Catching Up!

Well, 2011 was just a busy year work-wise and once I fell behind on the blog the activation barrier was too high to get back at it.  It has been almost three months since the NJ gig ended and what with holidays and all, I am just now getting back to this.  So here are some ride maps from the rest 2011 with minimal details.  Let's hope the 2012 season works out with more miles and time to blog about them.

June 26, 2011

Looks like breakfast at Nesquehoning Fire Company followed by the long route home.


Gypsy Stats:
7 hrs 31 minutes elapsed time
4 hrs 53 minutes riding time
193 miles
40 MPH

Beemer Stats:
199 miles
42 MPH
48 MPG

Gas log puts us at 50 MPG paying $3.85 for hi test


July 17, 2011

The record shows a ride to Lawn PA for breakfast.


Gypsy Stats:

6 hrs 36 min elapsed time
4 hrs 14 min riding time
155 miles
37 MPH





August, 2011 Rides to Work
8/5, 8/11, 8/12, and 8/24

Here's the map for the route to work, on the highway in the morning and on back roads coming home.

Going to work took 1 hr 30 min; 85 miles at an average speed of 56 MPH using the Interstates.

Coming home took an extra hour, going 88 miles at an average speed of 35 MPH on the back roads.

August 14, 2011

Looks like breakfast at Haag's in Shartelville.  The GPS shut itself off before getting home, so no over-all stats.  Breakfast was a 2 1/2 hour chin wag and we were basically home before 1:00 so the day was more about the eating and talking than about the riding.  I seem to remember it was pretty damp and the Haag's parking lot was pretty much devoid of bikes except for ours.




Sept 11, 2011

Breakfast at the Birdsboro VFW and a quick jog around the near end of the county.  On a Sunday morning at the VFW you can tell the early-arrivers from the late-stayers by where they are sitting:  the early-arrivers are at the breakfast tables; the late-stayers are still at the bar.  I believe this was the time I asked the waitress about the steak and eggs entry on the menu and she said she didn't know anything about because no one had ever ordered it before.

Only 100 miles and home by noon today.









October 9, 2011 - Going Long

The original plan was a multi-day trip to West Virginia this weekend, but that fell through so we decided to go long on Sunday.  We started with a quick run out the Turnpike for 9:00 breakfast at Faye's in Carlisle.  We then headed up over Waggoner's Gap into the familiar turf of West Perry County.

Perry County, squeezed between spines of the Valley and Ridge Province is quintessential motorcycle territory.  It is beautifully rural (they did finally get the first traffic signal in the county way down at the eastern end) with minimal traffic and twisty roads.

The historical high point of the day was stopping to see the old New Hanover steel overshot waterwheel preserved just west of Blain on route 17.  The low point was Tim hitting a patch of gravel in his line on a tight turn on Rt 103 and laying some pretty serious road rash on the Sprint.  I was going to say "luckily" he wasn't injured but of course it was not really just luck.  If he had not been riding ATGATT he might have had some serious road rash himself, or worse.  As it was, he picked himself up out of the ditch, picked the bike up from the middle of the road and after some makeshift repairs (broken foot peg temporarily replaced by passenger foot peg thanks to Dave the Wrench) we were back on the road and finished the day's ride.


At the end of the day, the Gypsy said 12 1/2 hours had elapsed, 8 3/4 hours in the saddle, logging 402 miles at an average speed of 46 mph.  The Beemer registered it as 410 miles at 47 mph with average gas mileage of 46 mpg.

The gas log reports 42.2 mpg averaging $3.69 a gallon for premium.





October 16, 2011

Quick run into Boyertown to have a look at a Yamaha side car rig for sale (not to us after evaluation) then breakfast at the Masonic Temple in Birdboro.  Just a short run today up into Schuylkill County.  126 miles at 40 mph and home by 1:00 on a very pretty early autumn day in south eastern Pennsylvania.













November 6, 2011

The mission this morning was to see something different by getting off with an early jump to the west, so we formed up at the Lowes parking lot at 724 and 222 at 7:00 am and slabbed down to York for silver car diner breakfast.  This placed us west of the Susquehanna for a medium long day loop around the Gettysburg area including a run through Michaux State Forrest and a pass through the GB Battlefield Monument near the end of the day.



I took the old digital camera, mounted it on a RAM mount on the handlebars, wired it into the battery of the bike (with suitable reducer to 3 V) and set it to stay on continuously so I could take photos from the bike with a push of a button while riding.  This day was the first try for the set up.  It is subject to vibration and, of course, you can't aim the camera while concentrating on riding, but it took a few photos of what the country looks like this time of year.

The Gypsy says we went 295 miles riding 7 hrs and 6 min for an average speed of 41.5 mph.  The gas log puts us at 45.5 mpg with an average price of $3.72 per gallon for premium.

A great mid-autumn medium long day.