I am on my way home, I am just a bit north of  Nashville at “Sad Sam’s” getting a snack and resting my bottom. So far the little Ninja has brought me 1,150 miles!  I still have about 4 hours of seat time to endure before I am home.

OK....I am home!  I arrived around 6PM.....the entire trip was "rain free"!

And, the definition of endure is pretty accurate - the little Ninja Cafe' seat from Blue Collar Bobbers was probably never meant for long distance riding.  I supplemented the padding with a 1" thick piece of foam that is sold for you to kneel-on when you are gardening - it helped but still was not enough.  I will build a new seat before I take this bike on any more extended trips.  I am well satisfied with the way the bike ran, the only thing that failed was the right front filament in the running light - it burned out around 9 PM last night (the turn signal portion still works) - a $2.00 bulb and that will be fixed.

I am not a fan of interstate highway riding - but this trip would not have been possible if I didn't take the fastest roads.  For those who like statistics - I rode a total of 1,329 miles, there was 25 hours, 15 minutes and 46 seconds of running time - which averages out to 52.63 mph.  The trip between Lynchburg, TN and Auburn, Alabama was not on the interstate - the first 100 miles was a 2-4 lane road that was nearly constant intersections and traffic lights....it was very slow going.  The scenery was nice (especially the Tennessee River) - but the nearly constant STOP/GO become very tedious - it took nearly 6 hours to go 200 miles and it really screwed up the average mph on the trip.

I did not get 74 mpg - I screwed up on the first tanks and mistakenly divided the mileage by the fuel price......not the gallons (Oops).  When traveling 70 mph on a motorcycle (even a small one) I think it is impossible to get great mileage as a motorcycle and rider is not very aerodynamic.  I averaged 63.71 mpg - the 70 mph stuff got around 62 mpg, the last 125 miles was my local twisty country roads with 45-55 mph speeds and I got 69.44 mpg.

On the way down I did end up drafting behind semi trucks when I needed to.  There was a strong headwind, I don't have a windshield, and at times it felt like the wind was going to push my head off my shoulders!  I found that some trucks have horrible buffeting behind them - but some are pretty smooth and provide a nice draft and cancel the strong headwind.  Today I was behind a streamlined tour bus for a while, and it had a very nice draft behind it.  I "teamed up" with a semi around the Nashville area and he blocked the wind for me, and I blocked the traffic for him and flashed my headlight for him when he needed to change lanes - it worked well for both of us.

My Pirelli Speed Demons were new when I started the trip.  The 1,329 interstate miles did begin to make the rear tire have more wear down the center.....I will have to start leaning over in the local curves to get it looking round again.  The rear tire wore 22% and the front 16% of the tread above the wear bars.....if the future wear is similar I can expect 6,040 miles out of the rear tire and 8,306 miles from the front, which is consistent with the wear I got when I used these tires on my Savage Cafe.

Barber.......This was my first time there, and 1 day was not nearly long enough to see it all.  I believe I would need a minimum of 2 days to get around everything, and the museum may take most of a day all by itself.  Maybe we should explore the idea of camping there next year.....I suspect it will be a lot of fun - but not cheap!  I did not see any of the trials competition, the museum, and ran through the vintage and bike show pretty quickly (the sun was really hot in the field where the bikes were displayed).

My 4 day outing was great fun. Thanks MM and Stew for giving me a place to stay!  The riding and company was great fun - both MM and Stew rode around with me for an hour or two once I arrived in Lynchburg and Auburn.  Hopefully I can squeeze another ride or two in before winter arrives in KY.
 

Oh...and I did actually see another S40. Just one... Ruttly...is that you?  

Didn't see any other Ninja 250s aside from Dave and I.