Cliff notes:
fwb35 had crisis at work 9:00pm the night prior and couldn't make the ride

92FLHS volunteers to ride from Roanoke to Richmond
Saturday started with rain
No rain on ride to Richmond up Route 10
Successful meeting & mascot turnover with 92FLHS, Mike_M and RIPSAW
Pleasant ride back to Tidewater on Route 5
Mascot stops for a week

Now on to the (mostly) embellished story:

It was nearly nine pm on Friday evening, the bike was gassed up, George (RIPSAW) and I had already talked and confirmed the meeting time for the ride up to Richmond, and I got an urgent text message: Frank (fwb35) had a crisis at work and wasn’t going to be able to make the ride to Richmond via Charlottesville VA. That left the mascot in Roanoke over on the western end of the state, and no transportation to NC. The other Mike (92FLHS) stepped up and volunteered to extend his ride from Roanoke to Richmond to drop off the mascot. With a little back and forth, the meeting place was changed from the North end of Richmond at Richmond HD to Steel Horse HD on the Southwest side—actually making it easier for George and I to get there around “noonish”.
Saturday morning dawned with gray skies and rain; weather channel was predicting ~40% chance, and it was raining when I got up to feed the dogs. Great—rain gear all the way. Rolled the bike out of the garage at 8:20 so that I could get to Sonic and have breakfast before George showed up: Tthe skies were still a dark, threatening gray but the pavement was dry! No rain gear to start with! Yay!
Go to Sonic parking half an hour early only to see this tall scary looking biker in his bright yellow reflective vest (more on this later). Well, since I got up early to grab breakfast and there was no sense in getting to Richmond too early, I grabbed a bite and George and I BS’d a bit about the weather (looked like rain), jobs (he’s retired from building ships/I’m retired from riding on them), bikes (he can recognize everyone’s bike from sig pics), and the weather (rain gear, check: we’re going to get rained on).








We left the restaurant, with me leading, right around 9:40 so that we would be able to make our meeting time in Richmond even if the weather slowed us down. I noticed George was hanging back a ways, and I wasn’t in any hurry so I set the cruise at a comfortable speed and relaxed. The skies remained the same threatening gray all the way there, but managed to hold onto their water. We pulled over once to let a group of four cars go by and after that we pretty much had the lane to ourselves all the way to Richmond! I’m never going to travel 64 again—what a great trip!
Got to Steel Horse HD at 11, wandered around looking at the bikes on the showroom floor (no 13’s, but they do have a 2012 silver/black CVO for $38k—couldn’t convince George to buy it for some reason). Saw a HD branded tent display (dome tent with attached rain fly/bike garage) that looked pretty cool, and I found out that I had an issue similar to OJ’s—the glove didn’t fit.
Right at noon, Mike dropped me a text saying he was there—I love it when a plan comes together! Met up, took a couple pictures, including some of the backside of the mascot, talked bikes for a bit (I know where there’s a 92 FLHS that looks almost like it just came off the showroom floor) and let a couple of minor rain showers pass us before getting back on the road.









The sun came out for a bit as we took a leisurely ride through the trees on Route 5 (completing the nickel & dime tour). Pulling up to the Williamsburg/Scotland ferry, there was a sign “Security Checkpoint Ahead”. I could just see it: Me with half helmet, mirrored shades, leather vest, gloves, & boots riding a bike that has lots of places to put stuff—a shoo-in for inspection. Nope—I got waved through and they stopped the scary biker George: Complete with full helmet, bright yellow vest, and riding his ’04 Deuce. Guess they figured he had something to hide.








Anyway, caught a couple quick showers between the ferry and Chesapeake, George turned off at the James River Bridge, and I made it the rest of the way home with no incidents. The mascot is now ensconced in my garage for a week (possible side trip to see fwb35 on Wednesday). It will continue its travels (and travails) on Saturday, 25 August, when it will head to Raleigh NC.





Cheers!

 

I had a beautiful ride back to the Blue Ridge Mountains. No rain and the Stator stayed connected for a change !!!

Now about your trip......
I love it, That is just to frickin funny about Rip getting pulled for inspection.

It was great to meet you guys. My door is always open should you wish to come to the Mountains for a putt.

Give my best to FWB35 when you get up to meet this week.

Cheers and all the best

92

 

Thats the way to move it. Nice write up. Well done guys..

 

Great job. Let's keep it moving

 

See my side 2 cents over here including vivid pictures of the cavity search..sorry, no that is over on the colonoscopy post over there somewhere



https://www.hdforums.com/forum/10220698-post51.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/hdfor...om-mascot.html

 

Funny. I was thinking about that the whole time I was reading the post. And the score remains ...

 

I am soooo glad we managed to do this trip on Saturday. Here's the current weather map for where we would have been riding:



Guess the mascot brought the good Karma!

 

YES Many thinks to 92FLHS for coming on Saturday. What is crazy is it appeared they were calling for 60 down to 40% Saturday going to 20% Sunday. My thought late Friday night when it was bumping back and forth for maybe Sunday was fine with me..hay I'm retired now and the weather looks better Sunday? HA. Anyway I'm out in the garage tapping four holes and screwing some SS 10-24 cap screws in to make sure that one little set screw that keeps my foot rest spurs from moving over and dropping off the spline does not come loose. Deuces are great around town but I sure miss those floor boards and hill and toe sometimes. If I were single I would take my 2000 sq foot and put 4 more garage doors on it. Six garage doors. 4x4,vet,town harley, trip harley, boat, jetski, shop, -- now thats a dream. However garden needs rain and I am DRY however..life is good. Picture is my stop screw I put on my spurs. Anyone out there with these may consider this. Mine worked loose and dropped down, I guess in a hard turn it would have kicked it back up but I now have the original set screw plus stop screws top and bottom.

 

Yeah, If you had expanded that radar pic you would have seen it rain from 0500 until approx 1400 today over in the Blue Ridge.

My apologies to fwb35 for not being able to accommodate him on a Sunday exchange but now I am glad it went as previously planned

If there is one thing I hate is cleaning the bike after road rides in a storm. Bug removal on the other hand is a pleasure to perform

keep the shiny side up.

im a dot

92

 

Nice writeup and pics, guys! I'm glad you didn't catch much if any rain while actually riding. As mine is my only transportation now, such is life when it happens, but no rain during the ride is nice

I can't wait for the Mascot to get down here to Florida; a chance to meet up with some of the Florida Crew...and another excuse to ride!

Cheers