Shadow was Sold Today

Well, my Honda Shadow was sold yesterday. I sold it to a nice young couple in Liberty NC. They wanted a bike that they could practice with because they are new to riding street bikes. They actually reminded me of Slick and I. Like us in the beginning, they too plan to take the riders course in a couple of weeks and then start practicing on the Shadow. It is an excellent bike for that. It really came in handy when I needed to practice my basic riding skills. Heck, I am still practicing. I guess I always will be. I will miss the little Shadow. It was a good bike. But, of course, it can’t compete with Big Red.

I also got to take Big Red out for a couple of hours on Sunday. It was an excellent day to ride. I took it about 120 (round trip) miles on highway 220. I rode down to Seagrove, NC. It was a nice little ride and a good way to spend a couple of hours. I look forward to riding more in the up coming months, if I can stay home long enough.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Riding When I Can

I rode Big Red this morning. It was a bit nippy but fun. It does pay to have the right gear for riding in 40 degree weather. Yesterday’s ride was a wash. Slick and I were going to ride down to Rockingham and then back up highway 52 to Salisbury and back on Interstate 85 to home. The problem was Slick was sick and it rained most of the morning. Saturday was okay. I did get a chance to ride a little and wash Big Red. It needed it. This week should be a good riding week. The weekend should be nice too. If it is our chapter will be heading to Holden Beach NC for a weekend beach trip. That will be nice and hopefully the weather will hold up so we can ride there. That should be fun.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Ro-Ho Stikes Again!

Last night Slick, Lenny, Johnny, Andrew, Anthony and I headed up to Eden to another chapters meeting and to hopefully regain the plaque. We went didn’t get it. Oh well, there is always next time. We had a good time and Ro-Ho stuck again. The Eden chapter had 3 50/50 drawings and Ro-Ho won 2 of them. The 6 of us that went didn’t win much but Ro-Ho did come through for us. People are starting to hear about Ro-Ho and want to touch the rubber chicken. We don’t mind that because we know that Ro-Ho only works for our chapter.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Upcoming Fundraiser for a Needy Family

Everyone is getting ready for the huge yard sale that will be going on November 4th, at the Pioneer Restaurant in Archdale. It should be a pretty successful event. We have a nice 24” TV that we will be raffling off for only $5.00 each.

I sold 5 tickets today and 2 more tickets for the Victory Junction Fundraiser. Speaking of selling tickets I would like to thank those that have purchased tickets so far. They are:


Gary Engnell
Jo Ann Smith
Tammy Nifong

Without their support, we could not help the family in need. Again thanks.

I will be posting a flyer of the yard sale shortly. I just need to finalize some information from our chapter leaders. I also need to get the flyer finished so we can distribute the flyer to other chapters. We are a heading to Eden to a chapter meeting tonight. Hopefully, we will have a great turn out at the yard sale. The family really needs our help.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Brisk Morning Ride Today

Today was my first morning ride to work in the cold. It wasn’t too bad. My new cold weather jacket did its job and I was pretty warm. I could tell if I had to ride for a long period of time, my hands would have gotten cold. But that is not a problem because I have already bought cold weather gloves for Slick and I. We already have our new thermals ready for the cold weather too. I just don’t know how many times Slick will want to venture out in the cold. I am the nut of the team. My legs got a little cold but it was not that bad. I have the vents that blow warm out of the vents to help with the legs.

It was nice to get to ride Big Red today. I have been gone for a while and haven’t got to ride too much. I was looking forward to riding to work today. It is too bad that I will have to put Big Red back up for a couple of days due to rain coming back into the forecast. Oh well, what can you do, right.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Wings Over the Smokies Group Photo

Here is a nice photo of our GWARRA Chapter NC-G group taken at the Wings Over the Smokies event. We all had a great time. Another great thing was that out of the 19 members that attended, 14 members were new. Now that was great. We are looking forward to next years event. I just hope I don't spend too much money on motorcycle stuff like I did this year.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Victory Junction Gang Fundraiser

Well, as most people that know Slick and I belong to the Goldwing Road Riders Association. But you may not realize that one thing that our club and the organization does is help the community with fundraisers. One organization we help each year is the Victory Junction Gang. Below is the website the Victory Junction Gang.

http://www.victoryjunction.org/aa_home/index.html

With at said, we are offering tickets to raise money for children and in return you could win some cash too. There will be 2 drawings. One drawing is for $250.00 and 2 drawing for $25.00. Each ticket is only $5.00 for a chance at winning the cash. But most of all, you are helping a child.

I do have ticket available. You don't have to be present to win and the drawing will be held December 7th. If you would like to buy and ticket and can't see me, just send me your money and I will mail you your ticket(s). So if you want a chance to win some cash and help a child, let me know. I expect the tickets to go fast.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Still Practicing Stopping

Well, I am still practicing with Big Red. I have noticed one big thing I really need to work on; stopping. As you can imagine knowing how to stop an 800+ lbs bike would be a good thing ot work on. So lately I have been working on making smooth stops. I would say about 60% of the time I do pretty good. The other 40, not so good. I have a bad tendency to look down and lean the bike to the left on my stops. Oh yeah, I take my foot off the the break to early too. It is funny, because when I was taking the motorcycle class a few months ago, my instructor kept telling me to keep my head up and look straight ahead when I go to stop. I was so bad at keeping my head up he asked if I had a neck injury. Now that is bad.

Each morning that do ride Big Red I try to get in a few extra minutes of practice on stopping. I am getting better, but it is taking me some time to break some bad habits. Of course I will need to break those habits because I could drop the bike, hit another vehicle or even worse, throw Slick off the bike. Now that would be bad.

I am sure everything will come around in time. Hey, I have only been on Big Red 3 months. Practice, practice, practice.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Taking the Shadow for a Little Spin!

Today I took my Honda Shadow for a little spin. It is a really fun bike to ride and I can't believe no one has taken me up on the offer for the bike. I really enjoy riding it and I will miss it when it is sold.

Until next time and enjoy the ride!

Pappy

Items for Sale

Here are a few items that I have for sale. I expect them to go fast.

1987 Honda Shadow 700cc
Great running first bike for someone. The bike has less than 17,000 miles, new tune up, new oil and filter change, new battery, new owners/repair manual and new bike cover. Only $2100.00.

New Bell Helmet
Size XL. Never worn. Originally sells for $159.95. Now only $90.00.

Kuryakyn Foot Boards
With heel and toe shifter for GL1800 Goldwing. Like new for only $295.00.

GL1800 Windshield
Windshield has hole for vent. Used, $50.00.

Buyer must pick up or be willing to pay for shipping costs for each item. Photos are available upon request. Call 336-454-5936 or 336-686-4514 for more information.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Watch Those Slick Spots in the Dark

I had an interesting ride into work this morning. The first part of the ride was great. It was a nice cool clear morning ride. However, as I got closer to where I work I had to stop at a red light and it was still dark. I put my left foot down before stopping the bike to help stabilize the bike. That went well. Then I put my right foot down. My right foot almost slipped out from underneath me. Apparently, there was some oil on the road and luckily I didn’t hit the spot before I stopped the bike or I am pretty sure I would have dropped it After I noticed that the oily stop I decided to move up off the spot. The problem was I had a car in front of me. So I moved up as much as I could. I decided to take off slowly just in case I was on the oil spot. Apparently I was. Even though I was going slowly the rear end of the bike fish tailed a little, but not so much to cause me to lose control. The whole experience reminds me of how my brother in law, Scott, hit something slick on his way to work one morning. Unfortunately for him, he had some damage to his bike, helmet and broke his collar bone. Now that would have been bad.

For all your motorcycle riders (new and veterans) be careful out there. Motorcycles don’t care too much for gravel, sand and oil.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

2006 Wings over the Smokies Trip

Well Slick and I just got back from our “Wings over the Smokies” rally in Fletcher NC. We started out last Friday around 7 am and headed off on our trip. Slick and I had breakfast with her parents in Hickory NC. That part of the trip was pretty interesting, since it was a bit nippy at 7 am. We dressed in layers and we were still pretty chilly. Let me tell you, nothing will wake you faster than traveling down the highway at 70 mph when it is around 60 degrees. If you are not too familiar with that temperature, just deduct about 20 degrees and you can imagine how we felt. Anyway, we got to Hickory and met her parents for breakfast. We were pretty chilly at that point and were glad to stop and thaw out. We had breakfast and right before we left it started to drizzle rain. We didn’t freak out or anything. We just grabbed our rain gear and suited up. Actually we should have done that at the beginning of our ride because the rain gear was really good at keeping us warmer. We learned a good lesson there.

So we got suited up, wiped down the bike and headed toward Fletcher. Not long after we started the rain started to end and it actually got a little warmer. We got to Fletcher around noon and looked for our hotel. We checked in and then headed toward the rally to register and find our other Goldwing chapter members.

After we registered we hooked up with Craig, Melinda, Bryan, Donna, Johnny and Anthony. I was told when I first got with our chapter to watch out for my buddy Craig. I was told he would have me buying all kinds of stuff at the rally. And he did. We got there and he took us out shopping for goodies. To be honest, I had planned to buy only some shark fins and a name plate at the rally. But that didn’t happen. Before I knew it, I had a new chrome luggage rack (with bag), new pegs and break peg, shirts, pins and other things I had not planned to buy. But I have to admit, thanks to Craig, I did get some great deals. The man knew so many people at the rally, it was scary. Below is a photo of Craig, Bryan and me. My son calls us the 3 Stooges!

Friday night was really interesting and real adventure. Most of the members of our group did not want to ride our bikes back to the rally from our hotel. So we all decided to take Bryan and Donna’s van back to the rally site from the hotel. We all wanted to go back and listen to the live entertainment (The Embers). The memorable part of the van ride was that we crammed 10 people inside the mini-van. Now that was tricky and painful. We had so many people in the van that it looked like we were a bunch of illegal’s trying to cross the border and we were afraid the border patrol would spot us. I was just thankful we didn’t have a crash because some of us would not have survived the crash. At least if we did have a crash, I would probably have not felt any pain because I was numb from the waist down. Did I mention we had to ride back to the hotel too?

As for the Embers, if you get a chance to see them, I recommend you do. They were great and from Raleigh NC. We all had a great time Friday. Below are some pictures of the bikes we saw:

Saturday morning came and Slick and I headed out for breakfast at our favorite breakfast joint, Denny’s. We love those waffles! We filled up Big Red and headed back to the rally to do some more shopping. We bought more stuff. At 9 am, we worked (if that is what you want to call it) at the games table until 10 am. After a hard hour at work, Slick and I went for a walk and started looking at the bikes that would be entering the bike show. There were some really nice bikes there. Then after we left the bike contest parking lot we started walking around and looked at the other displays. It was amazing to us to see what people can do with motorcycles. There was everything you could imagine there at the rally for motorcycles and the deals were pretty nice too.

Around 2:30 pm, Slick and I headed back to the hotel so we could get ready for the night events and the closing ceremony. Saturday was also the day there was going to be some large drawings for money given away. Two of the drawings, Slick and I entered. One of the drawings was at 3 pm. Of course we didn’t win anything for that drawing, but we did at the later big drawing. What happened was that 11 members of our chapter put in $10.00 a piece to win the large 50/50 drawing. Well, we won it. They actually drew Slicks number and we won $1068.00. That was close to $100.00 a piece. We contributed the win to that goofy chicken Ro Ho. It wins all the time. Now all the members of our group are scrambling to get Ro Ho back so they can win. Now that is pretty funny. After the drawing and closing ceremony we headed back to the hotel for a pizza party and some fellowship. It was fun.

On Sunday we all prepared for our trip back. We were a little concerned about rain due to some powerful storms that were coming through the area. It rained like crazy Saturday night and all the bikes got wet. Luckily, I took the time to cover my bike up and my bike was not soaked. After getting packed we all discussed the routes back we were going to take back home. Our 4 person group just took and a straight shot back on interstate 40 and highway 64. Get this, we had no rain. Now that was luck and the ride was a great one.

All in the entire trip was great. We had a great time and a lot of laughs. We are looking forward to next year.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Great Trip Today!

Slick and I just got back from a nice 200+ mile trip on Big Red. We headed toward Mt. Airy and then decided to take a really nice country road (601). We headed south toward Mocksville and then decided it was time to discuss food. So we made a bee line toward one of our favorite pizza drives in Archdale. We really enjoy Bill's Pizza and Pub. They have some great food there. You could not tell it by the outside of the old building but their food is excellent. Slick said it was her favorite places to have pizza and a nice salad for under 20 bucks. After chow we called our old buddy Craig to see what he was up to. He ask us to come over to his place after we ate and he would put on a used brake peg. We had to take the old one off so we could sell it with the footboards I am trying to sell. I could really tell the difference in how well I handled Big Red since we removed the footboards and put on the standard gear pegs. All in all we had a great time and it was a great day to ride.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Kurayakn Footboards for Sale

If anyone is needing or every wanted to own some great footboards with a heel and toe shifter here is a great deal on one. I am selling my Küryakyn footboards. The footboards normally sell for $350.00. I will take $300.00 for them. Just let me know if you or anyone is interested. I expect them to go fast.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Ro Ho Photo

I figured that everyone would like to see good old Ro Ho. It is the luckiest rubber chicken you can have. Ro Ho was responsible for us winning $51.00 during the 50/50 ticket drawing at our monthly chapter meeting. That is one ugly but one really lucky bird. The above picture is good old Ro Ho with Slick (it's proud new owner).

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Cripple Creek Mystery Ride

Friday night was an interesting night for Slick and I. Craig and his wife, Melinda came up with the idea of going on a mystery ride for dinner. Craig and Andrew came over to install my new windshield and handlebar risers. After installing the new goodies, Slick and I and 9 others went on the mystery ride. Boy, was the ride an adventure. We all meet off of Business 85 in High Point and headed south. We rode for over an hour and ended up in a little restaurant called Cripple Creek. The food and company was great. We left for the dinner around 7:15 pm and got home around 10:45 pm.

It was my first ride at night on a long trip. I was not too thrilled about traveling at night. To me there are way too many distractions to really enjoy the ride. I would much rather ride during the day. Of course, I will have to travel at night, but I plan to keep that to a minimum.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

NC Chapter G Group Photo

I have a lot of people ask me about our chapter group. Well, here is a picture of our group during the recent open house that we sponsored in Asheboro NC. It was a great time.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Slick Got Ro-Ho!

Last night Slick and I attended our monthly chapter meeting in Archdale and we got lucky. Well, kind of. Slick got Ro-Ho. It is a little silly chicken that is given out to people that do something embarrassing and of course, everyone likes to remind them of it. Anyway, Slick was invited to tell her story and of course, and she got to receive Ro-Ho. Now the good news is that Ro-Ho brings a lot of lucky to the person that gets it. For example, Ro-Ho is responsible for winner various drawings and we were no exception. Last night there were 2, 50/50 tickets drawings and guess who got one? That’s right, Slick. We stuffed our tickets into Ro-Ho’s mouth and we won the first drawing of $51.00. Not a bad deal if all you have to do is carry around a lucky and goofy looking chicken for a month. Wouldn’t you say?

Tonight Craig and I are going to put on my new windshield, chrome light trimmings and handle bar risers. Then we are going to have a mystery dinner ride with Craig and his wife and meet others for the ride in High Point. Right now, we have no idea how many people will show up for the ride or where we will be going. It should be fun though.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Shadow, Trips and Future Goodies

I took the Shadow out of a little ride yesterday for old times sake. It ran like a charm. However, it is not like Big Red, but it is fun to ride. The Shadow is a great little bike for anyone looking for a great little starter bike. In a way, I will miss the Shadow when I do sell it. But that is life, I guess.

Tonight Slick and I plan on going to our monthly Goldwing chapter meeting in Archdale NC. It should be fun. We will be discussing the upcoming Wings over the Smokies trip. Also, Craig and I are going to get together Friday night to put on my saddle bags and trunk lighting chrome trimmings on Big Red. We will also be replacing the windshield too. It will be nice to have a larger windshield. We are also planning on putting together an adjustment piece for the handle bars. Craig said it would reposition the bars so they would be 1.5” higher and 1.5” back. I got on his bike and it seemed like the adjustment would be more comfortable. So, of course I have to get the stuff.

The only thing I really have left to buy for Big Red is my chrome crawl, chrome wheel cover, chrome trunk rack, saddle bag and trunk lights (chrome, of course), and chrome air vents. Oh yeah, I need a new travel bag for our extended trips since Slick and I will probably not get a trailer anytime soon. I figure I can get all that stuff by this time next year.

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy

Shadow and Big Red Updates

Well, I got the Honda Shadow back out of maintenance thanks to my buddy Craig. He is a life saver and good friend to have. He has helped me so much with the Shadow and Big Red. I got the Shadow back last night around 8 pm. I had to ride it home. It was dark but that wasn't the kicker. It was raining a little and I did not take my full face helmet or glasses. So of course, I got the crap beat out of me from the rain. I learned a good lesson there. Either remember my helmet and glasses or take Craig up on borrowing his glasses when he offers them.

The Shadow is now ready for sale. I have already placed some ads in the local classifieds and I will be positioning it in various locations to see if anyone is intested. I figure it will go fast because it is an excellent first bike for anyone. I know it helped me to learn to ride.

Speaking of riding, I got to ride Big Red to work today. It was the first time I have ridden it in about a week due to all the rain in the area. Tomorrow Slick and I plan to ride Big Red to our chapter meeting in Archdale. We are going to ride this weekend since I have to head out of town for a week. I hate that!

Friday, I plan to go to Asheboro to pick up my windshield (it finally came in) and my chrome for my saddle bag and trunk lights. Those will be cool to have to put on before our ride to Ashville in 2 weeks for the "Wings Over the Smokies" event. Craig said it will be a huge event and Slick and I are looking forward to that. We are also looking forward the our chapter's beach trip in October.

Life is good!

Until next time and happy riding!

Pappy