Okay BJay, here's that ride report I promised :-)

Sorry for the delay, BJay. A little over a week ago I received a
pallet of parts from Polaris to fix a wrecked Victory (the rider rear
ended a car) and I ended up working on my days off so I could get it
done in a timely manner. The work order was for 25 stub hours and when
I was done the bike had all new tin, a completely new front end, and a
new rear swing arm. I had to do most of the work on my days off to be
sure the bike got finished before the weekend since I already had
several scheduled services set up during my normal work days. When I
finally got a chance to catch up on emails Friday night as soon as I
turned on my computer the monitor starting acting up on me. So I had
to wait till I had time to take it apart and try to fix it myself.
It's a really nice 19 incher that is only about a year old and I would
hate to just throw it out and buy a new one. That and what kind of
electronics tech would I be if I couldn't fix something as simple as a
monitor. <g> BTW, the surgery was a success as it is working as good
as new again. Anyhow, enough bs. On to the ride report.

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a question asked my a gent on
rec.moto (he has a 2002 Honda Shadow) and in his message he mentioned
being in my neck of the woods. He was somewhat new to bikes (he had
just gotten his motorcycle endorsement back at the beginning of
summer) and I posted my contact info in case he was looking for
someone to ride with. He send me a message that evening and we made
plans to go for a ride the next morning.

So we met up near his place and went in search of a good place for
breakfast and a little conversation. Our first two choices didn't work
out but the third place ended up being the best anyhow. While eating
we talked about were we wanted to go and decided that Gwynn Island
would make for a nice little trip. I had to work that night which
meant I needed to get some sleep before reporting to work so an all
day ride was out of the question.

All of the roads we took were either 2 or 4 lane back country roads,
most of which were on the edge of the peninsula. This meant we went
through a lot of little towns along the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
The temps were in the mid 70's and the sun was out so it was a perfect
day for a ride. About 15 miles from our destination we were going
through a small town and a pickup in front of us decided to dispose of
a couple of 3 gallon buckets right in front of us at 55 mph. My new
riding partner was in the lead and on the left side of the lane while
I was about 30 feet back from him on his right. At first the buckets
fell in to the middle of the lane and were rolling to the left. We
both got on the brakes pretty hard and as the buckets rolled to the
left side I lost sight of them due to my view being blocked by the
gent I was riding with. The next thing I knew one of the buckets
rolled back to the right right in front of the other guy and I had to
make a quick swerve to the left and tuck in behind my buddy to avoid
it. After that I think both of us wanted to ride up along side the
idiot in the truck to but were afraid to get too close in case
anything else came flying out at us. So we kept a little extra room
between us and him and were happy to see him turn off the road about 5
miles later. We continued on and made it to Gwynn Island without any
other surprises.

I had never heard of Gwynn Island so this was all new to me. It's a
nice little town with a lot of charm. After stopping at the base of a
pier for a little leg stretching and some more bs'ing we got back on
the road and started making our way back. Just before we got home we
took a little detour through Yorktown and drove around some of the
memorials on the way through. After that we split up and went our
separate ways home. All in all while the ride only totaled 120 miles
round trip it was an excellent day and I've added one more friend to
my riding list thanks to a newsgroup. Who said Reeky was good for
nothing. <sfsf>

The irony out of all this is the guy I met that day is friends with
the guy that owns the wrecked Victory that I just fixed. While we were
eating breakfast he was telling me about his friend that had a Victory
but it was in some shop waiting for parts so it could be fixed. As
soon as he mentioned that his friend had rear ended some car I
realized he was talking about the same bike that had been near my lift
for the past two weeks waiting for parts. I guess it really is a small
world after all. <g>

Ruppster
sportster at dodge-semis dot com

 

Well, it is about dern time, you posted about riding somewhere.
I waited and waited, shoot, I finally left my webby room,after a few
days of waiting, and went about my business heehee.
Seriously, sounds like you had a good ride with a new riding friend, and
to think met him on a moto Group, that's quite a deal
Do you like the Victory Bikes?
Do they have a sound of their own, being they are VTwins, like most are
these days? Are, do they sound about like all the others?
What is the biggest CC motor in the top line of Victorys? HorsePower?
We have a Polaris dealership here, but don't ever see a Victory running
around town.
Thanks for your motorcycle post topic.
enjoyable. BJAY!

 

Yeah, between working 2 jobs, working on my days off to keep the
customers happy, and going to ITT full time for some more electronics
training I haven't had much spare time lately. But at least I did do

So far I have made friends with one guy from rmh, one from reeky, and
two from the Harley Sportster list. Plus last summer I did the Rolling
Thunder Run For The Wall ride on Memorial Day weekend and met several
other netscums from RMH. It was the opening weekend for the WWII
Memorial and a lot of people were there for the event. I have some
pics from the weekend on my web site at
http://dodge-semis.com/RFTW_04/. My favorite bike was a Honda that was
painted with a WWII warbird theme
(http://dodge-semis.com/images/DSC03241.JPG and
http://dodge-semis.com/images/DSC03242.JPG). I hope to have the 1976
BMW R90/6 done in time for the Run For The Wall ride next year.

So far there are a few features I like about the Victories. Most are
from a maintanence/cost point of few. Most of the services take an
hour or so less then a Harley big twin. The engine has only one type
of oil to drain and not three like a Harley (a Sportster only uses two
different types of oil). The Victory engines also have less seals and
gaskets due to the tranny being part of the engine. All Victories are
fuel injected and the fuel pump in the tank is a heck of a lot harder
to get to then those on a Harley (found that out when I had to replace
the tank on that wrecked bike I fixed last week). My pet peeve with
the fuel injection is lack of an idle control motor. Instead of a
choke lever like you would have with a carb there is a lever you have
to use to raise the idle manually when the engine is cold. The only
other think I don't care for right now is the top end. I am a big
believer in the KISS philosophy. The Harleys use a simple cam/pushrod
set-up while the Victories have overhead cams with long chains driving
them. The plus side is it helps the engine make more power then the
Harleys. The engines are either 92 or 100 cubic inches depending on
model and can come with either a 5 speed or overdrive 6 speed tranny.
The brakes are made by Brembo and boy do they work great. The first
time I rode a Hammer with the twin disk front end I was lucky I didn't
get on the front brake too hard the first time I used it as it brought
me to a stop a lot quicker then I expected. <g> As far as sound they
sound like any other metric bike, especially when you put on a louder
exhaust system. And even though they are made in the US they use
metric hardware so I have had to add more tools to my collection as
most of my stuff from working on Harleys was US standard stuff.

Hope all that answered your questions. <sfsf>

Later,
Ruppster

 

‘‘Bjay,Hope all that answered your questions. <sfsf>
Later,
Ruppster


‘‘It did, and I appreciate it. I understood atleast 80% of it,
heh heh!
(bjay)

'Ya'll take care'' --BJAY--