xxxl

Went to a Suzuki GSX1100G Club rally in North Carolina a few weeks ago. Here is how the ride down went. _____________________________________________________________________ New battery. Fresh gas. Fire it up, short 20 mile ride to Geoff's. Inner thighs about to short circuit. Always happens on the first ride of the year. It passes. Over the next week and then some a days work will get done. Springs front and rear. New horns. New tires. Geoff, call the shop up, see how much it is to change tires. $34 Dropped the first one off. Be done in about an hour. We went to a Chinese buffet and talked. 4 hours later and Geoff has gone to work and I'm at the shop waiting for the job to get done. That will be $42. This was the first sign that things would go awry. I didn't read the cosmic sign. $34 plus tax, plus disposal, plus supplies. Hmmm, 4 bikes in this garage, 3 more at home and Geoff's brothe Greg is running around on his Sportster. Tire changing equipment might be a good idea. Geoff's bike wasn't ready for the trip either. He needed plates, he needed his license re-instated, he needed the front wheel replaced. He had wheelied the bike and lost it while looking at the clear blue sky and bent the front rim. We bought 3 before we got the right one, it came on the day before we were going to leave. So much for descriptions on eBay. Friday morning I'm packing my gear when my sister comes around. I tell her that a raccoon has invaded the trash cans 2 nights in a row and she might have to pick something up if it happens again. That is too much for her and she treats me with an angry rant. I stopped packing. Too bad I wasn't done. Call Geoff, let him know I'm going to be a little bit late. He is still in bed. I get to his house around 10, he's gone. I go to work, I have to replace a the rubber on a foot peg. This and that follows, you know how it goes, and we finally get under way. 60 miles south of Columbus we stop in McArthur for some pop and to wire tie part of Geoff's bike back together, it's 12:45. A couple of small towns later we make a wrong turn. The plan has gone awry. We t-bone into an east/west road unexpectedly. I can't look at a map because I didn't bring one, stopped packing, remember? The maps are sitting on my table at home. We go one way then turn around to go another. Too bad, we were right the first time. Stopped in Portsmouth for lunch, a late lunch, crossed the river into Kentucky and came back again because I thought it would be better to get back on the plan. If I had remembered my geography I wouldn't be compounding earlier mistakes with these later ones. We catch a couple of traffic jams along here. It sure doesn't help. Finally cross the river and work our way through Huntington WV. Route 10 south. It is a really nice road. Never saw any gravel in the corners. Road right through the heart of coal country. This is West Virginia. Crossed a mountain. When the yellow sign has a squiggly line and says 15 mph it means it. 30 towns later I know there is no way we are going to get to North Carolina in good time. We pick up some maps and alter the plan. I don't want to turn on 16 south to cross Virginia because I think it, a 2 lane mountain road, might be too dangerous in the dark, we continue on 10, there is an interstate ahead. I ask Geoff to take the lead, my visor is tinted and it makes things harder to see in the dark for this old man. We crossed the roughest mountain of the whole trip right there in the black of night. One rising slow switchback after another followed by diving slow switchbacks on the other side. Shadows dancing on the leaves of the trees like animals darting from the edges. By this time we are both sore and tired. Neither one of us has spent much time in the saddle this year and here we are putting in a 12 hour day. On top of that the Kawasaki that Geoff is on is shaking parts loose the whole way and we have to keep stopping to make repairs. We arrive in Princeton WV and talk about stopping to figure our next move. This place is hopping! The music is pouring out of a bar on the corner, all down the street we pass hundreds of kids hanging out, it's Friday night! Found our way to the interstate, Geoff is in the lead but he is going too slow, his speedometer cable has shook loose. I get out in front and we take off! He asks later about how fast we were going, well we were mostly just keeping up with traffic so it wasn't much, just more than you get used to in Ohio. About 20 more. The road is wet, we are cold and tired, we stop again near the NC border, asked some locals about our destination. We were less than 25 miles from Sparta NC and no one could tell us where that was. It took us 2 more hours to cover that distance, lost again, wet roads, wrong turns, fog. We were looking for the intersection of 2 highways, too bad they crossed each other twice. We found both of them, just spent a lot of time at the wrong one first. We finally found the motel. 2:30 in the morning. I really struggled up the stairs. We got into our beds, cold, in a lot of pain, and laughing ourselves to sleep talking about our big adventure. It sucked. But it was one of those rides you alway remember and wouldn't trade for anything.

Yea, here's how it goes. Drink for hours. Fire up the sport bike. Hold the throttle wide open. Shut it down. Bask in the praise and cheers of your neighbors who would not do the same thing to their own bikes. Drink some more. Repeat. Never buy a used sport bike if the owner camped out at the Superbike races. PS. Save some of your fireworks, the odd rocket or roman candle really get the deputies worked up.

Well I haven't posted since last year but nevertheless I'll be there too. Camping of course, with grill. The deputies got pretty aggressive last year about shutting down the party at 10 o'clock last year. Expect the same this year. They practice at vintage days! I should get there Thursday night. Chris Schafer

This is our Indian summer! All one day of it! Get out and ride! If all goes well I'll be at the big spillway on Buckeye Lake at 4 o"clock gettin' ready to head south around the lake and down 13 for an hour or two. Get out there and lean it over (but not too far, poor Valentino) and have a good time!

Check this out: http://www.speedfreakinc.com/content/ar ... queen.html

The Mansfield News Journal has a good article on Sunday's racing here. http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/app ... /610030337 It also says you get free admission to one event next year if you submit your ticket stub.

Motorcycle hall of fame ceremony and concours this Saturday at the museum.

Here is more of the story from RoadRacing World. "At issue is the lack of Supersport and Superstock practice sessions today. AMA officials have said that the riders can have three laps before the race; riders want 10 minutes of practice to assess track conditions following rain storms yesterday and last night. AMA officials claim they have no room in the tight schedule to allow any practice. Riders says it's a safety issue, especially for riders who do not compete in any classes other than Supersport and/or Superstock. While the riders continued to work on organizing and unifying their position, Leo Vince/Pegram Racing Honda’s Larry Pegram went out in the short Superbike warm-up session. After turning a handful of laps, his best a 1:32, Pegram returned to the gathering of riders to report, “It’s still wet on the backside. You can’t even get your knee down right now. If they lined up and ran those heat races right now there would be a lot of red flags and hurt riders. It [track] needs about two hours or good riding on it, and even then you better not get off line.†Shortly after Pegram’s report back to the group, Matsushima Performance Suzuki’s Danny Eslick returned from Formula Xtreme warm-up to report, “I just did one lap, and it was stupid out there.†After Pegram’s and Eslick’s reports, a sort of roll call was taken as each rider stated to the group that he would not ride in the Superbike heat races. The riders then left the gathering to check in with other riders to see if they would join their boycott of the heat races."

Well I was getting a little steamed up too at the start of the first heat race. But reading about things on SuperBike Planet changed my mind. In this case I think it was the track at fault and not the AMA or the pro riders. The track wanted the races it had signed up for and didn't care if anybody got any sighting/warm up laps in. There may have been wet or damp spots in a few places around the track and the pros held out for warm up laps for everybody. The track thought that most or all of the warm up laps were expendable. Good for the pros, safety first. Someone working for the track should have explained it over the PA. That is the story near as I can tell.

Superbike Planet has the story. Can't blame them for this stand. Parts of the track are not safe. Been going there for 30 years and I was wondering just this past weekend why they didn't iron a few things out when they did all the paving this year. I guess Jim Truemans daughter doesn't drive the course very often or even watch the races or she would figure this out.

Satan, If I decide not to camp (likely) you can have my camping pass. (They cost $30 this weekend!) Just send me a private message and we can hook up Thursday afternoon in Columbus. (If I decide to camp [unlikely] you can still pitch your tent in my space, there just won't be any room left for a campfire.) Mind the deputies while you're there, they got a lot of exercise in at the last Superbike race and I am sure that they have been looking forward to this one! Regards, Chris Schafer GSX1100G

I'm a season ticket holder. I will be there.

Yea, truck, and umbrella, and rain suit too! Racing can be good in the rain! As long as I'm not one of the racers!

I'm up for the ride. (Motivates me to get out of the house sooner.) I live in Millersport and head due North, Granville, (62)Lock, Centerburg(3C), Sparta, Chesterville. Is that a path you might be interested in? Centerburg is North of Sunbury and New Albany. 314 starts in Centerburg and runs right to Steam Corners Road.

WOW!

Hey! I'm going. For the whole weekend. I would be camping if I was sure about the weather. We might see racing in the rain on Saturday. If you haven't been to Mid Ohio I encourage you to give it a try. Buy your ticket online on Tuesday and it's only 20 bucks for all 3 days. $25 at the gate, weekend passes only. Just went up there this past weekend for NASA car races. They were great! Good thing too, I've been getting tired of crappy races. I expect the actual racing to be better this weekend than it will be on the superbike weekend. When it comes to superbike the race starts with eighth place!

If gas is flowing freely then my first concern would be hydraulic lock-up. Gas in a cylinder can bend a rod becuase it doesn't compress like air does. Drain the oil anyway. If it smells like gas then put cheap oil in until you solve the problem. You will have to change out this oil also. Start with the petcock and move on to the floats. Something is sticking open and it won't run right until that is fixed. Was the petcock left open? Is there a fuel pump? Can you identify one cylinder that has more gas in it than the others? Drain lines from tank checked? Running the bike with a rich mixture will discolor your exhaust pipes. If you have two mufflers is one changing color?

I spent a few years turning wrenches in a shop myself and liability wasn't the reason you inspected every job for more work. It was more just a matter of finding things that needed to be done while the job was in your bay. More work was just a phone call away. You did the inspection regardless of the amount of vehicles lined up in the lot. It is just a matter of good service. Yea, I don't like this practice of charging more for older bikes. I think it is just BS too. The reason for it seems to be nothing more than to discourage owners of old bikes. Dealers want to cater to late models, they can order parts right off the PC and get them in a few days. Old bikes are different, they may not be able to get parts without a lot of work and then they have to push the bike in and out of the building everyday. Looks like free storage to them. So anyway, when you go into your favorite shops just look for the rates or ask about them and post it here if they charge more or the same for old bikes. And are there any local independent shops who cater to old bikes? I know there are Harly shops and maybe some European shops but what about shops that work on old Jap bikes, anybody know about any independents that cater to older bikes?

Well I posted this question on another forum and a reasonable (almost) explanation did turn up. The surcharge is there to discourage people. They don't want someone bringing in their 70's 500 Honda thats been sitting in the garage for 25 odd years and asking if the shop can get it running again for under $400. Although most of us can work on our old bikes there are some who can't or won't. So are there independent mechanics in central O who don't charge extra?

Unless I'm feeling lazy (happens often) I shouldn't really need to know this but here goes anyway. Can you tell me what shops in the central Ohio area don't charge a higher shop rate for older bikes? I noticed that my local Suzuki steelership (Heath) wants an extra $15 an hour to work on bikes built before 1995. I'd like to compile a list. Thanks, Chris XXXL

Hello from Buckeye Ocean! My name is Chris and I ride a Suzuki GSX1100G. I'm 51 and I also have a brace of Hondas that I picked up in my mis-spent youth. To make everything even more confusing I also have an XS650 street-tracker/cafe project. That one was supposed to be shared with my nephew but I was unable to convince him that he could have fun on an old air-cooled of such low HP. Of course all of the bikes are projects in one way or another and if I work my ass of this winter I might have 3 of them up and running by the spring. I live in Millersport and work in Columbus (not far from the Kickstand Pub.) My compliments on the nice community your building here. Chris