Made a quick trip to experience the end of bike week in Laconia NH yesterday. After planning out a 3 day trip to Laconia, mostly to tour around the big lake and up into the White Mountains, for months my so called riding buddies all backed out. To hell with relying on riding with ohers, unreliable dirt bags. I run into the same crap over and over with biking and snowmobiling. Anyway, after cleaning, polishing and giving my Gen II Busa a go going over, at 2 pm yesterday I was on the road. I took a "backroads" route up the Laconia, using county roads except for a 40 mile stretch of I-91 in VT. Excellent ride from my house to Laconia, one gas stop and two butt rest stops, stopped for about 20 min each and cleaned all the splatter bugs from the mighty Busa. Got there at 8 PM.
I hung out at the Wiers Beach blvd, made the tour through all the vendors, absolutely nothing for sport bike riders. No big deal, I was not expecting anything different. Picked up the obigatory event pin for my jacket and T-shirts. I met a guy who calls himself Hondog. 75 yrs old, retired and rides A LOT. He has a very old Kawasaki touring bike with a sidecar and a home-made trailer whic is just big enough for him to sleep in. He just got back from Florida with this rig. On his way back to NH, he rode this big rig (he weighed it on truck scales, 2500 pounds!!!). Nice guy, very free spirit, seems like he has lot's of friends everywhere. I hung out at the Weirs until 12:15 am then decided to head home. The temps really dropped, one of the local businesses has one of those electronic billboards which flashes the time and temp........48 degrees!!!! I bought 3 T-shirts so I put those on plus a sweatshirt under my leather jacket and off I went.
I took the fastest route home since no scenerey to see at night, man I hate riding at night with the constant threat of deer jumping out and now the threat of a moose population in NH. On the ride up to Laconia, I missed hitting a deer by about 20 ft when I jumped out on Rt 22 in NY. I narrowly missed a large truck tire which was sitting right in the middle lane of I93 south of Concord. I did not see it until I wa right on it, missed it by inches. I took Rt 104 from the Weirs to I93 south. The posted speed limit on I93 is 70 MPH, nice, although I stayed at 65 mph until I got to Concord due the worry about deer and moose. I93 to 495 in MA to 290 to I90 west. The whole ride was COLD!!!!!!! I was determined to make it and not take a hotel for the night (too cheap to hand over $100+ for using a room for less than 8 hrs) so my plan was to stop every 60 miles to warm up. I stopped at 90 miles into the trip for gas and a warm-up, then again at 150 miles for another warm up. I HATE being cold, my riding skills which are terrible at best, get really bad when I am cold and stiff. I had to be very careful. Anyway, made it home at 5:30 am. 286 mile return trip.
It was a good trip, despite the cold trip home. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera so I do not have any pics to share. As usual, the Harley-type bikes vastly out number the sport bikes. In my walk-about the Wiers blvd, I counted only 5 Busas. There really should be special dedicated parking areas for all Busa owners who attend this event. Several big $ bikes at the event with all the chrome, custom paint and accessories. I spoke to one Harley guy who added a supercharger to his bike, still no match for a Busa though.
Time to get the Busa cleaned up, check it over a get ready for the next ride. I am hoping to go on a 3 day trip over the July 4th weekend.
Jim
I hung out at the Wiers Beach blvd, made the tour through all the vendors, absolutely nothing for sport bike riders. No big deal, I was not expecting anything different. Picked up the obigatory event pin for my jacket and T-shirts. I met a guy who calls himself Hondog. 75 yrs old, retired and rides A LOT. He has a very old Kawasaki touring bike with a sidecar and a home-made trailer whic is just big enough for him to sleep in. He just got back from Florida with this rig. On his way back to NH, he rode this big rig (he weighed it on truck scales, 2500 pounds!!!). Nice guy, very free spirit, seems like he has lot's of friends everywhere. I hung out at the Weirs until 12:15 am then decided to head home. The temps really dropped, one of the local businesses has one of those electronic billboards which flashes the time and temp........48 degrees!!!! I bought 3 T-shirts so I put those on plus a sweatshirt under my leather jacket and off I went.
I took the fastest route home since no scenerey to see at night, man I hate riding at night with the constant threat of deer jumping out and now the threat of a moose population in NH. On the ride up to Laconia, I missed hitting a deer by about 20 ft when I jumped out on Rt 22 in NY. I narrowly missed a large truck tire which was sitting right in the middle lane of I93 south of Concord. I did not see it until I wa right on it, missed it by inches. I took Rt 104 from the Weirs to I93 south. The posted speed limit on I93 is 70 MPH, nice, although I stayed at 65 mph until I got to Concord due the worry about deer and moose. I93 to 495 in MA to 290 to I90 west. The whole ride was COLD!!!!!!! I was determined to make it and not take a hotel for the night (too cheap to hand over $100+ for using a room for less than 8 hrs) so my plan was to stop every 60 miles to warm up. I stopped at 90 miles into the trip for gas and a warm-up, then again at 150 miles for another warm up. I HATE being cold, my riding skills which are terrible at best, get really bad when I am cold and stiff. I had to be very careful. Anyway, made it home at 5:30 am. 286 mile return trip.
It was a good trip, despite the cold trip home. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera so I do not have any pics to share. As usual, the Harley-type bikes vastly out number the sport bikes. In my walk-about the Wiers blvd, I counted only 5 Busas. There really should be special dedicated parking areas for all Busa owners who attend this event. Several big $ bikes at the event with all the chrome, custom paint and accessories. I spoke to one Harley guy who added a supercharger to his bike, still no match for a Busa though.
Time to get the Busa cleaned up, check it over a get ready for the next ride. I am hoping to go on a 3 day trip over the July 4th weekend.
Jim
