Murph
Well-known member
Wasn't sure whether to put this under ride report or Long Distance thread but, since this was a ride, here it is.
I had to go to Boston for a meeting and I've been wanting to get the FJR out of the flatlands so I thought this would be a great excuse to (1) get an IBA ride; and (2) spend some time the following weekend travelling to Acadia NP in Maine and then meandering my way across New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York with a destination of Western PA to see the parents. The plan for my SS1000, however, was to simply ride I-90 East until I came across Boston.
With my wife seeing me off at 5:30 CST Sunday morning (6/18/07 for those of you keeping track) and my I-Pass attached to the tankbag, I jumped on the I-90 tollway and proceeded east. As I rode by downtown Chicago, the sun was peeking over Lake Michigan and, with a light morning haze in the air, the city looked not unlike a romantic painting. However, I had little time to ponder so, with little traffic and much distance ahead of me, I proceeded east through Indiana averaging about 75-80mph.
I was forced to go old-school to pay my tolls in Indiana and Ohio ... they don't accept I-PASS/EZ-PASS. So I had to get reacquainted with stopping the bike, putting it in neutral, removing my glove, unzipping my pocket, taking out the $ in my pocket, handing them to the collector, waiting for them to make change, receiving my change, putting it back into my jacket pocket, zipping my pocket, putting my glove back on, holding in the clutch, shifting the bike into 1st, and .... finally ... taking off. The moral of the story is that electronic toll passes are perfect for us bikers. Besides, in many states you receive a discounted toll for using it anyway!
Another issue that I remembered as I rode through Ohio. If you are going on a long-distance ride and you are headed east, remember to account for losing an hour!! Doh!!! With as much as I travel, you would think that I would have thought about it. But I didn't ... and my schedule was off right away. The longer I rode the more I had wished I would have left an hour earlier ... and that would become a factor later in the ride.
Some highlights from the middle of the ride:
-Only saw two LEOs in Indiana and none in Ohio or PA...shocking.
-I got stuck in traffic in Cleveland and it took 30 minutes for me to go 3 miles. Turns out there was a bad crash on I-90 in front of Jacobs Field.
-I stopped in Erie, PA for lunch (which turned out nice because, in a previous life, I frequently travelled to Erie for work so I am very familiar with the area).
-After my lunch stop (and as I entered New York state), I became very fatigued for about 10 minutes. The first time that I ever felt as if I could fall asleep on a bike. Fortunately, I worked through it and the feeling passed.
-Saw one FJR all day and it was near Rochester, NY. The guy was riding west-bound on (I think) an '06 or '07 AE. Is it someone on here?
-Enjoyed riding through New York, especially just south of the Adirondacks. I was able to maintain a pace of 80mph and only saw one LEO during the entire ride through the state
-My butt stopped being sore at 750 miles...or maybe it was just numb. (Note to self: GET CUSTOM SEAT!!)
Just as I crossed the Hudson River Valley, it started to get dark ... and I was kicking myself for not leaving an hour earlier (insert smiley getting hit with a hammer). I think I would have really liked riding through Massachusetts ... had I seen it! Unfortunately, by the time I was in that state, it was totally dark and the cages and 18-wheelers were flying by me ... and I was doing 70mph most of the time! It seemed as if I-90 through Western Massachusetts is as nice as a slab can get what with the heavily wooded and seemingly lonesome area, many turns, and many roller coaster ups-and-downs over the hills. Then again, maybe I'm just eternally jaded by living in the flatlands. (BTW, in reference to another thread, I do vote for it being among the worst places for a rider to live.)
I stopped for my last refueling at 9:30 pm at the rest stop in Blandford and was not happy with the darkness, my lack of familiarity with the area, my failure to depart home an hour earlier ... or the lightning and ominous conditions that were just starting.
But I persevered and rode on! However, with only about 40 miles remaining until Boston, I rode into the storm. It was as if that IBA SaddleSore challenge was waving a fist at me and telling me "Son, you have to earn this". Seriously, except for the clock showing me that it was getting later and later, things had been far too easy up to that point. So I pulled over to the side of the road and did that put-on-the-raingear-while-you're-under-an-overpass thing. However, as many of you know, it's not fun when you're doing that in the dark and 18-wheelers are flying by at 80mph just 3 feet from where you and your bike are! It's one thing to have to put on rain gear but it's another thing to put on your rain gear WHILE HOLDING ON THE BIKE SO IT DOESN't BLOW OVER FROM THE TRUCKS FLYING BY!!! But, again, I persevered and ... sure enough ... the heavy rain and lightening ended within 5 minutes of me putting on my gear. :huh: Since a light drizzle/mist remained, I kept the rain gear on.
So I rolled into Boston proper around 11:30 pm ... that's exactly 17 hours as I predicted (16 hours of riding with about 1 hr in total fuel stops and lunch). For some reason, in a car or on the bike, I just cannot seem to shake the 500 miles = 8 hours equation...an average of 62.5mph. I know that the Cleveland traffic threw me for a loop but I was doing 80mph for quite a few miles. Unbelievable.
But wait! I now had to find my hotel. MS S&T has great maps but I find its directions to be cumbersome. Trying to follow turn-by-turn directions at 11:30pm, in an unfamiliar city, in the dark, and in light rain is tough ... but doing it in Boston which is an old city and not laid out in a grid was very tough. Besides, I was tired after so many hours and miles in the saddle. The good news is that I got to see the city and some of the sites (eg. Fenway Park). The bad news is that I saw those sites several times as it took me 30 minutes of riding in circles to find my hotel!
I'm staying in a downtown hotel ... a pretty nice place ... and when I offload my gear (remember: I'm still in rain gear and my face and hair are a disaster), I did my best impression of "scooter-trash." (For those of you unfamiliar with that term, I recommend Neil Peart's latest book "Road Show" in which he describes riding his BMW GS between concert dates as his band, Rush, toured the US and Europe in 2004.) Seriously, I was quite a site walking through the beautiful lobby in all my long-distance riding glory! I get up to the desk and the smarmy clerk says, "I have something to sign for you?" Turns out my wife called ahead and told him that I would be arriving and that I needed him to sign my IBA forms! (For those of you who don't know ... and that's all of you ... my wife is THE BEST! She also faxed a sweet congratulatory note that I received when I checked in.) Although he was a pretty nice guy, I say "smarmy" because when he asked me how long it took to me to get to Boston he congratulated me ... but acted like I was nuts and that it should have taken half that long! I wanted to slug him but, instead, I told him that (1) everything seems to take longer on a bike; (2) I had to stop to refuel more often than had I been in a car; (3) I was not able to maintain speed in the dark and in the storm; and (4) he should try it sometime.
After checking in, I had to deal with the valet who also acted as if I was from another planet. After him trying to figure out how we were going to get the bike into the garage, I finally got through to him that I could just follow him to the hotel's garage and park the bike myself. Why did that take 10 minutes?!!? There is no way that I am the first person to ride a bike to this hotel!
After a call to my wife and a nice, hot shower, I finally got into bed at 1am. I'm glad I did it ... but I'm glad it's over too!
As for photos, I obviously didn't have time to take many but I may post a couple when I return home.
I had to go to Boston for a meeting and I've been wanting to get the FJR out of the flatlands so I thought this would be a great excuse to (1) get an IBA ride; and (2) spend some time the following weekend travelling to Acadia NP in Maine and then meandering my way across New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York with a destination of Western PA to see the parents. The plan for my SS1000, however, was to simply ride I-90 East until I came across Boston.
With my wife seeing me off at 5:30 CST Sunday morning (6/18/07 for those of you keeping track) and my I-Pass attached to the tankbag, I jumped on the I-90 tollway and proceeded east. As I rode by downtown Chicago, the sun was peeking over Lake Michigan and, with a light morning haze in the air, the city looked not unlike a romantic painting. However, I had little time to ponder so, with little traffic and much distance ahead of me, I proceeded east through Indiana averaging about 75-80mph.
I was forced to go old-school to pay my tolls in Indiana and Ohio ... they don't accept I-PASS/EZ-PASS. So I had to get reacquainted with stopping the bike, putting it in neutral, removing my glove, unzipping my pocket, taking out the $ in my pocket, handing them to the collector, waiting for them to make change, receiving my change, putting it back into my jacket pocket, zipping my pocket, putting my glove back on, holding in the clutch, shifting the bike into 1st, and .... finally ... taking off. The moral of the story is that electronic toll passes are perfect for us bikers. Besides, in many states you receive a discounted toll for using it anyway!
Another issue that I remembered as I rode through Ohio. If you are going on a long-distance ride and you are headed east, remember to account for losing an hour!! Doh!!! With as much as I travel, you would think that I would have thought about it. But I didn't ... and my schedule was off right away. The longer I rode the more I had wished I would have left an hour earlier ... and that would become a factor later in the ride.
Some highlights from the middle of the ride:
-Only saw two LEOs in Indiana and none in Ohio or PA...shocking.
-I got stuck in traffic in Cleveland and it took 30 minutes for me to go 3 miles. Turns out there was a bad crash on I-90 in front of Jacobs Field.
-I stopped in Erie, PA for lunch (which turned out nice because, in a previous life, I frequently travelled to Erie for work so I am very familiar with the area).
-After my lunch stop (and as I entered New York state), I became very fatigued for about 10 minutes. The first time that I ever felt as if I could fall asleep on a bike. Fortunately, I worked through it and the feeling passed.
-Saw one FJR all day and it was near Rochester, NY. The guy was riding west-bound on (I think) an '06 or '07 AE. Is it someone on here?
-Enjoyed riding through New York, especially just south of the Adirondacks. I was able to maintain a pace of 80mph and only saw one LEO during the entire ride through the state
-My butt stopped being sore at 750 miles...or maybe it was just numb. (Note to self: GET CUSTOM SEAT!!)
Just as I crossed the Hudson River Valley, it started to get dark ... and I was kicking myself for not leaving an hour earlier (insert smiley getting hit with a hammer). I think I would have really liked riding through Massachusetts ... had I seen it! Unfortunately, by the time I was in that state, it was totally dark and the cages and 18-wheelers were flying by me ... and I was doing 70mph most of the time! It seemed as if I-90 through Western Massachusetts is as nice as a slab can get what with the heavily wooded and seemingly lonesome area, many turns, and many roller coaster ups-and-downs over the hills. Then again, maybe I'm just eternally jaded by living in the flatlands. (BTW, in reference to another thread, I do vote for it being among the worst places for a rider to live.)
I stopped for my last refueling at 9:30 pm at the rest stop in Blandford and was not happy with the darkness, my lack of familiarity with the area, my failure to depart home an hour earlier ... or the lightning and ominous conditions that were just starting.
But I persevered and rode on! However, with only about 40 miles remaining until Boston, I rode into the storm. It was as if that IBA SaddleSore challenge was waving a fist at me and telling me "Son, you have to earn this". Seriously, except for the clock showing me that it was getting later and later, things had been far too easy up to that point. So I pulled over to the side of the road and did that put-on-the-raingear-while-you're-under-an-overpass thing. However, as many of you know, it's not fun when you're doing that in the dark and 18-wheelers are flying by at 80mph just 3 feet from where you and your bike are! It's one thing to have to put on rain gear but it's another thing to put on your rain gear WHILE HOLDING ON THE BIKE SO IT DOESN't BLOW OVER FROM THE TRUCKS FLYING BY!!! But, again, I persevered and ... sure enough ... the heavy rain and lightening ended within 5 minutes of me putting on my gear. :huh: Since a light drizzle/mist remained, I kept the rain gear on.So I rolled into Boston proper around 11:30 pm ... that's exactly 17 hours as I predicted (16 hours of riding with about 1 hr in total fuel stops and lunch). For some reason, in a car or on the bike, I just cannot seem to shake the 500 miles = 8 hours equation...an average of 62.5mph. I know that the Cleveland traffic threw me for a loop but I was doing 80mph for quite a few miles. Unbelievable.
But wait! I now had to find my hotel. MS S&T has great maps but I find its directions to be cumbersome. Trying to follow turn-by-turn directions at 11:30pm, in an unfamiliar city, in the dark, and in light rain is tough ... but doing it in Boston which is an old city and not laid out in a grid was very tough. Besides, I was tired after so many hours and miles in the saddle. The good news is that I got to see the city and some of the sites (eg. Fenway Park). The bad news is that I saw those sites several times as it took me 30 minutes of riding in circles to find my hotel!
I'm staying in a downtown hotel ... a pretty nice place ... and when I offload my gear (remember: I'm still in rain gear and my face and hair are a disaster), I did my best impression of "scooter-trash." (For those of you unfamiliar with that term, I recommend Neil Peart's latest book "Road Show" in which he describes riding his BMW GS between concert dates as his band, Rush, toured the US and Europe in 2004.) Seriously, I was quite a site walking through the beautiful lobby in all my long-distance riding glory! I get up to the desk and the smarmy clerk says, "I have something to sign for you?" Turns out my wife called ahead and told him that I would be arriving and that I needed him to sign my IBA forms! (For those of you who don't know ... and that's all of you ... my wife is THE BEST! She also faxed a sweet congratulatory note that I received when I checked in.) Although he was a pretty nice guy, I say "smarmy" because when he asked me how long it took to me to get to Boston he congratulated me ... but acted like I was nuts and that it should have taken half that long! I wanted to slug him but, instead, I told him that (1) everything seems to take longer on a bike; (2) I had to stop to refuel more often than had I been in a car; (3) I was not able to maintain speed in the dark and in the storm; and (4) he should try it sometime.
After checking in, I had to deal with the valet who also acted as if I was from another planet. After him trying to figure out how we were going to get the bike into the garage, I finally got through to him that I could just follow him to the hotel's garage and park the bike myself. Why did that take 10 minutes?!!? There is no way that I am the first person to ride a bike to this hotel!
After a call to my wife and a nice, hot shower, I finally got into bed at 1am. I'm glad I did it ... but I'm glad it's over too!
As for photos, I obviously didn't have time to take many but I may post a couple when I return home.
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