TLCMC

Seven of us met this Saturday to plan a ride for July, discuss with Dave and Larry their WNC Adventure, get a few tips from various video sources and just have a good time together.

We settled on Saturday July 13 for our next group ride. While the route is not yet detailed the ride will go as far north as Union and Fannin counties with a planned stop at TWO to take a look at the TRIUMPH RIDE-IN scheduled to there on that weekend. A route plan and other details will be sent out as the ride date approaches.

Dave and Larry filled in some of the missing pieces not caught in the Ride Report and videos ( https://tlcmc.org/ ). It was clear that in spite of the showers and storms they encountered they, and Mel had a great time and are looking forward to another adventure.

We discussed various ways we could reimburse Dan for the money he's spent over the past couple of years maintaining our website. We decided PayPal would be the best approach. Details and a suggested contribution will be e-mailed soon.

We viewed and discussed two "instructional videos". One, from Awesome Players, was not intended to be instructional but did show us the steps to take if you accidentally drown your bike, as one of them did. The other was from MOTOTREK showing us how to successfully get through a patch of deep gravel or river rocks.

Upon looking closely at Bret Tkacs, the rider in the video, we saw a resemblance to the famous Buster Scruggs as seen here:

Richard, Dave, Larry, Steve and I rode over to Family Traditions for lunch after the meeting.

Our next meeting will be on July 27th. Have a happy and safe 4th of July

 

 

 

Larry, Dennis, Richard, Dan and Bob S. met this day to plan a ride for August and discuss other club matters.

After viewing and discussing a LHM video about the book of Hebrews, we focused on setting a ride plan. With almost ten years of monthly rides completed it is tough to find something new and fresh

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While details are still forthcoming the ride will include Dial, Morganton, Blue Ridge, Toccoa River Restaurant (lunch), Pleasant Valley, Talking Rock, Jerusalem, Salacoa, Waleska, and Sutallee. Planned date is August 10th with a "rain date" August 17th if needed. A route plan and mileage should be posted within a week.

We spent some time discussing how we can increase participation in our monthly meetings. Many riders (and no-longer-riders) have knowledge and experiences that would be valuable to hear, share and discuss. So, if you are "listening" think about joining us on August 31st (and/or the 10th)

Regarding our effort to reimburse Dan for his past out-of-pocket costs supporting our website he reported that so far he has received a total of $330 from four individuals. That leaves around $100 still needed to cover past outlays and new charges are due in September. If you haven't already contributed please remember and either PayPal Dan or send him a check( addresses are in an e-mail titled MEETING RECAP (and addresses).

 We need to keep in mind this reimbursement is for past expenses. Dan receives hosting charges twice a year, and others yearly. Any donations in excess of those needed to cover the past will be applied to new charges as they are received.

Richard told us about his meeting with motorcycle group in Woodstock. Most, if not all are "older"Harley riders At one point hey were lamenting the fact that some of the younger riders are less interested and older riders are dropping out. Apparently this problem is not confined to the USA.

Eight riders (plus Presley) met this overcast, drizzly day. Dave received this month's "hero award" as he was the only one to brave the weather and come on two wheels.

The meeting opened with LHM's video that gave "the rest of the story" regarding David's encounter with Goliath.

We set March 9th for our March club ride with March 16th as back up in case of a rain cancellation on the 9th. The ride will be of intermediate length and include a stop at VanZantd's in Dial and lunch at TWO in Suches. A route map and additional details will follow as the ride date nears.

Larry has been working on specific destinations and a timeline for a 4 day three night ride currently scheduled for the first week of June. Larry will be e-mailing a chart to all TLCMC riders  that roughly shows the details of each day of the ride. He is soliciting feedback from everyone that may be interested in going on the ride, and specifically, which 4 days in that first week in June would best fit your work/vacation schedule.

We wound up the meeting viewing and discussing lessons that included: why Phillips screwdrivers are not the best for Japanese bikes; the best way to break-in a new motor, the variety of sidecar rigs here and there and a segment of a trip video the showed what can happen when a mix of experienced and newbie riders go off-roading together.

If you've got some time on a rainy day take a look at the whole video: ( you may have to bleep the Ural rider's language at times. Sorry)

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Nine of us, not counting Presley, met this cold Saturday morning to map out our plans for future rides
 and to take a look at Dave's recounting of his extended ride up north.

After a visit with the Pauline letters via  LHM's "What They Didn't Teach You In Sunday School" we launched straight into
 Dave's slide presentation, for a day-by-day account of his 12 day 3,100 mile ride with his son Joe. Both rode Triumphs and
followed a route that avoided four lane highways. While most of their ride was in the USA they did cross into Canada for part of two days
riding in Ontario. They had a great time together and only had two days with rain. Thanks Dave.

Speaking of rain, our often rescheduled November ride is now scheduled for February 9th, More details as the ride date approaches.

Larry was asked when he thought the Spring Overnight would happen, and he figures  June 7-8 would probably be best.

We looked at two possible destinations for Spring rides, one the Airborne Infantry Museum in Toccoa (think Band Of Brothers), the other a
 muzzle loading cannon competition in Pelham Tennessee.

No firm plans for either were made.

Since we are headed into our 10th year of riding together we took a look back at videos of past rides and recalled riders who were once very active
but for health, family, business or other reasons have moved on. Think Jim B, Frank B, Steve G., Bob (the younger), Robert (the school principal), Melinda, Mark and Abby, Nelson, and possibly Tad, Al, Scott and
Garrett, good folks all. Should their circumstances change we'd welcome them back in a heartbeat, to add to the fun, as they did in the past. Still, we've welcomed new riders and meetings and rides are well attended.

After a brief look at other video clips and a fine dancing exhibition by Presley, Dan's young daughter, we adjourned at 11:30

Our next meeting is scheduled for February 23rd

In spite of it being a cold and soggy Thanksgiving weekend seven of us drove in for our monthly meeting at Timothy.
After an interesting lesson from the Lutheran Men's Network "Time To Take A Test" about Cerinthus' brand on Gnosticism, we moved on to discuss the calendar for December. We agreed to not have a meeting in December but have a short group ride on December 8th. In keeping with the discussion I plotted a route that is just short of 100 miles, that picks up a lot of scenic points north east of Canton. The ride includes a stop at the model plane area on Old Federal Highway and lunch at Amos's BBQ. Here's an approximation of the route:  https://www.plotaroute.com/route/723853

We touched on a few motorcycle topics/videos but as usual got off on other topics. As an example of our wide ranging off topic discussion  we homed in on "firefighters" and why some are assistants that aren't authorized to "lay water on a fire" while others are. This led to talk of water streaming techniques, which believe it or not sparked discussion of how toilet water drains above/below  the equator. I promised a definitive answer on the latter subject. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2407455035&feature=iv&src_vid=BiBrV4Q9NYE&v=mXaad0rsV38:

Our next meeting will be on January 26th, but don't forget the ride on December 8th.

Scattered rain this morning resulted in no bikes in our parking lot, only four wheelers. Never-the-less we had five members attending, one from Athens and another from Dallas. Good show!

First on the agenda was a look into a first century heresy, Gnosticism, as described by Paul Wurdeman from Lutheran Men's Ministries.

Next we discussed if the Maggie Valley overnight trip should be rescheduled for November but it was thought best to save it for Spring/Summer 2019 when daylight is available later in the day and temperatures are warmer. For November we decided a more local ride was in order for November 10th. A proposed route and additional details will  be available as the date approaches.

Two off-road riding techniques were shown, one dealing with negotiating up/down dirt hills, the other ways of overcoming obstacles, like logs, blocking the "roadway". We saw how enduro riders used, or misused, these techniques in competitions.

A short video from MC Garage about Ducatis' desmondromic valve train shed light on the Ducati sensation of the '50s that still endures today.

Smarter Every Day provided a look at how modern day Marines learn how to cope with the up-side-down world of a ditched helicopter.

MotoTrek Adventures (remember them from their TAT trip?) have produced another fine video of a Spring time ride in Appalachia. We took a look at their episode#2 where they rode on some very familiar roads, Here it is:

Our next meeting will be on November 24th