I ran across the EL DIABLO RUN on the internet. If you are a west coast rider check it out, it looks like a lot of fun and
From the website this is a throwback, old school, or whatever you want to call it, kind of ride. I am adding the El Diablo Run to my motorcycle riding bucket list. Baja is already on this list so maybe I can combine the two someday
Well, Paw Paw, West Virginia was not the intended destination, in fact, we just went out to ride.
We pulled out about ten in the morning (on the Ultra Limited) and head west on Route 7. I noticed the exit for Virginia State Route 9 and decided, what the heck let’s see where Route 9 goes. We knew it went north to Martinsburg, WV but that was about it.
Route 9 in Virginia is also known as Charles Town Pike and passes through rolling farmland and the towns of Paeonian Springs (which has a historic district) and Hillsboro. Hillsboro sets in the middle of a gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. A short climb out of Hillsboro and you have a great view of Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
RT 9 at WV/VA boarder
At this point VA Route 9 becomes WV Route 9 and also becomes a four line highway. While we did not take the road, by the looks of the area I can image that “old 9” down the mountain would be full of twistiness! Crossing the Shenandoah River we scooted through Charles Town and Martinsburg, we did not stop to look around, today was just about riding. A little after Martinsburg the road becomes a 2 lane again.
When we reached Berkeley Springs we did stop. Right in the middle of the town is the Berkeley Springs State Park. The town (its real name is Bath) was considered the country’s first spa and resort area because of the mineral spring producing 2,000 gallons a minute. George Washington even visited the springs. Heck the town even has a castle!
Continuing on Route 9, up the mountain out of Berkeley Springs we summited to a spectacular view of the Potomac River in the valley below. We decided to have lunch across the street from the fabulous view at Panorama at the Peak restaurant. This is a farm to table, organic, restaurant and the food was awesome!
Back on the bike we rode down the mountain and into the Cacapon River Valley. This stretch of road from Berkeley Springs to Paw Paw was very lightly traveled, I doubt that we passed a dozen cars. It undulates along the Cacapon River and was just a very nice ride!
Riding in the Cacapon River valley
We reached the end of WV 9 when we hit Paw Paw. It is a very small town at the intersection of WV 9 and 29 and was the point where we began our return trip. We did not retrace our route instead we zigged and zagged through a variety of roads until we reached Route 7 at Winchester, VA. After stopping at the Winchester Sonic restaurant for ice cream (I love there coconut milkshakes) we quickly made it back home.
We put in 198 miles on this trip with only a few stops….it was a great day with the wife and the bike!
Well the 2104 Harley Davidson bikes are out! Check out the on-line commercial for Project Rushmore. While I have only the commercial and their website to comment on, all I can say is…..some nice changes! Some quick notes:
Lighting – looks like some of the bikes come standard with LED or Dual Halogen.
Slipstream Vent – looks like the batwing fairings now come with a center mounted vent.
Infotainment System – voice activated music, phone and GPS with device dock in dash.
Brakes – the front and rear ABS brakes are linked.
Engine – “Twin-Cooled High Output Twin Cam 103 Engine”. Now based in the statement in the video … (the underlining is mine)
“A select number of the Project RUSHMORE motorcycles are built around the new Twin Cooled™ High Output Twin Cam 103™ engine. Twin cooling cools the heads around the exhaust ports to deliver at or near peak performance under all operating conditions and temperatures. Higher compression ratio increases efficiency and horsepower. There’s also a 110 cubic inch version of this engine available in the CVO™ Limited. We’ve been building engines for 110 years. And we know from the smiles on the faces of our test riders, there’s never been an engine that feels quite this good.”
This tied with my earlier post seems to indicate that we might have the 1st Harley touring bike with water cooled engines (maybe?)? This feature is limited to the Tri-Glides and the Ultra Limited.
Each of the features listed above is available on select bikes check the Harley Davidson Website for detail.
Well, the low beam burned out on our Electra Glide Limited a few days ago so it was time to attempt to swap it our ourselves (with a little help from our dog Emmy).
After a quick visit to Frederick Harley Davidson for a new bulb, I checked on-line for some tips to how to proceed, there were not many. I was really worried a bit that I would have to remove the fairing to replace the bulb, but it turned out that was not the case….you just need three hands (and a paw).
The first step was to remove the outer chrome bezel by removing one screw and a short clockwise twist. Removing that bezel revealed an inner one holding the light housing on with three screws, (note leave the top one for last(.
After the housing was pulled free, there is a wire spring that holds the bulb unit in the housing, the bulb is released by sliding the spring from its catch. The bulb itself is released by pressing in on the detents on each side of the plug.
Making sure my skin did not touch the new bulb’s glass (the oils from our skin will decrease the life of the bulb I am told) I traced back the disassembly to assemble the light again. I did use blue Loctiite to ensure that the screws would not vibrate loose. There was just one item that gave me a bit of concern and that was the wire spring on the inside of the outer bezel. I was not sure where the spring was to align and just took my best guess. I will keep a close eye on that part for the next few weeks to make sure it stays in place.
All in all it took the three of us about 30 minutes to swap out the bulb and get on the road again.
Life Behind The Wall published a really nice post on a ride with the ex-pat motorcycle club Dragon Riders!
Beyond the obvious good time she had on the ride, the item that struck me the most was “ Harley is illegal to ride in Hangzhou city but they didn’t seem worried at all about it as one by one all Bikes began to arrive. “
Tie that statement with the comment from my earlier post regarding how it is illegal to ride a Harley Davidson on the highways —- not quite right!
Ann Margret Triumph
Following up on the last post about a crash, how about more crashes!
Motorcycle.com recently published a top 10 list of “Celebrity Motorcycle Accidents”. While these are all US based they are interesting to read.
Who knew that Ann Margret and Lauren Hutton even rode motorcycles!
Casual Dresser
Yamaha’s XV1900A CFD (Casual Full Dresser) motorcycle looks, to me, to be a head on assault on Harley’s Street Glide. It looks a lot like a Street Glide, and is designed to a cruiser that can take on long distance rides as well. It has a 1900cc air cooled V-twin engine which is a bit bigger than the Street Glide. You can find more about the bike here. I personally like the look! But I want to know if the Formal Full Dresser comes with a bowtie and tails?!
In other Yamaha News….. BOLT Recall
Yamaha is recalling certain model year 2014 XVS950CU (Bolt) motorcycles manufactured March 2013 through June 2013. Slack or sag in the wiring harness may allow it to contact the exhaust manifold causing the wires to melt, and possibly short circuit.
If the wires short circuit, the fuses will blow which may cause the engine to stall. An engine stall while riding, increases the risk of a crash. Yamaha will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the wiring harness and secure it away from the exhaust. If the wiring harness is damaged, it will first be replaced.
The recall is expected to begin by the end of July 2013. Owners may contact Yamaha at 1-800-962-7926.Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.
ALSO
Is it me or is Yamaha taking even more styling ideas from Harley? Really, these two bikes looks so much like their counterparts it’s crazy!
Foggy start to the day
This past weekend Debbie and I rode with the Northern Virginia Motorcycle Club (NOVA MC) to see and ride through a bunch of covered bridges in Pennsylvania. This was an all-day ride; we left the house on a foggy Saturday morning at a few minutes after six AM to get to the rally point. The club met up outside a Starbucks in Chantilly, VA before rolling out for the day.
Heading north on US Route 15 we crossed into Maryland at Point of Rocks passed through Frederick and quite soon entered Pennsylvania and the first stop. This bridge was literally just across the state line off of Route 15. I am not sure where we stopped or the name of the bridge but the picture is below. From that point on we attempted to capture a picture of the name or historical marker.
After a bit we rolled out to see the other bridges. About one o’clock we stopped for lunch at The Old Mountain Stone Inn in Bloomfield, PA. The food was good, the company better but the show was the best (LOL). About half way through our lunch a poker run arrived and they were having a lot of fun which made it a lot of fun for us to watch!!
Pennsylvania Amish country.
During lunch we also noticed that the incoming weather was getting much worse and decided to cut the ride a “bit” short. We decided to visit the longest covered bridge (271 feet) in PA, the Academia Bridge. From there we jumped on PA Route 75, which passed through the Pennsylvania Amish country.
Storm Chaser Powers ACTIVATE!
It was on Route 75 were we got the wettest! While we had experienced sprinkles and light rain we got a downpour, and of course nowhere to really pull over. We finally reached a gas station where Debbie and I did the group a big favor; we put on our rain suits, which normally guarantees the rain will stop. We split off from the main group to head home shortly after that stop and we might have had ten rain drops from that point on! I hope the others fared as well!
About Northern Virginia Motorcycle Club
NOVA MC is a “Meetup.com” group that “is for motorcycle enthusiasts who are interested in taking short jaunts, usually on weekends, around Virginia’s highways and byways.” Debbie and I discovered them about a year ago and this was our second ride with the club. I have to say that we have tried to ride more with them but life, schedules and other events have conspired to limit our experience with the club. BUT, I can say that without hesitation, if your live in Northern Virginia and want to ride in a motorcycle agnostic environment and want to have a good time, check them out!
Patent Drawing for Liquid Cooled HD Motorcycle
I ran across and interesting post on MotorBikeWriter.com a few days ago regarding this subject. I have often wondered about this and was always curious why the VRod is the only water cooled bike in the HD stable. But, I never put any real effort in looking into this effort and I doubt that anyone in Milwaukee would answer the question for me! LOL.
But, after a few Bing searches I came up with some surprising things like the Cycle Word report on Harley’s patent for water cooling the heads. Even more detail on the patent was on The Kneeslider.com, although I wonder how much the radiators in the lower fairings would warm my feet.
Now I know that many of the hard core Harley Davidson fans out there would be put out by the departure from history. Many of them (me) enjoy the simplicity and tradition but, the fact is that the EPA is going to force this sooner or later. Based on what I see in the patent drawings and things I read looking into this, I think Harley is attempting to go liquid cooled in a manner what will not change the classic look of an HD motorcycle.
An interesting article, from the online version of the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, concerning Mr. “Easy Rider” Peter Fonda. Mr. Fonda is suing Dolce & Gabbana because he has “suffered injuries to his peace, happiness, feelings, goodwill, reputation, image, loss of fair market value of his services, and dilution of his current and future publicity value,” resulting from their unlicensed sales of his image (from the Easy Rider movie) on $200 t-shirts. If you want to see how much of a monetary value he places on his market value take a look at the article!
I would have posted a picture of the t-shirts but I have no desire to further hurt Peter’s peace, happiness and good will. 😉
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 