TWT Fall Rally 06

[Eulogite]

I'm going to get this thread started even though I've not started. I'm waiting on Debbie to get off work, we should be on the road by 2pm for Eureka Springs, 360 miles away.

The only problem is the tornadoes popping up all over Missouri and violent storms expected in Oklahoma. In fact, there is a watch box that fits perfectly over our route from the Red River to Eureka Springs. I guess we're gonna check out the Frog Toggs. Tomorrow is going to be rain in Arkansas, so we'll stop in OK if high winds/hail. Yeeha. Wish all the Fall Rally participants a safe trip, if not a dry one.

 

[Squeaky]

Hope y'all dodge the weather. Post up pics when ya got 'em!

 

[Eulogite]

We changed our route and went thru Muskogee but still hit hard rain when we turned east. Locals near the AR border warned us of large hail in our future. When we got to Fayetville, we knew it was decision time. I got cut off twice in about 3 minutes and that did it for me. (love that Stebel, they think a truck is fixing to hit 'em) We barely got a room; Hogs are playing Bama tomorrow. Also a woman got killed by lightning up here today and there was a major power line down across I-540. Big storms. I'm glad we got this far and glad we stopped. Talked to Matt and Mark and they were in ES. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

 

[Ghost Rider]

Be carefull. If it gets too hairy to ride, I've got a truck and trailer and can assist with getting you back.

Sending you a PM with my phone number.

 

[Tourmeister]

We're home. Had a blast despite some iffy weather Friday. Will post pics if I can ever find the CD with the USB drivers for Beth's camera so I can copy the pics onto my computer

 

[Thermalser]

Another outstanding weekend spent riding excellent roads with even better folks! Big thanks to everyone!

My ride report:

Day 1



Day 2



Day 3



Day 4

 

[Jon The Buddha]

HA HA....Thermalser, that was good!



Here is my report.....


I left OKC about 10:30 Thursday morning. Planned on leaving at 8, but it was raining pretty good. I threw some extra stuff in the Givi luggage on the VStrom for some added weight (traction) and hit the road. I didn't get far before it started raining again. I was layered up and had my rain gear on, so I stayed pretty toasty and bone dry. The wind was the problem...sustained winds of 25-35 mph made for some pretty rough riding at times.

Had to stop due to worsening weather 3-4 times, but finally made it in to Eureka Springs around 5 pm. Total distance from OKC ended up being only 280 miles. Wet and windy about 85% of the trip.

Not long after arriving, I met a couple of guys from Houston that were already there... Ron (fjrtx) and Peter (don't remember if he is a member or not). We went to dinner together and they were kind enough to invite me to ride along with them on Friday. We left about 9 am and put in 250 miles that day on some really nice roads...especially 123 through the national forest! We did get caught in some really heavy rains a couple of times, but we came out just fine. It wasn't long after we got back to the hotel that some of the others started rolling in.

Most everyone made it in on Friday, except for the Eulogite's who got caught up in some weather and had to stop for the night. We all mingled that night over a tasty meal (and beverages) and listened to the rain AND HAIL fall all around us! Things were not looking good for an early morning ride the next day (Saturday), but we held out hope. Sure enough, come Saturday morning it was nasty. We decided to try again around 11:00 am.

At 11:00, it wasn't raining but was still a bit overcast. We decided to give it a shot. Off we went up into Missouri. Within an hour or so, the sky cleared up nicely and it ended up being a great day for riding! We all arrived back safely at the hotel about 5:00 pm. Total riding was about 200 miles. Shorter then we planned, but considering the weather, we were lucky to get to ride at all!

Great dinner that night at a big German restaurant (Bavarian Inn), and the Eulogite's finally met up with us. It was nice to see another Strom in the group! More socializing over beverages after getting back to the hotel. The plan was to head out the next morning at 8:30 am for our Sunday ride.

Come Sunday morning, I made a last minute decision to head on back home, and sadly watched everyone leave out for the days ride. I hope it was a great one! I packed the Strom up and headed the 280 miles back home. Thankfully, it was a dry ride back.

I had an absolute BLAST on this trip. It was awesome to meet everyone, and I hope I can ride with everyone again sometime. Thanks to Matt for putting everything together...nice job, buddy! I also hope everyone makes it back home safely! Sorry, forgot my camera, so no pictures to post.


-Jon-

 

[Tourmeister]

Great report Stuart!! That pretty much sums it up!

 

[Texian]

Day 3

Haaha! Is that Redd?

We rolled in @7pm....kept it at an 11hr drive dispite our venture back down to Pelsur (sp?).

Great time, Thanks alot to everyone helping with our "TWT Annual Arkansas Offroad Excursion". (Yall will have to post or send me some of the pics, as I was too busy toting Matt around on the GS )

 

[STrider]

Thermalser pretty much covered it, but here we go:

First, a big thanks to everybody who participated, and the unfortunate few who helped get this off the ground but were relegated to real life duties. A trip is only as good as the players, and this was a great trip!!

Day One:

Rain. Quick scouting trip towards what appeared to be better weather revealed a decent shot at making a ride of it. Despite some raised eyebrows regarding the scouting report, we got kickstands up at 11:00 am and made a great, albeit shortened route consisting largely of MO 90, and one additional (read: NOT wrong) turn on County Road E.

Day Two:

Mildly cloudy and cool, kickstands up at 8:30. AR 21 to Clarksville (pretty, but too tame for my tastes at other than hyper-legal speeds.) North on 123 towards Mt. Judea (very good, and better the closer to Mt. Judea. Some very nasty switchbacks - I had my head turned so far I could see my own - well, I had my head turned far.) A person may or may not have munched their bike (I'll let them decide if they want it to be public), which resulted in me getting a ride on one of my all-time dream bikes. It was a dream indeed, but NOT a bike one wants for those switchbacks. And yes, it is more than a little embarrasing to feel like you're really kickin' rear on a race replica bike, and a guy on a freakin' KLR is right on your back tire. ...Course, I was bein real careful, borrowed bike and all... yeah, that's it....

Back to the hotel via AR 74 (I think) and 23 - both top notch.



The Awards:

Biggest Smile for the Shortest Ride
JontheBudda and st1100
These guys rode hundreds of miles for a shortened day and had to bug out early, missing Sunday. They still had great attitudes and huge smiles the whole time.

Bad Influence
vfrhugh -
For willingly donating his Katoom, which instantly turns otherwise upstanding motorcyclists into squids.

Patience and Determination the Face of Adversity
The Eulogites -
For unwavering dedication to making the trip, despite all manner of weather, cabbing to the Bavarian, headaches, and not getting on Push Mountain Road.

Turn A Phrase
Redd (err, Brownn, err....) -
For "I loved Missouri, not so wild about Arkansas"

YellowWolf
shaft drive six -
Obvious reasons.

Silent But Deadly
v2roger -
No, not for that reason. This guy can just freakin ride - he quietly and undramatically moves that FZ like a pro. Thanks buddy.

Boldfaced Lie and Most Technically Demanding Sandwich
Tourmeister -
For "I can't lead a group of high-powered sportbikes on the KLR." and
For who knew it was so hard to get a grilled ham and cheese?

Unfortunate Designee
Thermalser
For willingly and skillfully leading large portions of the rides without complaint.
Thanks buddy.

Coneheads and Dude, Let it Go and Transportation Department Letter of Appreciation
Scratch - and Mhutch
For consuming mass quantities. Seriously, this guy can EAT!! and
For putting up with my inordinate fascination with fuel mileage. and
For securing bike transportation.

Zamboni
pacman1 -
For repeatedly volunteering to sweep (get it?). Thanks man.

Service Express, the on-time repair guy
leeroy -
For hauling tools needed for multiple road side repairs.

Understanding Simple Directions
FJRMike -
For being one of the few people that understand "8:00 am pre-ride meeting" does NOT mean "at 8:00 am leave to go get gas".

I Wanna See a Ferry
Larry M.

Deserving of Beatification
Texian -
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Bad Design
BMW -
For not designing the 1150GS as a suitable backwards mounted stage from which to get a head-count.

My Fault, So Sorry Guys
FJRTX and ?? on the 1200GSA
I didnt realize you guys were with us until you'd already left. My sincere apologies for not meeting you.

Thank you everybody for your patience - already looking forward to the next one!!

 

[pacman]

Here's a few pics from the ride. I rode up with shaft drive six (Don), v2 roger (Roger) and st1100 (Mark). We dodged storms all day riding up, hit a few wet roads in Arkansas, but never saw a drop of rain until we pulled into the hotel. Here's what things looked like when we arrived at the hotel Friday afternoon.

Here's the lovely Rex tucked under the covered walkway. There were reports of hail coming, and it eventually did.

Here's Jon, Scott and some others whose names I don't remember chatting about somthing very important, like where we're going to eat that night.

We dined at Sparky's to the sound of hail pounding the tin roof.

Loading up Saturday morning for an abbreviated ride. We waited until 11:00 to head out, giving the storms a chance to pass though. We expected to ride in the rain all day but were pleasantly surprised when the clouds cleared out and left us with gorgeous sunshine from about noon on.

Our first stop was at this 1 lane wooded bridge. Couldn't tell you where it was. I was just happily following along.

Scott taking a few pics near the same bridge.

There's that bad little Zrex again.

Midway through the day, Sarah had a loose chain. Here are the experts trying to wrench that puppy up tight.

Back at the hotel after about 250 fun filled miles.

Nothing like a cool brew to cap off an awesome day of riding.

2nd day of riding was cold and cloudy, but luckily no rain. I think we covered about 250 again this day, with another more manly ground doing another 100 or so.

Here's a lovely country church and cemetary. I bet that would make a great rest stop and photo op. We should stop, right?

Of course we should. That's funny, there's the leader and sweeper, but where's the rest of the gang?

Lunch on the second day was at the Deer Country Cafe. Good food, and the waitress handled the crowd fairly well. Except for Scott, that is. That's what he gets for ordering the hardest thing on the menu.

As we were loading up, this old gentlemen came out with his great-granddaughter wanting to take pictures with us. I didn't catch his name, but I heard him say he was 86 years old and that he rode a recon Harley in WWII during the Normandy invasion. He wished us a safe ride and we shook his hand and thanked him for his service to the country.

Here's a shot of Sarah gearing up after her earlier get-off She was covered with mud and and very cold and wet. Hopefully this clown suit kept her warm enough. I'm sure someone will post all the gory details and pics of the wrecked bike any time now.

A cool looking Baptist church in the historic district of Eureka Springs.

This was true of the hotel parking lot each evening after the rides. Sorry about the street sign at the bottom. I'll try to photoshop it out later.

The Palace Hotel and Bath House in the historic district. Cool looking building.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/wstecker/MiscPics099.jpg


Here's the Rex in my garage after slabbing all the way home. It was not the funnest portion of my trip, as you can imagine.

The Zrex performed great, only suffering a loose chain after the second day of riding. Not sure what the cause of that was, but Mark and I had it fixed up in just a few minutes. Thanks for the tools, Mark!

We had a great time, covered around 1600 miles, and saw some awesome twisties. Only one mishap that didn't do any serious damage to the rider (can't say the same for the beautiful little Hark GT), so I'd say it was a very successful trip.

When do we go again?

 

[Jon The Buddha]

Biggest Smile for the Shortest Ride
JontheBudda and st1100
These guys rode hundreds of miles for a shortened day and had to bug out early, missing Sunday. They still had great attitudes and huge smiles the whole time.

Don't feel sorry for me.... Remember, I got there on Thursday night and did 250 miles with FJRTX and Peter (the BMW guy) on Friday! We hit 123 that day, so I didn't miss out on a thing!


I take it Sarah had an incident...sorry to hear that, as she is a REALLY good rider! I am humbled (and not at all embarrassed) to say she passed me up a few times!

Hope everything is OK, Sarah!!!

 

[FJRMike]

Becca (rocketbunny) and I made the trip up and left Thursday evening and stopped in Texas. We left Friday morning and dodged rain all afternoon.

BUT - fifteen miles from E.S. at 5:15pm Friday we got caught on riding on a ridge and the storm absolutely HAMMERED us with a 30-40 mph crosswind from our left and horizontal rain and lightning everywhere. We managed to stop at the only gas station about two miles down the road just in time for it to blow through. Man, that was exciting.

made the ride back Monday with Roger - we left at 0730 and rode down HW 23 to HW 71 to Texarkana and then he went to Dallas and I went to Houston and was home at 7:25 pm. We rode in cold fog for about 50 miles the first 100 miles of the trip home.

It was a 660 mile trip home on Monday - the FJR performed FLAWLESSLY and while I was getting somewhat tired when I got home it was not like I was beat up or sorry I did the ride.

I ended up with 1710 miles for the weekend and I am ****** glad I went.

I did, however, have a "moment" about 15 miles south of E.S. on Monday morning - below is what I posted on the FJR forum.
Mike

just got back from riding the Eureka Springs area and +100 to THIS ----

"As one of the pseudo-organizers I feel it incumbent to mention that AR roads are tricky and can be technical. There are lots of decreasing radius turns, accurately-marked curve speeds after a series of under-posted curve speeds (good luck guessing which is which), quick elevation drops right when you need max traction, gravel, cow ****, tractors, Maw and Paw and any number of other things right out of sight that makes out-riding your site distance very risky. Even those familiar with a specific road can be surprised by something unexpected right around the curve."


There are LOTS of decreasing radius turns on these roads.

I left E.S. Monday morning and was riding HW 23 south at a 55-60 mph pace and came up a hill and around a right hand corner and when I crested the hill there was an T intersection coming from my right. The driver of the flat bed truck had pulled out and was turning left towards me and I came around the corner and there was an entire road full of truck in front of me!!

I got on the brakes HARD and the back slid out some but let off (non ABS) and managed to haul it down to a stop about five feet from the back axle of the truck. I had time for emergency avoidance around the back but could see I was going to get stopped in time. I now have a crowned spot on my bike saddle from that "pucker" moment.

The other rider said it was exciting to watch from 100 yards back. Yeah......exciting......yeah, that's what it was..

Good thing I was alert and watching for that very thing as I had noticed the T intersection sign.
Mike

 

[FJRMike]

dang, the angle of the picture of me talking to the old gentleman from Deer makes it look like my hair is thinning in back.

Good thing - I thought it was all gone. LOL.

He was 86 and had been in the Normandy invasion and Battle of the Bulge. He was a reconnasance guy - said it was better to be out front before the enemy had time to zero in their artillery on you!!

 

[Redd]

Don't feel sorry for me.... Remember, I got there on Thursday night and did 250 miles with FJRTX and Peter (the BMW guy) on Friday! We hit 123 that day, so I didn't miss out on a thing!


I take it Sarah had an incident...sorry to hear that, as she is a REALLY good rider! I am humbled (and not at all embarrassed) to say she passed me up a few times!

Hope everything is OK, Sarah!!!

Everything is okay...besides the bike, of course.

Thanks for the compliment, but it turns out I thought I was a better rider than I actually am. Too big for my britches, maybe? Either way, I think I know my limit now.
Although Friday started out rough because of the cold, things started looking up after I got hand warmers from the Service express (aka leeroy). I was feeling great and riding well despite the death patches we hit (not sure the official name, but the patched road with gravel tossed on top). I must have lost concentration, or was going too fast, or both, because I distinctly remember saying to myself, "I think I am going to go off here." Sure enough, the next thing I knew I was flying through the air (literally!) and sliding in a ditch through the mud. Thank goodness for the mud, because I could have been a lot worse off without it.

After checking my bike to see if I could pick it up and ride off without anyone seeing I waited on the side of the road for my fellow riders. They looked a bit confused when they saw just me and no bike, but upon recognizing me, they stopped and helped. Everyone was great, and very concerned. Service Express handed me some advil and water, Scratch related his Arkansas incident to me, and The CIS investigators checked out the scene. Hopefully they can give the technical report, and maybe some photos? There were quite a few taken...I was starting to feel like a celebrity!

Mark was able to ride the bike a few miles to a convenience store (it took some convincing that he should NOT ride it all the way back to the hotel).

Thanks to those who let me borrow wind proof jacket and pants. They kept me toasty on the 2up ride back, and I looked pretty cute, too!

Now, about that ducati monster...

 

[Snoopster]

Thanks for sharing your stories & pics with us. Sounds like ya'll had a good time despite the weather.

Sarah: Sorry about your get off. Looks like you're okay though. It's been a long while since I've seen you guys. The last time we had some excitement with a Ninja deer, huh Stuart.

 

[FJRMike]

I was the first one on the scene at Sarah's "agricultural excursion" and I came around the corner and down the hill and looked up and thought "*** - someone hitch hiking out here?"

Then I noticed that person had a helmet on - but no bike in sight. Uh oh - not a good sign.

Glad to hear you are doing OK Sarah.

To me, this just proves that once again, a good rider, on a good bike, on a good road, can have a bad day because of one momentary lapse of concentration.

On the other hand, maybe it was because she was thinking "That Mike guy is REALLY fast and smooth so I gotta pick up the pace to stay ahead of him". LOL

 

[scratch]

Now, about that ducati monster...

I KNEW it! The real reason you dropped your bike has finally been revealed!

I went wide in that same turn as I got distracted by the debris in the opposite lane and the truck plowing through it all. I feared that some of it was going to be kicked up at me and kept my eyes focused on that instead of the turn in the road. Finally looked up and had to crank it over pretty hard to keep from going off at the same spot you hit just a few seconds later. Sometimes, it only takes a momentary distraction to put you on your head...

 

[Thermalser]

Thanks for sharing your stories & pics with us. Sounds like ya'll had a good time despite the weather.

Sarah: Sorry about your get off. Looks like you're okay though. It's been a long while since I've seen you guys. The last time we had some excitement with a Ninja deer, huh Stuart.

Only saw one of those Ninjas on this ride....and he ran away in fear when he saw me coming through.

 

[Redd]

On the other hand, maybe it was because she was thinking "That Mike guy is REALLY fast and smooth so I gotta pick up the pace to stay ahead of him". LOL

You and Scratch have me figured out!

 

[Snoopster]

Arkansas gets another TWT rider. Do you know the status of the bike?

 

[Texian]

Arkansas gets another TWT rider. Do you know the status of the bike?

Eh, from my quick-look-see at the car wash yesterday on the way home (had to get 40lbs of sun-baked mud off somehow)....The major issue/question is going to be if the forks are bent.

It rode unbeliveably well back up 123 after the wreck, but the triple clamps are twisted....rear subframe tweaked...and tank crushed-in/munched....guages ripped-off.

The bike looks impressively crashed. (We'll get some pics soon)
It probably flipped end-over-end or somehow fell hard upside down. With nothing for the bike to hit except wet/soft ground...it looks pretty bad. I couldn't believe it.

 

[Snoopster]

At least the soft mud was a cushion for Sarah.

 

[Redd]

yes, I am VERY lucky

 

[STrider]

Additional Awards:

The Cats Outta the Bag, so Here ya go Redd
Redd
For keeping a good attitude while taking nearly endless ribbing regarding her get-off, new wardrobe, and self-admittedly cheap S.O.

Der Burgermeister
leeroy
Thanks man, you saved the evening!!

Go for the food, but the entertainment is lacking
Bavarian Inn
That guy was a barrel of laughs.

Dude, Let it Go Part II
Texian

Eh, from my quick-look-see at the car wash yesterday on the way home (had to get 40lbs of sun-baked mud off somehow)....The major issue/question is going to be if the forks are bent

.Just get her the Duc.