Tips for making a long motorcycle trip more enjoyable

You are packed, your bike is ready and maintained, you have your route and are ready to go.  But how can you make things easier for yourself on the road?   I have some tips to make it a lot more enjoyable, many of these were updated from my recent 3 day trip.

Don't drink local water, drink only bottled water when on the road or drink the water from the soda fountain if it's a purified type (Coke machines at McDonalds for example)  The reason for this is that local water changes can upset your stomach and cause issues.  If you are used to city water and hit a place with very high iron content, you could end up needing the porcelain throne for a few days.  That is the last thing you want when on the road.  Sticking to bottled water will eliminate that.  I suggest having a couple of fresh bottles of it in your bike luggage or bags and replace them at every stop if you drank them.  Stay hydrated and you will have a better ride. I leave the house with about 4 bottles of water and replace them at fuel stops.

Schedule your meals at "Odd"  times.   Everyone will be hitting the restaurants at 8 am, noon and 6pm.    Why cause delays and get jammed up with everyone else? Get breakfast very early or wait until 9-9:30 am so you can have a leisure and calm meal.  Eat a little less than you would at each meal, you do not want to feel full and an excuse to stop should be always welcome.

Don't eat or sleep in "tourist towns"  Popular destinations will have the prices increased from 50% to 200% or more higher than honest pricing.   For example, 10 miles south of Mackinac City, MI  an ice cream stop was on average $2.50 for each rider.    In Mackinac City,  $7.25 was the price of an ice cream cone,  Motel rates went from $50 a night to $133 a night.  Expect prices to go higher on holiday weekends.

Carry a short thin metal cable with loops at both ends.  you can run it through the jacket arms and lock your jacket to the bike with the helmet lock if you need to.

Bring flushable baby wipes..  Don't question it, just do it.  Nothing sucks more than the toilet paper at gas stations and restaurants.   Not having them also sucks when you are on the side of the road behind a bush.

Take a camera and take photos,  LOTS of photos.  And yes take the cheezy selfie photos of you and your bike in front of the sign as you enter the town, or cross the great divide, etc...   Bring a small collapsing tripod as well,  There are some tiny ones that work great for this use. Go Pro cameras can be set to take a photo at a regular interval for even cooler photos that you don't have to even think about.

If you wear synthetic cloth socks and other garments instead of cotton you can wash them easily at night in a sink and let the m hang to dry overnight.  That way you can go several days without starting to smell horribly.

If you are stopping for the day, pick a campground or hotel/motel on the outside of town in the direction you are headed.  That way when you leave in the morning you do not have to deal with traffic through town.


Wear earplugs.   I do not recommend the high price motorcycle earplugs, Just get some cheap foamies that you can throw away.  Even if you wear a full face helmet, having earplugs in will significantly increase your enjoyment of the ride.  If you end up riding on a superslab, you will be thankful for those earplugs if you get stuck next to a semi-truck for any distance at all.

Be realistic of the distance you ride each day.  Honestly more than 300-400 miles a day and you will start to hate your trip.   Some days you might not make 150 miles.  And never ever think you can ride as far on the back roads as you can on the Freeway.  Enjoy your trip, don't make it into an iron-butt contest.  Also remember if you are riding with others or with a passenger, they may not be able to ride as far as you do, don't make it miserable for others.  If you did not get a good night sleep the night before,  you can expect to almost half the amount of miles you can safely ride.  Take more rest stops on those days,  even a mid afternoon nap. 

If you are traveling east or west, Schedule breakfast and dinner for the hour or two after sunrise or before sunset.  Riding into the sun utterly sucks, so try to be off the road so you don't have to stare into that big ball of fire that is trying to blind you.

Drink more water.  No you have not drank enough.

If you are typically a clean shave man or only have a Goatee or other small beard, do NOT think you can go a few days without shaving.  At about day 3 your stubble will grab at the helmet strap and drive you nearly insane as it tries to act like velcro and the strap tries to rip hairs out of your neck.  Either shave every day while you ride or go mountain man for a week before your trip and have a nice beard.

Yes you CAN get sunburned through your helmet visor,  get some sunblock on or you will have a really weird looking sunburn/suntan. If you are the no helmet type,  you can easily get far more sunburned even through a head-cloth, I get my shaved head burned right through that Harley branded head wrap at Bike events every year.  Get and wear high SPF lip balm.  Even if you ride with a full face helmet and the visor down all day.   sunburned lips sucks,  that same lip balm should go on the nose as well.

Get in the habit of checking everything at every stop.  check all straps and make sure all your gear is stowed.  you will be amazed at what can come loose after a hundred miles.

Bring something to clean your windshield and helmet visor.  Paper towel will scratch it bad and you really want the bug guts off before it etches the surface.  Bring a couple of soft cloths, and if you can soak a towel and let it lay on the dead bugs for a bit to soften them up.  Paper towels are great for this so you do not have to carry a wet towel with you, do not scrub with the wet paper towel.   I also carry a plastic windshield cleaner to spray on and buff to make the next day's bugs not stick as hard.

Get a spare key and hide it in a spot on the bike that is not obvious but you can remember.  Being stuck without a key really sucks. Spare house key as well if you want to get back home and then inside. If you are riding with a passenger, they can carry the second key set.

If you are yawning,  time to stop.  If you are still a good distance from where you can stop for the day, then get some energy drinks or other stimulants in you, but be aware that the clock is ticking on your boost of awareness, when the clock runs down you will lose a lot of awareness and focus.


If you ride a motorcycle that is actually designed for long distances,  like something with an adjustable windshield on a sport touring or touring, you will actually find the big superslab highways to have less wind buffeting than the 55mph 2 lane highways.   If you are mentally exhausted from dodging idiots on the side roads constantly pulling out in front of you, the big interstates give you a break as there are no side roads for people to pull out from.

Bring some electrical tape or duct tape to cover up spots on your helmet that may create a whistle.  I had a 45 mile stretch where I was distracted by a whistling in my helmet that was driving me nuts.  It took some of my attention away from the road.  The whistle was only there at 45mph and this was a very long construction zone.

If you ride a higher performance motorcycle that needs high octane fuel, get a bottle or two of "octane booster" and carry it on the bike.  Riding in rural areas it is actually uncommon to find anything higher than regular gas, so you need to carry something that will not cause problems by running the wrong fuel on your bike.  You can help reduce the chances of having to buy rural small town one pump gas by filling up every time you can at larger chain stations in bigger towns.


Check the weather often,  get a weather radar app for your phone so you can look at your route and see if there are any surprises down the road.  If you are riding into rain,  stop and get gas and put on the rain gear there.  NEVER put on rain gear in the storm under an overpass.  It's dangerous as all those cars are blinded by rain and will be driving 3 feet from you at 90mph.  Don't be afraid to wait out some thunderstorm cells and take an early lunch.  Light rain is easy to ride in, I can tell you first hand torrential rain and hail really really sucks to ride in and no rain gear on the planet will keep you dry in it. Your rain gear will make your comfortable in 10-12 degrees cooler than your riding jacket will typically keep you comfortable,  so it rocks as a windproof layer.

remember your trip is all about enjoyment, if your trip stops being fun then you will be miserable the rest of the time.  Stop, take a breath, enjoy a side trip.  And honestly if for your safety you have to get to work a day late,  then do it. Tell the boss to stuff it if he would rather you be dead or in the hospital  than late.  If you really are worried about the possibility of being late back to work after your trip, then shorten it by one day and plan to be home 2 days before you are to get back to work so you have time to rest or have a buffer in case you have to delay your return.

Review: Tire Sealant from Ride-On installation and observations

I decided to try a product that a lot of motorcycle riders have raved about for years, Ride-On tire sealant.  It seems that there is a cult following online for this product just like SeaFoam has a cult following in the motorcycle world.  So I decided that before a long multi-day trip, I would add it to the tires, the website makes a lot of claims about how it will self seal punctures as well as a claim that it balances the tires constantly and you can even remove the tire balance weights you have on your rim if you want to.   I am skeptical of that claim, so I will leave my weights on the bike for now.  First of all figuring out how much you need is not an easy task, I had to search several places and get the information on my tires before I found out how much I needed, and strangely, you cant buy a bottle of this big enough to do your tires, it requires multiple bottles.  For example on my K1200LT the minimum is 11 ounces for the rear tire and 9 ounces for the front.  The bottles of the product specifically designed for motorcycles only comes in 8 ounce bottles so that means I will have left over that I waste.   Until you read further that adding more, up to 25% more of the recommended dosage is needed for dynamic balancing.  So I figured out that I will put 1 and 3/4 bottles in the rear tire and 1 and 1/4 bottles in the front tire, that makes me feel better about not wasting some of this product.

Adding to the bike takes some planning, if you are a normal person you do not have a nice high pressure air compressor in your garage you typically have the small 12V compressor for doing car tires and your motorcycle tires.  Well adding Ride-On requires you to have a way to do a high volume rapid air inflation to clear the valve stem of the product before you re-insert the valve.  I discovered that what will work for this is a CO2 based emergency tire inflator sold for motorcycles and bicycles.  These will do the job of clearing the valve stem, and honestly are a great idea to have on your bike.  I found one at a local big box store in the bicycle department,  replacement cartridges from the paintball department.  I found you need 3 of them to inflate both tires, so that is what I carry on the bike now as an emergency tire inflation system.  But back to adding this thick pink goo to the tires.....    Big bikes with giant tires and tiny disc brakes will have an easy time of installing the goo,  My K1200LT provided some challenges to this.   The rear tire was easy, the single sided cantilever arm leaves one side wide open for access to the valve, so I removed the valve core and promptly shot it across the garage at high speed.  With your tire at pressure these things will just disappear on you, have your hand cupped over it to keep it from flying away.  Let all the air out and follow the instructions, what the instructions do not tell you is this stuff is sticky and messy goo,  it is also impossible to get the last ounce and a half out of the bottle.  I actually cut the bottles open to get what was left out and used a Popsicle stick to push it into the third bottle to get as much as I could into the last tire.   

On a bike with huge discs and a smaller tire diameter it is a challenge to get in there to get the core out of the tire and get the goo in,  I found that instead of having the valve pointing down, rotate the tires so you have some angle let's you get a better shot at getting all the goo out of the bottle.  Just follow the directions and be patient at the end when you cant get the last bit in the tires.   Clean off the valve stems very well, reassemble, re-inflate to your recommended pressure and right away go for a long ride.  The bottle says 3-4 miles, and that is wrong.  You need to take a 10-15 mile ride and do it at 45-55 mph sustained.  city riding will not do, and superslab 70 is not fun until you get this stuff spread around in the tires.  I hot the road and took a ride north on some rural highway.  I really did not feel much to begin with,  my rear tire is already cupped so I was used to having a vibration. but when I hit the 8 mile mark and stopped to turn around to head home things changed.  It really smoothed out and I could hear the cupped tire when I leaned into a turn but I did not feel the vibration from it anymore.  This stuff actually does smooth out the ride, I was completely surprised by that as I was expecting it to be all marketing BS but there it was.  

So it does seem to balance the tires out better than weights, was not too bad to install but is very messy and does not want to come off when you wipe it off the rim,  I had to use a cleaning product to get it all off.  and unless you have a huge compressor, you need to buy a tool to clear the valves when you install it.  They do claim that it's safe for TPMS but I do not have that on my bike so I cant really speak to it's effectiveness.  I do wonder if the goo will puddle to the bottom of the tires when I let the bike sit and cause vibration until it spreads out again,  only time will tell that.  I do like the idea of a sealant in the tire if I run over a nail or screw on a back road, but I will continue to carry my tire plugger anyways.

I found the best deal on the stuff from amazon.com  My local BMW dealer wanted over $20.00 a bottle for the stuff, I bought them for under $11 a bottle in a 3 pack.  It's expensive for tire sealant but it is the only one designed specifically for motorcycles as far as the marketing tell you, and it has the biggest following online.  Photos of tires with Ride on inside are clean,  Photos of tires with "slime" are a complete mess and I have heard that tire places really hate "slime" because it get's all over their machines.  Is it really effective?  people say it seals punctures well, some say they discover nails in their tires that they never knew were there after having ride on in their tires for a few thousand miles and getting new ones.  Only time will tell if the claims are true.

Basically, I like the peace of mind and I did experience a smoothing out of the ride from the tire balancing effect.  So I feel that the $33.00 I spent was worth it.

Preparing for a Long Motorcycle Trip.

Planning a weekend ride or a week long ride presents some challenges.  If you are riding nearly 500 to 1000 miles from home the last thing you want is to have any issues on the road and have to be towed to the nearest u-haul so you can load up your bike in a truck and drive home. Almost all towing companies will severely damage your motorcycle because most tow truck drivers have no clue at all how to tow a motorcycle safely and without damage.  The second a tow truck driver touches your bike, damage will start to happen.   So you need to avoid having a breakdown on the road, or at least have the tools with you to deal with any problems.


You need to do the stuff that you have been putting off,   first check your air pressure and bring it up to what you need for the load.  IF you are riding 2 up and with full luggage for 5 days then you need to be near the MAX air pressure.  My K1200LT wants the rear tire at 48psi for a full load, check your manual for recommended pressures.   Also consider adding a tire sealant product such as ride-on to your tires.  This will seal small punctures on the road without you ever knowing it, walking over to the bike in the morning to see a tire flat from a slow leak ruins your whole day.   Lastly, will the tires take the miles? 1000 miles rack up fast on a week long trip,  if your tires are already close to being worn out you want to go and get new rubber before your trip.   The worst failure on the road is a tire problem and they can be avoided.

How are your brakes?  did you flush your brake fluid lines in the spring like you were supposed to? how much brake pad is left?  Do not just look at the front calipers and pads, the rear typically wears out first and uneven on most motorcycles,  check that first and get them swapped out, it takes less than 15 minutes on most motorcycles to change the brake pads, yes even bikes with ABS. You want 100% stopping power in case a deer jumps in front of you at 60mph.

One other thing that a lot of riders do not look at is their throttle cables.  disassemble them and get some lubrication in the cables if they do not feel very smooth and quick.   Many newer bikes have teflon lined cables that do not need lubrication but if they are sticking or hard to move, you  need to replace them or lubricate them with a compatible lube.  I need to replace my throttle cables this next winter, so I bought a dupont teflon lube and put some in the cables.  they instantly freed up and after 3000 miles are still nice and smooth.   The same is for your clutch cable if you do not have a hydraulic clutch.

Go over the whole bike looking for loose bolts or nuts,  lubricate the foot peg pivots, the shifter linkages, etc...  Look for oil and fluid leaks and correct them if possible,  how old is that battery? Motorcycles don't have a kick-starter anymore so if that battery is 5 years old, replace it.   Now get the bike up on the center stand and have someone hold the rear of the bike down. straddle the front forks and lift up.  did you feel the forks move?  can you wiggle the forks up and down?  If so then you may need new steering head bearings, or it just needs to be tightened.   the last thing you want on the open road is for the steering to lock up or get hard,   Start with checking to see if it just needs to be tightened up.  If that does not solve the problem, then disassemble to check the bearings,  but don't check them,  just replace them with new. It is a lot of work to just ckeck a $25.00 bearing set, just replace them with new and not worry about them for another 30,000 miles.  While we are at the frontend, when was the last time you changed your fork oil?  Yes that oil needs to be changed regularly. 

Note: You don't have to do all this maintenance,  in fact a lot of riders don't do any maintenance at all to their bikes.  They love the adventure of sitting on the side of the road trying to fix a problem, the adventure of meeting new people that stop to help them.  The excitement of walking 10 miles  in motorcycle boots to get a truck,  and the huge fun of trying to push a dead motorcycle up a ramp onto a truck.  You have not lived if you haven't spent a couple of hours on your own trying to get a 600 pound motorcycle up a short ramp pushing it yourself, the best vacations are when you drop the bike on the ramp and now you have to pick it up and try again.


If your bike has been well maintained you will find only a few things that need to be taken care of, so the bike is good to go for a long ride.  You still want your tool kit with you just in case, I recommend adding to the kit a spare headlight bulb and a spare signal bulb wrapped up so they do not get broken.  Change the batteries in your flashlight, and make sure it works.  Add a medium towel to your kit as well.  It's nice to have something you can wipe the seats dry other than your jacket or shirt.  Also add a first aid kit,  put in that kit some extra pain killers, some allergy medicine, antacids, etc... I also recommend aspirin in addition if you can take it.   One of the tricks to avoid "I cant stand sitting on the bike anymore" is aspirin,  it's an old iron-butt rider trick.  if you are going to ride a very long distance, take a single aspirin before you ride for 300 miles or more without stopping.  If you can think of a problem you will have on the road, prepare for it.  I will tell you the most miserable ride in your life is trying to ride when you have diarrhea.  So be sure to pack something that will treat the trots.

Fight fatigue before you leave.  Plan on getting good rest every night and plan on rest stops along your way.  Unless your trip is to see how far you can ride without dying you do not need to push yourself, take breaks and even figure taking a long lunch where you can even sneak in a short nap in the shade.   Bring earplugs that are comfortable to you to help with cutting down road and wind noise.  Plan to stay well hydrated, riding will suck water out of you fast as running a marathon so drink a lot of water.  Lastly make sure you can see,  if your helmet has a scratched shield, replace it.  You will get  headaches and get tired of looking through scratches and distortion.  Be sure to pack what you need to clean that shield often.   Be sure to also have good sunglasses, you will be riding into the sunset or sunrise regularly and honestly it sucks having to look at that ball of fire for an hour or more.  I recommend not riding at those times because your risk of an accident is very high, just pull over and take a brake or wait to leave a little later.   Lastly stimulants should be limited.  I am a coffee addict, I cant start my day without it.  But using it to stay awake in the saddle is a very very dumb idea.  I have done it, and I knew how dumb it was but I was only 40 minutes from my destination so I took the risk and also reduced my speed as well.    You are not less of a man by going slower, the car drivers are not laughing at you.   Get there alive, your ego can handle it.

My experience with energy drinks though has shown what works best for me is the little "5 hour" bottles.  They deliver a huge boost of "awake" in their first 30 minutes,   but they have the  side effect of that when you get to your destination you will ruin your sleep for that night if used late,  so it will affect your next day.    I really recommend that you plan on being off the road around 5-6pm each day to give you time to relax before bed and get a good meal in you.  There are no gains from trying to push your ride well into the night and then collapsing from exhaustion.

Have a GPS for your bike?  That's great!  Bring a paper map along as well.  No, do not print out the Google Map, go to a store and BUY a real map or set of maps of where you are going.  You cant Zoom a piece of paper, so you need to buy the big fold out map of your state, or the states you will be riding in.  3 of these maps take up very little space in your tank bag.   You do have a tank bag for your bike? right?  Even plastic bikes like my K1200LT has a tank bag option, get one for your bike as these bags make your ride far more enjoyable by keeping things you need regularly right there at your fingertips.  It's nice to be able to simply stop at a desolated back roads stop sign and take a drink of water, or grab a bite of a granola bar.  Be sure to bring some small food with you, there will be times you will be hungry but nowhere to eat around for miles.

Packing the bike is important.   If you have a touring bike with hard luggage then this is really easy, put your stuff into those and lock them.   If you don't have those then you can get motorcycle luggage designed to strap to seats and elsewhere.  NEVER strap anything to your forks.   Yes I know movies show fools with sleeping bags and things strapped to the forks of their Choppers. And those people are fools.  You do not need something fighting you if you need to make an emergency maneuver to avoid a 1 food deep pothole that will destroy your bike.  Strap it all on  behind you and strap it on tight.  No bungee cords.  if it can move it can shift and force your turn to go wide or even cause a slide out.  Being lazy when you pack your bike means you like the adventure of road rash and head injuries.  Keep heavy stuff like tents on the seat or saddle bags, and light things like sleeping bags high.   What to bring is up to you, I know guys that take only a bedroll and the clothes on their back, Other friends ride a full size touring bike with huge luggage AND pull a trailer.   Most of us are in between that.  If you can stand wearing the same pair of jeans for 3 days in a row,  only pack a single spare pair.  I strongly recommend packing some light shoes, living for a week in your riding boots can get uncomfortable.  Even a pair of sandals or casual shoes that will pack way down is fine.  I found recently that companies are making pants out of ripstop nylon.  These will pack down to nearly nothing.  And the new trendy "rayon" action shirts also pack down to nothing plus work great as an additional layer under another shirt when it's cold.  I have a "compression" type muscle head shirt that I look hideous in but wicks moisture very well and when under another shirt keeps me very comfortable on mornings when you have a light chill.  Look for stuff that packs down small.  Nothing cotton packs down well.  

On the road you can "cheat" and clean your clothing with just water and a very very small amount of hand soap.  grab your shirt, socks, or underwear and head to a bathroom with running water.   Get it soaked in the sink then lather your hands above it.  now rub and squisk the item until you get soap all over it, wring it out and get it soaked under the faucet, wring it out and repeat a few times until you only get clean water.   You now have a clean item to wear after it dries.   Hanging all night works, or tie it to the bike and ride.  It will be completely dry in no time at highway speed, but it may have a couple of bugs splattered on it.

Lastly, bring enough cash to get home if things go sideways.  Figure about $1 per mile away from home will be enough to get you and the bike home if everything went horribly wrong.   I personally like only using cash on the road because places I eat are little mom and pop places and many do not take credit cards.  Enjoy the trip, see the sights, and love getting back on the bike each morning.  Silly trips like riding from NYC to LA and back in a single 3 day weekend, while epic sounding are nothing but pure hell.   Pick a sane route and shoot for a max of 600 miles a day if you really think you have to feed your distance ego.   I try to limit daily mileage to 300-350 and enjoy the ride as well as the sights,  At 55mph 350 miles is 6 hours in the saddle,  that allows a 1 hour breakfast, 2 hour lunch, and a few 30 minute stops each day.   It's really cool to stop and turn around to buy some fruit at a farmers stand on the side of the road and chat with them while you eat a snack of their produce.

Make the trip memorable, something you talk about fondly for years.  You don't want it to be your "summer vacation from HELL" that makes you almost sell your motorcycle and not have anything to do with bikes ever gain.

A trip to bring home a new friend.

This is an article I wrote a year ago for a local magazine. I had to wait until now to publish it on my personal blog.

 

The trip out of the state was not really planned,  in fact none of this was planned but it all seemed to fall into place rapidly.  I have been casually looking at getting a new motorcycle for some time now.  I loved riding a custom classic from the 80’s but the amount of work you need to give classic motorcycles to keep them running perfectly continues to increase each year.  My Yamaha Venture is a one of a kind,  custom paint job with a lot of repairs and upgrades to try and make it reliable enough to bring me home each time,  but each year parts became harder and harder to find.  So I started to look at alternatives, and started a chain of events that created an unplanned trip of 850 miles across 2 states through wind, rain, sun and a whole lot of fun for a single very long day.

I had a deal of a lifetime fall in my lap on July 1st, an almost brand new BMW motorcycle that was only 10 years old and maintained perfectly but barely ridden.  It was owned by an older gentleman that did not fit the bike well who really needed it gone.  I was in the right place at the right time, the only time he was available was July 5th and his home was 425 miles from mine.  I had one day to get to his home and get back with my “new” motorcycle, so we packed up  the car with all my riding gear and a huge thermos of coffee and left Muskegon, MI at 4:30 am bound for Hubbard, OH that was only 2 miles away from the Pennsylvania border.  Our drive out was uneventful, but it rained a lot and I was getting worried that the weatherman lied to us.  Although, you just can not predict the weather for a long distance like this, you need to plan for everything that is possible,  always pack your rain gear just in case.

We arrived in Hubbard, OH at 11:30 am  and I claimed my new motorcycle. I was honestly very nervous as I really have not ridden this type of bike before and I have close to a 7 hour ride home with it, riding an unfamiliar bike brings a lot of new risks to your ride.  You do not know the control layout instinctively, you don’t know the sounds and feel of the bike as if it was an extension of yourself and this will increase your stress levels as well as be quite a distraction.  My wife and I decided to take a small short side trip, we came all this way it would be a shame to turn around and head home without exploring.  So we decided to hit the town of Warren, OH and see the exhibit the Warren Library has about the Underground Railroad. Unfortunately we were there too early and had to leave before the guided tours started, besides it was time to head back to Michigan, and I-80 was the route home at 1:00 pm.

Riding on one of the largest interstates in the country is not a relaxing thing to do.  The sheer number of Semi trucks as well as traffic that seems to be on a mission to drive far over the speed limit will push your stress levels skyward as you ride.   Being alert, awake, and comfortable is what you need on such a ride.  My new motorcycle can easily outride me, it has a 350 mile range but I can barely make 100 miles before I need to get the helmet off and walk around a bit.  It was cloudy when I left Warren, OH and as soon as I hit the first bout of construction the skies opened up.  Riding in the rain can be tricky,  riding in the rain in heavy traffic through construction is not something I recommend to anyone.  You need all your wits about you, and you can not get too upset at the car drivers that are riding a few feet from your rear tire because you refuse to do 80 in a 45 mph construction zone.  All I can say is breathe slowly and stay in control,  They are not in charge, you are.  Don’t ride faster just to make someone else happy, ride at the speed you are comfortable at and get out of their way when you safely can.  If it is a single lane, then the car drivers can simply just deal with it, do NOT pull over on the highway to let them pass.  You are at a greater risk of getting hurt if you do that then if you obey the law while you are in the construction zone, Simply stick to the slow lane and let them zoom by at the end of the construction zone when all the lanes open up.

This Long ride also taught me that taking a break every 2 hours is a very good idea.  We stopped at several of the I-80 Oasis stops to just get something very small to eat and something to drink.  I topped off with cheap Ohio gasoline just before we left the turnpike to head north at Toledo to get back into michigan.  Each stop helped me feel more comfortable for the next leg, walking around a bit and drinking water with my helmet and gear off really helped, at one point I was gladly doing this in the rain much to the amusement of the group of harley riders that were waiting out the storm under the gas station awning.  You would be surprised at how dehydrated you can get riding even with all your gear on and a full face helmet,  even in the rain I was incredibly thirsty at each stop.  I tried to eat something small at each stop and only at the end  resorted to energy drinks  to keep riding and make it home.  They can be effective, but understand that when  the energy drink wears off you will become really tired if you were feeling tired to begin with.  I have not tried the “5 hour” types, but I doubt that they can overcome real fatigue.  If you have time,  it is not a bad idea to pull over and get an hour nap.  A lot of riders will do this at their lunch stop,  have lunch and take a short nap to digest and overcome the afternoon tired feeling.

Once we hit Michigan, we had only two stops.  One in Ann Arbor, MI for a walk around and a soda, and then in Grand Rapids,MI  for fuel to make it all the way home.  At this point I was just powering through the discomfort as I could tell I was starting to feel more tired and I knew that was the single most dangerous thing to a motorcyclist.  This is where I drank the energy drink and powered through the helmet pain and stinging butt from sitting for 3 hours to make it home.  Grand rapids I double dosed another energy drink to make sure I was wide awake for the ride in the dark to the lakeshore.  I arrived home awake but ready to get off the bike.   Total time to home was about 10 hours with all the stops for taking a break and fuel.  Would I do it again?  you bet!  a “boring” ride down I-80 and back home was quite an adventure.  Every stop I had strangers asking about my bike, I had a panoramic view of the world as I rode past it, and I learned a lot about long distance riding.

First,  do not try to make distance each day.  If you can not ride more than 2 hours at a time,  add at least a 30 minute stop every 2 hours to your trip, your body will thank you.  And if you are getting tired, stop for the night or at least for a couple hours to take a long rest or to get some sleep.  It is better to arrive late than in an ambulance.   If you are riding on a major interstate with a lot of Semi-Trucks, wear ear plugs under your helmet. I was trapped next to a semi truck for 1 hour at one point, its tires were so loud that my ears were ringing and I had to stop and find a quiet place to sit for 45 minutes for my ears to calm down.  Plus long distance highway riding at 70 mph is generally loud and for as long as you are riding you will suffer hearing damage, please protect your hearing and wear ear plugs, I noticed that the more my ears started ringing the harder it was to concentrate on the road.  Drink a lot of water, and I mean a LOT of water, you feel better and have a better attention span if you are well hydrated. I was suprised as to how much I drank on the ride home,  your lips feeling dry are a sign that you went too long without stopping for a drink. Take your time, enjoy the ride,  and make it home safe.

A new year.

So my bike and camping gear sits in storage waiting for the snow to go away and temperatures to go back up again.   I'm itching to go riding and here in michigan the DNR has a new reservation system for the State park campgrounds making it easier for people to actually get a campsite as it requires you to pay for your campsite fully when you reserve it,  this stops people from hogging the state parks by reserving every single weekend, then cancelling when they decide they dont want to go that weekend.

Some of the state parks have "mini cabins" that make life really easy for Motorcycle campers.  Not having to pack shelter opens up a lot of options for people with smaller bikes.   A lot of private campgrounds also have mini cabins nowdays that are quite affordable.  No running water or power, but they are warm and dry and typically Twice the price of the standard dirt campsite.

This spring I will be taking a camping trip to Ludington, MI state park on the motorcycle with my wife and writing a story about the advantages and disadvantages of the mini cabin camping that is possible in many areas. 

Social: Online forums and communities.

One of the greatest resources for a Motorcyclist is the online communities and  forums that are available for owners to get information and tips about their passion.      But they are not all friendly.   I've been on Honda Forums, BMW forums, Yamaha Forums and others with a lot of nice guys,  but it seems the forums that are specific for motorcycles that only the retired old guys ride are full of crochety old grumpy men that will nail you to a cross if you are wrong, but don't you dare question them when you find they are wrong.   Case in point I have been wrenching and riding motorcycles for 37 years and I'm only 45.  Yes that means I have been on two wheels and working on the since I was 8 years old.  My father made sure that us boys got our hands dirty and knew what we were doing with motorcycles, so my education started early in life and stayed with me to this day.    I have rebuilt and repaired at least 6 Bikes in my lifetime,  Two brought back from the dead that others have had no hope of ever recovering and one was stored wrong back in the early 70's forgotten in a barn for 40 years and restored to running and darn good looking status.  I have rewired motorcycles, reprogrammed the Ignition system computer on newer ones, etc...   So I actually have a bit of knowledge in the arena.  So I question an old guy and try to clarify and he blows up that I dared even question his words or not take them as gospel. And no this has not only been once,  I have seen it several times on this specific board.  They will say something that is wrong and if you point it out nicely  you will get jumped on hard.  I discovered that I ride a bike that has a typical owner age of 65.  So that explains why all these guys keep dropping it on the ground in the parking lot, cant fix it them selves, and go postal on anyone that questions them nicely.    I really like a touring bike and I want to do what they are doing (Riding not complaining) before I get old  and crotchety.

And I typically try to be as friendly as I can be,  but any time you correct one of these Retired fellas who is repeating yet another bit of bad information they read elsewhere on the internet,  suddenly they wig out.  Ask for clarification or where they got the information,  they wig out.  And then let on that you are not 60+ but in fact what they consider a snot-nosed kid at 45 and they go way overboard on being insulting and raging.

I strongly suggest to lurk on most and only ask questions when you need to,  Helping others with answers is only for those with very thick skins, yes even when you post links to 5 different places that back you up you will have someone trying to shoot you down for daring to correct them.

Secondly, remember only people with problems post on the boards.  People that have zero problems with their motorcycles rarely post on the boards as they are too busy riding, so do not gauge the reliability of a bike by the number of complaints.  Knowing what common failures are is one thing,  obsessing on them is another.  Look for real failure rates.  I found the rear drive of my BMW has a failure rate of around 4-7%  That is so low that I do not even need to think about it.  Yet on the forums it sounds like every BMW is a ticking time bomb waiting for the Rearend to explode at any moment.

My point is,  be nice to your  fellow riders no matter where you are or how you feel.  Being a grumpy old coot only destroys your own reputation and makes others look down on you.  I lose a lot of respect for every old fart online that goes all grumpy rage over another person,  it shows that they may be old but they are not wise.

How to use a real coffee percolator.

Trying to get in one last camping trip this season,  and because it's gonna be cold, I'm packing the campfire percolator pot.  Some people say these ruin coffee,  Others say it's the best coffee made.  I say it's easier than packing the stove, french press, grinder, etc...  plus it is the ONLY way to make safe coffee from "questionable" water sources.  It's why it was highly popular with our grandparents and in the wild west.

First,  ignore everything you read out there on the internet,  all of those people are dead wrong.  Looking at temperatures, etc...  This is not how you use these,  this type of coffee pot boils the ever living heck out of your coffee.   It will look different, taste different, and burn the snout out of your mouth if you drink it right away out of the pot.  At the turn of the last century, this is how it was made and it was left on the campfire for 10 or so minutes and then set to the side in a cooler but still hot spot.

Step 1- grind.  You are not going to buy the proper coffee for this pot, you need to grind your own and do a very coarse grind.  Look at the holes in the bottom of the basket,  your grinds need to be larger than those holes.   Not all of it will stay in the basket, you will get some in the bottom of the pot for that last cup swill to be extra special.  I also recommend against using ANY flavored or foo-foo coffee, this brewing method will strip out all of those flavors completely. Get a good medium or mild roast, if you want to really endure what Grand-dad and Great Grand-dad endured,  get a "bold" roast and be ready to swear like a sailor.

Step 2 - prep the pot.   you need to really make 5-7 or more cups in these for them to work right.  A standard old world coffee cup or coffee mug was actually close to 1 cup of water.  Today we drink out of high society venti tapered side drinking devices designed to funnel the aromas...  If that is all you have, get out a measuring cup for the water, if you are lucky your pot has a line showing different cup levels.   Now get that grind and put in the basket 1 heaping tablespoon of coffee grinds per cup of water.  and add another tablespoon "for the pot"  Believe me, it makes a difference to "waste" that last tablespoon.  carefully assemble the parts, putting the spreader on top of the basket and place it in the pot carefully.

Step 3 -  Boil the hades out of it.   This is where 90% of the internet is flat out wrong.  They say start on low, and watch this or that...  No.   Turn it on high and try to launch that thing to the moon,  you need to get it boiling to get the whole process started,  once you can see it is percolating, then turn the heat down.   How much depends on how cold it is outside and how the pot acts.    Over a campfire you don't have a "turn it down" option so just let her rip for 5 minutes.   If you are lucky you have a glass bulb on the top so you can see it percolating.  If you have one of the older ones just pop the lid once in a while to make sure it's still spitting water and coffee up the tube in the middle.

Step 4 - take it off the heat and let it sit,  This coffee is a LOT hotter than the stuff out of your modern coffee maker.  let it sit a bit or pour a cup and let that sit if you want to drink it faster.  You will notice it looks very different,  more cloudy.  This is actually how coffee is supposed to look unlike the over filtered stuff we drink today.

You will notice it tastes different.  it's because you boiled it and technically over extracted.  Some people love this flavor, others find it vile.   I find it's a lot better than the instant stuff and on a cold morning over a campfire.....  It's the best coffee in the world.