Friday, May 20, 2011

New Thursday Ride Challenge!!!

Do you get tired of the same old thing? Well I may have the answer. This weeks ride was a triathlon plus one of a ride.  The rules are simple, ride your bike, get off your bike, stand around, ride your bike up a ramp, ride in a truck, ride a bike down a ramp, ride a different bike, finish with a sprint for coffee in a car. Anyone up for it?

I am beginning to believe it is going to be a really crappy riding season this year. Let's examine the facts,
  1. Tree leaves the Club and gets a flat on her bike on the highway.
  2. Mark Griffin gets to the Club but can't leave because of an electrical issue.
  3. Reuben and Amanda get flat bedded from the club with a broken clutch cable.
  4. I have my bike flat bedded out of Millington with a flat.
Anyone else have anything?
       There's plenty of time left, and don't forget, Rolling Thunder is coming up, who wants to have an issue in Washington DC? It might be your chance to win the furthest distance stuck from home for the year Award.

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The Thursday night Mystery Ride:
         We arrived at David's for supper before the ride and since the conversation was getting boring I decided to Throw soda on Danny, and Mark Griffin, and two other members, and the wall....and floor...and table...and the other table...

         At 6:20pm we held a drivers meeting, we had one guest who saw the flier at Mike's Famous and decided to join in the ride. We departed Davids at 6:30pm , turned right onto 85 and followed that into Colchester where we stopped so Danny could dress warmer...and take a leak..(Sounds like a new recruit for Sarasota County). The seven bikes continued through town and picked up Old rte 2 (Old Hartford rd), turned left on Westchester rd (rte 149). Ran through a radar check, turned right onto River road and went single file. The roads we found, after all the rain, were rather debris strewn with leaves branches, dirt and gravel, but the ride was smooth and steady and enjoyable. We turned onto S road then a left on Bull Hill road passing the Salmon River Airfield, then down through the curves and the switchback, down along the Salmon River to Comstock Bridge road and onto route 16. We turned right onto Westchester road and as I leaned into the corner the bike wobbled a bit. We turned onto Westchester road to rte 151. In East Haddam we turned left onto State highway 434, (Mount Parnassus rd). As we proceeded up the hill through the turns my bike felt like the front end was vibrating and didn't want to turn into the corners, I leaned over to see the front wheel and it looked  OK, leaning back the rear wheel looked OK also but the bike was fighting me and felt like a flat, but the tires looked OK, Danny saw me looking at the back of the bike and gave me a thumbs up, I knew different, something was wrong. I pulled the group over at Millington Green, Tree said my rear tire looked soft, we found the rear tire had a metal shard in it.

So Danny took the ride back to the Club as Tree, Sandwich and myself waited for help. A call to the AMA, and a free flat bed ride was arranged...after a predicted 30or 90 minute wait. So the three of us sat there as the sun went down listening to the birds then watched YouTube on Sandwiches phone until the flatbed arrived. Sandwich lifted the rear luggage rack up to gain pipe clearance as i rode up the back of the truck. We then took the bike to New London with Tree and Sandwich following, The flatbed diver took a call from the office and said he liked picking up Harley's because they travel in Packs and always help load and unload, he said sport bike riders usually don't help, they usually act like they don't know how to strap one down, and a lot of times they don't even go back with the bike, they leave him to find the destination and unload it by himself as they go off in a different direction.

Once in New London I took Trees bike home as Tree followed on Curt's...Sandwich once again lived up to his pin and rode bitch. Once home I picked up the car and the three of us went to the Equinox for coffee. At 11pm they got on the bikes and headed home just as the heavens opened up and a thunderstorm rolled in.


The AMA covered the tow job, and for a fraction of what a membership to AAA costs to belong to. I would highly recomend membership if for no other reason than the road side assistance.

klay   

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