jch82

I have the Leo Vince FAST Shift setup on my CBR and it gets used on occasion. If it wasn't installed when I bought the bike, I don't think it would be on my list of things to buy for a bike that spends it's time on the street.

Exactly the exhaust I have been thinking about as well. Good to hear you like it! And see that it fits with the saddlebag brackets. Thanks for sharing.

+1 for the Go Cruise. I have used one for a few years now on road trips, mostly traveling on the highway. $20 well spent.

I have had the SMH10 for about 5 years now and it is still going strong. My buddy and I have used them all over the country and they work great. Battery life is good too for long trips, turn them on in the morning and they are still going strong when we turn in for the night. That is constant use either talking or listening to music all day.

Last year was a blast! Would love to make it, but my wife and I will be at Rock on the Range that weekend...

I have been to a few different indoor ranges, but most of my time is spent at Middletown Sportsman Club at their outdoor range. The range at Target World is average. Gun selection is real nice and I have had some pretty good conversations with a few of the guys behind the counter. Point Blank over in Blue Ash is a great place too. I picked up a few guns from there and the sales guys were good at asking questions and holding a conversation. It's nice when the guy behind the counter actually talks instead of stares at you while you are holding the gun. I had that experience down at Bass Pro Shops just the other day. I attempted to spark up a conversation with the guy, but he wasn't the least bit interested it seemed... I have also been up to Vandalia Range & Armory. I was quite pleased with the range officer there. He were very attentive and had asked if I had ever been there before. I said "no" and the guy went through about a 5 minute "range rules" conversation with me. It wasn't much of anything I hadn't already known, but was nice to see that they were playing an active role with safety on the range. Point Blank has a video you watch the first time you go on the range and Target World has a piece of paper you have to read if you have never been there.

I just rode my VFR out west and back on a 3,000 mile trip over the last week. It is a great balance for me between the sport bikes and touring bikes. I have owned an FJR and it is a great highway flyer and will eat up the miles. It handles twisty country roads just fine, but the weight was a bit much for around town riding and solo travel. My 1000rr is great fun, but not my first choice for riding hundreds of miles day after day (not much storage capacity either). The VFR is an excellent solo touring bike for me and has plenty of storage. The mods that really worked for me were helibars, taller windscreen, and an aftermarket seat. The bike is very capable at highway speeds, twisty country roads and loaded down for touring. A great all around bike.

I been here before... Shredded semi tires seem to litter I-75.

Short video clip on I-65. The video doesn't do the scenery justice. http://youtu.be/_UzxpysclLg Don't forget your I-Pass! I had to make 3 different stops at toll booths because it didn't dawn on me that I could have brought along my I-Pass I had from a trip through Chicago last year... http://youtu.be/tWyAC8p68Uo

I have a couple GoPro videos rolling down I-65 that are uploading, but in the meantime here are some friend's I made at a little gas station in Pax, WV. We sat around and watched the world go by before parting ways. I took off for my next adventure and they just continued to hang out in the shade.

Me + Taco Bell = Funny thing is that I have been eating pretty much the same combo for the better part of 13+ years.

No problem, my 5er is on the shorter side of them and also an ultralight. I wouldn't tow anything I didn't feel comfortable with. I understand what you are saying though as the same can't be said about everyone being in control of their rig.

Breakfast The burner setup is an MSR Pocket Rocket and Jetboil fuel canister. The mug is 20oz and stainless steel. I tried to keep the camp food pretty basic to just things I could make with hot water. Time to finish packing up and get back on the road. My favorite road trip food! I have stopped at many Taco Bell's across the country and this one in West Virginia has been the cheapest of them all. This was just shortly after 11am, so I had the whole joint to myself. As you can see, I have another window seat. I can't imagine I'm the only one that parks their bike near a window seat?

Lol yeah

My '99 F350 DRW 7.3L just rolled 200k. The transmission was rebuilt at 190k, it leaks a bit of oil and the steering was pretty sloppy. I have recently replaced all the shocks and ball joints. Also tightened up the steering gear box a bit to try and offset the sloppy steering. I didn't really need to do these things, but it seems that every vehicle I own, I usually update the suspension. I use mine to haul a 28' fifth wheel. Sometimes I throw a trailer on the back of that and haul my bike with me. It pulls like nothing is back there.

http://youtu.be/rzeHLjkI-oQ Luckily I didn't hear this all night! I'm not sure what or if there is a train schedule, but I was heating up some water for instant cappuccino and oatmeal around 8am and this clamors past the campground. Other than the train, the morning went off without incident and several of the people I had talked to the night before stopped by to say hi and wish me luck. What I really think though, is they wanted to see if I survived the night in that little tent!

Yes it was very nice of her. It ended up being in the low 60's by morning though so the fan didn't see any use. I just told her the fan worked out very good.

Here is a possible camping option.... and it's FREE! http://freecampsites.net/#!%2834.988003703040825,%20-85.21569439531254%29 I ran across the free campsite/roadside camping stuff just a few days before I left. It would definitely be possible and I definitely thought about it, but I wanted to try and keep the first motorcycle camping trip pretty easy and basic. On another note, you meet all sorts of interesting people when you travel by yourself. People seem more inclined to talk when you are alone, rather than with a friend or group of people. I was definitely riding solo, but nearly every stop I made, there was some kind of character there...

About 10 minutes after Ed wanders off, this lady comes over to chat. She brought that white fan with her (you didn't actually think I packed that on the bike, did you?). She told me it was going to be hot that night and that I would need it. I gave in (kept the fan), thanked her and she was on her way. At this point, I was looking for a little solitude so I could focus on finishing things up. About the time I was setup, it was dark and everyone in the campground was either sitting around a fire or inside their camper. Finally some peace and quiet! I got a fire going, cooked a little food and relaxed for a while before going to bed.

My original destination was going to be Kanawha State Forest and then I realized it was at least another hour and a half away and it was already 7pm. As i said in my first post, this was my first time camping off the motorcycle, so I had no idea what I was doing and didn't want to be setting up in the dark. I saw one of those signs off the road that said "camping", took the exit and followed the signs to Wolford's Landing Campground. Words cannot describe the check-in process. The little old lady I talked to was so nice and at the same time she was yelling at her husband (in a sweet old lady voice) to make sure my site was ready. She made me come up on the porch, sit next to her on the porch swing and fill out the paperwork. I hand her my MasterCard and she, at first says it is cash only. I tell her "no problem" and that I can run down the road and get cash. She hesitates a moment and says she has a credit card machine in her trailer, she has only used it one other time and if I can operate it, then I won't need to go get cash. Luckily, I have worked in retail for the last 13 years, so using one of these machines was easy enough. After this is done, she leads me back outside and says her husband is going to show me to my site. The problem is that her husband is now nowhere to be found. She begins walking through the campground and says she will just show me herself, but she needs to walk slow because of her back. I tell her that isn't necessary but she persists and tells me to get on my bike and follow her. I am now pretty much pushing my bike through the park following behind this little old lady, who by the way is still trying to have a conversation with me. Thankfully we don't travel very far at this pace and she points at her husband who was doing what he was told and standing at my site. I thank her and make my way to the site. Ed, her husband begins telling me his life story as I am unpacking and setting up my tent. He is a fairly thin guy, probably in his 70's. He is wearing some beaded tribal necklace and has a walking stick with a bunch of intricate carvings. I didn't think anything of it until he tells me that he is a Great Cherokee Indian Chief and his Indian name is Protective Bear. Now, maybe someone can enlighten me on Indian Chief's, but Ed didn't look like he was part of any Indian tribe. Ed finally wanders off and I can now concentrate on getting everything setup and situated before it gets dark out. I must also say that I was the only tent in the entire campground, so I definitely drew a lot of attention amongst all of the big campers and RVs.

Best part about that is I actually thought about how to write that for a few minutes... 50/50 shot and I blew it!

I know all of you have these shots when you are getting your camera ready! A few shots rolling down OH-247 Out of my way van! Corner of OH-247 and CR-2

Walking into McDonald's, I was greeted by hundreds of children and what seemed like every Wal-mart shopper I have ever encountered in my life... No problem, I'll just grab my food, eat real quick and get back on the road. I sit down at a table near the window so I can keep an eye on my bike while I eat. At the table behind me, there are a couple old guys (let's call them Bob and Jim) and they seem to be talking about the news. I am overhearing bits and pieces of their conversation and every story seems to be about someone dying or getting killed. One story that sticks out most has to do with a motorcycle helmet. Bob asks Jim; "Did you hear about the guy that got his face shot off at the convenience store?" Of course he hadn't heard the story, so Bob says "Yeah, this guy on a motorcycle stops at a convenience store and doesn't take his full-face helmet off when he goes inside..." "He walks up to the counter to pay and the clerk thinks he is going to rob the place, pulls out a gun and shoots him in the face." There is silence for a moment, and the next thing I hear is Jim and he says, "What's a full-face helmet?" At this point, I knew what was coming next, Bob says (I assume he is pointing at my helmet sitting on the table) "It's just like the one that guy over there has."I now have two options, continue eating as if I didn't hear a thing or turn and strike up a conversation. I decided the latter, since it was too early in the trip to be dealing with strange people already. I finished eating and got on the road as I was excited to hit OH-247 and get down to the river.

Finally got home from work and finished loading everything on the bike and was able to get on the road shortly after 2pm. More than likely I had packed entirely WAY TO MUCH STUFF... That's normally how it goes though. My original plan was to shoot out to Hillsboro real quick and stop at a BBQ joint I had been to before, make my way south to the river and follow that until I found a campground. As luck would have it, the little BBQ place was no more and I settled on a quick stop at McDonald's. Boy was that a great idea . http://youtu.be/LDZIARCRQJ0 The stretch of road in the video was about 10 minutes before the McDonald's experience, It is on Evans Rd, which is about a lane and a half wide through cornfields. It must have been a dirt road in a previous life and at some point, a bunch of asphalt was dumped on it... Anyway, the start of the video shows a van rolling by and it was at that point, I thought of the head on collision that I may have just avoided by stopping to get the camera rolling. To continue the story, I'm riding pretty cautiously through this little stretch of road (the van fresh in my mind) and about halfway through, I encounter another car moving along at an alarming rate. There is always that moment when everything moves in slow motion. The reaction on the kid's face that was driving tells me he knew flying down that little road could have been one of the worst mistakes he had made in his short life so far. I guess the same could be said about me choosing to take that road too. Next stop = McDonald's

I use an Uncle Mike's Instructor Belt that I picked up on Amazon for $26. I have had it since February and use on a daily basis.