{"id":171,"date":"2009-07-03T22:46:05","date_gmt":"2009-07-04T05:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/?p=171"},"modified":"2009-07-07T02:57:55","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T09:57:55","slug":"post-motorcycle-trip-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/?p=171","title":{"rendered":"Post Motorcycle Trip update"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/a>Jim and I survived our encounter with the Dragon!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A very curvy road, no doubt, but maybe a bit over-hyped?\u00a0 Doesn’t matter,\u00a0 it was fun, and thinking about it,\u00a0maybe not too hyped, it’s very different, many curves, no intersecting roads, and certainly there is NO room for mistakes, or you are going down in a bad way.\u00a0 Kind of reminds me of\u00a0flying airplanes, not very forgiving of ‘mistakes’.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

\"isurvived-orangel.jpg\"For the 2 days,\u00a0 an awesome ride, we left about 6:00am from the Service Plaza on the Florida Turnpike.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m on my Yamaha FJR1300, Jim on a BMW 1100RT.\u00a0 Both\u00a0 bikes are simply incredible, made for just this type of high mileage, any speed from 25 mph curves to 80+ mph Interstate.\u00a0 We covered 1764 miles and 5 states(Jim a bit more), and loved it.<\/p>\n

We started in Orlando, but before we were even to Crystal River, we were in heavy rain.\u00a0 We were out of it in just a mile or two, just scattered storms. Soon we were heading up Hwy 19, to Tuscaloosa before heading West on I-10. A little confusion between us at the turn for Dothan, he thought we were taking it, and indeed, I had it mapped on the GPS that we were taking it, BUT I took us another 40 miles West before heading North to Dreamland\u00a0 BBQ, 560 miles, and we were sitting down to a rack of ribs, white bread and BBQ sauce. Yummy.\u00a0 For two guys who’ve run many, many running races over the years, and know how to eat properly, we didn’t exactly eat like your typical ‘healthy’ runner.\u00a0\u00a0 I know some of our running friends would have been appalled.<\/p>\n

After a little chatting with some local Alabamians, and we headed East to Chattanooga. More scattered rain showers as we got close th TN, gassed up, and headed back West to Nashville. I played with the camera on this section, getting some pretty good photos as the sun dropped in the sky, and the rains came and went.<\/p>\n

More confusion between us as we got to Nashville, he was ready to make the turn to head back to Knoxville, I showed 20 more miles to go.\u00a0 I think I scared Jim to death with my ‘Buick’ sounding horns as he started to exit and I honked.\u00a0\u00a0I’ve done a little upgrade to the bike\u00a0in that area,\u00a0and I believe he thought an old lady in a Cadilac was about\u00a0to run him over!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Actually, he was more correct than I on the exit, we took the next exit, headed North, then East to Knoxville. A stop along the way for a drink, and gas, and we got to our hotel in Knoxville just after midnight.\u00a0 1032 miles according to the GPS.<\/p>\n

Next morning, 70 degrees, clear sky’s, and the Dragons Tail was calling. We hit the Foothills Parkway, Dragons Tail, Cherohala Skyway, and into Tellico Plains.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 I’ve ridden roads in this area long ago, and if I lived there, well, honestly, I’d probably crash a lot.\u00a0 My safety net was that I had to really be careful and controlled since I was far from home, didn’t know the roads,\u00a0did not want to drop my big FJR and have to deal with consequences of getting home and putting my buddy through that, and I was already on thin ice with a wife not caring for this long distance motorcycle thing while she’s traveling to Louisiana with the kids.<\/p>\n

Funny thing while leaving one of the overlooks on the Cherohala Skyway, this guy pulled out in front of us, like he didn\u2019t want us ahead of him.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t tell what he was on at the time, just some old rat bike that was going to be in our way, I thought. But when he started riding harder, I kept thinking is sounded JUST like my old KZ1000, that I had in High School and College, a 1979 Kawasaki KZ1000.\u00a0 The guy was riding very smoothly and we’ll say \u2018brisk\u2019,\u00a0 I could see he knew the Cherohala Skyway well and \u00a0was very comfortable at a good pace. \u00a0\u00a0He was riding faster than I had previously been comfortable riding that road, because I have NO idea what is around the next curve so I really was being careful.\u00a0\u00a0This guy obviously knew the roads from the way he was riding, so I was using him as a guide to take me around the curves.\u00a0 I\u2019m not crowding him,\u00a0 but staying close enough to see what he’s doing, he\u2019s picking\u00a0the pace up more and more, and finally pulls into another overlook\/parking area.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0know it’s because he’s got to be near the handling limits of what I’m sure is an old\u00a070-80’s Japanese inline-4 with touring gear,\u00a0and so is going to bow out and let us pass.\u00a0\u00a0As I passed, <\/a>I saw that it WAS a KZ, and surprised him when I braked hard and pulled in behind him.\u00a0 Jim scooted past us.\u00a0 I talked to him for WAY too long considering Jim and I were trying to knock off the last 500 miles, but it was neat to see that bike.<\/p>\n

\"KZ1000\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot more similarities that you might think between my fancy,dancy 1300cc Feejar, and the 30 year old 1000cc KZ.\u00a0 We had a nice talk about both having gone through owning twins, triples, different engine configurations, but were both back to being impressed with the big Inline-4 layout.\u00a0 Funny thing, the last time I rode in this area, around the Smoky Mountains, was 25+ or so years ago on a bike almost EXACLTY like this one, mine was red, not black, but same year model, same factory luggage and factory Vetter made fairing.\u00a0 The guy lived local, has multiple bikes, but picked this up for $700 out of someone’s barn, and had completely restored it.<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a><\/p>\n

Jim and I\u00a0rolled into Tellico Plains, our point to get gas,\u00a0turn South and run for home. But I rolled to the intersection and turned left for home, figuring there’d be gas right there.\u00a0 NOT.\u00a0 After a mile, I realized we needed to go back, so pulled off and waited for Jim.\u00a0 Here he came, right by me, not missing a beat.\u00a0 Uhhhh, Jim??\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He didn’t see me, and was on his way South.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometime’s it’s nice to have a 150hp motorcycle.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I caught up to him, we went back to our proper gas stop.<\/p>\n

I thought from that point, we would be just cruising South and making good time, on our way home and to our 1500 miles in 36 hours.\u00a0 Well, what I DIDN’T\u00a0think about, is\u00a0we were there at NOON… on SUNDAY… on already slow moving two lane country mountain roads.\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of people go to CHURCH on Sunday, and they usually aren’t in a big hurry, even less of a hurry on Sunday after Church.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ARG!!!!\u00a0\u00a0 We aren’t going to make it at 35mph!!!!\u00a0\u00a0 Serenity Now Dave!\u00a0 Serenity Now!<\/p>\n

I just waited, kept the speed reasonable, was patient and we clicked off the miles, until FINALLY we hit 4 divided lanes were we could really get up to a decent speed.\u00a0\u00a0 Basically, from just North of Atlanta to Valdsota, GA, we maintained at least 80mph, with a stop for gas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If the left lane was slow and bogging down, I had to find a path on the right.\u00a0 Jim followed, and we just clicked off the miles.\u00a0\u00a0 As we neared Valdosta, I had an exit picked that I wanted to stop at, but I could see we were also running into a storm.\u00a0 Well, as we got to Valdosta, the lightning started, and the ‘bottom fell out’ as they say.\u00a0 As bad a storm as I’ve ever ridden in.\u00a0 Still, I wanted to get to my exit about 20 miles down the road before stopping and declaring our 1,500 miles\u00a0complete.\u00a0 (we turn in time stamped gas station reciept to certify the time).\u00a0 Thing is, it was raining so hard, I couldn’t really see, and cars were all turning on their flashers, and slowing to a crawl.<\/p>\n

With only\u00a020 or so minutes left in our 36 hours, I couldn’t risk an Interstate stop or big slowdown, or accident, so had to take what we had and stop at the next exit.\u00a0 1551 miles.\u00a0 We gassed up, parked and went inside to eat a meal.<\/p>\n

As we were sitting there, a BIG guy comes up to our table and asks if he had seen us in Atlanta a while ago?\u00a0 We BOTH thought the same thing, did we do something to make this guy mad?\u00a0 Naw, he just liked bikes, had noticed us, and\u00a0wanted to talk.<\/p>\n

We sat there, with about 200 miles left to get home,\u00a0and started talking about doing another ride.\u00a0\u00a0Afterwards,\u00a0Jim took the lead\u00a0and we cruised\u00a0back to our starting\u00a0point from yesterday,\u00a01700 miles\u00a0ago.\u00a0 It’s hard for me to fathom riding that many miles, in just a couple days, and enjoying it as much as I did.<\/p>\n

I think that’s pretty much due to the Yamaha FJR, and the level of sophistication, power, handling,\u00a0\u00a0comfort\u00a0and features it has available.\u00a0 It was just awesome to ride for that long, in heat(temp gauge showed 102 at times), rain, mountains, interstate, SLOW curvy roads, traffic, two lane roads, and NOT ONE TIME, think ‘ I wish this bike had…’.\u00a0 \u00a0It had it all, power, handling, comfort, it was perfect.<\/p>\n

Good stuff!!!!<\/p>\n

I put together a slide show with narration on youtube…\u00a0 Check it out…<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1KgjzMuTF5E<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim and I survived our encounter with the Dragon!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A very curvy road, no doubt, but maybe a bit over-hyped?\u00a0 Doesn’t matter,\u00a0 it was fun, and thinking about it,\u00a0maybe not too hyped, it’s very different, many curves, no intersecting roads, and certainly there is NO room for mistakes, or you are going down in a bad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}