The Lycan Project: Just a little problem.

     My wife is going back to school to become a Doctor of Education. It has become fairly apparent that you have to be really smart and work really hard to become one of these. So let's just say I have some time on my hands. Actually "The Lycan Project" was started to help fill the time she was going to be busy working on her degree. Of course I went to work and pretty much got the thing done. Conclusion, it is much easier to build a project bike than it is to get a Doctoral degree. Ya think?
     Well she had been out of town taking classes, The University of Alabama to be exact. Think that's not hard for me to swallow? Just look at the pictures of this bike, Yea right. There is Herring Bone everywhere all of the sudden.  One of my friends really pissed her off recently with the comment "I can't believe Danny is letting you do that!"   Yeah, honestly that exact thought crossed my mind but I am proud to say that I am above any petty sophomoric collegiate allegiances and realize that anything that is for the betterment of the home team (Me and Her) is a good thing. If she can endure "The Hell Hole that is Tuscaloosa Alabama" and get her degree God bless her I'm behind her. Anyway she had not seen the fruits of my labors so I took it by the house for her to see. She gave me the obligatory praise as per our agreement, she's my wife. Then I took it back to the shop.
     There is a slight incline into the shop. So after riding the bike I never ride it into the shop, I push it, not sure why but I do. This had never been a problem until that day.   I opened the doors, came back out grabbed the handle bars and lowered my chest to the tank, pushed with my legs and felt it tear, my left rotator cuff. I new it as soon as it happened. Pain, not incredible but sharp. Then I couldn't raise my arm. I rode the bike into the shop and went home.   Doctor visits, MRI's, and more doctor visits. I have bone spurs and a partially torn left rotator cuff. They say it won't be as bad as the right cuff I had repaired in 2009. It took Six Months to get over that. Complete tear, 3 stainless steel anchors, worst surgery I have ever been through. Their saying 8 to 12 weeks with this one, so we will see.
     Over the couple of weeks since the tear I have learned to compensate somewhat and I can function pretty well, even ride the bikes.  The pictures below are from one Sunday afternoon trying to get a few miles in before surgery!   I had received a call from Riders Hill that the Sidi boot parts I had ordered had arrived. Not knowing when I would get a chance to pick them up I decided to head over that way. I headed out on my other bike a BMW R1100RT, I call him Blue, about 10:00 AM and was about a mile from the house when I fell in behind a couple of black sport touring bikes, a Honda ST1100 and a BMW R1150S. They were headed in the opposite direction from me but what the hell, I swung around and headed after them. I pulled up at a light, they asked where I was headed and I said "Just Riding mind if I tag along?" "Sure come along." So I followed. We stopped somewhere along the way and one of the guys said they were going on some pretty curvy roads, was I OK with that. I just smiled and said sure. Not long after that it became apparent they had no idea where they were going. At one point of confusion they asked me if I knew a place where we could get off the bikes for awhile. We weren't far from The Tallulah Gorge Overlook so I took them there. After Cokes in the old 7.5 oz. glass bottle I offered to take them on some of my favorite roads. They were happy to follow.
     The statement about being up for some pretty curvy roads had kinda stuck with me. So Brer Rabbit here decided to take them into my proverbial "Brier Patch!"   First we cruised along Lake Rabun for one of the prettiest Lake rides in the state, making sure to not get too far ahead, over to Hwy 197. For those of you that don't know, Hwy 197 from Clarkesville, Ga to Hwy 76 between Clayton and Hiawassee is referred to as one of the most scenic drives in North Georgia. I winds along the Soque River and Lake Burton and is truly beautiful in a car. On a motorcycle it is 24.7 miles of "The Dragon" with driveways, pontoon boats, and scenery. Once we hit 197 at Brooks Store, about the midway point, well lets just say Ole' Brer Rabbit ran off an hid in His Brier Patch. I pulled over at the junction with Hwy 76 and waited a good 5 minutes. In their defense there was a little traffic.
   They need to head back to the city and I need to get to Riders Hill so we headed in different directions. It was a great ride over the mountain to Hiawassee and then to Young Harris where I spent two wonderful years from 1979-1981 finding out I wasn't going to play tennis for a living, had a lot of fun though.

Young Harris College, Class of 1981!

From there I proceeded over to Blairsville and headed toward Blood Mountain but turned on Hwy 180 to Suches, GA over Wolfpen GAP. A few rain drops and some low hanging clouds at Two Wheels of Suches made me decide to head on over Woody Gap to Riders Hill. Once there I had lunch and picked up my parts and headed home.

Riders Hill.