So, this past weekend actually marks the fourth time we've taken advantage of the demo truck. The true second time was last year at Bristol; not even sure I blogged that one. It was disappointing! We had been out and about all day in the truck up in that area, and part of the goal had been to demo. I was TRYING to amp myself up at that time to try that dang Chief Darkhorse, but we didn't like the way they had things set up. First of all, you had to tell the person up front how many rides you planned to do, and which bikes you intended to try on each go round. Then, the ride leader didn't look out for ANYONE, and I don't even know if there WAS a drag rider because David and I got separated on the first ride from the group ... WITH PEOPLE BEHIND US, and no drag rider came up to show us the route "home". Um, small problem, because we don't spend much time up in the Bristol area, and we've NEVER ridden any of the bike routes. Thank GOODNESS I have a human GPS hubby b/c he was able to use his powers of deduction to lead us safely back to the group (at the dealership). I think we were all a little grumpy, b/c Betty had had a specific bike she wanted to ride first, but "someone else" was on it, and Big David sat on a Chief Darkhorse and got a terrible feeling off it, so they didn't even end up riding. Colton was in a Mood b/c he'd been in the car seat all day, so even though I was dying to go a 2nd time ... we didn't. Yeah, so that's why you never heard THAT story, lol!
Anyway! Yesterday! It was freaking FABULOUS. GREAT. AWESOME. Same crew from last week, in Chattanooga. We got up there about an hour and half early again, just like we did last year. The biggest difference between last year and this year is that the weather was sooooo much better, so that means more people. There were plenty of men milling about, sitting on bikes, and the Elite already had a helmet sitting on it. David and I mixed and mingled, met up with some old friends we met last year on the Mystery Dinner ride, and met some new ones. I was, yet again, the ONLY woman driver. I claimed for my first ride a Scout 60. Why, you ask? Because it was set up as fully "reduced reach". One of my final customizations I want to do with Khaleesi is bars that allow me to sit up straight instead of leaning so far forward. It's split half and half as to those that like the reduced reach ones, and those that like the mini apes. It was so different sitting on it; my hands were up just below my shoulders, and I was perfectly sitting up perpendicular to the bike. What was NOT comfortable, was the rest of the reduced reach components; foot controls and seat. I felt like I had NO rear brake; it was in such a different and weird spot from mine, that made me nervous. Once again, I felt like my knees were in my boobs, but at least this bike was set up with pegs instead of floorboards, so I could put my heels down.
The route was a nice, long 20 minutes, exact track as last year with all right hand turns, and a short zip up the interstate. I LOVED those rr bars. I can't WAIT to get those! Made the turns different, it was really fun. Next ride, after standing back and waiting for the new riders to claim their rides, I claimed the Springfield Darkhorse from last week. It's freaking AMAZING how just doing something once makes it so much easier the next time. I felt like the Springfield and I were old friends :) The only "sketchy" moment was making the tight left hand turn to get lined up to roll out of the driveway. IMOK has a wicked sloped and tight driveway, so I was HYPER conscious to stay balanced, keep my eyes up, and not snatch a handful of front break. Once the flagger held the lane for us and we rolled out, it was ON! Very awesome and pleasant ride. The Knoxville route requires more out of you in terms of traffic lights and such. I had noticed in the video of me riding the Chieftan last week that I dropped my feel off the floorboards WAY early approaching a stop, so I tried to keep my feet up longer this time. No issues with shifting or error codes this time!
There was ONE small scary incident. One other height challenged rider was trying out a Chieftan. She did AWESOME driving it, but parking she was at the end of the line and thus was at the more sloped part of the line. As she was putting her foot down, over the bike went. In an effort to stay upright, she revved the throttle up, and the bike kept on going! The truck driver snatched her out of the way, and the bike spun around in a circle on the ground, actually knocking into one of the other riders still sitting on the bike, SCARY! The truck driver was able to dive in and hit the kill switch, so finally the drama was over. DANG. Thankfully, the rider was 100% fine, and the guys were so dang awesome about it. They said no big deal, what's important is the rider was ok, and the bike was fine, not to worry. I'll be honest, that's what I was TERRIFIED I'd do. Fortunately, it wasn't me this time! Hopefully, that will never be me :D
On to ride #3! I again waited ... and that gorgeous, blingy, glittery, fabulous Elite was just sitting there ... sparkling. David nudged me. "DO IT", he said. Did I mention the Elite is outfitted with the 116 Big Bore upgrade, making the bike over 2000 cc's?? After making sure and triple checking that the bike's seat was not set up any different than stock (it wasn't) I stuck my helmet on the handlebars. CLAIMED. Again, as we rolled out, making that left hand turn, all I was doing was letting the clutch out with NO throttle, and that baby was dragging me around the turn. I kept her balanced between my tiptoes and again stayed off my front brake; just pulling the clutch all the way in kept her just waiting patiently ... before I knew it, we were rolling out! HOLY MOLEY, that baby is amazing. Soooo loud, and my feet were vibrating on the floorboards. Tons of power ... but for me, the vibration and the noise was too much. I'd be perfectly content with the normal 111 beast with maybe the Stage 2 upgrade. The Elite had a heel/toe shifter, and I got over my hesitancy and tried it. It wasn't hard to use at all! I switched between using my heel and using my toe to upshift and I decided it would probably be nice to have one of those once I get my big bike :D David and I happened to be at the back of the pack, and I pulled up at the end ... at the sloped part of the driveway. I dropped both feet down early on purpose and stopped with the front wheel angled slightly uphill and not quite perfectly in line so I didn't have a repeat of the previous ride's parking fiasco. The ride sweep came over and helped me put the kickstand down, and I reluctantly gave her up.
That was it; we did the poker run between the 3 dealerships there, rode up to McAllister's deli for a delicious lunch, then over to the mall in Farragut to finish up the teenager's birthday shopping. After creatively strapping down the "birthday booty" to David's sissy bar, we enjoyed a long and windy trip home. We "accidentally" went down a road the wrong direction and it was SO FUN! It had these great hills that we accelerated up and over, and you could really feel the g's pressing down. It also had some really fun twisties. When we realized we had to turn around, enjoyed hitting the twists again, then accelerated even FASTER over the hills, so fun! I love, love, love my new windshield, it works beautifully. Can't wait until I get my bars, then I'll be happy for awhile. Bars, floorboards and Khaleesi will be complete for the most part. The new pipes will be at the end of the list. On Friday after work, David I enjoyed a ride similar to what we've done before out in the Sevier County backroads, but the ones we picked this time was literally like a roller coaster! I felt like we were riding the "Dahlonega mine train" for those that have been to Six Flags over GA. So much fun! Just a short little 75 miles or so, but how lucky are we to get off early enough on Fridays to take advantage of those little meet up rides? Blessed beyond belief.
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