Helmutt

Welcome to the forum

Dozen Dunkin donuts ( of your choice ), wash and wax the Vulcan, and teach you to play the guitar a little

Wife and I plan to arrive Wednesday and leave Saturday morning next year. This year, Thursday afternoon riding was great right along with Friday, until evening, then it started packing in. Late Saturday morning, I plan to hold up a line of Harleys from the gap store to the overlook with my truck and trailer. I'll be sure to mount a GoPro on the tail of my bike to catch the parade in action. #LikeABawssss

Tonik....free dozen of Dunkin Donuts, hand delivered, if you drop the ban hammer on this guy!

Congrats! Sharp Italian scoot

No worries. But if it were true, I'd still be washing the photographers blood from my hands. Never gonna happen. Not even on Halloween. This guy's simply spinning a yarn folks, so be advised that any imagery will have been digitally tampered with

Same here. Reading the stories here isn't nearly as good as seeing them told over a few brews and some tastey shine while Dan is off bear chasing and fire jumping

Welcome to the forum

Whew, ok....this will be wordy, but I'll cliffnote it best I can ever since you'd left the states. I traded for a barely used 2011 Sprint GT. Loving it so far. Grew sick of the same old inline 4 cyls, so my next bike had to be either a twin/triple/V4. I'm digging the triple. It's linear, yet torquey most anywhere on the tach. I love the center stand, makes tire swaps and winter storage a breeze. The single sided swinger is great for rear tire swaps too since there's no need to fight with aligning the rear caliper mount with the axle, adjusting blocks, and axle holes, then having to align the chain. Now I just pull a lock ring, zip off a 43mm nut with the impact, and off comes the wheel. It ticked all the boxes for me in that it's comfy, corner capable, sizey panniers, ABS, good sized bar risers, still a bit sporty seating position, SLOWER than my Ninja, and gets about 50mpg. I haven't been able to get near 250 miles on 1 tank of fuel before now, so it's been really nice stretching out fuel stops. I was very content with my ZX14 for many years, but I just couldn't build the tourer I wanted out of it and still get what I needed. My primary goal was to slow down, couldn't trust myself on solo rides anymore, enjoyed the purity of that beast too much. Simply put, I treated it like a straightline missle with some cornering capability. Hit 170 at the end of 4th gear way too often, yet it is a docile bike if you want it to be. Hypersports teach you throttle moderation and control in a hurry since they go so much faster, so much easier. Secondly was mileage. ZX14's are a thirsty breed, and best I could get was an avg 42mpg highway IF I could keep it at the speed limit and no playtime. Thirdly, tires. I went with sport touring tires to increase longevity, but it would still munch down 2 rears to 1 front....there again, right wrist dependency plays a big part I'm sure. Supermotos.....what can I say.....wish I'd done this sooner. Love the whole concept. Shred the corners, light and flickable, cheap to insure/maintain, and cheap $20/day tracktime at the kartway saves us money every year we own these things vs $400-$500 a day for us both to hit the big tracks. Not to mention another platform of bike for my wife to skill up on. It's nothing like riding her ninja and she's enjoying it right along with me, so win win win. Here's a link to my parts thread on the ZX14 parts. We can negotiate better pricing. I'd rather the stuff go to someone that can use it and I loathe selling shit on Craigslist, so it's been sitting on the forums since the trade. https://ohioriders.net/index.php?/topic/109529-zx14-wheels-and-other-misc/ I also have 2 lightly used spare cooling fans that I'd sell for $20 each, was going to add a 2nd onto my bike but never got around to it.

That's some classic "Duke boy" antics right there

I think you won the high mileage weekend contest

Those guys should thank firemarshall @OsuMj for saving their lives!

Welcome back man! That's one HUGE upgrade from a Ninja300. Good to hear you're back on American soil. If you want some extra goods, I've got a bunch of parts from my 2nd gen ZX14 that I can cut you quite a deal on

We did about 1500 miles total, but 800 of that was in the truck Thanks for the beer! My wife was pretty sure she saw your wife walking away from our cabin this morning. Appreciate it, and good to meet you two

Home, unloaded, and waiting on a pizza while we unpack. Had a great time, and was good catching up with the familiars, and meeting some new folks too. @JustinNck1 had a blast riding TN, NC, SC, and GA with ya Friday. Best time I've ever had getting lost over and over LOL. Didn't get to ride with anyone else since Jen and I rode out right after checking into Fontana Thursday, and Saturday was taken meeting up with family in Gatlinburg. Jim, that apple pie shine went down like koolaid, but snuck up on me like a ninja, damned tastey stuff. Had a hell of a time getting up the hills to our cabin Friday night. I blame that mostly on Godzilla. Blew my head clean off....fuckabuncha that shit! Way out of my comfort zone And Dan taking off to bear hunt with just a flashlight and a camera? Almost as foolish as jumping over the fire, you crazy bastid! Here's to next year, at a new place, similarly cooperative weather, and same great times!

No, no...I get that, and we agree. But for good, clean passes on most of these roads everyone knows M-Th is always best. That's fine with us. Our first time at Fontana and it's over rated, but the cabin privacy is nicer here than IronHorse. The place for next year will be better for sure. Lucky it wasn't worse. Old horror stories of riders coming around a corner and packing into the back of stopped trucks always run through my head when I'm riding down here. Good meeting you and the wife today too

Thursday afternoon Jen and I had a clean run of the Dragon and Foothills before 5pm. Thru the week is definitely the best bet to get clean passes most everywhere, not to mention the room/cabin rates are usually better too. 441 thru the Smokey Mtn Forest was a 35 mile train of slowboats today. Scenic, but slow. And Gatlinburg can just burn to the ground. Bumper to bumper flustercuck. Our own fault for meeting family here, but it's still a ridiculous amount of tourism for no more than a mountainside outdoor mall. Next years Gap Trip = Monday-Friday