Took the MMS half iron butt ride Sunday with a group of customers, sadly last weeks weather put most guys on hold for a riding trip, but a hardy group of 12 riders turned out in the 27f early morning temp all the same, bikes raging from a brand new 2014 Triumph to a 93 CB1100F turned out to join us. Starting out as planned at Conyers at 9am sharp (9.17 in reality) Dan our MMS control rider had sorted us some real nice roads to ride, so we headed south on 138 and onto 212 all the way to Milledgeville, once there we took a bunch of different back roads all the way to Savannah, only stepping onto i16 once for one exit into downtown. All the riders enjoyed the pace and scenery, south GA looks a lot more like north Florida once you get further south as the orange mud turns to sand, its actually rather abrupt too, one minute its green grass with orange patches next min its bare with sand!
The place we chose to eat at was the Smoke station BBQ, food was good, although all but one of us chose the buffet, never a good choice in the middle of a 500 mile ride I should add, but we were all hungry by the time we arrived around 2.15 in the afternoon, no problems with any of the bikes, even the 93 CB never missed a beat. More importantly no tickets, its not like we were pushing a fast pace but some of the 45 mile per hour limit roads are long, straight and easy to creep up to 70 plus on, luckily the one time we saw a cop sitting there waiting in the middle of a four laner, we had just slowed to wait for a couple caught at the last light, so rolled through doing probably 15 under the limit!
Anyway everybody seemed to enjoy the ride and company, a few guys knew each other at the start of the ride, but everybody knew everybody by the end of it! I had a great time and really enjoyed the new for 2014 Triumph Thunderbird LT I chose to use. We arrived back in Conyers around 9pm after choosing to take a longer rout home than planned to visit some sum what twisty roads south of i16
9.17am Conyers GA, Its a lot colder than the clear blue sky would have you think
Never under estimate the longevity of old Hondas
Never been a big cruiser rider but really enjoyed the new LT from Triumph
south GA has some long straight roads that's for sure!
My mate Kith, he of 330,000 mile V S-trom 1000 fame
Beautiful down town Savannah GA
Finally FOOD!
On a personal note, I took a different kind of road trip last week, while all you guys where here getting battered by snow and ice storms I flew down to Tampa, Florida on Sunday morning, got picked up from the airport by a pick up truck full of rednecks, then had a great night out with a bunch of mates who still live down that way, spent the night on a couch, woke up to the smell of breakfast, then headed out to pick up my new (to me toy) a few miles up the road.
Before I moved to GA I lived on Clearwater beach, had me an old 68 Pontiac Catalina convertible, before I headed north to GA I sold it to a local lad thinking I wouldn't have the time, place or desire to drive it around Atlanta, turns out I was wrong, found a couple local car shows, took a few rides on the bike in the mountains and realized Id like another old school rag top. So in no time at all I had found myself a 1970 Plymouth Fury III convertible for sale on the other side of the country, a few phone calls later and it was mine, arranged shipping since it had been sitting several years, and had it picked up and delivered here to Conyers, fixed it up, drove it around, put over ten thousand miles on it in three years, then decided it was time for something nicer.
So I sold the Fury to one of my co workers, started checking the classifieds and then I saw it, 1966 Cadillac De Ville, convertible, triple blue, mint condition and all stock, same thing again, a few phone calls, a couple of e mails, a wire transfer and it was mine. When I was going back and forth with the dealer who had it listed I found it needed a few small things and I arranged to have them fixed, had a couple of my car buddies from Florida go check it out, they gave it the thumbs up, so I told the dealer I would come pick it up in april. Turns out as usual with GA weather you never know what your going to get and after a couple of beautiful weekends of mid 60s and clear blue skies I decided I had to pick it up and get it home asap!
Flight down was typical, three biggest people on the plane all sitting next to each other, me inc, flight itself was super smooth and fast, landing was a whole other story. Monday morning took for ever to arrive, I was like a 5 year old at Christmas, but finally I saw my new ride, all shiny, sitting there puring away in the Florida sunshine, roof down. We did a ten min walk around and found the guys had not done everything they said they were going to do, but I accepted it and drove away, one mile down the road it ran out of gas, they bought me fresh fuel, I made it to the gas station, filled it up, and headed out to my mates place 12 miles away, I never made it, 7 miles down the rd it stopped running, so I called my buddy who came and collected me, we could see the problem right away, the electric aftermarket fuel pump had fallen out of its rubber holder and kinked the return fuel line, two mins later and three zip ties and I was ready to go again, then work calls me and gives me the bad news, "stay in Florida, we are about to get hit with another ice storm" I took this news badly, I mean who wants to be stuck in Clearwater, in a convertible, when its 75f and clear blue skies? I was devastated lol
A couple of mornings later, with a hangover, I set out to travel the 90 odd miles to another mates place of business in Homosassa (yes we give him grief about it too) and barely made it there, the car was running so rough at times it would barely go over 35 mph, but Ian my mate fixed everything up and sent me on my way to GA in a short while, with the Caddy running great all the way home, 476 miles non stop, well apart from gas, running between 70 and 75mph and getting 16.9mpg out of the 4800lb 7.0 liter V8 I thought bloody impressive, especially when you think what a car of that size does today, no better!
anyway sorry for personal life interest here, I'm excited about my new toy, and a road trip is a road trip no matter what, thanks for listening (if you made it this far)
My first view of my new ride
Second view of my new ride lol
For the next 24 hours this was my regular view of my new ride
Come to Florida they said, the sunshine state!
Even the clock worked
An artistic shot on the way home
Murphy, me female Neo Mastiff, liked the taste of it when it was in Popsicle form the morning after I got home
It's Looooooooong
But it does fit in my garage, Just!
Ok people dont forget, supercross signing at Lithia and Marietta on the 21st, and Vicotry demo truck at the Conyers store next month, so get ready to test ride all the new toys they have to offer this year, inc the bike they are still trying to keep a secret, the Gunner, look forward to seeing you there.
Be back next week
Russ "Bloke" Foggan
Sales Mountain Motorsports
blokem3@gmail.com
MMS lead control rider, and good mate/riding buddy, Dan Hemming, in full "telly tubby' mode on the Victory Cross Country Tour, during our Savannah trip.
You can never have too many cameras or GPS units is his moto
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