An overnight trip with the wife to Southern IL/KY

[BDazzler]

OK, first of all, I'm very new to posting and editing video. Please bear with me as I cut my teeth on a few videos and sort out my editing software. This first video is from my iPhone 4S and edited a bit with the YouTube editing tools. It's my wife, Jodie, and I sitting on our bikes after just getting out of the KY rain for about an hour. I was happy to have the V-Stream shield, as only my arms and legs got soaked. My chest was damp, but not bad. We are taking the ferry across the Ohio River to Cave In Rock, IL. We were ready for gas, a bathroom and some lunch. This was Jodie's first experience riding in the rain. She could appreciate it a bit more after we were out of the rain (me too). We ended up having to goto 'E-Town' (Elizabethtown) to get gas and a man getting gas there was kind enough to point us to a great little fish place floating on the river.

I'll just put the ferry video here for now. I haven't had time to even download the GoPro video yet. I'm afraid most of the rain video with have a very fogged lens. I almost bought the anti-humidity inserts... oops, didn't do it. I was hoping for good GoPro video from the ferry, but a looked after I stopped my iPhone video and the inside of the case lens was totally fogged. :shame:

I'll get a few more videos and some pictures up soon, I hope. This was taken Sept. 16, 2012.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wkhAGG3kLU&hd=1]Ferry from KY to IL (edited) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Dustin]

Fun ferry ride

 

[thepopularjock]

Awesome!
Thanks for sharing.
Hey just curious - Does the Ninja 250 tour well with the FZ1? I'm thinking of getting the exact set up as we teach my GF how to ride. I know you can MAKE anything work but I was curious if the 2 bikes travel well together?

 

[BDazzler]

Awesome!
Thanks for sharing.
Hey just curious - Does the Ninja 250 tour well with the FZ1? I'm thinking of getting the exact set up as we teach my GF how to ride. I know you can MAKE anything work but I was curious if the 2 bikes travel well together?

I'm not sure in what way your asking if they travel well. The FZ1 needs gas more often, the Ninja 250 tops out at about 90mph. The FZ1 strongly out accelerates the 250. They both corner better than my ability. My wife was content to take things slow and steady and I was happy to stay with her. I guess when I re-read that I sound a bit like a 'smart a$$' because that's all a bit obvious, but I just didin't know how to answer that.

One of the things that makes our rides together 100 times better is the Scala Rider G4 (the G9 is the new one). It's great to be able to talk about things we see on the ride while riding and I can always ride ahead to point out cars, sand, gravel, etc. which really helps her confidence. She can just concentrate on riding and not worry as much about things trying to kill her.

I just bought "A Twist of the Wrist II" book and video before we took off. We watched the video a couple times before we left and really tried to apply what we learned. Valentino doesn't need to worry about us yet, but I'm all about improving (correcting) my skills and teaching her right the first time.

I enjoy riding with her on her Ninja 250, but I would like to see her move up to a Ninja 650 or FZ6R sometime just to have a bit more power and good radial tires.

I hope that helped a bit.

 

[BDazzler]

Here are some pictures from our trip. I hope to have some video when I have time to figure out the editing software and upload to YouTube.

Bikes packed and ready to go.

Stopped for lunch at a SubWay

Playing with Instagram at a gas station

Arrived at the Bed & Breakfast

Taking in the luggage

More playing with Instagram with an upstairs chandelier

Leaving Metropolis, IL. Had to get some pictures with Superman.

A still picture from the Ferry as seen in the video

A great fish place in Elizabeth-town (E-Town), IL. I can highly recommend the pond catfish. We met a very friendly guy at the gas station and he recommended it to us. Many thanks to him. Yum!

A few quick pictures from "Garden of the Gods" on the way back. I hadn't updated to iOS 6 yet, so no panoramic

Leaving and heading straight home. We were a bit behind schedule due to the rain. Can you see the pure filth on the bikes? The Ninja is suppose to have a chrome exhaust. Ewww. I thoroughly washed and waxed both the next day. I still need to clean an lube the chains, but we haven't had time to take the bikes out to warm the chains enough to do it

Sorry it's such a late post from when we took the trip. I went straight back to work and won't have a big break again until this weekend, but that's my daughter's 11th birthday (officially on Thursday). Thanks for looking.

 

[stretched06]

Great photos looks like a fun trip.

 

[Hail]

What a great trip! I need to work on getting my wife a bike again.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[FZ1riderNY]

Thanks for the vid and pics Troy. I'm glad you guys had a good time. The Ninja looks awesome. I still may get another one of those "new generation" style models.

 

[BDazzler]

Thanks for the vid and pics Troy. I'm glad you guys had a good time. The Ninja looks awesome. I still may get another one of those "new generation" style models.

That new Ninja 300 with ABS looks so sweet, but when I have more lbs than cc's, theres a problem I'll try to work on that. :icon_beer:

I still haven't looked at the SD cards from the GoPro. I'm hoping for some good video from that. I wanted to try some different camera positions and get some video from the Ninja too, but I'm too tentative to put the sticky mounts on the bikes or helmet. Anyone have experience with these? Do they rip the paint off if you want to remove them? Can you remove them? I just used the suction cup on my tank in the same position the whole time. I had the clear windshield and the Ninja has the dark smoke ZG DB and my wife had the tank bag. I offered to take it, but she didn't want the camera for some reason?

I'll have to find out how much of the rain ride was fogged up. I knew I should have bought the humidity absorbers for the GoPro... :rant:

 

[BDazzler]

What a great trip! I need to work on getting my wife a bike again.


Sent from my iPhone

I love that my wife rides. I learn more teaching her than just riding. She decided to buy her Ninja (new '09) in April 2010 and I didn't get a bike (my used '07 FZ1) until Oct 2010. She's done so well. I'm very proud of her.

Now that we finally got "A Twist of the Wrist II" and watched the video a few times, we are both learning a lot. We even watched a few of "rnickymouse" videos on YouTube. There was an R6 that lost it in the turn. We picked out all the SR's (survival reactions) in slow motion. We are both really getting better at smooth, consistant roll on through corners. Amazing what a little info can do.