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Bill Royal, Editor |
June 2002 |
HSTA Websites: Florida HSTA Home Page HSTA National Website
A Tale of Two Lunch Rides Welcome to the Club
Routes to the Mountains Ads Ramblin' Around
Our Own Mileage Contest? Thanks to Our Article Contributors Rides/Events
Submitted By: Bill Royal
April 15, 2002,
Okeechobee Lunch Ride
May marked the start of a new attempt to entice HSTA riders from all over the state to make it to a monthly lunch ride. In addition to the well established lunch rides that Phil Ridgdill puts on, usually in the north central part of the state, I (new state co-director, Bill Royal) am trying to establish a second monthly ride that is located more on the south-central part of the state in the hopes that it will be more reachable for the members on the east coast from Titusville to Miami and the west coast from Port Richey to Naples and any/all points in between. To that end, the inaugural “HSTA South Lunch Ride” was held on Saturday, May 11th, with the Clock Restaurant in Okeechobee as the destination.
From the left: Dixie’s 750 Nighthawk, her friend Ron, Dixie Lee, Ron’s Royal Star, Karen (a friend of Eve’s riding pillion on Bill’s ST), Bill’s ST, Eve—beaming with her Magna, Henry Custer (can’t see his Helix), then Sid and Bobbie Spann with Sid’s yellow Wing visible
It was an outstanding day for a motorcycle ride, and 5 bikes sporting 6 riders departed Sun City Center that morning. It was the usual eclectic mix with a Gold Wing, a Silverwing, a Magna, a Helix and an ST (all Hondas - make a mental note, we need to get more non-Honda brands participating!) We took a nice leisurely paced ride covering the 125.8 miles over to Okeechobee in 2 hours and 47 minutes moving time, with one rest stop of about 20 minutes along the way. This made us just a few minutes late for the planned Noon lunch where we met up inside with two other riders who had come over from the Melbourne area—recent new member Dixie Lee Vaughn on her 750 Nighthawk and a friend of hers, Ron, on his Yamaha Royal Star. It was nice to finally meet Dixie as I had corresponded with her a few times while she was joining the club. After lunch, we all headed out together, riding back towards Sebring with the plan for Dixie and Ron to split up from us at Avon Park to make their trip back east. We took a nice diversion off US 98, Arbuckle Creek Road, which connects US98 in Lorida to US17 in Sebring, but north of much of the Sebring traffic congestion. And, it’s got a few nice sweepers in it too. We stopped for a break and gas near Avon Park and said our goodbyes as the Tampa crew departed west bound for SR64 then onto SR650/SR634 into Wauchula and then a short hop north on US17 for the final westbound leg on SR 62. The return trip took a little longer at 2 hours and 56 minutes riding time, despite being some several miles shorter distance, but we found some really nice twisty back roads along the way that accounted for the lower speed. And so went the first HSTA South lunch ride. I hope to get more folks riding it in the future, so don’t be shy and come on along.
Blackwater Inn Lunch Ride
And then there was the “North” Lunch ride this month to one of my favorites, the Blackwater Inn. I’ll admit that I am not crazy about being out on the road on a major holiday, partly due to the heavier traffic, but mostly due to the stepped up presence of traffic enforcement. But on the other hand, since I had a route plan of entirely secondary roads, and the weather was as perfect as it gets for a motorcycle ride, I figured—go for it :-) So, it was with the 3 bikes that departed Sun City Center that morning, myself, with Eve riding pillion on my ST, Henry Custer on his Helix, and HSTA member Bob Henry who got up early enough to drive up from Venice to meet us in Sun City for the 8:30 AM departure. Way to go Bob!!! We looked like a color-coordinated parade what with all three bikes being of the silver variety. We took some of my favorite local back roads up over into Lakeland and stopped just outside of Polk City to pick up another couple on their bikes—Mike Donlin on his gray Gold Wing and his friend Donna on her new SilverWing. (Here we go again—another Gold Wing—Silverwing combination, but a different one from the “South” Lunch ride!)
Well, at least they broke up the color coordination thing—LOL. We stopped a little further north at our usual spot in Eva for a break and we ended up chatting it up a bit longer than planned so when we set out again I knew we were behind schedule. The ride on up 33, then 50 and then 19 was as beautiful as ever . The traffic wasn’t all that bad, though the speeds were definitely down as even the cars were fearful of the long arm of the law (which there was no shortage of this day). We finally broke away a bit on the north side of Mt. Dora where I found a route that cuts around the congestion of 19 through Tavares/Umatilla and we were able to pick up the pace a bit there. Then, during the last leg, through the Ocala National Forest, we were able to really crank it up some more and we managed to make up 16 of the 18 minutes we were behind schedule to arrive at the Blackwater Inn just 2 minutes past Noon. There waiting was a crew of some several more bikes—I never did get a count of the total this time. Fearless Leader Phil had arrived just minutes before we did so everyone was still milling around and stowing gear. Then it was inside for the grub and chatting. It was here that I found there were a couple of folks interested in joining up with Eve and me for the ride to STAR ‘02. It’s always good to see everyone, but there never seems to be enough time to chat with everyone before its time to head back home. We took a few pictures and finally mounted up.
I had a slightly different route mapped out for the ride home. The idea, of course, is to avoid traffic/congestion and maximize scenic views and fun roads. I had long been trying to route us through Eustis such that we could skirt the 441 mess by taking Lakeshore drive along Lake Eustis. This trip, I found the right turn and we were headed down the right road when we came upon a detour! Drat! Road construction was forcing us off the planned route and into the mess I was trying to avoid. Oh well, maybe next time. We found our way back onto the planned route, albeit enduring some nasty construction areas along US441. By this time of the day, traffic was picking up somewhat, and we were encountering some of the poorer performers in the driving department. I could barely wait to get away from the city. Fortunately it wasn’t long at all and we were cruising westerly on SR50 and looking for a break stop. It was here that two of our group decided to split off to avoid having to cross Tampa and we bid adieu to Mike and Donna. Now we were three bikes heading south on SR471—an arrow straight 20 miles right through the Green Swamp. Along here, our Beemer buddy, Bob Henry, must have decided that he had an early appointment he needed to make as he bid us a wave and twisted the throttle so as to shorten the time he would need to make his destination which was another hour or so further than ours. So that left just Henry Custer on his Helix and me and Eve on the ST to cruise the distance home. Over to SR301 and down from Zephyrhills we went and when we got to Brandon, we too decided that it was time to kick it up so we all elected to jump onto I75 for the last 15 miles to the barn.
So, there went another successful HSTA Lunch Ride. We had covered 300 miles exactly in 6 hours and 7 minutes of riding time and enjoyed every single minute of it. So much so in fact, that I am looking forward to the next opportunity. I sure hope to see some more of you out there at a future lunch ride or just out somewhere on the road.
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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Joseph Avera - Orange Park Alan Merickel - Tallahassee |
Douglas Loewen - Sarasota
Lee Ulbing - Gainesville |
Submitted By: Sam Ulbing
The mountains of Georgia, NC, and Tenn. are one of the best places to ride a motorcycle. Pretty views, nice temperatures (in the summer), modest traffic generally and best of all lots of challenging turns like the one shown the Fig 1. Unfortunately for those of us who live in Florida there is a price to pay for riding in the mountains and that is a long ride across Georgia. Quite flat, often a lot of traffic, usually hot temperatures and about 8 hours of riding from north Florida are not what I consider fun.
Fig. 1Over the past 3 years I have made a number of trips to the mountains and each time I try to find the ideal route- one that is fast and fun. I have not found a perfect route but I think I have found a pretty good route. I thought what I have found might be of interest to others planning to ride to the mountains. The closest mountains are in northeastern Ga. and that is why the Helen rally in early May and the Dillard rally are there. So my challenge became how to get to those places with the least agony.
An obvious route, like for a car, might be I-75. It is nice to crank the bike up to 80 and just hold it there- at least the breeze is good and it feels like you are making rapid progress. But if you look at the map in Fig 2 (see pages 6 & 7) you can see that I-75 goes a long way west of the direct line between Gainesville Fl (where I live) and Helen. Besides that I have always found Atlanta traffic horrendous even on the bypass loops. Of course the crazy drivers don’t help anywhere and the further challenge of avoiding flying truck retreads makes any Interstate travel a tense ride for me so I try to keep it as short as possible.
One alternate I took was to get off I-75 at Forsyth and go via Monticello and Jefferson to I-85 exiting it just north of Commerce and then through Clermont to Helen. The roads here are fine but when I did this route on Friday, I found lots of traffic in Jefferson and areas north. In fact I have found that all the roads between Gainesville, Ga. and the mountains are usually very busy so I try to avoid that area entirely.
A better alternative and likely the fastest one is to get off I-75 at Macon and take 129 up to Eatonton where it joins 441 which you can take all the way into Clarksville. I have done this route going south several times. Ten years ago it was a slow route but now much of the road is 4 lane and bypasses around the bigger towns like Athens, Milledgeville and Eatonton have made it a pretty fast way to go. I like it when heading south as I often like to have ‘one last ride’ the day I leave the mountains and so I need a motel somewhere in central Georgia. 441 has lots of good motels. But who likes to ride a 4 lane highway- not I, it is better than the Interstate but not a lot of fun.
I have tried several alternatives using Rt441 all of which involve getting onto I-75 at different locations. At Jacksonville, Ga. back roads lead to Tifton and except for needing my GPS to find the route through Fitzgerald, it is a nice road. Also Rt129 forks off 441 at Pearson and is a nearly direct route to Jasper, Fl. and I-75.
A year ago I decided to head northeast out of Gainesville instead of northwest. This would have me going by the Okefenokee Swamp and I’d always wondered what it was like. It turns out that this is my favorite route north and Scott Wingerter and I took it to the Helen rally last May. Trip time was 8.5 hours- similar to the times going the other routes. This route consists of generally smaller back roads with light traffic. The towns are small and do not cause much delay. I have seen almost no police and thus feel comfortable pushing the speed limits a bit. Most cops seem to be in the towns and I carefully observe those limits. As an added benefit, the northern part of this route has a few roads with curves, not like the mountains but enough to get you warmed up for the next day. From Gainesville, Fl, Rt121 goes through MacClenny, Fl. to Folkston, Ga. and cuts thru the part of Ga. that pokes down into Fl. Because the road is on the eastern edge of the Okefenokee, there is very little ‘civilization’ here and the road surface, which was being repaved, is in great shape. At Folkston Rt1 goes northwest and at Race Pond I branch off it onto Rt15.
One disadvantage of this route is lack of good hotels. I did see a sign “Humpty Dumpty Motel - no vacancy’. Nice sign but unfortunately the motel was a chicken farm owned by a person with a sense of humor. Rt15 comes back into Rt1 at Baxley and then breaks off just south of Vidalia, home of the world famous Vidalia onion. Judging by the elegant houses on the south side of town, the onion has made a lot of people rich. A number of towns on this route have elegant sections of town and some appear to be quite old and are being restored. I take Rt15 until just south of I-20 where I fork off onto Rt77 until I reach Lexington. At this point I take an assortment of back roads to avoid the traffic of Athens, Commerce and vicinity. Rts22 and 98 loop to Ila, then north on 106 to Rt51, left to 184 and north to 105 (this road is not on my AAA map but is a nice run through the Chattahoochee National Forest) to 441 near Cornelia. After a short section of heavy traffic, 105 bypasses Clarkesville and hits Rt17 which goes into Helen. Once north of Ila you’ll find the roads quite nice with some reasonable curves. Although circuitous, the few towns and little traffic make this a fairly fast way to go and the most pleasant I’ve found so far.
Phil Ridgdill, who lives near Jacksonville, Fl prefers to stay on Rt1 where I take the fork to Vidalia. He takes this to Wren then turns onto Rt17 up to and around Toccoa and into Helen. I found this a useful road for going south. The last day of my stay in the mountains, I wound up in Highlands and wanted to do Rt28 south as my mountain finale. By taking it to SC107 and then 11 to I-85 I was able to pick up Phil’s route. This route is busier than my favorite route and I saw more cop cars than on any previous trip through GA (a dozen) – drive slowly! On the other hand there were a lot of good motels on this route and I found one in Swainsboro. Phil tells me I should have gone to the Coleman House for an excellent dinner – maybe next time.
Fig. 2
Thumbnail Map Image - Click for full size
Fig. 3
Thumbnail Image - Click for full sizeHaving penciled in my main routes on the map, I now notice many alternative branches between them I need to explore; anything to keep the trip interesting. I hope this helps you decide which way to go to the mountains. If you haven’t been there, plan to go to the Dillard rally. And you can put yourself into this picture (Fig 3)!
| 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 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
Riders to STAR For anyone interested, Eve and I will be riding 2-up, accompanied by Henry Custer so far to STAR 2002. We are planning a leisurely 3 day / 2 overnight trip, entirely no-interstates, departing the Tampa area on Thursday, June 20th. Anyone wishing to join us, please get in touch ASAP, otherwise, we’ll just see you there! Bill Royal (813) 633-8155 or wgr@sprynet.com |
Submitted by: Phil Ridgdill
Helen has come and gone, for Carmel & I, it wasn’t exactly what we expected. I thought about riding the ST up on Thursday but the weather FCST I got indicated that we would encounter a front (wet) around Atlanta in the early evening. The weather for Friday, Saturday and Sunday looked great, get the jeep, hook up the trailer we are taking the VFR. We had a nice drive up, no rain at all. It was a little overcast in Helen on Thursday night but it didn’t look bad. We met up with Chuck & Frances Headrick and off we went to dinner, neat place the Nacoochee Grill. THEN the RAINS came, Chuck & Frances left the next morning, going to South Carolina to visit his brother. We didn’t ride Friday , went 4WD in the mountains. You can find some neat places if you look hard enough and believe it or not I found a few roads that we haven’t been on before. We planned on riding on Sat but when we got up it was still raining, not bad but raining, off we go in the Jeep again. We had a great dinner on Sat night at Hoffers, food was excellent. We won a door prize, “Engine repair kit” I’m saving this one for someone else. Every one had a good time and Doug Pippin did a great job organizing this rally under some unusual circumstances. We thought we’d get up early on Sunday and go riding for an hour or so, we got up, it was foggy so we put the bike back on the trailer and came home. The weekend, even though it wasn’t what we planned, I’d do it again in a heart beat.
STAR 02 is next month, I will not be organizing a lunch ride next month. We will plan a ride in July and I’m looking for a neat place in Vero Beach or just north of Vero. Anybody know of a neat place, good parking, excellent food in that area???? If you do please send me an email or tel call & lets chat about it.
Ride Safe
Phil Ridgdill
Submitted By: Bill Royal
Last month, Phil asked for input on the idea of a T-Shirt. I didn’t get a chance to find out what the response has been, though I know I want one already! This month, I came up with another idea. The premise here is to entice more of the membership out to make the lunch rides. The reason we do this is to build a membership that knows each other and hopefully some lasting friendships both on and off the bikes. My idea is based on something we did in a bicycling club, and was spurred on by the recent announcement of the HSTA National mileage contest. So, here’s the idea. What if we have an attendance sheet at each lunch ride. In addition to having the names of attendees, we would also ask for the mileage ridden to attend the event. After each lunch ride, I would compile the names and mileages and maintain a running total of miles ridden to attend lunch rides. We would maybe publish the list, or at least the top 5 or 10 for “bragging rights”. And just maybe, say at the Daytona Bike Week dinner, we would recognize—and maybe even present some sort of award—to the top few supporters of the HSTA in Florida as determined by their participation in the state’s events. Now, I know many of you ride a lot and wouldn’t care so much about the bragging rights, but we might also be able to use this data to entice dealers, vendors or other motorcycle interested groups into working with us by donating items to be used as awards, recognition, etc. Anyway, it’s an idea. I would do most of the work, and all you would need to do is show up and fill in the attendance sheet—So, let’s hear from you yeah or nay?
Submitted By: Bill Royal
I have received many a thank you from HSTA members regarding the work I do in publishing this newsletter. I appreciate all the kind words very much, and I will continue to try to put out a good quality product that is hopefully interesting, entertaining, and most of all informative.
But, I want to acknowledge the real heroes behind making this newsletter something to be interested in—the article authors! Without articles being submitted, the newsletter would be short and boring since I would be forced to write whatever appeared in it. Now, editing it, and printing it are already a lot of work—it takes over 24 man-hours just to print the average newsletter– so having to write all the articles would push it over the top for one person to do.
So, with the sincerest of thanks and appreciation, I would like to thank the following folks for their contributions of articles over the last 16 months or so:
Article Contributors:
In descending order of the number of articles submitted as near as I can determine.
Phil Ridgdill—Ramblin Around EVERY month!
Henry Custer, Will Robinson, Sam Ulbing, John Watts, Andy Gaul, Eve Blazsur, Craig Merritt, Tom Roe
So, next time you see these folks at an event, please be sure to thank them too since it couldn’t be done without them.
Also, why not consider contributing an article yourself? It would be a big help and certainly make the newsletter more diverse and representative of our club’s membership.
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.
¨
Ride to STAR 2002 - June 20-22 - Hot Springs, Arkansas - OK, you’re booked for STAR 2002 and want to ride there, but what route to take? Where to stay along the way? What if I break down along the way??? Well, come along with us! There will be a group of Florida HSTA riders riding together to STAR 2002. The plan is to cover the entirely non-interstate route of 1000 miles over three days, departing Thursday, June 20th and arriving in Hot Springs on Saturday afternoon, June 22. The pace will be leisurely, and at 340 miles a day, definitely NOT an endurance ride. So far, there are 4 bikes with 5 riders slated to go. To see details of the route, the plan, etc. browse on over to: http://silverstreakst.net/Routes/STAR02/STAR02%20Route.htm or call Bill Royal (813) 633-8155 or wgr@sprynet.com¨
HSTA Florida South Lunch Ride - Saturday June 8th - Noon, Sebring, FL. Join us at Sheriannes Runway Café, at the Sebring Regional Airport (also home of the Sebring raceway), located off Airport Rd—just a mile North of US98 and about halfway between Spring Lake and DeSoto City . 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! 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.com¨
HSTA Florida North Lunch Ride - NO ride this month due to sponsors being away at STAR 2002! Watch newsletter for July date.¨
And all the rest of the HSTA National schedule...
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Date |
Event |
Location |
Contact |
| Jun. 07-09 | WeSTAR | Bass Lake, California |
John Button (925) 736-2670 jhbutton@best.com |
| 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 |
