Ride With Tank

The Vstrom pictured below was recently spotted in the area. 

I thought I had interesting stickers.  If anyone knows who belongs to this Vstrom let me know.  I think he might be fun to ride with.  Might provoke a lot of dialog at rest stops between him and some of our “right wing” riders.

It has been a while since my last update, but nothing to exciting has happened so you have not missed that much. 

Two weeks ago Mark and I rode to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon and it was a really nice ride.  He introduced me to a few nice roads that I have never been on.  Soon I will be updated the Excellent Roads section with quite a few new roads that I have discovered this year that I really enjoy.

Saturday I took a solo ride down WV250.  It was kind of unexpected and I did not leave until after 1:00PM, so I did not get to go too far down, but I had a good ride all the same.  250 is just the greatest.

Today Skidplate, Clark, and I took a ride to Geneva.  I had a great lunch.  The regular big tray of fries, a donut, a milkshake, and half of a banana split blizzard.  That is what I call eating good.  Geneva seems to have a “gay” themed putt putt course so Clark and I got our pictures taken.

What is the deal with the tar snakes????  For some unknown reason they have been dumping tar all over all the roads in Ohio for the last few weeks.  Do these guys have any idea how slippery this stuff is when it gets hot out???  Are they trying to kill us all??  You have not heard the last from me on this subject.

I got some bad news from Rick down in Texas.  His mother passed away last week.  Diagnosed with cancer only a month and a half ago.  This is yet another reminder to us all to not keep putting things off.  We have to live for today because there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come.  

I had a really busy weekend.  Saturday I spent the day at the Motorcycle Madness Poker Run in downtown Warren, Ohio.  This event is put on every year by the Brother’s Regime MC and they always do a great job and set up a great event.  This was the first year in Warren and I think the new location is much better than the Newton Falls location.  Courthouse square is a nice place to hang out after the ride with all the picnic tables, benches, and shade.  This year the event benefited the Warren Family Mission, so not only was a great time had by all, but it also helped out some people in need.  I took some video of the Ms. Motorcycle Madness contest, the Burnout Contest, the Weenie Bite, and the Slow Race.  Click above to see each of these videos once they are edited and posted!

I am back from the second trip south of the year!  It was one of the best yet and I am working on the update but it will probably be a couple of days before I have it posted because I am really tired and it will probably be a big update.

I have to tell you that I am starting to get tired of this whole “wave at every motorcycle” thing.  It gets pretty tiresome when you have been riding pretty much nonstop for four days and it is really hot outside and you have already waved at 254,958 other motorcycles.  So what I am saying is if you wave at me and I don’t wave back, I still loves you, I’m just getting bored with waving at people all day.

Well, the first trip to Deals Gap is over, and as usual we had a great time.  There was an awful lot of traffic, an awful lot of wrecks,  and an awful lot of law enforcement but still a good time was had. 

I am working on putting together another ride down this weekend.  I have the oil changed and the chain lubed, so the bike is ready to go.  I am unsure if I am going so I am going to look at the weather and make a decision from there.  If I go I will go down on Thursday and return on Sunday.  Right now they are predicting a high of 97 degrees for Friday and I just don’t know if I can handle that kind of heat!

My Metzler Z6 is looking good so far!  I have put about 2,000 miles on it so far.  This breaks down to around 1,200 miles on the freeway, about 300 miles on Deals Gap, and the rest commuting.  I still have 95% of my center tread, 97% of my far edge tread, and 84% of my tread in the middle of the side.  I have so much on the far side because I rarely lean that far but I was real impressed by how the center held up.  I am sure it was the 300 miles on the Gap that ate up the sides, but it was less wear than I would get on the Tourance.  The Tourance would be bald on the sides after two trips.

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