Motorcycle Thoughts

Sunday October 21st, 75 degrees here in North East Ohio. What an amazing day, fall is in full swing, the trees are absolutely exploding with Color. Decided late in the week after seeing the forecast for the weekend that Sunday was ride day. Right after Sunday Morning on CBS was over I started hearing the bikes running beautiful State Route 83, which is less than a quarter mile from the house. That served to get the blood boiling… time to go.

Thought it would be great to take my son on a ride. He is a bit scared of the Harley, for two reasons:

1. a) He got yelled at for allowing his shoe to get too close to the hot pipe (was hard to get that stuff off).
2. b) He is used to riding on the Goldwing which is a lot more enclosed

He seemed excited today though, set him up with my grandpa’s leather which was too big, a helmet, sunglasses, and a smile. We had to get the bike out of the basement, the whole process of getting going seemed to take forever. The Harley was a bit low on fuel so I thought it would be a good idea to stop by the gas station first. Originally I intended to do a Medina trip, but all the scoots heading south caused a change of mind. At the fuel station, filled up and stopped to chat for a moment with a few people on scoots fueling up for the day. One was riding a V65 Magna (Honda), having one I want to get rid of, thought I might try to sell it, they didn’t seem interested so I did not push the issue. Wished them a safe ride and headed out.

Heading south on SR83 I explained to my son that if he needed anything from the house or changed his mind about riding, this was his last chance. He seemed set in his decision to ride today. Joy!

The official Harley-Davidson chronometer integrated in the speedo indicated 11:14 when we passed the turn off to our house, we were off. Heading toward Millersburg I could see the kind of day that we were in for, it was warming up with only scattered clouds. The trees were off the hook with color, just insane color. South of Millersburg is where things start getting awesome on SR83. The twisting, the hills, the color, the vistas, creating a brain full of stimulation that added to the excitement of being on the bike. Got into Coshocton, and noticed that the Harley was getting ready to roll 3000 miles, not much further. Continued on SR16 out of Coshocton, toward SR60 heading toward Dresden.

Once in Dresden, I saw a road heading up a hill off to the left, told the Son “time for a detour”. It was first gear all the way to the top, yes it was that steep, turns out the Inn at Dresden is up there, do not know much about the place, but incredible scenery. Note to self, look into the Inn at Dresden. After snapping some shots, we headed back down. It was first gear and pretty hard on the brakes, but we did it. Headed back out to the road toward Zanesville, getting hungry, and 12 miles to 3000.

Just outside of Zanesville the Harley turned 3000 miles, we pulled off into an industrial park access road for a few shots. Hard to believe that since July 17th I have put 2950 miles on this bike, take away 10 miles that were put on by service techs at Century Harley-Davidson. This means I have put 2940 miles on it at that point. On to Zanesville and eat.

In Z-town (Zanesville) we surveyed the lay of the land in the northern part of the city. Originally I had in mind Panera’s, but the son and I agreed that it was time for some Italian. Turned out to be a darn good idea, there is an Italian restaurant called Adornetto’s. Great food and filling if you are there and in the mood for some good Italian grub, check it out. I had the Ravioli and the Son had the Spaghetti and Meatballs.

After lunch was done we headed back. On the way down my Son noticed a tractor show just north of Dresden. So we stopped to check it out, this was a very good (albeit small) local show. They had a lot of cool farm and construction (industrial) equipment working and on display. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

Heading back out, I thought it would be a nice idea to try a different route back. SR60 heads north, and is an amazing ride, I would say better than SR83. You do not want to go too fast because of the scenery and the twisties. This road is hairier than 83.

Just south of a small Ohio town called Warsaw, a large group of motorcyclists appeared in the rear view mirror. In Warsaw they pulled into a parking lot to stop for a break, this sounded like a good idea, besides I like to chat. Imagine my surprise to find out that a couple of the members were the same folks I chatted with at the gas station that morning. I did not think this was that small of a state!

Two motorcycle accidents to report. Sadly a Harley and a cager seemed to collide on 60 then after we turned onto US62 toward Millersburg a crotch rocket was laying on its side on the other side of a guard rail. I hope both incidents ended up without injury, but they both looked kind of bad. One day I think I will need to write a post about my take on motorcycle safety and my take on motorcycles and safety.

The trip wound up as we continued on US62 to SR83 just south of Millersburg and north to the house. U2 created the song It’s a beautiful day for a day like this, just spectacular.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Motorcycle experiences, The SofTail Deluxe. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.