May 2014 Blue Mountain Run

ride group for May's ride

The day was cool but sunny with traces of clouds on the horizon. I got a late start from home and had to stop for an errand on the way up, so I didn't arrive until after 8:15am. A few riders were out in the parking lot chatting. I talked with a them a bit and went inside to meet up with the others for breakfast. We had two lieutenants with the same first name come for breakfast only, but not the ride. If you don't know who that is, you gotta come out for these events. :D

After breakfast we went over the rules for the ride and we geared up to go. There were 8 of us on that ride, including me, and no one else was prepared to lead a ride, so we went as one group. It wasn't too bad, but it was also too big, five or under is optimal. The sky was a blue and beautiful and the grass and fields were starting to green. It was so nice for it to finally be Spring. :) The riding this morning was great with the roads being mostly clear. We did hit a few spots where water was still running across the roads from the 6" of rain we had from Thursday's deluge. Getting caught behind slow drivers only happened a few times, so the roads were mostly ours. Pace was a little slower than my normal pace since some were just getting back on their bikes for the year. ANLR 21, that silver fox, was chasing me most of the day. He almost took a spill when he hit a bird carcass, but he recovered quickly. The scenery was gorgeous today from the scenic overlooks to water glistening off of rock face cliffs, it was great to see the beauty of God's creation.

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April 2014 Leap Around Lancaster Ride

ride group for april's ride

I wanted to thank everyone who came out for this ride, it was a big success. The day started cold and dreary with dark clouds looming in the distant north. I checked the forecast and it said cloudy then sunny with temps in the low 60's. Cool! Let's ride! Well, one thing I didn't see in the forecast was the wind. And windy it was, blowing and blustery. I wore my non perforated leathers but it was still chilly. I rode up, got gas, and stopped at the Starlite Diner for breakfast. We had a group of 11 by then and they put us in a private room. I really like this place for breakfast, they do take good care of us. Anyway, I was notified that another group came in and was eating in another part of the diner. We weren't sure if they were riding with though, because they didn't come to sit with us, yet their bikes were parked with ours. So, when I came out, I did the rider meeting, went over the rules and got ready to go. Jlasure went in and asked if these guys were riding with us, it turns out that they were! Bonus! So, I went over the rules for the ride again, we broke up into groups according to pace and off we went. The ride to lunch went well, we didn't hit much traffic and we even went past a group of bicyclists. The few miles we were on the highway drivers moved over for us to pass. The safety word for the day was train tracks and 45 minutes into the ride we heard the blast of the locomotive horn while we were sitting at a traffic light. We get through the intersection and we had to wait for a train, not long though because the train wasn't long and it was moving. Well, as we stopped at the tracks ANLR 21 hops off and starts to chat with another rider. Meanwhile I can see the end of the train coming, so I start blowing my horn and XIII starts revving his engine to get his attention to get back on his bike. Well, the train goes by, the gates go up and he has to do a flying mount to get on his bike and get it in gear in time. We all were chuckling inside our helmets. We arrived at the lunch stop 5 minutes before it opened, so we all hung out and enjoyed the sun, which had just recently come out, thank God.

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April 2014 Wrench Night

group shot

On April 4th, we continued our Eastern PA chapter tradition of having a wrench night on the evening before our first big ride of the year. Although we invited over 20 people, only 6 came but we each learned something new. This year's main topic was chain cleaning and maintenance, with the clinic being run by XIII our resident "drive train enthusiast". We learned good products to buy, tools to use, and technique that gets results. We did the same with lubing the chain as well. After that a great mechanic in the Lehigh Valley, Papa Rocket, went over with us good pre-ride and post ride bike inspection. He went over a motorcycle pointing out things to look for, how to check bearing wear and other key factors to motorcycle maintenance. Finally, he was the one who supplied the motorcycle that we worked on. It's a wicked fast ZX-10 with cool carbon fiber wheels. Big thanks to Papa Rocket, XIII, and the Panda for making this event a success. Thanks also J-mac and R.W. for coming. It was good to hear other people's experiences with their respective machines. The food supplied was really good, with a good selection of drinks as well. Don't miss next years' event!

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February 2014 Lunch at Pizzeria Vetri

eating lunch at Pizzeria Vetri, Philadelphia, PA Hello all,

Well for February it was a nice day, deceptively nice. As in up to the low 50's with a lot of sun. I thought, "I can ride the bike out my snowy driveway, it's not deep, an inch or two." THAT was wrong, and I found how much wrong that was after all the repairs. Nothing serious just a low side, but the parts cost enough. Once I got myself picked up and got in the car, I hustled down to Philly to meet up with some friends who came down to a relatively new pizza place for lunch.

Since the weather was nice the place was full, so I put in our name and found out it was a 45 minute wait. Then more folks showed up and the wait was up to an hour now. Well, some folks couldn't wait that long, so they headed on their way. It was cool to sit and talk with them and to catch up with their crazy lives. I also discovered today what a portal gun was, even though it wasn't allowed to leave the car. We finally did get to sit and the pizza wasn't bad, pretty good actually.

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January 2014 Lunch At Vitos

eating lunch at Vito's Hello all,
For those that couldn't make it, you missed out on a good time. There were 11 people at lunch including myself @ the lunch. Vito's had great food, of course, and we had big fun talking bikes, holiday presents, heating for our homes, workplace issues, and my favorite, "Creepy Claus". We had a brief discussion of next year's schedule which looks to be fun. We will meet up next month on February 1st for pizza in a cool shop down in Philly. Hopefully the weather is nicer...
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