From Bandera, Texas - 2019 HD Freewheeler - 2006 Vulcan 900
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539 Posts
@AlanRides, looks like a nice ride. How bad did you show everyone up? Wonder if they could ride on a dirt road as good as you do?
🏍️ Daily ride thread 🏍️
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LOL. I stood there, mostly mouth gaping open, watching them do things on Road Kings and big BMWs that just amazed me. One of the competitions was for them to maneuver through a set of cones set up like an open plus sign with no side longer than the motorcycle itself. They would basically ride into the plus sign and then turn left to exit. To do that they were mostly stopped and balancing, literally inching their along. Those guys would win any slow contest I've ever seen. Saw multiple guys guys sit at a dead stop, both feet on the pegs/floorboards, for 5 or more seconds at a time, then creep forward just a few inches, yank the bars as necessary, stop again, move the bars, etc until they completed the turn. I think they were scored on not hitting the cones, no feet on the ground and the one that took the longest to finish getting from putting the front wheel into the "plus" and the rear wheel leaving the "plus" sign won. I didn't time them, but I'm guessing the best ones were taking 20-30 seconds to make the 2 bike lengths. Amazing control. I can't find that particular competition on YouTube and my description does it no justice, but the cones are set up something like this:
Somewhat to my surprise I only saw one police Goldwing in the paddock, but never saw it run.
To answer your question, they could ride anywhere on earth better than me. After watching them I tried to emulate some of their moves on our way home and Leslie would only tell me I needed to get some training. And she's right.
Those cops are fantastic on these competitions. I never did see @AlanRides there, just too many people and not knowing what he looks like, well, makes it kind of tough. He did a great recap of the event though. The weather was absolutely perfect to boot. If anyone ever feels like they have have nothing to learn and can do it all, visit one of these. Those cops will knock you down more than a couple pegs!
During an intermission they went out with leaf blowers to clean the course. Not leaves or other debris, but they were blowing tire dust off the track. Ahead of the blowers you could watch the black cloud. There was one cop on a HD that could stay perfectly still and balanced on his bike for 15 secs or more, then turn the front wheel one way then the other before taking off. I'm lucky to stay upright while moving!!!!!
During an intermission they went out with leaf blowers to clean the course. Not leaves or other debris, but they were blowing tire dust off the track. Ahead of the blowers you could watch the black cloud. There was one cop on a HD that could stay perfectly still and balanced on his bike for 15 secs or more, then turn the front wheel one way then the other before taking off. I'm lucky to stay upright while moving!!!!!
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305 Posts
Every so often, one is reminded of why. In this case, it is why I love Brahma so dang much.
On the way home from work today, my visor opened on the right side. I had to hold it with my left hand until I could find a safe spot to pull over on the expressway. Once I had the issue corrected, I looked in the mirror to find a solid line of traffic moving at roughly 80mph. I thought, oh no, how am I getting back into the flow. Then this feeling welled up from underneath me. I felt the Rocket III vibe starting to come alive. Oh yeah, I remember now...
I rolled forward a few feet till an opening about three car lengths arrived. By the time I was shifted into second gear, a (second or two later) I was needing to ease off the go-handle as the car in front was a tad too close. Brahma reminded me why...
On the way home from work today, my visor opened on the right side. I had to hold it with my left hand until I could find a safe spot to pull over on the expressway. Once I had the issue corrected, I looked in the mirror to find a solid line of traffic moving at roughly 80mph. I thought, oh no, how am I getting back into the flow. Then this feeling welled up from underneath me. I felt the Rocket III vibe starting to come alive. Oh yeah, I remember now...
I rolled forward a few feet till an opening about three car lengths arrived. By the time I was shifted into second gear, a (second or two later) I was needing to ease off the go-handle as the car in front was a tad too close. Brahma reminded me why...
From Bandera, Texas - 2019 HD Freewheeler - 2006 Vulcan 900
Joined
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539 Posts
Got in a nice ride with wife going to LBJ Park. Beautiful weather. Nice slow ride taking in scenery.
![Wood Grass Font Plant Landscape]()
![World Map Font Biome Urban design]()
![Plant Tree Working animal Natural landscape Grass]()
Day (maybe 2 by now) late posting, but the weather Friday was pretty nice and we decided to do as many chores as we could on the bike and then waste as much of the rest of the day as we could. Took a pair of the wife's shoes to the shoe repair guy in Dayton, swung by Liberty to get the scavenger hunt target and then some paint chips at Sherwin Williams so we could try to figure out what color to paint the cool deck that is being refurbed along with the rest of the pool starting Monday and then went looking for a little out of the way place the wife had spotted on the internet called Watson's Rare Native Plant Preserve. A very neat little 11 acres of plants, found some wild orchids and pilcher plants. If you didn't already know, pilcher plants eat bugs, kind of like a Venus Flytrap. Found a few having lunch. Then off to our lunch of fried catfish and then home. The wife likes to ride through Big Sandy as it is kind of isolated and fairly scenic if you like tree lined roads. I did notice signs at the school complex in Big Sandy (small town, all schools in one location) stating that their faculty and administrators carry weapons and will use them, apparently in response to the Uvalde school shooting tragedy. My GoPro didn't pick it up very well, but I'll try to see if I can capture that sign and its exact wording.
Relive:
www.relive.cc
Boring 10 minutes of FM1276 to Big Sandy, nothing spectacular, but greening up nicely and just a nice calm ride with enough turns and elevations to keep it interesting without being work.
Relive:
Relive 'Back to nature & goofing off'
View my motorcycle ride: Back to nature & goofing off
www.relive.cc
Boring 10 minutes of FM1276 to Big Sandy, nothing spectacular, but greening up nicely and just a nice calm ride with enough turns and elevations to keep it interesting without being work.
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93 Posts
@AlanRides that looks like a nice relaxing road to ride. Smooth and wide with some twisties, nice.
The bike looked good and steady.
I saw in the video about 9 minutes that at about 38 mph and 1500 rpm that the camera had the wave in it. Have you noticed that before?
Also did you push the right side mirror out so we couldn’t see you and Leslie or did you push that out so Leslie could see behind the bike…
The bike looked good and steady.
I saw in the video about 9 minutes that at about 38 mph and 1500 rpm that the camera had the wave in it. Have you noticed that before?
Also did you push the right side mirror out so we couldn’t see you and Leslie or did you push that out so Leslie could see behind the bike…
From Bandera, Texas - 2019 HD Freewheeler - 2006 Vulcan 900
Joined
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539 Posts
@AlanRides, things are greening up pretty nicely over there. We're starting to get a few, very few trees starting to leaf out. Nice ride!
From Bandera, Texas - 2019 HD Freewheeler - 2006 Vulcan 900
Joined
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539 Posts
Even after 40k+ miles I haven't found that happy spot for those dang mirrors. I have bought, but not yet install, convex spot mirrors to see if it helps me with seeing behind me. After your question above I asked Leslie if she could see better behind than in the past and she confirmed that, so I guess it is out a little more. I have also noticed the GoPro seems to have zoomed itself in and, as far as I know, there is no zoom function. Looking at older videos, the dashboard doesn't look as close-up as it does now, so that could make the picture in the mirror a little different as well.
I have noticed recently the "wave" happening at both at the lower RPM range and still around 2750, so I am pretty sure the camera is on its way to some kind of failure, maybe some internal part has come loose and moved the focal point and is causing the odd wave. It might be time to get away from the GoPro 4 and modernize, but I am not looking forward to that particular expense. I put an Avon Cobra Chrome 200/60-16 on the rear which makes the rear tire almost 1" larger in diameter and reduces my RPM by around 200, so running at 73 (GPS) is lowered to around 2500 RPM and less wavy. Speedo now reads 1-2 MPH lower than GPS where it used to read 1-2 higher than GPS.
I'll put up with the odo and speedo errors as the bike handles so much better with the Avons on front and rear I don't plan on going back the OEM Bridgestone Exedras. The front has more than 8k on it and the rear has right at 1k. I would be thinking about new tires at 8k with the Bridgestones, but the front Avon looks like it could go another 8k. We'll see. Hoping the rear Avon wears as well as the front.
Nope, the leaves drop in the fall. They aren't even close to budding again yet. Our trees won't look like yours until June.
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93 Posts
@AlanRides than you for the input.
Also there might be better cameras similar to the GoPro but less expensive. I see many of the YouTubers using other types of cameras.
Also there might be better cameras similar to the GoPro but less expensive. I see many of the YouTubers using other types of cameras.
Looked like the last nice weather day for a few as some cooler temperatures and precipitation are moving in, so off on a scavenger hunt for another forum, pick up the wife's repaired shoes at the local cobbler's and then waste some gas and time just noodling around the country side.
EDIT: Pretty sure Relive's max speed is a little off, I'm almost certain I never got over 90(ish).
www.relive.cc
Ran into some pretty heavy smoke at three fairly separate locations, two of them 50+ miles north of home that smelled of burning wood and one less than 10 miles north of home that smelled like plastic. Glad I don't live in any of those places because it was pretty thick in places. This is 6 minutes of the closer smoke event. An online search didn't come up with any clues of origins.
Also went back to the Big Sandy schools to get a good picture of the warning signs that I saw during the last ride I posted that they've posted around the campus and streets near the campus. It's a shame they have to resort to stuff like this, but I hope it helps convince idiots with bad intentions to move along....
![Plant Motor vehicle Land lot Road surface Tree]()
EDIT: Pretty sure Relive's max speed is a little off, I'm almost certain I never got over 90(ish).
Relive 'Murals and other wanderings'
View my motorcycle ride: Murals and other wanderings
www.relive.cc
Ran into some pretty heavy smoke at three fairly separate locations, two of them 50+ miles north of home that smelled of burning wood and one less than 10 miles north of home that smelled like plastic. Glad I don't live in any of those places because it was pretty thick in places. This is 6 minutes of the closer smoke event. An online search didn't come up with any clues of origins.
Also went back to the Big Sandy schools to get a good picture of the warning signs that I saw during the last ride I posted that they've posted around the campus and streets near the campus. It's a shame they have to resort to stuff like this, but I hope it helps convince idiots with bad intentions to move along....
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