[Note - I just plagiarized myself. I already posted about our trip over on our riding club website, so I simply copied and pasted to my site here]

=====

The ride is over, the memories are fresh, and the pictures are up.

In a word, it was…fantastic!

Our group was made up of four riders:
Bruce - Leading the pack on a XB12Ss Lightning
Masa - Next in line in his XB9R Firebolt
George - Following on his Suzuki SV650S
Kurt - Sweeping the group on his Honda Interceptor

We left mid-day on Friday, June 26 and rode about 380 miles to just south of Knoxville, TN where we stayed next to the airport in Alcoa, TN for the night. Took us about 6 1/2 hours with three gas stops and a couple, “uh…where are we?” stops. LOL

Saturday morning found us on the Dragon, a first for all four of us. We didn’t even realize we had started on it until we stopped at a curve and talked to some old timers on their hogs. We hooked up the video camera and off we went. Masa and Bruce flew down the road pretty well on the Buells, while the Honda and Suzuki were a bit more relaxed.

We hit Deals Gap about 10:30am and like everyone says, it was pretty quiet at that time in the morning. We easily parked and checked the place out, then hit the Dragon again. This time Masa took the lead with the helmet video, with Bruce following. Masa pulled ahead at the first curve and Bruce never saw him again until we stopped at an overlook!

We then finished the Dragon and continued a bit more down the road along the lake. In hindsight we should have stopped and turned earlier, as this was when Masa received the first and only “performance award” of the ride.

Our third ride through back to Deals Gap was caught up in a bit of traffic, so that ride was a lot more relaxed but still enjoyable.

We then ate lunch at Deals gap and then took off down US 28 about 2pm, headed to the Blue Ride Parkway.

The BRP was breathtakingly beautiful. The ride exceeded all our expectations, with great curves and rolling hills/mountains and stunning scenery.

We rolled into Asheville, NC for our 2nd night of rest, and then continued along the BRP the next morning. After 235 miles of the BRP and only 2 short detours along the way, we exited off at US 21 and headed to Wytheville, VA. US 21 turned out to be an awesome ride as well. We spent our 3rd and final night in Wytheville and immediately turned on to I-77 to head home the next morning.

Something about I-77 turned some key critical thinking off in both Bruce and Masa as their blood got pumping on the ride and they proceeded to burst down the mountains at 110MPH+. Top that with some incredibly strong windy conditions the entire 350 miles home and in hindsight that was pretty poor thinking. Thankfully all went well regardless of the poor decision making in speed. However, speaking for myself (Bruce) I will probably not lead a group in the near future until I can get a handle on the lead foot…er, make that lead “hand” I seemed to have contracted from this ride.

1,112 miles later and we were back home.

Can’t wait until next year’s ride! Hope more of us can make it then!

Oh, you want some pictures? Okay, here are some highlights from the ride. Enjoy!

This coming week I’m heading down to tackle the Tail of the Dragon and then ride a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway with my good friend Kurt, along with a fellow COBRA rider and his friend.

Here’s our tentative route - tentative in that depending on how we are with time and our energy, we could go further along the Blue Ridge Parkway then Bowling Rock, NC.

View Larger Map

Having bought my first motorcycle last summer, I’ve come to get acquainted with other local riders - particularly those that ride bikes from the same great manufacturer, Buell Motorcycles. Recently, three of us Buell riders met up and founded a local Buell riding club.

Central Ohio Buell Riders Association, or COBRA for short.

That was only just last week, and we’ve already had our club “approved” and placed on the Buell website. Being the techie of the group, I put together a website for the club over the weekend as well.

COBRABuell.com

We’ve garnered additional interest from other local riders now as well. Since Buell discontinued its own Buell chapter groups back in 2006, they’ve left it up as more or less a grass-roots movement to develop interest and support for local clubs.

I’m excited with my involvement in this group of riders!

Ok, the results are in for the 40th U.S. National Indoor Archery Championship.

First off, my results from E. Lansing put me in 2nd place for that particular venue. The gentleman in 1st place beat me by one silly point. So that wasn’t too bad, although I wasn’t thrilled with my results.

The final results put me in 34th place nationally. That’s out of about 200 national archers, including the Olympic Team and the United States Archery Team.

I was a bit disappointed with my results as I was shooting about 40 points higher in practice rounds. That would have put me in a MUCH better standing, at about 13th or 14th place. My goal was to break the top 20 given how well I was shooting and breaking the top 15 was actually feasible.

But alas…national and international competition adds a degree of competitiveness and nervousness that, if not calmed immediately upon standing on the shooting line, will carry itself into the competition. Having not been on the national stage in…oh…20 years, it had an impact on me as shown by a lousy score of 25 on my first end, and then another 25 a few ends later. I still pulled a 278 out of the first 10 ends, even losing those 8-10 points initially.

It was a great experience to compete nationally once again and I will definitely be doing it again next year. With the outdoor season about to start I’m still debating whether to shoot it competitively or not this year. With 125th U.S. National Outdoor Championship having moved just this year from it’s long-time location near the Olympic Training Center to nearby Hamiltion, Ohio, it would be a much easier trip to make. But the time, expense, and an achy breaky body may all take a toll.

So that decision has yet to be made for certain.

But all in all, I’m happy with my return to competitive archery. I had the chance to meet new up and coming archers, and re-acquaint myself with some old friends, including an old Olympian friend in E Lansing.

Or rather, they reduce the rock.

I just received my new Extra Heavy Universal Bar Ends from HVMP at a hefty 18 ounces - over a freakin’ pound EACH! Looking them over reveals them to be quality made, with a smooth mirror finish on the steel and HVMP (for Hudson Valley Motorsports Parts) stamped into the end. The rubber dampening piece that holds the bar end in place and from my observation helps provide the dampening affect, or rather the transfer of vibration to the bar ends, seems to also be quality rubber component.

Installation took me all of 5 minutes on the left side. 4 minutes of that was using an exacto knife to cut out the end of my traction grip so I could insert the bar end. Tightening the bar end was simple, using the hex wrench that HVMP thoughtfully provided in the package.

The throttle side took me a few minutes longer as my first attempt bound the throttle up. I simply had to clean up the grip a bit more to provide enough room for the bar end not to snag, and then it worked perfectly.

Today happened to be one of those wonderful spring like days in Columbus so I took my Buell around the block at low RPM to test out what vibration control the bar ends possessed.

O…M…G…!!!

I can see, I can see!!! My mirrors, that is. Or rather, reflections in my mirrors.

My Buell (along with everyone else’s from what I gather), with the powerful torque of the Thunderstorm 1203, has a strong vibration at low revs. These vibrations are strong enough to really shake my hands and arms, and shake the mirrors enough that I’ve given up seeing anything in them below 3,000 RPMs.

But with these HVMP bar ends, my hands aren’t numbing up from the vibrations and the mirrors aren’t shaking. Even at a lowly 1,500-2,000 RPMs I can see clearly in my mirrors! Yeah!!

Lisa says that they also add a slightly meaner look to the bike, and I agree. While at first glance they seem almost too big, these things actually add a great new look to the bike.

While on my short test ride I reached over to feel the bar ends compared to my grips. Wow, what a difference! The bar ends truly do take the majority of the vibration. I could feel in them the shakes that I used to feel in my grips.

I’m excited to get my bike out on the open road and see, or rather feel, more of this fantastic difference!

—————-
Now playing: Theory of a Deadman - Not Meant To Be
via FoxyTunes

Well, after having shot my first archery tournament in…oh…just a bit over 20 years, I came out blasting! Seems I took first place at the annual Caskey Classic shoot up in Cleveland, Ohio. Since I left before the reward ceremony (thinking they weren’t having one), I didn’t notice until later that they had fat fingered entering my score into the computer. I shot a 543, and they recorded a 443.

Once I took a look at the “weep sheet” (as the final results are lovingly called) I noticed the error. I submitted an objection and requested that the actual score sheets be checked again.

The archery club president at Caskey University verified the results and indeed determined that they had entered my score incorrectly. The 100 point difference moved me from the incorrectly recorded 11th position straight up to first place!!

You can see the results, and the apology for the scoring error, at Case Archery Club’s website.

I have to say, that’s quite a boost for me, coming out of the gate with a winner right away!

Now I realize that a 543 isn’t going to do much on the national scene, but it’s a pretty decent start. I am now shooting 570’s in practice, and if I can move that up to 580’s in a tournament, I will be very happy. That would put me on my way to shooting 1150+ at nationals in just 3 months…which is in the top 10 from last year’s results, including our Olympians. You can see those results here at US Archery.

But I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. For now, I’m still concentrating on shooting each arrow the best I can. No matter what score I’d like to achieve, they all start by shooting a ten with each and every arrow. One step (or arrow) at a time.

“Amateurs practice until they get it right; professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.”

—————-
Now playing: Dave Mathews Band - Crash Into Me (Acoustic)
via FoxyTunes