Posts Tagged ‘Motorcycle Ride’

ijustwant2ride.com

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!

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.

RollingThunderRussBrownEagle2014-NEW-600x350This coming weekend, May 25th, 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 22nd 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 23rd 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 24th.

bikerlive

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 1st to the 2nd 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.

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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.

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.

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world-ride

What use to be known as “Million Mile Monday” has grown to a worldwide event spread over two days. This year the event is being held June 22 and 23.

Last year riders rolled up 10,018,231 miles which was more than 25% more than in 2012.

Wonder how many miles HD riders will log this year.  For more information check out the World Ride website.

Debbie and I decided to take a short motorcycle ride this past weekend.  We had not been out on a bike for a few weeks due to weather and life “stuff”.  Stuff meaning adult things like yard work, home maintenance, spring cleaning and all that “stuff”.  This was a last minute decision as we had overslept and missed church. 

It was a bit after ten Sunday morning when we pulled the Army bike out of the garage and headed to the Leesburg International House of Pancakes for breakfast.  Surprisingly neither of us ordered pancakes, I had a spicy sausage and jalapeno omelet and Debbie had a scrambled egg platter. We made a few jokes about the May the 4th being Star Wars day, had a nice conversation about other things and stuff.  We rolled out of the parking lot about 11:30.

We took VA Route 7 east most of the way to Georgetown and when we arrived….well it turns out we had the same idea as about another 200,000 people.  The area was packed with cars, bicycles, and pedestrians. We did not stay very long and rode north along the Potomac River taking the Clara Barton Parkway, and River Road.

Eventually we stopped for a late afternoon lunch at Bassets in Poolesville, MD.  Dining in the bar, we both had burgers and relaxed for a bit.  In the short time we were indoors the sky and become overcast and the temperature had dropped noticeably. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor this day, we took the short route home and crossed the river using Whites Ferry.

Other than the mess in Georgetown the ride was great, we put about 100 miles of easy riding down and had a good afternoon together.

 

Harley Davidson is recalling 2013 and 2014 Breakout and CVO Breakouts. The recall is due to faulty fuel range indicator which is reporting inaccurate information. The bikes can run out of fuel even though the indicator is reporting there is still gas in the tank. Not a good thing if you are on a highway in front of a 10 ton truck!

Harley is reporting that there have been no accidents as a result of this problem and is voluntarily recalling the bikes. They do state there has been 17 warranty claims relating to fuel level inaccuracies.

According to HD there are 18,492 of these bikes worldwide and 9,102 in the United States. Maripat Blankenheim, HD Director of External Communications, stated: “The way we became aware of this was on a test vehicle, One of our current product engineers was on a test bike when it ran it out fuel while it was being tested.”

Apparently the problem is incorrectly calibrated software due to the way the suspension of the Breakout is set. HD states “It investigated and concluded that a suspension difference on the recalled models changed the angle of the fuel tank by approximately three degrees, causing an incorrect fuel-level reading.”

If you have a 2013-14 FXSBSE or FSXB Breakout a contact your local dealership to schedule your repair.

The NHTSA Campaign Number: 14V185000

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Grab your wallets and purses, politicians want more of your money.

Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, in an attempt to curb illegal gambling (and increase tax revenue) created a law that put poker runs under the control of the Department of Revenue. Now every motorcyclist knows that a poker run is only about gambling, right?

As part of the law there are new regulations, permits and fees. From what I could gather the permit is $400 and each stop (venue) is charged an additional $150. If you don’t pay the fees you will be an illegal gambling operation and subject to all the appropriate fines and imprisonments.

If you have ever participated in a poker run you know that they typically support a charity of some sort. You also know that they normally do not raise huge sums of money and if it rains they might even go in a hole. But, in Illinois I guess that the state is the only real charity that matters.

Luckly, there are a few members of the General Assembly who understand what a poker run really does and are attempting to change the law. So if you live in the People’s Republic of Illinois you might want to contact your beloved leaders and let them know your opinion on this subject.

If you live somewhere else, keep an eye on your esteemed politicians, if it works in Illinois it might becoming to your state soon.