Ride With Tank

Well, the helmet stickers section has only been up for a day and already there is controversy.  I got the following email from Rick in Texas (not Yellow Wolf Rick)::

How’s about ol’ Rick (Yellow Wolf) for his run on the Gap? If Iron butt wont recognize it it at least should be up there where all can see.

                                                                                                    Thanks, Rick V      

So now I have to say that the first criteria for getting a helmet sticker is you have to be on a ridewithtank.com official ride. The Yellow Wolf thing was not a ridewithtank.com ride, so as such we cannot recognize it.  This puts me in a strange position.  Do I boycott myself?  It seems like I should.  I give a helmet sticker to a guy for riding on a cloudy day but I won’t give one for 1,000 miles in 24 hours on Deals Gap?  It does seem wrong.  Still, I have to stick to my guns.  If I gave a helmet sticker for the Deals Gap ride, next thing you know Nicky Hayden would be wondering why he did not get one.  If I gave him one Valentino would be upset because he won the championship way more times than Nicky.  No, I am sticking to my guns on this one.  No sticker for you!

I have started the helmet stickers section of the site that I have been promising for so long.  There is a link to it in the link bar at the top of the page.  I have witnessed thousands of acts of heroism on the rides, but these awards are only for those acts that really stand out from the others. 

I am working on a section called “Tanks Most Excellent Roads” where I am going to list my favorite roads complete with maps.  I have got a little start going, but it is going to take me a while to get this section complete because I am basically a lazy guy.  So many of you who read this page do it at work.  I sure wish I could screw off like that at work.  If I could, I would to a lot more updating.

I am currently working on a major update to the web site.  For a while there will be a lot of material that is missing from the site, but I will be replacing what is missing over the next couple of weeks.  I hope to have everything caught back up by Christmas.

Oh yes, one other thing.  Nothing much, just that I AM ON THE FRONT PAGE OF KILLBOY.COM!!!!!  That’s right.  Killboy.com.  Tank on the FRONT page.  The rumor that I wired a large amount of money into a Swiss bank account to make this happen is completely untrue.  The rumor that I did a little begging and groveling is one that I do not wish to speak about.  Click here to see me!

First things first – Interstate National Star Sport is going to repair Marks motorcycle under warranty.  I really am glad.  Mark is a good guy and he does love to ride.  I am somewhat disappointed that another boycott has ended so soon.  I was kind of starting to look forward to throwing rocks through windows and burning some buildings down, but I guess I have to put away the matches again.

The trip to Deals Gap was awesome.  The weather Friday was perfect.  The traffic on Friday was perfect.  It was a perfect day and probably the best day I have ever had down there.  I made it down in just 10 hours, 9 hours of riding with an hour of stops.  I really did not take any pictures that are any different than any of the other 1,000 pictures I have taken, so I won’t be posting any pictures from the trip.  Mostly I was just too busy riding to take pictures anyway. 

The weather Saturday was a little bit less than perfect.  The day sure started out good, and I thought I would have another excellent day, but rain soon blew in and the temperature dropped.  Most of the people who were there were smart enough to trailer their bikes in and most of them went home on Saturday.  I spent the day waiting for it to stop raining.  It never did.

Sunday was the trip home.  This was an awful ride.  I would have rather been at work than riding my motorcycle.  The temperature never got above 40 degrees.  At one point it was 35 degrees and raining.  I have ridden in temperatures much colder than 40 degrees before, but I have never tried to ride 580 miles in this kind of cold.  I suspect the reason I have never tried this is because it is a really stupid thing to do.  I did everything I could to stay warm.  I bought chemical heat pads and stuck them in my gloves and shoes.  I bought a 12 volt electric blanket and cut a hole in the center of it to make an electric poncho for under the sweatshirt and three coats that I wore.  I had three pairs of pants on.  I suppose all these things probably helped a lot, but I was still colder than I have ever been in my life.  The trip home took me 13 1/2 hours to complete.  Even still, if I could do it all over again this weekend I would.  The time I had down there on Friday was worth all of the suffering I did on the way home.

Check out tailofthedragon.com.  Look down toward the bottom of the page.  That’s right, a nice little picture of the Tanksters backside.

Once again I have to give thanks to the entire staff at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort.  Everyone there is just the greatest.  Brad is very lucky to have such a great group of people working there.