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

[lash]

97 mi. on the 750 today for #114. Rode to Belfountain/forks of the credit just to see how crowded it was. Didn’t let me down, nothing but bikes and cars everywhere! Pic don’t show nearly how crowded it was.

[BenelliSEI]

Today was “take the wife out for the fall colours ride” day and man was it a nice day! Up to Collingwood on Lake Huron. 267km. for #113. Tomorrow is 750 day for sure.

Did the same to Haliburton! #29 and the weather and colours were amazing. Great breakfast stop in Peterborough at “FORK IT”!

[newday777]

#27 Today it warmed up close to 70°, I had scheduled to help friends yesterday and today to move so I got a late start at 2:30, rode west to Keene the north northwest up the back roads that were spectacular twisties and still had some color in spots though I didn't stop for pictures as I rode along with a friend who led the way. We got back just before dark at 6:30. 135 miles, 57° at the end.

[budman]

Ride #52, 116 miles.

Met my new friend, Mark, this morning at the taco joint in Fredericksburg for a quick breakfast before we hit the road.  I only had one taco and I forgot to take a picture of it.

We headed south to Kerrville on some back roads that Mark had never ridden.  It turned misty and both of us were doing a little slip-sliding on the wet chipseal road.  Fortunately, neither of us went down.  We finally got to some real asphalt and as the mist cleared out the sun showed itself.  We stopped at the city park outside of Comfort, TX that I frequent for a short break.  Mark had never been there either.  I mentioned that there was a bike show at the Pecan Grove Store so we headed that way.

Turns out that somebody forgot to tell the organizer that the Texas Born-Free Show was this weekend.  There were only about 10 bikes showing this year and about 50-60 or so attendees.  Last year's event was much more active.  The guy on the chopper from last week's ride was there showing his chopper.  He was sure to bring home first place with no competition.  Ran into another guy from last week's ride too.

We hung out for a while, snapped a few pics and then headed for our respective homes.

[PeWe]

#39 documented ride 130km
More or less same ride as yesterday.

Today more dramatic sceneries, dark skies and mostly wet roads. No rain on me though. No food on ride. Got some with red wine at home after the ride.

Snow sticks are visible here and there. For the coming local cooling with eventual loads of snow.

Met a tractor yesterday with a snow stick device sticking them just beside the road before frost making ground hard.

[ofreen]

I really like this shot.  Makes me homesick for Alaska.

[PeWe]

I really like this shot.  Makes me homesick for Alaska.

Thank you for that comment, Greg!

Location of that photo very close to latitude 60* north. 59.958252

Alaska included.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60th_parallel_north

[ofreen]

Yes, it could have easily been taken in southcentral Alaska.

[RAFster122s]

Some nice rides and photos fellas.  What kinds of trees are in the photos you shared Per?

Never been to Alaska, likely never will make it there.
Would love to visit Ireland and Scotland but those places won’t be seen either, other than in photos.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Rome, Tokyo and Yokohama, and Southern Ontario as well as a trip to the Bahamas, and Puerto Pennasco in Mexico. Japan is fabulous and I recommend it if you ever get the chance. Remote towns in Japan are suffering from declining populations and are seeking foreigners who would live in those communities and contribute to the community, lots of abandoned homes for sale in those communities. Mexico is great and outside touristy places and large cities it is a great place, if the cartel isn’t too active in that area…

Keep up the good work on the rides, hopefully you’ll get in a few more before winter sets in. Northern AZ and Mt Lemmon and Graham , White Mountains in NE AZ have fresh snow and early event for many areas. The snow brought the latest freeze to Flagstaff, we are expecting a warmer and drier winter this year.
77F out here, I’m headed out for a ride and some shopping. Within limits of what I can strap to the bike. Won’t be riding far enough to qualify for a ride to count in this space. Will be starting to get longer rides in in coming month up until December when I travel

[lash]

Another beautiful day here so I took my wife out for a 190 km. ride to see the colours and for a hot dog at Champs just outside of Shelburne.
Got home and decided to get out on the 750. Rode to the Kissing Bridge for another 69 mi. The last picture looks like I got the 750 to 88 mph and went back to the future!

So whatever that adds up to for #115.

[RAFster122s]

Amish in Northern Ohio make for some of the same kinda of shots Lash. Great photos and ride...

[newday777]

#28 today, 255 miles to go buy a 78F tank, no rot inside or out, just sun fade. Rode west again to Keene then north on 12 to Walpole to cross the Connecticut River into Vermont, north on US5 to 103 to Rutland and return the same route to Bellows Falls, south on 12 to Walpole to stop for a Burger at the Hungry Dinner, farm to table raised food there in Walpole at their own farms. It was probably the most expensive Burger I have bought at $22 with fries!!! 
I did stop at my older brother's there in Walpole after the burger for a visit for an hour and a half.
I started off at 9:30 am, 43°, returned at 6:00 at 57° with a high of 70° in NH but VT high of 67°. Still some foliage colors in NH but fading fast in VT with lots of yellow and orange and brown(oaks). 103 in VT is a fun road.

[PeWe]

Some nice rides and photos fellas.  What kinds of trees are in the photos you shared Per?

Never been to Alaska, likely never will make it there.

Mostly birch that  has popped up after almost nothing. All yellow trees behind the bike in the "Alaska" photo.
A huge forest fire deleted a dense tall spruce forest there 2014. I have earlier photos before the birch invaded after the fire.

Birch groves like weed over here. Can often make road crossing dangerous with no sight before entering the other road.
Beautiful as grown up and very good as fire wood, though.

[RAFster122s]

Birch can make some nice softball and baseball bats too, nice furniture as well.

America used to have a lot of Chestnut trees in the east but a Chinese virus wiped them out. China seems to still be in the virus business

[PeWe]

This is a nice variant that makes furniture good.
A girlfriend of mine in the early 80's had a book shelf with cabinets under with door fronts of masur birch veneer.

https://www.wood-database.com/masur-birch/

[newday777]

This is a nice variant that makes furniture good.
A girlfriend of mine in the early 80's had a book shelf with cabinets under with door fronts of masur birch veneer.

https://www.wood-database.com/masur-birch/

Interesting thoughts that the sharp cold plays into the graining of the wood to get the birdeye graining and burl look.
I've heard from a woodshed teacher tears ago that the Stradivari violins came from wood of your region  and "one hypothesis is that Stradivari may have used Alpine spruce that grew during a period of uncommonly cold weather, which caused the annual growth rings to be closer together, making the wood abnormally dense."
( https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/study-confirms-superior-sound-of-a-stradivari-is-due-to-the-varnish/ )
but with everything, there are lots of hypothesi that are given.
I love the graining in that masur-birch anyway it comes about. I enlarged the pictures of the masur-birch link you posted to see the graining.

[Kevin D]

Wow

Arriving here this morning you all have taken me on a nice weekend trip to Ontario, New Hampshire, 60 North in Sweden, and Texas. Awesome….. then a discussion on birch trees, and the use of spruce in fine musical instruments.
 I have one nicer acoustic guitar that uses Sitka Spruce (Alaskan?) for its top, and a student acoustic that uses Englemann (Pacific NW?). The Taylor is far superior to the Ibanez….
 Our home here at 42N came with 6 ornamental birch trees. They have all perished, save the rattiest one of the six, and it’s not doing so well at 60 yrs old. Is 60 yrs the typical life for birch? I have seen some nice stands of birch in New England, but not here in Michigan

 I have been in the easy chair, missing all the fall beauty, except for what I can see out the window or see right here. Hoping I’m well enough today to get a ride in.

[newday777]

The birch here in southern NH are subject to the heavy wet snows and ice storms so they don't usually get very big and old unfortunately.
And speaking of Taylor Guitars
https://blog.taylorguitars.com/musical-branches-of-american-independence-taylors-liberty-tree-guitars

[BenelliSEI]

The weather here is unreal. I had a bunch of errands to run this morning and the Varadero just seemed to keep wandering around. Spectacular colours and no rain in sight. The roads are clear and it’s warm. +100 miles going nowhere and I think that’s #30.

[BenelliSEI]

#28 today, 255 miles to go buy a 78F tank, no rot inside or out, just sun fade. Rode west again to Keene then north on 12 to Walpole to cross the Connecticut River into Vermont, north on US5 to 103 to Rutland and return the same route to Bellows Falls, south on 12 to Walpole to stop for a Burger at the Hungry Dinner, farm to table raised food there in Walpole at their own farms. It was probably the most expensive Burger I have bought at $22 with fries!!! 
I did stop at my older brother's there in Walpole after the burger for a visit for an hour and a half.
I started off at 9:30 am, 43°, returned at 6:00 at 57° with a high of 70° in NH but VT high of 67°. Still some foliage colors in NH but fading fast in VT with lots of yellow and orange and brown(oaks). 103 in VT is a fun road.

Stu….. Nice ride day! A friend of mine has a tank like that that he carefully wet sanded with #2000 (I think?) paper and then gave it a heavy clear coat. It looks like new!

[newday777]

#28 today, 255 miles to go buy a 78F tank, no rot inside or out, just sun fade. Rode west again to Keene then north on 12 to Walpole to cross the Connecticut River into Vermont, north on US5 to 103 to Rutland and return the same route to Bellows Falls, south on 12 to Walpole to stop for a Burger at the Hungry Dinner, farm to table raised food there in Walpole at their own farms. It was probably the most expensive Burger I have bought at $22 with fries!!! 
I did stop at my older brother's there in Walpole after the burger for a visit for an hour and a half.
I started off at 9:30 am, 43°, returned at 6:00 at 57° with a high of 70° in NH but VT high of 67°. Still some foliage colors in NH but fading fast in VT with lots of yellow and orange and brown(oaks). 103 in VT is a fun road.

Stu….. Nice ride day! A friend of mine has a tank like that that he carefully wet sanded with #2000 (I think?) paper and then gave it a heavy clear coat It looks like new!

I've been thinking about doing a wet sand and clear on it. If it doesn't work out then I'll strip it and paint it.
We're having a warm breezy day here too, @78° f. I might get the 750 out in a bit.

[PeWe]

I'll find grown up birch trees for next years rides.  A bunch and forests.
The white stems look nice  when the sun is low.
There are extra beautiful ones with hanging branches.

The weather here is close to storm now so the season might have ended.

[RAFster122s]

Bud, would be far to go (West, TX) but it sounds like a good place for a stop if nearby...

https://www.chron.com/food/article/kolache-village-bakery-reopening-klobasnek-19846994.php
https://www.chron.com/food/article/kolache-village-bakery-reopening-klobasnek-19846994.php

[RAFster122s]

Taylor guitars have a beautiful sound.

What is funny here is to find young Mariachi bands playing at Restaurants who are singing in Spanish but conversing in English while on breaks. The Spanish and Mexican guitarist are quite talented. Roy Clark was a very talented guitarist and diverse playing styles...he played beautifully.

Here on my property I am renting I have a couple ironwood trees and mesquite trees...both dense hard woods. Difficult to machine or cut.

[lash]

Another unbelievable weather day! Goldwing day again with 3 of us and the Harley. Rode up to Port Elgin and Southampton on Lake Huron, then over to Wiarton and along the coast to Owen Sound then home. 322 km. for #116