The First Ride of 2013, January 4, 2013

 First thing I did on the first ride of the year (as with every ride) is to check tire pressure, oil level, and also just give the bike a good "pre-flight". That is always a must do before a motorcycle ride. A bit chilly at first (but got warmer later) and took a stop at McGill Baptist Church for some hot dogs. Always fun, and that is where I met up with Phil for this Friday afternoon ride. Beautiful day to be out after a few days of some badly needed rain (area is currently under a drought), gray skies, and some really cold temperatures. We were off from here to Hendrick Motorsports.  Neat to get out and check out those race shops.
Bike seen here was awarded to Jimmie Johnson, and is a Yamaha but very customized. Most of the drivers who win championships get motorcycles, and this is a nice one. Had a great time at Hendrick and have some photos posted on my "Richmond and Me" blog as well as on my Photo Page.

Photo here is a 2013 Harley-Davidson Wide Glide.Made a stop there before we headed back to our homes. Nice to see some of the new bikes from HD, they are certainly classic designs. Of the Harley line the one I am most fond of would be the V-Rod types, just a big fan of water cooled engines - and the Revolution engine in the V-Rod is the most powerful one they make.
It was a very good ride today, Hendrick is only open during the weekdays, so nice to have a chance to get in and see some of the stuff. I have been there before, but its been awhile. Looking forward to the ride tomorrow-looks like I will get one more in! 

Chilly Ride to Charlotte (December 23, 2012)

Made a ride to Charlotte, NC on December 23, the day before Christmas Eve. Due to upcoming weather, will probably be the last ride I get in 2012, going to be out of town right after Christmas though will have a few days back after the first of the year. It was in the low 50's, mostly sunny, but chilly nonetheless. Still, it was a good ride. Made a stop at Mac's Speed Shop on South Blvd where I snapped this photo. I took a few more which will be on my "Richmond and Me" page, but it was not a big day for photography. I also saw a few bikes out - but not very many on this cold afternoon. Still, it was a good ride, and I enjoyed it!  

Last day in Richmond/day of Fall (December 19-20, 2012)

Headed out of  Richmond on December 19, but made a stop at Velocity Motorcycles which is located on Marshall Street in Richmond. Very fine motorcycle shop which sells a number of older motorcycles - and also sells Royal Enfield. It is one of my favorite stops in the RVA, and liked seeing this Royal Enfield Cafe Racer which is going to be a new motorcycle for that brand in 2013 (as a 2014 model). The bike is based on the Royal Enfield Bullet but is punched out to 535cc (pretty sure I have the engine size right on that). This is the prototype model, and it was at a motorcycle show (according to the owner) and will make a stop for a few days at Velocity before heading out to another show in Washington, DC. Royal Enfield is an old brand, was once made by the British (and was a noted rifle maker, hence the "Bullet" designation) but sold to India (part of the old British empire). Hard to find dealers for this bike, but Velocity is one of them.  

I went by The Diamond (baseball park for the Richmond Flying Squirrels) and saw that the Richmond Police Department was holding classes or training on their Harley-Davidson's. I see them often in Richmond doing traffic control, if I had to be a cop, riding one of these would not be too bad I would guess. Police in NC seem to be equipped on either Harley-Davidson or BMW motorcycles, I have seen both used there. Not so sure about the Harley models, but I have seen the BMW's flat out flying down the road. I do appreciate what the police do, and wish them a Merry Christmas.

This bike is at Stewart Hass Racing, and was built by Orange County Choppers a few years ago. I got a feeling it would be a handful to ride, and not sure that anyone ever rides it, but it is a neat looking motorcycle nonetheless. OCC was on tv for a lot of years and it was a fun show to watch - one of the more interesting families on tv in my opinion. The show has ended its run with the last episode just a few days ago, I for one will miss it, was a great deal of fun. I have seen a few of their bikes in the Concord area over the years, and they certainly made some interesting motorcycles. 

Rode out to Kannapolis, NC where I got this photo of the NC Research Center. Interesting place, was built on the site of the massive textile mills. Everyone had great hope for the bio-technology center, but the promised slew of jobs pretty much never came to be. They are some impressive buildings, and it seems that they are still building on to it, but employment levels never really matched the hope. Still, perhaps in the future something good will come out of all of it, and I suppose it is better to have somewhat empty new buildings than totally empty factory buildings. Sure is an interesting idea though.    

Finally, a last look at the Vulcan in front of Stewart Haas. Kind of made this ride to see some sights to check out tonight on Christmas lights. While not on the level of Tacky Light Tour in Richmond, we do have some interesting sights to see. On my next post at Richmond and Me (my other blog) will have some photos from inside the shop, and also some of the Christmas Lights I plan to see tonight, for tis the season after all.
Felt good today to be out, as I noted has been a while since my last ride. Sure enjoy that motorcycle, has taken me over the last few years on some great rides and adventures. Many more are to come, I remain well pleased with this bike. For one thing, it has been trouble free since I got it in 2005, for another having no payment is a very fine thing as well. Nothing like a fine ride on a cool fall day, looking forward to many more during winter, which will officially start tomorrow. Hope its a good season for all of us, no matter where you are.  

Riding in my backyard (November 26, 2012)

Something rare for this page...guy said, "I will take your photo" and I took the photo at left of me in front of Charlotte Motor Speedway. That is the tree (a tree shaped collection of lights) in the background. Charlotte Motor Speedway is the big attraction in the area (along with the massive Concord Mills complex, which is actually the number one tourist attraction in North Carolina- so I have read) but it is one massive race track. It is all decorated for the season, and you can drive inside the track and see all sorts of lights (for a price per carload) for the next few weeks. I had a great ride today; went to Speedway Harley-Davidson, Concord Mills, Concord Regional Airport and Roush-Fenway Racing. I have a few photos from that on my "Richmond and Me" page, but here I have a few photos from Speedway Harley-Davidson which is near Concord Mills Mall. It was a great day to ride with temps around 60, and as you can see it was a bright and sunny day. I love days like this in late November.     

Seen at left is a Harley-Davidson "Muscle" which is part of the V-Rod line for 2013. Nice motorcycle with the 1250 cc (60 cubic inches) v-twin engine, and one of the few Harley's that fit a taller rider such as myself. It is also part of the only line that is water-cooled: most of the Harley-Davidson's still being air cooled. Water cooled engines to me are better, got to figure because how many people still drive air-cooled cars. Makes for better more dependable performance, plus makes for longer maintenance periods, and frankly the engine lasts a lot longer as it does not get so hot.      

Seen below are two Screaming Eagle versions of the Harley-Davidson Line, in the foreground is a CVO Electra Glide, and in the background a CVO Road King. Something like $70,000-80,000 would get you the pair. I talked about air cooled bikes, well these are both air cooled. Beautiful and iconic for sure but you pay a good price to get that nametag on your gas tank (but these are special editions of what are somewhat cheaper bikes in the basic versions). I enjoyed seeing some of the new Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but unless I win the lottery sometime soon will be riding Japanese motorcycles for some time to come!

New Bikes, and the Lake (November 23, 2012)

Good day to ride. Rode with three friends; a former boss at my old job, a hot air balloon pilot, and a retirement adviser..a diverse bunch. We met up at RideNow, a bike shop in Concord, NC and there I saw for the first time a brand new 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300, which is seen at left. The bike is a punched out version of the Ninja 250; and it is a pretty nice ride. Even though I am 6'2' it is a very roomy bike, and the extra power will come in handy. Seems to be a nice quality bike too, with a lot of nice features. Will be interesting to see how this does, I think the 250 was their top selling bike.  

This is a 2013 Star (aka Yamaha) Stryker, one of the big cruising bikes from that company. Looks like (as did Victory Motorcycles) that they have changed the tank logo on the bike. Have quite a few friends who ride Star Motorcycles (have quite a few who ride about everything) and they are fine motorcycles.
As for our ride, started out today on a sunny day in the 70's and headed out to China Grove. Went to see if a friend was going to have his famous Christmas light display this year (and that will be a no it seems) but fun rolling out that way via some great backroads! 

We headed out to High Rock Lake, which is close to Lexington, NC and I got a photo of that at left. Covered a total of 86 miles in today's ride, and we all had a very good time. It is nice to get out on a fine day, especially when it also is a warm one, and that was a real plus in my book. Have ridden with Phil a few times, but a nice plus to get out with the two other riders. The "Salisbury" area is one of my favorite areas to ride here, lots of real nice country roads. Being as this is "Black Friday" seemed like a good idea to stay as far away from the cities, and especially the malls, as possible!

City/Country Ride (November 11, 2012)

 Go figure, November 11, and its around 70 degrees. As you can see, a beautiful day to take a ride on the Vulcan. I rode via a country route, went to Charlotte via NC 24/27 but took a very small detour to Wilgrove Airport which is a small private airport just off that main road. Nothing much was flying at the time, but they were moving some planes and fueling another up, so sure they enjoyed the day too. As you can see, its pretty dry in the area, has not been any rain for some three weeks, and they are quite a few inches below normal at this time of year. That may change in the next couple of days.  

Rode to Charlotte, down to Central Avenue. I like that part of town, lots of interesting apartments (such as the building behind the restaurant) and of course some fine restaurants as well. This was a great day to eat outside, and a number of people were taking full advantage. Central has a lot of interesting stores, and a lot of foreign owned stores (many of which seem to be Vietnamese) so a good place to get a lot of variety. It is just outside of town, in fact a good view of Charlotte from this street can be seen on my Richmond and Me Page (which is also a lot of Charlotte and area, as this work thing I am doing involves two places, as does this blog).   

Heading back, went from Charlotte to Concord via NC 49, but made a stop at NoDa (or North Davidson) which is a suburb of Charlotte (which you can sort of see, at least some of the tall buildings wayyyy off in the background at the end of the street). Nice place, again a lot of neat stores, bars, music venues...it is a real artists town or at least it was started that way, as the neighborhood went into decline due to the closing of the mills in the area. Now a lot of people are moving there due to a lot of new apartments building in that area. It is a fun place to explore though, and a lot of interesting businesses can be found there.
Ride ended up being around 40 miles or so- did not pay a lot of attention to distance on this one. It was just a great day to be out, though we can ride most of the year in the Carolinas, you don't get a lot of rides quite this nice in November and it was pretty remarkable. I had a great time, and fun to see these sights on a Sunday in NC. The ride was a fine addition to a really great weekend. Before heading home visited a former co-worker and then rolled back after a two hour and thirty minute ride!  

Fall Ride to Morrow Mountain (October 28, 2012)

Got in a fine ride to Morrow Mountain on October 28, as with the previous week ride to the Blue Ridge Parkway (Previous Post), it was not too cold, and the skies were clear. I snapped this photo of these bikers at Morrow Mountain - I have a lot of photos of the views there at my "Richmond and Me" blog as well as my Flickr Photo Page. I hoped it would be near peak color, and I was not disappointed  with what I saw. Really has been a long time since I was able to go to both the Blue Ridge Parkway and Morrow Mountain in the same year and at the best time. Sometimes things do work out. 

I enjoyed some nice riding, took this photo of a pumpkin patch (it is fall after all!)  in Mt. Pleasant, NC, visited Hermanco's (a very good restaurant) in Albemarle, even saw a huge field of Sunflowers in Millingsport, NC. I enjoy riding near and in the cities in North Carolina, but I also really enjoy riding in the country, and both can be found close by in the Charlotte area. Have ridden in a lot of states but for year round weather and variety it is hard to beat North and South Carolina.
Upon my return to Richmond on October 29, Hurricane Sandy also impacted the area, and I have a feeling those winds and rain will pretty much take care of fall color in the Richmond area. The impact of the storm in the Charlotte area will be a whole lot less.