No Riding Rut

It has been awhile since I've posted. Mostly because I am bummed that I haven't been on the bike in about a month. This snow and ice is putting a damper on things. Prep work for the IBR continues. My custom fuel cell cover is taking forever to be completed so I am still patiently waiting for that item. It is the last thing I need before dropping off the bike at the shop to get a makeover. There is a private forum on the IBA board for us riders of the 2011 IBR. I haven't posted very many things, but I read the posts every day. There are so many riders that are doing way more than I am doing for this thing. I thought I was obsessed, but these guys make me look like a total amateur. When I started seeing what others were doing in preparation for the Rally, I got a little nervous like I wasn't doing enough or that I was out of my league. I got over that feeling. I am sticking with my game plan for now and hope it's enough. The last few weeks I've been thinking about my riding/routing prep work. I would like to do a few weekend long rides as soon as the weather will allow. I am planning on doing one rally before the IBR. The Minuteman 1000 is the end of May. The Minuteman is a 24-hour rally and starts in MA so it is close to me; there are usually a few IBR vets riding the rally so it can get competitive. I am heading to the International Motorcycle Show in NY this weekend. Maybe I'll find another farkle or two for the bike. The picture in the post is what my neighborhood still looks like after a winter storm a couple weeks ago. The snow is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Ride to Eat

Spent about 12 hours riding and eating yesterday. I met New Guy Ray in the Chelsea Market Basket parking lot at 6:00 and we made our way to Cohassett MA to pick-up Marc and Valerie. Marc then led us on a nice south coast ride to the seaside town of Marshfield MA. We had breakfast at Arthur & Pat's. You can't really tell by the picture, but this little shack served the best eggs benedict I've ever had. They used pastrami and something about it really tasted good. We hung out there for about an hour then made our way to Smithfield RI to meet with the rest of the gang for a ride around RI and CT. We met our friends Mo, Larry, and Victor at Victor's place. Chatted for a few minutes and got right down to business hitting all the backroads around RI and dipping into CT for lunch at the Dogwatch Cafe in Stonington CT. We got done with lunch around 2:00 and Victor said "let's go to the Vanilla Bean for coffee." Victor led the way. The Vanilla Bean is in Pomfret CT which is about an hour ride from Stonington. We left Stonington and three hours of backroad riding later we were still not at the Vanilla Bean. I don't think he'll admit it, but he was lost. Anyway, New Guy Ray and I bailed on the rest of the adventure to head back to Boston. I got home at 6:00. The weather was perfect. Sunny and chilly, but not too cold.

Beemers and Pancakes

Every year around this time my motorcycle club (http://www.yankeebeemers.org/) does a ride to Gould's Sugar House in Shelburne Falls MA for the seasonal closing of the restaurant. I met Marc, Valerie, and New Guy Ray at our usual Hwy 2 meeting spot and we took 2 to meet the rest of the group in Orange MA. We hung out in Orange for about an hour. Marc had a "super secret" route planned for the ride to Gould's, but a few others were planning the same route so it wasn't much of a secret. In order to prevent getting stuck behind a bunch of motorcycles, we jumped out a little early and started the route ahead of everyone so we could move along at our own pace. It was a great ride with lots of twisted roads to negotiate. It was a technical ride and definitely not for a beginner. We took so many turns that there is no way I could do that route again without Marc. He's got it memorized. I'd like to do it again this weekend, but I think we're heading to Vermont. Anyway, we did about two hours of riding before arriving at Gould's for some pancakes and conversation. Marc and Valerie had to go home after lunch, but New Guy and I had some time to do a little more riding. We did a nice loop around Heath MA including a bit of gravel which is always fun to me. We dipped into southern Vermont for a little while on VT100 and VT9 before linking with 119 through southern NH and then dipping back into Mass along 119 to Moto Market in Acton. Moto Market is a cycle gear shop. I ordered a cable from them and had to pick it up. It is a cable to replace the one I have that goes from my iPod to the helmet so I can listen to the iPod on the road. We got there just a few minutes before they closed. A couple other club members were there so we chatted for a bit and then New Guy and I booked it home. He lives in Medford which is near Chelsea so we basically took the same way home. It was a nice day on the road.

IBR preparations continue. The boxes are arriving on a regular basis. I received my cb and comm system late last week. I think the fuel cell will be the last thing to arrive. Once I get that, I will bring the bike to the shop. I did a nice little ride yesterday. The Yankee Beemers monthly breakfast was in Mendon MA yesterday. I met a group in Cambridge early Sunday morning and we cut through some backroads to get to Mendon. After breakfast a few of us did a backroad route to the Vanilla Bean coffee shop in Pomfret CT. Someone from the club mapped the route and I loaded it into the GPS. We split into two groups. I hate riding with more than three people in tow. We must not have matching map sets because my GPS took us through a CT state park with nothing but gravel and boulders for a road. It was an interesting challenge to get through there. We hung out at the Bean for a couple hours before riding the high-speed pavement back to Boston. It looks like I will be nominated for a club officer position for next year. More on that in another post. I spent some time last night mapping out a local 1,000 mile loop which includes a border crossing into Canada and back into the U.S. I think it will be a decent prep route for running some local weekend SS rides before the big event. I've also mapped-out a cross-country BBG3000 and SS3000 I would like to do before next June. The tough thing is finding the time to do these things.

Iron Butt Rally Prep

The tag line for the Iron Butt Rally is 11 Days 11,000 Miles. That is true, but I have heard it as 11 Days 11,000 Dollars. I am in the process of modifying my bike for the Rally and it is quite the ordeal. I have a checklist of items and a schedule to get things done well in advance of the Rally in June. I want the bike to be totally tricked-out by February. I want to break everything in and get used to the bike and the modifications. It is going to be a completely different ride when I am done with it. Some of the farkles and mods include: Ohlins suspension upgrade, digital HID headlight replacement kit, 4.5 gallon aux fuel cell, custom fuel cell cover, cb, satellite radio, communications system, and a bunch of other stuff. I don't think it will amount to $11,000, but it is still a lot of stuff to buy. I have been chatting back and forth this week with the guy who is building my fuel cell. He is in Washington state. The base for the cell is the passenger seat on the bike so I had to scour the internet to find a used seat to send to him. I did not want to ruin the one I have because I am thinking I won't have the cell on the bike all the time and want to be able to swap it out with my seat. I found one on a BMW forum board and it is being sent to my guy in Washington now. Once the cell is done in a couple weeks, I will have it sent to the woman who is going to make a custom cover for it in Florida. A lot of moving pieces to coordinate all of this, but I love doing that stuff. So far, the plan is working and things are moving along. The good thing about this fuel cell is that it is basically plug and play. He is building the cell, mounting it on the seat base, and will be providing all the necessary plumbing to connect it to the tank. I've heard good things about his tanks so I am looking forward to that modification. With the addition of the fuel cell, I will have a range of almost 400 miles without having to stop for gas. For everything else, the plan right now is to get everything ordered and then have my mechanic install everything that I can't do myself which is most of it. Their labor rates are significantly discounted during the winter months so I will have them do it in December.

Colors in the Catskills

I was out the door by 4:30 am on Saturday. I made good time up to Hunter Mountain in Hunter NY for the Colors in the Catskills Rally and Oktoberfest. The Rally was organized by the BMW Motorcyle Owners of America (http://www.bmwmoa.org/) and sponsored by Max BMW. I wanted to get there early and sign-up for the demo rides. The BMW demo truck was there with about 20 demo bikes available for rides. As I prepare my bike for the Iron Butt Rally, it is going to be less and less of a canyon carving sport touring bike and more and more of a long haul long distance trucker so I was looking forward to testing out some potential new bikes. I would really like to have a second bike for my weekend rides. I wanted to test the BMW K1300S model bike. I got to take one out for a 30-minute ride on Saturday and I was ready to buy it after spending five minutes on it. It's a perfect fit. It has gear shift assist so you don't even need to use the clutch to shift up. You can just hammer on the throttle and speed shift up. Very cool. I spent the day riding demo bikes and hanging out with a few friends then made my way back home. I started the Iron Butt Rally spending frenzy today with the purchase of a new Garmin Zumo 550 GPS. What's better than having one GPS? Why having two of course. Now I will be able to have a route mapped on one GPS and manage scenerios, options, and timing with the second one without interrupting the routing on the primary GPS. I've heard good things about the Zumo 550. It is a rugged waterproof GPS so it should be serviceable on the RT in all sorts of conditions. Many more farkles to come.

Rides Rides and More Rides

It has been awhile, but I have been doing quite a few rides. Of note, I did the Rendez-vous Rally which started in Quebec a couple Saturdays ago. The Rendez-vous is a 12-hour competitive rally. 12 hours is too short of a time to call it an "endurance" rally, but some do. I've explained this before, but competitive rallies are basically a scavenger hunt by motorcycle. I had a fun time on this one. I am in the middle of the Iron Butt Association National Parks Tour which is a challenge to get 50 park stamps in the National Park Service Passport from 23 different states so every time I go out for a ride, I look for opportunities to get another stamp. The ride up to Quebec was no different. I stopped along the way in Vermont and New Hampshire to get two stamps. The one in Vermont was the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and the one in New Hampshire was the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Site. Ideally, I like to stop and hang out for a bit and see the parks, but I was in a bit of a hurry on Friday to get up to Canada so I just stopped, stamped my passport, and rolled on. I still need a lot of stamps to fill the passport, but I have a year to do it. Once at the Rally hotel on Friday, I hung out with some of the regular rally riders. My friend Sanjay was there. Sanjay is a member of the Yankee Beemers and rode the Minuteman Rally with me. We had a meeting and then I did some last minute prep of my route before getting about seven hours of sleep. The riders meeting was at 5:00 am on Saturday. The start was uneventful except for the fact that every bike turned left from the hotel parking lot except me. I went to the right and headed to the Canada/New York border versus the Canada/Vermont border which it looked like everyone else was heading to. I've been riding around VT, NH, ME, and MA for the past couple years. I haven't done much riding in NY so I selected my first batch of bonuses in NY. I spent the next 12 hours riding around NY, MA, and VT before heading back up to the barn. I knew I wasn't going to be competitive in this rally so I took it easy. I ended up doing about 650 miles in 12 hours. A fairly high amount of miles for 12 hours and collecting bonuses as well. I ended up in the middle of the pack. There were about 40 riders and I placed 15th. I was happy with that. I made a couple mistakes and would have placed 5th if I didn't make those mistakes, but whatever. So, that was the big Rendez-vous Rally. The more important news is that last week the drawing for slots in the 2011 Iron Butt Rally (IBR) was announced and I received a "congratulations" email from the Rallymaster. The IBR starts in mid-June in Seattle and ends 11 days later in Southern California. I am now starting to prepare the bike for the IBR. More on that later. This weekend I am heading to the Catskills and the Color in the Catskills Rally. It is the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America free Rally they do every year. Basically a hang out and ride type of rally. Most people spend the whole weekend there camping, but I am only doing a day trip on Saturday which means up at 3:30 and out the door by 4:00 am on Saturday morning. I love those early morning rides. Later.