Lovely Rita

Seems like some rides that had events you thought would be “par for the course” can quickly turn into the ones we remember the most. It also looks like many of my “memorable” events seem to deal with either chaos (inflicted or self imposed) or extreme weather or a combination of each. This is another one of those mini sagas.

It was October 2005; BRAG (Buell Riders Adventure Group) was having a regional event in Lavale, MD. Having never been to any BRAG event because of conflicts of scheduling; I wanted to check it out, plus it was fairly close. So I sent in my registration and payment of $55 and started to make my plans. BRAG use to schedule their events in similar fashion as HOG. Opening ceremonies were on Thursday night and things would wrap up on Saturday evening. That is about as much similarity the two groups shared, as you’ll find out. I made contact with a few riders that I knew locally from the BadWeb website (Rich & Fritz) and three of us planned on heading down the Thursday of the opening day.

We all meet in Mayberry off I-84 and planned on mostly interstate riding to get there. Granted it’s a boring ride, but we figured we would be doing plenty of backroads in Maryland and West Virginia. The day was perfect; sunny in the low seventies and not a lot of traffic on the roads. We were cruising at a good clip heading south on I-81 when suddenly the front end of my bike starting shaking like I was riding the rumble strips. Then as quick as it started it stopped. I wasn’t to sure if it was the bike or I hit a bad batch of pavement that I didn’t notice. So I went on (of course with no reduction of speed). About two miles later it started again. This time I knew there was something with the bike so I pulled over to the shoulder as quickly as I could. My two co riders, Rich and Fritz, quickly followed behind. I got off the bike and started to look at the steering head figuring that was the problem. As Rich and Fritz were walking up to me, they were asking what’s wrong and I was only able to tell them what happened and wasn’t too sure of the problem. Fritz mentioned that he noticed me looking back at the road as if I ran something over or lost a part. “Looks like this is your trouble” Rich cut in to say, “your front bearings are falling apart. The little steel bearings were falling out of the hub onto the ground. Needless to say the first word out of my mouth was SH*T. So before anything went further, I broke out the trusty cell and called the HOG/BRAG roadside assistance. They took my information and told me the driver will call when he is on route. First part done, now to find a Buell dealer; looking at the BRAG handbook we noticed we were located about 45 minutes northwest of Gettysburg H-D/Buell. Call number two; hello parts department would you by rare chance have a set of front wheel bearings in stock for my bike? To my surprise they had two in stock so I immediately took them and gave them my credit card info. Next step, service department please. I gave the information and situation I was in to the service rep, also telling her that the tow truck was in route. “Let’s see………….we can fit you in on Tuesday.” Tuesday????? It’s 1pm on Thursday; perhaps you didn’t hear that I am broken down over 5 hours from home. “Well sir, maybe the best we can do is late Saturday” was the follow up. “I’ll tell you what, the truck is picking my up and I should be there in about an hour, we’ll try to work this out then.” I had no other choice, the next nearest Buell dealer was over 3 hours away.

The wrecker showed up, 30 minutes after my call – great time. As the driver was loading my bike calls 3, 4, 5,……..were made to anyone I could thing of that may know someone at Gettysburg H-D. I hopped into the cab and we were on our way with my two co-riders following. A few more calls went back and forth on the trip with folks checking in on my problem and letting me know if they we able to do anything. Nothing concrete so far. We got to the dealer in decent time and as the driver was unloading the bike I went inside to let the service counter know that I was there and would be rolling the bike in shortly. Back outside the driver told me there was no charge because we went within the distance allowed, so I gave him a tip for doing a great job, rolled my bike into the service area then went back out to talk to my friends. I told them to head on to the event that it would be more than likely that I would be spending the night in Gettysburg and I’ll update them as soon as I have any information. We all looked at the map and found a road that cut through Catoctin Mountain Park, MD to Haggerstown where they could catch the interstate to Lavale. We said a few more words and then they were on there way. Now to go back inside to find out what my near future will bring. As I walked in, my bike was gone. Looking through the service bay window I saw it was on a lift. “Mr. Gomo?” Yes. “I just wanted to let you know that we are going to do our best to get you up and rolling soon.” Wow, thanks; I didn’t expect this; hopefully the bearings were the only problem. Would you believe that my bike was ready in 45 minutes? The mechanic asked me how fast I was going when this happen, after a mumbled response from me he stated that it was a good thing I stopped when I did; I would have definitely had a life changing experience if I went any further. Not to mention the outrageous front end wheelie I would have really not enjoyed. To top things off, my bill with parts was $86. I gladly gave the mechanic something extra for getting things done so fast and thanked the manager as well. Hard to believe after how the situation started that I was back on the road in less than 3 hours.

Once outside I called my riding pals to leave them a message that I was rolling again. To my surprise Rich picked up the call. He said they were grabbing a bite in Haggerstown and that the road we picked out was great; loaded with twisties and hardly any traffic. Rich did tell me to watch out for one traffic sign with a sharp turn at 10mph. Seems that Fritz saw the sign a little late and shot straight across the road. Good thing for him he had no oncoming traffic and was fine; perhaps a need for a change of shorts but nothing else. I told them I was on my way and should see them in about 2 ½ hours. I geared up, topped of the fuel and headed out.

The road through the Catoctin Mt Park was fantastic. A combination of long sweepers and grouped up banked twisties through the forest; I guess it was scenic too, just didn’t take much notice to what was happening off the sides of the road. I was in the zone, hitting all the apexes just right with my ass slide to the side of the seat and dragging knees when suddenly the sign Rich told me about zipped by me. Whooa baby……slow down. As I gingerly entered the radius; I noticed a fresh single line track straight off to the other shoulder. Must have been Fritz’s trail; yup he was lucky. The road meandered out to Haggerstown where I caught the interstate that would take me to my destination.

I-68 was a decent road for traveling. Plenty of vistas to take in and some enjoyable long sweeping turns made it less boring than a lot of other interstates. I was moving along making good time, figuring I’d be in Lavale, MD by 6:30pm. While riding two just released Buell Ulysses’ came up on me out of nowhere. They hung by for a couple of miles then once again took off. Figuring they were heading to the same point I was, I twisted the throttle a bit to catch up and follow. After a few miles, their rate steadily increase and when I finally looked down at the speedo I decided it was time to back off a little; mainly because I seem to have a natural attraction to cars with flashing red lights when I ride too fast. As I found out the next day, these guys were from American Iron Magazine and just picked up the new bikes from York to do a test ride story plus tie in the BRAG event.

I rolled into Lavale right around 6:30 pm, just as figured (that really doesn’t happen often), checked into my room and headed to the Opening Celebration dinner which was being held at the same hotel. I signed in, got a bunch of goodies from BRAG, found Rich and Fritz then had some dinner. A fine meal it was; full course prime rib dinner, certainly not a HOG event. The Director of BRAG addressed the group about the events and rides scheduled for the next two days. There were about 100 attending the event. These folks came in from Ontario, Canada, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Maine to name a few points; and they all rode. No trailer in sight with this bunch. The events included a tech seminar with engineers from the factory to be held at the H-D/Buell Dealership that was directly across the street – very convenient. There were also two routes about 200 miles each that travel a bunch of backroads in Maryland and northeastern West Virginia. After the dinner and information part of the evening, the rest of the night was spent tire kicking and meeting riders from everywhere.

Next morning, Friday, started of with a great breakfast buffet (part of the package) then across the road to the dealer for the seminar. While there we all gathered for a group photo, as we were gathering I meet the two Ulysses riders from AIM that passed me; Sam and Joe. While talking Joe asked if I was the gut with the JUGGLE license plate? Yup that was me but how were you able to reads it at the speed you were going? A trained eye was the response. We would see each other through out the weekend and hang a BS. The seminar was ok if you’re into the tech side bike. Me, I’m into the riding. One cool part was the engineers would help set up your suspension with consideration of your size and type of riding. I had my bike done then joined up with a group and started on one of the 200 mile routes mapped out.

The area was great for riding. Good roads, great weather (which would turn, but that’s for later), and interesting sights. We went through areas the looked like covers from Architectural Digest to Appalachian reports from National Geographic. The day end with some great miles covered, had some dinner and once again the adventure stories went late into the night. One story included Fritz once again making a detour on a curve (I believe he finally kicked this problem). He went wide into a cornfield and all they saw was his helmet popping up above the corn every 3 feet where the rows were until he hopped back onto the road. No worse for wear, just some corn silk dangling on him, he kept on rolling unphased - a true hardcore rider.

Saturday was woken up to light rain, weather reports where showing that Hurricane Rita was heading our way from the gulf. Rich and Fritz decided to head back while I opt’d to stay for the rest of the event hoping the storm would just keep heading north without swing east (boy I was wrong). I did a little riding around locally, hung out with the Sam and Joe Roadshow before they headed out to where they were bringing the fleet bikes. The day ended with the closing ceremonies at a vintage 50’s diner that BRAG took over for the night. Dinner was your choice of the menu, dessert too. Once again the night was topped of with riding war stories; the difference was now the rain was getting heavier. The reports started to show the storm was heading our direction and may be by us early in the morning. I should get a job as a weatherman; my predictions are as good as theirs.

Waking up Saturday was to the sound of pouring rain – damn. At this point all I did was pack up; eat another great breakfast, this time I loaded up with extras to take along, toss on my gear and roll. I called home to let them know I was going to head out and just stay to the interstates since the traffic would be light because of it being Sunday and now cause of the rain. My daughter told me it may be good idea to stay another night and not ride in this weather. I told her it was just raining slightly heavy, but not much else and I should be fine. Well that statement held true for about an hour into the ride. Things started to go downhill kind of quickly at one point. Winds were picking up, rain was dropping down even more and here’s some idiot on a Buell riding in the middle of it. Once again another smart move on my part; I'm loaded with great ideas.

Well the rain was getting heavier as well as the winds as time went on. At one point I was leaning into the wind to keep the bike up when suddenly the wind changed direction. The sudden gust actually blew me over one lane. Needless to say the pucker factor to stick to the seat kicked in instantly. A minvan road by me with a bunch of kids pasted to the windows looking at me like those suction cup stuffed Garfields. Well a rest stop was in order; next exit here I come.

By this time, everything I had on that was to be “waterproof” failed. I was soaking wet. Even my boots were filled to the brim with water. Loverly. When I entered inside there was a stream of water showing my path. After a hot Mickey D’s coffee and hot apple pie I was ready to venture out once again. Determined, yes –Smart, no. Well the rest of the ride didn’t change too much. Every 45 minutes to an hour I would take the exit to another McDonalds for more coffee and pie; I just needed warm stuff to keep me going. Now when I go the Scranton area of PA, I started heading over the high point the interstate travels and guess what was next? Well it seems the temps dropped to the point it was starting to flurry. I don’t know what’s worse; my constant involvement with bad weather or my stupidity to ride in it. Well the snow wasn’t sticking so I keep going figuring I had about 2 ½ hours left to get home.

I was close; it took me 3 more hours to get home. I was drenched, looking much like a white raisin and freaking cold. I sat in the tub with the hot water running for about 2 hours before I start to get feelings in all points of my body. Soooooooo I wound up doing everything I tell my students not to attempt. Ride when fatigued, ride to the point of hypothermia, and the infamous just pull over and wait it out speech, well I certainly learned a lesson. The next day I woke up to a sunny day in the low 60’s and life goes on. Another memorable event thats for sure.