- Joined
- Dec 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,503
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- 2
- Location
- Houston
- First Name
- Graeme
- Last Name
- Craigon
Sorry we missed you, it is always good to meet new folks. If we head that way on the next ride we will let you know.
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YoBS Ride East Texas and...
- Thread starter sparkyphotog
- Start date
Sorry we missed you, it is always good to meet new folks. If we head that way on the next ride we will let you know.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,503
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Houston
- First Name
- Graeme
- Last Name
- Craigon
Well the boys have pretty much covered off our “MOST EXCELLENT” weekend but here is my tupence worth (aka Scottish equivalent of my 2 cents worth)
My original plan for this ride was to get fresh rubber on the Strom at Todd’s place on Friday morning then spend the rest of the day just riding around, getting to camp just before dark and then sitting around waiting for Bill and Sparky. This plan fell apart when I could not get a hold of Todd and was too late to get another store in town to install the new rubber (more on this later) so I ended up ordering the rubber on the Web and getting it shipped to Bills house. This now meant that I got spent the day riding up to DFW then back to Centerville and onto camp.
Leaving Houston about 09:00 I rode up to Bill’s place to get the new rubber installed. While departing Houston I realized this was the first time in 6 trips to DFW that I was not riding
a. in the dark,
b. during rush hour,
c. in the rain
d. or all the above combined,
I also noticed that 45 is truly not that bad when there is no traffic.
I stopped in Centerville to gas up and grab a coffee and experience a great moment of true human friendship. As I was walking out of Woody’s the guy behind the deli counter called me over and said. “Hey I am called Too High and I ride bikes too, where did you ride from ?” I told him Houston as he handed me a piece of paper. He continued “here is my phone number, if you ever have any trouble with your bike around here call me,” You could have knocked me over with a wet tissue. In this day and age for somebody to offer the promise of assistance to a complete stranger just blows me away. After this encounter, I knew this could only be a great weekend.
When I arrived at Bill’s he was already at home and had his bike loaded. I took off all my riding gear and rolled up my shelves ready to put the new rubber. The conversation between us then went something like this.
[Yogi] Bill what do you need me to do?
[Bill[ Nothing
[Yogi] Seriously what can I do to help?
[Bill] Nothing
[Yogi] there must be something I can do
[Bill] Okay hold this
10 seconds later
[Bill] don’t load it that way !!
Within the hour Bill had the new rubber on my bike and we were getting ready to head for camp. Thanks Bill
We rode back to Centerville and stopped at Woody’s to pick up some summer sausage and eggs for breakfast. Unfortunately Too High was not there so I could not say Howdy and introduce him to Bill. Soon after we got to camp Brian arrived. It was pretty chilly and we did not have any fire wood so we ate supper and went straight to bed.
The whole purpose of these trips (dry runs) was to allow us the time to test all the highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment we had purchased [do not read this as new of new toys for the boys] and get used to riding the bikes with all the new highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment. It became painfully obvious to Bill and I that Brian had not ridden in quite some time and we needed to go way back to basic ride techniques for Brian.
When we finished loading the bikes and reminded Brian his left foot goes on the left peg we headed out of camp. We spent most of the day riding these types of roads before the rain came.
I was almost glad that it rained as it gave me a chance to test out the wet weather gear I planned to take to Alaska. As it turned out I discovered that the gloves I was planning on using are not going to cut the mustard.
Once it got dark and after passing a few dear in the ditch we decided it was best that we headed straight to camp and miss out the last few miles of country roads. The one thing that we do not need to practice is riding in the dark since our shortest day riding to the Artic Circle will have over 16 hours of sunlight and the longest day will have over 21 hours.
We spent Sunday riding back and dirt roads.
Leading a ride especially in dirt means that you never get to see any of the good stuff, near face plants, bikes being used to knock down bush etc, but thankfully we all had Chatterboxes. I saw nothing but I got to listen to Bill muttering about the abilities of the street tire on his Strom, how he had a perfectly good WR in his garage and was riding a full loaded Strom WITH STREET TIRES, how he was NOW going to riding the WR to Alaska and the occasional “BRIAN, I CAN BELIEVE YOU HELD THAT THING UP”
All in all I had a great weekend. I got to test all the new highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment, ride some great roads and more importantly spend a whole bunch of time with some great friends. I just wonder if I (we) will be saying that after spending 21 days on our Artic Circle trip
The things that I learnt on this trip were.
Hazards
If you get through a hazard but your buddy does not
DO turn around and head back to help him out
DO stop before the hazard, get off you bike and go help you buddy
DO NOT ride back into hazard to get to your buddy
Third time is not a charm in sand.
Food
Bill cooks a mean breakfast
Pack a spoon in you tank bag. That way, you can still graze on breakfast even when your bike is fully packed.
Protein bars called “strawberry cheesecake” and “blueberry crumble” are still just protein bars
Tires
TKC80 up front and Tourance out back.
After a 1000 miles I am convinced this is the best combination of tires the you can put on a Strom. I never did feel confident with Death Wings on both my storms and the Tourances I put on the wee were better, but I never felt confident in the dirt with them. Before the trip I spent a bunch on time on the Strom boards and ADV researching rubber for big dual sports. After get past the numerous “never mix nobbies and dual sport tire” posts I found a few folks that where running TKC80 up front with no problems. Yes I know that running a nobbie up front means that it gives before the rear (bad thing) but with my riding style I never push the tires anywhere close to their limits so in my mind what I gain in the dirt makes this just a great combo.
More importantly than handling is the fact the Strom just looks so cool with a nobbie up front.
Tent/Home defense.
Between the farm yard animal noising coming from Bill’s tent and all different zipper sounds and god knows what other noises coming from Brian tent, having bear spray in my tent means that I can sleep soundly, comfortable in the fact I have some protection from my riding buddies
Brian (the webmaster) has posted the route we rode in GPX format if anybody wants to use it.
My original plan for this ride was to get fresh rubber on the Strom at Todd’s place on Friday morning then spend the rest of the day just riding around, getting to camp just before dark and then sitting around waiting for Bill and Sparky. This plan fell apart when I could not get a hold of Todd and was too late to get another store in town to install the new rubber (more on this later) so I ended up ordering the rubber on the Web and getting it shipped to Bills house. This now meant that I got spent the day riding up to DFW then back to Centerville and onto camp.
Leaving Houston about 09:00 I rode up to Bill’s place to get the new rubber installed. While departing Houston I realized this was the first time in 6 trips to DFW that I was not riding
a. in the dark,
b. during rush hour,
c. in the rain
d. or all the above combined,
I also noticed that 45 is truly not that bad when there is no traffic.
I stopped in Centerville to gas up and grab a coffee and experience a great moment of true human friendship. As I was walking out of Woody’s the guy behind the deli counter called me over and said. “Hey I am called Too High and I ride bikes too, where did you ride from ?” I told him Houston as he handed me a piece of paper. He continued “here is my phone number, if you ever have any trouble with your bike around here call me,” You could have knocked me over with a wet tissue. In this day and age for somebody to offer the promise of assistance to a complete stranger just blows me away. After this encounter, I knew this could only be a great weekend.
When I arrived at Bill’s he was already at home and had his bike loaded. I took off all my riding gear and rolled up my shelves ready to put the new rubber. The conversation between us then went something like this.
[Yogi] Bill what do you need me to do?
[Bill[ Nothing
[Yogi] Seriously what can I do to help?
[Bill] Nothing
[Yogi] there must be something I can do
[Bill] Okay hold this
10 seconds later
[Bill] don’t load it that way !!
Within the hour Bill had the new rubber on my bike and we were getting ready to head for camp. Thanks Bill
We rode back to Centerville and stopped at Woody’s to pick up some summer sausage and eggs for breakfast. Unfortunately Too High was not there so I could not say Howdy and introduce him to Bill. Soon after we got to camp Brian arrived. It was pretty chilly and we did not have any fire wood so we ate supper and went straight to bed.
The whole purpose of these trips (dry runs) was to allow us the time to test all the highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment we had purchased [do not read this as new of new toys for the boys] and get used to riding the bikes with all the new highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment. It became painfully obvious to Bill and I that Brian had not ridden in quite some time and we needed to go way back to basic ride techniques for Brian.
When we finished loading the bikes and reminded Brian his left foot goes on the left peg we headed out of camp. We spent most of the day riding these types of roads before the rain came.
I was almost glad that it rained as it gave me a chance to test out the wet weather gear I planned to take to Alaska. As it turned out I discovered that the gloves I was planning on using are not going to cut the mustard.
Once it got dark and after passing a few dear in the ditch we decided it was best that we headed straight to camp and miss out the last few miles of country roads. The one thing that we do not need to practice is riding in the dark since our shortest day riding to the Artic Circle will have over 16 hours of sunlight and the longest day will have over 21 hours.
We spent Sunday riding back and dirt roads.
Leading a ride especially in dirt means that you never get to see any of the good stuff, near face plants, bikes being used to knock down bush etc, but thankfully we all had Chatterboxes. I saw nothing but I got to listen to Bill muttering about the abilities of the street tire on his Strom, how he had a perfectly good WR in his garage and was riding a full loaded Strom WITH STREET TIRES, how he was NOW going to riding the WR to Alaska and the occasional “BRIAN, I CAN BELIEVE YOU HELD THAT THING UP”
All in all I had a great weekend. I got to test all the new highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment, ride some great roads and more importantly spend a whole bunch of time with some great friends. I just wonder if I (we) will be saying that after spending 21 days on our Artic Circle trip
The things that I learnt on this trip were.
Hazards
If you get through a hazard but your buddy does not
DO turn around and head back to help him out
DO stop before the hazard, get off you bike and go help you buddy
DO NOT ride back into hazard to get to your buddy
Third time is not a charm in sand.
Food
Bill cooks a mean breakfast
Pack a spoon in you tank bag. That way, you can still graze on breakfast even when your bike is fully packed.
Protein bars called “strawberry cheesecake” and “blueberry crumble” are still just protein bars
Tires
TKC80 up front and Tourance out back.
After a 1000 miles I am convinced this is the best combination of tires the you can put on a Strom. I never did feel confident with Death Wings on both my storms and the Tourances I put on the wee were better, but I never felt confident in the dirt with them. Before the trip I spent a bunch on time on the Strom boards and ADV researching rubber for big dual sports. After get past the numerous “never mix nobbies and dual sport tire” posts I found a few folks that where running TKC80 up front with no problems. Yes I know that running a nobbie up front means that it gives before the rear (bad thing) but with my riding style I never push the tires anywhere close to their limits so in my mind what I gain in the dirt makes this just a great combo.
More importantly than handling is the fact the Strom just looks so cool with a nobbie up front.
Tent/Home defense.
Between the farm yard animal noising coming from Bill’s tent and all different zipper sounds and god knows what other noises coming from Brian tent, having bear spray in my tent means that I can sleep soundly, comfortable in the fact I have some protection from my riding buddies
Brian (the webmaster) has posted the route we rode in GPX format if anybody wants to use it.
Excellent write-up, Graeme! 
I like the way you describe the "highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment". I'm going to use that phrase from now on when I tell Mollie that I need to go shopping. 
I like the way you describe the "highly specialized, fit for purpose Alaska trip equipment". I'm going to use that phrase from now on when I tell Mollie that I need to go shopping. 
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2004
- Messages
- 13,332
- Reaction score
- 190
- Location
- Plantersville
- First Name
- Rebecca
- Last Name
- Reed
I'm going to use that phrase from now on when I tell Mollie that I need to go shopping.
Yes, but be prepared for the comeback: She needs more multi-purpose suburban and rural mileage wandering equipment herself, too!
Yes, but be prepared for the comeback: She needs more multi-purpose suburban and rural mileage wandering equipment herself, too!
Touché.