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Author Message   Henrik Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 07:23 am:        OK, I'm back; Looks like it'd be about 560 miles from Gotham to your place. I can pretty much Interstate it via I81 to I77 and then a quick jump onto the Parkway. Looks good so far. Let me get another evening of work on the bike in, and I'll know more about how "hosed" I am. I'll let you know. Henrik   Denisea Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 09:17 am:        Henrik, Sounding good! Thursday will be a whirlwind of a day here for us but if you happen to be in the 'hood after 6ish we'd be ready to slow down and enjoy some company. Do keep us posted.   Reepicheep Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 12:03 pm:        Compared to last time, you are golden!   Henrik Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 12:34 pm:        Denise; after 6-ish on Thursday sounds great. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Bill; Golden indeed. I'll swing by the local HD shop and get oil and filter this afternoon so I can change fluids after my test run tonight. One big challenge that has me sweating a bit is trying to pack light in just my tail pack and tank bag. I'm *not* a "travel light" kinda person. If I could bring my lift, tool chests and boxes of spares I would ... Henrik   Oldog Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 10:34 pm:        Glad its falling together Henrik, you must at times have super human patience, hand fitting any thing to as close as you have indicated is tedious, I salute you my friend I am looking forward to seeing every one again   Henrik Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 09:17 am:        Glad its falling together Henrik, you must at times have super human patience Thanks my friend - Melissa might disagree with you, or would at least focus on "at times" Last evening went reasonably well all things considered. Finished up the last wiring and brake line routing issues, trimmed the front fender for clearance and took the old girl around the block a few times. Bike felt good, runs well. I felt shaky and *way* out of riding shape. But both bike and I held up - so that's a good thing. Front brakes felt soft and disappointingly weak. And the old S2's right ear is getting floppy. It's an S2 and S3 thing; the mirror pivot by the fairing gets loose and the mirror starts to droop forward - gives a nice view of the parked cars ... Back in the garage; changed oil and tried to suck out tranny fluid with a pump - not such a good technique. Of course I can't get to the drain plug, and I refuse to R&R the exhaust at this point. Bled the front brakes again and got a huge amount of air out of the new left side caliper. Lever felt *much* better after that. I guess there's something to be said for the old paint shaker - loosens the bubbles in your brake system real well Things are looking good for Wednesday departure. I'll get the last things buttoned up tonight. Then pack and a quick bike wash tomorrow morning. Load up and head out past the local HD shop for an inspection and I should be Blue Ridge bound around noon. Looking forward to seeing you all. Henrik   Reepicheep Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 10:24 am:        Henrik is hand fabricating pieces, I am mounting trailer tires, and pounding a KLR side stand with a big freaking hammer. Horses for courses I suppose Looking forward to seeing everyone! When are you arriving Jim? (err.... olddog... too many Jims around)...   Jerry_haughton Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 11:38 am:        hey, hey, the brandy-new front deck is done (well, as much as it's gonna be before the weekend), and today the new picnic table for the backyard gets built. warning to all: our house is undergoing a ten-year renovation process, and we're less than a year and a half into it. here at the RidgeDome you'll find walls you can walk thru, decks you can fall thru (erm, hopefully not the new one...), missing pieces of sheetrock, unfinished trim work, painted plywood as the kitchen floor, and all other manner of This Old 'Used Hard and Put Away Wet' House kinda stuff. your best bet when you get here is to party hard enough that the above-mentioned carnage looks, well, charming, but NOT hard enough you get yerself maimed in the process. maybe y'all should just leave your helmets on??? FB&D :-):-)   Jerry_haughton Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 11:41 am:        My plan so far; Leave Gotham at the crack of dawn or earlier on Thursday. Things are looking good for Wednesday departure. Henrik: ???   Reepicheep Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 12:34 pm:        Just make sure the tools are hidden once the beer comes out. That could get ugly...   Oldog Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 01:02 pm:        Just make sure the tools are hidden once the beer comes out. That could get ugly... }   Oldog Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 01:04 pm:        setting up the gps on my lunch hour, its slow today and I am here by my self.   Henrik Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 08:43 pm:        Bike's ready except for a wash and wax and the inspection. I'll do that tomorrow morning. I'm laying out my gear for packing - and still hoping it'll fit in the tail pack. The HD shop opens at 10 am tomorrow, and as long as I get out of the shop by noon, I should be in good shape to make it some 2-300 miles out by tomorrow night. That should put me in good shape for a leisurely run through the mountains on Thursday and making it to the Ridge Dome Thursday night. I'll give you guys a call tomorrow night when I know where I'm at. Henrik   Jerry_haughton Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 09:10 pm:        sounds good, Henrik, ride safe. be advised that me 'n D *usually* shut down early, by 7 p.m. or so, so if you call and it goes to voice mail, please leave a message. there's no way we should be entertaining the idear of entertaining at the 'Dome just yet - this place is SO not ready for prime time. as such, Thursday's gonna be nuts for us with last-minute madness, but we're plannin' on attaining the Happiness Hour by 6 p.m., and if you show up here at 6:01, well, that'd be just perfect. we'll have the guest room (aka the Hoosier Room...) ready for you. :-):-) FB&D   Henrik Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 10:07 am:        OK, then Bikes ready, cleaned (a bit), waxed and ready. I'm packing and should be out of here after a shower. So it looks like I'm still good for a 12 pm departure from the HD shop (fingers crossed). Ferris, I'll ring you somewhere along the way. Henrik   Jerry_haughton Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 10:37 am:        ride safe Henrik, see you soon!! :-):-) FB&D   Jerry_haughton Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 10:37 am:        all - i got a call from Oldog asking a very good question, regarding how to get your room keys for the Lakeview if we all get into Fancy Gap after they close on Sunday (which is almost a 100% guarantee). i called them just now, and as long as you've held your room with a credit card, they'll leave your key in a drop box outside the office. tomorrow i will drop by there and re-confirm this info in person, and also take note of where the drop box is. i will also obtain an emergency contact number for someone there, "just in case." since they close so early on Sundays, apparently they do this "stash the key" thing all the time. they open at 7 a.m. on Monday morning (yes, even tho it's a holiday), and i figure we can all meet at the restaurant at 7 for breakfast, and y'all can handle your checkout at that time, too. if you've got anymore questions, let me know. THX OLDOG!!!!!!! :-):-) FB&D   Jb2 Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 12:19 pm:        I just talked to the girl at the Lakeview and she confirmed the keys would be left in a drop box. Ferris must have given her the names cause she asked if I was Jim. Henrik ride safe my friend. In 24hrs Bhuff and I will be hitting the slab bound for NC. JB2   Ulywife Posted on Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - 01:18 pm:        Safe travels to everyone! This is going to be a great weekend.   1313 Posted on Friday, May 23, 2008 - 10:27 pm:        OH 5HIT!!! I'm back from my business trip, but since I didn't have access to the internet while I was away I forgot to make reservations at either hotel for this weekend!!! Looks like this will be one H3LL of an adventure... Too late to call tonight, so I guess I will have to see what I can do in the morning... 1313   Firemanjim Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 01:31 am:        Way to go everyone,would have loved to make this one but between early retirement,divorce, and new biz,have too much going on. Henrik,what dual set-up are you using that needed fender trimming? My S-2 is now the property of Don Casto. I am down to just 2 Buells, my Bonneville bike and the ROC S-1.   1313 Posted on Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 08:09 am:        Will miracles never cease... I got a room reserved for tonight at the Franklin Motel. I'm sure I won't make it there by 5:00 especially with the raindrops I hear hitting my roof right now, so I will most likely miss the important part, but I will make it. I also have a room at the Lakeview Motel in Fancy Gap for Sunday night, although they didn't want me to reserve it by credit card - they just want me to call them tomorrow before they close - so hopefully that will work out. Let the weekend adventure begin! 1313   Reepicheep Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 11:08 pm:        JB2 left a message and made it back, and I made it back. Fantastic time... photos and stories to come over the next few days. I left with three motors, and two of them were intact when I coasted in the drive way. The cup is 2/3rds full my friends For the record, the Japanese motor died first The Saab and the Buell ran like clocks... thbttthththththtt! Thanks for the mechanical help Old Dog... it was a good try, but this one was not going to be fixed on the road. The cam that we adjusted the valves on had top journals (bolt on replaceable) that were very badly scarred from oil starvation. Unfortunately, the bottom half of that journal is the head, and it is just as badly trashed. Why Kawasaki could not have been bothered to put a replaceable journal in there is beyond me. Hrrmph. Bulletproof indeed. 9000 miles, and both the top and bottom end of this motor have now been replaced. Makes my M2 look like the paradigm of reliability, and is a freaking embarrassment relative to my XB9SX. I have some good "carnage" photos. The good news is that somebody had just put a whole new head for a KLR-250 (actually for the Mojave quad, but the parts swap over) on eBay for $109 buy it now. It is on the way now. A damn cheap lesson on why you should check your oil at least once day of riding, no matter how long it has previously run never burning oil . I killed a 1981 Honda Prelude the same way. Seems like once every two decades I have to be reminded not to be stupid. Truth be told, it was actually a combination of stupidity and safety decisions. There was one hell of a storm starting, and a lot of concerned badwebbers wondering "where the hell is reepicheep", while I was hauling ass (as much as a KLR-250 can haul ass, which is about 75 mph downhill with a tail wind) trying to get back before dark, with the hand of God randomly exploding trees along the mountains around me. Stopping 3/4 of the way down the Cherohola and calling JB2 and saying "break the cheapest window you can find in the Saab and, rip out the rear window shelf, and pull the spare key out of the blue helmet while the alarm is going off... then pull the trailer 150 miles through the mountains at night to find my lightning charred corpse under the shelter at mile marker 58 on the Cherhola" was probably not a viable option. Especially as I have NO FREAKING CELL COVERAGE ON THE CHERHOLA. A special thanks to Cincinnati Bell here > So "ride it like you stole it and come in on a wing and a prayer (literally)" was option one... and option 2. And option 3. You get the idea. All three motors could have been smoking hulks and it still would have been worth it ten times over. Special people, at a special event, during a special time. People are *so* important. Happy memorial day everyone! Go hug a family member and a friend. I hugged some of the best today... Awesome meeting so many new neat people. Twig, Milo, Hillbilly Ed, and Brankin, it was a treat to meet you. Speaking of Hillbilly Ed, and Carlos and Ferris, and especially myself... we Buellers may not be much to look at, but we somehow sure manage to land incredible wives. You shoulda been there   Jb2 Posted on Monday, May 26, 2008 - 11:54 pm:        Man.... where to start? Maybe the ending is the best. Brian(Bhuff) and I covered 500+ miles today on mostly 2 lane roads. We started with a pack of five that included Hillbilly Ed, Cindy, Ferris, Bhuff and myself. The first three broke off for home about 200 miles into the day. Bhuff and I skirted the Ohio River on US52 and somehow managed to split the storms and only had ten miles of rain. Not bad for five days on the road. So cool to add so many faces with names... Kristi Carlos Milo 1313 Twig Nevrenuf and wife(sorry, I forgot her name) And so cool to meet Mikey's buddy Butcher and his wife Beth. They rode a '65 Pan Police Bike from PA with another couple on an old Shovelhead. My low battery light is blinking but I'll write more as the days come. It'll take weeks to remember it all. The list of thanks is tremendous, so for now, thanks to all who came and thanks for the part you played in a weekend that really could best describe Ferris' "epicerocity". Ride Safe Always, JB2 (Message edited by jb2 on May 27, 2008)   Jb2 Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 12:21 am:        ...and to meet Dustin. Dustin was a young man in 2002 who was learning the trade of fire/rescue/EMT when Dad's crash happened. Dustin was manning the firetruck that was blocking the road to the "accident scene". I asked him if my dad was involved and said he didn't know. He took my ID and radioed ahead. When he returned my license he said in a crackled voice they wanted to see me and to ride up to the State Trooper's cars. My heart sank and the look on his face said it all. It had a profound effect on him and a short time later I received a heart felt letter from him that I've read and re-read many times. Somehow we've always managed to miss each other when I was in Franklin but Saturday night I shook his hand and we relived that day of our first meeting for a moment. I thanked him for his service and the kind way he handled a fairly new situation for a green-horn. He's another one of the reasons Franklin, NC will always be my second home. Thank you Dustin, JB2   M2nc Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 12:35 am:        We are home. Kristi beat me home by a 1/2 hour slabbing it versus me riding mostly 2-lane roads home. We left Gladesboro VA. a little after 3pm. I stopped and topped off at Laurel Fork VA. I rode non-stop from there to Wilson NC. for 210 miles. A personal best for me and the Uly. After fighting with the phone charger I jumped back on the bike and rode the final 40 miles homes. I rode a total of 1200 miles all in all this weekend and had a great time. I was honored to be a part of the memorial to Big Jim. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but was glad to be there this weekend. One picture for now, more to come.   Berry Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 02:45 am:        Arrived on the left coast 1030 pdt. I am honored to have been included in big Jims memorial. Thank you JB2, Jerry, Bill for your efforts on my behalf. Jim A   Jerry_haughton Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 06:57 am:        well, for a day where my job was pretty much just to show JB2, Bhuff, Ed & Cindy to the edge of town, i logged 410 mikes* on the Road King yesterday, nicely capping off a pretty incredible weekend. at last count i have 14 functioning brain cells (yo Oldog, NOW how many fingers am i holding up???), so the gyro is indeed spinning, but it's badly out of balance and possibly permanently wounded - we shall see. mondo thanks to everyone for the care, class and respect y'all showed this weekend - it was an honor to ride and party and live large with you all. and extra-mondo thanks to everyone who made the Run to the RidgeDome. aside from that fustercluck at Stations Inn (totally my fault, a serious failure to communicate), it was an absolutely stellar day and night. (Carlos, close-quarter strafing the high altitude portions of the Parkway with you was SO much fun!) Denise, thanks for all your hard work leading up the RTTR and for pulling off the greet and feed Sunday night without a hitch - very nicely done. :-) i didn't take a lot of pix on the weekend, but i'll try to hang a few possibly later today. thanks again everyone, for your friendship, for your passion, and for your camaraderie. IMO, this weekend was the stuff of legend, and altho the roads and scenery were textbook (Good Book, even), it's the people that made it legendary. FB *JB2, Bhuff, Ed & Cindy: after we all disconnected yesterday i had a fair amount of ground to cover to get back to the 'Dome, and Hwy 460 worked out pretty well in that regard. so much so, in fact, that i had enough time later to explore a local road i'd not yet ridden, and this road, i can say without danger of over-exuberance, ranks as one of the top five or ten roads i've ever drug a hard part on. i'm reluctant to publicly divulge the name or number of this road, it's that sweet. i'll have to ponder on how best to put out The Word. the pic below (the only photo i took all day), was about 20 miles into the insanity, and the sign made me giggle (and also gave me a chance to catch my breath): ride to lean, lean to ride - the rest is pretty much just filler. :-)   Prior Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 07:25 am:        Thanks for an awesome time guys! It was also great to finally put some faces to some Badweb names, and to finally meet Mr. Breedlove. JB2, Thanks for letting me romp around on the Vic all day Saturday too! My trip home was uneventful, aside from getting up that early after the party! More to come, out the door for another exciting day of w*rk. Prior   Jerry_haughton Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 07:45 am:        ps to Twig: thank you!! :-):-)