Motorcycle Travel Story

[crosscountry]

I haven't posted about a story I wrote in a while. Here is a new one albeit without pictures. A virus made that a little infeasible this time, but hopefully I'll be able to upload some before next week

A long day in Nevada and Northern California

enjoy.

http://www.blog.crosscountryadventures.us/?p=224

[suntrack2]

so you cross the large distance on motorcycle, that's great and amazing. I think the long bike riding may give some trouble ofcourse physical, a. exertion, b. risk, c. back-ache,waist-ache, air pressure etc. what most of these given trouble during your journey !!

[crosscountry]

thanks for asking.

Riding a motorcycle is physically exhausting. The wind pushes on my chest all day and rushes past my ears. Without earplugs my ears can hurt a lot. The pressure change from wind speed makes my ear drums hurt at the end of a day. Other things are the sun and dehydration. In a car you are protected, but on a motorcycle you are open to the elements, and that can take a lot out of you. Sitting all day causes problems too. The first day of a long trip my tail-bone hurts. The second day is worse. Usually the third day is when it starts to feel better, but not always.


One of the biggest things I had to contend with is getting sleepy. On bigger highways the constant drone of the motor and straight road let me fall into a zone that isn't conducive to driving. Often I pull over to take a nap. This refreshes me and lets me ride some more.

[suntrack2]

oh, really it is work out, but was there any such instance when the motorbike get punctured in a speed, and what is the feed back of it, do you ever suffered such a trouble? (in most of the tyre puncture cases the bike could not be control later, and there is a great possibility in which we may fall on the road from the bike. !!

sunil

[crosscountry]

I have never had that problem.

My friends have however encountered that. Most people if they are capable riders can control the motorcycle and are able to stop safely. They can get off of the road without falling. It is more difficult to steer, and one must be very careful to not over exert on the brake pedal.

I have been lucky until now. Hopefully I will go a long time more with no flat tire.

[Fledermaus]

In the Uk its unlikely you will dehydrate quickly but I carry water as a backup if I am out for a long ride. If you plan a long trip take time to ride the bike for longer periods so you get used to the position and learn to shift your weight as it helps circulation. Also the more you ride the better your body adjusts to handleing the machine, you will always get tierd though.

To ease fatigue when I have along trip planned I make sure to have a good breakfast a hour before I set of and I plan breaks just to top up on my energy. I have been rideing for 20 years and I am still wasted when I turn in for the night but it is also the constant concentration that makes you tierd to.

I know what its like to have a achey tail bone, I toured Germany alone and boy was I unprepaired. If you dont have much flesh on you bum it happens quicker, now you can get gel seat pads and they are great for long distance rideing.

Flats, man they are scairy and fun at the same time depending on how fast you are going! Dealing with on is like dealing with your first skid out from the rear wheel or your first emergency stop.
I hope you dont get one ever.

[crosscountry]

I think you answered his questions pretty well. I've only been riding 5 years this month, but I've seen a lot of territory. It's been over 80,000 miles in those 5 years probably more like 85k. I've had a lot of sore tail bones, and days like 600-750 miles really wear a person down.

Glad to hear you ride. I was in England about 1 year ago today. Took the ferry from Normandy and then rode the channel train back. Spent most of my time in Swansea, but Bath was fantastic (except for the weather).

[Fledermaus]

If your tail bone keeps hurting buy a gel seat pad,they really do the job and you rearely get a numb bum.

You should have gone to Derby at the end of July as there is a really big Bike rally on called The Rock and Blues Music Festival, its on from the Thursday until the Sunday, it is mad! Derby is a great place to visit, North Yorkshire all the way up to the tip of Scottland is also excellent to ride. the only thing wrong with the Uk is the weather when you ride a bike.

Do you not wear a helmet when you ride in the USA and is it by choice still?

If your bike is a custom you will be able to get a clear screen to keep the wind of your chest and it takes the pressure of your arms and shoulders. if you ride a Jap rocket like me the standard screens tend to do the job unless you are over 6FT and need a screen called a double bubble which is has a little swept up piece on the edge. These also stop your head from getting all the wind and reduce the wind noise. I only get a slight whistle in my lid if the visor isnt closed properly and only use earplugs on really long rides.

Keep rideing and things become second nature and other bikers have all kinds of tips and hints that they learned years ago to help make life easyer. The more miles you do the better you ride, I cant even think of the miles I have travelled on my bikes.

[crosscountry]

thanks man. I've pretty much got riding figured out, although there are always things to learn. I'm on my 6th bike now and really like this one. KLR 650. Fun to ride and quite economical.


In Texas we don't have to wear a helmet, but I always do. As far as the seat goes my bikes have all been stock, and sometimes the seat leaves things to be desired. My Kawasakis have been more comfortable than the Suzukis however.

[BigDon]

Hi Cross, my father loved big bikes. This was back in the seventies. He liked Kawasakis. I spent a lot of time as a kid on the back of his bike. A 750 I believe.

I laughed just now remembering how my father's face lit up when he first heard the annoucement for the KZ1000. (whoa, thank you for that Cross!) I laughed then too. He went down to the dealership and put in an advanced order. It became his all time favorite bike.

http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/kawasaki_z_1000_1977.php

I would have been 17 when this bike came out.

One of the reasons he stated he like it was it was big enough to make a difference the next time somebody hit him. In '73 He got hit head on at the crest of a rise by someone in the wrong lane while on a 500. Closing speed of approx. 90 miles an hour.

A kid who didn't know enough not to pass on a hill. Crossed the double yellow and everything. On an overpass no less. My dad went over the car, and the bike went up in the air. It came down on the freeway and was hit by a semi.

It was one of those Evel Kneivel-esque injuries. He was in the hospital a year and a half. Nine months in a full body cast and another 4 in a half bodycast. Then all that relearning how to walk and all. That's what retired him from the police force. But he did recover with just a limp. Tough ol' bird. He walked off more heart attacks than Dick Cheney too. By two.

(He wasn't ever a motorcycle cop. Said they all had bad backs from riding day in and day out for a living.)

If you wouldn't consider it a highjack I wouldn't mind relating his more reasonable biking experiences.

[crosscountry]

Man, this thread is about biking. Injuries are a part of the risk. thanks for sharing. I have more I plan to share soon too.

[crosscountry]

I posted another short one that i remember being a very trying day.

http://www.blog.crosscountryadventures.us/?p=227

[BigDon]

My father lived in Oregon near Roseburg and would do long rides to the Dakotas and back along the northern truck route on the 1000. I didn't get to go on those trips because he preffered to go alone. He liked to go "at excessive speeds" in the empty places common to that route and he didn't want one of his children on the back of the bike. (I'm sure you understand CC)

And he wasn't the only one. A lot of times tractor-trailer rigs going the other direction at a hundred plus miles an hour would spin him 180 degrees with their wake even after he went all the way over to the shoulder.

Ever blast into a swarm of bees at speed? A hazard of riding in farm country. This emoticon can be highjacked for that circumstance. :wall:

Some of my dad's bikes had windshields and others didn't. On one ocassion as he thought he lucked out by seeing the swarm in time and ducking down behind the windshield. When he sat up he saw he had a small cloud of bees swirling in the vortex between his chest and the screen but looking down at them in the full helmit he was wearing changed the aerodynamics and the new updraft sucked a half dozen or so into his helmet. He still had squashed bugs in his hair when he came home.

And the one time I thought we were going to spill was when dear ol' dad took a hornet up the nose. One of those times when the lighting is just right and you can see them kind of hang in the air and he tried to duck it by leaning back. He actually spit it out before it stung him but he still had a bloody nose.

Myself, I don't know if I told you, the only time anybodies ever asked me to be a best man and I catch a bumblebee to the upper lip two hours before the wedding. We were just crossing back down to the double digits velocity wise. (In mph for my Commonwealth friends) My lip swolled up so bad I couldn't breathe through my nose. I can laugh about it now. This was the mid-eighties.

I tried to bow out and my friend wouldn't let me. I looked like the hunchback from the Fearless Vampire Killers. A good spoof of the Hammer films of the day.

But I shouldn't give the impression it was all bad.

One time it was early twilight in late summer and we were on one of the long straight farm roads my dad loved to cruise and they were harvesting these huge fields of mint and the baled mint formed these huge walls at the edges of the fields.

You would think that it would be overwhelming but though the strongest mint smell ever, it wasn't unpleasant at all. A huge sensory presense but not cloying. Dad leaned back and said, "You'ld miss that in a car."

But then again, he also said that when we passed by some funky smelling road kill too.

I remember being 14 and on my dad's bike going up Highway 1 on the coast of California at sunset coming back from Halfmoon Bay. I was kicked back, it was almost warm enough for shirt sleeve even on the freeway.

Dad believed in big sissy bars so the passenger gets to relax, even at high speed. Not everybody agrees with this, but then again not everybody spent years picking up the pieces of people who fell off the backs of bikes on the freeway like Dad did. (I'm preaching, sorry!) I certainly loved him for it.

[geonuc]

I posted another short one that i remember being a very trying day.

http://www.blog.crosscountryadventures.us/?p=227
Erv reminds me of Flat Stanley. :)

[crosscountry]

My father lived in Oregon near Roseburg and would do long rides to the Dakotas and back along the northern truck route on the 1000. I didn't get to go on those trips because he preffered to go alone. He liked to go "at excessive speeds" in the empty places common to that route and he didn't want one of his children on the back of the bike. (I'm sure you understand CC)

And he wasn't the only one. A lot of times tractor-trailer rigs going the other direction at a hundred plus miles an hour would spin him 180 degrees with their wake even after he went all the way over to the shoulder.

Ever blast into a swarm of bees at speed? A hazard of riding in farm country. This emoticon can be highjacked for that circumstance. :wall:

Some of my dad's bikes had windshields and others didn't. On one ocassion as he thought he lucked out by seeing the swarm in time and ducking down behind the windshield. When he sat up he saw he had a small cloud of bees swirling in the vortex between his chest and the screen but looking down at them in the full helmit he was wearing changed the aerodynamics and the new updraft sucked a half dozen or so into his helmet. He still had squashed bugs in his hair when he came home.

And the one time I thought we were going to spill was when dear ol' dad took a hornet up the nose. One of those times when the lighting is just right and you can see them kind of hang in the air and he tried to duck it by leaning back. He actually spit it out before it stung him but he still had a bloody nose.

Myself, I don't know if I told you, the only time anybodies ever asked me to be a best man and I catch a bumblebee to the upper lip two hours before the wedding. We were just crossing back down to the double digits velocity wise. (In mph for my Commonwealth friends) My lip swolled up so bad I couldn't breathe through my nose. I can laugh about it now. This was the mid-eighties.

I tried to bow out and my friend wouldn't let me. I looked like the hunchback from the Fearless Vampire Killers. A good spoof of the Hammer films of the day.

But I shouldn't give the impression it was all bad.

One time it was early twilight in late summer and we were on one of the long straight farm roads my dad loved to cruise and they were harvesting these huge fields of mint and the baled mint formed these huge walls at the edges of the fields.

You would think that it would be overwhelming but though the strongest mint smell ever, it wasn't unpleasant at all. A huge sensory presense but not cloying. Dad leaned back and said, "You'ld miss that in a car."

But then again, he also said that when we passed by some funky smelling road kill too.

I remember being 14 and on my dad's bike going up Highway 1 on the coast of California at sunset coming back from Halfmoon Bay. I was kicked back, it was almost warm enough for shirt sleeve even on the freeway.

Dad believed in big sissy bars so the passenger gets to relax, even at high speed. Not everybody agrees with this, but then again not everybody spent years picking up the pieces of people who fell off the backs of bikes on the freeway like Dad did. (I'm preaching, sorry!) I certainly loved him for it.

Those are all great stories, even the painful sounding ones. Actually my bee and road hazard stories get told more than some of the best "good" ones. It's part of riding, and they just don't happen in a car.

Once while riding through the Central Valley I came upon a garlic field that overwhelmed me. It was so fresh and so strong. The amazing thing about the central valley is that right next to it was a strawberry field and then cactus. Only in California.

And another great smell was in Eastern Washington after crossing through Mt. Rainer NP. It was nearing harvest time of the Hops fields, and that was something. Man, just the thought takes me back. My friends who were escorting me (showing off their state) stopped at a small town to show me the murals painted on the town buildings dedicated to the hops farmers. I have pictures somewhere. Some good history there.

Riding is a big part of my life, and it has made all the difference. It has afforded me a way to travel and really enjoy myself. I've also learned to be okay with being alone and relying only on me. There is something powerful about that.

[Tensor]

Here in the next two to three months, my wife and I are planning a week's trip (actually, nine days, including the two weekends). 5 days out on the backroads, and then three to four back on the interstates. When we get through with it, I'll post. There really isn't any plan, as far as where were going. Just from Florida, through Georgia following the Applalachins, going north to northeast (I do want to stop at the Tail of the Dragon). We're riding a H-D Electra-Glide Ultra Classic.

[BigDon]

CC, I've been to Tahoe four times. I get the same impression everytime. The water is so clear and blue you can get vertigo looking down into it.

[Neverfly]

Tahoe used to be a dump. They cleaned it up. Did an outstanding job!