Nov 4th Florida Meet & Greet?

[Cpope]

Any takers?
Let me know and will put a route togeather unless you want to.
Weather should be perrrfecttt.

[My Strom]

Sounds like fun, count me in.

My Strom

[RodK]

Sure Charlie, I'm in.

Rod
05 Wee
Riverview, FL

[mnparadise]

Any takers?
Let me know...

Any possibility of having something a little more southern and/or eastern than some of the previous gatherings?
A 5+ hour ride before gathering is a bit hard and makes for a very long day.

[Tampa Tom]

Would love to come out and meet some other Strom'rs. I'll keep an eye on this string.

[motoxusa]

Charlie....Name the place and time and I will be there.

[fl_strom]

Make it a solid date and I'll schedule the weekend off.

[Cpope]

Nov 4th is the best time for me. This time of year we have softball tournaments for the end of the year and thats the only weekend open until 07.

If somebody can pick up and do one south of Orlando I would attend, even if it ment staying over night somewhere. Lets do what ever is easier for most of the riders. Even if a few have to come up/downover Friday night and stay over. I always have places to toss a tent, store bikes, shower etc. Hell I might even show you the town and buy some beer.

E-mail ma and I can show a route I have selected, but it is around Gainsville/Ocala area. I can't copy the route to the board.

[motoxusa]

Here's the ride laid out by Charlie. We just need a meeting time and place.


http://www.louwhitney.com/VS-Ride_Nov4.jpg

[RodK]

Cool, I've never done that one. Charlie is going to keep us on the pavement, isn't he? :shock: :D

Rod

[JRShaw]

Charlie, looks like a good route. I'm probably in for the ride. Just need to know what time from where in Williston for wheels up? I'm two hours away in New Smyrna. Good seeing ya the other day.

[tstrom]

Charlie looks ike a good ride, unless something chancges my husband and I will plan on attending.

[Cpope]

There is a breakfast place (sorry don't remember the name but have ate there before and good food) just west of 41 N on 27, on the south side of the road. Williston Fl. I will be there early so just look for the fastest color Strom, Yellow. haha. I will be there at 10am. Should be on the road by 11:15 at the latest. I riden the road several times and it is all pavement and great sweeps and a few good twisties. Not much traffic and a couple good spots to break along the way. Great place at the end for food and a drink or 2. So far we have

Charlie (Cpope)
tstrom and husband
Lou (motoxusa)
(My Strom)
David
Becky
Brian
JRShaw
RodK
Mike (subagon)
zuki1 newbe, but we won't hold that against you
A1A welcome
Winnie ane her BF on a HD, no problem

[zuki1]

Newbie, count me in.....







06wee :)

[subagon]

Hey Charlie. Just seeing this. Was up in NC last week on my Wee :D

Should be able to make 10/4.

[A1A]

I'm going to try and make this ride also. 8)

Cheers!

[jeanmarcfla]

If any ride is organized in the Southeast anytime soon, I'll be there....Looks like we don't have a lot of active troopers in this part of the world... :roll:

[motoxusa]

Hey Jean Marc.....There are a few riders down south, but we haven't had any volunteers to lay out a route down your way. If we can't get anyone from your area to lay out a route, I'll try to put something together early next year. I just finished laying out a neat route for December, but it's north of you. It starts south of Clermont and goes south to Lake Wales and then swings back north to the Clermont area. That's a little closer for you, but still a pretty good ride.

Take care and hope to see you soon.

[jeanmarcfla]

Lou,
Its very kind of you to make a route for next year. I know we have a few troopers in the area, but most of them have serious professional commitment and do not have a lot of spare time. I am up for a ride to Biketoberfest if anyone is interested to ride along. I would like to depart on Thursday the 19th from Miami and spend the next two days there, leaving on Saturday morning before the big crowd comes-in. I do not have accomodation though, and that could be an issue... :shock:

[JRShaw]

Jeanmarc;
Lodging should not be a problem as last 2 years all of the motels on US1 had vacancy signs out the entire event. Give me a shout and we can hook up. Sometime soon we are coming your way to visit Marco and Isa. Maybe next month or next. The 'crowds start' on Monday. CYA!!!!
Cell # 386-478-3049 or PM me here.

Charlie,the breakfast place you mentioned, is it on ALT 27? I've been map searching find roads to get to Williston and see that US27 goes north at Williston. Any help will be appreciated. If you remember the name even better. GPS is a wonderous thing. Looking forward to seeing all again.

[Winnie]

Hello all! Newbie here. My 06 Wee has about 300 miles on it so far. Coming from a Kawasaki VN 750 I'm still getting nose bleeds when mounting my new bike but I'm positive I've made a good decision. My Boyfriend (1200 HD Sportster, hope that's OK) and I would love to join. We live near Archer only a short hop to Williston.

I'm pretty sure the restaurant you are think of is the Driftwood. We eat there pretty frequently. It's very good :-) It is just right on US 27 just east of the downtown area on the south side of the road.

Winnie & Rick
06 Wee
06 HD Sportster custom

[JRShaw]

Winnie, glad you made the switch and found this fun site. The first meet and greet I went on with this group I was on my BMW and they accepted me just fine. I now use my liter Strom, but bring you boyfriend along. You will find all sorts of information available for your wee. We try to get together once a month for a meet and greet. Hope to see you at Williston on the 4th.
Coming to Biketoberfest? Meet several of us at the Hooters parking lot at1:00PM Thursday for a ride and then lunch. Short ride!

[Winnie]

Jim, Thanks for the invite. I wish we could go to Biketoberfest on Thursday. Unfortunately we just returned from a week in NC ( didn’t have the DL650 yet so it was a farewell trip for my VN750) and I just don’t think the boss would understand another day off. We are planning to go over the weekend.

I’ll let Rick know that he will not be shunned for riding a HD.

[Cpope]

Driftwood Grill it is. I cound not remember the name, but the food is great.
I will be there at 10am, underway 10:30, 11am at the latest.

Jim, it is 112 miles over, but only 76 back home.

Hope you can make it. I will try and bring the back case over to Daytona Thursday.

[motoxusa]

Click on the link below for map to Driftwood Grill.

http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&lr=&q=driftwood&near=Williston,+FL+32696&radius=0.0&cid=29387222,-82446944,16481299567045485760&li=lmd&z=14&t=m

[Cpope]

There is a breakfast place, Driftwood Grill, just west of 41 N on 27, on the south side of the road. Williston Fl. I will be there early so just look for the fastest color Strom, Yellow. haha. I will be there at 10am. Should be on the road by 11am at the latest. I riden the road several times and it is all pavement and great sweeps and a few good twisties. Not much traffic and a couple good spots to break along the way. Great place at the end for food and a drink or 2. So far we have about 14 or 15.

Charlie (Cpope)
tstrom and husband
Lou (motoxusa)
(My Strom)
Bill (Sandshark)
David
Becky
Brian
JRShaw
RodK
Mike (subagon)
zuki1 newbe, but we won't hold that against you
A1A welcome
Winnie ane her BF on a HD, no problem
Mike and Roseanne (readytoride)

[JRShaw]

I for one, can hardly wait for the 4th to get here. We have not had this much interest in a long time. Any of you able to come over to Daytona on this (10.19) Thursday, we are meeting at the back parking lot at Hooters at 1:00PM.
I'll be at Driftwoods for b'fast hopefully before 10:00 AM on the 4th. Thanks for the maps and riding distances. This will be a breeze. CYA on the 4th if not this Thursday.

[whalenwp]

I will also try to make it.

The weekend before I am leaving for the Cheaha Mountain Dualsport ride that my dualsport club (Dixie Dualsport) puts on ever year. Leave Thur. after work, ride Fri, Sat & Sun and travel home on Mon.

I always enjoy our V-Strom get togethers so will do my best the make it.

Bill "SandShark"
02 DRZ400S
03 DL1000 V-Strom "The Fast Silver"

[element]

I may be visiting the Plant City, FL area sometime between 19 - 22 and if there is somebody who want to ride, I may bring my DL1000. I would like to visit the Keys and camp for one night, stop by Key West and possibly a friends yacht in West Palm.

Is anybody up for a ride that week?

[readytoride]

There is a breakfast place, Driftwood Grill, just west of 41 N on 27, on the south side of the road. Williston Fl. I will be there early so just look for the fastest color Strom, Yellow. haha. I will be there at 10am. Should be on the road by 11am at the latest. I riden the road several times and it is all pavement and great sweeps and a few good twisties. Not much traffic and a couple good spots to break along the way. Great place at the end for food and a drink or 2. So far we have about 14 or 15.

Charlie (Cpope)
tstrom and husband
Lou (motoxusa)
(My Strom)
Bill (Sandshark)
David
Becky
Brian
JRShaw
RodK
Mike (subagon)
zuki1 newbe, but we won't hold that against you
A1A welcome
Winnie ane her BF on a HD, no problem

Add Mike and Roseanne to the list please... I just found out our out of town guests will be long gone by the 4th, so we plan on joining y'all. This will be my 3rd Strom ride and her 1st. :D

[Tampa Tom]

[quote=Cpope]Charlie (Cpope)
tstrom and husband
Lou (motoxusa)
(My Strom)
Bill (Sandshark)
David
Becky
Brian
JRShaw
RodK
Mike (subagon)
zuki1 newbe, but we won't hold that against you
A1A welcome
Winnie ane her BF on a HD, no problem

Add Mike and Roseanne to the list please...

If you can find 3 more seats at the table add Tampa Tom and wife Becky and buddy Roy (The Mapmeister). Looking forward to meeting everyone.

[Cpope]

There is a breakfast place, Driftwood Grill, just west of 41 N on 27, on the south side of the road. Williston Fl. I will be there early so just look for the fastest color Strom, Yellow. haha. I will be there at 10am. Should be on the road by 11am at the latest. I riden the road several times and it is all pavement and great sweeps and a few good twisties. Not much traffic and a couple good spots to break along the way. Great place at the end for food and a drink or 2. So far we have about 14 or 15.

1 -Charlie (Cpope)
2 & 3 -tstrom and husband
4 -Lou (motoxusa)
5 -(My Strom)
6 -Bill (Sandshark)
7 -David
8 -Becky
9 -Brian
10 -JRShaw
11 -RodK
12 -Mike (subagon)
13 -zuki1 newbe, but we won't hold that against you
14 -A1A welcome
15 & 16 -Winnie ane her BF on a HD, no problem
16 & 18 -Mike and Roseanne (readytoride)
19 & 20 -Tom (TampaTom) wife Becky
21 -Roy (The Mapmeister)
22 -Tim (StromSavage)
23 -Seffner Mark Welcome Mark




looks like a great group

come on jet, pinkie, Dick, Vic, megablast and others, still room for you.
Be like old home week. This will be the best ride ever.

[JetJaguar]

I'm still undecided. I might not be able to make it, but I'll know more the week before. I'd like to get out, looks like there will be a bunch of new faces.

[StromSavage]

If you don't mind a newbie tagging along, sign me up too.

Thanks,
Tim

[seffner mark]

I would like to come join all of you; it sounds like fun.
Seffner Mark
DL 650
DR 350

[RodK]

Looks like a lot of Tampa-St Pete guys going. Is anyone interested in taking the scenic route north from the San Antonio city park at 8AM?

Daybreak should be close to 630 AM.

Rod

[JRShaw]

My Strom; sorry I have not called. What would be the best time to call to see if we want to ride together to the meet and greet on the 4th? Just remembered that I have your number in the pm you sent.

[subagon]

Looks like a lot of Tampa-St Pete guys going. Is anyone interested in taking the scenic route north from the San Antonio city park at 8AM?

Daybreak should be close to 630 AM.

Rod

Good with me Rod. I'll see you in San Ann at 8:00 AM.

[Tampa Tom]

Is anyone interested in taking the scenic route north from the San Antonio city park at 8AM?

Rod

Rod....Just a hop skip and jump for us. See you at 8:00....Look forward to meeting you.

[RodK]

Good deal guys. See you there. I went out to the Skyway to take some pictures of windsurfers this morning. Holy smokes that trip over the Gandy was a challenge. I was in a lean all the way over.

Rod

[StromSavage]

I'll meet you guys at the park. Sounds great!

Thanks,
Tim

[seffner mark]

I will also be at San Antonio city park at 8 am. sounds good

Thanks
Mark

[My Strom]

Marty, give me a call and let me know if I can pick you up on the way out.

Mystrom (Robert)

407 687-6979 or home 407 330-7446

[My Strom]

JR Shaw, Call any time soon! 407 687-6979 or at home 407 330-7446

Mystrom
(Robert)

[RodK]

Robert, I got your message before Howboucha refreshed the board. I'll give you a shout after Halloweenie is over.

Rod

[StromSavage]

Where is the park located? I'll be coming into town from 52.

Thanks,
Tim

[mayberryrf]

Charlie,
Karen is questionable for Saturday with bad head cold, but I'll see you at the Driftwood am Saturday for sure.
Cheers!
Dick

[subagon]

Where is the park located? I'll be coming into town from 52.

Thanks,
Tim


Here's a map (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=internal&addtohistory=&latitude=6NsB1koUh0IxNHMrTw%2fo7A%3d%3d&longitude=%2fz1KbtT32b%2bPQGQne8qB5w%3d%3d&name=San%20Antonio%20Park&country=US&address=Pennsylvania%20Ave&city=San%20Antonio&state=FL&zipcode=33576&phone=&spurl=0&&q=san%20Antonio%20park&qc=Parks)

We normally meet at the northwest corner of the park.

[StromSavage]

OK thanks...see you there.

[JRShaw]

Wow, check out the calendar section. I just posted our M & G for the 4th in the new calendar. Way too kewl......

[Cpope]

Dick

I going to meet a new rider at 8:45 am Saturday morning at the bridge over the Withlachooee in Dunnellon (hwy 41) and ride up together. See ya there?

[Oldschooler*]

Man! there's no way I can get off work :( But I'd sure like to go to the next one!!! I rode all the way to Pasco Cycles today in Zepherhills to get a new rack, mine had a scratch and they were gonna replace it. 2hour ride, only to find out when they took the new one out of the box... worse sratch ! So 2 hours home, then it's gonna be 2hours back when the new one gets here.
But....
I love the ride :D Gives me time on the Wee and I get closer and closer to the 600 mile service :lol: Plus the people there are great, even more so when you compair them to any of the dealers around me! Thats why I'm willing to drive the 170 mile round trip.

[Winnie]

Sounds like a big group for the ride tomorrow. I suspect we will overwhelm the Driftwood which is a small place. Perhaps by 10 am the big breakfast crowd will be gone.

I’m a bit nervous about this. It’s my first ever group ride. At least first ride with more than 4 bikes all together. Hope someone will learn me all about etiquette for group riding :-)

Rick and I have Chatterboxes and will bring them.

Should be lovely weather…. Especially if the wind dies down. It’s really gusting right now.

[Cpope]

I should arrive around 9:30/9:45 for food, hopefully we will have plenty of time to eat or just coffee. Really want to get on the road by 11am at the latest. As for worring about riding with a group, Don't worry. When I ran off the road a few rides ago when not making a curve they really stopped for me. I guess they needed a good laugh. No really, we/us/you will ride at our own PACE. This is a ride, NOT a race. If you feel someone is pushing you, let them pass. Don't go faster than your PACE. Been there, Done that, Got lucky, didn't get hurt.
Several stops along the way for thoes who lag a little. No Problem, I have routes for everyone so nobody will get lost or left behind.
I will lead the first half and Roy will lead the second half.
It's a easy route with great twisties and nice sweepers. Last time we were stopped by LEO so I am sure it will be a slower ride this time out.
When we stop at Micanopy we will take some pictures, line up all the bikes on my bike and we will do an "The eyes have it " picture.
We will try to get a picture of each and everyone on their ride somewhere along the way.
Hope to see everybody there.

[foneguy_dd]

Hey Charlie, add me to the list of "good chance I will make it guys". If things work out, I will meet the group that is riding up from San Antonio at 8am. Just got back from the Deals Gap and surrounding area last week. Knocked out about 600 miles of twisties in 3 days. Does anyone make a "water cooled steering head bearing" LOL C-ya Doug.

[Winnie]

I do know one rule about group riding… That’s to show up with a full tank and an empty bladder.

See you at the Driftwood. We will be there about 9:45 to allow plenty of warm up, eat and chat time.

Gosh I will be mortified if I run off the road. No I'm more the type to drop my bike while parking it! Haven't droppe my Vee yet but my poor VN750 ended up on the ground a few times.

[subagon]

Just got back from the Deals Gap and surrounding area last week. Knocked out about 600 miles of twisties in 3 days.

Hey Doug,

Just made that same trip about 3 weeks ago. Let's compare notes.

[Cpope]

Hope everybody made it home safe and sound. Great ride, enjoyed talking to all of you. There are a couple I really didn't get to talk much, sorry my fault. You will have to do the next one and I will make sure I get to chat more. You may not want to hear my lies but I will tell them to you anyway. :)
Hope all enjoyed.
Lou is working on the T-Shirts as we speak.
The next ride should be mid Jan 07. Anybody want to step to the plate?
Try and have one every 6 to 8 weeks. But sooner if you want, just don't want to burn everybody out on large groups. Splitting up 3 ways really worked well. Every ride should be better than the last. Thanks I really enjoyed the ride.
Remember the 3 day 2 night camping trip in the works for around Mar, Apr May 07. Put your 2 cents worth in asap.

Jim, we are not going to you side of the State tomorrow. Big Jimmy Buffett party tonight and I will not be getting up to early tommorrow. We will get together soon.

Keep the thought up for a Key West trip and Smokies trip next year,
we usually go up and rent a 4 to 5 bedroom cabin and split it evenly for 4 or 5 couples, 3 planned rides and 3 day of "On your own" It mostly has been HD riders but we can also do a V-Strom GT for a week or 2.

Charlie

[JRShaw]

Charlie, just walked in the door. (6:30ish) Had a great time today, thanks ever so much. Did over 350 for the day. Too bad about tomorrow, will stay in touch. Robert and I are going to put our heads together and see if we can put together something over in our area for the near future.
Hope all made it home safe and sound. We had a good ride back over this way. Type at y'all later.

[flrdr]

This is Roy, the guy on the concours. That was an excellent ride today and a great time. Thanks for the hospitality. You all have a very good thing going here. Getting a turnout of 22 or so bikes with at least 20 vstroms is super. You're getting a lot of people who know each other, lots of ride interest... this ride went very well and breaking into the 3 groups really worked. Enjoyed meeting and talking with those I met and had a lot of fun with the riders I got to ride with. Thanks again.

Ride fun.

[JRShaw]

Roy, thanks for the lead on the spirited ride. Had a blast!!! You are welcome any time to come ride with us slow pokes,,, thanks again, see ya soon.

[readytoride]

Thanks to Charlie for putting this together and to his able bodied assistants for leading the groups. Roseanne and I had a great day. Got to see a couple of familiar faces and a few new ones. Too many folks to meet in one day...

http://home.cfl.rr.com/ready2ride/V-Strom/micanopy0001.jpg

[RodK]

Hear, hear! Thanks Charlie and his posse. It was a wonderful day. Good seeing old friends, meeting new ones and still not meet everyone.

I edited a handful of pix just to get a taste of it. I'll get everything to Mike by next week so he can post it on his web site.

http://imageevent.com/rodk/willistonvstrom

Gator Joe's is a very cool place. Never heard of it before. We did about 425 miles from Tampa. Somehow on the way back ,here we are in the Green Swamp in the dark and it's a Full Moon. Here Bambi!.

Lot's of fun.

Rod

[My Strom]

I had a great time yesterday and looking forward to the next get together. I did a total of 350 miles and took some good pictures. I'll post the pictures as soon as I figure out how to post them all. I did'nt get a chance to meet everyone so I guess we need to have a Holiday V Strom party soon!

Thanks to all!

Mystrom
(Robert)

[Cpope]

Robert

If you or anybody else wants to e-mail the pictures to me I will post them on my Bloog.

cpope3@tampabay.rr.com

[foneguy_dd]

Charlie, Thanks for laying out a great ride. Riding through all that horse country affords some amazing views. Sorry I couldn't join you guys at Gator Joes. I had to cut out about 5 miles early to make a family get together.
Did Roy share his story about amost rear ending an SUV when some drunk asshole pulled out in front of our group? I am sure Roy has a nice flat spot on his rear tire and some brown shorts as proof of this scary mishap! C-ya Doug

[flrdr]

Hey Doug,

It was great riding the curves with you. That close call was strange, I was remarking to others that I don't know why but my pulse didn't even increase (let alone no brown shorts), although it was the first time I ever saw my own tire smoke. I also didn't have any idea how you were doing right behind me. Certainly glad everything played out fine.

Ride fun

[A1A]

Hi Folks,

I just got stromtrooper.com back on line and wanted to say I had a great time. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone, but didn't get to chat with everybody. Hopefully I can get off work for the next Meet & Greet and talk with everybody I missed on Saturday.
I really liked looking at all the Farkles on all the bikes. I made up my mind on which crashbars I'm going to order. (Hepco & Becker, Thanks Winnie!)
I'd especially like to give a hardy hand clap and say thank you and well done to everyone responsible for putting it all together.

Ride safe and ride often!

Regards,

Richard

[Winnie]

Rick and I also want to say THANKS to all you great folks. It was a perfect day for a lovely ride. On the way home I hit my first thousand miles on my bike.

Talk about farkles. If we give out awards I would have to vote for Lou. Thanks to you Rick now wants a satellite radio on his Harley :-)

One funny (scary) thing on the ride home, you all remember how windy it was, we were attacked by a large (perhaps 3 feet by 4 feet) political sign blowing across the road. Rick throttled on and made it past I hit the brakes and managed to let it tumble across the road right between the two of us. Talk about how nasty politics are! I didn’t even notice who the sign was for. If it had taken either of us out that candidate would surely have not gotten my vote!

So we made it home safe and sound and cannot wait for another ride. Hopefully after the elections tomorrow we will have one less road hazard to contend with.

[RodK]

I was able to upload the pix to Mike's web site. I hope I got a good shot of you. If not, there's always next time :-)) I need a better telephoto lens. It's NEVER the shooter.


http://cycle.frogfruit.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1826

If anyone wants a CD, let me know.

Rod

[readytoride]

I was able to upload the pix to Mike's web site. I hope I got a good shot of you. If not, there's always next time :-)) I need a better telephoto lens. It's NEVER the shooter.


http://cycle.frogfruit.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1826

If anyone wants a CD, let me know.

Rod

Great pictures, Rod. Thanks a lot!

[flrdr]

The pictures are great Rod. Thanks a lot for going to the trouble.

[mnparadise]

Sorry didn't get join in on the event, but it's just a little far north.
Great pics and it was definitely evident everyone had a fun time.
Hopefully will get to join in on the next gathering.

[RodK]

Thanks folks, you might also enjoy watching the "View slideshow in Full Screen"

Rod

[subagon]

You can also use the "Add to Cart" feature to download the photos. It will ceate a .zip file for download. If you select ALL the photos, it'll take a minute or two for all the photos to be zipped.

[StromSavage]

I really enjoyed the ride folks. Thanks to Charlie for putting together the ride. Great job on the pics Rod. Mike thanks for showing the Tampa group the awesome roads to Williston and back. Nice meeting you all.

Tim