Thursday got off to a bad start when I was tightening my chain (never do work on the bike just as you're about to leave on a trip) and, not heeding the proper torque settings, ended up bending a bracket the you use to measure the slack. A frantic post to STN had folks reassuring me it wouldn't be an issue (and it wasn't), but it meant I was out the door almost 2 hours late. I also had found a great location on top of my dash for my EZ-Pass, and was feeling quite clever about it. That lasted until I rolled the bike out of the garage and turned the bars, promptly popping the EZ-Pass off and sent it clattering to the ground. Grrr.
All this meant my nice ride down to Frederick to pick up the Buell turned into a boring blast down I-95/I-70 with the Pet Shop Boys on shuffle on the iPod. I had the Scala Rider Q2 intercom installed in the helmet, and noticed that after an hour or so my ears were starting to get sore from, I suspect, touching and rubbing against the speakers. Have to fix that. Ride down was chilly and windy, with my heated jacket on high. On the plus side, 15 minutes into the ride I had pretty much forgotten about my earlier bike troubles and was just enjoying the ride.
Got to the dealership just a few minutes late, and they were super nice and had my bike ready in no time. I swapped my belongings from my bags to the spacious Buell bags and they took my Multi into the garage for safe keeping.
The XB12XT ready to go
Talked to a guy standing next to his new 1125 Buell for a while. He says he was an ex-GSXR racer, and was really enjoying the Buell.
I knew I wouldn't have a GPS with me on the Buell, or a place for a tankbag with map display, so I had asked the collective brains at STN for a couple good loops in the area that would be easy to follow with minimal road changes. RDoug had posted what one that looked perfect and easy to follow. Took me 10 minutes to get lost. I was supposed to go 144/615/305/484/6543/915 up to 30. I missed 144, and couldn't figure out how to pick up the route again.
Stopped at Borders in Hagerstown to look at a map and figure out what to do. What I should have done is bought a map, but I figured I'd be clever and save $5. I ended up picking up 63N to 163 to 11, then some other back roads that ended up with me on 30 around Fayetteville and back on RDoug's route. It was during my run on 163 that I did my first accidental mini-wheelie. I goosed the gas a bit over a crest in the road, and the bars went limp and flopped to the side a bit. Yikes! Lasted all of 0.1 seconds, but got my attention. Made sure not to do that again.
Route 30 west from Fayeteville to the twisty section pretty much sucked. Once the road started gaining elevation things got much better. This was my first time on this section of 30, and I was quite surprised.
Breezed through Breezewood after a quick gas and munchy stop.
A bit further West on 30 and I picked up 26 South, following RDoug's route. 26 was an absolute blast! Lots of tight turns, good pavement, very little traffic, a real treat.
Passed the Igloo in Everett, PA
Looking back on 26
26 and the Ulysses were both a lot of fun
26 dumped out to 40E, which somehow I wandered off of and onto 3005N. Fortunately this turned out to be a nice road, though really narrow. It also meant that I was way off RDoug's route now, so I made the best of it. 3005 took me to 484, then eventually back onto I-70 for a few minutes before I jumped back onto 40 again.
Stopped at a canal in Hancock for some photos
Got to the Red Roof in Hagerstown around 7, Frank had arrived around 20 minutes earlier. I got cleaned up and we headed out to dinner at the local Ruby Tuesday's (mmm, Pibb) and discussed route options for the next day (with help from the very nice waitress).
Back to the hotel around 9 with around 330 miles for the day - 180 or so on the Uly.
My route on the Uly for Thursday
Called home, wrote out notes for the day (after getting a pen from the hotel desk) and hit the sack.