| Author | Message | ||
     Bigbird  |
I keep reading people's stories about riding a Buell in the city, how great it is in traffic, good on gas, reliable, etc. While all of those things are true and happen to be wonderful attributes, quite frankly they are boring too. If my main criteria for choice of motorcycle were "good on gas" and "great in traffic" I'd buy a Suzuki Burgman. No offense intended, but for two days over New Year's weekend I spent 8 hours each way in a Jeep with my '04 XB12 on a trailer to go rediscover why I ride a Buell. I only got to ride about 170 miles total, and I know that isn't very much for 16 hours worth of car travel from 11:30 P.M. Thursday night to 2:30 A.M. Sunday morning. But as they say it's the quality, not the quantity. I brought back a few souvenirs so you can judge for yourself:      Deal's Gap was WONDERFUL on New Year's Day. Not much traffic, about 70 degrees, almost completely dry, and SUNNY! This was my first trip with the XB12R, but I had been there several times with a '03 XB9S. I used to have a great time on the Lightning on that road, but I found the Firebolt (and the bigger engine) to be even more fun. I can hardly wait to go back on Memorial Day weekend. So I have decided that the Firebolt is getting cleaned up from the trip and placed in the living room for the remainder of the winter. I'll still ride all winter as I always do, but I'll leave the cold, rain, and snow to the Suzuki V-Strom or the BMW K1200 LT. The Buell is much better outside of the city! | ||
| BadS1  |
Very nice Bigbird looks like you had a blast. | ||
| Newxb9er |
I miss the dry season! | ||
| Imonabuss |
Commute with me through a city, you wouldn't find it boring! And you wouldn't keep up on a Bergman. All that being said, it's better to be out in the country, but if you don't get to do that all that often, then you get your grins where you can. And the more the better! | ||
| Brad_buell  |
Man, it looks like you had a Great time. I can't wait for Spring in Northern Michigan. | ||
| Imonabuss |
OK, OK, the more I look at the photos, I admit the more jealous I am! Looks like a wonderful New Year's start! | ||
| Lpd22 |
Bigbird Im glad you were able to get away from the ohio weather and have a good time. I'm Jealous.  | ||
| Cataract2 |
Sigh, it's time for me to move out of Florida to a place with mountain roads. | ||
| Xbolt12 |
"About 70 degrees" Damn! I wish we had weather that warm in So Cal right now! xbolt12 | ||
| Joele |
Neeto! You should change your name to Blur-man though  | ||
| Court |
Tell ya what . . . I thought I had a blast on New Years Day on any XB, but that first picture stirs the senses. I nominate it for one of the upcoming calendar pics. Get that baby to Dave@davegess.com in the high res! Court | ||
| Bigbird |
I nominate it for one of the upcoming calendar pics. Get that baby to Dave@davegess.com in the high res! Why thank you! The problem is the picture you see is as good as it gets. The pictures were shot with my 5 year old Nikon Coolpix 2.1 megapixel camera, and my brother in law (the one shooting the pictures) really wasn't familiar with the camera. It's a tough camera to take high speed action shots with because it has the shutter delay so typical in older digital cameras, and he couldn't seem to get the timing down. So what you see in that first picture is a backround that was perfectly focused and a foreground object that "invaded" the still picture. The 2nd picture came out better because he snapped it as I was moving towards the camera into his point of focus, rather than across the field of view as I was in the first picture. I really need one of those new Canon digital SLR's. Anyone got 1500 bucks they want to donate to the cause? I promise I'll post some really good pics  | ||
| Court |
Can you say D70? | ||
| Bigbird |
Sigh, it's time for me to move out of Florida to a place with mountain roads. I know exactly what you mean. Florida has great winter weather, but I've ridden the most hilly, curvy areas of the state and you couldn't pay me to live anywhere that has a maximum elevation change of 385 feet across the entire state! The area of Southeastern Ohio I live in really has some great riding, but it doesn't even begin to compare with the Tennessee/North Carolina/Georgia tri-state area. Every time I go to the Deal's Gap area I'm ruined for at least a month, and then the girlfriend and I have repeated conversations about moving there. Visiting is great fun, but it's almost like a punishment at the same time. | ||
| M1combat  |
That first pic isn't too bad... I think Buells should look a little blurry in the corners  . | ||
| Dscak |
This so ain't right. Icy roads, XB in pieces in the garage. I envy you the ride. Dan | ||
| Aldaytona  |
I know exactly what you mean, Florida has great winter weather...... Our bikes don't have to sit in the living room to enjoy them, WE can ride them all year long. BTW, we also know the location of Deals Gap and WE ride to the Gap as well as on it. No matter where else one lives in the good old USA it's hard to top the Gap, it's harder to top our weather.  | ||
| Glitch  |
I love the twisties. We were just south of you in the North Georgia Mountains. It's supposed to stay warm for the next couple of weeks. Glad to hear you were able to come down when you did. The weather changes a lot this time of year. | ||
| Stealthxb  |
2nd to None!  This is what it's all about! | ||
| Bigbird |
Can you say D70? I've got my eye on the EOS 20D actually... | ||
| Cataract2 |
Aldaytona, one of these weekends I'm going to have to go up there and your going to have to show me some decent roads to ride up there. This Space Coast road setup we have here just ain't cutting it any more. And the airport road here is old. | ||
| Glitch |
No matter where else one lives in the good old USA it's hard to top the Gap, it's harder to top our weather. Don't know about Fla's weather except in the summer it's hotternell! The Gap is only a very small tiny bit of the great roads in the Great Smokies. I know of several roads that are just as challenging as The Gap, just not as famous, and that's a good thing. Also if ya'll were at the Runnin' of the Ridge, you already know about the Snake. GOT to love living in the South East, I know I do. | ||
| Stealthxb |
Here is a video from one of the 3%ers favorite runs: http://www.gormanonline.com/videos/street/60S_from_Morganton.wmv * *no 3%ers were involved in the making of this video | ||
| Aldaytona |
Actually Florida summers (even south Florida) aren't a whole lot hotter than the New England area during the day, except everyone here has air conditioning and almost nobody up north does. Let's see this was about riding XBs anyway, I'll take the heat anytime to be able to ride every single day if I so choose. The Great roads are close as well. GOT to love living in the South East, I know I do too. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a XB pointed towards Ocala right now and................... | ||
| Stealthxb |
Living in a swamp = humidity I love Florida...it's great for vacations!!! | ||
| Ben_jamminvfcc |
•••••• the 3%? I'm on dial-up...but that's the vid of the FZ1 absolutely destroying Deal's right? With a few power wheelies thrown in their for good measure... Gormanonline has some awesome vids...and few of fellow SVriders. | ||
| Ben_jamminvfcc |
Heh! I typed "Who Are" in contraction form...and the chat board thought I was typing •••••••••* Puritans! | ||
| 2k3lightning  |
Sweet Pictures. Reading these posts makes me wonder why I still live in New england. (Message edited by 2k3lightning on January 04, 2005) | ||
| Two_buells  |
BigBird, Go with the Canon... I have a Canon D60 DSLR Lenses: 70-200mm f4 17-40mm f4 50mm f1.4 check out over 1000 BattleTrax Pictures here, Taken with my Canon D60 http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=TwoBuells  btw, I rode my S3 at Deals Gap back in '99. I'd like to take my XB there sometime (Message edited by Two_Buells on January 04, 2005) | ||
| Cataract2 |
What bikes were those in the vid? I'm thinking that's a Buell in the front and there's letters stating that the one with the camera is a 919 right? |
