To ride or not to ride.... That is the Question

[Revlis]

What do you do?  Get out there at 11PM on a Monday night and enjoy the roads even though you have no where to go?

Or do you hang out in front of the computer, while watching American Chopper, Shorts and t-shirt on just chillin...?

I'll leave it up to the board...  Whadya think?  Where do you go?



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[cache]

ride to one of your favorite grilles.... have a steak and a drink.(just one or two)..... and enjoy your ride home.

I never thought riding at night is a good idea, but to the pub and back s'okay.

 

[Revlis]

Well I thought of that so i figure I'l just stay in the city...Plenty of light, oh and I'll be packing a SIG226....Just to quite that little voice. I'm going to see what the consensus is until 1130 or so then decide... Yeah Just sorta found myself in that YES ride, NO ride spiral...

So Far I am on my way to Hooter's...

 

[Revlis]

Well CacheMachine...Looks like a vote of one gets it today...Thanks for the push I'm off like a Prom Dress....

 

[cache]

ride safe.

 

[Revlis]

Had a good ride...Went ou taround the bridges across the bay...It was pretty gusty though.  What I found odd was the gusts didn't seem to have much of an effect while accelerating to about 170-180 indicated.  But seemed to really start tossing things around while decelerating, moving me around the lane a little bit.  I mean the winds weren't that stiff or I wouldn't have been up there at those speeds, but I just found it odd.  
 Anyhoo, went to my favorite parking garage up to the 6th floor it offers a real nice view of the Bay, Tampa International, and downtown Tampa.  Hung out there for a little while then blew back across the bridge and headed home.    Good Stuff.



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[RaiderDm]

Some guy is always playing while I'm working.

 

[fstbusa]

this shouldn't even be a question...... the combonation of not having to work and it being nice weather should tell you what you should do. You can be inside when its raining....granted I'm not as fortunate as you living in tampa...I freakin get a ton of snow in the winters so I ride EVERYDAY I can up until it snows.

 

[Revlis]

I think the fact the weather is usually so rider friendly throughout the winter that it leads to a bit of complacency. It’s the knowledge that I have a good 6 months of near perfect conditions to look forward to that removes any real sense of urgancy. But I did get out there and whoop it up last night and again today.
Today was awesome 82F, Humidity was down, nice and sunny. Had one real heart stopping moment, and I am thinking about getting a better steering damper. I am out in the country and it’s a familiar road. It’s about ½ mile straight with no side streets so as I came around the 90 deg right hander leading into it I just put my head down and hammered it through the gears. Right around the middle of 4th FWO I hit a hump in the road and Lilah and I went airborne. The revs soared and away we went. Not a huge amount of air prolly just 3-4 inches over a good distance. Anyway when I came down apparently my throttle hand had pulled the front just enough off center to created a pretty serious slapper. The bar tossed my left hand off the bar, then the right just about got away from me. Anyway, I always ride holding on with my thighs nice and snug keeping my body weight off the bar and I think that pretty much kept things intact. I got back into the throttle as quickly as possible and things seemed to sort themselves out. Then I hit the brakes real hard and tooled through the following series of corners. Basically I was just along for the ride, I don’t know if there was anything I could have done one way or another and honestly I was all wrapped up in just holding on… Had to pull over and remove the seat cover from my ass and put on a clean pair of shorts though.
Otherwise it was a really great ride and I got the new rear scrubbed in pretty well

 

[MET]

Ride Ride Ride...

 

[Mikey D]

ride to one of your favorite grilles.... have a steak and a drink.(just one or two)..... and enjoy your ride home.

I never thought riding at night is a good idea, but to the pub and back s'okay.  

I love riding at night. During the summer (90 out at midnight!) when the sno-birds are gone, a trip down to tortilla flats on the empty twisty roads...

It's a beautiful thing!

 

[Ride_or_Fish]

OMG! The temperature highs will get down to about 80F by this weekend with lows in the upper 60's. I may have to use the choke just to get the bike to start... 'Good thing it's got fresh Mobil 1.

 

[VaBusa]

Wow Rev...sound like one of those "pucker factor" moments...glad you didn't go down...

Sorry 'bout the shorts though! :tounge:

Glad you went riding...I had the chance to yesterday on our way to see "Matrix Revolutions", but I was worried it would get really cold coming home late at night...wouldn't you know it, it was 64 degrees and beautiful all the way home! We passed tons of bikes out for one last nice ride while the weather's nice...I missed it...haven't been on Caesar for nearly two weeks now...hell, I don't even remember my last ride!

 

[Ride_or_Fish]

The only difficulty about night riding is the distance from the ocean: the farther inland you go, the more ufo's you eat.

 

[Revlis]

The only difficulty about night riding is the distance from the ocean: the farther inland you go, the more ufo's you eat.

You Ain't kidding... Sometimes it's real handy staying on the bridges and along the beach.

Yeah It's going to be downright chilly here this weekend from what I've heard...Down to like 50 deg or something this weekend. I'll have to bust out my uh..."Cold Weather" gear...


VA, It was a serious pucker factor and a reminder that the Busa owns me, not the other way around. I think she was just knocking me back down a notch cause I actually started thinking I had some skill there for a few days... Cleared that right up!

 

[RaiderDm]

Do I see/hear Patterson???

 

[BulletTrain]

Basically I was just along for the ride, I don’t know if there was anything I could have done one way or another and honestly I was all wrapped up in just holding on… Had to pull over and remove the seat cover from my ass and put on a clean pair of shorts though.
 Otherwise it was a really great ride and I got the new rear scrubbed in pretty well

Dang, bro! Glad you pulled out of it without going down! Hopefully the rectum didn't mangle the seat cover too badly. If the only casualty was your shorts and the seat cover you're still ahead of the game though!

Again, glad you stayed up, man. I'd hate to hear about Lilah and Rev hittin' the ground!

 

[Revlis]

Do I see/hear Patterson???  

I can neither confirm nor deny that Sir.

There was a golf course to my left....

Bulletrain...  I don't think it was so much a going down sort of thing as a WTF was all that about kinda thing...  I am going to get that seat recovered tommorrow...It'll never be the same...  Just didn't expect the Busa to shake it's head at me like that...  It's so firmly planted most of the time...  Just surprised me and made me feel like a dipsh^t...   I was glad I was riding alone...  There were no witnesses... to see me in need of  

 

[gcal]

i would not consider no wittness's lucky.
think about it (knock on wood) what if somthing did happen and you couldn't get help?
here in portland we ride alot in the summer and ever chance we get(it rains alot).
between the wife kid and college i only have time at night (late, like leave the house at 11pm get back at3 4 am) to hit twisties or go to were ever the portland group is popin wheels and stoppies, and i always try to get a riding buddy. you never know when u bust somthing and have to leave your bike on the side of the road to get help.will it be there, if so is it in one piece when you get back?
thats all your thinking.
be carefull bro.
i always let some one know ill be back at 3 am or what ever time i usaully plan to come back, if not call the clavery. do what u must but learn from others mistakes.
ride safe.

 

[Revlis]

Well in theory G, if I had gone down at that particular time I would probably have been in fairly decent shape. The road is straight and there is a decent width grassy are on both sides. It is also a frequently traveled road and the "High speed" blast with resultant headshake was actually on Tuesday afternoon so while there were no witnesses in my immediate AOR, there were plenty of golfers who probably would have taken the time to at least yell at me for speeding.

Night time High Speed blasts down here for me are strictly limited to the bridges, arrow straight, no cross traffic, and at least two wide lanes. The other has four wide lanes and a huge grassy runoff area towards the end....

What I am trying to say is at night time I stay out of the countryside, there's deer, and racoons, and Armidillo's and all manner of critters waiting for me out there at night. So I stick to the bridges and major roads after dark.