Adventures By Guy

I have been doing spring rides down in Northern Georgia for about 6 yrs now. I discovered what a wonderful place that the Appalachian Mountains are to ride… either on pavement or gravel.. sometimes we go to West Virginia too.

What a day… 198 miles! We left Resaca, Georgia and headed east on 136 and then north up 411. Turned East again and hit gravel/rock road on a big loop up in the mountains Northeast of Ellijay. (Big Frog Road) They have had a lot of rain down here lately and there were active water crossings and a lot of soft patches to cross while going down the gravel/rock road. By gravel rock road I mean bedrock sticking out of the ground, mud, baby heads all over (rocks sticking up the size of baby heads… hey. It’s what they call them) with steep grades going up and down… we are in the Georgia mountains after all! Temps came up to 71°F and all was good. No dust so that was great. While going up a steep grade I took a spill. Mike went up on the far right and his rear tire slide over a bit. I went up on the left and then saw the groove I had been following turned into a very deep wash out rut. So I got out of it and tried climbing the wet bedrock at an angle and my rear tire slid out and the bike layed over and I rolled off. I was fine and the bike was fine. Trevor helped me get the bike up and I was able to get going and made it the rest of the way up. First thing Mike asks… Trevor, did you get that on film? Yes, I did! Perfect! Then it was Trevor’s turn and he spilled too. His second run at it and he went right up. I almost went over two more times. Once in mud when the tire slid out and I was sideways going down a steep grade. Was able to correct it and keep going. Then the guys behind me saw the deep scars in the mud and asked me about it. I admitted that I almost wiped out.
We got through the first section and it was a bit rough. The next section was new to us and it was even worse. That’s where I went down. It took us 7 hrs of riding to cover the 198 miles. My app auto pauses the time when we are stopped. So that 7 hrs is with none of the breaks we took.
Before we left Resaca we filled up our tanks and this was the first time with the new custom 8 gallon tank. Trevor (Wymbly1971 for the forum folks) has his stock Super Tenere. I asked him to let me know when his gas gage went to ¾. My tank adds the two gallons in height so it is all above where the float for the sending unit (gage float) is. Therefore I show full until the gas level drops below the floats top position. At around 75 miles Trevor let’s me know it changed to ¾ full. All through the day we ask each other how full is your tank. We do this so we can be aware of people’s need for gas. Trevor got to half and let us know. Mike was at half too. Guy, what do you have. I’m still on full. Towards the end of the day they are concerned about finding a way out as they were down to a quarter of a tank. Guy? I am still showing full! That float has to be stuck. Maybe, but I am averaging 41 mpg. I figure the stock tank goes down 2 gallons before it moves from full to ¾. So I think I will have to get near 160 miles before it drops. We finally find a way out after going the wrong way several times and ending at campsites or closed roads. Trevor figured out a path. We had just got off one of the worst roads of the day. It was really ugly (treacherous) and it ended up at a campsite and road closed beyond the campsite.
Down we went and the pavement came along and it was a wonderful curvy road with perfect pavement. It was Blue Ridge rd and it ended in Blue Ridge, Georgia. They gassed up… Guy, where you at? I’m still on full! You better fill up because that gage HAS TO BE STUCK! Ok, I will fill up my spare 2 gallon gas tank. If I run out of gas I can put the 2 gallons in and make it to Resaca. We all agreed that was doable. So… away we went. At 155 miles I sang out… I JUST WENT TO ¾ OF A TANK! Trevor… No way! He was sure it was stuck. At 195 miles… I just went to half… and the we were home. Trevor thinks that the tank has to hold more than 8 gallons as he was down to a ¼ tank before we rode home. I will drain that tank sometime and measure each gallon that goes in and see… sometime in the future. But for now I am happy with the result.

Tank having a high tech clear vinyl like layer put on the tank for protection against scratches from my tank bag.