[Motorcycling] The weekend isn't quite over, but...

[George Fazio]

*** Long Winded Post Warning ***

So, Saturday around 9:00 am Doug and I fired up the bikes to head down 
to Maryland.  We stopped at the dealer (Classic Harley-Davidson) because 
I wanted a new pair of gloves, and were fully on the road around 9:30 
am.  About a hour or so into the trip we're stopped at a light and Doug 
yells over the engines, "how does my front tire look" to which I reply, 
"flat."  So, we pulled into the Turkey Hill in Parksburg at PA-10 and 
PA-372.  Doug called H.O.G. for roadside assistance (it's about 11:00 am 
by the time he's off the phone), and we wait.  Shortly after noon, the 
tow shows up.  The guy gets the bike strapped in, and we're off to 
Smaltz Harley-Davidson by way for US-30 bypass.  By 1:00 pm the bike is 
unloaded, a service order is written, and we wait (again).  As it turns 
out, the tire was fine.  They couldn't find a thing wrong with it (not a 
hole or anything), but the tube had a hole in it.  They replace the tube 
under the road hazard coverage on the extended warranty, and we're back 
on our way around 3:30 pm.

As noted above, we were in Parksburg when the flat occur.  How to get 
back on track?  The original plan was to head down PA-10 to Oxford, pick 
up PA-472 to MD-213.  We're now in Exton ... AKA no where near PA-10.  
Well, we looked at a map, and I found MD-213 on it and traced a route 
back to Exton.  There may have been a better way (that did not involve 
interstates), but from what I saw the best answer was to get back on the 
US-30 bypass heading west and take it to PA-82 (Coatesville).  Then take 
PA-82 south to PA-841 south which comes out at the same place PA-472 
does ... right at MD-213.  PA-82 was an OK road, but not much to write 
home about.  PA-841 was excellent, except for the plethora of stop 
signs.  It wasn't horrible, but it was enough to notice and slowed us 
down a little.

The rest of the trip over MD-213 to MD-313, down US-301 to some back 
roads that connect up with MD-309, and down MD-309 to Easton, MD was 
more or less uneventful.  However, we did not end up getting in until 
6:00 pm.  Now, I'm sure that if we rode like Dan we could have made it 
faster (I can do it in two and a half hours in the car), but I'm not as 
aggressive on the bike and Doug even less than me.  We were able to take 
the planned route for the return trip Sunday afternoon, and it worked 
out to be about four hours (exactly what Google said more or less).

There was an "oh &^%" moment in Elkton, MD on the way down.  We stopped 
for gas, and were getting ready to pulling out of the station to get 
back on the road.  The light down at the corner was red, and a car 
stopped short of the entrance and waved us out.  I looked left, I looked 
right, and I looked left again ... nothing.  I started pulling out to 
make the left back on to MD-213 and the guy behind the car that stopped 
all of a sudden decides that he was going to swing around that car with 
his foot pretty close to the floor.  I'm already in his path, it's twist 
the throttle or get hit - I twisted the throttle.  Doug saw the guy 
starting to move as he was getting ready to pull out behind me and 
stopped to let a-hole by.  So, we were both fine, but I was a little 
amped up and hyper-focused on the road for the rest of the trip after that.

The only part of the trip where I felt a little uneasy (sans almost 
getting run over) was crossing the bridge over the C&D canal at 
Chesapeake City.  It's a relatively steep climb up and all you can 
really see in front of you is road and sky.  I don't have a fear of 
heights - at least I don't think I do - but, something about it put me a 
little on edge.

All in all is was a good trip, and I'm now just 67 miles away from 
needing the 1000 mile service on the bike.  I'll probably rack the rest, 
or more, up tomorrow (Monday) and see if I can get it in for service on 
Tuesday.

The reason I was stopped to get gloves in the morning on Saturday was 
because I've been having a problem with my throttle hand getting pins 
and needles.  The gloves I had were just a little bit to long in the 
fingers and would bunch up a little bit.  It was uncomfortable, and I 
thought it might be contributing to the pins and needles problem.  Well, 
the new gloves are better, but I still have the pins and needles 
problem.  I didn't have this on the Nighthawk, so it's something with 
how I'm holding on to the grip and the angles of my wrist, etc.  I don't 
necessarily want to replace the handle bars, so I'm going to try as many 
things as I can before I resort to that.  The first thing will be 
playing with the position of the handlebars.  If I don't get any relief 
there, then I'll try to grips.

It's looking like I'm probably going to have to replace the bars 
though.  Right now, I'm looking at "T bars."  I'll see if I find 
anything else I like between now and whenever I decide to do it.  Harley 
has a "T bar" they call a street slammer or something like that.  The 
problem is that they're not listed for my bike and they're 1-1/4 inch, 
so I'd have to replace all the hand controls too.  Not that it would be 
an issue, I might goes with 1-1/4 inch bars anyway to get some more 
surface area on the grips (my finders can touch the back of my hand 
right now) - it's just more money.  I cannot say, however, that I was 
not warned about this spending problem prior to buying the bike ... but, 
it does get a little old after awhile.

Well, I guess I've "talked" enough....  Remember that everyone with a 
bike has the ability to post to this list (from their home email 
account).  If you don't have a bike ... get one!  They're fun ... 
really.  Then you too can post. ;-)

-George