The Annual Skyranch Ride 2022

[motogrady]

[motogrady]

We left Terra Alta around 8:30.
There were maybe 30 of us.
Thru the mountains to Thomas/Davis.
Down thru the Cannan Valley to a place called Elkins.
Maybe 80 miles.  
They took us thru some of the most beautiful, 1 lane side roads Cannan has to offer.  

About half way there, my front end started to kind of wander, then not want to turn.
Nursed it to Elkins where we stopped for lunch.  

You could tell the guys that were used to rinding in a group.
Side by side, keeping pretty close and not making any sudden moves.  
The rest of us just kept our distance.  

I know I did.

We lost 2 at Davis.  A guys wife just had to go and they split off for a restaurant, I later found out.  

Thomas/Davis are 2 towns real close together.
They are kind of going thru a renaissance.
A new highway they just put in makes it pretty easy to get there from Baltimore and DC.

Summer, a lot of bikes and people out for a ride pass thru.
Winter, Cannan Valley has a ski resort.  
It’s kind of turning into a Vail or Telluride
like town/Towns.

We had an F18 buzz us on one of those little side roads.
Scared the heck out of everyone.  He must have been 50 feet above us when he passed by.  
He was close enough to where I saw the smile on pilots face for an instant.
Most said later they thought it was some kind of explosion.

Scared the heck out of me that’s for sure😄.

After lunch the guy with the African Twin, Frank,
pulled out a mini air pump.  As maybe half a dozen guys looked on, we put 35psi in my totally flat front tire.
He offered to pump me up along the way, as the route was gonna take us South thru some more tight twisters carved in the sides of mountains.

When I told em no, I was just gonna head back, as i didn’t
want to wreck or get stranded, the guy with the black HD,
the one with the stickers on his windshield,
looked me straight in the eye and said, “We all go home, or nobody goes home.”

Thought that was pretty cool, being on a Honda and all.

So I split and took Rt 219, straight back home.
Thru a little place called Parsons, then back to Terra Alta.
Took maybe an hour and a half.

Riding in a group of guys is cool, but really,
for me it seems a bit nerve wracking.
Flowing thru the backroads by myself, I gotta admit,
well, it was just more me.

Had one scare maybe 30 minutes from home.
Carrying a good bit of speed I hit a tight section of road I’ve been down 100 times before.  
Right left, right left thru 2 sweepers I kinda forgot the last left gets real tight.  Coming in too hot it was one of those
“Oh crap!” moments.

Leaned into it like a Rossi, yanked the bars down with me and missed the white line with maybe half a foot to spare.

How’s it go…..”an inch is like a yard”.

Anyway, a good day.   It’s nice to see guys like that every now and then.  

One of them holds a rally on the other side of Pittsburg close to the same time.  
They are thinking about combining the 2, here, next year.
He pulls around 60 guys.  

100 guys, all blasting down the road together…..jeez….
I don’t know about that…..anyways….

Sorry for the rant guys…was good.  

Till next time…. Grado.

[Fatfatboy]

Good day for sure Grady. Thank you for sharing.  
I kinda miss those days of large group rides until I get in to another.

Being scalped by a fighter can make a guy laugh even with loaded drawers. That doesn’t happen often.


“We all go home or no one goes home.”
My kinda guy.


Nice selection of scooters.
Years ago it was either a group of Harleys, a group of metrics, a group of beemers or a group of Wings.
It’s nice to see that motoracism (thanks mr Bauman) is not as strong as it once was. Now if we could just get the rest of the world to follow suit.

[oldironnow]

Love all the pics!

Especially -

[oldironnow]

And -

[oldironnow]

Loved the "ride-up".

Always good to read the Grado Report!

Can you add "we all go home or no one goes home" to the next Cyclevisor.com Tee shirt?

What would it cost us to print up 40-50 shirts to give away at the next ride?

What about stickers? Much less expensive.

[motogrady]

oldironnow wrote

Love all the pics!

Especially -

Ya, the pics, or the lack of, that's another thing.

When you're with a group of guys, you can't just stop and grab a pic or 2 here or there.
Really disappointed I could not offer up some of the places we went thru.
Gotta work on that.  

Anyway, this happened last Friday.
A few guys just didn't go home.  They camped rough at the small airport just outside of town.

  Then there were a few guys that showed up on Saturday, work kept them Friday.  They all got together and did the route again.  A few of those guys stayed at the campsite Saturday'
night and just rode around the outskirts all day Sunday.
The weather was great, couldn't blame em.  

That red trike.... man, I gotta get better with names......told me he's had both shoulders replaced and one hip.  

And was there 4 days straight👍

[Fatfatboy]

That red trike that Real Man was riding is a Freewheeler.
They’re a hoot to ride.

That whole weekend sounds like a killer of a time.

[Mad4TheCrest]

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