Thursday, T-4 days
More riders showed up, but still probably half the field left to show up on Friday.
The parking garage had a buzz to it, with some riders heading off for final service appointments before the start, while others were doing their own service down in the garage. Some, like me, were working out last minute problems that had cropped up, with various degrees of invasiveness (if that's even a word). For me, I pulled off my windscreen to tighten a GPS mount that had loosened on the way out, and to apply dielectric grease on exposed connections into the GPS units to try and seal out moisture in case that was the cause of my intermittent XM problem Wednesday. At least one other rider had his bike pretty well stripped down while tracing down an intercom issue. Another was figuring out how to plumb in his aux fuel tank.
For what is a grueling competition that's about to start, everyone is incredibly friendly. When I mentioned that I needed to run to the store for dielectric, I had no less than 3 offers to use tubes other people had with them, while several others went checking their kits to see if they brought theirs. Others are offering help fighting the intercom gremlins, or doing last minute computer tune-ups on the routing software.
I got to talk with Davo for a pretty good bit a couple of times throughout the day. Davo has flown up to the US from Australia to participate in the IBR. Since the IBR isn't hard enough apparently, Davo knocked out an IBA Coast-to-Coast Gold ... riding from the Pacific coast in Portland OR to the Atlantic coast in Charleston, 2900 miles, in just under 47 hours. And he looked like he could do it again before the start if things got a little slow around Spartanburg. The kind of details one who seldom leaves North America would think of ... Davo showed me the double white stripes he has taped to his windscreen, to remind him which side of the road to ride on. I'm more worried that suburban law enforcement isn't going to recognize that Australian license plate on the back of his bike, but Davo says he was only stalked by a LEO once while his plate was run.
And then there's my favorite "hopeless" rider, Alex. I met Alex in LA on the Pinks RTE last November. The RTE took place the day he got back stateside from his deployment in Afghanistan. Alex is riding a 1976 Suzuki RE-5 ... one of two he bought while deployed overseas. At the very last minute, his "donor" bike became his primary ride, so he's frantically working in the garage to get things set up. This bike is a constant reminder of how far motorcycle technology has progressed over 32 years. This bike is crazy hot. This bike provides almost no electrical power for accessories. This bike has terribly brakes in the rain. All that, Alex will demonstrate some real fortitude when he lands that bike at the finish in Spokane.
I didn't get pictures from dinner, but a group of us fell in line between Terry and Lynda Lahman's direction for a pretty good Shrimp and Grits dinner at a local jazz club. I've never been a fan of grits, but these were really pretty good. Throw some great creole sauce on top, along with a flash friend shrimp and a touch of sausage, it definitely hit the spot.
Looking forward to another "stree-free" day before the real fun starts. Will have more pictures on smugmug hopefully by the end of the day.
The parking garage had a buzz to it, with some riders heading off for final service appointments before the start, while others were doing their own service down in the garage. Some, like me, were working out last minute problems that had cropped up, with various degrees of invasiveness (if that's even a word). For me, I pulled off my windscreen to tighten a GPS mount that had loosened on the way out, and to apply dielectric grease on exposed connections into the GPS units to try and seal out moisture in case that was the cause of my intermittent XM problem Wednesday. At least one other rider had his bike pretty well stripped down while tracing down an intercom issue. Another was figuring out how to plumb in his aux fuel tank.
For what is a grueling competition that's about to start, everyone is incredibly friendly. When I mentioned that I needed to run to the store for dielectric, I had no less than 3 offers to use tubes other people had with them, while several others went checking their kits to see if they brought theirs. Others are offering help fighting the intercom gremlins, or doing last minute computer tune-ups on the routing software.
I got to talk with Davo for a pretty good bit a couple of times throughout the day. Davo has flown up to the US from Australia to participate in the IBR. Since the IBR isn't hard enough apparently, Davo knocked out an IBA Coast-to-Coast Gold ... riding from the Pacific coast in Portland OR to the Atlantic coast in Charleston, 2900 miles, in just under 47 hours. And he looked like he could do it again before the start if things got a little slow around Spartanburg. The kind of details one who seldom leaves North America would think of ... Davo showed me the double white stripes he has taped to his windscreen, to remind him which side of the road to ride on. I'm more worried that suburban law enforcement isn't going to recognize that Australian license plate on the back of his bike, but Davo says he was only stalked by a LEO once while his plate was run.
And then there's my favorite "hopeless" rider, Alex. I met Alex in LA on the Pinks RTE last November. The RTE took place the day he got back stateside from his deployment in Afghanistan. Alex is riding a 1976 Suzuki RE-5 ... one of two he bought while deployed overseas. At the very last minute, his "donor" bike became his primary ride, so he's frantically working in the garage to get things set up. This bike is a constant reminder of how far motorcycle technology has progressed over 32 years. This bike is crazy hot. This bike provides almost no electrical power for accessories. This bike has terribly brakes in the rain. All that, Alex will demonstrate some real fortitude when he lands that bike at the finish in Spokane.
I didn't get pictures from dinner, but a group of us fell in line between Terry and Lynda Lahman's direction for a pretty good Shrimp and Grits dinner at a local jazz club. I've never been a fan of grits, but these were really pretty good. Throw some great creole sauce on top, along with a flash friend shrimp and a touch of sausage, it definitely hit the spot.
Looking forward to another "stree-free" day before the real fun starts. Will have more pictures on smugmug hopefully by the end of the day.
posted by Charlie at
8:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home