Newbie Ride or BustED 10/23

Newbie Ride or BustED

I awoke that morning hearing the rain to my dismay. We had made arrangements to meet at I-Hop so I went ahead & got up. The weather forecast was showing a 60% chance that morning w/ it changing to 30% around 9ish. Clay808 (Clay), Squeaky (Rebecca) & I decided to cage it over there & met up w/ Txmedic (Kurt), Wes & Sunny. When we got back to the house, Tourmeister (Scott) had told us that the ride will be delayed. VFRHugh shows up on his Silver SV650S & is poking out of the garage as it is packed w/ bikes. He hangs out for just a bit & decides not to come along w/ us. Texian (Mark) and Low (Nathan) show up separately soakin' wet and come inside to try & dry off. Squeaky, Low, Texian & I decide to bide the time by playing Michigan Rummy. The others are watching racing that Scott had taped. In the mean time the phone is ringing off the hook w/ people wanting to know if the ride is still on. Aaron (GixxerMan1980) & Mike (MikeHou04R1) call & say that they are at the I-Hop & will be showing up for the ride.

I call Pdef (Philip) & Tracy at around 12:30 to say that we will be leaving soon to meet up w/ them. TxMedic has decided not to come on the ride w/ us. He already had a scare on his Harley going to I-Hop. His tires do not like the wet pavement. Squeaky tries to persuade him to ride her bike while she rides 2 up. She had sat on the back of Wes' "K" bike earlier & determined that she was in heaven . TxMedic doesn't want to be responsible for someone else's bike in the rain & sadly declines. Hummm ... should I have been thinking the same thing being on Interceptor's SV. :scratch Nah ..... several weeks w/o having a running bike has clouded my judgement. We start out on Hwy 30 turning down 1791. It is not raining but we are getting wet from the road spray. Everyone is taking it easy testing out their tires on the wet payment, esp. Texian who has a new tire that he just put on this morning. We head towards Anderson on 149, go down part of 3090 with the sun peaking out & the roads a bit drier. We meet up the Pdef & Tracy in Carlos and try to figure out the rest of the day. Since the weather is so unpredictable, we decide that the cookout should be postponed for another day. Thanks to Wes & Sunny for offering their place up – we will definitely have to reschedule.

Tourmeister leads the group down 3090 to Navasota where we stop for Mexican Food. After sitting for a while we are beginning to wonder if a waiter has been assigned to our table. Eventually our drink order is taken & it seems like forever before they come back to see if we are hungry. :angryfir: As we sit & chat about various things we begin to wonder if our food is going to get here anytime soon. We haven't done much riding & the sun is taunting us. :nana We hear a loud crash in the kitchen & everyone predicts that our lunch is now on the floor & we settle in for a longer wait. An hour & ½ later we finally leave the restaurant. Texian, Low & Wes have decided to go home as it has been a long day already (mainly sitting on our *** waiting). The remaining 6 of us head out towards 3090 again but before we can get there we lose Squeaky & Clay. Seeing that there were only 2 curves to get to 3090, Tourmeister & MikeHou04R1 turn around to find out what's going on. Scott sends Mike back to let Aaron & I know that we need to join them. When we come up on the scene everyone looks okay but Squeaky is squatting down examining her bike. I was relieved to find out that it was her tire feeling squirmy & everyone was okay. Unfortunately a piece of metal (like the tip of an exacto knife) found her back tire & it had to be plugged. Since we are so close to town, Scott just uses a few CO2 cartridges & we head to a gas station. Of course the air pump is not working right & is taking more air out than in, we zip over to another station & fill up the tire. I find out later in the day that Clay almost does a stoppie right behind me when I don't go through the yellow light. I was wondering why he was directly behind me instead of staggered. :scratch We try again to air up the tire w/ better success. Aaron makes a comment "How many TWT members does it take to air up a tire???". We decide to make a run through the forest since we only did a portion of it earlier. I think Clay is enjoying himself since Gatesville doesn't have any 30mph curves except in town. Of course we have to stop at King's b/c Blue Bell is calling for us and then we continue to the house.

After getting settled in, Clay, Aaron, Mike, Rebecca and I decide to play some cards. The guys vote for Texas Hold ‘Em and after a quick lesson for me we begin. The rest of the group go to dinner while we throw our money into the pot. After the guys lose all their money, Rebecca & I are left to battle each other. I somehow come out victorious (beginner's luck) but Rebecca does not go out w/o a fight. Lucky for all of us, she kept raising the stakes or else we'd still be playing. The guys from The Woodlands head back & Clay decides to stay another night & play Michigan Rummy w/ the girls. Blue Bomber (Beth) joins into this game. We spend the rest of the evening cutting up & even have Clay in tears. We finally decide to quit when Clay loses his money & after dividing up the remaining pot Clay walks away w/ a whole nickel in his pocket. We could have left him empty handed. It was after 2 a.m. before I got home.

SUMMARY: Rain = only 150 mi = great comradery.:party

Great write-up Debbie,

Glad you all could get out, even with the weather and all. Also glad to hear that Squeaky was ok, no harm no fall and all that wrought.

Now with all that money you won, I think I hear a little silver SV calling your name

Brag, brag, brag! Admit it - you just wanted to post the fact of your having won big at cards!

BTW, did you and Rebecca get your new motor painted? You two gave me the impression that you really didn't want an audience for that, so I decided to hit the road. Hope everything turned out well.

You two gave me the impression that you really didn't want an audience for that

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I got pics... hehe. The motor is looking really good. Squeaky does good work

Adios,

scratch said:

BTW, did you and Rebecca get your new motor painted? You two gave me the impression that you really didn't want an audience for that, so I decided to hit the road. Hope everything turned out well.

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Uh oh, did I miss something while I was out. What happened to the motor on the GS?

Well...... That about sums it up.

The GS motor blew on the way home from the Sept TWT rally in Arkansas. I think it has about 12K miles on it. She bought a used motor with just under 20K on it. It was in rough cosmetic shape but has a 90 day warranty. Rebecca repainted the motor and it looks great now. Hopefully we will have it back in the frame this week and the bike will be ready to ride/sell or whatever.

Read all about the rally in the Reports forum

Adios,

Tourmeister said:

I got pics... hehe. The motor is looking really good. Squeaky does good work

Adios,

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The only pics that will be posted will be of the motor. Thanks for the compliments - I do good work, but do not LOOK good while doing it. Let's just leave it at that. Artists have to be comfy, you know...

Guys....If you didn't notice, the first two numbskulls (me and Low) that were recruited for the girls card games hightailed it back to Houston the instant we heard they were planning more decks.

even though it was 50%sittin' and waiting - 30% riding in the rain - 20%dry roads....I'll take that over most days.

Texian said:

Guys....If you didn't notice, the first two numbskulls (me and Low) that were recruited for the girls card games hightailed it back to Houston the instant we heard they were planning more decks.

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I never really thought about that... :scratch

Glad you had fun despite the sitting and waiting and all the madness mother nature hurled out of the clouds.

And a lot of that waiting was for lunch...

GREAT write-up, Deb! You've got the day summed up well. I'll just add some stuff from my POV:

I had a lot of fun Saturday, and (despite what the guys might tell you) it was not because I won some money. I enjoyed meeting new people and putting faces with names and avatars, seeing all the bikes, and talking about all the modifications - of which I purchased one from eBay while we were waiting for the rain to pass. It was fun to finally see the SV be the majority! Surprisingly, I wasn't trying very hard to swap bikes with anyone on this ride. I'll try harder next time

If I had known that we were going to be delayed as long as we were, I certainly would not have woken up for the 8am breakfast. It was still fun to get to sit and talk with everyone before the ride, though. Big thanks to Wes and Sonny for the cookout offer - we'll certainly try to plan this again when the weather cooperates. Either that, or we'll just head out anyway with rain gear!

The ride itself was... eventful. Heading out of Huntsville and towards the emerging sun was quite promising. The road spray wasn't as bad as it could have been, and it was definately better than having some serious downpour on our heads. It sure makes for a dirty bike, though. The roads do seem to get smoother and my turning more relaxed, thanks to the ongoing coaching by Scott (Tourmeister) in Arkansas and Hill Country these last few months. I didn't have any panic moments on this ride, but I'm still running a little too far back of the pack. That will just have to come in time. My apologies to those who got stuck behind me.

After leaving the restaurant at lunch, the bike felt really squirmy. I thought it was the road and the patched pavement running along the right side since there was a noticeable groove between the two layers. It wasn't until we hit a flat section of pavement that I knew something was wrong. I pulled off to the right and threw on my hazards, and Clay was behind me and pulled off after he saw something was awry. (As it turns out, Clay never knew his bike had hazard lights until he saw mine go on )

I could see right away that it was a tire issue and we pulled off into a driveway to take a closer look. I didn't know how long it would be before the rest of the group noticed we were gone, but it was less than a minute or two before Scott and Mike came back looking for us. As he pulled up next to me, Scott saw exactly what was up and went into Mr. Fix It mode. We rolled the bike to finding the impending shard of metal (which was barely a visible sliver) and got the plug kit out from under the seat. Threw some rubber cement goo (let's keep it clean, folks ) in it and plugged it up with a fuzzy plug. Thankfully, Scott is always prepared with his CO2 cartridges - which we played cold potato with as they came off the inflator. Like Debbie said, we limped it to one air pump - then another, then we were finally back on the road. Everyone was certainly patient with me and the bike during this whole mess. Thank you!!!

Back down through the forest and fueled up, and I learned how to spin my bike on the side stand. No, I will not attempt this myself, but it was fun to see that it can be done. Blue Bell buttered pecan. Mmmmmmmm. With the new surge of suger, the ride back to Huntsville was a snap.

Cards, cake, money, soda, more cake, more cards, and more money... :clap

SVinAustin said:

Now with all that money you won, I think I hear a little silver SV calling your name

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That's very tempting but I've got to get the GS put back together & then sold before I can think about getting an SV. Does this mean that yours is for sale?

Squeaky: It sounds like we may be playing cards by ourselves. The guys are running scared.

Snoopster said:

That's very tempting but I've got to get the GS put back together & then sold before I can think about getting an SV. Does this mean that yours is for sale?
:

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Actually, seriously thinking about it. With Connor here, Ellen isnt going to be riding it any (she really likes cruisers anyway) and I find that I am really only riding it to keep the oil circulating and battery charged. Can't really justify having it just sit around and we could use the $$ for more things for the rug rat.

So, while I havent actually broken down and started actively looking to sell, if a good home came along I think I would have to let go. Its a great little ride and needs a good home with someone who will ride it more and give it the TLC it deserves. If you ever become more interested, PM me and let me know.

SVinAustin said:

Its a great little ride and needs a good home with someone who will ride it more and give it the TLC it deserves. If you ever become more interested, PM me and let me know.

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If you decide to sell it before you hear from me, please PM me. I'm partial to the blue but if I had an offer I couldn't refuse .....

Darn it! I almost made it to the ride/card game! If you consider Chasewood/249 and Chasewood/Kuykendahl almost there!

I left the house before 07:00. Tried to use the ATM at 249/Toll road. The police were blocking part of the feeder on the toll road while a crane was being settup. When I got to the Shell station the ATM was out of order. I made a u-turn under the toll road and got onto 249 North. Ran into wet roads at 1960 and a light rain before Chasewood. Used the ATM and rode down Chasewood to Kuykendahl. The weather did not look promising North, West or North East. Didn't look like my lucky day. Decided to ride down to 1960 and eat breakfast at an IHOP at Hwy 6. Rode along with some guy on a blue 2004 R1 to Hwy 6. I turned left to eat at IHOP he turned into the Shell to get gas. After breakfast I saw dark clouds due west and decided to go home. Within an hour of getting home it started raining.

I did get a good ride in Sunday, leading an R6, 929, and ZX-6R. We rode Huffmeister, Roberts Cemetery, 1488, 1736, 1155, 105, 3090 and 149 to Kings. Ride started out foggy until 1736.

Have bike. Will travel.

Rob