tasty. I scored some of the paper hats the servers wear with the stipulation we couldn't wear them in the restaurant, to keep the servers out of trouble.

Thanks all you Bastards for a super fun ride today.

A new slide show: