FODS 2015 comes to Southern West Virginia!

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OD Green & Black DRZ 400 with goofy 17" wheels on it...
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Stopped for the night south of Pittsburgh. The IPA I had at the local grill was too bitter and the Philly Cheese hogie was no hell either.

For the weido stalkers in the group like BikerGeek I have my Spotwalla page set up here....

FODS & Spearfish

I should be at FODS headquarters shortly after noon tomorrow.

 
As usual Wayne got his bike dirty...

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I didn't have the heart to tell him that the small wheel goes on the back of a dirt bike....

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For those that don't have off-road capabilities they came instead with their FJR like Joe....

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Going down into the gorge on the tram to get to the lodge at Pipestem Park....

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In the morning on the way back up out of the gorge there was a fairly decent sized cave....

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Just finishing up breakfast and will be heading out for a ride in about an hour.

 
FRIDAY

It was very foggy down in the canyon but once I got to the top of the tram ride we got above the fog....

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Just north of Hilton we headed up the mountain and at the top we stopped at the lookout. We had stopped beside a house that Jim's grandfather had helped build and on of the ridges in the photo belongs to Jim's family....

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Just before lunch up in Richwood we had been riding along a creekbed for a spell and stopped on this bridge for a photo op....

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Lee also needed a smoke break...

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A the Iron Skillet in Richwood the boys had to drag me away from the dessert display case....

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According to Jim the Apple Walnut pie is killer.

It ended up a long day to be on a stock WR seat at 358 km (215 miles). We had started out at 8:30 and made it back to the campground just before 18:00.

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Fortunately Wayne had put on his rain gear so we never got rained on all day though there was heavy weather in the area.

-to b e continued-

 
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So far every time I go dirt bike riding with Bill he has me preform the STAR principal Shit That Ain't Right I'let him explain. He may even have a video of it

 
^^^^^^^^^^

Drawing on my 50 years worth of dirt biking experience I gave Tom what we call in the Nuclear Power industry what we call a pre-job briefing on how to get across this little creek.....

https://vimeo.com/131311404

Somewhere there is a Grade 1 report card for Tom stating that he does not take instruction well.

I later demonstrated the proper technique as part of Tom's remedial training....

https://vimeo.com/131311724

While Tom was picking up his bike I was taking pictures of the water and the flowers....

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I would have helped but I was laughing too hard. The problem was all the rocks were covered in algae and they might as well had come along and greased the rocks since every time Tom went to pick the bike up either his feet would slide out or the bike would slip. Thsi only made me laugh harder.

Earlier in the morning Jim had told me about a nice lookout by a shed along the road. There are a few sheds in West Virginia but I was able to find the correct one and the view of the New River valley was nice though not very clear on this particular day....

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This shed was right beside another interesting shed / outhouse....

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I thought Jim had told me there was a better lookout so we hiked a bit and Tom hiked a lot but we never did find it. I was ready for my heart attack by the time we made it back to the bikes....

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Jim was worried about the one section we had planned since that part of the road had been abandoned by the county but I thought that was the best riding of the whole weekend and we made it through.

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In an hour Jim is bringing the videls so I have to whittle me up a pot passer to get ready.

 
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I will give Wayne two more days and then if he does not tell us why his bike now needs a new set of handlebars I will be forced to put on my reporter's hat and tell the story as it was told to me. Like Fox News I vow that my version of the story will be fair and balanced (cough).

 
Did it rain? Did the FJR riders have fun? Or only the dirt riders. I bet Tom was saying " Oh geez" every time his bike went down.
On Friday Wayne put his rain pants on so we never had a drop of rain. There was some rain in the area and some of the boys found it. Mike and Joe took the FJR's over to Burkes Garden and enjoyed the roads over in that area. They did not attempt the back way out however.

After 350 km on Friday Billy's butt on a stock WR450 seat was NOT having fun and was letting Billy know that if he tried that same stunt on Saturday Billy's butt was going to make the rest of Billy pay.

 
I had a great ride in on Friday still feeling out the new bike. I had a late start and took all fun roads. I set up my tent in some wonderful humidity and was soaked, but I wasn't allowed to go shower as the BBQ was ready. Awesome job on that Joe. It was fantastic. Thanks to Wayne and the others who contributed to that great feed.

It was good to see Jim(JimStan) again. It has been years!

The ride in Saturday also put me over 600 miles so I had to seek out a place to get the 600 mile service done. Swampfox Powersports in Princeton took care of me. Mike and Joe hung out at the dealership while it was being done. We headed for something to eat before riding. We worked our way down to Tazwell. The skies looked ominous, so Joe decided to head back a more direct route. Mike put his rain gear on and we headed north on 16. We got to War and stopped. No rain, but Mike was soaked! It was rather warm.

I had a little bit of back end slide on one of the sharp turns just before that, so I need a check of the drawers. I applied a little trail brake and the the back end tried to pass the front end. Released the brake and then applied again and slid some more. Did it one more time before getting the bike right. I was way off my line and almost out of road at that point. After the stop in War I immediately did an ABS check on the rear and it worked fine. I never had a problem on that road before and ran it hotter too. The only thing I can attribute it to is the Bridgestones. They just didn't grip. Ordering PR4's today!

Mike and I ended up getting mixed up at the light in Welch at 16 and 52. Mike got stopped at the light and I was waiting on the other side of the light. He ended up going right by me on 52 instead of turning onto 16 north. I turned around and tried to catch him, but he had then taken the next turn to go back to 16 and I stayed on 52, so we ended up taking different routes back from there. Still no rain, so the riding was good. We went to the shelter by the lodge for dinner and the sky opened up. After getting back to the campsite the rain fell even harder. Mike was glad I had the Redverz. We just cranked the tunes and had a little beer and scotch and conversation in the vestibule. The rain finally stopped, but the wind howled all night.

We took our time Sunday morning and headed out about 10 with Robert(SLK50) and his son Alex. We rode up to Lewisburg and had lunch and then up 219 to 39 and parted ways with Robert and Alex in Warm Springs as they headed north on 220. Mike and I continued our eastward trek on some very nice twisty roads. I think I wore Mike out! Got home about 1930 with 886 on the clock for the weekend.

 
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