Tink Tink Tink Cure

They say a picture is worth a thousand words..plus you can't mis-speel anything

Tink Tink Tink

That is the sound that occurs when you take the keys out of Kawasaki Concours and they slip out of your hand and fall down into the fairing hitting the valve cover, engine cylinders, and exhaust system before they come to rest somewhere you simply can't reach in and get them. Then it is time to listen to the sound of 10 screws coming out of the bottom fairing pan.

Sigh

Runnin on Empty

This weekend I competed in the MinuteMan1000 24 rally. (this might be a separate post). I am in Whitney Point, NY about 30 miles east of Cornell University my last rally bonii of the day. It is 224 miles according to my Garmin from Whitney to Northampton, the finish line. I can make it without having to stop for gas..Woo Hoo. Fast forward to I91 between exits 17 and 18. Only a few miles left. Bike begins to sputter, I switch to reserve, the bike fires back to life, I check in a rally HQ at precisely 6:12. On the Connie, reserve always comes on at the 225 mile mark.

The next couple of hours is spent talking about our experiences, just walking around to get the stiffness out from sitting on our bikes for the last 24 hours. Finally breakfast is served right around 10:30 with the award ceremony that follows. Award and certificates are handed out, I run into a fellow NP Touring member that I have never meet before from Fredericksburg, VA. We chat about chasin stuff, and how we file things and stuff like that. We say our goodbyes and its off to the bike to go home.

I am riding down I91, exit right to the Mass Pike, had to interpret which way to go East or West (after all I have been up for nearly 30 hours at this point), choose the right way and heading for home. Push the Garmin and see it is 20 more miles to the exit. Ride abit, boy I am tired, maybe I should pull over into the Service Plaza and rest. No point finishing a good run at the rally with a crash because I am tired. Pull in. Go to McDonalds and get one of their $1 sweet teas, proceed to the picnic tables across the parking lot, bike is in eyesight of me and proceed to doze off. (Why is it important that the bike be visible if I am going to fall asleep)

There's this jumble at the table. Someone else has sat down at the picnic table and wakes me up. Time to go anyways. Walk to the bike, take glasses of, put helmet on, put glasses back on, put riding jacket on, start bike up, mount up and we are good to go. Now don't forget where I am. Ride around the parking lot, make a right turn toward the entrance ramp, ride past the 20 or so gas pumps at the service plaza, accelerate a bit and make my way onto the Mass Pike.

Riding along, thinking what a smart rider I was for pulling over to rest rather than fall asleep on the bike. Sppp Sppput SSpit. Ah the bike is sputtering, reach down to turn to Reserve, What's this, it's already on Reserve, look at the tripometer that I was set at each gas fillup. It reads 283 miles, aw FUCK, I am running out of gas.

So here I am, out of gas and watching the trucks and cars zoom past me on the Mass Pike. It felt like be on one of the corners of a NASCAR race. Yeah I ran out of gas on a curve. Hey I have RVRoadHelp and I get to finally see how this works (always try to find a silver lining in the clouds) . I call, go thru their menu, which they ask me if I want it in Spanish or English (in spanish they ask me this), and get...

"all of our agents are busy assisting other customers right now, you are important to us and we will answer you call in the order it was received"...

"all of our agents are busy assisting other customers right now, you are important to us and we will answer you call in the order it was received"...

"all of our agents are busy assisting other customers right now, you are important to us and we will answer you call in the order it was received"

you get the point,

Jerome: Hi my name is Jerome (i might be making the name up), Can you tell me your name and membership number"

Me: blah blah blah, ME Thought Bubble, we do they ask for this when you had to plug it in before you even got a chance to get to the point to wait for someone to take your call, Do they really need it or is it because it has been so long they forgot the number I plugged in. ME Make Note to Myself lie the next time they ask about your membership number.

Jerome: What kind of vehicle to do you have

Me blah blah blah

Jerome: How can I assist you today

Me: I have run out of gas

Between Jerome and Me we establish I am right by Exit 10 on the Mass Pike, in Auburn, MA.

Jerome: You will have to call the Mass Turnpike Authority, you are on a limited access road.

ME: You can't help Me ?

Jerome: I have the number here. No I am sorry we are not authorized to go on the Mass Pike.

ME: So you can't help me.

Jerome: I am sorry

Me Thought Bubble I really don't believe Jerome gives a rat ass about me, being stuck on the Mass Pike, out of gas. The price you pay for stupidity. Drats

Well I call Tavana, she is home and is more than willing to come to her Dads rescue. We establish she and Jeff (her boyfriend) has to head west a bit so they are coming East on the Mass Pike. I am waiting, realizing it is really hot out here, wondering when the next vehicle will swing wide and take me and my bike out. I say to myself, I sure hope they come in Jeff's truck so it it visible for the oncoming traffic.

So down the road comes this huge truck and pulls over. Well aren't they nice, maybe it is one of the highway guys, but the truck is not yellow. Hey hey hey, Its Jeff and Tavana in a dump truck. Now this thing is huge and sure is visible on the highway and if anything hits it other than an 18 wheeler we are safe.

The rest of the story is anti-climatic other than Tavana bringing a bottle of water, which was really nice of her. She is always thinking!! So thank ya T, I love ya.

Moral of the story: Running out of gas is like....like....like...really stupid. There is no moral to this story !

Does Anybody Know What Time It Is..Does Anybody Care?

Thats was a great Chicago song, but in Rallies time counts. It is the one measurement that is absolute…well sorta.

This is the final chapter on the MM1000. If you read the previous blog, I mentioned 20 seconds. I pulled into rally HQ at 6:12. They gave me a card and said proceed to the scoring tables.

Being brand new I had no idea what to expect. I went into the room just to scope out what was going out. There was a long table with 6 people sitting at it, all with laptop computers in front of them. After scoping the “Officials” out, I left to organize myself and make sure I had everything. Inside my clipboard and tank bag are the documents and receipts I needed. I grabbed a roll of scotch tape that I had brought with me specifically for taping the receipts to a piece of paper. Hey I am an accountant, I am used to providing documentation to folks.

First organizing point. Compare the Fuel Log I kept to the receipts I have. Check the receipts to make sure they all have the mileage written on them. Tape the first receipt to the log, then second staggered over the first, third staggered over third, etc etc.. Compare the log for completeness. First task complete

Second, tape the Beginning Rest bonus receipt to the Fuel log, find the second one and tape in a staggered manner like the fuel receipts. Task Complete

Reread the Rally book for the bonii I completed and make sure the Date, Time and Mileage is on all rally book entries, make sure I have complied with all of the written word. Reading is FunDaMental !!!

Tape the receipt for the Grade A, Dark Amber Maple syrup I purchased in CT to the fuel log. I realize I left both the syrup and my camera on the bike. Back out and grab these items. As I approach the scoring room, I flashback to those days when you enter your final exam room, SATs and CPA exams. "Hey this is only a game", I say to myself, I let the air out of my lungs and walk in.

All of the scorers are busy, so I take a seat against the wall and just start to daydream. One of the scorers is freed up and he looks at me and says, You ready?. Well here goes wish me luck.

It is at this point I realize I am really really tired. This is it. Nothing I do from now on will affect my outcome of rally. He asks me for my digital card out of the camera and plugs it into the reader attached to his laptop. I tell him it is easy. I only went to the Poison Ivy locations, Only 8 locations to verify. He goes thru these and makes a comment “Quite impressive, I haven’t done anybody that completed all of these” Wow this is a good sign, I think to myself.

Next he verifies my fuel log. All ok, everything is going great. He then is flipping the beginning and ending rest bonus receipts back and forth. He does this about 5 or 6 times and gets up. He says I’ll be right back. About minute later he comes back.

Me: “Is there a problem”.
Scorer: “Sorry Bill, we can’t allow your rest bonus”.
Me: “Why not”
Scorer: “You were not there the prescribed 2 hours”
Me: “What, Yes I was”
Scorer: “Your beginning receipts says 12:38:50, your ending receipt says 2:38:30.
Me: “Let me see them” I look and see there it is, 20 seconds shy of 2 hours.
Me: “You are going to disallow this for 20 seconds?”
Scorer: “Rob (the rally master) says I have to”

I now know why the Rally Master is referred to as the RB or Rally Bastard.

At this point I realized my score is cooked. Without the 5,000 points I can’t possibly obtain a good position.

He picks up the syrup. Again he gets up. WTF !. He comes back and Rob is standing over him this time. Bill the syrup was made in Canada and it had to made, bottled and sold in New England. I said let see that. I grab the nearest sharpie turn the bottle over and where it says PRODUCT OF CANADA, I put a “, Mass” next to it and say See Made in Mass. He chuckles. He has me on this one.

Fast forward to the award ceremony and the Rob, the rally bastid is announcing how everyone did.

In 10th place Bill Collins with 14,010 points in the Rally class. Now my real score is 19,010 in my mind. In 9th place ….. with 15870 points…..in 6th place we have ….with 18400 points, in 4th place we have Wayne and Robin Edkin with 21,000 points. So those 20 seconds cost me 5 places and 5th overall.

Today as I write this, I keep reminding myself …it’s just a game; it’s just a game …ohmmmmm ohmmmmm.

Final Thoughts: I achieved all of the objectives I set out to accomplish and in my mind I can say I finished 5th, but to all others I have to say I finished 12th. Somewhere between the award ceremony and the posting on the internet, I lost another 2 places.

Will I do this again? Isn't gluttony a deadly sin, do I need to say more? BAG!.

20 Seconds over Whitney Point

The 30 seconds over Tokyo with the Enola Gay did far more physical damage that my 20 seconds but 2 dates and times will be remembered by me for a lifetime. First time is 12:38:50. This is the time on my receipt for the start of my Rest Bonus at Whitney Point NY. The next 2 hours will be spent off the bike for a much needed rest. Wayne and Robin are also taking their rest bonus at the same location along with a guy with a really nice looking K1200RS Another guy pulls in on a BMW GS bike and is on his way to Itaca. He asks if there is anything he should know. I say to him, just make sure you get the right statue and he dashes off into the night. Across the street is an open Subway shop and I have a much needed sandwich. I really haven't had a thing to eat all day.

Well it's finally here, it is time to begin the final chapter on this rally. I have calculated (or should I say the GPS has) it is 229 miles from Whitney Point to Northampton. I can make it without stopping for gas. I look down at my clock on the bike and it is 2:35. The next 3 minutes seem like an eternity. I have also calculated that I might be a tad over 24 hours, which will cost me 10 points for every minute I am late up to 1 hour over. After that you are disqualified. By my rough estimates I have 10 or so minutes to make up.

It's now 2:37. It's amazin how much you can think of in a minute. Finally the clock rolls over to 2:38. In goes the credit card (at the beginning of all credit card transaction it lays down the date and time stamp), I push the button for credit...machine goes "waiting for authorization....", Please select the grade you want. I push 87, it says begin fueling, I lift the pump and turn the handle on and the gas spews out of nozzle into the tank. It takes $5.38 of gas. I wait for the receipt to print. Look for the Date/Time, Locations and Gallons on Receipt, write the Odometer reading from the bike on the receipt, enter my info into the Fuel Log for the rally, close the tank up, put the tank bag back on the tank, put the key into the ignition, start the bike up, take my glasses off, put my helmet on, put my glasses on, put my gloves on, and throw my leg over the seat, put the kickstand up, pull the clutch in, drop to first gear, and finally move. Now how long was it from the time of the credit card swipe to the time the bike moved, keeping in mind that I have not left the gas station. Stay tuned for the scoring table results

For the next 3.5 hours I fight fog, darkness, unannounced gravel roads, unannounced move left on our interstates, grogginess, and just plain being wore down. THe GPS took me out RT206 snaking its way thru the NY countryside to I88. ( http://tinyurl.com/6feuns) I am sure this is great road to be on during the day, where you would say this is a road everybody should try. At 2:45am this is not a great road. It is narrow, winding, up and down hills which holds the morning fog very efficiently (note I did not say nicely). At the first turn from the gas station which takes you onto RT206, the town or state has ripped up all the pavement to put something in. Not only is there no pavement, but there are plenty of holes in the road to contend with along with the dirt and gravel, plus this road is going up a hill. Sometimes you even ask yourself why do I do this.

During these last hours, I pass a bunch of signs with the deer icon on them that says 1/2 mile. You know the one that has them prancing about. I pass thru these cautionary zones without incident and wonder when Bambi learned to read and wonder if they comply with the signs or are they rebels wandering outside these state mandated caution zones. I know some don't comply because there are plenty on the side of the road taking naps. You would thing they would rest in the woods.

Some of the nicest riding times in a riders life is when the sun has not shown itself but is coming up for the day. It is just light enough you can see down the road, the sky has purples, yellows, oranges on the horizon, the air is cool, crisp and new. It is peaceful and tranquil. Life is good !

For these last couple of hours I have either been following Wayne and Robin or they have been following me. After we have both fought with Rt206 we finally make it I88 which will take us to the MassPike and into Northampton on I91. Someplace on I88 they have reduced the road to 2 lanes one for eastbound and the other for westbound traffic. At this point I am following Wayne and all of the sudden the bike is jumbling (this is kind of like onomatopoeia jumbling). I realize neither one of us are really on the road anymore. The single lane highway has swung left and we are sorta in the berm. Well I will tell you it was not talent that kept me up, it was sheer luck and that angel that flies with us on our bikes. I will say I did not feel compelled to get on the brakes, because this would have surely brought me to kissing the dirt below me. While this seemed like a 4 minute adventure, I am sure it was more like 10 seconds. Both of us swerved left and were back up on the pavement and we continued on a merry way. Phew and thank you angel.

On I91 heading for exit 18. Maybe 3 miles for the HQ, bike sputters, I must be at the 225 mile mark, reach down turn the Resever on, bikes fires back up and we are good to go. At 6:12 I cross the rally finish line. They hand me a card to take with me to the scoring table. I am back, completed 1000+ miles, have 8 bonii under my tires and maybe only 9 penalty late minutes.

FunDaMental Riding

This past weekend I entered the MinuteMan1000 24 Rally. (http://www.minuteman1000.com/ ) In this type of rally you are provided a rally book that contains numerous locations that you can travel to. Each of these locations has a point value. Each location has its own unique instructions that you must follow to successfully get the points value. The objective is to ride to these locations and the one with the most points at the end, WINS! Simple eh ? From an arm chair, I win all of them.


At the riders meeting the night before the actual rally you are given the rally book. After we are dismissed from the rider meeting everyone takes off for their rooms to plan the best possible route. Now the theme of our rally was Reading is FunDaMental. While riding is a very important element, thorough reading is just as important.


My self imposed objectives of my first rally were:A> Interpret and plan a route that is competitive B> Execute this route C> Finish D> Be organized with the documentation that I do not give up any acquired points E> Good place standing, but not as important as the first 4.


Back in my room I am busily putting in the 55 or so bonii (bonus locations) into MapSource. MS is the route and mapping tool that comes with my Garmin 2610 GPS. This enables you to plan a route on a computer and then download into the actual GPS unit. Each location is worth generally between 150 to 1000 points. With them all entered, I decide I need to get the overall picture of what's going on. Sitting back, I begin reading each description of the bonii. I finally come to the last page, which has bonus type bonii. These are special pots of gold. For instance there is a rest bonus worth 20,000 points which requires you to take a break for 2 consecutive hours at one location. At the riders meeting the point value for this was corrected to 5,000. This is still high enough that you must take advantage of it to be considered in the the top 10 finishes.

The Poison Ivy bonii. This is a progressive bonus. Contained in the rally book are locations of the Ancient Eights or the Ivy League schools. If you visited 5 of them you got and additional 1000 points, 6 was 2000, 7 was 4000 and visit all 8 got you a whooping 8,000 points plus the value of each location to boot.

I had this preconceived route I was going to take which took me up thru Vermont thru New Hampshire over to Maine and back to Northampton MA, the rally headquarters. However after reading the Poison Ivy, I created a route that takes me to all the Ivy League schools. North to Dartmouth, down to Harvard, south to Brown, then Yale, Columbia (ych Manhattan), cross the river to Princetown NJ, a little further south and west to the University of PA in Philly, and finally up to Ithaca for Cornell and back to HQ. MS says this is around 1066 miles or so.

Some mental math I realize I would have to stop at 22+ locations to capture this many points. It's easy to plot stopping at locations in the computer, but in the real world it takes time to stop and do what you have to do to prove you were there and this is against a real clock.

How do you get the points for a stop. Well this is in the instructions. Remember Reading is FunDaMental. One stop might ask you to answer a question about the location. Generally this is a question that is not common knowledge and requires you to ride there. The question might be what store is directly across the street from the Library. Most of the time you have to take a photograph of the location. In the photograph, your rally flag must appear (unless otherwise specified, reading is FunDaMental). I was rider Number 8, obviously.

In a 24 hour rally you have of 24 hours to complete the run without penalty. If you exceed 24 hours you are penalized 10 points for each minute over 24 hours up to the 25th hour, after that you are disqualified. With this being my inaugural rally, I allocated the time as follows: Rest Bonus 2 hours + Riding time for 1000 and 11oo miles 18 hours (I did a Saddlesore 1000 and completed 1066 miles in 18 hours, this is how I came up with this) +Gas stops 1000 miles with 225 to a tank 1000/ 225 = 4.4 stops figure 4 times 15 minutes = 1 Hour

Time left for bonii (24-2-18-1)= 3 hours or 360 minutes. Figure 15 minutes a stop. Remember you must get your rally flag in most of the pictures so this generally requires you stop, park and place the rally flag someplace that can be in the picture. With the 15 minutes that would equate to 24 locations you could travel to, but this is under optimal conditions. Traffic can get in the way, having to park a couple of blocks away from the bonii and walk takes time, so 15 minutes maybe a little on the light side. If you use 30 minutes this is 12 locations. In all my question of other people in rallies it seems 15 is a good number to use for planning purposes and this was my first one after all. There was one quote in a rally, "here is the menu, you may select as many items as you desire but if you select too many items and try to consume them all, you will die".

With all that in mind I created a route for the 8 Ivy League schools. Here is what the route basically looked like [ http://tinyurl.com/64bpdp ]. If after Cornell I had time there were bonii locations I could pick up on my way back to Northampton

First stop. Dartmouth College. Seemed like everyone headed for Dartmouth because a ton of us landed there. This is where I ran into Wayne and Robin on their K1200LT for the first time. What a nice bike. First stop went flawlessly. Off to the nest stop



Next destination was Harvard University. The instructions indicated it was acceptable to pull up and take a picture, No Rally Flag required. Rumor had it, it was going to be a very hot day. The trip down from NH was just about perfect and even had it's cool spots. I was pretty lucky with the traffic in Cambridge. Breezed in and out. I think I got here around 10 AM.

It is off to Providence RI to Brown University Book Store. (note the theme is centered all around Reading is FunDaMental). The heat is beginning to pick up a bit especially on the slabs such as I95. I arrive at the bookstore at around 11am . I was able to park almost right in front of the book store. How lucky is that? Get my picture and take a break to drink down some fluids. It is during this stop I recognized it was really hot out. I am guessing it is 95 or so. As part of the entrance fee we received a wicking shirt with the MM1000 logo on it. I had been meaning to buy one of these. I am sold on them now, this shirt was a life saver.





Next stop is Yale University in New Haven, CT. The journey to Yale proved to be more difficult than the rest of the stops. Traffic had picked up and the heat was becoming pretty intense. Requirement of this picture was to be able to see the Sterling in the photo. It is right over the entrance way. It is now about 1pm. It is friggin hot out !!






Columbia University is located in Manhattan, however if you carefully read the bonii descriptions, it offered an alternate location in Palisades NJ that would satisfy the requirement for the points. Now I am originally from Joisey but had never really been on the Palisades Parkway or 9W. 9W parallels the Hudson River and quite scenic. It is 3:30 or so.




Off to Princeton University in Princeton NJ. I have been here 3 times in my life all for the New Jersey State swimming championships back in the 60's. As I am driving to Princeton I have time to reflect back on my life in high school. I do not have a MP3 player or music on the bike, so I get to think about alot of stuff. Most of the stuff I can't remember what I thought about, but it must be good, because I never get upset about it. I had to walk abit to get to this location. As I was leaving a student on a bike stopped me and asked what I was doing. I explained the rally to him and made sure I reinforced it was not about speed but pace and long distance riding. It's now 5pm.


I had one really hair raising event on my way here. I am on Route 1 at a stop light. I look in my mirrors and see a red van about 1/2 mile back moving kind of fast for a stop light. At about 200 yards this van has not slowed down. I begin to release the clutch to get out his way. At about 100 yards, I start saying OMG I am gonna die. At a guess of 50 yards, this guy finally veers right to the berm and runs the red light and keeps going. Yup he did not see me and my guardian angel must of tugged on his steering wheel. This is first experience like this on the bike I have had in a very long time. Phew !

Man it's hot and the roads into Philly are junk. These roads have those lines which are dug up to put wires or whatever below the surface, which they fill with tar and other junk, which proceed to heave upwards and cause a bump every 1/10th of mile. Well everytime I hit one of these the GPS would shut off and come back on. Now this is not good because I have never been to Philly and I really need the directions. Just as the GPS would start to spout out another direction I would hit another bump, another shut off , comes back on, wait for the GPS to acquire the satellites again, repeat the process. Anyways, I was pretty darn hot and my eyes were killing me from riding for so long. It is around 7pm and I have been riding for 13 straight hours. I took a well deserved break at Dunkin Donuts, gulping down 2 things of water and had a granola bar. In the bonii description, there was no mention of taking a photo here, but we needed to answer a question. You had to be there to find the right statue of Ben Franklin with the words "Venerated for benevolence..." This bonii required a correct answer to a the question, Who said the quote on the statue about Ben. Well there were 3 names on this statue. So which person said it. The inscription of the words carved into the statue, seemed to been up against the elements and was well weathered and worn down, hence the actual inscription was very difficult to make out. As I was walking around I happen to look down and the picture at the right is what I saw. I must be getting tired at this point. Answer to question I wrote in George Washington. Remember reading is FunDaMental. I erased this entry and put in Washington, just like it said on the plague. For all I know it could of been Jeffrey Washington.

Up until Philly I was ahead of schedule by a whole hour, but I burned through this. I had trouble finding the statue and was just plain tired. All part of the rally experience. The sun is finally dropping down and it is beginning to cool off. Next stop is Cornell University in Ithaca NY, a mere 230 miles away. As I am leaving Philly there are alot of really neat bridges that have these huge arches in them. Sometime this summer I will be stopping back here for some INK. The ride to Cornell is actually delightful. We are deep enough into the season where the daylight is approaching the longest day. It is not getting dark until about 9pm at night. Estimated arrival time in Ithaca is 11pm.

The road off the interestate to Ithaca is a county highway (Rt79) which has gentle sweepers and dips and rises on the hills. It also seems (remember it is dark out) to be surrounded by woods and farms, just a perfect place for for deer and other animals to congregate. In these situations, I love to find a car that is driving at a decent speed to work as a deer and other animal blocker/catcher. I found such a car and pretty much followed them the whole 30 miles to Ithaca. They were moving a respectable 55 - 60 mph, which is faster than I could have traveled on this road comfortably without such assistance.

Requirement here is to get a picture of one of the statues of Ezra Cornell, one of the founders. I stop and ask a couple of people where I might find the statue and they point behind some buildings and say, "Right there on the quad". I park the bike in an reserved parking area, but it is behind a dumpster, so I am not taking any ones place and begin walking. As I round the building, I hear music and it is becoming louder as I walk. The campus also seems to be lit up. Yup there is a huge party going on. I am guessing this is a graduation party and there were tons of kids there. I walk to one statue and start to put my flag on it, when I ask a student who is sitting at the statue, is this Ezra Cornell. He says no, pointing across the quad says, "he is directly across from here. Just go thru the middle of the party and exit out the other side and he is right there". Well you had to have a button to get into the party so the campus police make me walk around the party. It's 12am and I get my final picture of the rally.

WooHoo, I have successfully captured all of the bonuses I had planned. Now all I have to do is find a 24 rest stop, take my Rest Bonus and make a run for Rally HQ. I have been running for almost 18:35:50 hours straight and looking forward to being off the bike for 2 hours. I remember passing a hugh Exxon station that appears to be a 24 hour place on my way to Ithaca. I head back out the way I came into Ithaca, this time picking up a pick-up truck that is really making some miles on Rt 79. I actually follow him right into the station that I planned to take the rest stop at. Low and behold I run into Wayne and Robin again. Oh how do I know I have been running for exactly that many hours. Well I pulled into the Exxon station and clocked my time at 12:38:50 and my start time was 6:03. Buts that another blog to be written

Connie has Harley Envy

The joke used to be that HD’s were like drip coffee makers. Front fork oil drips, engine drips, transmissions drips, but alas no coolant drips. This past week I completed a 3200 loop with my friend Steve, who has a 2002 Road King. He has tastefully applied the obligatory chrome in strategic spots, has made some parts and adapted others for a truly one of kind HD. Here's a pic of Steve's Road King.
Well every time we stopped, someone come over to compliment what a nice looking bike he has and questions him where he got a particular part or piece of chrome. Of course Steve puffs up his chest up and lists out exactly how or where to get the stuff. My poor 2006 Kawi Concours listens to the people eww and ahhh about Steve’s RK. From time to time I say to them, but what about this bike, isn’t it nice. The people would look up and say "sure sure" and go back to drooling over Steve’s bike.

Right around the 4th day into our trip, it was a cool crisp morning in Tellico Plains, TN. This town is where the Cherohala Skyway begins. I decided it would be good to give the Connie a good warm up, so I insert the key, pull the choke back, and it roars to life. First idling around 700 rpm and in about 30 secs kicks into a full 3000 rpm rant. I pull the choke back a bit to slow it down to a 1100 rpm purr. I go about my business putting stuff in the rear trunk, repacking some clothes and other such pre ride stuff.

The bike is warmed up enough and the owner at the Hog Pit comes out to talk, so I shut the Connie down. A few minutes later the Connie is dripping some fluid from the bottom. Hey wait a minute it has a greenish hue to it, hey hey hey it’s coolant. Sigh, shit, where’s my RVRoadHelp card, and I wonder where the nearest Kawi dealer is. I lie down on the ground, looking thru the various opening in the fairing to see, if I can spot a leak someplace. Nada.

Pull a screwdriver and remove the 10 screws that hold the bottom fairing panel off. Nothing. Start the Connie up and lie under the bike to see if I can spot anything. Steve thinks we are gonna have to remove the next layer of fairing. He just loves to take things apart by the way. Bike is running and nothing. Shut the bike off and all is ok. Go figa.

The Connie has been listening to this ewwing and ahhing for almost a week now. Who has been running 75 mph and just purring along with the RK bearly (slight literary exaggeration) keeping up on the hill climbs. I could hear this little voice saying, “Geeeez RK, you have to downshift to make it up this little hill. Hey Willie, give it a little twist, I want to spew some exhaust on the King. Of course I comply and we quickly pull away from the RK. I can just see the Connie grinning with a chesire type smirk.

At one of our stops a passer by notices there appears to be oil all over the back of the rear rim. Of course I have to lie down to see it. It appears the rear end is leaking that stinky 80/90W hypoid gear oil. Another sigh and I turn to Steve and say, let’s find an auto part store. We are just getting ready to jump onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for a nice afternoon spin to Front Royal. I have to buy an adjustable wrench to check the rear fluid. Up on the center stand, we spin the cover off and Steve spins the wheel. “Looks like there is plenty of juice in here”, he says. Steve really likes to do this stuff . I said, “Well just to be on the safe side I will buy some oil and we will check it”. Get the stuff, cut the top off with the knife I bought 2 years ago and never used until now and Steve bends down and shoots some juice in. One small squirt and the stuff is flowing out the side. It is full. Back into the store to get a bunch of plastic bags to pack the 99.97% unused portion of the hypoid stuff.

About 9pm we decide to get off Skyline Drive and ride the rest of the way to Front Royal on regular roads. We have seen 5 deer and 3 bears on the BRP and SD and it is dark out.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Crisp morning, re do the start up sequence ala Hog Pit morning. Yup small coolant droppings, the rear rim is still got oil on it, with a fresh drip on the side of the tire, and now it decides to leave some regular oil on the ground. This is the first time for the regular oil thing. Not much, just enough to make you give a sigh. Check the oil and it is ok. Geez, I just got this bike in September of 2007 and it only has 14,500 miles on it at this point. Thank god for 4 year warranties.

I really think the Connie had Harley envy and wanted to be complimented just like Steve’s bike. So for the rest of the trip every time we stopped I pleaded with the people to say hello to the Connie and tell it how nice it was. No drips for the rest of the trips. Go figa.! OH BTW This is my Connie.