Hobbies

[klennop]

Ytmsn, great looking bikes. My wife and I were into riding quite a bit. For a good 6 years, a group of us would go down in the spring to ride Georgia, Tennessee, and N. Carolina. We stopped riding and now we are getting into boating but man I love riding. I did an iron butt once. I rode from Lambeau Field to the Arch in St. Louis in 13 or 14 hours, I would have to check the certificate. I was into sport bikes but then navigated to the sport touring bikes. In Wisconsin those bikes are better suited, heck I would ride when it was in the 20's because of heated gear, seat, hands, etc. and the roads around here aren't the best for sport bikes.

Here is a group of bikes we had at one time. I will try and dig up some more.

[Tuscany]

Wow TR, awesome job on your bar. Top shelf quality brother.

[Bfun220]

Nice bikes.
A buddy of mine just got a Ducati like that and he says it's a blast to ride.

[Ytmsn]

Awesome bikes klennop! I almost bought a Duc like that last hear, and will probably get one this spring. I just sold my 1190 and about to pull the tigger on a KTM 690 Enduro. Never really got into the crotch rockets but Ive been riding since I could pick one up. Been to both coasts nd both borders and riden a ton of stuff in between. And raced off-road for years..

Now that I'm "seasoned" I've gotten more and more into boating and the lake. And just chilling!

[Big Block Power]

The guy has/had a BMW S and your taking about other bikes.

[Ytmsn]

Oh its cool too. I'm just not into those kind of bikes. But it's cool! It just doesn't trip my trigger like that Duc!

[klennop]

The guy has/had a BMW S and your taking about other bikes.

The guy has/had a BMW S and your taking about other bikes.

Yup we had an 1100S, 1200S and an 800S, LOL!

The Ducati was the most electrical finicky bike I ever owned. It was a Pikes Peak edition Multistrada. It came with a bunch of carbon bits. I added full exhaust, race ecu, saddle bags, heated grips, adaptive suspension module for the Ohlins and some other bits. It was a great handling bike and pulled hard but every once in a while the traction control would fault out, I replaced modules and some other stuff but it never cleared up. I would have to completely shut the bike down for a bit and then it would go away. I love the sound of the high revving twins.

Favorite most versatile bike was my last 1200RT, that was a 2015. I could drag a bunch of metal with that one and it was so versatile for around here.

The K1300GT I had would leave black marks coming out of corners when I was really pushing her. And when you got it up to the limit around 160/165 on GPS, you could feel the rear lifting a bit from the saddle bags, lol.

I lost a good riding bud last year, he was 58 but the fastest most experienced guy I ever rode with. He crashed at Virginia International Raceway, doing what he loved. The boating is probably better/safer call for me as I get older.

[Big Block Power]

Did ride the Dragon?

[Bfun220]

You've had some nice bikes. I got a 1200c. Its slow enough to keep me from getting in too much trouble.

[klennop]

Did ride the Dragon?

Yes probably 50 or so times, pretty technical. I love riding down there. Roads are so clean vs around here partly because there are not big shoulders with gravel that peopke with trailers pull onto the roads. My favorite road is the cherohalla skyway or blood mountain in Georgia but honestly there are so many back roads down there that are killer. If anyone plans a trip let me know, I will share some of my favorite roads.

I actually proposed to my wife at the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway on one of my trips.

[klennop]

You've had some nice bikes. I got a 1200c. Its slow enough to keep me from getting in too much trouble.

That is still a great bike. I owned a R1200R also that was previously owned by the owner of Ztechnic. It had titanium valves, one off titanium exhaust and a bunch of other one off parts on it. It was really quick for the bike/time. You could top that bike out and it wanted to keep going but it would run out of RPMs. It would just bounce off the limiter. Good times, lol!!!

[Tuscany]

I've been riding for years. My favorite still being a 1980 Kawasaki LTD 1000 with that Kerker header. Old timers might remember that unique sound.

During the bike craze, I bought this 2006 Night Train new, and made a fun winter project out of it. It came out of the dealership looking like this. Originally it was all blacked out, but I was after the black engine at the time. I had the tins sent back to Harley for paint, BR bars did the little apes, the engine punched, h204 cams, heads done and a tuner. All of the performance stuff, and it's still as slow as molasses when compared to...well..anything else. .
But thinking about the stuff I used to do, and the speeds I used to do it at on my old V-65, slow is good.
It does sound the part though.

I don't know about you guys, but I don't ride nearly as much as I used to. Everyone has their faces planted in their devices while driving, and I like my body intact..
And no, I never dressed like a pirate when I rode. . Neither did my riding buddies. We thought most of those guys and their Bichs looked hysterical walking around looking like Captain Hook.

[slideruleracer]

It seems like motorcycling and boating tend to go together.

Racing up at Loudon is where my internet moniker came from...

I started on the street with a 1989 CBR, then got a 1995 VFR, then went through a period where there were no less than 5 bikes in the garage at any one time with Aprilia and Kawasaki race bikes as well as an old Gl1100 Goldwing that I restored to go cross country for the MotoGP return to the US. Most recently, I owned an Aprilia SXV550 and my Suzuki DRZ400.

[Ytmsn]

Awesome pics SRR! Yes, it looks like bikes have a strong following here. My next bike will probably be a KTM 690 Enduro. I'm going to Colorado at the end of July for some single track on my Six Days and dual sport riding on the 690.

[AsLan7]

AWESOME pics of your bikes y'inz guys!