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[ST] Ride report to VIR - Part One



Splitting this up as it's too big...    


What follows is a compilation of a number of posts I sent to another list
I belong to - I cant be arsed editing it so some of it wont make sense
unless you know the person or some history, but I think it will still work
- if you don't like fruity language or are easily offended, then don't
read it, I could give a...well,  you get the gist :)

 

Just as a bit of pre-amble, a friend and I went to the AMA races at
Virginia International Raceway about 2 weeks ago.  This is what happened.

 

Day One - Thursday:
As Jim and I work for the same company we decided to come to work on the
Thursday ready to go.  The plan was to work (well....attend)  in the
morning, have lunch and then sod off.  All went to plan and we set off at
about 1 heading towards the Mass pike at which point my fuckwit/retard
genes kicked in and just before we got on the Pike I wondered where my
wallet was :)  Sound familiar...  We pulled over and I couldn't find it.
We turned round and headed back to Bedford.  We pulled into the car park
and the wallet was nowhere to be found - it hadn't been handed in and
nobody had seen it.  FUCK I thought.  I then spent the next 2 hours or so
wandering around in the heat trying to find my wallet.  It didn't turn up.
Jim agreed to lend me some money and a credit card and we decided to push
on - the lack of a driving license/ID was bothering me so we went via my
house in Framingham and picked up my passport.  
 
This all meant we were about 2 1/2 hours behind - we had planned to get
north of Baltimore before the end of the day.  My wife's response when I
told her was...interesting and it was only when she was out of the earshot
of the kids did she let rip :)  I got her to cancel all my cards and shit.
We tootled on down the Pike, 84 and then 95 and made good time till we hit
the outskirts of NY.  We hit it at just the wrong time (due to the afore
mentioned delay looking for the fooking wallet) and so we spent a very
very uncomfortable 2 hours or so traveling 20 or so miles to and over the
GW bridge.  It was horrendous in so many ways - the heat, the traffic, the
fooking retarded drivers  - I could go on.  Suffice to say it was quite
possibly the worst 2 hours riding of my entire life - I was semi-lane
splitting (not exactly lane splitting but going for every little space in
each lane I could) like mad to get through otherwise I am sure I would
have melted.  Jim and I had radios (his idea but it turned out to be one
of his better ideas) and we eventually lost each other and radio contact.
Eventually I got to the other side sans Jim - at this point I had no
fookin idea where Jim was or if he was OK.  I rode to the first service
area after the bridge (Vince Lombardi service area for those of you that
know the area).  I stopped at the entrance and waited for Jim - all the
while I was on the radio to him.  Eventually he came on the radio and
after a lot of confusion I figured out he was telling me he was in the
service area car park - how the fook did he get there I asked myself.  It
turns out he didn't hear me till he got in the service area (he assumed I
would stop there) and it was his GPS that got him there via some back
roads (shut up Jarvis).  
 
So we had made it through the hell hole that is NY - my left wrist was
killing me from constantly pulling the clutch lever in (not as
highly...er...developed as my right wrist).  It was about 7 or so at this
point and we had a long way to go.  I went for a gypsies and as I'm
walking in, wearing my NTSR shirt, some young black guy asks me if I had a
Triumph - I look at him a bit weird as he didn't look the type to know the
fook a Triumph was.  I said yes I had 2 as a matter of fact :)  At this
point another black kid walks up with a a fook off 'fro - its his brother.
Turns out they both have '60/'70 era Triumphs - well they were non-
runners at this point but they certainly knew about Triumph.  Had a quick
chat and then went and did my business.  Came out and their grandmother
was making a bee-line for me and Jim (the weird thing she was white...go
figure) and she was the one with the biking history and she launched into
it.  Nice lady but we were behind time and we needed to get on - we were
melting also.  Eventually me putting my ear-plugs in gave her the hint and
we parted.   We got going again and as darkness fell we cracked on.  We
weren't the fastest but neither were we the slowest - I like to move in
and out of traffic to hide behind other vehicles.  Both Jim and I were
running V1's and they worked great - having said that there was not a lot
of LEO action.  We made good time and we eventually decided to call it a
day at about 8:30/9:00 in a small place called Bordertown, NJ just outside
of Philly.  So we DID make it to north of Baltimore just a bit more north
than we had hoped.  Jim's GPS pointed us to a Quality Inn and we checked
in and had some dinner and hit the sack.
 
End of Day 1 - 280 miles
 
Day 2 - Friday
The idea was to get up early and get moving to try and make up the time we
lost the day before but like most plans of mice and men...  We eventually
got up at about 7 - fookin freezing it has to be said since Jim turned the
AC up to its highest setting so the room was like a walk-in fridge.
Remind me not to let him play with AC's again.  I get dressed and as I'm
putting my shoes on to go get breakfast in the lobby I feel something in
one of my shoes...as I leaned down I thought to myself, wouldn't it be
funny if this was...fooking hell my wallet :)  The bloody thing had wedged
itself in my shoe and had been there all the time - absolutely NO idea how
it got there.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry - so I laughed out
loud.  Jim wondered the hell what was happening and when I showed him the
wallet he laughed as well.  Sadly my wife had been a little too efficient
and so all the cards in the wallet were now worthless.
 
So, after that good start to the day, we had breakfast and headed out at
about 9 or so with the sun beating down already.  We made good progress
past Philly and then Baltimore and ended up having lunch at a diner near
Falls Church.  We tried so very hard not to look too closely at our
surrounding since it was not...shall we say...the most hygienic place we
had been to.  The food was OK though so we paid up, gassed up next door
and pushed on.  As we moved into VA, I stopped and put my V1 away but as
Jim's was hidden, he kept his working.  The radios came into play then.
 
We stayed on the highways - 95 to 66, and it was good going but again,
bloody hot.  I had a camelback but as I didn't have space in my tank bag
(I took the ST just in case anyone thought I was a total masochist and had
taken the S3) it was strapped to my tail bag which didn't really work very
well - I eventually made room for the water container in my tank bag which
was OK.
 
We eventually got to Front Royal at about 1 - this being the start of
Skyline Drive.  We pushed on through FR and stopped to take a few pictures
at the start of SD.  I didn't realize but we had to pay to get on SD - it
is a National park after all.  The ranger told us to be careful and
reminded us of the speed limit - which is a pathetic 35 :)  We set off up
SD and started to climb - we did stop at a visitor's center for some quick
photo's and a gypsies but then we really got into SD.  SD is a fantastic
road - it reminded me very much of the Chernobyl Highway we were on last
year (or whatever it's bloody called), if you've ever been on that road.
SD is about 100 miles long and in the time we were on it, we saw maybe 20
cars in total.  There are quite a few passing places - both legal and
otherwise so getting past them was no problem.  We had been told that if
we kept it below 55 (which was hard to do) we should be OK.  We tried very
hard (your honor) to do that but it was near but impossible.  We adopted a
policy of keeping it to 55 on the straights AND the bends (where we could)
and the bends were much more fun :)  There are some places where it's bend
after bend and others where it's not quite as twisty - you are only a
couple minutes from a set of bends though.  It's certainly not as
technical as Deal's Gap for example.  There are tons of viewing points but
we didn't stop at any :)  Once you've seen one view you've pretty much
seen them all :)  Didn't see any other bikes.  We only saw one ranger - he
was coming in the other direction and we had the good fortune to be on a
straight bit so we were taking it easy - having said that were were doing
at least 50.  He had radar on - as confirmed by Jim (not sure if radar is
legal on SD as it's a national park even if it is in VA).  He just drove
by.  We were getting short on gas at this point (well Jim was - he has a
CBR 600 with a gnats bladder for a gas tank) and there are a couple gas
pumps in visitor's centers along the way - but they were all shut as it
was not the season (which seemed fooking stupid...).  We eventually made
it to the end of SD - great ride.  The sound of the ST bouncing off the
rev limiter and the carbon can resounding around the hills was
fan-bloody-tastic.  Pity about Jim's sewing machine CBR with his shitty
can though :(
 
SD runs straight into the Blue Ridge Parkway but we had to get off to get
some gas - at a scary gas station (attendant was scary I mean) and figure
out what to do.  By this time it was 4:30/5:00 so we had 2 choices - carry
on down BPR to Roanoke (where we had arranged to be by Friday night) or
get a room for the night.  I was concerned about Bambis coming out to play
- we had seen a couple on SD, so we called it a night.  We had made up a
few miles,  but not much.  Jim's GPS led us to a Days Inn in Waynesboro,
VA.  We checked in and they put us in a room right at the end or a row of
rooms (I discovered in the morning that some others arrived in the night
and they put them as far as away as they could - we were literally out on
our own).  We then went for something to eat (Pizza Hut...height of
gastronomic delight in Waynesboro) and I was hoping like mad we weren't in
a dry town/county - we weren't, thank fuck for that :)  We then went to
get some beers - it was Friday after all and retired to the room to get
pissed (well I was going to get pissed) and watch some football - sadly
not the Pats but the Redskins and Steelers.  I told Jim to leave the AC
alone or I'd piss into his tank.  There was a bit of a porch outside our
room, so I thought sod it, and parked my bike on the porch which was to
prove a master stroke....  
 
Day 2 - 300 miles
 
Day 3 - Saturday:
 
Once again the plan was to get up early and hit the road early - but once
again that plain was thwarted by sticky bed syndrome.  When we did
eventually get up we were greeted by fuckin' rain - thankfully not on my
bike but Jim's bike was soaked.  It's a yellow Honda, it can take it.  It
soon stopped and Jim went out to dry his bike as we decided what to do.
The roads soon started to dry but the hills were still obscured by fog so
it wasn't looking good.  We had a cup of "gourmet coffee" from a little
stand next to the hotel which was like piss so still craving caffeine we
suited up and got ready to go.  Jim was thrilled since he was able, quite
legitimately he thought, to wear his rain suit for the very first
time...little things/little minds and all that.  It wasn't that cold and
it wasn't raining so I declined to put my big fuck off yellow Triumph rain
suit on - folks, that's a lot of yellow since its 2X and it's big on me
(if you can believe that). 
 
We set off and it looked OK until such time as we started to climb up to
the BRP at which point, within 20 yards or so, we rode into fog so thick I
lost sight of Jim in front of me.  We stopped to decide what to do - we
decided to get of the hill and get on the road that parallels BRP - 81.
We stopped at a local gas station with a Dunkin to get some much-needed
caffeine and a look at the map - since the map on Jim's GPS is way too
small (eh Greg ;-).  Although we didn't have internet access (obviously)
we did know someone who did - AKA 'er indoors.  So with us calling out
place names on the phone and her giving us the weather forecast (they were
all the same anyway) we decided to sack the BRP and keep on 81 down to
Roanoke and then head along 220 towards our final destination - Raleigh
where we were staying with friends that night.
 
We stayed on 220 until the Martinsville area - not a bad route for a major
highway.  At this point Jim decides he's melting so he takes his rain suit
off when we stopped at a local McDonalds.  Jim was wearing a Great Bay
shirt and blow me (well, only if your female) if he didn't get loads of
people coming up to him asking him if he had a Triumph followed by "...I
used to have one.... blah blah blah...".  He spoke with a Hardley guy who
told us about a mini-Deals Gap which we had just passed so we decided to
back track and get on that road.  We eventually found it and it was indeed
just like a mini DG - very nice road.  Jim, yet again, attracted another
of our 4 legged friends - this time a black lab who stood in the middle of
the road barking at him - Jim's a fookin' dog magnet.  We eventually got
to the end and pulled in to gas up.  By this time it was getting very hot
so I was filling up the Camelback at every gas station.  There were a
couple choppers tootling around looking like twats - I ran after one to
see if could look at my teeth if he had nothing to do but ride that POS -
nearly caught him as well :)  I did have a bit of a surprise when I went
for a gypsies - namely a dude sat on the crapper :(  As he, eventually,
left he informed me the lock wasn't working - yup, I guessed that.
 
After we had gassed up we left and eventually got on an interstate towards
Raleigh...fairly uneventful apart from my right hand pannier decided to
make a dive for freedom.  I didn't notice but Jim certainly did and I was
wondering what the fook he was waving at as he blasted by me and pulled
over to the side of the road.  I have the Triumph bags and for anybody
that has them, the top 2 clips had come undone and the only thing that was
keeping it attached to the bike was the bit on the front you hook the
strap to (clear as mud right ?).  No idea why it happened and why it took
all day for it to happen.  Made me paranoid after that though as you can
imagine.
 
Anyhoo...we just slabbed it to our friends in Raleigh and as we arrived
their dog decided to jump out on us - see above re: Jim's a fooking dog
magnet, but disaster was averted and the dog lived to see another day.
 
Good friends that they are -they placed an ice-cold Killians in my hand
before I even got off the bike - it was sooooooooooooo nice.
 
We then proceeded to sink quite a few more during the course of the night
(well I did - Jim's a wimp) and we had a BBQ and a great night was had by
all.  Totally knackered,  we hit the sack at about 11.
 
Day 3 - 400 miles (I think)
 
 
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