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Saturday, December 17th 2011

12:28 PM

40 ish, sun out, good enough

Electrics make winter a great time to ride. Today was beautiful and I decided to run the gravel that I can get to pretty easily.

Cedars of Lebanon

Cedars of Lebanon 2

Wuz a good summer
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Thursday, December 1st 2011

1:21 PM

Frosty Morn

I was expecting, after two days of cold, cold rain, to have to drive "Road Warrior" (my old Aerostar van) to work. Mid twenties over night, lots of moisture, heavy frost....

But when I went out to the van (I use a space heater to defrost the windshield and pre-warm it), the frost was melted. Hmm temperatures are within my commute range.

So, I rode to work this morning. Heavy fog, suspicious looking moisture on the road. No problems though.

When I got to work, a new experience for me: I had ice on my riding pants and jacket. Quite a bit of it actually.

Well, I arrived and was warm in the process and riding withdrawal was chased away.

A little north of town: a 50 car pileup and a fatality.

 

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Sunday, October 16th 2011

9:26 AM

Obed Wild and Scenic River

As old as I am, you'd think that there is no place in the state of TN that I haven't visited. Wrong. There are many places and limited time. What ya gonna do?

Go see something you haven't seen, that's what. New tire, gas money, time. Three planets align and I'm off to see the Obed River area. This is close to the prison road. Why haven't I been before? Dunno.

Did a little interstate (to make time) to Linwood to hit 141. Then 141 to 96,  a little more interstate to Monterey and the 62 to Wartburg. This all went really nice. The Wee is running great, the weather perfect, no time pressure. Sweet.

I had intended to start at the Obed River and backtrack through the Catoosa Wildlife area, but the ranger at the Obed River visitor center told me that it was hunting season and the woods would be full of munitions and hair triggers. Well, I would have gone anyway (although I might have been turned away by Wildlife Rangers) except I didn't have blaze orange and I could be easily mistaken as game by a careless hunter.

So, another time for that. The area is remote, natural, and uncrowded. And the roads are sweet for motorcycles.

A great day, right at 300mi.

PICS (start at 115)


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Thursday, September 22nd 2011

4:10 PM

Steady income: Awesome

I am thoroughly tickled to be going to work every morning. 90% of the time I'm riding the VStrom. One morning this week it had just rained. The roads were wet. The air was cool and the smells were sweet. I was practically singing in my helmet. Gotta get a new tire, take a week off to go to the gulf coast, and then scheme up some trips to the mountains.

Life is good!
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Sunday, August 28th 2011

7:39 AM

Ah summer

It has been a long, hot, unemployed summer so riding has been limited by temperature and funds. Providence, however, has delivered a great job and a break in the heat, so I am somewhat giddy in anticipation of fun, profitable work as well as time and money for riding.

I ride just about every day, so its not like I haven't been out there. I discovered my radiator fan is unplugged when I got caught in a traffic jam (I was only on the interstate because of the construction closure of a road I generally take. So I encountered the condition for which I use synthetic oil. The Strom will go over "three" bars in hot, totally stopped traffic. It took about 15 min for it to hit all the bars and light the red light. At that point I angled off the road to the shoulder and (to the tune of some heckling) got some air flowing through the radiator. I cooled down to 4 bars in about a quarter mile. The bike never boiled, hiccuped, or did anything. It just ran like everything was normal.

Faye and I headed out for a short ride yesterday and I turned down the same ramp onto I40 west: traffic jam and bumper to bumper traffic. I angled to the side of the ramp, turned around and rode up the shoulder back to the road we had just turned off of. I was going to swap a traffic ticket for overheating the bike again. We motored cleanly away from that traffic jam.

Fall is on the way. Great riding in sight!
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Saturday, June 18th 2011

7:59 AM

Just for fun

Short spin on the VStrom

I've been riding a good bit, just not writing it up here. A little at ADVRider:

Citico Creek Road
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Friday, April 8th 2011

10:04 AM

Nothing on the road to nowhere... (Citico Creek Road is a real thing)

Wait, that's the crummy little retail job I just quit, not the ride. Citico Creek road is a ride I've wanted to take for a long time. Cherokee National Forest just across the river from hwy 129, the Dragon. I've ridden 129 and Cherohala Skyway many, many time but just never got around to this large area of the national forest.

Most of those years I had bikes that were not good at all in gravel, so that was part of it. With the Strom, a gravel road is no problem at all. Anyway, two good days were available so I grabbed my camp gear, threw some Vienna sausages and boiled eggs in a sack and headed east.

I fell back on a great route to Tellico Plains. I24 quick jump to 64 to 41 to 280 to McMinnville and wonderful hwy 30 to hwy 39 to Tellico. A great ride every time.

I got there around noon, set up camp and headed towards Indian Boundary just off the Cherohala. There had been a lot of rain a couple of days earlier, so I also stopped at Bald River falls: not disappointed.

Citico Creek road starts as gravel on this end. Some pretty good ups and downs, but the road is in good condition throughout. Some loose gravel here and there requires your attention, but, for the most part you can motor along at a good clip.

I guess there were 35 miles or so of gravel. All good in a beautiful area along a great mountain stream. There are a lot of good looking campsites in the national forest. The weather was just about perfect.
 
Next day I packed up and visited a few more spots in the area, ran the Cherohala some, an generally bummed around. I also ran down hwy 68 to hwy 64 and then back to the Ocoee area, to hwy 30 to Reliance, TN and then hwy 315 back to hwy 39 for the turn west.

Pictures

739 mi total

Part 2: weekend of May 21: Farr gap off Citico; Forest Road 81 from Cherohala to Joyce Kilmer National Forest; Wayah road; Tellico road from hwy 28 to Wayah road. Plus a bunch of pavement with ST-Owners group. Camped at Hunts again.

974 mi total





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Wednesday, March 30th 2011

8:53 AM

Long Cold Winter

Its been long an cold in a lot of ways. Did't ride much because of the weather and a crummy little job I was working. With the redbuds came a time for change, so I'm riding more and looking for something better in the way of work. The Strom is in great form. New rear tire on and lots of mi left on the front. The valves are still in spec, but an expensive adjust probably necessary in the fall when it will likely have 65,000 mi on it. That's a lot of riding in 2 1/2 yrs.
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Saturday, February 5th 2011

7:05 AM

A little time and a little toodle around town

Nashville - my town
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Friday, December 10th 2010

6:12 AM

Cold, tired and going broke slowly

But yesterday, a little gap to ride. Right at 40° F. Once the gear warmed up, a great little ride. Through the Glade to Cedars of Lebanon and down most of the nice gravel roads. Then a brisk run through some good twisties back to the house. Short, but very sweet.

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