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Posts Tagged ‘Motorcycle Ride’

Whites Ferry: C & O Canal Motorcycle Ride

Posted: June 7, 2014 in C&O Canal, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides
Tags: C&O Canal, Harley, Maryland, MD, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, national park, VA, Virginia, White’s Ferry

Whites Ferry C&O Canal Stop

Location – Whites Ferry

Mile Marker – 35.5

Historical Comments –This stop on the canal is named for the actual ferry with which it shares the location. The ferry predates the canal by more than half a century and is still in operation today as the only ferry on the Potomac River. You can read more about the Whites Ferry ferry here.

Ride to Site – Riding to Whites Ferry requires you ride through farm land. Be on the lookout for slow moving farm equipment. Pay attention as well for deer and other wildlife crossing the road. There are multiple speed cameras in and around the nearby town of Poolsville.

Amenities – The ferry operates a small grocery/deli during the summer months, the area has picnic tables, boat ramp, restrooms.

Road Conditions (from main road) – All paved and in decent condition

Railway Situation – None

Parking Lot Conditions – Hard packed gravel, use a kickstand puck.

Main Attraction – Whites Ferry, $3 for motorcycles to cross the river.

My Thoughts – The canal site itself is interesting. After crossing the river you can, at the traffic light, turn left and head into Leesburg or turn right and head back towards Point of Rocks, MD (another stop on the canal tour).

Map

: On the road to the Whites Ferry C&O Canal Stop

: What is left of the canal at Whites Ferry

: My bike at Whites Ferry C&O Canal stop

Motorcycle Stuff: Rides and events in June

Posted: June 1, 2014 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides, Rally
Tags: delaware, Harley, Harley Davidson, HOG, Maryland, Motorcycle, motorcycle rally, Motorcycle Ride, ride to work, Virginia

I am sure there are more but here are a few Northern Virginia and surrounding area events of which I am aware. If you know of any others please add them in the comments.

Ride for NF – June 8^th

Back of the Dragon Days – June 13^th – 15^th

Ride your bike to work day – June 16th

Maryland/Delaware HOG Rally – June 19^th-22^nd

ABATE of Virginia Rally – June 20^th – 22^nd

HOG Worldwide Ride – June 22^nd – 23rd

Virginia HOG Rally – June 26^th – 28^th

Motorcycle Ride: Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

Posted: May 27, 2014 in Motorcycle Rides, Rally
Tags: Harley, Harley Davidson, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, rolling thunder, washington harley davdidson, washington hd

Rolling Thunder 2014

Debbie had to work Saturday so I was out on the motorcycle by myself. I rode the Army bike as I was planning on entering a bike show that afternoon (see Part Deux).

The first stop of the day was the HOG Pin Stop at Washington HD. Getting there from Leesburg takes a while and it involves some of the most trafficked roads in the DC Metro area; I495 and I95.

With Rolling Thunder the next day I was surprised that there were so few bikes out and about. From home to exit for the dealership I counted 17 bikes, much much fewer than I have noticed in the past.

I arrived at the dealership about a little before 10 and was surprised again at the number of bikes. In the past, at about the same time, the parking lots were packed and the vendor areas were standing room only. Not this year, I had no issue what so ever getting a parking spot and had a leisurely stool through the vendors. I saw nothing I could live without among the tents, although I am becoming intrigued with center stands, and decided to go inside and check out the remodeled digs.

The dealership has been in this building for a long time and was looking very “long in tooth”. The remodeling was, I have to say, was underwhelming. IMHO there was no real improvement at all. The one area of the store that I though was better was a display of older bikes with large period photos behind them.

I did speak to a person, who claimed to be an employee, stated that the dealership was about to change hands and that the new owner was going to build a new building. In the DC area, and especially Maryland, that can be an expensive proposition (hey, Maryland even taxes the rain).

Mounting my bike I was back on the road in less than a minute, still no heavy bike traffic.

Part of the vendor area at Washington HD, Rolling Thunder.

HOG Pin Stop

Motorcycle Ride: Memorial Day Weekend Part Deux … Freedom Fest

Posted: May 26, 2014 in Motorcycle Rides, Rally
Tags: Bike Show, custom motorcycle, Hardcore choppers, Harley, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle show, rolling thunder

1st Place

After leaving Washington HD I rode over to Hardcore Choppers for their Freedom Fest. The proceeds for this event were to benefit Able Forces.

They had multiple bands all day including Sam Tate and Gypsy Sons. There were a several vendors, a bike show (which I entered) and the Fairfax County Police motor patrol drill team among other things.

One of the funnier items occurred when the police were giving a demonstration of how to pick up fallen bike. When they asked for volunteers to try picking up the bike a 70+ year old lady jumped out to give it a go! Check out the video Old Lady picks up police motorcycle!

As for the bike show I took first place in my class!

OldLady picks up police motorcycle!

Motorcycle Ride: Memorial Day Weekend Part Three… Ride to Solomon Island

Posted: May 26, 2014 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle Rides
Tags: Harley, Harley Davidson, Maryland, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, rolling thunder, solomons island, Virginia

Late Saturday evening Debbie and I rode the new bike to our friends (Tim and Karma) home. We were spending the night there with the plans to take a long ride Sunday.

We have all done the Rolling Thunder event multiple times and decided to take a break this year from this year’s festivities. We had no particular destination in mind until we were ready to pull out, then we decided to cruse to Solomon Island (which has an interesting history).

While Tim and Karma had both been to the Island in the past this was the first for Debbie and I. The ride out was outstanding, not much traffic (by DC standards anyway), warm but not hot and clear sky’s made the ride out very pleasant. When we made it to the island we had lunch at Stoney’s Solomons Pier restaurant.

After lunch we rode to the end of the island took some pictures and headed back out on our ride. Heading south towards Frederick, VA we crossed the Governor Harry Nice toll bridge ($6, really Maryland, for a bridge) and then up US Route 1. We stopped in Dumfries at Baylor’s Ice Cream shop which was very tasty and just right as the asphalt and concrete was warming us up.

By the time we made it home we were ready for a good shower. At over 275 miles we had quite a day on the bike with great weather and good friends.

Tim & Karma at Stoney’s

Cool driftwood

Debbie and I at Stoney’s

Debbie and I, Solomon Island, MD

End of the road on the island!

Motorcycle Ride: Rolling Thunder 2014

Posted: May 20, 2014 in Rally
Tags: 2014, Harley, Harley Davidson, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, rolling thunder, thunder ally

This coming weekend, May 25^th, is Rolling Thunder in Washington DC. In addition to the ride itself there are a lot of other, smaller events in the DC metro area that feed on the biker traffic that Rolling Thunder brings to the area.

Some of the other events in the area are:

Thunder Ally – The OFFICAL vendor location for Rolling Thunder is located at 22^nd St. and Constitution Ave in the city. It is open Saturday-Monday.

HOG Pin Stop – At Washington Harley Davidson, plus they have vendors and bands at the dealership.

Candlelight Vigil 9PM Friday the 23^rd of May at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Ride of the Patriots at Patriot HD in Fairfax VA, is an event that covers all four days of the Memorial Day weekend.

Lots of the local bike dealers have their own Rolling Thunder related events. Check your favorite bike shop’s website to see what is going on. For example, Hardcore Choppers is sponsoring their Operation Freedom Fest 2014 on the 24^th.

Motorcycle TV: #BikerLive Review … #Twitter TV

Posted: May 20, 2014 in Motorcycle TV
Tags: #bikerlive, custom motorcycle, discovery channel, Harley Davidson, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle TV

I have watched the first two episodes of the newest motorcycle show and it’s the same but different.

I addition to voting by twitter you are also watching in twitter mode! The show is attempting to show you the builds of three teams via for the title of this week’s champion. Attempting to show three builds plus the lead in and the results is a whorl wind of 140 second clips. Now to be honest I am sure each shot is more than 140 seconds but man are they short. You really don’t get to see a lot of the bike during the build and not much of the completed motorcycle.

I held off my voting during the first week to see the bikes either complete or close to it and missed my chance to vote (I would have voted for Harlot)! The second week I voted for Backyard Bagger, who lost….maybe I should vote for the team I don’t want to win.

All in all I think it is an OK show, and given some time to work the kinks out, I think it will be a good show. Just from the 1^st to the 2^nd show you can see some improvement. By the time they reach the end of the season I think it will be much better and if it returns for a second run I expect great things. If I were to give one recommendation….show the completed bikes a bit more before you close voting!

I am going to give it 4 out 5 stars because I think they will get a lot better as they progress.

Motorcycle Ride: The Some Gave All Memorial Rally

Posted: May 19, 2014 in Motorcycle Rides, Rally
Tags: boss hoss, Harley Davidson, Honda, Indian motorcycle, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, rally, some gave all, spider, sport bike, Virginia

The lead vehicle…no really!! A Marine LAV

Waiting for our turn to roll

Only the 3rd Indian I have seen out and about!

Kinda of like bed liner!

Da Bomb!

Smurf Radio

Papa Smurf

Best in Class – Pro Street

All the bike show winners

Best In Class

We only found out about this motorcycle event a few weeks ago and it was a last minute decision to attend. I am glad we did decide to ride.

The Mission of the Some Gave All Foundation “ensures the memories of Sergeant Joshua J. Frazier and Sergeant Nicholas C. Mason are not forgotten through service to local wounded veterans and an annual motorcycle rally.” This ride/rally was the 8th event and according to speaker has raised over $168,000. Check out the website to learn more about this organization.

Debbie and I left the house at 7:30 for the two hour trip to ride’s start point. After a quick Mickey D’s and gas pit stop (insert joke her) we head south on Route 15. The ride there was very nice, with cool crisp air and limited traffic, if it were not for the fact that we hit 98% of available red lights it would have been an awesome morning scoot.

The ride begins at Spotsylvania High School (Spotsylvania, VA) and ends at a rally at King George High School (King George, VA). When we pulled in to the High Schools parking lot I was blown away by the number of motorcycles attending the ride! I was expecting, for no real reason, about 200-300 bikes, there was at least 1000+ bikes in the lot. In listening to some of the conversations of folks who have attended before I gathered the impression that this was the largest turn out to date.

As you will see in the pictures bikes of all types were in attendance. Harley Davidson, of course, had the most bikes in attendance but, I saw more Spyders and Boss Hoss bikes in this one location than I have ever seen outside a dealership. At one part of the parking area there were 12 Spyders in a row (I am sure Miss Muffet would have passed out from fear).

Even with such a large number of attendees the organizers had everything down, from my point of view the start point was well run and superbly organized! The actual ride to the rally started on time and the police had everything well managed, we had the road to ourselves with plenty of well-wishers waving from the sides of the road. But, as with all groups of this size, there was the expected “accordion affect” which may have caused an accident. We passed a point where EMTs were dealing with two bikes off the road and over a small embankment. I did not look (I am a safe rider you know ) but Debbie told me that there appeared to be little damage to the bikes but that someone was laying in the grass while the EMTs were looking them over.

We arrived at the end point about noon and it was as well organized as the start point. The bikes were all lined up in a manner that, when ever wanted to leave, there would be no issues about getting your bike out. For the rally part of the event there were a good number of vendors, the small business type, in attendance along with a sport bike stunt team (the 540 Boyz), a half dozen “moon bounce” type of things for the kids and a local bomb squad and their robots. The event was anchored by an area setup for a pretty good band (Bad Monkey) and a bike show.

Debbie and I decided to put our bike in the show and we won “Best In Class”, not too bad for a last minute decision. Right after the bike show awards we decided to head back home, we pulled into the garage at 5:30. We both agreed that this was a very nice event and there is a very good chance that we will do it again next year!

P.S. 251 miles round trip.

New motorcycle in the family!

Posted: May 13, 2014 in Motorcycle
Tags: Harley Davidson, HD, Motorcycle, Motorcycle Ride, motorcycle touring, rushmore, ultra limited

After much discussion and checking of numbers Debbie and I have bought a new motorcycle. We are now the proud owners of a 2014 Harley Davidson “Rushmore” Ultra Limited! We traded our 2011 Ultra Limited and Debbie’s 883 Low. I was VERY surprised that see tossed her bike into the trade but she stated that she misses riding with me. Plus, she has mentioned a couple of times that, after popping her hamstring and the resulting physical therapy, she just does not feel secure when coming to a stop and holding up the bike.

We got quotes from multiple dealers and Frederick HD gave us the best deal. We did have a lot of “extras” added prior to delivery (with two still on back order), some of those items were:

Streamline grips, floorboards (the passenger boards are back ordered)

Screaming Eagle Stage 1 air cleaner

Screaming Eagle Thunder exhaust

Painted inner fairing (back order)

Air wing luggage rack LED light

XM Satellite radio module

Chrome hand controls. (they had to put grips on anyway)

Saddlebag rails

Mirrors on the fairing.

The infotainment system is easy to read, but is going to require some study to fully understand and use. For example, the default country was set to Canada and I have not yet found a way to change that, guess I need to read the manual.

After our first ride Debbie did mention that the ride is better than the old bike. She said the passenger area is roomier and more comfortable.

The bike is wearing the “limited edition” Daytona Blue paint. I am not sure how limited that paint really is but the metal flake (Debbie calls it sparkles) in the paint really shines in the sun.

Weather permitting; we will be taking a long trip to our niece’s high school graduation in a few weeks. That will be the first real test of the comfort and ride of the 2014 v. 2011.