2wTraveler

Winter Update

2012-01-11T18:50:00.001-08:00

Time flys when your having fun. Since the last update, my Long Distance Motorcycling insanity has progressed. I have completed an IBA Saddle sore (1000 mile day) to New Orleans. Rode to Key West and back one weekend for the hell of it,and participated in several other LD related rides (Dawgs RTE/Stagecoach RTE). Not to mention a few twisty days in the mountains and of course the daily commute. I even managed to ride to Tybee Island on New Years day for their annual Polar Bear Plunge, and yes...that water sure was cold :-) The more exciting news is that I have decided to shoot for a position in the 2013 Iron Butt Rally. Only problem is that the period to apply for a position has already passed, this means I have to EARN a place at the starting line. There are several other rallies this year that will give me the opportunity to win one of these positions, and I am driven by this. Time to pull out all the stops for this new rally season. I have already registered for the first 2 east coast rallies this year, the Cape Fear 1000, and the Mason-Dixon 20-20, and there are up to 3 others that I have on the agenda for this year...In the meantime I am also going to attempt to complete the IBA Mile Eater Bronze certification which basically requires me to complete a certified ride once a month over the next 12 months. Long story short...gonna burn a ton of tires and fuel in 2012!

The Void 6, Man on a mission

2011-10-12T15:12:00.001-07:00

The Void 6
Man on a Mission

First off, If you follow along with the blog regularly. Sorry for going so long without an update. The summer was busy for me, and that is a good thing. I have grown bored of the blog and by writing this I hope to rekindle the spark that drove me to keep it updated...

In the Months that passed since the Cape Fear 1000 rally, I had been beating myself up over taking second place when I rode right passed a bonus that would have given me enough points for the win. At the time it was probably a good idea because I was in fact pressed for time, but still I give myself grief over it. So later in the summer, I registered to ride in the Void 6 to be held in October. Since registering, I made my mind up to put everything on the line, and had a strategy of “go big, or go home”. I even told my wife, and co-workers that my plan was to win or DNF trying.

Fast forward to October...The bike has been prepared for the trip including the addition of an auxiliary fuel cell which extends my range to the neighborhood of 425 miles per fuel stop. There was nothing left to do but wait for the rally books to be released. Be careful what you wish for should have been my motto. The Rally books came out and I studied the Bonus locations looking for the right combination of bonuses that yielded a route with the most points when I saw a bit of a twist. There's always a twist. Towards the back of the rally book, there are a few wild cards that multiply points if a string of specific bonuses are collected on a certain day, and in a specific order. The one in particular that caught my attention was known as “Group N”.

Every way I tried to route this string of bonuses in my mapping software came back with the same result. It was barely do-able, if not impossible. However, it also came with enough points attached to fit along side of my strategy, Win or DNF trying. I knew that it was a sucker bonus, but some sucker was going to pull it off...and Win. Matter of fact, I figured that this was going to be every bodies strategy, and that we all would pull it off and the points to win the rally were to be collected on the first day. (Group N was only available Saturday, and the rally started Friday Morning). So I routed an aggressive route for Friday as well.

Friday morning came and went, and the start was uneventfull, other than that I planned to start later in the window to give myself a little extra time conquering Group N on Saturday. So I started at 8 minutes after 9 (the start window was 8:50 to 9:10 am). Friday was filled with beautiful weather, rolling hills of Kentucky, and twisty roads of southern Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia. Bagging bonuses all along the way of cemeteries, State Parks, Taverns, and other odd locations, Including one that required a 20 minute hike straight up the side of a mountain in a remote location of West Virginia. Everything fell together with such great timing and accuracy that I couldn't have possibly have planned that route, right?

I pulled into the host hotel/finish line at 12:01am after having rode 800 miles to collect a bonus that required navigating a specific route to check the odometer, then after the ODO check I immediately started the mandatory 3 hour rest bonus...sleeping on the floor of the conference room in the hotel. Well at least trying to sleep. Once 3:30 rolled around, I finished the rest period, and left the hotel to get the business of Group N completed. It was a grueling ride of cold and fog in the morning, and I had zero time to stop for anything other than collecting a picture of a bonus, or fuel, which worked out well since one of the bonus locations was actually AT a gas station. All along the route the GPS was taunting me with an arrival time right on the ragged edge of DNF. But in the end, it worked out. It was a holiday weekend, and none of the cities I went through had any traffic to speak of, including Roanoke, Richmond, and Metro DC areas. And I managed to keep myself focused enough to finish with mere minutes to spare.

Scoring went smoothly, and other than a few points I left at the table by failing to recognize that I actually collected another combination bonus in my route, I scored well...and knew all along that if I didn't fuck up the paperwork, I had the win. It is a great feeling knowing that you set out to achieve a goal, and conquer it with a well laid plan. Something that adds a lot of confidence and adds to the fire that burns inside to take on these types of Long Distance Motorcycling challenges.

In the end, I had a great time, pulled off my very first rally win, met some great people, and learned a lot about the small towns and back roads that the midwest and mountain regions have to offer. Now its time to start the whole process over again, and plan for next years Cape Fear 1000, MD 2020, and Void Rallies. The long term goal here is to gain enough experience to compete in the Big Show (the IBR) someday in the future...2013? It's too soon to say.

Laying down tracks....

2011-06-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I promised ride reports for the Moonshine Lunch Run and Cape fear rally but I failed to do so. Fact of the matter is that I have had a very busy year so far, both at work and riding. And have found time to do everything BUT update the blog. The Moonshine Lunch run was a great ride and ended up being a featured article in Rider Magazine last month. Never have I seen so many like minded Sport and Touring bikes in one place at the same time. Especially in a location with a population on TWO! The burgers were great and the camaraderie even better. This will certainly be one of my annual rides that must be done.

The Cape Fear Rally was the most challenging one I have done to date with a lot of unique challenges of all types. The competition was some of the most know and respected riders in the LD community, the weather was absolute crap with a tornado or 2 in the mix, and the bonus locations were all over the map. I chose a southerly route due to the severe weather to the north, but woke up the morning of the rally to the sound of tornado sirens and the threat lingered throughout the day. There was one point where I narrowly escaped 2 tornadoes in Mississippi with nowhere to seek cover, and eerie experience to say the least.

My route took me from Savannah TN south the Meridian MS then zig zagging across southern Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and a very risky last minute bonus including a ferry ride, a strange to be located, and a six pack of beer that lead me to the finish line with less than 2 minutes to spare. A close one for sure, it's no wonder the bonus was named "go for broke" in the rally book. At the banquet I found out that I placed 2nd for the Savannah starters with a gap of 120ish points to the winner Ken Meese. I should be proud of my finish but keep kicking myself for riding right past a bonus that would have put me into the winning position had I not been concerned with pushing to the ferry location trying to not be late.

For those of you that think the rallies consist of nothing but interstate riding...I ran my entire route (over 1300 miles) in 28 hours primarily on 2 lane roads and only traveling 70 miles on the interstate!

Last month I took off for a 3 day weekend to Miami to visit my Aunt, and managed to catch the Shuttle launch in Titusville, FL for the last flight of the Endeavour.

Beyond those 3 rides, Andrea has been enthusiastic about riding this year and we have taken several trips on the bike. Twice to Panama City Beach, and even to New Orleans over Memorial day weekend! She has been bitten by the bug and she looks forward to taking even more trips with me in the future.

Right now we have a trip planned to the Jacksonville checkpoint of the IronButt rally later this month, and to the MotoGP races later this summer in Indianapolis...

Right now, it's time to go spoon on another set of tires...Ole Blue has crossed the 125,000 mile mark!

Coming soon

2011-04-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

I'm writing up the reports for the last few rides (Moonshine, and Cape Fear). I had an incredible couple of weeks of riding, and am very busy at work too. Writing it up as I get the free time. Not to mention another long 1500+ mile weekend coming up!

Moonshine

2011-04-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Headed out in a few hours for a Burger at the famous Moonshine Store in Illinois.

Gone Riding...

2011-03-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it has been a couple of months since I have updated my blog. I have decided to eliminate the Technical page, and add blog entries of interest to my main page instead, hence the "Stupid shit people do to motorcycles" post. The cold winter months of persevering through the cold weather are behind us and it's time to get serious about this years riding. I'm looking forward to covering some ground, and exploring some new places this season!

A couple of weeks ago I met up with Don and Bob for a sprint though the mountains, but this time I managed to dust off the Triumph for the day, covering 500+ miles of the twisties on a Sunday afternoon. It felt good to get out and do some riding that was more for pleasure than the commute and we managed to get the first mountain ride of the year under our belts. Bob even captured some excellent riding footage with his GoPro HD camera which inspires me to start using my Sony Handycam to do some of the same. Afterall I bought the Camera two years ago and have hardly used it. There was still snow in the higher elevations of the Cherohala Skyway, but nothing substantial on the roadway, and I doubt there is much left after the last 2 weeks of warm springtime weather. The Deals Gap resort was already open and in full swing for the year which is always good for a mid-day "Dragon Burger". Looking forward to many more trips up there this season.

On the LD riding side of things, I am preparing for the upcoming Cape Fear 1000 rally starting on April 15th, and considering a trip to the "Moonshine Lunch Run" the weekend prior to the rally tentative on how busy work is and if I'm able to sneak away for 2 Saturdays back to back. Not likely, but I can dream :)

Right now I'm processing a video taken on Bobs bike cam to illustrate how snow the Cherohala was, with any luck I'll be able to figure out how to embed it into this Blog post...

Stupid shit people do to Motorcycles.

2011-03-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a few examples of things NOT to do to your bike...

Wonder why this thing doesn't quite accelerate like it used to.

Or take this guy's fix for his missing Front Sprocket nut which there was a RECALL on and Yamaha would have bought him a new one.

While we're talking Chain and Sprocket Maintenance...lookie what happens when you don't put the Master Link in the Chain correctly.

Here come a few pictures from our "Home Electrical Engineers". WTF

Coming up next...A couple of Chrome fans. First guy decided to chrome the wheels on his now rare Yamaha GTS1000...which they only made for a couple of years.
Then we have the guy who just didn't know when to stop...now he has Chromed his entire F'ing motorcycle...

That's all I've got for now, but surely the next crowd of morons will come rolling in any minute...

Stagecoach

2010-12-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not...I still have not driven my car since October! Ok, so I ran out for some milk one night in it but otherwise I have been riding the bike through the frigid mornings, and even ice a couple of times :)The good ole FJR is running well and is sitting at 111,000 miles now! Wish this year had been a little better so I could buy it a mate for the garage. Liking the new Yamaha Super Tenere, sure looks like a bike I could enjoy riding the hell out of. (not that there are many I wouldn't)

The holidays are over (thank God), and I am off work until early next week/year so its time to knock out some miles. Bright and early tomorrow morning I am headed off to southern Alabama (Stockton) to the annual Stagecoach RTE. I have been eyeballing this ride for a few years now but my schedule always had some kind of conflict. But not this year. From what I understand the turnout is generally in the 300-600 bike range. It is looking like a chili morning, and a rainy afternoon is ahead of me tomorrow. But I'm still looking forward to the seat time and some good food...and maybe a picture of two.

Coming up on Christmas.

2010-12-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

And I'm still riding! The weather has been cold, rainy, and sometimes icy...but I have managed to ride the bike every single day since sometime back in October. Admittedly the other night it was pretty sketchy getting home from work when the roads were iced over...but I managed. Anyways, This is the last week before Christmas, and the year is coming to an end. I plan on taking a shorter ( 200ish miles) ride later this afternoon, then continue commuting all week. Next Thursday is the Stagecoach RTE in Stockton Alabama, so I plan on taking Thursday off, possibly Friday, then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday making it a 5 day weekend! Hell of a way to finish out the year...

Basically at this point I am ready for this calendar year to be over and done with, trying to be positive that next year will be better for business. It can't get much worse that is for sure. Only time will tell, and I'm hoping it is better. Especially since I have some big rides planned for next year :)

New Orleans Ride

2010-11-24T19:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back from New Orleans...not that I was gone very long. The ride started just before 5:30am on Sunday morning and I returned around 11pm that same night having traveled nearly 1000 miles...for lunch :)
I wish I could say that the ride went smoothly, but having been stuck in two separate traffic jams due to accidents that caused interstate closures my schedule was shot. Either way, I achieved the goal I set out to do, and I am satisfied. Shortly into the return route I started feeling sleepy and I had a headache, knowing it was caused by skipping rest stops and eating lunch late, I feared that I was going to have to stay somewhere overnight rather than ride in that condition. I decided to stop at a convenience store and I drank a Gatorade and tried one of those 5 hour energy bottles. I'm not the type to use these energy drinks, hell I really don't even drink sodas much anymore but I figured it was worth a try. I had nothing to lose by trying at that point...I have to say, the 5 hour energy drink really worked! Within 15 minutes of drinking it I felt refreshed without the shakes and I never "crashed" off of it later...Good stuff. I'm not going to bore everybody with the turn by turn details, but I made great time coming across Mississippi and Alabama in the evening which made the return leg of the ride smooth and uneventful....

Next chore will be getting the Thanksgiving holiday out of the way, and I have already started mapping out the route for my next adventure...The northern loop of the Natchez Trace...and then some :) This ride should also be a 1 day ride (680ish miles) taking backroads from my house all the way to Nashville, TN then traveling South on the Trace to Tupelo, MS. From there I plan to take the Slab home (will probably be getting near dark by then). Not quite sure exactly when I will be doing this ride...Sunday? Nope gotta do brakes on Andrea's car...Monday....Maybe :)or possibly the following weekend weather permitting...

Cafe Du Monde

2010-11-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

The plan for Sunday is a little trip to New Orleans for Lunch, Coffee, and Bengets at the Cafe Du Monde...Looking like it will be about half and half as far as interstate riding goes. Here is the route I have put together so far...

Yawn....

2010-11-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Another week has come and gone. I'm really enjoying the cooler weather for riding but keep running into the same old trouble getting motivated to ride to new places. I really don't want to go into the expense of overnight trips, but I am kicking around a few ideas for longer day rides. I am starting to compile a list of places/rides to do over the winter and so far this is what I'm coming up with.

New Orleans for lunch and back
Northern loop of the Natchez Trace/Loves Cafe in Nasheville
Ozarks
Tybee Island Run
Stockton Alabama (Stagecoach RTE 12.30.2010)
Destin?
Extended route of North Eastern Alabama

None of these rides are set in stone yet, like I said, I'm just getting started with this list. These rides aren't in any particular order but it's looking like the New Orleans ride will be coming up fairly soon. I still want to accomplish an IBA 50CC but don't see the finances in the near future to do this one. Someday it will happen though...

Back From Florida

2010-10-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from the Florida trip, and admittedly a bit sore. I think after this last trip I am over the Florida riding for a while, and will have to find some other areas to explore! There is a little talk of taking a New Orleans trip for lunch sometime soon but otherwise I really don't have anything in the works. Kind of came into some "riders block" where I am having trouble coming up with new places to visit, but I'm sure this will pass soon enough :)

Fall is here

2010-10-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

And the riding weather is great! I took thee last 2 weekends off from riding to take Andrea to the Zoo, and then the Wings over Atlanta Airshow yesterday! Had a great time, but I'm itching to do some riding! Next weekend...3 day ride planned! Going to do some coastal GA and alot of FL riding....

Mtn Ride

2010-10-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Returned from an outstanding ride in the mountains this weekend. Rode the route outlined in my last post, and managed to travel NC 28 3 times over the course of the weekend, once at night...that was errrr...interesting ;)
Garrett has helmet camera footage, I'm hoping to swing by his house sometime this week and copy it to my memory card so I can edit and post some of it. More to come later...

Going to be a twisty weekend

2010-10-01T05:58:00.000-07:00

Have about 600 miles planned for Sunday, mostly of twisty mountain roads:)

Road Trip (Now with Ride Report)

2010-09-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a 2 day ride over the Blueridge Parkway, and US421 "The Snake" Through Shady Vally TN. Although I didn't cover as much turf as I usually do. An 800 mile weekend will be suffice :)

I managed to ride some new (to me) roads along the way, met some interesting people, and got some motorcycle camping in. Full ride report will come in a few days...

-----UPDATE------
The BRP and The Snake

Ever since the weather started to cool off in the evenings, I have had the itch to do some Moto-Camping. Also, I kept hearing about a road known to the motorcycling community as “The Snake” that runs from Boone, NC all the way into Kentucky. This of course intrigued me. So I decided to take Sunday to ride up to the area of Boone, NC via the Blue Ridge Parkway only with a loose plan of camping overnight and no particular route set in stone. Then to get up early Sunday morning and ride “The Snake” and see what all the hype was about. And that is exactly what I did…

Late into the evening on Saturday night I was loading saddlebags and bungee strapping the sleeping bag to the rear seat of my FJR. I always make sure I am prepared even if the route is going to be made up as I go. A few years ago I camped in a National Park Campground in North Carolina along the BRP and this was my destination for Sunday. I got up and out of town without and problems on Sunday morning and made good time all the way to Cherokee, NC where the BRP begins. From there my schedule went too shit. Apparently this was the weekend of the big Harley rally in Cherokee, and I was held up in the morning considerably due to these wannabe Pirates trying to ride. What a cluster fuck that place was, and the seemingly never ending stream of slow moving bikes for the first 60 miles of the parkway.

Even though my morning was shot, by the time I reached Asheville traffic got back to normal and I was having a good time. As always I never stop to take enough pictures. But I did manage to get a few. I stopped at the BRP visitors center just past Asheville and took some pictures, got my National Parks Passport stamped, and took some time to talk to one of the Park Rangers who was more than happy to show me pictures of his Hayabusa. Nice guy, nice bike too.

From there I made great time up to Blowing Rock, NC and I went into town to pick up supplies for the night. Then backtracked 5 miles to the campground. It always makes a nicer camping trip for me if I hit up a grocery store along the way and cook a hot meal at the campground. I set up camp and fixed dinner when a stranger on a bicycle made his way over to greet me. It turns out that this guy has been traveling by bicycle for a month or more with no particular destination in mind. He said he was from NJ and was headed to Asheville, then out to the Outer Banks, then down the entire coast to the Keys in Florida. He had very few possessions and stopped in towns occasionally to work odd jobs to buy food and such. I wish him the best of luck, and I wish I had exchanged information so I could find out what eventually happens in his journey. The whole thing reminded me of Alexander “SuperTramp” in the book “Into the Wild” which is a good read BTW.

It was cool and quiet on Sunday night, and I slept well. I got up early and made breakfast on the campfire, then packed up my camping equipment. Monday morning was chilly and a little foggy but I managed to ride “The Snake” through Shady Valley and over to Bristol, TN. I can understand the hype about the road. It was a couple of mountain passes back to back when I managed to have a great time leaving my mark of footpegs in the asphaltJ I’ve rode better roads, but this one is definitely in the top 10.

From Bristol I made some time up by riding the interstate back down to Knoxville, TN then jumped on some familiar backroads through Tellico Plains and over the mountain to Blue Ridge, GA where I rode I-575 and cut across Kennesaw and Dallas to get home. The entire trip worked out very well, although I wish I had spent more time in the mountains and racked up a bit more mileage. Hindsight is 20/20 though. Maybe next time..

Hiking

2010-09-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

I took Andrea and the dogs to Stone Mountain Park today to do some hiking. In the end we managed to navigate the trail that leads the entire way around the mountain (appx. 5 miles).This Picture was taken at the beginning of the walk.

Here is a picture I took around the 3 mile mark. Getting tired...

This is how the afternoon went after we got home :)

Yup I'm Published....

2010-09-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Back in September Motor Cyclist Magazine published an article titled "Stealerships". It was an article that brings the issue of buying parts online vs patronizing your local Dealership. And for once the story was written from the Dealerships perspective. As I read the article, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with their point. The internet has become a huge competitor of the Dealerships and much like printed media, Dealerships are a dying breed because of this. After reading the story I felt compelled to write the magazine in response to what I had just read and they decided to publish it! Pick up the October issue if you care to read. Click here to read the original article.

MotoGP 2010 Pictures are posted!

2010-09-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

I loaded all the pictures, and some video this afternoon. Click HERE to view them. Also I added the slideshow bar to the top of this page, which I am going to set to show pictures from the most recent rides in the future. Currently it is set to scroll through the 2010 MotoGP album.

Back from Indianapolis

2010-08-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

Just made it home about an hour ago. Rode well over 1250 miles this weekend mostly on backroads. The racing was great and the weather was nice too (although hot). I will post a trip report and some more pics within the next few days.

Sent via DROID X on Verizon Wireless

On the road

2010-08-28T05:17:00.001-07:00

Made it toTennessee already this morning. I'm taking the freeway up to Nasheville then 2 lane roads the rest of the way. The Spot tracker is on. To view progress click the link to the right of my page here.

Breaking the dry spell

2010-08-23T18:26:00.001-07:00

Earlier in the year i had decided to skip the MotoGP races in Indianapolis this year and that was that. Or so i thought, i had pretty much accepted the fact that i wasn't going to make it this year until i received an email the.other day twisting my arm to get me to come...and it worked. Officially (as or 5 minutes ago) i have decided to go this year too. So as of right now i have no other plan other that getting on the bike and steering it to the north Saturday night after work. So long as i make it in time for the race on Sunday...well who cares about the rest. Hopefully my next update will be from the grandstands at "the brickyard".

P.s.
I titled this post the way i did because this is going to be the first longer trip i've taken for quite some time now.

New to the blogger setup

2010-08-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

Hi all! I am so sick and tried of fumbling around with the last few website designs and HTML coding that I have decided to join the masses and change to a Blogger style page. I hope you like it, this simplifies posting for me and gives me more options such as posting a new blog entry straight from my cell phone...pretty cool huh?

Anyways, the summer has been miserably hot and I have pretty much given up any riding other than commuting to work. I have so many trips planned this fall that I probably won't get to them all...but I'm OK with that. October is going to be a busy month. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it isn't as rainy as last October. I am looking into riding the Blue Ridge Parkway sometime during the peak color changing season. The ST.N Eastern owners meet is on one weekend up in the good riding country. I have signed up to ride the Void Rally, and there is even a group who has invited me for a weekend long ride simply code named "the tire toaster". Sounds like fun to me!

The trusty FJR crossed the 100,000 milestone, and actually is now well over 101k. I did some MAJOR maintance at the 100k mark and everything seems to be running well.I'm pushing for 200k now, hopefully I reach it quicker that the first 100k took me (just over 4 years) but I doubt it...I seem to be slowing down a bit, mostly due to financial restrictions.

So long for now, feel free to comment on how the new page looks...

ARCHIVES from the old web host.

2010-01-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

Update

June has come and gone without an update, I should have something posted later this week. Just returned from a bike ride the Tybee Island on Monday and I have a few other rides upcoming in the near future. Biggest news as of today...I will hit the 100,000 mile mark sometime towards the end of my next tank of gas! Yes, it's that close :)

Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 08:41 PM (UTC -4)