Brown County IN Freezy Breezy Ride

[gbw]

I was invited to join Tim Rose (twr1776) and Brian Wringer (bwringer) for a Saturday Brown County Indiana ride this last weekend. It was a bit chilly but otherwise the weather cooperated and allowed for a fantastic ride.

The trip started for me Friday afternoon by riding 85 miles from my place to Tim's. Nothing great to report about this leg of the trip. Mostly slab in light showers in mid 40F temps. Was glad I had my new Gerbing's electric gloves and TourMaster rain gear.

Tim and I loaded our bikes onto his snowmobile trailer for the 140 mile drive down to Brian's. This is first time I've trailered a bike anywhere but it really made the trip comfortably possible.

Here is Tim tightening the final strap...ready to go!!!

A two and a half hour drive allowed us to meet our host Brian and his lovely wife Marge for a late dinner of various bits of Buffalo and tasty beverages at Ted's Montana Grill.

Saturday dawned crisp, clear and cool. The three of us launched from Brian's at 9am. After a quick trip on the slab we gassed up and headed out into rural Indiana.

The rest of the day was mostly a blur of fall foliage and twisty roads with a few stops for gas, food, and a two photo ops. Brian has some great routes in this part of the world and we even took a new road that might get added to next year's Brown County ride.

First photo op...longest covered bridge in Indiana, or maybe the world...or the universe...what do I know?

My bike getting a little muddy

Brian with the bridge in the background

Tim and the bridge

 

[gbw]

The only other photo op was a little parking lot with a scenic view of some lake.

I wish I could recount the route for you because it is chock full of twisty roads thru nice scenery (with fall foliage beginning to turn) interrupted occasionally by small farm towns. I don't know the area very well which provides a great incentive to stay close to Brian...which is no easy task. Thankfully he is willing to patiently wait at the turns.

The only places I really recognized were Story, where we stopped for lunch, and an intersection near Bedford, that I remember because of the Wendy's where I asked someone for the location of the Bedford Suites Hotel (which does not exist).

We arrived back at Brian's shortly after dark, loaded the bikes back on the trailer, and enjoyed one last meal with our hosts at a local mexican joint. In hindsight...avoid mexican food if your going to spend the next 3 hours in the confines of the cab of a pickup

Tim was my host Saturday night. We got back to his place just after 11pm, unloaded the bikes and crashed. We were both exhausted but satisfied with a full day of turning gasoline into smiles behind us.

The worst part of these rides (or any of the rallies I've been on) is going home. Just so hard for me to let go of a great ride. I've got to figure out how I can make $250k a year riding my motorcycle so it never has to end. I left Tim's in NW Indiana at 5:30 am in low 30's temps and fog. The 2 hour ride home on the slab sucked. Traffic was light but it was sooo freekin' cold. I had my gloves cranked up and they kept my hands pretty warm, but when I got home my feet were ice blocks and my core temp took a hit. I was freezing cold all day long.

Now I'm finally thawed out and look back on the weekend as a great adventure with good friends. Can't wait for the 2010 BC Rally so I can do it all over again in warmer temps!

If your interested you can see all my pics of this trip by following the link below:
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/77GS750/Freezy Ride Oct 09/

 

[Larry D]

Hey !!! I know those guys !!!! Looks like a great day !! I know it was chilly. I went and passed my riding test that morning.

Where's the picture of you ?

 

[gbw]

Where's the picture of you ?

Somehow I never end up with pics of me. Maybe Brian or Tim can post one. But most of the time I'm the only one acting like a Japanese tourist at these things.

 

[bwringer]

A great day of riding, definitely! We had to keep moving to stuff in more riding into the scanty available daylight, so apologies for the lack of photo ops.

Nah, I'm not really sorry.

The Medora covered bridge is supposedly the longest covered bridge still standing in the US. So far, it has defied Don Pepe's repeated attempts to view it in person. The highway (IN 235) to the bridge connects nothing with nowhere and floods very easily, so it's quite often impossible to reach.

The lake photos were taken just before the causeway across Lake Monroe, along 446 south of Bloomington.


Here's part of the route, up to Mitchell, IN:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou....732393,-86.456738&spn=0.116501,0.150204&z=13

 

[Steve]

First photo op...longest covered bridge in Indiana, or maybe the world...or the universe...what do I know?

The Medora covered bridge is supposedly the longest covered bridge still standing in the US. So far, it has defied Don Pepe's repeated attempts to view it in person. The highway (IN 235) to the bridge connects nothing with nowhere and floods very easily, so it's quite often impossible to reach.

At one time, that statement might have been true, but I just discovered this last weekend that I will be visiting the longest covered bridge in the U.S. next summer. It is in northeast oHIo and was just opened in August, 2008, so it's new enough that some websites proclaiming a bridge to be the longest are just a little out of date.

The Medora bridge in Indiana is 434 feet long, 16 feet wide and 12' 6" high. It was built in 1875, has been replaced by a concrete bridge right next to it, and is no longer open to traffic.

In contrast, the Smolen-Gulf bridge in oHIo is 613 feet long, 30 feet wide and 14' 6" high. It was built between 2006 and 2008 to replace a rusted-out iron bridge, was designed to handle fully-loaded semi-trucks , and has a life expectancy of 100 years.

 

[spyug]

Thanks for sharing guys. sounds like it was a blast of a weekend. Fall is my second favourite time of the riding season following spring. The weather can be decieving as I also found yesterday.

On a quick three hour outting to gather up some fresh fruit and veg and view the foliage I darn near froze as I wasn't properly kitted.

I had been working all morning in the garage and was quite toasty with the sun shining in. Heading out after lunch I figured I'd be warm enough in my textile pants and jacket ( without liners) over just a T shirt and long sleeved cotton shirt. After just 15 minutes I had to stop for a warm up coffee and a change of gloves to my winter weight Scorpions.

I managed to go another hour or so with the grip heaters on full blast but I was starting to get cold in the torso. Before getting into trouble I decided to head for home and by the time I arrived I was shivering and even my hands were cold. Taking my gloves off my hands were red, sore and ice cold ( ask the wife).

One of the guys on the local board swears that a heated vest is a must as keeping the torso warm keeps the blood from coming back from the extremeties and thus allowing them to freeze. I think that's what happened to me and I'll need to make sure I'm wearing my long johns and liners when I go out now.....no matter how sunny and warm it appears.

Wrap up and take care out there.

cheers all,
spyug

 

[Steve]

One of the guys on the local board swears that a heated vest is a must as keeping the torso warm keeps the blood from coming back from the extremeties and thus allowing them to freeze.

I will vouch for the effectiveness of heated clothing. I am using a jacket liner that I wired myself and a pair of Widder gloves for my early morning commute. Even though the jacket is not as warm as the commercially-available units (intentionally), it does a wonderful job. The thermometer on my bike was reading between 31 and 35 for the hour-and-a-half ride this morning, the only cool parts of me were my neck (forgot to pull my collar up) and the tops of my thighs.

I have used my brother-in-law's Gerbing's jacket in 24-degree weather. Because it was cold, I turned the thermostat up to 7, out of 10. I was sweating within 5 minutes, and I had a half hour to go before I could stop. Turned it back down to 4 for the trip home and was very comfortable. I figured if setting the thermostat on 4/10 on a 77-watt jacket was comfortable, I should be OK wiring my jacket for 50 watts. I got real close, it actually measures out at 47 watts. Since it is keeping me comfortable in the low 30s, I call it a success.

Of course, I am cheating, as far as electrical power is concerned, too. I am not limited by stator power, I have an automotive-type alternator. The stock unit is rated at just over twice the capacity of a GS charging system. To add insult to injury, it's an aftermarket unit with over twice the stock capacity.

Yep, it takes a lot of that 90-amp output to keep the capuccino machine and the microwave going on the old Wingabago. :-\\\


.

 

[gbw]

One of the guys on the local board swears that a heated vest is a must as keeping the torso warm keeps the blood from coming back from the extremeties and thus allowing them to freeze.

Yeah, Brian at Twisted Throttle told me the best thing to do is get the heated vest first. That if your core is warm you hands will be fine with regular heated gloves.

Having ridden with only heated gloves for the last couple of seasons I believe keeping the hands warm are key. I was bundled up like the Michelin tire man under my jacket and pants and I was fine for most of the ride with just the heated gloves. However, that ride home Sunday morning make me wish I had another $400 to spend on the heated jacket liner, pants liner, and socks. My toes were red and painful when I got home.

I'll put the heated jacket liner on my Christmas list this year and collect the pants liner and maybe even the socks as money permits. But I'm a big fan of the electric gloves.

BTW, my last pair of electric gloves were the original Widder with the 2 pronged connections. The Gerbings are MUCH warmer. Even in 30F temps I never turned up all the way.

 

[twr1776]

Sorry Greg, I did not have any photos of the "Whisperer" to post. As Brian mentioned we usually don't stop much for photo ops. We did go on a couple of "new" roads that were excellent finds by Brian on this trip and went through "Bump Ass Pass" and we also took old 37 on the way back North which is also a very nice road.

Entrance to the bridge, Brian in the background

Whisperer Tracks

Crappy bad handling "L" model by the bridge