Back in the Saddle

First Ride in over two months

The beast is back and I am vacation in the NC Highland during fall leaf season.  The forecast is for cooler temps in the mountains – a far cry from the unusually warm 87 at home today.  We arrived at our mountain place late Friday night to fog and falling temps.  I realized then that much of cold / wet weather gear was still in the garage where it had been set after being removed when the beast went to the shop for repairs.

Fall Colors

While we waited for a break in the weather we grabbed a few shots of of local color.  A brief bit of afternoon sun allowed a trip to Bass Lake at Cone Manor to capture the last of the leaves there.  Monday was socked in all day with dense fog.

Tuesday dawned sunny!  Finally a day to ride!

November 07, 2009 – Finally finish this post with the thought that I started.  But not where I thought.  The fall mountain weather never cooperated, Kelley cracked a rib and we cut the vacation short.  Back to work…

Early November rolls around, leaves are pretty much gone, first frost arrived this morning, but forecast is sunny with temps in the mid 60’s and no chores to speak of.  Kelley and I decide to go explore northern Wake and Durham counties.

We head off at a leisurely pace without much traffic and settle in to the late day and familiar back roads.  We wander toward the Durham county line and pick up the scenic byway through Northern Durham county.  This is a nice, varied ride through rural residential areas, undeveloped mixed forests, old and new farm lands, including a few horse farms.

Next time I will take my camera.  There are a number of interest spots from the rolling horse farms, to old farm buildings,  country churches and historic Bahama.

The roads also offer a variety of riding.  Mostly they are easy county byways, but a few twisty sections as you cross Lake Michey keep you on you toes.

As a side note, I found that not having my radio working actually has advantages.  I tended to focus more on the road and surroundings and really enjoyed the ride from a different perspective.  There are times when one wants to ride tunes and times when one should ride in silence with just his thoughts and the surrounding countryside.

It was a good day for a ride.

 

Is the Beast Back This Week?

Rumor has it, it Mama-Yama parts distribution is running smoothly and the mechanics didn’t get hurt while playing at VIR this weekend, things just may come together by the end of the week.  As it turns out, there was no structural damage, but lots of fender, brackets and some new rear rubber.  And labor, let’s not forget labor!

While I am looking forward to getting back on two-wheels, I have had plenty of time to consider safety issues.  Although, there may be nothing one can do in the face on a truly no-observant fellow driver, ever the optimist, I will try.  A new mil-spec reflective day-glow yellow safety vest will top my protective gear when I leave the shop.  I expect to add a headlight modulator as well.

I have been surprised with the number of safety related forum posts from the many motorcycle forums I visit, from various “no see’ums’, to wearing the correct gear: “are flip-flops OK?”, to the power of pink – it’s a close second to day-glow yellow!

I am already looking at some rides to shake her down, so stay tuned for more interesting reading and pictures.

Ride Safe!

Bikes in Blowing Rock

For a number of years as Kelley and I have visited lovely Blowing Rock, NC often, we have noticed motorcycles along the streets.  As we began riding ourselves, we obviously took more notice.  I have not yet developed a real knack for taken photos of people, e.g. bikers,  nor really for bikes, but one fine summer day in Blowing Rock, I carried the camera.

There were typical adventure bikes found traveling the Parkway.  Here are a couple outside Kojay’s Coffee.

Pair of adventure bikes in front of Kojay's

Then there are the plethora of cruisers, from the locals and near locals to travelers from Tennessee.

Ultras on Main Street

Cruiser checking out Sunset Hattery and Tees

On a warm July day, even Blowing Rock gets warm occasionally, Kilwin’s Ice Cream always draws a crowd, whether it’s bikers,  moms with children screaming for ice cream or just plain folks.  It is good stuff!

Cruiser crowd at Kilwin's Ice Cream

Then you have the characters:

The road dogs here on the move

Cruisin' canine

or Mild Hoggs in Pink

Mild Hogg

Or this well – worn adventure bike with stories to tell.  I spoke with the owner outside Footsloggers.  He’d been to Alaska, and South America on this GS towing the custom – rigged bicycle luggage trailer.  Today, he was just head down the Parkway to Mt.Mitchell.  He from around here.

Well used GS

Close Encounters

From Spearfish – and a 4000 mile trip including Wyoming and Devil’s Towers, location of the climatic scene of Close Encounters of the Third Kind to local Morrisville, NC and close encounters of an entirely different kind.  Through many miles, long days and nights, we traveled safely without incident.  We traveled late into the night far beyond our normal endurance, seemingly unphased by the late hour – until we reached our hotel rooms.  The lord must have watching over us.

Well HE kept looking out for me, if not for the bike.  After a week of rest. I finally felt I could mount the trusty steed and make the short trip to work.  She still wore the bugs from our cross-country trip like a badge of honor.  The ride to work was uneventful, but the ride home was another matter…

It was a typical case of “I didn’t see him”.  I saw the car coming from the left across the divided boulevard, doubting that the driver had seen me.  I began sounding the Stebel 134dB horn to get the driver’s attention – to no avail.  I moved right to gain a margin of space as the driver accellerated across my lanes of traffic, oblivious to my presence.

Impact!

Fortunately, between the Good Lord, and a little training/positioning the blow was more glancing than direct.  However, my trusty steed was now lame as it had taken a hard blow in the hind quarters.

The “doctor”, mechanic, has yet to make an official prognosis. Stay tuned…

The most obvious damage – crushed saddle bag

apparent point of impact – good thing for bag rails!

Skewed hind-quarters

apparent point of impact – good thing for bag rails

First Long Motorcycle Trip: Lessons Learned and Planning the next Trip

The entry is both for ourselves and others who may want to plan a similar trip for the first time.  Feel free to comment with your own experiences.

Good Stuff – would definitely keep/do again:

Having a wonderful destination

Going with folks you know and trust

Having the equipment (bikes, cars, trailers, etc. properly prepared for the trip).  We all had everything serviced and inspected beforehand.  Other than the trailer welds breaking from rough roads, that I would not have expected – all performed well.

Be flexible – allow daily routes and plans to change as needed to fit/adapt changing schedules and folks.

Make use of Dale Coyner’s book, Essential Guide to Motorcycle Travel

Take your gear! We managed to do well and not forgot anything major.  I let a clear face shield at home on a previous trip.  A dark visor is useless in a downpour!

Could have been better:

We needed more time!  both at location/Spearfish and en-route.  See Dale Coyner’s Essential Guide to Motorcycle Travel for mileage planning.  If you can’t follow those guidelines, it may be worth extra preparation on your own part via Going the Extra Mile.

Plan for a rest day – if you don’t plan, you will take one whether want to or not.  Rest days are probably best before and/or after the long-hauls on your trip.

More off-slab.  While Slab allowed us to make good time and for some states, covering ground in a hurry is great, the few opportunities we did have for off-slab travel were an extreme pleasant diversion and relief.  Mix it up if you need to make time.

More time to keep this Blog up to date in real time and shot more photos and video:

here is a sample: Iron-Mountain-Road:

Spearfish – Summary

States visited:10

NC -started here – not counted

Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota

Rivers Crossed: 4

Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois

Deer misses: 3

Motorcycle accidents: 1

Unrelated to our group, passed on the way home, presumed fatal from accident scene – helmetless state and no protective gear.

Days in South Dakota, including two travel days: 5 (not nearly enough)

Miles logged – chase vehicle: 3824

Miles logged on M/C: 3007

Miles logged on Bob’s Venture: ~3900

Do it again? Absolutely!

Do things differently – sure.

Select photos:  on-the-road Spearfish Canyon and Devil’s Tower

Badlands Mount Rushmore

560 miles of Slab!

One day gne from a wonderful time in the Black Hills of South Dakota and its 560 miles of SLAB to reach forgetful Albert Lea Minnesota.  At least the hotel is clean and comfortable and convient.  Tomorrow will prove more interesting, but catching up from the real fun in Spearfish will have to wait a bit longer.  There is a bit of video of your truly crossing the Missouri River and the Minnesota wind farms, but otherwise today was uneventful – just long.  Started and 7:15 and arrived at our hotel after 10:30.

Tomorrow may be a killer.

Spearfish Canyon

Spearfish is a short ride just south of Spearfish proper in SD 14A and is billed for its beautiful flora and fauna as we as natural beauty as is true of all the Black Hills area.  We rode this Tuesday because we were getting started too late to make the normal group ride to Mt Rushmore with the Venturers and advised by fellow Venturer Keith that we would not have time for the ride when we saw him as we ate breakfast.  We opted for the MAD Maps Devils Tower loop, which includes Spearfish Canyon.

Most of the canyon ride was document via bike mounted video, that will be processed later.  We did stop at Bridal Veil Falls for a photo session.

Bridal Veil Falls SD in Spearfish Canyon 2009

Three of us at Bridal Veil Falls SD 2009

Bob and Kelley at Bridal Veil Falls SD Spearfish Canyon 2009

Badlands, Spearfish Canyon, Devils Tower and Mount Rushmore – WOW!

The three long hard days getting here and a late arrival Monday evening made for some delayed posts, so I will try to finally catch up.  We detoured through the Badlands on the way into Spearfish as a way to break the monotony of I-29 and I-90 from Sioux City, our previous night.  Google indicated an extra hour to hour and a half.  We spent closer to 2-1/2 with only one photo stop, relying on bike mounted video for the reminder of the capture.

Two Ventures at entrance to Badlands National Park

We stopped for one long range op prior to actually entering the badlands proper as there is as viewin spot there with the park entrance.

We captured the moment for posterity with various posed and un-posed shots, then on to the real badlands and the Big Badlands viewing are. 

Bob and Kelley at entrance to Badlands

Big Badlands as you approach the rest of the park

Kelley snaps the Badlands Sign

Missed Chances

Sunday was about misses – near missed when the spare trailer tire mount broke off and narrowly missed Bob, missed photo opporunities in Hannibal due to time and a very late start – 11 AM.  Lots of rolling Missouri farm land and old farm buildings, but it is hard to photograph at 70+ mph from a motorcycle.  No rain yesterday, but what we didn’t collect in rain we accumulated in bugs!  We missed any photo op of the St. Louis Arch as it requires prior planning to pick a spot and route.  One can not simply pull off of I-64/I-70.

Our Scenic routes were either upgraded in intervening years to 4-lane: US-61/US-36 or by-passed due to darkness, Old Lincoln Highway north of Council Bluffs.

We arrived at our nightly hotel, once again near midnight.  Hade we left earlier than 11AM we might have had an easier day, but such is first long motorcycle trips.  One learns.