Ride With Tank

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!

My prediction ended up being almost as wrong as a prediction can be!

The race started out as a battle between Pedrosa, Rossi, and Lorenzo. It was obvious early in the race that one of these three would be the winner because they just walked away from the rest of the field.

The first wrinkle came when Pedrosa crashed early in the race. That meant it would be a Rossi/Lorenzo battle and I settled in to watch.

The second wrinkle came soon after Pedrosas crash when Rossi crashed! It was a crazy crash. As he was entering a turn on the brakes his front wheel locked and he want down instantly and hard with the bike making a Fourth of July worthy shower of sparks.

From that point on it was Lorenzo 10 to 12 seconds ahead of the rest. There was nobody else that even had a chance of catching him. The most entertaining part of the race was watching Pedrosa starting in last place 28 seconds behind the next rider move up to 11th place.

It would have been great to see the three battle it out, and even better if Stoner had been there, but nobody else could even think about challenging Lorenzo so the race was pretty much a 25 lap Lorenzo exhibition ride.

On to todays pictures!

Hayden had some new plastics for the race.

Kevin Schwantz did a few laps on his 93 500.

Here are a few shots from the victory lap.