Abercrombie FJR
Well-known member
Lucky dog!Yesterday we did our traditional ride to Oatman for the start of the Laughlin River Run!
The ONE Picture Ride Report
- Thread starter hppants
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hppants
Well-known member
June 2018
Invincibility
I’m 52 years old. I’ve spent my whole life living a farce. My dad always told me that if you take care of your shit, your shit will take care of you. Of course, he is correct in principle. I think generally if you buy good stuff and take care of it, it will last and give you good service. There is usually only a little difference between the good stuff and the crap and if you buy wisely, the added investment will usually pay dividends.
But how does that size up with the intangible things? Can you apply this theory to things that just don’t fall within any shopping cart? Things like happiness and health – do these things hold the test of diminishing returns?
I’m not so sure right now.
My people die young. They die of heart attacks and strokes and cancer. I cannot ignore this – to do so could be devastating. I might as well be honest – I’m afraid of dying and I’m not ready to go yet. I’m enjoying this life way too much and I really don’t know if I buy everything being sold for the next life. And while I work through that personal struggle, I better get busy enjoying the very best of whatever this life has to offer. After all, I just don’t know and I don’t have the intelligence or the resources to figure it out.
So I do the only thing I can do. Hedge my bets and hope for the best. I eat the right foods. I exercise – move my heart and move my muscles. I see the doctor once a year. I take the tests and I do what he tells me to do. I take the fucking blood pressure medicine because it beats the alternative.
But all of that doesn’t ensure jack shit. Life still does what it does.
About six weeks prior, I pulled a back muscle in the weight room. I’ve been lifting weights in the gym for 35 years, and I’ve felt muscle strain before. But this one is different. It’s not healing with the usual treatment. Time goes on and I’m starting to get concerned. I try a chiropractor for the first time in my life and it was a great experience. I went to a massage therapist and that woman beat the living crap out of me. But it was also good relief and excellent advice.
However after a day or so, the pain returns and I’m starting to get worried. I’m leaving on an 8000 mile bike trip soon, and I need to be strong. When you are riding a 650 pound motorcycle across the country, you had better be physically ready for it.
“Time to go” day gets here and I’m better, although not healed. But there’s no more time to screw around with it. You’ve planned and plotted and arranged and communicated, and it’s time to go. So I go and hope for the best.
Day 1 ends in disappointment. The 500 miles of 100 degree heat in the East Texas flat and straight roads were not that bad. After all, I’ve been there and done that – I knew what was coming and to some degree, riding is riding, regardless of the circumstances. I keep telling myself that in spite of the fact that my back is killing me. I get to the hotel and the spasms are really bad. I fill a bag with ice and lie down on it for an hour until it goes numb. Then I rinse that down with about 4 more ounces of rye whiskey.
I wake up on day 2 feeling a little better. I take a double dose of the anti-inflammatory and mount up. Oklahoma doesn’t look much different than north Texas. The whole land smells like cow shit. I’m steaming northwest toward Kansas and by mid-morning, the Advil has worn off and the 30 mph crosswind is killing me. Every time the wind blows, my natural countersteer from my right side handlebar is pulling my back miserably. And the wind will not relent.
I pull into Selling, OK about 11:15 am. It’s a little early for lunch but I’m spent. My back is torqued and I’m dejected. I walk into the diner and sit down with a big glass of ice water and start to think. I’m not having fun, not at all. Motorcycling is dangerous enough when you are having fun. When you are miserable, it just seems stupid. The thought of going another 7000 miles is terrifying. What if I get 2000 miles farther from home and cannot continue? I’m not riding well. My concentration is off and I’m making some mistakes. In the open plains of Cow Shit City, I’m getting away with it. But when I get to the Rockies, there will be no room for error.
I know that I have to quit. It defies everything I’m made of. It leaves a lump in my throat that I find hard to swallow. I’m going to let down my friends and myself. But I gotta do the right thing. I call Josh and break the news. I feel terrible. I’ve egged him on and built false hope for weeks now, only to pull this chicken shit at the absolute last minute. That’s not what real friends do.
I ordered a chicken sandwich, and after lunch, I turned back south. Checking the map, I see that Oklahoma actually has a couple of “mountains”. It’s not out of my way, so I ride toward them. At 2800 feet, the Wichita Mountains aren’t going to win any popularity contest. But I could see them for about 40 miles and they did keep the pain in my back out of my mind for a short while.
I realize that no matter what I’ve done or what I continue to do, I’m just not invincible and I never was. I’ve got to pay closer attention to my health. You can detail and wax up an old truck all you want – polishing it up to make it look spit shiny new. But in the end, it’s still an old truck and like everything else, its days are limited. If you are going to keep it running, you better take care of it. You better give it what it needs. You better pay close attention to it and when it tells you something, you better listen.
And in the meantime, you better dam well enjoy TODAY for all its worth. You better take close assessment of what is really important, and move toward that with passion. Because this much is true – no matter what you do or how much you try, there is no guarantee for next year or even tomorrow. And if tomorrow comes, it might not look like today. I need to take strong resolve in that.
Stay thirsty, my friends….
Invincibility
I’m 52 years old. I’ve spent my whole life living a farce. My dad always told me that if you take care of your shit, your shit will take care of you. Of course, he is correct in principle. I think generally if you buy good stuff and take care of it, it will last and give you good service. There is usually only a little difference between the good stuff and the crap and if you buy wisely, the added investment will usually pay dividends.
But how does that size up with the intangible things? Can you apply this theory to things that just don’t fall within any shopping cart? Things like happiness and health – do these things hold the test of diminishing returns?
I’m not so sure right now.
My people die young. They die of heart attacks and strokes and cancer. I cannot ignore this – to do so could be devastating. I might as well be honest – I’m afraid of dying and I’m not ready to go yet. I’m enjoying this life way too much and I really don’t know if I buy everything being sold for the next life. And while I work through that personal struggle, I better get busy enjoying the very best of whatever this life has to offer. After all, I just don’t know and I don’t have the intelligence or the resources to figure it out.
So I do the only thing I can do. Hedge my bets and hope for the best. I eat the right foods. I exercise – move my heart and move my muscles. I see the doctor once a year. I take the tests and I do what he tells me to do. I take the fucking blood pressure medicine because it beats the alternative.
But all of that doesn’t ensure jack shit. Life still does what it does.
About six weeks prior, I pulled a back muscle in the weight room. I’ve been lifting weights in the gym for 35 years, and I’ve felt muscle strain before. But this one is different. It’s not healing with the usual treatment. Time goes on and I’m starting to get concerned. I try a chiropractor for the first time in my life and it was a great experience. I went to a massage therapist and that woman beat the living crap out of me. But it was also good relief and excellent advice.
However after a day or so, the pain returns and I’m starting to get worried. I’m leaving on an 8000 mile bike trip soon, and I need to be strong. When you are riding a 650 pound motorcycle across the country, you had better be physically ready for it.
“Time to go” day gets here and I’m better, although not healed. But there’s no more time to screw around with it. You’ve planned and plotted and arranged and communicated, and it’s time to go. So I go and hope for the best.
Day 1 ends in disappointment. The 500 miles of 100 degree heat in the East Texas flat and straight roads were not that bad. After all, I’ve been there and done that – I knew what was coming and to some degree, riding is riding, regardless of the circumstances. I keep telling myself that in spite of the fact that my back is killing me. I get to the hotel and the spasms are really bad. I fill a bag with ice and lie down on it for an hour until it goes numb. Then I rinse that down with about 4 more ounces of rye whiskey.
I wake up on day 2 feeling a little better. I take a double dose of the anti-inflammatory and mount up. Oklahoma doesn’t look much different than north Texas. The whole land smells like cow shit. I’m steaming northwest toward Kansas and by mid-morning, the Advil has worn off and the 30 mph crosswind is killing me. Every time the wind blows, my natural countersteer from my right side handlebar is pulling my back miserably. And the wind will not relent.
I pull into Selling, OK about 11:15 am. It’s a little early for lunch but I’m spent. My back is torqued and I’m dejected. I walk into the diner and sit down with a big glass of ice water and start to think. I’m not having fun, not at all. Motorcycling is dangerous enough when you are having fun. When you are miserable, it just seems stupid. The thought of going another 7000 miles is terrifying. What if I get 2000 miles farther from home and cannot continue? I’m not riding well. My concentration is off and I’m making some mistakes. In the open plains of Cow Shit City, I’m getting away with it. But when I get to the Rockies, there will be no room for error.
I know that I have to quit. It defies everything I’m made of. It leaves a lump in my throat that I find hard to swallow. I’m going to let down my friends and myself. But I gotta do the right thing. I call Josh and break the news. I feel terrible. I’ve egged him on and built false hope for weeks now, only to pull this chicken shit at the absolute last minute. That’s not what real friends do.
I ordered a chicken sandwich, and after lunch, I turned back south. Checking the map, I see that Oklahoma actually has a couple of “mountains”. It’s not out of my way, so I ride toward them. At 2800 feet, the Wichita Mountains aren’t going to win any popularity contest. But I could see them for about 40 miles and they did keep the pain in my back out of my mind for a short while.
I realize that no matter what I’ve done or what I continue to do, I’m just not invincible and I never was. I’ve got to pay closer attention to my health. You can detail and wax up an old truck all you want – polishing it up to make it look spit shiny new. But in the end, it’s still an old truck and like everything else, its days are limited. If you are going to keep it running, you better take care of it. You better give it what it needs. You better pay close attention to it and when it tells you something, you better listen.
And in the meantime, you better dam well enjoy TODAY for all its worth. You better take close assessment of what is really important, and move toward that with passion. Because this much is true – no matter what you do or how much you try, there is no guarantee for next year or even tomorrow. And if tomorrow comes, it might not look like today. I need to take strong resolve in that.
Stay thirsty, my friends….
Niehart
Pie Smuggler
I hear ya pants. Life just doesn't always work out the way you plan it.
I set my vacation time for the Canadian road show three months ago. Like you, I was so excited to spend some quality time on the bike with some friends that I love to ride with and trust.
Then life got in the way. The company that I work for was moving to a new location but the move was way before my vacation time so it was not a problem. Of course you already know the rest of this story, permits and building problems pushed it back into the middle of my time slot so everybody had to be on board for the move. Goodbye trip, good bye chance to harass my northern friends, goodbye to a chance to trying to keep up with Panman’s tail lights, goodbye to have a drink with G--- and his bride and hello to a 50 hour work week on my part time job.
So this is a one picture non-ride report. Thanks to all of you low life’s for sending me this picture, it just made my day. Good friends hard to come by but, as they same in Montana, I have a shit load of them.
I set my vacation time for the Canadian road show three months ago. Like you, I was so excited to spend some quality time on the bike with some friends that I love to ride with and trust.
Then life got in the way. The company that I work for was moving to a new location but the move was way before my vacation time so it was not a problem. Of course you already know the rest of this story, permits and building problems pushed it back into the middle of my time slot so everybody had to be on board for the move. Goodbye trip, good bye chance to harass my northern friends, goodbye to a chance to trying to keep up with Panman’s tail lights, goodbye to have a drink with G--- and his bride and hello to a 50 hour work week on my part time job.
So this is a one picture non-ride report. Thanks to all of you low life’s for sending me this picture, it just made my day. Good friends hard to come by but, as they same in Montana, I have a shit load of them.
MEM
Well-known member
My riding buddy, Mark (sr chief instructor for our provincial motorcycle safety course), and I were supposed to go for a ride this week - to scope out a 250-mile route that might make a good Cannonball Ride next year. Our ride is postponed. Mark sent this message out Tuesday morning:
<excerpt>
"I am sending out a short note to inform everyone, new instructors and old, of the passing of Scott Robertson. Scott was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash early this morning not far from his home.
For those of you who did not have the pleasure to meet Scott know that he worked tirelessly for the Gearing Up program for over 20 years as an Instructor and 15 years as the Site Chief for Saint John.
Scott was always quick to acknowledge the efforts of his team of instructors and would always downplay his own. I have come to rely on Scott over the years to hold the Saint John Site together and never had a doubt as to his abilities to maintain his fleet, Site and the standards of the program."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/motorcycle-crash-saint-john-police-1.4739258
Play safe, my friends
mary ellen
A little over a month ago I lost the vision in my right eye due to a torn/detached retina. It was treated within a few days but proper vision has been slow coming back. I decided today it was good enough for a ride, so I visited some favorite roads in south central PA on the old Suzook. PA 915 just north of the Turnpike overpass:
Didn't realize how much I'd missed it till I was back on two wheels today.
Didn't realize how much I'd missed it till I was back on two wheels today.
Niehart
Pie Smuggler
It always surprises me how many awesome sights and roads we have in our own backyards. Mount Eire is only 54 miles from my front door. On this day the view was a little hazy and the eagles were not playing in the updrafts but it was still awesome. Curly Joe, his SO and I had a great smell the roses day.
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
^^^^^ +1! Lookin' good, brother!
The setting is the Tyrolean Alps and Passo dello Stelvio. The one with 48 hairpin turns when coming from Austria. The ride up is somewhere between the ride from hell - I spend 7 minutes behind a camper van whose driver couldn't / wouldn't handle the turns, the overheat warning has been on longer than I want to know about, and there's no sane place to pass - and punishment for sins past and future. It's my second time on this road. I am going to get things right this time. I even say something idiotic like "let's do this thing." At least this time I know something about how the road works. Halfway up it's now "not another of these turns", knowing there are 23 more before I can park it - punishment for sins past and future. And then the road stops twisting like a snake on meth and does only normal curves and bends. Time for a moment to decompress before life gets busy again. And then some maniac blows by, lane splitting on Stelvio fercryinoutloud! And drivers scatter in hopes of not being hit, each one almost kissing the closest hunk of stone.
(frame grab from my video of going up the "Austrian" road to the pass)
The location is somewhere between Bethel and Pine Grove, on PA 501. It's a nice, undemanding road that goes over a ridge that gives a good look at this valley. Stay on 501 to Pine Grove, turn north on PA125 and that's the PA Dragon or Tail of the Tiger or something equally testosterone. Anyway, I like the location, and I think it's time to take some good pictures of the bike. I try to get a good angle but, no matter what I do, there's a phone pole sticking up in back.
A while later I start fiddling with a graphics program called GIMP. It's basically a run at Adobe Photoshop, except this one's free. I still don't understand some of the basics. The manual is hateful. Moving along... the phone pole is gone, the corn has replaced what was there, the trees on the ridge have grown back, and the clouds are no longer blocked by the pole. I'm happy with the results.
The bike? '03 BMW K1200RS, lightly farkeled. Replaced with '17 ES. [Whinging deleted]
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Finally got Mrs Quebexican out for a ride. Been trying all summer. Took a nice evening ride up to the Champlain Lookout in the Gatineau hills just behind our house to take in the sunset as many do.
Cant seem to ever get the pics to show up directly, but here are the links.
Here she is in all her glory, and Mrs Quebexican does not look to shabby either:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e6jlNVH-WjAjZNDyTF7b8YtEFMfKFofn
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YLyuB7p--KG0-iI5fhRi1nZ3_9Dql-0y
Note in the second pic the couple in the background we followed up on they Honda advendure bike. Quite a popular evening ride...
Cant seem to ever get the pics to show up directly, but here are the links.
Here she is in all her glory, and Mrs Quebexican does not look to shabby either:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e6jlNVH-WjAjZNDyTF7b8YtEFMfKFofn
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YLyuB7p--KG0-iI5fhRi1nZ3_9Dql-0y
Note in the second pic the couple in the background we followed up on they Honda advendure bike. Quite a popular evening ride...
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
Thanks, i have yet to sign up for one of those hosting sites... too lazy, but will endeavor to do so..
Ha.. Finally got it to work...
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
Congratulations! If you posted that from Google Drive, please add how you did it! The thread linked above is where we're keeping the "how to post a picture" instructions.
.................................................................................................
(Posted while you were figuring it out ...)
No biggie. You can continue to post links, and most folks will click on them.
The "angel" asshole in me would like to politely note that this thread is "The ONE Picture Ride Report." You've posted two, although the "devil" asshole in me would reply that you actually posted zero pictures.
.................................................................................................
(Posted while you were figuring it out ...)
No biggie. You can continue to post links, and most folks will click on them.
The "angel" asshole in me would like to politely note that this thread is "The ONE Picture Ride Report." You've posted two, although the "devil" asshole in me would reply that you actually posted zero pictures.
Last edited by a moderator:
Can be definitely be taken either way. I did not post them from google drive but signed up for imgur and uploaded them there.
Just to keep on topic, since it is after all a One picture ride report, here is the one other picture...
Just to keep on topic, since it is after all a One picture ride report, here is the one other picture...
BigOgre
Well-known member
Umm . . you put your side bags on upside-down.
Friday!
Nice pics btw.
Friday!
Nice pic
wetwolf
Well-known member
Wow, just a short ride this weekend, 35 miles to Fairfield, WA. Vintage Motocross racing. I started working in the powersports industry in 1981, move to Spokane in 89 and continued in the industry for 20 years here.I finally made it out to these races for the 1st time. Totally amazing. Some of these bikes are older than me. Greeves, BSAs,Triumphs, Bultacos, CZs, Maicos, Early Honda Elsinores and YZs. A stroll thru the pits was enough to bring a tear to your eyes, all the memories. I met folks that i hadn't seen in twenty years or more.
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
^^^^^ +1
wetwolf
Well-known member
Well, finally got everything I needed together and the time was right to break in the trailer and go camping. A short 70 mile trip to Lake Roosevelt, and a tent spot at 2 Rivers Resort. The trailer pulls well at 90 mph and tracks just great. It came with a hitch that swivels side to side, so cornering feels pretty normal. I just have to remeber that it's there when I'm riding around town and not cut the corners too close. Best 500 bux I've spent in a long time.
And perhaps put a note on your dash: "Note to self: Do not split lanes."Well, finally got everything I needed together and the time was right to break in the trailer and go camping. A short 70 mile trip to Lake Roosevelt, and a tent spot at 2 Rivers Resort. The trailer pulls well at 90 mph and tracks just great. It came with a hitch that swivels side to side, so cornering feels pretty normal. I just have to remeber that it's there when I'm riding around town and not cut the corners too close. Best 500 bux I've spent in a long time.
