|
I'm doing a kind of test run to see how well I do with 400 mile days, and the weather is looking nice tomorrow in OK, so I'm going ride out to Mena, AR and back tomorrow if anyone's interested. Probably meet at like 8:30am at that Valero on Eldorado Parkway in Mckinney. Rode about 450 miles today so I may be dead tomorrow but I'm like 90% sure I'm going.
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 01:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 11:05 |
|
|
I'm all over that. I'll meet you there.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 03:12
|
|
|
How did this go? Or is it still going? I got about 40 miles in yesterday and holy hell was I beat.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 00:39
|
|
|
Just got home. I did about 560 miles for the day not including the trip to Valero at the beginning. I'm sure if I didn't have carpal tunnel issues before I do now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:45
|
|
|
azzenco posted:How did this go? Or is it still going? I got about 40 miles in yesterday and holy hell was I beat. Just got back, I got in 999.2 miles this weekend. Entire run out to Mena, AR and back was about 550 miles, out the door at about 8am and back home at 7:30pm. I have no idea how those IBA guys do it, 1000 miles in 24 hours would be completely insane. My front and rear tires are completely toast now, with the rears showing a lot of cords  . Otherwise my bike seems to have faired pretty well and I'm confident it'll survive my upcoming road trip. I think 400 mile days are definitely about as far as I want to go and still enjoy all of the riding. The last 200 or so miles today were really not the most pleasant motorcycling miles ever. With enough breaks though it's fine.Had run riding today Skreemer, my first time leading a group ride, if you can call 2 people that. Only made a couple wrong turns, and one of the roads I wanted to go down ended up being closed for repairs. Overall the trip out there was totally worth it. Definitely the most amazing motorcycling I've done, though I admittedly haven't done a wide variety of motorcycling. Lots of elevation changes and some switchbacks, beautiful views, and it was actually cold once we got on top of the ridge line. Super fun would definitely do it again if we get another bout of not murderously hot weather. The ride out there's pretty long and boring though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:46
|
|
|
I might have to try to link up with you guys sometime. I've just hit 1,000 on my bike and have gotten a lot more comfortable with being on the bike but still need work on my turns. Not sure if I'd be able to keep up with you though so maybe I should focus on more miles and more turning. This is an awesome way to get around.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 03:53
|
|
|
azzenco posted:I might have to try to link up with you guys sometime. I've just hit 1,000 on my bike and have gotten a lot more comfortable with being on the bike but still need work on my turns. Not sure if I'd be able to keep up with you though so maybe I should focus on more miles and more turning. This is an awesome way to get around. We don't go all that fast for sustained periods, and we won't leave you (or anyone else) behind or anything. I need to take a class in how to GoPro or something cause I'm awful at it, never produces anything I actually want to look at. Entrance to the Talimena National Scenic Byway:  Curves ahead:  End of the Trail Saloon:  Random picture of Skreemer:  I need to just start taking normal pictures, also fix my mount so it points further up so I have more pictures of the scenery and less pictures of my bug splattered windshield. I also didn't turn it back on after lunch even though I thought I did, so I only have pictures of the first maybe 1/5th of the curvy portion of the ride. Anyway despite my terrible pictures it's a really awesome place to ride. Real mountains that go up and down and poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 05:04
|
|
|
I think your pictures look fine. You just missed a bunch of the sky, which would have washed out the colors in the rest of the scene. I'm really disappointed I couldn't make it, but I went to bed at like 5am last night post-QuakeCon.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 05:23
|
|
|
The scenic byway was pretty good. There were some tarmac changes that made things a bit sketchy here and there but the road is actually in decent shape. Great views off the side when there is a break in the trees. If you want to play a bit and have more road in case you screw up take a peek at 259 right around "Three Sticks Monument". Wide open highway labeled as 25 MPH that we were railing on. The tarmac there was brand new about 2.5 lanes of screw up space, and somehow we get there when there weren't any cars.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 13:36
|
|
|
Figures. We have a freak cold front move through and fast-forward our weather to late October, and that's when I have in-laws visiting and can't free up a day to ride to Mena. I did get to go horseback riding, shooting, and got a nice sunburn at the pool so it wasn't a total loss. I think the pictures look fine too. It's good to see a trip report on this, at least. I will probably just have to do the ride by myself someday. Maybe after I get those peg lowering brackets that I've been thinking about. My longest ride to date was only about 250 miles, but it was hard on my knees.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 16:03
|
|
|
I think I was just frustrated that I didn't turn my GoPro on for the majority of the part I wanted to photograph. Also I do need to remember to take out my phone and take pictures that I can actually frame. I think one of us staring at the cords in my rear tire on 144 about 200 miles from home(and 50+ miles from civilization) would have been good.  Far as the route goes, I think the best way would be to make all haste to Talihina and then basically run 259 and 1 twice. Do what we did except turn around when you get to 144 so you can run that beautiful section of 259 with the switch backs again and then go back down 1 to Talihina, then just head home. That'd cut some miles off and although 144 is definitely not a bad road, it has some real issues with road quality and a lot of it is marked as 30 mph. I guess if you're willing to risk a 40+ over ticket it'd be really fun, and I think we saw about 4 cars on it the entire time but still a little risky and probably more fun to just run back up 259 and head west on 1 instead. Still means something like 340 miles of slabbing(starting in Mckinney) for ~175 miles of twisties though. Basically this convoluted thing, and then however you want to get to/from Talihina. I'm starting to like slabbing it though, it's kind of relaxing. I may be destined for a Goldwing. I don't think it's worth trying to do an actual loop, the other roads around there are pretty but not especially fun to ride. You can definitely just start heading south from Mena, and take quite a few miles off the total trip, but I think at that point you're riding a really long way to do a relatively small amount of good riding. At least according to my butler map we basically hit all the best roads in the area, with only scenic road 1 and that little section of 259 between 1 and 144 rating gold. On the other hand the butler map for Texas starts west of Austin and the other map ends right around the Texas border so it's not like our area of Texas has a lot of gold star roads near it. The closest one in the hill country is about 200 miles from my house and it's a lot shorter than the ones in Oklahoma. Also bound to be a lot less mountainous.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 16:49
|
|
|
I forgot to post the pic of our last outing 
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2014 00:47
|
|
|
Two things: I don't know if you guys drink a lot of water at home, but before going on a long trip start hydrating yourselves at the very least a day or two ahead of time. Drink a ton of water. During the ride, drink about every time you stop and maybe a gatorade or other sport drink before you go to bed with your tylenol/advil. (Brawndo is what plants crave) Kuffs, did you get any shots from the trackday? I know there wasn't much track time but I was hoping for a picture or small video.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2014 14:48
|
|
|
I have a bunch of video and a few iPhone shots of you guys taking a ride in the Jeep. I'll get them up later today.
|
|
#
?
Jul 22, 2014 16:53
|
|
|
Anybody going out this weekend? Wife is working tomorrow so I have to stay home with the kids but I've Sunday time available. I know it's going to be hot as all kinds of hell but I'm still itching to ride.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 15:30
|
|
|
The weather looks heinous, but I want to try out my cooling vest. And one of my friends lent me a couple cameras I need to test out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 16:13
|
|
|
Yeah, I figure I'll keep it on the short side due to the heat--if that's agreeable to all involved--but last time I went out in 100 degrees I felt all right. Did you really end up getting that super expensive astronaut cooling gear?
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 16:21
|
|
|
Oh no, that's too big and I don't have that kind of money. I just bought a cheap phase change vest from ML. Soak it in water for a few minutes then ride.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 16:48
|
|
|
Oh good, I thought you were joking originally and was getting ready to feel stupid about it if you weren't. If you want to go, what route are you thinking?
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
I don't have anything picked out yet. I'm hoping for something a little scenic perhaps.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 18:25
|
|
|
I'd be up for a ride I think. If anyone's looking for new tires, I got mine done by Texas Supersport, which is some hole in the wall shop off Harry Hines. It was a little (ok a lot) shady, but if I paid in cash it was $310 out the door for Pilot Road 4s on front/rear including mounting/balance(I brought just the wheels in). They didn't charge sales tax. Was pretty weird though because they originally quoted me 386, which was basically inline with Cycle Gear or trying to get them off the internet and find a place to mount/balance them for less than $40/wheel, but $310 total is crazy, that's less than I'd pay to just buy the tires online at Motorcycle Superstore or something.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 18:57
|
|
|
I bought a set of PR3's at Motorcycle Superstore last year and mounted them myself, using the ounce-of-airsoft-pellets-inside-the-tire balancing method. I think I'd be willing to pay $310 not to go through that experience again. Then again, I do know the tricks now. I'm not sure what roads are scenic around here. Didn't you all go somewhere out to the west at one point that had mountains, or at least some hills?
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2014 21:10
|
|
|
I'm up for a ride. I kind of want to head south down to the glenrose area.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 00:42
|
|
|
I'm up for a Sunday run somewhere, just post up where to meet.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 01:28
|
|
|
This is dumb but what all is involved in a bike inspection? They don't ride it, do they? Do I need to bring anything besides insurance paperwork?
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 06:42
|
|
|
azzenco posted:This is dumb but what all is involved in a bike inspection? They don't ride it, do they? Do I need to bring anything besides insurance paperwork? It's odd at the same place I've have one where they rode my bike and one where they didn't, but they do make you do a "stop test" (get to "x" mph and stop within so many feet.) Then they checked other things like all of the lights functioned and the tires weren't bald. It wasn't a very involved process. Make sure though that they have the correct VIN number on everything. The VIN number on the sheet I took to turn in for plates that the inspection place wrote up had a few bad numbers on it and I had to go all the way back and get a corrected form.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 12:26
|
|
|
Every time I've had a bike inspected all I saw them do was walk around it. No one ever made me do a stop test. I wonder if the place I was using was lazy or what--they told me it took longer to enter my info in the computer than to do the actual inspection. My sticker expires this month so I guess I'll find out soon if the place I go to here in McKinney does things differently than they did in Plano. I see we're still looking for a consensus on where to go tomorrow. I have no specific preference. My only real constraint is that I can't be gone all day; I need to be back by late afternoon.
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 21:59
|
|
|
I have to be back by 11 soooo probs won't be doing *too* much with you guys. I say we get an early start so that the weather isn't heinous. 7-8am?
|
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 22:26
|
|
|
Works for me! \/\/\/ Is that place at Midway & Spring Valley? Alceste fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Jul 27, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 26, 2014 23:06
|
|
|
Should we meet at iHeart Kolache again? I think someone else should probably lead since I gotta be home kinda early. MNS, you got any choice roads down south in that Butler Book of Magic?
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 02:53
|
|
|
I suppose we could also go up north and do 455 onto 697 again. If we do that I say we meet at the QuickTrip at the start of the route.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 03:33
|
|
|
Yeah I'm just gonna take charge of this now. I'm gonna be at the QuickTrip at the intersection of 5 and Eldorado at 7am to lead our classic 455 onto 697 route. Should only take us about 2.5 hours to complete it, which gives me plenty of time to get back home.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 04:26
|
|
|
I didn't want to just keep making "sounds great!" posts over and over without hearing from anyone else, but this would probably work best for me too, so I'll be there.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 04:32
|
|
|
I'll parrot and just see you all there.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 04:43
|
|
|
kuffs posted:Should we meet at iHeart Kolache again? I think someone else should probably lead since I gotta be home kinda early. MNS, you got any choice roads down south in that Butler Book of Magic? Sorry got distracted yesterday, I'll see you guys there though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 12:29
|
|
|
M. Night Skymall posted:Sorry got distracted yesterday, I'll see you guys there though. Kuffs changed it to the Quick Trip out near McKinney. I'm gonna be a few minutes late, I'm just leaving.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 12:31
|
|
|
Here's the pics I took from today: http://imgur.com/a/gc94x Featuring a German surrounded by Japanese at every turn. Also I believe we have 3 of the 4 in the Pilot Road series on display. I would have gotten a few more, but my laptop insists on putting videos / pictures in the recycle bin on the memory card rather than just deleting them outright. So I went to take more pictures and realized my card was full of junk.
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2014 20:13
|
|
|
Three out of four gun-loving, motorcycle-riding, IT industry goons choose Suzuki! Thanks for leading again, and thanks for the photos. Thoroughly enjoyed myself, as before. The tire thing is kind of funny. Here are a couple that I took.  
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2014 14:38
|
|
|
The weather for this weekend is looking pretty stellar for this time of year, with highs in Dallas in the high 80s/low 90s and in OK/AR in the low-mid 80s. I was thinking of doing another run out to Talimena. It's a pretty long day, last time we finished with ~490 miles round trip to/from Mckinney. With 560 miles on the day for me and somewhere around 600 for Skreemer. I'd like to change things up a little from last time. The end of the trail saloon was interesting, but not 20 extra miles on what is already a really long day interesting. Both Talihina and Mena are biker friendly towns and I think we should just eat in Mena. The Talimena Scenic Drive site recommends The Mena Chopping Block and County Express. I'm fine with either of those, I'm sure there're other options if people want to look around Mena, both of those places are basically right at the end of the scenic by-way. I'm also not sure that 144 was worth doing. It's a neat road, but it has long sections that are 30 mph for no reason and a fair amount of construction/gravel. I'm thinking skip it and just do the really cool section of 259 with the switchbacks and otherwise out and back on the scenic drive itself, which is amazing. This is my proposed Route. The other difference is we stay on 75 a little longer and take 43 directly to Talihina instead of going through Antlers. My plan last time was to take 271 up which is supposed to be an alright road, but it's closed for repairs so that didn't work out at all. 43 looks like a slightly nicer road than 2 and we get to ride by a lake for a while. The ride up 75 is long and boring but once we're off 75 it's at least scenic and the byway/259 are both really cool mountainous twisty roads. We could also come back via 2/271 just for a change of scenery depending on how nice 43 is. Overall the route's a couple miles shorter than the route we took last time, with a slightly larger amount of quality roads vs. slab. Last time we got started around 8:30 and I'd like to start earlier this time, around 7. Starting earlier lets us take a small break for a snack/light breakfast somewhere, and then take a really long lunch. Hopefully that'll make the ride home not as grueling. Also tried to organize it so that we get as much done before lunch when we're relatively fresh as possible, and then do some nice twisties after our break and then just monotonous slab until we're home. I think this'll make for a slightly nicer ride, but it's still a long way. Also this time I won't ride 450 miles the day before so at least I won't start the day sore, that'll be nice. I'm also thinking of trying out a bead seat if anyone has any recommendations for continuing to make my SV650 look like the least hardcore motorcycle possible.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2014 18:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 11:05 |
|
|
Someone in one of the other threads posted pictures of a furry sheepskin seat cover. That would look less hardcore than beads, I bet. When I got back, my kids both said they missed me when I was out riding yesterday.  That and not fully knowing what plans have been made for me next weekend--I know we're having people over on Saturday but that's it--make me unable to comment about the rest of your post. It would be criminal not to take advantage of that nice weather, though, assuming we actually get it.edit: here we go http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3098443&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=240#post432210628 edit 2: we are taking the kids to the circus at 10:30 Sunday at the AAC, so I won't be able to make it. Alceste fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jul 29, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2014 20:14
|
|