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Got in one more ride in before our baby arrives. Maria gave me a day pass and I joined the SBONYC riders for Father’s Day on Route 301 near Carmel, NY. It’s a nice curving road and we made laps between the Firehouse and the bank parking lot. Later that morning, Mike led a fifty-mile loop with some moderately technical turns but I peeled off when we intersected the Taconic.

I had fitted the stubby sport shield in place of the Parabellum touring shield and wanted to try different conditions, at least that was my excuse. Hopping I84 and Route 17, I rode into Ulster county to visit my parents then blasted up 44-55 and 299 into New Paltz, down the Thruway to I84, exited at Fishkill and took a meandering ride on 9D to 202 into Peekskill before catching 9/9A to the Sawmill and back to the city.

It was a 350 plus mile day, ten hours of riding and another two stopped according to the GPS. A couple of the guys had pointed out that my GPS model has very limited capacity for track points. I hadn’t noticed until reviewing it tonight but the StreetPilot III drops track points when the log fills. That would explain why some of my earlier logs were incomplete. Very irritating as I’ll have manually set mark points while riding to ensure I get at least a rough idea of the locations.

20050615 - SOLD

20050609 - SALE PENDING

I can’t keep both bikes so the Honda has to go. See the ad on craigslist.

From the ad…

Excellent commuter or re-entry bike. 9500 miles, candy red, very good condition and well-maintained. Adult owned and garaged its entire life. Tune up, brake pads, brake fluid and fork oil changed and Bridgestone battleaxes shod front and rear less than 3000 miles ago. Oil changed every 1500 miles after break-in. Battery replaced in June 2004. Airfilter replaced with Uni foam filter in October 2004. Never been down (really). Starts and runs but needs another tune up after a year of storage.

Includes the following accessories: Corbin gunfighter and lady seat, National cycle clear plexi-fairing with lowers, Honda backrest with luggage rack, cruiser-style higher, pulled-back handlebars, RKA 23 liter three-point mount expandable tank bag in matching red with rain cover, Honda black magnetic tank bag, Hondaline black soft saddlebags with rain covers, Honda caseguards, highway pegs. throttle lock. center stand, cigarette lighter socket. Includes new Clymer manual and original owners manual.

Someone can give a nice bike a good home.

Had a great day out on the (post) Mother’s Day ride with the Sport Touring Motorcycle Club. Walter laid out a ‘trailie’ alternative to the planned course- some nice twisty back roads, some rough roads that the dualsports eat up and some hard pan that I can’t believe was public road.

Walter has a well-deserved reputation for riding fast and knowing every back road in New Jersey. Barry brought out his KTM520 but peeled off just before the good stuff. Chris rides his KTM950 like a mother, he’s faster on dirt than I pretty much ever go on pavement and Kamil kept up with them on his F650GS (and nearly did a personal environmental impact study). I brought up the rear- I’m slow but happy.

I succeeded in screwing up my GPS track so I only have part of the route ([map here]( http://www.lonsteins.com/gallery/motorcycle/stmc_20050515) ) but it was great fun.

The weather cleared this afternoon and caught me off guard. It was supposed to rain. It was going to be windy and cold. On top of that, I am on-call. I had planned this to be an entire ‘honeydew’ weekend (”Honey, do this…”) but I worked like mad yesterday and completed everything on my list and even knocked off two of the big items on Maria’s list. I even had a book ready.

I debated if I should I go… It was after three. I’ll probably get back after dark. Brooklyn is really inconvenient since getting to any good roads means crossing Manhattan. If my luck runs out I’ll be stuck in traffic on the way out or suffer two hours of it on the way back. On the bright side, I did park and cover the bike so I wouldn’t have to negotiate having my landlord move their minivan. I did leave my half a tank of gas and I charged the battery. That’s a plus but I find it hard to be impulsive when it comes to the bike. I’m cautious. I plan. I check the weather. I plot a route (even if I ignore it). I always check the bike the night before and do a quick check again before riding off. I’m an “All The Gear, All The Time” (ATGATT) sort so I never just pull on a helmet and take off, I lay out my gear. It’s my own little ritual, a superstition- always do this before the ride to ward off drowsy cagers and sandy corners. I haven’t been hurt in eighteen years of riding so it sort of works. And I didn’t do any of that.

But it was beautiful and you just don’t get opportunities like this every day. I could die tomorrow- under a bus, on a train, in a building or any of the other ways that catch you unaware- I thought. So I grabbed my gear, gave it the once over and pushed the bike to the street. I did my checks, and needed air in the front tire, and in thirty minutes I was headed out.

I’m glad I did.

It doesn’t really matter where I rode, what I saw, how it felt, what I smelled, what I thought, how far or how fast I went. I took a short ride today.

And like every one I’ve taken since I was eighteen it was the best one I’ve ever had.

To my frustration I have neither the time (the usual reasons) nor the place (no electricity or space in my landlord’s garage) to do a full annual service on my motorcycle myself this year so I took the advice of a couple of folks I know only through email lists and had my R100GSPD serviced at AMOL Motorcycles in Dumont, New Jersey. Great service, they did a top notch job. They even did little things not on the list like tighten the loose nut holding the right-hand mirror stem. It annoys the hell out of me when I can’t get that to stay and I left it just to see if they would do it but they took care of that detail too. Nice.

While I was at their shop, I ran into a fellow (Hi Johnny!) I met through SBONYC. He confirmed their reputation and said he has his work done there.

Since I had the bike and it was a perfect day and I needed to scrub in the new rear tire, I went for a short ride- a bit over a hundred miles- through Northern Jersey and Southern New York before coming home. Need to be a little cautious for the next hundred or two miles just in case the mould release compound is still slick. With a bit of luck, I’ll get out again this afternoon.