| Author | Message | ||
     1313 |
The C-3 Adventure to Daytona Beach will be mainly pictures with some text to describe the pictures. Friday morning, March 11th my odometer read:  I left New Bern to meet up with M2nc in Kinston. Amazingly I was at our rendevous spot first:  Then we took off to meet up with Spike near Fayetteville:  And we're off... (Message edited by 1313 on March 16, 2005) | ||
| 1313 |
At our first gas stop we noticed a little fluid on M2nc's rear inner fender. Our first thought was that, once again, the rear brake switch was faulty. The kicker was that the rear brake did not lose it's effectiveness. It was at our lunch stop on Friday that we figured out that it was a mixture of sport-trans fluid and oil that was being sprayed on the rear fender:  Fortunately the Hooter's in Savannah is right next door to the H-D Dealer so we were able to scrounge up a fork oil bottle and a make shift catch can was rigged up so the oils would not cover more of the rear tire. Due to the encroaching rains the repair work after lunch took a lot less time than the diagnosis. And we're off again. Friday night about 9:00 we roll into our home for the weekend, arranged by a friend of mine from back home with an '89 RS 1200. After a quick meal at Denny's, and amazingly we didn't get kicked out of the joint, we head off to Main Street to check out the scene. As we were walking down Main Street, some members of our party were getting a good laugh at my friends efforts to get 'that just right picture'. Then all of a sudden there was this sound that nobody was able to place. Turning around to check out what bikes were doing the Main Street Slow Race we saw the source of the unplaceable noise, one of the turbine bikes:  Sorry for the picture quality, but the heat coming off from the exhaust was pretty amazing and I was right in it's line of fire. More of the turbine bike later... Some other interesting sights on Main Street were: a furry camo Duc 748 or 916 (they all look alike to me):  You really gotta wonder what the guy in the back is lookin' at:  I can't believe I forgot to get one of these shirts:  Lastly, it seems that H-D is really trying to hype the Street Rod with this LARGE banner on Main Street:  After all the bars closed, we're off again, but this time back to our home for the weekend. | ||
| 1313 |
Once back at the condo we were staying at it was time for a little relaxation. Unfortunately the beers had been in the freezer since we had arrived:  The next morning we woke up to this beautiful oceanside scene:  Since we originally intended to go just for the Daytona 200, and we found out before we left that there were not going to be any Buell's in the 200, we decided just to take in the other activities available in Daytona. Since I wanted to catch up with some of my old friends from Buell I suggested that we go check out the Buell demo's. After our search for the Buell demo's ended we were rewarded by the presence of this small tank M2 (with S1 front end):  I rode Sally, M2nc rode Tammy, and lucky Spike got to ride Jenna. In case you're wondering, the Buell demo bikes are now identified with female names. After our demo ride I got some pics of a Firebolt with the Shifter paint set on it sitting out in the sun:  Man, it is VERY HARD to get this killer paint set to photograph as good as it looks in person:  We hung around the Buell demos for a while and we're shown some hospitality by my some of my old co-workers from Buell. Before we left, this S1 rolled by with a completely original paint job (sorry, I am just tired of seeing Buell's painted like VR 1000's), but it is a cool Buell none-the-less:  Then, once again, we're off. This time to get a bite to eat. After lunch we head towards Main Street in an attempt to see if the Corbin shop had a Firebolt seat on display. As we passed by the Speedway, we saw Jose on a corner and he ran over to take our picture and invite us to go go-karting later that evening. After we were in the snail-paced traffic for a while I decided to take a side street to get some air through our motors. Trying to find Main Street from a way that I was not familiar with brought us to more slow moving traffic. As we went over the intracoastal waterway we were sitting on the drawbridge. What an interesting feeling it was to look down and see the water between the wire mesh of the drawbridge. After starting to go downhill on the bridge it was time to turn off our engines and coast down as traffic would allow. This is where Spike became the gravity racing champ, with extra points for his stoppie at the end. I would have thought that my weight would have given me the advantage, but I guess Spike's wheel bearings are just a bit smoother than mine... A couple of wrong turns made us realize that trying to get to Corbin's shop was pointless. As we stopped to quench our thirst's at a 7-11 we realized that it was starting to get cool again as the sun was setting. We decided to go back to our condo and get our helmets and jackets before heading to Hooter's to meet up with Jose. | ||
| 1313 |
After relaxing back at the condo for a while we decide that we should get out and experience Daytona. After a short 100+ MPH blast up I-95 to the Speedway exit we arrived at Hooter's. Once again, we met up with the turbine bike (remember, I said there would be more about it later?). The two guys behind the back of the bike are my buddy Jeff (with the RS 1200) and M2nc, the kinda skeleton looking jacket is on Spike:  The turbine bike has a rear view camera with the display on the dash. If you look closely you can almost make out Spike in this picture of the display:  Before the turbine bike left Hooter's a little rubber was left in the parking lot:  A shot of my S2 parked behind Jeff's RS:  Jose and his group showed up about this time after they had just finished go-karting. Since they took off shortly after they made it back to Hooter's, we decided it was time to go and find some dinner. After an entertaining meal at a Cracker Barrel, of all places, we're off to our condo once again. | ||
| 1313 |
Since I wanted to take a relaxing dip in the hot tub and I didn't have any shorts with me I decided to stop at a Wal-Mart on the way back to the condo. Man, was I surprised when I walked into the Wal-Mart and the first thing I saw was this S1 on a bunch of cases of Icehouse (ironically my beer of choice):  After relaxing again with a Beer slushie (apparently even after sitting in the fridge all day, not all beer likes to stay liquid) we caught some interesting racing on the TV. First was some train racing. After that was some female bus racing. After realizing that it was nearly 2:00 a.m. the remaining few still up decide to catch some Z's. I never did get to enjoy the hot tub... | ||
| 1313 |
Sunday morning we woke up with the little motivation to get on the road even though we knew we needed to get our butts on the road. We finally got the gumption to go to Main Street and get some of the reduced price T-shirts. Then we're off towards home finally. After running through 3 states averaging over the maximum posted speed limit we made it back to NC where we had our celebratory dinner at a Wendy's:  Shortly after we got back on the road we began to meet some rain just outside of Fayatteville. Shortly after the rain began M2nc and I turned off to make it towards our homesteads. As M2nc and I arrive in Kinston we each head our separate ways. After returning home, my odometer now read:  And the tire that everyone (but me) was so concerned about now looked like this, with only 2 small sections of cord showing:  At our weirdest gas stop, coming back in South Carolina somewhere (or was it the Twilight Zone?), I began to hear a weird rattle on my bike. A close inspection of my race exhaust showed that M2nc was not the only one plagued by gremlins on our trip:  Counting Spike's burnt out headlight bulb, we all got paid a visit by the bike gremlins. | ||
| Al_lighton |
The good news is that the Race header shoe is now reactivated, you can order it through a Buell dealer again!! I've got a bunch on order. Al | ||
| U4euh |
Looks like you guys had fun! Awesome! | ||
| M2nc |
Al, the Ventura bag was great for the trip. Thanks 131313, great synopsis. It was a great weekend, I'm ready to go again. Spike when are you quitting this job? LOL  |
