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chappy
04-10-2006, 10:25 PM
Myself & 8 other LA HSTA members from all over LA (Hahnville to Homer)
made the ride to Queen Wilhelmina State Park near Mena, AR fo the 18th annual HSTA event held there. Bikes included an 06 R6, a Hayabusa, an FZ1, my VFR, two ST1300s, an FJR1300 and a 95 CBR1000. Ages in our group ranged from 25 to 70! Headquarters for the event were at the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge at the top of Rich Mountain, access via the Talimena Parkway. Since the lodge was booked we had to stay at a motel in Mena at the base of the mountain, which meant we had to ride the incredible parkeway up and down the mountain quite a few times. Darn! How inconvenient!:D WoooHooo! In between trips up and down Rich Mountain we covered about 220 miles of twisties in the area including the road up Three Stick Mountain in OK, another awesome road but with wide high speed sweepers and numerous passing lanes where the big sport tourers really shined.
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2068.JPG
The Lodge
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2069.JPG
Here we are looking at what's left of the pegs on this local dudes FJR who caught and passed us on the way up 3 stick, wheelieing the FJR in as he went by. His C-stand was not all there either.
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2071.JPG
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2074.JPG
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2075.JPG
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2077.JPG
This is what was left of my rear tire by the time I got home Sunday. The last 250 miles were ridden on steel instead of rubber! We had to put my wife on my buddy's FJR and hold the speeds down to 60 mph, otherwise I don't think I would have made it home!
Rocky
04-10-2006, 11:48 PM
Dude, Was it cold? It looks so nasty in the pictures. Nice report. Thanks for sharing. What is LA HSTA?
Juice
04-10-2006, 11:58 PM
Nice Job Bob. It does look a bit chilly and cold in those pictures. How cold was it?
chappy
04-11-2006, 08:14 AM
Dude, Was it cold? It looks so nasty in the pictures. Nice report. Thanks for sharing. What is LA HSTA?
The temps were actually about perfect for most of the trip. It looks a lot colder in the pictures than it was.The area usually has a lot of fog on the tops of the mountains for some reason. The only time we froze our buts was Sunday morning. We headed out in 40 degrees. Only two of us had electric vests and I was not one. My fingers got numb despite my heated grips.
By the timne we made our first gas stop it was up to 60.

HSTA is the Honda Sport Touring Association and LA is the Louisiana Chapter. We have about 2000 members in 50 states plus a couple of Canadian provinces. We started back in 1982 as a Honda only club but opened the club up to all brands of motorcycles in the late 80s.

We have 25 LA members about 8 or 10 who are very active and do local lunch rides once a month plus 4 or 5 weekend rides to Texas, AR or the Smokies plus our annual 4 day rally in June which is in a different place each year. This year it is in Avon, Colorado. One of our members is manager of a Ski Lodge there and we are getting a great discount rate. There will prolly be 400/500 members there and it's a blast!

We are always looking for new members. Check out our national web site:
http://www.ridehsta.com

and or Chapter site:
http://www.barrowcreek.com/hsta
Shakey75
04-11-2006, 02:44 PM
That's nice! Looks like a good time!
JayD
04-12-2006, 03:11 PM
made the ride to Queen Wilhelmina ,Mena, AR
http://www.barrowcreek.com/gallery/mena04-06/IMGP2068.JPG
The Lodge



They got a pretty good buffet in there too!

Looks like a good time
scooterhose
04-12-2006, 07:29 PM
Popcorn2

Thanks.
chappy
04-12-2006, 08:14 PM
We had a great buffet meal with 92 in attendence. Fried catfish and prime rib and many excellent sides. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the ride up on the back of Tony's ST1300. Due to my rear tire being shot. Texas member Randy M, owner of a Honda. Kawi, Suzuki dealership in Denton was hot on our tail and intent on passing. Randy is one fast rider but Tony would have none of it and the race was on all the way to the top. Had to pry my fingers off the grab rails when it was over!
dannyt
04-13-2006, 07:06 AM
Chappy, Is that Paul Lefort with the red jacket and white flip up helmet?? He rides an fz1.
chappy
04-13-2006, 08:53 AM
Chappy, Is that Paul Lefort with the red jacket and white flip up helmet?? He rides an fz1.
Yep, that's Paul! He has been a member for years and makes a lot of trips with us. He is the one who got me involved in track days at NPR. Two other Thibodaux riders were there also, Scott on the Hayabusa and John on the R6
dannyt
04-13-2006, 12:10 PM
Paul is a really nice laid back guy. He has been a reserve deputy with my department for as long as I can remember.

Btw, how many miles did you get out of the tire. It is a Conti road attack right??
chappy
04-13-2006, 12:56 PM
Paul is first class all the way and a great rider. Yes, Conti Road Attack. I got a pitiful 4100 miles out of it and the last 250 was on the steel belt. However, I gotta point out Paul loves them and got 8000 on his FZ1. Go figure!
dannyt
04-13-2006, 01:16 PM
Paul is first class all the way and a great rider. Yes, Conti Road Attack. I got a pitiful 4100 miles out of it and the last 250 was on the steel belt. However, I gotta point out Paul loves them and got 8000 on his FZ1. Go figure!

I have the same tires on my zxr1200. I put them on about 4400 miles ago and they still look good. I am guessing that I will get close to 7000 or 8000 miles from them. But i ride like a little girl most of the time.