BigLenny

Well, My Friend, You obviously are a seasoned western traveler. Sounds like you fellas are gonna have a blast. Let me say.....my jealousy is in full mode. Big Lenny

Leo, By looking at your ride map, it appears you haven't ridden out in the west. Well, my friend, you are about to experience one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever have on a bike (or even in a car). The west is spiritual! And, Colorado, Utah, Northern New Mexico, and Arizona are some of the greatest places to experience on 2 wheels! Do not go to Cañon City, Co. without going to the Royal Gorge Bridge. Big Lenny

Wait.....you're right. That's an impossible idea. I officially take back the suggestion to tell your wife about the Elusive 600. Lol.

Or, you could do that. LOL.

Learned this a few weeks ago at a sales training conference I attended and thought it might be good stuff for other folks besides sales reps to know: Have you ever been having a conversation with someone, and right in the middle of your conversation, the person you're talking to starts wandering with their eyes, and giving signals that they are actually not listening? Or, even worse, have you been on the other end where your mind starts wandering away from the conversation, and you aren't listening closely to what the person is saying to you? Another example is: Have you ever been talking to someone and you can tell they aren't really listening to everything you're saying, and they can't wait for you to finish your sentence so they can start talking about whats in their head? Listening to people, truly listening while they are talking to you is a very hard thing to do for an extended period of time. This fact is one of the most common subjects discussed and trained in sales organizations across all of business. Truly listening while your customer speaks is a valuable asset, and is critical to learning your customers needs so you can fulfill their desires. Knowing a simple fact about how we as humans are built can help us become more focused listeners. Here's the fact: A normal person on average can speak 150 words per minute. Some folks speak slower, some faster, but on average, its a 150WPM. The interesting thing is, on average, a normal person can hear and comprehend 750 words per minute. Wow! That's a large gap! scientists call the gap the "Elusive 600". What this means is; at any given time, during a conversation, you could have up 600 other elusive words and thoughts floating around in your head besides the words that are being spoken to you that are vying for attention. It's extremely hard to keep those thoughts at bay while you are trying to focus on what is being said to you. Mastering this challenge takes a lot of planning and practice to eventually become a skilled listener. So, this is Big Lenny's pointer for my VR friends. The next time your wife, husband, or significant other starts zoning out while you are talking them, tell them that their Elusive 600 is kicking in, and they need to focus. It's not their fault, they are built that way and they just need to practice. LOL. BL

Leland, I totally agree with you on the Microstart Battery. I carry one when we ride. That dang thing is amazing! I jump started my truck with it one time just to see if it would perform as advertised. Did exactly what they claimed it would do. When we're travelling long distance on our bike, I keep it hooked up to my cell phone, which is mounted on a ram mount on my handlebar, and i run the GPS all day through my phone. I recharge it every night at the hotel, but it really only needs recharging about every 2nd or 3rd day if I'm running the phone/GPS all day. I highly recommend the Microstart battery. Big Lenny

Hey BJ!! Are you getting delusional in yer old age? You can't leave us. You've been on here long enough to know this place is exactly like the old Hotel California tune. Seriously though, its been great talking to ya all these years. Wish you would reconsider, and flop another $12.00 you were gonna spend on a one time trip to a fast food restaurant somewhere, and hang out with us another year. Big Lenny

Hey Max, When you say you ran NM, AR, and CA, do you mean Arizona, or Arkansas? Just a note, us folks who live in Arkansas (AR), and the folks that live in Arizona (AZ), on a consistent basis have to deal with our mail being routed to the wrong state because folks get the AR, AZ wrong. LOL. It kinda drives us nuts. And, in Arkansas, we have the added frustration that our mail gets mixed up with peoples mail in Alaska (AK). LOL!

VideoAZ, I gotta ask the obvious question that is everybody's mind: Why the heck do you carry that big huge tire when you travel, and how in the world did you mount it? Big Lenny

Flyday58, I get what yer sayin. We've been gandering at the Spyder RT for quite some time now, and have went so far as to test ride a couple. They are truly technologically loaded machines. I've even signed up on syderlovers.com and quizzed those folks with durability questions, and other need to know things. They are surprisingly durable, steady performing machines. There are a ton of folks on the spyderlovers site that have ridden them all over the country for a ton of miles with no issues. Last week, my wife and I did a 5 day, 1000 mile ride to Key West and back up through the middle of Florida on our Tour Deluxe, and while the ratio of other bikes we saw was as usual, dominated by Harleys, we saw a steady diet of Spyders on the road too. There are more and more of them on the road. So, I say, you should get ya one, but as others have stated, make sure it is a 2014 or newer, with the ACE 1330 motor. Big Lenny

Dale124, GO RIDE THE BADLANDS LOOP!! GO RIDE IRON MOUNTAIN ROAD!! GO RIDE NEEDLES HWY!! GO RIDE WIDELIFE LOOP!! My 4 cents. Big Lenny

We stayed in Robbinsville at the Microtel Inn and Suites, and ate a good meal at Lynn's Place. I agree Robbinsville doesn't have a lot to offer, but it is certainly sufficient if your'e just looking for a place after a long day of riding to eat a good meal, get a good nights rest, an spend a little "room time" with your soon to be life padna.

cwhite, im so happy you and your bride are going to get to experience riding in that area again. I'm feeling a strong dose of jealousy about right now. Lol. My wife and I diD a 2 week ride out in that area a few years ago, and absolutely loved it! Truly amazing riding out that way. I have 2 suggestions: 1. The Blue Ridge Pkwy is a wonderful ride that must be experienced, but you need to know; the ride from Cherokee to Asheville is awesome, and your gonna love it, however, above Asheville is crazy good all the way to Boone, NC. It goes up to the highest point east of the Mississippi River. Don't leave that out. And Boone is a cool place to take a break and check out the shops and grab a lunch. 2. Force yourself to go tour the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville. This something that my wife wanted to do extremely bad, but I wasn't greatly interested. I agreed to tour it, but basically acted like a grouch on our way there. Well, it wound up being one of the coolest places we've ever been to. If you go, spend the money for the headsets. The guided headset tour is the cats meow. It gives history that is incredibly interesting. I'm serious. That place is freakin awesome! My two cents. Big Lenny

Well, I decided to stay with the Pirelli's. I mounted them Wednesday night. Ima get out tomorrow and put some miles on them to get them scuffed in. I'm heading out a week from today to Orlando for a national sales convention I have to attend from the 11th-17th. I'm going to trailer my bike to the convention, and along the way, I'm going to stop in and experience the first day of Daytona Bike Week. Then, after the conference is over, I'm flying my wife down to meet me in Orlando. We're gonna park the truck and trailer at my brothers place in Zephyrhills (north of Tampa), and ride the 7 hours down to Key West. We're gonna stay in the keys for a few days, then ride back to Zehyrhills, put the bike on the trailer, and drive north to Robbinsville, NC to meet up with my 2 cousins who are going to be riding the Tail of the Dragon and all of that area in the Smokys for a couple days before heading back home. Gonna be a packed 2 weeks.

That's some interesting stuff, Steve. Ya never know what companies are tied to each other. BL

Don, i sure hope you get to feeling up to snuff soon. I do look forward to reading your honest opinion of the E3's. As for me, I went ahead today and bought two new Pirelli's from a local dealer who sold them to me for internet prices. I paid $200.00 for the pair. I mounted the rear tonight, and will do the front tomorrow. I'm with you on the whitewall thing. Can't make myself like them. But, there's certainly folks out there that love the look of whitewalls, and thats cool too. BL

Holy Cow revks! I am learning a lot through this thread. I had no idea there were so many folks still doing the multiple church and circuit pastoring jobs. I was raised and attended for 29 years a non denominational church where our pastor not only founded the church, but then stayed in that position for the first 20 years after he founded it until he passed away, then the next pastor took it over, and he stayed in that role for another 30 years until here recently when he retired due to health complications. After i spent my first 29 years at my birth church, I then moved over to a church where the pastor had been in place for about 5 years, and I stayed there for 16 years, and that same pastor was there the whole time, and is still there. I guess my naivety is due to me living in a metropolitan area my whole life where there are a large number of good sized churches with full time pastors serving each church. I had always heard of circuit pastors and such in the country, but I was thinking that had for the most part been long ago history. A few years ago, I was researching my family history on my fathers side, and I found out my great great grandfather was a circuit pastor in an area just south of Huntsville Alabama. As a matter of fact, in 2012, my wife and i took a 2 week motorcycle vacation out east, and found his and my great great grandmothers graves beside one of the main churches he pastored. He lived in the 1800's, so I guess thats what bolstered my thinking that that practice was in the past. I admire you revks. This nation needs more men like you. BL

It's the dreaded tire time again! And, as usual, I have read and re-read every freaking thread on our wonderful forum trying to decide which brand and model to go with this time. Years ago, after quickly burning through the stock Brickstones in the 1st 4000 miles, I took a buddy's suggestion and went with Metzeler's . I LOVED them! Got about 14K out of them before I decided to change them due to a 4500 mile two week trip that was facing us. Went with Metzelers again, and truly LOVED their performance for a second time. Wound up putting 17K on that set. Then, I was in a bind for some quick tires before i went to a bike rally 3 hours away. I let the local Suzuki dealer talk me into putting some cheap tires called Pirelli MT66 Route's on the bike the morning I left for the rally. I bought them for under $200.00 for the set. Like a crazy person, I left the dealership that day and rode in a driving frog strangling rain for 3 hours with brand new tires, and they did just fine with that much rain on the roads. Well, the dang things have lasted 14000 miles, and frankly, or surprisingly, haven't been that bad of a tire. Actually, they have been fine. They look like they have about another 1000 miles left in them. . Anywho, I've decided I'm not going to go back to Metzelers. Reading about all of the issues some of you have described with the Metzeler tires delaminating and such, scares me to death. Even though I didn't have any issues with them (other than cupping and singing as they got older), I don't want to push it. I've always wanted to try some of those sexy looking tires like E3's and Commander 2's and such, or some of those Avons. But, to tell ya the truth, I'm kinda wondering why I don't just throw another set of Pirelli's on it and be done with it. The dang things are so affordable, and I have proof that they last fairly decently. Hmmm. I agree that they corner just a smidgen less than the Metzlers used to, but then again, as I'm getting older, I ain't looking to scrape boards with my wife on back as much as I used to. Crap! I dont' know! I'm tired of thinking about it! It's ridiculous. Big Lenny

That sounds like a fun trip. Fredericksburg is a neat place, but make sure you go ride the 3 twisted sisters out in the Leakey area. There is a place called the Frio Canyon Motorcycle Stop just west of Leakey that is a good place to grab a burger or something for lunch, as well as t-shirts and such. Also, just north of Vanderpool, there is a Lonestar Motorcycle Museum. When you ride the 3 twisted sisters (Hwy's 337, 336, and 335) its kinda like riding in a mini Colorado. beautiful. Leave Fredericksburg and head south on Hwy 16, down through Kerrville, then on 16 to Medina. Medina is where the first twisted sister starts (337). Head west all to Leakey, then north up 336 to Hwy 41. Then west for a few miles to 335. Go south on 335 down to Barksdale, then a little more south to Camp Wood. Thats where you'll take 337 back east to Leakey. a mile or so before you get back to Leakey is the Frio Canyon Motorcycle Stop on the right. Neat place. Plenty of bikes stopping there. When you get back to Leakey, go south on Hwy 83 for a short bit to 1050. Take 1050 east to Utopia, the go north out of Utopia on 187 for a short spell to 470. Take a right onto 470 and head east back to Hwy 16, then east to Bandera. From Bandera, you can take 16 down to San Antonio, or go to Boerne, or on to New Braunfels/Gruene. Gruene is a neat little place, with Texas' oldest dance hall there (where George Strait got his start),and a cool little area of old shops. Bikes will be parked around there for sure. When you're headed to Fredericksburg, be sure and stop by Luckenbach, Texas. neat little old store and dance hall there, as well as locals playing music all day on the back porch area of the store. There'll be bikes there too. Eat at The famous Salt Lick BBQ around the Driftwood area. they only take cash. There's so much to do down that way. 2 weeks ain't gonna touch it.

rpep, Thanks for explaining that. I'm not Methodist, so I am un-familiar with that practice. Sure sounds like a noble job, that takes a pastor with a big heart, and a lotta energy.

And, yes. The lodging prices are crazy high down that way because not only is it filled with Bike Week attendees, but the spring break crowd is filling everything up.

Hmmmm. I'm seriously thinking about leaving early and going to Bike Week on the 10th. I have to be at a week long national sales meeting in Orlando from the 11th - 17th. I am going to be towing my bike down there, because I'm flying my wife down on the 17th, and we are going to leave my truck and trailer at a friends house in Zephyrhills (north Tampa), and ride down to the Florida Keys for 3-4 days after the sales meeting. I was going to leave my house on the 10th and drive to Albany, Ga, then make it to Orlando on the 11th. bUt, now, I'm thinking about leaving my house on the 9th, and making it down to the Daytona area on the 10th so I can spend most of the day enjoying the sites of Bike Week. Hmmmm.

Good for you Rev. I gotta ask the question though; how is it that one pastors 3 churches? Or even 2 for that matter? All of the pastors I've ever known, were doing all they could just to take care of and pastor 1 church. With all the needs of the congregation and preparing for sermons and such, their plates always seem to be full. You must be like a pastoring stud to be tackling multiple churches. Lol. Glad you're getting to be closer to your family. Big Lenny

Wait wait wait!. We are hosting a casino party this coming Saturday night at our house with 60 people coming over, so I am up to my ears with activities to get finished between now and then, but I ain't missin no Toga chat party. I gotta experience that!

Congrats! Hope you love your new bike. Now, to fit in with your newfound Harley family, you'll get the opportunity to stock up on massive amounts of Harley Davidson dealership t-shirts, dew rags with flames on them, frayed sleeveless shirts of all kinds, a##less chaps for the lady in yer life, fingerless leather riding gloves, etc, etc, etc. That'll be fun. Big Lenny