Lunch trippin'

Toyman01 wrote: I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle...

More versatile than jet boats...

In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:

You're not helping.

Toyman01 wrote: I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle, I will not buy a motorcycle...

Why not?

In reply to Petrolburner:

I test road one when I was 19. I decided then and there that it would kill me. I haven't grown up much since then.

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to Petrolburner: I test road one when I was 19. I decided then and there that it would kill me. I haven't grown up much since then.

Sweet jebus. What other things did that 19 year old you decide that were spot on? I thought I was going to marry the girl in the fringe boots who's name I can't remember. She dumped me for a Chiropractor and I bought a motorcycle to console myself. Bikes don't ever break your heart. They are givers.

Oh... and today's lunch trip was taking the bike to the closest dealer for a recall repair. I'll call it a gear test because it was torrential rain both ways. 80 miles round trip in very strong storms. The gear passed. The tires did not. I'm always "that guy" who waits until you can see the air in the tires. Today I was that guy cursing himself for the bald front in standing water. I just spent an hour swearing and spooning a fresh one on. I HATE spooning tires. Tomorrow's "trip" might be fabricating a tire machine from spare roll cage tubing.

Toyman... go buy a berkeleying motorcycle. I'll meet you for lunch one of these days (Moab anyone?) ;)

This weekend, I rode out to a buddies place in south central PA about 230 miles from here to help him figure out why his new race motor sounds like a bag of marbles in a blender. It made a brilliant 291 to the wheels for about 8 laps then kerblang! It was in the mid-60s and raining most of the way but it was not unpleasant at all. Good gear to keep you dry makes a huge difference.

The new Nikon coolpix does a nice job on auto at 70mph too...

Near the end of PA 45 there is this neat rail underpass that has a blind 90 degree turn dug by the ancient druids or something... the shiny bit in the middle is not a puddle, it's water laying on top of oil. Wheee!

Getting down to business once I got there... the sick patient:

And after an hour of poking around it turns out a valve retainer let go on the #4 front exhaust valve and the valve had been riding up and down on the piston. It's a "best case" scenario. It needs a new valve and some seat work but the piston will buff out. Anytime you open one of these up and don't spend more than a grand... all win.

We pulled the cams, and took the head off then went in to town for some grub. The rain decided to give up around then and tossed in a little bonus.

The ride home in the morning started under the cover of darkness and proceeded at warp speed to make it in to work in time so there are no awesome pics of Bald Eagle state forest or anything else that went whizzing by at luridly illegal velocity.

Can this move to Trips and Adventures too? It will remind me to GTFO out of the house for atleast an hour every day to take a pic of something from the saddle.

In reply to Huckleberry:

I'm pretty sure the mods don't check here often. Might have to pm ECM to get it moved.

I need new content in this thread so I can feel terrible about how little I ride just to ride.

Moved Now git out there and ride!

I wasn't riding today, and it wasn't lunch... I had to deliver one of my offspring to soccer practice then wait 90 minutes to retrieve him so I decided to put a few miles on my new truck at sunset in the hills.

Nice. How are you liking the truck?

Toyman01 wrote: Nice. How are you liking the truck?

I'm diggin' it. It feels solid. The doors make a nice whoomp when you close them and it makes your ears pop so it seals tight. The six speed is a top loader with a nice crisp feel and the pedals are spaced pretty well for heel/toe. The steering is slightly over-boosted but pretty nice in the feedback department. The motor makes torque from 2.2k and pulls hard above 3.5k. It's a real sweetheart swiped from the Lexus 350, actually. It would be pretty fast if it wasn't geared like a truck in 1st thru 3rd.

It's only got 800 miles on it so I have not really let it rip yet but I did go bombing down a rutted game lands road the other day to try out the 4WD. It's got some chops - the suspension soaks up washboard and does not bottom out on medium sized whoops which is great for potholes and speed bumps more than me running it in the woods. The Off-Road package is sprung a little softer than the other models but it doesn't really roll too much so you can have a little fun tossing it around curves but only until the tires waffle up onto the side walls. It's going to be more fun in snow and mud than blacktop certainly. It is clearly NOT a sports car.

I hauled a load of junk to the scrap yard today and the 5' bed was not a limiting factor It seems to do everything I wanted it to do pretty well. We shall see about hauling motorcycles this week - I'm picking up a non-running '01 XR250R Thursday.

Time will tell - but so far so good.

Yesterday it was 71F under the dam at the head of the Lehigh river at noon. Where the bikes are parked would normally 40' under water. I have no idea why it's that low... drought we should all be panicking and waving arms over... dam maintenance or just normal winter levels. But, it's pretty cool to be riding around under water. No one from Army CoE or park service chased us away.

By 4PM it was in the mid-40s and the wind was wicking up and I had managed to wander 200 miles from home - with my cold gear safely away in a chest in my closet. It was sleeting and 35 when I rolled the bike back into the garage shivering like a E36 M3ting dog.

I awoke to a drastically different scene today.

November in PA, short sleeves to shovels in half a day.

Awesome!

That is a great picture of the intake tower.

I keep meaning to this myself. I don't have a motorcycle, but it'd still be fun to go for a cruise during lunch. Nice thread!

I found some cool semi-paved roads by work that I had no idea were there! Thanks for the awesome idea!

We had a nor'easter dump 3' of snow on us last week but it was 50F today and it's disappearing fast. I couldn't sit still so I went for a little lunch ride.

You would think they would put one of these at the other end of the road too.

The new bike is a monster. It wants to go, go, go all the time but the roads are covered in salt and gravel and frost heaves. Today I took it easy. Because age and wisdom prevailed. Barely.

Nice! Thanks for the pictures.

I got in a little wind therapy over lunch today. Threw on my jacket, put in my earbuds, started some Five Finger Death Punch radio on Pandora, strapped on my full face and headed out. I remembered a pretty area near the office, so I headed over to take a few pictures. I literally took 3 pictures, and got ready to head back to the office. About then, I notice a gentleman walking toward me. The closer he gets to me the more aggravated he gets. I can't hear him... because full face and ear buds. So I unzip the coat, pause the music and lift the visor. I'm greeted with "Are you taking pictures?" Um... Yes... "Of What??" Me, My bike, and the road. It's really pretty back here. "Well if your done, move along" he snapped. I just laughed at him and went on my way. Mind you, public road and I never left it. Maybe he needed a lunch time stress relief more than me. :-)

Found myself a new sub-division road this week. slow speed, high angle corners. Never get over 35mph but fun as hell. Burned through an entire tank of fuel this week so far.