Boy do I regret my decisions to stay home today. I passed up a chance to go to the Suzuki Superbike Showdown at Road Atlanta to stay home with the family for a cookout and the Clemson game. Normally, I don’t let anything get in the way of me watching my Tigers, but tonight I’m seriously disgusted. I can’t believe I missed the Showdown for that game! Our boys looked like just that…a bunch of boys out their playing the first football game of their life! WTF happened?

Anywho, at least I enjoyed the cookout. We ate a ton of awesome food. My father-in-law grilled some of the best shrimp I’ve had in a while. After we were stuffed I helped my mother-in-law do a few things on her computer. I installed a keylogger so she can keep tabs on Hubby’s little sister. Apparently she’s been browsing a lot of sites that she was told are off limits.

Right about the time I settled in to watch the game Alli started sending me texts telling me how awesome the showdown was. She’s going to give me a complete rundown tomorrow, but the one photo she sent told me just how much fun she was having.

She sent me a small video, too, just to rub it in.

EDIT: I had a couple of comments complaining that the video wasn’t working because it seemed like the photo wasn’t allowing it to load. I’m moving it to another post without any images.

It’s a fact that more people are looking for ways to save money on gas. A lot of people are turning to motorcycles. All of us who ride know we can go just as far on a $12 in a bike than $60 or more in a car. More people turning to motorcycles for transportation also means crashes involving motorcycles are on the rise.

The video below is from Arkansas, but I still think it’s beneficial to everyone looking to purchase a motorcycle to combat gas prices. They give some important tips for staying safe while riding.

I know now that our motorcycle is out of commission for the next couple of months we’re really feeling the pinch. I’ve had to cut out a lot of extras to be able to afford the extra gas in our Blazer. Before if I needed to run out to get something like an HDMI switch we’d take the bike and throw it under the seat or in the backpack. Now I have to hold off on single item purchases and make a trip to the store when I need a bunch of things. I just can’t afford to run out in the Blazer for every little thing.

Today has definitely been a long day, and hubby is more glad than ever that he took that trip to Deal’s Gap yesterday. He got to enjoy the bike, and he got to enjoy having his suspension setup properly for exactly 1 day.

Tonight our friend borrowed the bike. His Jeep’s broke down, and he needed wheels so he could go see his daughter. He is one of the two people I would actually let ride the bike. In fact, he rode it home from the dealership the day Hubby bought it because Hubby hadn’t gotten his permit yet.

Well he did a big no no. On his way home he decided to show out a little. He went up the road in his subdivision way too fast, and he ended up having to slam on the brakes. When he did, the rear end slid on him, and he high sided the bike. Hubby was sitting at his house waiting for him and watched everything. He watched the bike high side, flip, and land on the side of the road.

Thankfully, our friend is ok. It pisses me off that he wrecked, not because it trashed our bike, but because he’s an experienced rider who knew better than to fly through there. He was being careless, and now our bike is trashed. He’s got road rash on his arms and stomach. He wasn’t wearing his jacket even though I preach to everyone to wear their gear no matter what. You never know what’s going to happen! This is just common proof of that. Luckily a quick checkup at the ER and he was on his way home. Hubby loaded up the bike, and I took the video of the damage since my camera doesn’t take great night shots.

The insurance company could total the bike out, it’s that damaged. They’re giving us options though. We only have liability insurance, so we can go ahead and total it out and owe the rest of the payoff or we’ve got option 2. We were already considering doing a r6 rear end conversion. You’ll hear us talk about it some in the video footage below. If I can get the bike shop to submit a statement saying the sub frame is bent, but won’t be a factor since it won’t be used in the conversion, the insurance company won’t total it out. Of course our other options is to get a 600r sub frame, but I totally love the look of the r6 conversion. It makes it look so nice, plus it would be something custom for me.

Anywho, since it was dark out when he got the bike back to the house I did a little video with the Handycam on night mode. It’s not that great of a video, so I’ll get photos tomorrow in the daylight. For now though, you can check out what damage you can see on the video. It’s pretty extensive.

The videos from yesterdays trip along with whatever photos taken by the photographers up there will be the last ones of the bike in it’s original YZF 600r stock shape.

Nick is paying for the damage. We all agreed it’s cheaper to do the conversion than it is to pay it off. We still owe way too much.

I finally got 2 more of the videos from Hubby’s trip yesterday transferred to the computer. Like the other one, these are both the raw copies without any editing. They’re also lower resolution versions to make it easier for my friend on a slow connection. I’ll have the better versions up later!

Anywho the first one is Alli following Hubby from the lookout to the Crossroads of Time, and the 2nd is the ride back up to the lookout. This isn’t the full 11 miles and 318 curves, but it’s the typical section most people ride. There’s another couple miles past the lookout that is still considered part of the 318 curves in 11 miles. Allison’s filming from an 07 Yamaha r6, and Hubby’s riding our ‘06 Yamaha yzf 600r.

These are from a Wednesday, and most of the time a mid week trip is a lot nicer than this. I couldn’t believe how packed out the place was on a week day! Normally there’s no one around! You’ll also notice in the first video there’s a section where there are a few Blount Co. cars sitting on the side of the road. So far the cops are being cool this year. They’re helping to escort transfer trucks (which you can plainly see shouldn’t be on this road) and keeping an eye on things.

I didn’t get to go to Deal’s Gap today, but I did get to enjoy the video footage. I’m still transferring, cutting, and uploading, but I’ve got one uploaded. Enjoy this one while I work on the others. These are the unedited versions, so feel free to forward through.

Alli had the camera mounted on her r6 most of the day, and there will be a few videos of her following Hubby.