| Author | Message | ||
     Reepicheep |
I did not take any pictures, which I regret, but I had a nice time meeting Buelistic (Lafeyette) for a ride to Rabbit Hash last Sunday. The ride there was uneventfull. I never feel like I know the way there, I pick one of two exits and just keep heading towards river. Most of the time it just works out, and there are nice roads all around there. This was one of those times, and it just worked out, and the ride there was very nice. The temperatures were on the cool side, probably low 50's, but both Lafeyette and I had good gear and were actually very comfortable. The wind deflectors on the CityCross once again aquitted themselves nicely. I was using the heavy First Gear jacket liner (fantastic), the insulated hood / facemask thing under the helmet, and Patagonia Expedition weight long underwear to be comfortable everywhere else, but with the air deflectors I just had normal riding gloves on, and my hands never got cold at all. Once we got to Rabbit Hash, we could relax with a good cup of coffee by the river and watch the bikes and bikers while chatting all things Buell. Some interesting bikes were there or cruised by, a basically unrestored pre 1949 Harley (running well and burning oil, though the rider seemed a little terrified of the thing, I expect it is quite the chore to ride). A Ducatti monster tooled by but did not stop, there was another fellow there on an S3 when we got there (so we got to line 3 Buells up in a row, second for brand popularity there behind Harleys  ). There were the typical metric cruisers, and a Valkrye, but the vast majority were (as usual for these parts) Harley cruisers. Lafeyette had great stories of life experiences, and we had a nice time talking about old races and old motorcycles. Could not think of a better way to spend an afternoon. His bike is eye candy from top to bottom and front to back... not bling or performance enhancement stuff, but marks of a bike that has been far and wide. Safety wire everywhere, rerouted oil lines with coolers and additional filters, and many other organic adjustments over time. In some places, it has obviously been modified by it's environment, in other places, it obviously modified the environment around it. In most places, the bike and the world at large have come to a hard fought compromise and mutual respect. Bikes like that really appeal to me, I liked it about my old M2, and miss it with the CityX (being brand new). I like well worn things that continue to work well. They demand my respect. When we got ready to leave, we were talking to a WERA road racer that pulled up on a GSXR-750, with tires shredded from sidewall to sidewall, and leathers that were scuffed... well... everywhere. Friendly and interesting guy. He has a Dunlop sponsorship, and was running GP rubber. When he first pulled up, he walked down the row of bikes. My CityX and Lafeyettes Buell got the majority of his attention. We were about the only people there in full gear and not on cruisers, so we talked to him for a while as well. A nice guy. He lead us back to the interstate on our return via a nice collection of back roads that I could probably never reproduce. I will have a confession to make over in the "mishaps" thread that even Lafeyette probably does not know about, suffice it to say I was stupid, but got very lucky, and everything is fine, and the bike never even went down. The whole thing reaffirmed that a huge part of motorcycling is about the people, and that is the ultimate source of the majority of my pleasure from the sport. (Message edited by reepicheep on October 18, 2004) |
