Home Safe from the Black Hills Rally

Capn Ron · June 12, 2015, 11:02:26 PM

What was really said:

Capn Ron · June 12, 2015, 11:20:32 PM

I too, am home safe and sound from both rallys...Rolled on up to the WCR and toured a bit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains a day or so early. Had a grand time at the MeadowCliff Lodge with a great view of...well...a meadow and a cliff. A great time was had by all with nothing but a minor incident. I then rode on over to the Central Rally in the Black Hills of SD... nearly 1,100 miles of slab work to get there, but the payoff was immense! Great roads, better friends and some pretty freaky weather. Even so, we all rolled with it and had a great time!!!

All those interstates at some high rate of speed chewed up what was left of my rear tire, so I borrowed a rear tire from Donna during the rally. It was attached to her Ninja 650R so I rode that for one of the days. What a hoot! She told me to get rid of the chicken strips (there weren't any!)...but I took that as a green light and cracked 180 on the speedo. That's in kilometers, so it's just about the speed limit of 65MPH...never was much good at KPM to MPH conversions.

Borrowed some rear tire tread from Alan as well on the way to Denver...Rode his bike while he towed mine in his trailer.

He had a new Metzeler ME880 waiting for me at his house as mine was getting mighty thin:

I got to use Alan's modified tire changer and even with those beefy Metzelers...it was a reasonable task!

I spent a couple of days visiting and wrenching...even did a carb sync while I was at it:

I got on the road toward home on Tuesday. Another 1,100 miles of mostly slab work:

Some of which took me up to altitudes of 12000 feet:

Some heat of nearly 100 degrees with a bit of rain and hail mixed in just for fun. :

i was able to take in probably my favorite national park...Zion for a nice departure from the interstates...

There's something special about a rally...I'm glad to be home, but wish I was still sitting around a campfire with y'all, eh?

Mark Olson · June 13, 2015, 07:11:22 PM

Wow Captn , you are a wandering soul. Nice adventure for the summer with your meandering ways .... you sure made the most of that 2week extension from work.

Great to see you at the rally and hang around the campfire.

copper · June 13, 2015, 07:37:14 PM

Quote from: Capn Ron on June 12, 2015, 11:02:26 PM
What was really said:

Are you sure, it looks like Alan might be moving in for a kiss from "betty"

Capn Ron · June 13, 2015, 07:43:30 PM

Quote from: Mark Olson on June 13, 2015, 07:11:22 PM
Wow Captn , you are a wandering soul. Nice adventure for the summer with your meandering ways .... you sure made the most of that 2week extension ~~from work~~.

Great to see you at the rally and hang around the campfire.

Fixed it for ya!

Yeah, I've got the wanderlust for sure...I wanted to stay out long enough to ride to Alaska this trip, but I had to get home to deal with things. Maybe in August I'll head north...A ride to Canada at least.

Great to see you too Mark!

Firehawk068 · June 13, 2015, 10:29:41 PM

Quote from: copper on June 13, 2015, 07:37:14 PM
Are you sure, it looks like Alan might be moving in for a kiss from "betty"

As I recall, I seem to remember the conversation going more like this...........

Capn Ron · June 13, 2015, 10:42:57 PM

Oh, that Betty was a sweet ride! I didn't want my FJ to find out, but I had a bit of an affair that afternoon!

Derek Young · June 14, 2015, 11:32:44 PM

Donna and I made it home just before 10:00 last night. 2 weeks on the road, close to 5800 KM on the SUV and trailer, over 1200 KM on the bikes and immeasurable smiles on our faces! It was a great rally, incredible sights to see, amazing roads to ride and our very own FJ slip and slide courtesy of mother nature! So good to see our old friends again and to meet some new ones. For those of you that have never been to a rally, you really are missing out. Do what it takes to get yourself to one!

The new trailer and tow vehicle performed very well, taking us through several mountain ranges on both sides of the Canada/US border.

We saw the Badlands, Glacier National Park (did some more riding) and then crossed into BC and stayed 2 nights in Nakusp (Kootenays) to ride some of the top roads in BC. This area is a must ride for anyone even remotely close by. SPECTACULAR in fact!

For our last night we decided to drop down into north eastern Washington State to go through some of our favorite riding roads anywhere. This area would be great for a rally! We stayed the night in Leavenworth WA, a quaint little Bavarian themed town in the mountains. We had a wonderful dinner in town and enjoyed a nice relaxing soak in the jacuzzi tub in our room. The perfect end to the perfect road trip...until we went to leave and found all our riding gear was stolen from the trailer...

We have a lot of things to replace still but are at least sporting two new matching jackets!

Even with this pain in the ass on our last day, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again! See you all next year!

Derek (and Donna)

movenon · June 15, 2015, 12:40:14 AM

Quote from: Derek Young on June 14, 2015, 11:32:44 PM
Donna and I made it home just before 10:00 last night. 2 weeks on the road, close to 5800 KM on the SUV and trailer, over 1200 KM on the bikes and immeasurable smiles on our faces! It was a great rally, incredible sights to see, amazing roads to ride and our very own FJ slip and slide courtesy of mother nature! So good to see our old friends again and to meet some new ones. For those of you that have never been to a rally, you really are missing out. Do what it takes to get yourself to one!

The new trailer and tow vehicle performed very well, taking us through several mountain ranges on both sides of the Canada/US border.

We saw the Badlands, Glacier National Park (did some more riding) and then crossed into BC and stayed 2 nights in Nakusp (Kootenays) to ride some of the top roads in BC. This area is a must ride for anyone even remotely close by. SPECTACULAR in fact!

For our last night we decided to drop down into north eastern Washington State to go through some of our favorite riding roads anywhere. This area would be great for a rally! We stayed the night in Leavenworth WA, a quaint little Bavarian themed town in the mountains. We had a wonderful dinner in town and enjoyed a nice relaxing soak in the jacuzzi tub in our room. The perfect end to the perfect road trip...until we went to leave and found all our riding gear was stolen from the trailer... We have a lot of things to replace still but are at least sporting two new matching jackets!

Even with this pain in the ass on our last day, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again! See you all next year!

Derek (and Donna)

Glad you made it back home. Sorry about the last day I hate frigging thieves. I know it is a bit late but I had a wireless motion sensor in my trailer that would alert me if there was any movement inside the trailer. It works ... It went off, turned out just to be a guy admiring the bikes. But he knew he was caught.
http://www.harborfreight.com/wireless-driveway-alert-system-93068.html
Lots of variations on the idea.

It was good to see you and Donna again. Hope to see you again on down the road.
George

Firehawk068 · June 15, 2015, 12:43:57 PM

Glad you and Donna made it home safe, Derek.

I had so much fun with you guys. It was one for the memory-books for sure!

Derek Young · June 16, 2015, 09:29:45 AM

That's a pretty good idea George. Have you tested it to see what the range is? It was good to see you again as well. Hopefully we will see you at next year"s rally.

It sure was awesome Alan! We want to go to Al's Bar and Grill every night! The next rally can't get here soon enough!

Derek

movenon · June 16, 2015, 02:01:58 PM

Quote from: Derek Young on June 16, 2015, 09:29:45 AM
That's a pretty good idea George. Have you tested it to see what the range is? It was good to see you again as well. Hopefully we will see you at next year"s rally.

It sure was awesome Alan! We want to go to Al's Bar and Grill every night! The next rally can't get here soon enough!

Derek

I haven't tested it for max range. It will depend on the batteries, obstacles etc.. Here at home I like to work with my garage door open a bit and when I go inside I have it set up to ding me if someone enters the garage while inside. The spec's say "up to 400 feet" but it is a cheap Harbor Freight deal so I don't hold any faith in there spec's. We used it while staying at Cody going to the rally also. No problem was encountered but Garth and I did test it. You can find them on sale for less than 12.00 at Harbor Freight.

There are more sophisticated alarm systems out there, I just didn't need a high powered system for what I was going to do. They probably have some that will call your phone etc.. When I make reservations at a motel or hotel I always check a satellite view of the place to see where or if I can park the trailer.
Trailers in hotel parking lots are an easy targets.

The alarm worked in Bozeman, when I lit the guy up with the LED flashlight he knew he was being watched. Should have used Garth's high power laser

.

One "classic" way a motorcycle thief will steal a bike is to walk around and "check" it out as an "admirer". Might even sit on it and rock it. If no alarm is indicated he or they will return later to steal the bike. No full proof method to stop the crap other than to make it hard for them. Locks, lights and things that make noise. They don't like attention. At least that's how I see it.

I am sure the bar and grill will grow between now and the next rally.

It was good. TNX Alan !
George

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Home Safe from the Black Hills Rally