#fall ride

It was 5:25pm and we were nearing the end of a lovely Fall ride. This was our last enchanted moment before we had to leave it all behind. 

I LOVE FALL

Jipci has been sitting out in front of my house, taunting me since I got back from the Overland Expo. The logical reason for her to be there is that we haven’t had time for me to ride her over to my shed 3 miles away and for my wife to pick me up and bring me back home. But very little about motorcycling is logical. You know as well as I do that her true purpose was to sing her siren’s song to taunt me into taking her on a nice fall ride.

Saturday morning, I succumbed to her song.  My wife had an appointment so that gave me a couple of hours to answer Jipci’s call.  I had the best of plans for this ride, which means I had no plans - just ride and decide which way to turn or not to turn at each junction.   I figured even 50 miles is better than just a straight shot to the shed.  The weather was perfect, clear skies and low to mid 70′s. While I didn’t plan on taking dirt roads, I found several.  Some were through routes popping out on a paved road I was familiar with, others would give up to the woods after a couple of miles and  cause me to double back.  I am still learning the ways off the beaten path in my backyard that is Northern Virginia.  I found myself out by Warrenton then wiggling over toward The Plains.

I don’t know if it was the new Dunlop Trailmax Mission Tires I now have on Jipci, or the training I received from Bill Dragoo at Overland Expo, but I was far more confident on the dirt, standing on pegs as soon as the pavement gave way and navigating the bumps, ruts, rocks, downed limbs, and other obstacles as we pressed on.  I put into practice everything I learned; Stand up to maximize the Suspension, Steering, and Sight, execute counter balance turns (still working on those) and Making any ruts my road.

As I headed down Bust Head Road, I saw a young cow cooling off in the water below.  Poor fella was trying to find his way back out of the water, but didn’t seem to like the mud on the path he had taken to enter the stream.  I watched as momma came over with reinforcements and helped encourage him to exit the stream before I continued my journey. 

As I rolled into the shed, about 4 hours later, I realized a couple things: First I absolutely love fall riding. Second Jipci opens up totally new options for my riding. While I only logged just over 100 miles, and likely would have easily done 150 on the SAC Cycle, it’s not about the miles, its about the smiles - And I got way more than 100 miles worth of smiles on this ride!

Thursday morning came quick.  It was crisp and cool outside as we packed our bikes.  Of course we had the final breakfast, cleaning the fridge of all remaining eggs which I scrambled with some salsa, sausage, and finishing the English muffins.  I called my wife to let her know we would be heading home soon.  She said the fog was really thick where she was.  We didn’t have that issue at Hungry Mother State Park.  After loading the trash up on the back of my bike and riding it down to the dumpster, I went back up to the cabin to make sure we took care of everything we needed for checkout.  Time to hit the road, the Blue Ridge Parkway was calling.

We had to ride about 125 miles, a little interstate, a lot of nice country roads to get to the Parkway at Meadows of Dan.  Along the way we did run into some thick fog, but it was quickly burning off.  Once on the Parkway we knew it would be a great ride. 

The colors were popping, unfortunately that meant that there were a few slow moving cars to either follow along behind or scoot around when we could.  I kept looking down at my odometer because the Milestone was coming.  I had about 5 miles to go when we ran up on the barricade closing the Parkway and followed the detour signs.  While I wasn’t on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I was twisting my way down a nice road when I hit that Milestone:

90,000 miles. 

Holy crap!  I had 90,000 miles on my bike!  I still considered her to be my “new” bike even though I’d had her for 9 years.  With the exception of the wheel bearing issue I’d just experienced, which in all honesty could have been avoided with a little better care and maintenance on my part, this amazing 2011 Kawasaki Voyager 1700 ABS had given me 90,000 trouble free miles. Hopefully next year she will roll that magical 100,000 miles.

We followed the detour signs back up to the Parkway.  Shortly after getting on, Brian had a chance to get around some slow movers and took it, but there wasn’t enough road for me to follow.  And after he took that opportunity, I didn’t get one until shortly before I had to leave the Parkway for fuel.  I shot him a quick text as I gassed up by the James River.  We were planning on splitting off once we exited the Parkway, so it wasn’t a big deal. 

Day two at the cabin started much like day 1, I guess that’s why they call it a routine.  I got up and got the coffee on and started making breakfast.  This morning it was scrambled eggs with a ham steak. We had talked about two things for the day, 1) Riding through West Virginia and down into Kentucky or 2) Riding up to Will’s hometown and having lunch with his dad.  We opted for option 2.  It’s funny how things work out sometimes . . .

Brian and I mapped out a run that would take us the long way to Will’s Dad’s house.  We wiggled back up the Back of the Dragon and headed through the Narrows.  It was once again an amazing fall day, crisp clear air and vibrant colors on the trees.  At one point, we got behind another rider as we wiggled along a river.  The leaves had completely covered our side of the road, and more were falling from the trees.  As the rider ahead cut his way through them, he kicked them up towards me and then my air stream hit them sending a circling wall of leaves back towards Brian.

We took a break along the river in the Narrows before continuing on and once we got to the house and ordered our lunch.  It was good seeing Will’s dad.  Honestly I don’t think I’ve seen him since Will and graduated from the State Police Academy nearly 27 years ago. I don’t think he remembered me, but that’s OK.  Will and I ran out to pick up the lunches in downtown Pearisburg, VA.  Again it turned out to be a good thing that I went with him.  After picking up our lunches we turned back to the house.  I noticed a little bike shop tucked behind the Napa.  It looked small, but there were a couple of bikes pulling in and going out.  Will made a comment about the Dual Sports out front and we continued on our way.

We had a great lunch.  I think we tired Will’s dad out a bit, but we all enjoyed the visit.  Will told us we should head up to Mountain Lake, the ride would be good and the views would be amazing.  Plugging the route into my GPS, I led the way as we headed out.

Just before we got to the house, I had noticed the bike lurching a little and slipping.  It actually felt like I had something caught in the belt or somewhere on the bike.  With the road we had been over the day before, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was rocks or gravel still tumbling around.  I did a quick check before we headed back out, but didn’t see anything.

As we made our turn to head up the mountain to get to Mountain Lake the noise and slipping became worse.  It sounded like I had rocks in the transmission and the bike would fade to the right then kick back to the left.  Realizing something was definitely wrong with the bike, and knowing that a kick like these could spell disaster on a mountain curve, I pulled off.  Brian and I inspected the bike on the side of the road, but didn’t see anything.  We turned around and headed back to the main road and a gas station.  Brian followed behind me observing what the bike was doing.  Once at the station, we took off the left saddle bag and side cover and inspected the belt.  Not seeing anything, I realized that something that had never happened in the 9 years and 89,000 miles that I had ridden my Voyager.  She had breakdown on a trip.  It was then that I remembered that little bike shop back in Pearisburg.  What was the name?  Gear something . . . Gearhead .  . . Gearhead Junction.  Googling them I called to see if they may be able to help me out.

A girl named Lori answered and when I told her what was happening she told me not to worry, she was sure they could take a look at it.  I decided to limp the bike over since it was only about 10 miles away.  But I tell you what, the way the bike was acting, it felt like she was trying to buck me off and it was one of the most white knuckled rides I have ever done.  I would have rather ridden back across Burke’s Garden Road again than repeat the ride to Gearhead Junction.  It was about 4:45 PM when I set out to get to Gearhead, I got there a little after 5:00.  Their hours said they were open till 6:00. 

Anyone who has ridden a motorcycle long distances and has experienced issues on the road knows that you are at the mercy of the shop you limp to or are brought to.  The fate of your trip rests on the mercy and understanding of the shop.  Do they put you in line, or try to take care of you?  Fortunately the folks of Gearhead Junction understand this and are merciful and kind folks.  Upon arrival, I was met by the whole crew.  Lori was there and was just as sweet in person as she was on the phone, Terry, the owner of the place was there, and their two mechanics, one named Curtis and the other’s name I didn’t catch in it all.  Curtis quickly threw on a helmet to take it for a spin to see what the bike was doing.  He didn’t need to go too far and was back in no time knowing something was wrong.  The bike was on the lift in no time and it was rapidly determined that the rear bearings may be the culprit.  Terry explained that he would do what he could, but even if he found a set of bearings and had them over-nighted there, I was likely looking at being down for a couple of days.  Then it looked like he had an idea and disappeared for about 15 minutes.

As I was checking out the Royal Enfield Himalyans in front of the shop (which will be added to my stable soon and the thought came to me that I may just add one sooner than planned and ride one back while they work on my Voyager) Terry came back from the direction of the Napa.  He said he found some bearings with the same specs as the Voyagers, and could put them on the bike tomorrow.  It was about 6:15 when I jumped in the car with Will to ride back to the cabin about a hundred miles away.  I was bummed because of the issue, but I knew that my bike was in the right hands.  The Gods were smiling down on me as who knows what would have happened if we had decided to make the West Virginia/Kentucky run that day instead.