turning a funeral into a journey

[ArtByScars]

Hi all,
I wanted to post sooner but didn't really have a chance.
My grandmother passed away last week and her funeral services were this past weekend in Maine.
I had several options for rides with family from NY to ME... and after thinking it through, I decided to take my 28 year old GS850.
I went the long way to VT through the back roads and then up and through the green mountains, through the mountains of NH, down to the sea coast, and rode up the sea coast of Maine.
With stops, it was an 11.5 hour trip.
The funeral services were Saturday, and though sad, it was a very nice service.
My grandparents were finally together again.

After the services I went and stayed with family about an hour north in Newcastle ..
My little cousin Emily

My brother and cousin Nat fishing

From there I rode south to Sebago Lake in Gray, Maine about 35 minutes from portland, and stayed a night with my grandmother on my mothers side..
This was a relaxing "good morning" and breakfast..

From there I had bike starting issues and had to push it up a hill in order to be able to pop start it, in the process of pushing it, i almost dumped the bike... doing what I could to keep it upright, the bars cut and the mirror gave me a nice left hook to my right cheekbone.
Left a nice welt.
Pushhhhhhing and pop starting on dirt proved challenging, but I succeeded.
Turn out my battery was dry, got some new acid and viola- back on the road.
From there I rode 2 hours south, but made a pitstop to a place my family went to every year while I was growing up:

After leaving OOB I kept cruising to amesbury, MA and met up with my brother and watched the Bruins game- which was great!
I stayed over at his place and From here 'm thinking about NYC to Long Island, or if I can get a ferry to eastern LI, then ride the length of LI, then to NYC...
I'll keep you updated

This is where I'm at currently

This is my first motorcycle trip
Thanks for reading!
-Noah

 

[tkent02]

Looks good, having quite a time. Your grandmother probably would have been happy to see you meeting up with family here and there... Check your charging system, a dry battery is likely an early warning symptom of overcharging. Hopefully you can fix it before things get expensive.

 

[7981GS]

Sorry to hear about your Grandmother but, it happens.
Happy that she can be with her husband again.
Thanks for sharing your pic's and story thus far.
With the battery boiling out, I am sure that you know that you have a charging problem, hope that you can get it fixed soon.
It looks like you are making up for all of those miles that you couldn't log while you were out west snowboarding.
Have fun!!!


Daniel

 

[Testarossa]

Nice! Thanks for posting that. RIP to your grandmother. It looks like you made the best trip out of it that you could, considering the circumstances. It will no doubt, be a trip that you can remember for a long time.

BTW your bike looks very sharp in those pictures.

 

[Steve]

Nice to see that you are making a good trip out of a sad occasion.

Let me know when you get back in town, we can check the charging system on your bike.

.

 

[cowboyup3371]

As the others have said, I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother but am glad you were able to get out and spend some time relaxing so to speak on the bike.

 

[ddaniels]

Condolences to the family. Sounds like she lived a good long life. And, great looking bike by the way. I'm sure that Vetter has provided a really enjoyable windblast-free ride. Great for long trips.

 

[Redman]

Thanks for postiong, Noah.

Good that you attended service, made a nice trip out of it and are visiting family.

If battery went dry after long time (like havent checked it in years), then maybe that not so bad.
(ah, and you did just add distilled water, right? Not acid?).
If it went dry in a few weeks, then maybe have charging problem, like way overcharging. ANd if so may also be burning out light bulbs.
Maybe check battery fluid level again in a few days.
Maybe somebody where you are staying has a multimeter to check charging system, but that is a different topic.

Do update your travels with more pictures.
ANd do post any further fiondings of the charging system (maybe in electrical section).

Nice looking 850.
I suppose the fairing makes the long trip easier (I know it does for me).

Dave
.

 

[ArtByScars]

Hey everyone thanks for the replies and condolences and 2? on charging. This is the second time I've had to add to the battery, first time didn't count though as the bike was tipped over while parked and the battery fluid drained.... so that aside, I filled and bought the battery last year... I was going to add distilled water but figured the acid was better, was I wrong? Bike fired right up either way. I'm not doubting a possible charging system issue developing, or that one will with everything I've read so Steve, I take you up on that offer when I roll back into town.
Also with the long trip, about 3/4 of the way thru- my bike felt more "broken in" and started feeling much more smooth. After sitting as long as it did (8+ yrs) before I got it and with my short back and forth kinda riding, those long highway miles were probably just what the old horse needed. Has anyone else noticed that with their bikes?
I found a ferry in new louden CT (2.5hrs from where I am) that I can take to Long Island for $30.
I think I'm going to get a move on tomorrow and do that, then ride the length of LI east to west, visit a friend or two along the way...my roommate from my house in CA over the winter is in LI now so i'll maybe stay the night... then there's a cute girl in NYC, who is house-sitting for a friend, that asked me to come visit her.. soooooooooooo... what do you think, should I go or what? I need your help on this one, guys..

 

[Tim Tom]

Great story, thanks a lot for sharing that with us. Really enjoyed the pictures.

About this part....

then there's a cute girl in NYC, who is house-sitting for a friend, that asked me to come visit her.. soooooooooooo... what do you think, should I go or what? I need your help on this one, guys..

Yeah. You should go there.

On another note, if you do find yourself in the NYC area I'm only 15 mins away on the other side of the river, if you want a riding partner at some point let me know.

 

[ArtByScars]

Tim Tom I will be in touch!

 

[Tim Tom]

Sounds good to me. I know there are a couple other GSer's in the NYC area. Maybe we meet up sometime tomorrow if you'll still be around. Tonight the GF and I will be riding up to hawks nest, leaving in about 20 minutes .

From your posts it looks like you'll be in the area at least a day or two. Lets set something up! Give me a call man. (856) seven ohh one -25 ohh 8. I'm sure you can decipher that and hopefully those identity theft bots that hunt the internet cant .

It would be cool to get an NYC area ride.

 

[ArtByScars]

I'm having a real hard time finding anything online that will let me record and save the route of my trip to share, anyone have any resources i can use? everything is real complicated that i've found.

 

[Steve]

I upload the tracks from my GPS.

Not sure what's available online.

.

 

[ArtByScars]

Thursday June 16, 2011
ok hopefully this works... here's the map of what I've done so far since Friday June 10..
i'll post some more pics and story soon..

yesterday i logged in 11:00am Amesbury, Mass. -----> 4:00pm ferry from New London CT to Orient Point, Long Island (north eastern tip of LI) -----> rode whole length of LI to WTC- Ground Zero, NYC... rode around NYC til 4am and then back to Babylon, LI for *some* sleep.
Today- shower, then cruising to the north shore of LI to drop in on a friend... then NYC tonight for the aforementioned request visit (Tim Tom convinced me to do it ) so excuse me if I don't post later on ray: hahahahahahahahhahaha

haven't quite calculated how many miles, was hoping google would have done that for me. :-\\\

Once you click the link... ZOOM OUT and check out that line!

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[/URL]

more to come!
-Noah

 

[ArtByScars]

yesterday- just before crossing the Williamsburg bridge, brooklyn, a blue GS850 (looked like a 79-81) flew past me, then the bridge split at the foot i went left and he went right- we waved.. anyone here? i think it was a white helmet clipped to the back seat.

 

[ArtByScars]

ok... ok ok.. the trip has lasted a little longer than expected, and while I'm still in Brooklyn (headed north to Albany NY today to complete the loop,)
here's a few photos of what has happened.

here's the ferry to Orient Point LI from New London, CT

Orient Point, Long Island.

From there I cruised west, the length of long island and did a surprise drop-in on my roommate from over the winter who shared a house with me in California, at his work in Seaford, LI...

and put the stores Mascot on my bike....haha

from there we took a rip into the city, and cruised around- FDR ---> Park ave is SUCHHH a fun ride!

we switched bikes- I rode his 01 GSXR 750, and he rode my GS... the plan was to go about 15 minutes to this coffee place and switch back... BUT HE NEVER STOPPED AND TOOK IT STRAIGHT INTO THE CITY!
He said he loved it so much he didn't wanna get off ...
I told him he'd like it hahaha
Me on the other hand- yeah the endless gixxer throttle is SOOOOOO much fun, but every bump feels like a kick in the pants and I couldnt wait to get back on my comfy GS.

 

[ArtByScars]

so we parked em... walked around a bit- then hopped back on and cruised some more before calling it a night...

This is Ground Zero, where the new towers are going up... they look to be about 30+ stories now

very cool old school Ducati

from there we went back to long island and got some sleep.

the next morning I awoke to some bagels and OJ and fresh coffee... and some light reading...

That night we cruised into the city to meet up with aforementioned cute girl who wanted me to visit.. which has kept me in Brooklyn for almost 2 weeks now...

 

[Tim Tom]

Hey man great pictures! Thanks for sharing them. I've always wanted to take my bike on a ferry. It looks like a lot of fun. Also I'm digging the discoloration edits. Pretty neat way to add emotion into a photograph.

I'm sorry I was busy that night you called, and we couldn't ride together. I've found that unless I have a little bit of warning to clear up some time I'm always busy doing something.

So i guess my bit of advice about visiting the cutie paid off...


If your still in Brooklyn maybe a few of the NYC area riders could meet up some time this week. I think Dodik is in Brooklyn. I'd need more than last minutes notice though.

 

[dueller]

Hey man great pictures! Thanks for sharing them. I've always wanted to take my bike on a ferry. It looks like a lot of fun. Also I'm digging the discoloration edits. Pretty neat way to add emotion into a photograph.

Ditto on the ferry ride. I've always wanted to take a ferry ride but couldn't justify the $100 it was going to cost me and the gf of the time to take the trip. Now with the bike I think it would be about half that so maybe will do it this year! We have two different ones from Mi to Illinois.