do I need a tagline?
UPDATE: Camera details added to the Monday article. Note that all photos on this page taken with the Casio EX-Z80.
This is the worst picture I’ve ever taken - the truck loaded up and soon heading back to Florida:
The campground has a bunch of these hummingbirds zipping around that are fun to watch:
You’ve probably heard of the game show “Name That Tune“. This is “Name That Road”. Truth is, I don’t even remember which roads are in some of the videos, but the likely choices are:
These videos were all captured during our 4 days of mountain road riding using my little Casio EX-Z80 camera mounted with my custom fabricated camera mount:
All the videos can also been seen on my youtube.com page.
I simply set the camera on the ground and off we went:
ok - back to the game:
Here’s the campground panorama from just outside our cabin:
more riding:
A few more videos coming soon! 
UPDATE: Camera details added to the Monday article.
Today’s ride was almost identical to yesterday’s ride, except we did it in the opposite direction AND added a loop from Blue Ridge down hwy 60 through Suches.
We started out in a little fog this morning. FULL SIZE PICTURE:
A quick stop at T.W.O.
We found this great overlook on Richard Russell Hwy. FULL SIZE PICTURE:
From that same overlook. FULL SIZE PICTURE:
The road side work crew was also very busy today:
Wow! FULL SIZE PICTURE:
Lunch in Franklin again, but at a different place. It’s to the left of Wal Mart up a little hill:
Last rest stop on the Cherohala Skyway headed back toward the campground:
Many other people were out having fun today. FULL SIZE PICTURE
One last picture of our hooligan machines:
Tom collapsed on this roadside bench. We left him laying there and will pick him up next year:
Final score for the day:
UPDATE: Camera details added to the Monday article.
Breakfast at the same place again:
A little while later, from an overlook on the Cherohala Skyway:
After a VERY spirited run down hwy 28, where Rick gave the Hawk as much abuse as it could possibly take, with me glued to his rear fender, and Tom not far behind, we ended up in Franklin for lunch:
Headed south out of Franklin on 28 toward Highlands, NC. I stopped for some more scenery photos. FULL SIZE PHOTO IS HERE:
Downtown Highlands, NC. was busy:
Dinner back in Tellico Plains near the campground at the Tellicafe. The food is excellent!:
Back at the campground, we had to pry Tom’s stiff and sore body off the motorcycle. We left him laying on the ground where he fell:
Final score for the day:
Now let’s review today’s roads worthy of mention:
UPDATE: Camera details added to the Monday article.
We started out with breakfast at “The Prospector” restaurant in Tellico Plains. This is a new place opened in 2008 located one block east of hwy 68 where hwy 39 intersects 68. Fantastic food at a reasonable price!
After an hour riding out of Tellico Plains north on hwy 360, then east on hwy 411, then south on hwy 72, whereupon we turned onto 129 and headed toward Deals Gap. However, at the base of 129 we turned left for a short jaunt up the “Foothills Parkway” and found this scenic overlook. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE.
Soon afterward we were at the overlook on the Tennessee side of Deals Gap:
Today’s conditions were good enough to get a decent shot of the dam from the overlook. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
This is “The Store” at the North Carolina end of Deals Gap. As you can see here, it was a zoo there today and many animals had escaped from their cages. While we enjoyed a refreshing beverage, I witnessed an 18-wheeler pulling a 53 foot trailer going up the hill. Not long after that we could hear the stories of the truck’s wheels hanging off the edge of the mountain from the riders coming back through from the other side. There is no way in hell to get a 53 footer over that road and I think only the very best drivers would make it with a 40 footer.
Looking in the opposite direction from the store, we are contemplating the run down hwy 28. As you might suspect, this turned out to be a very spirited section of the ride.
On the way down hwy 28, we took a short detour over to see Fontana Dam. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
And I managed to get this shot of two of the best looking motorcycles on the planet. My Suzuki GSXR-1000 and Rick’s Honda Hawk. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
Lunch in Robbinsville! Food was excellent. Rick claims the onion rings were the best he’s ever had.
On the return leg of today’s trip we found ourselves on the Cherohala Skyway. Then Rick noticed a great spot to stop for photos and videos:
Plenty of fall colors are starting to appear at these higher elevations. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
Tom on his Suzuki SV650. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
Video of Tom coming from the other direction:
Me on my Suzuki GSXR-1000. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
Video of me coming from the other direction:
Rick on the Honda Hawk. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
Video of Rick coming from the other direction:
Another photo of the world’s best looking motorcycle. FULL SIZE PICTURE IS HERE
It was chilly up here. Perhaps 55 degrees - cloudy and overcast.
This is pretty much what we had to deal with all day long:
And finally - Yesterday Rick’s tag fell off on a bridge on 411 as we were returning from a gas station. We noticed it missing 100 miles later. Tom claimed he knew exactly where it fell off, but didn’t realize at the time what it was he saw bouncing on the road. We went back late this afternoon, and sure enough, it was EXACTLY where Tom said it would be:
UPDATE: Some people have asked what camera I used during this trip - I used two different cameras:
Yesterday morning, 7:00AM, Rick’s awesome Nissan Titan is loaded and rolling out:
The trip from my house in Deltona took exactly 11 hours to reach the Cherohala Motorcycle Resort. Rick and Tom stayed here last year and couldn’t say enough good things about the place. Now that I’m here, I wholeheartedly agree. Mark and Renee have worked very hard to put together a most excellent place for mountain loving motorcyclists to relax. And they have wireless internet access here too!
5 minutes into the ride today, I realize I’m nearly out of fuel - so a quick (fun) detour to a gas station. I knew I was forgetting something on my pre-departure checklist - with scenery in the background to hint at what’s in store for later today:
An hour after the fuel stop, we arrived at the “New York Restaurant” in McCaysville for a good breakfast:
The weather report had us prepared to get soaked today, so we were looking forward to trying out our new “Frog Toggs” rain suits. However, the rain gods smiled down upon us thanks to Rick’s sacrificial offering of his license plate which fell off somewhere on hwy 30 southwest of Tellico Plains.
This is part of the reservoir at Hiawassee Dam:
My camera was “big enough” for Rick to fit my fat ass into this picture:
As you can probably see in this picture, Tom is having another miserable day:
Another shot of the beautiful scenery at the dam:
Today’s ride covered 328.61 miles, including a number of miles on a super-top-secret road Rick knows about in North Carolina. This road was, without question, the twistiest piece of truly rideable asphalt I have ever been on. I am sworn to secrecy.
My apologies for not posting videos yet. The laptop I have with me doesn’t have video processing software I want to use. Videos will be posted when I return home.
When trailering a sport-bike, strapping the bike to the trailer is usually a challenge because of all the plastic body work interfering with the tie-down straps - which makes it impossible to get a straight path for the tie strap between something solid on the motorcycle and the trailer.
After an hour of cutting and welding out in the garage I am ready to secure the bike on the trailer tomorrow morning as we’re loading up for our 4 days of mountain riding next week.
Today’s 0800 breakfast at Robinson Restaurant was attended by:
Nancy went home after breakfast and missed out on all the fun (and lots of sand in the corners). We decided to ride the “west loop” again this week (after last week’s little mishap caused us to convert the ride into a “central north loop” ride).
We made the obligatory stop at the top of the “mountain”:
And, of course, we did as much of this as we could - given the fact we’re in central Florida and most of the curves still have sand left by the recent storms. Local riders will immediately recognize this as the famous curve on Laws Rd. This video shows the “easy” direction (heading west) for the curve. MANY riders have been surprised by it going the other direction (heading east) because that east-bound left hander is, as you can see on the google map, a double-apex curve. It is also off-camber - which means by the time you’ve blasted through the right-hander and you’re starting to have fun - the left-hander sucks you in - then all the sudden you have NO MORE available lean angle and will soon be meeting the spectators (cows) out in the pasture to the right. A better name for the road would be “Laws of Physics Rd”.
One more short video snippet:
Made it home in one piece with 178 miles logged for the day!
Met up with Kyle and Steve (coworkers), plus Rick, Tom, and Mike at Robinson Restaurant in Apopka at 0800. The plan was for us to ride our traditional “west loop” starting at the north end of Binion Rd. It was a good plan.
Little did I know that Steve was going to test the off-road capabilities of his Suzuki C50 only a few minutes into the ride. At least he picked the perfect spot to do it (right here, going south around this left-hand curve) where there was plenty of tall, wet, soft grass for him and his bike to slide in. Thankfully, Steve ended up with only very minor abrasions - though I am certain he will not come out of the bed like a spring in the morning.
I was riding behind him when this happened which meant I could evaluate the off-road characteristics as an observer. The BIG surprise for me was how well the big Suzuki handled the TWO end-overs - with nowhere near the amount of damage I expected to see! It only took me 30 seconds to have the bike back in “rideable” condition - well enough that he was able to ride it more than an hour back to his dealership for repairs.
Oh yeah - almost forgot - my on-board VIDEO camera was running at the time:
Seriously though, I believe this was a classic case of “Target Fixation“. Once his front tire got into the wet grass, it was done. It could have ended up a million different ways today - most of them much worse than what happened. MORE IMPORTANTLY, this can AND DOES happen all the time - even with very experienced riders - and it’s easy to avoid. NEVER EVER lose track of exactly where the ROAD AHEAD of you is at - as in following the curve with your eyes. Like all the articles ever written about this say, your bike goes where you are looking.
Here’s another way of thinking about it: If you find yourself on a bad trajectory in the middle of a curve (either because you went in too hot or because your attention drifted for a brief moment or because you had to avoid something in the road or any other reason), THERE IS NO TIME to think about whether or not the bike is capable of making the turn. At that point, one of two things WILL happen:
I have been riding for more than 30 years and target fixation STILL tries to sneak up on me - and I suspect NO rider is immune to it.
I am 100% certain today’s incident will make Steve (along with the rest of us) a better rider!
After Steve and Kyle headed back toward Kissimmee, the remaining four of us continued the ride and arrived at the peak of Sugarloaf Mountain (the second-highest point of elevation in Florida) for a short break. This is a really nice area of Florida that, like so many others, is being overrun with housing construction. Perhaps the housing market woes will at least slow it down a little bit. Our group rides all over central Florida and beyond nearly every weekend and I am completely at a loss to understand how the magnitude of construction projects we see is being supported.
From the top of the “mountain” it is sometimes possible to see the Orlando skyline out over Lake Apopka (full size image is here) if the atmospheric haze isn’t too thick - as was the case today:
The new video camera mount worked better today, however, I still had one of the dreaded camera freeze-up issues as I was accelerating hard while hitting bumps. Overall, it is working much better than before.
On the way home, I stopped at a little store to put away the camera and came to the conclusion that bad luck is plentiful today. This poor guy’s boating trip evidently didn’t go as planned either.
Today’s ride was all about making sure Camera Mount - Version 2.0 would work properly. In a nutshell, it didn’t dampen the vibration enough. It worked much better than my original version, but still transmitted enough vibration to the camera to cause the same temporary malfunctions I observed during the initial test run - just less frequently than before.
It did, however, work well enough to capture this video of me following Rick as we carefully navigated a stretch of pavement we thought would have a lot of sand in the corners left by the recent rain - but today there was no sand:
Note: the photos and videos in this blog post were all taken with the little Casio EX-Z80 which is proving to be a fantastic $150 camera.
Time for enhancements to the camera mount - more vibration isolators:
Now it’s a “double stack” with two separate layers of isolation:
Crude? Yes. Of course! This setup provides a considerable amount of vibration reduction while at the same time holding the camera steady enough to capture good video. The road test that followed this modification has me convinced that the problem may be permanently fixed.
This little bit of spirited acceleration would consistently cause the camera to malfunction previously, however, now it seems to be working fine:
Oh yeah - the ride report. We (Tom, Rick, Nancy, Mike, and I) met at the Osteen Diner at 0800. We did the “east loop” which includes the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge and some other good (top-secret) areas out there. It was a nice relaxing ride with moderate temperatures and good weather.
