Connecticut Clamboree recap

Saturday August 21, 2010. What a beautiful day for riding -- not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, not too sunny... Sweet day for a 500 mile round trip to CT for lunch!

Mark and I gassed up and then waited at Genuardi's in Flourtown, PA for Bill and Hollywood. This would be my SWing's first long ride with the new setup of 26g sliders, Rotella T6 oil, stock shield, NGK iridium plugs and a great way for me to figure out my true mileage at running speeds.

Mark was riding a really cool and well-farkled V-STROM with a Scottoiler automatic chain oiler -- always fun to see how folks rig their bikes. Bill arrived on his Harley Heritage Softtail, and then Hollywood showed up on his Burgman 650 with a friend, Sue, riding pillion.

Here's a photo of everyone sans Jerry (who we would be picking up in NJ), just before mounting up.



We took the turnpike to 1 and then 95 to New Jersey, and then hopped onto 206 and pulled into Jerry's house where we met his lovely wife and had a great breakfast with some of the best blueberry muffins I've ever had.





Jerry decided to take his FJR today and would be riding drag for me. We mounted up and got ready to roll, stopping by a gas station to top up. We had about 180 miles to cover between Princeton and our destination, Johnny Ad's Drive-In in Old Saybrook, CT. Our first 110 miles from Princeton were uneventful -- we took 287 all the way up into NY and over the Tappan Zee bridge and took in the view of the Hudson River and all the sailboats out on the water, then got on 95 and entered CT, and pulled off to gas up.

Our final 70 miles were really grueling -- we got caught in bumper to bumper traffic for much of the first 40 miles. Somewhere in the vicinity of Hartford, while going over some bumps, Hollywood's front tire rubbed on the front fender and then Bill and Jerry watched as the Burgman's front fender was ejected with a puff of smoke and flew off and to the right onto the shoulder!

Mark and I were up front and trying to figure out what to do about the traffic situation, and finally decided to take local roads for the last 30 miles. We got on Boston Post Road aka Route 1 for what seemed like hours at a snail's pace of 45mph. After hours of 70-75mph slabriding, the local roads seemed like torture but at least we were moving instead of burning up clutches (on the motorcycles anyway!) on that parking lot that was 95.

We finally pulled into Johnny Ad's around 2:30pm. Hooray!



We were all very hungry by then and thankfully the food was well worth the trip. I mean, check out the size of that flounder and the amount of lobster on my lobster roll!





I of course HAD to have some whole bellied clams, something you don't really get outside of New England.



The clam chowder here is also different as it is more broth- than cream-based. Still pretty tasty!



Hollywood, crazy man that he is, ordered a chicken sandwich. Even the stuffed ray on the wall felt insulted.



Jerry started off early once he finished his food -- he wanted to go visit a museum in Guilford to do some genealogy research, and would join us back on the road when he was done. The rest of us yakked for a bit and took our time with lunch. Bill seems very interested in the Iron Butt Association and we talked about the Iron Butt 5000 rally that my buddy Jerome is doing as well as different rides that would qualify for entrance into the IBA.

Finally, just before 4pm, we got ready to go back home. We would all be splitting off once we hit Jersey -- Bill and I were going to stay on 287 while Mark was going to take the Garden State Parkway and Hollywood and Sue would take 95 all the way back home. Before we mounted up, I had to take a look at Hollywood's Burgman's new look.



You almost don't even realize the fender's gone. Probably cools his engine even better without it since his radiator's now fully exposed!!!

Anyway, we hopped back onto 95, hoping that it wouldn't be anything like how it was on the way up, and thankfully, it wasn't for the most part. Jerry joined us on the road about 30 miles up. We peeled off onto 287 while Hollywood kept on going, and then both Jerry and Mark took Garden State Parkway, and it was just Bill and me left. We were thinking of taking a different route back home, but then I made the mistake of getting on the wrong 24 and ended up going east instead of west. We pulled off and got some gas, and found ourselves about a couple miles from 202! We both rode back across the Delaware River and then took 611 past Brick House (I looked to see if any bikes were there but didn't see any) and then we both got on the turnpike and headed westwards for home.

I got home around 9pm, tired but happy and feeling great. I had a blast, traffic notwithstanding, and I hope to do another RTE soon!

Hammy
(edited from http://www.meetup.com/phila-moto/messages/boards/thread/9613247)

My overall average mpg was 47, which is MUCH better than the mid-30s I was getting back in July when I was running with a ready-to-shred belt, 1 spark plug which had a gap that was about 0.041, and big saddlebags and seatbag and large Givi shield. I'm hoping that this means I can get about 45mpg on long fast runs and that my range is still over 150 miles. I wonder if I use 28g (stock weight) sliders if my mileage would also improve... The SWing is really powerful with the 26g sliders and I can blast past almost anything, but I definitely still have things I'd like to do with it...

Sounds like a great ride! Do you ever ride w/the Penn-Jersey Scooter Mob, or the Kickstands Up! group on Meetup.

Tony and several members of the Mob ride with us on EZR. I spend a lot of time organizing rides for EZR as well as PMRG that I don't really have time to go on rides with other groups. As for KSU... that would be better discussed on private messaging. I see you're in South Jersey! We run through there every now and then -- just went on a ride to Mystic Island a couple weekends ago and I used to live in Mount Laurel. A couple of my riding buddies are in the Stratford area.

Yep, I'm right across the river from you.

I'll ride w/anyone, and have gone on several rides w/the Mob and a couple w/the KSU guys. I'm kind of random on the weekends I have available, but enjoy a good day's ride.

Consider PMRG - most of my posted rides will be long rides and there are lots of really nice rides done by others (I usually put up more of the long distance slabriding type), and EZR will also have a lot of rides, though they'll be mostly scooters and a couple Spyders. The funny thing is every Silver Wing in our club is a 2004 silver non-ABS model!

Glad you folks had a great ride! Sorry that I had to bail out, I certainly would have enjoyed those clams and chowder! There will be a next time for sure!

Oh you betcha. I've got to figure out where to go next for lunch... was thinking of the Carolinas for BBQ!

Hammy wrote:

Oh you betcha. I've got to figure out where to go next for lunch...

Woody's for crabs? North East, MD

I'm not big on crabs I gotta dig into myself... though I hear their crab cakes are good! We just went to the Nauti Goose a few weeks ago in North East. Woody's is a bit... close. We could do that on an evening! That actually sounds like a good evening ride.