North to North

[JeffH]

I had a few pictures from my ride To-From XS North. Some 2,800 mile round trip journey through GA, SC, NC, VA, WV, MD, PA, NY,
Ontario, OH, KY, TN and back to Atlanta. Tried to ride as many back roads as I could heading north or northeast going up and southwest going home.

So I made it there ............



And I made it back home ...... got caught smiling as I cruised the last few miles home over 'the Dragon' on Fri AM July 4th


The stupid thing was after riding 2,000 miles on the XSive 2014 Key West trip in February I had parked the bike and not ridden it hardly at all.
Just changed the oil & filter. Running behind and loosing my launch window for Canada I just basically 'took off' with no tools.
Just the cell phone & credit card and AMA + Progressive Towing as many of you recommend. Had a blast but it would have been more fun riding with somebody else.

Jeff

[JeffH]

A few pics from the XS North journey

Wed night 6/25 old bike & much older Plymouth (but 11E is taking me places far away)



Was looking for some curves and found some. Whoa nellie!
Rode the Donna Fargo, the Andy Griffith, the Booker T and Charity Hwy.



Getting dark and found motel at Smith Mountain Lake VA



Next AM - going North in VA loving my new bikescreen.com windscreen



Amish country somewhere in PA



Crossing the St Lawrence River in the 1000 Islands Canada
just deep greens and deep blues and me



Riding into Brockville Ontario on the 1000 Islands Parkway (spectacular scenery)




Now Ohio, Rest break at Ripley / Aberdeen Ohio with US62 & US68 crossing the Ohio River



Heading through the Cumberland Gap from Kentucky into Tennessee



Dumb & Dumber thought I could sneak by this to get to Townsend TN on Thur evening July 3rd. I never learn. duh.......
1million cars. 5 miles was 2 hours. I was stuck in the mess



Guess that's it. Lots of fill-ups. The non-ethanol fill-ups got me no better mpg. Like 39.5 mpg no matter what good or crappy gas I used or ethanol free. All the same mpg. I put in 1/2 quart of oil in Canada after 1,300 miles and another little over 1/2 quart going home. I'm happy with that. T'was a nice ride and the weather was perfect.

Jeff

[MaximPhil]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for posting. Nice pictures. I liked your comments too
Phil

[donebysunday]

Nice ride, no problems, great pics and great comments. How did you get pics of your self ? ? ?

[JeffH]

. How did you get pics of your self ? ? ?

Whenever anybody drives "The Dragon" section of US129 from TN into NC they get their picture made. This has been going on for years. Now there are three companies that have made claim to a particular curve. us129photo, killboy & 129slayer. They take shots of all bikes and cars and whatever that go by as traffic allows. You can download them.

They have also taken sequence shots of bikes that ended up wrecking in the curve. That would be more than a bit embarrassing plus rider and bike normally get wadded up going down the cliff. End up with parts on the Tree of Shame. Bikes are big business and drives the economy up there. Plus is really is an awesome challenge with those 318 pretty tight curves in 11 miles. http://www.dealsgap.com/images/tree/tree-thumb.jpg

Smooth and Twisty is how I have my bike suspension setup. Traxxion Dynamics did the forks with emulators and custom wound springs. Progressive heavy duty shocks on the back. Quite stiff but bike was setup for this kind of riding. It carves curves with ease and keeps the Avon tyres firmly planted on the pavement. Pretty lousy ride though up in snow country where the roads get those frost heaves.

Jeff

[3Phase]

Those are some good pictures and comments, Jeff!

IIRC the suspension on your XS does really well on wet twisty roads with waterfalls flooding over one side to the block walls and cliffs on the other side too.

.

[madmax-im]

Awesome riding Jeff...You have that machine looking and running real good. I like the Dragon shots where the bike's colors seem to change with the angle of perspective...cool...so looking forward to XSSE and riding with y'all again...