ChrisNYC Posted June 21, 2002 Share Posted June 21, 2002 I got my pictures back. One roll of film (THE roll, of course ) came back all black. Great. So I'll include three pictures that DID come out and talk my a** off around them ..... I headed out of NYC on Thursday morning May 30, towards Clinton NJ and met up with about ten others heading to Winchester VA for "Mayhem in the Mountains". I don't remember where we stopped for lunch, but it was Irish and I knew it was south of the Mason-Dixon line because the menu nearly screamed DEEP FRIED! At lunch we compared notes of our trip so far. Unanimous winner for "Funniest Bumper Sticker Along the Way" - a red pickup truck with "I wanna be like Martha Stewart - that bitch knows everything". We arrived in Winchester and checked into our motels. That night we hung out in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn as more riders started arriving. Friday morning we all gathered for the group ride, Brian's starter motor wouldn't turn over. We decided to continue on the ride, and simply push-start him as needed. Mid-morning we stopped for fuel, and broke off into two groups, a touring-pace group and a Gerry Ryerson/David Baker group (uh, faster). At rallies and group rides, I never ride with the fast group. I really only got into motorcycles for the touring aspect. While I was still debating whether or not to ride with them, they took off. I decided "Why not?" I trusted myself not to get in over my head, I had a map, I knew the basic route. I suited up quickly and chased them down the road. I never really did catch up to them. These are very good riders. I was always a few minutes behind, but Bill D or DanC would wait at the course-change turns for me (thanks guys!). I found myself really getting into the zone out there on those twisty roads. Mind you, no one would mistake me for Miguel Duhamel, but I felt I was challenging myself, and the hot sun and high humidity didn't seem to bother me as much as usual. I'd like to kid myself and say that I was "riding sweep", but how far behind can one be before you're no longer "sweeping"? :-D I noticed a few other riders wearing their Joe Rocket Phoenix's. It would have been a good day to use it. I had debated bringing mine, but decided to stick with my MotoPorts this trip. I was ok, the riding pace helped also This picture was taken during one of our map-check stops. We all stopped for lunch down near Charlottesville VA (I think). We rode some great twisty roads, with the climax (for me) riding 211 west through the George Washington National Forest. I know some riders (Gerry? DanC? Russ?) went back out to ride that section again. Truly a fun section of road. Later in the day, David (Recourses) dropped behind me to ride sweep through some really great remote unmarked roads. Because I was so slow , he got a chance to see me ride, and later back at the Red Roof Inn hangout, he made some perceptive observations and gave me some excellent critique and some things to incorporate as I start to develop my "sport"-riding side. I really appreciated the comments. I won't have a chance to play with them til I'm back on my familiar twisties in NY . That was a very full day of riding for me, some 200 or 250 miles of riding towards the edge of my riding envelope, in pretty good heat and humidity, on unknown roads. That kind of extended focus takes a lot out of me. We all got together for an informal pizza dinner back in the motel's parking lot. Recourses already published the group photo taken that night, but here's the picture he DIDN'T publish: the Papa John's Pizza delivery guy we roped into taking our group photo. This guy asked if he should frame us so that the "Papa John's" sign on his car showed up in the picture. This guy's got a bright future in Marketing and advertising! We also took turns on trying to get at Brian's starter. This Mayhem get-together was not supposed to be a Tech-Daze, but you would have been astounded at the tools that appeared as we attempted to figure out Brian's starter problem. You KNOW it must be a BMW group when a Fluke meter shows up . We couldn't get the fairing panel off because one of the screws was fused into the speed-nut behind the fairing. Tried using a Dremel tool to cut off the screw, but the Dremel's flexi-shaft wasn't fitted correctly onto the output shaft, so the collett-connector disintegrated into metal shavings. Sometimes, the Gods are trying to tell you to STOP. Saturday I did not go riding, I wanted to see Old Town Winchester VA. After a nice breakfast at Perkins with about ten others, a smaller group of us went exploring Winchester. There were some Civil War exhibits focusing on the ammunition and weapons, with display cases filled with recovered relics from the nearby battlefields. In town there was a small Patsy Cline shrine (I'm kind of a fan). We had strawberry smoothies in Old Town. And then there were the locals, the people and their families who've lived in that town, probably for generations going back. Some of those faces hiding in the shadows of Old Town were quite telling: they looked exactly like those faces that one sees when you look at photos from the Civil War-Era. Time doesn't touch some places or people. Saturday night we all got together at Jimmy's for dinner, lots of fun to meet every one. It was nice see everyone having such a good time. I think of BMWRT.com as the exception to the rule regarding the "impersonal" nature of the Internet. The noise level coming from the three big tables was enough to make me think that the 40-50? of us were all students having a high-school re-union. Paul Mihalka won the big raffle, Marty Hill kept us laughing, and afterwards we wandered back over to the parking lot and started it all over again. What a great time! Sunday morning I headed out of Winchester towards Chicago. Despite maps (or maybe because of them), I got lost getting out of town. But it was a good "lost", you know, those empty country roads on a nice summer morning (I was on 622 instead of 522). I finally got myself straightened out and relaxed into the ride. A Jimmy Page guitar solo I hadn't heard in years suddenly popped into my head and kept me company on the PA/OH turnpike. Seems like I battled a headwind most of the day, and I found some shady rest spots and napped as I felt like it. As I rode on, I remembered that every year in June, Battle Creek MI (home of Kellogg's cereal) closes the main street and hosts the world's longest breakfast table with milk and cereal. I wasn't exactly sure when the event was, but I decided to head towards Battle Creek to see if I could catch this piece of goofy Americana (I told you I got into mc's for touring ). At my Super8 in Battle Creek, a very aloof desk clerk with a foreign accent seemed very uninterested in my excitement and questions about Tony Tiger and The Cereal City Festival. Turns out I was one week early for the event. But looking at the weather forecast, it would've been one soggy bowl of cereal with those big green radar-blobs headed hot and heavy towards Battle Creek the next day. I woke up at 7.15am Monday morning June 1 to POURING rain in Battle Creek MI. I checked the Weather Channel, and realized this was going to be a rain day. The green blob was marching in my direction from the WNW, but I saw that there was small break in the system. I watched the loop a few times to see if I had a chance of heading west on I94 during the break in the rain, following the road south after Benton Harbor and maybe missing the rain. 8.15am the rain had stopped, and I quickly loaded up the bike. I put on all my rain gear except for the rain gloves. I switched to a clear visor and clear riding specs, topped off the gas and headed west to beat the rain. I rode into the darkening sky, I thought I was going to be able to pull off my little stunt and dip south on I94 and do-si-do the rain. No such luck. About 10 miles before Benton Harbor, the skies opened up with a rain heavier than any I've ever ridden in. I pulled under an overpass, put on my rain gloves, and headed back out. Maybe I'm nuts, but I generally like riding in the rain, as long as I'm dressed right and it's a real, road-cleaning rain. The only thing that worried me was the lightning show that Mother Nature was putting on. Flashes of light bristled in the distance and to my right, and I found myself counting intervals to see how far away the lightning was. After a stunning bolt with a 7-second interval, and I made a deal with myself: if I count a fiver, I'm getting off the road. I rode on through the pouring rain, and the lightning seemed to abate. My PIAA's blazed on through the rain, and I was dry under my raingear. I headed south along Lake Michigan, the rain turned to drizzle, and I headed for the Chicago Skyway. A photograph that I will forever regret not taking appeared before me as I approached the Skyway. The illuminated letters that spelled out "Chicago Skyway Tollbridge" blazed in pink neon against a monochrome backdrop of unearthly gray sky that cloaked the big city in dark clouds. There was no way to tell where the sun was in the sky. Only clouds of different shades of dark moved overhead, like thundering cattle moving above the steel and girders and suspension bridges that led me into the city. If I could have found a safe place to pull over and take a picture I would have, but I'm not sure that film could capture what I saw. (Turns out my camera didn't catch a lot of things ) It was probably 10am or so, and I seemed to have successfully timed my entry to beat the rush hour traffic. I rode up the Dan Ryan in the drizzle, and then cut over to Lake Shore Drive. At a stop light near Grant Park, I watched an angry green Lake Michigan churn, tossing the moored boats around on the waves. I wondered if boat owners worried about days like these .... I continued north into Sheridan Road, where I had the scariest moment of my entire trip: just south of Loyola University, traveling maybe 10-15mph, a quick succession of alternating right/left wind gusts nearly steered me into a Chicago Tribune newspaper vending box on the corner. I grew up just north of here, and actually had an apartment a few blocks from here. And *still* the winds caught me off guard. I pulled into my friend's garage at 11:00am, and peeled off the rain gear. I didn't ride the next few days. I hung out with friends and ate too much, drank too much, and stayed up too late every night. All around the North Shore area, everything was green because of all the rain, which continued steadily for 2 more days. On Thursday my friends remarked that the Wisconsin Lotto was up to 31 million. That seemed like a good enough excuse to ride. I headed up to Kenosha to buy some tickets. I took the tollway and was there in 43 minutes. Coming back I took Half-Day Road east, passing the Highland House (hangout for the Chi-Town crew ...sorry gang, I couldn't stay 'til the weekend to meet you all!), riding over to Sheridan Road, and dawdled my way south back to Evanston. (RonB .... I got you a WI lotto ticket too, but I checked your numbers - you didn't win either ) . My last night I stayed with a friend in Highwood IL, with a vague notion of heading back to NYC the next day and making a SS1000 out of the trip. I knew the route itself wasn't the best: too many large cities along the way meant traffic, and I didn't feel like getting up early to try to do the SS without an overnight stop. Once again, I was up late goofing around with friends, and I woke up a little groggy. Nevertheless I had my witness sign my SS papers, just in case I caught a second wind. I collected receipts along the way, as though I were really running a SS. I didn't have much traffic around Chicago until I got to the merge with I-80. After 9 hours in the saddle I decided that I wasn't going to push to do it under 24 hours. I still wanted to run my original route, heading into upstate NY instead of I-80 through PA and NJ. I hit some rush-hour traffic near Cleveland, but it wasn't too bad. I headed for the NY Thruway, just as the sun was starting to set. (Insert great picture here, that never came out, courtesy Mr. Fuji). I stopped at a rest stop south of Buffalo near Angola NY, the evening just getting dark enough that the lights were coming on everywhere. It was 70 degrees and there was a little breeze. Cars in the parking lot were loaded with kids, laughing and giggling as they headed out for their summer vacations. A guy with a beard and no shirt was bending a coat hanger trying to open his locked vehicle. A Harley rider worked the pay-phone trying to set up accomodations for the night as his pillion looked on wearily. The gas pumps were a little crowded, a Friday summer night whispered for everyone to take flight. It was the perfect summer night. My PIAA's lit up the road as I took the bend east on I-90 outside of Buffalo. As I've done many times before on night rides, for chuckles I turned off the driving lights momentarily to compare them to the RT's stock headlight. Still amazes me. The stocker is that bad! I stopped overnight in Batavia NY, sad to have to come inside to sleep, having just come inside from the most delicious summer night. I wished I'd brought my tent. The next day I continued east on the thruway, waving at the hordes of riders now coming west from the final days of Americade in Lake George NY. At a rest stop near Port Byron NY, a solid, earthy, attractive woman eyed me up and down as I walked inside. She was dressed in farmer-type clothes, and I couldn't tell whether she was eyeing me seductively or eyeing me as in "we need another farm-hand, you look like you'll do". Upstate NY is beautiful country, and I'd love to help with working the land, but, in the words of Pee-Wee Herman, "that old road's a-callin' ..." At Albany, I took the final big turn and headed south towards NYC, and waved at the hordes of riders now COMING north to attend the final days of Americade. I pulled the bike over at a wayside and took a nap on the bike. When I woke up, a guy with an old Honda GL1000 and no teeth remarked "You sure look comfy there!" We talked about bikes and Americade, petcocks and fuel injection. I headed back out for the final leg of my trip, and arrived home 28 hours and 33 minutes after I started from Highwood IL. With a decent night's sleep beforehand, I know I could do a SS1000 in under 24 hours. I just can't be near my party-hardy friends the night before . I was tired when I got home, but the caked-on bug guts forced myself to wash the RT before I unwound and got all comfy and lazy. It took me a few days to unpack, I didn't want the trip to be over. What a great trip! I pushed my sport-riding envelope, I pushed my bad-weather riding envelope (Winchester heat and Midwest rain), and I pushed my endurance envelope on the ride back home. At Mayhem I met the nicest people I could hope to hang out with, and I got to see the sights of Winchester. I got to hang with my old homies in the midwest. I missed Tony Tiger and Battle Creek's Cereal City Festival, I missed the CHi-Town Crew, but I added WI and MI to my BTDT map. Other- Total Mileage about 2200mi The RT ran without a hiccup. Only problem is an intermittently-intermittent windshield switch which never seems to fail for the techies at my dealer. Problem is worse in cold weather, this trip it barely ever "intermittent-ed". I'm still very happy with my Metzler MEZ4's, but I set the rear shock preload a little too stiff for the slab. Live and learn. The PIAA's (and the stock PIAA switch) were great in the heavy rain I loved my Cee Bailey's #2 for the slab, I wanted that "flip". My only problem is that the #2 (by nature of its design) has an annoying reflection of whatever's in your map case. If I weren't on the slab so much I would've used my CB #1. I packed lighter this trip, and because of the night-riding and rain riding, I used almost all of what I brought. I'll master this "packing" thing yet ... It was over 100degrees in some of the valleys of VA for Mayhem. I had my Cee Bailey's #2 mounted, which gave a lot of airflow to the arm-vents in my Motoport jacket. Stretching my legs out occasionally on the Burton Pegs also had a nice cooling effect. Last year on this BBS there was a thread about Camelbak etc hydration stuff, but I was never excited about the thought of using a Camelbak. Too much hose er sumpthing, I didn't want to look like the Roto-rooter man. But after following the thread, I decided to give it a try, and this year I rigged up a Camelbak setup that I could live with (and cut the hose very short). Consider me converted. I was well-hydrated for all of Mayhem. I'm ready to do it all over again! ------------------ Chris (aka Tender Vittles), Little KZ400 in the Big Apple Black Boxer RT for Everywhere Else, such as... What I did on my summer vacation 2002 Link to comment
Marty Hill Posted June 21, 2002 Share Posted June 21, 2002 Great story Chris. I think we crossed paths in upstate NY. Winchester was great and meeting everyone was better than great. Ride safe and enjoy........... Link to comment
David Posted June 21, 2002 Share Posted June 21, 2002 Great post, Chris. The few pix really bring back memories, too. I was a little tired on this trip and decided to not be on picture duty much, but now I'm sorry I didn't capture more individual to share with the collective. Your description of the time we overlapped in Mayhem brought it all back. That ride was so much fun. I love that picture of us on the side of the road. You were gracious to say it was a map consult stop. We were freakin' lost! For those of you not there, we just continued SE until we hit a major city. Then, since we needed an executive decision, I decided that we should eat at the Sizzler we just passed on the left along the divided highway. So I get in the left turn lane, and immediately see the "no u-turn" sign. On my own I would have just done it, but I could just see 9 of us doing it and 9 of us getting pulled over! The congestion at that intersection was unbelievable, and it felt like "you couldn't get there from here." Eventually we made it back (I was last, after being in the lead...how'd that happen?), and sat down with our maps. After several suggestions we all landed on the perfect route home. Russ had been on some of it and had a feeling it would be great. And it was. Great to meet everybody. And thanks for sharing, Chris. Link to comment
BPeterson Posted June 21, 2002 Share Posted June 21, 2002 Chris, great story. Sounds like you conitued on a great journey north. See you next weekend. Link to comment
Airtire Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Chris: Thanks for the great story. Is your Camelback mounted to your tank? How does that work? What is that thing wired to your windshield? Link to comment
ChrisNYC Posted June 23, 2002 Author Share Posted June 23, 2002 Airtire said Is your Camelback mounted to your tank? How does that work? I have some pictures that I'll post when I get home, in the meantime - The Camelbak connects at three points: a little bungee cord with hooks at both ends goes through the lower two D-rings and hooks onto little s-hooks that go on the fairing bolts Right and Left. The third point is really only a fail-safe: a plastic swivel-hook on the top of the Camelbak that clips onto the Big Mak Airbag. The CamelBak doesn't really hang on the tankbag, but I reinforced the Bigmak enough so that it could if needed (like when I take it all off the bike, I undo the bungees and slide the tankbag off, the camelbak is still hooked to the tankbag). At gas stops, you can go two ways: unhook the bungees hooks and swing the whole Camelbak on top of the tank bag and hinge the whole thing forward, or, unhook the top hook, allowing the Camelbak to swing towards your stomach while the tankbag swings forward. I usually use the first method. For scratch prevention, I've done the back of the Camelbak in that waffled neoprene, and I've also got that clear film on the bike's gas tank. What is that thing wired to your windshield? EZ-Pass (electronic toll-tag). 3M Dual-Loc isn't good enough to hold on the bumps around here. I epoxied a tether to prevent me from bump/losing a third ezpass ------------------ Chris (aka Tender Vittles), Little KZ400 in the Big Apple Black Boxer RT for Everywhere Else, such as... What I did on my summer vacation 2002 Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2002 Share Posted June 25, 2002 Chris, THANKs...great write up! Loved that bumper sticker DO NOT miss the Crew next time please? Link to comment
ChrisNYC Posted June 25, 2002 Author Share Posted June 25, 2002 Kathy R said DO NOT miss the Crew next time please? To Kathy and all the Chi-Town Crew ... the next time I'm in Chicago I'll try my best to do it over a weekend! Steve Airtire ... I made a quick scratchy webpage for the camelbak http://home.nyc.rr.com/csrhpdirname/camelbak.html 1st frame - riding position For gas stops, 2nd frame - undo little bungee hooks 3rd frame - swivel camelbak on its top hook 4th frame -rests on top of BigMak, whole thing hinges forward for gas stop. Link to comment
Buck Posted June 25, 2002 Share Posted June 25, 2002 Great story Chris, it brought back some great (recent)memories. Candi and I hope to see you and at least some of the Mayhem gang at Trenton - 2.5 weeks and counting! Link to comment
Voodoo Posted June 25, 2002 Share Posted June 25, 2002 In reply to: rests on top of BigMak, whole thing hinges forward for gas stop You sure you weren't talking about OldRider?!?!? Link to comment
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