First road trip on the FJR
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- complacent
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First road trip on the FJR
Finally I'm going to take my bike on an honest-to-god road trip. I am absolutely ecstatic about the prospect of being in the saddle for a good couple states in a row. Just me, the bike and almost 500 miles - one way.
Sidebags packed? Check.
Gear for three seasons? Check.
Weather forecast for the entire route? Check.
Route planned out? (well at least a rough guideline) CHECK.
My plan is to take my time, stop and take pictures along the way, relax, empty my mind and soak up the roads and the scenery.
Pics and storyline will be posted afterwards.
ing w00t.
Sidebags packed? Check.
Gear for three seasons? Check.
Weather forecast for the entire route? Check.
Route planned out? (well at least a rough guideline) CHECK.
My plan is to take my time, stop and take pictures along the way, relax, empty my mind and soak up the roads and the scenery.
Pics and storyline will be posted afterwards.
ing w00t.
colin
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
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- Sabre
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
Very cool! Looking forward to seeing the pictures!
Sabre (Julian)
92.5% Stock 04 STI
Good choice putting $4,000 rims on your 1990 Honda Civic. That's like Betty White going out and getting her tits done.
92.5% Stock 04 STI
Good choice putting $4,000 rims on your 1990 Honda Civic. That's like Betty White going out and getting her tits done.
- complacent
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
Thanks! Tomorrow morning just can't. get. here. fast enough.
colin
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
- zaxrex
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
Something seems to be missing from your list... wife, or at least approval from?
Have fun with or without her.
Have fun with or without her.
Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears
- complacent
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
LOL! She drove up this afternoon, so I've got a free pass to take my sweet ass time and relax.zaxrex wrote:Something seems to be missing from your list... wife, or at least approval from?
Have fun with or without her.
I has an excited.
colin
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
- Mr Kleen
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
complacent wrote: ass time
ride safe, my friend, ride safe.
- Libra Monkee
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
Mr Kleen wrote:complacent wrote: ass time
ride safe, my friend, ride safe.
Butt-Head: Huh huh He said "ass time"
Beavis: heh heh heh ass time ASS TIME ASS TIME!
Libra Monkee- "Helping DCAWD meet its Equal Opportunity requirement since 2006."
- drwrx
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
enjoy my friend.
take your time and savor the ride.
take your time and savor the ride.
- complacent
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
home and exhausted mentally and physically. deets to be posted later.
1000 miles is a lot for a single weekend. WV is beautiful. Traffic+rain+idiot drivers is bad... Some repairs required.
I'll put a cohesive outline together tomorrow. Need sleep now.
1000 miles is a lot for a single weekend. WV is beautiful. Traffic+rain+idiot drivers is bad... Some repairs required.
I'll put a cohesive outline together tomorrow. Need sleep now.
colin
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
!!
hope you're ok. will be curious to hear more tuesday.
hope you're ok. will be curious to hear more tuesday.
2004 impreza outback
1964 beetle
1964 beetle
- Mr Kleen
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
complacent wrote: Traffic+rain+idiot drivers is bad... Some repairs required.
- ElZorro
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
HOPE ALL IZ WELL MAN!
U PICKD NICE ROUTE. I LIEK DAT STRETCH ON 68, DRIV IT EVRY TIEM I GO WEST.
HAD LUNCH LAST WEEK, SOMEONE HAD PARKD AN FJR RITE OUTSIDE TEH WINDOW. MAH MOM KEPT LAUGHIN CUZ I KEPT STARIN.
U PICKD NICE ROUTE. I LIEK DAT STRETCH ON 68, DRIV IT EVRY TIEM I GO WEST.
HAD LUNCH LAST WEEK, SOMEONE HAD PARKD AN FJR RITE OUTSIDE TEH WINDOW. MAH MOM KEPT LAUGHIN CUZ I KEPT STARIN.
Jason "El Zorro" Fox
'17 Subaru Forester 2.0XT
DCAWD - old coots in fast scoots.
'17 Subaru Forester 2.0XT
DCAWD - old coots in fast scoots.
- complacent
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
So, now that I'm a little more rested, here's what happened:
Left Friday morning ~ 1000. Perfect temperature and weather, low traffic. I had originally planned to take shots at every state welcome sign (went through 4) but that was not in the cards. Arrived Friday evening without issue. Collapsed upon arrival. After food, beverage and rest I learned about all of the muscles that get used on a long bike ride. Had a great weekend overall.
Interesting lessons learned:
- There isn't a "Welcome to _______" sign that has a shoulder in front of it. At least not in MD, PA, OH or WV. Scratch those photo ops.
- Two of the coolest little sleepy towns I've ever seen were Cumberland, MD and Clarksburg, WV. They look like they were cut out of the '30s.
- Speed limits in WV are high. Moving with traffic, I routinely saw sustained 80+ jaunts. And by jaunts, I mean 50 - 90 mile stretches.
- Nobody on the east coast uses highway 68 with any kind of regularity. It was a ghost road... all the way across MD and continuing into WV.
- There isn't a bridge between VA/MD/WV/OH that has a shoulder. No awesome architectural photos there either.
- Nine solid hours of riding at/above/around highway speeds is tiring and difficult.
- AT&T coverage has definitely gotten much better. I was able to have more than a few "check-in" conversations with the wifey along the way. Not a single dropped call. Go figure.
- highways 68, 79, 50, 77, 76 all look IDENTICAL. You could take four pictures at each location and wouldn't be able to discern their locations or origins. I literally felt like I had a nice, pretty drive on the same road through the same town... for about nine hours straight.
Then came the trip home yesterday. What a price to pay for such a perfect trip out to OH. Against my better judgment, we took the PA turnpike home instead of heading back through WV because it was supposed to be much faster. Wrong. Horrible wrong. It was exactly 39 minutes faster than the additional 120 miles the WV route would have required.
- Rained about six of the eight hours it took to get home. Fun! Actually, it wasn't so bad until after it got dark.
- You think cars ignore bikers on the roads normally? L watched me put a foot on two different fenders (at two different times) as I was pushed into the shoulder. ing look for motorcycles when you drive please. You're going to kill someone. That person has family and as much of a right to live as you do (even if only arguably so) while you are driving your SUV while eating and chatting on the cell phone.
- If you have to pull off to the shoulder to apply rain gear, make sure your bike is more than 1.5 feet away from the solid line defining the shoulder. If you only pull an entire foot away from that line, some jackass is going to be reaching down to grab something as they're passing you by, come into the shoulder (note earlier posted distances) and nudge your bike enough to knock it off the kickstand and send it crashing down.
- Righting a crashed bike in the rain is a mother er.
All things considered, it could have been much worse. I need to replace and/or repaint some parts on the bike, but it is in ride-able condition. Thank FSM nobody got hurt.
CN's: Don't drive to OH via PA. It SUCKS. A LOT. WV is amazingly beautiful and should be the preferred route to avoid PA and its god-awful turnpike. Long rides are long. Sleep is good. Plan on cagers killing you at all times.
I still prefer riding to driving. I hate how dangerous it is. We'll see how my opinion fares a few years from now.
I'll post the few pics I was able to snap tonight. Words can't do it much justice, here's hoping my pics do.
Left Friday morning ~ 1000. Perfect temperature and weather, low traffic. I had originally planned to take shots at every state welcome sign (went through 4) but that was not in the cards. Arrived Friday evening without issue. Collapsed upon arrival. After food, beverage and rest I learned about all of the muscles that get used on a long bike ride. Had a great weekend overall.
Interesting lessons learned:
- There isn't a "Welcome to _______" sign that has a shoulder in front of it. At least not in MD, PA, OH or WV. Scratch those photo ops.
- Two of the coolest little sleepy towns I've ever seen were Cumberland, MD and Clarksburg, WV. They look like they were cut out of the '30s.
- Speed limits in WV are high. Moving with traffic, I routinely saw sustained 80+ jaunts. And by jaunts, I mean 50 - 90 mile stretches.
- Nobody on the east coast uses highway 68 with any kind of regularity. It was a ghost road... all the way across MD and continuing into WV.
- There isn't a bridge between VA/MD/WV/OH that has a shoulder. No awesome architectural photos there either.
- Nine solid hours of riding at/above/around highway speeds is tiring and difficult.
- AT&T coverage has definitely gotten much better. I was able to have more than a few "check-in" conversations with the wifey along the way. Not a single dropped call. Go figure.
- highways 68, 79, 50, 77, 76 all look IDENTICAL. You could take four pictures at each location and wouldn't be able to discern their locations or origins. I literally felt like I had a nice, pretty drive on the same road through the same town... for about nine hours straight.
Then came the trip home yesterday. What a price to pay for such a perfect trip out to OH. Against my better judgment, we took the PA turnpike home instead of heading back through WV because it was supposed to be much faster. Wrong. Horrible wrong. It was exactly 39 minutes faster than the additional 120 miles the WV route would have required.
- Rained about six of the eight hours it took to get home. Fun! Actually, it wasn't so bad until after it got dark.
- You think cars ignore bikers on the roads normally? L watched me put a foot on two different fenders (at two different times) as I was pushed into the shoulder. ing look for motorcycles when you drive please. You're going to kill someone. That person has family and as much of a right to live as you do (even if only arguably so) while you are driving your SUV while eating and chatting on the cell phone.
- If you have to pull off to the shoulder to apply rain gear, make sure your bike is more than 1.5 feet away from the solid line defining the shoulder. If you only pull an entire foot away from that line, some jackass is going to be reaching down to grab something as they're passing you by, come into the shoulder (note earlier posted distances) and nudge your bike enough to knock it off the kickstand and send it crashing down.
- Righting a crashed bike in the rain is a mother er.
All things considered, it could have been much worse. I need to replace and/or repaint some parts on the bike, but it is in ride-able condition. Thank FSM nobody got hurt.
CN's: Don't drive to OH via PA. It SUCKS. A LOT. WV is amazingly beautiful and should be the preferred route to avoid PA and its god-awful turnpike. Long rides are long. Sleep is good. Plan on cagers killing you at all times.
I still prefer riding to driving. I hate how dangerous it is. We'll see how my opinion fares a few years from now.
I'll post the few pics I was able to snap tonight. Words can't do it much justice, here's hoping my pics do.
colin
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
a tank, a yammie, a spaceship
i <3 teh 00ntz
- ElZorro
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
WOW, FSM GIVETH AN FSM TAKETH AWAY... GLAD 2 HEAR URE NOT HURT.
ANY TIEM I HEAR OV ANYONE DRIVIN WEST, I DAMN NEAR FLOG THEM TIL THEY SAY THEYLL TAEK 68 AN AVOID TEH PA PIKE... POSTD LIMIT OV 70MF INSTEAD OV 55MF, AN LIL 2 NO BACON, COMBIND WIF IT MAINLY BEAN TRUCKIN ROUTE (AN DAMN DO DOSE GUYZ MOOV FAST AN SAFE), IT BE NO BRAINR.
DAT BEAN SED, I CANT IMAGINE DOIN SUM OV DOSE CORNERS ON 68, AT HIGHWAYS SPEEDZ, IN DA RANE...
ANY TIEM I HEAR OV ANYONE DRIVIN WEST, I DAMN NEAR FLOG THEM TIL THEY SAY THEYLL TAEK 68 AN AVOID TEH PA PIKE... POSTD LIMIT OV 70MF INSTEAD OV 55MF, AN LIL 2 NO BACON, COMBIND WIF IT MAINLY BEAN TRUCKIN ROUTE (AN DAMN DO DOSE GUYZ MOOV FAST AN SAFE), IT BE NO BRAINR.
DAT BEAN SED, I CANT IMAGINE DOIN SUM OV DOSE CORNERS ON 68, AT HIGHWAYS SPEEDZ, IN DA RANE...
Jason "El Zorro" Fox
'17 Subaru Forester 2.0XT
DCAWD - old coots in fast scoots.
'17 Subaru Forester 2.0XT
DCAWD - old coots in fast scoots.
- Mr Kleen
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
I canElZorro wrote:I cant imagine doing some of those corners on 68, at highways speeds, in the rain...
Glad you're OK. Did they bother to stop to see their handywork?
- ElZorro
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Re: First road trip on the FJR
I HAD TEH REAR TIRE KICK OUT ON ME IN CORNR AT 15MF IN DA RANE (TEH LAST UFILL PART OV KIRBY, GOT TEH BOOT DOWN QUICK ENOUGH 2 KEEP IT FRUM GOIN OVAR), IM NOT EXCITD 2 HAS BOTH GO AT 65MFMr Kleen wrote:I canElZorro wrote:I cant imagine doing some of those corners on 68, at highways speeds, in the rain...
Jason "El Zorro" Fox
'17 Subaru Forester 2.0XT
DCAWD - old coots in fast scoots.
'17 Subaru Forester 2.0XT
DCAWD - old coots in fast scoots.
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