The Older I Get, The Faster I Wuz...
When I was younger (mid 30’s) I did two sort of endurance rides. Neither was specifically planned to be an endurance ride. I simply wanted (needed?) to see if I could get somewhere which happened to be fairly far away, in as little time as possible. I was not trying to set any speed record, though. Just wanted to get there without lallygagging.
The bike for both rides was my old R100/7. No windshield other than a small home-made fairing from the headlight nacelle ending just over the top of the instruments. A period photo of the machine is shown at the top of this email and here (dry-stored in the basement today, near our clothes washer and dryer). This bike started out as an ‘RS’ but shortly after I purchased it from its original owner in about 1981, I converted it to a /7 naked bike and sold its fairing and everything else that was ‘RS’. I still have this bike and would guess it has about 100-150K on its odometer (which was not working for a few years, twice). It has the RS’s bigger 40mm exhaust and a few other ’RS’ items. With the help of an extremely talented friend, and over the course of several winters, I hot-rodded it the way I wanted (at that time…): /2 ‘high’ handlebars, Kehin ‘slant slide’ pumper carbs, high performance cam, bigger pistons, mono lever swingarm, oversize Heinrich tank, frame stiffener bars, extra holes in its cast aluminum airbox, drilled-out straight-through mufflers, lightened flywheel, special clutch, etc. It made 68HP on a dyno, which is a lot for one of these, and would wheelie on the throttle in 2nd with only a light effort. Which stock versions of this bike won’t do. It’s a tank, but back-in-the day was still a lot of fun to build and ride.
One of my two quasi-accidental endurance rides involved two back-to-back 900-mile days riding home from Bike Week in Florida to Duluth Minnesota. What made it an endurance ride wasn’t the distance, though. It was the low temperature. The second day it was below freezing the entire time. When I reached my residence, it had gotten down into the low twenties, I think. There were quite large snowbanks on the sides of the roads from Chicago north, but the road itself was dry all the way. In my driveway when I got home there was about a foot of accumulated snow. I was so tired I ploughed into it as far as I could and then just left the bike on its sidestand right there, surrounded by great clouds of steam coming from the hot engine melting the snow. Then I staggered inside leaving a trail of shedded gear all through the house like a three-year-old and slept for ten or twelve hours. Woke up famished but alive.
The other long-hard ride was the year the BMW National Rally was in York PA. I rode there from Duluth in one very long day and when I pulled up at the gate at three or four AM wanting to camp, the entrance security would not let me in, so I got back on the bike and rode down to somewhere near the shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where I watched the sun come up over the water, then turned around went back to the rally site, got right in, set up my tent and slept until noon. I think the total miles of that ride was about 1,250-1,300 and the total hours was around 22 or 23.
I don’t consider myself an endurance rider, but for most of my years when riding on road trips a good day is around 750 miles and an easy day is around 500-600. Today at age 68 I’m satisfied and comfortable with anywhere in the 3–600-mile range and have nearly zero interest going for more. The well-known cliche: "The older one gets, the faster one was” is sometimes true, but both hard-ride accounts are as close to accuracy as I can remember them.
Famously, whatever doesn’t kill you hopefully makes you stronger. What were some of your hardest/fastest/longest rides?
- Mr. Subjective, 11-21
With 5 whole months of riding experience I left MI, solo, for a business training course in Miami, FL. My bike was a yellow, 2006, Sportster with the 3.3 gal peanut tank.
The trip down is a blur with the exception of my stop at The Dragon but that’s another story.
With the training ending on the Thurs before Memorial Day weekend, I made plans for my return, only to find out some good friends were coming to MI for the holiday. Wanting to miss the least amount of the reunion I quickly put together a Saddlesore 1000. If I was going to attempt a max effort ride I might as well get a formal “notch” in my riding belt. It was way too late for buns-of-steel but I still had a chance for an Iron Butt!
I used Thurs evening to position myself in White Springs, FL, the closest hotel I could find to the magic 1000 mile starting line. The plan was simple, buy 2 footlong, tuna subs, get a good night’s sleep, launch on Friday, get ahead of schedule and pull into a hotel for a quick couple of hours of sleep. There are no extra points for ending in 18 hours vs. 24 hours so a nap and sliding in just under time limit made sense.
No GPS, nor smart phone but navigation was simple; I-75 north.
At first, I thot the small gas tank was going to be a drawback but, after the second fill-up, it was clear I didn’t want to be in the saddle one mile more than the 140 mile range would allow!! At each of the eight fuel stops I’d eat a quarter of a sub, drink a Gatorade and muster the courage to get back on The Yellow Peril.
There was little construction that year but somewhere enroute an accident jams things up and everyone was getting off the interstate and clogging the two-lanes. I take this delay as a good time to pit, realizing it could preempt the nap for which I was longing. Meanwhile, I see a guy fueling his mower and assume he’s local. He may know a work around. I ask him how to get around the snarl and he gave me directions which included 8 turns/intersections but he knew the name of only one road. The rest of the directions were “turn left at the silver painted rock” and “turn right at the red barn, not the 1st red barn but the big red barn.” Unconventional, but he nailed it and I was soon back on track.
Just south of the Ohio river valley, rain hits me from the southwest with more severe weather behind. Clearly, pulling over for a couple hours of sleep was not going to add value so the new goal was to out run the precip.
Fog slows me down in the Toledo area but, after 19.5 hours, at 2:30 am, I pull into a gas station near my home to have the attendant verify my arrival time and date. Predictably, it was not busy but the clerk, whose first language was not English, made it clear “I’m not signing nuttin!” Fortunately, for me, the bar across the street was still letting out and there was a fight in the parking lot which drew the attention of the police. After a 20 minute wait I got a signature.
I receive the award, the trip was memorable and I “saved” much of the holiday weekend but I’m not looking to do another. My real joy in riding is the freedom of movement, looking around, trying an interesting looking eatery and/or exchanging riding stories with fellow riders.
Today, shorter distances have a greater appeal; specifically, 2 tankfuls/day. This allows for a slow morning, a relaxed lunch, a few pictures and, most importantly, a desire to get on the bike the next day!
Ride safe everyone and have a Merry Christmas!!
Arriving the next day at the dealer, I unloaded the bike and of course, it would not start... Bought some overpriced spark plugs from the dealership and they let me use their tools to replace my burnt ones. Started and ran fine, sold it to the fellow who also brought a trailer with him from Milwaukee and I turned around and purchased the 'new' ST with ABS brakes.
Deciding to ride straight home was not really a conscience one I think. I just headed west on I-90 and took a left on I-35, down into Texas. Had to stop every tank of gas and just lay on the ground for a few minutes, but I managed to get home, 1037 miles in 23 hours or so. Since then, did several other 1000+ mile trips around the country, but that first one was a challenge.
Traffic leaving was chaos, as is the norm for evacuation areas. But there was an internal sense of danger and adventure that I WAY overplayed in my head. Looking back, I felt like I was dodging meteor strikes on a disaster layden highway. In reality, it was a little wind and rain. I've had way worse. But, when I tell the story to someone new, that looming storm cloud I was running from seems to get bigger and darker each time.
My hardest ride was a Bun Burner Gold on the same '10 Honda NT700VA. It was part of the Rachel Insanity Days ride. The ride started and ended in Alamo, NV. I rode 1524 miles in 23 hours, 48 minutes.
My longest recent (-ish) ride was the last on my first NT700. It happened while I was riding to Spokane to trade NT#1 in for NT#2. #2 is actually 7 serial numbers older than #1, but #1 had 139,000 miles when I got to the dealer's in Spokane. #2 only had 22,000 miles. When I left Greeley, CO, to head to Spokane, I had only had an hour of sleep. On the night before a ride, I'm like a little kid on the night before Christmas -- I go to sleep for an hour, wake up, and that's it. I had planned on leaving at about 8, but ended up getting away at 6. I figured I'd ride till I was sleepy and then stop for the night. I ended up riding to Missoula -- 822 miles. I slept well that night! I had breakfast with another NT owner, and rode on to Spokane to pick up my new bike.
/Users/mckelvy/Desktop/Route_Map.jpg. I did not take the shortest route as I wanted to see certain things such as the Reno Air Races. That happened to be the day the Galloping Ghost crashed killing and injuring many people. I was very near the path of destruction, but was not injured. What a day and what a trip. My only advice is get out and do it while you can. I am now 72 and still ride almost every day it is dry, but I have no interest in 1,000 mile days any more. I am happy anywhere up to about 600. Ride Safe and Ride Often.
We started up the winding road and the conditions progressively deteriorated. The visibility got really bad and a lot of the road was not paved. As I recall, there were no guardrails and it was about a 7 mile ride to the top of the mountain. No heated gear in those days, so we were freezing by the time we reached the summit.
As it turned out, the ride down was much worse than the ride up. The wind was gusting and the visibility was so bad that I couldn’t see beyond the front wheel of my own motorcycle. It was all I could do to keep my Kawasaki 750 twin on the road. There was no way to stop, so the only option was to keep going.
I’ve been riding for over 50 years now, and that ride down from Mt. Washington still reigns as some of the most terrifying moments I’ve ever spent on a motorcycle.
These days 450 miles is pretty much a long day, but I am retired now so The Clock and Calendar no longer dictate miles.
Then I bought the Areostich 1 piece in April of 2006. I had made a vest with multi-strand wire. #27 size insulated. First wiring was only 100 feet. A fellow rider's eyes looked like saucers.. "Tim you need more wire!" Back home adding more. Then later purchased a used vest made in Duluth.
Now I have the Darien for summertime and the 'Stich' for winter. I was told by the associates at Riderwearhouse, " This is the last time we are repairing your Aerostich, I have to say you have ridden well!" I think I have well over 300,000 miles on that worn out protection!
Back in the early 1980's I would get people sneering at me. I could claim that I could ride over 1000 miles at a time. They would shake their heads.. "I don't put that many miles on my car!" Now it seems that I get more respect! One friend said, "I know why you ride 1000 miles, you want to get home to your wife!"
I have had amateur radios on the BMW. Huge antennas.. upto 13 feet high! Fun part besides talking is the people in their cars! Windows quietly lower. "Who are you talking to, NASA? " High Frequency band of 20 meters. Listening to the Net control where people are calling in to the Net and getting a relay to another ham operator. I call in.. "Motorcycle Mobil" Dead silence.. See, most Ham radio stations need a good ground to transmit their signals. Cars and trucks have their steel roofs or pickup boxes.. however a motorcycle? So the Net control answered me. I told him my position. Southeastern Minnesota on highway 60. It was 10 am local time. However I then called in again on the 20 meter band. But this time I was in Western Colorado. The Net control assumed I was still in Minnesota! "This is AB0TS, Tim in Fruita, Colorado on a BMW K100LT! I have an Icom 706mkii and a Screwdriver antenna, your signal is 5 by 9! thanks for running the Net.
All sorts of things can be done with a radio and a motorcycle, eh?
I loved the picture you painted of your arrival home after your trip from Daytona Bike Week! That is some sweet slash seven!! Love the Heinrich tank$$$
Lou
Joe