West Plains, Missouri Ride

08/21/00

We all survived the trip & nobody went down, but the trip was not without some damage to the bikes. Only the fearless leader PsychoRC51 escaped the pummeling by stones from errant trucks & even from our own motorcycles sliding on pebbles at 90+mph... almost each road we traveled was a very unique type of asphalt & that combined with the lack of proper fuel and/or gas stations period led to what I would call character for the ride & there were also plenty of tense moments. The ride started out with a pucker factor of about 10 just roughly 12 miles into the trip as 3 of us topped a hill in pursuit of the aforementioned fearless leader only to find that the road was not only the steepest grade road on the entire ride, but also broke sharply to the right, not having knowledge prior to topping the hill & desperate to catch up to Psycho, whom I figured knew the road, (he didn't) I downshifted to 3rd & topped the hill with the throttle pinned only to find myself with one wheel off the deck & in the oncoming lane & headed for the ditch... Apparently the others had similar experiences right behind me which had us all worrying to ourselves something to the effect of "how many more hills are going to be like that one???" luckily that was the worst episode of the day.

The ride in my book was a great success even with just the 4 of us & one more that came the next morning but we got rained out, rather than bore you with more ride details I'll just leave it alone.

4 guys, 4 fast motorcycles, endless miles of road & not a single gas station in sight!

the view from the road

SOME PICS