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Bill Royal, Editor |
July 2002 |
HSTA Websites: Florida HSTA Home Page HSTA National Website
Run to the Runway Welcome to the Club
Recall Notices Email List Updates Rides/Events
Submitted By: Bill Royal
Despite the schedule of STAR the last week of the month, we still managed to get off one lunch ride in June. The new “South” lunch ride went to the Runway Café at the Sebring Regional Airport on Saturday, June 8th. Despite the weather forecast of 50% chance of showers, several riders left the Sun City Center meeting place at 10:00 AM for the 90+ mile ride over to the airport. The start wasn’t without a few wrinkles however, as there was some confusion over where the meeting spot was such that Henry Custer and I departed, without knowing we were leaving three other riders in the other side of the parking lot! Fortunately, they saw us drive by and gave chase, though not in time for all to follow us directly. Two of the riders, Donna Williams and Gerry Stellwagen missed us turning south on US301. Fortunately, the third rider, Mike Donlin saw us make the turn and caught up with us a mile or so down the road. Once we were aware of the additional riders, we turned back and caught up with them about a mile east of Wimauma. Now, since this little diversion had deterred us from our planned route, I did have to do a bit of dancing to get us back on the planned route, but that turned out to be a blessing as I managed to discover a new (to me) road that connects SR62 and SR64 and it turned out to be a nice road with little traffic, some nice sweepers and a few 90’s as well. We rode very well together as a group, with me in the lead and cranking it up for the sweepers for Gerry on his VFR to follow, then to slow back down on the straights so the rest of the group would catch back up. We made it over to the airport exactly as scheduled—which was about 15 minutes early and went inside. Shortly after sitting down we were joined by a couple more riders—one, a friend of mine who lives in Sebring—John Rousch, came by on his Gold Wing, and another HSTA rider from Orlando, Ron McNary showed up on his ST. We even got a little entertainment during lunch as the table next to us was a birthday party for some octogenarian and they had brought in a female impersonator as a gag—what a riot!
From Right: Ron McNary, Henry Custer, John Rousch, Mike Donlin, Donna Williams, Gerry Stellwagen Bikes from right: Ron’s ST, Donna’s SilverWing, Mike’s GoldWing, Henry’s Reflex (mostly hidden by the GoldWing!) Gerry’s VFR John’s Wing is hidden by the crowd, and my ST is out of the picture to the left. We shot the breeze for quite a while, in complete defiance of the building thunderclouds. Finally, around 1:30, we split, though again with a bit of trouble. Ron McNary had misplaced his keys to his mount. This wasn’t discovered until the rest of us were all ready to go, so Ron told us to go on ahead and he would check inside the restaurant to see if he left them there. I hated to leave him like that, but later that evening I got an email from him that the keys had been left inside at the cashier’s station so he was fine. In fact, he reported a fun ride home on some back roads with “Montana” speed limits ;-)
Our group proceeded back on a slightly different route that took us up through Avon park where we bid adieu to Mike and Donna who wanted to explore something or other up towards Lakeland. So now it was just Henry, Gerry and me for the remainder of the ride home. On this altered route, I explored yet another little gem of a stretch which connects Wauchula with SR64 again and we played on that for a bit, and then again some more sweeper strafing on SR64. The clouds were building and along with them some stiff, but refreshingly cool wind gusts as well, and I was thinking we might not make it home dry. As we headed west on SR64 again, I could see lightning off to the south west and was thinking Gerry was gonna get rained on for sure with his destination being Venice. The plan was for Henry and me to turn North on SR675 and when we did and waved goodbye to Gerry, I was starting to pat myself on the back for having chosen a route that missed the rain. Well, about 3 miles up the roughly 10 mile stretch of 675, we started to get sprinkled on. By another mile or two it was an outright downpour! Once we made the turn onto US301 for the final leg home, the original plan was for Henry to accompany me all the way to Sun City, despite a cutoff that’s a bit shorter to his house. Apparently the rain had made him re-consider, and he waved goodbye to me at the turn. I couldn’t blame him! But, as luck would have it, just a mile or so north of that cutoff, I ran out of the rain! Yippee!!! Would Henry be so lucky? I called him later and he was still drying off… It had rained hard on him the entire remainder of the leg home. Oh well… I also heard later by email from Gerry. Just after we split, he had stopped to don his rain gear and just in time. It was a deluge for him all the way home, but he remained dry since he had the forethought to don the rain gear.
In any event, it was pretty clear that we’d all had an enjoyable day of riding. My stats for the ride were 183.2 miles, in 3 Hrs. 25 minutes of riding time. Avg. speed 53.5, top speed: Classified!
So that’s how they ran that Saturday for another fun HSTA Lunch Ride. So if you’re feeling like you missed out—be sure to make plans to make one of the upcoming rides. And even if you’re not near a group going, make your own ride to the lunch point. The lunch is the excuse, the ride is the point!
We would like to extend a hearty and sincere welcome to the following recent new members. Thank you for choosing to join our group. Many long lasting friendships have begun here and we hope your experience will be a satisfying one!
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Juan Basanez - Miami |
| Motorcycle
related items - wanted or for sale, riding buddies or room mates for
events can be placed right here - for free! Just send them to arrive by
the 20th for the next month's publication. Send to Bill Royal, 1515
Blackstone Circle, Sun City Center, FL. 33573 or email to wgr@sprynet.com. For Sale 1997 BMW F650 - Beautiful red dual sport bike with 13k miles, in excellent condition. New Metzler Tourance tires (plus a spare set of Pirellis). BMW tankbag, Sargent seat, BMW handguards, gell grips. Just had major service by BMW Daytona. $4200. Bill Robinson at 904-730-9719, warrior@aol.com. 1989 Honda GB500. Incredible original collector bike with only 2400 miles! Purchased from Honda corporate employee. Multiple award winner, including best street stock in Riding Into History Concours. Runs and handles beautifully. New Avon tires, color matched cafe fairing. May be the best looking bike Honda ever made. $4750. Contact Bill at 904-730-9719, warrior@aol.com |
1997 VFR 750
- red, excellent condition, not a scratch
always adult owned / ridden and dealer serviced. heli-bars,
throttlemeister, tank bra, tail cap, carbon fiber pipe, shop manual, will
deliver. $5750 OBO 1999 ST1100 - black, 24,900 miles. All the fluids have been changed, including the rear end and radiator. Tires are in good shape. No scratches, dents and the black paint is in very good condition. Options include brighter bulbs with h4 adapters, head lite modulator, euro wind deflectors over the mirrors speed bleeders on the brakes, BMW grips, tour master tank bag and tail bag. It has the stock windshield and seat.. $ 7700 or best offer. Mitch at 954 894 9595 or mitch96@pobox.com |
Submitted by: Phil Ridgdill
Its STAR time again, you know that mega gathering that all of us attend at one time or another. I missed last year but I will not miss it this year. Florida is usually represented quite well, hope it’s that way this year. I was a little surprised when Hot Springs was announced, kind of thought it would be CA, guess nobody volunteered to organize it and do all the WORK. From what I hear Tom & Dottie Powers & all the other volunteers have set up a fantastic event for us. Can you imagine all the effort it takes to organize the HSTA STAR event, before I even arrive, thank you to Tom & Dottie Powers and the Arkansas HSTA for taking this on.
I heard a little rumor running around Daytona. It seems that there have been many complaints about the noise during Bike Week and the rumor is they will crack down on the noise during Octoberfest. Yea ,Yea I know they always say this but something tells me this year they will do it. If the city of Daytona does it you can bet your bottom dollar that when the Volusia County realizes how much $$$ is being put into the City Treasury the County will want to fill their money pot also, ditto the FHP. Should be interesting.
For all of you interested in the new ST1300, there are some interesting sites on the internet concerning the ST1300. Personally I think I’ll hang on to my ST1100 for awhile longer. Bill Royal has been keeping up with all the info on the new ST, check with him for the web site. BTW wouldn’t it be nice if Honda brought a new ST1300 to STAR for us to demo ride, we’ll just have to wait and see.
I haven’t worked out a destination for our July lunch ride but I will have the date/destination sorted out after STAR and I’ll put it out on the net.
If you think this is a plug, it is. I think that 13% maybe its 17% of our national membership are BMW owners and I’d like point out to you that Daytona BMW Motorcycle dealership is owned and operated by HSTA members, Norm & Maggie Nelson. This is a Motorcycle Friendly Dealership, Norm & Maggie are always there to greet you, have an excellent location, great selection of new bikes and at the present time they are renovating their main display area. As I understand it they will have separate display area for Pre-Owned Motorcycles, all brands, plus an extensive display of motorcycle apparel. The service dept is excellent, Mark Sanchez is the service manager, you got a problem give him a call, you’ll find friendly people the service also. This is a fine Motorcycle Shop, if you’re in Daytona, stop in and visit you’ll like the shop.
Here is a stumper for all of you, lets just see if anybody knows the answer.
“A low four wheeled pleasure carriage for two with a calash top and a raised seat in front for the driver”
Anybody know what it is????
Ride Safe
Phil Ridgdill
Submitted By: Bill Royal
Think you’re riding a safe machine?
Here’s a safety tip I recently discovered. There are a surprisingly large number of safety related recalls on motorcycles. I discovered this when I saw one for a new BMW and thought I would maybe add recall notices as a regular article to this newsletter—that is, until I saw the large number and detail on such recalls. I didn’t even have room to run the entirety of the one recall I was looking at! Although you would likely get notified if you were the original owner of a new motorcycle, the chances of notification drop significantly if you’re an owner of a used machine!. So, if you are in this latter case, I would strongly urge you to take a few moments out to do some research on your specific year, make and model to verify what if any recalls have been issued and then determine if your machine was ever repaired if affected. The best place I found for finding such notices is on the NHTSA web site located at: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Now, if you don’t have access to the web, I would be happy to offer the service of looking up your machine if you will call or post me with your machine’s year make and model information. See my contact info on the front page of this newsletter.
Submitted By: Bill Royal
If you have email, I would strongly urge you to update us with your email address. There are circumstances, such as this month, where ride details are not able to be determined in time to make it into the newsletter. When that happens, only email or the telephone are left, and phones can require long distance charges.
We currently have roughly half of the state membership’s valid email addresses. If you have email, but have NOT received an email from Phil or myself over the last couple of months, you are likely not on our lists. If that’s the case, PLEASE send me your address so you can be added to our distribution list. We send out only 3-4 message a month and your address will be hidden from the distribution so that if forwarded to folks outside of the group you address won’t be available for spamming so there really is no reason not to be on the list.
Also, if you change email addresses, please be sure to update us as well. It is not uncommon to receive several “bounce” messages when sending to the list due to folks who’ve changed but not updated us with their new address. When that happens, you get dropped from the list until you update us.
Updates to: wgr@sprynet.com
Ride/Events are compiled for your convenience from a variety of sources. HSTA Sponsored rides are indicated with the "¨" symbol. If you are considering making any of the rides we suggest you call the contact ahead of time to confirm the ride is still on as listed.
¨
HSTA Florida South Lunch Ride - Saturday July 13th - Noon, Frostproof, FL. Join us at Jack’s Diner - 18 West Wall St., just west of US27. This is a new ride, targeted to give the membership in the south central and southern part of the state an opportunity to make a ride and meet fellow members. It’s no more than 2.5 hrs or 150 miles from Melbourne, Miami, Tampa, Naples or any points in between! OK, so this one is a bit further than that from Miami. Remember, HSTA membership is NOT required, and friends, wives, etc. are always welcome at our lunch rides! Contact: Bill Royal at 813-633-8155 or wgr@sprynet.comEmerald Coast Bike Fest - Friday, July 19th—Sunday, July 21st, Holt, FL. The Annual Emerald Coast Bikefest Will Be Held At The Emerald Coast Dragway In Holt Florida (near Pensacola). A Three Day Bikefest Featuring Top Fuel Dragbikes, Bracket Racing, Live Bands, Vendors, Camping, Bike Show, Wet T Shirt Contest, Food, Beverages & Lots More. All Bikes Welcome. Tickets Available At The Gate And Include A Camping Spot. Price Depends On What Day You Arrive And Covers The Remainder Of The Event. Friday $25, Saturday $20, Sunday $10. Vendors Please E-Mail sales@emeraldcoastbikefest.com Or Call (850) 582-6988. Be Sure To Check Out Our Web Site For Updated Information Including Driving Directions. http://www.emeraldcoastbikefest.com/ Everyone Welcome!
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HSTA Florida North Lunch Ride - There will be a lunch ride in July, later in the month, but details were unavailable for this publication so you’ll have to watch your email for the announcement. If you don’t have email or aren’t on our distribution list, be sure to get in touch with a member who is to stay posted if you want to make that ride.¨ And all the rest of the HSTA National schedule...
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Date |
Event |
Location |
Contact |
| Jun. 23-26 | STAR 2002 | Hot Springs, Arkansas |
Tom Powers (501) 915-9416 Portcall@aol.com |
| Aug. 23-25 | Mail Pouch Fly-by | Marietta, Ohio |
Jon Campbell (513) 932-3341 jcampbell7@cinci.rr.com |
| Sep. 06-08 | Ozark BS Rally | Theodosia, Missouri |
Ed Young (417) 926-3075 magna@fidnet.com |
| Sep. 13-15 | SE-Star | Dillard, Georgia |
Trey Hall (615) 574-9927 strey1100@aol.com |
| Sep. 27-29 | Byway Boogie | Hot Springs Village, Arkansas |
Tom Trieschmann (314) 692-7463 ttriesch@mindspring.com |
| Oct. 04-06 | River City Ride | Corydon, Indiana |
Don Parish (317) 936-5818 mparish@hrtc.net |
| Oct. 11-13 | FOF X | Parkshills, Missouri |
James Radcliff (314) 213-5854 jradcliff@frenchgerleman.com |
| Nov. 01-03 | Texas Hill Country | Kerrville, Texas |
Jim Poulos (817) 268-4620 jamo1935@aol.com |
Submitted By: Henry Custer
1. A motorcycle cannot fall over without a crowd.
2. The odds of a motorcycle falling over are directly proportional to the size of the audience and the owners ego. (the newness and expense of the bike may also factor into this).
3. Motorcycles are to yellow bugs as aircraft carriers once were to kamikaze pilots.
4. You will not feel a need to go to the restroom until after you have put on your rain suit.
5. The fact that your keys are in your pants pocket will only become apparent after you have put your gloves on.
6. Quick fixes are so named for how long they stay fixed.
7. The only part you really need will also be the only one on permanent backorder.
8. Nothing is harder to start than a used motorcycle being shown to a prospective buyer.
9. You will never have a flat tire on the road unless you leave the flat repair kit at home.
10 Universal Kit accessories are so named because they fit no bike in the universe.
