Catching up

The weekend after our epic 800 miler was a little more quiet.  The Indian dealer in Knoxville was having "Demo Days" as well as giving a free bandanna for every demo ride taken.  Now, I do not EVER want to take advantage of our local dealer.  The guys there are great, but I know no one likes a "tire kicker".  We are DEFINITELY not tire kickers, but we're also not able to spend tens of thousands of dollars, either.  David will be getting a Chieftan within the year, and whether we get it from Knoxville or not greatly depends on our interactions with the staff.  For the Demo days, you just pick any bike in the store and they let you take it out, unguided.  One time, they actually had 4 different bikes parked outside that they had READY for you to take out.  To take a demo bike, they take it down and check it, put a tag on it, and gas it up for you ... it's a lot of work!  But dang it, Indian corporate gives you free stuff as incentives for doing demo rides, so we join in the fun!  I also am for sure a future Chieftan customer ... just very, very far in the future, lol!  Which is ok ... after this weekend, I need a few thousand more miles and a couple more years on my Scout before I graduate up in size, anyway lol. 

David's beauty is in the back

Anyway, Will the salesman was happy to hook us up, and David took out his beloved blue Chieftan Limited, and I took a Dark Horse (which I am TOTALLY not interested in, black bikes bore the heck out of me).  I was able to try the bike with the Reduced seat, which I was excited about.  This was the first time David and I were able to ride Chieftans together ALONE.  He has a pretty good demo route figured out; it's different than the lead rides b/c those are supposed to be 100% right turns.  We found ourselves plenty of left ones, and fun ones at that!  There's this road right down from the dealer that has a long, twisty downhill followed by a long, twisty uphill.  Super fun!  The seat got my feet a little closer to the ground, but still not flatfooted.  I actually felt a little cramped sitting because it pulled me closer to the gas tank and put more of a bend in my knees, which I don't need in the "riding" position.  So, undecided on the Reduced seat!

48th time at the Dragon! (made that # up)

  Anyway, we pulled into a pull off to wait on a SUPER slow car to move out of the way, and it was definitely an awkward stop for me.  The bike is soooo heavy, but I was also being so super careful.  We pulled back onto the road with no issues, and I thoroughly enjoyed the light as a cat feel of the front end of the bike through the twisty road!  It actually rides lighter and more comfortable than Khaleesi due to the positively neutral, upright riding position.  My arms are in a PERFECT spot on the handlebars, I love it so much!  As we neared the end of the ride and got closer to the dealership, I had a moment of mild panic.  The shop is in a HORRIBLE spot off a HORRIBLE busy road.  If you come in needing to make a left turn, you have to go down and make a U turn to turn right into the driveway; there's no straight up left turn in.  I am DEFINITELY not ready to fire off a U turn on a busy highway on the Chieftan yet.  David had me covered, though, and we took backroads with traffic lights that put us on the highway going the proper direction to make that right back into the shop.  I was relieved to pull to a stop and have David come up and put my kickstand down for me.

2018 Bandanna

Anticipating our next Chieftan rides to be at the Demo truck in September, when there's ZERO guilt to get out and ride them!  Wow, didn't mean for this blog to turn into such a detailed account of a "test ride", but it always morphs into what it's meant to as soon as my fingers touch the keys :)  Our demo ride on Saturday was our "ride" for the day, but we did head out again once the baby went to sleep around Sevierville.  We were again going for ice cream at this cute little private store, but we got there too late.  So DQ it was!  Fun, safe ride for about 3 hours; we left out around 8:30 and got back just before midnight.  The following weekend dawned HOT.  David almost didn't even really want to ride; I talked him into it by tempting him with the Cherohala; the temp difference up there is CRAZY!  And it's south, too!  I just knew that even though it was a hot day, it would be a nice ride.

We hit the road heading south down 411, then took our usual backroads to Tellico Plains.  He had ME lead the Cherohala and he filmed it.  The first part of the ride involved a slow yellow Mustang that didn't know to MOVE OUT OF THE FREAKING WAY.  As SOON as we were able, I passed them and enjoyed the long sweeping curves of the Skyway.  And I was soooo right, it was about 15 degrees cooler. 

There were some threatening clouds hanging around, but all they did was threaten.  We made our way to The Hub in Robbinsville, NC and enjoyed lunch, then hit 129 to do the Dragon to FHP.  It was actually my first time to do the FHP after the Dragon.  I've done FHP FIRST, but never after.  And we've always stopped and taken a break.  We did stop in Deal's Gap to wander up to the Killboy store and make sure they didn't have any new stickers (they didn't) first, but then we hit the road.  And let me tell ya ... it was crazy slow.  We got stuck behind a group of riders/cars going so slow ... we actually horsed around for one of the photographers, which I NEVER do.  I told David we needed to stop, because the Dragon will bite you when you're not expecting it!  So we straightened up and focused on finishing the ride. 

I hate posting screenshots, but this is an ugly pic!  Went with my short boots due to the HEAT

Enjoyed cruising up and over the Parkway, enjoying the cooler weather up there too (although not as cool as the Skyway) then to our favorite Winery because David wasn't ready for the day to end.  Fun day!  Absolutely zero issues or problems, we completely enjoyed our time together.    I give ALL the glory to God!

That may or may not be a wine slushy!

2nd Saturday

How our day begins, always!

2nd Saturday dawned early again.  Not AS early as the previous day, though :)  Our goal destination was Bell Buckle, TN to the RC Cola and Moonpie festival!  Who even knew that was a thing?  Now we do!  Bell Buckle is southwest, towards Murfreesboro and not far outside Nashville.  Now, you'd think since it's in the same state that it's not that far, but it's a solid 3 hour and change ride for us.  Of course, that's taking mostly interstate, and in a cage which can be filled up once and done.  My SIL and FIL came to the house on Friday to stay over so she could drive the boys to the festival.  We would have had to taken 2 cars regardless since there was 6 of us, so David and I took the bikes!  No rain in the forecast, why not?

We set out due west on our freshly gassed up bikes and our still tender rears feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep and a cold shower.  We took Hwy 60 most of the way there, and it was actually really fun!  No rain this time, and the road is an interesting mix of higher speed straightaways and tight curvy 35 mph sections.  David and I dug in on the curves and twisted those throttles with sheer abandon, leaving the boys (and my beautiful SIL) in the dust!  As we thundered closer to the tiny town square, the GPS sent us down some small back roads which were GREAT.  Some gravel to be leery of, but we always ride with heads on a swivel, and eyes on every possible obstacle.  I was still feeling wonderful, eons more comfortable, feeling very much 'back to normal'.  As we entered the town square, Khaleesi's fan turned on and blew a whined protest of hot air on me as we rode in FIRST GEAR behind a line of traffic.  She does NOT care for slow speeds on a hot day.

We found a church parking lot to duck into and I patted myself on the back for packing a change of clothes in the SIL's car.  Um, that was until I attempted to change in the car, lol!  I exchanged my jeans for yoga capris that was having a VERY hard time pulling over my sweaty legs :D  Oops.  Got them pulled up enough to be decent, slid on my flip flops, then got out of the car so I could do the "yank up your pants to proper positioning" dance.  We were sporting our new Dri Fit IMRG T's, so that part was great.  Exchanged the helmet for a ball cap and off we went!

The festival was cute.  But it was too dang hot ... and there were a LOT of people crammed into a tight place.  The moonpies were melting, and I didn't even want an RC Cola, I wanted ice water.  We will DEFINITELY ride the bikes back to Bell Buckle in the future, but I don't think we'd do the festival again unless it moved to late Fall.  We decided to leave and head towards Chattanooga since the MIL had met us at the festival, and that was the way she needed to go to head back home to GA.  What's convenient to Chattanooga and Bell Buckle?  Lynchburg!  What's in Lynchburg?  The Jack Daniel's Distillery!

I made a last minute decision to leave on the yoga pants, and changed my flip flops for my boots.  I was glad I'd decided to wear the tall boots!  And no, there's no photographic proof!  Topped my T shirt with a 1/4 zip SUPER light weight LS shirt; it's just less heavy than the mesh jacket and allows more air on such a hot, humid day.  I know the LS wouldn't provide much more protection than a T shirt, but my goal was not to get sunburned.  I was wearing my Fox ATV gloves that are 20 years old b/c my motorcycle gloves I got a few months ago are useless in weather that's too cold or too hot; the temps have to be between 65-75 to ride comfortably in those.  The ATV gloves are very comfortable in high temps; they're just old and falling apart w/ not as much cushioning on my knuckles to absorb the vibrations of the throttle.  I'd rather my hands breathe though, so there it was!

We made our way out to Lynchburg.  BEAUTIFUL town!  You could probably talk me into living there, it's very peaceful.  The distillery smelled awful, though!  I'm not sure what it was.  David and I were STOKED to get motorcycle parking right up front.  We walked through the museum for free; we couldn't do any of the tours because of 2 underage children!  That was fine though, we were just there to visit the place b/c it's a Tennessee icon.  I've actually never even tried so much as a single shot of JD; it just smells nasty lol :D  We were getting hungry by this point; our appetites had been fairly low just due to the HEAT.  We opted to hop on the Interstate for the fastest route to Chattanooga, and wouldn't you know the skies would open up and God would rain down a massive thunderstorm?  We darted off to sit under an awning for a few minutes, then just decided to go on.  I was uncomfortable; riding in the rain is not my favorite thing.  We pulled the face shields down and went with it.  Some areas of the interstate had huge puddles of water, so we just navigated carefully through those.  Soon enough, the rain stopped and by the time we arrived in downtown, we were completely dry.  It's amazing how that hot sun will suck the wet right out of ya!

OK, so maybe there IS photographic evidence, lolol!

Switched back to my flipflops in the parking lot, and we ate at Puckett's.  Very good food, they talked us into their drink of the day.  It was sooooo good, smelled way better than whiskey!  We walked for a few minutes over to the little water areas in front of the aquarium, just enjoying our family time.  The boys got in and got a little wet; I was SO grateful to have the chance to spend time with my family AND ride the bikes.  Best of both worlds!

Just a boy and his Pawpaw

You can almost see all of us!

My yoga pants were now sweaty and wet from the water, so I changed back into my jeans!  The ride home was a blur; we stayed off the interstate and took back roads up.  Total mileage for the day was 400, making out 2 day total 800ish miles.  That was our biggest yet!  Someday we'll do an epic riding vacation with a few thousand miles, but that will be either after my Scout is set up a little better, or after I get my Chieftan!  Sunday was a quiet day spent at home.  I thank God for blessing our family with the desire and the ability to own/ride motorcycles.  I thank my FIL for taking me on my first ride and beginning my addiction!  I especially thank God for the safety on the road, and I pray for His continued blessings in that department.  Looking forward to many, many more adventures on 2 wheels!

How our day ended.  So blessed!

Life at 14,067

Foothills Parkway

So, just thought I'd interject a little "side" blog in between ride documentation.  The title of this post is where I'm at, mileage wise.  I've owned my bike for 1 year and 2 1/2 months.  We have a few "big" rides planned this month, so maybe I'll be at 15K by 8-1.  Thought I'd share a few gems I've picked up during my time on the bike, and also update the Scout Sixty at 14,000 miles!

I don't spend hours cleaning my bike, but I never let her go dirty either!

1.  I ALWAYS prefer long sleeves when riding, especially in the summer.  I'd like to find some nice ATV jersey type clothes for the REALLY hot days.  Those w/ just a sports bra are nice.  Downfall is they DO blow around a lot, and on a longer ride, that can irritate my neck a little.  I was digging the 1/4 zip dri fit long sleeved shirts, but I've discovered that whether they're zipped or not, the wind blows them into my neck and it's VERY irritating.  My way favorite way of riding on a hotter day is a dri fit tank top w/ the bra built in, and my mesh jacket.  The mesh jacket is just perfect; it's heavy so it doesn't blow UP, it's perforated so the wind flows right through it and it doesn't flap around my arms/body/neck, and it has a small mock collar so my neck doesn't get sunburned at ALL.  The downfall to the mesh jacket is that it's heavier than a jersey, so on those really hot and humid days I feel like I'm suffocating when sitting still.  Moving down the road is fine, but if we stop to get water or walk around, when I go to put the jacket back on, it actually sticks to the sweat on my arms and it's uncomfortably hot.

2.  I always prefer to wear gloves when riding.  I've tried going naked handed, and I've tried the fingerless gloves.  I found a nice pair of Fly riding gloves that are nice and stretchy and lightweight enough that my hands don't sweat in them on a hot day.  I prefer the padding in the knuckles to keep the vibration in my hands down, plus I have seen a pic of a lady that had a super slow speed fall take off the top part of her index finger WITH THE GLOVES!  I'd' hate to know how badly she would have been injured with NO or fingerless ones.  Safety first!

All the gear, even in summer

3.  A full face helmet is hot.  There's just no getting around it.  But after seeing a facebook friend dealing with a busted nose/mouth after a slow speed fall on gravel ... full face it is!  I may invest in a modular in the future so I can drink water on the quick.  I also may just invest in a camelback water pack, but I hate wearing a backpack if I don't have to.

4.  Anyone without many thousands of miles under their belt should definitely get out and ride solo.  To me, solo means just me and the bike, no friends/riding partners.  It's a GREAT chance to work out any biomechanical problems you may be dealing with, and it's great practice working on reading the road on your own.  Many less experienced riders do ride in front of their riding partner, but I prefer riding in the back.  I find that I spend a lot of time watching the hubs' lane positioning and his lines through the curves instead of riding my own.  If you've followed my blog at all, you know I've suffered w/ a little bit of jerkiness and a lack of smoothness on mainly my left hand curves.  I've worked out that it was a combination of not seeing well over the top of my new windshield, and today I realized that I lean differently to the left, which is contributing to the jerky curves.  I have a fairly pronounced scoliosis S curve in my back, and it's easy to curve my back to the left as I go right, but I STILL curve my back left as I go left and it's messing w/ my trajectory.  Riding solo gives me the chance to go a little slower and play with lean angles, counter steering, and sitting up vs sitting back, etc.  I feel like I have figured out a few things this week!  I've ridden approximately 240 solo miles since Monday, and I'm READY for whatever we choose to do this weekend!

The lake next to the Tail of the Dragon

5.  The Scout.  Oh, how I love my Khaleesi!  I'm excited and proud to say I've gotten to test out the "heavyweight" bikes now, and I can definitely give some updates to my "A beginner's view on the Indian Scout".
     A.  The size.  I have absolutely gotten myself into what I consider 'worst case' scenarios while out riding here in E. TN and the surrounding areas.  Steep stop signs with off camber hills, gravel, pot holes, debris, traffic lights on steep hills, etc.  I have been SO grateful that I can flatfoot my bike, and if I have a bit of a hard stop I haven't dropped it (since that one time when it still had the drive out tag!).  The size and weight of the Chieftan scares me.  It feels exceptionally heavy when wedging into a tight spot that's not flat (pulled into a pulloff on our last demo ride) and if it's on the slightest incline towards the kickstand, I can NOT heft it off.  I'm sure that will come with time, but in the 3 times I've ridden the Chieftan, I've had to have help picking it up twice.
    B.  The reachability of everything.  I have a small reach.  My hands are not big and my legs are not long.  I have NO problems with the clutch, the shift/brake lever, or the turn signals.  I just have standard everything.  I demo'd a Scout set up w/ reduced reach, and the ONLY thing I liked was the reduced reach handlebars!  I am dying for a set of those. I think they will be soooo much more comfortable.  I hated the reduced seat and foot controls, the seat pushed me up on the gas tank, and the foot controls were so tight I felt like I kept missing the brake lever.  LOVED the reduced reach seat on the Chieftan.  I still can't flatfoot the bike, but it does drop me down closer and push me more towards the tank, which on THAT one, is good.  It puts more of a bend to me knee when riding, which I don't necessarily need, but you can't be too picky!  The kickstand on Khaleesi is just right, it's intuitively there.  I have not been able to put down or up the kickstands on ANY of the big bikes I've tried.  I've ridden 3 Chieftans, and 2 Springfields.  Every time, someone has had to get it for me.  I just can NOT reach it, no matter how hard I try!
    C.  Long term comfort.  My comfort zone is 200-300 mile stretches at the time.  My back and butt get very tired.  The Mustang solo seat for me IS more comfortable than the stock seat on the 'lady parts', but it puts more pressure on my seat bones.  My old gel pad I bought for the MIL's Shadow passenger pillion has worked well with the Mustang seat, no hot spots on my seat bones.  It puts more pressure back on the 'lady parts', but not nearly as bad as the stock seat.  Maybe a Corbin seat would be better, I don't know ... or the narrow seat from Indian.  Unfortunately, I don't have an unlimited budget to just buy things to throw on it.  Maybe some day!  My back is sooo tired b/c of the forward positioning.  David has rotated the bars back and that's helped, but I can't wait to ride w/ the RR, where I can sit up totally straight.  If my arms were longer, that would be better, but again ... short.
    D.  The windshield.  That dang stock windshield is HORRIBLE!  A waste of $449 in my opinion.  The buffeting was so bad, it made the bike feel unstable at higher interstate speeds.  I have 2 different full face helmets, and the buffeting was just as bad for both, so NOT the helmet!  I switched to the Freedom Shield and it has made a world of difference.  The bike is steady, stable, and I can even ride now w/ my Indian face shield on my Indian helmet up w/out being 'rigged' to stay up.  W/ the stock shield, the faceshield on my Indian helmet would crash shut at speeds above 30 mph.  Now, I can ride on the interstate at 80+ mph and the helmet shield stays up on its own.  I even got so desperate for it to stop, I took off my windshield and rode w/ a naked bike.  Never again!  Even though I love the look, the wind got up under my helmet and lifted it up to the point that I felt like I was being hanged.  No bueno!
    E.  Reliability.  I've replaced both stock tires, and had 2 oil changes.  So far, so good!  No issues at all to speak of.  I hate to jinx anything, but all stock parts have performed just as expected, very pleased!
    F.  Performance.  STILL love the bike like whoa.  I have been up and down the Tail of the Dragon literally too many times to count any more.  We've done the Cherohala Skyway about 4 or 5 times, the Blue Ridge Parkway 3 or so times, the Rattler 4 or 5 times, the Devil's Triangle in its entirety twice, etc.  I've ridden so many named roads, it's crazy!  That bike is a dream through this terrain.  Power to spare, plenty of get up and go for the high speed roads, and handles switchback turns with ease.  I can negotiate crazy steep roads without a care in the world b/c David taught me the 'clutch sweet spot' trick, and I love only having 5 gears vs. 6 b/c it's less decision making!  Haven't run out of gas despite the lack of a fuel gauge b/c I keep an eye on the tripodometer.  I've done as long as 150 miles between fuel stops, but tend to let 120 be the max distance.  I have had problems starting it if I'm at 120 miles, or if the low fuel light is on b/c of the way the fuel injection works, but I was told a trick to try next time that happens.  (un)Fortunately, I haven't had the starting problem since I was told the trick b/c I've kept it gassed up as much as possible, lol!

New 2018 bandana

I don't know what else I can say!  I'm proud of ever mile I've ridden.  Hoping that we can swing getting David his Chieftan before the year is up, and that he will trust me to take it on a ride to work on a Tuesday.  Maybe I can get him to switch w/ me for that day so he can help me with the kickstand, lol!  I also will 100% own a Chieftan, but right now that's in the "someday" category.  Let's just say w/in 10 years!  I will never trade or sell Khaleesi, she's mine forever.  I will keep her in the family for the rest of my days.  Just have floorboards, the RR bars, and the Maverick Krusher slip on exhaust pipes left to get for her.  She currently has an updated LED headlight from Eagle lights, the Mustang solo seat, and the Freedom windshield.  I look forward to the experience I gain w/ every mile I ride, and I pray it's always safe and uneventful!  Thanks for reading :)

Game changer for those of us with no saddlebags!!