Is the North Carolina dealer Sport Cycles of Rockingham? Just curious. That's where I bought mine in '14. Drove all they way there from FL, slept in a hotel, picked it up, loaded it in my truck bed and drove home. That's how much better a deal I got than anything anywhere closer. Nothing even close actually. Also, I was a nice, simple, straightforward transaction, no shenanigans or funny bizniss.

Damn, that really sucks tho. I suppose an alarm is in order ... assuming you didn't have one.

Yes, Sport Cycles in Rockingham. I flew into Charlotte wearing my riding gear, carrying my helmet and tank bag, rented a car one way to Rockingham, drove to the shop and rode the bike home. I had multiple flight delays that meant I couldn't get there until after they closed. They stayed open for me, picked me up at Enterprise where I had to drop the car off, had everything ready, and even opened their parts counter so I could buy some chain lube and spray polish (couldn't bring it with me - flying and all). Great folks and I'll buy there again in a heartbeat.

I didn't have an alarm but it was probably went down something like this:

14 seconds from when they opened the doors until they were closed and the bike gone. For stuff like that an alarm is worthless. To me this is what insurance is for. Been riding for 40 years and this is the first time anyone I personally knew got a vehicle stolen. I think I'll play the odds.

That's incredible. A guy on another website posted he had never seen so many sportbikes in one place. Over the 4 years I went to COTA, the crowds and the bikes got more numerous every year. Evidently someone or some group) was trolling around looking for some low-hanging fruit. They likely figured nobody would pay any attention to a bike being loaded up when there are 20,000 bikes in town.

Good to see you're taking it in stride. Hope the insurance covers everything.

* Last updated by: Danno on 4/15/2019 @ 5:24 AM *

You have a great attitude about this whole mess. You're a better man than me. I'd be having a coronary right about now. I know the feeling. Had a ZX10R stolen out of my apartment lot. Locked even. Thieves can burn in Hell.

Mad

Day 10 - Monday 4/15/2019

The road trip continues . . . .

Spent most of the morning on the phone getting everything squared away. The insurance company will send me an offer in 20 days (to give time for possible recovery - ha). Sounds like that will be for the base bike and then I can argue the value of the add ons from there. Blue book in average condition and mileage is $2k more than I paid for it so I'm not concerned. I'm going to send the add ons info to the claims agent anyways and we'll see where it comes down in 20 days. They also cover up to $500 in trip interruption costs - which I'll use up.

Called Sport Cycles in NC and they had one 2017 Green ABS SE model left (exact same model) - so I bought it. Booked a flight with Delta out of Austin at 6am through Priceline. Because I'll be carrying a bag on and checking one it was only $30 more to fly 1st class. Last time I flew into Charlotte but Raleigh-Durham was $200 cheaper from Austin. Then I have a full size one way rental car reserved for the 2 hour drive to Rockingham. Assuming (which is a BIG assumption) my flights arrive on time I should be at the dealer around 3.

I normally wouldn't check a bag but I have my firearm with me. I took an Uber to Cabelas (the one here is GORGEOUS) to get a locking case for it so I can check it on the flight. I've never traveled by air with a firearm so this should be interesting. I watched a video from a guy I trust and reviewed the TSA regulations and Delta airlines policies and it sounds pretty straight forward so I'm not too concerned. Also went to Walmart and got a back pack and shipping box for all my camping gear and clothes. Now to figure out what's going with me on the plane and what's going home UPS. Will get it packed up this afternoon and take it to a UPS store.

My tank bag uses a plastic ring that attaches to the gas cap so I had one overnighted straight to the dealer. Between that and the backpack I should be good for storage for the quick ride home.

Looks like heavy rain moving into Michigan Wednesday night and rain through the weekend so I'm going to just superslab it home and try to beat it - 760 miles. Will probably get some miles in tomorrow (plan on sleeping on the plane) and finish them out Wednesday, hopefully arriving home late afternoon. Probably won't post an update until I get home.

Going out to dinner tonight with a friend and his soon to be fiance and then back to the hotel and off to bed for a few hours sleep before I have to leave for the airport.

14 seconds from when they opened the doors until they were closed and the bike gone. For stuff like that an alarm is worthless. To me this is what insurance is for. Been riding for 40 years and this is the first time anyone I personally knew got a vehicle stolen. I think I'll play the odds.

Agreed. I don't have an alarm, and have left mine in hotel parking lots overnight. Never pleased me to have to do so, but so far so good ... knock on wood. If mine was ever stolen, adding an alarm would be my knee-jerk reaction thought ... but I prob still wouldn't actually install one either. I had one on a previous used bike I bought, and it drained the battery dead pretty quickly. And since I keep my bikes locked in a garage, I decided to just disconnect it.

Sounds like you're moving forward with everything you need to in order to get past this pathetic episode.

Damn, was just thinking, you even had a firearm and still could do nothing to keep your bike from being stolen. Not that you wanted to get into a potential shootout anyway ... and I suppose you also have to be awake to use it

* Last updated by: extrapolator on 4/15/2019 @ 6:39 PM *

Certainly not worth it. In the majority of the country there must be 3 things present for a justified shooting.

1) Means - The means to cause imminent grave bodily harm to you or others (ie, they're MUCH stronger, have a weaponm, etc)
2) Opportunity - The opportunity to cause imminent grave bodily harm (ie they need to be close enough and have access to you)
3) Intent - Demonstrated the intent that they want to cause imminent grave bodily harm (ie they've drawn their weapon and have shown intent to use it on you)

Here in Texas you can protect property - it's unique in that way. I check on all gun laws before I travel into another state. BTW, that's why Illinois is blocked off in the GPS screenshots above. They don't like people being able to defend themselves. The only way I can carry in Illinois is if I'm in a vehicle (it's unclear how that applies to a motorcycle) and I do not step foot outside the vehicle while in the state of Illinois. I simply avoid Illinois unless I absolutely have to travel there. That said (right to protect property in Texas), that's not a battle I'd like to fight in court or with a prosecutor.

I do have legal coverage in case I ever have to use my weapon but the ONLY way my firearm is coming out of it's holster is if all of the above are met. I hope and pray that I never have to draw a weapon. I also know that if I do that my life will be changed forever and that I'll be VERY likely to have to go through a protracted legal battle. It's just not worth it for any material possession.

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 4/15/2019 @ 4:46 PM *

Steve. I understand the feeling of the bike not where you left it.. I had one stolen in the 60s and actually found myself looking under bushes...A very strange feeling...sorry you had to experience it but I applaud your get-on-with-life attitude.
As for weapons, I began carrying shortly after Rob Kope was murdered on teh way back home after he had stopped by to visit..
As for help in Texas.. Those ZRXOA guys are some of the most willing as I am sure you know.....
If nothing else, it sounds like a good race day and a safe trip home....

Steve: I lived in Austin for about 14 years, and also worked briefly at the Texas Department of Public Safety (The Texas state police force). Vehicle theft is a big issue there because there is a very short and FAST highway run to the Mexican border from there, making it relatively easy to get across the border before the vehicle is even reported stolen. There is as a result lots of vehicle theft where the vehicles end up in Mexico, either permanently, or get packed in with other stolen vehicles to ship to international locations where they apparently get either stripped or somehow made road legal through weak registration processes.

The usual targets are high end and heavy duty pickup trucks, especially diesels, but I guess motorcycles are targets too, especially very fast and/or costly models.

In addition, Austin has a LOT of motorcycle gang activity, and motorcycle theft, especially of Harleys, is often associated with that. I have a friend down there who owns a motorcycle shop, and I was there one day when 4 Hells Angels stopped in to tell him that someone had stolen "the wrong bike" - a bike that belonged to a Hells Angel member. They told my friend that they would pay a $2000 cash reward to anyone who could tell them where the bike was and who stole it, BEFORE telling any law enforcement. They apparently have "their own" processes to handle the perpetrators, to vividly discourage theft of Hells Angels' property.

This theft potential is why my newest touring plan is to stay at B-and-Bs instead of at hotels. With most B and Bs, a bike parked in the B and B driveway is not even visible to thieves. At a hotel, it is a sitting duck, in a large lot where it is easy for thieves to pull up in a van or liftgate truck, use either crossbars through the wheels and 4 big guys to lift the bike, or simply insert roller boards under both tires, and get the bike into the truck in seconds. Once inside the truck, the danger of getting caught is pretty much nil unless someone actually SEES the theft in progress and is astute enough to get a license plate number.

By the way, Texas's lax auto insurance processes make it possible for drivers to buy cheap, meaningless insurance to qualify for registration, cancel it shortly thereafter, and drive uninsured. When I was with TX Dept of Public Safety, statistics showed that almost 1/4 of all drivers in Dallas were either uninsured completely or had meaninglessly low liability policies, and the hit and run rate is also high. You NEED uninsured driver insurance in Texas. :(

Sorry to hear about your loss.

p.s. In Texas, the 150 year old law that calls for horse thieves to be hanged has never been repealed.

And Texas is also the only state I know of where all the state legislature lobbyists got carry permits while I lived there. The reason is that the legislature reluctantly finally set up a security search system at the entrance to the legislature, BUT anyone with a Texas firearm carry permit could bypass the security line and go through a much faster no-line entry for carry permit holders only! So, all the lobbyists got carry permits!

There is also a bank located in a northern suburb of Houston where the Bank Management encourages concealed carry. Apparently, the thinking is that a robber is far less likely to try to rob a bank where a significant percentage of the customers are likely to be armed.

Jim G

* Last updated by: JimGnitecki on 4/17/2019 @ 2:10 PM *

By the way, Texas's lax auto insurance processes make it possible for drivers to buy cheap, meaningless insurance to qualify for registration, cancel it shortly thereafter, and drive uninsured. When I was with TX Dept of Public Safety, statistics showed that almost 1/4 of all drivers in Dallas were either uninsured completely or had meaninglessly low liability policies, and the hit and run rate is also high. You NEED uninsured driver insurance in Texas. :(

Another tax on responsible people.

There is also a bank located in a northern suburb of Houston where the Bank Management encourages concealed carry. Apparently, the thinking is that a robber is far less likely to try to rob a bank where a significant percentage of the customers are likely to be armed.

Gee, ya think?! Are you reading this, liberals??

"p.s. In Texas, the 150 year old law that calls for horse thieves to be hanged has never been repealed.""

Hmmmmmm, maybe we can find a lawyer to argue that the motorcycle IS the modern day horse. So therefore . . . .

We're both home safe and sound about an hour ago and there's a thunderstorm all approaching our house right now. Didn't see one drop of rain. 780 miles on the bike now :)

That sounds like a happy ending. :)

Jim G

Pretty shitty way to end up with a new bike but Im glad it worked out for you

Hmmmmmm, maybe we can find a lawyer to argue that the motorcycle IS the modern day horse. So therefore . . . .

200 horses worth, to be more precise.

We're both home safe and sound about an hour ago and there's a thunderstorm all approaching our house right now. Didn't see one drop of rain. 780 miles on the bike now :)

Congrats ... I think? Yeah, congrats

Day 11 - Tuesday 4/16/19

So I had scheduled an Uber to pick me up at 3:20-3:30 so that I'd be at the airport by 4. I set my alarm for 2:30am so I could finish packing up, etc. He was a few minutes late but I still arrived in enough time to be to get through the check in lines no problem. BTW, checking the firearm was an easy affair. I went into the airport carrying, went into the restroom, unloaded the firearm and magazines, and locked them all up in the case. Then I just told them I had a firearm to declare in my check bag, signed an affidavit that it was unloaded and locked in a hard case and put that red card into the bag.

The plane boarded on time - they were asking for 15 volunteers to take a later flight for a $700 voucher because they were overbooked. It would have been nice but sorry, not this time. Flight took off on time, landed on time and my connecting flight from Atlanta to RDU was also on time. I was worried with the 737 max thing whether I'd be delayed. When I picked up #1 in August my first flight took off late which made me miss my connecting flight and then the flight they put me on after that was late as well. I didn't get to Sport Cycles until 6:30 and they close at 6. They hung around to take care of me that time - I was hoping to not have that happen again so I took the early bird flight to make it as likely as possible I'd make it on time.

Went to the baggage claim area and all of the bags from the flight came down the chute and I didn't see mine. I figured I might have to get it in person. Sure enough I went to the oversize baggage area and a guy was standing there with my bag. I had to show him my ticket, and 2 forms of id (1 photo id), he was 6 feet or so away with a stainless chute. He wouldn't slide it down the chute - it had to go straight from his hand into my hand. Good system - I like it. Went into the restroom, loaded the magazines and firearm, put it on, and then out the door to Enterprise.

Got a POS Nissan Versa for the rental - that thing was awful and it had less than 2,000 miles. Zero steering feel (felt like a 1970's power steering system) and it darted all over the road. Worst car I've driven in a real long time. 2 hour drive to Sports Cycle. Went inside and there she was - deja vu lol. They'd even mounted the tank bag ring for me already. The folks at Sport Cycles in Rockingham are real good people ( https://www.sportcycles.com ). They're a 6 brand shop (all the Japanese manufacturers plus Polaris and Slingshot). I've now bought two brand new 2017 ZX14r ABS SE bikes for $10,998. Would go with me to drop off the rental car a few miles down the road and give me a ride back. Paperwork was easy, no hassle. Their head mechanic has come out for both of my deliveries. First time he went through the function of everything on the bars, how to work the traction control, etc - very thorough. This time I had everything covered obviously but we chatted for a while, both of us being ex roadracers.

[img]http://www.motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP_2019/IMG_2370.jpg[/url]

Is this new enough? Zero miles

So I got out of there around 4 o'clock. I forgot to set my mirrors and my controls before I took off so I had to pull over to take of those things. I ride with two fingers on the clutch and brake at all times, if it's not at the right angle it's pretty uncomfortable for this busted up body of mine. After just over 110 miles down the road I felt that "dip" where you tune out on the way towards sleep, well that blasted me wide awake and I got off at the next exit, found the nearest hotel and checked in - that was in King, NC. After I checked in I looked at the local restaraunts and saw Little Italy ( http://littleitalyking.com/menu.html ) and it's a family run restaurant that moved here from Italian islands in '99 and the menu looked awesome. I prefer to eat at local restaraunts instead of chains as much as possible. You get a much wider array of foods. I asked for a suggestion from the waiter and we ended up on:

Misto Frutti di Mare – Combination of clams, mussels, jumbo shrimp, and scallops, sautéed in red sauce and served over linguini. My family is from New England and we eat a LOT of seafood, I've even had it fresh out of the Mediterranean daily when I visited Greece as a teen for 5 weeks. This was the best plate of seafood pasta I've had in my life. If your in the area it's worth the stop - just off of 52. I almost never eat an entire plate of any dinner (because I'm trying to lose weight big time so that I can get back in my leathers - I'm down 32 lbs with 28 to go) but this time I finished off every bite.

Went back to the room and of course now I'm paranoid. I parked the bike and made sure their camera caught it. It was a motel and it was right outside my room. If they hadn't had the cameras I would have pulled it into the room. So instead I left all the lights on in the room lighting up the bike with the curtains closed so they couldn't see me sleeping. I figured it was the best I could do. My neck and upper back were definitely sore, the bike wasn't as comfortable as my modded bike - more on that later though. I hardly remember my head hitting the pillow and I was pretty sore. I was originally hoping to get out of there by 4am. By the time I finished dinner and got back to the room, etc I wasn't going to get much sleep so instead I set my alarm for 5:15.

Day 12 - Wednesday 4/17/2019

So my alarm goes off at 5:15am - and I'm one sore, tired puppy. I decide to sleep another hour and change it to 6:15 (this was after looking at the weather and seeing I was probably going to get wet one way or another. I fill my camelback (only way I stay hydrated on long rides like this), pull on all my gear and hit the road at 7:00am. It was 43 degrees when I left the motel. I didn't have the liner for my jacket with me because I didn't have the room. I had 2 thin t-shirts with me - so I put those on but they weren't nearly enough. My Icon leather jacket is very well ventilated with lots of perforations so I was VERY cold at the start of the ride.

I was pretty much hammer down all day. I didn't have my radar detector or my gps to monitor and man did I miss them. The radar detector for obvious reasons, the gps shows you the speed limit of the road and lights your speed up in red if your over. It's something I found that I'd grown used to and missed. I'd run 15 over on my own but if someone came past me I'd follow them but far enough back that I'd see the red and blues for them and give me time to slow down before I get there.

The temp changed pretty rapidly largely because of the altitude changes (I think) and by early afternoon was in the high 70's. As the day passed on I would check the radar and forecast at gas stops. This was also a feature I missed of my GPS. I can pull up live weather radar and forecasts while on the bike through my cell phone - very nice to be able to keep up to date with the weather. It was looking like there may be a window right around the 4-6pm range and I was going to do my best to hit it.

So it was gas and go all day. I'd stop and not even take my helmet off, fuel up, and jump back on the bike and roll. All told I rode 663 miles this day, when I arrived home the bike had 780 miles on it:

I arrived home at 6:00pm. 30 minutes later a thunderstorm hit at our house. I literally ran all day and didn't hit any rain at all. When I picked up my 1st 14 in August I was in a torrential downpour with the first 50 miles and went through several others on the way home. It had gotten down to 49 degrees in Michigan right around the border and then it slowly climbed back up to 68 as I travelled north (which is not normal - usually gets colder the further north this time of year). If it had rained it would have been miserable. As it was I shivered for quite a while and it wasn't until it hit that 68 mark that I got warm again. When I got in the house I took a nice long hot shower to get my core temp back up. Here she is back home:

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 4/19/2019 @ 5:17 AM *

So all told the trip ended up 12 days long and the mileage was:

1st bike - 2,600 miles
Delta A321 - 1,180 miles
Rental car - 102 miles
2nd bike - 780 miles

Here's the map of the whole trip. I changed the tracks color each day - except for the day I flew on the airline - I separated each mode of transportation as a different color as well.

Look at what was waiting for me at the suspension shop when I got home . Sooooooo glad this didn't come in BEFORE the trip! We have Traxxion cartridges for the forks too - just didn't unwrap them for a pic and left them at the suspension shop. I'll be mounting up the shock, then taking the forks to him, and when he's done with those I'll ride to his shop and get his help setting sag, suggested baseline settings, etc. I'm going to wait until after I get my insurance settlement and figure out what I can afford to replace now and what will have to wait. The pipes are a big one - I don't want to set the sag with those heavy suckers on there (I'll have 4 of the stock ones now - there's probably enough scrap there to make it worth the trip!).

Here's some random thoughts on the trip:

Honestly guys, I had what was one of the best and most emotional times of my life - outside of my wedding, and my kids births. After I got sick and was wheelchair bound for a while I doubted I'd ever be able to ride on 2 wheels again and even if I did it would probably be for short rides only. 5 years into the disorder I still wasn't riding. 2 years later and this is where I am. This is the drug store that I had to take with me to have my meds for 16 days.

There's empties there but that's because I didn't take the picture the day I left. I'd already gone through a number of days I have to take about 20 different drugs daily to manage the disease and it is a balancing act. I didn't have one problem from the disease this weekend (other than sweating buckets) - no flare ups and I didn't get sunburnt. Several of the drugs (a couple chemo drugs and one other) I'm on makes me especially sensitive to the sun. A year and a half ago I went on vacation with my daughters to Branson, MO and was out in the sun for 2 hours the first day and it ended up blistering all over - like boils (just from 2 hours). I had to hide out in the dark inside because just the sunlight coming through the windows at that point hurt. For this trip, I put sunscreen on every couple hours at the track. When riding I had everything covered up except my face (even a Buff neck gaiter) - and I kept that sunscreened up too after I got the first hint of a burn the first day riding.

I LOVE being on the road on my bike. A bunch of days in a row with just me, the bike, and the road. No one to be responsible for, no one to answer to, and no one needing things from me - truly relaxing. The bike handling great, no particular route to take, just a destination and more than enough time to get there whenever it happened. Me and the bike melding into one - simply awesome. There's just no other way that I've found to get to know a bike well than a long road trip on fun roads!

I made new friends, reuinited with an old friend (I'm one of his mentors and I pretty much talk to him daily but haven't seen each other since he moved down there), and got to meet his soon to be fiance for the first time. Got to watch great racing all weekend long from great seats. Rode 2 parade laps on the nicest racetrack I've ever seen, personally getting that first person image of the track - which makes watching the races more exciting because you lose perspective watching it on video. The food down there was phenomenal. The track food even tasted awesome and was reasonably priced!

Did I mention the umbrella/trophy/photo shoot girls? Wowza - I love that motorcycle racing hasn't gone completely PC yet. Amazing displays from the different manufacturers and vendors. I ordered a set of custom ear plugs (they took the impression there) with 3 different filters that I can change out to use for riding, concerts, shooting, etc. Was great to be able to talk to them directly and get exactly what I was looking for.

I would guess I took well over a thousand pictures from the event. My digital SLR will be here tomorrow via UPS with the rest of my gear (45 lbs worth) - I hope it survived the trip. I'll clean up the trash out of the pics and post a link to an album. Mostly of the races but some in the vendor areas too. I haven't seen them except on the little LCD on the camera but I'm pretty sure I got lots of great shots.

Going through the manufacturer area there's lots of cool bikes out there right now - the performance levels and the level of bikes available for purchase (albeit WELL out of my price range) are amazing these days! MV Augusta's really push my buttons - they are like rolling art. They had the F3 675 RC ( https://www.mvagusta.com/en/model/f3/675-rc ) in the booth and WOW is that bike gorgeous in person. The finish on it was unreal. I've never been a big Honda fan but they had a number of very cool looking CBR's.

I was tempted to take some test rides but just didn't have enough hours in the day. I don't remember all the other cool bikes but I'm sure I will once I see the pics.

Everything on my bike worked close to flawlessly (the Garmin 396 LMT-s GPS still has some bugs that cause resets once in a while and some other issues - I'll post my thoughts on all the mods I had on the bike below and how they performed during the trip) and I got to enjoy it for 2,600 miles on an awesome ride. My big ride's like this are every bit as much about the ride there and back as it is about the events themselves although they sure make a wonderful backdrop!

I was so high on life and having such a great time on this trip - much of it solo. I only have one friend that I would go on a ride like this with currently - MiRex (Jon) - and he didn't have the time to take off. We've ridden together in all sorts of crazy stuff, be it single track woods riding (Jon is who got me into single track), across the country through the UP and to Yellowstone almost all on back roads, through torrential storms, etc. We finished that ride with an Iron Butt ride (1k in 24 hrs) from Ogalala, NE to home. I'm open to trips with others but wouldn't want to jump into a huge trip with someone. I like to ride sun up to sun down and not many seem to be up for that.

There were a number of times that I got very emotional on the bike during this trip, some were snapshots of things like sunsets, others the feel of a fun set of S turns on a bike that just had it's handing magically transformed with a new set of Michelin Road 5's. Left several darkies on both the street and on the parade lap in turn 1 at COTA - so controllable. I was just so happy that I was where I was and doing what I was.

On Friday at the track, when I was sitting alone watching the guys on the track I started crying because I was so happy at one point - but there's no pictures and I'll deny it to your face lol. Weighing all of that on the positive side of the scale against having my bike stolen (with it insured) on the negative side the positives outweighed that it just couldn't break my mood.

Would I have preferred to not have my bike stolen? Absolutely, but there really was no point in getting upset over it - that would just be giving away my joy to the thieves, F that. I think that maybe that's age and wisdom talking?

Riding the stock bike home for that many miles in a row after having modified the 1st one was interesting. It's the first time I've had a brand new bike, modified it over time (although not much time) and then gone back and ridden a stock one again. Building up the first one was an iterative process, so it got a little better a little at a time. By riding one modified and one stock close to back to back and for long enough for the little issues to stand out really showed how much of a difference the changes really made!

Everything I had done to my bike I will be doing again. Every one of them improved my experience. The stock bike was incredibly uncomfortable for that many miles. The double bubble Zero Gravity windscreen, Helibar risers, and Corbin seat transformed the ergonomics. I was way more tired and sore riding the stock bike home than I was on my modified bike on the way down.

I'll do an equipment list and what I think of them probably tomorrow or Saturday at the latest. I'm picking up a Harbor Freight bike lift tomorrow so that I don't have to lay on the ground working on it. I don't get down on and back up off of floors easily - knees, hips, ankles, shoulders, wrists, etc. A friend is helping me with his truck. I'm driving a Mustang still and don't have a truck.

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 4/19/2019 @ 5:24 AM *

You are an inspiration Steve !! Your story should be required reading when one of us complains....

Wow! ... Wow!

I LOVE being on the road on my bike. A bunch of days in a row with just me, the bike, and the road. No one to be responsible for, no one to answer to, and no one needing things from me - truly relaxing.

OK, so yeah, now what ya need is a Sena intercom, and pair it to your phone, so any time somebody calls your phone, the intercom notifies you with a tone in your ear, and you just press the intercom to answer! Wah-lah! No more of that pesky alone-time and relaxation! You're welcome!

I have a Cardo packtalk slim for that. I can always just ignore it :)

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 4/19/2019 @ 9:32 AM *

I'm so glad your OK, Getting old is a cruel joke. If your talking about the red bike lift table from H/F,you will be asking yourself why you didn't do it sooner. See if you can get a discount coupon. Got a discount at H/D on a riding Lawnmower $140.00 off. Keep the faith, later.

Garmin 396 LMT-s GPS:

Previously I was disappointed in this GPS. It’s ability to search for an address is sorely lacking. You can search on your phone and send it to the GPS but that’s not something you can do without pulling off the road, etc. For riding around your local area you can probably do a lot better.

What I found on this trip was for the kind of riding I’m looking for - sport touring heavy on the sport side, finding the most fun roads around to ride, etc.

I finally figured out how to setup a route in basecamp and load it to the GPS. It’s kind of a clunky system but it works. Previous to figuring it out I couldn’t find anyone online that had successfully done that.

What it works best for though is to set the Garmin adventurous routes on and turn highways all the way down and turns and hills all the way up. I found a lot of roads that were a blast to ride that I wouldn’t have found without it.

I’ve also figured out how to transfer trails back to basecamp to map trips. Again it’s kinda clunky but works.

I did start to have some trouble on this trip with it disconnecting from power for some reason. It also will occasionally (VERY occasionally) reboot. Bluetooth connection sometimes drops - but I can’t say for sure if that’s the Garmin or the Cardo PackTalk slim I have.

TPX Radar detector:

It’s working for me so far - 6,500 miles on my 14’s and no tickets yet. It is really annoying that the newer cars with blind spot detection, etc set it off regularly. In Texas between Dallas and Austin it was useless as it was constantly going off. Most areas it was useful but it does take interpretation. The 3 leds flashing above my instruments never fails to get my attention

Kaoko throttle lock:

The best throttle lock type device I’ve used so far. Electronic cruise would be the best. I was able to get a technique down where I used a couple fingers to adjust the friction level. One of the nice things is to have it on lightly and then you don’t have to hold the throttle open. I used it for that and for short periods to give my throttle hand a rest.

Zero Gravity Double Buble windscreen, Helibars bar risers, Corbin seat:

These I’m going to lump together. They are the combination I found to make the bike comfortable. I could really tell the different when I road the stock bike home for 780 miles.

Michelin Road 5 tires:

They completely transformed the handling of the bike! Even tight 10-25 mph corners were fun. After 2,600 miles there wasn’t the remotest hint of a flat spot. The stock Bridgestones were very slow to steer/transition and then had a tendency to overshoot. The Road 5’s don’t display that at all. They were also very predictable at the limit and when they start sliding they were very predictable. I’ll be replacing the tires shortly - I will not be waiting for the Bridgestones to wear out.

Kappa Side Cases:

No issues with them at all. Went through torrential rain for hours and nothing got in.

Kappa top case:

It definitely fit a lot of stuff info it. I didn’t really notice it back there. I think the tail lights really stood out. Nice to be a little more visible when so far from home.

Dual USB charge port:

Put this to the right of the gauges and used it regularly. I’d run the usb cord through the cable organizer at the triple clamp and then into my tank bag.

Center stand:

Easy chain maintenance and adjustment on the road - nuff said?

I posted all my pictures online today - there's over 800 of them. I have them separated by class so if you have a favorite rider check them out - they are all 4mp pics so you can zoom in, etc:

MotoAmerica: http://www.motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP_2019_MotoAmerica
Moto3: http://www.motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP_2019_Moto3
Moto2: http://www.motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP_2019_Moto2
MotoGP: http://www.motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP_2019_MotoGP
Misc: http://www.motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP_2019_Misc
Favorites: http://motosportsdesign.com/stevest/MotoGP2019_favs

* Last updated by: SteveStLaurent on 5/4/2019 @ 1:21 AM *

The parts are piling up. Just waiting for a few packages from Europe and I'll have everything. Probably going to start tearing it down this weekend.