Scruit Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 (edited) Deleted, as the trip has changed per below... Edited October 18, 2010 by Scruit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted October 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2010 OK, it's decided. Sat October 30th I'm riding a loop around Erie.Delaware -> Toledo -> Detroit -> London, ON -> Niagara Falls -> Cleveland -> Delaware. 750 miles, one day. I'm waiting until the 30th so that I can get a couple weeks of commuting on my bike after getting the carb rejetted and be sure of it's reliability. Also, going on a saturday gives me the option of stopping off at a motel for an overnight if needed.I've been thinking about it for a while, and finally decided to set a date and just do it.If this works out, then the minnesota trip is on deck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casper Posted October 15, 2010 Report Share Posted October 15, 2010 Hmmm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted October 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2010 Here's he route I'm thinking of...Before my bike went to the dealership for the carb cleaning / rejet I was getting 33mpg and a range of 100-125 miles. Therefore, the route planned here assumes that same range. I'm hoping the range becomes 150-175 onces the reject is done. If so, then I'll replan to stop less often.My RouteAnyways, I'm planning for my gas stops to be pretty short and I'll take longer stops at Niagara Falls (may skip if it's busy) and for lunch.Hope to set off riding at 5am Sat 30th. Assuming 14 hours of riding and a couple of hours for various stops, hoping to be home again 9pm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted October 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Getting the bike packed for the trip. Should be fun. Setting off at 5am, expect it be be 32F. Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey bike. The heated grips will help a lot. I also am gonna wear a thermacare heat pack in the small of my back to help keep me warm until 8am when the temp is finally expected to climb out of the 30's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max power Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 You is crazy. I would love to do this next summer. Make a weekend trip of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted October 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 Set off at 5am. Arrived home at 9pm. 808 miles. My ass has disowned me. I'm going to sleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casper Posted October 31, 2010 Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorifto240 Posted October 31, 2010 Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 Any photos or cool stories to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted October 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 Stories? Well, I did get yelled at by the border patrol in the US after Rainbow Bridge...Took my gloves off to find my passport from my pocket, and after clearing the border I stuffed my gloves up under the windshield and pulled forward. Rather than holding up people behind me as I get my gloves on I figured I'd pull forward and park in one of the parking spaces about 50' in front of me. As I'm pulling my gloves on this border patrol guy comes marching over and yells at me. I can't hear him because of the engine and earplugs, but it's clear he wants me to GTFO. Oh well. I rode past him and shouted; "Just getting my gloves on, sorry!" Advice: After you clear immigration after Rainbow Bridge you will then exit the are into a downtown type area. You'll have the opportunity to pull over and get your kit back on there. After you clear immigration into Canada at the Blue Water bridge you're right onto a freeway with no pace to pull over, so get your kit sorted before you pull away. And earplugs make it almost impossible to hear them, so next time I'll take my left earplug out right before the crossing.My dashcam recorded the whole thing... All 16 hours. Oh, and I passed a dead deer *in freeway lane* in the dark at 75mph on the way home on I71. I was slightly left of the center of the lane, and missed it by about 6". It would have sucked if I'd have hit it. It was literally 1/2 second between seeing it and being past it. I need better lights for night freeway riding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scruit Posted November 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2010 My bike at the Goat Island parking lot, Niagara Falls, US side:The falls:A statue of Nikola Tesla that everyone kept climbing up into so they could have their picture taken sitting on the newspaper in his lap...???My GPS is set to skip tolls, so when I plotted a route from Goat Island to Delaware, OH it skipped the US portion of I90 (tollway) and ran me through this way instead:http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=US-219+S&daddr=42.22212,-78.843+to:NY-394+W&hl=en&geocode=FXoejQIdQO9N-w%3BFShChAIdiPNM-ynVt14NHo7SiTEGkCaFOG4uPw%3BFYhbgwIdwgxK-w&mra=pr&via=1&sll=42.417374,-78.381958&sspn=1.399084,2.90863&ie=UTF8&z=9It added an hour to my already long journey (made 15 hours into 16 hours :-P ) And also it didn't match the printed google maps directions I had for a backup, so if my GPS would have crapped out halfway through then I would have been royally screwed. Lesson learned: Take a map!! At times during this journey through Deliverance country the GPS signal was on 1 bar out of 5 due to heavy cloud cover. If I lost that last bar I'd have been really messed up because I was relying on the compass on the GPS!Also, being that far in the middle of nowhere I was worried that a flat tire, GPS fubar, running out of gas or breaking down would mean I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and through most of that country there was no cellphone signal!I had my bike's GPS tracking set up so my family and work buddies could follow my progress. After getting home I found my work cellphone lit up from a ton of phone calls from work.... ONe of the guys has a problem with the website for my GPS tracker and said it looked like I was doing 0mph off the side of the road in some woods in the middle of nowhere for over an hour. When he saw that he started calling me in a panic. You know who your friends are when they do that... It was just a lost signal right after I had been at a stop sign and the GPS fix was about 100' off.That road, although it was a blast to ride, scared me the most of that whole journey just because I'd have been pretty much helpless. I'm glad I chose to fuel up in Springville.The bike's range is about 125 miles before the fuel light comes on. My own range is about 125 miles before the bladder light comes on. 125 miles is approaching 2 hours of riding... Also I set off at 5am / 32F. The roads were dry so I figured I'd go slow until it warmed up.I greeted the dawn in Michigan, and didn't warm up until I was in Canada. It was low 60s there so the ride was great. No problems with cagers the whole trip.The last few hours I was trying to keep up with the setting sun knowing the temps would drop if I couldn't keep up. The lat 2 hours were dark but it didn't get cold so I was ok.All in all it's given me some much needed experience riding a long day. I did some stuff right (the windshield is set up PERFECTLY) and I did stuff wrong (didn't review the GPS directions before heading into hillbilly territory so I was to stressed out worrying about fuel level to enjoy the twisties). I've learned some stuff and found out a bunch about myself that I didn't know. Yes, I CAN go 16 hours sitting on a bike and not be bored. WTF? I never even cracked out the mp3.Next trip will probably be heading south so I can ride later into winter. I think the Minnesota trip will have to wait until spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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