| Author | Message | ||
     Paralegalpete |
So we planned a family vacation driving from Ontario Canada to Kentucky and Tennessee. I trailered the Uly out of Canada day one as far as Florence KY,just south of Cincinnati OH. I few pics of the trailer security measures     A few shots from the way down  This is one of the reasons for the trailer  Ok day two, off the trailer for a six hour ride to Mammoth Caves KY on back roads. The fam would do this in 3 hours on the interstate  These roads were fantastic, twisty with elevation changes and for the most part I had them to myself       When you stay off the interstate you end up crisscrossing it over and under   And I arrived at my destination at around 4:00 pm  (Message edited by paralegalpete on March 13, 2010) | ||
| Etennuly |
Nice pictures on a great trip! Hope to meet you when you are in Tennessee. Orangulius and I are getting his bike ready to ride today. Get back to us on where you will be and when, we will try to hook up with you. The wife and I rode two up from central Indiana to Mammoth Cave a couple of years ago, then on home the next day. Some beautiful riding even early in the year. Watch out for gritty sand in the corners on the secondary roads. We are having our second rain since the last snow, sometimes that stuff stays around for a month or two. Have a great ride! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Nice pictures. Tip on the trailer, though - I'm guessing you strapped the rear wheel to keep the back end of the bike from dancing back and forth (not really required, but...). If you really want to keep it in place, wrap the strap around the rear wheel once instead of just running it through it. Run through, the wheel can slide back and forth along the strap; a single wrap keeps it centered. Personally, I just strap 2 at the front through the lower tree, compress the forks with the straps, and go with that. Haven't lost one yet  But, I use the bed of a truck; they bounce less than a light trailer can.... | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Thanks for the comments, and tips, we are now in Daniel Boone Nat Forest at the Dupont Inn after a 4.5 hour hike through the caves. Can't wait to ride these roads tomorrow on our way to the cabin in Tennessee. I have Marks cell phone and will call once we get to Tenn. I am available pretty much the entire week so let me know which day is best for you guys. What you can't see on the trailer pics is just before we left I screwed a couple of blocks of wood on each side of the rear tire to keep it from bouncing around. So far so good. I also bought some bearing buddies to replace the dust cover that fell off. | ||
| Etennuly |
Excellent. Hope you have a great time here. I will be in touch with Mark. | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Well we are in Tennessee Left the Dupont Lodge this morning and took the back roads to the Cabin    Cheap Gas in Kentucky      Just prior to arriving at the Cabin, I missed a turn off of this steep mountain road and stupidly dropped the bike in the middle of the road trying to execute a tight downhill u turn. Minor damage to the rubber of the shift lever and the clutch lever seems bent down a little.  The even steeper road to the cabin   We are a couple of miles form Dolly's place. I will call tomorrow (Message edited by paralegalpete on March 14, 2010) | ||
| Orangeulius |
Pete, Friday is looking awesome. Full sun and 60. Thursday is the second best day in the coming week. Give me a call tomorrow and we'll match up with your schedule. Sorry to hear about your bike drop. I dropped mine in gravel once and have the bent brake lever to prove it. | ||
| Dragonslayer |
Great pics. | ||
| Paralegalpete |
The tail of the Dragon is closed due to a safety study this week. As well there is a rock slide in the area. Here is a vid of a car crashing into the rock slide. http://www.wbir.com/video/default.aspx?aid=90522#/ Local%20News/Web%20Extra%3A%2010%20News%20camera%2 0captures%20car%20drive%20into%20rockslide/4402443 9001/39627146001/71783729001 Is it me or does this guy remind you of Ned Flanders? | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
what a dumba$$!... LOL | ||
| Etennuly |
That was on our local news last night.  I was laughing so hard my son came running in my room to see what happened! I was so glad that they re ran it several times through out the evening! Looks like the Dragon may be shut down for a week or so, from what they were saying. Around here the problem isn't just cleaning up the rock pile that fell and reopening the roads, but they have to go up the hill to the place the rock slide started to remove any more material that has loosened up. This is going to be an interesting riding season in the mountains. Rock slides, trees falling, even single rocks the size of a softball will be common place due to all of the rainfall over the past year. We need to be careful out there! | ||
| Supertoon |
Ohhh, serious man-boobs!! Hormones can really screw with your depth of field..... | ||
| Tocino |
Good lord. Didn't see the huge pile of rocks? That dude was textin' or something and didn't want to hey-diddly-doo admit it. | ||
| Pkman |
Please post the route you took through KY to Mammoth caves. Those look like some nice roads. | ||
| Ulyssesmatt |
A most excellent ride report so far. Keep it coming! | ||
| Paralegalpete |
The route I took to Mammoth Caves was excellent, however did not go as originally planned. I had plotted a great backroad route on Garmins Mapquest software and then downloaded it into Zumo. Things were going swimmingly until I hit the little muddy town with the fire engine. Mapquest tried to take me on a road that simply did not exist LOL. This is not the first time this has happened. So I finally was chased out of town by a couple of mongrol dogs and ended up on a highway, which sucked me into Louisville, I danced up and down the freeway system trying desperately to get off in the right direction. Eventually I set the gps to shortest route and enabled all the avoidance's and went through a tony section of Louisville on my way out of town. Zumu then took over and led my through hill and dale until I entered into the back door of Mammoth Caves. For about 2 hours just as I was going through Louisville there was torrential rain, thunder and lightning. I didn't stop to take many pics during that time. So the answer to your question, is yes someone with more knowledge then I possess could convince Mr. Zumo to release the route that I travelled.  I'm traveling with my family so I'm riding every other day. Tomorrow is another riding day. (Message edited by paralegalpete on March 15, 2010) | ||
| Hooper |
Hidily ho, neighborino! Golly...howdily-diddily is he going to get that car home sweet home-diddly-dum-doodily? Seriously, I'm thinking he was petting his dog in the back seat to have missed that. Reminds me of when a rock the size of a grapefruit rolled into the road and directly under my (rented) Electra-Glide while riding up Big Sur. I heard it hit the kick stand as it came out the other side. That was a close one. | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Yesterday I met up with a local ride who I met through another Sportster forum. Did about 200 miles of super roads with awesome scenery  Had to stop ad the Stealer to buy some oil first, and picked up one of the last Buell Shirts     Lots of road with whitewater on the one side and cliffs on the other  Balds Falls   We didn't let the rock slide stop us from seeing the Dragon View from the foothills parkway [IMG]http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc205/sportster1200/SmokyDay6049.jpg[/IMG]    Looking forward to another ride with some Badweb boys on Thursday (Message edited by paralegalpete on March 17, 2010) | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Won't let me edit, so this is the view from the foothills parkway  I also was able to extract the route from Garmin  | ||
| Etennuly |
Looks like you guys had a nice ride day! I wonder how much snow is up on the top of the mountain passes at this point. A couple of weeks ago they had 40 inches at New Found Gap overlook. We shall see.....eh? | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Can't wait Vern, I will call you to set up our meet tomorrow, I assume you received Mark's update 3 just now. Looking out my window there is definitely snow at the higher elevations and this sign was up two days ago at the entrance to the Newfound Gap Road  (Message edited by paralegalpete on March 17, 2010) | ||
| Etennuly |
Has anyone been over the Cherohala in the past week or so? Hi Pete, Mark is planning to ride into Tellico Plains. When we get there there are good sources on the conditions of the passes. We should be able to get to a couple of the overlooks even if it is closed or icy at the top. There is still a lot of good riding at the lower elevations. We have alternate plans! Pete, I will call you in the AM if you do not hear from me sooner! | ||
| Orangeulius |
Hey, I'm posting and driving! Well actually the wife is driving. I just saw a tweet about 24 hours ago mentioning there is still some snow on newfound gap. Motorcycle outfitters in tellico opens at 9 tomorrow and we can call then. Any ride is a good rise so let's stay frosty and be ready for an alternate route as warranted. Vroom, vroom! | ||
| Etennuly |
What a great day! Thanks Mark, Pete, George, and even Darren.  Who would of thought a Canadian would have to come all this way to ride in snow covered mountains!  I didn't get the last hundred miles in the way I expected, but what the heck.....'twas a beautiful day for sure!(was that big glowing thing in the sky the sun?) | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Vern, sorry to hear about your tire and it sucks that I didn't get a chance to thank you and Darren and to say goodbye. Glad you made it home ok. A fantastic day of riding that I would not have had on my own, so thanks to Mark, George, Vern and Darren The morning held some promise  Vern met me just down the road from our Cabin   We then rode on to meet up with the others  Four Buells and the lone Harley  Left to right, Darren, Me, Mark and Vern  George who had hip surgery in January  The Lunch stop at Tellico Plains   Robin a friend of George's on his Multistrada dropped by for lunch  Then it was off to the Cherohala Skyway One sweeper after the other with no traffic or intersections while making a steady climb up the mountain       Once we got past 3000 ft the temps dropped and snow started to appear on the roadside. Lots of water on the road   At the top, we stopped for a cigar   A few shots on the way down    Again thanks for showing me around, great guys and I would ride with you anytime. George thanks for showing me the way home. (Message edited by paralegalpete on March 19, 2010) | ||
| Paralegalpete |
Here is a map of the route we rode yesterday, About 230 miles.  | ||
| Orangeulius |
"and a good time was had by all" Thanks for posting the pics Pete. Enjoy your day with the family today. Thanks to Darren, Vern and George for the company, and a day of our typical man humor. Boy, looking at these pics I gotta lose some weight | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
What happened to Verns tire? | ||
| Etennuly |
Tire? As peppy le Pew would say.....le BOOM!  Last time that happened to me it was 1969 and I was skidding a bald rear tire on my 20" banana bike! At about 4:00 at the bottom of the Cherohala in a sunny shady flashing area, I ran over a rock that was kind of flat about six inches square by an inch thick with all edges tapered like an arrow head. I never saw it until later, best I can figure the front tire kicked it up at an angle then when the rear tire hit it the back of the bike jumped about a foot up and six inches out to the right. The tire was flat when it came back down. A big ass road hazard type cut right through the carcass threads. I have pictures, camera is somewhere in the bike. My son had to come to my rescue in a truck that I recently purchased. Took a while to get him there. It was about a hundred miles from home. He made me buy him dinner at the Texas Road House, so we didn't get home until 10:30. Sorry I didn't get to see Pete and George off after a great ride. Thanks Mark and Darren for hanging around until rescue was confirmed. If need be, with a very tight nervous grip on the bars a rear Michelin Pilot Road II can be ridden at least two miles without coming apart. Less than 30 mph is really tough to control though! I had the new one sitting in my office for a couple of weeks. Mark and I put his new one on last weekend. He asked if we were going to do mine, I figured it would make at least another thousand miles before I would take it off. Well It made a few hundred anyway!  | ||
| Etennuly |
Here are some of my pictures.       |
