anyone go for a ride today? Pics?

[bobgroger]

[QUOTE=trevor;n1698524]Got out today.....


/QUOTE]
The Clipper. I spent a month at their Seattle office many years ago redoing their reservation system. Those boats are incredibly cool. Turbines and kerosene.... The people headed up that had a previous DUI got to spend the day in a cage instead of Victoria because you won't let them in... I understand now you can buy your way in if it has been long enough.

[gtem]

Had the pleasure of meeting up with Brian (bwringer) for a nice little 60 mile evening ride north of Indianapolis tonight. Not a whole lot of scenery or twisty roads out this way... we found a few corners and a cool dilapidated old bridge (Scotland Bridge, maybe Brian got a pic of it, I didn't). A good shakedown for my 1100E before I trailer out to PA next week for a short tour with my brother.

[Redman]

Had the pleasure of meeting up with Brian (bwringer) for a nice little 60 mile evening ride .
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.]

Good. . . . . . . . . .

Good that you got the 1100E on the road.

Good that you got to meet up and ride with Brian.

Ah, was it you or was it Brian that got you on the gravel road.
(I have had similar experience following Brian.)

[cowboyup3371]

Had the pleasure of meeting up with Brian (bwringer) for a nice little 60 mile evening ride north of Indianapolis tonight. Not a whole lot of scenery or twisty roads out this way... we found a few corners and a cool dilapidated old bridge (Scotland Bridge, maybe Brian got a pic of it, I didn't). A good shakedown for my 1100E before I trailer out to PA next week for a short tour with my brother.

Looks like you had quite the fun adventure.

[Redman]

Went on morning ride, expected to go on a hundred mile route that have gone before. Since I know the route, I didnt take GPS, but dont really know the surrounding area.



Got part way there, turned at an intercetion, and then was road closed signs..... and they meant road closed, wasnt any road, bridge completely gone, not getting past that.







SO I headed off in a direction I was completely unfamiliar with. After couple miles I saw signs for "blah blah street detour", which I had no idea what or where that was, but went that way any way.

FOund some interesting roads, that makes me want to figure out where I was, and maybe incorporate that into a regular route. Followed the detour and ended up just on other side of that same bridge. Was interesting to walk around the bridge construction site.



As I have found before, "Road Closed" signs means will be about no traffic. So continued on with about no traffic.



Made it to Newaygo.

Since I took longer than expected, I took a more direct route back home.

[Burque73]

I really wanted to get out on a bike yesterday before the afternoon heat, but things kept coming up that needed attention. Finally around 3pm, I'm ready to ride and just then I hear the rumble of my neighbor's bike pulling into their driveway. They were smart and left early before afternoon heat and monsoon rains came. Seemed like I had to force myself to follow through and ride, even a short ride would do me some good, I thought, to de-stress.

As I'm pulling my helmet on my wife came into the garage looking sad. Seeing the neighbor's made her want to head out with me. I selfishly didn't want company on this ride. Honestly didn't even think it'd be more than a quick spin around town. Well, her sad-eyed look worked. Well, hop on then I said, let's ride.

Jeez, what's taking so long? I've been out front cooking in the sun waiting for her to gear up. Now I'm really uninspired to ride, but pushing through it for her sake. Finally, saddled up and in the wind with no real destination in mind.

Some unknown force steered us to the edge of town, then onto the interstate. Still no idea where we're headed and no discussion about it over the intercom, just chit chat. Passing a few of my regular local spots to ride, we kept on.

The FJR just felt so smooth at speed and we both noticed it. With her weight and the luggage back on, the suspension was squatting just enough to take the weight off my hands. Hey, my wrists weren't hurting like they usually do on this bike. 50 miles went by in a heartbeat now we'rein Santa Fe. I was surprised she hadn't asked me to stop yet to pee or whatever, but it was me that needed it first.

With my tank empty now and the FJR's full, we look to the sky for direction. Looks like rain to the East and West and neither of wanted to head back south so North it is. Let's take the high road I said.

A very scenic route" The high road to Taos" runs through a few small villages between Pojoaque and Ranchos De Taos. The temperature dropped a good 20 degrees and felt really refreshing for us so we stayed the course.

Now, it's almost 6pm and thunderstorms rolled in all around us. I was certain if we brought rain gear it wouldn't rain, pffft, wrong! Just then my wife starts hinting that she stuffed a few overnight items into her purse before we left. Pretty sneaky.....No wonder it took her so long to get out the door. We pull up to a restaurant called Azteca grill near Taos plaza and dismount. Table for two please.

To be continued....

High road desert by Roger, on Flickr

High road bridge by Roger, on Flickr

[Redman]

I
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To be continued....

Please . . . . . . . .

[storm 64]

You have my attention

[trevor]

"Dear Penthouse Forum, I never dreamed I'd be writing to you...."

[markn]

I went for a ride around town after getting the rear brakes squared-away on my GS700ES….me and the Mrs. will be heading downtown with it tonight to watch the fireworks !

[cowboyup3371]

Don't leave us hanging from the fan blades Roger

[Rob S.]

"Dear Penthouse Forum, I never dreamed I'd be writing to you...."

Not a bad idea for a thread. Motorcycle adventures with the opposite sex. 'Does the 'kitty' magnet need to be cleaned at every oil change?'

[gtem]

Good. . . . . . . . . .

Good that you got the 1100E on the road.

Good that you got to meet up and ride with Brian.

Ah, was it you or was it Brian that got you on the gravel road.
(I have had similar experience following Brian.)

Haha it was just a tiny bit of gravel, several hundred yards at most. I'm no stranger to the stuff have always ridden my UJMs on various forest access type roads for stealthy camping etc.

[gtem]

Apologies for a total lack of any photos as we didn't really stop anywhere scenic, but I rode my new-to-me 02 Bandit 1200 and met up with a buddy on his new-to-him 2003 Super Glide on the West side of Indy and we ended up riding out towards Mooresville and then South from there towards Martinsville-ish. Totally unfamiliar area for me so I was very pleasantly surprised by the nice twisty nicely paved roads down there (Route 39, 142, some smaller twistier side roads). Ended up having lunch in Monrovia and riding back North. about 130-140ish miles total, the longest trip I've taken on my 02 Bandit 1200 so far. My butt would get pretty numb after 50 miles and my throttle hand fingers would start to fall asleep a bit but I'd say it was manageable and I could knock down 200+ mile days easily with just a sheepskin seat cover or gel pad under my butt. My buddy on the Super Glide was no slouch either (he's been riding these roads for years). Given the lack of clearance from the forward controls and wobbly mini-ape handlebars on the thing (installed by PO) I was very impressed with how he whipped that thing through the corners. He's going to be setting it up better for spirited riding (mid controls, lower bar, taller shocks, etc).

[Burque73]

Back at it. Sorry to leave you hanging. I tried to follow up a few times yesterday, but couldn't really take enough time to type on the phone. I'll edit my previous post with a few pics and try to briefly (yeah right!) continue on. Feel free to scroll away from my ramblings, if you'd like.


That little restaurant in Taos, Azteca Grill, was super busy but somehow we got a seat pretty quickly. My wife promptly excused herself to find facilities. As the servers brought tall red and yellow-green colored, condensation laden, margaritas......to tables around ours..... I patiently sipped a much needed, refreshing, glass of water. It was a long shot but I fired off a text to some friends we haven't seen in quite some time to see if they could possibly meet us for dinner.

Our friends have a "small" cabin tucked in the hills near Taos ski valley. I really didn't expect a reply since they are in the habit of tossing cellphones in the drawer while up in the hills, but to my surprise I got an immediate, now? You guys are in Taos? You should come have dinner here, they said. She's back from the necessary room now and the waitress scooted by saying she'd be with us soon. We agreed the glass of water, while being as enjoyable as it was, concluded our Azteca experience. I dropped a few bucks on the table for the waitress and we headed back to the bike.

It's nearly impossible to find the cabin so we head to the rendezvous spot a half hour away. The color of the fenders on our friend's SUV bore a striking resemblance to the adjacent mud brick structure they parked next to. I guess I neglected to mention we rode up there as they asked how this bike would handle the two mile dirt road to the cabin. Hmmm, we'll find out!

It hadn't rained up there today, so far, so we took a chance and followed them home. It was actually a pretty well graded road, with just a few ruts and low spots holding yesterday's rainwater. We pulled up to the cabin just before dark followed by a well timed thunderstorm.

In no time we were enjoying a delicious bowl of smoked ham and beans. The burn from the fire roasted green chile in the beans was appropriately put out by an ice cold Dos Equis. Surrounded by now saturated tall ponderosa pines enjoying a cold one under a big umbrella was a perfect way to wind down after the preceding six hour adventure.

Please excuse the minutia I compellingly share. It hasn't been very often, as of late, that an opportunity like this presents itself.

20220703_201248 by Roger, on Flickr