Motorcycle Journeys Trip Logs

Category: Trip Reporting

Reports from the road

  • Hill Country Wildflowers 2012

    It might have been a little early, but the weather was too perfect to miss so a friend and I headed down to Fredericksburg to check out the hill country wildflower display this past weekend.

    The ride down

    After a lunch stop at the Cactus Grill in Meridian the display of flowers began south of Llano on route 16. There were sections where the bluebonnets were so thick along the roadside the air was full of their scent. It was a great time to go through the hill country because the hills were dotted with an array of greens; the dark green of cedars, the lighter green of deciduous leaves, and spots of beautiful pale spring green from late opening trees.

    We tried to stop at Enchanted Rock State Park, but it appeared everyone in central Texas had made the same choice and there was a line to even turn into the park so we headed on to Fredericksburg.  The park is on 965 and the scenery was gorgeous.

    We stayed at the rustic Frontier Inn on the east edge of Fredericksburg — reasonably priced, clean and run by super nice people.

     

     

     

    Wildseed Farms

    The day started out with clouds and fog for the first stop on Sunday at Wildseed Farms just east of Fredericksburg. It might not be a hit with the guys, but a definite must see for females traveling the area. Fields of wildflowers surround a group of great shops; beautiful plants, gorgeous things for the yard, a beer and wine shop, a nature shop with bird feeders, and of course, a huge selection of wildflower seeds.

     

     

    Willow City Loop

    The clouds and fog burned off and after a run out to Pedernales Falls State Park we rode the area to see wildflowers (1323 is really nice) and saved the Willow City loop until later in the afternoon. The flowers were incredible on the loop, but so was the crowd. I would recommend trying to see the loop on a weekday to avoid the crowds that block the narrow 13 mile road. Crowds or not, it’s a must see during wildflower season.

     

     

     

    A sprint out toward west Texas on Monday morning and we were back in town with weekend mileage of 685. The weekend ride was a great way to celebrate spring.

    San Saba River

  • Back on the Road – finally

    Okay, it was only 900 miles. But heh, I was back on the motorcycle, out of town, and very happy to be on the road.

    Three day weekend and I literally don’t think I saw a cloud all weekend. I took secondary roads out to Caprock Canyon State Park and was amazed by how dead everything looked after the drought this summer.

    Welcoming Committee at Caprock Canyon State Park

    I got out to the park and was blocked from getting to the camp site by bison on the road. They are part of the herd Charles Goodnight saved when all the original bison were being slaughtered out of existence. I had feared the bison herd would only be seen behind fencing, so I was happy to see them on the road even if they weren’t too enthralled with the sound of my F650 single and started to run as I was passing through them. They are really, really big animals and I had kind of hoped they wouldn’t be too freaked by the engine noise…

    The next morning it was off for a 100 mile run up to Palo Duro State Park to see that canyon too. I have really come to believe if there is a mere breath of wind in west Texas or the panhandle it blows itself up into much higher force because there is absolutely nothing out there to slow it down. Needless to say it was a breezy ride there and back through miles and miles of nothingness.

    Caprock

    If you’re going between Caprock and Palo Duro I would highly suggest 207 – it crosses the canyon and is a fun drop down into it and then ride up out of it with pretty scenery.

    I don’t know if you’re familiar with the story about the caprocks. Before the Indians had horses and more sophisticated weapons they would run bison off the end of one of the caprocks and then gather at the bottom preserving all the meat, tanning the hides, even making utensils out of the bones. No part of the bison was wasted. Which makes me respect the Indians a heck of a lot more than the white hunters who decimated the bison for only their hides.

    I was expecting PD to be much more impressive than Caprock but ended up liking Caprock a lot better. It’s less more heavily visited and a much broader part of the canyon lands. Nicely maintained campgrounds and a lot of wildlife that feel very comfortable around humans.

    Link to slide show: http://motorcycle-journeys.com/images/2011_trips/caprock/index.html

  • Canada update – another break down

    I met up with Jean-Francois in Port Huron, MI and we crossed into Canada over the Blue Water Bridge into Sarnia, ON. The line wasn’t long and we got a very friendly border agent so it was an easy crossing.

    We rode to Oakville, a suburb of Toronto, to visit some relatives of Jean-Francois in a beautiful area on the shore of Lake Ontario. Tuesday morning we waited to leave until 9:00 to avoid traffic and still got stuck in rush hour. Toronto is an enormous city — I kept thinking we would be leaving urban area, but it went on forever.

    We got off Autoroute 401 to ride along the shore of Prince Edward Island (an island in Lake Ontario, not the province) and stopped at an orchard for apples and cider donuts. Great day right up until back on 401 I heard an explosion, a loud roar, and then quiet as my motorcycle began coasting to a stop.

    Yes, another  breakdown on the road.

    I got the motorcycle off onto the gravel shoulder before the motorcycle slowed to a stop only to find myself on such a downward slope from the road that I was not able to get the side stand down. I started trying to dig out a hole for the side stand, but wasn’t having a whole lot of luck as Jean-Francois walked back to help me.

    While he was walking back to me I was pondering the cold, hard reality that if he wasn’t there I would most likely have to drop my motorcycle to get off it since I couldn’t get the side stand down on the slope. Later my cell phone battery ran out while making phone calls and I had to use his phone. A lot of food for future thought…

    Once off the motorcycle it  didn’t take to long to find the problem — a spark plug had blown out of the engine. I tore the motorcycle down to see if we could get it back in and the motorcycle started, but we discovered the anode was no longer on the spark plug (the little metal part you set the gap on) and we were afraid it could be inside the piston, so we called for a tow.

    My recommendation is to try to never need to be trailered in Quebec. We had passed Cornwall, ON but not yet entered Quebec. I had the BMW ON Anonymous Book and we found the closest dealer was 45 minutes away in Montreal. We got hold of them before they closed and they gave us the name of a trailering service they use. We were on the side of the road for three hours, had police cars go by and not stop, and after the 45 minute ride to the dealer I found out the trailering cost me $335. I almost fell over. We were deposited at the dealer around 10:00 pm after the motorcycle stopping around 5:30.

    We were lucky that Jean-Francois’s brother lives in Montreal so Eric came to get us and we spent the night at his house. The dealer had the motorcycle done the next afternoon around 4:30. They had put a helicoil in to replace the stripped threads, installed new spark plugs, and started the motorcycle and found no engine noise. They told us the anode burns up when the engine fires and rarely causes a problem with the engine.

    While on the phone they told me my chain and sprockets were shot. I was shocked since they only had 10,000 miles on them and had looked fine when I checked them the previous day. When asked what they charge I was told the parts would be $360 and installation around $250. $600 for a chain and sprocket change ?!?!?!?

    Since I didn’t find that acceptable, and I took them at their word that the parts were bad I located a snowmobile dealer in northern Vermont who would order motorcycle parts for me and got exactly what I wanted for $150. The same town has a BMW mechanic who said he’d install the parts for $40 so I’ll ride down there for the work.

    The next morning we went into Montreal to get the motorcycle. The repairs were $350 so that made it a nice little $700 error with towing.

    I posted on the F650 forum asking the other riders why the spark plug blew. What was really puzzling was the dealer told us the engine comes with helicoils and one of them blew out. The people who responded said the engine does not come new with helicoils, that they are a repair. We made a follow up call to the service manager and he repeated the engine comes with inserts for the spark plug threads from the factory.  Could Canada get a different F650 from the US?

    After stopping at Eric’s to load my cases and gear we made it to Jean-Francois’s parents house outside Sherbrooke about 5 minutes before it started raining.

    Bottom line is I’m a little discouraged. I’d like to do a ride and NOT visit a dealer for repairs. I’d like to properly maintain my motorcycle and have it run well. Since I put so many miles on my motorcycle maybe I need to check things that wouldn’t be an issue with a less used bike.

    But I am extremely grateful I joined Jean-Francois before this happened since he has a great attitude and made the whole thing much easier. It would have been a little daunting to be along side the highway after dark, the motorcycle on it’s side, with a dead cell phone all by myself. Like I said earlier — food for thought.

  • Sunshine and dry roads

    The one good thing about riding in rain is that it really makes you appreciate good conditions even more. I didn’t do a lot of riding today, but it was glorious to get on the road this morning on dry pavement with sunny skies. The afternoon temperature made it to the mid seventies as I rode up to Port Huron to wait for Jean-Francois to catch up.

    Since I had time in the afternoon I walked to the Claire River empties into Lake Huron and took pictures of the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, the oldest light in Michigan. In the background was the Bluewater Bridge to Sarnia, Ontario and I was shocked to see it was at a stand still with vehicles waiting the entire length of the bridge to get into the US. I hope the wait isn’t so bad to get into Canada tomorrow, but someone pointed out the US border guards were being extra careful since the weekend was the anniversary of 9/11.

    Hopefully I’ll be in Canada tomorrow.

  • Rain, but trying to be positive

    It had rained hard overnight so I was very happy it stopped long enough for me to load the motorcycle and stay dry. I wasn’t in a big hurry to get on the road since the weather system was moving east and I wanted it to go as far as it could before I caught up with it.

    I got two solid hours of riding in on wet roads, but no actual rainfall. The thing I’m most grateful for is it wasn’t raining as I went through Indianapolis which must be the road construction capital of the universe. It was a mess and would have been much harder to navigate in poor visibility.

    My luck ran out just as I left the north side of Indie. I needed fuel and while I was stopped the rain started in earnest. I took my time, had some other travelers commiserate with me on the miseries of riding a motorcycle on a day such as this one, and got back on the highway when there was a miniscule lull.

    Once on the highway the downpour really set in and I wasn’t sure I was going to last 30 minutes, much less 300 more miles. The visibility was terrible as I slowed down and vehicles zoomed past with their spray adding to the visibility problem.

    Note to self: when traveling on four wheels and passing a motorcycle in rain be sure to get well ahead of the motorcycle before moving back into the the right lane. When you immediately swerve over in front of the motorcyclist you practically blind them with your spray.

    I couldn’t figure out why, but my Nolan helmet was allowing rain into the visor, so I had a coating of drops on the outside and a coating of drops on the inside. Fortunately it wasn’t fogging, but that may be because I was staying fairly calm and wasn’t hyperventilating. When I get scared I can fog a visor in a split second.

    After an hour of downpour it became intermittent alternating between downpour and light rain — far more tolerable.

    While riding I started thinking of days on the road in terms of how many tanks of fuel it was going to take. The previous day was a four tank day with me starting with a full tank and filling right before stopping for the night. Today would be a three tank day, so that wasn’t so bad. The fuel light was coming on consistently between 167 – 170 and I was stopping around 200 miles.

    I lucked out and there was a slight break in the rain for me to get into the Michigan welcome center. They had radar on a monitor and it was clear I would be in rain no matter where I went. After checking the map and motel coupons I decided on Flint which would leave me an hour ride south to Macomb, MI in the morning.

    The rain continued and got worse as I approached Flint, but I safely found the motel and got checked in.

    Main task of the evening was to try to get things dried out. It had been around 60 degrees during the afternoon so I had my Gerbing jacket on and turned on. When I started peeling off riding gear I discovered the underarm zipper on the right side had leaked on the final leg and my Aerotstich, Gerbing, and shirt sleeve were soaked. No wonder I was cold.

    I pulled off my boots and discovered both feet were soaked. That explained why my feet were cold and I’m not happy my boots are leaking. I need to try some waterproofing to improve that situation since I’m sure this isn’t the only rain I’ll see on this ride.

    So gear was hanging everywhere to dry out. I think everything will be okay except the boots — they are so soaked I doubt they will dry overnight.

    I had carried large rubber gloves with the thought of using them in rain, but had never tried them until today. I pulled them over my leather gloves and up over the end of my sleeves to seal out the rain. They worked incredibly well except the large was huge even over gloves.
    I might try medium the next time, but I am so glad I had them with me on a day like this. My hands would have frozen without them and I’m sure I would have had water up the sleeves.

    Mid seventies and sunny is the forecast for tomorrow. Woohoo!