Motovloggers Invade Deals Gap!

[Trinith]

So ready to get out and away from it all! Forecast the next few days here in the midwest is looking pretty crappy - I think it's moving towards Tennessee, lol. Everyone pack your rain shat just in case.

30% on Friday, 40% on Sat, Sunday isn't up yet. This time of year the rain is quite unpredictable, but generally speaking it comes in the form of a light shower that may or may not linger. I went out there 2 weeks ago with a 60% chance and got rained on twice. Never put on my rain gear, and I wasn't notably wet, just damp.

Fortunately a lot of what we'll be riding is pretty heavily covered in trees, which helps a LOT. Unless ofcourse it starts raining on us on the Skyway, then..well..we be fucked. Half the time we'd probably be inside the cloud producing the rain, much like Ozarks 2011. I don't really think that will happen though.

Either way, in this area it's always good to have some rain gear with you. I've seen big thunderstorms show up when they say 0% chance and it spends the whole day hot and sunny. The Deals Gap Motel guys call them weather guessers...for good reason.

 

[Trinith]

Finally got my boss to commit to letting me have the weekend off, so I will definitely be there!

 

[XXX526]

Finally got my boss to commit to letting me have the weekend off, so I will definitely be there!

:lol: Um... That's a good thing - I for sure don't know a freakin' thing about the area.

 

[kryten]

Well I'm out. :cry:

I have the time off but due to uncontrollable circumstances I can't afford to make it. My wife's car was in the shop and at the same time I had a blowout on my car. I'm out quite a bit of money. If had happened just a week or two earlier I would probably have recuperated enough but the timing sucks.

Maybe next year.

 

[Trinith]

Maybe next year.

We've got a sort of losers bracket thing goin on in September if you want to join some of us then.

 

[Trinith]

Finally got my boss to commit to letting me have the weekend off, so I will definitely be there!

:lol: Um... That's a good thing - I for sure don't know a freakin' thing about the area.

Hah! Well, in all honesty the routes are ridiculously easy. Though one of them that I am thinking about -might- be a dirt road. It's hard to tell. Either way, there's a road that goes straight through Franklin that literally dead-ends right next to the parkinglot of the DGMR.

 

[mytheral]

Easiest place to meet up is the Whitemarsh Park and Ride

As for a time... What time are you comfortable with? My main concern is usually avoiding traffic (aka the ass crack of dawn) but the sequester makes that more manageable.

I'd also recommend 295 south of Baltimore as we tend to call I-95 "The Parking Lot".

I can leave at like 4am and be at the park and ride at 6ish?

That should work out alright.
And just a heads up that they have been jumping back and forth resurfacing sections of I95.

 

[XXX526]

Finally got my boss to commit to letting me have the weekend off, so I will definitely be there!

:lol: Um... That's a good thing - I for sure don't know a freakin' thing about the area.

Hah! Well, in all honesty the routes are ridiculously easy. Though one of them that I am thinking about -might- be a dirt road. It's hard to tell. Either way, there's a road that goes straight through Franklin that literally dead-ends right next to the parkinglot of the DGMR.

Judging by the proposed routes - we shouldn't have to worry about finding short cuts, lol.

 

[Trinith]

Judging by the proposed routes - we shouldn't have to worry about finding short cuts, lol.

The proposed routes pretty much -are- the shortcuts. Most of the area is national forest with few, if any roads. There's not a whole lot of random 1 horse towns every 5 miles like in the Ozarks either.

It gets really entertaining when there's a construction detour. One took us only about 5 miles out of the way. I hit another that tacked on well over 100 extra though. They're usually good for some great scenery though.

 

[UnstableBoy]

Easiest place to meet up is the Whitemarsh Park and Ride

As for a time... What time are you comfortable with? My main concern is usually avoiding traffic (aka the ass crack of dawn) but the sequester makes that more manageable.

I'd also recommend 295 south of Baltimore as we tend to call I-95 "The Parking Lot".

I can leave at like 4am and be at the park and ride at 6ish?

That should work out alright.
And just a heads up that they have been jumping back and forth resurfacing sections of I95.

cool will keep an eye out for that.

sent you a PM.

 

[mytheral]

I guess I'm out...
Was conducting a trial run with my gear on the bike and everything is going along nicely. Then I stop at a red sitting there minding my own business and I get a puff of smoke up past my windscreen.

I pull into a gas station and try to put the bike up on the center stand and my boot just slips off... Oil all over my center stand and splashed on my pants/boots.

Look at the front of the engine: oil.

Look at the top of the engine: oil.

I believe that the valve gasket failed and it's one of the two gaskets on the bike that you can't replace with just RTV.

On the upside it failed now and not half way to deals gap.

 

[UnstableBoy]

I guess I'm out...
Was conducting a trial run with my gear on the bike and everything is going along nicely. Then I stop at a red sitting there minding my own business and I get a puff of smoke up past my windscreen.

I pull into a gas station and try to put the bike up on the center stand and my boot just slips off... Oil all over my center stand and splashed on my pants/boots.

Look at the front of the engine: oil.

Look at the top of the engine: oil.

I believe that the valve gasket failed and it's one of the two gaskets on the bike that you can't replace with just RTV.

On the upside it failed now and not half way to deals gap.

damn, that really sucks. but true that its better now then later. hope it's not to much of a PITA to fix. will have to catch you next year. well if anything changes you have my #.

 

[Trinith]

I guess I'm out...
Was conducting a trial run with my gear on the bike and everything is going along nicely. Then I stop at a red sitting there minding my own business and I get a puff of smoke up past my windscreen.

. . .

On the upside it failed now and not half way to deals gap.

Well that certainly sucks. Good luck getting it fixed.

 

[UnstableBoy]

I am packing up the bike now...

 

[mytheral]

I guess I'm out...
Was conducting a trial run with my gear on the bike and everything is going along nicely. Then I stop at a red sitting there minding my own business and I get a puff of smoke up past my windscreen.

. . .

On the upside it failed now and not half way to deals gap.

Well that certainly sucks. Good luck getting it fixed.

It's somewhat my own fault, I when I did a valve adjustment I noticed it was more brittle then I was expecting. I should have replaced it then but I figured why fix what isn't broken. It only takes an hour or so to fix if I had the parts (which arrive on Monday).


Have fun all who are going I envy you greatly. :ugeek:

 

[Trinith]

Well, that was definitely a trip to remember. I didn't get to take the bike out due to busting up my shoulder thursday, but I still had a lot of fun driving around with UnstableBoy and XXX526. It was especially fun when I pulled into an overlook on the skyway where they were wringing out their gloves and taking a break in the thunderstorm that rolled in, while I watched from the airconditioned comfort of my truck.

Then I got my karmic payback when I had to witness this guy pulling out of the Dragon motel sunday afternoon..(BTW, he's so damn slow that I left 20 minutes after he did and caught him before getting to the overlook 7 miles away. I wasn't even driving all that hard either.)

 

[ToastToGo]

Lol...some people are just too dumb for their own good.

 

[XXX526]

Well, that was definitely a trip to remember. I didn't get to take the bike out due to busting up my shoulder thursday, but I still had a lot of fun driving around with UnstableBoy and XXX526. It was especially fun when I pulled into an overlook on the skyway where they were wringing out their gloves and taking a break in the thunderstorm that rolled in, while I watched from the airconditioned comfort of my truck.

Then I got my karmic payback when I had to witness this guy pulling out of the Dragon motel sunday afternoon..(BTW, he's so damn slow that I left 20 minutes after he did and caught him before getting to the overlook 7 miles away. I wasn't even driving all that hard either.)

What has been seen ...... can not be unseen. Good grief! :lol:

 

[Trinith]

What has been seen ...... can not be unseen. Good grief! :lol:

I was forced to stare at her back fat rolls for almost half an hour. Almost enough to make me gouge out my eyes.

 

[XXX526]

Here's a little report of the trip from my perspective:

Trip out Friday saw a lot of torrential rain until I got out of Missouri:



Crossing the Mississipi:



Rode the Cherohala Skyway and area on Saturday. It rained pretty much all day:



The rain was fairly cold on the Skyway. My rain suit was safely tucked away back at the Motel, both Unstableboy and I thought we'd take our chances, we lost, lol, up on the Skyway, the rain was actually cold. At an overlook on the Skyway (Unstableboy, Trinith and myself):



Had a good lunch at a roadside cafe:



On the way back to the Motel, I delivered. What would a Motovlog trip be without a flat, lol. Tire was about 4,000 miles old - not even half used. At least we were able to plug it well enough to hold air to get back to the Motel, and to the repair shop on Sunday.




Sunday to come..........