NinjaDoc

Unfortunately Not enough right stuff here for using the tire fully. Unless we travel 3-4 hrs north to mountains

First fast group ride in Raleigh NC this past weekend. After many private messages in FB got to know about this “secret” ride and group. They keep to themselves due to many newbies coming and crashing etc, similar story to our side. I was warned and re warned multiple times different folks that pace is hot and dangerous the usual story to our side. Some how I mustered up enough courage to jump right into a group of 10 strangers there. I am basically a shy introvert guy and it was a huge mental exercise and accomplishment for me to walk up to group of strangers and say, hi I am a new uninvited guy wanting to join the group and ride. 🙂 but well worth the effort and had an awesome day. but the take home point I noticed is, our core group of people in OHIO is a bunch of crazy mofos on two wheels lol, I think we kinda lost the meter to measure pace. This group ride felt like a good solid fast medium pace at best. The fast ride pace sometimes we push back in Ohio seems ridiculous if that’s the case 😆 May be this will help me realign inbuilt accelerometer in the head. Few months here and be back to normal motorcyclist again. I remember after 2 yrs in Michigan almost felt like having to relearn riding as there were hardly any corners in that crappy flat land. Here at least there are few sweepers and clean roads and weather. Michigan has nothing..... absolutely nothing. 😑 again be safe and ride safe fellas miss those twisty roads 🤙🏽 Some of the awesome bikes that showed up there.

Hehehe your curse on me might have straightened all roads in this part of NC. They are known to make people straight over here. This is great, ty Marc I definitely will try. Weather next week looks awesome.

Hehehe I been hearing this from my wife everyday. To be honest to myself I think I chose here due to proximity to good riding lol Naaaah, this is like going back to school again. So back to resident stipend again. Doing a fellowship after fellowship after working independently for all these years is hard. They are looking at me as if I am crazy. Now I think about it I feel like I am crazy to have jumped into this 😖

@Pauly you were right. I moved to the wrong part of NC. Did a group ride today to local Twisties. Went almost 99% of the loops in 5-6 gears .

Glad to see you back 👍

I got the new GoPro and stuff, but for the life of me I can’t get clean good videos rendered and uploaded your looks Very nice and clean for the investment you have into it

I moved out and all the folks and new folks started coming in, happy to see the bike still with you 👍 Kevin still rocking that Yamaha as well

Infact they opening this weekend with evolve GT. Hopefully soon, if you and @Jester_ coming out to NC or VIR 99% sure I am going to make it

well I am officially out, moved to NC yesterday night. Give it couple more days and Ohio weather Will soon become outstanding. NC is expected to have hurricanes or something starting in few days dont forget guys, in few months towards fall may be, when things look like it’s normalizing let’s do a WV/ VA Marion weekend get together. Hopefully by then I would have memorized all the great loops in that area just like in Ohio

The day you bought that virus of a motorcycle home I told you it’s going to eat up everything. I told you you were going to sell every other motorcycles and never look at other motorcycles. Your now a swan motorcyclist. Monogamotorcyclist

I really wanted to own one with active suspension, when ever I had rode rentals always been impressed by it. One of my biggest weakness/fear is uneven pavement or irregularities could never managed to pick speed or rhythm in there.

A very compromising question to ask in a forum full of folks who love their bike very dearly

He is exaggerating a bit, I seen Jamie get 16 on a good day 😂

Pauly you said some thing gold. VA/WV weekend or 3 days trips are double bang for buck than gap trip. Plus no one has to trailer, cheaper stays and far less crowded, all within riding distance even for the “luxury” rider. Now that’s a solid plan and very good one at it. Let’s make it at least twice a year

thank you for all the kind words gentlemen and ladies Its like the day was perfect, ton of motorcycles outside and weirdly a beautiful perfect motorcycle day despite the lockdown and pandemic and felt sad as today was winding down. its like only few more days left and i wish to ride with as many of you on as many ohio roads as possible. Even if its just 8-10 hours away that i am moving i cant see a scenario of coming back to ride here again ever. I am even trying to be my old self again from 8-10 yrs ago with that baby enthusiasm of saying hi to all new riders, waving down random riders, showing new riders around, and trying to bring more people in here. Hope this place stays active and busy forever.

You already been baptized and optimized for OR welcome

if i knew you were heading that direction i would have warned you, saw the big ride planned in multiple online community to ride to muskie, as if all of a sudden ohio motorcyclist discovered the muskie always a pleasure to ride with you. If you ever get a half day at least during work day let me know. We can do quick loop of close by roads. and i promise i wont experiment with county roads lol . missed you pauly, but glad you guys had a blast. very nice. Good thing we didnt come down 16 lol 575 is tough miles even for a big bavarian tank, but jamie did on fz... daaayuum hahah in all honesty this time there was no bait and switch. i warned him and double warned him. But he was really good lvl headed rider. Will be a good addition to all the northern guys trekking down to ride seo.

The area I cover at least is not In panic stretched staff and system, ER is not flooded than usual, floors are less crowded since non covid cases drastically dropped. It’s like people finally decided to take meds on time, not skip dialysis then show up at er or simply not just walk into hospital on a whim. but if you have to end up going to the ED from a get off, you can almost guarantee yourself your getting it. Again as I previously mentioned I don’t know the right answer, scratch that right answer will be don’t ride but it’s not the perfect answer. During these stressful times riding is the only thing I look forward to, riding is the only way to attain nirvana without bothering others directly.

I been struggling with this question a lot. As with most questions in life the right answer lies in a spectrum between “ride” - “never ride” But to be 100% honest and truthful I would say - don’t ride. But life is not black and white like that, it’s a grey zone and every decision we take has tons of factors to consider. I looked at it these ways to come up with my decision to ride ( mainly because I am overwhelmingly biased towards motorcycling) 1. DONT- if you have high risk factors that can lead to risky case of covid don’t for your own personal safety. 2 DONT - if you have high risk family friends living with you or who interact with you constant basis 3 DONT - if the area your residing and traveling is high impact zones with high risk exposure, stretched healthcare system etc All other aspects wise there is almost no interactions with rest of the world for “our” style of riding. For the whole day at best two card swipes and handle touches at gas station and that too gloved and stuff. PPE wise we are doing the top lvl coverage. Infact we might be least risky compared to folks going out for shopping walk or run during these days. The hospital system at least that I cover is fairly stabilized since most other cases almost completely disappeared. Even heard some colleagues mentions census went down in some areas to the point they had to cut back on shifts etc, so whole heartedly I convinced myself in the very odd rare scenario of a get off I am not making things worse. For sure not the surgical ortho guys who are just chilling now. I justified myself the risk is almost comparable to the risk of day to day activity of 100 other people driving to work etc. Any ways, despite me trying to convince myself the answer remains - don’t ride, but we are only humans and we are flawed.

Elkton. Never seen more than one or two not so sick patients per year from elkton for last 5 yrs. Now in the past one month things are so different.

I wish we were closer to northern region of Charlotte. But that area of research triangle is supposed to be really good for education of kids.

I am off to Raleigh NC will see you all during the annual gap trip Ed get a trip worthy bike instead of restored classic. yes, UP I still remember those days from 10 yrs ago. Showing up to ride with Nike shoes and Levi’s jeans and people looking at you funny. Lol lot of squids on forum and showing up for ride and crashing out those days. i was in Michigan only 2 yrs came right back to Ohio when I had the first chance to move. This time I am biting the bullet and going to experiment a different world. Mainly for future of my son.

I truly hope OR gains life back, we don’t appreciate the culture of safe riding we cultivate because it’s like second nature to us. But when we say, all riders show up atgatt, bikes are well taken care of and prepped, people know the pace, they carry stuff for emergency, we ride 350+ miles all twisty, these concepts are like alien to most average riders while it’s just habit to us. I wish we are able to stay open and kicking so as to impart this culture to many up and coming riders. I know for a fact I am a 100% better rider because of OR and it’s riders and group rides. 👍 I been passively active in some FB groups and Tonit app etc Met feels good riders like that, and met many good riders on the roads we usually ride. On social medial Huge portion of discussion is just bloat and posted rides are crap, just bombing highways, hard parking, or just hitting suburbs and thinking those are back roads. But there are quite a few new riders around who very well could be excellent riders are right fit for OR style riding. May be inviting those good riders to this platform is the only way to get folks in and keep it alive. Search engine and self invitation in here is difficult and only the vary brave internet ride warrior will venture. Let’s be honest we are a clique and a very difficult one because of strong and odd sense of humor and communication style and even harder riding style. Talk about 400 miles loops with 2 stops and not so legal speeds. Ain’t no body can jump into this right away. anyways good luck and hope to see this place survive since it affect new riders survival, I truly believe that.

This was not how I imagined the last few days in Ohio to be. I was hoping to meet and ride with every awesome folks i met through our the years. I think it will be safe for me to brag that I have met with most number of OR folks and rode with them over the years than the rest of you all. Not just group rides but through PMs and all have met with those “shy” OR Members who don’t post much but still wanted to give group rides a chance etc. From that collection of over 150 active riders spread 10 yrs only like 30 active folks left. And will miss you all and these roads (not this weather) I am not exaggerating but being honest when I say most of you folks has been closest to family and friends for me. I might not show it in words and deeds since I am socially awkward but truly appreciate that OR existed and got the chance to meet and ride with you all. I still wished I could meet few more regular OR peeps who I never got to meet. End of April I finish work here, I had taken 40 days off and was planning to travel with family. We been planning for these days for almost a year as this is the first true extended holiday we were getting. But alas things have changed completely. Timed my move from Ohio around May 15 so I would have 2 free weeks to meet and ride with you all again in these amazing roads once more before I left. Alas that opportunity is in question as well. I was hoping to post one last epic ride thread, hoping to have a multiday WV tour, was hoping to hit the track once more before I left. All plans got sidelined. But I will still Try to do a “social distance friendly ride” with at least few of you before I pack up. As long as we stay in our bike fully geared and ride safe without risk of crash I still vouch for motorcycling during these times, but then again I am biased. To communicate we can stay far away and use our Sena right Tonik hope you guys still continue with the gap trips, I hope to make it there at the same time. May be another Marion Virginia 3 day trip, that’s a spot we can meet and explore lot of good roads. Anyways just 20ish days left and the nostalgia is too much to handle, deep down I am a romantic I guess. Most of all I really miss Jerry. I know it would have been a difficult good bye with him, but we already did that part Been watching lot of video of rides we did together, dayuuum those were some good times. I started tying out personal goodbye to folks in this thread and that became too huge too long. Delete, trim. Will just text you all asshats 😆 Hope to see and ride with you all some day again soon. 👍 Ride on Ride safe