Topic: 23 Rides in 2023, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[Kevin D]

… and just like that blue skies and sunshine.
And look… jgger is on the Scoreboard!

[jgger]

Ahhhh, my 30 seconds of fame!

Next year it would be nice to get 24 to do 24 in 24! I thought there were more this year.

[budman]

Congratulations, Jim!  Sorry I'm late to the party.  Been a crazy month.  I'm glad you got there and that I played a small part of your motivation.

The weather here has been iffy.  It's been borderline, too cold to ride most days, especially in the AM's.  By the time it warms up it gets dark in a couple of hours.  It's been raining some too.  The rain and the cold have affected my ability to get work done, so the few days this month that would have been awesome riding days, like Sunday, I've had to double down on some work.

I might be able to get out tomorrow afternoon.  It would be a short ride.  Gotta hit 69!

[jgger]

Thanks Bud, I'm really pulling for you to hit the triple crown. Layer up and go get it!

As for the shorter rides, 50 miles is the requirement.  I know you and I have been doing longer distances and to me the 50 mile mark is just getting to  where the fun stuff starts! But 50 miles is easy to do, just look at it as being only 100 miles from the goal and a good time to do a couple of gear tests for the cold. Dress up like Ralphie's little brother In " A Christmas Story " and go for it! Besides, you need the practice so you can do 72 next year! We are all counting on you.😁

[Kevin D]

We are all counting on you.😁

   +1

Don’t knock yourself out Bud. You have already done a ton, far more than has ever been reported here in prior years. And that’s not to mention your terrific work with the dog tags.



Jim, your award is coming your way with a 12/19 postmark. It might take a little longer traveling with all of Santa’s Christmas gifts, maybe it will get there faster if it gets the Santa Special Sleigh Ride.

[PeWe]

Santa Claus lookalike!

[budman]

Ride #68, 59 miles.

I was planning on getting out on Wednesday.  I needed to mail some stuff and was planning on riding, but the day got away from me and I didn't feel like rushing.  We got some rain yesterday, so it was disqualified.  It warmed up today and the sun was coming out.  It was a little bit humid from yesterday's rain, but not bad.  It was partly clouding, but the sun showed it's almost the entire ride today.

I rode up to the post office in Llano rather than going to Frederick of the two railroad cars.  When I finished my lunch I rode over the bridge to get a pic in of the two railroad cars In front of the museum.  I think when my son comes for his next visit we'll go check out the museum.

I also did a some more experimenting today.  I've been having continuing dissatisfaction with wind noise.  I've been trying some different types if ear plugs but nothing really seems to work.  I get a loud tornado sound that I can't find a solution on how to eliminate it.  Today I removed the visor from my helmet and wore riding glasses.  Huge difference!  I still wore earplugs, but the tornado sound was gone making for a much more enjoyable ride.  I guess the way the wind comes up off the fairing it slams right into the visor.  I've tried little tweaks, but nothing has worked.  I have tried riding with the visor up but anything over 50 the wind whipping across the visor is a whole other kind intolerable noisiness.  I don't mind going visorless, but the only drawback is the bugs.  There are lots of bugs of all sizes out in these hills.  Pretty much every time I ride my visor and helmet are covered with dead ones.  I'm going to look at some googles that are bigger than the riding glasses.  I may not be able to find what I need though.  The riding glasses I use are bifocal, which I wore even with the visor.  They have the magnifiers on the bottom so I can see my phone screen and the speedometer.  The have 0 power on the top part of the lenses.  I don't really need any help seeing longer distances.  I wear reading glasses which I also need for the computer and shorter distances.  Today's ride was such a big improvement, with much less wind noise that I think I'm going to have to go visorless from now on.

I'll be keeping my eye on the weather.  It would be nice if #69 was a longer ride, but I'll take what I can get.

[Terry in Australia]

Beautiful sunshine on my side of the pond Kevin, so I'll be taking the big black Triumph for another ride. Looking forward to it.

[jgger]

Right on Bud, almost there 50 more miles!

Are you wearing an open face helmet with a visor?  That would probably be alot louder than either a full face or modular, I would think. I found these industrial " safety " ear plugs and they work pretty good. As for your goggles/ face shield/windshield clean it real good then coat it with some of that spray on ceramic like for cars. It makes cleaning bugs so much easier. Don't use it as a cleaner or you will just seal the bug guts in!

Here is a pic of the package for my plugs.

[budman]

The one I'm wearing now is a full-face Shoei that I bought a few months ago.  I like the helmet a lot.  It fits good and is good quality.  I have a two Biltwells, one Bell and a Nolan.  All full-face helmets and all are noisy.  Honestly, I haven't tried any of them without the visor, until today.  I used to wear an open-faced helmet without earplugs and don't remember the wind noise being too severe, but that was several years ago.

I have been using "foamies", but I have small ear canals and the foamies swell up too much.  I have a jar full of them.  After about an hour they start getting really uncomfortable.  I tried some silicon style earlplugs that have these small noise reduction insert thingies that I got from Revzilla, and initially I thought they worked OK, but I was kidding myself.  I bought a simliar, "better" set that had a small size that I got from Amazon called "Earpeace", but they didn't really work either.  I left them a bad review on Amazon and they refunded my money.  I can see these type of earplugs being good for rock concerts or as a spectator at a motorsports race track.  They aren't good for wind noise, as they advertise them for.

When I left the house today I used some smaller sized foamies that I got from Amazon called "Mack’s Slim Fit".  They are smaller and more comfortable than the standard foamies.  I've had the best results with these.  I've used them on several rides so far.  On the way home I tried the silicon Earpeace ones out of curiosity, without the visor, but the Mack's are better.

I didn't really have a problem with wind noise until I got the Scout and started trying to find a fairing/windshield for it.  Actually that's not entirely true.  I did have a wind noise problem on my Harley Road King.  That windshield was horrible.  I have some tinnitus in my right ear.  Probably from years of loud rock music, powertools, loud motorcycle exhaust and wind noise.  The worst wind noise was generated by the small Dart flyscreen I bought for the Scout.  It shoved the wind right up inside the helmet and it was extra painfully loud.

I like the fairing I have now.  It keeps the wind off my torso, and I don't get fatigued by trying to constantly hang onto the bike, but it is throwing wind right on the lower part of my helmets.  Seems like the visor becomes a loud speaker an inch from my face playing a constant low frequency WOOOOOOSH at 60 mph and above.  No visor, no speaker effect.

I'm going to roll without the visor for a while.  The difference today was pretty dramatic.  The Shoei has a small nose/breathe guard thing.  I tried it once when I first got the helmet, but I didn't see a need for it.  I'm going to install it again and see what happens without the visor.

[Kevin D]

Beautiful sunshine on my side of the pond Kevin, so I'll be taking the big black Triumph for another ride. Looking forward to it.

Better hold on tight so it doesn’t get away from you Terry.
My own CB was parked once for 15 years. These days I can suffer a few months off. It’s all the sweeter come April.

The thermometer is going to flirt with 50f for the next few days, but with rain.
 Good thing it’s not colder, 1” rain is about 10” snow.

[Kelly E]

We didn't get our early fall weather. It went from late summer weather to late fall weather. We didn't get our 60° partial cloudy dry days of early fall. I haven't ridden in almost 2 months. We have to wait for the leaves to get ground up and washed away but it went straight to #$%* weather. We have 4 bikes waiting for test rides after service and they are still waiting.

[Kevin D]

Terry, I had to go back to July 22 to find this list of bikes that you have ridden 50 miles or more this year:

Honda CB750 K2,
Honda Valkyrie 1500,
Triumph Rocket III,
Harley Sportster,
Honda CB750F2,
Royal Enfield 350,
Royal Enfield 650,
Moto Guzzi California,
Suzuki T500

I only see one Rocket there.
Will the 250 Yam get on this list?
You have been a busy guy.

[Kevin D]

We didn't get our early fall weather. It went from late summer weather to late fall weather. We didn't get our 60° partial cloudy dry days of early fall. I haven't ridden in almost 2 months. We have to wait for the leaves to get ground up and washed away but it went straight to #$%* weather. We have 4 bikes waiting for test rides after service and they are still waiting.

About the same here in MI and now it is officially winter. The only good thing here is that December has been very light on snow, there’s still time for that to change.

[jgger]

Got some mail today! Woo hoo, thanks Kevin, Terry, and Budman!

[budman]

Got some mail today! Woo hoo, thanks Kevin, Terry, and Budman!

You’re welcome.  You earned it.

[PeWe]

Got some mail today! Woo hoo, thanks Kevin, Terry, and Budman!

Welcome to the club of happy riders!

[Kevin D]

You got the USPS Santa Special Super Sleigh Service
Nice job Jim
I ought to raise the glass tonight, do you have a favorite Jim?

There’s nine in the barn and a week left in ‘23

[1080]

Frank's favorite ride, and he was born on December 26, 1955.
Keep on riding.

[Tim2005]

I didn't follow the 23 rides thing this year as I wasn't riding at the start of the year due to an injury, but Frank came to mind as I was out today.  It was a warm overcast day here (UK) for December, over 50 degrees F, so I decided to go on a decent Christmas Eve ride. I gave the 750 a check over, tyre pressures, chain, oil etc., and put my gear on. Then when I took the bike out of the workshop I found the battery (Motobatt) was pretty dead and as I only rode it last Sunday I figured it must have finally failed, I've been expecting this as it's 11 or 12 years old. So I took the commuter 400F instead, a nice 110 miles of backroads, it is agricultural country here with some nice flowing roads with open views mixed in with lots of little woods and blind corners, and riding through some quaint old villages too. Not much traffic either.  I think the 400 was a better choice than the 750 anyway as although some of the roads were clean and dry there were many with lots of damp patches, leaves, mud, and even a couple of flooded bits, and there's less speed to scrub off on the 400 when the surface gets tricky. The 400 was lovely to ride, the Avons stick so well and the rest of it is such a nice balanced package to ride. I think Frank would have enjoyed the ride too. Merry Christmas all.

[BallAquatics]

Merry Christmas from a partly cloudy and 55 °F Ohio.  Looked like today was going to be the last chance to get in a ride this year so I split 60+ miles between the 550 & the Turbo.  Almost no traffic on the roads, but they were cold and damp.  Not quite warm enough to dry them out.  Got in a couple of nice rides none-the-less.  Both bikes run perfect although I did have to jump the 550 to get it going.

Cold and rain moving in to finish out the year around here.  As it doesn't look like I'll be going out again until after the 1st of the year, here's this years totals.....

Code: [Select]

CB550        2334
CB250R        389
NC750X       4312
XJ650LJ      2245
             ====
             9280

No miles for the CBX, but I'm hoping that changes next year.  Would have like to made 10,000 too, but with all that went on this year I'm happy with the total.  Here wishing you all a Merry Christmas & Happy Prosperous New Year with lots of perfect riding days to enjoy in 2024!!!

[jgger]

Way cool! Merry Christmas.

[Terry in Australia]

Terry, I had to go back to July 22 to find this list of bikes that you have ridden 50 miles or more this year:

Honda CB750 K2,
Honda Valkyrie 1500,
Triumph Rocket III,
Harley Sportster,
Honda CB750F2,
Royal Enfield 350,
Royal Enfield 650,
Moto Guzzi California,
Suzuki T500

I only see one Rocket there.
Will the 250 Yam get on this list?
You have been a busy guy.

Thanks Kevin, no I don't think the little Yamaha will be staying with me long enough to go thru the registration hoops required here, the intent is to sell it as I slowly thin the herd. It is a lovely little bike though, so someone will want it. Yep, need to add the black Rocket III to the tally, it's done 3(?) of my rides this year and is my current favourite. For a bike I picked up for a bargain price, it only needed a little work by Spotty and I to get it back on the road, and it's turned out to be a great bike, frighteningly fast, and so far at least, no issues at all. It could do with better rear shocks (like all Rocket III's, the stock shocks are awful) but as long as I avoid the deeper potholes, no biggie.

I did get out for a ride on Saturday, but managed to leave my iPhone in my car, so didn't take any pics. I rode to Heathcote hoping to get a pie for lunch at the bakery, but the place was packed, so I just kept on riding. I rode back to the storage place and was happy to find my phone that had fallen down between the console and seat. Still felt like a pie, so drove over to the local shopping centre and made it to the bakery just as they were closing, and luckily they had a couple of pies left.

Rocket ride Saturday 23 December 2023 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The weather was great, but it turned to sh1t on Sunday and rained all night. Christmas Day was the same, unusually wet and humid for this time of year. Feeling a little hung over today after probably too much "Christmas Cheer" yesterday, so going to sit in my comfy chair and veg out today, then back over to Spotty's to do some more work on the little Yamaha. It's getting close, we're just hooking up some non standard coils (originals were missing) and hopefully I'll find a wiring diagram so I hook them up correctly, and with luck, we'll get it going.

Merry Christmas to all, I hope you all have a good one, and for those who can, get out there and get a ride in.    

[Terry in Australia]

Got some mail today! Woo hoo, thanks Kevin, Terry, and Budman!

Well done again Jim, attach it to your keys and ride with pride.

[Gurp]

Looks like next year I'm going to be trying extra hard to ride more.

I've got the sporty down and the CB on the lift. When I get moved into the new house I'll have a great road to start on for a good ride.