we2riders Posted November 10, 2012 Share #1 Posted November 10, 2012 Hi All Quick history, kids all finally grew up and left so the wife and I took the summer and rode off on the bike. We call our bike "tweekers" cause I am always tweekin on it, hey dont laugh its old like me.. Anyway, we left in late june for the Dragon, piece of steel 2"x1" went thru brand new back tire on highway - tweekers on roadside, 100 degrees plus, bike and I both sweating, - tire repaired at a place called "Jims" in Johnson City Virginia - great work, showed me their upstairs FULL of really cool vintage bikes - should be a museum.. toured a week in dem dar Southen mountains of Georgia - Tennessee - Alabama - Kentucky and some coal mine ghost town type stuff in Virginia, came back via the Blue Ridge Pk Way, across the yupper mi, thru the upper states, did sturgis before the rally, down the west coast to Baydoga bay, shot over to Sacramento to see 2 of our kids living there - let them support us for 2 weeks while we toured Cali - another new rear tire - took both kids on 3 day trips to the National Parks, headed home - clutch died in Yosimite - more tweekin, found GOLD in Kings Canyon, huge traffic backup between Kings Canyon and Seqoyia NP doing MILES of road repair, down thru Death Valley - FANTASTIC moon lit night - nite riding Death Valley is AWESOME, tweeks LOVED the heat - it WAS hot there, more national parks, still headed for home , made it back to Utah, RAN THE BIKE ON THE BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS - 127 MPH FULLY LOADED WITH TENT AND ALL - wife took a video cause I knew my friends wouldnt believe me, still headed home via the sturgis rally. Needles Hwy, Custer, Deadwood, Lead, Hwy 16a all NOT as much fun with all the other bikes around - conjestion like California! Helped fix 3 broken bikes - all had Oil Pump Chain Tensioner problems - weird but true!! If I rode a new HD I would definitly go gear drive.. Main power wire for ignition on tweeks came unplugged, died on 90, HD rider I helped earlier stopped while I was dismantling bike, little more tweeking.. Sturgis was good again, I thought lower count than years past. Fun to hang out at sturgis on an old venture covered in NP stickers and dirt and tent on back and water jug hanging from antenna cause everyone stares at you and thats the point of the ralley hahahahaha.. Another week of camping (never been a hotel kinda guy, my WIFE spent almost 2 months living out of a tent with me on this one - over 17 thousand miles and only complained a couple times - about the heat..) Finally got back to Michigan at end of August, did some more tweekin and went chasing the REAL old bikes that were doing the "Cannonball".. Great summer!! Got "told" about Venturerider out at Sturgis of all places, wrote it down and just found it in my notes so here I am,, and the above is my story... NICE SITE HERE FOLKS!!! From what I have read and seen here it looks like my kinda place.. Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eck Posted November 10, 2012 Share #2 Posted November 10, 2012 Welcome Aboard Scott. Go grab a cold drink and jump right in anytime here. If you have any questions, feel free to post a thread and ask the question. You can bet someone will chime in..but be careful for there are a few here that like to pull your chain when you least expect it. In the next few months, check in on the VR rally section for upcoming events and keep your eye ont he M&E (meet & eat) section in case there is one going on in your neck of the woods. With winter soon to be on the door step, the M&E's may be fewer and father apart until next spring.. Enjoy!, and again.. welcome aboard...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bongobobny Posted November 10, 2012 Share #3 Posted November 10, 2012 Ya know, I was watching an episode of American Pickers the other nite and saw in the background at Sturgis Bike week a maroon 1st gen! Wonder if it was yours?!!? Welcome aboard, yes you will fit right in here!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freebird Posted November 10, 2012 Share #4 Posted November 10, 2012 That was just a GREAT introduction. Welcome again and we hope to see you more around here and on the road. I see that you are in Michigan. You are plenty close to make my annual Maintenance Day in Oberlin, OH in June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eusa1 Posted November 10, 2012 Share #5 Posted November 10, 2012 Welcome from Illinois! Please Attend our international ralley in Galena Illinois at the end of next july Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickardracing Posted November 10, 2012 Share #6 Posted November 10, 2012 Welcome Scott. Where about in Michigan are you located? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragtop69gs Posted November 10, 2012 Share #7 Posted November 10, 2012 Welcome aboard Scott, Looks like you had a great summer, thanks for sharing some of your fun with us. Do you have any tips for me, I'd love to get my wife to do a tent camping trip on the bike What part of Meechigan you in ? I'm in West Bloomfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etcswjoe Posted November 11, 2012 Share #8 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carbon_One Posted November 11, 2012 Share #9 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome from another Michigan member down in the south east corner by Detroit Metro Airport. Great ride you had this summer and thanks for sharing. I also have a "83" that I've been tweeking a bit. Hopefully I'll have it where I want it come spring. Today I just got home with a "09" 2nd gen that's getting some changes made during the winter so I'll be plenty busy enough.Hope you're close enough we can get together some. Later, Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzyRSTD Posted November 11, 2012 Share #10 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome Scott. I sure would hope that you could post that video of the 127 mph ride. You found the best place on the web for your you and your family and especially your bike. Again, welcome aboard. I would like to highly recommend the above post to attend Freebird's Maintenance Day. :thumbsup2: :LIME: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venturous Randy Posted November 11, 2012 Share #11 Posted November 11, 2012 Hey Scott, welcome aboard and it is a shame you did not join and get the members list before you took your trip. I say this because I only live a couple of miles from Jim's Motorcycle shop and it is actually in Johnson City, Tennessee, not Virginia. I have a trailer and a good place to work on the bike and you would have been welcome. Yes, Jim's could be a museum. He still has a Ducati Diana Mark III still in the crate and I believe it is about a 1965 model. If you ever get through this area again, please let us know and we may be able to put together a meet & eat and get to know you. I also have an 83 I have put 135,000 miles on in the 16 years I have had it and I also have an 85. RandyA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adventurer 08 Posted November 11, 2012 Share #12 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome Scott, my wife and i ride around the Macomb Mich. aera so maybe will cross paths sometime . What part of mich. are you from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caveman Posted November 11, 2012 Share #13 Posted November 11, 2012 NICE! Welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chabicheka Posted November 11, 2012 Share #14 Posted November 11, 2012 Great tweakin' story! :LIME: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
we2riders Posted November 11, 2012 Author Share #15 Posted November 11, 2012 WOW, thanks for the warmth of a great "welcome"!!! Lets see here, Cher (my wife) and I live in Muskegon Mi, on the north side of Muskegon Lake, zip is 49445 if anyone wants to mapquest us.. Been reading on here about you folks and your "maintenance days" and your meet and eats.. All sounds great, we LOVE meetin new fellow riders, have always enjoyed tweekin bikes making em run a few more miles and we really like FOOD :rotf:sounds like we may be meetin some of you folks.. Those folks at "Jims" down south were really good to us, sold us a brand new Dunlop for 112 bucks INSTALLED, gave me the grand tour upstairs and while walking thru the "museum" up there the guy reached down, pulled out a "Jims Tee shirt", handed it to me and said, anyone with the guts to ride cross country on an old bike like that deserves one of these".. I would LOVE to know what episode of "pickers" that was!!! Our bike is very disquishable cause tweekers is maroon with gold side panels (I actually did that cause our first venture was a gold 84 Royale that my kids and I wore out back in the late 80's and those side panels are off that very bike).. It would be easy to tell if it were tweekers.. Now, how to get your wife to go live in a tent for a couple months... We have 4 kids, every year I would take one of them cross country touring, Cher is the respondsible type and always stayed home and watched the other three.. When the last kid went off to college it was almost NATURAL for her to claim that rear saddle for ever more.. Plus, we have always lived very frugally and now its paying off, we BOTH love traveling by bike BIG TIME, we are both "the ride IS the adventure" kinda people - love that feeling you get watching the sun come up and the sun go down and everything in between from the seat of bike and being able to just drop the tent and go to sleep fits us, sleeping under the stars is where its at.. I didnt have to talk her into anything, everyday she talks about our alaskan trip we are planning for 2013.. Gonna try an share the video on here from Bonneville.. If it doesnt show up it means I couldnt fiqure out how to do it. If it doesnt show on here (I am NO computer guy) could someone share with me how to do that? Also, I just went out and snapped some shots of tweekers in her present shape, those stickers were all accumulated over the course of our ride this year, LOTS of great memories there.. I took 20 gig of pics and vids!! I will try and upload that now.. I got a message that the vid is to large, it is 39 MB in size.. If someone could advise me I will do what I can so all can see... In the mean time, here are a couple of still shots of us playing at Bonneville... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Annie Posted November 11, 2012 Share #16 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome to the family from us aussies Hope to see you at Freebirds maintenance Day, and the International Rally..... We is coming :sign woo hoo: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyR Posted November 11, 2012 Share #17 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome You probably want to post that video to YouTube then post a link to it here. Make sure to holler at me next time you're in Ga (I lived in Grayling many moons ago). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bongobobny Posted November 11, 2012 Share #18 Posted November 11, 2012 we really like FOOD :rotf:sounds like we may be meetin some of you folks...The unofficial motto of Ventureriders is "WE ARE AN EATING CLUB WITH A RIDING DISORDER!" Can't remember if it was the Sturgis episode or the one where Frank went to Sturgis and all I saw in the background shot was a front view of a maroon 1st gen for approximately 1.3 seconds so couldn't tell you if it was tweekers or not as I don't think you could see the side panels. I still have my low mileage '84 Goldie that is now my retirement project. It had an electrical fire in '09 and I've been doing a slow restoration on it ever since only working on it in the winter months. Bought "Sexi 2 Timer" new in '09 and triked it a couple of years ago due to health issues. We still ride cross country but Biker Becky isn't a fan of camping so we generally stay in hotels or occasionally at members houses overnight. You definately want to do Maintenance Day in Oberlin Ohio at Freebird's place in June, Don has a huge yard and a pond and many members camp there! You will also enjoy the International Rally this year in Indiana which is a week long event. If you care to "Venture" to Western New York state about 40 miles SE of Buffalo Big Tom puts on an annual regional rally at Pioneer Motorsports and camping is allowed at Pioneer, that is in August. You are going to eventually find out that we are a friendly bunch here albeit a little crazy as well. We are more than an organization, we are Family here!! Welcome to the family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyinfool Posted November 11, 2012 Share #19 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome aboard. In addition to liking FOOD, you will also need to learn to like ICE Cream. Just be careful not not get between Big Tom and the Ice Cream....... The unofficial motto of Ventureriders is "WE ARE AN EATING CLUB WITH A RIDING DISORDER!" Can't remember if it was the Sturgis episode or the one where Frank went to Sturgis and all I saw in the background shot was a front view of a maroon 1st gen for approximately 1.3 seconds so couldn't tell you if it was tweekers or not as I don't think you could see the side panels. I still have my low mileage '84 Goldie that is now my retirement project. It had an electrical fire in '09 and I've been doing a slow restoration on it ever since only working on it in the winter months. Bought "Sexi 2 Timer" new in '09 and triked it a couple of years ago due to health issues. We still ride cross country but Biker Becky isn't a fan of camping so we generally stay in hotels or occasionally at members houses overnight. You definately want to do Maintenance Day in Oberlin Ohio at Freebird's place in June, Don has a huge yard and a pond and many members camp there! You will also enjoy the International Rally this year in Indiana which is a week long event. If you care to "Venture" to Western New York state about 40 miles SE of Buffalo Big Tom puts on an annual regional rally at Pioneer Motorsports and camping is allowed at Pioneer, that is in August. You are going to eventually find out that we are a friendly bunch here albeit a little crazy as well. We are more than an organization, we are Family here!! Welcome to the family! The international for 2013 will be in Galena IL, not in Indiana. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bongobobny Posted November 11, 2012 Share #20 Posted November 11, 2012 Oh well, one of those "EYE" states... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoneman1981 Posted November 11, 2012 Share #21 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome to the site. Interesting reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailor Posted November 11, 2012 Share #22 Posted November 11, 2012 Welcome aboard from your northern neighbors out here on the wet coast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gray Ghost Posted November 11, 2012 Share #23 Posted November 11, 2012 Sounds like a neat trip. I am jealous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIC Posted November 12, 2012 Share #24 Posted November 12, 2012 Just be careful not not get between Big Tom and the Ice Cream....... Yea... we have lost 13, no I think 14 new members this year alone to that mistake... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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