8-17-2008 Carlisle PA, Sport Touring at its Finest Ride

[Russell W Fleming]

Sport Touring at its Finest Ride

Sunday August 17, 2008

Meet for Breakfast at 9 am at the IRON SKILLET
At the PETRO truck stop in Carlisle PA
1201 Harrisburg Pike, Carlisle PA
GPS Coordinates N 40-13.903 W 077-08.551

There will be 6 rides to choose from 150 to 200 miles long
All rides end at the Middlesex Diner in Carlisle PA
1 of the rides will be a mix of PAVED AND UNPAVED ROADS

CONTACT PERSONS

Concours Owners Group Russell W Fleming 410-374-9687 fleming@qis.net    
Yamaha FJR Randy Sinisi Rsinisi6@cs.com
BMWBMW Eddie Phelps   410-781-7521 phelps2ride@starpower.net
COG PA  Greg Puterbaugh 717-632-3324   pbaugh1@comcast.net




For lodging information please contact one of us and we will provide you with information.
   
Here are the rides to choose from.
5-County Ride that is 190 miles long by Randy Sinisi FJR
Gettysburg Ride that is 145 miles long by Greg Puterbaugh COG
Route 235 Ride that is 170 miles long by Russell Fleming COG
Orchard Ride that is 135 miles long by Russell Fleming COG
3 States ride that is 190 miles long by Eddie Phelps BMW
Raystown Lake Ride 200 miles long by Frederick Huganir BMW
Paved and Unpaved that is 160 miles long by Mike Montville V Strom


ALL of these rides are self-guided

[keystonejenks]

There are some good roads in this area but why on earth would that meet at the PETRO Truck Stop - talk about a congested area that I try to avoid.  

[SuperHans]

There are some good roads in this area but why on earth would that meet at the PETRO Truck Stop - talk about a congested area that I try to avoid.  

You can't buy gas there either IIRC. We arrived last year and had to leave and get gas at another location. It does have a large parking area though.

[Russell W Fleming]

2007 there were 80 motorcycles there.
When setting up rides like this I have to find some place that has a large parking lot.
Can they serve 50 to 100 people within 1 hour for breakfast?
Will they let me have a room to set-up for handing out route sheet for FREE?
Will they give separate meal checks?
The big one is they don’t request a deposit of $250 to $500 up front; this is the reason the ride is FREE.

Russell W Fleming

[thatguy]

Route 235 Ride that is 170 miles long by Russell Fleming COG

This is the one I enjoy.

[SuperHans]

2007 there were 80 motorcycles there.
When setting up rides like this I have to find some place that has a large parking lot.
Can they serve 50 to 100 people within 1 hour for breakfast?
Will they let me have a room to set-up for handing out route sheet for FREE?
Will they give separate meal checks?
The big one is they don’t request a deposit of $250 to $500 up front; this is the reason the ride is FREE.

Russell W Fleming

I understand your reasons for choosing this location. I just wish I had known before arriving that there was no gas at that location. Other than that one complaint, I think you guys did a great job last year. I would highly recommend this ride to all.

[ruffcut]

There are some good roads in this area but why on earth would that meet at the PETRO Truck Stop - talk about a congested area that I try to avoid.  

    The Petro wont be bad as it`s huge. Traffic will be low in the petro on the weekend cause most truckers go home to leave their dog out.

[Randy FJR]

I understand your reasons for choosing this location. I just wish I had known before arriving that there was no gas at that location. Other than that one complaint, I think you guys did a great job last year. I would highly recommend this ride to all.

Hey, Eric.  Thanks for the compliment and recommendation.  Regarding the gas station, unless it closed down recently, there is an auto fueling station behind the restaraunt.  Not easy to see unless you're looking for it.  However, the Pilot station up the road (closer to the turnpike entrance - same side of the road as the Iron Skillet) usually has the best gas prices in the area.
Hope to see you there this year.

[Scratch33]

Hmm.  Might try to make this one if my calendar's clear.  

[Zerosum]

Count me in!  And it's on the calandar BEFORE my wife has filled up that weekend for me!  

[Scratch33]

Count me out.  Same weekend as VIR.

[Russell W Fleming]

For the Sport Touring at its Finest Ride on August 17 in Carlisle PA I have the routes in GPS format if you would like the file contact me and I will send it to you.

Russell W Fleming
 

[keystonejenks]

I'm going to try and make this.

[Rincewind]

I'm going to try and make this.

Same here.  I had a real blast riding up there w/ejworthen last year, then doing the 235 route with thatguy.  

Russell - I'd be interested in the GPS files.  If you could, please e-mail them to triumph_rider11@yahoo.com .  Thanks!

[thatguy]

I'm going to try and make this.

What do you mean try?Just do it.I won't make too much fun of your little Triumph.

[FizDog74]

I'm going to be in Southern Virginia August 14-16th, but I going to do my best to make it up there for this event.  

[ZZR Rob]

I'm in. Russell, I'm sending pm for routes.

[JamminJere]

Bump for Russell

[JamminJere]

I'm heading out of the Pottstown area around 7am Sunday for Carlisle, Anyone want to hook up for the ride out the TurnPike from Morgantown to Carlisle... let me know.

Jerry

[FJRski!]

I'm heading out of the Pottstown area around 7am Sunday for Carlisle, Anyone want to hook up for the ride out the TP... let me know.

Jerry

Maybe.

I was thinking of doing this as a 1-day ride.  But I have to squeeze in an oil-change sometime this week (maybe on Friday night), and figure out a way to strap some gear on the Wee because I don't have any luggage yet, and assuming I get over those two easy hurdles, I still need to get clearance from the BOSS to take off on Sunday.  (Reminds me of the Blue Cheer single.)  She wasn't thrilled about the thought of missing the ride when I told her about it last week.  And I thought that was a good sign!

Is 7 AM early enough?  It took us 2 hours from Carlisle to Quakertown in the family cage on Sunday, and that was slab all the way.  I was thinking of other options.  One was to head out around 6 AM, slab it to 61, take 895 to Gold Mine Rd  then over ST Peter's Mt, cross the river at Duncannon or Dusquane or Dunquirk or however it's spelled and travel down 74.  The other was to leave a little later, around 9 AM, get there late and miss meeting up with the groups, ride the area (I have several routes from last year stored on GPS) and then meet the folks back at the diner between 2-4 PM before heading home.

I'll confirm something or ther later this week.  My plan is to have no plan.

My only concern is that I'm not sure how much over 450 miles or so my butt can tolerate on that diabolical saddle Suzuki calls a seat.  I look forward to the opportunity to find out.

[motospeed9058]

GRRRRRR......mother in law just showed up.....here through the weekend. 

Wife:  "you didn't have plans did you?" 

[Zerosum]

GRRRRRR......mother in law just showed up.....here through the weekend. 

Wife:  "you didn't have plans did you?" 

Dude, that's MORE of a reason to get the f out of the house...

"Hi Mom!  It's so nice to see you!  I have to run to the garage for a second, I'll be right back."

[Vrrooom.....Screeeeeech!]  


That's why I put this on the calendar a month ago!  You gotta book your time before they do!  

[Zerosum]

I too would like the route data... I need enough time to figure out how to load it into my GPS!  

If someone could send it to [deleted], that would be swell.  Thanks!

edit:
Thanks for the route files!  Took my email address out to keep it from getting harvested by spammers...

[thatguy]

Well I won't be making it.Been in bed half the week with a horrid flu like bug and I don't get sick dammit..I'm just too drained to even consider it.Have fun guys.

[Rincewind]

Zerosum - you've got mail.  

Sorry to hear you can't make it thatguy.  Here's to your health.  

FJRSki - real glad to see you posting again with your new WeeStrom.  I hope your wife is doing well.  
I am interested in your Gold Mine Rd and St Peters route if you are leaving very early.  I could meet you along 897.  However that route is close to 3-1/2hrs by google calcs - Link

motospeed9058 - Zerosum is right, now's the time to go!  I leave for days when my MIL comes.    

KeystoneJenks - you still in?

Where are those characters ejworthen and DosEquis???  

[DosEquis00]

Where are those characters ejworthen and DosEquis???  

I would have taken the ride with you but I am going to go over and pay my respects to Brett and his family.
Keep me in mind for a future ride as we should head north.

[old_fart]

Will see you Sunday - I'm riding down Saturday early AM to meet my son coming from DC area. We'll ride the area in the afternoon Saturday & meet you Sunday AM!

[Rincewind]

I would have taken the ride with you but I am going to go over and pay my respects to Brett and his family.
Keep me in mind for a future ride as we should head north.

I imagine Brett will have a lot of Blackbirds and riders seeing him off.  RIP.

Catch you later.

[Cablebandit]

Could I get the route files?  My email is in my profile.

[Rincewind]

Could I get the route files?  My email is in my profile.

Your e-mail is hidden.  PM me your addy or post it here.

[keystonejenks]

Not sure if I can make it yet or not. I need to find a baybsitter for the little one.

[wsplrll]

whoa I was reading about this earlier in the Summer and forgot all about it. Anyone got a nice back way from State College to meeting area? Anything but RT322!

Maybe I can finagle this one and meet some of you guys.

[SLK50]

  From State College: take 26 south to McAlevys Fort, east on 305 to 655. Go south on 655 to 22, east to 522. ( avoids Huntingdon ) Take 522 south to Shade Gap, take the left onto 641 east, follow 641 all the way to Carlisle. It'll be a nice ride in the country with very little traffic, if any.
  A couple of STN'rs are meeting in Tyrone then riding to Alexandria for breakfast at the Diner 22. After breakfast picking up the route above onto Carlisle. Care to join us? We should be at the Diner by 7:00 AM.

[Zerosum]

So my Dad is coming with me.  He rides a W650.  I was planning to do the "Paved and Unpaved " route on my V-Strom.  My Dad's an accomplished dirt and street rider, so assuming that "paved and unpaved" means "gravel and dirt roads", he should be fine.  We're not talking about any serious off-roading, right?  What's the approximate paved/unpaved ratio?

[SuperHans]

Where are those characters ejworthen and DosEquis???  

I've been pretty busy lately and unable to do much riding other than back and forth to work. Wish I could make it.

[Russell W Fleming]

The paved and unpaved is 160 miles long with about 70 miles unpaved.

See you Sunday
Russell W Fleming

[Rincewind]

I'm geared up and raring to go.  I haven't decided yet which route will have the most fun, twisty riding.  I'm thinking the Raystown Lake one is looking good, I will check in with Randy tomorrow as to his opinion.  I look forward to meeting more STn'ers and having a good sporting ride.  I'm going to aim for an 8:30 arrival.

-Alex on the blue Tiger 1050  

[wsplrll]

  From State College: take 26 south to McAlevys Fort, east on 305 to 655. Go south on 655 to 22, east to 522. ( avoids Huntingdon ) Take 522 south to Shade Gap, take the left onto 641 east, follow 641 all the way to Carlisle. It'll be a nice ride in the country with very little traffic, if any.
  A couple of STN'rs are meeting in Tyrone then riding to Alexandria for breakfast at the Diner 22. After breakfast picking up the route above onto Carlisle. Care to join us? We should be at the Diner by 7:00 AM.

Thanks for the info. I did get down that way finally today - but not early enough - but the route was a help.

Maybe I will catch up with you guys one of these days.

[JamminJere]

Thanks for the info. I did get down that way finally today - but not early enough - but the route was a help.

Maybe I will catch up with you guys one of these days.

wspirll,

The ride is today!.. Sunday!... Hopefully you can make it

See you all there....

Jerry

[SuperSlider]

I may have hooked up with you guys today. I was riding north and west of carlisle when by I just happened to cross paths with a group of bikes. The first part of the pack was a pair of concourses or conci and I believe an sv 1k. I'm not sure about the rest of the pack, may have been a Vstrom and a couple of triumphs.
I dropped in with the group for a bit, I was on a black zx14. I wanted to hang for the ride but I just didn't have the time. Hope you guys had a good time.

[JamminJere]

I had a good ride today... I did the 235 route with FJRSKI and ZZRROB... After eating breakfast we hung around til about 10:10... Sorry I missed SLK50 and Cablebandit, I heard from Russ you guys got there about 10:30 and did the 5 county ride. I did that one last year.. thats a nice ride too. We met up with Old Fart and his son about a third of the way thru the route and hung with them until we needed some cold refreshments and stopped at a little store close to Rt45.

Thanks to Frank and Robbie for a nice trek together, and thank you Russ Fleming from COG and Randy from the FJR forum for putting this together again. I never did get a count on how many signed up.. I think close to 50 bikes were there at peak before people started off on their rides..

Nice to meet Rincewind too!

Hope to see alot of you at ESTN.

Jerry

[Rincewind]

Nice pics Jere, and nice meeting you as well.  Thanks again to Russell and Randy for organizing the event.  I had a good time riding to Raystown Lake and back.  Having the GPS file made it a lot easier for me to follow the route.  

 

[FJRski!]

Home after 419 fine sport-touring miles.  We took a nice ride around French Creek on the way home.  I love riding through those cool dark shady lanes on a warm sunny day.  Hey Gerry, were you practicing for the road kill cook off; it's not till next month?  First you kicked that apple out of the road, then I thought that squirrel was going to run under your wheels for sure, and I don't know if you saw the raccoon, he got out of the way fast. You had all the fixens for vittles. LOL
Great ride.    

[Randy FJR]

Was great to see you guys who have been to every single one of the STAIF-north rides (well, both, since this is only the 2nd one).   My best count was 45 bikes in the lot and we picked up 2 more as the last of us were pulling out.  I know there was a lot of conflicts this weekend that kept the attendance lower than we expected with many attending the races at VIR.
I'm glad everyone had a good time...it was absolutely our pleasure to put it on.
We'll try to come up with some new routes next year.  If anyone has any suggestions for routes or even just segments, let Russell or I know and we'll see what we can come up with.
Great weather, great people, great times.  Hope everyone made it home safe...thanks for coming.

[Zerosum]

I may have hooked up with you guys today. I was riding north and west of carlisle when by I just happened to cross paths with a group of bikes. The first part of the pack was a pair of concourses or conci and I believe an sv 1k. I'm not sure about the rest of the pack, may have been a Vstrom and a couple of triumphs.
I dropped in with the group for a bit, I was on a black zx14. I wanted to hang for the ride but I just didn't have the time. Hope you guys had a good time.

Yeah, I was in that 2nd pack... I was on the V-Strom and my Dad was on his W650.  One of his buddies was on a '72 XS650 and he was keeping up right up with us.  We would have been keeping up with the Concrouses, but my Dad is old and has to pee every half hour!  

We did the Reysville Lake ride.  What a blast!  This is the hardest I've ridden my new V-Strom yet.  It was really great to see how well it handles in *really* tight and twisty mountain roads.  I was keeping right up with a guy on a 919 for the whole day.  This was the first time I've ridden with a pre-programmed route in my GPS.. which was awesome.  (Especially because a few of the roads weren't marked.)  The return trip from the lake wasn't as nice as the way up, but it was still nice.    By the time I got home to Baltimore, it was a 400 mile day.  That's about all my butt can handle!

Thanks again to Russell for putting this together!  I'll definately be doing this again next year!

Rob

[FizDog74]

Sorry I missed this.  I really wanted to go, but had been on the road from Wednesday through Saturday and was just too burned out to be in Carlisle by 9am.  

[keystonejenks]

Too bad I missed out. Funny, my mother-in-law got off work early and called because she wanted to see the little ones. She came over and I did end up gong for a ride. I hit some of the back roads to see if I could spot anybody. Saw a few groups of bikes but don't know if it was anybody from the meet.

I hit up Rt. 641 didn't see to many groups. Now, I didn't pass a few groups going the opposite direction on routes 994 and 655.

[Rincewind]

We did the Reysville Lake ride.  What a blast!  This is the hardest I've ridden my new V-Strom yet.  It was really great to see how well it handles in *really* tight and twisty mountain roads.  I was keeping right up with a guy on a 919 for the whole day.  This was the first time I've ridden with a pre-programmed route in my GPS.. which was awesome.  (Especially because a few of the roads weren't marked.)  The return trip from the lake wasn't as nice as the way up, but it was still nice.    

Nice meeting you Rob.  I agree that the route out to Raystown was better than the return route.  Route 994 by the lake was a highlight, and 274 has some nice sections.  Overall you're right that the routing took a lot of side roads that would have been difficult to follow w/o a GPS.  If I were to do that route again, I would skip the first set of backroads and done the first Route 74 pass as that should be part of any Carlisle-based route, imo.

[ZZR Rob]

Thanks to Russell, Randy and anyone else that helped put this on. As usual a great ride. Jer, nice riding with you again, Frank, nice meeting and riding with ya. Nice to meet other new faces as well.
Decent turn out as you can see from the pics even though VIR was the same weekend.

[Russell W Fleming]

Glad everyone had a good time Sunday.
Like Randy said if you know of some good road and area you would like to good to please us know so that we can start working on some new rides for next year.

Here is another wed site you can go to and get in on some for there rides.
http://www.concours.org/ne/schedules.htm

Russell W Fleming

[wsplrll]

wspirll,

The ride is today!.. Sunday!... Hopefully you can make it

See you all there....

Jerry

Dagnabbitt! Well 2 all day rides this weekend was tough to finagle anyway. Thanks for all the info though and catch you on the next one.