The Ride: Last Saturday's Ride

So I'm a slacker...sue me. You won't get much anyway...hehe.

Last Saturday there was an early bird ride sponsored by Eldridge's Harley-Davidson/Honda. It was a the first ride of the season and come Hades or high waters I was going to be there.
Speaking of Hades...damn, it was warm! It was officially our warmest day of the year. It easily hit 30 C (86 F) and made me regret gearing up with all my warm stuff. I was just glad I didn't wear my leather riding pants...yowch!

The day started off much earlier then normal for a Saturday. Everything started at 11AM, but they were expecting a big turn out. That meant me and Joey were up and out the door before 10AM. Believe me, that is much earlier then I would ever get up on a weekend, but I wanted to make sure we were registered and ahead of everyone else in order to keep the day from getting frustrating.

The day was planned as such:
11:00AM: Registration
11:30AM: Barbeque and Show & Shine
1:30PM: Ride starts
Coffee and Doughnut stop halfway in Sussex, NB
Meet up back in Saint John at the Aquarius Bar with prize draws.

I entered Selene in the Show & Shine, but was doomed from the start. She was the only metric in the bunch and she was parked between two custom Harleys. The one to her left was a $30, 000 factory custom springer and on her right was a 2000 Road King that had just had a custom fairing installed that cost $2300. Yeah, she didn't stand a chance.

For the ride we had a police escort out of town. There is nothing like having traffic in all directions halted so you can go through a red light or stop sign. After that, things kind of deteriorated in my eyes. The ride itself was way too fast. On our back roads the speed limit is around 80km/h, but we were easily doing 100km/h plus. I have no problems with going fast and can easily keep up with the best of riders. I also have no doubts about my skills, but a group ride should not be running at those speeds on iffy back roads. I also prefer to keep up with the main group instead of getting left behind, but I was stuck behind someone who obviously had issues with negotiating turns with his motorcycle. On a straight stretch, he would gun it to catch up to the main group, but slow down once a turn came up. I can respect that and I will always be repectful of etiquet on a ride, so I won't pass someone who is having trouble because that can only make things worse. I just find it frustrating.

Here is the biggest problem of the ride though. The halfway stop was not for coffee and doughnuts like the flyer said. The stop was at the Thirsty Mule Saloon in Sussex, NB. It was nice to be able to get something to eat and drink, but seeing so many people drinking alchohol during an H-D sponsored run was very...unnerving. I'm glad that everyone went their separate ways to go back to Saint John, but the last meet up was at another bar!

I'm seriously debating about not going on another of thier group rides. I don't really have an issue with drinks after the ride is over, but during just isn't right and shouldn't be allowed. Double that when talking about rides sponsored by a local dealership with Harley-Davidson attached to the name.

All said and done we were sun burnt, wind burnt, saddle sore, downright exhausted and somewhat annoyed...but we still had fun.