Jul 20, 2005

national ride to work day

today is national ride to work day... the goals of the effort are:

  1. The number of motorcyclists to the general public and politicians

  2. That motorcyclists are from all occupations and walks of life

  3. That motorcyclists can reduce traffic and parking congestion in large cities

  4. That motorcycles are for transportation as well as recreation

  5. That motorcycling is a social good

my problem is i work from home!!! kind of hard for me to ride my motorcylce to work... plus my wife, as wonderful as she is, wouldn't appreciate me riding the bike in the house...

so i decided to ride to lunch today. had lunch in durham with a some guys i used to work with... it was a nice ride, a little warm but still better than being in a cage... didn't see many bikes on the road - maybe everyone was at work!!!

Jul 12, 2005

sometimes you never know where you're going to end up...

got an e-mail friday night talking about a ride on sunday to the easyriders rodeo event in wilson, nc. thought about it and decided to go...

so we're supposed to leave from o'malley's at 12:30 on sunday... as usual, i get there a little early. a couple bikes were parked in the lot and there were three people standing outside. after confirming they were riding to the easyrider rodeo, i introduced myself to moose, harry and dana. since it was hot outside, it didn't take long for us to move inside o'malley's. soon, others start arriving for the ride - still no one i know... a guy by the name of mark sits next to me and we start talking. we talk about bikes, riding and family. it's nice to talk to other people about their bikes. you get ideas about what changes you might want to make to your bike... or maybe, more importantly, what you don't want to do to your bike!!!

soon enough, it's time to leave. we walk out of the bar and head for our bikes. outside i see jim, susan and ken - people i have ridden with before. i also see a group of about sixteen to eighteen riders - this will be one of the bigger rides i've been on, outside of charity events like toys-for-tots. i walk over to say hi to jim and susan. jim introduces me to dave. we all strap on our helmets, jump on our bikes and head out...

we don't take the most direct route to wilson - we take scenic back roads. as i'm riding, i usually try to remember which roads we're on, just in case i need to get back by myself. about 30-45 minutes into the ride, i have no idea where we are... i do see some familiar roads, 70, 39, 96, 42. it doesn't matter, it's a great day for a ride. okay, maybe a little warm, but i'll take it. now we start making more turns - we must be getting close... yeah, i think that until we pull into the empty parking lot of a church. the leader admits it's been a little while since he's been out this way and made a wrong turn. one of the other guys chimes up - he knows how to get there... cool, he'll lead...

we get started and about five minutes later, we pull over. where are we?? i'm not sure, but there's this crazy windmill stuff around... a couple of the guys hop off their bikes and go talk to this older guy, vollis simpson, who turns out to be the owner/artist. he opens up his field and lets us in, tells us to stay as long as we want. what is this place?? he's created all these windmills and whirligigs. and apparently he's famous in his genre. it was amazing to see all this stuff in the middle of no where...

this is a little bit of what we saw:




real neat stuff - you can find more here: from windmills to whirligigs

after spending some time here, we decide to head out... as we leave, i'm five from the back - four people behind me - i think... i look back and there are two bikes, a car and at least one bike behind the car... now i'm not sure where i was in the order. soon, i can't see the bike behind the car, but we're on twisty roads and there's space between us... a little bit later, there's only one bike behind me - and the car has turned off... i start slowing down, hoping the rest of the riders behind me will catch up. a little bit later, the rider behind me, moose, passes me - leaving me at the back... that's fine. but i'm in a dilemma - should i keep up with the pack or should i slow down to let the rest of the riders catch up?? if they catch up?? well, we turn onto another road and moose pulls over to the side. i pull over with him. we talk about what's been happening. moose says the road king disappeared first. then the big dog turned around. then the vrod turned around. i knew jim was on the big dog and susan was on the vrod - didn't know who was on the road king. we wait about five minutes. moose says he's given them enough time to group together and he's heading on. i ask him for directions to the place we're heading, telling him i'm going back to make sure everyone is okay.

now, can i remember the roads we were on?? thankfully most of it was one road, but we did have to make a turn - would i be able to find it?? would i be able to find the other riders?? it's amazing how much slower time goes when you're thinking of things like this... after some time, we pass each other - the three of them are on the road and going in the other direction. we wave, but did they know it was me?? will they slow down and give me a chance to catch up?? i turn around and do my darnedest to catch up. i'm making progress, but i won't feel better until i catch them... luckily they were within eyeshot when they turned off. it was obvious that they were on their way back home instead of trying to meet up with everyone else. i follow them, eventually catching up.

we pull over at some small country gas station/country store to get some beverages. i learn that it was dave who was having problems with his bike. his air cleaner had come loose and fell off. as if it wasn't bad enough for dave to see his air cleaner bouncing down the road, some local had to run it over. apparently they were able to find one of the bolts and were able to remount it with susan's tool kit. but now when dave road, he had to hold the air cleaner with his leg - not the most comfortable riding... dave was thankful we came back for him...

so, it was quite a day... we didn't end up where i thought we were going - although i think where we did end up was better. i would have never known vollis and his windmills were out here if the ride had gone as planned. i also learned the value in watching for the rider behind you and going back to help. i didn't really do anything to help dave - he was already on the road when i caught up to them. i just hope that if i am ever in that situation, someone does the same for me...

so - that was my day... great ride, great day... and, as always, thanks to my beautiful wife for allowing me to be selfish, shirk my responsibilities and go out riding. boo, you're the best and i'm the luckiest...

Jul 3, 2005

it's the little things in life...

i was very honored to be able to take my father-in-law out for a ride today...

some history first... as far as i know, my father-in-law has been riding bikes forever. a couple years ago he was pushed off the road by a truck and wrecked his bike - he was fine, thankfully. the bike is in pieces in his shed and he hasn't ridden since the wreck. i know he's had offers to ride other people's bike, but he just won't - and i don't know that i blame him. every time i see him, i offer for him to take my bike out for a spin...

so today i asked him if he wanted me to take him out for a ride... he lit up like a christmas tree and couldn't get in the house fast enough to get his helmet... so off we went - tooled over to his friends house and spent a couple minutes there. we were getting ready to leave and he comes over to me and requests a favor with that please, please, please look in his eyes. sure, what do you need?? he asks if we can take the long way home. hell yeah!!! anything for a longer ride.

anyway, what an honor it was to ride around with my father-in-law... he's a man i respect and look up to (most of the time). and i got to take him for a ride around town -0 how cool is that??

here we are as we're heading out...


i think it's motivated him to either fix up his bike or buy a new one. or both... i did tell him next time i want him riding next to me, not behind me!!!

Jul 1, 2005

'bout time

guess it's better late than never... i've decided to start using this forum to document my travels and observations on my bike... i'm a new rider - i've had my bike for a year now... i haven't put as many miles on my bike as i would like - although i do have to admit that my wife has been very generous in letting me slack on my family/household duties to go riding!!! (thanks, boo, you're the best!!!)

so, stay tuned and we'll see where this goes...