Gotta Love a Sheriff That Can Ride Like That

Disclaimer:  We actually attended this rodeo in June 2009.  I wasn't writing on this blog yet, so there is no history for it.  Now that I have a channel available for video hosting, and have started my hand at primitive video making, I put together a few of the video clips I had taken that day.  Please enjoy it.  I still watch these videos in awe and cringe during some of these turns.  Great idea for practicing skills.

Sheriff's Motorcycle Rodeo from Love Of A Motorbike on Vimeo.

We normally shy away from biker gatherings. Just too many people and bikes and what not. But this gathering was going to have a Sheriff's Motorcycle Rodeo!! We arrived at start time to avoid the larger crowds in the day and were able to witness the Sheriff's during the rodeo practice.

Essentials: 6 Sheriff's from Hall County, 4 from Atlanta and 3 from Forsyth County. This appeared to be timed trials for motorcycle certifications. And the poor guys had to run these every half hour for 6 hours in sweltering heat of 95 degrees and glaring sun and full dress. I give them their cudos.

This four part course was generally run at 5 mph and involved basic circles and 90 degree turns. The photo above is typical for what one saw that day. And this guy is not about to drop the bike. He has to ride between two near cones and double back to ride between the two far cones. This required very tight low speed turns and excellent balance and control. The turns were so tight that the foot boards generally were scrapping the ground around each turn. There is one section of the course where there was an imperfection in the paving and would catch most of the floorboards...dropping the bike instantly.

Our favorite part was during practice in the morning when two officers entered the course together. The second bike was generally only a couple feet behind the first. Even in the descending circles!! Very tight and synchronized. I can see how this skill is a must when navigating congested areas. This was amazing to watch.

OOOhhhhhhhh....

Öhlins!  Nothing more needs to be said...

The bike was feeling a little light in the front end on the Multiple Sclerosis ride.  Not too noticeable at slow speed.  But freeway riding was a bit nerve wracking with it feeling like it wanted to wander.  I initially figured (hoped) the front tire was responsible.  It was in need of replacement.  And the cupping that occurs on these tires can make it feel a little bouncy when its time is nearing an end.  I just happened to have one sitting in the garage, so I strapped it over the Pelican box on Tuesday to take her to the shop.

I have the equipment to change the tire myself, but wasn't really into doing that.  I would probably just have removed the front rim and dropped them off at the shop.  For $20 they would have changed it for me.  But this time I had a small wish list for the bike and couldn't see not just having them do it all at once.  The referenced wish list was repairing the broken throttle position sensor (from the MS weekend ride, but is another story), replacing the oil and filter (also from the MS ride), changing the tire and checking the front brake pads.

I waited around for the work to be done, then rode back to my place of employment.  It was pretty clear that the new tire didn't solve my problems and it was probably going to be a shock problem.  Well...if I was going to have to fork over for new shocks...why not up the performance a little?

Did a minute (as in small, not time) amount of research and weighed the options between Öhlins, Hyperpro and Wilburs.  Since I am not a patient person when my mind makes a decision to go for something, and Mr. Oilburner and I were kinda, maybe contemplating a ride on the Dragon this weekend, I wanted those shocks as soon as possible. Talked with my friendly, neighborhood supplier and he could hook me up with the Öhlins and get them in by Friday with 90% certainty.  I gave him as much of my vital statistics as was necessary, hedging on a couple of the questions, and mentally pulled the trigger on the deal.  These are not inexpensive shocks...

Friday rolled around and I had almost forgotten to expect their arrival!  Left work early to run some errands for the pup and suddenly remembered who I needed to call.  Turns out he was thinking of me too, and had left a message on the phone while I was in getting dog food.  They had arrived. 

I hightailed it to the shop, only to find Mr. Oilburner there when I arrived.  Surprise!  But he was only there to purchase another clear pinlock lens and wasn't about to carry my shocks home on his bike.  My supplier knows me well enough to know that I am not mechanically inept.  He just chooses to forget it regularly.  So it is with amusement that I listen to him ask me if Mr. Oilburner will be installing the shocks tonight, as we watch him ride away.  I turn to him and ask him why he would think that?  His mouth starts working, and you can see the look in his eye that he knows he is digging himself in deeper and deeper and just can't keep his mouth from uttering: "Well, you know, because you're.   a.    girl..."  I smirked at him because he knows he is in trouble and it is written all over his face that he knows.  He was just powerless to stop his mouth.  No harm...but I let him know that, while Mr. Oilburner will more then likely be helping, I will indeed be installing my shocks tonight.

As SonjaM says "It hurts a little to see that Beemer stripped to its entrails, even it is for the best possible reason."  But it has to be done.  And I would rather see loving hands doing the work.  Besides saving the 3+ hours in labor charges...

I have always been apprehensive about removing the fuel tank.  I've seen it done on an R1150R and was not relishing the task ahead.  Reading through the "shock removal" steps we were hoping to finagle our way around it.  Alas, no realistic way with the tools we had on hand.  However, I will say with certainty that it is supremely easy to remove the R1200R fuel tank, albeit with four hands.  The quick disconnects come standard on this model.  Unless the previous owner had changed them out prior to my owning her.  It was actually distressingly easy to remove it.  However, I am happy to say that the task no longer scares me.  And I would happily and easily do it again if necessary, especially to access the accessory light relay that someone kindly put under the damn fuel tank(!!).

Little tank looks a little lonely.

I'm not going into a step-by-step installation.  It is boring and I didn't exactly take pictures of the important steps.  Suffice it to say, it was an extremely easy job.  It does require some heavy duty tools...which we have in abundance luckily.  And Mr. Oilburner has the knowledge to use them.

The only snag came while trying to reinstall the fuel tank.  We were putting all of the connections back together and flipping it into place when we heard the dreaded little metallic tinkle of something sneaking loose and falling down through all those wires and metal engine parts.  We searched and searched. Shone flashlights in all the little nooks and crannies.  Set me to wondering how all of the sand got on top of the engine??  And why a hunk of tempered glass was sitting there too.  But we couldn't discover any parts that shouldn't be there, nor any parts that seemed to be missing.  We took a break to let our minds settled and set back in to looking.  Agreeing that we couldn't see anything we put her back together and zipped everything up.

Later, while taking measurements and moving her around a metal clip tumbled off of somewhere.  Looks like we had found the culprit.  I think it might have been a clip for the fuel pump plug/electronics.  I'll need to remove the side panels to take a look and see what can be seen.  Later...  LOL.

I took her out for a post-installation ride check and all was peachy keen.  I was only intending to go around the corner.  But I took a right instead of a left.  Then a left and another right.  I realized I didn't have my phone, if something went wrong, nor my driver's license, if something else went wrong.  It was late, I rode sanely and enjoyed the new feel.

I had sworn to Mr. Oilburner during installation that I was never going to tell him if these were good or bad because I wasn't about to let him covet mine and want to purchase some for his. So I just shrugged my shoulders and see-sawed my hand to his questions of "How are they?"  I could see the disappointment in his face and wound up spilling the truth out.  It would have been difficult hiding the truth anyway with the smile that was again plastering my face whenever I ride this beauty.

See a little yellow and gold peeking out?

Yes, we did ride the Dragon.  Yes, it was great.  :)

Teaser...

Just thought I might draw you in with a little teaser...

See anything there that might make you a little excited??  :)

Is Summer Really Over??

The depressingly hot and humid weather vacated north Georgia for Labor Day weekend.  Such a nice change from the rain that we have been experiencing on holiday weekends throughout this year.  With temperature predictions of the high 70's for Saturday and low to mid 80's for Sunday and Monday...it was prime riding weather!

We were a little slow getting ready and out of the house on Saturday.  We were hoping this wouldn't mean much as half of the metro region had left last night or Thursday for the extended weekend.  We were sorely mistaken upon reaching Cleveland, the gateway to [dreaded] Helen and traffic was backed up for miles.  Unfortunately this backup is so easy to achieve when the area has one stoplight and only one lane in each direction.  We had gambled that the remaining half of the population wasn't going to Helen.  We had lost.

We were making our way to Hiawassee with the intent of striking North to run scenic Hwy 64 to Franklin, NC.  We didn't have to go through Helen, but we had to venture near it, and it was putting a crimp in our leisurely ride.  When we first discovered the backup, "Detour" on the GPS offered a left turn through a back neighborhood that would take us up to another highway/cutoff.  Even with Avoid Unpaved Roads checked, Map Source is still woefully slow on updating.  In all fairness, I don't think the detour road had ever been paved.  So I am not sure how it even received a paved designation in the database.  I was almost willing to take my bike up this gnarly, rutted, uneven dirt track...but luckily Mr. Oilburner didn't even want to attempt it.  Means the road was pretty darn bad if he wasn't game.

We headed back the way we had come and stopped into a gas station for a map check and discussion.  The discussion took the tone of being lazy and just going home to sit around the house or go four-wheeling.  But we were already this far.  This portion of Hwy 64 was actually somewhere we had never ridden.  I had driven on it once, 5 years ago, in the middle of night.  The road had stuck with me as someplace without much development and possible vistas.  From discussions with riders, we were told it was a nice area to travel.  So we decided to push on and find some very small back roads around Cleveland and Helen that wouldn't make us back track too much.

Traffic showing in the background.  No, not pawning off the bikes.

Looking over the maps we had to go West to go East/North.  And the only other option to get over the mountain was the terrifying Hwy 19 over Blood Mountain.  I have been avoiding this Hwy like the plague!  I have a mental hangup to this portion of Hwy 19 over Blood Mountain as hairpin turns with 50 foot elevation gains and no guardrails.  In the past Mr. Oilburner chuckled at my stubborn refusal to ride this section over the years because I would happily ride other roads he considered much more technically difficult.  This time I no longer cared.  Bring it on.  I would finally take the plunge and ride Blood Mountain.

Sidebar: You might be wondering how Blood Mountain was named. And this is a topic under debate. One theory references a great battle that occurred between the Creek and Cherokee Tribes for control of the territory. And that the battle was so fierce the streams ran red with the blood of those killed. The other theory believes the name comes from the red lichen and Catawba rhododendron growing near the summit.


I've hiked to the summit of Blood Mountain and find it beautiful and peaceful.

Well...that darn road wasn't anywhere near as bad as I had built it up to be in my mind.  I certainly have been on roads much more difficult.  It passed more quickly then I expected, and amused Mr. Oilburner with my surprise at being at the summit.  This will be a wonderful road in the future as it is a great distance and time saver to some of our favorite destinations.

Touring up Blood Mountain, GA from Love Of A Motorbike on Vimeo.

In the spirit of continuing on back roads, we missed a turn and back tracked on a small farming lane.  The first mutt encounter was a lazy dog just laying in the road under the shade of a tree.  Mr. Oilburner never even saw him and he didn't care that we were feet away.  The second encounter wasn't nearly as friendly with this snarling beast darting towards Mr. Oilburner in the lead.  I was some distance behind and found it incredible that as soon as Mr. Oilburner passed he was ignored, and me, stopped 100 feet down the lane, became the object of his fixation.  I screamed in a manner that only Mr. Oilburner could hear (I wonder a little if GoPro recorded it), waited for the snapping teeth and stiff tail to approach me, then zipped off.  I am assured that he lost interest in me as soon as I had passed.  But I'm not convinced.

We did reach Hiawassee and found a quaint place to eat: Bledsoe's Corner Cafe, Where Friendships Begin.  :-)  We went simple and just order sandwiches: BLT with well-done bacon for me, Egg Salad for Mr. Oilburner.

Yum!  BLT and Egg Salad.  (Not on the same sandwich...)

I took this lunchtime opportunity to work on recharging the GoPro.  I know a couple people that have just purchased extra batteries.  I am reluctant to do this as the metadata (date, time, numbering, etc.)  is always reset with a battery change.  And I invariably wind up with excess batteries when technology advances.  Instead, Mr. Oilburner remembered I had a solar charger/battery from my hiking gear.  It can be charged by plugging into an electrical source, or solar charging.  I have never had luck fully charging the internal battery with just the sun, but it works fine when plugged in.  So we had charged it the night before, and it only took plugging the GoPro into it during lunch to recharge it.

Solio Solar Charger recharging the GoPro.

I might try rigging the Solio onto the bike in the future.  Or mounting other solar panels onto the Pelican case to charge this.  Either way...some fun.  I know there are people out there just shaking their heads and questioning why I don't just hook into the battery on the bike to charge something.  Well, I just don't want to put that much of a draw on the alternator and battery.  It isn't overloaded or anything, but what is wrong with a little solar power?  And this way I can store some power and recharge anything that I have an adapter for even when the bike is not under way.

Back on the road and it only takes us a few minutes to get through Hiawassee and into North Carolina onto Hwy 64.  The road is extremely wide for only 2 lanes, making technical turns a non-issue.  Though I did still practice them.

We hit the first turn out for photo ops.

Again, the road isn't too technical and the ride is over quickly.  The scenery is nice, forested hills, but not too many vistas or photogenic areas.  We did stop at the next/last overlook and took more bike posing shots.  :-)

We rode the outskirts of Franklin and decided to head on home.  We stopped for gas and were helped along by this little fellow.

While taking a snack break we chatted with Jim and Joel from Franklin (who had ridden down to Atlanta region for the day).  Great guys involved with a riding group in Franklin who offered to show us the lay of the hills in their area whenever we had some time to spend up there.  We will take you up on those offers!

And we needed to make a small back track to have a closer look at this pretty little truck sitting in a garage lot.

Looks like the one we have sitting in the back yard.  Only this one is shiny, clean, well-painted and probably runs.  In all fairness, our will probably run easily.  It just won't stop well as the brake fluid bleeds out through all of the rust holes in the brake lines.  Sorry Mr. Oilburner.  Some work needs to be done on that thing.  :-)

A Great Multiple Sclerosis Ride

CONGRATULATIONS!!

I had the great pleasure of working at the Multiple Sclerosis annual bicycle event at Callaway Gardens this weekend.  I met some wonderful fellow Motorcycle Marshals.  I was able to ride with many that I had ridden with in April on the Atlanta to Athens MS Ride.  But I met many wonderful people on the actual RIDE...as in...riding their bicycles!  Congratulations to all those who participated!  You did a wonderful job pedaling all those damn hills in that horrid heat and unrelenting sun!  It was brutally hot and you are GREAT!

Morning clouds on Saturday burned off to brutally hot temps of 95+ F.

 Everyone lining up for the Sunday start.  Over 1000 bicycles in that lineup back there.

More information and pictures to come...after two delayed ride reports.  But I just had to give a shout out for all of the bicyclists.  Utmost respect for the job they did in these conditions.

My 0.015 oz of Flesh

My bike took its 0.015 oz of flesh.

There is a disruptive force in the house that has thrown the gravity well around our little universe out of balance.  What was up is now down.  What was left is now right.  So dressing down the bike after our ride on Monday had me going to the left side instead of the normal right.  Having removed my armored pants left my exposed little knee a prime target for the mean exhaust can to reach out and suck the flesh from it.  Which it did quite eagerly.

The sharp scream of pain had Mr. Oilburner running to find out what had happened.  Ensuing chaos then sent my camera tumbling off of the saddle onto the floor. Luckily it was in it's padded backpack.  Though I still haven't tested if the lenses are okay, I'm sure they are.  This isn't really the first time they have taken some hard knocks.

This is the third time in my life a leg has been burned by motorcycle exhaust.  First time was age 11 while riding my mother's Honda 90.  I misjudged a u-turn and rode the bike into some ice-plant on a slope.  The bike promptly slide out and placed the back of me knee in direct contact with the pipes.  That was a painful experience and healing process.  The second time was 3 years ago with Mr. Oilburner's first Harley.  He was adamant about me sitting on it before purchasing.  I didn't want to since I had no intention of riding it.  Stupid me did it anyways...in shorts.  And had a nice triangular shaped scar for 2 years on my calf.  It wasn't even my bike and it was abusing me already!  This time I can't blame my bike.  She has been very good to me.  This damn black hole in the house needs to be corrected!

Suburban Stoplight Hell

When learning to ride, stoplights are the bane of existence.  Like there isn't enough to think about with downshifting and proper braking without the added pressure of remembering how to stop and start gracefully, so as not to make a complete ass of myself yourself.

Just yesterday I witnessed someone stall their bike in a busy intersection as the light turned green.  He sat astride it, fumbling with levers and nobs while duck walking his bike across the intersection.  Nothing more flustering!  At least the people behind him were semi-patient and weren't honking the horns yet.

One of my own experiences hearkens back to one of my first long distance trips...of 10 miles. :)  I can advise new riders not to attempt to take off on a green light in third gear.  You do not have the experience to slip the clutch that much.  I tried that and I survived the crushing embarrassment.  Ok, not so crushing or embarrassing.  I didn't care what the yahoos behind me thought...I just didn't want them to run me over.  I had enough momentum before stalling to quickly coast across the intersection and get out of the way.  

But one thing I have noticed while riding and learning to ride...I am the stoplight QUEEN!  I collect red lights.  I am a magnet for them.  Ride with me and you will experience the utter frustration and annoyance of having to stop at just about every single red light imaginable.  And I'm not talking about pulling up and having to sit behind cars because it is halfway through the intersection cycle.  I'm talking about having to make the split second decision of braking or running a red light because the light just turned yellow at that crucial moment when a decision is necessary.  So making the legal decision results in having to wait through an entire cycle at that intersection!  Now don't talk to me about "anticipating" a light change when approaching an intersection, like they teach in basic high school drivers ed.  I do that and I think that is what gets me into so much trouble: because I actually ride sanely and legally.  Crap!

Now, some intersections have a fairly quick cycle and are only taking a minute of wait time.  But start adding up a minute for every light...and how often I am waiting at each light...and we are talking some time here being spent watching other vehicles moving while I sit.  Yes, I have had some time to think about this and actually calculate wait times and light cycles.

Now add in that I live in a large metropolis.  Yes, I live outside of the "big city"...but so does everyone else out here and there still isn't much room to breath or drive.  I was jealous of my other friends learning to ride that had large, curving lanes to glide down.  My learning grounds were riddled with stoplights, stop signs, hard turns/intersections, uphills and railroad tracks.  My head had a lot to keep track of.  Sometimes it succeeded and sometimes it didn't.

One of the most frustrating occurrences that made me want to scream and just sit and cry was the day of my ERC (Experienced Riders Course).  The location was exactly across town from my house.  And start time was 8:00...with required early check-in and bike checklist/inspection.  I needed to be there by 7:30.  Through morning rush hour traffic in Atlanta??  No way!  Luckily I had some friends on that side of town that let me spend the night before.  One even rode over with me in the morning to show me the way since the new-to-me bike hadn't been outfitted with the GPS yet.

The problem wasn't to the facility...it was on the way home.  After class, I was back at my friends house to wait for traffic to die down.  They were going to follow me home and get together with Mr. Oilburner for dinner as a Thank You for letting me stay.  The 18 miles distance between our houses has (had, actually, since more have been added) 23 stoplights.  And I literally had to stop for every...single...one...  And this time I had witnesses!

The point was driven home again when another friend was learning to ride.  Mr. Oilburner and I would take him out, flanking him for protection.  And he had the angels on his side...because all he had to do was approach a light and it would magically turn green.  No stopping, barely slowing.  Argh.

Where is this going?  I don't know if you live in the metro, suburbia or lonely country lanes.  But I really hope you are not cursed with red lights.  Last week we decided to attend a new Bike Night a town is trying to start.  It is a mere 18 miles of side-streets away.  How hard can it be?

When riding with me?  Extremely hard!  There are stoplights here.  It is just a fact of life.  Freeway distance would have been about 33 miles in heavy rush-hour traffic.  So side-streets is really the only option.  But do you know how many stoplights can be installed within 18 miles?  You might be surprised.

To give you a guessing chance, work and home are separated by a measly 9 miles.  There are 12 14 stoplights and 3 stop signs in that distance.  My old swim club was 10 miles away and had a whopping 22 stoplights along the easiest route.

So I recorded my progression along the roads to this Bike Night for you.  18 miles...45 minutes...mainly because of stoplights.  Can you count the number of lights?  Maybe now it is easy to understand why I don't commute to work on the bike.  Note to Riepe: take a look at all those friggin minivans!!


Suburban Stoplight Hell from Love Of A Motorbike on Vimeo.

And even sped up, look at how long I'm sitting at some of those lights??  Crank up the volume.  I like the music.  Wish I had been listening to this.  Might have made the distance and time a little easier.  Nah...

Happy travels to you and may all your lights be green!

Correction: I had to add two more lights to my work commute.  Forgot a couple...  :(