The weeks of May 10th through the 18th

[plasticweld]

My son and I had a great time down at the Gap this year, we go down every spring in conjuntion with the CSBA Christian Sport Bike Ass. last year we had my daughter along this year she is training as a boxer and could not come with us, It was just Russ and I and we had a blast.

Russ brought down his KTM 560 set up as a racing motard, I honestly thought he spent way too much money on it until I took it for a ride, at a dry weight of 230 pounds it had tons of power, it comes with the Brembo brakes that make mine look small, it stops on a dime and easily does 3rd and 4th gear wheelies. I brought down my R1 and my KTM 520 that is also set up as a motard, we spent all of our time on the Dragon, while we have been to the area many times it is the Dragon that holds our love an attention, We live in an area already blessed with good roads but none that compare to the Dragon and the intensitsy that it offers. Russ's high light of the trip was doing some fast runs with a local named Darrel who lives on the hill, Darrel is an older guy, older than me anyway and rides a 750 GSXR that he can just rail through the Gap. Russ had the time of his life trying to stay up with or in front of Darrel while making some runs. They let me have a 30 second head start and I did the best I could to stay a head of them, it is a sad day when you realize your son is faster than you.

We had left our motorcycle trailer in the parking area, this worked real well for us as we had brought 2 bikes down each, one to ride and one for in case of, I want to thank Brad and Beth for the hospitality and for crew at the Dragon Motorcycle Resort, everyone was very polite and helpful and did everything to make our stay very enjoyable

http://empiregp.com/mediastore/imageGallery/2005/06/week01/full/img023.jpg

http://empiregp.com/mediastore/imageGallery/2006/01/week03/full/IMG_3096_550.jpg

[brad@dealsgap]

Thanks
Always have a greattime when you and your son are here, we always have good conversations. A few more trips and we will have all the world problems solved.

[s2tbolt]

Hey Bob,
Great pics! :cool: We know ya got more... Post 'em up!
Love the signature line ;)

[plasticweld]

We actually shot a bunch of video this year, we have some great film of the Dragon and we have footage of a rider going down in front of me, while we were filming it is someone I met a few days earlier, it is amazing how fast you get to know people there. Andy who crashed in front of me going the opposite way was caught on film, he just came in too hot and grabbed the front brake while still in the middle of the turn. he had minor injuries, his bike is now back at our shop being repaired. We are going to use the footage of him going down then do the footage of it being repaired and him picking the bike up when it is finished. Russ took some stills I will have see what he has....Bob


This was taken last year, a bunch of DC motor cops that made a slight detour to make a run through the Dragon, Russ got to know them at the hotel and took some pictures for them, The best type of motorcycle cop on the Dragon is one on vaction, these guys had a blast and you should have seen all the shocked looks they got from people ripping it up as they went by
http://empiregp.com/mediastore/imageGallery/2006/01/week03/full/IMG_3710.jpg

[Ben]

Its always disappointing to see motor cops with no gear on....

[plasticweld]

Ben I had a chance to talk to one of the Tenessee motor cops who is also an instructor, I we chatted awhile on Saturday and we shared teaching stories, at one point I looked at him and told him that if he had shown up for one of my classes dressed the way he was I would have to send him home; he had nothing to say and then changed the subject:)

[Ben]

I have some friends that are with THP and they dont mind not wearing gear, al though 3 of them all ride sport bikes. It makes me shake my head in disgust.

Not to say that Motor cops are not good riders, but as it stands for everyone else, its just a matter of time, so what makes them any diferent ?? You would think that the states they work for would rather spend the money on gear than spend it on hospital bills and possible law suits.



*** Off topic, but the Rossi paint on that tank on your site.... is is decal and paint or all paint ?? I have an 05' Repsol, and have always wanted that exact paint scheme for it.

[plasticweld]

The Rossi tank is all paint, I am not sure I would rush to do another one there was way to much time in that paint scheme, to many over lapping colors, I can do pretty intricate things in paint but when I do mulitple layers like that one there is too much chance that there will be some bleed through or have the mask make a slight mark on the surrounding paint

There is an interesting story to the bike that it was done on, it was painted long before Rossi every jumped ship and wentfrom Honda over to Yamaha While the orginal paint scheme was done on a Honda this one was done on a
R1 I remember he said he took some ribbing for putting the wrong paint scheme on the wrong bike but it turns out he was just way ahead of his time.

As for the cops and the gear they use I could not agree with you more, but any state that would put a guy on one of those old Kawas with 1970s technology probably does not even think such deep thoughts as to what happens when things go wrong. I do know from hanging out at the state line on Saturday that the N.C motor cops out class the Tenn guys times ten, better equipment and uniforms.

[s2tbolt]

I saw some of the DC Cops at the Gulf Coast Police Motorcycle Skills Championships waaaaay down here in Baton Rouge.
Very, very impressive.
Oh, and one image I'll never forget was watching one of the Sheriffs on an old Kaw1000 wheeling down the straight of the practice area !

I've heard both sides of the gear issue; one of the best conversations on RocketMadness.com was a "stunna" braging he didn't need to wear gear because he was "that good". :p
The response was "then Rossi should ride naked.":D
Classic :D

[brad@dealsgap]

Unfortunatly it will probably take a trooper getting hurt due to lack of good equipment before they change it. Talking with alot of the NC motorcycle Troopers, they want better equipment and more protective gear but the good old state of NC is on their ass about doing it. We only have 8 in the state you would think that was easy to fix. Not like we have 300 plus motorcycle troopers in the state to equipt.