Adventure in Ohio?

1. How was your 2012 on motorcycles? Did you do a lot of riding? Take the trips you wanted to? Took a trip in May up around Lake Michigan and had to cancel one in the fall to WVA

2. What do you have planned for 2013? Any special trips or events you're looking forward to? Are you in the planning stages or dreaming stages? Nothing definite but looking outside I'm thinking Gulf Coast

3. Do you have a new bike or bikes in your vision? Liking the Honda NC700X but would like to see the CB500X.

4. What are you going to do this winter during the bitter cold? Big repairs, maintenance, plan, say fuggit and ride, drink? Working as much overtime as possible, doing some home remodeling, and bike maintenance.

5. How do you view your riding right now? Anything changed or your focus or goals still what they were? Do you want to learn or do anything different? Continue learning as much as possible, noob on the XT but having lots of fun with it.

6. Did you have any wrecks or get-offs this year? If so, how are you doing afterwards? Back to your old self or still coming back? Has it changed your riding? I'm a 50 year old noob on trails, what do you think?!

7. Going with that subject, if for some reason you weren't able to ride, what would you do with yourself? Count the money I'd be saving!

8. Where are some places you haven't ridden you're dying to? Key West and the gulf coast and then out west toward Montana. Basically anywhere I haven't been!

9. What oil is the best? Any that stays in the engine. ( I had to google your answer swingset...you a sick puppy!)

Interested in Both, was supposed to head that way (New Foundland) last fall but ended up in Mississippi instead.

man, talk about making a wrong turn

You know how just before you die your life is supposed to flash before your eyes? Well, is my 2012 you tube account was about to die here is what it might see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPwN7qI0FuY

you have way too much time on your hands

That was cool man.

It's cold out and I was bored.

Hmm, that guy on the WR really knows how to give you some good footage. That rear tire seems to get higher every time I watch that...lol

I still wonder how you pulled the bike out from going over. :eek1 Thanks guys, the hobby is officially paying for itself more or less. I mean the cost of video equipment, cameras, SD cards and programs. The bikes and guns still eat holes in my pants.

It wouldn't have been my first endo that I've ever had unfortunately. Just the first video of it...lol

I received my first deposit from Google too.

Nice, How long did it take to reach the golden number? I've received 3 payments and when I get the next it will be auto deposit.

I'm not sure when I completed the monetization process. I had started it way back when but never completed it so they weren't crediting me. I set up the direct deposit when I completed it. I just assumed that everyone had to setup the tax and direct deposit stuff...

I was using copyrighted songs on some videos so that's why I never completed the setup and then I realized that I could select which videos that could be monetized. :huh

and they always will

You need to spend some of your internet time on eharmony or something, man.

I took their test and they said all my matches were $5.99 for the first minute and $2.99 for each additional.

Troof

Please take a minute to read this, the trail you save could be your own.

Many of us have some favorite "abandoned roads" we love to ride. That is a pretty broad term though. You could be refering to a road that is still "owned" by the county, township, etc; or a former road that is now private property. How does it go from public to private?

Let's say you are a local township, we'll call you "Bubbastan". There is an old 10 mile long road you own that is never used by anyone but dirt bikes and jeeps, it hasn't seen any maintenance in years. Legally if someone bought a piece of property along it and wanted to build a house Bubbastan would have to repair the road to a condition passable by car. That could bankrupt Bubbastan!

So what do you do? Well under Ohio law Bubbastan can VACATE the road, and it becomes the property of the surrounding land owners. Bubbastan dodges a fiscal bullet, and the only people who really lose out are the riders.

Is there another way? A way that protects small local governments from huge road improvement bills and preserves the road for recreation? Yes, 2 ways actually!

Option 1, in addition to "vacating" a road a Bubbastan can also declare it "permanently unmaintained". If someone wants to build a house on it they have to foot the bill to bring it up to code instead of Bubbastan. Once it's up to code Bubbastan then has to continue maintenance.

Option 2, Ohio Department Of Natural Resources can step in and stop a road vacating and take it over as a public recreational trail. It is no longer a public road, but open to whatever traffic ODNR allows. Use of dedicated motorized funding can lock it up for motorized recreation.

Both options give Bubbastan a way to avoid a huge bill while preserving public access.

So if you have a favorite abandoned road you like to ride and hear the local Bubbastan trustees are planning to vacate it, let me know. Once it's vacated it is private property, it can be gated, the owner can prosecute for trespassing, and it is lost forever. If it is worth preserving there are contacts at ODNR we can use to help save it.

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1. How was your 2012 on motorcycles? Did you do a lot of riding? Take the trips you wanted to?

Karen and I did a trip over to Parke County Indiana to tour covered bridges, I rode up to visit my parents in ND, made a quick jaunt down to the Atlanta area for some work related training, quite a bit of local backroad exploring on the 690, so yeah, it was a decent year for riding in the O'Connor household.

2. What do you have planned for 2013? Any special trips or events you're looking forward to? Are you in the planning stages or dreaming stages?

I'm in the early planning stages of a TET - TransLab trip for early Sept. Would also like to do at least one Hatfield/McCoy weekend.

3. Do you have a new bike or bikes in your vision?

Not really but this time of year I always start thinking how cool it would be to have a Ural Patrol to go play in the snow.

4. What are you going to do this winter during the bitter cold? Big repairs, maintenance, plan, say fuggit and ride, drink?

The plan is to get suspension work done on the WR and Uly. I also need to work on my '72 Yamaha rebuild. Get back to me in a month or two for an update...

5. How do you view your riding right now? Anything changed or your focus or goals still what they were? Do you want to learn or do anything different?

I just need to get more dirt time and more gym time. Always want to learn/improve but it is so much easier to just be lazy.

6. Did you have any wrecks or get-offs this year? If so, how are you doing afterwards? Back to your old self or still coming back? Has it changed your riding?

I always seem to wreck at least once while riding Perry so I'm not sure that even counts. Still dealing with a little ankle soreness after my KTM fell on it at Wayne.

7. Going with that subject, if for some reason you weren't able to ride, what would you do with yourself?

Two chicks at the same time...

8. Where are some places you haven't ridden you're dying to?

Baja, Alaska, Australia just to name a few.

9. What oil is the best?

I get a decent deal on Amsoil stuff so I use that.

unless you're on the local town council (or whatever they call themselves) how would you hear about a plan to vacate? do they have to put up signs prior to doing the deed?

can we do this proactively and not wait for them to decide to vacate?

Down here in Bubbastan, the townships keep the dis-repaired roads, since most of the property around them is either Coal Co. or Wayne. They rarely, if ever, vacate them. That's because they're allotted tax dollars/mile of road. Less road = less $. When roads do get vacated in this corner they generally get turned over to the Marietta Wayne NF unit. That = no motorized vehicles, ever. Locally everyone hates Wayne, especially trustees, so the roads stay on the maps. I just had a nice conversation about some of these roads with a twp trustee a month ago. They are working on eradicating the "No Outlet", "Dead End", etc signs, since that could force them to vacate. He even suggested a few fun places for the WR.