Monday, April 25, 2011

Slush Ride

This past weekend was the Yankee Beemer ride to close down Gould's Sugarhouse in Shelburne MA. There are two rides to Gould's every year. They are only open during the winter months so there is a ride in the fall for the opening weekend and a ride in the spring for the closing. It is an odd business model, but I guess it works for them. It is usually one of the better rides of the year since that part of MA has some of the best backroads in the state. This past Saturday was some of the worst weather I've been in on a bike. About a dozen bikes met in Orange MA. It was raining with slush and snow on the ground which made for a surreal start. Going further west we hit more snow so it was a basic ride along the main highway 2. We had breakfast and took off east to head back to Boston. Three of us broke off and went for a little extended ride to Moto Market in Acton MA (picture). All in all it was 220 miles of rain and slush all day. It was a great training/test ride because I had all the gear on the bike and put it through the water test. Everything held up except for the shelf on the bike. One of the screws popped out and now the shelf is flopping around. It is an easy fix. I'm glad it happened now.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Nerves

Starting to feel the pressure of getting my act together for the IBR. It is now only two months away and I feel under prepared. I am always reading posts on the IBR forum and on the LD mailing list about rider preparations and people are doing much more than I am doing. It is kind of a mind game at this point, but I still feel under prepared. Many of the participants are retired and have a lot of time on their hands. I've done a little riding over the past few weeks, but not nearly enough. I blew out another tire somewhere in CT a few weeks ago right before a trip I was making to D.C. for work. I got a new tire before the trip. Made it down to D.C. without any problems. I stopped at a few national parks along the way and kind of pretended I was in a rally. I stopped, got my passport stamped, and then quickly left and on to the next. I got back in under seven hours and only one gas stop. The bike performed without any issues. I have the Minuteman Rally coming up next month. That will be the real test of the bike and gear in a real time rally mode. I don't think I am going to have time to do a three-day three thousand mile ride like I had hoped before the big dance. Ugh. I guess I just have to deal with it.