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[Ride Report] TWT Day Ride 01/25/04

Tourmeister

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Location
Huntsville
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Friday
Howdy,

Go here for the pics:
http://twtex.com/linkfiles/012504-TWTdayride/

:tab Ohhhh... Is it morning already? Beth comes in and informs me that John has left for Austin. He's got a zillion things to do before heading out of the country for a few months on his GS. It's amazing that he came over this weekend for our maintenance day!? It's also a good thing because he came in real handy :bow: Then she tells me that Will is still here, "What!?" He usually gets up and hits the road pretty early, long before I crawl out to see what the day has in store for me. I'm thinking those three Tequila shots really whooped me good. Then Beth informs me that I only had two!! Geez... Have I gotten that old? :|

:tab After a quick HOT shower, I rejoin the ranks of the living and fuzz free mouths. A quick peek out the window of the bathroom confirms that today is truly a beautiful crisp day!! Woohoo!! After all the rain we got yesterday, this is fantastic. It's about 11:30am and already the temperature is reaching the upper 60's. Does it get any better? A glance at the TWT site confirms that John Hutchinson and Steve Tanner are heading up to go riding with us. Paul is still here and Debbie is on the way over. I mull around and go over the bikes to double check and make sure we did not forget to reassemble anything last night.

:tab As if on cue, I hear the sound of two twins come thumping through the neighborhood and look up to see John and Steve rolling into the driveway. Beth has decided she will be joining us for today's ride. Will seems in no hurry to get back home to Austin and will be riding with us too. We've got ourselves a nice group.

:tab I was hoping Andy and Shauna might show up on their BMW but by 12:30pm they had not yet arrived. So we head out. I've decided to run a favorite route backward out toward Lake Livingston and then back over for a run through the Sam Houston National Forest on FM 149 down to Montgomery. We leave town via FM 980 and run out to Riverside on Hwy 19. The air is cool and damp. There is standing water everywhere from yesterday's rain. Already, there are large patches of dark green grass poking up from under the dead brown stuff. If I did not know any better, I would think that Spring was just around the corner!

:tab Once across Hwy 19, FM 980 wanders along the South side of the upper portion of the lake, just North of US 190. This is the biggest group Debbie has ever ridden with and I want to start out on the mild roads so that she can take some time to get comfortable and also to let her know we aren't going to just run off and leave her. Paul is happy to be running sweep. John seems to only be happy when he's right behind me and we're leaning way over... :twisted: Steve and Will are right there with him every time I look in the mirrors, nicely spaced and staggered.

:tab We reach the cutoff for Waterwood Parkway. This is where the first bit of fun starts. I've written about this road in numerous other reports. It is short, but is high on my list of fun local roads. Ther are no side roads, no where for slower riders to wander off and get lost, and nice smooth fast sweepers with real short straights in between them. I pick up the pace and see John, Steve and Will fall right into line. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of Beth behind Will hanging with us. It is nice to see her back on the bike. She has not been riding much lately and I've been missing it. Being only seven miles from start to end, it is not long before we come out on the South end of the parkway and reach US 190. Moments later Debbie and Paul come cruising up behind us. Debbie must be feeling pretty good, I was not expecting her to arrive so soon after we stopped :)

:tab Regrouped, I turn West on US 190 and head for FM 946. The pavement on FM 946 is great. It was repaved a year or so ago and has remained exceptionally smooth and stays relatively clean. There are a lot of nice curves marked at 40mph that are just perfect for laying the bike over and rolling the throttle wide open all the way to the exit :twisted: Enter at about 6500rpm and whooooosh through the corner to 11000rpm in the space of a few heartbeats. The VFR's power comes on so linearly and smooth that it is just intoxicating. The little SV650S that could is hanging back there behind me doing everything it can to whoooosh right along with me!

:tab Right about the time I am setting up for a particularly sweet looking corner, I spot some ruts on the right shoulder heading toward the pavement... :huh: I start easing down and then I see it... LOTS OF MUD!! :eek: I'm already running in wide on a late apex so I have plenty of time to alter my line, flash the brakes to warn the others and adjust to miss it. Instinctively, I do a mirror check to be sure everyone else has seen it as well. No sweat. A few more curves and we are at Hwy 156 somewhere between Point Blank and Coldspring. Once again, Debbie and Paul come up moments after we stop. That is always a good sign that I am not setting a pace to quick.

:tab We run North on Hwy 156 to find the start of FM 224. I really wish this road would get a complete reworking all the way down to the substrate under the pavement. The logging trucks have taken a nice little FM and trashed it in the last few years. What was once a snaking ribbon of heaven is now a bumpy and rough ride. Apparently the rear shock that we just put on the 01 VFR last night got messed with while it was sitting around in the garage. The compression damping is set so high my teeth are rattling and it feels like the backend of the bike is skipping around underneath me. I have to get my rear off the seat a few inches and use my legs like shocks, letting the bike do its' thing.

:tab We pass by Wolf Creek State Park, which sits on the Western shore of Lake Livingston. In several places the road crosses over the water and it is all a nasty murky brown. The mud has been stirred up from all the rain and the run off from surrounding creeks. It's not exactly appealing and certainly doesn't make me want to go for a swim despite the warm weather ;-) The road dumps back out on Hwy 156 just North of Coldspring and we head on into town. It is nearing 2:00pm and I'm guessing everyone is getting hungry. We stop at the local burger joint, The Hop. It is a little cafe decorated in the fifties motiff with pictures of cool old cars and lots of motorcycles. It is a favorite for riders in this area. I take the break in riding as an opportunity to adjust the preload and compression on the rear shock. Both were set to MAX!! :shock: Then it is back inside for my standard Grilled cheese meal :-P

The gang!
L-R: Paul "Scratch" Massie, Debbie "Snoopster" McMullen, John "Kawa_jm" Hutchinson, Will "birdwh" Bird, Beth "Blue Bomber" Friday and Steve "Desmo" Tanner. Not pictured is Scott "Tourmeister" Friday :-P Someone had to take the shot :shrug:

:tab After a nice greasy lunch, we mosey back out into the nice warm sunlight and mount up to continue riding. We're going to head West on Hwy 150 toward New Waverly, with a slight detour :twisted: I have a little loop I like to make when I am out here. FM 2693 and 2778. On many maps, it shows as a loop North from Hwy 150 and then back South to Hwy 150 and as two separate FM's, but the road signs show the whole loop as only being FM 2693. It is the stretch that turns back South that is where the real fun lies. It is just five or six miles of back to back fast banked sweepers. I decide this is a good place to get some action shots!

:tab I get everyone pulled over and instruct them to head back over the hill and to come zooming back around the corner one at a time so I can shoot their pictures. Here are the results:

-There goes John... really fast... to **** fast actually... :roll:

-Steve doing the smooth nice paced routine

-Will pushing the big Trophy like a sport bike! Guess the new tires must be feeling real good!

-Wait! Where'd he come from?!

-The Blue Bomber

-Debbie being a poser :-P

-Paul doing his normal relaxed thing.

-The best shot I get of John... on his way back for another try.

-Here he comes... Only this time I am the one moving too fast. :x

-This is as good as I get for John. :shrug:

-John and Steve... see the movie!! A little over 4Mb dload.

-Will and John waiting patiently for me to quit goofing off.

-Paul getting set to get back on the road.

-What a pretty site!

-My baby... on the selling block soon :(

:tab You can see all the water in the background of all those pictures. That gives you some idea of how much rain we had yesterday. These fields are normally dry. You may also have noticed that my skills as an action photographer can use some serious help :oops:

:tab When I finally get all my stuff back on and get the bike started, everyone is waiting patiently for me to lead the way. The rest of this road is just a blast, literally. John and I zing off into the curvacious distance, running a nice smooth pace through all the esses. As we are approaching the last few corners, I look through the trees to the next few corners and spot a horse rider in the road struggling with the horse for control. :| I'm guessing the horse has heard us coming and does not like what it hears. We haul it down and putt putt by the horse and rider real calmly. Horses are darn unpredictable critters and I don't relish the prospect of T-boning one on the Viffer!

:tab We reach Hwy 150 and regroup before turning back to the West for New Waverly. Once in town we stop at the local Diamond Shamrock on Old US 75. Beth wants to head on home and I want to swap bikes. Ironically, after all these years of my owning a VFR, I will finally be riding the bike I have wanted all along. With the need to sell my 01 VFR, I have put the rear Ohlins on the 98. Now I have the front/rear upgraded suspension, the blue body work with stripped wheel rims, the full TwoBros exhaust system and Power Commander II with a custom tuned FI map. All that remains is a factory tinted OEM windscreen. The bike has 57K miles on it and is going strong! After milling around visiting with some other riders for a bit, we get back on the road. We're headed for FM 149 to do a run down through the Sam Houston National Forest to Montgomery, a local favorite for riders all over Houston.

:tab We take FM 1375 over Lake Conroe to the start of the forest run. As we are approaching the intersection at 1375 and 149, I feel my pager buzzing in my pocket :| AARrgghh!! I've been on call all weekend and have been really fortunate that I've not had to work yet. Now we are getting ready to run one of my favorite roads and I may have to leave to go home and work :x I call in to the paging service to see what's up. Seems one of our clients has an emergency he needs taken care of. During the ten minutes we are standing around while I talk to him, countless cruisers and sportbikes go blasting by us. It seems like every rider in Houston is out enjoying this incredible weather! After talking with the guy a few minutes, it is decided that I can keep riding and do the job when I get home later. Whew!! :dude:

:tab We mount up and head down through the forest. This section was repaved last summer and is now super smooth asphalt. There are nice gentle elevation changes and moderately tight corners. I really like to just set the speed at about 70mph and just hold it the whole way down through all the corners. Ten miles and what only seems like moments later, we are pulling into Montgomery. There are bikes freaking everywhere!! The parking lot at King's Cafe is packed with hordes of cruisers. The gas stations are all packed with cruisers. There don't seem to be the normal sportbike riders out? Perhaps they all came out earlier in the day. It is near 4:00pm now.

:tab I meet a nice fellow on an FZ1 in the Texaco parking lot. This is a habit of mine, picking up strange men and women in gas station parking lots :shock: Beth gives me a hard time about it all the time. It turns out that the FZ1 is Tom's first bike and he's just turned over 1600 miles on it! The good thing is that he is wearing all the gear, a really nice full riding suit, gloves, boots and a helmet. Smart man. I give him a TWT card and when I see everyone staring at me impatiently, I decide it is time to get back on the road :oops: John and Steve decide to head on home as it is getting late in the day. Will, Debbie, Paul and myself head back up through the forest.

:tab We run a nice relaxing pace up through the woods. When we reach the spot where Mark Eggers had his accident, I pull over to point it out to Will. Even now, three months later, it still feels strange to visit this site and to reflect on how everything changed so suddenly on a beautiful fall morning. It's a sober reminder. We continue on to Richards. Normally there would be a lot of bikes stopped at the little gas station at FM 149 and FM 1486, but the station has gone out of business.

:tab We pass through Richards, which takes all of a minute at 30mph :roll: After Richards, FM 149 is not so much fun and it gets a bit straight all the way out to Anderson. We've decided that we are going to run out to FM 390 on the far side of Navasota with Will before Paul, Deb and myself turn back and head for home. We run Hwy 90 into Navasota and pick up Hwy 105 out of town to the West. Again, there are a lot of cruisers out and about but there is a mysterious lack of sportbikes?

:tab A few miles beyond the Washington on the Brazos turn off on Hwy 105, there is a small side road called, William Penn Rd. It is a very narrow and severly crested little road. When approaching a blind rise, I get as close to the right edge of the pavement as possible. The locals like to come blasting through here like it is a one way race track. But it is nice and quiet this evening. We pass a few cruisers near an old old cemetery. Then we cut around a seriously blind corner and the road ends at a stop sign.

:tab There are some other bikes about to turn and head the way we have just come from. I notice the first two are Triumphs... hey wait!? That's Charlie and Vicki Contella! They are riding friends I have not seen in quite some time. Charlie does not have a clue who I am as I stand there waving at him. :lol: I see the moment of recognition on Vicki's face as she rounds the corner and goes by me. She tosses a big wave and then they zoom off around the corner out of sight followed by a few of their other riding friends.

:tab It is at this intersection where the fun part of FM 390 begins. If we go straight, it just takes us back to Hwy 105 and is literally a straight line for several miles from here to there. Fortunately for us, we are not going straight. :twisted: As soon as we turn onto 390, I make the decision in my head to have some fun. Paul is quite content to stay back and ride with Debbie, so Will and I take off and run a little quicker pace than normal.

:tab Will and I have done a lot of riding together over the last five years in all kinds of places and conditions. I know I don't have to look over my shoulder and worry about what he's doing. I can just run a fun pace and know that he is right there enjoying every moment of it with me. Group riding is fun, but this is the shiznit :dude: The cool thing is that we don't have to run a crazy race pace to enjoy ourselves. We just setup for the corners, lay the bike over and rollllll on through. Will is all about being smooth, my kind of rider. We reach the speck of a town, Independence, and stop at FM 50. When I see Deb and Paul's headlights behind us, we take off again!!

:tab The curves out here are really fun. The road climbs up and over some really nice hills and often times I can see the road winding down away from me and up the next hill. In the Spring time this area is plastered with thousands of acres of Blue Bonnets and Indian Paint Brushes. It is a fantastic ride. Eventually we reach Hwy 36 a few miles South of Lake Sommerville and stop. Will and I say our goodbyes and he takes off for Austin. This is as far as the rest of us are going. It is already after 5:00pm and it will be getting dark in about an hour. We are about an hour and a half from home. I turn around and wait for Paul and Debbie to arrive.

:tab When they show up, we decide to head up Hwy 36 to a convenience store for a break. I use the opportunity to call Beth and let her know what we are up to so she won't be worrying when we are not home before dark. After a nice refreshing stop, we suit up and keep heading North on Hwy 36 through Sommerville to Lyons and pick up FM 60 for a run East to College Station. The sun is getting low on the horizon and the clouds are glowing with a firey hue. Paul is leading and I am bringing up the rear. I can't help myself and I pull over for a few last shots of the day.

-Tree silohuette / Take two / Take three

-The Viffer against the evening sky / A hurried shot with the flash... I was about to be run over :roll:

:tab I pack up the camera, hop on the bike and zoom off all ready to haul butt to catch up to Paul and Debbie. I burn through a couple of fun sweepers and spot them sitting on the side of the road. Geez... where's the fun in that? :| I zing on by and watch for them to fall in behind. We drone on into the fading light. As we reach the town of Snook, yes that's right, Snook, I can see the tall lit buildings on the Texas A&M campus!! That is still another 14 miles away!! :shock: The evening air is incredibly clear and crisp. I keep an eye on the buildings as the miles tick away beneath me, I still can't believe it is the campus and I don't want to loose track of it so I can confirm it as we get nearer to town. Sure enough, as we get closer I can actually recognize the football stadium. Wow.

:tab Now that the sun has faded completely from the horizon and there is no cloud cover to speak of, it is getting cold pretty fast. Already it has dropped from a nice 75 F to about 65 F. When we get into College Station and ride through town, the residual heat in the concrete and asphalt keeps the air warmer than the surrounding countryside. As we leave town and start to get back out into the open, the temperature drops down to about 64 F. I'm wondering just how much colder it is going to get in the next hour? I left my rain suit and my warmer riding pants at home. Of course this is the first time I have done that in forever!! :x Oh well, how bad can it get?

:tab My legs are cold and so is my right hand. The heated grip wire broke on the throttle grip :roll: My left hand is quite toasty though. Maybe the blood in the left hand will warm up and circulate over to the right hand? No dice :| There is a stretch on Hwy 30 a few miles outside of College Station that is really low and swampy even during dry spells. It is along the Navasota River. Right now it is all completely under water as far as I can see in the meager light of the waning moon. However, there is enough light to see deer standing around on the side of the road :eek: It's nearing the end of a long day in the saddle, I cannot afford to get complacent now.

:tab As we are approaching a bend in the road, I notice that the vehicles in front of us are all braking?? This is strange because there are no intersections and people usually run through here like crazed maniacs. As we round the bend I see a lot of flashing lights, never a good sign. We creep up on the scene and there is a car with the front end pretty well bashed to pieces. There are Sheriff's, several DPS, a few fire trucks and an ambulance. But all I ever see is the one car at the start of the bridge over the river. :shrug: We crusie through the scene and get back the business of getting home.

:tab When we reach Hwy 90 and Hwy 30 in Roans Prairie, Debbie signals that she wants to pull over. We all have enough gas that we should easily be able to get to Huntsville so I am not sure what she's up to. It turns out that she is cold. :lol: Well, who isn't? Well... unlike myself, she is prepared! She gets out her rainsuit jacket and heavier gloves. We've only got thirty minutes to go so I am just gonna have to suck it up. We gas up the bikes since we are already stopped. I am trying to get Debbie in the habit of check her gas mileage so that she will have an idea of when she needs to stop for gas. The GS hold four gallons with the reserve included. It turns out that she is getting almost 60mpg!! Not bad!

:tab We get back on the road and haul butt. Despite the fact that it is nighttime, Debbie seems relaxed and is running a quicker pace than I would have expected, even passing when she might not normally do so, although always with plenty of room. She must be anxious to get home :lol: When we arrive back at the house, Beth has a nice Chicken and Rice casserol waiting for us in the oven!! What a great wife! We chow down and reflect on what a great weekend this has been. We had our maintenance day yesterday and had a great time, then today we had perfect weather and knocked out just under 270 miles of fantastic riding. I still have a job waiting for me to get done, but after all this fun, it is worth having to do a little work to pay for it :bigokay:

Adios,
 
Scott,

Good trip report and great ride. I wish I could have gone with you guys to 390 also but I had meat on the smoker and company coming for dinner. John and I got stuck behind a pack of cruisers all the way to Magnolia. Bummer.

BTW, the "movie" you posted is only 11 seconds long. As far as I can see, it only shows John at the top of the hill. Am I doing something wrong?

Steve
 
Steve,

:tab It is correct that the movie is only 11 seconds long. But you should see both of you crest the hill and John blasting through the corner. Then I tried to pan back and catch you, but you came by so fast I missed you. When I tried to pan back to the left as you guys were pulling away from me, I started slipping in mud and the camera was wobbling all over the place! Try right clicking on the link and saving it to your hard drive, then playing it directly off your hard drive.

Adios,
 
That worked, thanks.

Cool video. Wonder what the locals thought about all that action at their creek?
 
That creek looked more like a lake!! :eek:
 
Scott, Thanks for leading the ride. It was great .... my longest yet (268 miles). :lol: Just had a few awkward moments when turning around on the road. Special thanks to Scratch for being the sweeper and hanging out with me. :-D Surprisingly, I'm just a little sore in my arms. Probably from riding back on Hwy 30 & fighting the wind. It got a little cold on the way back. I should have put my rain pants on as well. Thanks for the trip report. I'm not familiar w/ all of the back roads you take us on so it's nice to be able to go back & read about them. Too bad the sun was setting when it did ... I would have liked to have rode 390 again. :? Looking forward to many more miles down the road!!!
 
Yea Debbie, I think you did great. When we stopped you were never that far behind :chug: Way to go. Scott as always thanks for leading a great ride. I admit riding w/ my regular Sunday group I become imune to the fact that my "normal" pace is really not that relaxed :shock: . It does feel good to just sit back a little & enjoy the moment. :angel:
 
Howdy Lonestar,

:tab Nice to hear from you ;-) It was a lot of fun. I still can't get over what a nice day it was! Not to worry though, we will be doing plenty of rides in the future, so keep an eye on the Upcoming Events section.

Adios,
 
Nice write-up, Scott! My only regret is that we didn't get an earlier start so that we could continue west on 390 to Burton, then take some of the curvy side roads in the area like FM 2780 and 1948. There's so much to enjoy simply from a sight-seeing standpoint in that area. It reminds me very much of the rolling Tennessee countryside from when I lived in Nashville a few years ago. Kudos to Deb for maintaining a nice pace on this ride - girl, I'll bet you're going to be dragging hard parts before too much longer! :mrgreen: 8)

And a BIG special thanks to Beth for having a wonderful, hot meal ready for us right when we got back into Huntsville after that c-c-cold final leg! :bow:

What a great weekend! :-D
 
Great report and photo accompaniment! Look forward to riding with ya'll somtime. For my upcoming birthday, my wife has promised me the gift of tires. My current rubber has is past the indicators on the rear and the front is showing signs of cupping. :eek:
Kelly
 
sphpkr said:
Great report and photo accompaniment! Look forward to riding with ya'll somtime. For my upcoming birthday, my wife has promised me the gift of tires. My current rubber has is past the indicators on the rear and the front is showing signs of cupping. :eek:
Kelly

That didn't seem to slow you down to much when I rode with you. OR maybe it did....
 
That didn't seem to slow you down to much when I rode with you. OR maybe it did....
I was forced to ride like that of necessity. The only rubber I had left was on the sides of the tires! :mrgreen:
 
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