Semi-retired

Apparently you don't win when going against the feds in traffic court... so I guess we just chalk this one up to (pricey) experience!

Hey Ken, Made it to Front Royal... Stayed three days! Loved everything about the Skyline EXCEPT the pair of $75 tickets we got for passing the horse trailer on the double yellow. He was doing 15 in a 35 zone... We could see for 500 yards of open road... And had zero to 60 capability of 4 seconds. Guess Ranger Yount just didn't like the fact that we were on bikes enjoying our ride.... and he was in a cage, hating his. 😊 Anybody have any experience fighting that one?

Robert, you are SO right about SE Pennsylvania... Rode down from Kittanning today... Down to Front Royal, here in Virginia. Just LOVED the ride down. Some fantastic roads with bendy, twisty, uppy-downies on hwy 56. And 30! Remarkable! Like Isle of Man for "commoners"! Really looking forward to riding Skyline Drive tomorrow! (Thanks, Ken...I think that was your idea!)

Hey, I still like the Hagon I put on THREE years ago! :-) But, yeah.....I got those front end jitters, too.

Funny you guys should be discussing this......I've been meaning to pose the same question myself, Robert.......but it's too late for me to do the bearings OR the springs with my week-long trip departing tomorrow. I'll just have to be careful going over those uneven, off-camber, on the curve railway crossing while I'm away on vacation!! For when I get home, is there a link to some helpful post on the "easy" way to do the steering head bearings? (video even?) Thanks, M

For your OWN health and safety, Kevin,..........I won't show her this post!! I KNEW you were gonna make me pull something off the bottom of that beast. (That's the BIKE I'm talkin about!) Thanks, bud.

Just changed the oil in old Betsy for our upcoming trip (tomorrow!!) Any harm in having that oil-check window filled completely when the bike is standing upright? I thought it took just slightly MORE than a gallon......but, between US and Imperial.....maybe I got mixed up. I COULD pull the drain plug, but is it worth it to offload 3 or 4 ounces? (To answer the probable question.......YES, I did fire it up to fill the new filter, and I'm still at the top of the window......but, JUST.) Thoughts?

Thanks for the info, Ken.......and your kind words about Canadians. We find the same to be true about Americans. Fact is, most of mankind seems to be on pretty good terms with each other when you're on vacation. (It's only those WARS and such that bring out the bullcrap!) No denying, Ontario IS beautiful.....but, this time of year our hearts, thermometers and T-shirts are all thinking SOUTH!! :-)

My CHEAPSKATE nature got the better of me! They had them on sale for $11 and change! I'll suit up today with my leather jacket and see just how "floppy" it is....then decide from there if I'm gonna "modify" it.....or just take it back. Thanks for the tips. Later,m.

Thanks, Dion. I'll keep an eye open for it!

Ah, interesting. Amazed that you actually have those notes in 'analog' format! (Pad and pen on tank bag? :-) Hate to see the word "wrecked" at the end! And on that note, as per our phone conversation yesterday, I went to the TSC store and bought my mother-f'ing huge, HIGH-VIZ, glows-in-the-dark, ORANGE and YELLOW, Velcro-in-place, highway worker, safety vest. They only had XXL in stock........so, I get the added benefit of this thing possibly doing a little FLAPPING in the breeze.......for EXTRA ATTENTION!! (I know 'flapping' is a bad thing on a bike.....but, remember, we're going nice and slow this time......a la speed limit!)

Beautiful!! I see it even sends some kind of 'ZOMBIE' out that picks off actual "towns of consequence".....so you can see what "real place" (as opposed to a farmer's field!) you could make it too by going that particular distance. GENIUS! Thanks for whipping that outta the old magic sack, Kevin. (God, I LOVE dealing with guys who have as much time on their hands as I do.....but actually KNOW what they're doing!!) :-)

Thanks for your "2cents", Robert. Actually.....the more we look Eastward........the more the "Seaboard" beckons. Something between YOUR suggestion (S.E.P.A.) and Kevin's......may very well end up being the solution..........although Dion's WV looks great, too!! Wow........you guys are almost too good........now we've got more ideas than days. But, heh, ideas are like guns.......Better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it!! :-)

I know the answer is going to be........"It depends", but I have to ask: Since wifey wants to know where we're going to be putting our heads down on any given night......what daily mileage...or "hourage" should we count on putting in.....for comfortable riding days? I know.....it depends on.... What kinda roads you wanna be on? (Not Interstates) How fast you wanna ride? (Speed limits are fine) What time of day will we start and stop riding? (Probably 9 or 10AM till 3 or 4...with lunch break sometime in the middle.....duh!) IS there a number that can be considered an "AVERAGE"? (survey says?????.........)

Loving the looks of that West Virginia stuff, Dion! Thanks very much for the input. The Touring Site is great.....complete with the maps. Haven't seen it before. If weather up here stays cool.......we just may head to "John Denver" country! Thanks again for the link, Michael

That's a great looking Eastern run option. I take it that's one you've done? When Google maps came up, it showed "Avoid Highways".......is that because I had it set that way while looking at something else........or did YOU set it that way to make a more enjoyable trip? It shows up as a 19.5 hour trip.....one way......from here in St. Catharines.......but I'm sure it would be a gorgeous ride. I was out to Loudon (150 years ago) and I remember New Hampshire (Live Free or Die country!) being a biker's heaven. Plus, I guess we could bail out North to Quebec or Montreal if we decided we needed to get back to Canada (or my son's place in Ottawa). Thanks for the tip, buddy. Trust you are all healed up by now? Later, Mike

Wifey and I have a whole week to ride.....and don't really have any particular destination in mind......other than the possible desire to head in a "southerly direction" if the weather up here (in Ontario, Canada) stays as cool as it has been. Things MAY warm up here next week, in which case we might head for 'central' Ontario and work our way over through Bancroft to my son's place in Ottawa. (the operative words being...."MAY warm up"! If we DON'T get a warm spell, we're open to ideas for heading down "toward" Deal's Gap. I say "toward" because I'm not sure riding 6 hours a day for 3 days straight, to get there....then spend 1 day there.......then ride another 6 hours a day for 3 days home is going to constitute a "VACATION". (The reason I say 18 hours, one way, is because we would NEVER want to slab a trip that was supposed to be relaxing. Interstates are great if you HAVE to get somewhere fast; otherwise NO WAY. All that said, if we discard Tail of the Dragon as our destination, but still wanna head in that general direction (chasing the WARMTH, if not the Dragon) does anyone have any other interesting roads/destinations that might be of interest? We've been to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, down southeast of Pittsburgh.....also to Lake Placid....and those were great....might even consider heading back to either of those.........UNLESS someone's got some other ideas for either a FANTASTIC road that lead's nowhere in particular......or, an OK road that leads to somewhere FANTASTIC. If it were just me...I'd be happy to just hit the road and see what comes up, but my wife kinda like's to know where we're going, when we'll get there and what we'll do/see when we arrive. Carl, from up my way, says a fella name JAYCEESFOLLY might have a few ideas......so, if you're listening, Jim, we're open to ideas. In terms of stats: I'm riding an '03 Midnight...she's on an '04 V-Star 1100 Classic. We like the back roads (let's call 'em secondary highways...for her sake). Like any other bikers, we love the rolling, bending countryside with lots of nice scenery.....we just never get a chance to get out and "discover" our own roads, so any guidance in the quadrant defined by Columbus Ohio in the West, Roanoke VA in the South, Boston in the East and Burlington Vermont in the North is greatly appreciated. (I'll try to attach a jpeg of what we figure is our potential "span of travel", given the time we have 'burn'. (Oh...and ignore my signature.....we're NOT heading West...where the SNOW IS!!)(edit: we're also not camping; motels or B&B are minimum creature comforts :-) Thanks for any ideas, guys!

Your wife has either a) a VERY good sense of humor......or b) NO sense of humor! :-)

Thanks, buddy. I think I'm like a lot of guys when I say that anything having to do with "upholstering" scares the crap out of me. It's just something about getting the fabric to lie straight/flat and getting all the staples, rivets or whatever the heck holds it in place.....just gives me the heebie-jeebies! Maybe I should set my wife loose on it; she recovered all our dining room chairs once....didn't seem to phase her a bit!

Lights on the golf bag, you say?! Why didn't I think of that? I've got a putter I don't use.......would make a nice w-i-d-e light bar! No DOUBT about which way I'm turning then! I wonder......would HAND SIGNALS cut it with the local gendarme?

Got any pics?

Ah, gotcha, Neil. Just seems a little funny that the "non-sliding" parts (valve faces) would wear faster than the shims or cam lobes, but I guess if we're changing our oil as often as we should () that's entirely possible!

Hey, Bob......thanks for the info....and for your invitation to meet up. Unfortunately, when we woke up near Lockport this AM....wifey proclaimed immediately: "We're not going to Letchworth today!" Something about rain and contact lenses not making good riding partners! :-) So, I have to report that we're not still in the Great State of New York. We came home first thing this morning....the boring way......WITHOUT getting to Letchworth. Not sure if we'll be making it down later this week or not, but will be sure to let you know if we head down. Thanks again for your mapping guidance, Robert. Hope to see you soon. m

OH YEAH......there'll always be a difference between hot and cold........and usually (as someone else mentioned) it's ALMOST equal to the gap you actually want.....minus a couple of thou for safety. On older equipment, with tappets (am I dating myself)...things were ALWAYS "tighter" when hot and looser when cold. Mind you, that was on engines where the gaps got BIGGER (i.e. LOOSER) as things "wore out". It seems strange to me that the shims on the Venture reportedly get TIGHTER as they wear. Doesn't seem to make sense....but, I guess I need to see a diagram. (Any other "old" guys out there who can explain this to me in 25 words or less? )

Thanks, Robert! THAT's the kind of answer I was looking for. SIMPLE.......like me. Now that I see where you're located......maybe you can do me one more little favor: Wifey and I are visiting friends at their camping resort near Lockport tomorrow and we're thinking we'll stay overnight, then head for Letchworth park on Tuesday AM. Do you know of any "must ride" roads in the area, either on our way into the area from Lockport......or on our way home toward Niagara Falls, once we LEAVE Letchworth? Thanks for any "tourguide" info you may have up your sleeve! Michael