Open Road Biker

Today was another great ride! We rolled out towards Rochefort (mmmm beer!) and stopped in Han-s-Lesse for a bite to eat and a few beverages. There is a tour of the grotto there and they take you down into the caverns. We didn’t take the tour today (they wouldn’t let us take the motorcycles!) but maybe later I can take my family back and take them on the tour. From there we rolled out onto a few back roads and just cruised down into valleys and along side rivers. It was a very nice ride and all of the switchbacks kept it from being boring. We eventually came to a small town called Membre (I think) and just relaxed for a little while next to a small river. I took a few pictures and walked down by the water for a few minutes. After about a while we saddled back up and headed towards home. We dropped the pres and his wife off and rolled on to Mons. Chalk up another good ride. I probably need to do a countdown of how many days I have left to enjoy Europe because I will be back in the US before too long. Hopefully my tires will give me enough miles out of them. They are getting close to needing replaced and I really don’t have the funds to buy new ones. I am looking at around $250 for new tires and maybe another$100 to have them mounted. I may just mount them myself though. Until next time take it easy and be safe and don’t forget to check out the forums and tell us your road trip stories.

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now but finally decided to write something on it. Here is the deal; here in Belgium lane sharing/ splitting is either legal or tolerated. That is great and it seems that Belgium is very forward thinking and pro motorcycle when it come to us who like to cruise around on two wheels. A lot of times when you pull up behind someone on a two lane road, the car will move over to the right and let you by. Here is the kicker though, you don’t always want to pass or you may not feel it is safe enough and the whole time that car in front of you is throwing all kinds of debris up on you including some nice little rocks. Granted these people are just trying to be nice but sometimes it is bothersome. I guess the worst is when we ride in groups and most of my people will not share the lane with the car and if I am leading then I sometimes leave them behind if I pass. Well I have stopped passing as much in an effort to keep the group together. I guess It is good that I prefer to wear a lid with a shield because I just know one of these days I am going to catch a rock on the nose and it is going to knock me out! Fun times! So if you happen to be one of those in a car, just remember that guy behind you is getting all kinds of stuff thrown in his face when you scoot over, so if he doesn’t pass soon or is making no attempt then pull back into your lane properly.

Just a little note, you can be a proper distance from a vehicle and still constantly get debris even if they are driving in the middle of the lane. I am constantly getting my neck sand blasted. (look at the pits in a window of a car that has a couple hundred thousand miles on it and then you will know where the pitting comes from)

Thanks from the Open Road Biker Blogs and Forums

The gauntlet was threw down today and the race is on to see who will have the most miles at the end of the year. You see there was a time when I wasn’t able to get out on my bike that often. If it wasn’t one reason then it was another but for the past nine months, maybe more, I have put a respectable amount of miles on my bike. Heck, since the first of the year I have probably been able to ride 3000 or so. I know that isn’t much to some of you hard core riders but it’s not that bad. Anyways the topic of discussion turned to garage trophies and I was slightly accused. Well I just can’t take it lying down (hard to ride your bike that way) so the challenge went out to Brain. I have to admit, the guy rides a fair amount but hey this is my honor we are talking about. Now I have to figure out how to make up for that two to three months my bike will be on a ship from Europe to America. Good luck Brain (not!)

How do I even begin to describe today? What a day! I started the day around 9:30 this morning and rolled by the gathering place on the way to get gas. Usually I am one of the last to arrive so I was surprised and kinda disappointed when I didn’t see any other bikes there or at the fuel pumps down the street. I went ahead and got my gas and then rolled to the bowling alley and thankfully Brain had showed up. Heck I was already trying to figure out where I was going to ride to by myself but hey it is better riding with others most of the time. After about 30 minutes we had 4 riders so we headed out to get a part for Megalomania’s bike so he could ride. A little bit of a back-story here, he and his poor bike have been thru hell since St. Patty’s day. His bike has fallen over once, he got hit last week, he did a low speed high side yesterday, and he laid it down while going slow today. Now don’t get me wrong, this guy rides every day. Notice I said every day, no matter the weather or what he is out and for the past year or so that I have known him he hasn’t had any incidents or accidents but I guess his number has just come up. His poor bike is battered right now but still rolling but he may have strained his shoulder today trying to keep it from lying down. Any way back to the ride, after picking up some mirrors for mega we rolled out to Phillipville to pick up El presidente/ El Diablito/ Jeff (all one person) and his friend Fabrise (if I am spelling it wrong please correct me). Jeff as always had some nice roads laid out for us with just the right mix of twisties and straight aways and there is never a good cafe to far away that serves ice cold adult beverages. This time the cafe was actually a Brasserie (brewery). They brew Super De Fagnes beer in 4 varieties in house for the brasserie customers (most of their beer that is mass produced is made elsewhere). I had the special brown and it was okay, especially with cheese they bring with it. After we had set there for a while and picked up another rider we headed towards Devils hole, the route de fortifications, the Meuse River, and then Givet. We slid in and out of France and passed a few ruins of some castles and passed over the Meuse a few times. We finally rolled on to the little biker cafe out past Beauring, stuffed our faces and basked in the sun for a while. The cafe is a nice little place with bikes parked all over the place. You name it and if is a motorcycle it has probably been there before. There was sport bikes, cruisers, trikes, and all others parked there with their riders just relaxing and eating. The day had started slipping away from us so we left there around 5:30 in the evening and headed back to Philipville to drop Jeff off and roll on back to Mons and home. All in all an uneventful day but very relaxing. I can’t wait to head back over that way again. Until next time get out and ride, you never know when the rain will come again.
Be safe!

Okay, here it is. Open Road Biker is hosting a contest to see who does the most miles for the rest of this year. The contest begins today and ends January 1, 2008 at 0001 in the morning Eastern Standard Time (that would be 12:01 AM).
Here are the rules;
1. You must be an active poster on the forum from the time you join the site or right now (whichever is later). Active poster is someone who posts an average of 2 post per week. The posts should be quality post and not just quick replies to other peoples topics or posts.
2. You must submit atleast one story of a road trip you took during the year 2007 (with pictures is prefered).
3. You have to post your starting mileage here using a photo, with your screen name somewhere in the photo (example below).
4. You will have to submit your ending mileage the same way.
5. Your must have a photo of yourself with your bike here.
6. This has to be with your Motorcycle, no cars allowed and only one motorcycle at a time. If you change bikes you need an ending mileage picture taken of your odometer before your beginning of the next bike.

Now for the prizes;
1st Place will receive $50.00 U.S.
2nd Place will receive a T-shirt with the Open Road Biker logo
3rd Place will receive a coffee mug with Open Road Biker logo