GS / ST Trippin', Trials - and an Evolution !

Saturday afternoon I pulled the ST out and went for a ride out to my Trials club property.
I am a member of the Bent Fenders within MOTA.(Michigan Ontario Trials Association) and the club property is out in Flushing,MI or to be more exact Brent Creek.
We host an event in about a month so some members were out there getting sections ready and practicing a bit.
I was going to take the GAS GAS out and ride but felt like testing out the Vibranators so took the ST instead and got some good pictures while I was out there.
The Vibranators work well by the way.I can tell they are better than stock and my brake lever doesnt have any buzz in it now.


Jeremy Decker and his almost new 2012 Gas Gas Raga 250 recently delivered from Lewisport in California.



He is setting up his section and "riding in"some of the lines.





This is another section sometimes used.



Some members hanging out.

Marty Mallard on left,Doug Smith on right and Jeremy and Zippy in the background.




Doug "Fang" Smith



Jeremy riding in Zippys section.


More figuring out the lines for the event.





Heres Zippy !!
He just moved up to Expert last fall.
He is not sure why,as you can tell by the question mark after the EXP on his plate !!



Zippy testing out a obstacle.

Doug and Marty rode back to another section to practice.

My hat is off to Doug and Marty because they ride old 1980's Honda Reflex 200cc Four stroke bikes.





Somehow I timed it perfect and got this awsome shot of Doug !!
He was pretty excited when I sent it to him.


Marty coming out of the creek.



I timed this one and caught Marty just right !!!

Have you found ST-Owners.com yet? Lots of helpful people for fixing/maintaining the ST!
Watch for ride-to-eats (RTE) if you like to eat!

Thanks.Yes, I have done some reading over there.
I see they have a RTE this coming weekend in Ohio that I would like to go to,but I will most likely be down in Indiana at the Michiana 2 day Trials Event.
Too many places,too little time.

The weather is looking good in Ohio this weekend.
I think I will skip trials and just get lost on the ST.
Maybe I will post up some pics tommorow from the road.
I just need to get out and ride,I can't seem to shake the long winter blues I've been experiencing this year.
Hopefully that will clear my head.

160,000 on my ST now :)


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That's awsome !!
I always enjoy hearing about high mileage bikes.
Hopefully someday my ST will see that milestone.

I'm currently in Stasburg,Ohio at Blazin Burgers on US-250 getting some lunch.
Gasguzzler met me in Woodville,Ohio and we rode together to Wooster,Ohio so he could check out some bikes at All Seasons Motorcycle dealer.
He headed back North and I am headed Southeast and checking out a little Amish town called Peoli.I am reading a book about the area (Amish short stories)so figured I would ride there and check it out.

BLAZIN BURGERS



It gets a perfect review.
Clean and old fashioned with memorabilia on the walls and oldies playing.
And the burger was super along with hand cut fries.

Saturday morning,Gasguzzler leading us through Woodville,Ohio.
I lived in Woodville for a while in the 80's before shipping out to Fort Benning,Ga so it has special meaning to me.





The Speedtrap Diner on the left is a fitting name because if you speed through Woodville theres a good chance you will get a ticket.
It is a cool place to eat with lots of old memorabilia.




We headed South on Anderson Road into Ohio farmland, out past where I lived in the 80's with my mother after I returned from Los Angeles,California.
Those were some tough days for me,and I stayed with my mother on her horse boarding/training property that she shared with her second husband.
I was running everyday and getting ready to go in the Army Infantry on my 17th birthday with my Moms signature.



I grew up just down the road in Genoa,Ohio so this whole area is home to me.



I always ride by this old home on County Road 93 anyways, as my Moms (Her unique name was Auralee) ashes are spread out there due to her very premature death at the age of 39 years old due to lung cancer,and she never smoked.
I miss her dearly.The older I get the more I realize it.
It's funny how some things stay in your head even after so many years,like the address there.2421 CR 93.I guess it just stuck from sending her letters from when I was on the DMZ in Korea.
I always say,don't take your Mother for granted.Unfortunately,sometimes you don't fully realize how special someone is till they are gone or when you get older yourself.
But we all have life problems to deal with and can't always control the hand we are dealt so we sometimes forget to take the time for the simple things in life or focus on them more.
I just wish I could have spent some more time with her.




After leaving Wooster I start seeing some Amish.
Over the years,I often ride in Ohio Amish country.
The farmland is beautiful and I have a deep respect for the Amish and find their simple lifestyle interesting.





Then I arrive at my next destination.



Like I said earlier I started reading a book about this area,so figured since I was in the vicinity I would check it out.




Looking down onto a dirt section of Peoli road from a ridge.
I am on the ST today so will go find the paved section.




More to come...

Glad you got to go back home.... tough as it may have been. We have quite a few Amish right in this area of PA without the Lancaster tourist trap BS. They do have some very admirable traits!

sounds like you and gasguzzler had a good ride couz. I was just north west of you, you were in Wooster and I was in lodi

Amish farms passed by as I enjoyed the spring day and rising temperatures.
It was only 39° when I left the house at 6 AM.



Also lots of horse drawn buggys passed throughout the ride.
I always wave at them and they always wave back.



Ohio's country roads are also in very good condition and are a treat to traverse compared with Michigan's roads that are rapidly deteriorating.



Wow !!! A blast from the past.
An Amish man with a team of Draft horses tilling his field.
It's like I stepped into an episode of Little House on the Praire.
The Amish have beautiful huge work horses.



Another old farm house void of automobiles.



More to come .....

After riding around Peoli,I stopped at a crossroads to check my map.
Route 78 was on the agenda today.
I wanted to stop at the Miners roadside park and check out the Big Muskie since I have not been there in close to 10 years.




You still occasionally see these Mail Pouch chewing tobacco signs on barns in rural Ohio.
I can relate since growing up in rural Ohio I chewed my fair share of Mail Pouch and RedMan and then of course Skoal.



As I passed through Sarahsville I had to stop and get a picture of this towns sign and send it to my 12 year old daughter Sarah.
She got a kick out of that.
It was pretty cool that the sign was nicer than most you come across.



HWY 78 is a really fun road to ride because it is hilly and curvy but flows well so you can maintain a brisk pace.

You see alot of abandoned and run down old farm houses in Southeast Ohio.
They always flood me with emotion as I try to feel and envision the history and stories and families that once existed there,and I wonder where those people are now.






As I stood here thinking,3 sportbikes broke the silence as they screamed past living on the edge.




This area is also AEP (American Electric Power) ReCreation Land,and AEP has many free rustic campgrounds in the vicinity.
You can go to their website and check out the locations if interested.
So I took a little detour off of 78 to check out Sand Hollow Campground C.
Packed on the bike was my tent and sleeping gear just in case an inviting campsite caught my eye.




Almost every site was occupied and it was still very early in the day so I decided to skip the camping and press on.
Plus I still wanted to ride the Triple Nickel (555) today.


BIG MUSKIE :

Big Muskie's Bucket

McConnelsville, Ohio

"Big Muskie" was once the World's Largest Earth Moving Machine. What remains today is a monstrous metal bucket, vaguely resembling a robot dog head. The bucket sits on a rise, overlooking the beautiful valley that it once mined and destroyed, which has been renamed "Re-Creation Land."
Built in 1969, Big Muskie could move 39 million pounds of earth and rock every hour, revealing rich coal seams 100-150 feet down in southeastern Ohio. BM could swing its boom 600 feet, creeping across the landscape on four giant shoes. The immense dragline machine was churning along at full production until 1991, when power demands and other factors convinced the owners to shut down.

Big Muskie in the glory days.
For several years, visitors could tour the innards, and Big Muskie postcards could be found around Ohio. Then a bill called the Surface Mining Reclamation Act required its removal in the late 1990s. It was a familiar threat scenario. In other cases there have been happy endings: arch rival Big Brutus still stands today, a popular southeastern Kansas "heritage attraction."
<TABLE class=sidebar border=1 cellSpacing=6 cellPadding=6 width=180 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD width=120 colSpan=2 align=middle>Big Muskie Vital Statistics</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=120>Dedicated</TD><TD vAlign=top width=120>May 22, 1969</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Total Weight</TD><TD vAlign=top>13,500 tons</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Total Height</TD><TD vAlign=top>160 feet</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Boom Length</TD><TD vAlign=top>310 feet</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Scoop Capacity</TD><TD vAlign=top>325 tons/220 cub. yds</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Overall Length</TD><TD vAlign=top>151 feet</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Crew</TD><TD vAlign=top>Seven</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Best Job</TD><TD vAlign=top>Oiling the boom by hand</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Top Speed</TD><TD vAlign=top>1/10 mph</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top>Used enough power for...</TD><TD vAlign=top>27,500 homes</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The "Save Big Muskie" campaign failed to raise the millions needed to maintain the goliath, despite pledges of funding from several sources, including "The Wilds," a animal preserve built over land once mined by Big Muskie. The area was closed to the public as of March 1999, when salvage started.
In May 1999, Big Muskie was destroyed. The slow walking, surface mining behemoth was dismantled for scrap, high explosives used to blow off its five inch thick cables. Muskie land owner American Electric Power turned the remaining giant bucket into a "centerpiece of a display [telling] visitors about the Big Muskie, surface mining and reclamation ... to memorialize the men and women who helped mine and reclaim the area."
The park, a roadside pull-off on a slope along the valley's edge, is well maintained, with its own groundskeeper, by AEP. Covered garbage can lids at site have "No fish" written on them, maybe going too far in the other direction. There are picnic tables.
An interpretive display tells Big Muskie's story. One photo shows an entire high school band playing inside the bucket

































I wanted a picture of myself in the bucket, to gauge the enormous size, so I had a passerby snap a shot for me.




More to come .....

Even the chain links are massive !!
If you grab hold of one you can't even budge it.




The roadside park is a nice place to take a break.
It has a bathroom,pop machine and informational signs about the history of Big Muskie.




This couple on a Eddie Lawson replica ZRX 1200 pulled out while I was there.
So much for ATGATT.
I cringe when I see a couple like this take off down a twisty road 2 up with no gear or helmets.




One more shot of Big Muskie with the mighty ST.




There is also a nice view from the park.
This is looking West.
You can see Hwy 78 off in the distance.
That's where I am headed,as that will run me right into 555.
And I am going to ride that roller coaster all the way down to the Ohio River and West Virginia border.



More to come ....

Ahhh,The Triple Nickel !!!!



<TABLE style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-SPACING: 3px; WIDTH: 300px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 90%; PADDING-TOP: 0px" class=infobox cellSpacing=3><TBODY><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; FONT-SIZE: 125%; FONT-WEIGHT: bold" colSpan=2>
State Route 555</TH></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" colSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; BACKGROUND: #006a4d; COLOR: white" colSpan=2>Route information</TH></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right" scope=row>Length:</TH><TD>62.39 mi<SUP id=cite_ref-sld_1-0 class=reference jQuery183020287862061363504="68">[1]</SUP> (100.41 km)</TD></TR><TR><TH style="TEXT-ALIGN: right" scope=row>Existed:</TH><TD>1937 – present</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

555 is always an enjoyable ride.
But you better pay close attention because it can be tricky.
In many areas,after cresting a hill there will be a sharp left or right sweeper without warning,so in an instant you can go wide or into the other lane if you are carrying more speed than you can handle.



I feel because of the various and random turns and hills and carrying more speed ,that 555 is more challenging than the "Tail of the Dragon", US129 in the Smokys.
The Dragon is predictable and once you get in the rythym you can just slalom through.
You cant do that on the Nickel.



One thing I noticed though,is that it is marked better than years ago when I would ride it.
The first time I dont think it was marked at all.
It seems to also have been repaved,as I remember some pretty rough areas in the past.
You must also watch for small piles of loose gravel as you come around bends in the road.




It was getting later in the day and deeper South now, and I was seeing 77 degrees on the ambient temp gauge of the ST.
I rode 555 down to US 50 and State Route 7 at the Ohio River area with West Virginia just across the river.

555 dumped me onto US 50.

So I headed West on US 50 all the while trying to decide if I was going to get a room down here or head home.
I had been keeping my eye out for awhile,but the right motel for my mood did not surface.
If I came across the right small motor lodge,then I would have stayed but I was not feeling a big franchise hotel tonight.
I'm funny like that,another day or purpose it would have been fine.

The day was coming to an end but I was feeling good so I just hit the "Go Home" button on the Garmin and commenced to "Torching a tank of Gas"
on the ST.

From US 50,I followed 33 through Logan and the Hocking Hills area and into Columbus.

Then 23 up to Interstate 75 on home.

Dusk is my favorite time of the day,so If I dont have a specific place to be I often find myself pushing on.

Entering Columbus at dusk on 33.



Between Columbus and Toledo the winds picked up and the temps dropped.
I was monitoring the weather band on my J&M unit and the winds were 15 mph out of the East and gusting to 25 MPH.
The winds coupled with the temp dropping back down to 39 degrees, and I was flipping switch's to fire back up the heated seat, grips and jacket liner !!!

Long distance spring riding in the Great Lakes Region always consists of the ritual of progressive removal of riding gear throughout the day as it heats up and then the redressing as night falls and the temps drop again.

In the morning It was 39 when I left,and I saw 77 mid day, and arrived home around midnight and it was 39 again.

700 miles for the day,and another good "DAY RIDE" in the books.

No pounding pavement today for the ST.
Whitmore Lake Trials Event is this afternoon !!
Time to go get a workout.

Enjoying your ST saga. About 7 years ago I stumbled across a blog by a long distance rider by the name of BamaRider. Long story short, his accounts of riding across country on an ST 1300 led to my buying one. Although I no longer have it, I do miss it from time-to-time. Also I lived in Ohio for several years so I'm familiar with the countryside there.
Subscribing!

Thanks for posting.
Sometimes I wonder if anyone is reading all this stuff.
Yes,years ago I read Bama riders blog about his ST and RT.Good info.
The thread is just getting going so hopefully I can make it more interesting with some of the future rides I have planned.
I am not the most wordy or educated but I try my best to make up for it with passion and determination.
If all goes as planned,a East coast ride will happen soon.
My Dad works in Newport News,Virginia and lives in Surry which is right across the river from Jamestown,so I try to get down there every year if possible.
Last year I rode down there on the KLR.
I have a ongoing thread on that bike also,although it has slowed down since it has to share time with the ST.
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=828655
Then,a group of us are planning on attempting a documented and Iron Butt sanctioned Lake Superior 1000 in June.Its going to be a grinder with the low speed limits and border crossings !!
Along with whatever else I can squeeze in before the long hard winter sets in.
Next winter I plan on doing some extensive maintenance along with adding lighting to the ST and will do my best to post as much as possible.