A Tale of Three Turbos

We travel north, out of the San Francisco Bay Area and across the great inland sea bed that is the Sacramento Valley.

First stop: Rich Simms' garage, where ICOA Central California Director Rod Libby will leave the remnants of a precious lesson...

The remains of Rod's number five cylinder piston rod, converting the angular momentum of 8000 RPM (and some modest level of boost) into kinetic energy and heat, have cut a very neat and large helical slice out of the engine case of his Turbo Project Bike. Having his attention well got, Rod, soaked in oil, managed to stop in a straight line on Woodside Road below Alice's.

We push on, past Mt. Shasta and through 100 MPH Siskiyou sweepers to reach Medford, Oregon, rendezvous point for this year's Cal-Oregon Meet.

There we are greeted by a doleful sight. Darrell Peck's beautifully styled Blue Turbo in the back of David Gaines ugly ol' blue pickup. On the way up from Crescent City, in Six Rivers country near the California-Oregon border, Darrell's number one piston rod has sacrificed itself to the laws of physics. David says, "All I saw was a blue mist!" And so we say to Darrell, and Rod, and all CBXers everywhere, "Better a blue mist than a pink mist!"

In a ritual practiced over the many enjoyable California-Oregon Meets, we eight or ten survivors on normally aspirated CBXs, and the very fine remaining Turbo Bike in attendance,

ridden by Bob Dehaan from Hillsboro, Oregon, whose theories on the oiling of the turbocharged CBX are worthy of careful note, find our way to Crater Lake.

Grand CBXer Roy Bengtsson pays homage to the awesome spirits on this powerful mountain.


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