I sent out a note to the local NE LDRiders to met at Joey's Diner, and got a few positives so it was on. At 5:30 AM our neighbor hood wood pecker started trying to bore holes into the roof. Nothing like a jackhammer on your house first thing in the morning to get you going! By 6 AM I was suited up and heading out the door with more then enough time to make the short 100 mile ride. After exploring a bit in NH I pulled into the lot to be greeted by 2 other riders., David 'Cdog' Riley and Bob St. George.
After some catching up we headed in for a good breakfast. After awhile Andy Kirby showed up followed by Ray Dole and his son. One great thing about RTEs is that everyone is off the clock and the stories and tales of rally's and rides past is always entertaining and helpful to those of us that are newer in this sport. We continued into the parking lot and checked out the bikes and kick some tires. After a bit Ray had to take off while the rest of us followed Cdog back to house for some trading and 'upgrades' to my Wing. A result of an insurance claim awhile ago I had an extra set of headlights that had some minor scratches that were just taking up space. I remembered that Cdog mention awhile ago that his lights were looking a bit worn out after the 130k+ miles they had on them. So I offer them up to him for some extra farkles he had. David loves to keep tweaking his bike and tying new things and ideas so he has quite a collection of extras. Two items I was interested in was a Dash shelf and a Hopnel tank and saddle bag system.
We had a typical NH ride up and down a winding road, which would have been better if the SUVs were not in our way. Arriving at David's house he pulled my bike on to his motorcycle bike lift. I swapped out the headlights and Dave pulled out my choice of dash shelves, I went with the Ron Smith Shelf since it seemed to offer a bit more space to work with.
David added the 'wings' on each side with some additional bracing so this is a very unique piece of equipment. I plan to move my GPS, radar, EZ Pass and map light (that Dave also threw into the deal).
Dave then mounted up the saddlebags which I had noticed a lot of Wing riders using to carry snacks and other easy to grab items from the cockpit. There is a tank bag but it blocks the wing audio controls and gas tank door so I doubt I'll use it in a rally in this position.
What seems to happen when your bike is up on a lift is that every one get's in their looks and 'recommendations'. It was noted that I did not have a lanyard for my gas cap and once again Dave came to the rescue to build me up one right there!
At the end of the day I had several nice new additions for the Wing and David had a set of 'newer' headlights. I am amazed at how generous this group of Long Distance Riders is when you are relatively new and learning from those that have been there done that. It will be hard to move south, but as it was pointed out today by Bob, AL is only a quick SS1000 ride to New England!
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