soupflakes
Junior Member
Alright guys, I've never done one of these ride report thingymebobbers, so bear with me. It might be a little long or boring, but I'll put some pictures in!!!
Ok, so here's the deal. Myself and some buddies do a ride after school is done every year. Well, this year, two of us had graduated, so we had to take time off work, but we did it! There were four of us from College, FZ6 (Me) FZ1 (Jon) R6 (Joe) and Seca (Brian). Here we all are.
Ok, so day one was leaving from Lafayette Louisiana. I had to work, but I managed to sneak out of work at around two. I then proceeded to ride to Harrison Arkansas, about a 10 hour trip. Here is the bike all loaded up and ready to go.
Ok, so the ride went pretty well. That is until I hit Highway 7 in Arkansas. It was insane, curvy, and no traffic. The only problem was it was 10 o'clock. At night. By myself. I proceeded to get to play whitetail frogger until about 1 am when I finally made it to the campsite. Thankfully the HID's had been installed, and worked like a charm. The guys at the campsite said they could see me rolling up from 5 miles away.
At the campsite, I met up with my buddies, as well as a group from the Seca Forum that Brian was a part of. The Arkansas portion was actually they're rally, we just kind of jumped in the middle to show off how cool fuel injection and radiators are.
Ok, so we set up my tent, and then proceeded to pass out.
Saturday, we met up with a couple of riders at a cafe in Jasper Arkansas and had breakfast.
The dude in the back is 6'8", and rides a little SV650. It was amusing. These are all of the bikes.
This guy's seca was unbelievably pretty.
The group at the cafe.
Me sipping some Regen Juice. Otherwise known as H2O.
Ok, so then we got into the ride. We were going through some twistys, and of course, the four of us from college have to be ridiculous, and so we start pushing it. We get into a corner, and it tightens up, and Seca decides to see how he does in a ditch. (Not as well as he hoped I'm sure) Me seeing this, decide it looks like great fun and not wanting to be left out, decide to join him. Not being a very good rider, I react the wrong way and hit both brakes. Hard. In a turn. I then get to see just how important gear is, as I low sided and the gear was shredded and torn up. I got to get up, lift up the bike, and ride it out of the ditch like a boss with zero injuries, as did Seca. Thankfully, the motodynamics frame sliders took the brunt of the crash, and all the bike had was some cosmetic scrape-age down the right side. Didn't even dent the tank. The Seca wasn't quite so lucky, but all of that damage was cosmetic as well. After some TLC, zip ties, and some screwdrivers, we were back on the road. Here's a quick snip of the crash from the front of my back. Careful, it reeks of inexperience. Lol.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbhEHeGk8qE]Crash - YouTube[/ame]
Ok, so we finished up the ride. It was pretty awesome, pushed it immediately hard into some corners to make sure psychologically I was fine. I was. Or maybe dumb. One or the other. We made it back to the campsite, and one of the seca guys takes professional photos of motorcycle races. (Andrew Long Motography) Check it out, he's pretty awesome. He took some night photos of my bike and the R6 Instrument Cluster.
R6 Instrument Cluster.
Interesting Flasher shot of the FZ.
HID Action.
After this, we downed some alcoholic beverages, and went beddy by. Sunday morning we had a different route planned. We set off, and got gas and breakfast. Then hit the road. Sunday was pretty uneventful. Well, that is until towards the end of the ride. We did some pretty awesome roads, and then stopped in a town to wait for the rest of the group to catch up. Half showed up, the other half did not. We sent FZ1 back to check, he went a ways, and never found anyone. So we called phones and waited. After about 15 minutes the last three finally showed up. Turns out the guy with the super nice seca turned off to take a picture, and proceeded to drop his bike off the edge of the road. It washed out and pinned him. He then had to wait patiently with a motorcycle laying on him until the last two came by and helped him out from under it. He was fine, and very minor damage to the Seca. So we continued on our way. Sunday was a rather short day of riding, since we were grilling and partying for Memorial Day when we got back to the campsite. Then proceeded to have some pool fun.
Me doing a backwards headfirst slide!
BIG MAN MAKE BIG SPLASH!
R6 doing a swan dive off the slide.
Ok. Sunday everyone said our goodbye's and headed different directions. We had the company of two of the group to Memphis, where we stopped for some bbq. From here, 2 split off and headed home, and the four of us from college, plus one Seca guy from there forum, continued with us to Nashville, where we spent the night in a hotel. We continued on to Knoxville Tennessee the next day, and to our final stop for the next five nights, a cabin outside of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It was AWESOME!!! Pool table, foosball table, full kitchen, jacuzzi's, and a hot tub on the deck, which overlooked the Blue Ridge Mountains!
View from the cabin.
So we utilized the hell out of the pool table and foosball table, then went to bed. The next day we decided to "warm up" for the tail of the dragon. We got more than we bargained for. We rode hwy 32, near barnes hollow road. It's 7 miles of the most beautifully paved, no traffic, and stupidly tight curving asphalt that makes your bike wish it only had 2 gears and a top speed of 45. I have a video, I'll post it when I get it uploaded. On a map, it looks like someone gave a 2 year old one of those wobble pens and told him to draw a snake. It was unbelievable. In fact, I think it was more difficult technicality wise than the dragon, and much more enjoyable without the Harley's slowing everything down. But.... We had to do the dragon, so we ventured off towards that the next day. Don't get me wrong. The dragon was AWESOME!!! We had so much fun. Again, I'm not a great rider, but we still pushed it, and had a grand ol' time on the dragon. I've got some pictures and video from that as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pxbmxS62W4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
R6 and I doing our best on the tail.
Me trying my best on a turn. Notice the fresh scrapes and scratches on the poor girl.
Flirting a bit with the white line.
R6 going through the corner with me coming in behind.
The group by the infamous tree of shame.
So if you may remember, there was a fifth guy that rode with us, from the Seca Forum. He rode the tail, but took it very easily. Well, he ended up in a rock wall on a corner on the way home, and got scraped up. Had a jacket, helmet, and gloves, but just wearing jeans. Tore those and scraped his knee just a little bit. We got him and his bike put back together, and continued on our way home. We went down a rather large mountain, and got to smell burning brakes all the way down. Apparently, cagers don't know how to properly use any other setting than D, P, and R. I got so sick of watching brake lights the. entire. way. down. Made it back to the cabin and goofed around some more for the rest of the night.
Friday, we got up, and the seca guy who crashed the night before decided this wasn't for him, and headed home. We bid him adieu, and went out for a ride on the blue ridge parkway. It was gorgeous. 6000 feet up, 65 degrees, and hardly any traffic. We stopped a few times for some pictures, it was an nice ride, if a bit on the relaxing side from the day before. Still plenty of twistys though, and it was nice to get away from the heat for a bit.
Somebody got a souvenir!!
On the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Pretty sky and mountains.
So we finished up the day without incident, and then went back to the cabin. Saturday, we decided to have some different fun. We all had minimum 600 mile rides to do on Sunday down the interstate, so we went into Pigeon Forge and did minigolf and go-carting. A lot of people stare and smile when four full grown men climb into these tiny carts with kids and other people in shorts and tank tops. Oh, I should mention, we had on full gear, visors down, bluetooths on, and go pro rolling. It was hilarious. I will have to put those videos up on here as well once I get them uploaded and edited. We then ordered some pizza and raced it back to the cabin. We won, but just barely. In fact, I'm pretty sure the pizza guy followed Seca up the drive.
Sunday was rather uneventful, just 800 miles down the interstate through a thunderstorm. It was an amazing trip though!!! Final trip meter: 3087 miles. I will be doing it again next year!!! I hope my ride report was ok. Next time I will be keeping a riding journal, I did this one from memory. Go ahead and critique, make fun of my riding, whatever you would like to do! If you made it reading this far, I applaud you, and have some random fun pictures from the trip just for you. Lol.
Ok, so here's the deal. Myself and some buddies do a ride after school is done every year. Well, this year, two of us had graduated, so we had to take time off work, but we did it! There were four of us from College, FZ6 (Me) FZ1 (Jon) R6 (Joe) and Seca (Brian). Here we all are.
Ok, so day one was leaving from Lafayette Louisiana. I had to work, but I managed to sneak out of work at around two. I then proceeded to ride to Harrison Arkansas, about a 10 hour trip. Here is the bike all loaded up and ready to go.
Ok, so the ride went pretty well. That is until I hit Highway 7 in Arkansas. It was insane, curvy, and no traffic. The only problem was it was 10 o'clock. At night. By myself. I proceeded to get to play whitetail frogger until about 1 am when I finally made it to the campsite. Thankfully the HID's had been installed, and worked like a charm. The guys at the campsite said they could see me rolling up from 5 miles away.
At the campsite, I met up with my buddies, as well as a group from the Seca Forum that Brian was a part of. The Arkansas portion was actually they're rally, we just kind of jumped in the middle to show off how cool fuel injection and radiators are.
Ok, so we set up my tent, and then proceeded to pass out.Saturday, we met up with a couple of riders at a cafe in Jasper Arkansas and had breakfast.
The dude in the back is 6'8", and rides a little SV650. It was amusing. These are all of the bikes.
This guy's seca was unbelievably pretty.
The group at the cafe.
Me sipping some Regen Juice. Otherwise known as H2O.
Ok, so then we got into the ride. We were going through some twistys, and of course, the four of us from college have to be ridiculous, and so we start pushing it. We get into a corner, and it tightens up, and Seca decides to see how he does in a ditch. (Not as well as he hoped I'm sure) Me seeing this, decide it looks like great fun and not wanting to be left out, decide to join him. Not being a very good rider, I react the wrong way and hit both brakes. Hard. In a turn. I then get to see just how important gear is, as I low sided and the gear was shredded and torn up. I got to get up, lift up the bike, and ride it out of the ditch like a boss with zero injuries, as did Seca.
Thankfully, the motodynamics frame sliders took the brunt of the crash, and all the bike had was some cosmetic scrape-age down the right side. Didn't even dent the tank. The Seca wasn't quite so lucky, but all of that damage was cosmetic as well. After some TLC, zip ties, and some screwdrivers, we were back on the road. Here's a quick snip of the crash from the front of my back. Careful, it reeks of inexperience. Lol.[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbhEHeGk8qE]Crash - YouTube[/ame]
Ok, so we finished up the ride. It was pretty awesome, pushed it immediately hard into some corners to make sure psychologically I was fine. I was. Or maybe dumb. One or the other. We made it back to the campsite, and one of the seca guys takes professional photos of motorcycle races. (Andrew Long Motography) Check it out, he's pretty awesome. He took some night photos of my bike and the R6 Instrument Cluster.
R6 Instrument Cluster.
Interesting Flasher shot of the FZ.
HID Action.
After this, we downed some alcoholic beverages, and went beddy by. Sunday morning we had a different route planned. We set off, and got gas and breakfast. Then hit the road. Sunday was pretty uneventful. Well, that is until towards the end of the ride. We did some pretty awesome roads, and then stopped in a town to wait for the rest of the group to catch up. Half showed up, the other half did not. We sent FZ1 back to check, he went a ways, and never found anyone. So we called phones and waited. After about 15 minutes the last three finally showed up. Turns out the guy with the super nice seca turned off to take a picture, and proceeded to drop his bike off the edge of the road. It washed out and pinned him. He then had to wait patiently with a motorcycle laying on him until the last two came by and helped him out from under it. He was fine, and very minor damage to the Seca. So we continued on our way. Sunday was a rather short day of riding, since we were grilling and partying for Memorial Day when we got back to the campsite. Then proceeded to have some pool fun.
Me doing a backwards headfirst slide!
BIG MAN MAKE BIG SPLASH!
R6 doing a swan dive off the slide.
Ok. Sunday everyone said our goodbye's and headed different directions. We had the company of two of the group to Memphis, where we stopped for some bbq. From here, 2 split off and headed home, and the four of us from college, plus one Seca guy from there forum, continued with us to Nashville, where we spent the night in a hotel. We continued on to Knoxville Tennessee the next day, and to our final stop for the next five nights, a cabin outside of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It was AWESOME!!! Pool table, foosball table, full kitchen, jacuzzi's, and a hot tub on the deck, which overlooked the Blue Ridge Mountains!
View from the cabin.
So we utilized the hell out of the pool table and foosball table, then went to bed. The next day we decided to "warm up" for the tail of the dragon. We got more than we bargained for. We rode hwy 32, near barnes hollow road. It's 7 miles of the most beautifully paved, no traffic, and stupidly tight curving asphalt that makes your bike wish it only had 2 gears and a top speed of 45. I have a video, I'll post it when I get it uploaded. On a map, it looks like someone gave a 2 year old one of those wobble pens and told him to draw a snake. It was unbelievable. In fact, I think it was more difficult technicality wise than the dragon, and much more enjoyable without the Harley's slowing everything down. But.... We had to do the dragon, so we ventured off towards that the next day. Don't get me wrong. The dragon was AWESOME!!! We had so much fun. Again, I'm not a great rider, but we still pushed it, and had a grand ol' time on the dragon. I've got some pictures and video from that as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pxbmxS62W4&feature=youtube_gdata_player
R6 and I doing our best on the tail.
Me trying my best on a turn. Notice the fresh scrapes and scratches on the poor girl.
Flirting a bit with the white line.
R6 going through the corner with me coming in behind.
The group by the infamous tree of shame.
So if you may remember, there was a fifth guy that rode with us, from the Seca Forum. He rode the tail, but took it very easily. Well, he ended up in a rock wall on a corner on the way home, and got scraped up. Had a jacket, helmet, and gloves, but just wearing jeans. Tore those and scraped his knee just a little bit. We got him and his bike put back together, and continued on our way home. We went down a rather large mountain, and got to smell burning brakes all the way down. Apparently, cagers don't know how to properly use any other setting than D, P, and R. I got so sick of watching brake lights the. entire. way. down. Made it back to the cabin and goofed around some more for the rest of the night.
Friday, we got up, and the seca guy who crashed the night before decided this wasn't for him, and headed home. We bid him adieu, and went out for a ride on the blue ridge parkway. It was gorgeous. 6000 feet up, 65 degrees, and hardly any traffic. We stopped a few times for some pictures, it was an nice ride, if a bit on the relaxing side from the day before. Still plenty of twistys though, and it was nice to get away from the heat for a bit.
Somebody got a souvenir!!
On the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Pretty sky and mountains.
So we finished up the day without incident, and then went back to the cabin. Saturday, we decided to have some different fun. We all had minimum 600 mile rides to do on Sunday down the interstate, so we went into Pigeon Forge and did minigolf and go-carting. A lot of people stare and smile when four full grown men climb into these tiny carts with kids and other people in shorts and tank tops. Oh, I should mention, we had on full gear, visors down, bluetooths on, and go pro rolling. It was hilarious. I will have to put those videos up on here as well once I get them uploaded and edited. We then ordered some pizza and raced it back to the cabin. We won, but just barely. In fact, I'm pretty sure the pizza guy followed Seca up the drive.
Sunday was rather uneventful, just 800 miles down the interstate through a thunderstorm. It was an amazing trip though!!! Final trip meter: 3087 miles. I will be doing it again next year!!! I hope my ride report was ok. Next time I will be keeping a riding journal, I did this one from memory. Go ahead and critique, make fun of my riding, whatever you would like to do!
If you made it reading this far, I applaud you, and have some random fun pictures from the trip just for you. Lol.
