IBA Pizza party in Jacksonville Fl. Anyone???

[dcarver]

Smitty can you hear me?

 

[dirttracker30]

Good Job Smitty, I'm glad you got to even try with this weird *** weather that this winter is thrown at us . My brother and I unloaded in Memphis for our florida ride. When we went by your turn off for Bonne Terre, It was snowing like crazy last Wed. 35 degrees in Memphis when we left, 35 and rain when we got back. Congrats again!!!!

 

[FJRocket]

He's still sleeping. Either that, or he started doing an oil change when he got into JAX.

 

[wheatonFJR]

He's still sleeping. Either that, or he started doing an oil change when he got into JAX.

Maybe he's doing a CC install in his spare time.

 

[KSFJR]

He should be getting home within the next half hour. Spoke to him an hour or so ago and he had about 115 miles to go.

Chester

 

[smitty141]

Hi everyone... first I would like to thank everyone who called to check on me.. and for all who kept me going. That said, heres my week in review...

I loaded the mighty KTM 990 on Friday Feb. 29 for my 5000+ mile adventure. After a good night sleep I am on the road at 5 am ct. It is Saturday and the wind is blowing like crazy. I fight this all day long all the way to New Mexico and my first sleep stop. I got a room in Santa Rosa NM. the first night after a 900 mile day and the bed felt good. I did run in to one of my fovorite things, a couple at the motel had several... Aussie puppys that I just had to sit and play with, dogs at good!!

Up on Sunday to sunshine and... more strong winds blowing. Eat a light breakfast and head for Skooter G in Scootsdale AZ. but the day would not be normal. When I got to Grant NM. it was cold and snowing it *** off. I ran for about 20 mile in the white stuff, the roads were just wet with the edges just starting to cover when I ran out of it. I do want to thank MahaffyD (Mike) for the use if his Garmin 378 with COLOR RADAR!!! It was great to see what was up ahead. Stayed on I-40 all the way to Flagstaff then made a left to Scootsville.

The great thing about a forum like this is the great people you meet. Old buddys Barry and Richard aka Barbus Fairlainer road to Scooters on Sunday afternoon in... yes the wind and sand storm. After a delay (wind blown over semi) they made it to Scootsdale. We enjoyed a nice meal together, and the bar cut off Richard!!! You know the English can't hold there liquor.

Thanks Greg and Jane for the free nights stay at there very nice home in Scottsdale.

On Monday we have breakfast and head for San Diego... After slabing it for a bit we turn on HWY 94, and all I can say is WOW!! I took us close to the border and the mountains. Great roads, great time... Richard, Barry, and myself had dinner in San Diego that evening and then they left for home.

Tuesday was a planned "off" day to rest and just take it easy before the 2400 mile ride to the east. But it didn't go as planned. Late of monday I had a wire in my Autocom headset break. I got on line and found a dealer a few miles away. I give them a call, and great they have one and off I go. Get down there walk inside it is waiting on the counter for me. In and out in 4 minute tops. Jump on the bike, and some dirtbag has ripped off my XM radio. There was a sales man there but he didn't see anyone take it. (I think he was the dirtbag). Off the Walmart to get some new tunes and back to the motel. Had to call and switch radios with XM, and install the new headset. Later the night we had a group dinner for all the 50cc riders, and the meal was good. Off to bed!!!

It is Weds. morning and the alarm wakes me at 3:45am. Pack up the bike and check out of the room. Ride over to the next parking lot to be checked in/out. With the paperwork signed I head for my first (starting) gas receipt. After that I head for the Pacific ocean.. Some take a sample of sand and water, but I have enough **** I am hauling. I stick my left boot in the water (left coast) mount up and I am on my way at 4:45am pt.

I ride all day and into the night all the way to Kerrville TX. a 1240 mile day.. The 80 mph speed limit was great across west Texas, but 65 at night sucks. But it might be there are more deer on the hwy than I have ever seen. The Solteks really light them up in a scary way. On the way to Kerrville my good friend Chester (KSFJR) was kind enough to call and gett me a room. (A big thanks buddy) ..

Up at 6am with 5 hours of sleep to blast into Jacksonville. I ride thru San Antonio and Houston on my way east. I did sit, in traffic and lost about 35 minutes on I-12 north of New Orleans. It was a long day!!! The last 150 was the longest, I was getting very tired. I stopped several times and got off the bike to wake up.

Well, here I am riding to the final fuel stop at Jacksonville beach. First I go to the beach and the Atlantic ocean an dip my right boot in (right coast). Ride up the street to the final stop.

:yahoo:In less than 45 hours I have played in the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean :yahoo:

Off to the motel for some well needed sleep. At the IBA dinner on Friday night they had us stand an tell what we had done in a room with the most well known LD riders on the planet.. It may be a small ride for them, but a giant ride for me!!

Off for some more sleep before heading home on Saturday morning. The weather was iffy at best, cold rain sleet, snow on my way to Atlanta to see my oldest daughter. Thought about just heading west to Mobile then north to miss the weather, but a chance to eat lunch with your kid was more inportant. Got several phone calls from family and friends saying SNOW!!! is going to get you. As luck would have it slow/sleet was in the air, but not on the roads. It was a long cold ride after the sun went down till I made it home at 9:45pm ct last night. A hot shower and a warm bed, a wife that missed me, and my three dogs would not leave me alone. It was a great adventure, but it is aways nice to get home!!!

My 2007 KTM did great, a road it like I stole it. At times speeds in the 100 mph range. It did not use any oil, and not a problem with anything on the bike. My Rocky Mayer seat kept my a$$ in good shape, and the Metzlers are somewhat square. Would I do it again on this bike.... You bet, I love this thing.

8 days and 5400 miles I make it home!!!

:yahoo: Smitty :yahoo:

Barry and Richard

The Beast 2007 KTM 990 Adventure

Sun coming up in Southern California on I-8

The final fuel stop in Jax Beach Fl.

 

[kaitsdad]

Excellent Job, Smitty !!

Glad to see you're ok !

That KTM is a machine !

I get the impression that having that radar weather made a huge difference -

 

[wheatonFJR]

WoW! and congrats again!

Thanks for the great writeup. :clapping: You need to go to work so you can get some rest...

And kudos to Chester, Skooter and the west coast riders who helped Smitty.

(And to the XM ripoff artist...God's gonna get you boy. :glare: ...Or Karma if you don't believe in that...either way...it's a comin' for ya.) :devil: :devil: :realmad: :realmad:

 

[travel_man]

Great ride even if it was on a KTM!!! :yahoo:

 

[KSFJR]

Congratulations on a sucessful trip. Don't forget to tell them about the portable car wash guys.

Encore, Encore

Welcome home, now get us some treats.

Rocky, Petey, and Norman (aka the mutts in the trunk)

 

[Wolfhound]

It was nice meeting you, passing each other, & making several of the same gas stops ! What are the odds of that ? Really enjoyed the riding out to San Diego & making it from Pacific to Atlantic oceans in under 44 hours & feeling better than when I started (except for being tired ) since it apparently cures the flu also !

 

[kaitsdad]

It was nice meeting you, passing each other, & making several of the same gas stops ! What are the odds of that ? Really enjoyed the riding out to San Diego & making it from Pacific to Atlantic oceans in under 44 hours & feeling better than when I started (except for being tired ) since it apparently cures the flu also !

Robert, are you home? No way !!

Where are you right now?

 

[Wolfhound]

I'm in Orlando for a few days visiting then heading towards Home in the next few days maybe. A little bit of physical prepaparation (not enough) sure helped & so did doing over 1300 miles to my first/only hotel stop(Seguin TX).

 

[kaitsdad]

I'm in Orlando for a few days visiting then heading towards Home in the next few days maybe. A little bit of physical prepaparation (not enough) sure helped & so did doing over 1300 miles to my first/only hotel stop.

Gonna post your ride? I'd like to learn from it.

 

[airboss]

Now we know what the Great Pumpkin does when he's not working for Peanuts.

Great ride Smitty, Congrats!

 

[Warchild]

Good stuff here, sounds like y'all had a killer time!

And congrats to Smitty for the awesome ride! B)

 

[doug5551]

Smitty, it was great meeting you and having dinner with you in San Diego, then eating dinner with you again two days later across the North American Continent.

FJR Robert, it was really nice to put a face to the name. I am so glad you got better from your illness. I was very worried about you, and glad you made it. Seeing you and your FJR 1,700 miles into the ride pass me by in East Texas was one of the highlights of the trip. As you said, it was amazing running into fellow riders in surprising places out on the road.

Many thanks to the FJR forum for sharing all their information and knowledge about Long Distance riding. I ride a VFR, and cannot get a FJR until I wear it out, but I am grateful to be a member of this site until then. Quite simply, I could not have completed this ride without all of the stuff I have learned reading this Forum.

Here is a cross-post of my ride report. I am only including it so my friends on the list can see it and hopefully it can help someone else crazy enough to plan/dream of doing this ride:

Every year the Iron Butt Association has an event called a "Pizza Party" in Jacksonville, Florida to coinside with Bike Week in Daytona Beach. It has evolved into a formal banquet, with Aerostich apparel permitted, that 300 people attend after riding there from all over North America. It is essentially a Long Distance Ride-to-Eat.

Now the Motocycle Tourer's Forum got involved and organized what is called a 50CC ride, where you have 50 hours to ride from Coast to Coast, from Ocean Beach in San Diego to Jacksonville, Florida. There is also a version called 100 CCC, where you start in Jacksonville, ride to San Diego, and then ride back to Jacksonville within 100 hours. 17 people signed up for the 100 CCC and 10 people signed up for the 50 CC, including me on my 2000 Honda VFR.

Tuesday evening of March 4th, there was a dinner for all of the 50CC riders at Hunters Steakhouse, a nice dining establishment in the Hotel Circle area of San Diego. It was great meeting the other riders for the first time, but kinda hard to enjoy the dinner with all of the nerves relating to the impending ride, which would be quite a challange. Right now, I live 35 minutes North of the starting location in Ocean Beach, which is one of the reasons I am doing this ride.

Wednesday, March 5th, I was up at 3:15 am, out the door at 4:00 am, arrived at the mandatory odometer inspection and witnessing at 4:35 am, then to Ocean Beach for a required gas receipt, which would be my official starting time from which I would then have 50 hours to get to Jacksonville. My receipt was for 4:55 am, and then I was off for the other side of the North American Continent.

Once on the way, my nerves settled down, and I was doing what I love to do, which is ride my VFR. I ended up completing the ride in 45 hours, which was at 2 am West Coast time, 5:00 am East Coast time of the second day. The first day I rode a bit more than 1,000 miles, where I stopped in Sonora,Texas, got a hotel room and slept about 6 hours. The second day was about 1,350 miles in about 22 hours. Friday I began to recover from the ride, attended the banquet, then Saturday went on a day trip to Daytona Beach and Saint Augustine, a trip of about 200 miles. Sunday I left to come back. I made it 925 miles to just West of Houston, Texas, then Monday to Deming, New Mexico. Yesterday I left Deming at sunrise, then rode back to San Diego, stopping in Carlsbad to visit fellow member Khyron at his workplace before going home.

Total for the whole week was 5,000 miles in 7 days. I took one day off, so for the days I was actually riding, I averaged more than 800 miles a day. Essentially all I did was change my oil (Mobil 1 15-50) and my bike performed flawlessly.

Highlights: After I left San Diego, about 700 miles into the ride, I stopped for gas in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I ran into two other 50CC riders who said that they were taking a 20 minute break for dinner, and if I was interested, I could ride with them. I could not believe how lucky I was to run into them, and quickly accepted their kind offer. We ended up riding the remaining 1,700 miles together. Riding with them made the ride 20 times more enjoyable than if I had to do it alone, and they made it an event I will always treasure. Many props to Chad and Richard.

Gerbings jacket liner and Classic gloves-worth every penny-this ride would not have been possible without them; Corbin seat, fits me perfectly-I could ride 1,000 miles today if I wanted to; the road from Sonora, Texas to Kerrville, Texas on the second day-my favorite part of the ride-about 40 degrees, at sunrise, with no other vehicles on the road and 80 MPH Texas daytime speed limits.

Lowlights: riding through West Texas deer country at night- I personally did not see any, but I was focused on the road. My partners and other riders saw herds of deer off the road, and we did see several fresh road killed deer. I could justify riding this stretch for about 6 hours once, but I am not going to be making a habit of riding through this part of Texas at night; coming back home I had 150 miles of Texas thunderstorms-when you wake up and the Weather Channel has a warning for the area you are heading to, you know you are in for a wet day, I just took it slow and easy and rode it out.

Thanks for reading this. I took no pictures (was too busy riding), but when/if my partners email me pics, I will add them.

 

[airboss]

Good Luck on wearing that VFR out Doug, as far as I know you can bend em, and break em, you can fold em, and mutalate em, but you can't wear them out. BTW they do make a great stable mate for an FJR.

 

[doug5551]

Good Luck on wearing that VFR out Doug, as far as I know you can bend em, and break em, you can fold em, and mutalate em, but you can't wear them out. BTW they do make a great stable mate for an FJR.

Thanks for wishes. Last week I had 51,000 miles on my odomoter. NOW, a week later I am up to 56,000. We will see how far I can go.

All I know is that if I keep hanging around this Forum and keep up this kind of behaviour, it may be sooner rather than later. I am riding about 30K per year now.

Better get my Yamaha Credit app in!!!

 

[turbodave_98]

Doug, congrats on the 50CC. Is a great feat. Keep on ridin safely!!