Motorcycle Journeys Trip Logs

Author: Gale

  • Interesting start to the trip, part 1

    Due to the forecast for 106 degrees in Dallas I was up at 2:30 yesterday morning hoping to be on the road by 3:30. I backed the motorcycle out of the garage, started it, and wondered why it was so dark. The brain was moving a little slow, but I realized — no head light.

    Back into the garage and I pulled the HID bulb only to find out it was a blown fuse. Back in goes the HID, fuse replaced, and I hit the road at 4:20. Of course I’m wondering while I ride what electrical problem I could have that would be blowing fuses.

    The early morning ride went great since I was able to scoot through Dallas in next to no traffic. I even got seriously cold right around dawn when the temperature dropped to the mid 70’s. Due to the heat I was trying shorts and wicking top under mesh jacket and mesh pants. I told myself to enjoy the cold since it wasn’t going to last long.

    I made a fuel stop a little after dawn and I could feel the temperature start to rise when I was back on the highway. Around 8:00 I watched my speedometer drop down to 0, come back up, drop again and then settle about 10 miles an hour below my actual speed. About that time the the ABS light came on and stayed on.

    Shorting head light, bad speedo, no ABS — just dandy.

    You can imagine was I was thinking about while I rode. I figured I’d keep going and research the problems on the internet when I stopped for the day. I was through Little Rock around 9:30 and turned north just west of Memphis before noon.

    About that time the speedo spazzed out again and settled at around 20 MPH below actual speed. I kept going.

    I reached my intended destination of Union City, TN for day 1 around 1:00 in the afternoon — not tired and not prepared to be bored for the rest of the afternoon. I was told at the Tennessee welcome center that Elizabethtown, KY was about 4 hours out but I didn’t want to go that far in the heat.

     I took Purchase Parkway north into Kentucky and then the Western Kentucky Parkway east — little traffic on either so I was making great time. I thought 4:00 would be a good time to call it a day since it was really getting hot, but there just wasn’t any lodging along the parkway so I ended up at Elizabethtown after all.

    815 miles in 100 degree heat. I had grabbed my cooling vest at the last minute and think it’s the only reason I could keep riding. At every fuel stop I would take in a zip lock bag, put a couple inches of ice in it, throw the vest in and fill it with water and close it up. The vest would soak while I got fuel and I would put it on dripping wet (and ice cold). Since my odometer was off due to my speedo malfunctioning I was stopping every 160 miles or so.

    I had the Weather Channel on while I was researching on the internet last night and heard that Little Rock and Memphis had record breaking heat indicies of 112 and 116. I certainly pick the days to travel.

    I emailed one of the organizers of the F650 get together in Vermont. He contacted an F650 rider  in Louisville about 40 miles north of where I was staying. That rider, Rick, emailed his phone number and told me to call him in the morning.

    My plan was to get up in the morning to check the ABS/speed sensor on the rear wheel and see if I could figure it out myself. 2:30 AM to 10:00 PM. I was pooped and called it a day.

  • New gear for Vermont trip

    Not a lot of new gear for this one, but what little there is tends to be pretty critical stuff.

    I have always been torn between sticking with my Aerostich and wearing a mesh jacket and pants. Since I dehydrate easily it seems like the Aerostich would help slow that down where mesh would accelerate it. But I just don’t feel like facing 100+ temps in the ‘Stich so I picked up an Olympia Airglide jacket off EBay for a great price. I already had Airglide pants so that’s what I’m going to wear on this trip. Both have water proof, thermolite insulated liners for cooler temps and rain. I still don’t know if I should pack my Aerostich — jeez, it’s almost like a security blanket to me.

    My well loved and well used Toshiba MP3 players officially bit the dust. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I got an 8GB Sandisk Sansa Clip+ off Amazon for $55 and an accessory kit for $7. The kit included a 12 volt charger for the motorcycle, a wall charger if I don’t want to drag my computer in at night (advertised 15 hour battery life), ear buds, screen protector, longer USB cable (the Sansa Clip+ came with a 8″ cable — what a pain…), and a silicone protective cover. The Clip+ has a slot for mini SD cards so I should be able to take all the music and books I want. My hope is that the flash drive will be a more stable storage media in the high vibration environment of a motorcycle, but I have no idea. Only time will tell. The Clip+ is tiny and so light weight that it’s almost not noticeable. I’ve tested it on the motorcycle and it cranks the music.

    And, of course, my new Kouba lowering links that have brought the motorcycle back down to my height even with the Ohlin shock. I can’t wait to get on the road and see how this combination works out over the long haul.

    I felt like I had a slow leak in my front tube after getting new tires put on, so I pulled the wheel off and took it to Grif’s Cycle Sports in Lewisville to have a new tube put in. Really great people at this shop — they had it mounted and balanced in no time for $20 plus the cost of the tube. I feel much better heading out of town with a fresh tube — I don’t know about anyone else, but I thinking finding air while on the road is a pain and most places charge for it. I have a mini compressor, but I hate to dig that out and wait for it to inflate unless I’m stopped for the night. A good tube is a much better bet.

    There’s been a lot of maintenance. The water pump had to be done again, but that was covered by my extended warranty (which I think may be worth it’s weight in gold). The water pump involves dumping both oil and coolant, so those are both fresh. I changed the brake fluid, the fork oil, and put new brake pads on the rear caliper. As mentioned I put new tires on again.

    I think the motorcycle is good to go. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Ztechnik windshield is in HOT weather, since I have already experienced how much colder I am in cold weather. Maybe the increased air hitting me will help with the heat.

  • Ohlin shock + Kouba links for lowered F650 GS

    As I mentioned before my trip out to California in May I had gotten an Ohlin shock put on right before leaving. I kid you not, when the shock was first put on I could no longer look down into my top case — I needed a step stool to do that. That’s how much higher the tail end of the motorcycle was. Leaving for California was delayed because I could barely touch the ground with my toes on the ground so I postponed departure and the shock was  rebuilt, shims added, and made as low as it could go.

    It was still problematic. I could only get my toes on the ground (which I don’t like). It was a little better when the motorcycle was fully loaded, but not much. The motorcycle leaned so much that I couldn’t get it off the side stand when it was loaded. I left town with an inch thick block of wood on a string to put under the side stand. I found this embarrassing right up until I stopped for coffee in Albuquerque and could not get the bike off the side stand and had to go back into the coffee shop to ask someone for help. Great way to meet people, but more embarrassing than using the block of wood.

    I ended up talking to Ohlin the last couple weeks and since they don’t make a shock specifically for the lowered F650 GS, the best they could offer was to take the shock back and give me a full refund. They cheerfully offered to take their shock off, but another shock on, and give me my money back. I was pretty impressed with their customer service, but this would leave me with the only option of an OEM BMW shock, which I feel is of lesser quality and $300 more in price. I wanted to find a way to keep the Ohlin.

    I posted on F650 forum and got several suggestions. I didn’t think a $300 lower seat would help enough, I wasn’t about to spend another $400 to get boots that are 3/4″ higher, but several people mentioned Kouba Links.

    I checked koubalink.com for a phone number and found there was only an email address. I suspected this didn’t bode well for getting information, but I was wrong. I sent an email and got a response from Norm Kouba within a couple hours. Norm was informative, he was helpful, and I could have hugged him. I didn’t know what the “factory lowered” consisted of and had no idea if my links were a different length from the standard F650 GS. Norm knew my links were the same as the standard.

    Koube Links
    Koube Links (from their web site_

    Norm suggested I put 2 x 4 boards down on either side of the motorcycle to get a feel for what the 2″ links would do since the boards would be 1 3/4″ of added height. I felt strongly that I only needed 1″ so he allowed me to order both the 1″ and 2″ links with the understanding the ones that didn’t work would be shipped back for refund.

    This Sunday I put the 1″ links on my motorcycle. I still don’t understand the geometry since the links were only a 1/2″ longer than the OEM links, but I was on tip toe before the Kouba Links and I have most of my foot on the ground after. While I greased the heck out of them before installing, Kouba links come with zerks so in the future the bearings can be greased with a grease gun while installed on the motorcycle.  How cool is that?

    I mailed the unused 2″ links back to Norm on Tuesday (priority mail) and had my refund by Thursday. I can’t say enough good things about my experience with Norm Kouba. It was such a pleasure to deal with someone who still values the concept of customer service. He has lowering links for a lot of different motorcycles so I suggest you check out his web site if  you’d like your motorcycle a little lower.

    http://koubalink.com/

    I think I was very lucky with both companies, since they were both so helpful. Hopefully the new links will allow me to have the best of both worlds — great Ohlin suspension and my feet almost flat on the ground. I’ll report back on what I think when I get back from Vermont.

  • Escaping to Vermont

    After working on exterior home repairs for a month and a half I’m ready to get out of the heat for a while so I’m going north to Vermont to attend the Northeast Jailbreak for the Chain Gang F650 GS group in West Dover. The get together is from August 5-8 at the Gray Ghost Inn. The inn is owned by a couple and the wife is an F650 rider — they are offering rooms at a great rate  to the Chain Gang members. West Dover is on the edge of Green Mountain National Forest so there should be some great riding in the area. I’m looking forward to meeting some other F650 owners.

    Vermont Routes
    Vermont Routes

    Since it’s only 170 miles to Quebec I plan to ride north on Hwy 100 from West Dover to do a little sight seeing in the Eastern Townships — I loved Lake Memphremagog last summer and want to ride around it this year. It’s a large lake with about 75% of it in Quebec and the other 25% in Vermont. Magog is on the north shore of Lake Mempremagog — a very cool little city with one of my favorite espresso bars/restaurants Caffuccino. I don’t care what time of day I get to Magog — I’m stopping to eat.

    Then I’ll turn south to check out West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and a little of South Carolina once I get out of New England. I was in these same states last year on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but that was so insulated (stunningly beautiful, but pretty well insulated from the rest of the world) I didn’t really get to see the surrounding area except for fuel stops. I plan to ride south more or less parallel to the Parkway. I have a variety of routes mapped and I’m not sure at this point which one I’ll be taking. The plan right now is to spend a couple days in the Asheville/Brevard area and then head southwest toward Dallas and back to the heat.

    I hope I’m not being too optimistic, but I’m fairly confident I won’t be seeing any SNOW on this trip. One experience with that was more than enough… But I also hope there are no heat waves up north since I would really like to experience some cooler temperatures for a while.

    Mountains, lots of green, cooler temps. That’s what I’m looking for.

  • Treasures of Yosemite Ride Wrap Up

    A friend made the comment in an email to me after I decided to take advantage of the window in weather and head home that it was a shame I rode through the finest landscape there is in the country (riding Utah and Colorado and not stopping). At first the comment hurt my feelings since it sounded like I had somehow failed. But then I was okay with it. I was, after all, on a motorcycle ride and I had seen some incredibly beautiful scenery. I didn’t do everything I hoped to do, but I rode 4,200 miles by myself, through a lot of adverse weather conditions. For a newbie rider, I feel that was a great success. And life is a learning experience — I couldn’t find out what I liked and didn’t like about this kind of ride without doing it.

    I have to admit I was a little scared about riding alone when I was heading out, but that was quickly replaced by being afraid of the wind. What a way to start a trip — 65 MPH wind gusts and dust storms.

    After I got through the wind conditions in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona I was confident and happy riding alone. I was a little apprehensive riding into Death Valley alone because there were no towns and no traffic, just miles and miles of road with nothing but warning signs about water for radiators, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and would recommend it to anyone heading out to California.  The rides both down into and up out of the valley are stunning and the immensity of Death Valley can only be comprehended by riding or driving through it.

    Right before my first out of town ride (to Eureka Springs, AR) I had read David Hough’s book Proficient Motorcycling literally finishing it the night before I left. Great book, but story after story that ended badly. All those stories had me so spooked that it negatively effected my riding the entire trip to Arkansas and back. All I could do was watch for the things the book mentioned and be afraid of them.

    I don’t know what my problem is but it seems to take a long time for me to get stories like that filed away as useful information and not something that scares me.

    David Hough was the guest speaker at the rally and I had the pleasure of sitting next to him at the banquet Saturday evening and also attended a couple of his seminars. He’s a really great guy and I got good information, but he talked about a lot of bad things that happen while riding. David’s stories have a point to them — trying to help you learn from the mistakes of others and hopefully avoid them yourself. But the stories still scared me.

    It seems like a lot of people who ride want to swap stories about the accidents they hear about. Personally, I don’t get this. Wouldn’t it be like drivers getting together and talking about car accidents, or people who are facing heart surgery getting together to talk about everyone who died in heart surgery? While I thoroughly understand anyone who has been in an accident needing to talk about it, I don’t get all the other people who can’t wait to tell you accident stories.

    While I still do a lot of reading to learn more about riding a motorcycle I make sure it’s well before a planned ride so the information can kind of settle in my brain and not cause me problems. I try to avoid people who like to discuss every accident they’ve heard about.

    Bottom line, once again I had those stories in my head and the rider who left the rally (me) wasn’t the same rider who had arrived. My confidence was gone and fear had taken it’s place. So when I took a route north that turned into tight little mountain turns at elevation with no guard rails I choked and got really scared. While it got better the next day, I never totally got over it for the remainder of the trip. I either need to figure out how to avoid this stuff or how to process it so it doesn’t effect my riding.

    Also while at the rally I mentioned the wind I’d encountered on the trip out and an experienced rider told me the bike knows how to handle the wind and I should keep a really loose hold on the handle grips. I have to admit my reaction to getting hit by a gust of wind that moves me around the road is for me to grab hard on the handle bar. I took his suggestion to heart and it really helped me when crossing northern Nevada and Utah in high side winds. The wind was much less tiring to me physically those days and he was right — the bike knew what to do when hit by a gust and didn’t really need my choke hold.

    There are pros and cons for me riding alone. I could get up and go when I wanted, stop when I wanted, eat when I wanted. I probably didn’t eat enough backed up by the fact I spent $162 on food in 12 days and a good part of that was bottled water. I am good about staying hydrated. I was able to use my throttle lock a lot to let my hand rest because I was determining the speed of the ride, not the person ahead of me. But it’s always been comforting to me to have Jean-Francois ahead of me on long trips since he looks out for me, and I missed that a lot. I also chose to be conservative and not do some things that I would have liked because I was afraid of dropping the bike while I was alone or getting the motorcycle someplace I couldn’t get out of. Camping is definitely an issue when I’m alone since I have asked to have my motorcycle moved for me on many occasions to get out of dirt or gravel parking areas. I figure moving it is a better option than picking it up.

    I don’t regret erring on the side of caution. I wasn’t sure on the way out to California if I was being a weenie or being smart when I stopped due to 65 mph gusts being forecast the first two days. When I approached Grants, New Mexico the next day and saw the large flashing sign “Reduce speed! Dust storm ahead!” I figured I had made the right choice. Seeing a couple RV’s on their sides along the side of the road confirmed that.

    I made all 4,200 miles without dropping my motorcycle — sort of a change of pace for me. I came close when I had to find a place to turn around near Ely, Nevada and got off in deep gravel, but I was able to keep going and didn’t fall. I was out in the middle of nowhere with no one around, so that was scary.

    I got home safely — I think some of my conservative decisions contributed to that.

    Was I scared sometimes? Yep. I was afraid of the high wind at times, switchbacks still scare me, being out in the middle of nowhere alone was a little intimidating, and the snow storm was a level of terror I hope I never revisit.

    Did I learn a lot? Of course. I learned I have skills I still need to work on. That you don’t ride 12,000 feet Colorado mountain passes in May. I learned how to handle wind better (even though I still don’t like it). I learned that possibly extended mountain rides, rides through totally isolated territory, and camping rides should be done with a riding buddy so I may head for flatter terrain on the next solo ride. It seems that while I love mountains, desert isn’t the landscape that makes my heart sing so I think I need to head for the coast next time around.

    Did I have a great time and would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I’m already planning my next ride.