Rode to Blood Mountain and survived

[IceCold4x4]

Well a buddy has been bugging me since I started riding to come over to Georgia to ride Blood Mountain with him and his friends. Put that off as long as I had the Vulcan, but about a month after I got the ZRX I found myself with a day off and a plan to go ride the mountain. Well of course he couldn't make it as it was on a weekday, and of course I had tire trouble 300 miles away from home. I had a 6 year old tire that was on the bike when i bought it and i found out the hardway why you date check tires. No damage to me or bike other than 4 hours of time wasted trying to find a replacement tire up there.



Fast forward 6 months and about 6 thousand miles trying to learn the new bike.

So he messages me and says they are having an after X-Mas ride on the 26th. Well hell I've got the day off and I haven't seen the guy in damn near 2 decades, so what the hell right it's not that far. Then I realize they meet at The Varsity in Atlanta at 8 A.M. Eastern time.  Well crap I started doing the math and realize to make it from Birmingham to The Varsity by 8 EST I would need to leave Birmingham by 4 A.M Centra time. I wasn't soo happy about this departure time but figured what the hell I'll get a good nights rest and do it. So of course I wound up being the DD for the wife and some friends who went out drinking X-Mas night, Didn't get to bed until 1 A.M. So when I come out at 4:30 to get on the bike this is what I see in the garage. I had forgotten I had put it up X-Mas day and that much green at 4 A.M. made me jump a bit.



So It's 4:30 and I'm running behind. Well at least in my mind as I had wanted to try and run at a slightly slower speed due to the lower gearing I had installed -1 front +2 rear which made cruising at 5500 to maintain 80 a bit noisy and fuel happy. Since doing the cam swap I really do need to drop the front back to stock or even +1 especially if i can get the big bore kit in the next few months.  But I put in my headphones plugged them into the Sena and hit the road. Had to pull off at the first pell city exit to toss on the freeze out glove liners as my gloves were wet from the spray from a few trucks. And by this point I was tired of holding the motor to warm them back up. God I love nakeds. But that accomplished I wound up making it to exit 5 in georgia before it was time to fuel up 120ish miles before reserve sounds about right. Well eventually the sun started coming up which I was very grateful for as I had left my smoked shield on. I had forgotten about it as I had the visor open until I got on 459 at which point I was like MEH not turning around.

Roads were still wet on the first pass up the mountain few patches were starting to dry, one large water feature you can see towards the end of the video. This was my 3rd pass up the mountain. It was pretty funny hearing my buddy on his Ninja 300 curse his little engine whenever i would open up the taps of the ZRX torque. managed to stay in 3rd gear all the way up the mountain. What you had to shift? lol.

Then went and road Richard Russel and had a rider with us go down, he was ok but bike wouldn't start we then broke for lunch and got me some pizza.



Lunch was at the Hooch in Helen, GA it was ok pizza. and thanks the the under seat storage I could bring it home with me. Road the mountain another time or two and then started the long ride home. Made it about Anniston before my ass and back got sore but I'd be up on 3 hours of sleep for about 14 hours at that point.

Got home safely and I must say I'm very impressed with the Pilot Road 4's they held up nicely and gave alot more traction that I figured they would especially in the rain. Also got the chicken strips down to a respectable level.




and for good measure a shot of the old workhorse

[merc16]

Good report and good to see your Rex is running good !