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Main Area => General GS500 Discussion => Topic started by: mp183 on August 06, 2007, 08:12:19 AM

Title: GS Back to the Adirondacks
Post by: mp183 on August 06, 2007, 08:12:19 AM
So I realized that I had the GS500 in NJ and the V-Strom 650 in the Adirondacks.
I e-mailed my riding buddiess and told them that it's obvious that it should be the other way
around.  I told them if this made sense to them I would try it on my wife.
They said it made sense to them.
Saturday I start hinting that I might have to go upstate but it's very late in the day
and nobody takes me seriously.  At 5:45 pm my wife heads for the town lake with my cousins wife and the kids.
My poor cousin has been sleeping only 3 hours per day for the past week and needs a nap.
So there I am standing alone in the living room.
I hopped on the GS at 6:00 pm Saturday night and took off.
Battery on its last leg, chain link clip worn in one point but I knew my baby would get me there.
300 miles and 5 1/2 hours I was there.
Freaking dark out there.  Ran the last 20 minutes without seeing any manmade
light or a single vehicle coming or going.
Survived an Adirondack bug storm.
It looked like it was raining bugs for about 20 minutes.
Totally plastered with bugs.  Bike, helmet, jacket and pants.
I'm used to bugs but this was ridiculous.
Bike ran flawlessly like usual.
Have a slight oil seepage but it gets better the more I ride the bike.
Maybe it's trying to give me a hint that I should ride it more.
GS is a very capable bike.  Really happy at 75-90 indicated.
Lighting is pretty good.  I just have to adjust the headlight a hair lower.
Took the V-Strom on some of the backroads and headed back in the afternoon
via a different route on the V-Strom.  Left the GS in the Adirondacks.
Got home at 10:30 pm on Sunday night.
700 miles total.
Thinking about it, could have I been wrong?
Maybe I should have the GS here in NJ and the V-Strom in the Adirondacks?
Oh no!
How do I explain this to my wife that I have to go back again? :laugh:
Title: Re: GS Back to the Adirondacks
Post by: Affschnozel on August 06, 2007, 11:52:50 AM
He He.... :thumb:
Title: Re: GS Back to the Adirondacks
Post by: ohgood on August 06, 2007, 01:23:45 PM
Your rational is absurd. Please don't change a bit, and a big THANK YOU for allowing me to show the wife "I'm not the only one!".

In all seriousness, I can really dig where you're coming from. Sometimes, you just need a few hours on the bike.

Be safe   :thumb:
Title: Re: GS Back to the Adirondacks
Post by: mp183 on August 06, 2007, 02:52:07 PM
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for
travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

Robert Louis Stevenson

People that don't ride don't understand that the ride to get somewhere
on a bike is part of your life.  Unlike in a cage, where the time to get somewhere
is just dead time.
Title: Re: GS Back to the Adirondacks
Post by: dmp221 on August 07, 2007, 04:46:45 PM
Hey I am originally from North NJ and now live in the ADK's (Saranac Lake)  I've made the trip many times on both my GS and a V-Star.  Great riding up here but a short season; hence expertise in cold weather riding/gear!   Great story!
Title: Re: GS Back to the Adirondacks
Post by: mp183 on August 07, 2007, 07:13:29 PM
I have a place in Mt. View/Owls Head area.
Just got it this year.
So I pass through Saranac Lake every time I go there.
Short season is right.
I ride all winter but when it gets into the teens it's a pain.
Was in Lake Placid in the winter for a hockey tournament with my son and it was
minus 23 degrees.  Can't visualize minus 40.
We were in Lewis county in the Tug Hill Plateau area two years ago in late October.
The place literally started freezing around us the moment the sun went down.
Dirt roads iced up in an instant.  Just barely got out of there alive.