Bama Rides

Posts Tagged ‘motorcycle videos’

The event known as Dual Sportin’ the Free State started on a Friday, and ran thru Sunday, a fairly large gathering of DS riders from across the state, and outside.  Originating from ADV Rider, most of the guys came from there.  Interesting to meet some new faces, and ride with some guys that I have known of.  We came in Friday afternoon, in the rain and promptly set up a tent to have a dry spot to sleep.  We had a good chance to share some spirits and stories with the Goodwin boys and their families.  Brushy Lake is a nice spot to start from.

Plenty of time to gear up in the morning, as most of the riders only showed up a few minutes before  departure time.  A nice comfortable pace started the ride, gradually gathering speed until we ran across a group of horses with riders enjoying the forest.   Well maintained FS roads allowed us to maintain 45 MPH thru most sections.  Until we took  a section with a ROAD CLOSED sign moved to the side, we kept a good pace.  This road was composed of sticky, slick, OSFH (owl-shit from hell) that dumped at least 2 bikes at very low speeds – as turning your bars had very little effect on which direction your bike went.

After the adventure through 2 miles of the OSFH road, we stopped at the local market to regroup, refuel, and repair a broken brake lever from mud-falls.  Then off we went, back into the woods to find other unique spots.  Most of the moisture on the roads did not cause any real problems, but rather kept the dust to a minimum as a large group as this could make a real mess on a dry day.

Although there were several other “crashes”, the others were low-speed, made in some really slick mud.

The details of our crash (the bad ones) are more a tale of what not to do:

We (me and Jeep8) had just passed another member of the ride (doing a reasonable speed) and turned it up about 6 notches, just before a downhill turn.  The rider in front locked his rear and went sliding off the bluff – about 15 feet down.  I did the same, just to his right, and my bike was stopped by the tree to my right – luckily it did not follow me down the hill.  I remember 3 very loud thuds, and recovered 30 feet from the road, and 15 feet below…….. minus my breath, helmet screen, sunglasses, and tank bag – all were recovered in a few minutes.  Injured both shoulders, left knee, ribs/abdomen, right hip and ankle.  I also discovered a bruise to my forehead after returning home, and it looks like the helmet took a pretty good lick.  4,000 mg. of Ibuprofen, and 24 hours later, and I am walking like and 80 year-old man, but at least I am walking.  Given the circumstances I fell pretty lucky to not have severe and crippling injuries.  I heard Jeep8 had 3 cracked ribs.  I hope he heals up soon.  I hope to be riding next weekend.

Untitled from dredman on Vimeo.

We finally got “The Beast” running this weekend, after we cut into the bad electrical, we started rewiring to get a bit of fire where it was needed.  Opened up the airbox, sprayed some ether, jumped the ignition at the solenoid, and boom, she fired.  It took a bit more rigging to get fuel going to it as we did not have a key to the gas tank.  We did also manage to get most of the non-essential gear stripped from the bike also, and it is starting to look like something we might enjoy riding.  Keep in mind, this is a bike that was donated by one of ours members, so we have less than $100 invested in this bike so far, and I am projecting less than $200 more to make it roadworthy (it might take a bit more to make it safe).

The Spring Rally at Faunsdale seems to be the cream of the crop. Several members went down during the week (and a few came up) to get the best spots, and decent real-estate was pretty hard to come by on Saturday, when we rolled in. We had about 45 minutes of rain on the way in from Montevallo, drizzling on and off, but never really had to stop to gear up. Upon arrival, we shortly met up with Bryan and Amanda from Mobile who had set up in a high traffic area near the cow pasture.

After pitching tents and dumping gear, we struck out to find the other folks scattered around the place.  We quickly found the Childersburg crowd, Mark and Sabrina who had been down since Thursday (I think).  We got the banner hung out front and cruised around a bit more looking for trouble.

Naked folks walking around at noon became fairly common and less of a surprise the more you saw.  I guess the biggest shock was just how many acted as if they did it every day.  Most folks that have never been to a rally assume that it just naked, drunken rednecks, running around fighting and acting crazy.  This is just a small part.  The charm is the laid-back atmosphere that allows the self expression of nudity, crazy outfits, a acting a fool if that is your thing.  Or just watching folks relaxed and having a good time – that is my thing.

If nothing else, just sitting around a campfire with your friends, drinking a cold beverage, talking about motorcycles, or riding, or the last fools that rode by is certainly worth the journey, and $25 (for the whole 4 days).  As if that were not enough, the Faunsdale Crawfish Festival is less than a mile away, where you can get live music, mudbugs, crawfish pie and even etouffee.   Fortunately for us, a neighbor two tents away gave us a few plates of etouffee they were cooking in a huge cast iron pot – man that stuff was some of the best I ever had.  These folks were from Lousiana (word travels) and they were doing it all right.

If you did not go, you missed a great time, I think that everyone who rides, should go at least once, and Faunsdale would be a good place to start.  More discussion and pics

I could not resist getting out into the snowy abyss, because of boredom or just a photo op.  The roads were not icy, but simply wet, and just a little bit colder than the day before.  Surprisingly, the fluffy snowflakes were stinging my eyes even at around 20 MPH.  A bit too uncomfortable for a long ride, but very nice for a short loop around the neighborhood.  A nice, strange day overall.

Enjoy the video.