the best laid plans of mice and men;

[sixfifty]

or the worst ride report ever. either way.

i had a chance to pick up a friend's r65, but i had to find some time and a ride to illinois to make it happen.  luckily, i weaseled my way into a business trip that ended about 15 minutes from the seller.

my plan was roughly this:  i had four potential routes to choose from, northwest, south, west and southwest.  the routes ranged anywhere from 1200 to 1500 miles, spanning tuesday through friday, at which point i would arrive at my parent's house and go to the indy 500, as is tradition.

so, i got dropped off at jon's house to grab a free dinner (yay!) and pick up the bike (double yay!).



his daughter picked a flower for me, which i intended to take the entire trip and get some pictures, but it didn't survive too long.



my brother lives about an hour from jon, so i ran up there to spend monday night.  i'd told him earlier that if he wanted to ride with me for a leg or so he was more than welcome.  he's generally one of the efw people i can put up with on a ride (and he with me.)

he lives in winnebago, il, and one of my routes went from winnebago il to winnebago mn (and finished with a rushville il to rushville in route).  kind of fun in a cheesy sort of way.  the routes were all highway, with no interstate.  so anyway, he wanted to run this route and i agreed.  what the hell, i'm on vacation, right?

we get up tuesday, load up the bikes and start heading towards iowa.  there are some beautiful roads in northwestern illinois, and we were taking our time.  the r65 was fabulous, although i was a bit twitchy on a new bike.  

we stopped for the normal ass-n-gas breaks, and i did occasionally remember to break out the camera.

[sixfifty]

this is the only education content of the whole ride, i promise.





this is my brother and the bikes.





and some really nice scenery.  the mighty mississippi.



at some point i ran into a fellow advrider at a gas station and got pic.  i've met several at gas stations around the midwest.  



we were running into umpteen gazillion miles of construction, and the winds were picking up.  the wind was from the south-southwest, and i was burning off the left side of my tire just trying to stay on the road.

i told ben that we could stop any time.  we were both pretty well beat up, and ben rides a buell blast, which was getting pushed around pretty badly.  the r65 was listing port quite a bit, but was relatively stable.

ben was intent on making winnebago, but his resolve eventually waned and we started heading north on I35 to owatonna, mn, where we found a hotel and a nice place to devour some red meat.

in another nod to adv, we got room 205, which unfortunately didn't show up in this picture.



the next morning we got up to find out we were under a high wind advisory until 7:00 that evening (no yay.)  ben still wanted to make winnebago and buy some shirts for his kids, so off we went.  somehow the wind was worse than the previous day.  we later found out that the winds were 40~50 mph, with 60 mph gusts.

but we pressed on and made winnebago, where there were no shirts to be found.

[sixfifty]

as seen in the first pic of the first post, jon has a thing for old vw's, so i took this picture for him.



at this point, my brother decided to head back to winnebago il, and i was going to start heading south as well.  a head wind is much easier to fight than a crosswind, so this seemed like the thing to do.   i was going to split off from him at some point and continue south while he headed east.

then things went to hell.

his starter died, and he had to stop for gas every 80~100 miles, so i couldn't leave him.  his bike could be push started easily enough, but he had to be on it or the back tire would skip, putting the kibash to the whole operation.

push-starting.  all the cool kids are doing it.

but once we were headed east, the wind was primarily at our backs, making the ride substantially more pleasant.

my route was now fubared, but on the positive side i was getting free room at his place.

we had hammered out about 900 miles in two days.  it was ben's first long ride of the season, and given the conditions and his bike, i was pretty impressed.  i've never had to fight winds like that for such distance.

when i got up thursday, i wasn't sure where i would end up, but i was going to toodle along and see what transpired.

turns out, not much.  one gas stop turned out to be on route 66, which is a ride i plan on making sometime.

sorry for the really, really crappy pics.





i ended up in northern indiana sooner than expected and swung by my alma mater.  it's the same, but a lot bigger than the last time i was there.



i called my folks, and accepted their offer of (more) free room and board and a trip to carb day on friday.

not a bad deal, all in all.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

"but we pressed on and made winnebago, where there were no shirts to be found."


Bummer!

[sixfifty]

it was kinda buggy on the last leg home.



i washed her up friday evening.

naturally, i forgot to take my camera to the track.

and for this ride report, i apologize, but i said i would do one.

the next one will be better.

i promise.

[Justin B.]

Have fun scrubbing bugs!  Riding in the wind sux.  It seems this spring has been windier than I remember and I  commuted on more wind advisory days than I can remember...

[Reopropf]

Nice R65!  

Your right...that's the worst ride report ever.  

Keep them coming; I'll watch a bad movie too from time to time.

Peter

[Semper Gumby]

Don't wash the bugs off...it just gives the ants something to eat!

GOGO PATINA!  

[Bob_Roller]

I just noticed something about the mono lever bikes, the turn directional 'stalks' are quite different than the twin shock bikes .

Anybody have a better picture of the installation ?

[Bengt_Phorqs]

Losing a starter on a long trip sux big 'uns.  My R100GS decided to lose the starter at Shiloh National Park in Tennessee last October.

Nice gloves sixfifty, where did you find them?

[Ed Miller]

Nice gloves sixfifty, where did you find them?

I was admiring those too.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Nice gloves sixfifty, where did you find them?

They look very similar to the Lee Parks Design that I bought last summer for $105 (!).  And promptly destroyed in my "act of dumbness".


Between the dried blood and the EMT's scissors, my left glove is history.  The Lee Parks glove fit my hand very well, but most of the fingers had way too much extra length to them.


Since I bought them, I discovered Aerostich offers a very similar glove, except theirs has a rain squeegee built in, and they are only $70.

[sixfifty]

Nice gloves sixfifty, where did you find them?

those are aerostich elk skin gloves.  good down to around 40F or so...

http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-Elkskin-Gauntlet-p-16824.html

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I just noticed something about the mono lever bikes, the turn directional 'stalks' are quite different than the twin shock bikes .

Anybody have a better picture of the installation ?

Bob,

Those are the same T.S. stalks that the Type 248's (except for GS/ST) have used since 1970ish.

The mono-shock R65's had the same upper triple-clamp arrangement (flat steel plate - why???) as well...