Well, I waited long enough to put this together so here goes:
On July 15th, with 4 hours of sleep, two mates and I set out North from DC to Toronto along with the sunrise.
Our bikes were packed and setup for mild touring. I put on 5 dollar stair tread tank grip specials from the orange home improvement store, a throttle paddle, padded shorts, and a MILSPEC DIY gun box luggage system to complete the list of mods for this trip. The two guys with the bird and the VFR didn't have much faith in my @ss and the tourability of the CBR... They were wrong and b!tched more than I did with their throttle locks and Corbin seats.
Gear: Icon Alliance Dark, upper from the Teknic Chicane two piece, JR alter ego 2.0 pants, TUG EVS vented shorts, A* SMX5 boots, and some Fly racing Brawler gloves.
The image isn't from the trip but the bike is setup exactly as when we took off. I found the gun box while roaming about a gun show in VA from a collector. He didn't seem to mind much what my plans were with it. Maybe I'll make a quick post later on how I mounted it since it's not the purpose of this thread.
The morning was quite uneventful save for a fuel stop both for bikes and ourselves at a Bob Evans in Hagerstown. Their egg bowl mash of breakfast food was awesome.
We got lucky with the weather as it was pretty much overcast until we got to Central PA so the heat was down and humidity didn't feel as awful. Once we were in the mountains of PA, humidity was minimal, the temperatures were nice and cool, and the sun was shining to boot. This lasted all the way to Niagara.
Here's a pit stop 20 miles South of Altoona, PA. The VFR looked like it was losing rear tire pressure.
And the other side
Another fuel stop in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a whole lotta nothing.
When in PA, it's a matter of fact that you stop by and refuel at a Sheetz. Plus I like the look of my bike so here's a shameless self promotion shot:
We did try to find the first Sheetz but it turns out that by now it's a hollowed out building... So that was skipped. Plus we were already a few hours behind schedule at this point anyway.
NY welcoming committee:
We got clocked going 70 on a 55 by the NY State popo just as we crossed the state line. When we saw the lights, our butts clenched and prepared for the fines... My experience is that the cops are more likely to hand out tickets to far-out-of-state motorists because there's little chance the accused would contest.
So we shut the bikes off, took off our gear while the trooper waited in his SUV, and prayed to whatever gods we could name. The dude came, took our documents and went back to run them through. We didn't bother with excuses and simply told him we're coming from the DC area to Toronto. As he came out of his SUV, I saw he only had our licenses and registration papers in his hands. You guys can imagine the tween-girl-squeals I wanted to let out in joy. So he gave us a verbal warning and told us to get on the way. I didn't miss a beat and asked for a photo-op. The man is now a hero in my books.
The rest of the road through NY was pretty uneventful save for some gorgeous roads that I enjoyed too much to stop and take pictures of.
/end pt1
On July 15th, with 4 hours of sleep, two mates and I set out North from DC to Toronto along with the sunrise.
Our bikes were packed and setup for mild touring. I put on 5 dollar stair tread tank grip specials from the orange home improvement store, a throttle paddle, padded shorts, and a MILSPEC DIY gun box luggage system to complete the list of mods for this trip. The two guys with the bird and the VFR didn't have much faith in my @ss and the tourability of the CBR... They were wrong and b!tched more than I did with their throttle locks and Corbin seats.
Gear: Icon Alliance Dark, upper from the Teknic Chicane two piece, JR alter ego 2.0 pants, TUG EVS vented shorts, A* SMX5 boots, and some Fly racing Brawler gloves.
The image isn't from the trip but the bike is setup exactly as when we took off. I found the gun box while roaming about a gun show in VA from a collector. He didn't seem to mind much what my plans were with it. Maybe I'll make a quick post later on how I mounted it since it's not the purpose of this thread.
The morning was quite uneventful save for a fuel stop both for bikes and ourselves at a Bob Evans in Hagerstown. Their egg bowl mash of breakfast food was awesome.
We got lucky with the weather as it was pretty much overcast until we got to Central PA so the heat was down and humidity didn't feel as awful. Once we were in the mountains of PA, humidity was minimal, the temperatures were nice and cool, and the sun was shining to boot. This lasted all the way to Niagara.
Here's a pit stop 20 miles South of Altoona, PA. The VFR looked like it was losing rear tire pressure.
And the other side
Another fuel stop in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a whole lotta nothing.
When in PA, it's a matter of fact that you stop by and refuel at a Sheetz. Plus I like the look of my bike so here's a shameless self promotion shot:
We did try to find the first Sheetz but it turns out that by now it's a hollowed out building... So that was skipped. Plus we were already a few hours behind schedule at this point anyway.
NY welcoming committee:
We got clocked going 70 on a 55 by the NY State popo just as we crossed the state line. When we saw the lights, our butts clenched and prepared for the fines... My experience is that the cops are more likely to hand out tickets to far-out-of-state motorists because there's little chance the accused would contest.
So we shut the bikes off, took off our gear while the trooper waited in his SUV, and prayed to whatever gods we could name. The dude came, took our documents and went back to run them through. We didn't bother with excuses and simply told him we're coming from the DC area to Toronto. As he came out of his SUV, I saw he only had our licenses and registration papers in his hands. You guys can imagine the tween-girl-squeals I wanted to let out in joy. So he gave us a verbal warning and told us to get on the way. I didn't miss a beat and asked for a photo-op. The man is now a hero in my books.
The rest of the road through NY was pretty uneventful save for some gorgeous roads that I enjoyed too much to stop and take pictures of.
/end pt1