Buzzin' Down to the Life-N-Times Show
Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 12:50 pm
Being decended from Squids, this was the first time I actually got on a bike and rode any great distance to actually go to a specific place. Ussually I ride dirt-bike style.... get on and thrash in one direction and see where it takes me untill I decide I need to head home, then figure out where home is and thrash thata way till I get there.
So yesterday when I left home knowing where I was going and what hiways I was taking already felt strange. The steady 30 mph cross-winds felt personal. I would normally just turn and ride into that kinda wind.... but that don't work very good for actually getting someplace specific.
I discovered my helmet is dam loud in those situations, so I pulled over to try some earplugs I brought.('Cause I read *someplace* what a good idea they are
) I found some bushes to hide from the wind behind to stop at and took a pic of the bike...
Set off again, much qieter this time...... but wait, what's that? 10 minutes later my ears are killing me. Ever time I pass a Semi in the other lane(lots of those in this area) the rapid pressure changes of the truck blocking the cross-wind, ect would feel like hot pokers on my ear-drums. I didn't get used to it in 30 minutes, so I stopped and took them out. Louder, but it didn't hurt, so head-down-azz-up it down 80 miles of freakin flat, straight hiway. Just a side-note.... I'm very impressed with the top-end of this beast, it flat out HAULS...
Never seen one other bike untill I got into the town of Wetaskiwin. Then I met the traffic stream running north/south. Now the car-bike ratio was 1:1. I never seen so many bikes on the road with general traffic. I was stopped at a light waiting to turn south and saw a pack of 20-30 bikes coming down the road headed the same direction I was going to turn. But the first guy(on a green 998 Matrix Reloaded repli-bike) turned right instead of going straight, and the whole pack('Busa's to RoadKings and everything in between) followed him. I got my green light and turned off in the right direction. I see in my mirrors that the lead rider of the lost pack had cut a nut and was now following me, like I knew where I was going(sucker), so was everybody else. Turned out that I did find the place, I lead the whole works though the gates and into the 'Reserved' Motorcycle parking, with a film crew taping me.
You can see the nose of my FJ at the left, all the bikes to the right in both rows formed my spur of the moment gang....
Everyone was friendly and chatty so I hung out and B.S.ed for a few minutes while everyone got undressed and stowed, ect. Mr, Matrix 998 wasn't too friendly so I just watched him. He and his Ladyfriend stripped off 2 Shoei's, 2 sets of full leathers and gloves, ect (2 grand worth of stuff easily) and draped it over the bike like laundery and walked away.?.?. I locked my helmet to the bike, only becuase there was constant security walking around and every other bike had a lid on it, most not even locked.
Went in to see what I could see and met Owen, Chels, Brian and Karl. Nobody got killed or pregnant, so I say it went pretty well. I'll post some pics of the show in another thread.
After making the rounds and headed home, we all went out to say farewell and seen this parked behind my bike.....
Yes, he rode it here.
I bought some saddlebags from Owen(thanx Dude
) and after everyone has motored off, I sat down to strap them on in the parkinglot. 50 people must have walked by while I was doing this, and every single one of them stopped and looked at the bike just pictured, then asked me(like I would know) if the guy rode it there. Got the bags secured and low-n-behold, this guy walks up and gets on the bike. He looks just as ratty as the bike. Well, I got to see this, so I walk over and start jawing with the guy (he didn't want his pic on the web... I asked) and watched him start it. Quite an operation, believe me. Including the home-made key he keeps tie-strapped to the clutch cable.... The bike started second kick, and he popped off on his way.
Then I went to start my bike. Lights come on (all but one I didn't notice) but no starter action. No click, nothing. Fark!!! Off with the seat I just spend 15 minutes tieing down with the saddlebags, fuses are good, connections tight....WTF? By this time, I had drawn a crowd
None of us can figure out what's up. But my new buddies will help me push-start the thing, so I work the seat back on underneath the new straps ect, lift it off the sidestand and roll it backwards.....hey, no I don't...the dam thing is in gear..... FARK!!!!.....*click*.... neutral,....*push button*....vroom. We have ignition. We all stood there and looked at each other for a few seconds and then all started laughing at ourselves. I remember when I parked thinking 'John always says he parks in gear so it don't roll off the stand... he's pretty smart and ussually knows what he's talking about. I'm gonna try that....' D'oh.... I always park in neutral, and will continue to do so from now on.....I ain't bright enough to assimulate such a change to my limited skill-set at this piont in my life...... 
Finally, about 45 minutes after starting for home, I started for home. I took the long way home to ride a more bendy road. But first I stopped for a burger and some fuel. People were sure friendly, everytime I stopped anyplace. I had a nice convo with sweet little 75 year old lady at BurgerKing about bikes. It seems her kids ride, and now the grandkids are starting to make noise about getting thier own bikes and how they like 'those really sporty' bikes, and were not happy with the Shadow's they just bought..... Then later some guy walked up and and started talking about the new bike shop that opened in town that day, and was I heading over to the party there? He gave me directions in case I wanted to, called a cab and headed off..... the guy behind the counter serving me wanted to know where to get a visor for my lid, as his was 'the *same thing* and I need one for it. Like my bike?' and he pionted to the pink and purple Spree scooter outside. Yeah, that's a great ride, dude, and I repsect your personal fortitude for claiming that thing as yours. Good on Ya, Buddy.
I stopped for fuel once and figured out the milage I was getting. 44 MPG Imp. or 40 MPG US. I was pretty impressed considering the wind and the generous throttle positions it got on that tank. Haven't figured out the milage for the rest of the trip yet, slightly less wind, but more open throttle, so we'll see.
Stopped in some tiny town for a smoke....
Posted 80km curve taken at ...... well over that, while shooting pics with one hand...
One more smoke break before a short 50 mile highspeed blast home....
So yesterday when I left home knowing where I was going and what hiways I was taking already felt strange. The steady 30 mph cross-winds felt personal. I would normally just turn and ride into that kinda wind.... but that don't work very good for actually getting someplace specific.
I discovered my helmet is dam loud in those situations, so I pulled over to try some earplugs I brought.('Cause I read *someplace* what a good idea they are
) I found some bushes to hide from the wind behind to stop at and took a pic of the bike...
Set off again, much qieter this time...... but wait, what's that? 10 minutes later my ears are killing me. Ever time I pass a Semi in the other lane(lots of those in this area) the rapid pressure changes of the truck blocking the cross-wind, ect would feel like hot pokers on my ear-drums. I didn't get used to it in 30 minutes, so I stopped and took them out. Louder, but it didn't hurt, so head-down-azz-up it down 80 miles of freakin flat, straight hiway. Just a side-note.... I'm very impressed with the top-end of this beast, it flat out HAULS...
Never seen one other bike untill I got into the town of Wetaskiwin. Then I met the traffic stream running north/south. Now the car-bike ratio was 1:1. I never seen so many bikes on the road with general traffic. I was stopped at a light waiting to turn south and saw a pack of 20-30 bikes coming down the road headed the same direction I was going to turn. But the first guy(on a green 998 Matrix Reloaded repli-bike) turned right instead of going straight, and the whole pack('Busa's to RoadKings and everything in between) followed him. I got my green light and turned off in the right direction. I see in my mirrors that the lead rider of the lost pack had cut a nut and was now following me, like I knew where I was going(sucker), so was everybody else. Turned out that I did find the place, I lead the whole works though the gates and into the 'Reserved' Motorcycle parking, with a film crew taping me.
You can see the nose of my FJ at the left, all the bikes to the right in both rows formed my spur of the moment gang....
Everyone was friendly and chatty so I hung out and B.S.ed for a few minutes while everyone got undressed and stowed, ect. Mr, Matrix 998 wasn't too friendly so I just watched him. He and his Ladyfriend stripped off 2 Shoei's, 2 sets of full leathers and gloves, ect (2 grand worth of stuff easily) and draped it over the bike like laundery and walked away.?.?. I locked my helmet to the bike, only becuase there was constant security walking around and every other bike had a lid on it, most not even locked.
Went in to see what I could see and met Owen, Chels, Brian and Karl. Nobody got killed or pregnant, so I say it went pretty well. I'll post some pics of the show in another thread.
After making the rounds and headed home, we all went out to say farewell and seen this parked behind my bike.....
Yes, he rode it here.
I bought some saddlebags from Owen(thanx Dude
) and after everyone has motored off, I sat down to strap them on in the parkinglot. 50 people must have walked by while I was doing this, and every single one of them stopped and looked at the bike just pictured, then asked me(like I would know) if the guy rode it there. Got the bags secured and low-n-behold, this guy walks up and gets on the bike. He looks just as ratty as the bike. Well, I got to see this, so I walk over and start jawing with the guy (he didn't want his pic on the web... I asked) and watched him start it. Quite an operation, believe me. Including the home-made key he keeps tie-strapped to the clutch cable.... The bike started second kick, and he popped off on his way.Then I went to start my bike. Lights come on (all but one I didn't notice) but no starter action. No click, nothing. Fark!!! Off with the seat I just spend 15 minutes tieing down with the saddlebags, fuses are good, connections tight....WTF? By this time, I had drawn a crowd
None of us can figure out what's up. But my new buddies will help me push-start the thing, so I work the seat back on underneath the new straps ect, lift it off the sidestand and roll it backwards.....hey, no I don't...the dam thing is in gear..... FARK!!!!.....*click*.... neutral,....*push button*....vroom. We have ignition. We all stood there and looked at each other for a few seconds and then all started laughing at ourselves. I remember when I parked thinking 'John always says he parks in gear so it don't roll off the stand... he's pretty smart and ussually knows what he's talking about. I'm gonna try that....' D'oh.... I always park in neutral, and will continue to do so from now on.....I ain't bright enough to assimulate such a change to my limited skill-set at this piont in my life...... Finally, about 45 minutes after starting for home, I started for home. I took the long way home to ride a more bendy road. But first I stopped for a burger and some fuel. People were sure friendly, everytime I stopped anyplace. I had a nice convo with sweet little 75 year old lady at BurgerKing about bikes. It seems her kids ride, and now the grandkids are starting to make noise about getting thier own bikes and how they like 'those really sporty' bikes, and were not happy with the Shadow's they just bought..... Then later some guy walked up and and started talking about the new bike shop that opened in town that day, and was I heading over to the party there? He gave me directions in case I wanted to, called a cab and headed off..... the guy behind the counter serving me wanted to know where to get a visor for my lid, as his was 'the *same thing* and I need one for it. Like my bike?' and he pionted to the pink and purple Spree scooter outside. Yeah, that's a great ride, dude, and I repsect your personal fortitude for claiming that thing as yours. Good on Ya, Buddy.
I stopped for fuel once and figured out the milage I was getting. 44 MPG Imp. or 40 MPG US. I was pretty impressed considering the wind and the generous throttle positions it got on that tank. Haven't figured out the milage for the rest of the trip yet, slightly less wind, but more open throttle, so we'll see.
Stopped in some tiny town for a smoke....
Posted 80km curve taken at ...... well over that, while shooting pics with one hand...
One more smoke break before a short 50 mile highspeed blast home....
