Houston Area Second Saturday Ride 5/06
Well, the day's event has concluded. Could not have asked for
better weather, it started off from the very beginning clear and dry.
I arrived at the Chevron Station at Barker-Cypress and Clay Road right at 0800.
As I was feeding my trusty steed Mike Hanlen rode up on his SilverDammit
Concours and volunteered to be the first to sample the coffee. I
cheerfully waved him on. After feeding and burping TAZMANIA, I parked it
next to Mikes bike and went to find some coffee of my own. Notice how we take
care of the bikes
before even our own needs? Having procured coffee and a nondescript pastry
item that claimed to have some connection with apples, I chatted with Mike for a
few minutes. We both heard the low rumbling of what could only be a sports
touring bike and, sure
enough, Bob Wilde rode up on his FJR. Pleasantries were exchanged and he also
went searching for a beverage. A few minutes later (after some friendly
bantering with some pest control patrons as to which bike was faster) Don rode
up on his (take note, Doug) pristine 1999 Concours, which looked like it just
came off the showroom floor. Don introduced himself and accepted the praises
about his bike graciously. Showroom condition almost does it justice, and to
dispel any questions, yes, he rides it daily.
After visiting for a time, Mike had to beg off, his grandson was playing
baseball and that is certainly an event not to be missed. It was good to see
Mike again and he will be back for another ride (unless he reads the rest of
this document, that is....).
I have to interject at this point that the route I had mapped out was graciously
donated by another COG member who could not make the ride today (he was on his
way to New Jersey to pick up another Concours.. yes Doug, another 1999 in the
fastest color... hee hee). Anyway, I made the tactical error of not pre - riding
the route before the event. Time constraints, overconfidence, not enough pre
trip thinking, maybe a combination of things. Tinkering on the bike did
play a part, that sounds like a plausible excuse. So Bob, Don and I headed
west on Clay Road and I proceeded to try to follow the text of the route. This
is printed out on a 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper on my tank bag, I was smart enough
to realize that my vision constraints would not have been able to deal
with a #8 font at speed. I did quickly notice that every time I looked down the
bike had a tendency to drift to the left which, on a two lane road, is not a
good situation. We wound and twisted through a few turns and intersections
( really bad when your first U turn comes within the first 30 minutes of the
ride... but there is more). I was getting a little mad at myself for not pre
riding the route first but, too late for that. Now, if I had a large field of
bikes following me it would have been even more embarrassing. This
situation continued on for a while, as the route I was using made judicious use
of smaller back roads, not just the FM roads, but local ones as well. Looking
for street signs, watching traffic, staying in my lane...not too much fun.
Finally we made it to Sealy and stopped for a few minutes.
There I was, with my compass and sextant, trying to find out where we were, the
batteries in my sextant were going bad, nothing seemed to be working right (yes,
old technology, I know)... then Bob steps up and says "I can help!!" He displays
his GPS and proceeds to scroll, advance, mark and generally work his magic with
the electronic wonder and finally says "I think I can save this trip!!" Indeed,
he does, he makes some learned recommendations and we are back on the road
again. I found one side road
(I > thought we were supposed to turn there) that had a quaint single lane
wooden bridge, we had a chance to visit the bridge twice, once going in and once
after the U turn. <sigh> The ultimate event finally came when, while Bob
was confidently leading with GPS pointing the way, we came to a sharp right hand
turn. Don was back a ways so Bob pulled over and I pulled over as well. Alas, I
did not in time see the off camber surface that I stopped on and I field tested
the right side tip over bars. Yes, TAZMANIA was lying on her right side. Try as
I might I could not dissuade her from falling. With the help of Bob and Don the
bike was quickly righted again. I can say that the tip over bars paid for
themselves today. Nothing contacted pavement except the bars, not the mirror,
right peg or anything. After two band aids for the scratches on the bars and one
big one for my ego, we were off again.
The rest of the ride was great, we found several noteworthy roads which allowed
us to do more sports than touring, working the sidewalls a bit. As far as
eating lunch at the designated stop, we ended up eating lunch in...was it
Fayetteville? I've been there before, several restaurants in a old town square
setting.. maybe that was where we stopped. In summary, the ride was great,
getting lost isn't as bad as one might think, GPS has it all over the compass
and sextant and, most importantly, time spent with friends makes it memorable.
I am adding to my ever growing list of things to consider when
planning a ride:
1. Avoid routes with big slow trucks
2. Pre ride the route
3. Watch where you stop.. look for level surfaces.
4. Send Murph a thank you letter for the tip over bars... <big grin>
Undaunted, I will patch my ego and look forward to another Second Saturday Ride
for the Houston Area.... this summary will either bring more curious riders out
or scare them away.. only time will tell.
Ride Safe!!
John T. (Jack) Cavuoti, Sr. AKA TAZ
AAD SC Region Concours Owner's Group
Houston, TX Area COG #6923
1999 Concours "ABC" - AKA - "TAZMANIA!!!"
ZOOM ZOOM!!
Home: 281-463-1484 Cell: 832-465-0134