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Excellent ride report slowird, it’s a shame about the fires but you seem to heave dealt with it quite well, bravo! GTTS and Beartooth are on my bucket list, now even more so.

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10 hours ago, EhViffer said:

Really great ride report!  A vicarious treat. Wonder if I traveled solo would I take the time to try and do a better job of documenting my trip? My wife and I have done many of the roads you mention on this trip on our VFR's so it brought back memories of the many hauls from Toronto out to this area. Now that we have decamped to Calgary we did the Going To The Sun road through Glacier this summer and slogged through the many wildfires in BC for good measure as well.  Have not done Pikes Peak and watched your entire video, hope to avoid the chappie on the new BMW wearing the safety vest who ground to a halt mid corner though! Considering Pikes Peak next summer and maybe make the SumSum trip. Safe travels slowbird.

 

 Thanks a lot! I guess there are pros/cons to riding solo. I really could have used the company during the long boring stretches and even some of the stops but at the same time I was able to go at my own pace and follow my own timetable.

I'm jealous you're out west. So many great roads to ride that way. Definiltey make your way over to Pikes if you can. Even with the traffic and the odd bad rider it was great.
I appreciate you watching the vid too. I'm no editor so I know it can be a long watch.

 

24 minutes ago, Mikey said:

Excellent ride report slowird, it’s a shame about the fires but you seem to heave dealt with it quite well, bravo! GTTS and Beartooth are on my bucket list, now even more so.

 

 Thanks Mikey. I hope you get to ride them. I can't speak for GTTS but Beartooth was worth the trip.

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DAY 10: Chamberlain, South Dakota to Madison, Wisconsin

 

The AirBnB in Chamberlain was.......interesting. LOL. It was in the basement of a retirement home. It wasn't the greatest. But the "staff" were friendly, and it was cheap and they let me do laundry so...it evens out.

Anyways, today is a slugging day. I need to make the miles and nothing else was planned for the day. The throttle lock came in handy during the long straight interstates.

Enjoyed my first QwikTrip.

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In Minnesota the roads started to become a bit chopy. Seems like around the States/Provinces around the Great lakes have crappy roads.
Also at one point I stopped for gas and it had an odd Non-oxygenated sign on it.

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Never seen that before. I guess it's similar to Ethanol-less we have back home?

Also after I filled up, an older guy pointed out some of the pumps (including the one I just used) had stickers on them saying not to use. I didn't even notice them.

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He was saying it means the pump is probably not accurate. confused.png Very odd. Anyone here shed any light on why it has been "REJECTED"?

After that it was more long cruising on the interstate. When I crossed the Mississippi River and Lake Onalaska into Wisconsin the clouds were looming. I pulled over and put on the rain gear and dealt with some on and off showers till I reached Madison.

I stopped for fuel before I got to my AirBnB and a guy filling up his car noticed my plate. "You running from the forest fires back home?"
Uhhhh no....all the Forest Fires are behind me actually. I explained a bit more where I was coming from and the fires out west.
"Oh. I heard there were fires in Canada."  Well yeah...but that's in British Columbia out west. lol

My AirBnB was an entire house just for me. I ordered Japanese food and ate in while I pondered my last day.

Aprox 910 kms for the day (566 Miles)

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21 hours ago, slowbird said:


Sometime later I made the last minute decision to Detour slightly north to checkout Devils Tower.

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There's a VFRD front page shot! 


 

 

16 hours ago, slowbird said:




I made my way Northeast till I hit the I-90 and began the slabbing eastbound. I noticed signs saying "Ellsworth AFB" but I couldn't see anything cool from the freeway. I continued on and suddenly this B-1 Bomber flew right over the interstate in front of me. I basically saw this:

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I clearly remember going "BWOAAHHH!!!!" out loud. lol I mentioned before...I love stuff like this so it totally made my day. After about 30 seconds it pitched upwards and rocketed away leaving a trail of yellowish brown smoke behind it. So awesome icon_cool.gif



The flight crew was surely looking down at you saying to each other "HEY - look at that guy down there on that bike having a great time!!!"   They were probably wishing they were you!

 

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haha I appreciate that Cogswell. :happy:  My Independence Pass pic got on the front page and I was pretty stoked about it.

The speed the bomber went by I'd be surprised if they saw the little red speck on the interstate at all. :cool:

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It's this right here why I love the VFR crowd, epic trips and the like,  Way, To, Go.    Thanks much for sharing your adventure it brought back some great times, and makes me think I need to get back there ASAP.  again.   Let me add here,   I can never get tired of listening to the 5th gen purrrr.  

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5 hours ago, RVFR said:

It's this right here why I love the VFR crowd, epic trips and the like,  Way, To, Go.    Thanks much for sharing your adventure it brought back some great times, and makes me think I need to get back there ASAP.  again.   Let me add here,   I can never get tired of listening to the 5th gen purrrr.  


 Thanks for appreciating the thread :happy:

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DAY 11: Madison, Wisconsin to HOME :goofy:

I made the last minute decision to take the Lake Express Ferry from Milwaukee, WI to Muskegon, MI across Lake Michigan. This would allow me to skip the foul weather that the forecast was calling for all morning as well as allowing me to bypass the traffic around Chicago.
...and also to give me and the bike a break lol  :sleep:

The Ferry was running on the Fall schedule so it departed at 0600hrs. It was an hour and a half to the Ferry dock and just to make the timetable even more tight, they ask you arrive atleast 45mins before departure. So when you add that all up together it equals me having to wake up very very early.

The ride from Madison to Milwaukee was miserable:sad:  Easily the worst part of the trip. It was dark. Very dark. Interstate had no lighting. It was raining. Some times a drizzle and sometimes a downpour. The interstate had construction on it. Visibility was poor. Cars behind me had their highbeams on and would blind me and the lights of oncoming traffic would cause glare. It wasn't a good time.
Thankfully I arrived safely at the ferry terminal and with time to spare. I'm glad I got these fresh PR4's.

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Yup. Still dark. That's how early it is.

The check in was odd. Lady was walking around with the mirror looking under cars. They asked if I had any weapons on me. confused.png

I bought the cheapest fare but it was still over $100. I then waited in the "terminal" until the boarding began. Just standing there making a puddle under me. lol

When it was time to get on the ferry they had me go first. Guy says "The Deck is wet so your bike might slide out from under you." it better not! icon_mad.gif

I went where I was directed and parked without issue. Deck hand says "Straps are on the wall. Use 2 on the front and 2 on the back. Good luck." and walks off. icon_eek.gif
Well here goes nothing.

I don't have too much experience with this sorta thing. I have only strapped my bike down in a ferry once before, and that was like 9 years ago with my VF500 in PEI. 
Regardless, I did an alright job I think.

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I got it cinched down so the bike was squatting a bit on it's suspension, but only just.

I then went up to the passenger deck. Found a spot with a table and unloaded my wet gear. I took the time to take the visor off my Helmet and wipe/dry everything down, and spread everything out to dry. There wasn't too many other passengers. Maybe 1/3 full.

I watched the safety briefing on the TV's as they explained what happens if the ferry pulls a Titanic. Then the Captain came on the horn and ran through his bit about our crossing and such.
When it was all said and done I put my earbuds in and took a nap.

The trip across is about 2.5 hours and I probably got a good Hour and a half of sleep. Couple times the ferry would list heavily from one side to the other and I'd wake up and think "there goes the bike".
I was in the center of the ship so the motion didn't bother me much.

After my nap I got up and got a coffee from the galley. (nautical terms :tongue:) I grabbed a granola bar from my pack and that was my "brunch".

I turned on my GPS to go over my route and the display made me smile

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Clever little bugger knew I was on a Ferry. However it was not smart enough to recalculate my route so it kept telling me to go south and grab I-94 to Detroit rather than head straight eastwards to Sarnia. Cancelling the route and selecting a new route home fixed that.

I visited the deck briefly. Weather had improved drastically. icon_cool.gif

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Disembark time. There was a huge gathering of bikes waiting to get on. The rest of the trip was more highway slabbing. It rained a bit here and there till I got to Sarnia. The Toll booth traffic was awful. There were only 2 booths open! rolleyes.gif Unbelievable.
The queue for the border wasn't too bad. Border guy was a bit of a grumpy pants. Odd since mostly the CBSA folks I find to be great. Sarnia to the 401 was uneventful. I stopped at the EnRoute rest stop in Woodstock, Ontario for Coffee and a break. Then it was lousy traffic till I got home to Toronto.

Last day was over 1,000kms (620+Miles)

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 Arriving home was a mix of happy and sad. I was done with this epic journey, which was a bummer. However I had a blast. I was blessed with great weather overall. No mechanical issues whatsoever...and most importantly I arrived safe and sound.

There is something really beautiful and therapeutic about waking up every morning and knowing that all you have to look forward to is riding, and that nothing lays ahead of you except the road ahead and the many things you'll discover on it.

I do miss it.

Thanks for reading everyone :beer:

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And so it ends, until you begin again. I'm sure everyone reading your tale had memories from their past rides and dreams of future rides to come. Here in the north winter is coming, but so is spring.:beer:

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Thanks again everyone for reading, and for the comments :cool:

So, I was curious to see how the bike and the oil held up to almost 8,000kms of use, so I sent a sample out to Blackstone after I changed my oil:

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I'm really surprised there is no fuel in there. They way the bike was behaving at Altitude, back firing and idling low, I was thinking she was running rich. Hell she runs a tad rich here at home.

Good to know everything else in there looks good though. Goes to show though, people are changing their oil waaaaay too early.
 

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Epic ride Slowbird, loved it.  I lived in Alberta for 3 years, and spent a lot time in Yellowstone and Glacier, so the Montana stuff brought back some good memories.

 

I need to find time to get a big ride in.


Dave

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On 01/11/2017 at 4:49 AM, slowbird said:

Thanks again everyone for reading, and for the comments :cool:

So, I was curious to see how the bike and the oil held up to almost 8,000kms of use, so I sent a sample out to Blackstone after I changed my oil:

 

Damn, that's one thorough ride report!  I've seen some excellent ones on this site, but I think this is the first that included an oil analysis.  Way to raise the bar!  I suppose you could go one further by reviewing some of your gear too. :goofy: (You already reviewed your accommodations along the way.) :beer:

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Very enjoyable ride report. Thanks for sharing. I rode many of the same roads on my 99 and this threw me right back in the thick of it. Great times man.

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk

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  • 2 months later...

What an epic ride slowbird!!! Thanks for sharing, great write-ups, videos and pictures. The bison flopping around in the dirt was pretty funny, and I'm still trying to figure out what that guy was doing (9:00 mark) on your climb of Pikes Peak lol. Great choice in the PR4's, I ran them on my 600RR (sold it when I bought the VFR) and never had an issue with them. I'm very jealous as I've wanted to do a trip very similar to this for a while and hope to cross it off the bucket list soon.


Cheers

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  • 3 weeks later...
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On 1/8/2018 at 3:47 PM, CDNBCN said:

What an epic ride slowbird!!! Thanks for sharing, great write-ups, videos and pictures. The bison flopping around in the dirt was pretty funny, and I'm still trying to figure out what that guy was doing (9:00 mark) on your climb of Pikes Peak lol. Great choice in the PR4's, I ran them on my 600RR (sold it when I bought the VFR) and never had an issue with them. I'm very jealous as I've wanted to do a trip very similar to this for a while and hope to cross it off the bucket list soon.


Cheers

 

 Thank you very much for the compliments! :happy:

 

On 1/9/2018 at 12:21 AM, Urbanengineer said:

I wanted to go to beartooth but it was closed off due to snow. Epic!

 

 That was one of my worries. When did you go?

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Slowbird... I too am late to this Epic Ride Report. And this years SUMSUM in Custer SD. will have a few more roads to mark off the list. 

i will go back and review this again soon. As im still trying to plan a route home.

 

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