COBRA

The ride is over, the memories are fresh, and the pictures are up.

In a word, it was…fantastic!

Our group was made up of four riders:
Bruce – Leading the pack on a XB12Ss Lightning
Masa – Next in line in his XB9R Firebolt
George – Following on his Suzuki SV650S
Kurt – Sweeping the group on his Honda Interceptor

We left mid-day on Friday, June 26 and rode about 380 miles to just south of Knoxville, TN where we stayed next to the airport in Alcoa, TN for the night. Took us about 6 1/2 hours with three gas stops and a couple, “uh…where are we?” stops. LOL

Saturday morning found us on the Dragon, a first for all four of us. We didn’t even realize we had started on it until we stopped at a curve and talked to some old timers on their hogs. We hooked up the video camera and off we went. Masa and Bruce flew down the road pretty well on the Buells, while the Honda and Suzuki were a bit more relaxed.

We hit Deals Gap about 10:30am and like everyone says, it was pretty quiet at that time in the morning. We easily parked and checked the place out, then hit the Dragon again. This time Masa took the lead with the helmet video, with Bruce following. Masa pulled ahead at the first curve and Bruce never saw him again until we stopped at an overlook!

We then finished the Dragon and continued a bit more down the road along the lake. In hindsight we should have stopped and turned earlier, as this was when Masa received the first and only “performance award” of the ride.

Our third ride through back to Deals Gap was caught up in a bit of traffic, so that ride was a lot more relaxed but still enjoyable.

We then ate lunch at Deals gap and then took off down US 28 about 2pm, headed to the Blue Ride Parkway.

The BRP was breathtakingly beautiful. The ride exceeded all our expectations, with great curves and rolling hills/mountains and stunning scenery.

We rolled into Asheville, NC for our 2nd night of rest, and then continued along the BRP the next morning. After 235 miles of the BRP and only 2 short detours along the way, we exited off at US 21 and headed to Wytheville, VA. US 21 turned out to be an awesome ride as well. We spent our 3rd and final night in Wytheville and immediately turned on to I-77 to head home the next morning.

Something about I-77 turned some key critical thinking off in both Bruce and Masa as their blood got pumping on the ride and they proceeded to burst down the mountains at 110MPH+. Top that with some incredibly strong windy conditions the entire 350 miles home and in hindsight that was pretty poor thinking. Thankfully all went well regardless of the poor decision making in speed. However, speaking for myself (Bruce) I will probably not lead a group in the near future until I can get a handle on the lead foot…er, make that lead “hand” I seemed to have contracted from this ride.

1,112 miles later and we were back home.

Can’t wait until next year’s ride! Hope more of us can make it then!

Oh, you want some pictures? Okay, here are some highlights from the ride. Enjoy!

I (Bruce / thump4fun) am planning a trip down to the Dragon in June with a couple of non-Buell friends.  We’re leaving the afternoon of Friday, June 26 and plan to ride the Dragon on Saturday.  We’re then riding the Blue Ridge Parkway for as far as we feel like, until heading back to Columbus on Monday.

We’re not making any reservations in advance for lodging, but don’t plan on making this a very expensive trip.  $50 motels for 3 nights, fast-food during the day, maybe a steak one night, and gas is about all it takes.

If anyone else would like to join a Buell(er), a Honda Interceptor, and a Honda CBR on a nice long weekend for a ride on the Dragon followed by some beautiful scenery on the Parkway, we’d be happy to have you along.  Just give me a shout and let me know.

Just be sure to have your AMA membership up to date for any breakdowns!  LOL

We’ve missed the past two Wednesday bike night meets due to weather, but rather then holding off until next month we’d like to get together to get things going with the club.  The weather looks like it will hold this coming week, but even if you show up in a cage, that’s fine.

We’re meeting on Wednesday, May 20 @ 6:30pm at Barley’s Smokehouse near downtown – the site of our very first meeting.

Be sure to come out so you can lend your voice to what we’re going to do with the club!

A good time was had by all at the  Grandview Euro Bike Night this past Tuesday evening.  We had 5, count ‘em, FIVE Buells out there!  And a wannabe you’ll see in the pics – LOL!  Which according to Mike is about 4 more Buells then any night before.  Looks like the club is making an impact on the local bike scene! 

There were, of course, a lot of BMW and Duc’s at Grandview, with the oddball Honda and even a Harley or two.  But having several Buell’s all parked together drew some attention, as well as Harry’s M2 now decked out in black and carbon.

If you didn’t make it out you missed a tour of the Spagio kitchen (which was pretty interesting) and some free food (which was very tasty).  For those that have never made it out there at all, the scene at Grandview is definitely a little more…shall we say…’refined’, then the Quaker Steak and Lube crowd.  LOL!

I’m sure we’ll be going out there some more this summer.

Mike took some great pics from the night, which you can find on the COBRA Pictures page or on Mike’s own Flickr page.

The first annual Thunder and Lightning event has came and gone this past weekend, and I’m happy to report that not only was it a great turnout all around, but COBRA showed their support well!

Even with the weather being an unknown factor on Saturday there were about 35 riders that came out…with 5 of those from COBRA! Not too shabby of a turnout I’d say! We’d love to have more members out to show our colors and support, but when 15% of the total attendees are COBRA members, that’s a pretty good start.

The morning started off a little later then planned as the organizers waited for late comers to arrive due to the weather. We then split into 5 groups, with each group going to one of 5 different 30-minute sessions. The sessions held were:

• Suspension setup
• Buell racing
• Riding tips
• Dyno
• Basic maintenance

I think the sessions had some great information for riders of all skill levels and backgrounds, so we all were able to glean some knowledge.

Mark even got his bike up on the dyno machine after talking with the techs.  I think once we cleared up a misunderstanding in the results he was pretty happy with it. 

It was then time for lunch and the trivia run.  The five of us COBRA members ended up with another 5 riders, making a decently sized group of Buells riding around the countryside.  I think we got lost twice and probably added 10-15 extra miles on our little tour.  LOL

The way back we had some pretty significant wind which made for an even more interesting ride.  The results of the trivia ride didn’t turn into any wins for COBRA, but the random drawing gave Dennis the best give away…a free pass to a track day from Fasttrax!

Congratulations Dennis!

It was a great day out, leaving Columbus at 6:30am and arriving back at Northstar about 9:30pm.  We ran into weather (rain and wind) for the first hour or so, but then it cleared up somewhat.  Total miles for the day was 330 from Northstar, plus miles to/from our homes.  I did 352 miles to/from my house and I’m probably the closest to Northstar, so I know everyone else did at least 350 miles.  Not a bad day’s ride.

We hope to see more of COBRA at future events!

Here are a few pictures from the day…

UPDATE April 28, 2009
So far we have 4 riders from COBRA heading up to Mentor, OH for the event.

The plan is to meet at Flying J across from AD Farrow at Northstar. We will be leaving promptly at 6:30am on Saturday, May 9 from Flying J. Be sure to arrive AT LEAST 10 minutes before we leave so you can gas up. We want everyone on a full tank and empty bladder so we have only one stop on the way for fuel and a fast bio break.

As Mark said, “Kickstands up at 0630…don’t mess around…the event starts at 0900 and [we] don’t want to be fashionably late.”

Original Post
Western Reserve HD/Buell in Mentor, OH (a few miles east of Cleveland) is holding a day-long event on Saturday, May 9, from 9am-5pm.

They are planning a lot of activity for the day, such as:

a. Adjusting suspensions for performance street riding (lecture/demo) 30 min
b. Basic maintenance (lecture/demo) 30 min
c. Advanced street riding skills lecture/demo) 30 min
d. Mapping and performance tuning (lecture) 30 min
e. Getting ready for the track (lecture/demo) 30 min
f. Dyno demonstrations (lecture/demo) 30 min

All this, and it’s *FREE*!!  Lunch and snacks are even provided, although there’s a small charge for lunch ($7).

See this post on BadWeb for more information.

Sounds like something we might want to get a group together to ride up to. Look for discussion on the forum about possibly arranging a group ride there and back again.

Our first Bike Night meet was a great success! We had 11 people in total meet up at the Mellow Mushroom pizza/bar on Polaris. 6 COBRA members, 3 significant others, and 2 guys that came across the club from Buell.com and showed up.

Mark
Dennis
Neil and Catherine Kathrina (aka Cat Kat)
Shawn and Sharon
Shawn L.
Bruce and Lisa
2 new guys
Greg
Harry

Apologies to the 2 new guys that showed up. I missed the opportunity to introduce myself and get your names. Please be sure to sign up on the Join the Club to officially become members of COBRA. Then check out the Information for New COBRA Members page and the forum to get you started.

After getting acquainted and chowing some food, we saddled up and rode as a group over to the ‘Lube. 7 Buells (and one BMW) rolling down the road and into the ‘Lube as a group is a pretty cool sight! Shawn L. doesn’t pick up his 1125R for another couple of weeks, so he was on his BMW.

Shawn L. had several helpful folks offer to pick up his 1125R and ride it over to his house for him! LOL

Once at the ‘Lube we hung out for a bit, wandered around to check out all the bikes, and enjoyed the atmosphere for a while. People started heading out around 8pm.

A couple of quick pics from the evening…we’ll try to take more pics at future events.  Mike, we need the photography experience of our CobraBuell Action Photographer! 

Next time we hope to see more of COBRA out there, although we all understand work and school obligations, as well as the distance for some. But having taken just a couple hours to hang out with other Buell enthusiasts, enjoy some good conversation, and take part in a short group ride to Bike Night is a nice way to break up the week.

In the future what we’ve decided to do as a club is meet the first Wednesday of every month for Bike Night, with the second Wednesday as a rain-day backup. The event calendar will be updated to reflect this. In the days preceding each monthly Bike Night we’ll determine where we’re going to meet via the forum.

Okay, our next meet will be Wednesday, April 1 at 6pm make that 7pm – right before the 2009 season’s Bike Night kick-off at Quaker Steak and Lube.

We’ll be meeting up at Mellow Mushroom on Polaris Parkway. It’s about 1/2 mile east of 71, the opposite side of the highway as Quaker Steak and Lube. We’ll stay long enough to enjoy a little food for those that don’t like wings or want to avoid the rush at the Lube. We’ll be leaving approximately 6:45pm to head over to the Lube, riding as a group.

Please leave a comment to let us know you’re going. We want to try and ride over as a group so if we have a list, we won’t leave without you.

We realize that while many of us don’t know each other by face yet, it should be pretty obvious who the Buellers are!

Hope to see as many of you there as possible!

For those not familiar with Mellow Mushroom, it’s a pizza/bar joint that’s just opened up in Columbus. Yes, it’s a chain, but it’s still pretty good.

Here’s the meet location:

View Larger Map

Bike nite at the  Columbus Quaker Steak & Lube starts up for the 2009 summer riding season on Wedensday, April 1.

Sponsored by A.D. Farrow Co. Harley-Davidson, these are held every Wednesday night during the summer and into the fall.  They are the biggest motorcycle gatherings in town, with close to a thousand bikes there during the summer nights!

As COBRA gets up and running we’ll be sure to arrange nights for Buell riders to ride up ‘en masse’ and show our support for Buell.

See ya soon at The Lube!

Title: Dual-Sport / Long-Haul Riding Seminar
Location: AD Farrow @ Northstar
Link out: Click here
Description: If you like to ride, a little bit on the road, a little bit off the road, or way on-down-the-road, this event is for you! Special speakers, food, refreshments, prizes! RSVP to darrisblackford@adfarrow.com
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-04-09
End Time: 21:00