It was a bit cool, and looked like rain was coming...still hasn't....but I decided I needed to get the Night Rod out, before it's no longer Night Rod weather.
It was a short ride or as I called it, and Hour of Power!
Behind me was dark rain clouds. But, I tried to focus on the positive.
This years mileage, thus far:
Limited: 16,591
V-Rod: 3,586
Total: 20,177
Hitting 25,000 miles is a bit questionable, but you don't know until you try. I'm 8,267 miles away from 100,000 miles on the Limited. I guess that will have to wait until 2021. Covid is to blame for not making it, as I would have gone on a cross country trip if everything had been open.
hate to say it, but it is winding down for me... October will be as many days as I can get in... but there was fresh snow in the Mountains today, so it ain't long off now... I have a meeting tomorrow about an hour away.. all highway riding... so I will take her out for that... weather looks good, if not a bit cool.
hate to say it, but it is winding down for me... October will be as many days as I can get in... but there was fresh snow in the Mountains today, so it ain't long off now... I have a meeting tomorrow about an hour away.. all highway riding... so I will take her out for that... weather looks good, if not a bit cool.
I'll be lucky to see 70F again, although there appears to be a slight chance, in about 2 weeks. Hopefully snow is at least 2 months away, December will be soon enough for that. Enjoy your ride tomorrow and make every mile count!
This aren't great looking photos because they're screen captures from a dash cam mounted on my Sportster, but a couple of pics of me enjoying the nice and curvy roads in north east Tenn.
Not all of the fun roads are at the Dragon. While I did see other motorcycles it wasn't like some slow speed parade that I've seen at the Dragon on the weekends. I was on highway 52 and also highway 127 all the way up to Kentucky and back. Many of the curves were much tighter than this one example from the video footage. This is one of the easier ones with a 55 mph speed limit.
There are plenty of picnic areas on these roads (some under rocks) and also primitive outhouses at certain areas if you're between cities or Dollar Generals. You have a greater chance of seeing a Dollar General out in the country around here than gas stations or cities.
Yesterday was too nice to work, so I took the day off and rode. I traveled through three states, covered 420 miles and was gone for 10 hours. The pics are here.
Today was also a beautiful day, but my great nephew was having his 5th birthday party, so I had to compromise. I took the Night Rod, and took the long way. It's normally a 30 mile round trip, but today it took 150. The pics are here.
Tomorrow has the potential to be a great ride day too. If it is, I hope to get the wife out, as it could be the last time she gets out this season. I have Monday off too, but that's not looking so good at the moment.
Yesterday may well have been the last ride day of the year for my wife. It was the last day of the season for the Psycho Silo Saloon, in Langley IL, so we stopped in for a bit. Prior to that we rode along the Illinois River, through Morris, Seneca, Marseilles, and Ottawa. We took a scenic ride to Tisklawa and Princeton as well. From Langley we made our way through Rockfalls and Dixon. It his 86 degrees yesterday, which may very well have been a record for October 11th. Today however, it's cool and rainy, which is a bummer, since I have the day off.
Here are some pics from yesterday's ride.
The season is winding down, but I'm sure there are a few more ride days in my future, they may require heated gear, but hey, they're still ride days.
Yesterday the sun finally came out, sometime after lunch. When I got off work I headed straight for the Harley. As I rolled the bike out of the garage, clouds started rolling in. Figures. I went ahead and headed out anyway.
I rode up around the Rockford airport, so I could hit Rt 20 and head down the Rock River. When I got up to the airport the clouds were looking like rain was inevitable. I knew if I crossed the river and headed down Rt 2, and it started to rain, my first chance to cross back over was 15 miles away. I said screw it, and went for it, despite not having my rain gear with me.
As I was leaving Byron, which was my first chance to cross the river, it started to rain. It wasn't pouring, but it was steady. I didn't knew the rain was coming, but I wanted to ride. Other than my face I really wasn't getting any rain on me, so why cut the ride short?
My next chance to cross the river was another 14 miles. I passed on that chance too, and just kept on going....singing in the rain, literally. Grand Detour was the next river crossing, and there's no avoiding it. This is a 12 mile stretch, with nowhere to hide from the rain. I did stop in Grand Detour and put on my chaps, just in case the rain got worse, and to help keep my jeans dry once I got back to town in stop and go traffic.
It's 31 miles to home, from Grand Detour, and the rain never quit. I'm glad it didn't pour. It was only 54 degrees, so everyone the went by me must have though I was crazy. They may be wrong but the may be right.
So 57 miles of my ride was in the rain. Funny thing is, it didn't bother me one bit.
When I got back in town, and at the road to my house, I needed 5 more miles to hit 93,000 miles, so I just went right on by, and grabbed the extra 5 miles...in the rain...lol.
Today was a better day, even though it didn't start out that way. It was cool, damp and cloudy most of the day. At lunch time it was foggy as could be. Come 5 o'clock it was nice and sunny, so I jumped on the Ultra for another ride. It was 74 as I headed out of town. It got up to 78....sweet.
I headed down to Ottawa, via the back roads, of course.
I rode along the Illinois River, through Starved Rock State Park, across the new, but ugly, bridge into Utica and then more back roads to Mendota. From Mendota it was Hwy 251 back to town.
I love riding as the sun goes down and into the darkness. The temp was perfect, there was no wind and no deer...which is even better.
My after work rides will be coming to an end pretty soon, as we will be falling back and it'll be dark before I get home. I don't mind riding into the night, but there's not much of a reason to start a therapy session in the dark.
Saturday looks like another chance to ride, but it'll be about 30 degrees cooler than today was.
I'm gonna take advantage of all the good weather mother nature throws my way. Hell, there's snow just a few hundred miles to the north, so it may not be long before Jeep season sets in.
I’ve adopted the ‘wind therapy’ expression thanks to you all. The folks at work all know what that means lol.
I was on a 2 hr call yesterday (after an already long day of calls) and someone in Chicago mentioned It was 75 degrees and that he was hitting a bar with a patio for a cocktail.
Not me, I fired up the SGS and got in a couple more hours of wind therapy in gorgeous weather (near 80 here).
09-26-2020 | 03:13 PM
