yo dudes

i finally have all the parts i need to get my bike back on the road. i lucked out and was payed for all of the damages to my ride including medical bills too. all i have to do now is find the time to work on the poor thing... sunday is the only day i can. anyway, its been a shitty past 3 months for me not being able to ride, and i look forward to getting back out there with you guys.

Speaking of Down...

I found myself laying on my back on Union Ave this morning after a guy opened his car door without looking. I'm glad I wasn't moving fast. My ankle hurts, bent shift lever and my mirror is pretty much toasted. Sweeeeeeeet ;(

Who's down?

Who's ready for round 2?

According to googlemaps, Robbinsville NC is only 13 hrs away. Add and subtract as necessary as we won't be traveling speed limit but will need to stop for gas more often. The prospect of riding even our furthest local roads is depressing me and I wanna go back even if it's only for a couple of days.

There are so many road we didn't hit because of time constraints so I wanna go hit them now. A 13 hour day on the bike is nothing for us, we can shoot down there in one shot. Ride a couple of days and shoot back home. I'm think a friday to monday thing for sometime in October. We stay in a cheap motel near the Dragon and that will be that.

Who's down?

GC - You f'ed up the NYMMC board

E- Your ride report totally screwed up the formatting of my browser configurations. DAMN You!!

Now I have to retaliate once I get my 4 dozen pictures uploaded and my "behind the scenes" video compiled.

A day and a half to go

Just finished packing... it's 1am. Had to pack tonight since I'll be at work all day tomorrow and I won't have time to do it before the fellas come by and scoop up my bag.

Oh my lord, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Hey Diz,

I'm very sorry to hear about your dad. If there's anything i can do dont hesitate to call me. The Usual Suspects are my brothers outside my family. Good luck on your apartment hunting and hope to see you on our next ride.

A rant on Ducati owners...

I know most of us grew up riding [or still ride] Ducatis but recently I've found Ducati owners in general to be totally annoying. Is it just me? I find them to be really close-minded about bikes/groups/forums that don't involve v-twins. Who the f cares? To top it off, it seems like only 10% of people who have Ducatis actually put miles on their bikes and know how to ride. - Ride the damn thing, it's what it's made for. They're f*ckin dorks who's bikes are like precious little projects that they dump all their money into and barely ride them - like a "big" 3 hour trip to bear mountain and another hour just to clean it. Ugh. OK.. I'm done. Am I a jerk?

I guess it this argument could apply to any bike scene... people do the same with Harleys.. it's just annoying.

[rant courtesy of riding with a group from the DMF Northwest]

Oh Snap!

So I finally went to Fossil yesterday. I went with 2 people from PNWRiders.com. It was just 3 of us. Diana led, Steve and I followed, then took turns leading on the way back. Who knew girls could ride? - just kidding... this girl ripped. It was a 450 mile suspect style trip. I was amazed with the high desert in Oregon. Once we got past the Mt. Hood area everything levels off into dry plains [long flats to open it up], then it turns into a desert with canyons and rolling hills. There's nothing out there except small towns 30 miles apart. The road that was my jam was RT218 from Antelope to Fossil. Very similar in feel to our beloved 519 except 30 miles long with no trees, houses, cars or cops. You guys would have loved it.

Not leading this Sunday

Wow. It's just hitting me how much stuff is happening right now in my life.

Some of you know some of this already, but it's been on my mind a lot and it seems as good a time as any to tell you all. First, and most important, my dad is not doing well. In fact, he's dying. Not quickly, not painfully, but gradually and definitely dying. He's been getting gradually sicker for about three years now. Specifically, he has pulmonary fibrosis--nobody knows where it comes from for sure, and there's no cure or even treatment. He's just getting weaker and smaller. Needless to say, it's the hardest thing I've ever gone through.

I'm mostly telling you all this because riding with you every week is one of the things that's making this more bearable. It's almost as good as therapy (which I'm doing also). Thank you all for being my support group, even if you didn't know you were. Sundays have been the only time when I can completely let go of the rest of my life, ride motorcycles, talk shit and eat terrible things. Just don't let me bum any cigarettes. That's the last thing I need.

The second thing is that Kim and I decided we have to move this month. So, I need to spend all my spare time apartment hunting. We're pretty picky about what we're looking for, so it doesn't leave much time for anything else this month. Thus, I won't be leading a ride this Sunday, and except for the Big Ride to NC, I probably won't get much riding in at all for a bit. Sorry to all, but I'll make it up to you soon.

Fuck.

I needed that. Thanks for reading.

Diz

Suspect Track Day

Peter found this.. and it's on a weekend!

Thunderbolt 10/3-10/5
Absolutecycle.com $75 annual membership.
$530 for 3 days or 190/day