place text on path, unwanted border on text

[bbxrider]

thanks for the help, 

ok the faux border is gone but the resultant fill still  has problems
there are voids and the start of the text is distorted so much I would
say its not useable

I tried your suggestion to use edit fill path after text to path, w/o the
additional selection step but nothing happens, 
the text bubbles on the path just remain