Fall Roadtrip Wrapup and major mechanical issues

    I know it has been a long time since I got back from my trip, but it has been a very eventful few months.  I can finally close out that trip report.

    When I made the stop in Pine Bluff, MO, I noticed that I had an odd tapping in my motor at times.  I ran under the assumption that my valves were getting a bit loose (like they do).  I put it on the checklist of things to do when I get home...."Adjust my valves".  When I got home, I swapped the bikes out and rode the R90 for a couple weeks.  I just didn't have time to get to the valved with the work schedule and all.  One fateful morning I was running late, so I decided to take the 1150 because it is a much faster startup in the morning.  About halfway to work, I noticed the ticking....then it turned into a full blown rattle....then a loud clatter.  I managed to get the bike hack to the house and made the decision to send it to the shop.  They ended up pulling the left jug to see what was up, and guess what they found......





    Things did not bode well for our young hero.  2300 miles across 8 states in a little over a week.  2 miles into the first ride after the trip, the motor lets go.  Not a little lets go, but a catastrophic kablooie.  The cam chain follower on the left side let go.  It is an $11 part, but to get to it, the entire motor has to be removed from the bike and taken completely apart.  Here is my baby on the lift:



    It is a very helpless feeling seeing your bike gutted on the lift like that.  That bike held together over that entire trip, and then let go 2 miles into my commute to work.  My baby drug my silly ass back home wounded.  He could just as easily dropped that part in any state, but he held together long enough to get me home.  That is the kind of love that doesn't wash off with soap and water.  Now he is all stripped on a lift waiting for some love. 

    We decided to go with a 90% rebuild and reseal, and new clutch since he was apart, so it took some time to get him back together.  I almost died when they got him back together and handed me the baggie that held the broken part. 



    It let go at a stoplight.  If that think would have let go on the highway at speed, who knows what would have been the result.  I will definately be buying my bike a beer, I certainly owe him one.

    While he was in the shop, I figured I would ride the R90 for a while.  Unfortunately, she had other plans.  The wonky headlight switch decided it was time to short out and shut down the charging system.  I had planned on taking her offline to do some upgrades, but not just yet.  She ended up going in for upgrades and repairs about 2 weeks later.  I will get the details up on that upgrade when she gets home from the surgeon.

    Fortunately, I was not alone in my time of suffering.  The Roll the Bones rally was kind of rough on The Kel's GS.  It seems that the suspension on the sidecar was not really up to the kind of riding that she likes to do, and it kind of BENT THE HELL out of the sidecar suspension.  Now her bike is in the shop getting the sidecar frame straightened and reinforced.  The builder is confident that the new setup will be much more sturdy when it comes to jumping railroad tracks....YAY!!!!!!!

Here is a little video of some of the rally:



Here is the full playlist of Roll the Bones videos:



She should have the GS back in the next couple weeks.....I hope.

Enjoy,

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 5

    The music of the day was actually pretty random.  I have no idea what the Garmin is up to now.  I think it is trying to lull me into a false sense of security, then play the same song over and over for the next 6 hours. 

    Today's ride was a little bit of a grind.  I really haven't had a burn day yet, and I have a long one tomorrow also.  I am most likely going to Denton, and then on Thursday go to Ft Worth.  That will be as good as a burn day.  Then I will be heading for Hamilton, TX for Roll the Bones III.  I actually get so sit in a sidecar and just hold on.

    The day started off in a little town called Cordova, TN.  After talking to the desk clerk, I decided to get up at 6 and be rolling by 7 to beat the traffic.  That also put me out early enough to stop by the Starbucks south of town to get coffee.  While I was sitting there, I spoke to a very nice police officer, who told me that if I waited until about 8:30 or so, the traffic would die off, and I would be less likely of seeing deer.  Then he added that there had been close to 300 deer/vehicle collisions in October so far.  That pretty much convinced me to stay until 8:30.  I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was fairly light, all things considered, and it only took me about an hour and a half to get to the Mississippi River.

    This brings me to something interesting that I have discovered.  After crossing that river 3 times in 2 days, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was the scariest thing I have ever done on a motorcycle.  I know that you need to stay loose on the bars, and let the bike roll straight.  I know that you just have to stay loose and don't fight the wind. I also know that my entire body was relaxed....except for my toes....they had a death grip on the pegs, through my boots.  I also learned that if I look at the relation of the middle section of the handle bars to the part of my visor that meets the chin bar, I can gauge how heavy the cross wind is.  Shortly after that, I stopped looking at that......

    After my trip through Suburbia, TN today, I figured out how to spot vehicles that are just dangerous.  The more of those stupid stick figure kids on the back, the more room they need.  The more of the sport or cheerleading kid stickers, the more aggressive they tend to be.  On the whole, I am going to be glad to spend tomorrow on pretty deserted back roads all the way to Denton.  I plan on doing the Talimena Skyway, and shooting video.  Then I am just going to burn it all the way back to Denton.

Here is today's route:


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Have fun

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 4

    Well, it seems like this road trip is a journey through my playlist also.  My garmin is on crack and it tends to play groups of songs over and over on shuffle.  It is still starting out with Crystal Method....same damn song.  Today was a journey through Frank Zappa, Neil Diamond, Queen Annes Lace, and Lady Gaga.  First let me say that when corrupted by road noise the song sounds like "Donna Noble, Patch in....Patch in."  Now I will have to Netflix Dr. Who tonight to reset my brain.  Frank Zappa while riding is just odd....The strange noises that he tends to use are very disturbing on motorcycles.  Lady Gaga.....where do I start?  When "Bad Romance" came on, I noticed that people were giving me lots of room and staring.....a whole lot.  Lesson learned, no dancing on the bike at 80mph......just say no....

    This has turned out to be a good scouting run.  I have found lots of places that I really want to bring everyone back to.  It is just freakin gorgeous up here.  I am finding it to be a bit lonely though.  it is a very stark reminder of just how Austin is.  I have run across no Friends of Dorothy.  I saw a few, but they would not make eye contact.  No stickers on cars, nothing. 

    I got a lot more thinking done today.  I still have no idea what I thought about, but I feel better, calmer, and lighter.  That means the trip is working.  There were a lot of wrong turns today, I mean a whole lot.  I only did 260 or so "map" miles, but there were a good 40 or so of wrong turns.  Pretty much all there was to do was to let go of it and roll.  I knew where the interstate was, and that it would take me to the hotel.  It was really a matter of not getting to go a couple places because I missed the turns and there was no clean way to get back.  I found some other real interesting places though.  There is no way to really get a picture of them, but there are two steel bridges, one across the Mississippi river, and then you take a right and you go across the Ohio river.  The spans are just over 1.9 lanes wide, and about 3/4 mile long each.  It was pretty awesome riding up and back down those big steel cages.  This brought me around to the idea that people would be happier if they could grasp the idea that there are no "Wrong Turns", just the other way of getting there.....sometimes with better scenery.

    Rumor has it that Memphis has a Starbucks.  I don't really care if I get coffee, I just want to speak to someone who is moderately intelligent, and not a backwoods conservative for about 5 min.....I will evwn buy a coffee as the price of admission.


I promised some video, here it is, but before the whiners start complaining that I crossed the double yellow, the camera is hanging off the left side of my tank.

Here goes:








And here is my route for the day:



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Enjoy,

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 3

    The thought for the day is ABBA.  It just so happened that "Fernando" started playing right when I turned onto AR SH87.  It must have looked pretty funny from the outside watching me trying to hang onto the bike in those curves while dancing in my seat.  I actually had the entire road to myself due to some really interesting planning.  When you are riding in a state with a 100 to 1 church to school ratio, the best time to ride is Sunday morning between 8am and noon.

    The playlist pretty much dominated my thoughts today.  The music selection with the garmin on shuffle is only a bit annoying.  What I realized is that it resets every time you turn the garmin off.  It also starts every time on the same song.  I do like Crystal Method, but I got sick of hearing the same song every time I start the bike. I managed to cycle through my entire list of Queen, Abba, and Garth Brooks.  It was actually kind of creepy.

    I think the best thing about the ride today was that there was really no profound thoughts.  There is actually kind of a point of Zen where your brain does not retain much.  It basically processes information and then moves on.  It is really kind of interesting, I pretty much solved all of the problems in the world but I don't remember the answers. 

    Tomorrow night, I will be uploading the first couple videos, depending on the speed of the wifi at the next hotel.

Here is the route so far:



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Have fun

Dave

Fall Road Trip Day 1-2

     After a year of big project, busy weekends, and just way too much stuff to do...the ride begins.  Getting out of Austin was a nightmare.  Between Austin and Denton I actually saw 4 wrecks.  That was 4 times where the traffic on I35 came to a halt.  I35 was a solid parking lot all the way from Waco to Hillsboro.  After talking to another rider at the Starbucks, I decided to go over to FM 933 and then TX 22 back over to 35 after Hillsboro.  At that point it was run like hell to Frisco.

    Next came the trek north.  I have pretty much decided that this is going to be a brain burner.  Basically I just want to see how far I can go.  The plan is to ride until I am done, or it is dark, every day.  Since I ended up having brunch with friends today, it was short.  I made it to Muskogee, OK.  The plan for tomorrow is to hit the trail of tears and then going NE.  Don't know how far yet, but I do plan on shooting some video.

Enjoy

Dave

Wandering aimlessly.....

     So, instead of daily updates this time around, I waited till the kind of middle of the trip. It has been a very nice trip so far. I had no plans overall, but I have had a really good time. I did end up in Arkansas. I decided to do a bit of scouting for a trip that The Kel and I are thinking about in a couple years.

     First off, I think I actually might have blown this cute little redneck mind. I was sitting next to my bike, looking at a good old fashioned paper map, and he walks up and asks if I am lost. I respond, no....I know where I am, I just don't know where I am going.......he looks at me and says "well, you are in Dardenelle..." I thank him and continue looking at my map. He then asks me where I think I might be going. I respond "I have no idea, but I have 4 more days to get there". He stares blankly at his feet for about a minute. Then he looks at me and asks if I have been to hot springs yet. I answer that I have a hotel room there. He says "Well, Hot Springs is right down that highway about 80 miles or so" and walks quietly to his truck and drives away. I really wanted to laugh, but then it dawned on me that there are so few people in the world that are just so inherently nice that they feel bad if they can't be helpful and I could possibly have just ruined his day.

     I have also managed to put my finger on the difference between the R1150 and the R90. While I was going up Mt Magazine today, with all of those really tight and fast curves, I noticed that there is a small delay between steering input and steering action. I really didn't notice it exactly before, but I had been on the R90 for a couple weeks, and then jumped on the 1150 and took off. It is really only noticable in real tight twisties but it was odd. Day one was a straight run up to Denton to see a friend of mine from college. She just got her MC license, and had her first wreck. A bruised knee and a broken finger later, she is now looking for her own motorcycle. This is just more proof that motorcyclists are either stubborn as hell, or downright dumb. Having taken that slide a couple times, I feel like I qualify for the latter. Later on that evening, I went to spend the night with other friends from college.



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Day two was a direct run up into Oklahoma. My original intent was to see how far north I could get before I lost interest, it turned into playing in the Ouachita Mountains. On the way out of Dallas, I stopped and visited my nieces. I thought they were going to explode when they saw me outside their house. It was a total surprise visit. After that, I rolled directly up US75 into Oklahoma. I made it into a little town called Mcalester around 5:30. I really did not plan to stay the night there, but the nearest hotel rich cities were two or more hours away, and it was saturday night. The last thing I wanted to do was get caught without a place to sleep in this area. All of the hotel parking lots I passed were filled with motorcycles, so I figured it would only get worse as I went on.



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Day three was a beating. watching the weather in Mcalester, I saw the great yellow and red "amoeba of doom" marching slowly across Oklahoma toward me. My plan was to get up at 5:30 and roll out at first light. Hopefully miss the storm. I left at 6:15 and the storm was visible in the west. I picked a fairly direct route, and very fun, to get to hot springs through Talihena, OK. I managed to stay almost exactly 25 miles ahead of the storm the whole way. If it wasn't for one wrong turn, I would have beat it by 50 miles. On the bright side I found a great dirt road that The Kel and I need to go back and visit. Ark 63a, no idea where it goes, but I bet we can find out..... Once I got through Mena, AR and over the Ouachita mountains, I was clear of the storm. It hit the mountains and turned north. I made it into Hot Springs much earlier than I had intended, and pretty exhausted. Checked into the hotel, scheduled a spa visit, and surfed.



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Day four has been great. Started the day with an 85 minute massage, and then rode up to Mount Magazine. I wanted to see what the area looked like because we are thinking about taking the Merry Band of Idiots up there for a trip at some point. Ark 7 is as much fun as I remember. Ark 309.....I had to stop halfway up and take a couple pictures. I did not have time to take a solid breath let alone look around. I was very busy with the very tight, very fast, changing elevation curves. I almost poo'd. Starting at Havana, AR at 480 foot elevation and going up to the top at 2300 foot or so was interesting. At the overlook, you are looking down on the town. I could not make out the gas station from there. I want to do it again. Maybe next time on the R90, that would be crazy.



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Ok, fallout time.  Getting up early and headed somewhere new tomorrow.

Dave

Day 4, Little things revisited.....

    More little things.....wow.....  If you get enough little things, the big things get drowned out and you don't even notice them anymore.  This trip started kind of odd for me.  The night before we left I got an odd urge to look up my old friend Russell on the internet.  I do it every once in a while, but I don't look that hard.  This time I found him.  A part of me kind of wishes I didn't.  It turns out he died in 2009.

    Russell was a very good friend, a surrogate big brother, a very good mentor.  We spent a lot of time travelling, partying, and doing things best not committed to paper.  He fell off the map back in 1994 when I moved to Austin and he moved out of state.  He was a tattoo artist and a biker.  One of the things I always thought of when I travelled was that I could run into him at any random Denny's or coffee shop, or gas station somewhere in the country.  Maybe we would be going the same direction and ride together, maybe we would just ride off in different directions.  There is a slight possibility that he may even punch me in the mouth for not keeping in touch better.  Either way, that was always a possibility that was ahead of me when I started my bike.  I started off this trip with a bit of sadness over that new discovery.  This time I knew for a fact that I would not run into him in somem dive restaraunt.  The Kel summed it up best when she called him Shrodenger's Biker.  If not observed, he is both alive and dead, around the next curve, or not.....  Now I know.  He is not. 

    This would have been a sad moment for me, but while we were riding the Talimena Skyway we were passed by a pair of riders.  One on an old Moto Guzzi, one on a newer R1200GS.  We let them pass at the beginning of the ride because we were going fairly slow.  We actually met up with them at a scenic overlook and chatted for a few minutes, but let them go ahead of us because we didn't want to slow down ther pace.  We eventually got in to the Queen Wilhelmina Park Lodge, and started getting gear off so we could hit the restrooms and get some lunch.  About that time, those same two guys pulled up and started shucking gear.  I got to talk to the guy on the GS for a bit.  It turns out that the guy on the Guzzi is a bit older and much more experienced rider, the guy on the GS was younger and fairly new.  The older guy was leading the trip and showing all of the out of the way places, and fun that could be had, and the younger guy was following along trying to absorb everything as fast as possible.  That was when it dawned on me that even though Russel died, he really wasn't dead.  He is still out there in the form of every other pissy old biker that is pulling a rookie around with him showing him how to squeeze a bit of fun out of life. 

    After we got inside to get a table, they were totally empty except for one couple.  I dumped my gear on the table to hold our spot.  When we got a good look at the other couple in the restaraunt, it turns out that it was The Kel's Dad and his travelling companion.  500 miles away from home, in an empty restaraunt, and who do we see?....Dad.....wow.....talk about a bit of exploding head syndrome.  We ended up spending much longer at lunch than we expected, and then took a bit shorter route back to the hotel.  Very good roads up here, must come back soon.

    To close it out, we are heading back early.  Our house alarm has been going off every day at 5:30.  No idea why, but it has.  Today was the third false alarm in a row.  It is going to take us 2 days to get home, but that means we will just have one more false alarm before we get there.  Then we can figure out what is up with it.  This is where the little things come in.  Most people would see ending a vacation early as a disaster.  It does kind of suck out loud.  Either way, I got some awesome riding in, saw some beautiful scenery, met some awesome people, and closed out a chapter of my life.  I guess now instead of looking forward to running into Russel on the road somewhere, I should just look forward to turning into a slightly shorter version of him.  I guess that is a fair trade on some level.  Who knows? 

Here is the video for today:

Some footage from my bike.....



Some footage of The Kel



Here is the picture set for today:


Here is the route for today:



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Day 2 and 3

     Yesterday we just kind of poked around Paris, TX.  Kel had never seen the Texas Eiffel Tower or the Jesus in cowboy boots.  I got a few pics, they are up on yesterday's entry.  Today we are in Poteau, OK.  The ride up was pretty much straight through the center of the Choctaw Nation.  There is some very nice scenery up here.  When I get a bit of time, I am going to put some video up of the ride today.  The video is kind of shaky, but it isn't bad.




     We ended up fighting some wind today, but it was worth it.  Tomorrow we are going to explore the Ouachita National Forest.  That will be cool.

     The best part about the ride today was the fact that my mind has finally cleared.  The noise has finally died down and I got the chance to just hang out in my head and not think about anything but the ride.  Basically, we hit the break over point.  It will take us more than one day to get home no matter what we do.  That means we are gone.  I like that.

     This morning in Paris, we hit the cold front.  We rolled out at about 65 degrees.  After a couple months of 100+ degree days, that was downright chilly.  We actually pulled our wind liners out for our jackets.  They didn't stay on past about noon, but that is not the point.  WE USED THEM!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!



     Here is todays route.



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Day 1, a bit late.......

Day One,

    It was a very nice ride today.  We managed to get out of Austin about 8:30 or so.  Road trips have a tendency to take on a theme.  Regardless of what you try to force on it, it will develop on its own.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this trip has already picked its theme.....The little things.

    When I first started riding, I really enjoyed the fact that once you get moving you are on your own.  The only things that really matter are the day to day events that affect whether or not you get home alive.  All of the stuff at home, all of the stuff at work, all of the silly stuff that pollutes your brain and distracts you from just being alive.  When you ride, especially for distance, your entire life is on the bike.  One minute you are admiring the view, the next minute a deer comes out of the brush and sends you sliding down the road.  Any little thing can get you.  Things as small as a bird hitting you or an odd little crease in the the asphalt are all it really takes.  Understanding this, and accepting it, gives you a sense of freedom from the daily noise and lets you really think with a clear head. 

    Getting your brain into this mode makes you notice little things.  The little things that could be deadly, the little things that could be a trip ender, or little things that make you laugh so hard you total your underwear.  Today was all about the little things.  The Kel blew the zipper on her riding pants, she also lost the back half of the sole from a boot.  We also ended up getting trapped for about 15 miles behind a truck pulling a mobile home that was shedding insulation the whole way.

    Now we are sitting in Paris, TX.  Tropical Storm Lee is hitting the gulf coast and making a big mess with high winds and heavy rain.  Our plan is to spend the day around here and shoot some pictures locally.  Then on Monday, we will look how the weather is doing and see where we want to go.  I will get some pics up tomorrow, right now, it is time for bed.

Here is the route for today:


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Here are some pictures:

 


Have fun,

Dave