Journey of an Indian couple riding thru US

I see you got your picture taken at Deals Gap: http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0QAK00YE060046&po=46&pc=588

@ mcskeeto & Hot wheels: Thanks for the offers. Will send you guys PM

@ klaviator: Thanks . You sure are fast.

Before I go back to my ride report, need to update the last two eventful days. Had left Ironhorse to ride the blueridge parkaway, but as the ritual goes, my wife refused to proceed without visiting the local Walmart for the most hated grocery-shopping chore. (Don't hate us for being Walmart patrons, its just that we know only of Walmart and target as the easiest shopping destinations!)

So, we are at this Walmart@Sylva and walk out with our bags (disappointed at not being able to buy beer/wine as I forgot my ID in the bike), and I see something stuck on the rear tire - it was a white line running in the center, across the circumference. Now this is my bike we are talking about, so I quickly drop the bags (inviting cold glares from my wife, but duly ignored) to bend down and have a closer look at the tire. What I see sends me into a state of shock!



It was strange that I hadn't noticed it earlier, and the fact that I was riding the dragon, just the previous day on THAT tire!!!!
The tire most certainly needed to be changed, which meant change of riding plans and $$ damage, but what was more worrying was that it was bad timing. (I was struggling with the money on my pre-paid dollar card, which could not be reloaded as my bankers needed by signature, and could not be done while I was here. Long story short - I had little money)

I had to get somewhere, so we rode the bike to Ashville, where I hoped I would find a solution. Stopped by McD to access internet - internet search on ST owners to get the right tire make, and a quick call to HickOnaCrick for advice, another long search for dealers in Ashville, and we found MR. Motorcycle which promised to change it for us the same day. Estimated cost = $220. Not bad, let's go.

Here we are, our luggage offloaded on a parking curb, and bike gone in for inspection.

The guy comes out smiling. This isn't a good sign.
"You got a bigger problem" This certainly WASN'T a good sign!
It turned out that the front tire needed replacement as well, and the front fork needed repair.

Total damage = 1 additional day as the front tire had to be ordered, and $630. PHEW!

Changed rear tire


So spent half of yesterday and all of today at the service station. Felt helpless without the bike, so couldn't go anywhere. Atleast the money issue was sorted back in India so didn't have to worry too much there.

Waiting at their coffee shop


Fighting for laptop possession to while away the time


All done and the man who worked on it


Just stepped out of the service station, and felt the urge to post this.
The bike now feels goooooood.... and the wallet feels lighter

MJ's RR at the site V links is excellent, too. It's really nice to get their individual perspectives through the two reports!

Great stuff, you two!

Good that you didn't have the tire fail when you were travelling:eek1

Hmmm, $630 for 2 tires and fork repair, seems a little steep, bet hey the stealers needs to have their lights running too.

Now where is the 'Ashoka Chakra' on your saffron, white and green?

Where is the link ?




.

In his signature...
www.thecrazybikers.blogspot.com

That's very well written and very funny as well. Loved the part about senior citizens in the workplace. Senior being 50+. Being 50+ myself and having spent time in India, I know what you mean. Took the "kids" in the Bangalore office (in their 20's and 30's) a while to adapt to dealing with someone of my advanced age. They eventually came to the realization that over here 60 is the new 40 or sometimes even the new 20 And by the way, guys are excellent multi-taskers...

I know... and while we have adapted to the higher prices in US as compared to everything else... the difference in labour charges is just enormous... to put things in perspective, the same work for which I paid 244 USD as labour charges, i would have paid USD 10 or at max USD 20 (at big dealer).. thats the reason for putting all these prices....

Thats another thing that we love about US. The definition of "senior" citizens has completely changed since we arrived here. Love the way senior (for Indians) are still enjoying their lives, something that we would want to do ourselves. trust me, you guys have inspired me to go riding even when I am 65+ . something which I would have thought impossible had I not come here and seen people do it. At Ironhorse, there was a 72 year young man riding a BMW sports bike (that's inspiring)

Actually, that seems about in line with what the average dealer would charge, maybe more at a BMW or Ducati dealer.

One of my favorite sayings:

"you don't stop riding because you get old, you get old because you stop riding."

BTW, my parents have a friend who is in her 90s who still goes skiing with them. It is possible to stay active when old if you take care of yourself and really have the desire to do it.

Of course, the real secret is to never grow up

Killboy took some pictures of you also. It looks like a trace of cord is showing on your rear tire in this pic: http://www.129pix.net/jps/store.jsp?t=0&clid=3001&eid=89&gid=739&act=preview&iid=300101556530011608

Forgot to mention this in that whole bike issue thing... but I Just HAD to write this...

We were setting up our tent at Iron Horse (the 1st night there), and a guy walks up to us, smiling ..
I stop hammering the stakes, and look up...

"Hey, aren't you that couple from ADV?" he asked.

NOW NOW NOW... wasn't this the BEST thing that I heard all week!!!!!

It was so sweet of him to say that he didn't want to come and bother us coz he thought we must be hearing this a lot.

"YOU ARE THE 1ST ONE", we almost screamed, scaring him off.
It felt like stardom ... I couldn't help grinning for a long time.
Thank you Jagred... Thank you for making us feel special


We did have a good time with Jagred, riding the dragon.. though we did slow him down , and he had to do it again, all by himself and at a great speed


We did click pics of him in action though, one of which is attached here:

V and M,

You were so much fun!!! I wish you could have stayed around for a few days more.

I just arrived home this evening (logging 1400 miles in 5 days... most of which was Smoky Mountain TWISTIES)!

I haven't loaded my pictures to the computer yet, but when I do... I've got a great shot of the 2 of you at the Fontana Dam that I'll post on this thread.

Also thanks for snapping a few pics of me in action. I'm not the prettiest fella, but I try to work with what God gave me

Ride on my friends

By the way, are those new tires Road Pilot 2's?

That's what I ride. LOVE THEM!!! They were fantastic at the Dragon. Only got squirrely one time (and that was my fault getting jumpy on the throttle while leaned way, way over on the side while taking a sharp turn on Moonshiner 28).

Thanks


.

Yup.. those are Road Pilot 2. I was not sure on which ones to put, as I was caught by surprise by the cords showing.... had some idea on PR2, but wasn't quite sure. Checked the ST owners forum and saw that they had good reviews from a lot of people. So bingo!

Here they are, the superstars!

Got the reflective tapes from India but it was difficult to find the Ashoka Chakra. Didn't look hard enuf to find though .

Also without the chakra it can be mistaken for Italian flag and at times a little confusion may work to my advantage