Where did you ride today?

Daboo said:
:D :D :D And you didn't want to show off your AK 550? :D :D :D

Is that like an AK47 or AR15? Wow...pics would really help. :D :D :D
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There wasn't any snow... yet. I think the Matte Deep Blue of my AK would look awesome with pure white snow as a back drop. Next time I get that scene I'll try to resist the temptation to just keep riding and stop to take a photo. For me, I don't ride to show others I went somewhere. I ride to ride. And, yes, I do like to be seen... by other drivers on the road. Not really that excited about picture taking since that interrupts the ride.

I have read that if you rely on lots of photos for your memories then you'll tend to forget those memories faster and NEED those photos to recall things than if you had to rely only on your mind to remember those things. Of course, as we get older... as I get older... even photos don't help. :oops: :think1::shrug2:
 
Well, before you pick up your new AK off the snow to get it back on its two wheels, be sure to take a pic. :D ;) You're right, the dark blue would look great against the white snow.

I rode to church this morning as usual. Front started to wash out on me two or three times. I didn't take any pics either. :( So you can say it didn't happen. ;)

Chris
 
Well, it was Friday. My friend Alan rode down from Md. on his '02 GW on Thursday, and we rode to Williamsburg on Rt. 5, with a quick detour to watch one of the Jamestown Ferry boats come in, then on to Pierce's Pitt BBQ.

I have been going there for over 50 years, since it was a shack, and have seen plates from many states and even Canada. Good, tender, juicy, chunky pulled pork. The baked beans are loaded with pork and cut-up hot dogs.

We made a few rest stops each way, not being in a hurry, and enjoyed the road, the beautiful scenery, and the great weather. Alan hasn't had the GW very long, and is a bit slow on some curves, but he rode at his own pace.

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www.pierces.com

Bbq Restaurant Williamsburg Va | Pierces | Williamsburg

Locally Owned BBQ Restaurant That Has Become A Virginia Tradition. Pierces is a local favorite BBQ restaurant in Williamsburg Va.
www.pierces.com www.pierces.com
 
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I had some business in Austin, TX on Friday, so I rode down. My brother met me in Marble Falls that night and we wandered around parts of the Texas Hill Country on Saturday, including the Morris Ranch Schoolhouse. Not seeing any no trespassing signs, we rode right up the the schoolhouse, parked and walked around. We found out it's now a privately owned residence when the owner stepped out and asked if we needed help. Had a nice chat with the guy and found out a little of the history of the place.
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We stopped at the The Hunt Store for lunch just west of Fredericksburg, and then rode 39 out of Hunt which is a really nice ride along the Guadalupe River. Next was the three sisters (roads 335, 336, 337). Surprisingly, there were zero other riders going our direction (CW), so we had all three roads completely to ourselves. We spent Saturday night in Leakey, TX at The Historic Leakey Inn. Cool place with great hosts/owners Brad and his wife Dallas. Highly recommended.
 
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175 mile loop to check out one of our 'local' ski areas where I learned to ski back in '72. As no rain this season, it's all man-made snow. All roads were clear.
Had brunch at our favorite Wrightwood, CA. cafe, the Evergreen Cafe.

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Was a slightly warmer day today than my last ride. Had the time so took off to a location I have not been to for more than 25 years. The roads have been rerouted to make way for a bypass highway around the south and east side of the metro area and the roads I last took to get there no longer exists but since it is an upscale housing development that has been around for over 35 years they built new roads to get there. Temps were steady around 34-35 F all the way around. I did connect my heated gloves but didn't need them turned on since the heated grips were plenty even on the lowest setting. This ride was 37+ miles all the way around. And just because there are some who insist that only a photo will prove I went there here are a few. This is the Dale Maffitt Reservoir just SW of West Des Moines. The other pic is the view from the dam looking north toward West Des Moines. The entire reservoir and dam are rather a high point in the area. In that second photo you can see my Head Demon heated gloves controller hanging on the parking brake lever. I have the cable for it routed through the cable opening in the handlebar cover and down to the right glove box where it plugs into the SAE connector there.
Like I said, I didn't need to turn on the heated gloves this trip.

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Does anyone know what happened to Raymond (W0QNX)? Looks like his last login here was Oct 2020

He reached his goal of 300,000 miles on his ST and then quit riding.....

That's pretty close. However, I think there were other issues. T Padden would probably know more.
 
Not normally a ride report person, but these are special times.
The USA land border opened on Nov 30 and on the 1st I headed South on the '99abs that has basically sat for 18 months. Did a quick circuit of the Olympic peninsula, managed to miss most of the rain. Really nice to get back on the '99. The '91 is not the same bike - no abs/tcs and not set up as my long distance ride.
I found myself running the '99 up to the red line in the gears. This was after a couple of years on the Africa Twin and especially the Tiger - the Tiger is so sweet when wringing its neck - but eventually decided that on the 1100 it made minimal difference to performance and exhaust sound levels.
Just so nice to get on roads with multiple curves and to do it on the 1100, it may be heavy and slowish, but I still enjoy the ride after all these years.
 
I feel guilty posting with others miserable weather, but over all the years I've been doing coast to coast winter rides this year's has been the best weather I can recollect. I love winter desert camping in the SW and Imperial HWY from Ocotillo to Santa Ysabel is perhaps my favorite winter desert ride.

Tom

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Just a short one.
Last chance, almost, to get out and find my wife here Christmas gift. Well, one of them anyway. So went for a ride. 21 miles in a loop. Saw a few things along the way. Temps were right at 32F. BIG change from yesterday when it was a high of 74F! But the wind was a lot less... only 19 mph/30 mph gusts rather than 65 mph/80 mph gusts we saw most of the afternoon and last night.

Saw a few seasonal yard decorations but they were a bit deflated due to the severe weather we had the last 18 hours...
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Finally got AmethyST back on the road after putting new oil seals in the final drive shaft. She was also treated to 2 new BT023s for Christmas so I put about 20 miles on her - enjoyed it as she now goes where she is pointed! The old tyres were getting squirrely and very flat on the bottom of the tread.
 
The ride today was to test Noodoe navigation as well ended up testing range when the "E" starts flashing on the fuel gage. I WAS going to fill up the tank first thing on my way out but the lines at the Costco gas station were 6+ cars deep at every pump so I decided to truck on and see how far I could go. I knew mpg would be lower than normal since the temp on this ride hovered right around 37F the entire way. I wore my Gerbing heated gloves but didn't plug in the heat controller since these are the thickest most insulated gloves I have and the heated grips with these gloves seems to be doing fine just over or under freezing temps without turning on the glove heat. These gloves hold in and distribute the heat from the heated grips better than my other winter gloves.

My trip meter A showed over 90 miles when I started. That's the trip meter I use to track how many miles since last fill up. I plotted a rectangular loop that was 60.2 miles all around. The last white bar dropped off and the red bar on the fuel gage started flashing at 115 miles. Since someone else already sacrificed the stress of going farther than anyone admitted to going on a tank (on the AK 550) I kept on riding. The red bar dropped off right about 146 miles and the red "E" started flashing. I figured I COULD get back to the Costco gas station which was another 8+ miles but decided to see where I was on gas and filled up at 147.2 miles. I put in 3.155 gallons calculating about 46.6 mpg, using the trip meter miles as I usually do for consistency. The tank is 3.9 gallons capacity. Actually a little better than what I was expecting considering the temps right now and also that 30 miles of that tank was used on rides when temps were below 15F!

Since this was a test also of Noodoe navigation I plotted 2 separate routes, one to follow the other, with more waypoints than I would normally set. The first route took me to the gas station that I decided to bypass and then to another place easy to pull off the road to pick the next route. Since I bypassed the gas station and that was the first waypoint set I pulled over right away to eliminate that point since Noodoe kept wanting me to route back to it since I didn't "hit" it. Actually, after removing the gas station waypoint I also had to remove the starting point at home since the way I edited the route I needed to start it over again. I found out a different way to edit the route and it would continue from where I was without restarting. Overall, Noodoe navigation worked great this time other than the need to "hit" every waypoint exactly and having to stop to change a missed waypoint on the phone to prevent being constantly turned back to it. As far as more than one "Journey" to resolve the 8 waypoint limitation I think that will work just the same as I was already doing with Google Maps navigation. Just some tricky differences to get used to. I think the settings I changed (turning off Avoid Highways and setting to Fastest Route) did the trick for me for now. I even forced a recalculate on a detour to get the attached photo during the second Journey route and Noodoe handled it well this time. It's really not a bad thing to stop every hour to pick a different route to continue navigating. That's about right for a drink of water normally anyway. Although I have been known to ride for 2-3 hours straight without stopping for anything on my travels.
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Not really good weather for hot air balloons around these parts.

Had to do a little shopping again today. Things my wife wanted to be picked up at the grocery store. Temps were 37F at the start and ended up at 38F. Heated grips all the way around this time. THOUGHT I'd grab and set the Scooter Tag while I was out but SOMEONE beat me to it.

Anyway, Pointed the AK 550 to the grocery store 2 miles away and...
Passed another branch of the same store somewhere about 17 miles along the path I ended up on.
Then I passed yet another branch of the same store at about 20 miles along the ride.
Then I finally passed my home again and continued on to the store I intended to visit in the first place. When I parked the AK in my garage it was 31 miles later.
Just can't seem to get that AK to ride in a direct path to the destination!

Somewhere along this ride...
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Been very nice being able to ride in this weather considering it is December and only a few days before Christmas!
Took off to explore a few local country roads I haven't been on yet. Some were newly paved. I try to avoid gravel roads so when the city or county finally gets around to paving some of those I then have a new road to explore. :)

Rode 48 miles today. Set the maximum number of waypoints in the Noodoe route even though it wasn't very far to ride. That was to force the routing to stay on the roads I wanted to investigate. Temps were steady around 48F. Stopped by the Iowa Veterans Cemetery entrance for a photo op and found a "friendship rock" laying on one of the boulders. The idea is to take that rock and then leave it somewhere else for someone to find. I decided considering the location and message on the rock I'd leave it there for someone else and just take a picture of it. My Grandkids have painted friendship rocks and left them around places like walking trails, the park, the lake at the shopping mall, etc.

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This friendship rock was laying on the boulder on the right of the picture above.
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Did a 75 mile loop today......family coming for Christmas tomorrow......think they'll notice if I sneak out and go riding?? :biggrin:
 
Still a good day for a ride this Christmas Eve Day. Was 55F all the way around the 34.5 miles. Stopped to fill the tank near the end of this ride. 2.632 gal for 125.1 miles. The red block on the fuel gauge just started to flash when I pulled into the station. Just a little jaunt on some country roads... again. That's where I prefer to ride since I'm close enough to get to those without going through a lot of city traffic. Those are north west or south west. Going anything east takes me into city traffic. My destination today was Culver's for some gift cards to be given tomorrow... normally a 1.5 mile round trip from my home. Still can't get this AK to take the shortest route! :biggrin:
 
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