Ride With Tank

Last weekend was a great weekend for me.  Saturday I rode with Nick and the guys down to Cabelas and it was a great adventure. 

On Sunday Skidplate and I rode the Mothers Day Poker Run.  We ran into Mandy part way through and we were glad to have her company for the rest of the ride.  She is now riding a Vulcan 1500 Nomad and it is a really sweet motorcycle. 

Less than two weeks to go until my first ride back to Deals Gap.  The great weather and West Virginia roads have been taking a real toll on my new tires and I think I am going to have to tone it down a little bit for the next two weeks so my rear tire lasts through the Deals Gap trip.  I am running Continental Road Attacks for the first time and I really do like them.  All I have run on the bike so far are the dual purpose tires and I really wanted to try a pure street tire.  Mostly I had been running the Metzler Tourance and I have been pretty happy with them but I really wanted something with a little more grip.  The bike handles really nice with the Road Attacks and the traction is outstanding but I don’t know if the mileage is going to be good enough on them for me.  I have been measuring my tread depth and it looks like I am only going to get about 6,000 miles out of the rear tire.  I don’t know if I can afford to put on a new tire every 6,000 miles so I might just try a Metzler 880 for my next one.  What I really need is a tire sponsor.  Maybe if I put a Continental sticker on my bike they would give me free tires for life?  I kinda doubt it.

I came real close this evening to washing my motorcycle but then I just figured “What’s the point?”.

You know, all winter I sit around bored looking for something to do.  In the winter I could update the web site every single day because I have the time, but there is no reason to update.  Then summer rolls around and I have all kinds of things to update on the site, but I am too busy riding to update the site!

Today I took a ride with the Southern Cruisers and the Warren chapter of HOG.  It was a great ride and they were all a great bunch of people to ride with.  We had 21 motorcycles meet up at the Yankee Kitchen and Nick did a great job of leading the group to Foxburg.

Last weekend Mark and I took a ride to Cool Springs Park.  This is one of my favorite destinations located in one of my favorite areas of the country.  Truth is it is way too much riding for one day.  It seems like when Mark and I get out riding together neither one of us has enough sense to realize when we are trying to cover too much ground in one day.  We dis stop at Mobleys on the way home and they had some macaroni and cheese so I have accomplished one of my goals for the summer!  It was pretty good and Mobleys is going to be a regular stop for me from now on.  I did not get home until after 11PM and had to be to work the next morning.  It sure makes a tough day at work when you spend the day before riding the motorcycle for 14 hours and then only get 5 hours of sleep. 

In less than three weeks I will be in Deals Gap.  I just can not wait to get back to the mountains.  I will be in my usual room 3 so if you are in the area stop by and see me!  I’ll be spending the nights of May 26th and 27th there.  Brad is talking about adding queen size beds to a few of the rooms and if he does I am going to give up room 3 and choose a new room.  If you have not seen pictures of the new building you should log on and check it out.  Brad has really put a lot of money into the place and it is really going to be nice with last winters improvements. 

Great news!  Spring is back!!

I had an awesome ride today.  I just took off for a little ride by myself and had a really great time.  I took 9 down to 43 and then I caught 152 to the river to take me to a place a guy told me about last week.  I was told that Mobleys in Empire, OH had the best macaroni and cheese in the world.  I had a heck of a time finding the place because it has almost no signs at all, but I did find it.  As it turns out, they were out of macaroni and cheese but they did make me a great cheeseburger and jalapeno poppers.

Mobleys

I think I also might have stumbled onto one of the portals to hell.  Check the picture below.

That is WalMart.  Those are all WalMart trucks.  I could just feel the evil emanating from this place.

I took some really rural routes home and found some really nice roads with some very interesting scenery.  The picture below was taken along Rt. 25 just north of Salineville.  The road was kind of rough, but the scenery was great.

I am going to try to get out again tomorrow so I hope to have another great day of riding!

Wow, it is just amazing how the weather has turned completely to crap for the last couple of weeks.  The worst thing about it is that there is no end in sight for this lousy weather.

There is a new motorcycle magazine out now that is very interesting.  It is called Motorcycles: On the Road Again and it looks like it has potential to be a great read.  The magazine started as a local magazine in Texas and is just now expanding to nationwide distribution.  I like the magazine because it is about riding a motorcycle not buying motorcycles.  I love to read about the new bikes the manufacturers are coming out with, but what I really enjoy is a magazine that gives me ideas about where to ride the motorcycle I have in my garage!  I have a bunch of copies of their latest issue for anybody who would like one.  If you like the magazine you can subscribe at the link above or they are available at the newsstand of Barnes and Noble.

Continue reading →

OK, riding season has started.  If your bike is not ready to ride it is time to get a move on and get it ready!

Last Sunday we had a really nice ride up to the Kinzua Dam and through the Allegheny Forest.  We met up at the Yankee Kitchen and had a great breakfast before we hit the road at 12:00.  I really thought we were going to have a great turnout because we had 8 bikes show up for breakfast.  It really was not all that warm out so only three of us actually went on the ride:  Mark, Nick, and myself.  We were surprised by how much snow and ice was still up by the dam, and intended to ride the Longhouse Scenic Drive but we ran into some guys from Akron at the dam and they told us that the road was still covered in ice about five inches deep. 

We have some new ideas for rides this year.

I am pretty excited about going to the Mt. Weather secret government underground complex.  We are going to try not to get arrested and/or tortured on this ride, but if we do it will give us some great stories.

We are going to do the whole Rt. 68 to Foxburg thing also.  There is a great smoked meat place along the way that we can stop at and load up on jerky and it is a very nice ride.  I am going to hold off until the leaves are out for this one.

Another excellent suggestion is a little trip around Lake Erie.  From Sandusky there is a ferry that takes you to Pele Island.  Spend the night camping on the island and then cross the rest of the way into Canada.  Spent another night on Long Point and from there hit Niagara Falls for the night.  Return home the next day.  I am not sure if I will have the time for this one this year, but it sounds like a great ride.

There is also some talk of going to the Honda Homecoming, AMA Vintage Days, and the Superbike races.  Also keep in mind that it is very likely that MotoGP will be coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008 and if that happens I will absolutely be there.