October 17, 2023
This another ride I look forward to every year and this year was as good as ever. The event is to honor a Veteran who died of wounds received in Iraq. The organizers do a great job every year in all aspects of the event. The route they choose is always excellent, the food and entertainment at the finish is always worth the price of admission and the weather was perfect after a day of heavy rain. I decided to use the 250 Honda since the ride wasn't going to be climbing steep hills, something my 750 Kawasaki excels at.
There were about sixty entrants, mostly on big V-Twins, so the sound and fury at the start was quite impressive. There was one scooter at the event and for a change it wasn't mine. A young man and his significant other were on a 300cc Yamaha XMax, a very competent machine. He and I took position at the tail end of the group so we didn't get in the way of much bigger motorcycles. We held our own all day as the ride wandered around eastern Dutchess County. As always the pace of the ride and the scenery was enjoyable.
After sixty miles of cruising the highways we were back at the start and got to enjoy a very extensive buffet and live music from a good rock band. It's no surprise that the event was as enjoyable as ever since the organizers always do a good job. I had a plate of food and conversation with the people around me to finish off the day. The trip home was light and airy as both me and the motorcycle were warmed up and ready to go some more. It may have been the last ride of the year for me but I'll be back if there's another one to report on. Stay tuned.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 21, 2023
Years ago, when we were younger, my brother Bill and I rode motorcycles together constantly. As we got older and moved to different places it stopped. We finally got together about three years ago to do a local event after almost 45 years of not having ridden together. This past weekend we got together and made a big weekend of it. On Saturday we hopped on our bikes to do a little warmup ride around the area so Bill could see the roads that I have been raving about for years.
What made it e...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 6, 2023
I guess I'm partly to blame but it was a very quiet two wheeled summer. I only went to two Bike Nights and two motorcycle events this season. I thought that with the big adventure at Americade at the beginning of June that I would be spending a lot of time in the saddle. Instead weather, family commitments and unplanned events kept me from venturing out. I would do the occasional milk run or short ride around the neighborhood but mostly my bikes have been resting quietly in the garage. I'm h...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 2, 2023
So far this season I have done two local events. Both were dedicated to suicide prevention. This one also started in Poughkeepsie at a local bar and I have done it a few times. I decided to take the Honda Nighthawk again since it is the lighter of the two motorcycles and does pretty well in a big ride for its size.
I got to the start about an hour early and watched the number of motorcycles arriving grow in number to a fairly well attended event. While American V-Twins predominated there we...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
July 22, 2023
Yes, I know it's been a while since the last entry. I haven't done anything adventurous since the Americade rally so in this vein there has been little to report. Let's see if I can relate some of the short news.
When I went to Americade there was a key cutting enterprise present among the vendors and since I have only ever had one key for the Kawasaki I thought it would be prudent to have another made. There was one problem though. Despite all their best efforts they were unable to ma...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
June 8, 2023
The day finally arrived for the annual Americade Rally in Lake George and I was packed and ready to go. Registration for the event started in February and after a few fits and starts the people I would be traveling with got on board. I always go through some mood swings about a trip of that length since all my equipment is fairly old. Even with careful pre-flight checks I always have some concerns. I met my long time friend, Marc, in New Paltz, gassed up and we took off from there. We experi...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
May 17, 2023
Well, maybe not the first event, but the first organized group ride. Prior to this I did a bike night in Kingston but this ride was bigger. It started in Poughkeepsie and I did it for the first time last year. It was mayhem last year and I went there planning to deviate from the groups route to avoid the headache. There was another twist this year. The amount of people who came were at least double the number that were there last year and there was no Police escort this time. So picture a co...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
February 24, 2023
The weather hasn't been conducive to riding but I managed to sneak in a couple of rides in February. Since it's the lightest and easiest to get out of the garage I took the 250 Nighthawk out for a pair of short rides to just to shake off the rust and winter doldrums. It is always a lot of fun and makes me feel like a better rider than I am these days. I would take out the pesky scooters since they're even easier to ride but since they are perennially hooked up to trickle chargers I leave them...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
October 26, 2022
That's a strange title, isn't it? Bear with me while I explain. A few weeks ago, the weekend of Tropical storm Ian, there was an event to benefit the local Police K9 Unit. The weather and Doppler radar reports said that rain would not arrive until later that afternoon. After much stalling and hesitation I finally made my way to the event on my Honda Nighthawk. In the off chance that the weather turned unexpectedly I wanted my smallest motorcycle under me.
I arrived with about ten minut...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 20, 2022
Every so often I'll do a ride with over a hundred entries that leaves a fond memory in my head. This past Sunday was one of those rides. There was a ride for St. Jude's Hospital that started in Kingston that was fairly well promoted by the Hudson Valley Biker Network (HVBN) on their Facebook page. Since the ride was advertised as going through the Catskills I opted for horsepower in the form of my 750 Kawasaki. I was glad I did.
I didn't know what to expect and was amazed when I pulled up to...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
