This is not your average Iron Butt Rider's choice of motorcycle. There again I am a dilettante in the world of long distance hard core motorcycle riding. So I ride what I have. I leave the fully faired, shaft driven, multi-cylinder, 30mpg electronically enhanced snorting beasts to the people who can actually use them.
Still, at about the time I set this essay to publish I was planning on leaving home, for reasons that become less clear the closer the deadline looms, and setting off across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, clipping West Virginia and Maryland, cutting across industrial Pennsylvania and collapsing in a Motel 6 in Binghamton New York, just a few hundred miles from the land of free health care and Tea Party-free politics. Don't tempt me.
The weather forecast looks to be dry and sunny by day and frigid by night- close to 70 degrees at lunch and 50 degrees twelve hours later. That poses a challenge but I will be layered in many ...layers and my windshield will help a little I hope. 
Many of the hard core people use saddle enhancers to give them stamina but I find the Triumph stock saddle to be adequate as planks go. And the idea of buying electrically heated clothing, as desirable as that sounds this close to the deadline, seems absurd in light of the fact that all the rest of my riding doesn't come close to requiring such elaborate gear.
Mechanical failure, a flat tire, freezing cold or some other meteorological catastrophe could all combine with simple exhaustion to kill off this attempt (if not myself) so I am open to failure and have alternative plans in case the things becomes impossible ( I have yet to visit the Outer Banks for example). However when I rode the 1,000 mile Iron Butt in 21 hours a year ago I found I was entirely up to the challenge as was the Bonneville. Now with 42,000 miles on the clock and new tires, chain and oil the motorbike seems as capable as ever providing I am. I have no electronics, relying instead on maps, a tank map case and use of major roads to keep things simple on the way up. The Overseas Highway, the Florida Turnpike, I-95, I-26, I-77, I-81.
If I get up to the frozen north Jack riepe has promised to meet me and refresh me by having his dogs savage me and his friends mock me which will be reward enough for abandoning my family and my cherished palms.
I will promptly festoon his life with used underwear and smelly wool socks so we will be even. My wife understands my desire to take a break and go for a ride but the light of my life will no doubt be annoyed when I get home. We have never been apart more than 13 hours in the last year.
Oh well, it's too late to change my mind now. Deus vult.
Still, at about the time I set this essay to publish I was planning on leaving home, for reasons that become less clear the closer the deadline looms, and setting off across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, clipping West Virginia and Maryland, cutting across industrial Pennsylvania and collapsing in a Motel 6 in Binghamton New York, just a few hundred miles from the land of free health care and Tea Party-free politics. Don't tempt me.
The weather forecast looks to be dry and sunny by day and frigid by night- close to 70 degrees at lunch and 50 degrees twelve hours later. That poses a challenge but I will be layered in many ...layers and my windshield will help a little I hope. Many of the hard core people use saddle enhancers to give them stamina but I find the Triumph stock saddle to be adequate as planks go. And the idea of buying electrically heated clothing, as desirable as that sounds this close to the deadline, seems absurd in light of the fact that all the rest of my riding doesn't come close to requiring such elaborate gear.Mechanical failure, a flat tire, freezing cold or some other meteorological catastrophe could all combine with simple exhaustion to kill off this attempt (if not myself) so I am open to failure and have alternative plans in case the things becomes impossible ( I have yet to visit the Outer Banks for example). However when I rode the 1,000 mile Iron Butt in 21 hours a year ago I found I was entirely up to the challenge as was the Bonneville. Now with 42,000 miles on the clock and new tires, chain and oil the motorbike seems as capable as ever providing I am. I have no electronics, relying instead on maps, a tank map case and use of major roads to keep things simple on the way up. The Overseas Highway, the Florida Turnpike, I-95, I-26, I-77, I-81.
If I get up to the frozen north Jack riepe has promised to meet me and refresh me by having his dogs savage me and his friends mock me which will be reward enough for abandoning my family and my cherished palms.I will promptly festoon his life with used underwear and smelly wool socks so we will be even. My wife understands my desire to take a break and go for a ride but the light of my life will no doubt be annoyed when I get home. We have never been apart more than 13 hours in the last year.
Oh well, it's too late to change my mind now. Deus vult. 
3 comments:
Be save, have fun. Rt 81 is just east of me, Wave when you go thru Hazleton/Wilkes Barre area.
Dear Conch:
While you are presently cooling your heels in Kingston, New York, the area between West Chester, Pa and Scranton is rocking under massive thunderstorms. You did well to see what you could today. There is a 40 percent chance of rain on Tuesday, but I hope we'll have a good break tomorrow on our run down from Allentown.
Fondeest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
dear judi, highway 81 between scranton and wilkes barre is so full of suicidal trucks and winding bends I was too scared to take my hands off the bars. I hope you were asleep while I was struggling to stay alert!
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