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Airheads To The Adirondaks

ricochetrider

Out There Somewhere
Over the years, as I've traveled about on various motorcycles, I always make a point to check in with a buddy to let him know where I am. His across-the-board standard issue response: "I wanna do that!" Mostly, his priorities are anywhere other than distance rides and/or touring...
But THIS one was his idea!

We know more than a handful of folks who ride Airhead BMWs, so we set a weekend and put The Word out:
On 6/21/14 we would depart early on our Airheads- and take back roads from our home in South Central PA to the Adirondaks- where we had a serious hook-up in the way of a lovely cabin, a few steps from a lovely bar, situated on a lovely lake. This was to be a whirlwind tour- three days of pretty solid riding. One day up, one day of riding around Up There, and one day home.

People hemmed, they hawed, they were in, then they were out. In the end, after much poring over maps, and some discussion, four of us hit the road together to ride as crooked a route as possible to our destination in Old Forge, NY. The bike line-up, from oldest to newest, was as follows: one 1973 R75/5, two nearly identical 84 Last Edition R100RSs, and my own 1993 R100RS. Mr /5 came up from Maryland, so he clocked the most miles at 1500. The rest of us had various mileages, due to differences in where we live and left from... But our total came in at just about 1200 miles ridden. Well, one guy had to hot-foot it on Sunday morn over to Erie PA for a conference... So he would'a wound up with the biggest distance ridden... Which of course has nothing to do with THIS RR! BUT to those who think ya can't ride long distance on an Airhead... I say, "That's ridiculous! Why would anyone ever think THAT?"

(Then again, there are them who might point out that 1200 miles is NOT really "long distance"... But heck with them, too! ha ha JK)

Stay tuned for pix (hopefully I can resize and upload from my "devices") and the continued "yarn".....
 
The day prior to departure, high level cirrus clouds appeared in the sky... Had me wondering what the weather might be for our take-off the next morning? Sure enough, when I got up at 0600, it had rained. Shortly after, the rain began again. A fast look at the weather showed clear skies to the north and east- so we knew we'd ride out of it sometime pretty soon.

After winding our way up thru PA on some roads I'd never ridden, we whirl-winded it up into NY State. And I mean it was really exactly that. We flew like the wind, and whirled our way thru a great many curves in the country roads. I gotta say- it's always an adventure riding with guys you haven't ridden with! The guy who was leading on his R100Rs was FLYING. I guess he gets "antsy" (his words). Let's just say that no moss had a chance to grow on us, dust barely had a chance to catch up... And somehow we passed zero police officers! (WHEW!)

About mid-late afternoon, we were heading through Sharon Springs, NY. We knew we'd cross an Interstate not too far up the road, and we were all getting hungry. We resolved to stop out there for food... But really knew that it'd be crap-ola. As we rode past this posh old hotel in this former resort town, at least two heads swiveled around.... Which was quickly followed by all four bikes swiveling around. We MAY have been just a wee tad bit underdressed for the posh American Hotel... (!) but they were ever so gracious just the same, and we took up residence at the bar. We cooled off with a Saranac Ale and grazed on stuff from the apps menu as we relaxed and chatted with various folks. Let's just say with no doubt: it was really GREAT! The staff couldn't have been more attentive or more friendly, even to us weird-o "bikers". It's a stab in the dark... But we were possibly a bit more "interesting" than the little old ladies and genteel folk enjoying the 35$ + entrees in the Dining Room?

As the pix show, later on, we pulled into a much less "swank" establishment... But it was only to fuel the bikes. Love the sign out front tho!

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:lurk

Probably a few airheads up that way - I think that was the Airheads at the Aerodrome weekend.
 
By the time we got to our friend's cabin in Old Forge, it was after dark- about 9:30 or so. As mentioned earlier, we all had varying mileage showing- but one guy had 499.9 miles. We all decided that was a pretty good number, so that's what I'm going with for the day's total.

As it turned out, one of the 84 RSs lost its lights as we completed the ride! Folks had been flashing us, but we thought they were warning us of radar ahead (did I mention we were riding -ahem- somewhat quickly?) anyway, I had left MY Anonymous book at home (DOH!) but another guy, also an MOA member, had his along. So Saturday's mission was to see who was about and listed near Lake Placid. Turns out a guy was nearby... As it happens, he owns an 84 Last Edition R100RS! Only so many of those imported... yet here we bump into a guy who also has one! We suspected a bad headlamp relay... And this dude had recently replaced his own... how about that for coincidence?

So we buzzed over there, ogled his bikes, and talked turkey with him while we got the bits switched out. Sincere THANKS to him (never even got his name!) and to all other Anonymous volunteers... and to the MOA for such a great and useful resource.

First order of business on Sunday, however, was to get a bite to eat. Someone had mentioned The Cottage in Lake Placid. So that's where we went- and boys, it was mighty fine. I can personally attest to the quality of the Shaved Sirloin Sandwich. Another guy had the tacos, and the other guy had soup. We shared the Grilled Shrimp Bruschetta. All quite delish, served with style and grace. Outdoor seating with a view of the lake only added to the overall experience. I sent a pic of the lake to my girlfriend. Her response, and I quote: "Very pretty. Looks so... placid. Har har." Yep. She's a funny girl.

Afterwards, we bumped over to see Mr Anonymous. By the time we left there, it was too late in the day to make our target ride- the Veteran's Memorial Road up to the top of Whiteface Mountain. Instead we rode out east to do a road suggested by our new friend... Then wound up popping over into Vermont, just to say we did. After a bigger day of riding than we'd planned, we ended up with about 300 miles on Sunday.

Mr 84 RS Headlight Relay kept saying, towards the end of the day... "Hmmm. My OIL light is staying on." We never looked to see exactly which light was on... But we checked, & the oil was a little low; so we poured in some oil and kept on riding- not really thinking too deeply about it.

Back to the cabin, down to the bar for a couple beers and a some food... And lights out.


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Riding around in Vermont, we only really had our paper maps to go by. The idea was to make a loop, coming back in NY state south of where we crossed over. There being only so many ways over and back, it was late in the day and we didn't really wanna ride too far south. What the map DIDNT show us was our chosen route included a ferry! Which of course (according to signage) only runs from 7:00 AM til 6:00 PM. Since it was 6:30 PM when we found the sign... Well, it would have been a total blast to ferry back across the lake... But no.

We spun back around, and made a loop using some roads we hadn't ridden... then crossed the same bridge we'd come over on. Afterwards, we followed one guy's phone back to home base- riding some VERY sweet roads along the way! These are the two pix I got with my phone in Vermont. One obligatory "post office" pic to "prove" we were there... and another equally or even more obligatory "Big White Churches of New England" pic. I really couldn't resist it, with the open blue skies and sunshine making it such a perfect photo op. Had we taken the ferry, we'd have not turned around, and not gotten this shot. C'est la vie, eh?
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Next day, it was balls out to get home. We still wanted to avoid major roads, but definitely wanted to cut it a little shorter. Our friend at the bar (Daiker's in Old Forge, BTW) said "8 south out of Utica is going to be better & faster than 12". Turns out he definitely knew his stuff. 8 is pretty wide open and fairly fast.

BUT WAIT! Don't think it was all THAT simple. Recall the "oil" light from yesterday? It was really the GENERATOR light on the dashboard... That pesky light remained ON. Well, at least until the battery drained completely and the bike shut off along NY Route 8, just south of Utica. We left the bike sitting and rode into the nearest small town to a Fisher's Auto Parts store. Turned out they carried the battery we needed, and their runner was over in Utica- he would bring a battery back. After not too long a wait, we put the dead battery in my bike (which has a new Omega 450 kit in it), and put the new battery in the 84 RS, then strapped my battery to the 84 RS's rack. We jumped my bike with my battery, and in reasonably short time were back on the road south. We had to stop once again in Towanda PA to change batteries again, then made our way on down the road to home.

Our weather the entire weekend was fantastic. Pure blue sunny skies, with temps in the 50s by night and mostly mid-low 70s by day- with the exception of Monday afternoon- when temps got a bit warm, maybe mid 80s, for the ride home. Oh yeah and the wee bit of rain we began the ride in.

The bikes performed well, in spite of the reasonably minor issues with the one 84 RS. All in all, the trip was super fine... If I had any complaints at all, I'd whine that we could have been out longer. I'll also file a complaint that of all the [paved] roads up there..... few if any of them ever get you to a view of the Adirondaks. If I have a regret, it was we didn't get to ride the Veteran's Memorial Highway to the "view".

But that's chump-change stuff in light of a wonderful weekend spent riding cool vintage bikes along some really great roads with a few good friends.
Our "Airheads To The Adirondaks" ride was, overall, an awesome and rousing success! I think we figured out we rode about 400 miles coming home- so we had definitely added some serious miles taking our "scenic ride" up there!

AGAIN: BMWMOA's Anonymous Book definitely saved our bacon. We called a couple guys near Utica, too, but got everything sorted on our own.

PS:
RE: Mr Antsy Fast Guy: he sent a text saying he'd gotten a speeding ticket over in Western PA, not too far out of Erie, his destination after leaving us! DOH!
 
You guys lucked out with the very best weather of the season. "Northern" weather like that, with cool temps and low humidity, has become all too rare with global warming.

Glad you had a good time.

Harry
 
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

Lots of great scenery up in the Adirondacks, and some beautiful roads to ride!
 
Thanks for the comments guys.
We had a super nice time... Now I wanna
go back sometime and take the girlfriend!
 
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