C-H-E-E-S-E-L-A-N-D VFR

Discussion in 'Trips & Events' started by 1911, Aug 6, 2022.

  1. 1911

    1911 New Member

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    Long report for just a few miles put on the bike.

    About 2008 Future Son-in-Law asked for our youngest daughter’s hand. About six months ago he started making noise about getting a motorcycle. I didn’t encourage him. Didn’t discourage either. He’s ridden a little bit, other peoples bikes, never owning one himself. He had his learner’s permit back before he married Daughter 2. Still, I consider this to be his first motorcycle.

    I'm not the most experienced rider around, but SIL knows I do ride a good bit. My 07FJR has 110k on the odo. He asked my advice about what would be a good bike for him. VFR800 was not on my list. One of his friends has a 1999 and a 2008 VFR in the garage. They took them for a spin around the hood. I wasn’t there. It took just a short ride to confirm that there WILL be a new rider in the family. SIL wants to ride NOW!

    Step one-DMV for new learner’s permit. SC had a problem, years ago, with people riding forever on just a permit and never taking the road test to convert to a full license. It didn’t help that a lot of motorcycles, especially sportbikes, had too large a turning radius to negotiate the out of date course. Now they limit the length of time that a rider can hold a permit. SIL could only get a permit that lasted 30 days because he previously had a permit many years ago. DMV did make positive changes in the program though. Successfully complete a MSF Basic Rider Course and you can take a waiver from the course to the DMV and receive your full motorcycle license. I found a course scheduled within 30 days and told the SIL I’d buy. The course provides the bikes so no hurry to find a machine, unless you have been bitten by the bug.

    SIL isn’t tall. Seat height and width matter. I offered up and we looked at lighter, cheaper, less likely to break your heart the first time you drop it options. Nyet! The VFR had seduced.

    The bike market is the seller’s game right now. We ended up trying to figure out how to get a like new 2014 Deluxe down from Wisconsin, err, C-H-E-E-S-E-L-A-N-D.

    SIL travels for work. SIL and Daughter 2 will travel to get to entertainment. There is no entertainment in travel for either of them.

    Yet

    SIL explored a lot of options to avoid an overly optimistically estimated 28 hours of driving. None quite work out.

    ROAD TRIP!

    Departure 5:45 pm Friday, as soon as SIL gets off work. I had planned to get some sleep between the end of a half day at work and leaving but did nothing but lay there anticipating.

    Like I said, SIL doesn’t travel for sport. Fly or slab to get to the destination and back ASAP. Funny though, once we get out of familiar surroundings he is gawking and squawking about rows of corn and windmills. He observes that all US cities look the same. Not if you get off the darned interstates and out of the airports, says I.

    Buc-ee’s at 1:00 am-crowd not too bad, turkey wrap and a root beer- decent.

    When we can’t drive anymore, SIL uses an “employee” discount to get us a very nice suite. We check in about 5 am Saturday, just north of Indianapolis. How it took us this long to get here I have no idea. There was a pretty good delay in the mountains between Asheville and Knoxville for an accident, along with the normal Asheville and Knoxville evening traffic, but still….Maybe SIL got lost and drove around in circles while I caught a few zzzzz? The plan is too catch a few hours of sleep and then meet the seller in West Bend WI between 1 and 2 pm. The expression “too tired to sleep” I now understand. I should have been out cold and pounding the snooze button but I toss and turn and get up before the alarm goes off. We are rolling again on caffeine and sugar less than 4 hours after checking in. Seems like a waste of a hotel room to me, at the time.

    The phone navigation ETA has us right on schedule right up to the time we hit Chicago.

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    SIL and Daughter 2 recently toured a little of The Big Apple. Flight straight into town, taxi to a nice hotel, and then out to hit some of the tourist spots and good eats. They saw just the good parts. We get to see the rusty industrial part of The Windy City from highways as we drive in. SIL seems fascinated. We can see the skyline of the part of town that tourists should be headed to and we catch a glimpse of Lake Michigan. “LOOKS LIKE THE OCEAN!”-SIL 2022. We both lament that our schedule doesn’t allow for a Deep Dish quest.

    The crawl through Chicago adds to our ETA

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    The crawl through Milwaukee adds a little more to our ETA. At our last interstate exit, Held Meats is on the left and the current owner of the VFR is four miles down the road to the right. What a coincidence. We get there when we get there. The package is as advertised. The deal is done. The bike is loaded-

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    -but the cooler is NOT full.


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    The guys at Held fill the cooler and recommend The Stillary for lunch. We like cheese curds. Damn fine entrées too.

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    There may have been some evil plotting over lunch.

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    Bellies full and adventurers ready to roll again. All the stress of worrying about being somewhere on time and the nagging little threat of disappointment in the deal is gone. Nothing left to do but go home. I tell the kid riding shotgun to punch in Rockford IL.

    Shotgun: Rockford IL?????

    Driver: Yup, not going through Chicago again.

    Shotgun: How many miles will that add?

    Driver: 110 or so.

    Shotgun: 110 miles???? (unable to mute the sound of the noggin gears grinding out the miles/MPG/$PG calculations-the fuel for this adventure is all on him)

    Driver: Yup, 110 miles…..or so

    Shotgun, a few hours and many pictures through dirty glass later: That was a lot more pleasant than driving through Chicago!

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    Now, back to that 5 am check-in at the nice overnighting place earlier in the day. It’s now pretty late in the evening on Saturday when we hit Indy, homebound. SIL explains to me that we really didn’t check in Friday night, it was considered an early check-in for Saturday. That means the room is technically ours until checkout Sunday. On this visit to bed I SLEEP.

    Sunday morning, breakfast at Denny’s . No pix, it’s Denny’s. And then on the road again.

    Smooth back down through Indy and Lexington.

    Buc-ee’s at lunch time-INSANE!

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    PT Barnum would be proud. It would have taken my drone to get a picture that would do the scale of this madness any justice. The Turkey sandwich was pretty good though and better with a slice of cheese from Held’s. The tea at Buc-ee’s-not so good.

    Smooth through Louisville but there were flash flood warnings between there and Knoxville. That’s all the excuse I needed for a hard left at Corbin.

    SIL did NOT work on his aero tuck between Corbin and Bean Station.

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    Just one more hurdle between Bean Station and home: Asheville. We either found the right time to blast through Asheville, late Sunday afternoon, or just got lucky.

    Back in the driveway at 6:44 pm Sunday. Truck quickly unloaded and pizza scarffed down.

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    Just enough time left in the day to run down to the boat ramp for a first ride on the first bike and a little practice. As we were headed that way, SIL's spouse showed her confidence in her husband by admonishing me “don’t let him crash that thing in the lake and drown!” Everybody lived.

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    Pretty cool 48:59

    That figure, color and tach can be kind of seductive, I reckon.

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    What's scarier than a son-in-law with a VFR800 as a first bike? This particular son-in-law with a wrench in his hand. That's how this gray haired FJR rider, who makes a living with wrenches and does all his on bike work, ends up on VFR World. I'll be mining this site for technical info and advice. First project for me-frame sliders. No easy task on the gen 8 it appears. Anybody got a favorite?

    Let the games begin.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2022
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  2. raYzerman

    raYzerman Member

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    Congrats again..... rumour has it RG sliders are the strongest......
     
  3. philois1984

    philois1984 New Member

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    Your SIL has great taste in motorbikes. Put your tools away it’s a Honda I fitted T-Rex frame sliders on mine, I think they look pretty good, not sure if you can still get them with the VFR logo on them (trademark issues I believe) no fairing drilling or cutting necessary.
    BEE26A57-1CEC-4192-A813-07239A0F6B88.jpeg If the bike needs new tyres highly recommend the Michelin Road 5’s seem to be very popular with many on this and other forums. There are also bar risers available if SIL feels he has too much weight on his wrists (more of an old guy’s problem)
    If SIL is interested in the panniers tell him to start looking now, they are getting very hard to find.
    I haven’t heard of any issues with the eighth gen VFR’s, many owners don’t bother with the first scheduled valve check, everyone has there own thoughts on this (it’s expensive unless your FIL does it for you)
    I have owned mine for 6years now and still love it, puts a smile on my face every time I ride it. As a first bike it’s a bit on the heavy side at a standstill or when low speed manoeuvring, otherwise it’s fine. Hope SIL enjoys it.
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  4. philois1984

    philois1984 New Member

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    Also for some VFR inspiration check out V4dreams.com
     
  5. Colddevil

    Colddevil Member

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    Held's is awesome. You know, you could have just had me ride the bike down for you! I was actually just boppin' around West Bend last weekend since my parents live up there.

    Sounds like it was a worthwhile trip though. You made the right choice avoiding Chicago. You can get lucky and get through it quickly sometimes (though 294 is getting ripped up pretty bad now), but I almost invariably avoid it when I take my semi-regular drives from Milwaukee to Tupelo, MS. Illinois is such a drag to drive through. Luckily you're able to get east where there is at least some change in elevation.

    Thanks for the fun read.
     
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  6. Thumbs

    Thumbs Member

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    DSG For the win, no cutting either
    upload_2022-8-22_16-31-14.jpeg


    I’ve got a box of TRex pucks and a set of mounting plates, of which one needs to be put in a press to straighten it ….yours for the shipping
     
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