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[Ride Report] The Midnight Ride 04/08/04

Tourmeister

Keeper of the Asylum
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Location
Huntsville
First Name
Scott
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Friday
Howdy,

:tab So this evening, I am sitting out in the garage cleaning the 98 VFR 800. The buyer is coming up this weekend and I want it to look pretty. After an hour or so, and half a can of Pro Polish, I start to realize that it is a really nice evening outside. I walk out into the middle of the street and stare up through the trees, stars cover the sky and the moon is coming up over the tree tops. It is crystal clear and about 60 F. Perfect for a midnight ride!!

:tab Once I make the decision that I really am going, I start getting all my gear together. The rear tire on the GS is no longer up to the task, the headlights never really were to begin with. So I think I will ride the 01 VFR 800. Sitting here and rubbing all over the 98 has got me all emotional and sentimental. After waking Beth to let her know where I am going, I head back to the garage and wheel out the bike. I thumb the starter and notice that coincidentally, the clock reads 12:00am.

:tab I am sure my neighbors are wondering what in the world that crazy guy with the bikes is doing at this time of the night?! I keep the revs low and putter out of the neighborhood and head for Hwy 30 to leave town. The air is crisp and cool. It's cold enough to be refreshing, but not enough to get through the gloves and make the hands stiff. There are very few people out and about at this time in Huntsville, small town and all that ;-)

:tab It seems odd that I could do nearly 100K miles between the two VFRs, spend a week or so on the new GS, and then when I return to the VFR, it feels somehow foreign to me. It is not at all the intimately familiar feeling that I've known for so long. The controls all feel akward, the bike out of proportion, and somehow clumsy!? Have I lost my mind? The first few miles out of town I have to completely retrain my muscles and brain to work the controls. The clutch barely has to be pulled at all for up or downshifts. The brakes seem really grabby and take very little pull on the lever to haul the bike down from speed. The bars seem so narrow. The entire bike just seems so small and toy like.

:tab I turn off Hwy 30 and start my run South on FM 1791 through the woods. There is no traffic at all. The moon sends shafts of silver light through the branches of the trees casting ghostly shadows on the road ahead of me. The blazing headlights of the VFR scatters them back to the darkness. The road appears as a tunnel leading off into the woods, the trees forming a wall to keep me focused on the road. Moments later, it all comes back to me. The VFR feels like home again after a long vacation. Shifts become effortless and silky smooth. The engine screams into the night as I twist open the throttle. Looking down from on high, the moon must wonder what madness has overtaken me?

:tab I cannot help wondering if I lost my mind when I decided to sell the VFRs and buy a GS? This is just so much fun!! The V4 engine is so smooth and the power just comes on with such an urgent WOOOSH! The GS just doesn't have that same top end rush. Then there is that beautiful exhaust note, howling like a shrieking monster at the near full moon. It still gives me chills to hear the bike wind out to redline :twisted:

:tab Soon I am thinking of nothing else but the road ahead of me and those little reflections in the weeds :shock: Sure enough, Moma deer has already slipped up into the woods, but Bambi is sitting in tall grass wondering what this thing is that is bearing down on it, blindingly bright and shreiking like no predator it's ever heard! It simply freezes and I am gone in the next instant, slipping down through the river bottoms and a little ground fog. The trees avoid this area, leaving it wide open grassland and marsh. A faint haze hangs over the ground, glinting silver in the light of the rising moon. Scant moments pass by with a swirl of the mist and I leave it behind, returning to the woods.

:tab With every curve, every crest of a hill, every dip in the road, I feel the bike become more and more of an extension of myself. I'm not thinking, push this, pull that. I am just moving down the road. I think turn and I just turn, faster and I go faster, slower and I go slower. The bike seems to know my slightest thoughts. Is it trying to reseduce me? Does it understand the fate I have in store for it?

:tab When I reach FM 149, I stop for a brief moment and just sit. I am all alone. I am in the middle of the Sam Houston National Forest. There is not a single cloud in the sky. I should be camping!! Why can't weather like this stick around for the weekend? It is supposed to rain all weekend :angryfir: But hey, how many folks get to just take off for a ride at the stroke of midnight like myself and enjoy such an incredible night? :shrug:

:tab I head South on 149, deeper into the forest. Here the trees come right up to the road. The pavement is exceptional as a result of repaving last year. There is a faint haze of smoke coming from smoldering stumps and logs within the forest. The Forestry Service has once again begun their "controlled" burns. I catch a glimpse of the occasional flame out of the corner of my eyes as I stare up the road into the next corner. The road here has a lot of nice elevation changes in combination with the corners, which makes the result of good throttle control all the more satisfying. Slow in, look through the turn, fast out! WHOOOSH!! Man I love this bike!

:tab I roll into Montgomery around 12:30am, the town is dead. I stop for gas at the Diamond Shamrock. While I am refueling, the local PD cruises by and slows way down to check me out. Then he starts pulling into parking lots, stopping, circling back, stopping. It almost seems like he is waiting for me to get back on the road. :roll: About the time I finish, he turns and heads up 149 the way I will be going. Topped off, I head back up 149 to see if he is waiting in surprise for me. I cruise out of town about five under the limit, not so much because I am worried about the LEO, but more because of the noise for the local residents at this time of night. Sure enough, he has turned around and I encounter him as I come over a hill. I just put on by and he drives back into town.

:tab The run back up North through the woods is just as much fun as the trip down. I see a few more critters here and there but they always seem to get across the road before I get to them, "A good thing", as Martha would say ;-) After turning North on FM 1791 off of FM 149, there is a long straight section of road. On one side is woods and the other is open pastures. I pull over and kill the bike. For a few minutes, I just sit and soak it all in. The pasture is lit so brightly that seeing is effortless. The stars twinkle brilliantly. The moon has risen high from the East and the shadows it has been casting have shortened. Even with my ear plugs in and my helmet on, the sound of the frogs singing their songs reverberates from out of the woods. It is an almost hypnotic melody. I should be camping!! :-?

:tab I spot a headlight in the mirror. Not wanting to be stuck behind a car for the next part of the ride, I fire up the bike and WHOOOSH off into the night. The rest of the ride is a blur. Once again I quit thinking and just ride as if from reflex and instinct. I reach Hwy 30 and head back into town. The few neighbors that had been awake when I left have now turned out the lights. I tiptoe back into the garage and park my beloved machine. The smell of cooking bugs fills the garage. There sits the new GS, itself covered in splattered bugs. Even after such an incredible ride, I still find myself inexoribly drawn to the GS. It is not a better bike than the VFR, it does not shift so silky smooth, the engine is not so silky smooth, nothing about the GS is silkly smooth!! And yet...

:tab I turn off the light as I head inside. I sneak into the bedroom and kiss Beth to let her know I am back home safe. Almost without realizing it, I am rationalizing ways to keep both bikes... My name is Scott. I have an addiction...

Adios,
 
I wouldn't put it past him. He actually got me worried when he mentioned the deer. I was thinking "here it comes, he hit the deer and wrecked the bike he is trying to sell". I am a bit of a pessimist though.
 
Since I work in the entertainment industry, often times I will be heading home at midnight, one, or two in the morning.... Its only about 3 and a half miles to my house...... At that time in the morning though it seems to take an hour just to get home ;-) . Theres just something about riding around a city at night..... Head out to the airport and look at the lights on the field..... Scream out to the nuclear lab with its 90 degree corners...... Putt down the main drag and watch the night workers clean and bake, stock shelves and guard the fort.... Head out to Elmo and Harvey Weedon roads.... Stop and watch the Dik Dik and Thompsons Gazelles graze and sleep..... Watch the cows that are watching you.....

Nighttime makes this college town a whole different world. :chug:

Nice report Scott....
 
Just make sure you are more careful once the bars close. I have been rear-ended in my truck twice at night, and my friend got hit on his ninja while stopped at a light :mad:
 
Wonderful ride report. It's so descriptive, I can almost feel myself there, smelling the frest forest air and hearing the bugs and frogs...

Scott, Thanks for making riding such a wonderful experience to share amongst friends!
 
pdef said:
Just make sure you are more careful once the bars close. I have been rear-ended in my truck twice at night, and my friend got hit on his ninja while stopped at a light :mad:

I am definately aware of that problem. You can see them all the time at night swerving and jerking around the lane. I just try to find an alternate path home. Maybe I DO need the DR650 :mrgreen: ...
 
Tourmeister said:
Howdy,

... My name is Scott. I have an addiction...

Adios,

Hi Scott. :-D


Man love the write up. It had me just think of that evening just a few weeks ago where you led me down those same roads after dark. It somehow felt almost like flying. Cant quite see the road as well as the day and in the forest it had such a serene feeling to the whole thing.

Thanks again for the lead that night and the story here to bring back the memory.

Now, say it with me, keeeeeeeep booooooth, keeeeeeeep booooooooth, keeeeeeeeeeep booooooooooooooooth. :-P
 
Now, say it with me, keeeeeeeep booooooth, keeeeeeeep booooooooth, keeeeeeeeeeep booooooooooooooooth.

I'd be more than happy to setup a Paypal button for donations :-P

Adios,
 
Your prose was firing on all cylinders there, Scott. Nice writing. 8-)

Like you, I wish I could afford two bikes; one for strafing the roads and one for exploring those places that are a little more wild. So far, I've resisted your suggestions to trade for a GS (or some other adventure tourer) because I can't let go of my Triumph - it's just so much fun to ride! This is easily my favorite bike of all the ones that I've owned, and I would deeply regret letting go of it. My desire to finally start building a nest (buy a home) prevents me from taking on any more unnecessary debt, so a second bike is out of the question for at least a few more years.

But you know what? I can't complain - my life isn't so bad. I've got my health, a great family, some really good friends, and enough toys to keep myself distracted. Too distracted, some times. ;-)
 
Remember, it is not what you ride that is important. It is that you ride.

Having said that, I have really enjoyed having a VFR and the GS.

For example, yesterday, I accellerated from a stop sign, paused a little because the car in front of me was turning, then I ungently rolled on the throttle of the VFR, **** that thing can get light in the front. What a rush...
 
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