Ride With Tank

My wheels are round again and i have already worn out a new tire on the new wheels!

It seems like I have been real busy and I have neglected the web site.  I’ve had a few complaints so since I am waiting for a new tire to arrive I will do a big update to make the site current!

My first ride of the year was just a little trip down to West Virginia to ride 88, one of my favorite roads.  I picked up a Subway and had a nice little picnic at Oglebay Park.

I also stopped by a little military park in Wierton that I have ridden past many times.

I took a longer ride with some friends to Cool Springs Park to visit my donkey friends.

I took a ride out to western Ohio to see my buddy Dennis who was at a rally doing pinstriping.

And I spent an afternoon at Nelson Ledges watching some racing.

Of course, I have also been to my favorite destination, Deal Gap.  In fact, I have made two trips there, but I will post up about them soon!

I can’t believe how long it has been since I updated!

Spring has been awesome this year and I have been getting a decent amount of riding in.  Two nice trips to West Virginia, including a lonely ride up US250 after dark!

All is not exactly well in the world of Tank.   Last Wednesday I was on my way home from QSL Bike Night in Sharon. I was behind a semi and I was riding in the center of the lane. I know better than to ride in the center, and I don’t know what I was thinking, but that was where I was riding.

I saw something in the road after the truck passed over it, but I really didn’t have time to swerve to avoid it. I honestly only had about a half second to react. I braced myself and put my weight on the pegs and hit it square on. It was a far more substantial impact than I expected. It was a real solid hit.

I was going about 70 and both tires lost air instantly and the bike started wobbling and weaving something fierce. The bike kind of settled down a bit and I got it to the side of the road.

I got off the bike to survey the damage and my heart sunk when I found that both wheels were destroyed. I was hoping it would only be the tires.

Since the bike was so low it didn’t have much lean on the kickstand and a big truck flew past and the wind was enough to blow it over. Luckily, I was able to kind of catch it and allow it to drop gently with no damage other than some scratches to the saddlebag. I started to pick it up, but then figured it would probably just blow over again so I figured it would be safest to just leave it as it was.

So now I realize that I did not have my cell phone with me. I wait for someone to pull over with little success. Finally, a really nice guy pulls in and he has a phone. So I call the wife and ask her to call Geico, but I was not sure she fully understood where I was, so I decided to fire up the SPOT and send her a help message with my exact location. I totally forgot that it would also send a message out to folks on RideOhio.org.  The message said to call Geico, but most cell phones only allow 160 characters, so most people did not get the full message. All the same, unknown to me, lots of folks were making calls to get me some help, and I thank them all for helping!

The highway patrol showed up and put out flares while we waited for the tow truck.  As we waited, he decided to check me out and copied the VIN from my motorcycle.  When he started doing this I started screaming “I ain’t going back to prison”.  This kind of freaked the guy out, so we had a little talk.  I explained that I have some minor mental issues and there was no real reason to taze me.

We got the bike home and in the morning I gave it a good once over.  The damage is limited to the wheels, so that is a good thing!

Back Wheel

The object I hit

Geico came to the house and gave it a look over, called another tow truck and handed me a check for the damages.  Once the new wheels arrive all will be well in my world again!

Vstom heading to the shop for new wheels

Live and learn. Don’t ride in the center of your lane in heavy traffic. Don’t leave home without the cell phone. If you ride in the center and leave your phone at home you still have friends that will bail you out.  Don’t yell “I ain’t going back to prison” to a cop.

Lesson learned for truck drivers, you gotta throw some pretty big parts on the road to make a Suzuki go down! Bring it on, bitches!

Seriously though, I consider myself pretty lucky to be uninjured. I don’t ever want to do that again!

These are the dog days of winter for motorcycle riders in Ohio.  This is the lowest point of the year, but the IMS really helps me get through the winter.

The show this year was pretty disappointing.  There really was not much to see.  The displays were smaller than in previous years.  BMW, Victory, Triumph, KTM, Ural, Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, and MV Agusta were all no shows.  Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Ducati and Harley were the only ones in attendance, and most everything they brought can be easily seen at your local dealer where there are no admission fees and parking is free.

I did get a look at the new Honda VFR and while it is a very interesting machine I just think there is too much technology and complexity there for me.  Many will love the bike, but I would prefer something simpler at a lower cost.

Honda also brought the NT700V.  I was really looking forward to checking this one out.  It really does look like a great bike.  This would be a great machine for someone who just loves to ride and does not need to own the latest technology.  Priced very reasonable, it appears to be a fantastically useful machine, with limited maintenance expense and bother.  I was hoping one of these could end up in my garage, but once again seat height is the issue.  The seat is just too high for female riders.

It seems like I say this all the time, but I just don’t understand why every motorcycle does not have adjustable seats, pegs, and handlebars.  One size does not fit all, but the manufacturers just don’t seem to understand this.  Forget about the dual clutch transmissions and variable valve timing and all that other crap and give us a motorcycle that adapts to us instead of forcing us to adapt to it!  Will this ever happen?  I am beginning to loose hope.

Another thing I can’t figure out is wide tires.  Is there any limit to how wide people want their tires?  Why do people like them so much?  Am I the only person who thinks they are completely stupid?

The best thing about the show this year was running into all my friends.  I’m not even going to try to mention you all by name, but it seemed I could not go more than 5 or 10 minutes until I ran into someone!  I will mention a few by name because they came from so far away.  The first distant friends I came across were Brad and Charity from the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.

Brad talking to future Dragon slayers.

I have to say that guys seemed like they wanted to talk to Charity more than they wanted to talk to Brad, and she was doing a great job.  Even late into day three she dtill had a big smile and lots of energy.  I would have been pretty wore down by then.

Next I ran into Darryl and Lori from Killboy.com.

It was great to see them also!

I did get to sit on a bike I have been dreaming about a lot lately, the Honda Ruckus.

I’m gonna get me one of these some day.  They look like a ton of fun!

Another highlight of the show for me was a presentation put on by Lee Parks, author of one of my favorite books, Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques.  The presentation was a quick overview of the book and it was very interesting.

Lee Parks IMS presentation

I talked with him for a little while abd he seems like a nice guy.  Then I got a picture of us for my wall of fame.

Lee Parks and Tank

After the show on Saturday I met up with some folks from rideohio.org for a fun evening.  There is a great bunch of folks on that board and I encourage everyone who loves riding to pay it a visit!

It seems like the weather has been better in November than it was in October!  I have been lucky enough to get out the last two weekends in a row!

Saturday the 14th I had to make a choice.  Some of my Ride Ohio friends were riding out in Amish country and visiting one of my favorite places, Heinis Cheese Factory.  I also got a email from Ray inviting me to ride with the Gold Wing guys.  I decided to go with the Wingers because I have not ridden with them yet this year.  I was still a little nervous anout my decision because the last time I rode with them at the end of the season the ride resulted in tragedy for me.

Photo by Nick

In the photo above you see the bikes ready to leave.  You don’t see a Vstrom because I was not there yet.  I am very rarely late for a ride, but I was 8 minutes late for this one.  Eight minutes was long enough because as I approached the gas station I saw them going through the traffic light heading north.  To be fair, I never confirmed that I was riding so nobody was expecting me.  A little twist of the throttle and I caught up to them.  Of course, I was nearly out of gas so I made them immediately stop at the next gas station.  I hate being the guy who shows up late with no gas!

Ray planned a really nice route, but he kept checking this strange poster that he called a “map” every time we stopped.

Photo by Nick

I guess it helps you find places, but it doesn’t tell you where you are and it does not have voice comands, but it is really easy to see even in direct sunlight and it uses no batteries.  What will they think of next!  I might get me one of those “direction posters” myself.

Picture by Nick

We stopped for lunch in some little town in the southern Ohio hills.  Pretty good food and reasonably priced.  Most of us had cheeseburgers and they were big, meaty, and delicious.

Ray - Photo by Nick

Ray is probably the cheapest person in the world.  I have heard rumor that he plans his routes based on where the lowest priced gasoline is.  We stopped for gas at a place where Christians were passing out free bread.

Free Bread

I have no idea how Ray found out about this, but we got a tank of gas and a loaf of free bread!  The crazy thing is that we had just finished eating lunch, and Nick comes out of the gas station with two pepperoni rolls!  I figured he was going to eat them later, but next thing I know:

Nick Eating Again! (?)

Free bread makes everyone happy!

I had a great day riding with some great folks on some great roads!  Hopefully next year I can hook up with you guys more often!

It has been over a month since I returned from my last Gap adventure of the year so I figure it is about time for me to write it up.

The whole adventure started the same as pretty much every adventure this year – massive rain.  I was meeting up with Johnny in Ashland, but when I arrived there I found out he was having trouble getting his bike started.  The goal had been to do some exploring on the way, but the weather was so miserable I really had no interest in any exploration.  I headed back into the rain without him.

The goal the first day was only Lexington and since I rode the freeway the entire way I arrived there quite early around 3PM.  I would have gone all the way to Knoxville, but by now Johnny had his bike running and was playing catch up, so I checked in and got dried out.  I ordered pizza for delivery, and Johnny finally arrived around 9PM.

The next morning the sun came out and began a week of some of the finest weather you could ever hope for!  The ride the reat of the way in was pretty uneventful and by the end of the day we had a fine group of flatlanders assembled at the Gap.

I made a run into Robbinsville for groceries and found something I had never seen before – canned pig brains.

Pork Brains

Peanuts are my normal campfire snack, but I could not resist and bought the can.  I was very let down by the lack of interest in eating pork brains.  I thought I had friends that live to seek adventure, but soon found out that most are not willing to try new things.  In total I was only able to get three other people to eat the brains, and to those who did, I salute you.  The identities of the brain eaters shall remain a secret.

There had been crazy amounts of rain before we arrived, and I got word that the floodgates at Fontana were flowing so I went to check it out.

Fontana Dam

I was hoping for the whole “water shooting hundreds of feet in the air” thing, but it was just this little trickle.

I had heard rumor of a giant hog roaming around, so I searched for it each morning trying to get a picture.  I never did see it. but I did see lots of other critters.

Turkey

Turkeys

Calderwood was also high and you could see the mist from the overlook.

Calderwood Dam

I made a lot of early morning runs, but never had a really good sunrise.  This Is the best I got, and as usual the power lines always get in the way!

Sunrise

The old church at Calderwood looks like it willn not be standing much longer.  From the front it does not look too  bad, but if you walk around back you see the end is near.

Calderwood Church

Calderwood Church

Back of Calderwood Church

Inside Calderwood Church

The area where Calderwood Lake runs along the Gap is also kniown as The Narrows and this picture gives you an idea how it got that name.

The Narrows

Most people just ride through, buy a shirt and move on.  It pays to stop along the road and explore because there is some fantastic scenery out there.

Parsons Branch

I escorted several trucks across during the week, but one in particular was worth talking about.  It was after dark and the guy was having a really hard time getting through.  It took about 2 hours to get him through.  In fact, he was so slow another truck caught up to him and then passed him at the Overlook!  That was something to see!

It is interesting to note the difference when escorting at night.  It seems that only locals and regulars are out at night, and when you give themn the signal they know what to do.  During the day many are clueless and don’t pay attention to the warning.

For the first half of the week I had a room mate.  I am a cheapskate, so I like it when I can cut expenses by sharing the cost of a room with somebody else.  Of course you have to make sure you choose a good room mate and i have to say that my choice did me wrong.

Basically what happened is that I needed to poop, and as soon as I made it known that I had to poop this unnamed person said, “Oh yeah.  I forgot to tell you that the toilet is plugged up”.  This is the wrong time to tell me this.  Now I have to find a plunger before I can poop.  I did find one and everything came out OK. but it could have been a real tragedy.

I ended up having the best weather of the year for the trip and it was a great way to end the year.  I stayed as late as I possibly dared on Sunday and then finally left for home around 10AM after saying all my goodbyes.  There is no doubt that I am going to miss the mountains, the roads, and most of all my friends over the winter, but I will return as soon as the weather cooperates again!