Blitz

Man, that was an incredible ride. Pretty sure I'm well over 350 miles on the day. And if God put together a perfect day for motorcycle weather, it was today. Thoroughly enjoyed it fellas.

Leaving now. Looking like 1:15 to the bucket. Maybe a little later.

I'm at Pony. Early is on time fellas. Where are you guys? I see you're running late

Copy. And while I am occasionally known to be unfashionably late....I'll be on-time and ready tomorrow. See you guys in the morning!

They're not squids. I have confidence that they'll do ok, but one can't predict everything. I'll reiterate the rules of how we ride and they're adult, and respectful, enough to follow them. Should be a good day.

I've got two meeting us at IP. One male, one female. Both are decent riders, but not quite as experienced as we are. The girl works for the AMA magazine in town.

Hey guys, something to keep in mind. Midwest Connection, the local hooligan street stunting/ law breaking ride, is meeting at 11 am at Pony. If there's only a couple of us, no big deal. But if we have a group, we might want to change the meet spot.

And they do... But how about we switch it up for a day and check out the Cherohala? Or maybe Wolf Pen Gap?

If I could show you the conversations I'm having about routes with other riding acquaintances for a Sunday ride. I'm having to fight vehemently to ride 669 instead of 70, 33, 13 or 37. Same group that refused to do anything but ride back and forth on the Dragon for 5 days.... Anyway.... I'm fine with that route and most anything that follows.

So happy to see an OR Saturday ride. I'm in. What time are we leaving Columbus guys? And where do you want to meet?

Might join this one. Saturday's a good day for me, and it's been a while since I've ridden with Jacob. I'll look to meet in Otsego. Tip: 83 sucks through the Muskie bucket area. Chip seal has ruined it for a few years, it seems.

I don't know what all this "timer" "stopwatch" business is. If you guys are racing....then RACE. 8 riders at the start line with a flag man. Checkered flag at the finish. First man alive across the finish line wins. Only sport bikes allowed. No less than 1000 CCs because this isn't that chump change 600 CC middleweight nonsense. I don't know why you all are even mentioning SENAs. No weak ass helmets allowed. And the same goes for gear. T-shirt and flip flops/ tennis shoes or go home. Last one across the finish line is sacrificed to the motorsport Gods. You guys really need someone to organize this thing.

Have you looked into the FZ10?

....or depending on the day.

Early on into my motorcycling career I noticed ear ringing. Looked into it, and found that wind noise inside a helmet can reach volumes in excess of 120 db. That's loud folks. Now, I'm uncomfortable riding even short distances without hearing protection. When Shannon and I got the Senas to communicate, I noticed I had a hard time hearing the speakers inside the helmet. So I've wired earbuds into the helmet to the Sena, and I use noise isolating foam tips that attach to most earbuds. They work great. They cancel just as much noise as ear plugs, and I have my wife hard wired into my brain for all two-up riding. I did a lot of research to find these foam tips. There are alternatives that cost more, but none of them are better. https://www.amazon.com/Rebound-Fidelity-Earphone-Earbud-Tips/dp/B01H6IEPDG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500571560&sr=8-1&keywords=earbud+foam+rebound

Unfortunately, according to consumer reports, BMWs are the least reliable of new motorcycles. Anecdotally, I've seen more BMWs (3) have catastrophic failures on rides than any other brand. As nice as they seem, I definitely don't trust them more than Aprilia...though that's not saying much. https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/17/is-harley-davidson-the-worst-motorcycle-money-can.aspx Seems like Jim is in the same department I am, in terms of what he wants. Naked baby! At the top of my wish list right now is the Tuono 1100 RF, and a very close second is the FZ10. That motor in the FZ10 screams, and the touring edition with some bags has got to be one amazing motorcycle. Plus, the FZ10 is only 12,999 brand new. https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2016/07/21/2017-yamaha-fz10-14-fast-facts/ This video review of the FZ10 is incredible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiEMPDeS3Ls I also love the look the white and blue MV Agusta Brutale 800. Sexy as shit. Fit and finish is jaw dropping. But, perhaps a little too exotic.

Apparently. Though, honestly, I think they'd love to look for any reason to mow people down. The hilljack trucker had homemade "Stomp on this flag, I'll stomp...." stickers in his rear window. Total tool.

I had my life threatened by two groups of hilljacks on SR 78 on Sunday. I swear, I'm no longer riding without a GoPro and a gun. A buddy and I come up behind a jacked up truck. He starts swerving, and driving on the yellow line or in the left lane. It's immediately apparent he intends not to allow us to pass him. So my buddy goes around me on his S1000RR...the fastest bike of anyone I ride with by far, and gets on his ass. He starts to go left around white truck hilljack and is almost pushed off the road. He makes it past. Then I do the same thing, except my pass was more sketchy and around a blind corner, cause ol inbred didn't have the nuts to cross the center line there. So we are ahead of him and start to pull away when we come around he next turn and there's a stop light and a one lane road for construction. This is in the middle of nowhere near Burr Oak. Now, I see we're going to have to stop with this blow hard right behind us. We get to the light and there are two cars to our front. We both are checking our mirrors to see what he's doing to do, and as soon as the door to his truck opens our kickstands come down and we dismount and prepare to defend ourselves. 'Ol' few teeth' starts in on us about how his wife got run off the road by us down on 78 last week, and how we're going to kill someone. I politely remind him that we weren't down there last week, he was the one driving on the wrong side of the road for miles, and that he also has a tail light out. This didn't curtail his anger. Its then that I notice a man and a woman, both wearing cut off tshirts needing a laundering, both with less than a full mouth of teeth between the two of them, walking toward us huffing and puffing...presumably not from the slight walk up hill on their tired, tar filled lungs. But because they are angry too. The man is closest to me and begins yelling at me about sport bikers on 78. He squares up and says "what's up then?!" as if he's like to fight. Now, had I taken him up on his offer, he'd be fistfightimg someone with full SNELL head and face protection and essentially wearing built-in brass knuckles. But I preferred to remain assault charge-less and declined. I would have wrecked his face. Then his fat wife says 'you try to pass us up here and we're going to run you over'. I think k to myself, 'I'm not taking the chance' and I wanted out of a situation in which I was steadily losing control. I quickly hop on my bike, ride through the fat couple. The fat man tries to grab me, then pushes me, and I ride through the red light, one lane road and attempt to leave. They hopped in their van and followed. I maintained a safe distance in from of them, while they tried to keep up dangerously. i probably rode 10 miles and couldn't see my buddy behind me, and I had put a few hundred yards between the van and I. I could have put more but I was worried about speeding in case the incident had been reported. So I pull over at the state park to wait for my accomplice. Then I see the van taking aim at my bike. He pulls just past me, barely missing me as I pull away. I check my mirrors and he had jumped out of the van, fists in the air, saliva and foam shooting from his contorted lips. Ready to rumble....again, with someone that would have knocked him out in the first punch, and someone in which his direct punches to my helmet would have caused him more damage than I. And I meet up with my buddy and we rode off... We hadn't been down there in weeks. I don't know what these people were angry, but they threatened our lives. 2 groups of them. And it's not the first time. I am making some changes to how I protect myself while riding from now on. This event was the last straw.

I've owned 3 Aprilias. A 2001 RSV Mille, a 2007 and a 2008 Tuono. Pretty sure the Mille had a sprag clutch going out when I traded it in...a $1200 repair. I didn't have the 2007 long enough to have trouble, but I've owned the 2008 since it was practically new. Always took care of it, and while it's had some electrical quirks, it's hasn't left me stranded. Yet. These bikes have common problems that the community knows about. I've been able to solve most of my issues. I'm working on one now and hope to get it ironed out. The point is, I never had to mess with my GSXR or ZX6R...at all. But the Tuono is a hell of a lot more fun and a hell of a lot more beautiful. Im no motorcycle mechanic, but I'm handy enough to fix Aprilia problems...so far. And the sound and ride has been worth the trouble up to now. So no, I wouldn't say I got a 'lemon'. I'd say I got an Aprilia.

Thanks guys. I'll look through all of this and make some decisions. And thanks Tim for posting maps! Much appreciated.

Hey guys, So I'm thinking the wife and I would like to do a 3 day ride and I was hoping to get some suggestions for the route. It would be nice to include some stops that aren't only motivated by the twisty roads that got us there, but twisty roads are the point of the trip. So don't leave them out in favor of the World's Biggest Corn Cob Pipe. States in mind would be WV, TN, NC, VA, and KY. I may lean on Tpoppa's WV routes but would like to get out of WV and into KY too. What do you guys think? I've never ridden multi-day from the back of the bike before, so I'm hoping to rely on you guys who do a lot of this.

"Get a Tuono" they said. "You won't regret it" they said.

Eh...actually, you might regret it. They're wonderful motorcycles, and there isn't a bike I've found that's more fun to ride.... ...when it's running properly. When service lights aren't lighting up the dash like a nuclear launch alarm. When it's not stalling at stop lights. When the rear brake lever does more than provide very weak calf workout and no deceleration...

Something Italian, perhaps?

PMd