Just Another Sunday Ride?
Our Men’s Group at church decided to hold a fund raiser and when they got thinking about it, they decided a Motorcycle ride would be just the ticket. So, following the worship service, 6 of us saddled up and headed out. From the pictures, you can see we had a diverse group of bikes. One of the riders commented that we had “two motorcycles and 4 Harleys). I think he is slightly confused, but I let it slide. After all closed head injuries are difficult to overcome. We had a casual ride up Hwy 400, took the bypass around Cleveland and stopped into Helen for a nice lunch (sorry I didn’t get pictures of the Bratwurst that I had, but it was quite a feast).
After a lot of commiserating, feeding out faces, and a fuel stop for my Sportster’s limited range fuel tank, we left Helen and headed into one of my favorite rides. We rode across the Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway and at where it intersects with Hwy 180, we met 5 Georgia State Troopers and a couple county sheriff’s deputies who were handing out certificates of achievement to riders without motorcycle endorsements on their license, expires license, and expires tags. I’m glad to report that none of the 6 in our group had any problems, but we did see several rejected riders sitting under shade trees waiting for someone to pick up them and their bikes. I recall someone once telling me that the law in Georgia really did not care if you had a motorcycle license or not. Umm, think again!
For those of you who have bought motorcycles and have not bothered to get your motorcycle license, let me make a suggestion. The simplest way to obtain your motorcycle license is to enroll in a Harley Rider’s Edge or MSF Riding Course. Two evenings (Thursday and Friday night) and a Saturday and Sunday well spent with experienced instructors. You will leave the class with way more than just some riding time and the opportunity to take your tests to obtain your license. You will carry away with you a lot of good things to think about when you prepare for a ride and a lot of things to consider when riding. A good riding class and proper riding gear has to be the best money you will ever spend.
After our license check with the boys in blue, we continued on to Wolf Pen Gap and had a very enjoyable ride across the twisties. We made a stop at Suches for a cold drink and more commiserating before heading onto Hwy 60 and down to Hwy 9 home. It was a beautiful day to be out riding and was an enjoyable bunch of guys.