From Nowhere Close to Texas ...

Hi everyone, I'm a greybeard Maryland rider of a Suzuki Bandit 1250SA who stumbled across your megathread on Bandits and had to join just because of the fantastic information you provided there. Hopefully I'll be able to be as helpful as so many of you have been.

AutoXer

Welcome to the forum. I ride a Suzuki, but it is a Burgman. Kind of half a bandit. Enough trying to be cute. I failed miserably.

FYI, it is 1155 miles from Maryland to Texarkana. It is 924 miles from Texline, TX to South Padre Island. So, you are a pretty close neighbor.

Enjoy the forum. tom

welcome!
does your SN come from doing auto-cross?
Back when I had my Subaru WRX wagon, I did a few auto-x runs. They were a lot of fun, but I found I like track days on the scoot better. More track time and you don't have to corner work

Welcome! Maryland isn't that far. We got folks from all over the world! Now, for the required stuff....post a pic of your bike please.

Welcome to the site. I used to go to Reston, Va. on business a lot. Can't say many good things about the Beltway (or what's inside it for that matter), but I did find a lot of nice backroads for torturing rent cars. Lots of good little roads in northern Fairfax County.

Welcome. Where in Maryland? My wife's family is originally from Cumberland (yes, hillbilly / moonshiners). She still has a relative in Laurel.

Man, I envy your geography!

I lived in Lynchburg VA for 5 years, then later on 6 years in Leesburg - I'd ride to West Virginia or western maryland for an early Sunday breakfast and could be home in time to go to church!

There is a group that has an annual ride you may be interested in - take a look at

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/WVA-Ride/

Depending on where you live, some of these guys may be close to you. The other guy who hosts the group - Bruce - is in Maryland, SILVER SPRING, I believe.

Stay safe - stay warm!

Neil

Thanks all for the kind welcome!!

TRKCPA - I think Burgman's are very cool scoots, if my daily commute was in the city it's the scoot I would ride.

POSER - Yes indeed, the name stems from my autocross days (Fiat 124 Spyder and later Mazda Miata), been out of it a few years, but my daughter has just started driving and has expressed an interest in autocrossing, so it looks like I'll be getting back into it. Ah, the sacrifices one makes as a parent ...

TSHELFER - either Beltway (Baltimore or DC) is just awful, but hey, driving on them "builds character"!

NCHRISTIE - Gambrills/Severn/Millersville area, about halfway between Baltimore and Annapolis. Used to live in Laurel, in fact (different time, differnet wife ...). Geography is varied, but getting to good riding roads involves going about an hour and a half in any direction ... I tend to ride in Pennsylvania a lot because some nice roads can be found and the drivers are so much more polite than in Maryland. Thanks for the tip on that ride!

I'll work on posting a pic of the bike.

AutoXer

Now, let's see if I can actually upload an image ... this is one of the few images I have of my Suzuki 1250SA Bandit. It was taken at the 2011 Maryland-DC Ride For Kids which my daughter and I rode in (19 years riding in this annual event, the last 8 with my daughter aboard). Mods are simple - heated grips, handguards from a Suzuki V-strom, and (not on the bike here) Givi bags. That's my "can you see me now, idiot?" jacket on the back.

For the uninitiated, the "Beltway" is Loop 495 around the D.C. area. Like LBJ Freeway here, but the driving is even worse because, sadly, politicians are allowed to have drivers licenses. And with more traffic than anybody can imagine on that road, there are places where it inexplicably narrows from 4 lanes down to three, leaving multi-mile lines of people trying to merge over. I built too much character and met too many characters trying to get from Reston to BWI in afternoon traffic. You, sir, are a better man than I if you'll drive it on a Bandit.

Tim -

Don't forget, we have the joy of TWO Beltways, the DC (one section of which, if I recall, was rated as one of the 10 most dangerous roads in the U.S. some years back) and the Baltimore Beltway. The DC is truly the worst - dangerous roads with mean, crazed drivers. The Baltimore Beltway is not quite as dangerous, mostly because it tends to become a "parking lot" of unmoving vehicles. Add rain, though, and the Baltimore drivers are every bit as capable of running into each other.

I'd like to claim the "better man" status, but when I began riding 20 years ago my wife asked one thing: that I never ride on either Beltway, a promise I have kept (except for a single "emergency" run on the Baltimore Beltway). Which of course FORCES me to take those miserably fun little backroads to get around them and go anywhere ... but a promise is a promise.

Jim

AutoXer said:

Tim -

... Which of course FORCES me to take those miserably fun little backroads to get around them and go anywhere ... but a promise is a promise.

Jim

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Welcome to the site!