Second Dragon Ride

Chadds Ford

Saturday morning I left the house at 09:05 with 3926.6 miles on the odo and the intention of tackling the Dragon in both directions.

I took the standard route out with the plan of getting to State Street in Kennett Square, finding a place to turn around, and doing a reverse route back home.  This would give me the opportunity to stay on the twistiest part of the loop and ride it in both directions in quick succession.

As has been happening lately, the exact point of refuel for the Bullet had escaped my recollection so, in the mode of better safe than sorry, I planned a stop at the Sunoco in Chadds Ford.  On the way there, I noticed the lot at the Histerical Society empty so I pulled in for a couple of shots of the Bullet in that setting.  Shortly after that, I pulled into the gas station with 3946.4 miles on the odo.  The tank took 2.099 gallons of Ultra to fill.  Ultra at this station was selling at $3.099 a gallon for $6.50 total.  Since the last refuel we ranged 119.2 miles for a mileage of 56.78 mpg.  Next refuel is at 4096 miles.

From there I continued on the Dragon.  The ride on this portion was outstanding.  I am gaining a lot more confidence on the technical handling of the twists and hills and I feel that I am taking them a little more aggressively without endangering life and limb.  Once I got to the edge of Kennett Square and out from under the canopy covering, I noticed that the sky had begun to turn grey and ominous.  The forecast did not call for rain but the look of the sky was not good so I decided to pull into the taqueria on Union Street to try it out and give the weather a little time to sort itself out.

Taqueria Guadalajara Express is a typical real Mexican taqueria, almost like the taco stands on Avenida Revolución in Tijuana.  This is authentic Mexican, unlike the places that bill themselves as "Authentic" that is a code work for "stay away and don't eat here."  I had some carne asada tacos and horchata that were amazing.  I put salsa and pico from the condiment bar on the tacos and they were so spicy they made me cry.  Loved it!  I should have taken some pics of the food but it looked so good I was three quarters of the way done before I had the idea to pull out the camera.  Maybe next time.

When I left the taqueria, the sky did not look any better.  It had not gotten worse but I couldn't tell if rain was coming or not.  Rather than risk rain on the twisty portion I made the executive decision to continue on through Kennett Square back to 926 and do the complete loop rather than reverse it.  Will save that for next Friday.

The ride back was good but uneventful.  Again, no sputtering, no backfires, no stalling so the removal of the kickstand switch seems to really have made a difference.  I pulled into the strip mall on 233/202 and 926 because the "English Car" sign was still there but I could not find what that was all about.  At the end of the trip the odo read 3989 for 62.4 miles on this run.

Chadds Ford Historical Society

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Post Kickstand Switch Removal Shakedown

At the Gun Club

On Thursday evening, after work, the Bullet got a shakedown tour to check out the differences on the pre and post removal of the kickstand switch.

I left the house shortly before 19:00 with 3876.3 miles on the odo.  There was no concrete flight plan on file, just probably a run out Goshen/Strasburg to open the throttle a little.  Soon after crossing 252 on Goshen the plan changed slightly.  The new plan was for a run to Garrett Mill out to 352 and that out to the gun club since it being Thursday night and the league starting time having been changed to 18:00 some of my friends might still be there.  This new plan provided a little comic relief, as I approached the red barn on Garrett Mill a white goose came running at me trying to scare me off its property.  I was able to avoid it without any problems but I almost fell of the bike laughing.

I made good time out on the run and was out at the club by 19:30.  However, by this time everything was shut down tight and everyone had gone home.  So I just turned around and headed back home on the same route I had taken on the way in.  Once I turned back onto Goshen from Garrett Mill I revised the plan again to take Sugartown out to the Paoli Pike and then follow that loop of Darby/Devon/Sugartown and the other Waterloo to the Easttown Library.  This was a good change because there is that bit of road on Sugartown between Goshen and Providence where the straightaway is good to really open the throttle.

I stopped at the Easttown Library for a bit and then headed home from there via Church.  I was back home at 20:31 with 3926.6 miles on the odo for 50.3 miles on this run.

The Bullet appears to be running much more smoothly since the removal of the kickstand switch.  There are not as many backfires and sputterings as I had noticed since the installation of the Power Commander.  There were no disengages or power loses and overall the riding experience appeared much smoother.  My theory is that the increased thump and vibration from the new silencer caused the switch to disconnect, however slightly, several times during the ride.  Most times these momentary disconnects just caused sputtering and backfires but sometimes they were big enough to cause a complete stoppage.  On the straightaway run on Sugartown the Bullet was able to take full throttle and reach and maintain 75 mph without out any problems.  Maybe the disconnect issues are finally resolved.

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