This ride took place Sunday, February 29, 2004. Alex was having his Mille painted, so he was asking, jokingly, if anyone had a bike for him to borrow. Since he put 1,000 miles on his truck hauling my bikes to track days I offered him the Ducati. He checked to make sure I wasn't kidding, then got a ride over on Mary's R6 to pick up the 900.

   Instead of our usual meeting place, Mary suggested we meet at Beck's at noon, and ride from there. Beck's is usually our 1/3 waypoint, and most of us poop out by 2/3 of my loop, so we never finish it. She figured if we start 1/3 in, we might finish. She was right. A whole bunch of us hooked up at the restaurant, ate and then hit the road. It was my first group ride on the ZX-6RR. since it was still in break-in, my max speed was supposed to be 47 mph. When the group elected to have me lead, well, I guess I decided to subscribe to the "break it in hard" theory. Alex (My 900SS filling in for his Mille CER), Mary (R6), David (Buell Thunderbolt), Jason (Falco), Steve (954), Chaz (R6), Jan (My old ZX-9R), Bruce (Monster 900), and I (ZX-6RR) were the participants.

    This was my first ride with a few tweaks to my loop. Things went pretty well, until Klees Mill Road. My little voice said "turn right", even though ma map said left. I wanted to look it up before we left, but I was running late as usual. I realized my mistake when I got to Route 26, which should  have been Route 32. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as George needed to stop and check something out. There was a Shell station on the corner. It turned out his 996S sprung an oil leak. Nobody had the correct size wrench. He and Jan decided to head home. I think Bruce headed home, too. At least I got the "money shot" before they left; me with my three bikes, although Jan had purchased my ZX-9 two weeks earlier. 

    We went the correct way on Klees Mill, and followed the rest of my loop to Liganore Road, then turned right to hit the Sheetz, as my bladder was full. Some of us gassed up, and planned the rest of the loop. Chaz, and David had to head home, so we looped around Ijamsville and pointed them to 270. Steve, Mary, Jason, Alex and I zipped down Thurston to 109. We decided to call it a day. He pointed us towards 75 and home we went. route 75 was so cool that I'm changing my loop again. We got on 70 and went back to my house, where Alex dropped off the Ducati and he an Mary headed home. 

    It was one of the best group rides I've ever been on. Nobody fell or got tickets. The weather was warm and sunny.

    The ZX-6RR was wonderful. I was supposed to limit revs  to 4,000 rpm, but I saw 9K a couple of times. I never gave if full throttle or max-effort braking, but I think I have a winner.