How is that ST treating you?  I like the looks of it.  A trip like like will be a bit long, but very smooth and enjoyable.  I have done a couple runs similar to that on my KLR.

pg wrote on 04/07/14 at 18:43:34:


The ST is a realy nice bike.....although it lacks the personality of the Savage.  I have owned about a dozen motorcycles over the years, and this is the first bike I have owned with more than 1 cylinder.  All my other bikes ran great up to about 60...maybe 70 on the Savage.....and they just felt like they were working to stay at that speed and they felt relieved when I hit the OFF RAMP and slowed down.  The ST is not even beginning to work at 60....and I have a hard time keeping it at that slow of a speed......70 and 80 are a piece of cake and it could do that for hours and hours.  It is heavy....and even worse top heavy.  On a couple of occasions I have put my foot down in the gravel driveway and felt my foot slide......and it is only a matter of time before I have my first Tip Over.  I am working on my trailer so I can haul it to Michigan in June to ride around the Traverse City area with my wife on our vacation.....and getting it up on a trailer with only a 12" deck height is really scary.

I think I am really going to enjoy putting some highway miles on the ST.  The boxes have a ton of space to store things.....something my Savage Cafe' doesn't have.

Dave,  Your going to have to start wearing a backpack when riding the cafe'.... I do with the lil' 300 ninja, getting used to heading to the store or shopping chores .

sjaskow - FSO wrote on 04/08/14 at 09:23:22:


sjaskow:

I have eaten at a place called "Bob's Hot Dog" near Elkins, West Virginia that is very similar....but I did not make a dedicated trip for it.

I looked at the link you provided......but was too chicken to open the link to the 'Weenie Song" while I am here at work!

What a ride!  The day may have been cursed with some of the best weather the Moonshine Lunch Run has ever seen.  We met at the Thornton's gas station at 6:00 AM....kickstands up at 6:15!  The temperature varied as we went from hilltop to river valley with the high being 54 in the City and it dropped to 41 and pretty much stayed there after we passed the Great Miami River.  Our group started with a pair of Suzuki V-Strom bikes, a Ducati adventure tourer with an 8.5 gallon tank and my ST1100.....then a few exits out was a pair of Harley's waiting for us to pass to join us.  We made our first gas stop west of Indianapolis and at that point I realized although I was not cold.....I had gotten a bit chilly.  From this point on I lost the chill and stayed warm the rest of the day.  At 10:30 AM we arrived at the Hotel where the bikes are blessed and they sell T shirts and offer up breakfast rolls.  We then shed some layers and rode out to Moonshine as the temperature was already climbing up near 60.  We had to park about 1/8 mile from the intersection as the bikes were already lining the road that far away.  We went up and got our burgers with only 4-5 people in the line, then after eating them we got homemade pie and ice cream from the Amish family across the street from the store.  There was every form of bike lining the roads...we left around 12 and the bikes were pouring in faster than they could get parked.  The store is located at a 4 way intersection, and all 4 roads had bikes parked as far as you could see.






We rode the interstate highway on the way out, and on the way back we traveled on back roads and found some twisties in Brown County, Indiana.  I have a bit of learning to do......the ST1100 is 720 pounds of fun and although it does feel like it handles well, it is not as nimble as a Savage.  It feels like it likes high speed sweepers and is clumsy on the tight turns....which is exactly opposite of the Savage.  In total I road about 560 miles....and at the end my fanny was tired!  I did enjoy the trip, the hamburger, and a nice spring ride with friends!  I am not sure I am going to do this trip when it snows like it did the previous 2 years - but on a nice day......I'm there!

Dave  

MM:

You don't have to camp, you can just come and stay with Deb and I before heading to Moonshine.  I can't "warm up" to the idea of camping in would could be winter weather.  Go to the website and look at the photos from last year.....lots of bikes covered in snow!

The weather this time of year is not predictable.  The only issue we has was some pretty strong winds when out in the flatlands.  It was a bit weird  to be leaning over to the right while going straight...then making a transition to a left lean when making left turns.....never had to do that before.  A few times I had some wind gusts hit me that made my helmet try to spin my head up and around!   I don't really have a good helmet yet and I was wearing a dual sport helmet with a visor....the wind really likes to push on that visor.

No pgambr....I stayed on the pavement.  There were all kinds of bikes at the event.  Shiny show bikes, well ridden road bikes, and lots of adventure tourers and dual sports.  Mostly - this is an event for people that like to ride and not a show.  The great weather this year did bring out a lot more casual riders on Saturday.  I saw one Husqvarna 650 dual sport that was definitely an adventure bike.  It has all kinds of navigation gear and cameras, luggage racks, it has the original fuel tank that probably is 3 gallons or so, then it has a monstrous plastic tank that flanked both sides of the bike and held another 8 gallons!