smoke out vii rally...

what a weekend!!! here's a not so quick recap of the weekend including some pictures.

it started out friday with the crew finally arriving. i was expecting them around 5:00pm, including the scheduled stops they had to make. around 1600, the skies opened up for about an hour and dumped so much water. i was afraid they were caught in it. by bro called at 1700 saying they were about an hour away - and hadn't run into any rain. cool!!! at that point, i was expecting them at 1800. but they didn't show up until 1900. little did i realize when my bro called, they had just stopped for gas and beverages. not only that, they did in fact run into rain the last part of the trip, slowing them down slightly. anyway, it was good sight to have them show up...

we managed to cram all eight bikes, plus mine, into my garage, as evidenced below. although we didn't need to, we could have probably gotten one more in if they would have parked a little closer together...




after they unpacked, changed out of their wet clothes, it was time to dig into the bbq and beer, sit back, relax and give each other a hard time. good food, good friends, good times...



my neighbor, stanley, - the one who's planning on traveling out to sturgis with us - finally got a chance to meet the "gang." this would be the determining factor whether he would actually go on the trip with them or with his own riders. as most guys do - they'll start to give each other crap about whatever... but frank's comments usually go over the top - he usually goes for shock value. not to worry, stanley fit in with the guys. we all laughed, joked and feed each other crap...

the next morning arrived and it was time to head to the smoke out in salisbury. we weren't sure about the weather - they were calling for thunderstorms throughout the day... but that doesn't stop us!! as usual, this crowd will sit around, talking, drinking, and kibitzing all morning long. but you better be ready to leave in thirty seconds. once someone gives the word, these guys jump on their bikes and are out of there quick... finally at 1100 the word goes out and we're outta here. sometimes i wish i could be a bystander and hear the racket that goes on as we leave - i'm sure there was one. but, i wouldn't trade that for actually being on the ride...

in all, we had eleven bikes. and i got to lead them all as i was most familiar with where we were heading... it was a good experience leading a group that large. i don't mind doing it as long as i know each of the riders in the group. i wouldn't want to lead a large group like that if i didn't know everyone - too much to worry about. so we headed off on some back roads until we got to interstate 85. it was a nice ride through the two lane twisty roads. it wasn't necessarily a cool morning, but it was cooler than expected. then we hit interstate 85. interstates aren't the fun to drive along and the only real reason i like to take them is if i have to get somewhere quickly. this was obviously a reason to take the interstate this time.

other than a couple of bozo cage drivers, the ride on 85 was okay. twice, a cage almost wiped out a couple of us. you would think with a group this large, it would be hard to miss us. but i guess some cagers have their heads so far up their asses they don't notice anything. a couple times we'd come up on a slower driving cage. as usual, we'd pull into the left lane to pass. then the cage would speed up, not letting us pass. we could have been asses ourselves and just throttled past them, but no, we'll just putt along at our speed. this happened a couple times and made me start wondering why... why do people do that?? they're content to go slow until someone tries to pass them. oh well - i wasn't going to let it get under my skin and ruin a perfectly good day...

so we get to salisbury and make the requisite beer and gas stop before heading into the smoke out. everyone loads as much beer and ice into their saddle bags as they can fit. we also pick up a few snacks and consume a beverage or two at the gas station. once we're satisfied, we head into the smoke out.

now the smoke out is what i like to think of as a grass roots rally. you won't see many high dollar choppers that you're used to seeing on tv - unless of course builders like kendall johnson, billy lane and paul cox bring theirs along. which they did. no, at this rally, you'll see a lot of true choppers - the kind that have been built in garages, from left over parts of other bikes. and that's what i like to see. although some of the bikes looked like they might not run at all.

the smoke out is also about buying and swapping parts - lots of used parts. enough parts that you could build a whole new bike using parts from all the different vendors.

and of course the smoke out is about see all the scantily clad hotties walking around. and watching all the redneck guys, who act like this is their first time out, shouting for the women to get naked on the mechanical bull.

the day was spent walking around the rally looking at bikes, parts, people, bands, whatever there was to see. we lucked out with the rain, as it didn't. it was hot, though. just stepping into the shade seemed to drop the temp ten degrees. every once in a while, a breeze would blow by.

during the smoke out, some dood was riding his bike through a field and dumped it. i'm not exactly sure what he was doing, but apparently his bike flipped end over end a few times. he spent some time in the ambulance - luckily he got out of there with only a bandaged arm. his bike wasn't so lucky. i saw him riding around later (unfortunately i didn't get a picture). he looked okay but his bike was torn up. from fairing was missing the headlight and scraped up on one half. both saddlebags were torn up. he'll probably be hating life when he sobers up.

so we walked, and walked, and walked around for hours. didn't sit as much as i wanted. it seemed every time i got back to the bikes, someone would come by and offer to walk another loop around the rally. of course, fearing i might miss something, i couldn't just sit there...

about 2300 we all had enough and decided it was time to head to the hotel. we get our gear on, get everyone gathered and head out. the hotel we stayed at was about 20 miles from the rally. on the way there, we have to pull over for clarifications on the directions. wayne and frank are looking over the directions trying figure out where they are. i head over to offer some assistance. the confusing part was we have to get on interstate 85 business. which we were on, until we pulled over to clarify the directions. it was confusing because the directions, as most mapping services will do, adds another line item each time the road changes - even though you may actually still be on the same road. our directions had interstate 85 bp, bl and br. in reality, these are the same road. they were confused over this. i told them it was all part of the same road - we just need to stay on 85 bypass until nc8. off we head...

we go riding along... however, to stay on 85 bypass, we actually had to take an exit. i wasn't sure if frank knew this or not - he was just looking for nc8. it wasn't actually an exit, it was more of a split. as we get closer and closer, i'm not sure frank realizes he needs to exit. i'm about fifth in line. i break out of the line on the right and race to the front. i'm trying to motion to frank to follow me. as i'm doing this, i'm starting to take the split. i'm looking in my mirrors and some of the bikes are following, but frank it heading straight on the other road. bummer...

here we are - separated and not really knowing where we're going... and now i'm leading... i stayed on 85 bypass until we got to nc8. once we pulled off there, i didn't know the rest of the directions, so we pulled over. this was also a good time to figure out if we lost anyone else. we did - jamie decided to follow frank. jamie, when will you learn?? we decided to head on to the hotel and frank and jamie could catch up to us there. unfortunately, getting to the hotel wouldn't be that easy - the directions were crap. we ended up calling the hotel and getting good directions. we finally made it to the hotel. while we were checking in, frank and jamie called the hotel and were getting directions. they weren't too far away.

by the time we pulled our bikes around the back of the hotel, frank and jamie were pulling up. of course, getting split up and lost became a lot funnier when we were all back at the hotel.

the next morning it was time to head back home. the skies looked a little overcast and they were calling for thunderstorms. would we be as lucky as the day before, or would the skies finally open up on us?? stanley, donnie and i decided to take a different route home - rt64. which would be a nicer, non-interstate ride for us. they rest of the crew too the interstate.

the ride home was awesome. we did manage to get a few sprinkles, but not enough to make us pull over and don our rain suits. we were in and out of sunny and cloudy skies about half the ride. then the skies cleared up and we had sun - making for a great ride. we got home about 1100. luckily, because about an hour later, the skies opened up and it rained the rest of the day. unfortunately for my brother, they hit rain most of the way back. and what would have normally been a six hour trip took them nearly ten hours. but, they made it safely home.

the smoke out was fun - as usual. but it didn't seem as good as last year. didn't seem like as many people, and the vendors seemed to pack up a little early. but it was still a good time. riding with my brother and friends - how can you not have a good time??

here are some pics of the rally.

again - a special thanks to my wonderful wife. she does the majority of the work in getting the house cleaned, all the food together and making sure everyone is comfortable when they're here. not only that, once we all leave for the rally, she gets stuck with the mess to clean - including all the wet towels. thanks boo... you're the greatest...

the day has arrived...

today is the day the bikers show up - my bro and his crew... usual tradition is they ride down here on friday. eat, drink, tell stories, curse and sleep. tomorrow we head to the smoke out.

lots of preparations going on around here. we usually smoke out a pork butt (or as my wife likes to say, a pig's butt) for some tasty bbq. right now, my wonderful wife is preparing the potato salad, deviled eggs, cole slaw and all the other side dishes. she's so amazing with everything she does to make everyone feel welcome.

we had a dilemma earlier with the number of people staying with us, but we have that resolved now. we originally thought between sixteen and eighteen people we staying - a bit more than we could handle. my wife and i agree we could handle ten. so i passed that along to my bro. he calls a couple days later and asks if we might be able to handle twelve to fourteen - no pressure, no problems if we can't. wife and i talk and agree that we could do it if everyone brought their own towels for showers and sleeping bags. the final number seemed to be twelve. although from the e-mails i seen going around, it might be a more like ten. i guess we'll finally know when they arrive!!

well, i better go get the smoker set up and ready so i can start the bbq. should be a fun weekend.

finally, for my wife... if you ever read this, thank you very much for everything you do to make this a great weekend. (well, not just this weekend, but for everything you always do.) i know there's a lot of work involved in getting stuff ready for friday and we leave you quite a mess on saturday when we take off. you take care of everything with no complaints - okay, maybe a little. ;-) thanks - you are the love of my life - a dream to me...

inspection...

took the bike in for its inspection this morning. got there early enough so they were able to get me in quickly. i figured it would be quick, so i didn't bother to walk around the dealership - just decided to stay in the service area and read a couple motorcycle rags...

while i was there, so dood was having his bike serviced. not sure exactly what he was having done, but he wasn't real pleased. mentioned something about his previous service experiences - tire put on backwards, steering bearings tightened too tightly, wasn't sure spark plugs were changed during the last service. i think he was in there just having his bike checked out as he mentioned he was leaving tomorrow for a 7k trip.

after getting his bike checked in, he came over and we started talking. he's heading to california with his cousin - a trip/dream they had talked about as kids. pretty cool to live out a dream like that. then he tells me that within four days of buying his bike he "killed" it. apparently he dumped his bike. jokingly he says, "who knew it took more than four days to learn to ride a bike?" in the back of my mind i'm thinking we teach people to ride a bike in a weekend - with really only two days on the bike. but of course that's just an introduction - there's still a lot of practice that needs to happen. anyway, i responded to him that i don't think you ever stop learning to ride a bike. to which the service dood agreed.

so the dood tells me about how he "killed" his bike on the fourth day. after not being able to handle a turn in the road, he tells me he was run over and dragged by a car. he wasn't injured. i told him he was very lucky. they he proceeds to tell me about other near misses he's had. i'm thinking to myself that i wouldn't want to ride with him. seems to attract trouble and, worse yet, seems proud of it. changes are low that i'll see him again. and even lower that we'll ride together.

oh, while we're waiting for our bikes to be serviced, they're running bikes in and out of the service area, as they usually do. i can't figure it out, sometimes they wheel the bikes in and out and other times they fire 'em up and ride them. anyway, they fire up and ride this road king out... i say, "man, that's one nice lookin' road king." accident dood agrees. then i laugh and tell him it's mine!!! he chuckled. although i'm wondering if he wanted to check it out some more. when i was getting my gear on, he came out to take a look at it. admired the color...

besides all that, the ride was nice. wasn't as hot as i expected, but that's probably because it was still early. it'll be hotter later today. and traffic was good - i was expecting worse. but maybe it was light because schools out for summer. whatever the reason, the ride was good this morning...

all for now... ride safe...

it's true...

...my bike needs an inspection this month... guess i'll be taking it down to the dealership for the inspection tomorrow morning. gives me a good reason to go for a ride and start work a little later than normal. they said it will take about an hour - which will give me time to walk around the dealership and see if there's anything to spend money on. the fortunate part is that there really isn't anything i want right now. or at least nothing that i want that isn't expensive. so i probably won't be spending any money except the cost of the inspection...

to clean or not??

it's been a while since i've really cleaned my bike - not that you really care... although i do like a clean bike, i wouldn't say i'm fanatical about keeping it clean. i may have mentioned this before, but if i had to choose between cleaning my bike and missing a ride or riding a dirty bike, i'll take the ride any day...

i'd like to clean my bike... mostly for two reasons - one, it hasn't been cleaned in a while. two, i want to strip it down - right now it's loaded up with the tour-pak and passenger seat. i want to take those off and ride it as a solo rider this weekend. which i another reason not to worry about washing the bike right now - the ride to the smoke out this weekend. i'll most likely end up cleaning it next week/weekend anyway.

maybe i'll just give it a quick once over, removing the bugs and other splatter. i won't worry about a deep cleaning until after the ride this weekend. or until the next ride comes along and i decide not to clean it...

speaking of cleaning... i think my inspection is due this month. i better check that out...

peace...

one more...

okay, after searching the new york dmv site, i finally found the other commercial that i mentioned in my previous post... there are only two commercials, a 15 second spot and a 30 second spot... i thought they might be different, but they're not - ones just a shorter version of the other...

enjoy...

not to beat a dead horse...

...and continue on the safety bandwagon, but i'm going to... planning a ride to the smoke out this weekend which i talked about earlier, so maybe after this post, the content will get more exciting!!!

according to a new york dmv press release, they are stepping up their public safety campaign to make motorist more aware of motorcyclists... a friend e-mailed me a link to one of the commercials that's supposed to be airing... startling at first, but i think it gets the message across.

i searched around their web site looking for other commercials but have been unsuccessful so far. i'll keep looking and if/when i find them, i'll post them...

until then, ride safe...

ben and helmet use...

from the latest news it looks like ben is going to make a quick, and hopefully full, recovery. it sounds like it will be a couple weeks before they really know if there will be any long term effects.

i wonder if ben will start wearing a helmet... regarding helmet use, there was a report on the kdka web site about helmet use, or as they put it, "expert opinions vary whether a helmet would have helped ben." the "expert," dr. guy catone, says that the helmet could have changed the mechanical forces in the accident, possibly making it worse. at face value, this is true, it could have made it worse. but there are a lot of other factors, that if thrown into the situation, could have possibly made it worse - weather conditions (what if it was raining), road conditions (what if there was a lot of gravel), speed (what if he was going a lot faster), etc. we could go on forever listing the different possible factors that could have changed the effects of the accident. how about this one?? what if the lady driving the car would have checked for oncoming traffic and waited to make the left hand turn in front of the motorcycle??

but i digress - back to the use of helmets... it's a fact that helmet use does help protect the rider in cases of accidents. sure, there are probably instances where it does attribute to additional injury. but the protection provided by a helmet outweighs the additional risk of injury or wearing the helmet and far exceeds not using a helmet at all.

with that said, it should also be noted that helmet use alone is not enough to prevent injury or save a rider's life. riders should employ a strategy of defensive riding techniques to prevent getting in an accident in the first place...

i guess that's enough about that (for now). i'll get off my soapbox...

ride safe...

serious, but stable condision...

that's the latest on ben roethlisberger, quarterback for the pittsburgh steelers.

ben was in a motorcycle accident this morning that apparently left him in fairly bad shape. it's still early after the accident, so a lot of the details are still being figured out. according to the police report it seems ben was a victim of the dreaded left turn in front of the motorcycle. unfortunately, it also seems ben was not wearing a helmet!!!

best wishes, thoughts and prayers to ben for a speedy and full recovery...

smiles...

one of the biggest enjoyments i get out of riding is seeing kids... the awe in their eyes as you ride by or the smiles on their faces as you wave back to them. it's funny when their parents are trying to nonchalantly get them to look away from the biker and you keep smiling and waving back at the kids.

whenever i get a chance, i smile, wave back or talk to the kids. last night, i had parked in a spot and was putting my helmet and gloves in my tour-pak when a car pulled up in the spot next to me. the dad was driving and mom and little boy were in the back seat. the boy must have been about two - i should know these things because i have a toddler, but i am absolutely terrible at telling ages. so we'll just agree he was in the two year old range. from the time he saw the bike, the little kid couldn't take his eyes off the bike. dad gets out and i give a friendly, hi, how are you, greeting. he says something back. after mom and dad get kid out of the car, the come walking by the bike so kid can get a closer look. about this time i'm starting to walk away. i can see the kid's excitement as he's looking at the bike. so i ask dad if he thinks kid would like to touch the bike. i had thought about offering to sit on the bike, but with the hot pipes and lawsuit happy people in this world, i figured it would be better not to offer the sit. so kid touches the bike and gets a huge smile on his face. then i ask him if he's going to own a bike on days - he shakes his head yes....

okay - so it might be goofy, but seeing the look on a kids face when you smile or wave at them is a really good feeling... and i guess i do it for myself as much as for them.

you know it's bad...

...when you're offering to do errands just to ride your bike...

haven't been riding much - guess i haven't really taken too much opportunity to ride. i could sit here and make up several excuses about why i haven’t ridden, but i won't. suffice it to say, i just haven't ridden.

so i found myself offering to run errands tonight - most likely a subconscious action to get me on the bike. i say this because not only did i run the errands, but i also went out of my way to get milk. i can justify it by saying i might have saved a couple pennies on the gallon. but let's face it, i just wanted to ride... and a good ride it was...

btw, for future note, i can probably get up to six or eight gallons of milk in my tour-pak... not that i'd need that much, but it can probably be done...

smoke out vii

planning has started for smoke out vii. looks like the weekend will shape up as it has in the past. the crew from northern virginia will ride down and spend friday night here. saturday we'll head out to salisbury for the smoke out and spend the day out there. sunday we'll return home...

looks like we're going to have quite a crowd spend the night here. my wife isn't real thrilled about it - i can't say that i am either. we're expecting about sixteen people. now if it was just the core group of bikers, it wouldn't be any problem. but there are a lot that are staying that i just don't know - and with a crowd that big, it concerns me some. as long as they don't get too rowdy, everything should be fine...

anyway, i'm looking forward to the smoke out. it's a nice ride out there and we had a lot of fun last year. while the smoke out has been growing over the last several years, it's still small enough to be a lot of fun. people show up to show off their custom choppers - not the high dollar bling-bling kind you're used to seeing on tv and magazine covers, but the kind you'd see build in someone’s garage or basement. real choppers by real people. speaking of high dollar choppers, a couple big bike builders are going to be there: kendall johnson, paul cox and keino, eric gorges, billy lane, warren lane and others.

finally, and definitely not least, the scantily clad females that parade around... or decide to get brave and ride the bull. it was quite entertaining last year and i'm sure this year will not different.

should be a lot of fun... you can count on details, and pictures, when i get back.

durham...

took a ride out to durham this morning to interview and fill out an application for a ridercoach position at durham technical community college. faced the usual stuff with riding to a new location - not sure of what the roads are going to be like, not sure how long it's going to take to get there, not sure if i need to allow extra time to get gas, etc. in trying to prepare, i printed off the directions that were e-mailed as well as plotted the route using google. the main problem i have with using these mapping services is the travel time seems to be off. if it says four hours, i can make it anywhere from three to three and a half hours. today's trip was projected to take an hour. with the roads i was going to be on, curvy two lane, i figured an hour would be the minimum i would want to allow. if i needed gas, add an additional fifteen minutes. and as it turned out, i did need gas. and i left about an hour and fifteen minutes before the meeting - so if timing worked out, i'd be there right on time.

the ride out was great. temps were in the high 60s when i left, so there was a nice breeze. sky was fairly clear. two lane, non-congested, rural roads. this is so much better that four lane, interstate riding. i could ride on roads like this all day long. if i was left to my own devices to plan a route, i don't think i would have planned this one. and this one was so much nicer - keeping me out of some of the seedier sections of durham. it was nice exploring new areas, learning about new roads i can take for future rides.

well, i made it to my destination about five minutes early. which didn't really matter since jim was about ten minutes late. apparently he was on his way to get gas for the class this weekend and forgot that we were supposed to meet this morning. no big deal, though. once he showed up, we talked through the application process, i gave him the necessary information and he copied what he needed to. we decided i'd follow him over to the main building so that he could show me the way as well as show me the bikes and the range. as we were riding over, we went through some of the rougher areas of durham. at one point, we came to a stop light and there were at least four police cars in a parking lot. i'm not sure what the officers were doing, but they were obviously investigating some sort of criminal activity. while i never felt directly threatened, i did think once or twice about a news headline that read something like motorcyclist killed by stray bullet. needless to say, thankfully, that didn't happen...

i checked out the bikes and the range. bikes looked like they were in pretty good shape and the range looked well maintained. apparently the brc program at the community college is really growing. they're in their third year - started the first year with only six classes. now they're up to twenty-eight and will probably have more next year. after chatting with jim a little longer, i headed over to the main building to get my application. pretty much routine. they gave me a packet that i need to fill out and return. i also filled out some other information so they can get my on the payroll sooner.

the ride home was good. after looking at the map in the parking lot, i picked a route that i thought was good. i wasn't exactly sure where i was or what the roads around there were like. i didn't necessarily want to take main roads, so i chose a slightly longer route that put me on two lane roads. it was a bit warmer than the morning ride, but i guess that's expected since it's already the beginning of june.