Broomfield Colorado to Muskogee Oklahoma
I set up a preliminary web page to prepare for the trip. I figured out the gear I'd need and made sure I had a good listing. I also set up a potential map, a schedule of stops, and a few other links
I set up an account at home so that Rita could update the website with my location whenever she called. The site is here. I wanted to set up a spotted page as well so that others could send updates as they spotted me but I thought about it at sort of the last minute and didn't get around to setting it up.
The weird part is that when I got up on Saturday morning, I'd been thinking of what I could do to set it up and had the idea roughed out so I sat down at the computer and spent a few minutes getting the site set up. I got it going over here and I asked Rita to check it periodically while I was on the ride.
I got the bike set up and ready to go on Thursday night so I only needed to throw a couple of things together and was ready to bail. At 4:30am on Saturday morning, I was off and ready to go :)
In the first couple of hours, I had doubts as to whether I really should go on this ride. I normally have these doubts and get over them when the sun comes up. I know that I eventually get into the ride and the zone and enjoy the rest of the ride so I kept going.
I intended on keeping an eye on the MPG indicator to keep my speeds at a reasonable level. When I pulled in to fill up the first time, my MPG was at 48mpg. This will be lots of fun :)
On 70 in eastern Co I found a nice long stretch of open road with no traffic and excellent visibility. I opened up the throttle and laid down on the tank bag. When I reached 160mph I decided that I was going fast enough and backed it back down :) I was thinking about the rear tire and that I was going to be getting one out in VA when I got there in a few days.
I found out later that the winds in Kansas and Oklahoma were gusts up to 36mph mostly from the south. The fun part was with the trucks. The wind was blowing quite hard but when I passed a truck, the wind would turn into brief turbulance. But as I got to the front of the truck, I encountered the wall of wind that the front of a truck produces. The ones with pointy front ends had less turbulance as I passed. When I went by a truck with a flatter front end, the turbulance was much more intense.
I've lost quite a bit of weight in the past year (about 75 pounds). Because of this, my helmet doesn't fit as well as it used to, especially around the chin and cheek area. I could certainly use cheek pads. I did have my head cover which helped but I stopped wearing it when it got warmer. Since the wind was constantly blowing from the south, I found that the helmet was being slightly turned which was inflicting undue pressure on the left side of my face. This caused my jaw to become sore and my left ear was getting extremely uncomfortable.
It was windy enough that I was sitting a little cockeyed on the bike. It was leaned over and I was seated more on the right side. At times I'd hunker down and lay on the tank to be more part of the bike but the wind pushing on my helmet didn't make that comfortable for long.
As I turned south at Salina, the wind became quite uncomfortable, buffetting me from just to the right of the bike. It was so bad that I couldn't even lay on the tank bag. At one of the stops I removed the top part of the tank bag to see whether I could wear it or would have to strap it behind me on the bike. I had brought plenty of bungies and straps so it could be done if necessary. The backpack straps set it up so the opening is towards the top which was a good idea however it could also catch the wind. I'd packed my electric jacket liner in the tank bag so it was pretty packed.
I got back on the road and adjusted the right mirror so I could watch the bag opening. I was concerned that the velcro wouldn't hold in the heavy winds and of course, 75mph. At one point I passed a slower car and saw that the velcro had failed and it was open. All I need is for the bag to open up at speed strewing my gear all over the freeway. Especially since all my glovebox type stuff was there. Snacks, iPod, Cell Phone, book, jacket, and other small things. I immediately pulled over to the right and got the bag secured again. Fortunately nothing had fallen out.
Since this was the first day on the road, I was still getting the hang of getting the electronic gear running correctly especially since I was using the batteries we had in the closet. I'll have to remember that new batteries are required when starting a trip. The Boostaroo didn't seem to be making any difference, probably because of the older batteries. I learned that the Belken battery pack (for the iPod) had some restrictions as well. The iPod would keep cutting out and I'd have to stop the bike and start the iPod again. The proper sequence was to let the iPod run until its battery died then turn on the battery pack which would run for the additional time on the road.
I was trying to test my ability to stay in the saddle between gas ups so I didn't want to keep stopping to restart the iPod. One of the times where it failed, the wind was particularly brutal and I was determined to stay in the saddle, I wigged out a little. I was trying to maintain a reasonable speed and with the wind I was having to lay down on the half-tank bag. I found that when I put my feet on the rear pegs I couldn't maintain a consistent speed, or rather I would creep up on the throttle. I just didn't have very fine control and the bike's throttle really requires a light touch. I was really becoming frustrated at edging my way to 85 as soon as I took my eyes off of the speedometer. I started hitting the throttle hard (blipping it), racing it, slowing down and generally weirding out. I even whacked the side of the tank a couple of times. Fortunately the trees and buildings started blocking the wind a bit better and I realized that having my elbows on my knees and my feet on the front pegs really let me maintain control.
I got to Oklahoma in a little better state of mind. I made a left onto the tollway and headed towards Tulsa. I'd planned on spending the night on the other side of Tulsa. I always do that since I want to head against traffic rather than ride with rush hour into town. Rita found me a motel just off of route 62 in Muskogee and I unpacked the bike.
When I went out to lock up the bike, I was approached by a guy who asked me about the bike. He was amazed that I'd left Denver that morning on such a large sportbike. I found that I needed to explain how comfortable the bike was for rides (even with the wind) and how smooth and quiet it was.
He mentioned that he had just purchased a Yamaha R1 from someone for $5,400. His wife wasn't super happy about it but he was determined. He then asked me how to start a bike which surprised me a bit. I explained that he should look into going to a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) course, especially since they provided the bikes to ride. That way he wouldn't scratch the plastic up on his new ride in the event of a drop. I suggested checking the local college and sign up for the next available class. He was very interested and I hope he made it to a class.
I found out later that he'd ridden dirt bikes quite a bit. I guess starting a dirt bike is a little different than starting a street bike.