Who rides motorcycles?

[om21braz]

Nice ride IT. Be safe. Stop and smell the roses. Neal Peart, the drummer from Rush, rides long journeys IIRC on a Beemer. He likes going to exotic places and no one recognizes him. He can just be a normal fellow.

Here is a blog for some cool reading at nights. It is a chronological blog from his journey. It is kind of hard to get to the beginning, but he went thru a pro and con process for which bike to buy and take. He left his Tenere at home and took an XT250 for it's lightweight and simpleness. Here stateside, I would prefer the Tenere because we have mostly great roads.

2 Ride The Globe - If Not Now, When?

You'll probably enjoy this if haven't already visited:

Adventure Rider

 

[Liquidsilver]

Yeah... it's what I do when I'm not riding my tractor.

- - - - -

... and this is important for cross-country trips...

 

[IslandTractor]

Stuck in Bozeman for a few days. Looks like Sunday is the first biking day.

I've enjoyed the whole ride so far with the exception of this mornings ride in rain, crosswinds and trucks on I-90 from Butte to Bozeman. Hard to travel faster than the trucks in those conditions. Only thing worse than passing trucks at high speed in lousy conditions, is being passed by trucks in those conditions.

However, the Super Tenere has been a rock solid touring bike. Feels kind of like driving a Lexus sports car, powerful but so very smooth and sophisticated. Not fun to maneuver at parking lot speeds but anything above 10 mph is confident and very comfortable. I bought the bike used with 8000 miles on it from a guy who spent a couple of years and mucho dollars "improving" what was already a great touring bike. My sorest muscles are shifter foot and throttle hand but my rear end is more comfortable than when at home watching TV and the upright riding position is very relaxing. Way different experience than when I did a cross country trip on my BMW R60 as a 21 year old.

So the bike is great but I shouldn't fail to mention how much better helmet technology has gotten. Shoei Neotec with a Sena 10u Bluetooth speaker built in is very comfortable and has made navigation a breeze. Waze feeds directions and I can see curves and intersections coming up on the phone mounted behind the windscreen.

I'm a believer in "all the (protective) gear all the time" and my Aerostitch Darian suit has been great too.

 

[MoPops]

MoPops - Of course, I think that's a great ride and the pics are fantastic. I think you pulled off one lucky ride also. I'll just bet if you went to that spot - now - that is shown in your pics - - you would be walking around in smoke, ash & corruption. I've read on this thread that the smoke, from fires out here in the PNW, is reaching as far back as Kansas and Iowa. Check post #420.

There was a fair amount of smoke around me the whole time I was out there. It obscured many mountain views. I never smelled it, but sure noticed it. I knew it was fairly close, but as long as it didn't smell smoky, I was thinking it was fairly far away. Sad to see what's happening out there..

 

[MoPops]

Nice ride IT. Be safe. Stop and smell the roses. Neal Peart, the drummer from Rush, rides long journeys IIRC on a Beemer. He likes going to exotic places and no one recognizes him. He can just be a normal fellow.

Here is a blog for some cool reading at nights. It is a chronological blog from his journey. It is kind of hard to get to the beginning, but he went thru a pro and con process for which bike to buy and take. He left his Tenere at home and took an XT250 for it's lightweight and simpleness. Here stateside, I would prefer the Tenere because we have mostly great roads.

2 Ride The Globe - If Not Now, When?

Neat blog, I'm going to go through it. I read his book a few years ago. Interesting he chose the XT 250, instead of the WR 250. I'm not familiar with the XT, is it fuel injected also? I'd love to have the time for a really long ride. Of course then I'd have to deal with the "leaving the wife at home" part..
Also, IT, I agree.. Ride safe. I hope you can avoid the fires, and still stay north in the cooler weather.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Neat blog, I'm going to go through it. I read his book a few years ago. Interesting he chose the XT 250, instead of the WR 250. I'm not familiar with the XT, is it fuel injected also? I'd love to have the time for a really long ride. Of course then I'd have to deal with the "leaving the wife at home" part..
Also, IT, I agree.. Ride safe. I hope you can avoid the fires, and still stay north in the cooler weather.

yes it is fuel injected. He wanted a simple air cooled engine to easily work on if needed.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yeah... it's what I do when I'm not riding my tractor.

- - - - -

... and this is important for cross-country trips...

Nice rides. I used to race just a bit back in '84 to '87 with no budget and no permanent health insurance. Down here in Texas.

 

[MoPops]

So far have travel down to Portland then up Mt Hood before following the Columbia River up Rt 14 to Walla Walla. After that stayed on gorgeous secondary roads to ID and to Wallace ID (mother's birthplace). Next day I-90 to Butte. Snowstorm coming tonight so will take a short drive today and hole up in Bozeman for a few days. Didn't bring winter street clothes. Who'd think snow in summer? When the weather clears I'll head due south through Yellowstone and Grand Teton. View attachment 521673View attachment 521674View attachment 521675View attachment 521676View attachment 521677View attachment 521678

Great pics! There are some great roads out that way. Looks like some blue skies. I was thinking you'd want to avoid the heat, but sure wasn't thinking you'd see snow.. I saw 34 on the bike's thermometer last week, just south of Butte. It was really early in the morning though, ended up in the upper 80s. I had the grip heaters on high.
I see you are in Bozeman. Are you going to go over Bear Tooth Pass. I know your headed to Yellowstone, you can catch BT, out of Cody. That and Chief Joseph shouldn't be missed! Hope you have time.

 

[MoPops]

yes it is fuel injected. He wanted a simple air cooled engine to easily work on if needed.

I know a few guys that carried a spare water pump with them on the WRs, but I've only heard of one guy that actually needed it. They sure rack up a lot of miles on those little bikes. I've never been on one. 690 is my smaller bike. I wish Yamaha would set up their 400, or a 450 like they do the WR..

 

[MoPops]

IT, hope you are still enjoying your ride. I heard yesterday there was snow around Jackson WY. Hope you aren't in snow! I wish I was still out there.. Another pic from the Continental Divide Trail.