Joined Sep 1998
3K Posts | 57+
NC, US
Hey guys,
Well, it's finally happened. I got the bike out for it's inaugeral ride while in my posession. Oh yes, we(Husyodaddy & I) went for a ride today. So let's get down to business, shall we?
Well, first I guess I should tell you how I prepare for an "Ironman" ride. Most people just grab their gear and go, some may meditate and still others may grab some lunch before heading out. Me? I go to the dentist. Yes sir, at 9 am I'm sitting pretty having my gums peeled back on two quandrants so they can scrape the teeth and bone to clean it up. After that they shoot some napalm in your mouth to make sure it will stay inflamed for the rest of the day. It's also sure to keep you foaming blood for another good 4 hours. After that, back in the ride and off to put the rear tire back on, change the oil and load up the bikes. I went by bro's house, and he was waiting out front for me ready to go! We loaded his bike up, stopped at Wal-ly World to pick up a gas can and another set of ratchet straps, then off to pick up my newer, more powerful and prettier bike than bro's KTM.
We stopped on the way out and grabbed $60+ in gas, thanks to those heartless terrorists that sit in our whitehouse(oops, did I say that?). Still foaming at the mouth, we buy some lemon flavored Daisani and some peanuts, and head out to the riding area. We pull in and start gearing up and pulling the bikes off the trailer. What's this? a flat front tire? well sir, I should have checked that at one of the 5 gas stations we passed. So we load the bike back up and I make the 12 mile round trip to get some air and now we're really crusing, no kidding around now, we're going to ride! We pull the bike off, and we put on our gear.... hmmm, where's my helmet visor? Seems I left it in my bag from the flight back from Nevada. Oh, bro gets a kick out of this, and is sure to snap a few photos of me looking like a short bus rider.
Well, we get on our bikes, and Charles pushes his happy-button and his bike starts up. I begin kicking
. After 5 kicks max, it roars to life! Oh, the joy and happiness. We ride off into the woods and Charles immediately begins to lose me. We ride the easy and not so easy, then hop over the road to the "not easy at all" section of the trails. I make a mental note to tell bro that I do not like this part of the trails. There's a crap load of water breaks, huge humped banks, and you get kind of happy hopping them, then there's a sharp turn and you're left hanging. Also, there's a steep uphill and downhill, uphill is rocky and downhill is clay(read: snot). I only make it uphill the first time without stopping, the other times I get hung up on a sharp turn and have to hop off the bike and walk it the rest of the way to the top. This came in handy the second time around though, because as I was laying over the seat thinking I was going to die, I saw that the kickstart bolt was backing out, so I tightened that when we went back to the truck. I made it to the top and began down the steep downhill, where bro snapped this lovely pic of me idling down testing the strength of the brakes.
We did two laps then went to the truck for some water and I tightened my kickstart retaining bolt. Everything else looked in great order, so we hopped back on our bikes and went off for our next lap. I think it's about a 6 mile lap, and I never got past third gear. I think bro probably did more than that, but it's really tight stuff, and everytime I would grow a set and hit the gas, the trail would disappear, or head into tight growth woods where you get the hell beat out of you if you try to straighten the line too much. So, I kept a lid on it.... until lap 5. You'll hear more about lap 5 after lap 4.
Well, I had passed a couple hints along bro's path of consciousness about how much that expert part of the trail was, but he's either as stupid as I look in my helmet, or he enjoys watching me in pain. So, to get him to slow the hell down, I tell him that I'll go forward and snap a couple of shots. He fell for it and I headed off and began parking myself at various turns and waiting for him to come through. We got some good shots, and I really liked the fact that my life wasn't hanging in the balance all the time, so we both won on this lap. I still had to go up and down the hill of death, and I had to walk it up the last part, but I was rested so it wasn't so bad.
We got to the split where we could either a) go right and head back to the truck or b) go left and do another lap. Mentally, I pleaded "a. a. aaa. A. A! AAAAAaaaaa!!!!!!! AAA darnit!!!! Bro went with b. I gotta work on that telepathy crap, or it's going to be the death of me. So we head out for another lap, and I've given up all pretense of keeping up w/bro, and decide to just relax and try some new stuff. I start through the easy and not so easy parts, speeding up a little, and by the time I get to the hill o' death, I'm cooking! I still run out of steam halfway up it though, but quickly remount and head back down the other side, rotors glowing to announce my arrival to any people ahead of me.
I get through the bad stuff, and it opens up a little with a straight shot with these water breaks in them, so I'm in third and jumping them, when I jump the last one, I realize there's very little trail left, and I'm going way too fast to make the hard left to get over the bridge, So I hit the brake(singular). Instead of hitting the rear brake, I just hit the skidplate, effectively giving me perfect endo conditions, which I do. Somehow my left foot gets tangled up in the bike and I end up doing a faceplant, with the bike flipping and rolling, but coming back upright while my lower body is up on the bike holding it up. My head is still planted firmly in the ground. Now, we all know what happens after this.
1)I lay there for a moment so happy that I'm alive and immediately give myself a clean bill of health.
2)The pain starts(in my left foot), and I begin to second guess my initial diagnosis
3)I'm now sure that the foot is going to have to be amputated.
4)I'm up and walking, just to convince myself that the foot still works, and I can at least get out of the woods(bro is long gone, thank God for small favors).
5)The pain is really bad now, but I'm alive, and I push the happy button, and it starts like a mad man, more ready to go than I am. I get on the bike and start riding. I try to stand up but that's not happening, so I sit my happy butt back on the seat and ride out to the truck. The right rad shroud is pulled off the bike at the front and flaps a happy beat against the tank. The first casualty in my sure to be long line of mishaps.
I get to the truck and can hear bro in the distance ripping it up, so I figure he went for another lap. I pull off my boot to make sure that no bones are sticking out and am happy to find it all still sealed up the way the Big Guy intended when he issued it to me.
Bro pulls up and hits the trailer like a sack of potatos after parking his bike. It seems that the no-carb diet doesn't mix well with riding, and he's bushed. We load up the bikes and take them home to park them safely.
So here I sit with a big bag of ice on my foot and some Aleve coursing through my veins wondering how I'm going to sleep tonight. All in all, I had such a blast, and the bike ran flawlessly never once having a problem with it. It started great, and ran great even at excruciatingly slow speeds, which I was sure would overheat it.
Thanks guys so much for bringing me this much happiness. I couldn't have done it without you!
thanks,
json
Well, it's finally happened. I got the bike out for it's inaugeral ride while in my posession. Oh yes, we(Husyodaddy & I) went for a ride today. So let's get down to business, shall we?
Well, first I guess I should tell you how I prepare for an "Ironman" ride. Most people just grab their gear and go, some may meditate and still others may grab some lunch before heading out. Me? I go to the dentist. Yes sir, at 9 am I'm sitting pretty having my gums peeled back on two quandrants so they can scrape the teeth and bone to clean it up. After that they shoot some napalm in your mouth to make sure it will stay inflamed for the rest of the day. It's also sure to keep you foaming blood for another good 4 hours. After that, back in the ride and off to put the rear tire back on, change the oil and load up the bikes. I went by bro's house, and he was waiting out front for me ready to go! We loaded his bike up, stopped at Wal-ly World to pick up a gas can and another set of ratchet straps, then off to pick up my newer, more powerful and prettier bike than bro's KTM.
We stopped on the way out and grabbed $60+ in gas, thanks to those heartless terrorists that sit in our whitehouse(oops, did I say that?). Still foaming at the mouth, we buy some lemon flavored Daisani and some peanuts, and head out to the riding area. We pull in and start gearing up and pulling the bikes off the trailer. What's this? a flat front tire? well sir, I should have checked that at one of the 5 gas stations we passed. So we load the bike back up and I make the 12 mile round trip to get some air and now we're really crusing, no kidding around now, we're going to ride! We pull the bike off, and we put on our gear.... hmmm, where's my helmet visor? Seems I left it in my bag from the flight back from Nevada. Oh, bro gets a kick out of this, and is sure to snap a few photos of me looking like a short bus rider.
Well, we get on our bikes, and Charles pushes his happy-button and his bike starts up. I begin kicking
. After 5 kicks max, it roars to life! Oh, the joy and happiness. We ride off into the woods and Charles immediately begins to lose me. We ride the easy and not so easy, then hop over the road to the "not easy at all" section of the trails. I make a mental note to tell bro that I do not like this part of the trails. There's a crap load of water breaks, huge humped banks, and you get kind of happy hopping them, then there's a sharp turn and you're left hanging. Also, there's a steep uphill and downhill, uphill is rocky and downhill is clay(read: snot). I only make it uphill the first time without stopping, the other times I get hung up on a sharp turn and have to hop off the bike and walk it the rest of the way to the top. This came in handy the second time around though, because as I was laying over the seat thinking I was going to die, I saw that the kickstart bolt was backing out, so I tightened that when we went back to the truck. I made it to the top and began down the steep downhill, where bro snapped this lovely pic of me idling down testing the strength of the brakes.We did two laps then went to the truck for some water and I tightened my kickstart retaining bolt. Everything else looked in great order, so we hopped back on our bikes and went off for our next lap. I think it's about a 6 mile lap, and I never got past third gear. I think bro probably did more than that, but it's really tight stuff, and everytime I would grow a set and hit the gas, the trail would disappear, or head into tight growth woods where you get the hell beat out of you if you try to straighten the line too much. So, I kept a lid on it.... until lap 5. You'll hear more about lap 5 after lap 4.
Well, I had passed a couple hints along bro's path of consciousness about how much that expert part of the trail was, but he's either as stupid as I look in my helmet, or he enjoys watching me in pain. So, to get him to slow the hell down, I tell him that I'll go forward and snap a couple of shots. He fell for it and I headed off and began parking myself at various turns and waiting for him to come through. We got some good shots, and I really liked the fact that my life wasn't hanging in the balance all the time, so we both won on this lap. I still had to go up and down the hill of death, and I had to walk it up the last part, but I was rested so it wasn't so bad.
We got to the split where we could either a) go right and head back to the truck or b) go left and do another lap. Mentally, I pleaded "a. a. aaa. A. A! AAAAAaaaaa!!!!!!! AAA darnit!!!! Bro went with b. I gotta work on that telepathy crap, or it's going to be the death of me. So we head out for another lap, and I've given up all pretense of keeping up w/bro, and decide to just relax and try some new stuff. I start through the easy and not so easy parts, speeding up a little, and by the time I get to the hill o' death, I'm cooking! I still run out of steam halfway up it though, but quickly remount and head back down the other side, rotors glowing to announce my arrival to any people ahead of me.
I get through the bad stuff, and it opens up a little with a straight shot with these water breaks in them, so I'm in third and jumping them, when I jump the last one, I realize there's very little trail left, and I'm going way too fast to make the hard left to get over the bridge, So I hit the brake(singular). Instead of hitting the rear brake, I just hit the skidplate, effectively giving me perfect endo conditions, which I do. Somehow my left foot gets tangled up in the bike and I end up doing a faceplant, with the bike flipping and rolling, but coming back upright while my lower body is up on the bike holding it up. My head is still planted firmly in the ground. Now, we all know what happens after this.
1)I lay there for a moment so happy that I'm alive and immediately give myself a clean bill of health.
2)The pain starts(in my left foot), and I begin to second guess my initial diagnosis
3)I'm now sure that the foot is going to have to be amputated.
4)I'm up and walking, just to convince myself that the foot still works, and I can at least get out of the woods(bro is long gone, thank God for small favors).
5)The pain is really bad now, but I'm alive, and I push the happy button, and it starts like a mad man, more ready to go than I am. I get on the bike and start riding. I try to stand up but that's not happening, so I sit my happy butt back on the seat and ride out to the truck. The right rad shroud is pulled off the bike at the front and flaps a happy beat against the tank. The first casualty in my sure to be long line of mishaps.
I get to the truck and can hear bro in the distance ripping it up, so I figure he went for another lap. I pull off my boot to make sure that no bones are sticking out and am happy to find it all still sealed up the way the Big Guy intended when he issued it to me.
Bro pulls up and hits the trailer like a sack of potatos after parking his bike. It seems that the no-carb diet doesn't mix well with riding, and he's bushed. We load up the bikes and take them home to park them safely.
So here I sit with a big bag of ice on my foot and some Aleve coursing through my veins wondering how I'm going to sleep tonight. All in all, I had such a blast, and the bike ran flawlessly never once having a problem with it. It started great, and ran great even at excruciatingly slow speeds, which I was sure would overheat it.
Thanks guys so much for bringing me this much happiness. I couldn't have done it without you!
thanks,
json
