A few updates....

Mid October; such a beautiful time of the year especially up in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. However, with this view means the coming of cooler weather which usually results in the bike getting parked for the winter. However there has been a new addition to the bike closet this week, the Kilimanjaro by First Gear. More details to come later, but I have a feeling my riding season has just been extended by a good month or two now thanks to this jacket.

So just to give a few updates as I have not been keeping up with this too well this year:

Once I got back from the West Virginia ride managed I managed to sneak in a few other day rides around the area before I replaced the Avon Storms which I had put on back in April. I had the tires on the bike for a total of 125 days and put roughly 7000 miles on them! I was extremely pleased with the performance of these tires; however I do wish that their life was a bit longer. With that being said I would not turn anyone away from these tires, I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a longer life “performance” tire. They did very well in the corners and did not give me a single problem in the wet. They warmed up extremely quick and held the heat pretty good as well.

Just before I went back to school I went ahead and put a new set of rubber on, but this time I went the dual compound route. I decided to put on a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2’s. I have heard nothing but good things about this tire especially when it comes to their life expectancy. Once again my goal for a rear tire is 10,000 miles and from what I hear, these should do the trick.

The weekend before school started up I got a little more riding in which included a RTE breakfast in Spartanburg, SC for the start of the Iron Butt Rally. Mike Brown gave me a call earlier in the week asking if I would like to attend and with out thinking about where Spartanburg was, and the fact that this was a breakfast event, I said yes. Then he told me to meet him at the local McDonalds in Harrisburg at 5:30 am… sigh. Yes, I did make it on time and was functioning enough to ride. Thankfully I was still in my sleep pattern from work, so waking up at 4:45 wasn’t too much of a stretch.

I have never felt like such a wimp in all my life! When we arrived at the hotel where the riders for the IBR were staying I was in shock at the number of bikes and gadgets aboard them. Most, if not all the “competitive” bikes were set up with multiple GPS’s, auxiliary fuel tanks (totaling 11.5 gallons of fuel on the bike) radar detectors, intercoms, cameras, hydration systems, etc. I mean seriously, it felt like I was at an Inspector Gadget convention. However it was reassuring to see the number of sport tourer’s running PR2’s on their bikes. If they work for those highway bandits than they should more than suffice for me! There were several people from the WVSR there taking part in the breakfast and snapping pictures, so I made my way trough the group bench racing and talking gadgets with most the riders and “groupies.” Once again, the more I talked to the riders involved in the ride, the more I felt like a pansy… Put it this way, these riders were about to take off on a ride that would last a week an a half and in that time they were going to put more miles on their bikes that I am lucky to get in a year! (~10,000 miles) Imagine a cross country scavenger hunt, in essence that is what this ride is about.
We left Spartanburg around 11 am and I followed Mike and Kevin back up 85 till Hwy 321 when I pulled out and went north to Boone, NC. While at the Rally I was texting Alicia and decided to ride up that way for lunch. And yes, Boone is on the way to Charlotte from Spartanburg…

As I stated earlier, school has started back up and is in full swing. I am now in my senior year with plans to graduate in May. (We hope) One of my major classes this semester as well as the following is Senior Design. For this class each student has the option to come up with their own project or join a team and work on a project as a group for a company in the region. I was a bit tired of doing the team thing for a while and I really wanted to work on something related to motorcycles so I decided to work alone. What I came up with was to design a trailer to be pulled behind my FZ6 that will be able to carry the essentials for a weekend camping trip. This is slowly coming along and is proving to put my knowledge from the past few years to the test. And yes I will be building a prototype and have it completed by the spring. I will have pictures and such posted as they come about.

My riding has slowed down tremendously since this summer; however I have been making trips to Boone, NC on a normal basis now. It is football season and I have been spending every other weekend in Boone to do some tailgating and watch the Mountaineers play. I have been having a lot of fun with this, sometimes too much, but in the process I have reconnected with many people in which I haven’t seen or talked to in years and have made many new ones as well.

Currently I am sitting in Alicia’s apartment watching the rain fall and the leaves fall from the trees. I am on fall break right now and with a series of events going on up here this week I put it together so I could spend my break up here with Alicia. (App State’s Homecoming on Saturday and several concerts within the music department) While Alicia is in class I have been out riding and exploring the surrounding area enjoying the foliage. Friday, I spent the morning/lunch time in Shady Valley, TN playing on The Snake and getting my twisty fix in. Then later that afternoon I picked up Alicia and we went leaf looking up around the parkway and such.

Back to the Kilimanjaro jacket. Last week Dad was able to get a hold of a few Kilimanjaro’s and they have made a nice addition to the motorcycle closet. I brought my jacket up here to Boone in order to test its limits as the weather channel was showing some low temperatures during the first of this week. Yesterday evening I put on my Underarmor, a couple long sleeve shirts and t-shirt. I left the fleece liner in the jacket, zipped up the vents and along with my winter gloves and neck sock I was sweating. I passed a bank sign that had the current temperature to be 53 degrees when I was pulling into Alicia’s for the night. So I am thinking that my limit is now going to be mid 40’s this winter…

I think in a nut shell that is about if for my riding/motorcycle related news. Hopefully the weather will clear up this evening so I can get some riding in tomorrow before I go back to Charlotte tomorrow night. Until next time, ride safe!

West Virginia Summer Mtn Ride

The posts below are a recap of my most recent ride, the West Virginia Summer Mtn Ride hosted by the MTF.

I apologize in advance for the pictures. I am not sure why they are only showing half the images in the blog. If you click on them they will open to full size in photobucket.

Enjoy.

Day 1 (8-6-09)

Not too long back I was browsing through the MTF website and noticed a thread about this West Virginia ride that was coming up shortly. So I spent some time researching it and made a few phone calls to those members who I knew would probably be attending. It didn't take long to figure out that if I got a roommate to split the hotel costs that I would be able to do this event. I had been wanting to get up to WV for a while now and this was a great opportunity to do so. A week or so later I had a roommate lined up and I was registered for the event!

I contacted Mike Brown about when he would be leaving to head that way and what route he would be taking. Well since I was Lexington, he would be heading right through my back yard to get there so we made plans to link up on his way up. Due to some prior obligations, Mike and his group wouldn't be able to make it up till around lunch time. This was fine by me as it gave me some time catch up on my beauty sleep...

The ride up was rather uneventful aside from Mike threading his bike along with the trailer between a truck and a bridge guard rail and then again in Mt. Airy but this time is a light pole and a car. (he was going slower this time)

A few hours later we were at the hotel unpacking and introducing ourselves to those that were already at the hotel. We spent the evening in the meeting room having a few drinks and "bench racing." I learned a lot that evening about the street bikes from back in the day...

Day 2 (8-7-09)

In the past week, Mike Brown and I had been discussing some places to go visit while on this trip and one of those was the Green Bank Radio Telescope. Mike felt that our first day out would be a good time to do visit it and on the way in we could stop by the Greenbrier for a banana split. I have never turned down ice cream before, so why start now…

Friday morning it was surprisingly warmer than I thought it would. So I left my long sleeve shirt in my tail bag as we headed off towards Green Bank with a planned stop at the Cass Railroad for lunch.

The group for this ride consisted of Mike and his wife, Kevin, Rick and his wife on a Gold Wing, John and Rick with the FJR and me. Now like I said before it was warm at the hotel, however as we started working our way up the mountain it quickly became much cooler, to the point where I was starting to get the shakes. Thankfully, we were approaching the New River Gorge Bridge so we pulled off there to layer up and snap a few shots while we were there. Due to time constraints we didn’t stay long and got back on the road headed towards Cass.

For the life of me I can’t remember how we got there, but some how we did through a series of winding West Virginia back roads that were a pleasure to be riding on despite the gravel in most all of the right hand corners. In some areas the DOT had put down rock on the shoulders which semi’s and other large vehicles pulled up onto the road. It didn’t but a corner or two to realize that this was going to be a constant issue.

A couple hours later we ended up at the Cass Railroad to grab some lunch. In this small area there were several shops a nice diner and a train ride that would take you around the area. This place was a play ground for the cameras so we spent some time and snapped a few shots before heading in for lunch.

The food was good but the service was a bit slow. But with that crowd slow service really isn’t a problem. Mike is never short a story or two… and knows how to embarrass us all. He had the waitress laughing so hard she ran into a pole behind the table.

It took us about an hour to finish lunch and we worked our way back out to the bikes. On the way out we heard the train whistle blowing in the distance. We stood around waiting for it to show up and as it rounded the bend it greeted us with its steam whistle.

While watching the trail I noticed a good spot to pull the bike up on the tracks for a couple quick shots…

On the way from Cass to Green Bank a song came on my iPod that I hadn’t heard in a long time. “A Hymn for the Lost and Living” by Eric Ewazen. This piece was written after the 9-11 attacks as a tribute to those that perished and a promise to carry on. Our high school was one of the first schools in NC to play this after it was published and I had forgotten how emotional this piece was. If you would like to listen to this you can below. I was a low brass guy, so the 5 minute mark is what got to me that and I can still remember hearing Drew and Will, my best friends who played trumpet, playing this piece and seeing their emotions as well.

http://www.imeem.com/cornydog/music/A2GamV9v/eric-ewazen-a-hymn-for-the-lost-and-the-living/

I know this has nothing to do with the ride and I know it is bringing the mood down, but for some reason this song just really got to me that afternoon. I think I listened to it like 3 times back to back. Something about that country side at a slow pace and that song just went hand in hand.

But anyway, it was a short ride over to Green Bank and once there we went inside and looked around the exhibit area and snagged a few pictures from outside. Rick on the wing needed to take a break to get his blood sugar up, so Rick (FJR) and I went to a few other exhibits before heading back on our way to get some of the world’s best ice cream at the Greenbrier.

Kevin and I stopped on the out of Green Bank to get a few more shots of the satellite from a distance. I would really like to return there at some point and take the guided tour around that massive thing! The dish alone apparently spans over 2 acres!

It was a nice country ride over to the Greenbrier where I was in for some more culture shock. We pulled up to this gated area and had to park in lot across the street and wait for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to the hotel. Why you ask? Because the motorcycles bother the polo horses… On the way up Mike begins story telling and fills me in on what his place really is. (I had never heard of it till that day)

When we walk into this place I immediately felt way out of place, apparently Kevin did, too. Let me set the scene for you….

Nice plush dark green carpet, silk drapes with chords of all colors everywhere. The staff was wearing the green suit coats while the female guests were wearing nice Lilly dresses and heels and the guys were sporting the polo’s with khaki shorts and Sperries. Then in walks a group of 8 people, 6 men and 2 women. Most wearing ball caps and wearing Kevlar and Cordura based pants, motorcycle T-shirts and heavy boots. We stuck out like a sore thumb to say the least…

We end up at the ice cream parlor in the back of the mall down stairs; yes there is a freaking mall in the bottom of this place! The wait staff was extremely friendly and they got a kick out of our special ice cream trip. Most of us all ordered the banana split, John was the only smart one, he got a milk shake. The split was huge…

Our shuttle driver filled us in on the prices for that hotel as we were leaving. For a basic room at that place it costs around 400.00 per person, per night! Like I said, I was way out of place!

Back on the bikes we were now heading to eat dinner with the crowd at a rib shack. (Are you catching a pattern here?) We took Hwy 60 back towards Beckley as the restaurant was located next to the New River Gorge Bridge. After all that ice cream and sugary goodness one of two things was going to happen. I was going to end up on a sugar rush like no bodies business or I was going to crash (not the bike) and be in a sugar coma. Those are always the best naps…

Well fortunately I was able to stay awake. Hwy 60 turned into a three lane mountain road with two of the lanes going my direction! I got on the radio and told Mike that I would meet him at the top, I’m was coming around. As I went by, John and Kevin both jumped out and tagged along for a spirited run. I looked in the mirror as I came up to the first tight corner which was going left to see John working his way up towards me. A quick look over the shoulder to judge his position, kicked it down two gears, a bit of throttle and tucked her in dragging the foot peg all the way through. I didn’t look back again till I was at the top. Ah, what a rush! That section of Hwy 60 was a hoot and to my surprise Kevin, who was on a Gold Wing wasn’t too far behind me and John only a couple corners back from him! I was impressed.

We ended making it to the dinner right as everyone was leaving, due to our other eating stops, lol. But that was fine by me. We talked a bit with everyone as they were leaving while we waited on our tables to be available. I got to meet the “Mama Bear” for the first time (Grizz’s wife) and got to see the new scoot as well. Once inside I ordered my first set of ribs, yes my first. 22 years old, born and raised in NC and I was eating ribs for the first time. They were very good, along with the baked beans and potatoes. Keep in mind we just got done eating that massive banana split about an hour or so ago.

Afterward it was a nice late evening cruise back to the hotel. The communal cooler came back out and the B.S.ing began. After all that food, I slept good that night!

Day 3 (8-8-09)

Last night after coming in from dinner, Rick and I discussed going out towards the New River Gorge Bridge again. Both of us wanted to get down below the bridge and get a closer look at it. (That and harass the troll’s family members.) Fortunately, someone had put together a nice “flower sniffin” route that went out that way and in addition the loop went by an old grist mill and something called Sandstone Falls. The route also looked like it had a few roads that would put some miles of the sides of the tires, too.

Saturday morning, Rick and I gassed up and headed out towards the New River Gorge Bridge. I was told by my father that if I go right out of the parking lot of the info center at the bridge I will end up on a small (paved) goat path leading down to the river and crossing on the old bridge. Well wouldn’t you know it, Dad knew what he was talking about; it was a goat path for sure. Fortunately the park has this marked so that it was mostly one way traffic, which was nice. I am assuming it rained a bit the night before as the goat path was covered in mud runoff and rocks in several of the 180 degree off camber corners which could have been a bit nerve racking on some of the larger touring bikes.

To spare some details and typing for hours, Rick and I stopped several times on this road to take a few pictures. I think we actually spent around 2 hours riding down that road taking pictures as we went. Here are a few:

From there Rick set the GPS up to lead us on this loop around to The Grist Mill and Sandstone Falls. Now I had a print out of this map including turn by turn directions in my tank bag just incase we were to get separated for some reason. Well, the GPS did a good job of keeping us off the main highways that day and to be honest that is probably the nicest thing I can say about the darn thing… Don’t get me wrong, I am sure they can be very handy, but I be damned if that thing didn’t lead us down several miles of gravel roads. Now, gravel roads don’t bother me as long as they are fairly smooth and not chewed up and muddy. The FZ has a decent ground clearance and with its upright sitting position it is fairly easy to control in dirt road situations. So bouncing down those gravel roads really didn’t bother me that much, I was actually having fun with it. But after the GPS told us to turn left on a path that I would have enjoyed taking the KX down, Rick and I had enough. So we turned around and went back down the way we came, and I do mean down. The last path we took was an uphill climb for about half a mile, so coming back down that was fun to say the least.

Where we came from..

What was ahead...

Where it wanted us to go...

We managed to get ourselves back on a main paved highway, Hwy 60 I believe it was. A quick stop on the side of the road to look over the map and attempt to adjust some settings on the GPS and we were off again. This time we were able to stay on paved roads to our next stop which was The Grist Mill.

No thanks, Im good up here. Tubing...FTL.

It was around lunch time and we were both getting hungry, however, restaurants are few and far between in this area of WV so we were pretty much S.O.L. It looked as though the road was going to be twisty coming out of the Grist Mill so I took point and led us on down to Sandstone Falls near Hinton, WV. Not sure exactly what path we took to get there but man it was fun aside from the random repair jobs that left the bottoms of the right hand corners rough which cause the bike to become very unsettled at very bad time… The only road in and out of the falls was pretty neat, too. It ran along side the river for a couple miles going by camp grounds and several small houses along the way. It dead ended for the most part in the parking lot for the falls. Rick and I weren’t too sure about this would work as it looked like the falls were a bit hidden from the road. Turns out there was a nice “cat walk” that led to the falls and around the island. We took some pictures and joked about my lack of desire to ever go tubing in water like that and then saddled back up to find some food.

Rick turned the GPS back on and searched for a small hot dog stand there in town. Well turns out it had been shut down, so we headed towards the next item on the list, Pizza Hut. A few minutes later, Rick has us down some small road beside some rail road tracks behind an auto body shop. He stops and says, the Pizza Hut is supposed to be here. The GPS let me down, again…

Rick ended up asking a local where the closest restaurant was, which turned out to be just down the road about half a mile, including the Pizza Hut. So we pulled in and got ourselves a pizza and some bread sticks realizing that our dinner with the MTF crowd that night was going to be Italian and we were to be there in a few hours. Oops.

After lunch we set a path home, however we took a route a little bit different from what the route had suggested. Ken, one of the local riders had suggested taking Hwy 3 instead of 64 to get back home which was fine by me. Hwy 3 looked as though it would be twisty and would take us through the woods of WV, so off we went.

Sure enough, the road was twisty and was well maintained too, much to my surprise. I went around Rick to take point and he let me know I had 10 miles to play before the next road change.

Shortly after this I came up on small burgundy car following an S-10 up the road. About the time I got up to them the car had snuck out and passed the S-10 to make its way up the mtn. A few hundred yards later I had a safe opportunity and followed suit. The corners were tight, marked at 15-20 mph which means fun for me. So I was out doing my thing, off the bike and diving into corners and after a while of doing this (1 mile or so) I realize I haven’t caught up to that burgundy car yet. No sooner that I got that though through my head I round the next corner to see that car stuck behind a Suburban. It turned out that small car was a Pontiac Vibe GT. It had been lowered and was sitting on a nice set of wheels and really didn’t look that bad for a Vibe. A couple corners later the Suburban pulls over and the Vibe takes off. Ah what the heck, lets see what he’s got….

Now I know this kind of stuff should be left on the track and I am fool for even doing this on the street, but just bear with me here. We take off down this mountain road and I realize that at a playful speed this guy is pulling me; so it was time to get serious. I step it up a bit and start pushing the bike a harder through the corners getting the bike down a bit lower each time and accelerating hard out. However after one corner I pull the trigger as the road opens up and realize that I just clicked into 4th and I have never been on this road before. I maybe dumb, but I am not about to play that game. I shut off and wave the guy on motioning with my hand I would rather do twisties that straight line stuff. To my surprise, he slows down and waits on me until we get to the next set of corners! A mile or so later, we are back at it and still I can’t do anything. Even if the road was wide enough that I could pass, I could not get around this guy! However at this point I know I am beginning to push him a bit as he starts to break double yellow by 6 inches or so in a couple of the left hand corners, but this only happened a couple times! Several corners later we come up behind a small blue car coming down a hill an into a left hand corner. To my surprise he down shifts and takes off which looked like he was going to rear end this car in the middle of the corner! It turned out there was a passing lane at the end of that corner. It was then that I realized this was a local and he knew the road, I was screwed. The rest of the way down this Hwy 3 it was all I could do to stay on his back bumper. I was impressed and disappointed at the same time to say the least. At the road interchange I waved to the driver of the Vibe and gave him thumbs up and a few moments later Rick shows up and we carry on back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel we had about an hour or so before we had to head out to dinner. However, after my little run with the Vibe I was still pumped up and I honestly felt like I didn’t spend enough time enjoying this beautiful country side. So I geared back up, gassed up again and picked up a West Virginia and Virginia map and picked a direction to ride.

I ended up continuing down Hwy 3 headed west and after a few miles on this great road I sent a text to one of the MTF members saying, “Having too much fun, Ill catch you later this evening at the hotel.” Hwy 3 wound its way though parts of coal country which meant several small towns following the rail road and a river of some sort. I remember seeing this when we came up several years back doing the off road thing however at the time I was maybe 15 or 16. Six years later I have grown up a bit and have a better understanding of what it takes to survive and how hard money comes and how quick it goes. It was eye opening to see this situation over and over as I made my way down Hwy 3. There were a few coal mines with large silos and conveyers along this stretch as well, but to my surprise I only met a couple large trucks and the road surface was clean. 40 some miles later I came up towards the end of Hwy 3 in a small town that still used the old stop lights that covered 4 directions with one lamp and was still set up on a timer. You could hear the relays clicking as the bulbs changed.

From Hwy 3 I got on Hwy 119 to Hwy 85 which was not quite as clean as Hwy 3 and had a bit more wild life moving around. I came up on a few deer from time to time on that road, which was really my concern now as the sun was starting to set. Once again, like Hwy 3, several small communities or rows of houses all within a few miles of every coal mine. While these people weren’t living high on the hog, from what I keep hearing they are doing quite well compared to the southern coal country. I can’t even imagine.

Off Hwy 85 I made a left on to Hwy 99, what a hoot that was. This road started on top of a mountain and it was latterly cut into it. I mean the road was lined on both sides with rock walls! It was freshly paved and the lanes were wide with nice flowing corners that were marked around 30 to 40 mph. I still can not get over how nice a road that was! It ended up leading me back to Hwy 3 just outside of Beckley. I had ridden roughly 150 miles in the past couple hours and I had missed dinner (so worth it). So I pulled into a Wendy’s got a quick bite and headed back to the hotel for the evening to B.S. with the group. Now the day was complete!