| Author | Message | ||
     Bdrag |
Hey all, Well we did our spring Arkansas run April 29th - May 2nd. Mike on his Connie 14, Jeff on his ST1300 and me on the Uly. Friday, the first day was a cool morn, the ride there was great, peeled off layers as the day came and finished up at the motel in a long sleeve tee shirt that afternoon. Saturday morn we started out with overcast skys and a 80% chance of rain. We went ahead with our 350 mile round trip plan to push over to PUSH MOUNTAIN which is a 25 mile long road of nothing but banked sweepers and short shoots. OH SO WONDERFUL! We made lunch in Norfork near by. Started to leave lunch and here came the weather, a slight sprinkle at this point. SUIT UP IN THE WET GEAR! Did Push the other direction in rain gear with a slight mist more like clouds decending down. After Push we headed back stopping for gas and then ran into dense fog and wet twisties for almost 130 miles. Dark and tree covered twisties. A real challange at 70 and 80 mph. We hit rain on the last leg of the 350 plus miles on interstate 40 from Russellville to Ozark. Got groceries on the way back since it was gonna be a real wet Sunday and probably a motel day. IT WAS! It was raining with high winds and 3-4 inches of rain. We rode to breakfast a mile up the road in rain gear and it came a flood! We bailed out heading back to the motel. We made a fire in the small ground unit grill jeff brought. We bullshitted and ate and drank all day long into the night till we ran out of anything to burn. Had my first damn beer at 10:00am? DAMN! HAhahaaaaaaa. We suited up early Monday morn because there was a real big rain event heading straight north from Texas our way. We wanted to try and end run the big stuff. We got headed back at 6:45 am in rain and a temp of 41. We blasted straight west on I 40 from Ozark, I 40 and 23 to 69 south at Checote? It rained real hard and steady with a few sprinkles of pee size hail for that first leg of the trip home. We managed to ride at 80 -90 mph till we hit 69 and the Dennis gas stop. We were soaked already! I had on a long sleeve tee, short sleeve tee, pull over fleece jacket, my leather jacket and then the rain jacket. My head would turn in my helmet because all the layers bunched up against it. Kinda like I had a space suit or diving suit on. HAhahaaaaaaa. It was a 2 stop ride home. Dennis was the first stop. The second one for gas only was north of Durant Ok. Cold and now pretty damn wet to the bone my legs were freaking cold and my hands were shriveled up from the wet water proof gloves. I could not get my hands back in them after gasing up. I went ahead and put on my thinner slightly vented gloves. BIG MISTAKE! We didn't get 2 miles up the road before the back side of my hands started to freeze! DAMN! Bad choice! As we rode down 69 / 75 it continued to rain hard. We would pass Semi trucks at about 85 mph and just get HAMMERED by the water comming off the tires, splashing us like someone was throwing buckets of water at us as we passed! We hit some deep water crossing the road and we all had a little WOOOO HOOO in the chest. Jeff said his ST kinda lifted up from the water srpay off his front tire that came up into his farring. I had the front tire drift to the left in it. POWER ON DUDE! HAHahaaaaa. All I could do. Damn sure wasnt gonna hit the brakes! South of Durant we came across an area that had a tornado pass through either that morning or the night before. People were out pulling tin roofing from the trees and the road way. Looked like a mini version of the bad stuff from earlier in the week in the Georga area. Looked like it was 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide path. I could only turn my head a few degrees inside my helmet! AHhahaaaaaa. The last 30 miles was some of the toughest. We started to get into heavy traffic comming into the DFW suburbs. We had passed a semi and after we passed him he jumped on my ass. Its raining, this semi rode my ass for 10 miles, I mean like 30 feet off my ass. We are doing 80 in the rain and he is on my ass! I know there is some road work ahead and I just knew this SOB was gonna squish us all when traffic was gonna come down to a stop if it did. So I said screw it! I passed Mike who is now doing about 60 mph and I hammed it! I passed Mike at 90 and started the lane to lane game in the ran at 100 mph, fully loaded Uly with Pods full and a tank bag full, me soaked to the bone. It was like a video game. All the traffic was behaving and spaced just right for a 100 mph slolom lane to lane. I was loosing my mind at this point when I look back at it. I was freaking frozen and tired and wanted the •••• off this damn bike! When I pulled into the garage I was so cold and wet I was trimbling. A real stamina testing day. Not fun at all. We coverd about 350 miles with one stop for a meal and gas, one more for gas for a total of 45 minutes stopped. So we did the 350 miles in 4 1/2 hours. A 75-80 mph average in heavy rain and cold wet conditions. A REAL TRUE TEST OF NERVES AND STAMINA. Won't do it again for a while...... The Buell worked perfectly the whole trip! I had the spare belt and tools to change it with me the whole time. I had new Pirelli Scorpion Trails on and they are fantastic tires! I have the 2010 rear wheel for peace of mind and the bike really was a pleasure to ride even in the rain! I was worried about just how wet everything was getting and was worried about an electrical issue arising from the wet but it never happened. The only thing the Buell had go wrong was the power outlet got loose in its mount and started buzzing and vibrating. A little blue locktite fixed that the next day. I had a few sport bike riders admiring my blasting while on Push mountain. They were giving me the thumbs up as I powered by them taking a break on the side of the road. Not peg dragging but damn sure had the bike way the hell over powering by at 6000 in second gear. Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. HAHahaaaaaaa. All in all it was a great trip even thought it sucked as well. Great friends, great roads and •••••• weather. The next ride is in July when I go out and visit Mike at his place in Salida Colorado. BDRAG | ||
| Mp3 |
Push Mountain is very cool. In fact the entire area from Hardy to Mountain View to Mountain Home has good riding areas. | ||
| Bdrag |
The whole damn state is one big curvy road. We go there twice a year. poor state with very little LEO attention to people there spending money. Many MANY east west roads that have very little traffic. We tray and stay off roads like 7 and 23 because of all the wanna be HD riders and the like. Many decent off the beaten path roads. BDRAG |
