Mississippi
Well-known member
Last Saturday,March 24th, myself and five friends pulled out of Brandon, MS on our first SS1000 ride. Besides the FJR, we had an ST1300, a pair of Kawasaki Vulcans and a pair of HD's - I know, strange collection of bikes to be riding together, but we have all been friends for a long time, and I am just happy to have friends that ride. We left around 3:00am headed for Birmingham, Al and on to Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis and back to Brandon. I was in the lead with the FJR, everyone was pumped, everything was great, until I saw the first deer about 20 miles down the road. Uh-oh. I saw at least two dozen in the next 50 miles and I was completely convinced that I was going to hit one. Weird thoughts can go through your head when you are alone inside that helmet, and I managed to convince myself that I was actually having a premonition.
Thats when a bird decided to do a kamakazi on my windshield. It was still dark and I didn't see it coming. At the first gas stop later on, the guys behind me said they flew through a cloud of feathers. Anyway, I quickly realized that my premonition of disaster was not for a deer, it was for a bird. So with my bad animal Karma quota fulfilled, I quit worrying about deer and motored on. (Mistake)
We breezed through Birmingham and were in Northern Alabama when the sun came up. Absolutely beautiful country with the Redbuds starting to bloom. It was a good morning to be alive and riding. Rode on through Chattanooga and headed towards Knoxville. One of my Kawasaki friends is big on the Vulcan forum, and one of his buddies rode out from Knoxville and hooked up with us about half way from Chattanooga - so then there were seven.
I was still in front of the thundering herd behind me, when we went across an overpass, and around the end of the guard rail came a German Shepard running full speed across the Interstate. I picked him up about 15 feet away, and I remember thinking "this is going to be bad". I slammed into him going about 80 mph - never touched the brakes - never rolled out of the throttle. The back end jumped up, came down slightly off-center, and recovered itself without much help from me.
It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I wasn't going down, and I started to smile until I looked down and saw that every warning light was on - Engine malfunction, Oil Level and ABS warning. The motor was still running and I was still going 75 mph. Bad news.
I pulled over on the shoulder and got the sidestand down before the adrenaline-induced shakes hit me. Luckily, everyone behind me managed to avoid the spinning dog carcass, which was reported to be in two halves connected by "something" - no one was really sure what that something was. My friends pulled up, helped me get off the bike and get it up on the center stand. I walked around to the front of the bike expecting to see brake lines ripped off and fluid leaking out - but nothing. The new rider that had joined us (who I later found out was a TN State Trooper) helped me inspect the front end.
Brakes looked OK, nothing hanging off, no fluid dripping. Front wheel - no cracks, no deformation. Tire looked OK. Front forks - slid up and down OK, no front and back play. Nothing leaking out of engine. Front fender and rest of fairing - OK except for about a thousand bugs. The only damage we could find was the right front fork reflector. Aparrently, part of the dog had wrapped around the front wheel and pushed the reflector back against the fork housing. One finger fix.
I started the bike up and all the warning lights had reset - Well allright!, let's hit the road! We got back up to speed and I was really expecting hidden damage to show up, but at 80, I could lift my hands off the bars and it still tracked true - no shimmy or weird vibrations. Thank You Yamaha!! There may be some things that we all bitch about - things that Yamaha could have done a better job of. But they gave us one strong-assed bike. It just shrugged off an 90lb dog.
OK, so life is good again. My only problem now is that I am behind a HD and a Vulcan with extra-loud pipes. After about 10 miles of being reminded of the movie "Days of Thunder", I decide that I am not listening to this for another 650 miles and retook the lead.
Made it to Knoxville, got a gas receipt to anchor that leg of the trip, bid farewell to our trooper friend, and headed West for Nashville. The country between Knox and Nashville was great, the weather was perfect, life was good. We breezed through Nasville and stopped for gas outside of Jackson, TN. Back on the road headed for Memphis. It was about this time that I started thinking that $500-$600 for a custom saddle was a pretty good deal. My buddy riding the Sportster came racing up next to me holding up a piece of chrome - his battery cover had come off and he managed to catch it with one hand. The times you wish you had a camera!
Traffic came to a standstill just outside of Memphis - never did figure out why, but we got to the I-240 bypass and traffic was light all the way to I-55. Headed South back into Mississippi and stopped in Grenada for our final fill-up, right as the odometer clicked over 1000 miles. It was getting dark by then and I was starting to think about deer again. I didn't see any, but I was thinking that someone else could lead the rest of the way back to Brandon. One of the Kawasaki guys volunteered - he had a light on that thing that looked like one of those Midnight Sun searchlights that the military puts on helicopters. That last 100 miles was the toughest of the whole trip, me and the Honda brought up the rear the rest of the way home, which luckily was uneventfull.
Stopped for the final fillup (and receipt) at the same station I had started at 19 1/2 hours ealier. Pulled into my neighborhood, and as I was coming down my street, I saw that my garage door was up and the lights were on.
I pulled into the garage and my wife was standing there with an ice-cold Bud. My daughter took my gloves and helmet and I drank that beer before I got off the bike. My GPS proclaimed 1105.6 miles, and my butt agreed!
The next morning, I got a cup of coffee and sat in front of the bike thinking about that dog. That's when I realized that the front triangular part of the fairing right behind the front wheel had been pushed back about 1" at the very bottom. It had popped off of the screw, which was still there. There was a hair-covered piece of "meat" stuck there. Removed it and pulled the fairing back to where it was supposed to be. Tightened the screw - good as new.
A couple of days later, we all got together for a beer, and started planning our next trip. This stuff can become addicting.
Pictures:
Edited: Fixed paragraphs - Sorry
Thats when a bird decided to do a kamakazi on my windshield. It was still dark and I didn't see it coming. At the first gas stop later on, the guys behind me said they flew through a cloud of feathers. Anyway, I quickly realized that my premonition of disaster was not for a deer, it was for a bird. So with my bad animal Karma quota fulfilled, I quit worrying about deer and motored on. (Mistake)
We breezed through Birmingham and were in Northern Alabama when the sun came up. Absolutely beautiful country with the Redbuds starting to bloom. It was a good morning to be alive and riding. Rode on through Chattanooga and headed towards Knoxville. One of my Kawasaki friends is big on the Vulcan forum, and one of his buddies rode out from Knoxville and hooked up with us about half way from Chattanooga - so then there were seven.
I was still in front of the thundering herd behind me, when we went across an overpass, and around the end of the guard rail came a German Shepard running full speed across the Interstate. I picked him up about 15 feet away, and I remember thinking "this is going to be bad". I slammed into him going about 80 mph - never touched the brakes - never rolled out of the throttle. The back end jumped up, came down slightly off-center, and recovered itself without much help from me.
It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I wasn't going down, and I started to smile until I looked down and saw that every warning light was on - Engine malfunction, Oil Level and ABS warning. The motor was still running and I was still going 75 mph. Bad news.
I pulled over on the shoulder and got the sidestand down before the adrenaline-induced shakes hit me. Luckily, everyone behind me managed to avoid the spinning dog carcass, which was reported to be in two halves connected by "something" - no one was really sure what that something was. My friends pulled up, helped me get off the bike and get it up on the center stand. I walked around to the front of the bike expecting to see brake lines ripped off and fluid leaking out - but nothing. The new rider that had joined us (who I later found out was a TN State Trooper) helped me inspect the front end.
Brakes looked OK, nothing hanging off, no fluid dripping. Front wheel - no cracks, no deformation. Tire looked OK. Front forks - slid up and down OK, no front and back play. Nothing leaking out of engine. Front fender and rest of fairing - OK except for about a thousand bugs. The only damage we could find was the right front fork reflector. Aparrently, part of the dog had wrapped around the front wheel and pushed the reflector back against the fork housing. One finger fix.
I started the bike up and all the warning lights had reset - Well allright!, let's hit the road! We got back up to speed and I was really expecting hidden damage to show up, but at 80, I could lift my hands off the bars and it still tracked true - no shimmy or weird vibrations. Thank You Yamaha!! There may be some things that we all bitch about - things that Yamaha could have done a better job of. But they gave us one strong-assed bike. It just shrugged off an 90lb dog.
OK, so life is good again. My only problem now is that I am behind a HD and a Vulcan with extra-loud pipes. After about 10 miles of being reminded of the movie "Days of Thunder", I decide that I am not listening to this for another 650 miles and retook the lead.
Made it to Knoxville, got a gas receipt to anchor that leg of the trip, bid farewell to our trooper friend, and headed West for Nashville. The country between Knox and Nashville was great, the weather was perfect, life was good. We breezed through Nasville and stopped for gas outside of Jackson, TN. Back on the road headed for Memphis. It was about this time that I started thinking that $500-$600 for a custom saddle was a pretty good deal. My buddy riding the Sportster came racing up next to me holding up a piece of chrome - his battery cover had come off and he managed to catch it with one hand. The times you wish you had a camera!
Traffic came to a standstill just outside of Memphis - never did figure out why, but we got to the I-240 bypass and traffic was light all the way to I-55. Headed South back into Mississippi and stopped in Grenada for our final fill-up, right as the odometer clicked over 1000 miles. It was getting dark by then and I was starting to think about deer again. I didn't see any, but I was thinking that someone else could lead the rest of the way back to Brandon. One of the Kawasaki guys volunteered - he had a light on that thing that looked like one of those Midnight Sun searchlights that the military puts on helicopters. That last 100 miles was the toughest of the whole trip, me and the Honda brought up the rear the rest of the way home, which luckily was uneventfull.
Stopped for the final fillup (and receipt) at the same station I had started at 19 1/2 hours ealier. Pulled into my neighborhood, and as I was coming down my street, I saw that my garage door was up and the lights were on.
I pulled into the garage and my wife was standing there with an ice-cold Bud. My daughter took my gloves and helmet and I drank that beer before I got off the bike. My GPS proclaimed 1105.6 miles, and my butt agreed!
The next morning, I got a cup of coffee and sat in front of the bike thinking about that dog. That's when I realized that the front triangular part of the fairing right behind the front wheel had been pushed back about 1" at the very bottom. It had popped off of the screw, which was still there. There was a hair-covered piece of "meat" stuck there. Removed it and pulled the fairing back to where it was supposed to be. Tightened the screw - good as new.
A couple of days later, we all got together for a beer, and started planning our next trip. This stuff can become addicting.
Pictures:
Edited: Fixed paragraphs - Sorry
Last edited by a moderator:
