REX is alive ... as of today anyway.
He has been just a weeeeee bit persnickaty the past couple of years !

 
http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/canton-nc/28716/daily-weather-forecast/344623


Look at this beautiful weather and drool, all you pea green folks who jest wish you could go ......

R E X

    http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/fe/l=en_US/p/Organizer/s_c=0/s_ev20=bellsou...

Well I am loading up the trailer today......It is a tight fit!  I have never had 2 bikes in this tiny trailer before.  I had to take off turn signals from the rear of the Kawasaki, both fuel tanks, the mirrors on both bikes, and the headlight surround on the Kawasaki to provide enough clearance.  I will get them all situated tonight - but I will wait until Wednesday morning when I leave to snug the tie downs all the way.  I sure hope I don't absent mindedly leave some of the parts behind.  The last part of my trip is on the "Dragon".....I may be one of those moving obstacles!

Alive, down from high thin air.

Rex lived, for one full excursion then he cracked his carb mount support.  He was king of all he surveyed when he was running though.

Nobody got hurt, only one warning ticket was doled out by Tennessee Sherif's dept.

Pavement was hot, tires wore 2x more than expected.  Brakes overheated, rotors turned blue on several bikes.  

4 are still at the Dragon, they will come home Saturday.

 
Here is a pic of Rex.   Rex ran like a top until the machined top carb mount developed a stress crack and broke.



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Here is a pic of Lancer next to his really cherry looking new burgundy & white.   Big Zuk's head is in the front of the shot, he was looking good on the trip and was the one to follow for best lines and best speeds in the turns.




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Here is what 104^o day temperatures do to bike rear tires -- they simply rub the soft rubber compounds off and jest evaporate the tread depth.  



Rotors turned blue and the riders wilt and dehydrate.   This tire had half of its thread depth when I arrived at the Dragon and I left a day early because of the heat and total lack of traction (I was spinning the tire when heeled over exiting a sharp turn).  Rode the final part of the trip home starting EARLY Saturday (early 2:00 AM dark and cool) to nurse the tire home as it got better traction when cold and I think it wore a good bit less on the cool night pavement.

 
I saw from the parking lot that even Serenity was in there with us all there at the same time, but the place is soooo durn big with so many floors and nooks and crannies crammed full of people that I went around the place twice and never saw anyone.  

So not needing any more $1.62 each pocket knives I left to hit the road on home.   Stayed with the niece on Friday night and left from there at 2:00AM so that I did most of the long ride home in the cool of the dark.

Saw 4 deer, 1 fox and 3 possums all shining in my high beams.  Them ugly ol' possums are jest plain stupid, one of them made my wheels go bump again by running in front of me instead of running away from me.   Got most of him off in the next town with a spray hose at a big all night convenience store (I have learned that fully dried possum guts are really tough to get off your bike if you wait until you get home).

Tire never did show any cords but it did get right slick acting when the concrete road pavement got all hot around noonish.   Tar roads weren't that bad.

To avoid running down I-40 as much as possible in the afternoon heat I took Jones Creek Rd 339 from Sevierville and then flipped over to Hwy 32 which has just been paved.   Some right beautimus fresh flat pavement with the mountain laurel growing right up to the edge of the pavement -- think 32 miles of Dragon type curves with no tilted embankments and no cops and only two cars seen the whole time.   Second-third gear work, mostly.  Still has 2 miles of unpaved at the end of it though, so you can see why the road is like it is -- they have graded and gravelled the old goat path into a road bed to prep it for paving so I think the rest of it will be paved soon.

There are a ton of similar roads once you get away from the main areas, rural farm roads and logging roads that have been taken over by the state and paved.