Nice Day for a Ride

On Saturday I met up with some friends over at Max's BMW. Tessler was there from the BMW Forum, Bubba (Derek), and Kutch (Larry) was there also.
Tessler was there to get some new tires on his K75, and Bubba was there because Kutch was thinking about buying his R1100S. We all know each other from the BMW MOA forum. It was a really nice day in the mid 60's and sunny.
Unfortunately for Bubba on the way up from Brooklyn he got a flat so he was having his rear tire replaced. Tessler's bike was still being worked on so we walked over to the diner which is a couple doors down and had some breakfast. I had french toast, and Tessler had the ham and cheese omelet.
After breakfast we walked back to Max's. Tesslers bike was done and so was Bubba's. Kutch decided he was going to buy Bubba's bike so Tessler had agreed to drop Bubba off at the train station. I programed the Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak Station into my GPS and off we went. Bubba all of his his 6"5"-ish frame and giant backpack looked pretty funny sitting on the back of Tessler's K75. We arrived at the station in about 20 minutes, we said our goodbyes to Bubba as he was able to get a train.
Tessler and I decided we would ride towards Chatham NY and then catch the Taconic Parkway. Once we arrived in Chatham we got some fuel and I decided I would ride south with him for about an hour or so to Dutchess County. We stopped for lunch at the Millbrook Diner in Millbrook NY.


We had a nice lunch and talked about lots of all sorts of things including out various summer trips we hope to take. After lunch we said our goodbyes as I wanted to start heading back north since it was already 3:30. I took State Route 82 north, the I took a variety of county routes with no planned routes. As long it was generally heading north east and was between the Taconic and the Thruway, I knew I was going in the proper direction. Once I got to Hudson I programmed the GPS to find me the quick way home. I pulled in my driveway about 5:30. It was a good day of riding. I rode about 230 miles.

First Decent Ride

I finally got out on the BMW. I got it back from Max BMW after 3 weeks. It was in for its annual service and it kept running down the battery. The annual service went fine. Turns out my Autocom was drawing .50 amps all the time. I had never run a relay because I was told the draw was negligible unless I left the headset plugged in. Oh well.

Well back to ride it was a short jaunt out RT 2 heading east on the Taconic trailer over Petersburg Pass and into Mass. Then I went north on Rt 7 into Bennington and stopped at my favorite diner, the Blue Benn. I had the pumpkin and pecan pancakes with sausage. Take that St. Patrick!
Then I just hit some back roads here and there to meander back to Troy area. It was a pretty short ride, bout 75 miles.

It was nice to get out and clear my head.


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Spring has Sprung...

Despited quite a bit of snow still being on the ground here in Upstate NY, I got my R1200RT out of storage on Friday afternoon. I've had the battery tender on it all winter so it started right up no problem. It was a messy day though. It was raining a little, the roads were salty, sandy, wet, muddy.

I took the bike directly to Max BMW in Troy for the annual service which basically involves changing all of the fluids. I used to tackle that myself on my old BMW but since this bike is so new and under warranty I will let Max's take care of it.

I am already getting bike fever despite it only being 15 degrees outside and it's March first. I can still go skiing too and I probably will a few more times.

This year I am not scheduling up too many trips in advance. I will probably go to the Frosty Nutz Rally the first weekend of May. I went to that a couple years ago on the S. I am also thinking about doing the Minute Man 1000 this year which is early June. The Minute Man 1ooo is riding 1000 miles around New Englad in 24 hours. I have wanted to try a distance rally for a number of years. I think this is the year I do it. I am pretty certain I can do it and I will start my planning early. The only other trip I know for a fact I will be taking is a tour in the Mid-Atlantic region and New England area. It's basically going to be a trip visiting various micro brews around the east coast. I will be running this with the NYSOC. I would like to attend the Finger Lakes Rally labor day weekend but I guess I will play it by ear.

I didn't keep the blog up very well last year but I hope to do better this year. Here are a few trips I too last year but didn't blog about.
The Airheads at the Aerodome was a great trip and very relaxing.

Airheads at the Aerodrome

This wasn't a motorcycle trip but I also went camping with Buffy.

Camping Trip with Buffy

I drove almost cross-country with my friend Rob so he could get a TDI Jetta wagon. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I did it.

TDI_Jetta_Trip

The last Rally I attended was the Color in the Catskills Rally. That was a fantastic trip. It was a great way to wind down the riding season.

Colors in th Catskills