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So after having about 4,000 miles on my bike since I purchased it last August, I decided to go on my first charity ride with some friends. There were 16 bikes in our group and I was the only one not on a cruiser. 
We did the Motorcycle Miracle Tour to benefit Childrens Miracle Network. Now keep in mind, that this is the first time I've ridden more than 60 or 70 miles in one day.
I met some of the guys down the street from my house at 6:45am on Sunday and proceeded to ride about 35 miles to meet up with everyone else for breakfast. I didn't take the liner for my jacket because the idiot weather guy said it was going to be 78 and sunny. Needless to say, the ride to breakfast and I was frozen.
Breakfast pretty much sucked and we proceeded to ride to Geisinger Health Center to register for the ride. That was another 45 miles from breakfast. I was still cold and it was still cloudy.
We registered, walked around to check out the bikes and decided to leave for the ride around 11am. I saw about 5 sport bikes out of probably the 1,000 or so that were there.
The ride was supposed to be 76 miles and ended at a hole in the wall amusement park. The first 25 or 30 miles of the ride was awesome. It started to get warm and the sun came out. We had some really nice curves and I was having a blast.
Then the sky started turning dark and it began to rain. Not a lot, just enough to make the road wet. Keep in mind, I'm still new and have never ridden in the rain so I was scared out of my skull taking corners on a wet road any faster than 5mph.
After what seemed like forever, we finally finished the ride and once again, the sun started to come out. When we arrived at our destination, we had to drive through a bunch of stones and then park in the grass. Once again, I've never ridden on stones or grass, so this scared the crap out of me again. Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride.
Everyone decided to meet back at the bikes around 5pm to "take the long way home". I was sore, my hand went numb about 200 times and my butt hurt. I just wanted to go home.
Shortly before we were supposed to head home, the sky started getting pitch black and there were massive thunderstorms headed our way. My buddy and I decided we weren't going to wait around and started to head home. I told him I just wanted to get home so we hopped on the expressway.
It was about a 15 - 20 mile ride to route 81S. After awhile on 81S it started to lightly rain again.....wonderful. Just about this time we entered a few long sweeping turns at about 70mph. For some reason there were huge bumps in the road, almost like speed bumps. So I'm in a partial lean, going around a turn at 70mph in the rain, and the bike jumps off the ground. I all but needed new boxers after that. Oh, and did I mentioned this happened about 8 times!
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was home. The ride home, was 89 miles.
I have decided that I'm never going on a charity ride again, that's any further away than the store down the street and I'll just mail in my donation in the next time.
I hated all but 20 miles of it and it was about the worst day I could ever imagine. After that nightmare, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about "touring" because I sure as hell hated it.
Sorry for the long post, but it was a long ride.
We did the Motorcycle Miracle Tour to benefit Childrens Miracle Network. Now keep in mind, that this is the first time I've ridden more than 60 or 70 miles in one day.
I met some of the guys down the street from my house at 6:45am on Sunday and proceeded to ride about 35 miles to meet up with everyone else for breakfast. I didn't take the liner for my jacket because the idiot weather guy said it was going to be 78 and sunny. Needless to say, the ride to breakfast and I was frozen.
Breakfast pretty much sucked and we proceeded to ride to Geisinger Health Center to register for the ride. That was another 45 miles from breakfast. I was still cold and it was still cloudy.
We registered, walked around to check out the bikes and decided to leave for the ride around 11am. I saw about 5 sport bikes out of probably the 1,000 or so that were there.
The ride was supposed to be 76 miles and ended at a hole in the wall amusement park. The first 25 or 30 miles of the ride was awesome. It started to get warm and the sun came out. We had some really nice curves and I was having a blast.
Then the sky started turning dark and it began to rain. Not a lot, just enough to make the road wet. Keep in mind, I'm still new and have never ridden in the rain so I was scared out of my skull taking corners on a wet road any faster than 5mph.
After what seemed like forever, we finally finished the ride and once again, the sun started to come out. When we arrived at our destination, we had to drive through a bunch of stones and then park in the grass. Once again, I've never ridden on stones or grass, so this scared the crap out of me again. Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride.
Everyone decided to meet back at the bikes around 5pm to "take the long way home". I was sore, my hand went numb about 200 times and my butt hurt. I just wanted to go home.
Shortly before we were supposed to head home, the sky started getting pitch black and there were massive thunderstorms headed our way. My buddy and I decided we weren't going to wait around and started to head home. I told him I just wanted to get home so we hopped on the expressway.
It was about a 15 - 20 mile ride to route 81S. After awhile on 81S it started to lightly rain again.....wonderful. Just about this time we entered a few long sweeping turns at about 70mph. For some reason there were huge bumps in the road, almost like speed bumps. So I'm in a partial lean, going around a turn at 70mph in the rain, and the bike jumps off the ground. I all but needed new boxers after that. Oh, and did I mentioned this happened about 8 times!
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was home. The ride home, was 89 miles.
I have decided that I'm never going on a charity ride again, that's any further away than the store down the street and I'll just mail in my donation in the next time.
I hated all but 20 miles of it and it was about the worst day I could ever imagine. After that nightmare, I'm wondering what all the fuss is about "touring" because I sure as hell hated it.
Sorry for the long post, but it was a long ride.
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