Full Throttle Touring - 150 through the Rocket City

I got to meet an inmate today who's ride reports I have been following for a while now. I know some of you read his ride reports as well. Tomorrow we will be riding some of my favorite paved goat trails as well as a little dirt.

Who am I talking about? Here's a clue:

Rudy is a little far north in Al. for a direct run west..

The direct run is normally not the most fun

We went for a ride today.

Sometimes Shit happens.



full ride report at 8.......or whenever I get around to doing it.

Time for the full ride report. This ride really started years ago when Rudy @black 8 and I "met" here on this forum. He's been reading my ride reports and I have been reading his. Rudy left California on his most recent trip and stopped in Big Bend National Park, Texas Hill Country and then Florida before swinging by here. Details are in his ride report here:https://advrider.com/f/threads/trav...meandering-home.1460514/page-19#post-42132898

Rudy showed up yesterday and set up camp at a nearby campground. I went and met him and we talked for a couple of hours. This morning we met to go up into Tennessee to ride some of my favorite roads, goat trails and dirt roads. We rode up to Ardmore, gassed up and started riding the good stuff. We stopped for some pics:



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It was nice riding with someone who enjoys stopping and taking pics as much as I do. The difference is that Rudy actually knows what he is doing. I'm sure his pics will look better than mine.

Rudy was shooting video. I took a few pics on the go.



Typical paved "goat trail".

More action shots.



It was an absolutely Gorgeous day with a temperature in the high 60s, perfect for riding



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Although it was past the peak spring colors, it was still very scenic.



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While I managed to capture some of the scenery, I didn't do a good job of showing all the hills and curves on these roads. I hope Rudy's video does a better job than I did.

We stopped to take some pics on this bridge. In honor of @red bud I got some of my finger in the next pic. I actually got a lot of my finger but managed to crop most of it out.



We moved out bikes a bit to get some shots of this yellow field.



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Soon it was time for our first dirt road.



It may look smooth but that's because its hard to take pics while riding the rough parts.



I caught a bunch of buzzards taking off as I neared the end of the road.



Rudy pulled in behind me and said he had hit a rock and was leaking oils

Further inspection revealed that a big rock had hit the skid plate and put a big dent in that as well as a hole in the engine case



Crap!!!

This would be hard to fix with zip ties and duct tape. Luckily Rudy had some JB weld. He plugged the hole while I rode off to the nearest gas station for a quart of oil. I'm sure Rudy will go into greater detail in his ride report. Eventually we were able to head back for home.

I took some more pics on the go.



I rode behind at first so if a bunch of oil came out I would be able to see it.



No sign of an oil leak!



We stopped every few miles to check for oil leakage. So far so good!



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Eventually we got back into the city. Everything was looking good. Rudy pulled beside me at a stop and suggested to stop for lunch. Well that jinxed us because the bike started leaking oil. We skipped lunch and Rudy rode back to the campground. He made it back ok. There was still oil left in the engine because it was still leaking.

Damn, must have been one hell of a rock!

Was it the actual engine cases or a side case?

Here's a closeup pic Rudy took:

That's not going to be an easy repair. I suppose someone could heliarc a patch.

First, kudos to Rudy having the JB weld onboard to do an “in the field “ fix to get him home.
Second, where did you go to pick up a rock big enough to dent a bash plate and crack an engine case.
......now I have to rethink my onboard supplies when following Win.

I think he is going to try to find a replacement part. He is also planning on rebuilding the engine. In the meantime he has other bikes to ride. Well, he will when he gets back to California. Tomorrow he will still be here and I will do my best to infect him with the scooter virus

You guys musta been flyin' . . .
Other than oil seepage, looks like a lovely day's ride though!

The OEM skidplate on that bike is pretty flimsy. He tried to find a aftermarket skid plate but couldn't find one.

BTW, that happened on Van Zandt road which you have followed me through several times.

Rudy was very well prepared. I think I need to add to my tool kit.

We went out to capture the sunset this evening. The clouds which might have made for a spectacular sunset had mostly disappeared. I'm am looking forward to seeing Rudy's pics which I am sure turned out much better than mine. Here's a few of mine.



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i just take mine out of the box and go, someday i'm gonna take the time to figure out all the cool features

the camping trip looked like a blast

That's what I did. Except now that I have had it for quite a while I still haven't figured out the cool features.

The plan for today was to do another dual sport ride.

Oops, we only have one operable dual sport bike so time for plan B. I was going to do my best to infect Rudy with the scooter virus

We had a cold front pass through and really drop the temperatures. When I got up this morning it was 40 degrees Yeah, I know you guys up north are laughing at me but 40 is cold for Alabama in late April. I also rained early this morning and the day started overcast and gloomy. But this is Alabama, if you don't like the weather just wait a few hours! Rudy got to my house around 11:00 and we talked about photography. Well, mostly he talked and I listened. My cameras have so many features I knew next to nothing about. The camera I use the most is my Olympus TG5. I have been pretty happy with it most of the time but I am not getting the most out of it. I rarely use my Sony because it does a poor job of showing colors. Rudy thinks I should be able to get better pics with the Sony than the Olympus. That would be nice but time will tell. I'll get a filter that should help with the colors and see what happens. The other thing he suggested is to use the manual modes instead of just leaving it in auto. He took some pics to show what the Sony could do.



While the bike is crisp, the colors are pretty dull. I tried a little processing.



This next picture didn't need any processing.



We talked a bit more then headed out for a ride. I wanted to show Rudy some local sights and spend some time taking pics. This was our first stop just a few miles from my house.



I took a bunch of pics from here using manual settings. Most of the pics were crap so I won't post them. This was the only one that I liked and even it doesn't have very good color.