Aussies Go US

[Cormanus]

Day 4—Atlanta-Cumming

27 May

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z5L5SB6CRw2M.kNwS8Nx1JhE8&usp=sharing]
I have no idea whether this map reflects where we went! I was just following ride4now. But it was something like that

After breakfast, it was time to sort our gear, pack up and make our way northwards to Marietta where we would find Wow Motorcycles, one of Atlanta’s two EagleRider agents. This is the one that deals with bikes that aren’t manufactured by Harley Davidson.

Before we left Australia, a couple of forum members had generously offered to help us find our feet when we hit the US. In particular, ride4now offered us a bed for the night before we were due to head north and then to show us the way. We had grabbed at the opportunity. We’d talked by email about collecting the bikes, then riding to meet him before going for a bit of an acclimatisation ride. But, when we made telephone contact the evening before, he generously offered to come to the bike shop to meet us. While I think his offer was both kind and generous, I also suspect a desire to ride and show off his very pretty Harley Davidson.

ride4now’s lovely Harley Davidson

Is it terrible to admit a couple of middle-aged men were pretty excited about the days to come? It was good we were as we got to EagleRider earlier than out scheduled noon pick up time. Indeed we got there not long after 1100 and it took us a good hour and then some to complete the paperwork, change our gear and stow the luggage we would not be taking with us.

The FJR and ST that Pterodactyl and I would be riding for the coming week

I for one was very pleased ride4now had come to meet us. The whole business of riding on the opposite side of the road was somehow un-nerving even though I had done it before in Europe. I had memories of pulling out of a drive and ending up on the wrong side of the road. It was fine when it happened as there wasn’t any traffic, but I was not keen to make the same mistake in a busy US city.

Ride4now took us north a little then we stopped for a late lunch, after he led us to Buford Dam at Lake Lanier for a look before heading to ride4now’s house in Cumming where we passed a most agreeable evening and got to tuck into Mrs ride4now’s excellent lasagne. We also got to inspect the motorcycle painting he told us about [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5626]here.

Riding with a couple of Australians requires intense concentration. You never know quite what they’ll do next




Having started to get the hang of the right hand side of the road, I managed to get in some practice with mobile photography


Apparently it’s important to put fuel into Harleys via the rider’s boot. I didn’t know this




At Lake Lanier


I know it’s not a lovely black 2011 Honda CB1100, but it is a Honda; it is a fine motorcycle; and I very much enjoyed riding it for a week or so. It became my friend.

I was mildly surprised that ride4now and his wife would offer board to a couple of unknown Aussies they’d only come across on an Internet forum. I discussed this with ride4now and while we agreed that you can probably tell something about people from their posts and behaviour on a forum as civilised as CB1100forum.com, I still think it’s an interesting risk to take. That said, both Pterodactyl and I took a similar risk when we agreed to meet in a remote New South Wales town and head off for a week together. The story has been told elsewhere, but it turned out both our wives expressed concern that we might be off to meet an axe murderer!

But thanks again for having us, ride4now and Mrs ride4now. I enjoyed it very much.