Topic: 24 Rides in 2024, Frank's New Years resolution that we can all enjoy.

[RAFster122s]

Congrats Jake

[Terry in Australia]

Well man can not live on bike tinkering alone, so today I ignored the "Hindenburg" (my lightly toasted BMW that I picked up on Thursday) and drove over to my storage unit, and rolled the Rocket III out into the sunshine. The tank was almost full, but I pinched a nerve in my back yesterday, and was reminded every time I went over a pothole, so stopped and filled the bike, checked the oil, bought a drink, and took a couple of anti-inflammatories.

Rocket III Sunday 28 April 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I rode out to Romsey, then just for a change, turned left instead of right, and rode through Monegeetta, Sunbury (the site of the Pop Festival in 1974 when "Queen" got booed off stage) past the Airport, then back on the (nice smooth) freeway, and back to the storage facility.

Rocket III Sunday 28 April 2024 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Probably only 80 odd miles, but ride #18 is in the bag, which is great. Hopefully #19 will be on the Hindenburg next weekend.

Rocket III Sunday 28 April 2024 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr 

[jgger]

'Atta boy Terry, was this an early morning ride? The shadow of the bike looks pretty long.

[BallAquatics]

Well after almost a month, I got ride #16 in today.  I've been riding quite a bit with the nice weather we have been having, but it didn't post any as I didn't think they were in the spirit that Frank meant when he started this yearly, get off your butts and ride thread. Running errands and work related commute rides just don't seem in the "Joy of Riding" spirit.

At any rate, 87 miles on the CBR for ride #16.  Beautiful 80's blue sky day here in Ohio.  Just zipping along some twisty state routes and secondary roads.



I need to ride this bike more this year, or find it a new home.  It's almost in need of it's yearly oil change and it's gone less than 500 miles...  It's a sweet little bike, and a blast to ride.

[BallAquatics]

Well man can not live on bike tinkering alone, so today I ignored the "Hindenburg" (my lightly toasted BMW that I picked up on Thursday) and drove over to my storage unit, and rolled the Rocket III out into the sunshine. The tank was almost full, but I pinched a nerve in my back yesterday, and was reminded every time I went over a pothole...

Hope you are feeling better soon Terry.  Looks like a lovely day for a ride!

[jgger]

Good on ya, Dennis. Keep them rolling.

I'm still playing catch up, but I did get out yesterday...........write up and way too many pictures comming soon.

[Terry in Australia]

'Atta boy Terry, was this an early morning ride? The shadow of the bike looks pretty long.

Thanks Jim, no it was around 2pm. My poor old back was giving me a hard time or I would have ridden further, the Rocket cruises at 60 MPH @ 2200 RPM, so probably didn’t exceed 3K RPM, but it has so much torque that I don’t need to change down from top gear when poodling thru towns. It really is a lovely bike.

The guy I swapped the black Rocket for his Ducati 916 Monster rang me on Saturday to ask if the engine has been hotted up because he’s just bought an ‘04 Rocket trike, and by comparison with the black beast, it’s a dog. I explained that it’s probably had an ECU remap, Ramair filters, air scoop and Jardine pipes, so it’s probably around the 150 BHP mark, and brutal even in comparison to my ‘07 Classic. He’s going to do the same mods to the trike, because he’s a bit disappointed with its performance. I was just happy that he wasn’t calling to tell me it had blown up… (after all, it is British…..)

[jgger]

I hear you Terry. I usually take an ibuprofen about a half an hour before a long ride, it really helps.

The British bike blowing up cracked me up!

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Jim, I used to live on anti inflammatory drugs but I’m not supposed to take it anymore after spending a weekend in hospital after getting a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop, then the gut surgery, so I just take it every now and then.

I shouldn’t even talk about blowing bikes up, after the BMW the previous weekend, and checking the compression on #1 cylinder of my beautiful Suzuki T500 yesterday to discover that it doesn’t have any….. Thank God it’s a 2 stroke…. (Another job for “Spotty’s Motorcycle Garage”.

[jgger]

My old 2 stroke Desert bike seized up once and didn't have any compression after it cooled. The rings were stuck in the grooves and when it cooled it pulled them in as the piston cooled/contracted.  A light hone and free up of the rings and it was good as new.  Hope you're that lucky.

[budman]

Ride #13, 95 miles.

Been busy with work stuff, plus it's also been super windy the last couple of weeks.  Gloomy and cloudy too.  We had a storm front blow through about 4am this morning.  It was loud, but only lasted about an hour before moving along its merry way.  It made for some blue, windless skies this afternoon and slightly cooler temps. I rode up to Castell again, but stopped for a cheeseburger this time.  Been thinking about cheeseburgers a lot lately and decided it was time for one of my thrice-annual cheeseburger splurges.  It was outstanding.

I was surprised to still see some bluebonnets here and there.  Figured they were done.  It was a great ride except for the bugs.  They were horrible again today.  I had to stop 3 times to clean my goggles.  They will start to clear out when the wildflowers die off from the heat.

Nice going everyone.  The 2024 dog tags are in.  We went with red this year.  Otherwise, they will remain pretty much the same as last year's dog tags, with the exception of changing the "23's" into "24's".  I hope to start engraving in the next couple of weeks.

[jgger]

Looking good Bud. I got my sights set on one of those tags, but I'm not waiting until the end of December this year.

[Kevin D]

Thanks Bud

[Terry in Australia]

My old 2 stroke Desert bike seized up once and didn't have any compression after it cooled. The rings were stuck in the grooves and when it cooled it pulled them in as the piston cooled/contracted.  A light hone and free up of the rings and it was good as new.  Hope you're that lucky.

Thanks Jim, I reckon I’ve burned a hole in the piston, but I guess I’ll find out when I take the head off. No cam cover, no cams to time, can remove the head and cylinder in the frame, it’s that easy it’s almost a crime..

[jgger]

Saturday the 27th I did number 15, woohoo! ! Last week I rode to Joshua and had a great day except my fork cap was pumping oil like Jed Clampet shooting dinner ( Beverly Hillbillies). So after fiddling with it and a successful test ride,it was time to put it to the test for real. Since my son, his wife, and my grandkids were going camping at Joshua Tree,  that was my destination.  The wife was gone for the weekend and the order of the day was 1 wake up, 2 eat breakfast, 3 throe all the animals out of the house, 4 make sure they had water,  5 wrap a shop towel diaper on the fork cap in case they still leaked, 6 RIDE BABY RIDE!

This time I had an itching to try a different route. Instead of heading out the freeway toward Palm Springs, I opted to go up Cajon pass but take an unknown to me alternate route to the High Desert ( Hesperia). I was using the Hellen Keller method of navigation and found some nice back roads. Took the cut off to go to Silverwood Lake and then loosely followed the Mojave river into Apple Valley. Then made my way out to Lucerne Valley to get to another piece of the desert I wanted to try, the road from Lucerne to Yucca Valley. Old Woman Springs Road, it was awesome.  By accident, during a "rest" stop I found a monument that explained where the name came from, I'm starting to really get interested in some of the local history. This creative route added 40 miles to get to Yucca Valley over using the freeway, but a much nicer ride.

Into Joshua Tree I go and get to exercise my newly upgraded senior pass and he'd to the camp site. Played with the grandkids climbing in the rocks for about an hour and a half, then headed home on the freeway to make a giant loop. I could not have asked for a better day to ride clear, a light breeze,  and temps that never broke out of the 70's until I was almost home, AND my forks didn't leak a drop!  (Yes Terry, there is still oil in them). So 262 miles/ 422kms of joy, joy, joy.

Some stats:
    Start temp.              77° r/25° c
    Mid trip.                   70°f/21°c
    Home.                      68° f/20° c
    Lowest temp.          64° f/17°c
    Total distance.        262 mi/ 422kms

And now as promised.........too many pics!

[budman]

That’s awesome, Jim.  Looks like a great ride.  I’m jealous.  Been aching to get my first 200-300 miler in this year.  Just can’t seem to break away for that long of a ride.

[jgger]

It has been fun doing the shorter rides to start.  But after my first long ride it just seemed right to do it again. You'll get  there Bud, then you will eclipse my long rides.

[BallAquatics]

I'll bet you guys didn't know I was at Woodstock.....

Passed through there just today on ride #17!  That's Woodstock Ohio by the way.  Right at 100 miles of rural state routes.  Didn't know Google had ruined the "Timeline" feature on the web browser until I tried to get the map of where I'd gone on the ride today.  It's now available in some jacked up tiny image on the phone.  Oh well, an opportunity for someone else to do it right I guess.

Was a beautiful sunny day, but the wind was howling again.  It really beat me up today.  I was ready to be done when I got back home.  Mostly in my neck and back.  I guess part of it could be old age too, but I'm fighting that tooth and nail.  LOL



I think I've just about got all the goodness out of my rear Michelin Road 5 tire.....



It's got 16358 miles on it.  Was installed on August 04, 2020.  I've already replaced the front, and have a new one for the rear out in the shop.

[BallAquatics]

Nice rides Jim, Bud, and Terry.  Bud you got me wanting a cheeseburger now too!  There's a little hole-in-the-wall Mom & Pop place just down the road that has the best burgers and fantastic french fries.   

Glad you got that leak stopped up Jim.  Just a tiny bit of oil blowing around makes quite the mess...

[jgger]

Well Dennis, you can't quite see the air in that tire.......but close!  Sounds like a good day, except for the wind. The plus is you only have 7 more to go!  I think you're the closest to catching up to lash, and we all know he won't sit still.

[lash]

You’re right! #27 Just did 170 km. with the wife today. Only the second ride with her this year, she just got back from a 7 week visit with the daughter and granddaughter in Calgary, AB. Really windy here today also but nice 18c. Rain tomorrow. Finally starting to see the green in the fields and trees.

[jgger]

That's awsome, lash. Keep showing us how it's done.

[lash]

#28/150 km. What a beautiful day for riding! Didn’t want to go home. The trees are finally getting their leaves and the crops are coming up.

[jgger]

Look, it's a bird, it's a plane, nah it's just lash smokin' all of us!

Looking good lash.

[PeWe]

#2    245 km
Finally riding weather. April was mild winter, spring hopefully here.
I need +15C. Yesterday afternoon even warmer, a few degrees more. After work ride start at ca: 3:40  pm

On mostly empty country roads to Avesta to fill up some fuel.
Not the closest way. Then via Norberg, Engelsberg, Ramnäs and to a small restaurant in Färna. (ä almost like e).

The restaurant had even a bike magasine I could read while eating. Back home just before 8pm.
The bike easier to ride after I had increased idle from 1000-1100 to 1200-1300 rpm.

Here some photos, white spring flowers included plus a mirror pyramid in Engelsberg.
And finally some food.









Turned right to Engelsberg