My First BIG Ride!!!!

Well, it is that time of year, Spring Break! For a college kid, you would think I would be out at some party beach somewhere across the country or just being lazy and sleeping all day....not this year. Well, I never really have done that before, most the time I just work. But anyway, this year we decided as a family that Spring Break would be a good time to go on a long bike ride since I just got my FZ6. We decided that we would ride down to South Florida to see my Grandparents on my Father's side, seeing as how my Granddaddy is 86 years old and I haven't been down to their place since I was in the second grade.

I invited my Jordan to come along on the ride as well since she seems to really enjoy riding alot now. In order to pack for two of us on this trip I needed a few bags that would mount on my bike as well as a way to mount them. I ended up with a Givi Rack to hold a couple top bags and to help support my mini-saddle bags as well. Along with this we needed some way to communicate so we installed a J&M Intercom system. This allowed Jordan and I to talk to each other as well as talk to Mom and Dad via the CB that is part of the J&M system. Since my bike wasn't exactly designed for this type of application Dad and I had to do some work to get this system to work, but in the end it ended up working great and was by far one of the best investments for the trip.

Since my father has a blog site as well and is currently working on a detailed ride report with day by day summaries, I am going to post a link to his site which will include pictures that he took during the trip. I took my Canon along with me on this trip and managed to get some shots as well. So I am going to do this blog a bit different than I have in the past.

Here is the link to my Fathers Blog: http://rdytogo.blogspot.com/

Below you will find pictures that I took while on the trip as well as a few words about each.

Enjoy!!!!

To start things off, here are a few pictures of the bike after installing the J&M and the Givi-Rack.

Here you can see the intercom system on the right side of the bars and my iPod mount as well in the center. This turned out to work well, however the bumps in the road would tend to mess with the iPod and cause it to freeze up. I will need to work on a better mounting system for that in the future.

I had a time installing those flush mount turn signals there in the front of the bike. The old ones were not the right size and were not very visible. These a bit larger and they mount a bit different. I spent a good bit of time cutting away the inside of the fairings with my trusty dremel tool. But here you can see them as well as the bags mounted to the new rack.

Now for the trip pictures.

Our first stop on the first day just outside of Kershaw, S.C. The mural on the building I thought was pretty neat as well as the sunset as the day came to an end.

The next morning we came out to the bike to find this. It was a bit chilly that morning, however it wasn't the coldest point of the trip...

The next stop was at the Georgia Welcome Center off Hwy 301. Unfortunately they are closed on Sundays, however that didn't stop us from having fun. It was small building, but it had a nice wooded area behind it that had picnic tables and swings and such for people to enjoy.

Jordan, being the flower child that she is managed to find all the "pretty flowers" at each stop and would make little things with them. Most of the time she would try to put them on me but by the end of the trip she realized I really did not enjoy that too much so she found ways to fix them to her hair. She would braid the flowers into her hair then put her helmet on so they would blow in the wind. She really was born in the wrong decade...

The Spanish Moss was really cool looking in the large trees through out South Carolina, Georgia and Northern Florida. These pictures were taken outside our hotel just inside Florida, just as we got on A1A. It was at this time, the weather became very nice and the layers were coming off!

The northern part of A1A included a ferry ride. I guess all of us were expecting the ferry ride to be a bit longer than it was. It was the first time Jordan and I have ever rode a ferry, so it was a neat first time experience.

So I couldn't quite get the camera to pick up all the colors in the sky here, but man was it wicked. After we got through Daytona we had to take I-95 South for a bit to make a little time. Well we made a quick stop for fuel a little ways out side of Daytona and the sky's were looking a bit scary. Yes that bight spot is the sun... weird huh.




The next day when were in Clewiston we went and saw the family for a bit, then went out for a little tour of the the town. This area is right off the lake, and is next to one of the many pump stations for the lake. They turned this area into a park with a play ground and have some of the older engines and pumps that ran for years set up on display. I am sure Dad will go into more detail about these pumps and such, so I will leave that up to him. All I can say is, wow! They were big and moved alot of water.

These pictures were taken just out side of my Granddaddy's house. I always thought the canal in front of the house looked neat with the the large palms that line it. I thought the trees made for some neat shots.

"Rut Roh Shaggy" We found a young gator' on one of the canal banks just outside of Clewiston. I wanted to be sure I got some gator pictures before I left Florida, so we pulled over and had a little fun with him.

On our way out of Clewiston we stopped at one of the many orange groves that lined the side of the road. As we rode down the road all you could smell were the oranges, so we had to stop. I have never really been fond of just eating orange slices, but I love orange juice. We plucked a couple nice ones and I sucked the juice out of a few slices and that was the best O.J. I have ever had.







Our next stop was at Avon Park. Mom and Dad spent alot of time their when they first got married and lived in that area. It was a really nice park with lots of trails to walk down and plenty of chances to see wild animals. As you can see in the pictures that was the walkway they had build to take you over the swamp areas, including where the gators were. It was neat getting that close to a live gator, and it made for some nice photos as well. You could spend several days out there walking all the trails and enjoying all the park had to offer. However we didn't have that kind of time, so we just did a couple that Mom and Dad knew were nice and then we headed out.





Well just up from Avon Park was the Sebring International Speedway. I had hoped we would be able to stop and just see the track on our way home, so we made our way towards it. Turns out it was testing day for the IRL cars. We got lucky! Those V8 Honda's we screaming and were really getting the job done coming out of the hairpin and down the back stretch. The girls were less than amused, however, Dad and I were loving it.



Now the next day we made plans to stop at Don Garlit's Drag Racing Museum. Once again the girls were less than thrilled and did not go in. However they were of the thinking that it wouldn't take us that long to go down a few rows of cars and pictures....wrong. We spent about 2 hours and didn't even go to the last building which was the antique car shed. Here are few of the pictures I took.



Somebody should tell him he put his motor in sideways...

The reason rail cars are now rear engine. Don lost half of his right foot due to the clutch exploding in this picture.



I think he might have had a bit of an air leak on that one...



As I sit and think about all the vechicals I would love to drive, this isn't one of them. Some how I just can't stomach the thought of sitting on the rear end like that...



So from now on when someone says they blew up the motor in something, this is what I will think of. Now I have seen motors get destroyed at races, but I haven't seen one do that and I have a feeling that was a heck of a site.



I am going to go on a limb here and say those motors got a bit hot...







Now for the main event....

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SWAMP RAT 34

*a.k.a*

Mono-Wing




This is the main reason Dad wanted to stop here




They really should have had this car in its own room where you could get better pictures of it. It is by far one of the most amazing cars there. If you have nothing better to do, Google Swamp Rat 34 and do a little research, you will be impressed.

So the last stop for pictures was as the Suwannee River. Jordan and I had never heard of it before to which Dad was in complete shock. So we turned down the dirt road which is in the picture above to get to a large opening where we could strech our legs and mess for a bit. Dad took plenty of pictures here as well. What was really neat though was that there was a Seminole camp ground up the road from where we were and through the woods could hear them playing a small flute like instrument. It was very soft and erie sounding, quite fitting for the area though.

From that point on we dodge more rain and tornados and even rode 30-40 miles through the snow and sleet. I am sure Dad will cover those stories in more detail, however.

Overall the trip was alot of fun. We put in many miles and have memories which will last a life time. I am glad we decided to go on this trip and I am looking forward to many more.

Overall Milage: 1867.5 miles

A Break From the Cold!

The past few weeks here have been far from beautiful. The days have either been really cold and windy or rainy, or the two combined. The other morning as I drank my cup of coffee, in hopes of waking up to function before my 8 a.m. lab, I noticed that the weekend ahead looked like it might be promising for some riding. However, I didn't get my hopes up since the weather hardly ever holds true.


As the weekend approached, it was clear to me that it was going to be nice. I was staying in Charlotte this weekend in order to get some HW done in preperation for the week to come. So I made sure I had every done that needed to be before Sunday.

It was Saturday night, and being the engineering nerd that I am, I was working on some homework, Basic Electrical, as a matter of fact. Josh came in from being with his new lady friend and we began planing on out our trip for Sunday. We knew it would be warm around here and it seemed as though the mtns. would be as well. So I began to look for some neat roads around that area, other than the Parkway.

My father had sent me a link at one point that was a website where riders would submit roads in every state that were nice or that were not. We'll as I began to look for roads on that site, I started out looking in Western South Carloina, just to see what I could find. After some reading I found where someone had posted about a Hwy 178 that runs from North Carolina to South Carolina. The description stated, lots of corners and switch backs. So I turned to Google Earth to see exactly where it was and what was available near it. It turns out that Hwy 178 was just south of Asheville, off of Hwy 64, which is quite a ride away, so I began to look for other roads around it to justify riding that far for a couple roads. Turns out, there is another road, Hwy 274, that runs almost parrallel to it on its eastern side, that looked like it would have something to offer.


Josh was reluctant at first, just for the simple fact that we would have to ride so far on the highway to get there. But after looking at our options we decided to just go for it and head out early in the morning, which was going to be a brisk ride to say the least. So we strapped on my new Nelson Riggs tail bag, or as Dad and I call it, "The Trunk" because we knew that it would be cold starting off, but would be quite nice as the day went on and we would need some where to put the layers as we came out of them from the morning ride.


9:00 a.m.: The weather channel says it feels like 39 degrees out, and we are on the road heading to Asheville. Google Earth said the fastest way to go was to take Hwy 85S into South Carolina, then take Hwy 26N back into North Carolina towards Hindersonville. Josh and I didn't see the need in going that far south just go back north, espicially when Hwy 74 connected the two, before entering South Carolina and it seemed like a perfectly fine road to us. So thats what we did. 85 south to Gastonia, 74 east to catch 26 north into Hindersonville.


Highways are boring! 85 had moderate traffic, but since it was before noon, and most of North Carolina was still in Church, no one was on the roads. Once we got on 74 we realized quickly that this was not a very populated area seeing that we only passed 3 cars while on it! So Josh and I found ways to amuse ourselfs while going straight for far too long. The markers on the road became pylons for which would avoid. Of course while cruising at highway speeds there is no way to go around each one, so we just aimed for every 3rd or 4th. Then came the going past each other while making in-appropriate jestures and just trying to have a good time. Boys will be boys, right?


We made a quick stop on the side of an off ramp to check the map and see how far it was till we reached 26, fortunitly we weren't far off and continued on our way after watering the country side.


20 minutes later we found ourselfs on Hwy 26 heading into Hindersonville and a few miles later we were off on 64 which would take us to Hwy 178. We made a quick stop at McDonalds (being sponsered my Momma's College Fund, had to eat cheap) and while we were in civilization we went ahead and topped off the tanks.


I was under the impression that Hwy 178 was just down the road. Well, like most things, I was wrong, it was a little ways down 64. I was also under the impression that there would be a large sign for Hwy 178 saying turn left here. I was wrong there, too. Turns out that the town that 178 starts in, Rosman, in is much like Denton, There is one little sign on the side of the road that tells you turn, right here. Sure enough though, we found the road and started down it, behind a pick up... So we found the first wide spot available and pulled off to let traffic go and to get our heads in the right place before heading down this road. At this point you would think that I would be focusing and trying think about turning, which we haven't done since we left the appartment. However there was snow on the ground in the shaded areas and I was like a kid in a candy store. The snow was hard due to the ice on top of it, that didn't phase me any since that is all we get back home anyway. I began making snow balls and throwing them at Josh. He was lucky in that my throwing arm is not what I thought it was. I was lucky to get them 15 feet from where I was standing.


A group of riders weny by at one point, so we knew were in the right area, and after they get down the road a bit, we decided to take off after them. The road started out slow, several straight aways, and a few nice sweepers, but then it became another animal as the advisery signs began to show up. It was a nice smooth road and it had many sharp corners that had some elevation changes to them as well. After about a mile or so of some nice corners we crossed the state line to find out that we haven't seen anything yet. Once in South Carolina the hairpins and decreasing radius corners showed themselves. However at the best part of the road, 8 switch backs in a row, we were stuck behind another pick up truck (not the one we started out behind).

We managed to get around him and continued our way down another mile or so through some interesting corners before we stopped to turn around and do it again. Going up the mtn. is much easier than coming down it. For some reason, I guess because it is easier for a novice like me to maintain throttle going up hill than going down. The hairpins were amazing, it was nice to find myself getting lower than I had before on the bike and Josh was staying right there with me. He has improved alot since this summer. On our last couple outings he would normally stay a corner behind me or so, but not this time, he was right there with me all the way up. We continued at a comfortable pase till we got to the state line where we pulled off the road, it is the turn around spot for the guys who make laps on it. We talked for a minute laughing about how much fun it was and such when a couple other riders came up for a break as well. We talked for a bit, small talk mostly and then headed back down the mtn. looking for Hwy 11 to connect us over to Hwy 274. When we got to the intersection there was a large gas station to our left which was apparently the hang out. There had to been 30 bikes sitting off to the side of it. Bikes were coming in and out all the time. We stopped again to top off the tanks and rest a minute or two as well as to snag a few pictures with Josh's camera. We also took off several layers at this point since the temps had come up to above 60. I packed up the clothes and pulled out the map again to see about how far it was to 274 and we headed out.

A short 10 minute ride down Hwy 11 and we were on 274 headed back up the mtn. Once again, the road started out slow, but it quickly changed. The road surface was not as good as 178, but it was still good enough to push the corners. The corners were mostly hairpin type, but they had much more elevation than 178. We got behind a couple cars on the way up, however this road has points where it turns into two lanes to allow faster traffic to get around slower traffic. These would occur before and during the hairpin areas, which was nice. It allowed you to swing a little wide to apex the corner where you wished. We took advantage of these lanes a couple times as we had to get around a couple cars. These lanes where short lived, however, the cars knew we were behind them so they pulled off a bit as well and stopped. We attempted to wave, however the corner that was following this was extreamly tight and it was these corners that I was on the verge of dragging the foot pegs. At the top of the mtn. there is a senic over look with a little walking area. Josh and I stopped to check things out and this is what we found.

It looked as though some rain was heading in, but we decided to go back down the mtn and up again just for the simple fact that we aren't on roads like this everyday. We eased our way back down since both of us prefer making time coming up the mtn. I decided to check the milage on the way down to see how long this road was. About 2 miles down we had caught up to a pick up, he pulled over at the first wide spot we came to and waved us on. I was impressed with this since we weren't being agressive, I waved back and we headed on down. We turned around at a intersection, 8 miles from the over look. That was 8 miles of nothing but tight corners and hairpins! We started back up again, and at this point I started getting into a nice groove, things were starting to "click." I began downshifting faster and smooter when entering corners, my stance was more agressive and I found myself getting much lower and holding more speed through the corners. After a few miles we came up to one of those slow lane areas in one of the back to back hairpins. I went towards the yellow line in my lane and kicked the shifter into second gear, the tach shot to 9000rpm as I applied a little front brake to apex in the lower part of the corner which put me back on the white line in the short straight before the hard left. I accelerated through the corner and up the hill through the straight. I got a handfull of front and fed the rear brake to lean the bike back hard to left to make the 100+ degree left hander. Josh said that at that point my left foot peg was just shy of dragging, however he didn't seem to see much of me after that. I found myself in the zone, the zone that I loved to find myself in when riding the ol' KX in the woods. From there I checked out from Josh and continued the next few miles up the mtn. entering corners harder than I have before and keeping the bike low. Things were flowing, my shifts were smooth and my throttle controll was amazing if I do say so myself. I forgot how good it felt to be in that zone. Once I got to the top I relaxed, came out of my zone and slowed down to let Josh catch up, which didn't take too long. I realized afterwards that this zone is not the best thing to get in on the street, but given the fact that there was little to no traffic and intersections were not to be found on this stretch of road, other than the track, this was one of the better places to find it.


We continued past the overlook and back in to NC. We stopped to talk about the last run up the mtn and discussed our path home, which was the way we came in. We got off of 274 and back on to 64 and we reached the area before 26S where stopped to get gas for the last time. As we were fueling the rain began to fall. My parents have cursed Josh and I. Everytime they go riding they seem to get wet, well, they passed it on. We put some of our layers back on and since it was starting to get dark at this point, and Josh switched over to his clear shield. Since I only have a tinted one and it is much harder to change the shields on a HJC than a Scorpion, I just put on my Lab Saftey Glasses so I could run my shield up in the dark and we headed out. It was apparent that we were on the edge of the storm since it would come and go as we the highway would turn. At this point we picked up the pace a bit more to get ahead of it, since the last thing I wanted to do was to be on 85 in the dark and in the rain.


It worked. We managed to get away from the rain on 74 and on 85 it never even put a drop down. But 85 was weird enough. There was a bit more traffic out than in there was in the morning and people were really moving. We kept on rolling and were watching everyone around us at all times. My visor would slam shut from time to time due to the wind, which never failed to scare me everytime it did. It seemed like it took forever, but we managed to get back to the appartment, no fun and games on the return trip however. We went roughly 2 hours with out a break and my left hand went numb at some point, but we made it. I was glad to be off the bike, as was Josh.


The trip was fun, 371 miles in total. It was well worth the highway time to run those two roads and we were glad we did it. Josh and I are looking forward to getting back that way again.

May this spring weather start showing up more often.

First Outing of 2008!

One of the benefits of living in the south is that the winters are normally pretty mild. The beginning of the week, Jan 7 & 8, had temperatures in the lower 70's with sunny skies. Perfect riding weather. So my buddy Josh and I took full advantage of it. Unfortunately we were not able to go out on Monday because we needed to get some things done around the apt. here in Charlotte to get things ready for classes starting on the 9th.

Tuesday morning I met up at Josh's house around 9:30 to head out for the day. The weather looked like it would be warmer the further south east we went. So we decided we would spend the day back roading off Hwy 220. Josh had already found a road or two heading down Hwy 64 that would get us to Hwy 220. Old Lexington Rd. runs along side of Hwy 64 and makes for a fun way to bypass the slow traffic on such a long straight road.

The morning started out with heavy fog that was extremely wet, which made the roads slick and made it feel like you were getting rained on as well. The fog as so thick at certain areas you could hardly see the road in front of you. Unfortunately when we got to Old Lexington Rd. the fog had yet to left fully and the roads were still wet so we were not able to push it into the corners like we wished. That and following a 1970's model trash truck, blowing out more smoke than freight train and running 20 mph didn't help the situation either. The road did have some promising corners and we decided that we would work the trip out to hit the road on the way back when the sun came out and dried it up.

Old Lexington Rd. ends up dumping out onto Hwy 220 just outside of Asheboro so we jumped on it heading south towards Troy, NC looking for a few nice back roads to play on. A few miles down 220, the sun poked out of the clouds and it was amazing to see how fast the fog lifted off the roads and the temperature rise. The highway riding also let me get some more use out of my frame sliders by playing the role as a set highway pegs as well. A few more miles down Hwy 220 and we pulled off heading towards Pisgah, NC. I was familiar with this area and the old covered bridge that they have set up off the road and I remembered that there were some nice roads back there as well, so we headed that way.

The Pisgah Covered bridge has turned into a park type deal, with picnic tables and a walking trail that winds through the woods around the area. Nice place to stop and have a break or lunch when it nice out. They have put posts up so that you cannot drive a car up on there, but they aren't close enough to stop a bike from getting up there...

After getting some pictures we decided to head back after it and started to explore the backwoods of Montgomery County... If any of you are familiar with the "Two Guy's Named Chris Morning Show" on Rock 92, you will understand why this can be a bit frightening... and no we didn't find the "Pump and Munch."

With a little luck we ended up finding some nice roads here and there, with a few curves that offered some fun. After messing around for a bit we ended finding a road that led to "Jumping Off Rock" trail head. So we turned off to go towards it and see what that was all about. Well it turns out that the road it was on was a "Scenic Byway." The road was very nice and had a few curves here and there but lots of nice scenery including some nice houses up on hills and nice over looks. After coming to the end of it we found ourselves on Lovejoy Rd, which I had seen something on the Internet about. The road was nice with more nice scenery and ended up putting us into the heart of Troy, NC. As we entered Troy, we couldn't help but notice that everyone was staring at us. Now it didn't help that the main drag of Troy was rather narrow, and Josh's exhaust is rated at like 104 db...however we ended up catching a side road to Candor to top off the tanks and our stomachs.

A little while later we found ourselves riding on and around Hwy 705 and ended up in Seagrove, which turns out to be a major pottery area. I was amazed at all the locally owned pottery stores that lined the side of the road all the way through Seagrove. As the pottery stores began the thin out we found ourselves up by 220 again and decided to see how far north we could head before getting on the highway. Surprisingly enough we did a pretty good job and took back roads to just outside of Asheboro. We stopped and thought for a minute and decided to get back on the highway so we could get on Old Lexington again.

When we got there the roads were dry and the traffic was light. Which made it much more fun this time around. I could easily see people, who are brave enough, drag a knee or two around a few of the corners easily. When we got the end we stopped and talked about how much fun it was, basically avoiding the fact that we were about to get on Hwy 64 again. Then I noticed another road jutting off the side of Old Lexington. I turned to Josh and said, "You even been on that road?" He hadn't so we took off down in with hopes that we could find a back way home with out getting on 64.

As we worked our way down some more surprisingly clean roads we ended up and a stop sign with a road sign ahead of us that said Hwy 64 and Asheboro that pointed the right. Some how we got turned around because I figured Asheboro would be to my left. So after pondering our next move we figured we would go left anyway just to see what it was then turn around and come back if didn't go anywhere. That was the best decision we made all day and before we knew it we were flying into some pretty tight corners and one incredibly long sweeper. I noticed at one point that Josh's left foot was less than an inch off the ground! It took him almost 8000 miles but he is finally getting the hang of this cornering thing, lol. Unfortunately the road didn't go were we hoped so we turned around and headed back the way we came. The road ended up putting us out on Old Lexington Rd. (which was a total surprise) so we got to enjoy it one more time before heading home. When we got back to Josh's house that afternoon we had rolled 200 miles. Not a bad way to spend the last day of winter break if I do say so myself.