| Author | Message | ||
     Nutsosane |
Trailering my Lightning to Deals Gap lost its inherent appeal about two weeks out. What else is a Bueller to do? Out with the old in with the Ulysses! Sidecases-check. Extra set of tires-check. Tent-check. Rain gear-check. Oh sh!t kit-check. TPS rest-check. Let's roll.  | ||
| Nutsosane |
Fearing a longer than anticipated ride, I rolled out a day early. The Blue Ridge Parkway was my intended route from my home in Roanoke, Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina. I had a more direct route planned once I reached Asheville. The BRP Ranger I ran into was nice enough to give me a written warning for 55mph in a 45 zone while passing 2 vehicles on a double yellow. He also let me slide for the minor infraction of carrying a loaded firearm (for which I am legally permitted) on federal lands!  The BRP and I now have a pact: I promise to obey the laws and it promises to keep me out of jail! I spent the night in my tent without the use (for fear of incarceration) of my trusty "bear repellant."  | ||
| Nutsosane |
As soon as I can see I get busy gettin busy. Shake em out, roll em up, pack em in. Like Willie says "On the road again." A breakfast of country ham (mmm salt) gets washed down by the obligatory "cup caw fey." A few bikes park up and it's nice to see other travelers on this road. I see three bikes with riders wearing the 'stich and Arai combo, which isn't entirely popular among the "being seen" crowd. These cats must be on the move! One 'stich and Arai looks particularly familiar, as does the Road King sans windshield. Could that be? Nah, couldn't be. But is it? So I ogle the three travelers as they enter and take a table adjacent to mine and decide it's time to get going. One of them fellers ask how I like my Ulysses to which I respond: "Is your name Ferris?" Suffice to say breakfast lasted over two hours and it was proving a good thing I left a day early. Here's my two buddy's who squeezed in for a pic with the southbound Uly. Ferris, JB2 and Jim; thanks for making my morning.  | ||
| Nutsosane |
Ummm it's kinda foggy in the morning round here. Those shadows that keep hopping around on the roadside kind of keep the Uly in 2nd gear an awful lot.  | ||
| Jerry_haughton |
Ferris, JB2 and Jim; thanks for making my morning. thanks for making OURS.  FB | ||
| Nutsosane |
Arrival, well sort of...  My rudimentary map led me the long way, several times! Everything was falling nicely into plan; my plan being arriving to meet my Father without him knowing I was on a new Uly. To his knowledge, I was still trailering the Lightning down. See, I thought making a surprise of it would acquit me of any financial irresponsibility. When I thought I was about 15 minutes away I gave Pops a ring to let him know I'd had a flat in the truck and would be delayed a bit. Dad had arrived early from Florida dropped off the bikes and gone into town to lunch and supply up. Five messages played like a where have you been machine letting me know their last position was the grocery in town. While ripping through route 40 I spied another black Uly. Jinance it was, a quick u-turn proved so. 3...2...1...Blast off to meet the Pops. I could see my Dads rig in the grocery lot so I made an immediate change of course pulling up on the drivers side to find him there unlocking the doors. He didn't know what to make of 2 black Uly's approaching him at too much speed. Visor up, jaw on the floor(his). It took him about 20 minutes to finally believe it wasn't a rental. Another 20 to realize I had ridden the 400+ miles. Yet another 20 to accept he'd been lied to for the last two weeks!  | ||
| Nutsosane |
Staying in the house on the hill were our very own TankBueller, Jinance and Jimduncan69 if only for a brief stint. Monday morning found the kids out to play at "The Dragon." Until a certain chameleon green/blue Lightning ate a voltage regulator. NUTS and the Utilysses had to take the battery from Tank's bike 3/4 up the Dragon to get Gary back down. Brian(LoneXB) was there too, black FireLight stealing all the looks. Ever hauled a battery in your tankbag; up the Dragon? Waiting for a tow truck.  | ||
| Nutsosane |
So yeah, I'm standing at the overlook when I hear a crash. Of course it's my Uly! Snapped clutch lever, scratched handguard, scratched sidecase and marred fork slider. I had to re-adjust the clutch because of stretch, still runs fine. Looks perfect don't it?  | ||
| Tank_bueller |
Well, here's my perspective on our trip to Deals Gap. I'm not the best storyteller, so please, bear with me. Sunday, 9/10-travel day Pretty uneventful, really. My Jeep did a wonderful job towing the trailer, although some of the "hills" were a bit hard on her. I drove the nine hour trip straight through, only stopping twice for gas and bathroom breaks. When I drive up(literally) to the house, Nuts and Jim Nance are there waiting. We do the meet-n-greet thing for a few minutes when Gary(Jimduncan69) pulls in. We couldn't have timed everyones arrival better if we tried. Up the hill to the house..  The view down from the deck..  Nuts takes off to the house where he is staying with his pops and friends. Jim, Gary, and I decide to get on the bikes in search of dinner.(enter loud rumble of thunder here) O.K., guess that's not such a great idea, so we retire inside to devour the fried chicken my mom lovingly insisted that I take with me.(thanks mom) Later on, we shoot some pool(I'm not a hustler, I promise) and get some good BS going on, when I decide to try out Jim's Uly for size. That was the joke of the evening. My feet were dangling at least six inches from the floor. (I stole this pic from the C-3 thread, thanks Jim)  More to come, tomorrow! Tank | ||
| Nutsosane |
What's worse than seeing your bike towed up The Dragon? Having to tow the owner in the rain. Gary's(Jimduncan69) way too happy to be on there. DON'T TOUCH!!!  | ||
| Nutsosane |
This is our TPS re-setting adventure. Tank converses with our Indian tech line. Too loud, too late, too much exhaust gas, too many beers; somehow we got it done. Thanks Luthemtorts for speaking english to those of us unable to communicate.  | ||
| Nutsosane |
All the Badweb Buells in town meeting at the overlook.  Jimduncan69,Toxic,Nutsosane,Tank bueller(you have a headlight out dude),LoneXB | ||
| Jlnance |
Gary's(Jimduncan69) way too happy to be on there. The g/f said to tell Gary that he can hold onto the grab rails at the base of the seat.  | ||
| Tank_bueller |
Monday, 9/11-It's going to be a great day! On this day, two years ago, I signed the final paperwork and took delivery of my new/leftover 03' Buell. And I give thoughts and prayers to those who lost their lives, and their families, on this day in 01'. O.K., enough reminiscing, LET'S RIDE!! Gary asks, "Where the hell is Jim?" I say "I heard him leave at 0-dark thirty, and went back to sleep." Nice meeting you, Jim! Hope to see you again when you can't stay so long! We all haul it out to Robbinsville, including Nuts pop and the cruisers, to find the closest gas station. Then we take off for Deals Gap store where we meet up with Brian(Lonexb). Nuts and the cruisers take off up the dragon while Brian, Gary, and I BS for a few minutes, and then head up the hill to meet Nuts at the overlook. It seems that while Nuts is waiting, an alien(or something)  hops the wall and pushes his new Uly off the sidestand?? It took the hit pretty well, and so did Nuts, with a broken clutch lever and some misc. scratches, but nothing major. Headed back down the hill, i pull out last, as I'm in no real hurry. A few turns in, I see Nuts pull off the road. I slow down, but he gives a thumbs up and waves me by. AH HA, he wants some open road so he can "pimp it up" for Killboy. Next, I see Gary pull off where Killboy is set up and I didn't think anything of it, until neither one shows up at the store. Nuts finally shows with news of charging problems and a dead battery on Gary's bike . I have visions of fetching my trailer when Nuts pop suggests a battery swap to get him at least to the store. So we strip the battery from my bike and Nuts "flies" it up the hill to Gary, and they return to the store. Gary makes the call to Brag and they arrange a tow to Smokey Mountain HD/Buell in Maryville.(more on this awesome dealer to come) So we BS a bit and we wait for the truck.... and we wait.... and we wait... and it starts raining... and it stops raining.. and we wait... Finally the truck shows up around 5:15pm (I think), but the dealer closes at six. We had no way of knowing if the bike made it to the dealer or not, and Gary forgot to give the driver the key for his bike  . So, since we had to deliver the key the next morning, I planned to take my trailer along in case we had to do some emergency bike transport(we should have used my trailer from the start, but you know, hindsight)(see Nuts 2-up pic above) | ||
| Blake |
Thanks for sharing guys. Great stuff! | ||
| Tank_bueller |
Tuesday, 9/12-It's babysit a motorcycle day(j/k Gary), OR Smokey Mountain HD/Buell is a great dealer! (and I really, really wish I had taken some pics....oh well) Gary calls Brag first thing and they verify: THE BIKE MADE IT TO THE DEALER......AND THEY DON'T HAVE A KEY!!!! So we don't have to drag the trailer through the Dragon.....YAY!! Gary and I hop in the Jeep and set sail for Maryville, TN. The old Cherokee handled the twisties fairly well, I think.(for a Jeep) They take the key and get to work fairly quickly while we walk around the showroom doing the "waiting for the bike" thing, and oogle the many lovely ladies who work there. Doing our best trying to make it seem like we are looking at bikes instead of the wonderful live attractions, a salesman approaches and says "wow, not too often we get two guys with Buell shirts in here at the same time", and proceeds to tell us that he and another salesman and a couple service guys own Buells. I really wish I could remember their names, but they were all really very cool and enthusiastic to have us there. They even hooked us up with free Buell t-shirts. I highly recommend stopping by and saying hi, if ya'll are ever in the area. Did I mention the smokin' hot staff members?? Next, we go for breakfast.....mexican it is!(11am) After we eat, we try to go for a random exploration, but Gary's phone rings and it's the dealer. Dead voltage regulator, they say. BUT, somewhere in my massive personal quest for random deals, I happened to acquire a brand new voltage regulator, and had it in the Jeep! We rush it back, but it turns out to be no good also, so our new friends at Smokey Mountain HD/Buell swiped a new one meant for another customers bike and put Gary back on the road!! What an awesome dealer experience it was. We head back to the house, Gary on his bike, me in the Jeep, in the rain, to tell stories of the day to Nuts and crew. Apparently, the cruisers got caught out on the Cherohala in a pretty good monsoon. If you don't already know, Graham county is a dry county, and I ran out of beer the night before. I didn't even think about stopping while in Maryville. Gary and I were getting hungry anyway, so we hit the road in search of dinner and beer for me(Gary doesn't drink). We end up in Andrews NC, about an hour from the house, and in a differen't county. Not really too much there to speak of, but we did find a little cafe that didn't serve beer. What's with this area?? There was a cute little waitress working there, and in talking, we find out she is only 17, still in high school, has like eight jobs, and her dad is a drug dealer....go figure? I grabbed a 12 at a store on the way back to the house. Finally got my beer. Sorry about not having pics. I must have forgotten that I own a camera?? More to come! | ||
| Jimduncan69 |
hey tank you forgot tell every one "Do Not Get Directions From Stoned Mexican's" ..... | ||
| Tank_bueller |
Yes, it seems I did... O.K., insert into story above... We leave to find some dinner and beer. Our first stop was the local grocery, Ingles. I knew they would not have the beer I was so desperately seeking, but they did have alcoholic mixers and the like. So on our way out, we spot two Mexicans waiting in line. Surely they can point us to that which we seek. One did not speak english, and the other knew the phrase "buy beer", and they both smelled heavily of pot. They sent us toward Andrews and said "20min". So 35-40 minutes later, we roll into the deadest town up there(it was dark, but not late), stopped into the best place we could find open for some grub, hit up a store for the beer and got the hell out of Dodge. So the moral of the story is... Don't get directions from stoned Mexicans. All in all, it was a good time. Tank ps. more beer acquisition stories to come (Message edited by tank_bueller on September 25, 2006) | ||
| Luvthemtorts |
I think perhaps the next trip should be scheduled where Tank has access to an AA meeting or three while he is there  (BUUURRPP, I love you man, BUUURRPP)! | ||
| Nutsosane |
The Dragon Friday through Monday usually yields some of this...  | ||
| Nutsosane |
And way too much of this...  He's waving, isn't that nice! | ||
| Nutsosane |
Our group of riders had three bikes go down due to excessive numbers of people occupying a lane meant for one. All the riders in my Pops' group were slower riders and more than happy to let faster riders by. I can attest to this as the Uly passed them all quite often. The worst injury was a battered shoulder when the rider(fifteen year motorcycle cop BTW) was pushed wide by 3 other bikes occupying his lane!  | ||
| Nutsosane |
Last December I shanghai'ed my Pops back into motorcycling. He came to Virginia earlier this summer to acquaint himself with turning and elevation changes as there is none in our native South Florida. I am so proud!  It isn't a Buell, at least it's an air/oil cooled twin! | ||
| Nutsosane |
Our last day of riding, Tank and I headed out to run Route 28 which is trying to market itself as "The Hellbender." This road leads into Fontana and the B I G dam.  | ||
| Nutsosane |
Our last ride was what I would call a cooling off period. I had no intention of pitching the Uly playing the fool anymore. See, I had already done that leaving the driveway first thing in the morning. I can see Tank at the bottom and decide it'd be cool to slide the rear tire as I cooly came to rest in front of him. Well the tire slid, the Uly stopped and promptly fell over when my foot could not find the driveway. Valiantly, Tank ran over and helped me get it back upright. I was laughing so hard it made it more difficult than it should have been! That bike crashes so well. I love it for nothing more than that. Thanks again Tank. We decided to take the Buells the offroad route back to the cabin. About two miles in the road turned to loose gravel. Five miles later and we were back to broken pavement. No major issues. It should be noted Tank was riding his Lightning Low with Pirelli Diablo Corsa's! We took a slight detour to an out of the way cemetery and tried not to look suspicious to the guy who was "just hanging out."  | ||
| Nutsosane |
Last morning, foggy and early NUTS was off. Headed home through The Dragon and on to roads untraveled. I spent an hour on Route 40 out of Knoxville before I said: "ENOUGH." My Uly will not tolerate the superslab! So I detoured through Cherokee Nat'l Forest, Damascus and Virginia route 58(music's crooked road.) I only took one pic; it's a good thing I stopped to get this one because I saw a trooper had someone pulled over 10 mins later. I was a picture away from being that "someone." NUTS  | ||
| Jlnance |
That bike crashes so well. I love it for nothing more than that. At least you have a good attitude about it :-) | ||
| Tank_bueller |
Wednesday 9/13-Freakin Rain, or Lets Get off the Beaten Path (Today I realized that I own a camera!) It was a fairly wet, dreary morning, but it wasn't raining(yet). Gary and I decide "what the hell, let's ride up to the Gap and see what's happening". Nuts wisely decides to stay behind. The ride up wasn't too bad, just a little chilly for summer. We fuel up the bikes and it starts freakin raining, but just a little. We agree to head back to the house. Gary had his full rain gear on, but I decide to only go with my rain jacket because it wasn't even really rain at that point. That was not a smart choice. By the time we get back to the house, my jeans are soaking, dripping wet. Oh well, no more riding today, just not worth it. Gary wants to make some crazy italian dish for dinner(which turned out pretty damn good), but that meant another trip into Robbinsville(hope we don't run into any Mexicans trying to give directions). We start out for town in the Jeep, but I decide to go a different way this time. Oh, let's see where this road goes. It turns to a very loose, muddy gravel mountain path before we get too far, but we have a Jeep! No problems.  We go up the hill, around the tight bends, up the hill, more tight bends, up the hill......you get the idea. We run across this sign:  This would be an awesome view if it weren't so foggy:  Pressing on, farther up the "hill", the fog clears, and we can see for miles, and miles, and miles, but can't find a spot to get a decent pic of the view. Then we see this:   And a little farther up we find THIS...  Using the zoom, same spot:  Turns out the elevation was near 4700ft. And it is also a shortcut to Andrews which cuts about 20min off the trip....who knew? Headed back down the hill... address= 1 Red Tree  A little farther down, Gary hollers "STOP THE TRUCK", so I back up to investigate:  We finally make it to the store a couple hours later to find Nuts and pops and crew. Nuts pop asks "Didn't you guys leave for the store hours ago"? "Yes, but we got a little distracted". Back at the house, Gary still can't believe the views we accidentally witnessed:  | ||
| Brineusaf |
Awesome story guys... this is the stuff I love to read. Awesome adventure! |
