Archived Ramblings
5-18-03
You people need to spread out...and get louder exhaust. =P
Six groups gathered at the Gap this weekend, and there were relatively few incidents. That meant that pretty much everyone got to have a good time. There were a couple of tractor-trailer semis that came through Friday, and one Saturday. Cops stayed cool. The weather was nice...a little rain early Friday and Sunday, made for some great shots of headlights shining off the wet road. I'm sorting the 1700+ shots I took, so give me a day or so. In the mean time, here are a few appetizers:
I apologize for distracting anyone with my flash. I tried to shoot you guys from the side, to avoid flashing into your eyes, but it's pretty obvious in some of the shots that I got your face. =(
Ben and Zee got married, congrats to those two! Two crazy motorcycle freaks...the perfect couple. Speaking of weddings, there was also a Subaru wedding last weekend.
Speaking of Subarus, my boy Mike (I hope I got his name right) let me drive his pimped out WRX through the Gap Saturday night...in the fog...on wet roads. I think we ran the 11 miles in about 4 minutes. Jesus that thing was a hoss.
Ok I'm going to get back to work sorting these shots...
5-11-03
Happy Mother's day to all you mothers out there...especially mine 'cause she rocks. =)
Keith and Tha Gang will be at Road Atlanta this weekend for the big AMA races. Jacob and Noah are cornerworking the event, and Keith is going to try and setup the Killboy.com tent in a manner that will get it on TV repeatedly.
I will be at the Gap this weekend for the Subaru rally and Canadian invasion. We skipped out on the Gap last weekend with all the talk of washed-out roads. Looks like there was some good riding to be had, since numbers were low.
This weekend is the same weekend the TNHP ran their crooked crackdown last year, profiling sportbikes and sportscars. Since then, the TNDOT has lowered the speed limit 10 more mph to a ridiculous 30mph. (the speed limit is 55mph as soon as you cross into NC...just as curvey, and worse pavement) I predict their next "Fund Raiser" will involve using this new speed limit, so keep your radar detectors on and watch for anything suspicious. I think if we keep the accidents to a minimum, which means basically staying in your lane if you think about it, they will spend their time on real criminals.
To all the people on my update list, I'm not forgetting you, I just don't send out a notice every single update...just occasionally so you don't forget me. ;-)
5-10-03
I never appreciated my father's laugh.
5-04-03
We went to the Gap...Keith took some pics:
We setup a "presence" at Tapoco Lodge to sell photos on-the-spot. Tapoco is about 2 miles down Hwy 129 past the CRoT. Come check us out...we'll probably have your pictures. We got a few visitors, not many. Lots of nice compliments and interesting conversation.
It was the weekend of the Mini Cooper rally. We saw about 20 or so Saturday...most headed home early Sunday. Some pimp rides though. About a dozen Subarus also showed up to scope things out for their rally in a couple of weeks. There was even a new Maserati (above) with dealer tags moving along at a nice clip. Most of the sports cars were keeping things in their own lanes and kicking up very little gravel. I can't see everything, so there may have been some incidents, but my compliments to the drivers.
There were a few minor drops, nothing to bring out an ambulance. About 5 minutes after we setup Saturday at the Gravity Cavity/Hump, a rider on a Bandit 1200 (?) ran wide and put it in the ditch. He was ok and the bike was ridable. Sunday there was a similar drop there that brought 3 state troopers and a Sheriff screaming through with sirens blasting and tires spinning. Hypocrites?
It's pretty evident after spending a few minutes at the Hump, that many riders do not realize what they're getting into until it's too late. Going South (towards the store) is the most dangerous direction, and this direction is the easiest to learn where this treacherous, dipping switchback is. Just remember that when you pass the little campsite on the right, you are one turn away from the Gravity Cavity. I highly recommend staying in your own lane as you enter this Left/Dipping Right/Left switchback. If you don't, you enter the dipping part straight upright, and at that point you will have to make your steering input. It's very hard to steer the bike when the suspension gets loaded from the dip. If you stay in your own lane, you will make the necessary steering inputs just before the dip, and just drive through the dip.
I'll probably have some more commentary that I am forgetting right now...it's 1am so I'm a little burnt...just wanted to get the shots online. =)
4-21-03
New Term
Don't you hate it when you're mowing and you end up with that Yard Pube? You know, that triangle of grass at the end that you spend more time maneuvering around than mowing...or is that just me?
I knew I would forget something in that last update. Angelle Savoie was at the Gap last weekend riding a GSXR 600 with her crew. I talked to her for a minute...really sweet chick.
4-21-03
Ron and Nancy let me shack up with them all weekend and ride their bikes. I can't thank them enough. I took a few hundred shots before the LENS FELL OUT of my camera! =( I'll be sending it in for repairs, but may be without photo updates for a few weeks while I wait. I'll see what I can talk Keith into. Anyway here's the highlights link.
The complete album with all 254 images is available here. If you were at the Gap this weekend, you are probably in there.
Also, Keith's photos from last weekend's trackday at Talladega are now online.
Neale Bailey and cameraman Jim showed up Friday to help Ron and Nanc produce a video for the Graham Co. tourism board. Some of the bits that were shot on the Dragon were edited together by them for an online video, which is available here.
Lots of good riding was had. No rain all weekend, and I about rode the wheels off of their FZ-1 and MZ Baghira motard.
There were a few minor drops and the cops were just chillin...except in NC.
Funny story of the week goes to the Jackass Twins. There is a particularly loooong sweeper on the way to the Gap that we tend to take at speeds above 100mph. On their way to the Gap Saturday, they were ripping around this 2-lane bend, and as Concerned Citizens were surely speed-dialing the highway patrol, Jacob's backpack unzips at about 120 and ejects the contents high into the afternoon sky. Shirts...pants...underwear...all like some cartoon parachute. Jacob has no idea, and Noah is behind him, laughing for the next 5 miles. The payload was never recovered, so if you need some underwear, drop me a line and I'll hook you up with a location.
4-15-03
All Good Things Must Come To An End
It had to happen eventually, it was just a matter of when. That's right folks, I can't keep doing everything for free. I gotta start charging for photos. But don't worry, I'm still cheap...that's my motif for life. =P I still plan to make Highlights albums available for everyone, but the majority of shots will be available in my New Store.
So without further gibber jabber, here's the Highlight Album!
Remember, the complete set of shots is in the Killboy Store. I'll have a trip report up soon.
Keith's photos will be up soon as well...
04-15-03
Imagestation is draggin' ass. I started the upload 6 hours ago and it's still going. (DSL)
Appearantly the selfish cockmasters are already out at the Gap:
I was at the Gap this past weekend..........................Man,
I'm not sure I will ride it during the weekends anymore, we were doing
some roadside video watching some really.....F*(&%^(*&^*&^ing
stupid fools crossing the center line passing in blind corners, then later
in the day we were doing a run, I was leading the group, as I was coming
up on a left hand corner, an oncoming F&*^$^&%$&^%ing fool
was passing a car in his right hand BLIND corner, and my life passed in
front of me......................we missed by inches...............it
turns out it was one of the fools we had videoed earlier in the day, my
3 1/2 year old daughter actually likes me, you have to ask yourself if
it is worth the risk, assholes like that are going to ruin the Gap for
all of us responsible riders and leave some kid without their parents.
Thanks for ruining it for everyone else. Hope you had fun.
04-14-03
Beat. Up.
Two days in the sun...got home at 1am. I took over 700 shots. Don't worry, the highlights album comes first this time...y'all give me a couple days to catch up and work on all these shots. Here's a preview of things to come.
That's a series of photos.
04-06-03
We're trying to coordinate everything for this weekend's Talladega trackday. (see below) It should be a lot of fun though...Monte and Bonnie of SBTT are just the coolest folks. Expect to see several hundred shots from that event in next week's update.
I got up with some local RC'ers Friday night in Monterey and ran my truck in the high school parking lot with their stadium trucks. Photos:
Also added 2 new shots of my new On-Road setup for the Savage:
03-02-03
Just a quickie to let ya know that I've uploaded a video from the footage we shot at Talladega last year. (11Mb - 4:20)
I've also cleaned up my videos page a bit and linked straight to the videos you click on now. Still more work to do on that...
03-01-03
A little behind...story of my life. (it works on so many levels)
Well it snowed us out of the Gap, but Holy Crap! Shawn, Mike C., and the east coast gang from Boomer's Domain hit the curves anyway. He's got a "Log" (hehe) of what all happened and alot of pitchurz of people flipping him off over there. =P
I'm going to talk about my new camera now, so if you're not interested in digi cams, memory cards, or battery packs, you can just skip this blue section. ;-)
So yeah, I picked up a Dimage 7i
Before, I had a Dimage 5. The 5 was good to me, I've got over 4000 images up on Imagestation mostly shot from the 5. But the day I bought it, I was wishing I could have gotten the 7. Now they've updated the Dimage 7 substantially, and call it the 7i. The 7i has much faster auto focus, it can shoot 7 shots per second in "Ultra High Speed" mode, (medium resolution) and has a slew (whatever that is) of other internal improvements that make it a phenom camera for under $700. I no longer desire another camera.
It doesn't come with much memory, (16Mb...one image is 14Mb at the highest setting...although a more reasonable setting puts them at about 1Mb each) so you can plan on adding memory to the price, if you don't already have some...they're not trying to force you to buy memory if you've already got it. Now, thanks to the higher resolution, and machine gun speed reload, I need more memory. I HAD found a deal on 512Mb Compact Flash cards for $75 at Buy.com, after a rebate, but I missed out on that one. Now the best I can find is $110 here at NewEgg.com
Next up is the battery issue. The Dimage line is pretty rough on batteries. I always had to carry around several sets of batteries when I shot an event. I was recently made aware of this versatile solution to that problem.
Our next event will be the Talladega trackday hosted by SportBikeTrackTime.com Ron and Nancy from Tail of the Dragon will be there, along with a fleet of Aprilia demo bikes for your testing purposes.
Finally, Keith and I took our RC's out to the local BMX track last weekend
and played for a while. I got to test out my new camera.
Pics:
3-25-03
By request, I've put together a "Highlights Album" of the Nashville trackday, for those of you not interested in sifting through hundreds of shots. I feel your pain.
Appearantly over the weekend, Tha Twinz were out riding with a few others and had the law called on them by some jealous-er, I mean, "Concerned" citizen. When the cops stopped a couple guys on big liter bikes who had been passed unceremoniously by 600's, the posers promptly ratted on their fellow bikers like a couple of punks. Bronze/Silver Hayabusa and Blue CBR 900RR in central TN. Here's hoping the karma gods crap on you.
Speaking of taking a dump, we watched Stephen King's Dreamcatcher over the weekend. I guarantee you will not look at the previously mentioned activity the same way after seeing that one. It was a great flick though, if not disturbing. I like disturbing. The Animatrix short movie featured before the movie starts is worth the price of admission alone. It was done up by Square, who produce the Final Fantasy video game series, and the Final Fantasy movie. Swordfighting, machine guns, and thongs done up in beautiful computer animated glory. These are great times we live in.
3-24-03
We attended the Nashville Superspeedway motorcycle trackday Sunday, hosted by Castle Powersports. Big thanks to Jeff Seifert and the gang at Castle for giving us free reign of the track to get the best shots for you guys. Keith also took about as many shots as I did, and supplied the vehicle and canopy. (shade!)
This was the first real motorcycle event on the new racetrack, and it went well. SpeedTV was there, as was a local Fox news channel. The track is a Nascar type oval, with a small infield road course, similar to Daytona. The unique thing about the Nashville oval, is that it is a concrete surface that was layed in one continuous pour, so there are no joints and it offers super traction. The infield is asphault, so there is a transition the bikes had to deal with coming down off the banking. There were a couple hundred bikes I guess, and everyone did well. A few minor wrecks but nothing that brought out the ambulance.
When I got home I already had 3 emails asking when the pics would be up! Here they are, all 550+. =)
3-20-03
Late update...I am such a slacker. So yeah we played on the Gap last weekend. I'd just like to give a big -Thanks For Nothing- to the weather forecasters. Sunny and warm for the weekend was the clammer all week, then at the last minute it was changed to cool and wet...and was.
New rider Jonnie, (I probably just mutilated her name) Jacob and Noah's sister rode with us for her first motorcycle trip to the Gap. She rode all the way to Daytona and back last weekend, but said the trip to the Gap was actually rougher. She did well though and picked up some experience points without crashing. I'm shooting for "Crash-Free in 2003" myself.
My boy Ronnie showed up Sunday and we got a few runs in together. He's the guy in the top-right photo up there. He has since painted his bike solid copper-orange and the beauty, along with the rider's smooth riding was garnering mad respect. My bike on the other hand was the butt of some behind-the-back insults appearantly. My friends spoke up for me though which is very flattering. Tha Twinz pointed out that people who judge/trash-talk like that are more easily targeted for dismissal when you ride a bike as weird as mine. It's kind of convenient in that respect.
There was a bit of gravel so we spent some time both days cleaning a few of the curves. If you come in a 4-wheeled vehicle, consider carrying a broom just in case. Placing large rocks/boulders just off the shoulder of the inside of the turn you work on should help keep cars on the asphault. >=)
I didn't take many pictures on my trip...actually, I didn't take any until I was heading home in my car from my SECOND trip. See we stayed at Ron and Nancy's, and when we grabbed up all of our luggage to throw in Keith's Xterra, we accidentally picked up their bag with a laptop computer. (no really, it was an accident =) So I get home Sunday night, notice the extra bag, then turn around and drive all the way back to return it and just stay the night. Monday morning I head back home (again) and as I'm jamming through the Gap, a Silver and Black F4i zooms by and beeps his horn at me. Turns out it was Ben Steinberg (Canadian) riding Zee's bike! They were in town on family business and figured they would hit the Gap while they were down. Here are a few shots I took:
That second shot is a new Radio Control car race track I ran across on the way out. It is located on Hwy 129 just before you get to the lake if you're headed to Deal's Gap. He will be running races every weekend starting April 5th.
3-10-03
My road dawg Keith was in an accident last weekend. I'm glad he's ok.
Jacob, Noah, David, and company rode down to Daytona for bike week and races. Looks like it was a wash-out. The races got majorly postponed and I'm sitting here now watching the Daytona 200 live.
We will probably be around Deal's Gap this weekend so come on out and say Hi / get your pitchur made.
2-24-03
Tail of the Dragon has a Deal's Gap Forum setup. Let's all hang out there and have some fun.
This, on the other hand, is just pathetic.
<rant>
I'm a member of this Deal's Gap mailing list. For anyone who may not know, a mailing list is a group of people discussing a particular topic through email. Anway, for some cosmic reason I can not post messages to the mailing list, I can only receive messages. This is probably for the better because everyone on the list would have thier mailboxes jammed full of my blabbering everytime a new topic came up....like this one recently:
Guy 1: "COT was nice until the new ownership, the T-Shirts haven't really changed since 2000, the merchandise pricing has risen as well."
Guy 2: "The [Gap] has been whored out so much, I am suprised the DOT hasn't bored a hole through the mountain and made it a straight line."
Guy 3: "I think we can thank our friends at tailofthedragon.com for that. TNDOT ran them off the overlook."
Now, had any of these "purists" had the pleasure of riding the Gap when these businesses weren't around, they would know how fun it is to make a few passes, then hope you make it to the nearest gas station - 30 miles away - before dying of thirst or running out of gas.
The fact that these businesses are thriving prove that this is what most motorcyclists want, and I'll bet everyone of ^them^ has patronized these evil establishments at some point...probably frequently.
But by all means, continue your elitism...it's
very Internet-becomming.
</rant>
To see me play this game is akin to seeing a master chef at one of those Japanese steakhouses slice up a tomato. You don't have to be very educated to know that he has progressed beyond the realm of the average mortal, and attained enlightenment. I still can't get on the high score list though. (Hint: Knowing that the spheres come out in a clockwise order is the first step to enlightenment)
2-17-03
We have approval to shoot photos at the Nashville Superspeedway trackday in March, so look for Keith and me in the infield if you're there. (and free pics of yourself afterwards ;)
Not much else happening...haven't forgotten the glove review, I just want to ride in them first which I haven't had a chance to do with all the snow/rain/cold the past few months.
I have a new toy.
2-11-03
This is the most beautiful work of video art I have ever seen.
/segue
So I guess everyone wants their 2 hours and 10 bucks back that watched Biker Boyz. Not to spoil the porn quality plot, but as Jacob and Noah pointed out, (I didn't watch it) a prime example of how stupid Hollywood thinks everyone is came during a drag race when a guy talking to the racer right before the race, gets hit by said racer's crashing bike at the end of the race track. Appearantly the guy Reebok'd the quarter mile faster than the Hayabusa. Then there's the whole 120mph on dirt...
"You know what we call bikers in the E.R.? Organ Donors!" Woohoo - Free Plug!
Another motorcycle movie called Torque is coming out March 21 featuring sportbikes and gangs and violence...you know, all that stuff we're into.
2-01-03
Not much happening on this Monday update. I've had a few requests for a message board, so I set one up Here
Added a couple of albums for non-motorcycle related images. A few shots of animals here, and of Noah, Jacob and David's Lathe here.
1-27-03
I went to church and a motorcycle race broke out.
We checked out an indoor motocross in Shelbyville TN. The
action was great, I could have done without the pre-race religious lecture.
Here are some shots.
One would think that an event being advertised as "Indoors" in the dead of winter would suggest the temperature is going to be somewhat controlled...especially when they're charging fifteen bucks a head. I shant be returning to that event next year, so if that was your intent dirtbike organizers, you know...mission accomplished.
The SYSTEM is down yo. Tough LUCK.
1-20-03
My man Mike Cusack has something to say.
We attended the International Motorcycle Show in Atlanta. I got a few shots for ya.
Castle Powersports will be hosting a track day in Nashville that we may be attending. This will appearantly take place on a Nascar style oval with a roadcourse infield, much like Daytona.
Oh yeah, and the Cookeville P.D. (dog killers) are logging the IP's of those who voice their opinions on message boards.
1-10-03
Perhaps you've heard of this whole policeman shoots family dog business. It happened here.
Now I've talked to some pretty cool cops, and I'm not big on all the cop hating. Some of my riding buddies are, and that's their thing. What I don't like is the alarming trend of a cop taking the word of some random citizen as fact, and going after The Perp with the ole Guilty until proven Innocent routine. Perfect example:
A Concerned Citizen calls 911 on her cell phone and says that a green station wagon is traveling down I-40 at about 110 mph, with money flying out the window. She thinks it may have been a car jacking.
A station wagon.
A Ford Taurus to be exact. With three people and two dogs, traveling back to NC from vacation loaded with luggage.
110 miles per hour. Yeah.
So the TNHP jumps right on it, follows them to Cookeville where they call ahead to ask the local PD for assistance, but don't tell the PD what the charges are...since they haven't SEEN them do anything. They stop the Carjack Family, make them all get on the ground and handcuff them. During this time the family is asking the officers to please close their doors, there are 2 dogs inside and they don't want them to run out into traffic. The officers refuse. One even looks inside the car, to verify the dogs, and walks away leaving the doors open. After more than 2 minutes of quiet obedience, one dog can't take the suspense anymore and hops out, tail wagging. He sees the flashlight on the end of Cookeville Police Officer Hall's shotgun and thinks it's playtime.
BLAM ! Playtime is over. Hall blows the dog's head off right in front of the family.
Oops, whaddya know, the criminals were innocent. The man just left his wallet on top of the car, and it blew off. The Concerned Citizen should have just stated the facts, or even minded their own business. <gasp>
Now the Cookeville PD is attempting to weasel out of the responsibility of their own actions:
"The Smoaks had been traveling with family dogs, and one of them got loose. It appeared to be a pit bull, and as it exited the car, it clearly approached one of our officers in a threatening manner."
No it didn't.
"Our officer first tried to call the dog down, but after it kept approaching aggressively and started to circle him,"
No. It didn't.
"the officer took the only action he could to protect himself and gain control of the situation."
Mace? Billy Club? Gun Butt? Boot? I mean, if that's the only action, why even have the other stuff. Just walk around with a nice, big shotgun and kill 'em all.
Even with video evidence, we are still being fed lies by the ones we are supposed to trust. What would have been said if there was no video?
Thank you so much officer Hall for reinforcing the beliefs that tourists have about the law enforcement practices of this state.
All the rest of you good cops out there, I feel for ya.
A friend said one of the gas stations they stopped at had the sticker
on the pump with the picture of a highway patrolman that says "Pay
for your gas or lose your license" and someone had added "And
we'll shoot your dog." He also had the idea of putting stuffed puppies
on the hoods of parked cruisers, with a note saying "Please don't
shoot me." If anyone else has any funny ideas for raising public
awareness about this matter, drop
me a line!
<segue>
On a lighter note, here's the innovative motorcycle product of the week: Alpinestar SMX Suits
1-06-03
A little slow on the updates. I blame America's Army.
I got out with Jacob, Noah, and David last weekend and shot some video, and a few pics.
ç
Salted Road!
A few things to keep you busy during these cold months.
Do you know your Ass from your Elbow? [quiz]
Awesome Aussie Vids [videos]
Brilliantly written piece on the Mercedes Benz SL500 [article]
Get your sacrilege on [store]
Space Lander Game (Hard!) [game]
Kill Pedestrians [game]
Fly through the Space [file]
12-22-02
The gloves arrived. They make people swear. Review soon.
I sorted through about, ooohhh...3274 pitchurz to pick a few favorites and put them all in one album. Merry Christmas.
12-15-02
"You're going to need a bigger helmet." -Noah
I talked with the proprietor of Icon a few days ago, Phil Davy. The gloves many of you helped me with are on the way. He also gave me some info on their future product line and direction the company is heading in, which I plan to include in my review of the gloves.
Also, National Geographic Travel is going to use one of my shots in their March issue. They are doing a little piece on the Gap. So if anybody knows who this guy is...
...tell him he's about to be famous.
12-10-02
I ran across a hi-res version of the trailer for Equilibrium and uploaded it to my video server, provided by Art Smart Digital. The video is here. (now you can right-click and save it to your PC)
12-9-02
Spent the past couple of weekends spectating local Hare Scramble races with Keith and Jacob. For those who don't know what a Hare Scramble is, I assure you it has nothing to do with rabbits and frying pans. Organizers mark off a crude trail through the woods about 9 miles long, then people on dirtbikes/ATVs compete for best time. The races usually last a couple of hours. There are some pics from a LARGE race in Hanging Limb, (Monterey) TN here, and some pics from last weekend's smaller race at Golden Mountain Park here.
Also checked out a movie no one has probably heard of, called Equilibrium, which started last weekend. Tha Boyz over at P to tha A pointed me to the trailer, and I was hooked. I saw it at one of only 300 theaters nationwide playing it, the Regal 27 in Nashville. It did not disappoint. The action scenes were few and far in between, but holy hell it was the baddest action I have ever seen. Dude does things with guns like those japanese steak house chefs do with spatulas. John Woo wishes he could make a gun movie this badass.
12-2-02
Well the police officer who ran a motorcyclist off the road and killed him, claimed he swerved into the path of the motorcyclist to protect oncomming traffic...and the jury bought it. More here.
Vote for Dr. Chunk please! These guys contacted me and offered their music to me. They are also talking to some of thier fellow musicians to hook us up with some motorcycle tunes. I think you may find their work much to your liking. If anyone else knows of any musicians willing to exchange work for recognition on our DVD, Speak now.
11-25-02
We rode around a bit yesterday. Here are some shots:
Major props to all my homies who contacted Icon and spoke up for me. They are sending me some of the TiMax gloves to review. You know there will be plenty of pitchurz and honest evaluation. I will also be harvesting the opinions of Jacob and Noah.
11-23-02
The trial against a police officer accused of running a motorcyclist off the road and killing him in Blount Co. (where Deal's Gap is, but this wasn't ON Deal's Gap) is set to start this Wednesday. If convicted, he could face three to six years in the state penitentiary and a fine of up to $10,000.
More info Here (11/20), Here (11/21), and Here (11/22)
11-21-05
I have been asked by the attorney to pull the video until this case goes to trial on Dec. 5. It will be back up afterwards. You can still see the statistical rundown here.
11-18-08
I have analyzed the "Drag Racing Evidence" video and reported my findings here.
11-12-02
Thanks for the contact info on the Icon TiMax gloves below. Their website is at www.rideicon.com
I sent them an email requesting a pair for review. If anyone wants to back me up, drop them a line and help persuade them.
11-11-02
We have acquired a copy of the video "evidence" the police shot during the Drag Racing Sting. It's an hour and 15 minutes long, and about 200Mb. I will be doing a statistical run-down of what all happens in the video and make a list showing each event and the timecode, which should be convenient for dial-up surfers and just interesting in general. I think it will be clear to any un-biased viewer that sportbike riders were being discriminated against. The officers take note of every sportbike rider that passes by, whether they are breaking any laws or not, and never make mention of all the cars crossing the double-yellow, and cruisers crossing the double-yellow. They even use precognition to predict that someone "will be passing a car, so go ahead and pull him over."
I got my bike legalized and The Twins, Barry, and I rode the Gap Saturday. There were just enough leaves on the road to make it interesting to follow somebody. It was all good until one flew up and stuck right to the center of my visor for a split second as if to say "Guess who?" My license plate fell off after a harsh wheelie landing and rested on the swingarm cross-brace in front of the tire, laying across the chain. Jacob's rear wheel went out of balance in some physics-defying way. Then we headed for the Skyway.
Ron and Nancy rode with us to a pull-off area on the Cherohala. Then we continued across the Skyway to Tellico Plains and saw the aftermath of a bad wreck on the way through. A sportbike rider lost it on a right-hander and hit the guard rail. We couldn't tell what kind of bike he was riding, and there were some leathers laying on the ground. I hope he was alright. As we got into Tellico a cruiser in front of us was pulling into a resaurant's gravel parking area and dumped it. It tossed him and the bike tumbled a few times, but the rider seemed to be ok.
11-07-02
Ok call me a squid but I dig these gloves:
I mean, have you ever seen a more Dragon-esque glove? If anyone knows the company info on this "Icon" motorcycle apparel company, let me know...I'd like to procure a pair for "review purposes".
*Update* Contact Info submitted, thanks!
11-05-02
Having every intention of starting a new "thing" here at killboy.com this week, I am late. Next week I hope to start updating on Mondays...hopefully.
Not bike related, but there should be a huge double Leonid meteor shower on Tuesday morning, Nov. 19 at about 3-4am central time. They are predicting as many as 2000 per hour!
I hit the Gap last Sunday with expectations of meeting a certain South Carolinian "friend" of mine and maybe shooting some leaves also. The friend didn't show up, *ahem* and the leaves were shaded by clouds all day so I headed to RnN's who graciously hosted my stayover and let me work on my videos with their Apple G4/HAL 9000.
There were a handful of riders braving the cold and having some fun on the twisties. I didn't get any shots of them though because they were too few and far between for my skinny ass to stand out in the cold for. ;-) I did get some shots of the mountains changing colors and a couple of 350Z's at the Nissan dealership in Alcoa.
I should also mention that I had a T-shirt made through Sony Imagestation with a picture of ME on it that Keith took at Talladega a few weeks ago. The photo came out very nice and the method they used to transfer it onto the fabric seems perfect. It's breathable and shouldn't be like wearing a big plastic sign over the chest when it gets hot. The service is only about $19 and the T-shirt is good quality, double stitched. They only print on the front at the moment, although I am trying to convince them to offer rear printing as well.
The previously mentioned Imagestation that I host all my albums on recently went to members only for viewing photos. I apologize for the whole "signing up" inconvenience but I have over a Gig of images online for free, so you know...work with me here.
I called Chris Oldham's office last week to find out the latest in the Drag Racing sting, but he was out of office for the rest of the week so I'll try again this week. Last I heard he has pushed the trial back to December.
Updated my Scenery page (finally!) to link up all the latest photo albums.
I've been working on my Links page a bit so if you haven't been there in a while be sure and check that out.
10/28/02
Well it seems to be the popular thing, so I wrote up my own little piece about our trip to Tally.
10/23/02
There is an article up by Neale Bayly about the track days last weekend, and there is a track report up on SportBikeTrackTime.com
10/20/02
Photos from Little Talladega trackday are up HERE. Most of these were shot by my friend Keith Norrod, except for a few rain shots near the end by me. If you enjoy them, drop him a line and say thanks. I don't think that's asking too much for free pitchurz. ;-)
Monte and Bonnie of SBTT gave us the VIP treatment and we took full advantage of it. I must have done a couple hundred laps over the course of Saturday and Sunday. It was the first time I had been on my bike since my wreck back in April, and my first track day. I had a great time and we all shot some awesome footage.
The other photographers trackside had shots of my sorry butt up in every group. It was kinda funny.
10/6/02
Sent an email out to all defendants in the Drag Racing sting to get the mailing addresses together and distribute the funds. Sorry for dragging my butt. I have not spoken to attorney Chris Oldam in a few weeks, so I will get with him this week and find out the latest on the trial.
I have a new spot for videos thanks to my Canadian riding buddies at ArtSmartDigital. Give them a look if you need any print work or stickers made. I will have some videos back online soon...I promise! (^_^)
I'm planning to be at Little Talledega with SportBikeTrackTime.com October 19/20th to shoot a promotional video for them and have some fun on the track. Be sure and look me up if you're around.
Finally, I've added some pics of our new little RC passion HERE. Don't worry, I'm not ditching bikes for them. ;-)
9/30/02
Sportbikes.net was shut down without much warning. It almost seems like a hack...I mean Fred (the admin) had just posted a bulletin a few days ago saying that rumors of him shutting it down were untrue. Fickle much?
So Shawn suggested we could move over to the forums at SportbikeWorld.com. I'll see y'all there...
Photos from last weekend are UP.
Not a terrible weekend overall...drops were minimal, as was policing. One rider I met had taken a mirror off an oncomming bike with his elbow. Y'all keep it in your lane. ;-)
Here's something put together by Noah in response to the "Concerned Citizens" in cars complaining about the motorcycles:
"Poor motorist - being overtaken
at double the speed by inconsiderate motorcyclists. Have you, motorist,
ever ridden a bicycle on the roadway? If so you most likely have been
“buzzed” at three or four times the rate of your substantially
slower pedal power. Immediately following the episode you undoubtedly
cursed the infraction and told yourself that the motorist must feel as
though bicycles have no right to be on the road. But, cool the temper;
“surely all motorists aren’t so discourteous” you say to
yourself, then- whoosh!!!! The low-pressure void from the rear of a swiftly
moving Winnebago gently tugs at you and your bike. Towards the end of
your ride you might have wisely concluded that most motorists have little
respect for your rights as a fellow traveler, and find yourself cursing
nearly all overtakers and wishing that for one minute your bicycle had…an
engine! That’s it! You could speed right up to their bumpers, then
at the last second whip it over and zoom around their left flank just
inches away- a la Tom Cruise in Top Gun. The maneuverability of your “motorcycle”
adds grace to your on-road rebuttal, and so the score would be settled
briefly.
The moral to this story, folks, is this: Do unto others on the highway
as others do bicyclists and pedestrians and broken-down interstate tire-changers.
Buzz their asses, get as close as possible without hitting them, and bother
you not circumspection of the mirrors afterward to take delivery of the
middle finger that seeks your retinal respect."
9/21/02
Still alive! I've been putting in some overtime and working on a little side project/venture. Got into these mini-RC cars and built a track at a friend's place. Good cheap fun. =P
Cleaned up my links page and added some new stuff. The trial is still ongoing and I'll have more info at a later date.
9/3/02
Update: Just got off the phone with attorney Chris Oldham. He has seen the video tape the TNHP is using against the Drag Racing defendants and he says they have nothing. All clients of Ron Reagan have until Sept. 12 to waive their plea bargain and challenge these charges. As far as I'm concerned, $500 to enter a plea bargain is ridiculous. You do not need a lawyer to enter a plea bargain. Mr. Oldham is charging $250 and is actually fighting this. He may be reached at 865-633-6066.
So I spent Labor Day weekend at the Gap enjoying the Canadian Invasion...eventful and humorous as always. Police activity was light, and there were only a few minor spills. Properly geared riders came out unscathed. Mike C. let me ride and film from his ZRX1100. I got to know the bike quite well and it let me film some very fast riders.
Pics are here. Here are some highlights...
8/20/02
We made the news again.
The Tenn. Highway Patrol is also asking for suggestions on what to do
about the motorcycles on US129.
I ask for everyone to drop
them a line.
8/19/02
Lean on the Dragon photos are up.
I gathered everyone had a good time, despite the rain Saturday. Strong winds blew one of the canopies over, but everyone else held theirs down until it passed. Nancy got a face full of water. =P
I met so many cool people I can't even begin. Thanks to all the riders who came up and introduced themselves. All the positive comments are my inspiration. The vendors were real cut-ups too!
Everyone seemed to enjoy our videos. Big thanks to Keith for supplying so much great footage and the sound system. Jacob and Noah for all the on-screen antics, and all the other riders I've captured on film over the past few years. Jacob and Noah rushed up from Florida and made it just in time to see their videos for the first time with everyone else.
Fontana Village was an impressive place to say the least. The cabin I stayed in had 5 beds, plus a fold-out couch, full refridgerator, fire place, hot-tub, dishes, silverware, blender and ironing board...for under $200 a night. Plus if you mention you're on a motorcycle, you get 25% off Inn rooms, 15% off cabins..
I took a ride through the Gap on Nancy's MZ Baghira (dual-sport/motard) The front is soft and not adjustable, but it went right where I wanted it to and never pushed. I could run perfect lines it seemed. The seat was a bit uncomfy since it is so narrow, and I have no ass.
8/04/02
I'm working on wrapping up the fund raiser, so if we have any last minute contributors out there, please tighten up. =P I'll post a list of everyone who receives a share and their contact information if that person does not object, so everyone can verify where the money went.
I was at the Gap Saturday night and Sunday, hangin' with my boy Mike Cusak...again. I had a fun time Sat. night showing off my newer vids and watching other guy's vids on the big (13") screen. They got picked on pretty hard, but they were laughing right along with us and it was their first time there, so we had much respect for them just not crashing and (mostly) staying in their lane.
I saw some pretty sloppy riding while I was there, same as last weekend...mostly people passing in totally blind turns. There are many great places to pass, sometimes you just have to ride to it...sometimes the cars pull over if you just give them a second. Damn y'all.
As you may have heard already we had our second death of the year at the Gap. I was told he was a young, first-timer from Florida on a R1. Appearantly high-sided pretty hard and flew into some trees. His friends brought him up on a loading ramp (stretcher) and he was conscious and seemed to be going to make it, but by the time the ambulance got there he was looking pretty bad. I feel for his friends...and family.
8/01/02
Quick update on the "Drag Racing" trial. I sat in on the court session today. There were only about a dozen people there, including the lawyers. Looks like most people retained an attorney. There were a couple of riders who were there to take the plea bargain - Careless and Reckless driving - $500 fine, 6 months suspension from riding Deal's Gap, 6 (?) points on license.
Four of the defendants who were there with their lawyer refused the Plea Bargain and will go to trial Aug. 29. The judge suggested going to trial today, and the defendants were prepared, but the TNHP said they were not prepared. They still didn't have a copy of the video with them.
The rest of the defendents were rescheduled to Sept. 12.
The deadline for accepting the plea bargain is next Thursday, Aug. 8th.
7/31/02
Got a few shots up of my friend "The Technician". Specifically, his banged up foot recovering from a bad crash at Road Atlanta a few weeks ago. He broke nearly every bone in his foot and had to get some skin grafted. The pics are brutal so if you are squeamish, stay away.
If you're okay with that sort of thing, click away.
7/30/02
30,000 hits...W00T!
I apologize for the lack and/or brevity of updates. I just went through computer upgrade hell and lost everything, including my list of killboy.com subscribers. I am now so backed up DRANO wouldn't do any good.
If you subscribed before, or would like to be notified of future updates, please email me and I'll add you to the list. This time I'm storing it on another computer so I won't have to ask you all to do it ever again. I promise!
I have the pics from the big Miata Meet at Deal's Gap up riiiiiight HERE. (460 Pics)
I will say this about those Miata folks, they love to drive. So many people were smiling as they drove by, you would have thought I had a sign screwed to my head that said "Say Cheese!". And the waving! GAH! How do you drive like that? =D
According to TotD, about 65 citations were issued Friday to Miata drivers for careless and wreckless. Uh, ok...
Big thanks to Francois at the Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort for hooking me up with some technical assistance.
I'll be heading to court this Thursday for the big trial. The state still has not turned over the evidence they confirmed to have against the defendants, citing some law that says something to the effect of: "If we offer a plea bargain, you don't get to see the evidence until you enter your plea on the day of the trial." Why try so hard to hide the evidence? Could it be they don't have anything and they're trying to scare people?
I'm sure everyone involved in this farce will appreciate the funds raised. Overall I am a little disappointed in the final tally though. I will be taking down the contact information of all those arrested and split the funds up equally. There should be a last minute donation from Jeff and Dorie Ashby at Mr. Motorcycle Salvage ( 817/624-7861 ) that I will (gladly ;) wait for.
7/21/02
Finally got my Scenery page up to date with all the photos I've been adding the past couple of months.
I'm really tired so I'll go off about rear braking later...
7/20/02
Here are a couple of emails I've received criticizing our fund raiser:
"Sounds like the poor law breaking bikers
should get off the mountain just like the poor law breaking Swift [Truck
Line]
drivers. Once again smashed up super bikes and nobody to blame but yourselves.
When are you going to take responsibility for what you do and quit blaming
everyone else? You guys go up the and endanger every one on the mountain
just like the truckers.
Concerned citizen motorist."
Lessee...400 pound bikes...40,000 pound semis...yeah, we're a real threat to "every one on the mountain". If by "every one" you mean ourselves.
Next up:
"I've been riding since 1965 so I've seen
police hassasment in many states & towns. But after riding Deals Gap
for the last three years I believe that john law is doing the only thing
that the reckless riders up there understand. That's high fines &
take the license. I get passed on the Gap at twice the speed limit on
double lines EVERY time I go up there several times & most of the
time by only inches.
I took my wife & a friend & his wife up the first of May. This
reckless riding was going on the entire weekend. I hate to stereo type
riders but it's the crotch rocket/ sport bike crowd. I've never been passed
or even crowded by another cruiser, a large BMW, or even a Harley.
There was a rocket that had gone over the edge on a curve & was about
100 ft. down in a gorge. I later saw on the Dragon report that a number
of riders have gone down here & that there was supposed to be something
wrong with the curve. The only thing wrong with that curve is the riders
trying to take it to fast, breaking the law, speeding & endangering
lives of others. I'm not a mamby/pamby rider. My pipes are ground down
from laying into curves, but, I 'm not speeding & passing others just
so I can have fun on a public road.
I used to race for a dealer here in S.C. If these guys want to race, &
that's what they're doing, they need to go to Road Atlanta or somewhere
else.
And contribute to a fund to help them pay for what they are guilty of.
OUT of the Question. If I ever see any of these reckless guys go down,
I'll be there & in court to tell the judge that it was stupidity &
recklessness that they were doing, not just out for a ride.
I hope they put up cameras & double their efforts to get every drag
racer out there."
You ride around grinding your pipes and you call us dangerous? Pot or Kettle?
Ok so let's say you're cruising through there with your wife and friend and his wife (not dragging pipes) and the cops pull you over, tell you that you were Drag Racing and you are all arrested, escorted off the mountain, given a ticket that will result in about $800 in fines, one year loss of license, multiple points on your license, and a mandatory court appearance? Roll over and take it I suppose?
Passed "several times" at twice the speed limit? So you get passed at 80 several times? A shifter cart couldn't go 80mph on 90% of the Dragon. Don't exaggerate, it kills your credibility.
As far as taking it to the track - that is so tired. Yeah, purchase a trailer, truck to pull it, strip my bike down to non-legal levels, pay $100-$600+ a day for someone to tell me when I can ride, (a few hours if I'm lucky) how I can ride (no passing in the curves...yeah, that's real fun when you're following some squid on a 1000 and you're carving on a 600) and I'll get to ride, what, 4 days a year? No thanks.
Maybe instead of being so offended by getting passed, you could work on that problem you seem to have with it.
7/15/02
Friday was a pretty nice day at the Gap weather-wise, but the gravel was the worst it had been yet. The TNDOT finished up by pouring gravel in the pull-off areas, so now you won't bottom out your Jeep if you pull off the road, but that means extra gravel all over the place. I didn't get many pics Friday...spent most of my time sweeping...
before...
after...
Just a suggestion, but if anyone out there grabs a broom (store/overlook/your own) and works on a corner, go ahead and push some of the gravel at the edges of the road back so we don't have to worry with that curve again.
Thanks to Mike Cusack (again!) for putting me up for the night in That 70's Room. (Tapoco Lodge) He let me play on his bikes and it just reaffirmed my belief that the Gap is not quite ready for hard riding yet...
7/9/02
Just as I'm talking about collar bone protection down below, I find out that Noah had a nasty spill at Road Atlanta last weekend and seriously messed up his collar bone and foot. Godspeed my brother.
Now somebody make a collar bone brace.
7/8/02
My photo album from last weekend at the Gap is HERE!
Had fun meeting all new friends last weekend, since I totally missed the OLD friends I was supposed to meet. The road was kinda gravely in some curves so I did what Mike Cusack and Francois (among others) did the weekend before and broke out the push broom. After about 3 lousy corners I had an open blister on my palm and one forming on my thumb. How pathetic is that? I swept a few more and got lots of beeps and thumbs-up from everyone. Thanks.
I'm commandeering that street sweeper on the side of the road next time.
Talked to Ron and Nanc from TotD for a while. They have some pretty nifty stuff lined up for that Lean on the Dragon thing...nifty if you like having fun...and money.
Only a few minor spills last weekend, one guy broke a collar bone. You notice how many collar bones we bikers break? Notice that leather suit going across your shoulders? (I hope) Would it be so damn difficult to embed some sort of brace that could go across your shoulders for protection and still allow you to be comfy?
I'm going to be there again this weekend to do the usual picture thing and video a couple of friends. Francois wants to shoot a vid of his Uni-Go trailer. You should see that thing trail the bike through the corners at full lean WITH the bike. I can totally see one of those behind a sportbike.
<rant>
Last weekend, a couple of people mentioned run-ins with the police after "concerned citizens" called the cops on them. (not while at the Gap)
2 points...
One, why can't some people just mind their business? So someone is having fun and you're not. Cry.
Two, just when did the average Joe/Jane become a reliable source of information? We are a society that has to have "Remove from package before heating." printed on sacks of hot dog buns because at one point some jackass stuffed the whole package in the oven.
So they whip out the cell phone - while driving 70 mph no doubt - and call the law because some sportbike rider is being "dangerous". You know, riding "100 mph". Always 100...our speedo may as well have "0 mph" and the next notch up is "100 mph".
Well they're the first to complain, so it must be true. Roadblock!
So the money is spent to harrass some guys on motorcycles who the cops never saw doing anything wrong, but they were probably having fun, and we can't have that!
Did I leave the buns in the oven?
</rant>
7/03/02
Latest news on the "Drag Racing" sting is up. Basically the D.A. has said he doesn't know anything about a video tape. More info here.
I'll be around the Gap this weekend taking pics and hanging out. I may even bring some sparklers. >=P
I forgot to mention that last weekend some A-holes on Harley Davidsons were taking plastic from the Tree of Shame at the CRoT and throwing it in their campfire to watch it burn. I can only hope there is a Karma GOD and he rips their nads off. They also burned a picnic table. Francois, the Canadian CRoT employee and Uni-Go rep. walked up to them when he found out about it and said: "You guys are leaving today, right." And they started to say: "Well, we..." when Francois interrupted: "No, you guys are leaving today. Right?"
He's my hero.
6/30/02
Added about 160 shots from the past weekend at Deal's Gap. I shot cruisers on Sunday too so if you were there on Sunday there is probably a picture of you in there somewhere.
Saturday looked something like this:
The surface was pretty bad. TNDOT was laying crushed gravel along both sides of the road the entire distance of the Gap. Cars were dragging it up onto the asphault when they cut corners or pulled back on from a pull-off area. It will take a few weeks I'm sure for the stuff to settle in. It's not terrible, and as you can see from the album, a few guys were dragging knees just fine, but you really need to make a run just to scope things out before you take off. And even then, keep some in reserve because it gets dirtied up all during the day.
Once again big thanks to my Sugadaddy Mike Cusack for putting me up for the weekend. I had a blast hanging out with everyone and meeting new folks. There were even some new Canadians that I hadn't met before...and I thought there were only 8 people living up there.
6/25/02
Added a couple hundred shots from my travels last weekend, including 2 trips to Deal's Gap and one to Nashville to see Minority Report.
The pavement at the Gap is lookin' pretty sweet. The surface wasn't terribly slick, and the riders were saying it was sticking pretty well. The drop offs for the pull-off areas are atrocious though! Some of them are about a foot tall. TNDOT will no doubt come back and pour gravel in these, which may make things nasty until it all settles. I wish they had just paved them. =(
Minority Report was a bit of a disappointment. Way better than Speilburg's last work, (A.I.) but still not up to blockbuster standards. The settings were all nice and futuristic, until you got inside the average home...which looked just like they do right now. Story was uninspiring...nothing happened that you couldn't really see coming...or couldn't care less that you didn't. A good rental choice.
Big day tomorrow...getting my 2.0 Gig Pent.4/Mobo/120Gig hard-drive upgrade so I can churn out some real video work. I've got a friend who may be contributing some commentary to the site soon as a partner...
Well I've got some more work to do with the image descriptions so that's all for now...plus my eye is killing me. It's not enough that I have some freaky condition causing the cornea to rupture and split every couple of days - tonight I had parked my car on the side of the road to take some time-lapse shots of a lightning storm, and the door swung back and busted me right in the face so now I've got a nice welp to go with my sore eyeball. <sigh>
6/9/02
Began the donation drive to assist the riders harrassed by TNHP last month. Please contribute.
Added some banners that can be used to link to me.
6/1/02
Added several pics from my visit to the Gap yesterday.
So Noah and I are standing on the side of the road yacking and a semi rolls through. I jumped in the car and took about 60 shots of him. Noah managed to get in front of him and warn oncomming traffic, preventing a couple of accidents no doubt. One day we will look back on this stupidity and laugh at how 60-foot long trucks used to actually drive through this road.
The roads were pretty bad, with sand and oil in many of the corners in the north-bound lane. Still only 2 wrecks Saturday. Unfortunately they were both...umm...friends I guess. They are both fine and the bikes were ride-able. Another testiment to proper gear.
Repaving starts Monday, 6/3. I'll get up there now and then just to bring ya'll pics and updates. Watch Tail of the Dragon for updates as well.
We may be starting a fund to support the battle against corrupt police activities at Deal's Gap. The lawyer fees to fight the recent motorcycle sting will be expensive, but if we let them keep fining us without fighting it, why would they stop? If you love Deal's Gap and plan on riding there in the future, you might consider getting involved and contributing. More details soon...
5/31/02
Road Update: Appearantly a truck ran through the Gap leaking hydrolic fluid in some of the turns. The DOT came in and covered it with sand in an attempt to get the oil up off the road, so be careful if you go up this weekend.
5/30/02
Finally added 100+ shots
of Zee from our last photoshoot.
Also added 150+
shots from my previous visit to Deal's Gap.
Diggin' the new camera? Yeah you could say that I am.
A few of us are planning to hit the Gap this weekend one last time before the repave starts next week.
The cops toned it down a little last week, but they are still hassling motorcyclists so have all your paperwork straight before hitting the pavement. A small recording device of some sort probably wouldn't hurt either.
5/27/02
Added about ooohhhhh....460 shots from VIR last weekend.
5/21/02
Sorry for the delayed update. I came home from the Gap to about 30 emails and 6 cars that I had to add to HyattClassics. Some nice new rides there that prolly won't be around long, so check them out.
I have a TON of pics from last weekend to put up, but I'll get on to the info for now...
"Welcome to The Circus. May I take your license?"
Deal's Gap last weekend was even more eventful than usual. I get there late Friday and already I'm hearing about a first-timer on a Blackbird trying to keep up with someone else and wiping out, nearly killing an oncoming rider with his newfound projectile. The innocent rider got a helicopter ride and an emergency spleen removal. Then I get a story of a poor soul riding the Foothills parkway the day before and hitting a deer, running him off the road injuring his leg to the point it had to be amputated.(the rider, not the deer) Several other riders go down hard enough to warrant helicopter rides for everyone, bringing the total for the day up to 4. (helo rides, not crashes)
Standing at the store we hear that a Subaru with the Southeastern Subaru club has gone over a drop-off. Francois, a CRoT employee would like to know if he is more than 30 feet down so he can call off the wrecker if he is. Zee, MG, and I decide to take the Neon up and check it out for him. (and get some shots =) We get to a curve with several people standing on the side of the road looking down. Concluding they're not just really depressed, I figure this must be where the car is so I pull over. Immediately the driver of the wrecked car starts yelling at me not to park where I'm pulling over, which would have been a safe spot on the inside of the exit of a turn. So I loop the car around and park right beside where everyone is standing and ask "Is this ok, or would you rather I park down there?" pointing to his crashed ride.
Saturday the mayhem continues with a Silver Cobra (source) losing control and running a Subaru off the road at the stone wall. (source) According to the driver of the Subaru, the Cobra ended up in the pull off area at the wall, the driver of the Subaru saw him stopped, waving for traffic to move along and he then pulled out and left. Way to ignore. The Subaru driver was running video.
A couple of Blount Co. Sheriffs rolled in to work the Subaru off-road incident I guess. They were hauling through pretty good and the second had his lights flashing. A friend told me one of them lost it and ran off into the ditch. His partner rolled up pointing and laughing, but they got the car out and drove on. They setup base at the campgrounds about 3 miles on the TN side of the border, and caught someone crossing the double yellow.
We hit Tapoca Lodge Saturday night for dinner and met a sweet-heart of a waitress named Heather. If you're a hetero male and in the area, you should do yourself a favor and try not to drool. I tried to get her picture but she was camera shy.
"D-Day"
Sunday. A day of infamy. This will probably be the most talked about incident for months to come. TNHP setup a sting that was more of a joke than a legal operation. Anyone could have seen it coming with so many injuries, but to handle it in the manner they did justifies the disrespect for law enforcement that many bikers have. When State Troopers arrest riders with no evidence, who is really the criminal?
Focusing strictly on sportbikes, several riders were waved over at the state line by a TNHP officer and told they were under arrest for "Drag Racing" and were going to be escorted down to the lake to be ticketed. Afterwhich they were not to return to Deal's Gap until after 5pm, when the operation would be over. Obviously they wouldn't want to arrest the same person twice...since...you know...they had no evidence.
It should be mentioned that TN's "Drag Racing" law is an all-encompassing law that is completely open to interpretation, similar to "Careless and Wreckless" in other states. Our law states that if one is attempting to achieve the mechanical limits of their vehicle, they are drag racing. It also states that if you appear to be trying to get from one point to another within a given time, you are drag racing. Note that either of these can be done alone, and if you are trying to (legally) drive to the grocery store before it closes, you are drag racing.
This might be justifiable if these were people tearing it up, but they all weren't. One rider was just riding back from the store with some oil for his friend's bike. Noah was pulled over and his Scotts steering dampener had just fallen off on the way up so he was riding practically one-handed, just trying to get back to the store and put it back on. "Drag racing"...yeah.
They also had an undercover minivan (green dodge caravan) trying to catch people passing it I presume. It had a state license plate with a small "p" over a (number) "1" to the right of the normal lettering.(source) They claimed to have video equipment.
Down at the lake they had a real slick speed trap going. They were set up just past a point where the speed limit changes from 50 to 40, but the 40mph sign was gone. So basically people were getting tickets for 55-60 in a 40. I saw the missing sign myself.
Those are pretty much the facts...I tried not to rant much so you can draw your own conclusions.
Our friend Chris Fuller crashed out about 10 minutes after unloading. He setup for a right-hander a little too far to the inside and ran across a dip in the road as he was braking hard. It bounced the rear up and fishtailed, then dumped him hard on his shoulder. The trooper rolled through with all of the "arrestees" in tow, asked if Chris was ok, then drove on off. We had no idea at the time why Noah was following the trooper and why he didn't stop to help out.
"It amuses me that alcoholism is not only acceptable, it's encouraged."
I'd like to give a big thanks to my Sugardaddy Mike Cusak for putting me up for the weekend. It was an experience. "Miller Time" was a cool cat and did a good job of not crashing one of Mike's bikes nor getting arrested. Quite the accomplishment, all things considered. Thanks to Mark for the food and computer services, and I'm sorry Dennis didn't have more fun. Those Buells don't show crashes very well, so that's good.
Met lots of internet peeps and old friends...Ian, Canadians (so fun to hang out with), Clay, Tim, Red, bboommeerr, Tyler, Kevin, and lots more. Gave out about 20 pairs of killboy.com stickers supplied by my friends with the Toronto Midnight Riders.
"I feel like a 2-leaf clover."
Fred over at Sportbikes.net pushed the wrong button at some point about a month ago and made me moderator of the Deal's Gap Forum. It's a pretty active source of info and planning, so check that out. Don't tell Fred about the accident, maybe he won't notice.
I am considering moving the HTML of killboy.com to a server with more expressive freedom. Right now I'm on my free webspace through my ISP, so I'm not able to say certain things and discuss/link to objectionable material. If anyone knows of anyone who has about 5 megs of reliable webspace with total freedom, Hollah.
Well that's it for now, check back soon for many pics from last weekend. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already so you'll stay in the all important loop. I won't bug you too often.
5/12/02
20,000 hits! Whoohoo!
Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. We love ya'll!
I've added several new pictures, although not terribly motorcycle related. I'm particularly proud of the Neon. (credit Keith for the shot.)
In motorcycle news, Tommy and Noah will be running their first races at VIR memorial day weekend. There are also some other races and an endurance race I'm told, so I may be attending that.
Here's how my injured leg is lookin'...(nasty - don't look!)
I ran the Neon through Parson's Branch (gravel one-way road that ends inside Deal's Gap) Friday and taped my camcorder to the inside of the windshield. I mainly wanted to use it to "learn" the road. The video looks like I was poking. =P
I swung by the hotel and hung out for a minute. It was PACKED, I couldn't believe how many were already there on a wet Friday. I talked to a rider who had hit a pick-up truck head-on on his 2002 R1. (the sweet flat black and silver one at that) He was pretty ticked about the incident, and rightly so, but lucky to be ok since he busted the windshield of the truck. This happened right in front of the store while he was turning into the parking lot following his buddy. Ya'll be careful there...It can be deceptively busy.
Just got back from (sounds familiar) watching Ultimate X at a IMAX theater in Nashville. Kinda pricey for only a 45 minute show, and they even used the same footage twice at one point, but it was pretty slammin' display of audio/video technology. Spiderman played on the same screen 15 minutes after that, so we just stayed and watched it also. (again) The show was nearly sold-out, and somehow we managed to end up RIGHT IN BETWEEN the 2 loudest DORKS in the house. These fat bastards laughed at every trivial little thing like it was Richard Pryor on screen, and I got to hear it in stereo. Lovely. Other than that, it was cool to see it on the bigger screen, although the picture seemed a little grainy. I guess it was because they were stretching the standard 35mm film over such a large area.