T Minus 8 hours

So I leave at 8 am tomorrow (or 7 if I wake up). Bike is packed and ready to go, did a quick 15 mile run with it packed to see how it feels with the extra weight, balanced and nothing poking me anywhere. Plus I got gas. I keep all my need to get to quick stuff in the tankbag, and the rest of it is my clothes, tools and misc gear.

The first two pictures are of my bike with all the bags and gear (notice the state map on the right tail fairing). The tools are stuffed into a PVC pipe container, with just enough room to get everything in. The smallish army case bungied to the top has my ratchet straps so that I can hitch a ride with Sixxxer on the way back.

Third picture is my view, GPS and roller directions on the left. What you cant see is the Ipod and cell which are hidden under the clear plastic tank bag cover. I duct taped the wires to the tankbag to keep them from flailing around at speed. The only 'rouge' wire is to my earbuds, and that has an extra chord between the earbuds and the Ipod which hangs off the bag so I can easily disconnect from the bike . Also not visible is my throttle lock which is great for long stretches of roads where I can switch hand and give my right hand a break.

The last photo is my direction list for the rollers. Really the directions are easy. PA turnpike to I-81 south, which turns into I-40. Then some local roads to Trips house, and from there back roads to the Copperhead Lodge.

Plans and preperations

So I have pretty much much made up my mind to ride to GA on wedensday, its still up in the air, but expect to go. With that knowledge I spent the day prepping the bike and myself for a long ride. Really my preparation is to go through the bike, look at my tools, check all my electronics, and pack my clothes.

The total distance door to door is a hair under 700 miles to Knoxville, and another 100 miles to Blairesville. I can stretch my CBR's gas tank to 180 miles, but I prefer to stop every hour or so to stretch my legs, and every other hour to fill up with gas (usually about every 130 miles) . I am figuring on 6 gas stops and another 6 rest stops.

My luggage consists of a Gears navigator tail bag, a 30liter magnetic tailbag, and a home-made tool container tube. Really, its a good setup, kinda hard to get my leg between the tail and tank bags, but once on the bike they both are great places to rest against when I get tired, and the tankbag leaves enough room to rest my elbow comfortably.

I keep all my toys (ipod, cell, camera) in the tankbag, as well as whatever I need to be easily accessible during the ride, drink, food, wallet, money, as well as directions and other necessary small items. All my electronics run off the cig lighter I have buried in my dash and a spliter I hide in the tankbag.

A full day of riding and pondering plans for next week

Today was a fun day. I went out with a few friends, and all told we did close to 200 miles including some (minor) twisties. I also gave my buddy with a 954 a hand with his suspension. We set it according to his body weight (for sag) and sport rider magazine had a list of recommended settings that we went by. The myth that suspension tuning is a black art is false, but it does take some basic knowledge to get it right. I'm not saying that I am a suspension guru or anything like that, but google is my friend.

And just for shits and giggles here is a contest photo we took. The photo needed to have my bike and a falling rock sign, plus there was some discussion about the previous photo which was of a girl in a bikini in front of a bike. I think we covered both photos with Dave in in a bikini and me holding a falling rock sign.

After today I am seriously considering making my way next week down to Georgia for the TWFix.com annual meet. My buddy Tommy is riding down Wednesday night, arriving in Knoxville Thursday morning to meet the boards admin and finish the ride down to GA. I think I might just follow him down.

The most retarded biker

So recently a guy named Sherv has come to my attention from the ZX10r forum has come to my attention. He is without a doubt the dumbest biker I have come across on the Internet. Just to start off while I was looking through his flickr account I came across a photo of his ticket collection, and to realize he still has a license surprised me, he has a pile of tickets a mile deep and more that weren't visible. Anyway this guy had a genius idea when he was watching an episode of the Simpsons where Homer decides to put speed holes in his car. Well to sum up 55+ pages of forum babble he cut holes into the frame of his ZX10r. If you aren't familiar with modern sportbike frames they are made as light as possible, and one of the things that is typically lost while lightening a metal frame is strength, and to go ahead and remove material from a sportbike frame is ridiculous. Sherv claims to have a degree in engineering, but doesn't quite seem to have learned anything from it. The real reason he did this is to add ram air scoops to the airbox, which the bike already has (see those plastic tubes in the frame?).

There are many bikes that do have ram air, and holes in the frame and all sorts of stuff that the factory designed into the frame, but they do this by boxing in the frame and not leaving any sharp corners that will easily become weak points.

Anyway I truly believe that this guy will eventually wind up killing himself, and possibly others with some of his shenanigans, like plexiglass heel guards:

And remember those tickets I mentioned?

Go west my young son

Heading westward for work, but I am gonna make a quick pitstop n LA for some soapbox racing tommorrow. Gonna school the westerners on how we do it in the east.

pictures

click here

I'm home

Really, like in my house and stuff.