Monthly Archives: May 2011

The Blue Ridge Parkway and Adventure Riders

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Yesterday we rode from home to near Fancy Gap, Virginia.  It was a pretty uneventful ride, so that is all I have to say about it.

Today the real fun started.  We spent the day riding the parkway from Fancy Gap to Asheville.  I’ve already posted plenty of parkway pictures, so I’m not even going to bother this time.  The mountains are hundreds of millions years old, they have not changed much since last year.

Right now the Rhododendron are blooming so I took a picture.

My favorite spot on the parkway is Mt. Mitchell.  We enjoyed the sights there, and then enjoyed a delicious trout.

I really do love riding the parkway.  It really is the most pleasant and visually spectacular ride you can take on a motorcycle.  If I rode it 1,000 times I would still love it.

What I am not loving is all these “Adventure Riders” I am seeing out there.  Now I know that I ride an adventure bike myself, but I am not trying to convince anybody that I am an adventure rider.  I know some real adventure riders.  They are not like normal people.  They are hard core.

The adventure riders I am seeing everywhere are fakes.  Pretenders.  They ride around with gas cans strapped to their bikes.  They have all kinds of crap that the internet told them they needed bolted to their bikes.  They ride around standing on their foot pegs because they saw Ewan McGregor do it.  Their bikes and gear is spotless and shiny.  Nothing is scratched, their adventure clothes look like they were purchased that morning.  They smell like they showered very recently, and their hair is perfect.  Their odometers only need four digits.

Now I know most 0f these guys, if they read this, are going to get all upset and send me nasty emails.  They are gonna tell me how hard core they are, but I’m not going to believe it.  Real adventure riders would not give a flying crap what a clown like me thinks of them, so if you are reading this and getting pissed off you can consider yourself a pretender!

Category: Posts

Deals Gap Memorial Day – Getting Ready

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What a nightmare getting ready for this trip has been.

In addition to all the usual stuff, I needed to replace my chain and sprockets and my back tire. The tire was in stock at my local dealer, but I needed to order the chain kit. I ordered it from the great folks at Dual Sport Touring. Trouble struck when I found out the chain kits were on backorder. Francois
told me he would get it to me in time, but I was worried. True to his word, the kit, along with the rivit tool I needed, was scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday, plenty early for a Friday morning departure.

I took the back wheel off Monday night and took it to work with me on Tuesday. On the way home from work I stopped at my dealer to get the tire mounted. Junior looked me straight in the eye and said he could mount it on Thursday. i told him I had made arrangements to have this done on Tuesday, but he said nobody told him that. We were at a standoff. In the end, he thought the wheel was on the bike and when he found out I had the wheel in hand we were good to go!

I had a message that MG wanted me to call him, so while junior mounted the tire I called MG. Originally, my reservation started on Sunday, but they had a cancellation so I changed my first night to Saturday. When I called MG they said it was a mistake, there was no Saturday cancellation so I had no room until Sunday. They felt really bad about it, but I can’t really complain because they have gone out of there way for me so many times in the past, so I figured i would just change my plans a bit.

With the tire on the wheel, I headed out to the garage to get the project started. I got as much as I could get done without the parts and tools, and at that exact moment UPS pulled up and blew the horn. He brought the box straight to the garage and I quickly checked it – everything was there, and they appeared to be the right parts! I got the sprockets on and opened up the tool to rivit the chain. There are two pins included, one to break the chain and one to rivit the chain. I could not tell the difference between the two. They looked exactly the same. The reason they looked the same is because they were the same! Screwed again! Now I was in a real jam, with just two days to get things going. I called Motion Pro, and with a little begging on my part, they agreed to send me a pin next day air, but it would not ship until Wednesday. That means Thursday night delivery, with a Friday morning departure!

i racked my brain trying to figure out where I could get a pin or a tool. My closest option was my buddy Dave, but he lives about 100 miles away. Eventually, I remembered that Mark had a tool, so I called him crying like a little girl. Not only did he have one, but he said he would head out right away and deliver it to me! I told him I don’t expect him to go out of his way like that, so I jumped in the xcar and picked it up.

The tool worked great, and I got everything back together for a midnight test ride. Everything was good, and my heart returned to its normal rate. Francois, Motion Pro, Gollans, and Mark all came through for me and everything is a go! I turned the room cancellation into a plus by changing my route to the Blue Ridge Parkway, my favorite ride in the world. The only downside is I will miss the 50 racing at the Gap Saturday night, but all in all the beginning of my trip should be even more fun than I had originally planned! I hope I have all the problems and bad luck out of the way now, so all I have to do is have fun for the next 11 days!

Category: Deals Gap