Topic: 26 Rides in 2026. Frank's New Years Resolution that we can all enjoy.

[Kelly E]

Stu, round up a bunch of loud bikes for a big fly by past that guy's house. I know if that was me in there I would love it. Maybe stop a block away and everybody takes off one at a time doing a hard acceleration run past his house.

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Stu, and Dennis. As I'm heading into 6 months of cooler weather, you guys are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, weather wise. This morning Spotty and I loaded up his van with bike parts to take to the swap meet tomorrow, and I really hope we sell most of it, as I don't want to have to take it home again. He's picking me up at 5am, so I suppose I better have an early night. Hopefully it won't rain...

[PeWe]

#1 Finally ride no 1 2026!
My blue K6 that has got redline Si-1 fuel additive direkt. Clean carbs, comb. chambers and valves.
I have done too many carb adjustments due to dirty carbs.  Fuel had better cleaning agents back in the 80's ?

294 km total. I refueled after 213 km.
One of my favourite routes.
No lunch since I had eaten just before the ride. I had to wait to 2 pm for higher temp. Around +9 C.

It was  -4C when I woke up in the morning. Frozen windows on the car I had to start in time idling warm for my wife.

Maybe 2 digits during the ride at a whopping 10C !!! It was 9.5C home when I came back 6pm.

Not many photos, one stop with photos.

Engine ran  better and better, really smooth after 100 km.
Then  less loud when cruising at 80-100kmh.

Last time engine was started was early November. Last ride late September.

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Per, I’ll try not to complain about the temperature here when I see you doing almost 200 miles in single digit temperatures!

[PeWe]

It felt warmer than it was. Blue sky and sunshine.
My fingers did not freeze that much.
The clutch was a little bit too stiff. Hard springs which is needed.

The ride was partly a cleaning job. I do not trust the additive to be nice to the rubber carb boots if parked for a longer time with fuel.
I prefer to ride the tank and refill.

Next ride will get more of the  cleaning additive. Chambers and valves can still have carbon and soot after a short period way too rich plus acc pump with too long stroke causing black smoke.

[lash]

Didnt expect to get out today as it was supposed to be cold and rainy. They were right about the cold, it was -3c at 9 am but no rain. By 3 pm it was sunny and +8c so I managed to get in #6 for 135 km on the first ride of the year on the Goldwing. Didnt stop for pics, maybe next ride but the weather doesnt look good for the next couple of days..

[BenelliSEI]

Finally! First ride this afternoon. Needed some bits for the race car (first race weekend in two weeks). Very cool (never saw 10c) but lovely sunshine. The Varadero still has the original tall screen I used late last fall. Tucked my ski gloves up into the engine whoever I stopped, so they stayed nice and warm!

[newday777]

Good to hear that the weather is turning the corner up there for you too John, Lash and Per.
Next week is promising to be a few warmer days here, might come closer to 80°F.

[Terry in Australia]

Well done guys, it’s cold (by Aussie standards) here today, but nothing like your weather. Spotty and I had a good day at the swap meet today and I made a killing on the Kawasaki H1/H2 parts, plus got rid of some CB750 parts I had lying around, so apart from the usual aches and pains, I’m a happy camper.

[willbird]

4-11-2026, #4, 76 miles. Nice day overall.


Bill

[Kevin D]

Ride #1   75 miles    78f    VPower  @ $5.19/gal

I’m about caught up on my chores here, it rained a bit this morning but the afternoon looked good enough so I dresssed proper and bolted for an afternoon ride. I was going ride to the lake and back, but it was so nice I just went on to Dexter for an A&W coney dog lunch. I must have been hungry. I took two bites before I thought to take a photo.
 The first photo is the main drag in Dexter, showing the new Riverside Condos and the new fire station.
 Does your town have a new fire station?
The last photo is the magnificent 1971 CB750K1 with a fully charged five year old “GOOD BATTERY”.

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Kevin! Yeah the gas prices are ridiculous here too, I’m only glad that we’re riding bikes and not driving big V8 gas guzzlers right now!

I’m going to finish stapling the new seat cover on this morning then I’ll drive over to the storage unit and put it on the XT, and take it for a ride, it’s about the most economical bike I have at the moment, not that the others can’t be ridden, the VMax and the K0 are both pretty good on fuel as well.

How did your battery perform, no problems? I think I’ll have to buy a new one for the VMax, as the one in it now is just able to start it from cold.

[Kevin D]

Yes Terry, I haven’t touched the CB since last weeks no-start incident. I shoulda used the kicker.
Today it started immediately (electric start). 3 hours post ride I used the tester and it showed 100% charge, 300+ CCA, GOOD BATTERY.

I’m not comfortable putting a battery on charge and walking away from it. I have a 50mA charger and a 24 hour rotary clock timer set for 1 hour. I plug the charger into the timer so the battery gets 50 ma for one hour  per day. That has been enough for wintering, but I’m not leaving it unattended.
 
I think my ride today cost me an extra buck fifty at the pump. The VPower is #1 in my book.
Costco gas (Top Tier) is showing at $3.49 reg $$4.66 premium. If I used the reg I coulda saved seventy five!

I gotta check my logs and see if 4/13 is my latest start date.
It’s so nice to have #1

[BenelliSEI]

Well done Kevin! The K1 looks as good as ever!

[BallAquatics]

Way to go Kevin, good to see the weather up your way is starting to warm up. 

04/13/2026 ride #17, 60+ miles.  Started out the day working in the yard, but soon got too hot to get much work done.  Thought a ride was in order!



Pretty much a ride with no destination in mind, but I did however ride the "Donnelsville Dragon".  I got that name from watching a local guy on YouTube.  He posts about off-road rides here in Ohio, but mentioned this particular route.  Made me laugh the first time I heard it as I've ridden the exact route myself many times.

Temperatures were in the upper 70'sF with strong gusty winds once again.  It was early afternoon so traffic was almost non-existent which made the ride even more enjoyable.

[BallAquatics]

04/14/2026 ride #18, 50+ miles.  Yet another warm, but windy day.  Temps in the mid 70'sF.



Headed north on SR560 until it dead-ends at SR29.  Took SR29 East to US 36 and then picked up SR 54 South.



Dropped onto some rural back roads from SR54.  Gassed up at the Shell station, 215.8 miles on 2.658 gallons for 81.188 mpg.



Bike is running great.  Many smiles per mile!

[Kevin D]

Dennis you are getting it done!

I checked my previous years rides and April 13th is right in the middle for a season opener. Maybe more early birds here these days and more power to ya!

[Terry in Australia]

Well done Dennis, hopefully the tags will arrive (after I mail them tomorrow) by the time you get 26 done. Speaking about batteries Kevin, I pulled the battery out of my Harley Sportster yesterday and brought it home and hooked it up to my big old battery charger and left it overnight.

I checked it this morning and it was warm to the touch, but I checked it with my CCA tester and it says it’s good, so I’ll take it back to the storage unit and install it, and ride the Sporty home, as I need to give it an oil change and replace the back wheel as it has 2 broken spokes, which has stopped me riding it for the last year or so.

For some reason I can’t open the SOHC4 site on my laptop so I’ll have to post an abbreviated ride #28 that I did on Tuesday. I fitted the seat with its new cover on the XT660X and did an 80 mile ride. I took a pic outside the old Kilmore jail then rode to the bakery where I discovered that the ice cream shop next door where I had a couple of gelato’s had burned down 2 weeks ago. Luckily the bakery was untouched.

I had a nice quiche for lunch, then headed back home. Today is going to be reasonably warm so once I move the Harley back home I’ll take the XVMax for a ride, and leave it at the storage unit while I fix the Sporty. Hopefully I’ll be able to log into the site for my next post.

[newday777]

I also have been having a problem logging on my phone using Brave web browser, though it might be a Google thing?? I just went through the sohc4 Facebook link to the forum link, and when I logged in easily I tried to go to the external to the web browsers and it froze,  so I went backwards to the fb and here I am. Something is fubared with the web browser sign in.

2 days ago I got out on the wing to meet up with Mike R and his wife at the rest area on I-93 north as there were traveling back to their NH home coming from their old place in Massachusetts. He had a box of gauges he needed to get rid of to clear out the old place for his son and DILaw, and said sure I'll take them for parts at least. He had a good set of K6/F1 that I'll use the speedo on the K6 that I got a couple years ago that needs a new outer case from an accident the original owner had on it.
So I left my place at 10:45 am 72° F, headed northwest on Rt 13 to New Boston and along the river into Goffstown where I hook a right through the back roads to get to Hooksett to get on I-93 2 miles to the rest area. After we chatted for a few minutes they needed to head for home, so I headed over to get so go juice at the pumps, but no thanks! I wasn't going to pay the inflated gotcha prices they wanted, $4.85 for regular so I got headed north to Concord and got regular for $3.84. I then got back on Rt 13(2 lane) back down through Dunbarton to my favorite road, Gorham Pond Rd to Goffstown and hopped back on Rt 13 to my place. Got home about 1:30 and fixed some lunch then checked out the box of gauges.
So ride #2 was 57 miles, an unusual high of 86°F for 4/14/26.
Sorry, no pictures......

[newday777]

Ride #3, yesterday 4/15/26,  it was 71°F to start at 12:00.  We had a good thunderstorm the night before that washed off the last week snow storm salted roads, so I brought out the K5 for it's first good ride of the spring (it got a few miles away couple weeks ago just in town). I headed down into Milford then west into Wilton to head northwest on Rt 31, but headed first up through the back roads to Center Rd into Lyndeborough to pick up Rt 31N for a change. The grass is greening up on the lawns here and the spring flowers are popping up everywhere. Continued up 31 to Greenfield to the covered bridge for a picture, then picked up Rt 202 to Bennington, Antrim and Hillsboro to get headed east on another favorite road, Rt 149 up over the hills through the great twisties through Deering to Weare, then south on Rt 77 to get back on Rt 13S to home. I needed to get the hand truck down to Station 101 in the van to move the cones(3') out for bike night. On the way home to get the bike I stopped at my friend's shop to help him kick over his 1955 AJS 350 thumper that has high compression, he's 91 and can't kick it over so I'm the lucky one. Man is it tough for being only a 350! After a few hard kickings it fired up, no more leaks today but the clutch wasn't releasing so it didn't get taken to bike night, next week it should be ready if it's a good evening.....
So I headed back up the hill to get the 750 but first heated up a microwave dinner so I didn't go on empty to bike night as there isn't a food truck setup for this year yet. We had a good turnout for the middle of April and lots of good conversations saying howdy to all. I was the only SOHC4 there. I'll ad some pictures when I download so from others.
Ride #3 total was 85 miles, 71°F to start at noon, 76°F for the high, 63°F return at 7:30pm. A great spring ride!

Hmmmmm....pictures aren't loading through this fb backsite linking...... will have to do it later when I figure it out.

[lash]

Having the same problems with the site as everyone else but managed ride #7 on Wednesday on the Wing 195 km. Gas was $1.75/litre.
Yesterday #8 on the KLR dodging rain showers.

[Kevin D]

I am happy to be able to logon and make a post. I was very fortunate to get my ride in when I did. That very evening Michigan was beset with tornadoes, maybe a half a dozen statewide but two close enough. No fatalities thank goodness, but there were cars and homes destroyed. The bigger story now is the rain: yes we had some big storms in southern MI but north got inches and inches of rain, so much that there are many dams in jeopardy. Nothing has busted yet, but the sand baggers and the pumps are working hard, and those that pray are praying for sunshine.
 I’m always careful on the spring rides as there are new asphalt patches and some not patched very well. I don’t wanna be leaned over at speed and learn that there is a new hole in the road that wasn’t there last year.

Eight twisters reported, yes they are smaller, but if a tree falls on your X,Y, Z, you won’t like it.

[Terry in Australia]

Well it’s great that you guys are getting some rides in, well done! I had a busy day yesterday, I moved some tubs of parts around in my “temporary” car port first up, then threw out some BMW parts that I’d been holding onto for no good reason. I had breakfast then drove to the gas station to fill a 5 litre container for the Harley, and put 50 bucks worth in my ute. ($1.99 AUD per litre, so I guess around $5.25 USD per US gallon)

I drove to the storage unit and filled the Sporty (actually overfilled it and had to drain some into a bottle through the petcock to stop it pouring out over the tank with it on its side stand) installed the battery, fired it up and carefully rode it home with not much air in the tyres. I then jumped on the VMax and rode back to the storage unit and parked it.

I wanted to go for a longer ride but I had to go to the wrecking yard and buy another plastic “C pillar” cover for the ute because every time I put my seat belt on it pulled the old cover off and got tangled with the seat belt that slides through it, and wouldn’t let the seat belt retract. All the old clips had broken off, so it was beyond repair. Anyway, old Fords like mine are plentiful, so I just cut the seatbelt off the donor wreck, paid the 15 bucks for it, then drove home, cleaned 25 years of crud off it, and installed it.

By then it was 3pm, and my enthusiasm quotient was low. I had intended to wash the Harley (for the first time in a very long time) but parked it under cover, and ordered some ginger beer and some noodles for a late lunch/early dinner. I was lucky that I didn’t go for a longer ride because the sky opened up and it bucketed down rain.

Today is going to be much cooler than yesterday, but I’ll wash the Harley, move some crap off my bike lift and wheel the Sporty on to it and give it a good service, then swap out the back wheel with another one that I have in my garage. I bought an 18 inch back wheel for it in 2016, and somehow I’ve managed to break two spokes, which is why I haven’t ridden it for awhile. I’m hoping that the 17 inch Fat Boy alloy wheel I picked up last year will fit, because I really don’t want to reinstall the OEM 16 inch wheel, especially with the longer rear shocks I installed when I fitted the 18” wheel. If it doesn’t, I’ll take the 18” wheel to a shop and have all of the spokes replaced, but the alloy wheel will be a better option, so I’ll test fit it today then take it back off and get a new tyre fitted.

Apart from the ride back with semi-flat tyres, I really enjoyed riding the Sporty again, so hopefully it’ll appear on this thread shortly. I was surprised at how more comfortable it is to ride than the VMax, which felt weird after riding the Sporty, Spotty always says that the VMax ergonomics are crap for a taller rider and I really noticed it yesterday. Anyway, I better get some breakfast, then go to the post office and send Kevin the 2026 ride tags, then start working. Enjoy your rides!

[70CB750]

What the hell, I will play this year.  But its gonna be boring, I run around in the same circles, most of the time.

Ride #1, CB900C courtesy of MoMo.

[newday777]

What the hell, I will play this year.  But its gonna be boring, I run around in the same circles, most of the time.

Ride #1, CB900C courtesy of MoMo.

Welcome aboard!
Many times I do the same route too, it's about getting out and having some fun for at least 50 miles.