Tag Archives: goldwing

My Spontaneous Trip to Shiloh

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About three weeks ago, I attended one of those management luncheons — you know the type — where one of the speakers addressing the crowd talked about the Battle of Shiloh and more importantly, how the leadership there can be directly correlated to the present and business management principles. I’m not very much into the whole pro networking really, but I found this speech fascinating.

To that end, last Sunday afternoon I ended up at lunch with a friend, who asked “what are you going to do with the rest of your day?”. After a bit of thought, I said “50/50 shot. If the camera is on the Goldwing, I’m going to ride to Shiloh. If not, I’ll go home and go back to sleep.”

2.5 hours later (4pm), I pulled in to the Shiloh National Battleground Park lot, camera loaded and ready to stretch my legs.

grant bell shiloh My Spontaneous Trip to ShilohNow at 4pm, with another 2.5 hour ride ahead of me, I’m battling the clock for daylight. I’m also — for some incomprehensible reason — battling the park’s trinket shop which doesn’t fathom the need to carry AA batteries for when tourist’s cameras run dry.

As such, I was only able to spend time walking the National Cemetary at Shiloh (which is impressive) and taking about 50 or so pics before the camera died. I didn’t get to tour the battleground itself, but plan to go back with multiple sets of batteries and a full day to walk around.

I did however get to tour the museum on the grounds with all the civil war artifacts. While that’s always neat stuff to see, I walked away thinking only two things:

1) Every piece of clothing I saw leads me to believe that I — at 6’4″ and 320# would have been an absolute giant to these people.

2) Based on the photos on the wall, Kevin Kline did a FANTASTIC job impersonating Grant in that Wild Wild West “reimagining”. Looks EXACTLY like Grant in the movie…

So. Another 2.5 hours later, and I’m at the house, ready, or I should say “ok with” the concept of Monday. Weird thing is, and as a rider, I don’t object, the Garmin GPS took me in 100% completely different directions coming and going, meaning I saw 2x as much on the ride as I would have normally.

All this has to do me, because it’s been raining ever since, and will probably continue to do so until this upcoming Friday (the 8th)

Motorcycling in a sleet storm

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DSCF0336 300x225 Motorcycling in a sleet stormWith all the recent travel going on (and more to come) and the weather pitching in to help, I haven’t had a chance to ride much in the last month or so.

Yesterday, checking the weather channel and my iPhone apps about 7:30 am, all seemed to agree that it was 36 degrees, and the rain was clearing off by the 48 degree afternoon. To that end, and having ridden in colder climates (work is only 6 miles), I bundled up in my US Military thermals and headed off to work…

Little did I know how much the Weather Channel sucks…

Got to work, all is toasty, even at 36 degrees. Parked the bike, and resumed my day. Three hours later, lunch time, I head out for a bite, only to realize that North Alabama was in the midst of what we would consider a major sleet storm and that the predicted 48 degrees was NEVER going to happen.

To that end, I don my gear and head — carefully — back to the house. Windshield down, visor up, being pelted in the face with sleet every inch of the way. Hands frozen, legs soaking wet, and I’m sure there’s a cold or flu bug in there somewhere.

That being said, the resulting adrenaline rush from that 6 mile ride was actually really, really cool. Not something I’d want to reproduce every day, but exciting. This morning of course, as temps had dipped overnight, I drove the truck into work, sliding on ice at pretty much every intersection. Not nearly as much fun as riding.

Taking on the Dragon

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TailOfTheDragonMap 267x300 Taking on the DragonSorry for the delay in posting/podcasting guys. Belated tax season, and work’s been picking up, but I wanted to take a moment to share the last bit of fun I had (Labor Day). For about the second time in 10 years, I actually found myself with a 3-day weekend. All weekend I sat around going “I should go ride the Dragon”.

That Sunday, I met up with a friend for lunch and whined at him about my indecision. His response was simply “you should have gone…”. So…. with implicit permission in hand, I found myself leaving Huntsville at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon and riding all the way to Robbinsville, NC to visit the trails up there. Got there at 7:30pm, got the last room at the local Microtel, and rested.

The next day (Monday), got up and rode the “Tail of the Dragon” which, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, is an 11 mile stretch of US 129 which goes between Tennessee and North Carolina. What’s so frickin special about that? Well… hmmm.. in that 11 miles, there are 318 curves. Some of them so tight that you feel as though you could literally kiss your own butt going around them.

In short, motorcyclist paradise.

Gas prices, do the math…

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Gas Prices.512.512 300x293 Gas prices, do the math...I have two vehicles, a 2005 Dodge RAM pickup and a Honda Goldwing 1800 motorcycle.  I got bored this evening and decided to run some numbers to see just how much the price of gas is fscking up my life.  I think it was rather eye-opening, so you might consider doing the same.

The Dodge gets 14.5 mpg rather steadily according to the “divide gas used to fill tank by miles driven” method.  This seems irrespective of city or highway, but face it, who the hell can afford to drive a Dodge Hemi Truck long distances unless they have to, right?

The Honda Goldwing gets between 38 and 42 mpg depending on how I ride, so let’s just call it 40 for the sake of argument.  Let’s also presume (because it’s a pretty real number) that I — like most people — currently end up driving 15,000 miles per year between work, family visits, grocery runs, and whathaveyou.

So.  Just to depress myself, here’s what I came up with:

Dodge Truck == 14.5 mpg
Honda Goldwing 1800 == 40 mpg

@ $4.00 per gallon, assuming 15000 miles per year
————————————————-
Dodge : $4137.93 /yr == 344.83 per month
Honda : $1500.00 /yr == 125.00 per month

$219.83 savings per month at $4.00 per gallon

@ $5.00 per gallon, assuming 15000 miles per year
————————————————-
Dodge : $5172.41 /yr == $431.03 per month
Honda : $1875.00 /yr == $156.25 per month

$274.78 savings per month at $5.00 per gallon

@10.00 per gallon, assuming 15000 miles per year
————————————————
Dodge : $10,344.83 /yr == $863.07 per month
Honda : $3750 / yr == $312.50 per month

$550.57 savings per month at $10.00 per gallon

Meanwhile, I would *LOVE* to sell my truck and buy a Honda Accord or Civic for the mileage and insurance.  The trouble is, no one is going by book value any more and dealers are saying “we can’t give you more than $10,500, because that’s what we can get one at auction for“.  Bullshit, but who am I are to argue.

Trouble is, I still owe approximately $17.5k on the loan of the truck, which until gas prices quadrupled, was still worth every penny.  Especially considering it’s a “collector’s special edition” (It’s a Dodge Daytona edition RAM).  I’m thinking of selling it to a private buyer if I can find one, and to get as close as I can to payoff, even if I have to take out a loan for the rest.

If I can get $15,000 for it and have to take out a $2500 loan, that’s only a year to pay it off at $200 per month savings for riding the bike, and then I could find myself a 4-year-old Accord and come out much, much better.

Is that logical?

Beersheba Springs, TN ride, Hwy 56

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beersheeba Beersheba Springs, TN ride, Hwy 56Saturday.  Got up.  Rolled out of bed, met dad in Scottsboro, Alabama for a long 7 hour jaunt through Tennessee. Lots of fun, tight twisty-turnys for curves. I’d be absolutely amazed if the roads on TN-56 through Beersheeba Springs did not rival the best of the twisties from the “Tail of the Dragon”.

here’s the map link. You tell me. I took the chrome off of one of my footboards, and there was LOTS of tossing left to right.

No pictures, sorry. This was a “ride ride”, not a “tour ride”.

Movin’ On Up

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Movin On Up

When I bought the former bike (Honda VTX), I became aware of two absolute things pretty quickly;

  • It was fun, but not comfortable on long trips (for me).
  • It was not what I wanted in the end.

Enter the 2008 Honda Goldwing touring bike. Easily capable of 300-mile Saturday tours, and you can even carry your lunch or pack some clothes to go camping.

I hate saying never, but after a few long weekends, I can’t see ever riding any other type bike.