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HDs, and riding groups, and continued SweeTness



At 02:57 PM 4/25/99 -0600, Norville, Blake/LAS wrote:

>50,000 bikers all dressed alike, same t-shirts, bandannas, 
>bad boy attitude.... expressing their individuality.

I put about 80 miles on the ST today.  Ran out SW of Joliet, IL
to drive Hansel Road/Cemetery Road from Channahon to Morris.
It's a pretty drive, some twisties, some hills, in the country
along the river.

As I approached Channahon I saw more and more motorcycles,
in groups of 20/30/40.  Mostly HDs.  In Channahon itself, there
must have been 5000 motorcycles.  All along the Hansel Road/
Cemetery Road drive, I saw group after group riding together,
mostly west to east, toward Channahon.  Most were HDs, though 
I also saw some beemers and some JCRs.

When I got to Morris, I turned around and headed back, and
ended up with a group up my ass.  I was poking along, on an
unfamiliar road, on a new bike, with new suspension settings,
and only about 400 miles under my belt this season after
several seasons off.  They eventually went past me, which is
fine, and then sat behind another slower group which we all
caught up to.  I guess sitting behind other HDs is OK by them.

Road back through Channahon and on home.  Weird thing.  5000
motorcycles, many two up, all leathers and gloves such, and only 
one helmet in the bunch.  I felt like the only nun at the orgy.

As far as the bike is concerned, I hit 450 miles today, so 
first oil change is coming up soon.  The tight things continue 
to loosen and the loose things tighten, as rings seat and the
gearbox loosens up and such.  Did catch one 5-6 neutral today 
on a lazy upshift.  But the torque curve continues to strengthen
and the torque peak RPM point has been moving down as the rings
continue to seat and the compression tightens up.  

I also found that for me there are two sweet spots in the wind-
screen, sort of the umbra and the penumbra of the wind shadow.  
One is just an inch or two below my normal ride height, that if
I hunch just a bit I miss most of the helmet push.  The second 
is much lower, humped over the tank and elbows bent down, not 
full crouch, but with the bottom of the helmet about even with 
the top of the windscreen.  This gets very quiet indeed, and then 
one looks down at the speedo and says, Oh, my....


Rich Weyand      |  _______   ___,---. ---+_______:_   |Rich Weyand
Weyand Associates| |_N_&_W_| |_N_&_W_| |__|________|_  |TracTronics
Comm Consultants |  ooo ooo ~ ooo ooo ~ oOOOO- OOOO=o\ |Model RR Electronics
weyand@xxxxxxx   |     http://www.mcs.net/~weyand/     |weyand@xxxxxxx

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