Lynchburg Ride (July 20, 2013)

Rode with Kaye (who rode her Harley) to Appomattox on June 20 (more photos on my Richmond and Me page) and took this photo at Appomattox. That is the site where the Civil War ended - this photo is said to be where the last shots were fired. Nice place with a small charge, and we explored it on a very hot and humid day. Nice that this place still exists so that all that happened during that time can be remembered, and we can see what happened back then. It is a remarkable thing to stand on that ground, and to see what they saw without of course all the carnage.

This is the War Memorial (WW1 with others added later) in Lynchburg, VA. Had not been to either of these places in a while, but sure was good to be back and after a quick lunch stop on a place near the James River, and a nice walk we got back on the bikes. I took this photo from the seat of the Vulcan. It was a great ride with Kaye, we covered some 260 miles in all, and sure felt good moving. I am looking forward to returning to this area and to seeing it again very soon.
On the negative side though, when I went to get on the bike, the oil leak is back...apparently it was never fixed. I put the bike back in the shop on Tuesday where they promised me this time it will be fixed! These things happen, but still sucks So for a while will be just enjoying motorcycles from a distance...but sure to have some fun things to do in the meantime.

Repaired and Ridden (July 13-14, 2013)

 So....had an oil leak on the Vulcan; a slow one, but a leak nonetheless out of the left engine cover. I put the bike in the shop on Tuesday July 9. Just like the inspection drove to where I keep the bike, rode it to Ultimate Cycle on Midlothian Turnpike and walked back. Did not think based on other shops (and was sort of told) it would not be back soon. However, got a surprise. The bike was done early....got a call on July 18 that it was done. In fact, I had them do a little more maintenance work on it, cause the price was lower than I expected. On Saturday July 13 Kaye took me to get the motorcycle. 

It was done, paid for the repairs, and got the bike. I also took the photo of the C90T by Suzuki at top (a very cool touring bike) and the photo of the bikes at the bottom photo.
I got a good feeling that when I am in the market for a new motorcycle that Ultimate Cycle is right at the top of the list. They were fast, the work was done right (in fact I think they cleaned the bike and also made a few other adjustments at no charge), and glad to be back on the streets of Richmond again. I did not get to ride much on Saturday, took it from the shop to storage due to weather.   

On Sunday July 14 though I did get a ride in. Here is the Vulcan on Midlothian Turnpike. It was a hot and humid day, but a real good ride. Went to visit a friend (Keith by name) down on Hull Street (we went to  Buffalo Wild Wings and also Guitar Center) and then I rode down some different roads to my neighborhood (got a smoothie at Crossroads Coffee) and then into Richmond.
Rode to Church Hill, around there for a bit, back into downtown before crossing the bridge and back to where I store the bike. It was a great ride considering...and came real close to 50 miles. Looking for some real interesting rides in the days to come, once the weather gets a little bit better...which is hopefully not far down the road!

Motorcycle Date (July 6, 2013)

 Something different....started July 6 out visiting HondaHouse in Richmond, VA. They now also carry Yamaha Motorcycles, and got my first up close look at the Bolt which is new for 2013. Cool bike which is to me a copy of the Harley-Davidson Sportster but (I am told) with better performance. I think its a neat bike; really liked the LED tail lights on it. Going to have to check this out later on, there are a number of really good motorcycles out this year. I also saw the adventure bike version of the new Honda 500 line, and of course checked out the Can-Am trikes.  

 This is Kaye who rides a Harley-Davidson Heritage (2006). As dates go, this was a good one, first time motorcycle date. We went riding to lunch at Alabma BBQ (one of my favorite places) and then went down Highway 5 to Yorktown, VA. Had not been there via that route...very, very scenic. I liked the ride on what was a very hot and humid day. Yorktown has a lot of very historic buildings many of which date to the 1700's. One of the cool things about Virginia is the history of this place, and also how well they have protected it over the years. Not just there, but also in Richmond.    

 Had this photo in Yorktown. It was really lively due to the heat, there were a lot of people there, and I got a photo of this bus. Sort of hilly but we walked around....think you can see a place better on foot.
After the visit to the city, walked to the bikes and rode along the amazing Colonial Parkway. It is a unique road and this time we rode all the way to Jamestown. Along the route is some great scenery but also a very cool tunnel that we went though. I think as with much of the area Yorktown is very old and very unique as well. Been a lot of places but there is nothing quite like it. 

Finally, got this photo from the Jamestown Ferry. First time to ride that, we crossed the water (to be honest, not sure what water) and headed back to Richmond via Highway 10. Once again a very scenic road...had a good time riding that one.
For the day, the entire ride covered 195 miles in total, one of my biggest days on the bike in some time. On the bad side have an oil leak; first problem on the 1500 since I got it in 2005....going to see if I can fix it, if not...its going into the shop later this week. That will be my Sunday project later on in the day. For now, I have a lot of happy memories and a really great time!