Ride 12/23/11

I joined a new forum a couple weeks ago at BamaRides.com. If you are in Alabama and are looking for new folks to ride with, check it out. I had met some members before including the Shovelhead's prior owner who told me to give it a look. In an odd twist, a few days after I joined I was bringing my buddy's KZ home in the truck and one of the moderators who lives near me ended up following me home to check out the bike. We talked for a bit and he looked around before heading out.

I knew the wife and kids would not be coming home until the late afternoon on the 23rd and I had been trying to get back to Twix n Tween before the end of the year. After a couple false starts and colder than expected days, weather was looking warm and clear and I decided this would have to be it. Not knowing what to expect, I posted my plans on Bama Rides. I was surprised at the amount the feedback and the number of folks who said they were coming and actually showed up.

9:45ish at Tip Top Grill in Hoover. $1 cups of coffee and refills served in the parking lot.
At this point we had 12 bikes who were in for the ride including this one, a '68 BMW that was nearly all original and ran like a champ.

We left right at 10am. The ride was good, traffic was light on our route. Once we got through Montevallo, it opened up a bit. As it was my first ride with this group, I kept it at five over but learned later when I followed another member, I could have let it rip. We arrived at lunch and found two bikes waiting on us.

I had said in my post that my organization ended at lunch. We got gas and entertained several ideas before deciding to ride to the day use area in the nearby wildlife refuge. This included some dirt/gravel roads but nothing too bad.

 

This area is limited use, not for camping, but was cool as a spot to just relax and shoot the breeze. Normally the road's "end" is passable by dual sport across a shallow creek bed but as the rain was pretty heavy earlier in the week it was not happening today. After warming up, we head out again and eventually split up at a crossroads into a group of four, then to two and a couple miles from the house I was alone. The high was 56 degrees, I covered just over 100 miles. This was most likely my last ride of any real distance for 2011.