Motorcycle Journeys Trip Logs

Author: Gale

  • Top Equipment picks for the trip

    The Good

    The top two equipment winners for this trip were my Tilt Cruise throttle lock and what someone referred to as my “side stand jack”.

    Tilt Cruise in off position

    The Tilt Cruise performed flawlessly and maintained speed each time I needed it. It’s ease of use — flip it up with your little finger to engage it and flip it down with your little finger to turn it off — made it a pleasure on the entire trip. If there is anyone who may be interested in getting one I have the contact information for the Gilbert Piccard in Montreal who makes them for several BMW models. Since my hands are my weak link being able to let them rest is critical for me on long rides.

    The “side stand jack” (term coined by one of the guys who helped me fix my motorcycle in Colorado) is an inch thick block of wood with a string attached to it. When I got the new Ohlin shock absorber right before leaving it increased the height of my motorcycle. This caused two problems: 1) I now barely have my feet on the ground when stopped and 2) the bike leans at a frightening angle on the side stand and makes it impossible for me to get the motorcycle off  the side stand when fully loaded. So I left town with the block of wood tucked in my tank bag.

    I was embarrassed to use it despite the fact I was hurting myself

    "Side Stand Jack"

    getting the bike off the side stand. That came to an end when I stopped for coffee in Albuquerque and had to go back in and ask a man to help me get the motorcycle off the side stand. Between those two options I found using the block of wood less embarrassing than having to ask strangers for help.

    Then I arrived at the Treasure of Yosemite Rally and had another rider tease me that I had stolen his idea — he had a block of wood under his side stand too and said there was no way he could stand his bike up without the block. That helped me feel less silly even though people continued to make fun of me 🙂

    The block of wood enabled me to park with the side stand a little downhill (there are a lot of gas stations what are not level) and still stand the bike up with ease, even if it is a little time consuming. Others may disagree, but for me it was a really important little piece of equipment.

    And of course — my motorcycle. She ran incredibly well every mile of the trip. And I’m sure she wasn’t too thrilled when her rear end fell off and was hanging by a thread, but she suffered through the indignity with grace.

    The Problematic

    My number one problematic piece of equipment on this trip was my MP3 player that had a variety of problems starting with charging and ending with a system error that made me fear the entire thing was fried. I really thought if I had to ride one more day without music I was going to need a straight jacket or padded room.

    The player is four years old and has taken a lot of abuse — I don’t know how long they usually last. Since I got home I figured out how to format the hard drive in the player and loaded an open source firmware on it called Rockbox and all seems to be well, but I need to take it riding to make sure it’s really fixed. Rockbox is very cool firmware with lots of options available for many MP3 players  and I’d suggest anyone who is MP3 player dependent like me check out their web site at http://www.rockbox.org/.

    I have had an ongoing problem when I add my Gerbing pant liner under my Aerostich suit — no matter how I move the wires in the Gerbing around they seem to end up over my right knee cap when I zip the leg of my Aerostich. The Aerostich knee pad presses them into my knee and it becomes extremely painful and a potential distraction while riding. My kneecap is still bruised/branded almost a week after last using the liner. It makes me dread putting the pant liner on so I have to find a solution for this.

    But I must give the Gerbing jacket and pant liner and my Aerostich credit. I rode into the snow storm with sunglasses, light leather gloves, and my Gerbing gear on. The sunglasses were bad — especially in the Eisenhower tunnel with the ice warnings. The light gloves quickly soaked all the way through, but I kicked the heated grips on high. I cranked the Gerbing liners all the way up and they kept me warm. My Aerostich kept me dry as a bone in both the rain and the snow. Being warm and dry is about all I had going for me over Vail Pass and the Eisenhower tunnel — well that any my hyper-vigilant guardian angels.

    I don’t know about other people, but any equipment irritation seems to add up over the miles. I always seem to come home with a to do list of things I want to tweak or correct so they don’t bug me on the next ride.

  • Confused by MPG

    Maybe someone can explain this. Do combustion engines burn less fuel at altitude?

    I normally plan on getting gas at around 150 miles on the tank or when the fuel light comes on. I don’t have a fuel gauge, just a 4.2 gallon tank and a fuel light that is supposed to come on when there is a gallon left in the tank. I feel the fuel light it very accurate since I have many times put 3.2 gallons in when the fuel light had just come on.

    I was heavily loaded for this trip and this is the first really long trip I’ve taken since I changed from a 47 to 49 tooth rear sprocket that changed the gearing ratio of my motorcycle and effectively dropped my miles per gallon by about 5. I am okay with the drop in mileage because the motorcycle no longer bogs and hesitates at really slow speeds — something I was never comfortable with.

    While I was at high elevation on Wednesday cutting across Colorado I got bizarrely good mileage. Granted I went slow for the 50 miles I was in a snow storm, but that still doesn’t explain what happened. I was riding through Denver with around 200 miles on the tank and still no fuel light. I was beginning to worry the fuel light had gone out. It just came on as I was getting off the highway to fuel up and this is backed up by the fact I put in 3.222 gallons at the fuel stop. What doesn’t make sense is the fuel light coming on at 224.5 miles and getting almost 70 MPG on that tank of fuel.

    It should be noted that I normally burn regular gas in my motorcycle, but while in other states I realized the regular grade dropped to 84, 85, and 86 octane. My motorcycle wants minimum of 87 so I bumped to mid-grade fuel in those states. I noticed the drop in octane in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. Texas has 87 octane for regular and I’m not sure about New Mexico, Arizona, and California. I don’t think I noticed the drop until Nevada where it was 84 (???).

    Below are the details of my gas purchases and MPG. There definitely seems to be a trend to high MPG when I was at altitude most of the day, just as there was a trend to low mileage when fighting head winds at the start of the trip. The other anomaly was the 46 MPG from Quanah, Texas to Decatur, Texas when I was consistently riding at 75-77 MPH in light winds just like the day before.

    If anyone has an ideas on what explains this I would love to hear because I don’t get it. And I’d like to do whatever I can to maximize my MPG.

    Date Place Amt Miles Gallons MPG Comment
    5/10/2010 EXXONMOBIL 46914404 WICHITA FALLS TX 6.20 119.0 2.295 51.9
    5/11/2010 SHELL OIL 574409479QPS CLARENDON TX 10.98 172.0 3.839 44.8
    5/11/2010 LOVE S COUNTRY00002626 TUCUMCARI NM 10.03 173.6 3.533 49.1
    5/11/2010 Flying J C store outsi Alburquerque NM 11.27 189.0 4.115 45.9 average 80 mph
    5/12/2010 SHELL OIL 57443907001 GALLUP NM 8.86 144.5 2.936 49.2 average 80 mph
    5/12/2010 SHELL OIL 574400399QPS SELIGMAN AZ 12.18 137.2 2.851 48.1 average 80 mph
    5/12/2010 Flying J C store outsi Winslow AZ 9.71 136.0 3.374 40.3 left cap open
    5/12/2010 CHICAGO DELI AND BAR 7024985431 NV 9.05 172.8 3.059 56.5 average 80 mph
    5/13/2010 SHELL OIL 574423431QPS PAHRUMP NV 6.47 117.0 2.086 56.1 average 80 mph
    5/13/2010 SIERRA GATEWAY SPORT LAKE ISABELLA CA 9.22 194.8 2.883 67.6
    5/13/2010 STOVEPIPE GAS DEATH VALLEY CA 7.80 131.4 2.209 59.5
    5/13/2010 Table Mountain Chevron Madera, CA 11.93 179.7 3.103 57.9 average 80 mph
    5/16/2010 Chevron Jamestown, CA 11.44 207.4 3.219 64.4 yosemite
    5/16/2010 7-Eleven Carson City, NV 7.25 167.3 2.450 68.3
    5/17/2010 Fox Peak Station Fallon, NV 2.72 63.2 0.926 68.3
    5/17/2010 CHEVRON 0093193 Q61 AUSTIN NV 6.12 113.2 1.922 58.9
    5/17/2010 SHELL OIL 527264000QPS ELY NV 14.44 156.2 2.642 59.1
    5/17/2010 BORDER INN 00397489 GARRISON UT 6.93 126.3 1.946 64.9
    5/19/2010 TEXACO 0306112 BEAVER UT 11.74 187.2 3.308 56.6
    5/19/2010 Chevron, UT 11.54 187.4 3.405 55.0
    5/19/2010 Shell Parachute, CO 8.16 151.6 2.632 57.6
    5/19/2010 K&G PETROLE53110042422 CASTLE ROCK CO 9.08 224.5 3.222 69.7 vail pass
    5/20/2010 Chevron Raton, NM 10.91 205.0 3.497 58.6 average 75 mph
    5/20/2010 Express Lane Dumas, TX 8.62 172.4 2.972 58.0 average 75 mph
    5/21/2010 Taylor Quanah, TX 11.12 197.5 3.835 51.5 average 75 mph
    5/21/2010 J&J Truck stop 380 Decatur, TX 10.57 185.9 4.020 46.2 average 75 mph
    Totals 244.34 4,212.1 76.3 55.22

  • Slide shows added

    I updated the web site with two slide shows from the trip out to California and back. Most of my pictures were taken while riding, since that’s what I spent a lot of time doing.

    http://motorcycle-journeys.com/current/photos/photos.html has all four 2010 photo slide shows

    http://motorcycle-journeys.com/current/photos/toy_2010/index.html will take you to 36 pictures from the Treasures of Yosemite ride overall.

    http://motorcycle-journeys.com/current/photos/lehman_caves/index.html has 11 pictures from Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada.

    I saw a lot of incredible scenery, but most of the pictures are in my head, not in my camera.

  • Run for home

    I left Castle Rock, just south of Denver, around 9:00 and had my first easy day of riding on the trip. The partly cloudy skies around Denver cleared as I went south and no wind ever picked up.

    After my experience in Vail Pass the preceding day I pretty much had my heart set on no more passes, but I still encountered one in Raton. Fortunately it was no big deal at 7,824 feet which is comparable to all the passes I did in California, Nevada, and Utah.

    Once I was past Raton and on Route 64 the landscape opened up to rolling range land with a large number of pronghorn deer grazing right along the side of the road. While it was entertaining to see so many deer, I did keep wondering if one might suddenly decide he just had to try the the grass on the other side of the road.

    I was pleased that it was only 5:00 when I got through Amarillo and 106 miles to Childress which would be a good stop for the night.

    That left me 222 miles to get to the house the next morning. Still no wind was forecast, but temperatures were supposed to get into the 90’s so I was up at 5:30 so I could be on the road by 7:00 and hopefully get home before the heat.

    If you are riding out 287 be sure to keep a look out for the herd of camels just past Wichita Falls on the south side of the road. When I headed out for California through the dust storms they were running around and looked right at home in those conditions. On the return trip they were either standing around or laying on the ground. Just a bizarre image to see camels in Texas.

    For some dumb reason I kept putting off the final fuel stop and had my only close call on fuel for the entire trip. When I was out in the middle of nowhere I stopped when I saw a station since I didn’t know when I’d see one again. Outside Decatur, TX I put 4.02 gallons of gas in a 4.2 gallon tank. That’s a little closer than I’d like to cut it.

    I am pleased to say that while I carried a liter bottle of fuel for emergencies, it returned home full and unused. I made the decision to take the bottle right before leaving so I made my own holster for the fuel bottle I purchased at REI and attached it to the front case bracket with elastic straps and buckles. Easy to put on and take off, very secure, and kind of comforting to have just in case. You can see the bottle attached in front of the left side case.

    Pulled in the driveway with the temperature reading only 82 degrees at 10:30 AM and was unloaded by 11:00. It’s always a good feeling to get me and the motorcycle safely home after a long trip — especially after my longest solo trip.

    I’ll be posting slide shows and trip details to the web site soon and will post a trip summary here on the blog page. Right now I’d better go play with my dogs…

  • Snow storms and other problems, part 2

    After looking at the tail section I called a friend to see if he had any experience with it. He told me about another woman with an F650 who rode around for a while with no tail light and license plate because she didn’t know it had fallen off. Great. His suggestion was to use cable ties, duct tape, whatever, to get it attached well enough to make it home. That was not my favorite option.

    I spent over an hour at the gas station trying to figure out how to reattach the thing with no success.  Four open slots have to fit into clips and then screws that go through the clips need to be tightened from under the top case. The wires to the light are so short the tail assembly can’t be turned sideways to get a good look at the back of it. The wires to the light connect somewhere inside it. I couldn’t see any way to get all four slots in four clips at the same time.I tried taking the tail light off so see if I could disassemble it further and then attach it. That showed me nothing.

    I gave up and got cable ties out to fasten the tail section on. One after another they snapped in two when I tried to use them. They had deteriorated and were brittle. The last two I had didn’t break so I put the motorcycle back together, tested to make sure the brake light was working, and decided to stop at the first motel I saw.

    I registered at motel just a few miles down 25 and the lady behind the desk said I could park right in front of the office windows so they could keep an eye on the motorcycle all night. I pulled the bike around and tested the brake lights again. Nothing. I walked back and checked — no tail light either. My first order of business had to be getting more cable ties and taking the assembly off so I could find out why the lights weren’t working.

    A bunch of men from BNSF railroad were coming back to the hotel. I asked about cable ties and one of them dug through a truck and came up with a hand full of them and gave them to me.

    I started taking the motorcycle apart (the top case and some other parts had to be removed) parked right by the entrance to the motel so, of course, everyone was asking what I was doing. I told them what happened and a couple of the men checked it out while others went for tool boxes and stayed around to chat and see if they could help.

    Everyone was amazed that I had 42,000 miles on my motorcycle, that I was riding alone, that I had been dumb enough to go over Vail Pass in May… Most the guys had motorcycles and one said he didn’t think he’d put 42,000 miles on all his motorcycles combined. Another man asked how many miles I had ridden and when I said 550 he asked in how many days. When I told him today he was shocked. Another man chirped up that he’d ridden 200 miles in one day once and it was awful. He wasn’t joking — he was dead serious. Perhaps a salient point here is that they were all Harley owners?

    I told them that I’d never been on a motorcycle until 2006 and that I’m still a newbie — the general consensus was that 42,000 miles kind of eliminated the newbie status. Especially after they saw my stickers from Mexico and Canada. I still think I’m a newbie.

    You want to hear a funny thing? A lot of BMW riders see the stickers on my cases and ask if I’ve been to all those places. Harley riders see the stickers and never question if I’ve been to the places or not. What’s with that?

    Dan and Hillbilly (I never heard his real name) did all the work attaching the tail piece. Over two hours of trying over and over again. I don’t know who designed that tail section, but I suspect it was the Marquis de Sade. I still don’t know how it was installed at the factory, but then that may be why it fell off.

    I kept telling everyone it was taking too much of their time, but they were determined to get it on and didn’t stop until it was attached and the lights were working. They were only able to get two of the four slots secured so they backed up the install with cable ties.

    They truly were just a great bunch of guys — fun to talk to, so nice about helping — one guy even brought me food from the restaurant next door. Once it was fixed I barely had a chance to thank everyone before they disappeared. Maybe that’s because it was after 10:00 PM.

    One heck of a day and I didn’t get to bed until midnight. But all in all a good day since I survived and my motorcycle was ready for the sprint home.  Besides, you don’t usually get to find out how truly heart warming people can be until something goes wrong.