May 2015 Blue Mountain Run

The full group

This ride marks our first official gathering without our CSBA National President (Mark Hamm), of which his presence was missed. He has been called to lead and Sheppard another group (Central PA Chapter), so we celebrate his decision and look forward to his visits with us again as time permits for him. To assure all were greeted with our presence on arrival, I made sure I was at our meet-up spot (Starlight diner) by 7:50a. A good feat for even me since I was up the greater part of the previous evening, affecting repairs on the “Mothership” to assure I was ready to ride Saturday morning. My efforts were not in vain and I was present and ready to get it in.

Shortly after my arrival, I was greeted by our old friend Rick J. He stopped in to enjoy fellowship and breakfast with us, but would not be riding this time. He’s still healing from a recent skiing accident, but I was extremely glad to enjoy his company. We will be looking for him to rejoin the ranks (and possibly lead a group) in June for our ever popular “Pocono Screamer” ride/event. In short order, Luis pulled up and relaxed outside, greeting others that came. Kairi and Rusty Bucket (Russ) joined Rick and I at our table for breakfast. The diner was quite busy so I wasn’t able to secure adjoining tables, so folks sat in pockets and not altogether.

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April 2015 Leap Around Lancaster Ride

some of the bikes on april's ride

The day was cloudy, but clearing with a steady but mild wind blowing with an occasional gust. The weather was cool, but not cold. The previous night had rain that prevented some from attending the ride, since they were more east of us and woke up with the rain still overhead. This was the first chapter ride for the Eastern PA chapter since September 2014, all the rides since had been rained out. There were no Winter rides since it was both wet and below freezing through January, February, and March. We were all so relieved to have nice weather and so happy to be going on a ride. Thanks to jlasure for hosting this and and andyr for reconning this and making arrangements. It was a big time cool ride.

Sixteen bikes came on the ride with a few more that came just for breakfast, but couldn't ride due to obligations, weather, or bike maintenance issues. For those that couldn't ride this month, we hope to see you next month. We had our rider's meeting with a prayer for safety, broke up into a lead and chase group, then we were off! It felt soooo good to be out again, leaning into curves and accelerating into the wind. Traffic was light, but the road occasionally had "issues". We were always on the lookout for gravel and pot holes left behind by Old Man Winter.

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September 6, 2014 Bux-Mont Rattlesnake Run

Hello all,

The morning was mild, sunny with some clouds being pushed by the wind. It was a beautiful morning. We had 12 riders show up to ride and a few extra to meet us just for breakfast. I had a good breakfast meeting up with both old and new members plus some good friends that regularly ride with us. It was good meeting a couple of new folk that came and enjoying some delicious food before we rode. We came out for the riders meeting and jlasure split us into groups according to pace. Each group left the Starlite diner a couple of minutes apart from the other groups. We had to slab the first 25 miles of the route to get to our starting destination. I was leading the middle group and just before we got off the highway the back group pulled into the middle of my group, splitting it in two. I had a member of my group get ill and we stopped for five minutes before we resumed the ride. I lost two members of my group, but we were determined to catch up. The ride for the most part went well, we occasionally got caught in traffic, but not too much. Once we caught up to the back group, I lost the only guy I had with me to his group. I guess they didn't want to ride with me. So, I went to the next turn and the finally caught up to me.

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August 09, 2014 Shamokin Screamer Ride

shot of the bikes

Well it’s another one for the books! This ride tends to be our “Usual Suspects” line-up, but we broke tradition with a different set of riders today. The original ride was canceled (August 2nd) due to inclement weather (just like last year), however that is the only thing similar to this ride from last year. Greetings and thanks are extended to everyone in attendance, which includes a new friend: (Walter) that met us at our recent MCC Sport Bike Day Event, Martin G, Andy R, Sandy K, Daniel G, Mike M (and his friend Luke), Allan C, Dylan P, Larry (The XIII) S, Carl (KPilot) M, Ron (Panda) W & myself. After a great breakfast, we all gathered, I shared the “Rules of the Road” and identified the “Safety Tip” for the day was “gravel and cinders” (which later becomes key). With that, we all huddled up, I gave a prayer for protection and thanks for a beautiful day and we split up into 2 groups and we were off. We tried to wait around for one remaining friend (Mike H), but the time was slipping by and the day’s heat was on our backs so we lagged a pace on RT 78 in hopes he would see us and catch up with us – I’m sorry to report we missed him, which I was saddened about – but the show must go on, so he’ll catch us next time I’m sure. We hit our first hairpin and the ride was officially underway.

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July 5 2014 Dive into Delware Ride

some of the bikes on july's ride

The day dawned bright and clear, much different from the rain storms that came through a couple of days before. It was also cooler and less humid, a welcome respite from the heat and humidity from earlier in the week. I had cleaned the K&N air filter element on my bike the night before and had to put it back in and reassemble the bike. Well, of course, this took longer than I had planned and once again I would be late for breakfast. I stopped first to fuel up and got a bagel while I was there in the attached Dunkin' Donuts store. Then I went to the diner parking lot and greeted those who were there. I said hi to Derek from the Immortal Riders MC and Kat from Inner Circle Riders MC, glad to see both of them representing and riding with us. I touched base with jlasure on the ride group assignments and said hello to all that were there. I then went in to greet those eating breakfast, including kirchsnr with her pal Jo which we haven't seen literally in years. So glad they could come out and hang out with us. Those two went off on their own adventures for today, but we hope to see them both again real soon. We also had a couple on a black C-14 join us for the first time, so glad they joined us for the ride. I also said hey to Angie, j-mac, and andyr plus others. We then met out in the parking lot where I saw someone I have ridden with in years, Mikey!! He and his friend Luke rode with us in the morning but broke off around 10:15. Mike was one of the three chapter members that were active in the Eastern PA chapter when I took over as chapter leader, many years ago.

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June 2014 Pocono Screamer

ride group for June's ride

This month's ride had the exact opposite weather of last month's ride. May it was cool and cloudy with the sun peeking out in the morning. By afternoon at the May ride it was drizzling on the way home. This June ride was sunny with perfect temps, not getting past the mid 80's. I got up to the diner about 10 minutes after 8am. That has go to stop, because we are now in the thick of the riding season and a lot more people are coming to our rides. This month we had 36 bikes, and even a couple of pillion riders. We had some old friends show up and some new riders as well. My getting to breakfast late caused the riders meeting to start late as well as a rider getting gas @ 9:30am. We didn't leave until 9:50am with 6 groups of 5 bikes and one group of 6 bikes. Props up to jlasure for putting up a roster and assigning groups to everyone by pace. We had a few adjustments come lunch but all went well. What I meant by well, is no one crashed, and no one got ticketed either. A few groups made wrong turns or went over the wrong bridge, but everyone made it to lunch. Thanks also to Sal for lending a bike to the panda for him to ride, we needed all the ride leaders we could. A big thanks to jlasure, panda, andyr, j-mac, charles, johnric42 for leading groups and to frindle, ANLR21, kpilot, XIII, kirchsnr, and others who assisted in being the trail rider. It was good to have riders from NY, NJ, PA, DE, and VA come to this ride. This was the largest ride we have had in years and it wasn't perfect but a success, none the less.

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