Atlanta to Cumming
27 May 2015
Master Map
The game, as Sherlock Holmes would have said, was afoot: we had to man up, shrug off jet lag, get on a motorcycle and ride it on the opposite side of the road.
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, Gene 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 elegant and exquisitely maintained Harley Davidson.
ride4now's lovely Harley Davidson
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 at least driven a car on the right 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. I was also cognisant of having noted a number of drivers texting as they drove at high speed on the freeway as the taxi had taken me to the hotel a couple of days earlier. Even better was the sight of a bloke reading a book. The observations of members of the Forum seemed correct. By the way, I'm not for a moment pretending that Australians don't drive and text at the same time, but the first two out of two drivers I saw in the US were doing it. That's a greater frequency than I've seen in Australia.
ride4now led us north a little then we stopped for a late lunch. After that he led us to Buford Dam at Lake Lanier for a look before heading to his house in Cumming. We passed a most agreeable evening and got to tuck into an excellent lasagne. Thanks Mrs ride4now! We also got to inspect a motorcycle painting ride4now had mentioned on the forum.
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 him 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 had taken 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 the same concern: we might each be off to meet an axe murderer!
Thanks again for having us, ride4now and Mrs ride4now. I enjoyed it very much.
