Seems like forever since my last post and that’s a fact! The last half of 2022 was one to remember, much happened that changed my life for the better and made me a much happier person. Some of that change included a lot of riding Black Betty and some traveling adventures with my sweetheart Patty! We did several trips to places I would probably have never gone and we intend to do more this year.
To explain and talk about these adventures in one blog post would be a very long story and many photos. Rather than do that in one post my intention is to break these up into several posts over the next few weeks. Not all of these adventures included “Black Betty” but this coming year you will see more of her. 😎
One of our first adventures was another camping trip to Blackwater River State Park in late September, my favorite place to camp and enjoy the outdoors. Of course we loaded up Black Betty for this trip because it’s an awesome place to ride with great scenery and no traffic!
Following are a few photos taken at the park and some videos riding through the park in the Blackwater Forest area. If you listen closely, in some videos you can hear me chatting with Patty, our helmets have blue tooth sets so we can talk while riding. 🙂
Stay tuned for our next post coming in a few days. We visited Evansville, IN, had never been there before so it was quite interesting for me.
Hope you found this interesting. Hit the follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles.
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A Lot has happened since my last post, so let me try to bring everyone up to speed on the latest. As most of you know been searching for a bigger motorcycle, something that would be more in tune with a touring style bike, longer trip capability etc… Been searching for months trying to find the right bike at a price to not break the bank. Hard to find these days as the price of everything has skyrocketed including pre-owned motorcycles.
While talking to some of the Harley Davidson dealers it seems Harley has cut back on production due to scarcity of parts, etc. They have issues getting as many new bikes as they need, therefore used bikes are in high demand so guess what, prices go up! Was talking to one such dealer, Harley Davidson of Panama City Beach here in Florida. Great bunch of guys by the way. 🙂 Made several visits to see their inventory and finally found the nugget that would fit my needs and pocket book. NO, turns out it’s not a Harley Davidson though that was what I had been looking at. They had some really beautiful ones but the price point was more than I wished to spend.
This nugget turned out to be a surprise even to me, Black Betty… a 2014 Victory Cross Roads 8-Ball with a 106 ci engine and a six speed transmission. Hesitated on this several times because as some might know, Victory Motorcycles are no longer manufactured. Production was halted in 2017. Most say it was because Polaris, the manufacturer wanted to focus only on the Indian brand and not compete with themselves. Victory is an American made motorcycle, probably more American than any other brand including Harley. My fear however was that no parts would be available should there be a need. Research tells me that the manufacturer will continue to produce parts for Victory until the year 2027, so there’s that bit of hope.
Little side note, the Suzuki is up for sale. Hate to see it go, has been such a pleasure to ride and enjoy while my leg was getting stronger.
Anyway, fell in love, made the deal, picked up the Victory around the 1st. of July, with only 8,559 miles on the odometer. That’s an average of about one thousand miles per year. Had the bike for a little less than two months, already added another thousand miles to her odometer. Likely would have been more but we have had some serious rain here in the panhandle of Florida. Seems it has rained every day since she came home with me. Also since my last post added a passenger on my motorcycle rides, but we not going to discuss that yet! 🙂
Let me post some photos of this beauty so you’ll understand why I fell in love! What’s the better name, Black Betty or Black Beauty? Or should we just call her VIC or VICKIE?
Right Side View
Since we’ve had so much rain lately my riding partner and I have gotten wet several times. We start by looking at the radar but it seems no matter the weather forecast we attract the rain. By the way we also hooked up blue tooth capability on our new helmets to enable conversation while we ride. Having so much fun riding when we can that until last week had not done any riding video’s on Black Betty. So here we go, finally taped some and posted them on YouTube, a few examples below. These first two are just drive by shorts. 🙂
As you will see in this next video, we are about to get wet once again. Watch until the end to view my riding partner hastily putting on her rain jacket, look in the right rear view mirror. LOL
Next video is fairly common for us lately, yes we do get soaked… but on this day not as much as some previous days. 🙂
And as normal we do pass through the rain showers and start to dry out. Here we were approaching the east side of Defuniak Springs, FL.
Ok so if you’ve viewed the videos and photos, tell me what you would name her? Keep in mind she’s a blacked out 8-ball with minimum amount of chrome.
Hope you found this interesting. Hit the follow button to see what happens next. Not a “biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles.
Please leave comments, suggestions and hit the like button. Feel free to share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other desired location. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, link below. Thank you so much for your time.
Ray's Motorcycle Experience 