My take on the darkside rally

"The Rally in the Mountains" ........ sucked


No wait ....... That was Twin......... Thanks brother I needed that

Get your minds out of the gutters yall, the diaphrams in the fuel system run off a vacume, we had no vac pump but thankfully we had Bobby.
The trip down was 645 miles and 15 hours start to finish, stopped in west memphis to get Toasted and had to do some tech (jury rigging) on the great pumpkin. My fairing was trying to disintegrate, a drill, a bolt, and a hole through the face of the inner fairing to hold it all together and we were good to go. A 100 miles or so down the road we found a broken weld on the trunk bracket "aww man how we gonna get this?" BINGO .... there was coat hanger wire holding the gas staions trash cans to the posts, I "borrowed" the excess wire on the ties and tied the frame work back together. 1000 miles later and that repair is still on and doing its job. The rest of the trip in was fairly un eventful ..... oh yeah I forgot to mention the 250 miles of rain, some of it soo heavy that interstate 4 wheel traffic dropped down to 30 mph and we still could not see them or the road. It was ugly. By the time we got to an exit or overpass the worst had passed. At this point we didn't care that it had passed, we needed a break. It was intense.
We get to Mt Ida about 845 or so meet everyone and Mr Robert drug me into the restaurant for some coffee, I was cold and shaking like a wet dog. Thank you for your insight Mr. Robert. I needed that. We get checked in and find some dry clothes and warm up. About 1030 we Twin, Toasted and I start teching and trouble shooting my bike to find the fuel issue. About 1 am the scoot is back together and we end up sitting around BSing.... or was it that I just wouldn't go away?
Day 2. We meet up for breakfast about 8 after 2 1/2 hours of pacing and anxiously waiting Yeah I know I am sick 4 hours sleep and I was up ready to go. Anyway back to breakfast ....Good food great comapany and laughs, nuff said! About 9:15 we are geared up and start our rides. We started the day off riding through some beautiful mountain ranges with lots of hill and sweepers action, with a break about every 60-80 miles to change the pace somewhat. Great rides and the breaks were all fun. We spent the better part of the day riding on the Oklahoma side of the ranges so we stopped for lunch. We all had the country fried steak, excellent choices we made there. Again great food,lots of laughing with just a little BSing and the strawberry cheese cake was superb. Afterlunch we change up the riding order and take off out of there. Twin and I jumped into the throttle and dragraced up and out of there. After a good hard run we throttle down and I check my mirror to find there is a 3rd rider running with us, well Hello Kermit, I tell Twin I am gonna drop back and put Kermit on point, She takes off for the front saying she don't know where we are going, I tell her just ride we will figure it out. She gets to the front and is all gas on. As I pass back by Bobby I told him bu bye with a wave, I am pretty sure that he called me a dog laughing and waving.
Ya'll let me tell you something here ......... if you have any doubt in your riding ability DO NOT run with Kermit, cause that girl can ride that machine like she stole it. Fearless and in total control. Wow what a ride. I won't go into the specifics but I will say at a couple points I had to stand it up ... brake HARD... throw it back over, just to keep her in sight. Damn can she ride.
While we were at lunch a local told us of a road we had missed and said it was a must ride, so that is where we are headed. We get to the road and shut down, drop the gear and wait on the rest to get there. Yeah we got an extra long break. We take off on the trail the local told us about with Twin in the lead, I had to lay back and let them have it, I will say they were tearing it up with Kermit pushing Bobby through there. In on section of like 4 tight s curves I thought she was gonna go ahead and pass him. About halfway through the trail I fell back to lok for the rest of the crew (okay .... I had had enough hard riding for a bit) yup I am a wuss, just ask me
We head back to the rooms at about dark into some nice lazy sweepers and fun roads. 12 hours of fun in the mountains with some great people and good food. What more could you ask for? Answer: to do it 2 or 3 days. Yes it was that good. Most of us went to Twin and Tanglefoots room for coffee and a little more BSing (go figure ) And some more tech on my scoot. This time mounted a compass on the bars using Horseman8m's tip with the rifle mounts and Twins inginuity with a soldering Iron and a small pocket knife. Great I dea but... don't mount a compass to your bars if you have a fairing with speakers in it as I was going NE all the way home today. I will take the compass back to wally world then send it all to Kermit as she was interested in the mod. About 1130 we get back to the room and have some work to do on my sons helmet installing his intercom piece. Oh did I mention that during all this riding I have been 2 up with the absolute best riding partner a guy could ask for. This dude never flinched never wiggled during any of this riding. I could not ask for a better passenger than my best friend and son Justin "Dude".
This morning we were up at five, brought the bike around and loaded up. We were on the road at about 5:45 this morning and we put in another 12 hour 45 minute day in the saddle getting home at 6:30 this evening. Fairly uneventful trip with the exception of tweaking the carb on the way home getting the mileage back up completely on the scoot and she is running like a scaded dog now.
Pics will come later, cause I am exhausted. Yall have a great evening.
PS: would I do it again ....... HELL YEAH, sign me up now for next years "Annual Darksiders On The Mountain Rally"
See you out there
Smokey

So did you enjoy it or what....

Jerry

Glad you made it home ok. It was great meeting you and Justin. I know he had alot of fun too.

kermit wrote:Glad you made it home ok. It was great meeting you and Justin. I know he had alot of fun too.

Bobby and I decided you are no longer to be known as Queen of the darkside, from now on you are the Queen of the road . I had fun and enjoyed meeting yall too. Work on getting willsightsee on the forum.

See you out there
Smokey

Smokey's correct.......you can have all the guys you want, if I had to lay my life on the line running with someone in some twisties....I'll choose Kermit any day of the week and twice on Sunday! I'll be her wingman anytime!

Hey kermit......The darkside will make any turn cry and beg for you to leave it alone you can go threw them so fast on that 165, huh?????


..................bobby


.

Thanks for the write up. Sounds like the days were too short and you did not have enough time. When I go home I usually stay 5 days and still dont get it all done. So glad this is something you want to do again. I will put in for vacation this time. Yall go ahead and set the date.

Moon

Well Smokey I'm glad Kermit gave ya all you could handle. Being on the opposite side .....that would have been funny to see. I know how hard you and Twin can ride, I know I don't wanna try to keep up with Kermit.

Good lord....ya'll suck...two 12 hour ride days... Glad ya made it home safe and sound.

Figured out why any more than 4 hours on my bike sucked.....getting the Ultimate seat. Thanks Kermit for letting me test yours.

Toasted_311 wrote:Good lord....ya'll suck...two 12 hour ride days... Glad ya made it home safe and sound.

Figured out why any more than 4 hours on my bike sucked.....getting the Ultimate seat. Thanks Kermit for letting me test yours.

Toasted,
The Ultimate seat will be the best money you ever spent on the bike.

Muntz wrote:

Toasted_311 wrote:Good lord....ya'll suck...two 12 hour ride days... Glad ya made it home safe and sound.

Figured out why any more than 4 hours on my bike sucked.....getting the Ultimate seat. Thanks Kermit for letting me test yours.

Toasted,
The Ultimate seat will be the best money you ever spent on the bike.

Too bad I bought a Mustang Wide Tourer and a badx modded seat first. Sigh...got the mustang sold I think for almost enough to cover the Ultimate.

Muntz wrote:

Toasted_311 wrote:Good lord....ya'll suck...two 12 hour ride days... Glad ya made it home safe and sound.

Figured out why any more than 4 hours on my bike sucked.....getting the Ultimate seat. Thanks Kermit for letting me test yours.

Toasted,
The Ultimate seat will be the best money you ever spent on the bike.

After about 14,000 miles on the stocker, I broke down and got me the ULTIMATE that's when I found out that I really do enjoy riding in a Lazyboy.

I was really greatful when I got my Biker's Buddy, had it before I got my Ultimate and one of the best backrests you can get when riding solo.


Got a good feeling that next year I'll be picking up the rear since I enjoy just relaxing on the ride and taking my time when I'm away from work (I know it's bad of me to use foul language on the forums). Just wondering if you had taken 71 to or from there, it's till one of my favorite roads up there.

cerooth wrote:

Muntz wrote:

Toasted_311 wrote:Good lord....ya'll suck...two 12 hour ride days... Glad ya made it home safe and sound.

Figured out why any more than 4 hours on my bike sucked.....getting the Ultimate seat. Thanks Kermit for letting me test yours.

Toasted,
The Ultimate seat will be the best money you ever spent on the bike.

After about 14,000 miles on the stocker, I broke down and got me the ULTIMATE that's when I found out that I really do enjoy riding in a Lazyboy.

I was really greatful when I got my Biker's Buddy, had it before I got my Ultimate and one of the best backrests you can get when riding solo.


Got a good feeling that next year I'll be picking up the rear since I enjoy just relaxing on the ride and taking my time when I'm away from work (I know it's bad of me to use foul language on the forums). Just wondering if you had taken 71 to or from there, it's till one of my favorite roads up there.

Yeah, the Ultimate is the bomb. And, HDL will be having a sale Memorial day and you can save 10%. I still want to get the drivers backrest, I had the money put aside, but, I have to buy another phone. I keep losing them out of my dang pockets when I ride.

Cerooth, 71 is a good smooth road, but you get behind somebody and it's really hard to get around them. We took 71 up and 27 back. That rocked. Had the road pretty much to ourselves, lots of curves and no Leo's. Little towns here and there, all in all great route back. If we do Mena next year instead of Mt Ida, we'll have to make allowances for that, I guess. We'll just see.

On the ultimate, I probably would have bought the blinker buddy if I'd bought it directly from Ultimates. That way I don't need Bobby, Robert, Steve, etc.......giving me the hand signal to turn off my blinker.

twin1300 wrote:Smokey's correct.......you can have all the guys you want, if I had to lay my life on the line running with someone in some twisties....I'll choose Kermit any day of the week and twice on Sunday! I'll be her wingman anytime!

Hey kermit......The darkside will make any turn cry and beg for you to leave it alone you can go threw them so fast on that 165, huh?????


..................bobby


.

The darkside rocks. I had more confidence with the twisties, though, as smokey can testify, I think we must have been on the sidewalls a few times. rubber can't even twist that much. 20 mile curves at 65 and 70????? We were throwing enough sparks to start a forest fire. Now I know why smokey is painting all of his chrome.

And guys, remember you're on mountains here, so, if you don't make the twisties, there's no where else to go. Bobby and Smokey told me I was counter steering. I think I've figured it out now. Still not sure how it works, but it definitely does. I love it.

kermit wrote:And guys, remember you're on mountains here, so, if you don't make the twisties, there's no where else to go. Bobby and Smokey told me I was counter steering. I think I've figured it out now. Still not sure how it works, but it definitely does. I love it.

Absolutely no doubt you were counter steering through all that. There is no way, no how, no possibility that you can just lean through the curves with the speeds we were running. Ask Muntz .
You are one hell of a rider. I had great fun running with you. My son ragged me all the way home about not keeping up with you. Who cares, it was a fun ride.

It's fun throwing all them sparks and dragging the hard parts aint it. Just remember that once you start dragging hard parts that you are really really close to being too far, don't ask how I know. Just trust me

Chrome is way overrated. So much easier to repaint the black than it is to rechrome it.

See you out there
Smokey

kermit wrote:On the ultimate, I probably would have bought the blinker buddy if I'd bought it directly from Ultimates. That way I don't need Bobby, Robert, Steve, etc.......giving me the hand signal to turn off my blinker.

Kermit, here is a link to a buzzer that i hooked to my turn signals. Works, and is loud enough to hear with a helmet on..... http://www.vtxoa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39063&highlight=beeper

Jerry

Toasted_311 wrote:Good lord....ya'll suck...two 12 hour ride days... Glad ya made it home safe and sound.

Figured out why any more than 4 hours on my bike sucked.....getting the Ultimate seat. Thanks Kermit for letting me test yours.

I talked to Ultimate seats about a price break on a quanity of seats. She said we would have to talk to the owner but on a quanity of 6 she is sure she could throw in free shipping and she would see what else she could do.......Just trying to help out....I'm not sure I'm going that way yet, but extra info cant hurt..

Jerry

When i bought my seat, I was getting ready to take off on a 2k trip, it came damaged, I called Ultimate and the lady on the phone said, go ahead and use the seat and when I get back from the trip I would have another one sitting a home waiting for me, and she would trust me to send the damaged one back. Now, is that customer service or what? I couldnt beleave it. They are great.

Question for Kirmet.
Which CT are you running?
Just wondering?
Im still trying to get some feed back on which is the best to run.
I bought a tire from Sears, a Guardsmen 111 for $49.99 But havent had a chance to run it. Rain and Snow wont stop. And its cold.

wayne wrote:Question for Kirmet.
Which CT are you running?
Just wondering?
Im still trying to get some feed back on which is the best to run.
I bought a tire from Sears, a Guardsmen 111 for $49.99 But havent had a chance to run it. Rain and Snow wont stop. And its cold.

She is running Inspectors old 165 when he stepped up to the wideside 205.

.................bobby

.

they might have good customer service for someone who's already bought a seat but for someone who wants to buy a seat I can't get anyone to respond.. I guess their EMAIL doesn't work?? I haven't called yet but all I'm trying to find out is if they make a seat for a 2005 vt1100 Honda Shadow Spirit.

Oh well maybe they'll answer the email tomorrow. If not I'll call.

DarkSide-Shadow wrote:they might have good customer service for someone who's already bought a seat but for someone who wants to buy a seat I can't get anyone to respond.. I guess their EMAIL doesn't work?? I haven't called yet but all I'm trying to find out is if they make a seat for a 2005 vt1100 Honda Shadow Spirit.

Oh well maybe they'll answer the email tomorrow. If not I'll call.

Call and ask for Des.

cerooth wrote:

Thats funny, true as all get out but way funny

Thanks
See you out there
Smokey