I just got back last night ~0200 showing 4175 miles on the trip odo on a ride that started Wednesday morning @0330. I didn't take pics, but thought I'd throw a few comments out for this ride report for any that are interested.
First off, the purpose was to support Hoagy and his charities. I had committed to this ride some time ago and was determined to do it, hell or high water as they say. He supports several children's charities, of which my favorite is Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund. The ride details are here:
https://www.hoagysheroes.org/2010%20Rides/2010_Rides.htm
This was the Sept 16-18 back to back saddlesore record attempt.
If you look at the routing, there were basically two loops of 1K each. Corner points include Erie, PA, Binghamton, NY, Baltimore, MD, Morgantown,WV, Angola, IN, Louisville, KY, and alot of other smaller towns.
I left out here @ 0330 on Wed Sep 15 and rode 4 tanks to Parkerburg, WV, a distance of ~850 miles. Great ride and pretty easy route; I95 to I26 to I77. I made it in 13 hrs. I had a hotel reserved with a late checkout of 4 pm the next day.
As the SS2K ride didn't start until 8pm on Thursday, my strategy was to sleep as late as I could - which didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped, butt it helped. I finally got restless and tired of trying to sleep at 2pm the next day, so started packing and getting ready to go. It had rained all night. I carry a good Dowco bike cover, so pulled that off and brought the bike in under the front awning at the hotel and packed up; leaving ~3:30 pm.
I got to Hoagys in Moundsville, WV ~5pm and "hung out" while waiting for the rest of the riders and start time of 8pm. There was an intense weather front moving in from the West so a group decision was made to ride the route "backwards", the 2 loop (western) first and the 1st loop 2nd, with the that last loop run backwards as well to put us in Baltimore at a better time.
So, off we go in some hard weather. There were 9 riders of which we ended up broke into 2 groups. I was in the 2nd with 2 Goldwings and another rider that bailed early. He had left his wallet and all ID, etc at the first fuel stop. ~90 miles down the road I got a call (I have comm on the bike) from a friend that long story short was a chain event that started with the gas station calling the riders wife in Houston. So, I CB'd the lead GW rider to let him know, then signaled the wallet guy (Big Duck Bobby Tobbit!); we got pulled over, he went back, then called me some hours later that he was gonna bail vs being "behind the 8 ball" the rest of the run.
We got out of the real bad weather fairly soon, but it was generally dismal and cool that night and the next day. I had a good awakening moment on the Ohio Turnpike when I was in the lead, and came up on a B-A Doe forest rat out in my lane! Whew, that gets the heart beating! I was lucky, the doe went back to the right instead of crossing; I probably wouldn't be here if it had....
We wanted to do a BBG as part of this, but got off the pace for a number of reasons. At the 1000 mile point were were 20 minutes behind and it's just hard to make that up. There was LOTS of construction, heavy enforcement at times, quite a few corner fuel stops that I wouldn't normally have stopped for but had to be done to verify the route, and what's up with all these states having 65mph speed limits?
Anyway, @ Erie, PA, one of the GW riders decided to call it a day/night and got a room. The other one that I was riding with & I decided to push on to Binghamton, NY. We got there @ ~the 25 hour mark, I was showing 1500.7 miles on the GPS trip meter so we had a Bun Burner at least. We did stop the next morning just before 0800 for another fuel stop/receipt to make absolutely sure the BB was within mileage and time (that was probably an extra 80 miles or so by then); my time stamp that morning was for 0757.......
A friend back here had been calling me and coordinating with my wife got us a room at Binghampton which ended up being back up ~11 miles from the way we needed to go, but at that point I didn't care. We get there, have an interesting lesson in customer appreciation from the "boss" - I didn't catch her name, we just called her the hairy angry bitch.
Feeling refreshed after 6 hrs sleep, we get back on the road to a nice day if a bit cool (at least for us Florida types), but sailed on pretty good for the remaining ~530 miles. We split up at Morgantown, WV as I decided to go "across the mountain" and thought I had a good route. The other rider (wisely!) decided not to follow and go up to I70 instead and cut down @ Wheeling. I ended up on these little, rough, 1 lane roads about as far in the sticks as I've been for some time. Alot of 2nd and 3rd gear running; butt, I got through it and arrived only 10 minutes ahead of the other guy. The GW rider that had stopped in Erie was there when I arrived! Dunno where we missed him, but hey.
So, had a big steak dinner @ Hoagy's place for the riders, a couple of beers, and a little bit of WV moonshine (Moms Apple Pie! - dang that was smooth). Things were still going on but I started to get incoherent from the fatigue, big meal, and M-A-P, so I told a friend that I was going to lay down on a piece of carpet I had spied in the utility room, and to get me when they needed to push the bikes in/clean up.
I woke up ~4 hrs later with a blanket on me, all was quiet, and the bikes were pushed in, so went back, slept the rest of the night on the floor and was glad of it..
Straight shot home for me is ~900 miles, butt the rider I was with was from Orlando wanted to do a SS1K on the way home, so we modified the route some to add the miles, then started off ~0825 and got to Sanford, FL (~1050 miles) @ 0100 where a friend/IBA member met us at a gas station, welcomed us home and signed our paperwork.
I still had ~45 minute ride home across the swamp (SR46) to beautiful downtown Mims. Got home, hugged Mama, gave the critters a treat, took a shower and climbed in bed.
This was a great test of some of my "systems" to know what works and not, what needs to be adjusted, modified, etc. Of course, the FJR ran flawlessly. I need to change the oil(s) before NAFO. The tires are good; I put a ContiMotion front on ~10K miles ago and the rear PR2 has ~6K. I'll look them over well before I go, but shouldn't be a problem.
Oh yeah, and I probably ought to clean it; it's kinda nasty right now, but maybe not, it adds character...
First off, the purpose was to support Hoagy and his charities. I had committed to this ride some time ago and was determined to do it, hell or high water as they say. He supports several children's charities, of which my favorite is Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund. The ride details are here:
https://www.hoagysheroes.org/2010%20Rides/2010_Rides.htm
This was the Sept 16-18 back to back saddlesore record attempt.
If you look at the routing, there were basically two loops of 1K each. Corner points include Erie, PA, Binghamton, NY, Baltimore, MD, Morgantown,WV, Angola, IN, Louisville, KY, and alot of other smaller towns.
I left out here @ 0330 on Wed Sep 15 and rode 4 tanks to Parkerburg, WV, a distance of ~850 miles. Great ride and pretty easy route; I95 to I26 to I77. I made it in 13 hrs. I had a hotel reserved with a late checkout of 4 pm the next day.
As the SS2K ride didn't start until 8pm on Thursday, my strategy was to sleep as late as I could - which didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped, butt it helped. I finally got restless and tired of trying to sleep at 2pm the next day, so started packing and getting ready to go. It had rained all night. I carry a good Dowco bike cover, so pulled that off and brought the bike in under the front awning at the hotel and packed up; leaving ~3:30 pm.
I got to Hoagys in Moundsville, WV ~5pm and "hung out" while waiting for the rest of the riders and start time of 8pm. There was an intense weather front moving in from the West so a group decision was made to ride the route "backwards", the 2 loop (western) first and the 1st loop 2nd, with the that last loop run backwards as well to put us in Baltimore at a better time.
So, off we go in some hard weather. There were 9 riders of which we ended up broke into 2 groups. I was in the 2nd with 2 Goldwings and another rider that bailed early. He had left his wallet and all ID, etc at the first fuel stop. ~90 miles down the road I got a call (I have comm on the bike) from a friend that long story short was a chain event that started with the gas station calling the riders wife in Houston. So, I CB'd the lead GW rider to let him know, then signaled the wallet guy (Big Duck Bobby Tobbit!); we got pulled over, he went back, then called me some hours later that he was gonna bail vs being "behind the 8 ball" the rest of the run.
We got out of the real bad weather fairly soon, but it was generally dismal and cool that night and the next day. I had a good awakening moment on the Ohio Turnpike when I was in the lead, and came up on a B-A Doe forest rat out in my lane! Whew, that gets the heart beating! I was lucky, the doe went back to the right instead of crossing; I probably wouldn't be here if it had....
We wanted to do a BBG as part of this, but got off the pace for a number of reasons. At the 1000 mile point were were 20 minutes behind and it's just hard to make that up. There was LOTS of construction, heavy enforcement at times, quite a few corner fuel stops that I wouldn't normally have stopped for but had to be done to verify the route, and what's up with all these states having 65mph speed limits?
Anyway, @ Erie, PA, one of the GW riders decided to call it a day/night and got a room. The other one that I was riding with & I decided to push on to Binghamton, NY. We got there @ ~the 25 hour mark, I was showing 1500.7 miles on the GPS trip meter so we had a Bun Burner at least. We did stop the next morning just before 0800 for another fuel stop/receipt to make absolutely sure the BB was within mileage and time (that was probably an extra 80 miles or so by then); my time stamp that morning was for 0757.......
A friend back here had been calling me and coordinating with my wife got us a room at Binghampton which ended up being back up ~11 miles from the way we needed to go, but at that point I didn't care. We get there, have an interesting lesson in customer appreciation from the "boss" - I didn't catch her name, we just called her the hairy angry bitch.
Feeling refreshed after 6 hrs sleep, we get back on the road to a nice day if a bit cool (at least for us Florida types), but sailed on pretty good for the remaining ~530 miles. We split up at Morgantown, WV as I decided to go "across the mountain" and thought I had a good route. The other rider (wisely!) decided not to follow and go up to I70 instead and cut down @ Wheeling. I ended up on these little, rough, 1 lane roads about as far in the sticks as I've been for some time. Alot of 2nd and 3rd gear running; butt, I got through it and arrived only 10 minutes ahead of the other guy. The GW rider that had stopped in Erie was there when I arrived! Dunno where we missed him, but hey.
So, had a big steak dinner @ Hoagy's place for the riders, a couple of beers, and a little bit of WV moonshine (Moms Apple Pie! - dang that was smooth). Things were still going on but I started to get incoherent from the fatigue, big meal, and M-A-P, so I told a friend that I was going to lay down on a piece of carpet I had spied in the utility room, and to get me when they needed to push the bikes in/clean up.
I woke up ~4 hrs later with a blanket on me, all was quiet, and the bikes were pushed in, so went back, slept the rest of the night on the floor and was glad of it..
Straight shot home for me is ~900 miles, butt the rider I was with was from Orlando wanted to do a SS1K on the way home, so we modified the route some to add the miles, then started off ~0825 and got to Sanford, FL (~1050 miles) @ 0100 where a friend/IBA member met us at a gas station, welcomed us home and signed our paperwork.
I still had ~45 minute ride home across the swamp (SR46) to beautiful downtown Mims. Got home, hugged Mama, gave the critters a treat, took a shower and climbed in bed.
This was a great test of some of my "systems" to know what works and not, what needs to be adjusted, modified, etc. Of course, the FJR ran flawlessly. I need to change the oil(s) before NAFO. The tires are good; I put a ContiMotion front on ~10K miles ago and the rear PR2 has ~6K. I'll look them over well before I go, but shouldn't be a problem.
Oh yeah, and I probably ought to clean it; it's kinda nasty right now, but maybe not, it adds character...
Last edited by a moderator:
