When the weather is nice, a lot of bikes gather at Michael’s Bar & Grill in Chapel Hill, NC on Sundays.  My friend Charles had never been there, so we decided to go today.

Heading out on the XX. This was the first time I had ridden it in over a month, and it took a little while to get used to it again. I don’t remember the footpegs being that far up and back.

I met up with Charles at 9am, and we headed toward Chapel Hill, taking the scenic route by Jordan Lake.

Various bikes at Michael’s.

6 Cylinder Honda something…

Trip Stats.

If you do a lot of long distance riding, you’ll want to have a tire patch kit and a way to inflate the tire with you at all times.  My tire repair kit consists of:

• Slime’s Power Sport Tire Inflator
• Stop & Go Pocket Tire Plugger

The Givi E215 topcase mount for the ST1300 and the Givi MonoRack for the XX from RL Motorcycles both arrived today.  Installation only took about 15 minutes each.  Now I can easily move my E52 from bike to bike.

Here’s the ST1300 rack:

And with the Givi E52 installed:

Here’s the Givi MonoRack on the XX:

Day 1
Packed up and ready to go. We left Raleigh around 1pm, but had to make a few errand stops before actually getting under way. I-40 to Winston-Salem, then on to 421 to connect to 321, which took us through Boone, NC at around 7pm. Road construction and some type of parent event at Appalachian State University made for a slow pass through Boone. We continued on 321 to 181 into Johnson City, TN at around 8:30pm, which was to be our “base camp”.

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Givi luggage is well known as the best hard luggage available.  Their products are high quality, though a little on the pricey side.  I outfitted my 2003 Honda CBR 1100XX with Givi E41 side cases and a Givi E52 top case for the times my wife and I take long trips.  They are secured to the bike with Givi’s excellent Wing Rack II.   The entire rack can be installed or removed in about 15 minutes.

Givi’s USA Site: Givi USA

Givi’s Main Site: Givi.it

Great place to order, with great prices: RL Motorcycles