All,
I road the V7R up to Magnolia on Wednesday morning, I met my friend Mitch in Katy and proceeded to his house via back roads. Mitch restores old British Iron, and also has a HD 1200. We have known each other for decades and worked together.
After a lunch, we rode up to Navasota, TX area on some fantastic roads with hills and curves. Nice scenery, and perfect weather except for the love bugs had hatched.
After Mexican dinner we had a great visit and solved all our oil industry career problems, and pondered politics, family and such.
Thursday we got up, had breakfast and then rode thru the Sam Houston National forest, and then up to Huntsville, and on some amazing farm to market roads. Great curves and hills again.
The V7R performed flawlessly and I got some real practice on apex points, variable radius curves and how the Guzzi unsettles on bumpy curves. No starting issues happened. The V7R has more top end than any of the old Bonnies, is equivalent to the Norton and BSA in many ways, but with willingness to rev. I had no problems keeping up with the HD 1200.
This morning we had more chats and I got a demo of Mitch's fabulous HO railroad. He is modeling his home town in Illinois. We both worked for Gulf Oil, so this old station deserves a picture.
Next time I am going to ride my Triumph STRX triple up. Mitch was working carb balancing on his restored Triumph Trident (gold and black). He got it running, but there are some issues to be sorted. Tried the clutch on the Triumph: Popeye strength required. My favorite of his bikes remains the yellow Norton, but the shifter takes focus since it is "different".
For me: over 350 miles riding in 3 days, first overnight ever on a motorcycle, some new paths and experiences, huge fun. Also no navigation worries thru the snarl of secondary and third-level roads around Magnolia required to access the really great FTM roads--I just followed the local. Came home via highway 99: cruised clear across Houston, north to SW at 70-80 mph, on the toll road. The curves/hills are much more fun, but the fast access up north and northwest is nice.
V7R says its time for a 14,000 mile maintenance. Guess that will happen this coming week. Damn I love this bike.
