Motorcycle Alabama

We have just lived through the "death" of the old Bamarides forum and then the birth of the new.  We don't know if the old database can be recovered.  It would be great if it can but the most important part of the old Bamarides is still here.  That would be the people on the forum.  I was thinking that now would be a good time to look back at my history with Bamarides and to try to put more focus on the people than I normally do in my ride reports.

So, here goes:  Back in April of 2013 I bought a house in the Huntsville area and moved here full time.  No more commuting back to Marietta, Ga. on weekends.  So I decided to join the Bamarides Forum.  This took several tries because I had to watch the video several times to get that damn code :-[  A month or so later I decided to go on my first ride with BR. 

It was around the end of June, 2013.  The ride met at Ditto landing in Huntsville.  It was called a Mystery BBQ ride. So I headed over a little early on my Sport City 250.  I was one of the first to arrive but more kept trickling in until there were 20+bikes of all kinds.  When I looked around and saw the incredibly diverse collection of bikes and riders, some ATGATT and some NOTGATT, I thought "this is going to be a disaster" 



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Then the rider leader who bore a slight resembalance to Santa Clause and was riding two up on a Harley Electra Glide, gave a ride brief.  He talked about two lane back roads, curves, hairpins and ride your own pace, we'll wait at all turns. 

Maybe this won't be that bad??

So off we went.  Up over Green Mountain.



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One of the guys who was riding a Super Teniere went ahead and took pics of the group as we rode by.  I didn't know this guy at the time but I do now.  You know him as the guy who takes awesome pics and changes bikes like most of us change underwear :)  Yes, that would be Gharshman.



He rode ahead to take pics more than once.  Here's a pic he got from another spot:



We had a nice ride on some winding roads east of Huntsville.  I was impressed at the pace set by the ride leader, who I'm sure most of you have guessed by my description to be none other than Jrobinson.  The pace was fast enough to be fun but not so fast that people were being left behind.  Eventually we took a break at a scenic spot.



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There was one other rider there on a really small bike like I was.



That was Duanew on his WR250.  We ended up talking some.  Little did I know at that time that we would have some great rides together in the future.  I also didn't realize I had corrupted him as he would eventually join the ranks of the scooter trash ::)

More bikes.



I'm pretty sure that was BackintheSaddle's M109.  I don't know about the rest of the bikes.

After the break we rode some fun roads and that included 65 through Paint Rock Valley.



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We took another break.



Nice view:



Then it was off to the BBQ place.



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It was a great meal.  Then it was time to head home.  I didn't know the area very well so I decided to follow another rider part of the way home.  He knew a much better route than just droning back on 72.





I had now idea who this guy was but he was riding 2 up on this huge Valkyrie with a car tire on the back.  It should of been a slow ride but like Jrobinson on the main ride, he knew how to ride this thing.  It looked like he was about to scrape something going around every curve.  Eventually he stopped at a little store for a drink and a break.  That was my first time talking to Tim (slowroad) and his wife Angie.  Those of you who know Tim and Angie know what great people they are.  I had never ridden much with cruiser riders but it was clear to me that Tim was a real rider who shared my passion for riding.

I folloowed him a while longer before breaking off and heading home.





So, this ended up being a great experience for me and made a very positive impression of Bamarides on me.  Some of the people on this ride are now my friends. 

It was a great first ride with Bamarides but would certainly not be my last.

Since that first ride I have gone and many rides and attended many other events with Bamarides.  I will try to post up something on all that I can but that will take some time.  I plan in waiting a few day between my posts.  I would like to ask those of you who where there to share your thoughts on those rides and if you have some pics to post that would be great too.  Let's make this ride report a group project!

Always enjoy your reports Win, you take very interesting rides. You were my first exposrure to a scoot here. This remains my fave scoot pic too! Sisters in Arms.

Quote from: Argh Oh on September 12, 2015, 07:08:28 AM
Always enjoy your reports Win, you take very interesting rides. You were my first exposrure to a scoot here. This remains my fave scoot pic too! Sisters in Arms.

I remember the time when that pic was taken.  I think that was my second or third ride with Bamarides.  I'll have more on that ride later.

In July someone,  (I think it was Jrobinson)  posted about a bike night at cycle Gear so I went.  Johnny showed up and I got to spend some time talking to him.



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My next event with BR was a flash mob at Crickets in Madison.  This was at the end of August 2013.   Debbi and I spent the evening talking to Smiley and another guy (Chemengineer??).  That was the first time I met Don.



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that was the first of many great flash mobs I would go to at Crickets

In Sept. I got the chance to go on another BR ride.  This was posted as a spirited ride so I took the KLR instead of the scooter.

We met just outside of Guntersville.



I don't remember the name of the guy leading the ride but he was on an old Nighthawk 700 and lived around Guntersville.  I do remember meeting Shane (Lostinbama) and I think Kevin (Kwb377) was there as well. 

It was a fun ride on some nice roads.



Taking a break at Guntersville SP



We finished up by eating at a Mexican place in Scottsboro.



It was fun riding with and talking to some sportbike guys.  It was also great seeing how such a diverse group of bikes could have a fun ride together.  Looking back, that has been one of the trademarks of Bamarides, diverse bikes and riders able to go out and enjoy the same ride by riding their own pace and enjoying each others company at the stops.


Win I hope you don't mind me adding a video of the ride - jrobinson

I went on another big BR group ride in November.  This one was led by Slowroad and we had quite a large crowd show up.  There was a large variety of motorcycles and then me on the only scooter.  I don't remember many details from this ride other than it was a fun ride on some nice curvy roads that I had never ridden before.



The one thing I do remember was that we stopped somewhere at a civil war museum.  Most of the people went on the guided tour but I stayed and spent that time talking with Argh Oh.  I don't remember exactly what we talked about but it was an interesting conversation.  I'm sure that one of the things we talked about were our bikes which were practically twins being that they were both blue Aprilias.  Here's a pic.  See if you can spot the differences between them ;D



A few more pics from this ride:



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Looking at the last pic I noticed that Jrobinson was on every one of the rides/events I have posted so far.

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We must have ridden past Smith lake.



The lunch stop.



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Back then all these people where strangers, now many are friends. 

Next up was my first dual sport ride with Bamarides.  This one was posted by Al Goodwin.  I had actually "met" AL through posts on ADV years earlier and we occasionally crossed paths there and maybe on the KLR forum.  This was the first time I met him in person.  It was also the first time I met his wife Melony.  I have since had the pleasure of riding and spending some time with both of them many times since this ride.

Back to the ride.  It was a weekend ride and camp event but I only made it out there for the day.  We had a great turnout of riders form all over Alabama and Georgia at Al and Melony's place in Vinemont.  They cooked up a bunch of great food for breakfast and even though I had already eaten, I pigged out some more.



Then we headed off.  Perhaps some of the dirtbikes with lights crowd might have preferred more dirt and less pavement but I thought the route was great and didn't hear any complaints from any of the other riders.  Besides, I was feeling pretty rusty and didn't want to get into anything too gnarly.  There was some of everything on this ride.

Some mud:



Some great paved roads that I had no idea existed:



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Some nice hairpins:



There was some fun dirt getting out to Ft Bluff and the view there was great.



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We climbed around some on the rocks.



There's an old vehicle at the bottom of these rocks.  I'm sure the story of how it got there is interesting.



Heading back out from Ft Bluff.



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Lunch was at the Shak:



More fun riding after lunch.



We stopped for a gnarly hill climb.  I don't remember anyone making it to the top.  I didn't even try.



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Then we found this nice "parking lot"



And we went caving:



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This KTM must have been tired from riding with all those KLR's and was taking a nap ;D



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Then we did some more riding.



And then we made it back to the Goodwin's



Speaking of the Goodwin's.  Al is an extremely talented rider.  He rides his KLR WITH a passenger on the back better than many of us ride without a passenger.  Melony is also amazing passenger riding on the back of a KLR on rides like this. 

It was another great ride with Bamarides!!!

When winter comes to N. Alabama riding slows down a little but that doesn't mean Bamarides comes to a screeching halt. 

I December, thanks to a large part due to the efforts of members of Bamarides, The Why We Ride movie made it to a theater in Birmingham.  I cheated and drove the cage there.  It was cool watching a movie about riding in a theater full of motorcycle enthusiasts.  We took a group picture of all the Bamarides members afterwards:



At that time I hardly knew anyone there.  Looking at the pic now I recognize some faces :)  How many of you still active on the forum where there?



Jan of 2014 found me out getting dirty with Jrobinson and Beck:



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My next ride was a street ride on my scooter.  I met Johnny and Sandy at the Chevron in Gurley and we rode to Scottsboro where we met Wayne (Hawkvtx).  Johnny led us on some scenic roads up on Sand Mountain and we ended up at Buck's Pocket SP which has some nice twisty roads and nice scenery.



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One of the cool things about this ride was that we riding completely different bikes, A Harley Dresser, a metric cruiser, and a scooter but it didn't matter.  We were all enjoying the ride.



Then we rode to a place I had never heard of.



That would be High Falls after a lot of rain.  I've been back several times since but I might never have herd of it if not for Bamarides.

In February we had some pretty cold weather but I decided to post up a short local ride.  The meeting place was Cycle Gear on 231.  I expected a few local riders to show up but was surprised when Lazybum showed up all the way from Muscle Shoals.  That's pretty hard core.  We rode up to the Madison County Hiking trails and then Duanew showed up right after we parked.  We did a mile or so hike then rode down Green Mountain.



At this point Duane and I swapped bikes.  He was interested in getting a scooter and wanted to see what the felt like.



He described my scooter as "being pushed along on an electric pillow"

Riding his WR250 was interesting as well.  It was quite a contrast to my scooter.

My wife joined us at Rosie's Cantina where we had lunch.  Overall it was a short but very nice day of riding and hanging out with some other riders.

AWESOME thread! Please keep it going. I was at more than 1 of these events so far haha

BTW I think I would really like a dual sporty bike. Maybe one day...

Thanks.  I plan on bringing it up to the time when the new BR came on line.

BTW I think I would really like a track bike. Maybe one day...

:)