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

[PeWe]

Weather Improved
Bridge Open
Food always good
24 rides

Sounds like a Home Run today!

Thanks guys for your congrats of my 24 rides.

Yes, a very good day and early final to reach 24 rides.

I had worries about test rides. Both my K2 and K6 have their carbs and charging regulators adjusted. Perfect for me.

Last ride on the K2 reminded me about the forks and shocks. Not as good setting as my K6 that is comfortable and have good handling.

The K2 is either too hard or too soft.
Fork has old progressive springs by Progressive USA. Rear shocks Ikon with straight springs.

My K6 progressive springs from Wirth, Germany.  Ikon shocks with progressive springs. Really comfortable with good handling for a CB750.

I'll remove the anti sag washer over the fork springs as a start. I have newer springs from Yamiya, also progressive coils to test next.

I might test my old Marzocchi AG Strada shocks I have not restored yet.
If bettter I'll check if I can find same springs my K6 Ikons have, ordered from CCC Germany 2014.
I need an extra set anyway. I have a CB750 in parts....

So, test rides for the K2 are secured!

[PeWe]

Cool car.  Looks like a 32 Ford with a modified grill that has a wedge put in it to make it sloped.  The headlights are from a different car.  Obvious chopped top.  Big block Chevy motor with a tunnel ram intake manifold.  Probably fun to drive.  I bet it's loud.

A good reason to visit that place  and hopefully find out how it sounds

[budman]

Cool car.  Looks like a 32 Ford with a modified grill that has a wedge put in it to make it sloped.  The headlights are from a different car.  Obvious chopped top.  Big block Chevy motor with a tunnel ram intake manifold.  Probably fun to drive.  I bet it's loud.

A good reason to visit that place  and hopefully find out how it sounds

1938 Cadillac headlights.

[PeWe]

Cool car.  Looks like a 32 Ford with a modified grill that has a wedge put in it to make it sloped.  The headlights are from a different car.  Obvious chopped top.  Big block Chevy motor with a tunnel ram intake manifold.  Probably fun to drive.  I bet it's loud.

A good reason to visit that place  and hopefully find out how it sounds

1938 Cadillac headlights.

One more reason to go there and have a chat with the owner if there

[willbird]

#39, 60 miles, took CB500X for it's 600 mile service.

[lash]

#56 today at 129 km. Pie run to Anna Mae’s. Local Mennonite restaurant that is hugely popular. We arrived at 1:30 and could not find a parking spot. Like that pretty much every day. Great chicken dinners and great bakery. Left with cherry tarts and pumpkin pie for after dinner.

[willbird]

#56 today at 129 km. Pie run to Anna Mae’s. Local Mennonite restaurant that is hugely popular. We arrived at 1:30 and could not find a parking spot. Like that pretty much every day. Great chicken dinners and great bakery. Left with cherry tarts and pumpkin pie for after dinner.

There is a Museum park place in Archbold, OH called "Sauder Village"...they have a Restaurant, their pan fried porkchops are the absolute best I have ever had. I think the food is Mennonite.

[lash]

Now you have me jonesing for pork chops!

[willbird]

Now you have me jonesing for pork chops!

There was a place more local that had what the owner called "Syrian pork chops"..they were a good inch thick and cooked just right, and you could order a bowl of onion soup that had cheese melted across it and then they set it on fire. Place closed down tho :-(. 

[budman]

Ride #26, 218 miles.

I rode north up to Goldthwaite, TX today.  Again, trying to find the edge of the Hill Country.  First time in Goldthwaite.  Didn't see any bobcats though.  I've been through some of the other towns around there, like Hamilton, Comanche and Brownwood.  Things started to get flat just north of San Saba, but it the hills reemerged.  The hills up there aren't the same and not as big as the ones around here.  No big rocks or cliffs.  More like rolling hills.  I looked at some maps when I got home and most of them seemed to indicate that I was still in the Hill Country.  I think I disagree.

I snapped a pic of the courthouse and the old jail while I was there.  Didn't stay long.  Got some gas and headed back south.  Pretty much the same rolling hills all the way the Lampasas.  I've been through Lampasas a few times.  Looks pretty Hill Country-ish there, but then rolling hills again until Burnet.  Immediately west of Burnet you start to get the Hill Country full effect.  In my mind, and probably others, the Hill Country has a certain look to the land.  I carried on to Kingsland and filled up again before I zigzagged my way to one of my favorite back roads, where I stopped for some water and an apple.  It was getting pretty warm.  I found some shade right on the side of the road close to a pond.  Lots of granite in that area.  Snapped a few pics and headed home.

Probably going to try for number 27 tomorrow.  Should be a few degrees lower tomorrow.  I think 92F is my max comfort level.  Depends on the humidity.  I can ride in hotter weather, but it gets uncomfortable.

[RAFster122s]

Above 95 and the ride speed does not cool you, in fact you warm up instead. A cooling vest is the only way I attempt to ride in 90F and hotter weather. It has to be refreshed frequently in very hot dry temps.

[PeWe]

#25.   85km
A quick test ride on my no longer butt spanking K2.

Rain was coming  so I had to hurry up.

I removed the  washers (3.6mm thick) under the fork caps.

Replaced the Ikon shocks with my old Marzocchi AG Strada my K6 got 1984.
(My K6 got comfortable Ikons with progressive springs 2015)

The result is a good handling bike without hard spanking feeling as with the Ikons.

I remember my long tours to the Mediterranean Sea with no specific PITA

Stopped for new photos with the new (old) shocks.

From this shiny with probably too hard springs...



..... to this better working shock

[CB750R]

Pete, Love the Marzocchi strada! As an old mountain biker Marzocchi was a huge part of the early days of mountain bike suspension, I used to repair them often in the bike shops.

Hard to find these days but would be neat to have a set on my bike.

[CB750R]

Wife and I went 400km round trip for lunch meetup with a friend. Great mountain roads, dodged most of the rain, had mostly dry roads but had a few minutes of showers on the route.

Bikes first long haul after its rebuild. Needs more fine tuning with the carbs but getting closer.

[willbird]

CB500X.
#40, 138 miles. Headed North to US20, East to Assumption, South to Swanton, West to Delta, South to US6, West to Edgerton, North to 20 again, South to Montpelier, then home.

[budman]

Ride #27, 223 miles.

Took off this morning just after 8:00.  No desire to exit the Hill Country on this ride, but I did want to ride some roads I hadn't been on in a while.  I was going to be riding through some populated areas and with it being the weekend I knew I better leave as early as I could.  I headed south through Boerne (pron. "Bernie").  It's kind of similar vibe to Fredericksburg, but being right on Interstate 10 and closer to San Antonio, it gets thick with traffic.  I zipped through this morning with no issues.

Next stop was Bandera, the "Cowboy Capital of the World".  More rodeo champions from Bandera than anywhere else...so they say.  After filling up the tank, I snapped a couple of pics, keeping with the Courthouse theme, and a view down Main St.

I carried on west to Utopia, TX.  The road from Bandera to Utopia is probably one of the best rides in the Hill Country.  The hills are bigger.  The road is good and the views are great.  The only thing is it's heavily wooded.  There aren't many places to stop where you can get some good pics of the views.  Too many trees in the way, but you can soak in all the views from the road while you're flying down the road.

At Utopia I headed north through Vanderpool.  I've been wanting to get some good pics of one or some of the many roads where they sliced open a big Hill to get to the other side.  Today was the day.  This section of road had a good shoulder and no traffic, so I was able to stop.  I should have kept on going a little farther, because the higher I got the more massive the cutaway was.  Just down the road from there was a picnic area, where I stopped for a break.  I laid out my spread and was enjoying the peace and quiet.  The popcorn was left over from yesterday that I nuked when I got home from Ride #26.  It was really quiet, until an old POS Toyota crossover pulled up into the picnic area and sat there with the engine running for 20 minutes.  Can't get away from people, even out in the middle of nowhere.  I had enough and left.

Stopped for gas in Harper and headed home.  Wasn't too warm.  Low wind.  Beautiful day.

[RAFster122s]

Some great pics and rides

[budman]

Above 95 and the ride speed does not cool you, in fact you warm up instead. A cooling vest is the only way I attempt to ride in 90F and hotter weather. It has to be refreshed frequently in very hot dry temps.

There are a bunch of online windchill charts and a few calculators that factor mph & ambient temps and spit out the “feels like” numbers.  Years ago I found a calculator that I think would also let the user enter in headwinds.  I can’t find it.  I don’t think any of them factor humidity into the equation.  Living in Houston for many decades I know that high humidity has a cooling effect at speed, but as soon as you stop in hot weather you bust out in a sweat.

[newday777]

True Bud and David. Humidity plays into the factors of hot as well as cold.

Today's ride for me was #11, rode to church then off to see my mom and sisters a little over an hour away, 91° and high Humidity was still hot at speed on the goldwing. Forecast was for possible strong thunderstorms 😳 this afternoon(with less risk of tornadoes than last Sunday afternoon's Forecast was, not a common occurrence here in southern NH). I was greatful for the a/c at my mom's to cool the core.
It did rain some after dinner so I hung around an extra hour for the storm to pass. On the way home the temp dropped off to 72° at 8:30 PM and far less Humidity too.
No pictures taken today as it was on the slab to make tracks. 130 miles today. Got home as it was just light enough to see still. A good day indeed.

[willbird]

Above 95 and the ride speed does not cool you, in fact you warm up instead. A cooling vest is the only way I attempt to ride in 90F and hotter weather. It has to be refreshed frequently in very hot dry temps.

There are a bunch of online windchill charts and a few calculators that factor mph & ambient temps and spit out the “feels like” numbers.  Years ago I found a calculator that I think would also let the user enter in headwinds.  I can’t find it.  I don’t think any of them factor humidity into the equation.  Living in Houston for many decades I know that high humidity has a cooling effect at speed, but as soon as you stop in hot weather you bust out in a sweat.

We have a molding department at work filled with 1000 and 2500 ton molding presses and the tooling in them used to make door skins is heated to 300F+. Our maintenance "everyday wear" is a long sleeve arc flash retardant shirt, and we wear arc flash retardant blue jeans. A Underarmor compression fit wicking shirt is a HUGE help because it distributes sweat rather than just some areas getting soaked.  I am sure there are plenty of other brads that work but they can be hit and miss as to quality.

[Kevin D]

Ride #16   80 miles  Home - Dexter - Home     74f and Sunny

First ride in July, a lunch ride out to Dexter. The weatherman said this would be the best day of the week so I’m on it. I tried to get my pal Jim to go with me but he had an afternoon something to do, Jim has a new to him low mile BMW1600 and has just completed his first trip to BRParkway and Dragon, but I’ll have to hear about it another time.
 Stopped by Northville Downs and the grandstand is coming down today, the last major structure that’s still standing here. Earthmovers standing by to begin reshaping the property for 480 housing units.
 At the horse farm, the horses were not interested in me, they had just been fed, and they were way more interested in their breakfast.
 I’m hoping the loss of the track and further urbanization wont force the horse farms out. When I was a kid the cornfields started at the next crossroad, now you have to go a far ways west to get to a farmers field.

[ofreen]

#9.  Ran most of a tank of gas through the faithful 750F today.  Down to the Owyhees again for some cow trailing.  It was a beautiful day, although with the buildups over the mountains I got sprinkled on a little.  A few pix as usual -

[scottly]

#9.  Ran most of a tank of gas through the faithful 750F today.

Did this ride put the price over $170,000?

[Kevin D]

I went by the highway sign today and noted that it’s updated with six riders complete.
HOOYAH!

[RAFster122s]

Some great rides and photos...

Congrats to those who have achieved 24 rides or more!

Here it is 100f at 11:30am with 30% humidity due to monsoon rains making it feel like 110. It is awful when you are used to heat with 10% humidity. Heat index at 100 is 110f according to AccuWeather. Suppose to reach 105f today this afternoon with no rain expected today. The clouds hold in the overnight heat and the humidity sticks around...  I hate monsoon season.
Friday they forecast temps to reach 109f again. Only thing monsoon brings that is good is nicer sunsets some days...