Leaving on our first over-nighter tomorrow

Leaving on our first over-nighter tomorrow - Updated!

Updated with trip pics - page 2

Well the planets have finally aligned and I am taking my wife on her first overnight M/C trip (where she will be riding her own bike) starting tomorrow afternoon. Actually its a two-night trip. Spring has been busy for us both but we finally managed to carve out some time between school graduations and college orientation for our kids, work, business travel and other obligations.

In the meantime she has been taking her NCX to work quite often and we've gotten out for the occasional local ride so we think she's ready. Not planing on going too far away, only about an hour and a half to our base for two nights. Tomorrow is just about getting there. Planning on spending Friday just riding around and then back home sometime on Saturday.

The weather is supposed to be "iffy" with some thunderstorms in the forecast but I told her, "You're not a real rider until you ride through some rain" so we're hoping for a clear weather window when we leave. It will be the first time she rides with the bags loaded up. We'll see how it goes. Planning on taking some photos and was hoping for some video too but my GoPro I ordered was back-ordered of course. I have an old first-gen GoPro so I may mount that up instead.

Anyhow...stay tuned. This will be interesting for me/us and hopefully just a little fun too.

That is great! You will have a great time and she will not even notice the difference with the bike loaded. Post some pictures and let us know how much fun it was.

Cheers,

Mike

woohoo!! take lots of pics.

What they said! Have fun!

+1 be safe and have fun.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

This is kind of like a "staging" trip for larger ones! See what works, throw out what doesn't or what you didn't use.
It's all a learning time. It's good you have a wife that will go with you!~

itlives said:

This is kind of like a "staging" trip for larger ones! See what works, throw out what doesn't or what you didn't use.
It's all a learning time. It's good you have a wife that will go with you!~

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Exactly! I have to say that I'm lucky in that on other trips she is very low maintenance and brings only essentials so I'm not expecting anything different this time. I carry all the extra supplies on my bike anyhow, tools, first aid kit, tire plug kit etc. so she basically will have two empty side bags to use and a tail bag that I'm not even sure she'll need.

As Mike said, she probably won't notice the difference loaded up. I think it's a tribute to the NC's low center of gravity. I know I had mine loaded quite a bit and could tell no difference. Enjoy the trip!

itlives said:

This is kind of like a "staging" trip for larger ones! See what works, throw out what doesn't or what you didn't use.
It's all a learning time. It's good you have a wife that will go with you!~

Click to expand...

Cathy and I are doing the same. It has been fun doing it together. Enjoy.

Have a great ride and enjoy some down time.

Awesome. Have a great time and be safe.

Sent from my Galaxy S5

Garydj said:

As Mike said, she probably won't notice the difference loaded up. I think it's a tribute to the NC's low center of gravity. I know I had mine loaded quite a bit and could tell no difference. Enjoy the trip!

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I agree. I've told her that on my FJR with both side cases loaded and the travel bag on (which is over 50 liters capacity) I can't feel one bit of difference. I'm sure she'll forget all about the side cases shortly into the trip.

The fun has begun. Ride!

Sounds like fun, enjoy!
I remember my first motorcycle trip, bent my clutch lever at the end of day 1, husband tried to straighten it the next morning and snapped it off. Then 'showers' turned into heavy thunderstorms and reports of hail...good times.

Day 1

Today is the day we set off (well actually it was Thursday and I am just posting this now). The plan was to leave around 3-4pm and since it had been raining all day I decided to zip the rain liners in our riding gear. Off course all you seasoned riders know that the fastest way to have rain stop is to put on rain gear and it seemed to work this time also. I no sooner got it all zipped and snapped into our jackets and pants and the sky cleared up and turned blue.



That was ok by me. I quickly removed the rain liners as it was a little too hot outside and we set to load up the bikes. I should also mention that at exactly this time, UPS showed up with my new GoPro camera but I didn't feel like messing with it and delay our departure so it remained behind. I would mildly regret this later in our trip.

Bikes loaded and ready to go...



Mrs. Siverhound ready to get geared up.



Youngest daughter and my "Silver Hound" saying good bye



So off we went heading north into PA. The ride to our first night destination would cover about 85 miles and take about 2 hours without stopping on the back road route I planned. Traffic was a little heavy as we were leaving our town and had to go through a few other suburbs before getting out into the country. The air after the rain was now hot and humid. A little sticky even in the mesh gear but not terrible. Once we got into the countryside things cooled down both because the temp dropped a little and also because we didn't have to stop as much. We followed route 611 which runs along the Delaware River and is very picturesque in some places. We stopped at a scenic overlook about an hour into the trip for a couple pix and so my wife could stretch her legs.

At the scenic overlook along the Delaware River




After that we headed up some more backroads to route 209 and then 402 which was beautiful and then finally a short bit on Route 6 into Hawley PA which was our destination for the night. We stayed at a cool Hotel called The Ledges which was converted from a glass works mill built in the late 1800's.

We have arrived at the hotel



Bikes parked for the night



This is why they call it The Ledges



All in all a great first day.

Looks like a big happy family there. Have fun!

Looks like a good time.I have sat on a few fjr now,they seem to be a nice ride,I need to test one out next.

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Wonderful pics and big smiles! Very nice overnight ride!

I put 80k miles on a 2006 FJR and it was an outstanding motorcycle. I did change out the stock seat for a Bill Meyers and it made a world of difference for me. Very fast, great in the corners and it pulled like a mule. I may get another one someday myself.

Day 2

Day 2 started off with a good breakfast at a local old-timey diner we walked to from the hotel.



Wife "carb-loading" for the ride



Ready to hit the road



We rode around Lake Wallenpaupack which is the third largest lake in PA and was man-made by Pennsylvania Power and Light in 1926. It's about 13 miles long and has 52 miles of shoreline.



It couldn't have been a much more beautiful day for riding. 70 degrees, low humidity and sunny. Explored both the main roads and some smaller side roads too. A couple times we wandered onto roads marked Private and had to turn around. I guess we spent about 5-6 hours riding only stopping for lunch and the occasional photo-opp.



Helmet selfies



Power Ranger



Headed back to the hotel after a good day of riding. Back to reality tomorrow. It was nice to get away for a little bit. Wife overcame her concern about the side cases I guess after realizing that she couldn't even tell the difference with or without them. She's getting better with each ride. Next trip will be longer and have some video to accompany it.

Enjoyed your report. Glad you had a good time. Looking forward to more RRs.

Cheers,

Mike