ScottP
Adjunct
Reged: 09/11/05
Posts: 183
Loc: State College, PA
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Yes here in State College, PA The Quaker Steak and Lube has Wednesday night Bike night. They have a real nice Buffet for $5.99. Can't beat it! Our local Triumph Dealer gave away a 2006 Bonneville and there will be somemore as the season goes on. I think there is a HD of some kind being raffled off now. Doesn't cost anything just register, when you show up. 
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02TBA RED AI Removed,All Snorkels & 3 Baffels Removed, Drilled Airbox, 42Pilots,135Mains Keep On Riding!!!!!!!
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Big_Poppy
Learned Hand
Reged: 06/14/06
Posts: 1138
Loc: USA-Marietta, Georgia
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Some great stories here, I liked Greybeards he told a great story and made it seem you were there with him, great memories.
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John 06 America Mulberry\Silver
"Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time"
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BrianT
Loquacious
Reged: 06/18/06
Posts: 2587
Loc: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA.
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You can call this one a tale of determination, or maybe just
teenage hormones. I was sixteen, and my parents and my buddy
Terry's parents were out for the night. Terry tells me he has set up a double date for us with two girls that lived 20
miles away. Now this is in Wisconsin, in Febuary, but we had a slight warming spell, and it had gotten all the way up to zero. Well, Pop took the keys to the rental car with him (no flies on him) and a friend who was willing to be a taxi blew his car up on the way over. In the garage, however, was a Honda CB125S.
Terry's description of the girls had made up my mind and soon we were on the road, each wearing about a foot of closet. After about 10 miles, the cold had seeped through all 3 pairs of my jeans and my long johns as well, but there
were girls at the end of the ride, so we kept on. Then coming over a snowy hill, the back tire blew. At about 50mph. The next 10 seconds were probably the best job of riding I've ever done. Or the luckiest, I don't know, but I kept it out of the snowdrift. I turned to Terry and said, "I don't think we're meant to see these girls." It was a nice laugh, but we were stuck in Boondock,WI with a flat. An old 'Street and Trail Rider' article came to the rescue and we stuffed weeds inside the tire to give it some shape and limp home. It worked all right, 15mph, the back end shaking from one side to the other, me with a death-grip
on the bars. When we got home, Terry had to pry my hands off
the grips, I couldn't let go. Looking back almost 3 decades later I have to say- hell yes, I'd do it again.
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Steelheart- '03 Speedmaster Black/Yellow
The Hayabusa Killa
16" Shorties/140 mains/Airbox drilled
Procom CDI
"There is no cure for Celibacy. But we can treat the symptoms."
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Fasteddy
Learned Hand
Reged: 01/15/05
Posts: 1840
Loc: NW Wisconsin, USA
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In April of 2000 I made a trip to North Vietnam to engage in some controversial high risk activities. One element of the work I was involved in on the trip got me arrested. Now for the sake of not detracting from the motorcycle aspect of this story I will leave the rest of this story to rest at this point and convey and ally any fears that though my activities were illegal in a Communist nation, they are NOT illegal in the US or the majority of the free world. That part of the story will remain closed.
My adventures in Hanoi, North Vietnam were multi faceted and I could never have planned for a single one, nor would I have traded them for a moment, having walked and rode through them. But at the time, it was more than I thought I could handle yet some how managed to plod my way through.
I encountered two separate adventures on my scooter that as a grown man and an accomplished motorcyclist with 30+ years of experience, I would never have thought I would do.
In the Mountain areas north of Hanoi in the city of Sa Pa and Lao Cai near the China - North Vietnam border, I had the opportunity to spend an entire day riding on a rather interesting scooter called a Minsk, a Russian made single cylinder, two cycle gutless piece of machinery. Given choices anywhere else in the world, I would have declined. But hey! I was in North Vietnam!
The winding roads from the mountain top, to the drive to the valley below, we encountered a spectacular view and navigation of this remote region. It was incredible!
I need to paint a picture of the main roads here. 11 feet wide and drivers take what they want (or need) for a majority of the roads are cut into the side of a mountain, there was maybe, if you were lucky, 24" of shoulder that dropped abruptly off in to nothing. At least from my perspective a 500 ft drop is close to nothing! Now at a particular spot in the road, the folks I was traveling with decided to stop and gander at this un-official "Over look". All I could say was, "WOW". Problem was that after I saw what was below the shoulder, I was not able to get back on my bike for fear I was going to be sucked off the planet into that "nothingness" which was actually full of every kind of rock and bolder, but the air between was what was so disconcerting!
I walked the scooter for about a half a city block, repeating to myself, "I don't need 11 feet of road to ride a bike, I don't need 11 feet of road to ride a bike!"
My courage slowly embraced my heart again and straddle my ride and with great fortitude and boldness did I also pull over for every on coming mountain vehicle! An 8 foot wide truck seems like it occupies all of the 11 foot road at this elevation. I am certain now, it was all an illusion generated by the high altitude!
But survive it I did! Now for a city adventure in beautiful downtown Hanoi! Having never been in an Asian city, my sense of "normal" is somewhat skewed and western based. Having traveled and lived in Europe during my tenure in the US Navy, living for two years in Italy, having traveled in Spain and France, I thought I had seen all that could be deemed by American sensibilities as "crazy driving". Even NYC could not have prepared me (and it did not) for what lay ahead of me in Hanoi!
While we had been up in the mountains, the Airlines had tried to contact me about my missing luggage. My presence was going to be required to advance the cause of rejoining me with my luggage. A scooter ride to the Airline office was required and my friend afforded me the transportation and that his 15 year old daughter would drive me. I responded, "The heck! I am not riding behind no 15 year old on a Scooter!" After all, how tough could it be? A lot tougher than I thought!
There is no way that words can describe traffic in Hanoi. These guys go into intersections and no one stops they just...flow. Ever see The new Star War's Movies and the space traffic in the city? The place where Anakin Skywalker jumps out of the vehicle and plummets between multilevel of three dimensional traffic narrowly avoiding collisions? Well, it was just like that! I don't know how they do it but they do. It was clear in the span of two city blocks that I was an accident statistic waiting to happen, that clearly, the "Force" was not guiding me and I was a hindrance and an obstacle to that flow! I pulled over and let the girl drive!
Yes, I stuffed my pride in my socks, got on behind her and white knuckled the luggage rack and closed my eyes because I could not watch. Now I am not afraid of many things in this life, especially when it comes to motorcycles, heck I can climb boulders with one!
Yep, I was worse than a little girl! Never drove another scooter in that town again!
Now the adventures of the motorcycles may sound humiliating to some, maybe even right out there but they paled in comparison to what I encountered in this country. I could go on, but this was about on the road and I'll leave it there.
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www.fasteddysports.com
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Bedouin
Oil Expert
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 2450
Loc: Athens, Greece.
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Great story Eddy!
Now ... having whetted our appetites with a phrase like "That part of the story will remain closed.", you have to tell us about your activities out there. 
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Bedouin.
Blessed are those eyes that have seen more roads than any man! (Homer).
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freedom
Saddle Sore
Reged: 01/12/05
Posts: 5302
Loc: NW, MT
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Quote:
you have to tell us about your activities out there.
I don't know if I want to know, or don't want to know Bedouin? Great story Ed! Ride your scooter out to Montana and I'll fetch a beer .
JH
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"It's not what I say that's important, it's what you hear" Red Auerbach
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bonnyusa
Big Bore
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 9218
Loc: Ft. Liquordale, Fl.
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I won’t belabor the ride up from Ft. Liquordale; suffice it to say that it took 16 friggin hours instead of the normal 13 thanks to traffic/wrecks/idiots around Atlanta. We left at 3AM on Friday, October 13th and had hoped to get there before dark which of course did not happen.
We were staying in Gatlinburg over the weekend and I had arranged for a storage facility for the bike to use while we were up on Mt. LeConte. We went by the hotel first to ensure our room and then went to the storage place. I figured why not put the bike up for the night there? Freezing friggin cold (about 37), I’m out there getting her untied from the trailer and back on her feet. Turn on the key, let her sit a bit, hit the starter. Wrrrr, click, click. You have got to be SH!TTING me!!!!?!?!? Nope, tried again, battery is deader than roadkill. Grrrrr. Stick everything in the storage bay and head back to the hotel. Deal with it tomorrow.
Back at the hotel, we get unpacked and settled…… Oh, I forgot to mention something. Turns out, someone we all know is here in Gatlinburg. Funny thing is, he’s staying at the same hotel and dangit, staying in the room next door! Yes, my friends. The Yota is in Gatlinburg! He and his 6 year old son Ethan drove down to play and coincidentally, we were there too! Crap, now I gotta hang with Yota I crack open the Evans as it’s been a long day and Yota comes over with a jar of his homemade moonshine. Pretty friggin tasty but I can tell that a little too much of that and I am NOT getting up in the morning! I stick to the Evans and Yota’s over there sucking down the shine like honeydew vine water!
Woke up on Saturday to crisp temps and the knowledge I had a dead bike. Found Yota and with one eye open, he says “I know where there’s a bike shop in town†so we all go and collect the battery (tried it one more time, still click-click) and head to the shop. Guy has ONE non-Harley battery and tells me he doesn’t even know why he has this battery. I knew why. Call it fate but that battery was meant for me. He fills it with the acid and starts charging it. So much for riding over the mountains. We all go get breakfast and by the time that’s done, it’s mid-morning and the roads are packed with tourists. We decide to spend the day walking around Gatlinburg. So here’s me and Janet and Yota and his son wandering here and there doing the tourist thing. We decide to ride the gondola (Ober Gatlinburg) up to the top of one of the mountains. This car holds 120 people and they are very busy this time of year so you know there are 120 people in the car. We get near the top and Yota is giving us that goofy smile and I know something is up. That’s about the time I start having trouble breathing due to a noxious odor wafting about! I am trying to breathe, laugh, and not barf on the little girl in front of me. We hit the top and everyone is VERY happy to get off!
This guy behind me says "what was THAT smell?"
I say (pointing to Yota) "him"
Guy says "no way"
I say “I’m afraid soâ€
Yota standing there grinning!
Sigh………
We spent some time up top, all the while in that noxious cloud. Poor Ethan, six years old and about the right height if you get my meaning. At one point he exclaimed “Daddy! What have you been eating!?†I thought I was going to fall off the mountain laughing! We had to go back down soon and I threatened to cut off vital parts if Yota didn’t control himself. I knew that wouldn’t work but I felt better with the threat. Fortunately, nothing happened on the way down, much to Yota’s chagrin! It’s after 3PM now, so we go get the battery and Raven fires right up. No more storage crap for her!! Yota had to head out at this time so we said our goodbyes (and good riddance! ) and parted. Had a nice little ride back to the hotel as traffic was uncharacteristically light on the Gatlinburg bypass! Janet and I thought about riding a bit but with the traffic, forget it. Another thing happened during the day. I managed to aggravate and old ACL injury so by the time the day was over, my knee was killing me. Remember this part….
Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day! A little cool with light winds and no clouds. We decide to take a ride and just to see if Janet has enough warm gear on so we go up to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. I remembered it as a really pretty five mile loop very close to the hotel. Got near it and of course, it was jammed with cars. Rode well behind one of those diesel F350s (spewing fumes) with the fifth wheel in the bed. Got all the way up to 5MPH. We were able to shortcut the trip and got the heck out of there. We needed gas and as I now was armed with a city map, we were able to get to the gas station at the entrance to the national park. Had to wait 10 minutes due to so many people trying to get gas and all that time waiting and while I was fueling, I watched the traffic going into the park. The car that was on the road right in front of me when I got to the station had moved about 50 feet by the time I was ready to roll. Sigh….. I looked at Janet and she gave me one of those ‘don’t even think about it’ looks and I said “we are done riding in Gatlinburg†We took the back way to the hotel and I locked Raven up. We decided to go to Pigeon Forge to look for boots and a new leather riding jacket for Janet. Even with the back way, it took over an hour to go the 6-7 miles. We did manage to find a nice heavy, lined jacket though. Finished there and spent another hour and a half getting back. OK, now we were done DRIVING around Gatlinburg!!! We walked back into town, got some dinner (yep, it took ALL day to accomplish nothing) at a great little Italian place and then walked around seeing the sights. Just like yesterday, my knee was killing me by the time we got back to the hotel. As you may remember, we were heading up the mountain in the morning on a fairly strenuous hike to the top of Mt. LeConte. I’ve been called many things but never stupid. I had to make the decision to blow off the trip up the mountain so we decided to head up to Banner Elk, NC the next morning instead. Remember this now…….
Monday morning, it’s cooler and overcast. Looks like it’s going to rain later so instead of waiting until mid-morning, we rush the packing and head out early. Headed up 321 (nice road) to 19E (anther nice road), to 194 (outstanding road!) into Banner Elk. Took about 4 hours and just as I am getting off the bike at the condo, here comes the rain. We rush the unpacking, got a little wet but who cares. I am high and dry now! So I start doing some work around the place (don’t want this to get in the way later in the week!) and I get a call from Yota. He says did you hear about the winds around Gatlinburg? Huh? Watched the weather channel and there was nothing on. Chalked it up to Yota being Yota!
Tuesday. Cold, raining, dreary. Worked on the condo all day…..
Wednesday. Nice again but cold. Woke up to temps in the mid-30s. We waited until 11am and headed out. Janet nice and toasty in her new jacket! Rode 105 to 221 to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were there in peak leaf season and was it ever beautiful. Trees aflame with every color you can imagine. Rode the Parkway up to Boone and then came back down the other end of 194 (what a great snake of a road!!). Get back to the condo and got to talk to some relatives who were in Cherokee on the previous couple of nights. It turns out that yes, very high winds (they saw a report of OVER 100MPH on the top of wherever they reported from), trees were down all over the place in the park, and they closed the friggin road over the mountain (441)!!! The reports were that it might take a couple of days to clear it!!! Holy crap!! Janet and I looked at each other, she looked at my knee, and I looked my knee. I then said some bad words and then told Janet “you owe me! If I hadn’t blown my knee out, we’d be up on that mountain somewhere probably not able to get down, and freezing my you know whats off!!!†Well, that didn’t’ work. In the back of my mind, I was shooting for a big bore….. Gotta try a different tack!
Thursday. See Tuesday, sigh…..
Friday. See Tuesday, sigh…..
Saturday. Finally some good riding weather! Clear and cold and I did wait a bit but out I went. Janet was doing festivals with the relatives so I got to RIDE! Did about 300 miles through some of the finest riding country ever. Sweepers, hairpins, straight-aways through fire tunnels of trees, switchbacks, reduced radius turns that would make even Chy grin! I was loving it! Freezing my butt off but loving every minute! Sadly, time was ticking away and as we were heading home very early in the morning and I had a lot of preparations to make, I turned towards ‘home’.
Sunday. Heading home…… Left at 4:15AM and luckily, no fog. It would have dictated another route. We took 221 down to I40 to I85 to the Charlotte bypass (I485?) to I26 to I95. Made really good time even though it rained all the way to southern GA. Rain cleared up and we were finally in Florida. It was even warming up! Coming through SC, GA, and into FL, I noticed a crapload of bikes coming north. Started seeing truck, cars, and RVs pulling bike trailers. What the heck is going on?? It then dawned on me that Biketoberfest was getting over and all I could think of was the traffic south of Daytona. Sigh….. Well, we were committed to I95 so damn the torpedoes…. 4 traffic snarls (4 wrecks, two real bad, one with bikes involved) and 3.5 hours later, we were almost to Ft. Pierce and about 100 miles from home. WooHoo!! Got on the Turnpike as I figured less people would pay to drive. Boy was I mistaken. It was bumper to bumper at 75MPH and lots of idiots trying to go faster. A recipe for disaster and it didn’t take long before we were again stopping because of another crash. Only took an hour to clear this one and finally arrived home 17 hours after starting. A long, long day but I was happy to be home. The worst part? I left my friggin gas on and it got sucked out and sprayed all over the K&Ns, the swingarm, tire, chain, darn near everywhere south of the carbs. Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. I am also not going to ride until I get a chance to change the oil…
Sounds like a bad trip, right? I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!
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"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" - Robert Heinlein
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Bedouin
Oil Expert
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 2450
Loc: Athens, Greece.
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Phil,
Reading this was a great way to start my day (I just woke up 20 minutes ago).
Thank you!
Now you'll have me day-dreaming all day.
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Bedouin.
Blessed are those eyes that have seen more roads than any man! (Homer).
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chy
Loquacious
Reged: 01/11/05
Posts: 3420
Loc: Dahlonega Ga.
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Dang Phil... sounds like a mountain adventure to me. Thanks for the report, it was a good read.
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Ga Rally 13
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mikemm03
Loquacious
Reged: 01/13/05
Posts: 3747
Loc: Tennessee by the grace of god
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Quote:
I’ve been called many things but never stupid. I had to make the decision to blow off the trip up the mountain so we decided to head up to Banner Elk, NC the next morning instead
Trust me bum knee or not you made the right decision.
Sorry I missed all the fun
Mike
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Red Devil and Hornet
It's not speeding till you get pulled over.
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