Our Motorcycle Rides of 2012

Generally, it's still a bit early to throw in the towel and call it quits for the riding season. In years past we've taken weekend rides through September and October and even occasionally into November. Unfortunately, fall rides are not to be this year.

As some of you know, my wife was diagnosed with colon cancer 3 weeks ago. Since then she has had surgery to remove the tumor and is recovering well. Yesterday though, we got the news the cancer has spread into her lymph system and chemo &/or radiation treatments are in the offing. Frankly, I can't concentrate right now on road trip planning.

So, I'm going out on a limb here and assuming we're done riding for this year--I'm happy to be proved wrong.

During the months May through August we had opportunities to take 9 rides for a total of just over 2500 miles. Our pinnacle this year was several days riding the mountains of WVa while staying in a plush cabin. This year's total distance doesn't come close to the distances of past years (we've done several single rode trips that were in excess of 2500 miles), but this summer's rides were memorable nonetheless.




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Location:Various

Aug 25th 2012 Ride to Berkeley Springs, WV

With two new riders and a young passenger, we ignored the threat of rain and headed northwest for Berkeley Springs for no particular reason beyond wanting to ride somewhere. Amazingly, we avoided the rain on the way out. Alas, not on the way back. That said, we had enough intermittent dry spells that clothes were air dried before we got home.

The stats:

• 225 miles 
• 29.1 mph overall avg 
• 42.4 mph moving avg 
• 71.8 mph max speed 
• 7:42 total time 
• 5:18 moving time 
• 2:24 stopped time

This ride proved the saying: Any day is a good day to ride.

A map of the route:

View Larger Map
And some photos:

July 28 Ride to Shenandoah, VA

At 11:30 last night, we made plans to take a ride out to Shenandoah, VA. We had lunch, and then took a long way back home. We ended up on the road for 8 hours! The temps went from warm to sweltering. We got home minutes before it started to rain.


Here are the GPS stats:

• total 219.4 miles 


• overall avg 27.4 mph 


• moving avg 45.2 mph 


• max speed 81.2 mph (ignore this)


• total time 8:00 


• moving time 4:51 


• stopped time 3:09

View Larger Map

WV motorcycle trip -- Day 4

We are heading back home via Buena Vista, VA to meet up with a friend who is attending the National Moto Guzzi Rally held there. We have had a good time in WV: the roads are motorcycle perfect and the weather has been spectacular.

I hate to admit that I haven't liked not having cell phone service. It's not that I need to use my cell phone...I probably don't make 5 calls a month on it. But having grandkids who couldn't reliably contact us made me feel uneasy. Thankfully, the internet access at the cabin was just good enough (just) that we were able to use a VOIP app on my iPad to call them and, last night, we talked to all three plus our son using FaceTime. Technology to the rescue.

First order of business when we get back is to wash the bikes. I've got at least one of every species of bug splattered on my windshield and head light. I've eaten quite a few as well.

Here's a couple of photos of our departure:




Getting ready to hit the road heading south for Buena Vista, VA.




The roadside diner where we stopped for breakfast was so cheap I was sure the waitress had left off one of our orders from the bill. She hadn't.




We took a rest break in the parking lot of a deserted diner somewhere just after crossing over into VA. There was this gnarly weeping willow tree that had the largest trunk I've ever seen on a willow: it was over 4' in diameter. I wish I had taken a photo of Terri standing next to it so you could get a sense of its size.

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Location:Buena Vista, VA

Motorcycle trip to WV -- Day 3

Another day of riding the mountain roads in and around Canaan Valley, WV. Today's weather couldn't have been more perfect. The roads were great, little traffic, and beautiful scenery.

Last evening at dinner we met a couple who convinced us we should go on one of the hiking trails at Seneca Rocks National Park. We arrived at the Park at 3pm and headed for the Seneca Trail which is a short 1.5 miles but a nontrivial 1000 ft rise in elevation. It took about 45 min to make the climb. The view was terrific.
















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Location:Canaan Valley WV

WV motorcycle trip day 2 -- Canaan Valley

Cool temps...50s at 3700'...I should have brought my leather jacket. I'm not complaining though because cool temps beats hot temps every time.

We made a loop around Canaan Valley, which as far as I can tell, is really the top of a mountain. Very pretty out here. I've seen many windmill "farms" in California but was a little surprised to see them here. WV more progressive than I thought?










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Location:Canaan Valley, WV

Road trip to Seneca Rocks WV

Got a late start because we had to wait for the pharmacy to open...getting older has stopped being fun. Leaving at 10:30 smacked us up against a weather front and we hit the rain just as we entered Gainesville requiring us to don our rain gear. Remembering the peek I took at the weather map earlier, we bailed on our plan to ride Rte 211 and stayed on Rte 29 to get south of the rain as quick as we could. By the time we got to Culpeper, it looked like we were going to stay dry.
Turning west on Rte 33, we crossed the Skyline Drive and the weather was beautiful on the mountain top. It was cool, the temp immediately dropped 10 degrees, not humid, and the sky was crystal blue. One of those experiences that confirms the rightness of riding motorcycles. Alas, it was short lived: as we came down the mountain, the temp went back up, the humidity started to rise, and the realization that it's the end of June came back. Ah well...
Stopped for lunch in Harrisonburg. Will get back on 33 west into WV and then turn north on Rte 55 towards the cabin.




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Location:Harrisonburg VA

First ride 2012 season

We took a short ride heading out on Rte 211 and then north on state road 615 meandering back to Front Royal to eat lunch and then back home before company arrived. Hot for May (upper 80s), but a nice ride.

GPS stats: 

• overall avg speed: 26.7 mph 
• moving avg speed: 43.5 mph 
• maximum speed: total time: 6 hrs, 48 min 
• moving time: 4 hrs, 10 min 
• stopped time: 2 hrs, 38 min 

And a short video clip:

Bluetooth For Motorcycle Helmets - webBikeWorld

Is this where motorcycle helmet communications is going?



Bluetooth For Motorcycle Helmets - webBikeWorld:

'via Blog this'

Aug 13 motorcycle ride to no where...

Well, to Orange VA for a bite to eat. Not thinking too hard about this ride, we took off Saturday morning with little planning trying hard to stay off roads we routinely travel heading to Orange to eat lunch and for my wife and her friend to do some window shopping in the local antique stores. We dodged rain all day. It came a down pour while we were eating. But luckily, we didn't ride in the rain (very much). All in all, this turned out to be a nice trip. See below the map and a few pics I took along the way.
View Larger Map Taking a quick break at Kelly's Ford:

Downtown Orange, VA:

Also, here's a video I took using my Canon point & shoot with a piece of tape over the microphone to cut wind noise. It did a pretty good job!