Surprising … when I started looking into moving the RocketCowboy blog from Blogger to WordPress (because Blogger no longer supports FTP publishing, so I’m supposed to host it with Google), I realized that I haven’t blogged a single post about motorcycle riding since I finished the Iron Butt Rally in 2009 and promised to do a write up on that experience.
Had it really been that long?!?!?!?
With the mild winter and start of the new year, Lisa and I decided it was time to get the RT road worthy again and start making some trips. Lisa has ridden on motorcycles only a few times, but unfortunately up until our wedding had only ridden with me for maybe all of 30-45 minutes in two sittings. We both were looking forward to seeing that change.
And so the process started. First we just needed to get the bike in for service and state inspection, since she (the bike) has been sitting in the garage gathering very little attention for the past two years. Just in talking about getting the bike serviced, little riding opportunities started to open up: could we ride to a Monday night Lonestar BMW Riders meeting, maybe a Thursday night coffee Meet-and-Greet with my old TWT friends, maybe ride over to dinner with some friends. Then the “right” opportunity presents itself: How about an overnight ride with my friends Jerry and Jamie somewhere close by? Now we have a purpose!
The bike service was as expected. No surprises, which was great since I hadn’t really properly stowed the bike since I wasn’t expecting to take a two year hiatus from riding. She would need new tires … the ME880s that I finished the 2009 IBR on in August of 2009 were even more rock hard than they were when I initially had them mounted, so I figured I’d try something new. The BMW shop was recommending the new Michelin PR3’s as good sport touring tires. I was previously running Metzler Z6’s when not mounting up ME880s for distance, but have had great reactions to the Pilot Roads in the past, so why not? I wasn’t surprised to see that the battery on the BMW also needed to be R&R’ed, despite being on a battery tender for the past 2 years. Gas in the tank wasn’t bad, and we burned most of that out while scrubbing in the new tires before our overnight ride, so the bike was ready to roll.
Now, where did I put all the “stuff” that goes into a motorcycle ride? Since moving into a new house almost a year after my last ride, most of the motorcycle stuff is still in boxes, with boxes having been “organized” to make the garage appear cleaner … without actually having much put away in it’s proper place. Just finding the little things … tools, SPOT, beaded seat cover … all turned into chores to test my patience. Since this is the first time to ride 2-up on the RT, and the audio issue I had with the Autocom has not been troubleshoot/corrected since the IBR, we needed to get some kind of intercom solution worked out. Eventually, the bike would come together, but I’ll post a separate blog entry for the trip later.
Interestingly, last weekend I received the spring issue of the IBA’s quarterly magazine. The opening article … ramping up to long rides after the winter break. Since I’ve been on break for the better part of 2.5 years, it’s a particularly well timed article. 🙂
Parts have started to show up for getting the SV road ready as well. I’ll do the oil and brakes myself, then time to get new shoes mounted and maybe a coolant flush for good measure. More to come…
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