Why do we ride?

[Steve]

Seems like a dumb question, but I get asked that occasionally by cagers. "I mean, it's so dangerous, isn't it?"
Yeah, and so is waking up in the morning.

This past weekend, we went to my wife's cousin's house in South Carolina for a Fourth of July family picnic. Of course, we took the bikes. 470 miles down on Thursday. Friday we went to Greenville to visit some vendors at Honda's Wing Ding, which is a yearly gathering for, you guessed it, GoldWings. Spent a bunch of money, then went to the picnic. Had a wonderful time with cousins that we saw just a few months ago at Christmas time, saw others that I have not seen for about 15 years, and even met one that I had not met before in the 30+ years we have been married.

Had a wonderful time there, and decided to take a more meandering route home. Sunday, after traveling 170 miles on some wonderful roads,

I got curious, looked on the GPS and found that we were only about 43 straight-line miles from where we started.
Pictured above is about 20 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just west of Asheville, NC. East of Asheville, the Parkway is closed (still) due to some problems over the last winter, so we had to follow the detour on the freeway. Probably just as well, as it was raining a bit. The nice thing about rain on the Parkway is that it really clears out the traffic. We have been on the Parkway several times before, and the amount of traffic we encountered this Sunday afternoon was no more than we have experienced on a weekday, and certainly not what we expected.

Sure, the view was limited at times,


but was much better by simply looking in the other direction.

[Steve]

There was a second detour on up the Parkway a bit, but it was not nearly as long, and did not involve any freeway travel.
The weather cleared a bit, leaving some interesting views of the clouds in the valleys.


In spite of the wet roads, the riding conditions were still decent.


After riding 'only' 310 miles, we stayed in a motel in Sparta, NC for the night. On Monday, we continued north, got gas in Wytheville, VA and decided to do one more detour before hitting the freeway. This is an 8-mile section of US 52 north and west of Wytheville.


The elevation goes up 1100 feet, then back down 800 feet in this section, so it is a very interesting ride.

We also got to stop and see another covered bridge along the way. Don't know what it is, but I just find covered bridges rather fascinating.


Only 1250 miles over the weekend, and I'm ready to do it again.

Oh, yeah, it was 470 miles to get there, but 'only' 660 to get home.

.

[mcloud]

Why do we ride?

For myself, I stopped trying to explain.
It's like someone trying to explain to me his passion for Elvis Presley collection. Useless!

[TheCafeKid]

Looks like a fantastic weekend Steve! And CRAZY miles! I did a lil more than half that this weekend and my booty was sore! (BTW I think i need to take that preload down one, as my rear didnt get that sore during the WV weekend..lol) I would love to see some of those roads sometime, looks like a couple of them had some serious twisties

[Zook]

Steve, is that a reflective strip on your tank or a neon light bar?
That is a pretty bike.

I always tell peiople who say "It's so dangerous" that it wouldn't be that way if the cagers would actually see instead of just look.

[seuadr]

i tried to explain it to my fiencee.. she didn't understand. then a friend took her for a ride with him just around the area we were at ( i was fixing my GS so no ride from me ) and now not only is she ok wit me riding, and itching to get on the back, but she is considering learning to ride and getting her own bike aftr the wedding!

[Steve]

Steve, is that a reflective strip on your tank or a neon light bar?
That is a pretty bike.

You talking about this bike?


Thanks, but it's not my bike. It's my wife's bike. I ride the Wing that is pulling the trailer.

Oh, yeah, the lights. That is a strip of 18 LEDs that is 16" long. Got it at Auto Zone in the specialty light department, it runs a whole $20 per strip. The strip is about 1/4" wide, and fits perfectly on the seam on the bottom of the gas tank. The lights are from Pilot, but I can not find them anywhere on the Pilot Automotive website or on Auto Zone's site, so I can't give you a link. I have only seen them at Auto Zone in the 16" size, and in Red, White and Blue. I have also seen some 24" lights that are very similar to these, made by Bell, also found at Auto Zone. I happened to see the Pilot lights at Pep Boys the other day, but they were $30 for the same strip. On a brighter note, they also had 10" and 5" lights in the same series.

When my wife comes home from work today, I will have to ask her what she did with all the information we picked up over the weekend about lights. I just looked, but can not find it. We saw several vendors at WingDing (it's a GoldWing thing) that had similar lights in greater lengths and a wide variety of colors. Now that I 'need' the information, I can't find it. I will have to add to this thread later.

Since you can't really see the bike in that picture, here is the one from the GSR Gallery.
It was taken a couple of years ago, after some fresh paint and polish, but before a bunch of other 'toys' were added.

.

[80GS1000]

Nice twisties in that area, wow!

I figure you're either dying to live or living to die, I'd rather be on the first part of that equation. Riding a bike (especially at speed on the track) sure beats sitting at home watching TV and eating Doritos.

[Rat44]

Have the police ever given your wife grief over those lights? In many places those are highly illegal.

[80GS750]

neat idea with the lights....

sounds like it was a nice ride.

[Steve]

No grief yet. They were installed as her Mother's Day present this year. There is no problem here in oHIo, but I know there might be problems in other states, so they are on a separate switch and can be turned off with no problem.

Many places might not like them if they are visible to the front, but these are only visible to the sides.

.

[Rat44]

Just wondering. Many states could care less about that stuff.
And other states see dollar signs when it comes to non-DOT lights.
The police here love the kids and their sport compacts, seems they change every light to another color. They wonder why they get tickets for clear or white tail lights. Red and blue lights on all sides.

[Zooks]

I agree with McCloud, the old saying rings true - if I have to explain it, you won't understand.

[mf70]

Ooo... I was just quietly reading, then I saw that shot looking out over the clouds. I need to be out there...

Thanks for the story and the pix.