Charlie's trippin

[Charlie G]

My '83 has the older style seat but I can't swear it is stock. At any rate, do you find it comfortable? I have 2 complete seats and a 3rd foam and cover combo (GK style) which I plan to put on one of the seat pans to have for a 2-up option.

Best seat I've ridden on!

In Rapid City SD this morning. This a touristy place! The evening sunset with dark rain clouds, Rays of bright light making the prairie grass glow, gave passing cars at the 80 +mph speed limit , on long sweepers ,a somewhat of a surreal feeling. Montana tomomarrow.

 

[GRAND ROUGE]

QUOTE:
In Rapid City SD this morning. This a touristy place! The evening sunset with dark rain clouds, Rays of bright light making the prairie grass glow, gave passing cars at the 80 +mph speed limit , on long sweepers ,a somewhat of a surreal feeling. Montana tomomarrow.

Geez Charlie......... No pics needed. Words convey it beautifully. Been following your adventure quietly on the side lines. Man, what an adventure you are having.

 

[Charlie G]

A dry cold day on the fabulous road(I-90) from Rapid City to Billings Mt today. Tired as I've over 1000 miles, Wednesday and today combined. Will see Martin & Conor on Friday in Idaho.

 

[1948man]

Marathon Man!!!

 

[Wallowgreen]

Charlie made it back to Boise Friday night around 8:15 but he didn't want to go for a ride then

Saturday we went North on 55 through Cascade where we made a stop at the lake

Made it to McCall for lunch then back down 95 through Council. Hope the scenery was better than the dry, dead prairie you sampled in the valley...

 

[dorkburger]

Such a cool trip.

 

[Charlie G]

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Yre...0x54ae48b843e36ae7:0xb036c8e0f5ce1559!1m0!3e0

This is a test to see if you can open the a map for my 1 st day out on my trip. Route in blue is pretty much the way I went. Let me know if you can open it before I continue on posting. Thanks...cg

 

[dorkburger]

Yep...... the screen shot

 

[Sandy]

Double yep. You back home now?

 

[posplayr]

Epic journey Charlie. Ride safe.

 

[Charlie G]

Yes I got home Sunday evening. Trying to get a few pictures organized, maps and settle in from the trip. I napped a lot Monday. Wore myself out pretty good. 6328 miles total in 13 days of travel. nthego: I be posting in the next day or so.

 

[tatu]

What a cool ride, congratulations on the epic ride and thanks for sharing it with us.


Just to ask, where is Stator these days?

 

[Allie]

Ok, so Charlie bangs on my door this morning.
We chatted for an hour about jobs and bikes, then I escorted him 40 miles from New Buffalo through Niles and on to Dowagiac Michigan.
He's tracking down his ancestors who settled in Michigan back in 1840.
I was a nice ride, although a straight line on US12, 60 mph. Seems it was some kinda special garage sale day, we had to slow down many times because of cars and people stopped at country houses for the sales.
Slight amount of precept, 100% humidity with a high dew point, so my visor was half fogged all the way to Niles. The weather cleared up after I left him at Dowagiac. then I rode home through all my favorite twisty country roads.
Have wonderful journey Charlie!!!

1840 was a great year for music. Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, all still roaming the Earth.

 

[Charlie G]

What a cool ride, congratulations on the epic ride and thanks for sharing it with us.


Just to ask, where is Stator these days?

The last I heard Richard was going to ship him to Gustov in Oregon, USA. Haven't heard a thing since.....

 

[Charlie G]

1840 was a great year for music. Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, all still roaming the Earth.

Since you brought up 19th century composers, there is a connection here to my trip to visit Bill, two very old ladies in Dowagiac, and a California girl who married a Canadian, but first some background......


I think it's a good idea to question our motorcycle activities. Is it sane to buy a $ 285.00, 33 year old motorcycle, fix it up a bit and ride it 3100 miles (one way) across the western US, through the rainy mid western heartland to "visit a niece" who has offered many times in the last12 years, offered to buy you an airline ticket? I am aware that the exposure exhaust fumes at an early age from a motorcycle have effected my ability to shake an adolescent naivety toward such activities and attitudes I have about life from time to time. Hence the garage with 5 motorcycles, 2 of which run, and my typing here and the trip. It must have been the lead in the gas at the time? It did seem like a good idea 3 or 4 years ago when I first considered it. While broken down on the road, in the hot sun in Billings, MT, or in a flash rain storm on a Wisconsin Interstate, going 80 mph with fool hardy vehicles, 10 feet to the front and back of you , does make you question your choices. Oh, I need to mention 500 miles plus a day....now everyone knows that life on the road begins at 450 miles. I even had the forms printed in my tank bag to document the trip for a "Saddle Sore" award. Grasshopper, Grasshopper what rusty truck did you fall off of?

This may take a while to work it's way out, to answer this question....I'll be back. Present day life calls.

 

[Charlie G]

So I'll leave the reflective sanity discussion for a bit and recap. The Google map link I posted was for my first day of travel through Oregon to Boise Id for a short visit with Martin and family(523 miles from my house per the speedo) and then back on the road to Montana.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boi...c4c!2m2!1d-110.5599556!2d45.6614105!3e0?hl=en

Day 2 map to Three forks, Mt. (530 miles) It started raining so I stopped in and didn't go to Livingston.



I-84 east of Boise,Id

You've got to love speed limits. I'm not sure I would been as comfortable riding at 80 + MPH sustained speed without the little fairing I put. I road for the next three days at this speed. I was in Montana for a total of 3 days, there and back and saw 1 police car on the Interstate. I really don't think they enforce the speed limit. Just go and be safe. A libertarian spirited , wild west approach, I guess. Helmets? Optional until I got to Canada. You bet'cha I wore mine! I would do a double take all the time about the helmets. Harleys everywhere! Did I mention Sturgis was going on as I rode out?

 

[dorkburger]

I love when philosophical questions about cycling come up......
By all logical measures, riding makes no sense, especially with new car fuel efficiency stealing one of our last flimsy excuses to show the logical - good MPG.

Heart attacks, cancer, random accidents, etc follow that same lack of logic also, however.
Ive more to add, but the thoughts are currently a cluttered mess in my mind.....

Charlie you did that on a bike you originally paid $285 for??

 

[Carter Turk]

Curious how many animals in the road were spotted dead or alive in all those miles? Must of been a few, more than cops in Montana.

Wisconsin was the worst state for deer on my longest ride.

Somewhere near St. Germain on Hwy70 my trip almost ended at 65mph, at dusk.

Stealth camped about a mile after that, when 5 deer were wandering around in the middle of the road.

Pretty cool to make it so far with so little overhead to start with.

It just might not be as exciting/rewarding to ride a $15,000 bike the same route.

 

[Charlie G]

Curious how many animals in the road were spotted dead or alive in all those miles? Must of been a few, more than cops in Montana.

Wisconsin was the worst state for deer on my longest ride.

Somewhere near St. Germain on Hwy70 my trip almost ended at 65mph, at dusk.

Stealth camped about a mile after that, when 5 deer were wandering around in the middle of the road.

Pretty cool to make it so far with so little overhead to start with.

It just might not be as exciting/rewarding to ride a $15,000 bike the same route.

The number of deer dead along the road was unbelievable. I saw elk and prong horn antelope as well. I joke about Frisbee kitties, but Frisbee elk? I was lucky on getting this bike.

 

[Charlie G]

Charlie you did that on a bike you originally paid $285 for??

Yes I did! A former member placed an add in the for sale section. He was about a 5 hour ride from where I live and I jumped on it. He was the original owner, wanted it to go to someone who would fix it up and had bought a Gold Wing when he parked it in 2006. That was December 2013. It had 43k miles and it's got close to 63k now.

I had a whole other page posted up but deleted as the pictures were from other past trips. Man that took a while to put together. I'll try again.