Harley Davison and the Yamaha man take on Wiggins, Mississippi

Saturday, January 23, 2010…9:30am

Time to get this Wiggins trip started…after a few text messages that went something like this… (me)”we still on for the Wiggins trip…weather looks great 60’s and 70’s”…”(David) yep meet me at my house around 10:00am.” (Me) “OK”…GUY TALK…YOU GIRLS JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND. Ha-HA

I gassed the mighty Yamaha up and off to David’s house I went. As I pulled into his driveway, I got my first look at his new Harley…well new to David anyway…let me explain…just the day before David found himself at Chunky River Harley Davidson in Meridian.

http://chunkyriverharley-davidson.com/

Signing his life away on a 2008 police addition FLHTP electric glide, I think it has somewhere around 7800 miles on it. I hate to admit this but I forgot to take any close up photos of the bike so I'll pull some off chunky river’s web site…as they have two more they want to sell.

David greeted me at the door and I got the short tour around the house as his wife Dana and his daughter Amy chased a neighbor’s crazy dog

around the back yard while David and I stayed safely out of harms way on the back deck watching the action from above. (As it should be) you know the old saying “women and children first” that was my point, let them go first and see if the dog is a threat.

After a quick look over of the bike, Amy brought out David’s helmet. Hmmm, what can I say about this helmet? I have to be honest, it looked like something from star wars to me. The first time I saw a photo of it was on Facebook on Friday and I made a comment about it. It looked like something Luke would wear while fighting the death star in the Star Wars movie…

Well little Amy took this to heart and decided to decorate her daddy’s helmet. Out came the blue painter tape and in only a few short hours…the very much new and approved motorcycle helmet.

GREAT JOB AMY!!! Only one problem…as I was looking for a star wars helmet photo on the web…I found out that blue strips were already being placed on white helmets…

hope there is no patents pending…ha-ha.

Ok now we were on the road, we made a quick stop across the road at the high school parking lot so David could do a little stop and go practice before the trip.

Practice went great. I snapped a few photos, then down Hwy. 42 we went until we reached Hwy 29 were we took a right. Hwy 29 is a great motorcycle road,

very few cars and gentle curves, this is where David showed me the power of his new COP bike as he passed me and took the lead. We soon crossed Hwy 98 where we pulled in to gas up the Harley.

Then once again we were on our way down 29, me in the lead, as I wanted to stop off at a hiking trail I hiked a long time ago. We took a break, snapped a few photos

and soon were on our way again…only this time with a twist…I was on the Harley and David was on the Yamaha. Wow, what a ride…I have got to get a bigger bike, the extra horsepower, the weight, and the sixth gear…oh do I dream about a sixth gear (My bike is a five speed). A few minutes later we pulled into downtown Wiggins, first stop… Wards...

time for a burger and fries. As we were getting off the bike I was asked the question how do I like the bike…Hmmm his bike being a retired COP bike the first thing that ran through my mind was the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yil9wlfa0yo

Great bike…and yes it will become the next bluesmobile. Ha-ha.
Stay tuned for part two.
Big Al

Summer time is coming…I can feel it.

Yea...yea I know its January…but motorcycle riding with no gloves and jacket is in the air. Ok I guess I’m just getting a little over excited

over the 69 degree day I had today, to ride to work in. It beats the heck out of the 21 degree day I road in a week or so ago.

One of my co-works David just bought a bike; he is picking it up Friday. I don’t know much about it other than it is a used Harley cop bike, sounds like he got a great deal…time to ride!!! I guess we will be known as “Harley-Davidson and the Yamaha Man” and yea I stole the name from the movie “Harley-Davidson and the Marlboro Man”

so sue me. Ha-ha.

We’re in the planning stage for our first ride…looks like a trip to Wiggins Mississippi, we’ll be riding hwy 29 there and hwy 49 back…loop ride. Should be a good first trip to break in Dave’s new bike or should I say the bike may break in David…

its been around 20 years since he has been on one…its just a little over a hundred mile loop, he should do fine and yes I’ll be reporting on it soon.

More later
Big Al

January 17, 1964

Morning everyone…today’s my birthday…today’s my birthday…yea!!!!!!! Well I always want to get someone like Marilyn Monroe

to sing happy birthday to me…so I thought here is my chance…but alas, Weird Al Yankovic

was the best I could do on such short notice (hence the song playing in the background)…maybe I’ll plan better next year. Ha-ha.
Have a great day everyone
Big Al

I FINELY MET MY MATCH

Let met start off by saying sorry for being gone for so long…not really sure where I’ve been…I guess I just have not been in a blogging mood…well I’m BACK!!! Can’t wait to catch up on my friends blogs…trust me I will.

Ok back to the title…it been about a week and a half since I road my motorcycle due to the cold and rain…well yesterday I checked the weather channel online…28 degrees with a ten percent chance of rain. Time to RIDE!!! For you guys and gals that follow my blog , you know I ride almost every day unless it's more than a thirty percent chance of rain (that’s my cut off) even then I may take my truck to work in the morning and come home at lunch and bring back my bike.

I cranked the bike and drove to work…Wow!!! I was amazed at how much I love riding that bike…its like crack…I’m telling you…well for me anyway. Ha-ha. I was wearing my AT&T uniform as always…jackets great, but the thin dress pants give my legs little protection from the cold, but the ride went off without a hitch…made it to work, was a little cold but feeling good. THEN THERE WAS THIS MORNING!!! Looked online again…Hmm (I cut and pasted the note below from the weather channel)

But what it does not show in the note above was it is getting up in to the fifties by lunch…I guess this clouded my judgment…

Well my friends…let me tell you if you live in the south and are use to weather in the nineties…21 degrees is COLD…Very COLD!!!

Not to mention I’m doing sixty miles and hour down the highway in khaki pants…here is how it went, around the half way point…I lost my legs…they were gone…not sure where they went…but I assure you…THEY WERE GONE!!! Next came my hands (even wearing thick Tour Master gloves) they started stinging…who am I kidding…THEY WERE GONE TOO!!! Oh yea I forgot to mention my 5 dollar sunglasses that I wear…would freeze over with a sheet of ice as I stopped at lights from my breath sneaking out from the face mask I was wearing. NO vision, no hands and no legs…wow that made for a fun ride to work.

Well I made it, jumped off the bike, ran into the office and drank about 50 cups of hot coffee

(ok I’m lying a bit…it was more like 25 cups of coffee) then came the…lets call it the office humor…I think everyone in the entire building came around to my desk, to tell me…

Are you stupid or something?

Are you Crazy? …

well you get the point…ha-ha.

Well the moral to this story…Add 21 degrees and under to my list of when NOT to ride…and for you Na sayer’s out there…you know who you are…you’ll just have to be jealous as I ride off into the sunset after work in fifty degree weather this afternoon, well worth the punishment of the morning ride…Ahhh what a ride.
Big Al

Why Boys Need Parents!

I just received this email and just had to share it…true, so true…ha-ha

Why boys need parents.

Last but not least…my favorite…if you’re going to go, GO BIG!!!

Till next time

BIG AL

Motorcycle saddle bag update

Well as I mention a post or two back one of the bolts had backed out of my left hand side bag.

Due to my bad luck lately I have not got around to fixing it. Until today that is…truth is I have been so sick either with the leg or now this cold stuff I now have, I have not been out of the house much. My idea was this would be a simple fix and would let me get a little fresh air. Simple fix YES, almost killed me YES, ok let me explain…my lack of movement for the last week has weaken me beyond belief. I not kidding, it took me all of fifteen minutes to do, but found myself soaked in sweat. I got to get back outside starting tomorrow, my fever is gone but congestion is still hanging on.

Ok enough about that…I thought I would snap a few photos as I went along on the process of tighten the one bolt. Turns out to get to the bolt you have to remove the saddle bag
The saddle bag is held to the mount with four star head screws,

easy to get to…

Once removed the bag comes right off, I was amazed at how heavy duty the saddle bag mount was,

it looks like it could hold an elephant. Look close and you can see the bolt that had backed out,

I also noticed it was one of two bolts that hold the left side of the back rest on also…I’m sure the wife will be happy to hear that, since she loves to lean back on the backrest during rides. Ha-ha.

A few quick turns of the socket wrench and the bolt was back in place

and yea I checked the other ones while I was there. Then I put everything back together in reverse…DONE!!!

A few people have asked me what do you carry around in the bags, so I thought I would take this time to tell them. I use the left side for my cold weather gear…tour master gloves, skull mask, neck warmer (very warm) two bungee cords (you never know when you will need them) and my sunglasses kit (I have three different lens) Right side bag not in photo, my rain suit.

Just a quick look at the saddle bag mounting system of a Yamaha V-Star 1100, seems like a little over kill to me, but at least I feel sure the bags will stay on now.

More to come
Big Al

A run of bad luck

Hmmm where to start, I guess it started with the motorcycle accident

you may remember from my last post…well good news, my leg seems to be doing better I’m off my crutch’s now with just a small limp. I think in another few days I’ll be back to normal.

Then I was off Monday on vacation but started getting bad headache, a few aspirins later and it was gone. Went to work Tuesday headache came back along with some congestion. That night I felt very sick and in bed by 7:00 pm up and down all night with a runny nose.

Got up Wednesday morning feeling very bad…here is where one of those dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t moments. Being the holiday week I knew there would be only one other person working, my buddy and co-worker Ann. Well Ann is kind of a germ fob, hates it’s when people come in to work with fever…well you guessed it I had fever. Well it turned out ok we kept our distance and got the job done.

Then the next big decision to take the 3 hour long car ride with the wife and kids

to the Gosserand’s (wife sisters)

house for thanksgiving, well it was voted for me to stay behind and drive up Thursday if I felt better. Woke up this morning still with fever…looks like thanksgiving is a no-go this year. Tomorrow is a new day, hope everything is back to normal.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

More later
Big AL