RC's Motorcycle Blog

New Gear - Boots!

2009-06-20T17:50:00.003-05:00

I meant to post this up in March when I made the trip out to Florida, but ...

Part of my prep work for the IBR has included looking at my existing gear and getting comfort down there. This started last August in Tulsa at the IBA National, where I started stocking up on socks and underwear. I also decided that I needed new footwear, as my old boots had seen better days.

Other than being old, these boots have been fantastic. A bit tight when layering up socks with heated/winter gear, but otherwise no complaints. Very water proof, and tested in both the Atlantic AND the Pacific on multiple occasions. Maybe the salt water, combined with zero care taken on my behalf, is what led to them looking so bad in only 5 years. Well ... five years and about 90,000 miles.

And my new Sidi boots! A Christmas present from Cass, these boots are insanely comfortable when adjusted right and also waterproof to boot. The only problem I've encountered has been when I over-tightened the arch support once on my way out to Florida. Had I loosened it up when I started feeling pain, I probably would have been pretty good, but I was stubborn. They have a large sole, makes it easier to man handle the taller bikes, and adjust more easily to accommodate different sock thickness. Excellent ankle support ... I can say that drive a manual transmission car with these boots on is a bit of a pain. :)

Two Months and Counting!

2009-06-20T16:48:00.002-05:00

With just over two months remaining until the start of the 2009 Iron Butt Rally, it's time to bring things into high gear.

Any waffling over whether I could afford the rally are in the past. I can't, but I can't afford to pass up the opportunity either. :) So, my grandiose plans for bike setup and support are out the window and we're running on more of a shoestring budget.

This weekend was supposed to be the first weekend ride to get myself back in shape, but alas it was not to be. The ride has been postponed to next weekend, so this weekend I'm working to get my web tools for friends and family sorted out. In addition to my SPOT providing tracking updates, and Hipcast giving me audio updates to the blog, I'm tying everything together through Twitter and Facebook for the friends of mine who use those resources for their updates. All this should make my life easier too ... as I only need to do updates once for everyone, rather than updating multiple places.

If been slacking off on posting my updates and progress in prepping for the IBR, and have had a false start or two along the way, but things should be taking shape now as the weekly rides start to form and last minute changes to the bike are finalized.

More to come!

IBA Spring Party

2009-03-06T22:22:00.001-06:00

Executive Summary - good times.

I hadn't done any specific IBA events until the National meet last year in Tulsa. I've been trying to make if out for the spring party in Florida for the past 3-4 years, even had tickets once or twice, but never made it out. After the fun we had in Tulsa, doing these kinds of things with this group of people moved up on my priority list, and I'm glad it did.

Most of my closer friends that I hung out with in Tulsa weren't able to make it to Florida this year, which is always good and bad. Hated not catching up with them, but also talked to more people that I probably would have otherwise ... some people I've rallied with a few times, or even just names I've recognized off a riding forum or mailing list somewhere. Got to talk with Jim Bain and Andy Kirby for a pretty good bit before dinner. Also had several good convos with Mike Langford both before and after dinner.

For me, the best story of the weekend was one about Mike Allen. I met Mike for the first time last year at the Void IV. Mike's done lots of rallies, but apparently never got around to doing an IBA certified ride (the number of rally riders who haven't still surprises me), so decided to do a BBG (1500 miles in 24 hours) into Jax to knock one out in style. Yeah, BBGs are ranked as extreme rides and aren't usually encouraged for new riders, but Mike isn't exactly new, and got approval to go for it. For me, the BBG is still the toughest ride I've done ... having certified one back in 2005, and done another undocumented BBG back from California last November. So Mike heads out to start his BBG, and about a hour in comes across a stranded BMW rider on I-95 who's run out of gas. Now Mike's never met Claye, don't know she's involved with the IBA or MTF, just sees her trying to push her bike up the shoulder to the next exit. Mike pulls over to find out what's going on, and hearing it's just that she's out of gas, proceeds to start removing his fuel cell from his bike in order to dump some fuel into Claye's. Goes so far as to start trying to get fuel to go out the vent line when they can't get the quick disconnect on the fuel line to open. Claye finally asks whether he's on the clock or not, and learns about the BBG. Mike get's her sorted, then gets back to his ride. If I remember hearing from Kneebone right, Mike finished his ride with twelve minutes to spare. 12! After checking in and getting sorted, Mike just happens to run into Claye in the hotel to realize who he helped on the side of the road.

The lawn care company with the trailer full of mowers ... and full of gas cans ... couldn't stop to help Claye out, but a guy who is on the clock riding one of the toughest rides I've done yet, stops and helps, knowing it might well mean he runs over time. Just outstanding.

On a downer note, while a group of Harley riders (4 total I think) where receiving their first SaddleSore 1000 certificates (1000 miles in 24 hours) from Kneebone, news that sounds like my friend Bo Griffin's final drive on his BMW failed him on his way out to Florida with the group. I haven't been able to confirm with Bo yet, but sounds like he got hooked up with roadside assist to take care of his stuff, and the rest of his group continued on to Jax.

I'm starting to feel so overwhelmed with stuff that still needs to get done before August, but at least it's apparent that whatever the outcome ... there will be good people there to share the experience with.

You know what they say ...

2009-03-05T01:38:00.000-06:00

One of the words of wisdom for any big motorcycle trip is to not make changes to the bike before heading out. Well, we'll throw that right out the window this trip. :)

About two weeks ago I received my custom bags ... custom tank bag and fuel cell cover. I really wanted to test out these bags on this trip, there's no time stress, short(ish) mileage, and no stress from being on the clock. Unfortunately, work has been hectic, so I didn't get a chance to install these bags until tonight.

The tank bag I'm not so worried about. It uses a strap system for mounting, which is something I'm not used to, but it looks to be pretty secure. The fuel cell cover, however, required some slight modification. For starters, in order to install the bag, I had to remove the vent line for the tank temporarily, so that I could thread the line through the bag. Once the bag was installed, the new vent line routing was longer than the previous, so it wasn't working out as just a plug and play setup. No worries, I needed to reroute the vent line anyway, but didn't plan to do it the night before.

All in all, it's a minor change, but I would have been a little more comfortable getting a few test miles in before hitting the road for Florida. I still need to install a fuel filter for the vent line, but I'll make that change when there's more test time before a ride.

Custom Bags Are Here!!!

2009-02-19T17:02:00.003-06:00

Finally starting to feel like I'm making progress (even though I didn't do anything, Linda did all the work).

My custom bags (electric tank bag, rally book, and aux fuel tank cover with bike cover) all arrived from Florida today. I ordered these at the IBA National Meet in Tulsa last year, but understandably Linda has been swamped with orders from fellow IBR riders ... not to mention it was a lot of fabric to sew together (you have seen the barn door I call a windshield, eh?).

I'll get pictures shortly ... right now I need to clean up the bike a little so I can put this stuff on for a trial fit.

Tire Problem Resolved

2009-02-07T23:47:00.001-06:00

As suspected, the sound in the rear wheel was coming from the tire pressure sensor which had detached itself from the wheel and was thrashing about for 3000 some odd miles. Once we got the tire off the rim, we found the different parts tossed around. No damage to either the tire or the wheel, so a new sensor was installed, tire remounted, and back on the street. Good to know in case the same thing happens in August ...

1st Test Ride of '09 Postponed ... Again

2009-02-06T22:56:00.002-06:00

Hopefully not a sign of things to come...

My prep plan for the IBR had me trying to do at least one big ride a month, each month leading up to August. The ride I had planned for January got postponed due to scheduling conflicts, but was slated to go down this weekend, Feb 7. Everything in place, I go out to check the bike over before heading to bed ... check oil, tires, etc ... hmmm, something is rolling freely inside the rear wheel. Tire looks ok, pressure was as to be expected, but the noise is concerning. Most likely it's the tire pressure sensor that's come off since the last tire change ... might be ok, but I don't want to get all the way out to Van Horn TX to have the tire fail and me be stranded out there.

I'll get the bike into the shop tomorrow morning and see if I can't salvage some kind of ride this weekend.

All In!

2009-01-20T00:21:00.002-06:00

January 15th was the deadline for the final portion of the IBR entry fee, so that was "D" day or the last change to back out without significant loss of money. My payment went in on the 13th, so this ride keeps on going.

Sounds like most of the other riders also stayed in, I'm only aware of one rider who backed out, although a few commented that there could still be some backing out before the actual start ... as the cost of tires, hotels, GAS, etc is still looming out there on the horizon.

Still ... with the final payment mailed in, I've got a hotel room booked for the start, and it's time to get cracking on wrapping up those loose ends before April.

More to come ...

New for 2009!!!

2009-01-05T20:39:00.000-06:00

Wow ... and I thought it had been too long between posts when I made that last post in April.

2008 is in the past, and while I didn't think it turned out to be such a good riding year for me, I was pleasantly surprised to see when checking my odometer that I still managed to do over 11,000 miles last year. But this year will be different, I promise.

The ride calendar is already packed for the year, and 2009 is only just getting started. I'll still have a couple of my favorite rallies this year ... returning to the Cape Fear after missing it in 2008, and once again participating with the Void ... but this year also has the biggest ride of my life planned for August; the 2009 Iron Butt Rally.

My goal is to use this blog to record my final prep work on the bike and myself as I get ready for the IBR, and then also to leverage the site during the IBR for tracking purposes and updates on how things are going. It's getting to crunch time as my goal is to have the bike pretty much finished and ready for a final test by the time the Cape Fear comes around in April, so I gotta get a move on. Still, hang tight, there will be much more to come.

Been Too Long ...

2008-04-17T18:31:00.003-05:00

Wow ... it's been over 4 months since my last post, with the trip report out to California after Thanksgiving still hanging in limbo.

What can I say ... so far this year things have been hectic. I've had 3 different motorcycle trips scheduled, but have had to cancel each of them for one reason or another. This year's ride schedule has been turned on it's ear, but hopefully things will all come together for next year ... that's the plan at least.

This gives me some time to do a couple of things ... update the website, update the blog, and get things back to where I can post easily. Should be good things to come ... more to come.

Trip to California - Day 5

2007-12-02T17:08:00.000-06:00

Today, Thursday, was the day of my Russell Day-Long saddle ride-in appointment.

It was up at 4:00am, quick cup of coffee, then on the road by 4:45 to make the ~200 mile trip from Benicia up to Shasta Lake (just north of Redding). I needed to be up there at 8:00am, so figured a little over 3 hours to make the trip would be enough. It would also help that I was leaving before traffic could get to be too bad.

There had been some confusion on the Russell end of things, so there ended up being two of us doing ride-in's that Thursday, so things took a little longer than they normally would. Add to that the extra complexity of the fuel cell set-up I have on the back seat, and it's easy to understand why it took until almost 6:30pm to have everything complete. These guys are a class act. Completely hand made and hand stitched, the attention to detail is incredible. My front seat and backrest were ready not long after 4, the rest of the time was taken up getting all the stitching and grommets around the fuel cell on the back seat worked out.

With all that worked out, it was time to head back to Benicia for the night ... since that's where I had left my luggage before heading up to Redding. All said, I would ride just over 400 miles today, with almost none of it being in daylight.

Once back in Benicia, the three of us (Richard, Jacqueline, and myself), headed out for dinner ... a good little burger joint not far away, with a really good chocolate shake and even better chocolate cream pie. After being on a road food diet for the past 5 days, this was a bit overload for me, and it wasn't long before I was passed out on the floor for the night.

Trip to California - Day 4

2007-12-02T16:41:00.001-06:00

What a day!

Many more pictures on my gallery than I can post here and do it justice, but ...wow!

I was up and out of Westley by 8:00am ... I just couldn't take the flies any longer than that. For some reason the GPS routed me up via some backroads rather than the Interstate, which ended up being a pretty nice route on some good 2-laners, and I don't think I lost any more time than had I stuck to the slab.

I ended up getting to Richard's house right around 10:00. After catching up with Richard, being introduced to Torrey, and getting a couple cups of coffee, we were ready to get in some riding. Jacqueline came over to join us, and around noon we headed off to Sausalito. The plan was to meet up with another GT rider and head out, but after a bit of hit and miss with the cell phone, we decided to grab a quick lunch and head off for Highway 1 on our own.

With food out of the way, we headed off.

Coincidentally, we ended up running into the other GT rider about half way through our ride, and continued on as a larger group.

From there, we headed up to Point Reyes for another coffee stop. Since the sun was starting to drop, we decided to run just a little further north, then catch a route across over to the 101 to return back down to Benicia. Not having my GPS track in front of me, I believe we headed up to Tomales, then over to Petaluna where we picked up the 101 and headed south.

Trip to California - Day 3

2007-12-02T16:21:00.000-06:00

Tuesday morning would start early, as I headed out of Phoenix with Tom during morning rush hour on his way in to work. We were on the road by roughly 8:30am. Tom pulled off by the airport, and I continued on I-10 around the city, stopping for fuel on the western edge of town, then headed for the desert.

Today would be an easy day, with all Interstate planned with the goal being to get within easy reach of the Bay area. Chatting with Tom and Richard about routes, I decided to stick with Interstate, taking I-10 towards Los Angeles, taking the I-210 loop around LA without actually getting wrapped up in that traffic, and then running the I-5 up north. There was a possibility for a side trip up to Joshua Tree National Park depending on my timing.

No pictures from today, I ended up just sticking to the route and made it up to Westley, CA just after sunset. Not one of the best Days Inn's I've ever stayed in, but the whole town seemed to have a bit of a problem with flies ... possibly something to do with all the farm land and irrigation right next to highway.

Temps today where very nice, getting slightly chilly as I headed up I-5, but no where near the freezing temps I had the past two days.

Trip to California - Day 2, Part 2

2007-11-27T22:55:00.000-06:00

Now that my pictures have been posted, some shots from day 2.

Morning frost on the bike cover.

Snow on the roof of the hotel in Santa Rosa, NM.

For all my trips to California, I've not once stopped for a picture at the Continental Divide. I rectified that this time around. :)

Trip to California - Day 2

2007-11-27T22:50:00.000-06:00

Only three days into this ride, and already I'm behind. :) Catching up on Monday's events....

I woke up Monday morning to find frost across the bike cover. According to the bike, it was 34 degrees in Santa Rosa, although with the sun shining already, snow was melting off the roof of the motel and dripping down into the parking lot. I got the bike loaded back up, and was on the road just after 9am.

Once one the highway, temps rose from 34 to upper 30's, then dropped quickly as I got to the eastern edge of Albuquerque ... down to 32/33 degrees. Still, the roadway was free of any kind of moisture, with only some of the bridge shoulders having old snow and slush piled up on the sides. After passing through Albuquerque, temps gradually started to rise ... first into the 40's, and then jumping up into the 50's once I hit the Arizona border. I had a brief panic in Gallup NM when I went to dump my aux fuel tank into the main tank, but the fuel gauge didn't react for almost 20 miles. I eventually pulled off the highway to check on the tank status, and just when I got off the bike, the gauge corrected. The joys of not testing the tank before I got out on the road.

Monday's route was to take I-40 over to Holbrook Arizona, and from there take some local Arizona state highways to work my way into Phoenix. I'm glad Tom convinced me to not use my original plan for going through Flagstaff and down ... the bike really liked being off the super-slab for ~200 miles. If I go back through Phoenix on the way home, I'm going to have to try and hit that route again ... this time taking some pictures.

I got into Phoenix to find Tom already at home (I was ahead of schedule, getting in around 6:00pm instead of the planned 7pm). After some catching up, we decided to grab dinner at a nice little Mexican place just around the corner from his house. Man those margaritas were good. :) After dinner was done, we headed back to the house to catch the end of the Suns game, some general chatter, and then plotting through route options for Tuesday. With all that done, it was 11pm and time to hit the hay.

Trip to California - Day 1

2007-11-25T22:14:00.000-06:00

Plus side, weather was not the concern I had expected it to be.

I ended up on the road by 10:00am. Not quite as early as I had originally planned, but then I had no hard plans for today anyway. Quick stop to fill the gas tanks, and I was on my way. Temps weren't too bad, about 41 degrees when I pulled out of the garage ... no rain, just some pretty dense cloud cover.

The first little "event" happened less than 5 miles from the house. I had the original seat foam from before the second fuel tank was added strapped to the back seat. We were going to re-use that foam when recovering the rear seat pan. Somewhere between when I got on the tollway and when I got off, it flew off the bike. I didn't notice it was gone until I was at the end of the tollway.

The next little event was less than 100 miles from home. There was a wreck on 380 just east of Decatur that had the highway closed. They had us detouring around the wreck on a nice soggy mud trail. That was fun. Just follow the car tracks from in front of me and all was good, but the bike did get a bit dirty ... at least on the left hand side.

As I got closer to Wichita Falls, the temps dropped. As I cranked up the heated gear, I suddenly had NO HEAT! Pulled over at a rest stop, the Heat Troller (thermostat) wasn't getting any juice. This would be fun. At this point, the fuel cell was still completely full, so I figured I'd mess with it at my next stop. The closer I got to Wichita Falls, the colder the temps dropped. Low point was 36 and rain. Just north of Wichita Falls it started snowing, but that was short lived. About 120 miles southeast of Amarillo the clouds parted and the sun came out to play. Temps jumped to a pleasant 45. I stopped for lunch in Claude TX ... at a Dairy Queen no less, and warmed up. After eating, I pulled the seats to get to the fuse block, and sure enough the fuse had blown. When we added the heated seat to the bike, we had to relocate one of the fuse blocks. When the fuse block was moved, the lead for the Heat Troller wasn't reconnected to the post with the 15A fuse, rather it was on a 7A like everything else (there are 5 fuses, in my case I run 4x7A and 1x15A). Since all the posts aren't in use, I swapped fuses around until I had the 15A in the right place, and the blown fuse was installed in an unused circuit. From there on, I had a good ride.

Fuel cell works good. Once I hit reserve, I opened the valve, and it brought me back up to half tank showing on the gauge. It seemed to level out there, and stayed at half tank until the fuel cell emptied, and then it lowered on the gauge as it normally would.

I'm in Santa Rosa NM tonight. Streets are dry here, but there's still some snow on the ground in the areas with less direct sunlight. I should be about half way, with 550-600 miles to go tomorrow. Temps should get better as I go, as the weather in Arizona was looking pretty dang good.

One more ride for 2007...

2007-11-24T12:09:00.000-06:00

So far, 2007 has been an epic year for me relative to riding. In years past, I've been fortunate to get about 17,000 miles on the bike. This year, I'm closing in on 24,000, and with the upcoming trip ... could easily hit closer to 28,000.

The trip? Well, for two years now, I've been wanting to get a Russell Day-Long saddle for the bike. Regarded as THE most comfortable seat, it is standard operating equipment on most of the serious long distance riders' bikes. I had originally planned a trip out in 2006 when I had the ST1300, but ended up selling that bike before I could pull the trip together. I tried again this year when I was in California last May, but it wasn't to be. I had a trip lined up in early October, but had to reschedule due to work conflicts at the last minute. That led me to this late November date.

I've not tried to go cross-country so late in the year before. My previous late season ride was in 2006 when I attended NNESTOC in Vermont in October. Having talked with the people at Russell (located just north of Redding CA in Lake Shasta CA), the weather is good all year round there, so my expectation was that my only concern would be crossing the mountain ranges in the west on my way out to California. My fallback plan was simply to stick to I-10 and ride it all the way into Los Angeles, and then up the I-5 to Lake Shasta. That route would keep me out of most of the higher elevation, and in theory in warmer temperatures.

So today is Saturday, the day before it looks like I'll head out for this ride. My appointment is set for next Thursday, but I had planned to take 3 days getting out there and 2 days getting back ... stopping to visit with friends on the way out. Starting last night, I've started scrutinizing over the weather reports with some disappointment. With the current storms in the west, it looks like my backup plan with I-10 is out of the question ... right now that's where the snow is. Instead, making the jump up to I-40 and over is looking to be the better choice. Once I get to New Mexico, weather doesn't look to be a problem.

To counter the weather variable, I've decided to leave tomorrow, Sunday, to give myself two days to make it to Phoenix. At only just over 1000 miles, this would normally be a day trip for me, but with the weather being what it is right now, I'd rather pad the time and take an easy 2 days to get there than to be rushed trying to make good time. Taking two days also means the majority of the ride will be in daylight, also helping me with the weather variable.

With the chance of rain predicted for Sunday, I probably won't have the cell phone rigged up as I leave Dallas, but will get it set up once I clear the precipitation. I'm staying with friends along the way, and will update at least daily from the road as I go.

I'm also hoping to get some good pictures from the road, as I've picked up a new toy that should map the time stamps from my pictures with the GPS log off my GPS unit to give me a better map of where pictures were taken. If it works, I think it will make an interesting addition to the website.

More to come ... for now it's back to monitoring my four different weather sources to reduce the possible surprises for tomorrow.

The RT Turns 1!

2007-10-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

With this weekend being the anniversary of my BMW R1200RT, I wanted to capture some stats around the past year, as well as some pictures.

The previous post contains a video of the bike as it's currently setup. I'm still playing with video settings on hipcast, so the video isn't the best quality I can get (I hope).

In the first year, the RT has gone through 559 gallons of premium fuel, with an average fuel economy of 41.9MPG and an average range of 272 miles per tank. The fuel range will increase next year for sure. :) The RT also went through 3 complete sets of tires, and just shy of 5 service intervals (oil changes).

The bike as it looks at the end of 1 year (dirt and all):

Anatomy of an LD Bike

2007-10-28T18:21:00.001-05:00

With my R1200RT hitting the 1 year anniversary mark, a short video to document it's current setup after a year worth of rallies; dirt and all.

Hipcast Moblog

2007-10-14T05:16:00.001-05:00

At the finish hotel - DNF

2007-10-13T15:38:00.001-05:00

Disappointment

2007-10-13T07:55:00.001-05:00

Back at it

2007-10-13T04:44:00.001-05:00

3 Hour Rest Stop

2007-10-13T01:29:00.001-05:00

Crossing PA

2007-10-13T00:49:00.001-05:00