DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

You have a lot of time to think and observe during a 1,000 mile ride. Here's a few that stuck with me from my NC trip.

Observations on waving
- most bikers wave or wave back
- most solo Harley riders wave
- in any pack (herd?) of Harley riders that has a least one bike with ape hangers, at least one will give an ADV Rider salute!
- guys on scooters give you a weird look if you wave at them - and yes, I used all my fingers

Observations on gas/food stops
- if your bike is loaded for a trip, someone will come up and start a conversation
- the quality of food at convenience stops is directly proportional to the number of pumps they have
- the further out in the country you are, the more tattoos the cashiers have (male or female)

Observations on Monkey Butt/Posterior Pain
- it is far more noticeable when your are slabbing it
- all-day custom seats aren't

Observations on Fuel Starvation
- it never happens near a gas station
- the MPG while on reserve is far less than the MPG on a full tank
- it is guaranteed to cure Monkey Butt

Agreed, most riders wave back. What I notice is it's not the guys on harleys that don't wave, it is the guys on these custom totally raked out choppers that I guess are way to cool to wave at a "idiot on a dirtbike". Either that or they don't want to chance taking a hand off the bars of there 40K?, 50K+ cycles.

Glad your back safe, Pictures to follow???

DAMNKLRRider wrote:You have a lot of time to think and observe during a 1,000 mile ride. Here's a few that stuck with me from my NC trip.

Observations on waving
- most bikers wave or wave back
- most solo Harley riders wave
- in any pack (herd?) of Harley riders that has a least one bike with ape hangers, at least one will give an ADV Rider salute!
- guys on scooters give you a weird look if you wave at them - and yes, I used all my fingers

Observations on gas/food stops
- if your bike is loaded for a trip, someone will come up and start a conversation
- the quality of food at convenience stops is directly proportional to the number of pumps they have
- the further out in the country you are, the more tattoos the cashiers have (male or female)

Observations on Monkey Butt/Posterior Pain
- it is far more noticeable when your are slabbing it
- all-day custom seats aren't

Observations on Fuel Starvation
- it never happens near a gas station
- the MPG while on reserve is far less than the MPG on a full tank
- it is guaranteed to cure Monkey Butt

for the monkey butt - esp if you are slabbing it.. UnderArmour Compression stuff is the shit for riding - keeping everything from sagging... for long rides I wear bicycle shorts with padding - it helps... I found that I used to be able to do 600 mile days w/o hurting when I was moving around on the seat for fun road, but it was 200 miles on the slab... The UA and bike shorts helped to around 400.. .However, I also found that my forcefield back protector helped the most - because it's got a built in kidney belt.. I have since bought a bmw that more kidney and lowerback vs having to wear the bp all the time - with those combo - ua and kidney belt - I really don't have butt and lower back issue anymroe..

for long trip where fuel is questionable (I used to have bikes with sub 100 mile range) I used to carry a msr bottle with fuel it in, just in case.. I have done the BRP with my Hawk GT and there were some places you had to be easy on the throttle to make it from station to station. The little bit extra helped ALLOT as if your ran the GT dry - you had to pull the tank to get and prime the carbs manually to get it to restart. Not to mention I owned a drzsm..

To add:

Nothing is waterproof. Nothing. That stuff will find it's way in.

Earplugs are life-savers. I owe DAMN for that. I never wore them before, but will from now on. Talk about less fatigue.

A cicada, from the right angle, could conceivably put a hole in your chest.

Kentucky girls really look, well, like they're from Kentucky.

Ohio really sucks.

Ya know, TG, you didn't have to go to Ohio to know that.

You're right about nothing being actually waterproof. I bought a cowboy cooking cookbook signed by the Author (Grady Spears) at the Austin TX Chili Cookoff.

I wrapped that thing in TWO trashbags, attempted to seal it with electrical tape, and carefully stood it on end in my soft luggage.

I should have saved myself the trouble, and just thrown the DAMN thing into the swimming pool before I left TX. Would have saved a lot of anxiety along the way in the nasty downpour. Did I mention that it was hurricane season? I went through three of the fuckers on that trip - one in DC on the way out, one in Alabama and one in Virginia on the way back.