Here is a classic image of a vintage motorcycle surfer, from the lens of Scott Pommier.
This past Saturday I established a new personal one day mileage record: 850 miles in 15 hours. When I left the house at 9:30 am I planned to meet other BMW riders in New Glarius, WI. I had some much fun riding their route to La Crosse, WI that I just kept riding. When I [...]
This past Saturday I established a new personal one day mileage record: 850 miles in 15 hours. When I left the house at 9:30 am I planned to meet other BMW riders in New Glarius, WI. I had some much fun riding their route to La Crosse, WI that I just kept riding. When I left La Crosse shortly after 5 pm I told myself that I would find a cheap hotel room if I became too tired.
When I hit the Great River Road I found the traffic headed south was light. The weather was perfect. It was about 65 degrees. When I turned left on 171 West I found that I had the road all to myself. It was so nice.
When I ride think of three words: safe, smooth and quick. These three words accurately describe my ride home too
I stopped every hour or so. It felt great to stretch the legs and get something to drink. I stopped for ice cream three times.
Definitely hit at wall too. A wall of pain, fatigue, etc. The second ice cream stop helped me break through. I felt my riding reach a new level of performance. I felt closer to the K1200RS I purchased nine weeks ago.
I arrived home at 12:35 am. It was a long safe ride. It gave me the confidence to try a Iron Butt Rally later this summer.
This morning was beautiful, The traffic riding into Chicago's loop was moving along nicely. Exited 290 and headed south on Western Ave. As I approach Motorworks Chicago I drove under a bridge and slammed into a pothole lurking in the shadows. Thankfully the bike handled the impact smoothly. I thought everything was fine until Milan noticed the damaged front wheel. The wheel can be repaired. It just takes time. My wheel looked something like this…
This weekend's ride was organized by Willow Creek Church's High Road Riders. It was an excellent ride, well organized, great breakfast stop, and final destination (a dairy farm near Madison, WI). If you are looking for great people to ride with please look into this group.
Yesterday, Martin led a safe, smooth and quick sport bike ride from Aurora, IL to Lake Geneva, WI. He led us on some nice twisty road south west of the loop. I will definitely ride with Martin and this crew again. Here is a picture of my getting ready to leave the Simple Cafe in Lake Geneva, WI.
In my previous post I asked if the 7th annual Moonshine Lunch Run would be me first organized ride of the year. Well the answer is yes. It was a great ride: almost 500 miles in less than 12 hours. Rode through almost 100 miles on rain driving south on I-57. Rain stopped south of Champaign, IL. After lunch the sun came out and the temperature almost reached 80 degrees. Weather became cooler as I approach Chicago. Fog became very thick on Sheridan Rd. Thankfully I made it home safely. Bike is in good shape too.
Waiting in line for my Moonburger
I have often wondered why it is hard to get BMW motorcycles into 1st gear. Here’s the answer:
“This is a characteristic of all dry-clutch BMW’s. Somewhat over-simplifying:
On wet multi-plate clutch bikes, even which the clutch is disengaged, there is enough “jostling” of the gears on the gearbox shafts from oil drag in the oil-bath clutch to help align the gear-engaging “teeth” (“dogs”) on the side of the sliding elements to enter their corresponding holes in the sides of the gears to allow the sliding element to engage and lock the gear to its shaft.
On a dry single-plate clutch (such as on a BMW), when the clutch is disengaged, there is *no* energy entering the gearbox, and the gears/shafts become dead quiet. If you happen to stop at a point at which the dogs are not aligned with their engagement holes, you could press on the shift lever all day and dogs will just keep on being pressed into the side of first gear without entering their holes.
What’s the solution? Easy: either (i) rock the bike a couple inches forward or backward (so that the rear wheel turns the driveshaft and thus the tranny output shaft to cause the dogs to be rotated into alignment with the holes in first gear), or (ii) *gently* bring the clutch right to the friction point while applying light pressure to the shift lever — you want to only apply just enough clutch engagement to put some energy into the tranny input shaft to “jostle” the dogs to align them with their holes. Either way, once the dogs are moved just a hair, you’ll drop into gear.” — via BMWMOA Forum
Imagine this Long Beach Racer in flat black with minimal chrome. : )
Thanks Lifehacker. Click to see Lifehacker’s post…
Ride to Work Day
