Saturday Afternoon - Virginia and DC

[BobFV1]

So, Saturday was a beautiful warm day, not too humid. I had some details to wrap up on my new car purchase, and on my home/property lease here in Virginia, then I headed out for a ride. First out West on Leesburg Pike, Route 7, to civil war battlefield country. Just above Winchester, Virginia, I turned South on to a narrow, winding road. Saw a huge groundhog foraging by the side of the road at one point, then had Bambi - literally a little fawn - jump out in front of me as I was clipping along at about 50 mph. Luckily for all concerned, Bambi continued across the road. Saw a dead fox and a dead deer a little further down the road, then wrapped around to a place called the "Naked Mountain Vineyard":

http://www.nakedmtn.com/

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76071974-M.jpg



http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069544-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069536-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069562-M.jpg

I resisted the temptation to drink some of the free wine, and I departed, through some twisties and up to US 50, to the little town of Middleburg, VA, where I stopped for lunch:

There were a lot of Harley idiots in Middleburg, but I found a kindred spirit with a beautiful 749 and parked next to him:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069565-M.jpg

From Middleburg I headed East. I went right past McLean, VA, where I am staying, and went in to the District of Columbia for some snaps. You will recognize the 555 foot high building in the background here. You can see partway up the color of the monument changes a bit - this is where the construction wa ssuspended during the Civil War:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069576-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069568-M.jpg

Finally, here is a shot South of the White House, looking North across the "Ellipse", which is the large, oval field directly South of the White House:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/76069591-M.jpg

[Bones]

Oh....that is the Washington monument. For a minute, I thought it was your Johnson.

And by the way, some of my best friends are Harley idiots. Then again, some of my best friends are BMW idiots, too. Oh, well.

Jeff

[BobFV1]

And by the way, some of my best friends are Harley idiots.


Boy - what's wrong with those cheesedicks? Sleeveless tee shirts, beenie helmets, ridiculous mods on their bikes making them even less road-worthy than the factory in Wisconsin made them in the first place. I have no use for them.

http://www.wisinfo.com/heraldtimes/frontpage/gallery/HOGRALLY/images/06-26%20hog%20parade-4.jpg

http://www.bikerrogue.com/For_Sale/harley_beer/Sturgis%201998.jpg

There's this guy:

http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/images/dress-up/acc/hats/biker.jpg

And last but not least....

http://www.krissykatstore.com/Quickstart/ImageLib/Merryn_Harley_Rider1.jpg

[Bones]

I can take a lot, but making fun of my CAT!?!?!?

Yes, indeed, there is some ridiculous behavior going on with many in that bike genre. But as I have stated before, in many cases, no more ridiculous (and often less ridiculous) than in other genres.

For example, yesterday I saw amidst downtown traffic in the next town away from here a guy on his tricked out R1 in full out color matched race replica "gear" running up his rpms between stop lights. Who is kidding who?

I would rather see someone all excited about meeting their buddies and riding motorcycling's version of a Lincoln Towncar for 5 miles so 100 of them can eat for two hours than the stunt boneheads or Rossi wanna be's.

I agree with the no helmet, t shirt and sandals riding...but I see a LOT of that on sportbikes, perhaps more.

Plus I like putting around on a bike that is all about torque, even if it has no top end. Just like the feel of it.

Went for a ride yesterday with a guy I know. I wanted him to ride my GS, so we swapped and I rode his Road King Classic. I had a blast. The thing actually rode a hell of a lot better than they usually look going down the street.

Guess I am a wuss for anything motorcycling. I have owned a bunch of bikes and loved all of them except for 1, which I really didn't like. And the one I couldn't stand weighed 380 lbs and made 110 hp and was fast as stink, so go figure.

In the end, I like making fun of all the over the top groups, too. Harley bash away. But lets bash the others, too. It is more fun.

Jeff

[BobFV1]

Bones -

Admit it now, you were ATTGATT on the Road King, weren't you? I have no problem with any responsible rider on any type of machine, the thing that gets me about the HD crowd is how many of them take an inferior machine, and then further dumb down their chances by wearing sleeveless leather vests, which, by the way, look ridiculous:

http://sturgiszone.com/sturgis-pics/bikerpics/biker-gramps.jpg

Also - the places out in the hills where I see a lot of H-D's parked on a sunny day are all freely serving booze - that just doesn't make sense either.

I know what you mean about the sportbike crowd. Although out on the highway I see a lot of them ATTGATT. My thoughts on irresponsible sportbikers is that they will either smarten up, or die (or be disfigured) in a serious accident before long. I don't like how they run up the accident statistics, but on the most part, they are not posing, they are actually idiots who don't understand the consequences of their actions because they haven't been bitten yet.

It's not as fun to use H-D's as bait anymore because Prison Pat isn't here to get on his soapbox about how we're all motorcyclists, etc, etc....

Anyway, back to the original point - it's another beautiful day here in the DC area - I think I will take the Porsche out today and give er a shakedown.....

[supermotoC]

Great pics, Bob.


Prison Pat

DOH! there goes my coffee!!!!!!

Good one.

Does the beak on your Arai XD become annoying at a certain sustained speed?

[Bones]

Bob,
Indeed, I was riding the Roadking with a full face Arai, armored leather jacket, armored Alpinestars gloves, Sidi On Road Sympatex boots.

Even better....today a bunch of us went for a ride. A mix of Beemers, a Honda ST1100, couple of HD's (Deluxe and Road King Custom) and Ducati. The friend on his blue RoadKing Custom had full black armored textile suit and a Miguel Duhamel replica Shoei helmet in blazing orange. Now THAT was a site.

We stopped to take a leak and two young immortal males pulled in wearing shorts and sneakers and t shirts. One was on a Hyabusa and the other on a new Kawasaki ZR14 (or is it ZX14....you know, the one that makes about 180 hp). So my buddy on his Road King and ATGATT outfit looked at me, shrugged his head and said "I am old, that is why I wear this shit." I laughed out loud.

There are all kinds out there.

Sorry for the thread hijack. Great pics of a beautiful area, esp. this time of year.

Jeff

[BobFV1]

Does the beak on your Arai XD become annoying at a certain sustained speed?

Collyer,

I've been wearing the XD for the past 2 months/10K miles - since I bought the GS. I like it. The windscreen on the GS sends the slipstream over my head, so the wind doesn't catch the helmet peak at all, however I occasionally have crosswinds hit it and jerk my head to the side - I'm talking 30+ MPH winds.

I really like the helmet - the ventilation is good, it accomodates my helmet speakers well, it's reasonably quiet, the peak keeps the sun out of my eyes - good all around. The visor doesn't stay up on it's own sometimes, which is a common problem I understand, but it doesn't bither me too much.