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Re: [St] Very belated ride report.



Thanks for the report, Jeremy. Sounds like a great trip. 
   
  Wish I could have come west and joined you but as you said, "life happens". 
   
  Todd

Jeremy Witt <Jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  This is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back the last weekend of May and into June. Joel and I attended the East Coast Hawk Rally in Natural Bridge, VA. This was a rough summary I sent to a friend who wimped out and missed the trip. Been meaning to rework and send out...then "life" happened. Sorry it's so late, but use it to remember the summer as the nighttime temps fall below freezing and snow is predicted Friday!

Most of the names will be meaningless unless you lurk on the Hawklist. One point of interest, Mark Zack was cut off by an "I didn't see you!" driver just over a year ago and survived life-threatening injuries. He lost his right arm to the accident. I'm happy to report he took his new Harley Sportster, modified for left-controls, for a test drive exactly one year after his accident. Hell of a guy!



Thursday was a late start (about 10am) heading out to State College, PA. I didn't really pay close attention to the directions and thought I saw that SC was pretty close to Scranton. It's all relative. It was about 110 miles West-Southwest. Rolled in to Joel Ashman's driveway about 8pm. With a very sore back. See I got myself a used Bill Mayer saddle, which unfortunately pushed me up and back from the bars (ouch!). My poor planning only gave me a day to test it out before the trip.

Joel's wife (Bridget) is cool and his daughter Kayleigh is a freaking riot. She came right out into the garage and said hello, then wanted to touch my bike "that looked like Daddy's". Joel explained to her quickly not to touch anything Silver! Then she was very eager to help me get my gear off for me and even fetched me a beer. She's gonna make somebody an excellent wife! 

We were all set to leave at 9:30am Friday and Joel hit the starter only to hear "rrrrrrrrr-click". Seemed the techie nut, while rigging the Sprint up for his GPS (which we ditched), his iPod and cell phone (through Autocomm), he left the lights on a bit too long and drained his new battery. No 
jumper cables to be found. Nearby neighbors had none either. He lives in a flat area, so no hope of bump start. Off Joel goes to the local hardware store for some cheap jumpers. We got rolling about 10am.

Stopped in to his parent's farm, about 30 minutes away, met the fam, grabbed an extra camp chair and headed out.

The trip down to the VA line was pretty cool, rolling roads and light traffic. Once in VA, it got very hot and rather congested, mid 80s and humid. Got stuck in a few stop and gos and learned that my freshly coated header helped a lot, but the Sprint is still a hot and poorly vented bike. Started entertaining ideas of what bike to make a good replacement, then we got to Waynesboro and the BRP.

This was Joel's first run on the BRP and he was very impressed. We stopped a few times on the way to mile marker 47, but mostly we were trying to outrun a line of ugly thunderheads to the west. Made it to Natural Bridge about 7:30pm and never got rained on. Found out later that several 
Hawkers, who passed on the BRP for I-81, were getting doused and pelted by hail at the same time (and on a parallel course) we were fleeing on the BRP. :0)

Saturday morning, we divided up into the "slow" group, the "fast" group, and the "knee draggers" group with Steve Lenac, Dick Wolcott and one other dude. I followed John Kokola (riding a loaded and panniered BMW GS 850) in the fast group. Also with us were Ross (CBR600F4) and his brother (EX500), Pacé (very nice Hawk, the only one in our group), Joel Ashman (Sprint ST), and Pants on a Superhawk. Mark Zack and rHonda were also there in their BMW Z4 convertible. Mark followed the slow group in the morning, then us "fast" folks after we all met for lunch at the Swinging Bridge somewhere else in VA.

John scouted out some pretty cool roads. There was a mixture of sweepers and twisties in the morning, and then we climbed a mountain and encountered about 10 minutes of near dual sport gravel covered road. Without gravel, it would have been a fun road, but since the entire thing was gravelly, we went rather slow. Then we ended up on Rte 601, which was a slightly rougher (and tighter) version of a melding of Warwoman Road and Wolfpen Gap that just kept going and going and going. It was here I decided I should keep the Sprint and work on fine tuning. The .95 front springs made all the difference, not to mention the fact I had pulled all the side fairings off that morning, and I discovered all sorts of fun between 6 and 9k rpms! It's like a big Hawk motor that never hits a flat spot!

Anyway, we arrived back at NB around 5:30 and had a massive dinner. Some of us had dessert. The evening was spent laughing and drinking. I retired early as my back was still aching, even though I spent minimal time in the saddle all day! Not to say I'm a knee dragger, I just try (so far unsuccessfully) to look like one. 

Sunday morning woke to steady rain that intensified while I was busy packing and reassembling my bike. Joel and I rode together to Winchester, VA, where we split. He headed northwest and I continued north toward Scranton. I parked for the night in East Scranton, soaking wet. The rain was heavy and constant the entire day. The Holiday Inn had a nice Jacuzzi and pool right outside my room.

Sunday morning was a misty morning and I got myself going about 10am again (a pattern) riding mostly in mist until 15 miles into NY, where it started dumping rain. It was heavy all the way through Hartford and to the Storrs exit. After that, the sun almost made a few appearances. It still rained lightly all the way back to Merrimack and I arrived about 3:30pm.

I've learned that even proper rain gear eventually saturates and leaks. The toes of my boots are almost dry today.

(flashback to Fall Eastern Hawk Rally 2002)

It was like Hurricane Isadore in 2002, but it lasted 2 days. However, I must have learned from that since we only made about 75 miles that day and I managed at least 325 per day Sunday and Monday.

Ya shoulda gone!

Thanks to Joel and Bridget for the place to stay on the way down. Thanks to Kayleigh for the beer. 

Jeremy Witt
Newbury Partners
www.newburypartners.com
(o) 603-893-3022
(c) 603-475-4228

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