Motorcycle Alabama

Background Information 

This is a follow on event to the previous Rally in the Valley. I just want to say thank you to Johnny for hosing this event for years. It has been a wonderful event full of fun times and good people. With that being said, John (Griff) and I have decided to take up the torch this year and host Cove Rally. This new event will be held in the same general area (as the crow flies) as the previous Rally in the Valley.

On Saturday, we will have a street ride and a dual sport bike ride. Any style bike will be welcomed on either ride, but the dual sport may be a little much for an adventure bike...it depends on bike and rider. The dual sport ride will more than likely be a more technical ride. I'll defer to John on the details of the dirt ride. klaviator, Win, has graciously agreed to lead the street ride.

What ---- Ride, Camp, eat, sit around the bonfire and tell tall stores. You are welcome to participate in any or all of the weekend's festivities.

Where --- Camping at 1160 Sharps Cove Road Gurley, AL 35748. If you are familiar with the area, it's closer to New Market than Gurley. Use your google Maps.

Riding ---  Street Ride - Generally the Roads of Northeast Alabama and Parts of Tennessee, but with Win leading it may be wherever the road takes you.
                Dual Sport Ride - Route to be determined
                Off Road - Holly Tree Off Road Park is just up the road.

When --- September 14-16 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

Cost --- Member of forum - free

I will need to get a head count. Let me know when you will be at camp and which ride you plan to participate in. We will provide dinner Friday and Saturday night, Breakfast Saturday and Sunday. If you want to ride over and eat without camping, that's OK too.

BYOB - This event is now in Madison County which is not a dry county...so we can always take a vehicle down the road to the store.

We will have a shower/bathroom available. I can provide Soap and Towels.

We have 5 acres total. 3 acres are great for tents. There are some trees if you want to bring a hammock you are welcome to, but I suggest bringing it as a backup. We do not have abundant tree availability. There are a couple of couches and plenty of floor space if you want to sleep in the house.

John, Win, Johnny...Let me know if I forgot anything. 

As we get closer to the date we can post the start time for the rides so those not camping will know what time to show up.

Currently the calendar shows me off that weekend, so it looks good for Lynn and I.

I think MsSGriff got everything right in the first post. I think we should try to roll out for the rides at 9:00 am. That should give anybody that's not camping enough time to get to our place and if we stay up late by the campfire we should be able to have dragged ourselves out of bed before then.

I'll be up in South Dakota to see the Motorcycle Cannonball pass thru at that time, but I'll share this invitation with the vintage motorcyclists--some may opt to join in! :)

hot damn. yup. I'm there.

Sounds like a blast!

Bump, 3 weeks out.

Everyone attending this event needs to be alert for the dangerous shop-cat which lurks on premises.  It will stealthily make its way onto the top of your head and proceed to suck your brains out.

(http://www.rocketcityrockcrawlers.com/forum/uploads/6/Capture_2018-08-23_18-03-43.JPG)

Seriously, I am going to do my best to be there.  Dont plan to camp, though.

camp n ride n fun! which bike to bring is the question!

I do not plan on taking everybody up the stairs of mordor again. I'll try to make it 650 friendly. Then again I was on an xr650 on the stairs. We will have more backroad and a bit of highway riding. I don't know that we can really do a lunch stop. Is ever body ok with packing something to eat?

Count me in, not camping (I live up the street). Want to do the DS ride. Did this one last weekend.

I'm going to spam all my dirt bike friends with this... hoping I can convince some of them to
a) tag their dirt bike
b) experience super cool kids camping n riding
c) sneaky sneak convince them to join moal, without realizing ;-)

Griff,

Seeing that I live down the street, I can bring 15-20 lbs of smoked pork! I'll also smoke some kielbasa. Let me know which day to bring it.     

Anyone coming who is planning on going on the street ride?

I might like to do a street ride.

Quote from: klaviator on August 28, 2018, 12:22:25 PM
Anyone coming who is planning on going on the street ride?

I want to do a little of both because it's more than a one day event. I definitely want to do a street ride if you're leading it.

Probably be up for a street ride.  I can firm it up when it gets a little closer. Got some construction going on around the house so may not be free. But as of right now should be good to go.

Quote from: Frank Smith on August 28, 2018, 02:22:19 PM
I want to do a little of both because it's more than a one day event. I definitely want to do a street ride if you're leading it.

I think both rides are on Saturday with camping and hanging out Friday and Saturday night.  That doesn't mean there can't be a ride on Sunday as well but someone would have to plan that. 

I'm going try hard to make this. I haven't been to an MC-AL event in a while and I miss it. I've been out of town a lot recently so I have to figure out how to make it happen. Life/family/work/play must all stay in balance.

What kind of dirt mileage are we talking about doing? Specifically, how much blacktop? I have a choice of Beta 300 or KTM 500. I'm assuming the 500 is the better bike for this, correct?

 What Mulley said/\ except I can not ride as good...on-road or off.  ;)

So my question is, is the off-road ride friendly enough for a moaron on a ADVi(ish) bike or is it a dirtbike dirt ride? :D

Not looking good for me! The family has decided to come visit that weekend!

Maybe I can convince my dad to bring his DRZ, I doubt it as you can't pry him away from his grandbaby!!!!

Quote from: norton73 on June 08, 2018, 06:25:07 AM
Currently the calendar shows me off that weekend, so it looks good for Lynn and I.

We are out. A good friend is having a birthday ending in a zero the same weekend.

Big dual sports are ok if rider is decent. Adv bikes don't have the ground clearance needed for this route. There's about 80 miles of pavement in the route depending on options. Most of it's two lane roads but there is one small section of 4 lane for a couple of miles. 

Frank,
Saturday evening would probably be better for the food as we'll probably have some hungry riders that aren't camping but may hang around for dinner and a campfire.

Quote from: griff on August 31, 2018, 06:56:41 AM
Big dual sports are ok if rider is decent. Adv bikes don't have the ground clearance needed for this route. There's about 80 miles of pavement in the route depending on options. Most of it's two lane roads but there is one small section of 4 lane for a couple of miles. 

Frank,
Saturday evening would probably be better for the food as we'll probably have some hungry riders that aren't camping but may hang around for dinner and a campfire.

Ok, drz it is then!

Quote from: griff on August 31, 2018, 06:56:41 AM
Big dual sports are ok if rider is decent. Adv bikes don't have the ground clearance needed for this route. There's about 80 miles of pavement in the route depending on options. Most of it's two lane roads but there is one small section of 4 lane for a couple of miles. 

Frank,
Saturday evening would probably be better for the food as we'll probably have some hungry riders that aren't camping but may hang around for dinner and a campfire.

Ok, I'll ride while meat is smoking, then go home and bring it back afterwards.

If it doesn't rain I'm gonna slap another trials tire on for this one... Haven't done that in a while!

I've got a fresh Sedona 907. It's only got a half day of Colorado single track on it. It's such a good dualsport tire.

Quote from: kylepeterson on September 01, 2018, 04:47:37 PM
If it doesn't rain I'm gonna slap another trials tire on for this one... Haven't done that in a while!

Quote from: Mulley on September 01, 2018, 08:27:12 PM
I've got a fresh Sedona 907. It's only got a half day of Colorado single track on it. It's such a good dualsport tire.

I may leave the half worn 907 in there, if I get lazy. It is a great ds tire, worked great in North Georgia with James n his buddies.

I'll be up at Sturgis mingling with the Motorcycle Cannonball riders that weekend.  But we're making tentative~firm plans to participate in Al's Nowhere to Be and All Day to Get There rally in October, so hope to see most/all of you there!

I should be at this! I just live in scottsboro so I don't have a good excuse to not come.
I plan to do the dual sport ride.

Hey, anyone want  to help me change my fork seals before this? I have the seals, and a lot of tools, but not fork specific tools. I just lack the knowledge here.

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John, what time are you planning on starting the DS ride?  I'll plan on the same time for the street ride.

I'm planning on taking the street ride up into TN and making a big loop to the North then East and returning via some of the Alabama twisties such as Crow MTN.  Since we will have plenty of great food for dinner I will try to find someplace where we can get a fairly light lunch rather than plan the ride around a big lunch stop. 

9:00 in the morning is when I was planning to start it. I would probably go earlier but some may be having to head over here Saturday morning. I'd have to look through the post but I think the couple of folks that were wanting to do the road ride didn't realize the DS ride would be at the same time or have had to back out.

Quote from: David DoubleEX on September 03, 2018, 11:49:20 PM
I should be at this! I just live in scottsboro so I don't have a good excuse to not come.
I plan to do the dual sport ride.

Hey, anyone want  to help me change my fork seals before this? I have the seals, and a lot of tools, but not fork specific tools. I just lack the knowledge here.

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Did you get your seals changed? I live in Scottsboro too and would be willing to lend a hand. I have a  45 mm and a 41 mm slide hammer to install seals.  Never done them on a bike like yours but hey...what's the worst that could happen?  ::)

Quote from: klaviator on September 10, 2018, 06:31:41 AM
John, what time are you planning on starting the DS ride?  I'll plan on the same time for the street ride.

I'm planning on taking the street ride up into TN and making a big loop to the North then East and returning via some of the Alabama twisties such as Crow MTN.  Since we will have plenty of great food for dinner I will try to find someplace where we can get a fairly light lunch rather than plan the ride around a big lunch stop.

Anything definite on a time and place for the street ride yet?

Quote from: hawkvtx on September 10, 2018, 12:52:29 PM
Anything definite on a time and place for the street ride yet?

We'll leave at 9 from Griff's house.  Address is in the first post of this thread. 

is it wheelie time yet ? where's my tent ? who did i loan my fireball ? did anybody push Mulley over in the creek yet ? has David talked his dad into coming yet ? who's gonna take the biggest bike if the staircase of hell ?

excited !

don't mind me, I'm just slobbering over all the possibilities...

So if you have both type bikes which ride do you choose?? :-\   Guess 90 degrees = street ride for me plus I need to get some seat time on my new to me road bike. I would be coming up Sat AM

Now that I geared my Bike back down I have zero interest in a street ride. Looking forward to hitting the trails.

We'll be around the house most of Friday. We may step out somewhere local for lunch. John's cell is 256-479-1526. The house phone is 256-776-6963. John's cell phone does forward to the house...most of the time. Once you get to the cove, you probably won't have cell signal. Google maps will get you to the house. We have a Bama Rides sign we will put out by the mailbox (big red metal sign). Sorry to all the purist, John hasn't had time to make a Motorcycle Alabama sign yet. I recommend that you review google maps before you make the ride. Our road is a little wonky. It's one dead end road with quite a few dead end off shoots.

I'm assuming that most people are coming up Saturday morning. Though, we will have dinner available Friday night. Let me know if you plan to camp Friday, so I have a better head count.

PLEASE POST as an RSVP (if you haven't yet), so we will know how much food is needed for Friday/Saturday night. There will be dinner Friday night, pastry type breakfast Saturday morning, Saturday night BBQ dinner, and Sunday morning breakfast casserole.

Sleeping situation: Plenty of tent room, limited hammock trees available, 1 spare bed in the house, 1 very large couch in the living room (U shaped couch...can sleep two), 2 couches in the rec room (love seat that has two recliners and one average length couch), one queen size air mattress, and 1 queen size mattress in the 32' gooseneck car hauler. There is plenty of floor space in the house if attendees want to ditch their tents. There are two inside cats...just an FYI, in case anyone has horrible allergies. Beck has dibs on one of the beds (spare room or trailer)...whichever he prefers, but others can claim the floor space in said room or trailer. 

Let me know if anyone has any questions that I can answer. Looking forward to this event. Y'all come out and help us make it a great weekend.       

I will smoke enough meat to feed 20-25. Do you think that will be enough? I'll bring rolls and sauce to make sandwiches. I'll deliver the food at 6pm unless you think that's too early/late. Let me know. See you Saturday.

Quote from: MsSGriff on September 12, 2018, 08:47:02 AM
PLEASE POST as an RSVP (if you haven't yet), so we will know how much food is needed for Friday/Saturday night.   

I'll be coming up Saturday morning for the DS ride...I'll grab breakfast on the way.

I should be able to stay for dinner Saturday night, but won't be spending the night.

Lemme know if any other items (drinks, buns/bread, plates, paper towels, condiments, etc.) are needed.

I'll come up Friday evening to hang out and eat dinner but I won't be camping.  I'll be there Saturday to lead the street ride and I'll stick around for dinner.  I be glad to bring something to help out.  Maybe some Potato salad or something like that to go with the BBQ?  Let me know if you need anything.

Count me in for street. I'll ride up Friday from Bham and camp both nights. Anyone want to ride up Friday via a curvy route let me know.

Was doing a wkd in Suches but looks like maybe significant rain over that way.

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I will Tent or Cot outside as I am allergic to Cats (Even though I like them).

Quote from: klaviator on September 12, 2018, 10:34:50 AM
I'll come up Friday evening to hang out and eat dinner but I won't be camping.  I'll be there Saturday to lead the street ride and I'll stick around for dinner.  I be glad to bring something to help out.  Maybe some Potato salad or something like that to go with the BBQ?  Let me know if you need anything.

Tater salad sounds good

Quote from: Frank Smith on September 12, 2018, 02:32:15 PM
Tater salad sounds good

OK, I'll get some.  Griff, do you have room in your fridge for some potato salad if I bring it Friday night?

We sure do. We have a house fridge, rec room fridge, and shop fridge so I'm sure we can find a spot for it. Thanks for bringing it.

Unless something unforeseen happens I'll be coming up Saturday morning for the street ride. Not sure if I'll be staying for dinner or not but it wouldn't hurt to count this head as well.  As most of you know this Saturday is the TOT as well, so I might break off early and head over to Waterloo... but nothing is written in stone.

I'm planning on Friday evening for the duration.
tent camping
if there's a hole i can fill in the food stuff I'll do it

Quote from: kylepeterson on September 12, 2018, 04:12:29 PM

if there's a hole i can fill in the food stuff I'll do it

It better be pretty small!   ;D

 :D :D :D This is MsGriff  :D :D :D I didn't think about being logged into John's account.

Frank, I'm estimating 15 as of right now, so that should be plenty of BBQ. Do you already have the rolls? I can get buns from Sam's if you would rather. Just let me know, so we don't end up with too much bread. :) Dinner at 6 is great. No one is going to argue with the cook. I greatly appreciate you providing the BBQ. It's a big help.

Win, has signed up to bring potato salad.

I already have all the paper products we need. I buy in bulk from Sam's club, so I always have that stuff on hand.




For Dinner Friday night, I will provide taco soup and tortilla chips. It is delicious. ...non alcoholic drinks and paper products...

For Breakfast Saturday, we will have pastries and cereal for those who want it. and coffee

For Dinner Saturday, Frank is bringing BBQ and Sauce and Rolls (unless he wants me to get buns). Win is bringing potato salad. I will provide the paper products (plates, napkins, utensils, and cups), chips and dip, baked beans, slaw, cookies, tea, soft drinks, and water.

Sunday breakfast will be a sausage-Hash brown breakfast casserole. Rolls with Gravy...if I can get someone to make the gravy. I can try, but I'm not the gravy expert. :D and fruit.



I think we have everything covered, but anyone who wants to can donate towards the food fund.

Off road riders need to bring their lunch or I will provide PB&J sandwiches. There will be a lunch stop on the street ride.

Bring your own alcohol or buy it on the way. This is not a dry county, so there are options close by. We have a liquor store approximately 12 miles away and there are gas stations 6 miles away.

TWJohn. you are welcome to sleep in the enclosed trailer if you want. It is a cat free zone, so you wouldn't have to worry about allergies.   

Let me know if there is anything I am missing or if there are other questions.

I take that to mean there is no lunch stop for the dualsport ride. Is there a gas stop planned? Will it be near lunch time? If no stop is planned at all everyone needs plan accordingly for water as well as food and gas.

Thank you guys for doing all of this. I know it's a huge undertaking.

As of right now I'm planning to be there Friday evening through Sunday morning and riding dualsport. Hopefully everything goes as planned. I'm really looking forward to this.

I have a quiet 2KW inverter generator, an industrial fan and a large EZ-UP that I plan to bring.

Looks like I will be able to make this one! I will ride up Saturday morning for the dual sport ride!

I am a master of sausage gravy if you want me to make some!
I will be on the bike so will throw some money into the hat for food since I won't have much extra space!

Can't wait for this one!

hellooooooo ! it's gonna be hooligan'd now that fencejumper is in !

I should make it up for the street ride sat morning. Not sure if I will stay for supper as I will be heading back to bham that evening.

Up to 17... when John catches up. He'll post about the dual sport ride. He's reading all the post he's missed.

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There will be a gas stop in the morning but well be in the middle of the woods at lunch time. There will be another gas stop if needed late afternoon. I can bring our water filter with me as we will be near some creeks at times. Gas shouldn't be a problem for those with a regular sized fuel tank.

AM Sat, street ride ,dinner ,no overnite

I will also bring some snack food for Fire time. This is gonna be great!

Picture from yesterday when me and Wayne were changing my fork seals.. thanks Wayne!!

I will be there Friday evening, riding off road Saturday, and going home Saturday night after dinner. Ready for a good time!(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180913/ab4f2e4675e068339ca1384040b02793.jpg)

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(http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l551/hawkvtx/KIMG0409_zpssebs3ryp.jpeg)

David putting the wheel back on after suscessfully installing new fork seals. Oddly the forks on this dirt bike are not all that dissimilar to the forks on my cruiser.

It's nice to see people helping each other out.  Good on you Wayne(https://advrider.com/f/styles/advrider_smilies/thumb.gif)

Quote from: klaviator on September 13, 2018, 03:45:53 PM
It's nice to see people helping each other out.  Good on you Wayne(https://advrider.com/f/styles/advrider_smilies/thumb.gif)

Well you know how us godless liberals are...always trying to help others. :D

@MsSGriff If you would like me to make some sausage gravy I will need a couple supplies. 2lbs of Jimmy Dean sausage (the toothpaste tube kind) spicy if you would like that and some flour!

FYI the frozen Pillsbury biscuits are actually legit!

Like I said, I will bring cash to throw into the kitty since I won't have any cooler space on the bike!

Thanks for all the hard work you all have already put into this!

In case anyone gets lost, our house number is 256-776-6963.  I'm headed out front with the bamarides sign right now. The house is across the street from the mailbox.

Just loaded the bike and went to lunch. It should only take me another 8 hours to get there ;-)

I stopped by Publix and picked up 3 16oz containers of tater salad, 1 macaroni salad and one cole slaw.  I was thinking we might need more?  How many people are we looking at? 

Are there enough chairs there or should I strap a couple of camp chairs to my back seat?

Win,
That should be good. We also got some slaw. I think we are up to 17 at last count. We have probably 10 chairs total out back so a few more won't hurt.

What time is dinner tonight?

I'm in route. Just stopped for gas on Priceville.

if i get there tonight it will be 930 10.

Quote from: griff on September 12, 2018, 05:32:59 PM
:D :D :D This is MsGriff  :D :D :D I didn't think about being logged into John's account.

Frank, I'm estimating 15 as of right now, so that should be plenty of BBQ. Do you already have the rolls? I can get buns from Sam's if you would rather. Just let me know, so we don't end up with too much bread. :) Dinner at 6 is great. No one is going to argue with the cook. I greatly appreciate you providing the BBQ. It's a big help.

Win, has signed up to bring potato salad.

I already have all the paper products we need. I buy in bulk from Sam's club, so I always have that stuff on hand.




For Dinner Friday night, I will provide taco soup and tortilla chips. It is delicious. ...non alcoholic drinks and paper products...

For Breakfast Saturday, we will have pastries and cereal for those who want it. and coffee

For Dinner Saturday, Frank is bringing BBQ and Sauce and Rolls (unless he wants me to get buns). Win is bringing potato salad. I will provide the paper products (plates, napkins, utensils, and cups), chips and dip, baked beans, slaw, cookies, tea, soft drinks, and water.

Sunday breakfast will be a sausage-Hash brown breakfast casserole. Rolls with Gravy...if I can get someone to make the gravy. I can try, but I'm not the gravy expert. :D and fruit.



I think we have everything covered, but anyone who wants to can donate towards the food fund.

Off road riders need to bring their lunch or I will provide PB&J sandwiches. There will be a lunch stop on the street ride.

Bring your own alcohol or buy it on the way. This is not a dry county, so there are options close by. We have a liquor store approximately 12 miles away and there are gas stations 6 miles away.

TWJohn. you are welcome to sleep in the enclosed trailer if you want. It is a cat free zone, so you wouldn't have to worry about allergies.   

Let me know if there is anything I am missing or if there are other questions.

I'm bringing rolls to make sammiches. Just started smoking the pork butts.

Beyond belief I am up and finishing prep now. Should be on my way north in 30 minutes!

Thanks for hosting a great event. The hospitality was spot on and the night ride up to Bingham was fun.

Natural bridge stop near Sewanee Tennessee.  Thanks for leading the street ride Win. and Griff, MsSGriff for hosting.
Great food and riding areas!!

Sounds like yall had a good time.  I had to bow out at the last minute, ended up working long hours all week, was planning to have to work Saturday but at last minute didnt.  The bike simply wasn't ready and I dont yet have a tag on it.  So instead of meeting all yall, I wound up riding up Bingham to shake the bugs out of the new-to-me bike.

....next time.

Those of you who attended one or more Rally in the Valley know what a great event that was.  It was sad to see the last rally in the Valley but thanks to Griff and MrsGriff we have a great new rally to take it's place.  I'll have more to say on this as well as more pics later but I'll post this one now as a teaser:

(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-ks7kt2f/0/2919c0b4/L/P9140002-L.jpg)

Great ride yesterday! Hate I couldn't stay and missed the night ride.

Thanks to the Griffs for hosting and Frank for the BBQ.

Big thanks to the Griffs for hosting a great event!  I made it safely home and am about to sleep for 3 days straight! Pictures a d videos to come after hibernation!!

That was a fun weekend. The Griff's are fantastic hosts. The riding was a lot of fun. Especially the night ride. I love a good night ride.

I made it home but only after sitting stopped on I-59S for 45 minutes while a wreck was cleared. I would have taken a nap if I had known it would take that long. You know it was fun when you're this exhausted.

Thanks everyone for coming out. We're only a small part of the equation. We provided the opportunity, but you all showed up in numbers to make this first Cove Rally epic. The impromptu night ride made me full young again. It was great to share the four wheel experience with some two wheelers. Thankfully, Griff was on hand to give her some real hell and get her out. That mud hole was soft and sticky. I can't nap until the caffeine from last night leaves my system completely. I seriously never have caffeine. A special thanks to Frank for some AMAZING BBQ and rolls. I didn't know what I was missing. Next year, we'll have to push this event out to October, so it's a little cooler. All in all... great times with good people. Keep pushing pictures. They are wonderful to see. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180916/f2abceb784f4e3acef0a9f41f29a19cb.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180916/c90b7f590014774b801aff5ec0656352.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180916/a312b1e86848db69793830c01c160ef6.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180916/927ca78cbd05a0c7296d04d6edc7bc9c.jpg)

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Video to follow.

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Frank, wow! The BBQ was fantastic. Thank you and I'm glad you got to go on the night ride. Fun times.

There are a lot of cool thing on this forum, bikes, rides, events, discussions on what is the best oil ::)........but IMO the best thing about this forum is the people on it.  With that in mind I headed over to the Rally site on Friday night.  Sure I was enticed by the idea of a free meal (MsSgriff makes some awesome Taco Soup) but mainly it was the chance to spend some time with some great folks.

When I got there Griff was fabricating a heavy duty skid plate for Beck's bike.  That last pic I posted was in Griff's machine shop.

A few pics from Friday night.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-Vx9FCHz/0/db820f5a/L/P9150003-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-2PG8bwd/0/1daaee21/L/P9150006-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-SdfKWvS/0/bf3400e2/L/P9150007-L.jpg)

Then I headed back home. 

Saturday morning I headed back over to the Griff's.  I had volunteered to lead the street ride.  While there were far more people for the DS ride, we still ended up with 6 street riders.  Frank decided to not go riding so he could smoke some awesome BBQ pork.  I convinced him to break away for a bit and at least ride with us to Lynchburg so we ended up with 7 riders.

Johnny Tobyone on his new Beemer.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-4xMMKp9/0/182a097b/L/P9150008-L.jpg)

As is typical for one of our rides we had a divers group.  4 fairly sporty motorcycles, 2 cruisers and one scooter.  I led a reasonably sporty pace to Lynchburg and we didn't have to wait long for anyone.  If you think cruisers are only good for riding very slowly, you haven't ridden with us!

Break in Lynchburg:

(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-wGzvDjR/0/798c0482/L/P9150010-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-9fC9NDS/0/47ebd31c/L/P9150011-L.jpg)

After Lynchburg we headed up to Sewanee for lunch.  Frank and Buckeye Doug broke off and headed home along the way.  We had lunch at Shenanigans then headed over to the Sewanee Natural bridge.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-xxqvdGq/0/80bfe18b/L/P9150013-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-R7D3Jb6/0/171997fa/L/P9150014-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-TmwNBvx/0/f07d5e17/L/P9150017-L.jpg)

Then it was time to ride some of the twistiest roads in Alabama.  While stopped near the top of CR39 a guy pulled up in a pickup and offered us all some cold bottles of water.  He had ridden past us a few minutes earlier on his bike and figured, in his words:  "those boys must be hot and thirsty".  So when he got home just up the road hed grabbed the water and headed back.  We talking with him for a bit.  What a nice guy!

We had ridden up 39.  Then  we rode down 33 and then up 21 and down 79.  We lost HawkVTX and Mojo1 along the way as they headed home leaving three of us.  We rode up 17 then west on CR8 followed by a ride up and over Keel mountain.  After a break in Gurley it was back to Griff's where we waited to the DS gang to return and more importantly for Frank to show up with that BBQ ;)

Dinner was great and so was hanging out with everyone.  TWJohn got a chance to ride a few of the High performance dualsport bikes there and he was as excited as a kid who just got to try ice cream for the first time.  I see a new bike in the near future for him.

A ferw pics from Sat evening:

(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-mMfmqKM/0/fb9e50d1/L/P9150020-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-xMWHWkC/0/1aa0b404/L/P9150026-L.jpg)

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(https://photos.smugmug.com/2018-pics/i-xHGVtJT/0/7149e9c1/L/P9150023-L.jpg)

Before we left a few crazy people where talking about a night DS ride ???  I was nervous enough just riding some unfamiliar paved country roads at night.

I guess they ended up doing just that.  I'm waiting to hear the stories from that!

A big thanks to Sam and John for hosting this event and to Frank for the delicious BBQ!  I'm looking forward to the next one!!!

Thank you Griff for the tour and the tour. Thoroughly enjoyed the weekend at your home.

Frank that BBQ was outty this would, thank you for providing us with supper and second supper at about 3am Sunday morning after the night ride. It was delicious!

I have 21gb of videos to sort.

One tw200 owner is probably going in debt because of the "here try a buddies bike" test ride program.



This was a great success.

we increased our elevation until, it was sufficient for a night ride rave :D

Had a great time on the street ride. Wished I could of hung around for a while but had to get back to bham for family obligations. It was good to see some folks I haven't seen in awhile and to meet some new.

This weekend was way to much fun! Thank you to Griff and MrsGriff, Win, and Frank! It was almost an overload of fun for one weekend. I was great seeing all of you that participated. Always allot of laughs.

Thanks to the Griffs for hosting this event. I wish I had been able to take advantage of it better but I've got a lot going on around the house. Win led us on another one of those rides that will definitely test your skills. I kept up the best I could on that 800 lb cruiser and did pretty well for the most part.  Those hairpins on Crow Mtn are a different story though. My sphincter is still pretty tight.  ???

Not much of a photog so here's the one and only pic I made. This is our little group atop Crow Mountain.

(http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l551/hawkvtx/KIMG0410_zps5mj4mp0j.jpg)

Some idjits took their dual sports all over creation looking for dirty spots to flounder around in. Here's the street section:

https://youtu.be/dDBskWQCZaQ

I see Ya'll were being eco friendly and trying to conserve your front tires ::)

Quote from: kylepeterson on September 18, 2018, 03:53:30 PM
Some idjits took their dual sports all over creation looking for dirty spots to flounder around in. Here's the street section:

https://youtu.be/dDBskWQCZaQ

POP A WHEELIE!  :D

All I saw was a bunch of handlebar footage.  Not real sure what was going on............. ;D

Thanks to Griff MrsGriff Frank Win and all for a great weekend. I'll try to post pics in a bit.

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Cool pictures LT!

Quote from: springer on September 18, 2018, 05:31:38 PM
POP A WHEELIE!  :D

DRZ Pinnacle of Motorcycles!

Quote from: TWJohn on September 19, 2018, 11:55:29 AM
DRZ Pinnacle of Motorcycles!

That was really fun to watch.  Way to balance the force, master jedi!

Here's the full ride. Please excuse the obvious poor wheelies and guys that just can't be taken anywhere without hooligannnning up the place!. ;-)

https://youtu.be/kV4Y8IB8-vQ

WOW I about ate it at 1:52

Great video buddy!

I thought for sure the closing credits were going to be a clip of me snoring in the back of the 4Runner!!

Quote from: Fencejumper09 on September 19, 2018, 04:53:27 PM
WOW I about ate it at 1:52

Great video buddy!

I thought for sure the closing credits were going to be a clip of me snoring in the back of the 4Runner!!

we didn't find out until everyone was back at griffs.

I totally would have drawn some goobers on you if I knew earlier.
:-)

Quote from: kylepeterson on September 19, 2018, 04:27:50 PM
Here's the full ride. Please excuse the obvious poor wheelies and guys that just can't be taken anywhere without hooligannnning up the place!. ;-)

https://youtu.be/kV4Y8IB8-vQ

Free burger and sodie-pop to anyone who can watch this without smiling a little bit.

My recollection of the activities!

<—- Jealous!

Looks like everybody had a grand time!

Thanks for the awesome videos!

Quote from: Fencejumper09 on September 20, 2018, 12:54:05 PM
My recollection of the activities!

very much excellent !

now all we have to do is explore that one trail ;-)

You guys got some really good video. Thanks for posting them. Glad everybody had a good time. Frank, thanks again for doing some great BBQ!

We decided we hadn't gotten enough riding so after dinner Saturday evening, we decided to go on a night ride. Mulley let me borrow a helmet light. For those that haven't used these, they are impressive. I taped mine to the top of my helmet but soon realized it was pointing down to far. The solution was to jam a stick under the front. After that, it worked great. I even used it on the road to ride home. Thanks again Mulley for letting me borrow that. I wouldn't have wanted to do a night ride without something like that as my KTM's stock headlight is just about a joke.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1889/43923631815_464b66f912_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/29Vo6sP)2018-09-21_09-31-07 (https://flic.kr/p/29Vo6sP) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

Before the rally, Beck came down Friday morning so we could build a skid plate for his Husky Terra 650. There's a couple of them on the market but their mounts are apparently kinda weak and pick up the bottom of the engine case. We didn't want him breaking the case so we had other plans. We also wanted to be able to mount a center stand.

We started out by making the rear mounts that you see sandwiched between the frame and the foot peg mount. Then we put a tube between them. This tube will later be used for the center stand.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1861/30962395398_37c88ec191_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Pb3nrq)2018-09-21_09-32-45 (https://flic.kr/p/Pb3nrq) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

Next, we made the front mount plate. It ties into the two bolts that go through the front of the frame down tube and the case.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1929/43923654855_f5f897bdba_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/29Vodj4)2018-09-21_09-32-30 (https://flic.kr/p/29Vodj4) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

We cut the skid plate out on my cnc plasma table. The above pieces were also cut out on it. I welded it up and we were ready for the trails. Some of what we were riding on is very rocky. He ended up using the skid plate several times.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1856/43923647425_77e5e88cdc_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/29Vob6X)2018-09-21_09-32-07 (https://flic.kr/p/29Vob6X) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

I think we finally finished it up around 10pm. Just in time for the ride.

Quote from: griff on September 25, 2018, 07:39:50 AM
Before the rally, Beck came down Friday morning so we could build a skid plate for his Husky Terra 650. There's a couple of them on the market but their mounts are apparently kinda weak and pick up the bottom of the engine case. We didn't want him breaking the case so we had other plans. We also wanted to be able to mount a center stand.

We started out by making the rear mounts that you see sandwiched between the frame and the foot peg mount. Then we put a tube between them. This tube will later be used for the center stand.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1861/30962395398_37c88ec191_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Pb3nrq)2018-09-21_09-32-45 (https://flic.kr/p/Pb3nrq) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

Next, we made the front mount plate. It ties into the two bolts that go through the front of the frame down tube and the case.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1929/43923654855_f5f897bdba_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/29Vodj4)2018-09-21_09-32-30 (https://flic.kr/p/29Vodj4) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

We cut the skid plate out on my cnc plasma table. The above pieces were also cut out on it. I welded it up and we were ready for the trails. Some of what we were riding on is very rocky. He ended up using the skid plate several times.

(https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1856/43923647425_77e5e88cdc_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/29Vob6X)2018-09-21_09-32-07 (https://flic.kr/p/29Vob6X) by Griffin93 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/45086110@N05/), on Flickr

I think we finally finished it up around 10pm. Just in time for the ride.

very nice prototype! seeing it in person, i was totally impressed.

when does production start? those bmw guys will pay a pretty penny for one built strong like yours. $$$

I've got to get Beck back down here at some point so we can build a center stand for this thing. One I do that and I'm happy with it, I plan to build jigs and release them on our web store. I originally started it for building dirtbike parts but got side tracked when some existing customers wanted me to build a couple of products for them.

On a side note, I did some titanium race car parts recently and it has given me the TI bug. I've been jonesing after building some ti pieces for KTMs, etc. I was thinking about starting with some billet foot pegs but figured they wouldn't sell due to the cost.

Quote from: griff on September 25, 2018, 10:26:11 AM
I've got to get Beck back down here at some point so we can build a center stand for this thing. One I do that and I'm happy with it, I plan to build jigs and release them on our web store. I originally started it for building dirtbike parts but got side tracked when some existing customers wanted me to build a couple of products for them.

On a side note, I did some titanium race car parts recently and it has given me the TI bug. I've been jonesing after building some ti pieces for KTMs, etc. I was thinking about starting with some billet foot pegs but figured they wouldn't sell due to the cost.

the costs people will pay for a sliding plate, foot pegs, and things that touch the ground a lot are astounding. i say go for it

Was just reviewing my sleep patterns thanks to my fancy ass bed! This score is out of 100! This helps explain my mental state during the night ride!

Quote from: Fencejumper09 on September 26, 2018, 10:48:12 PM
Was just reviewing my sleep patterns thanks to my fancy ass bed! This score is out of 100! This helps explain my mental state during the night ride!

80bmp ? Woody kept you up all night ?

I was a little intoxicated