Before this ride i was having a bad week......a really bad week. I was pissed off at a lot of things and was so angry i wanted to punch anyone who looked at me wrong. My friends were being jackasses and things at work were just not making me happy. On top of this i was bored out of my mind i had nothing to do at home. I anxiously waited for the next adv tag at night to snag so i had something to do. I never get bored, ever and when i do i'm hard to deal with. The only thing getting me through the week was knowing that when sunday came i would be out on my moto for another adventure away from this crappy sandbar. I needed this ride more than an addict needed a fix.
My prep was standard fare except for the new set of BT-016s i acquired. A big thanks to my tire guy for putting them on for me on Monday night. This was everything on saturday night.......the "Usual" prep
I was so bored that night i even went to bed early.....i was out cold by 10:30pm. An extremely rare occurrence. I wokeup bright and early but not early enough.....i completely misjudged my departure time and instead of meeting Mookie at 730 at the usual stop i wasn't there till 745 maybe later.
Here is the bike rolling out at 720....
And my dog probably thinking "your leaving on the bike AGAIN?!"
The second i cracked that throttle though and headed down my road all my worries from the week melted away. And i couldn't help but laugh at the fact that for once mookie was waiting for me. Usually i'm the one on time. I roll up to the 1st spot and find him waiting. As soon i get gas and am ready to go Mook fires up his bike with mine next to it. A spray of fluid shoots out of the side of his bike.....all over my front fairing. I look down to see somebody forgot his oil cap......mook was airing out the condensation while waiting and forgot to put it back on. Good one you will be cleaning this at the next stop.
We headed down the LIE enjoying the cool morning weather and proceeded to the PIP where the leaves were changing and gently reminding me of the trip i took just 2 weeks ago. Arriving at the SU meet spot just before 9am it was nice to be greeted by a huge assortment of bikes.
O and Mook cleaned my bike for me, personally i was just busting his balls i didn't care if he cleaned it or not. She might look clean in pics but is the dirtiest 1098 out there i'm sure.
Some members hanging out drinking their coffee
At this point all that was ahead of me was clear skies and a great day of riding.....The next section was a complete blur but as we headed out the sweet noise of 15 bikes made me wish i could record it as a sound for my alarm clock. Music to my ears....unless of course you are with in the first 5 riders then all you hear is 1 bike.....a certain RC51......
The first gas stop
Soon after this we decided to split the ride up with me taking the back half of the group. and Soth taking the front half. Here we are waiting right before the split
O snap! Dizzle! Glad to see you out man that Triumph still sounds sweet
A scenery shot
Splitting the group up seemed to be the best choice it kept everything flowing nicely and everyone rode their own pace. It was all fun and games the next couple of miles everyone was having a good time as far as i could tell and we weren't even at the diner yet.
My group rolled into the next stop right behind Soth's and we all bullshitted a bit. A friend of ours updated the twitter
Bikes
Helmet pron
Soth doing the robot?
Soth post taking a pic of the coolant leak from dizzle's bike
This reminded me of the time last winter when my radiator leaked....ahhh good times!
So while everyone relaxed and got gas Soth and crujones ask me if my bike can go 110miles without a gas stop. I was skeptical she is a fickle bike that can go from 25mpg to 45mpg depending on conditions. There was talk of if i could make it or not i said i would go for it but the decision was to make a fast stop right before the diner. I guess they didn't want to risk a repeat of the
Gatorade RideWe headed out again with thoughts of deep fried french toast in our heads. Man i was starving i could not wait! The groups split again, here is a quick shot of some of my pack
I slowed down at a point to make sure everybody was still together and took in some more scenery and saw this house.
Here are the guys catching up
Mookie
Heman
Heman, Bones and Tom sweeping for me
This whole portion was my favorite part of the route it was completely empty and a lot of nice sweepers i could see through. Not to mention the crazy amounts of waterfalls! Being out here always reminds me of how much of the world i have to see and that i need to ride a LOT MORE
We caught up to the 1st group again and then headed down to the diner. Where deep fried french toast, bacon and cheese fries was happily digested! It was awesome to see all the gear and riders take over so much of the diner. The forum has come a long way!
Cru posed for this shot..
So what happened next? I turned my headphones on.....i never use them on the twisties anymore i save them for the slab ride as a sort of gift to myself for doing all this riding. I appreciate the music that much more when i save it for the end of the day and it makes time go by FAST. On top of that i think everybody on the forum got a little bit of hooligan in them proceeding to reach speeds undetermined for the slab back.
As i'm hurtling down the pavement with Billy Talent blasting in my ears i couldn't help but think how cool it would be to see this huge pack of bikes flying down the slab. All from the same forum, some old friends and some new but all in it for the same thing. It really made the time go by a lot faster and made something usually boring turn into a whole other aspect of fun.
As we reached the city everybody started to peel off and the long island crew parted from the city folks. Haha LI has a crew now who would have though that?!
More hooliganism and then the LIE slab.....of course i had to stop for gas one more time....goddamn V-Twin.....but damn if she isn't sexy
I arrived home and thought about the trip.....parting thoughts. I'm happy the forum has grown so much in the past year and that we all have made new friends and met people to ride with. Could you imagine if the internet wasn't around? The chance of meeting people who are even willing to ride a 500 mile day on a sportbike is almost zero. SU.com thanks for bringing all these crazies together into one place to make the riding experience one of the coolest things i have partaken in. If it wasn't for this group i would probably still be riding my 695 to and from work with the occasional ride on crap twisties on LI. I always start new hobbies every year and none of them have quite stuck like a sportbike has. Let's continue to grow, keep the rubber down
O yeah and no tickets or accidents......you can't ask for anything more than that sometimes
