My first Bike trip

2 out of 5 of my regular riding friends decided to go for our first longish ride together.
We covered roughly 900 miles over 3 days.

Me: new bike, newish rider, 3+ years experience
Rider 1: new bike, experienced rider, 20+ years experience
Rider 2: newish bike, experienced rider, 10+ years experience
Rider 3: newish bike, newish rider, 5+ years experience

I've been dealing with back pains, wrist pains and neck pains both on an off the bike. My wife also became a pain in the ass with her notion that our trip was a waste of time since we could just ride our regular haunting grounds again or do another state park closer to home. Probably the most mechanical of the bunch (there are 2 other riders with more mechanical ability than me but they couldn't make the trip)

Rider 1 purchased a new used bike and was eager to try it out on a longer trip. He had no family issues since he was riding before he had a family.

Rider 2 has a serious yearning to ride anywhere and everywhere, but not an ounce of mechanical skill/knowledge

Rider 3 was about to sell his bike after his wife's unrelenting nagging to stop riding and sell, his dream for the last few years was to ride Skyline drive in the Shenandoa National park, our destination for the bike trip and the only rider living relatively close to the skyline drive.

Of the 4 riders on this trip, 2 bikes had dangerously low tire pressure (rider 1 and 3) one bike had to be taken to the shop to have it's tire pressure checked (rider 2) along with an oil change and general safety inspection. I wonder if some of these guys should even be riding. Shouldn't a rider have some additional involvement with the ownership of their machines for their own safety and peace of mind?

We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip despite the wide temperature swings with the elevation changes. Though the park has speed limits that are relatively low (max speed limit was 45) no one felt like they were hampered in any way although rider 1 did fall asleep at one point.

The sheer size of the park cannot be under estimated. It has gas station and restaurants in the park and most people won't have enough time to get from one end of the park to the other in a day's ride/drive. We did it by reducing our scenic overlook stops, but still had a long drive to get back to our hotel rooms at the end of the day.

Click to view map of Skyline drive

Comments

how to open your door when neither handle works

My recently acquired 2003 Honda Accord EX 4 cyl had a faulty door lock actuator in the front passenger side door. Here is a run down of what I did wrong in case you find yourself in a similiar situation. Shopping for door lock actuators - Prices go from around $10 to over $40. I mistakenly ordered a pair of door lock actuators ($20 for left and right) for a coupe and received 2 black actuators that were not sized correctly for my 4 door sedan which has smaller white actuators. I did not discover the problem until after I had the door panel off and the actuator removed from the door latch assembly. It was hot, the flies were landing on me and drinking my sweat and I just wanted to button the door back up and stay cool inside so I searched for the closest parts store that had the part in stock and went there to buy it for $45. (I did return the 2 wrong parts but did not get a full refund, but I'm ok with that...$16 back in my pocket is better than $0) Reassembling the door l...

GSX-R750 Caruretor swap for the CB750c Part1

As an owner of an early 80s cb750, it quickly becomes obvious that the CV carburetors on these old motorcycles require the original airbox to run properly. It would seem like a minor price to pay for the reliability and dependability that we get with the design since no jetting changes are needed as we change altititude or swap exhausts. The constant vacuum (CV) design automatically compensates for the difference and keeps the bike running happily. Just don't change the airbox or use anything other than the original style airfilter. I got my bike running perfectly so I'm either a glutton for punishment or just a dumb geek who can't leave stuff alone. "If it aint broke, fix it until it is" might be my motto. People tell me I wouldn't be happy with a new bike because there would be nothing to fix. Maybe it's just a way for me to keep my mind busy so I don't have to think how much I hate my job. I started noticing some posts from people on cb1100f...

Universal Speedometer/Tachometer install

I wanted to replace my original speedometer and tachometer for something more compact. I'm not sure why, but the original 85mph speedometer always bothered me. I guess I felt like the bike deserved better even though I've only pinned it once in 10 years of riding. After casually looking around and almost pulling the trigger on a cheaper universal speedo with an analog sweep needle for the tach, I stumbled across this product. It can be found in all the usual places such as Amazon and eBay but it's usually buried behind 2 or 3 pages of search results with vastly different prices ranging from mid 40s to mid 80s (US$). The description typically includes a listing of what each wire is intended to be connected to, but in typical fashion for these kinds of imported products the English translation leaves a lot to be desired. For example: the product detail notes: "Oil Quantity Indicator" as one of the display areas, but they really mean fuel level (my bike doesn't...

Old Car and Bike rambling

Search This Blog