Where did you ride today?

I've been making local "mental health" rides each day of 70-150 miles. No meals out, no stops other than pay-at-the-pump fuel stops. Today the Governor of Georgia instituted Shelter in Place. It is my nature to be law abiding, so the rides stop today. I'm already missing it. I had decided that no harm could come from my riding. Today an empty logging truck ran a stop sign on me and it took some high-G maneuvers while gripping the seat with "Orifice B" to make the go-around. Later in the same ride, I let a sharp off-camber turn catch me unprepared. My bad. But how many wake-up calls does a dense boy like me need to recognize that a hospital right now is a very high risk place for a "senior citizen" to be? Mix in the whole social responsibility thing, which really is important to me, and I can't support my past practices any more.
 
Yesterday, (4/1) because my wife forgot to take a couple of boxes of envelopes to work with her, I figured to drop them off and then come home via, what we call the Wine Country. So I rode the 2010 and managed to get in 29 miles! :hat3:
 
Queen Wilhelmina State Park Yesterday two buddies & I took a RTE. Lodge was closed but we had our own packed lunches. Temp was a great 72 in Mena but a brisk
64 and windy at the park. Did a 205 mile round trip from the Village.
 
Rode 600 km north from Djerba, Tunisia to Tunis on Thursday, so that I could catch a flight from Tunis to Montreal and then travel onwards to my home in Toronto, where I am now.

The roads were deserted. I mean, totally deserted. It was eerie to ride on a 4 lane divided expressway that is the main arterial road of the country and not see another vehicle for up to 30 minutes at a time. I did most of the run at Wide Open Throttle - literally, I wound the throttle grip as far open as it would go, right to the stop, and cranked the Throttlemeister down tight. Speed averaged about 190 km/h (118 MPH), which was lower than I recall it being when the bike was new 19 years ago, but I did have a bit of a headwind. There are no speed traps or cops with radar in Tunisia.

Fuel consumption was awful - I got about 200 km (120 miles) to a tankful. After the first fill-up, I experimented with throttle grip positioning, and found that if I didn't twist the grip the last 20% of the way to the WOT stop, speed only decreased a little bit to 180 km/h (111 MPH) but fuel consumption improved dramatically. This leads me to believe that it doesn't matter how much fuel you pour into the engine, past a certain point, adding fuel doesn't translate into additional speed. Perhaps it resulted in cooler running, though.

Back when the bike was new (2002 - 2003) I recall being able to hold 220 km/h (135 MPH) on the autobahns in Germany. Perhaps I might have a bit of clutch slippage, or the carburetors are not perfectly set up - I don't know. In any case, it was interesting to observe the drop in top speed from back then to now, especially when top speed was maintained continuously for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

I left the motorcycle in storage Tunis - hopefully I will be able to go back and pick it up sometime in the future, but I doubt if that will be possible this year.

Michael
 
Needed to visit the Post Office so rode the Burgman. Was only around 34F the whole way. Wore my Nitrile gloves under my riding gloves. When I parked the bike I traded my full face helmet for a face mask. Only one customer was at the counter so waited at the floor marking for them to finish. Funny thing is the floor markings are 6 ft apart but the 2 clerks at the counter were only 3 ft apart so if they were helping more than one customer people would have to be too close for the CDC recommendations. Once again took the long way there but not as long as I could have. Only rode 17 miles this time.
 
Got out for an hour before 3 days of rain settle in. This is halfway up Mt Umunhum, which I live at the base of. The upper half was shrouded in cloud so the usual views were non existent. Usually you can see the Pacific, all the way up to San Francisco, and all the way down to Monterrey. The mountain has an iconic “box” on the top that was used as a USAF listening station during the Cold War. Sadly, we couldn’t see the box today, even when sitting on the ST 20 ft away. Reference pic attached.
 

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rode over to JW's house and dropped off some stuff he needs to finish up my '74 Honda XL70, he was out riding his CT 70 when I got there. on my way home I stopped for gas, $ 19.94 to fill up. stopped and got a mural on the way. one home I wen20200404_140059.jpg20200404_141143.jpg20200404_160206 (1).jpg20200404_170929.jpg20200404_174000.jpgt and found the key for the 450 nighthawk, drained the gas, put some air in the tires and washed it off then went riding on my CT 70
 
I rode around in circles today, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. Managed to cross paths with a friend and it is was good to catch up in person, albeit at a socially acceptable distance.

Over the years we have ridden tens of thousands of kilometers together, mostly a Honda / Yamaha combination of bikes. Today was the same, but different, as I wasn't the one on a Honda.

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To the local state park and back, like I have every day since the Gov's order. A whopping 19.3 miles round trip.lol
 
Warmest day this year so far. High temps over 75F. Went on my periodic essential therapeutic mental heath ride and rode the Burgman around the countryside for 32 miles. Maintained a proper social distance the entire distance.

Had some other things that needed to be done also. Checked the air in my wife's scooter tires and the John Deere riding mower. Put the JD mower battery on the battery maintainer (forgot to do that recently so battery was low) and checked oil and filters. Pulled out the hose so my wife could wash the car (her request). A few other outdoor things to prepare for the growing season.
 
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