Ramble On 2007 (Day 5 & 6)

[Busa@11K]

Looks like the pizza man took a bite out of one of the slices ... looks pretty good though.  Nice roads and nice weather ... what more could you ask for?  Ride safe and have fun !!

[servicerifle]

It's refreshing to see a forum owner out doing the thing that the forum is about...it doesn't happen much.  Enjoy your ride, we're enjoying your report!

[Ant]

On a positive note, my ass is returning to form already.  On day two my ass and knees where really bugging me.  At the end of today they were only mildly annoying.

Sorry Skipper... We don't need to know the state of your ass    
Great report so far, must be damn nice to get a 10 day stretch of time off to just ramble around... Maybe next year  

[November]

It's refreshing to see a forum owner out doing the thing that the forum is about...it doesn't happen much.  

Great point!

Enjoy your ride UFO! Great report so far (and awesome pics).

[bizarro]

Woot!  

[Tyrroneous]

You ride?  





















Great report so far Skipper!  

[bomber]

10 days! Good for you!

Get some, Skipper!

[UFO]

Updated daily...assuming I have net access.

Day 5:  Dillon, MT to Montpelier, ID via Yellowstone and the Tetons - 380 miles

Today was going to be one of those days.  I should have known better than to use Yellowstone as a means go get south, but I wanted to at least check out a couple things.

I cut over from Dillon, MT and used backtroads to hit 191 in to West Yellowstone.  Once there I spent some time dodging tourists walking through crosswalks while texting on their cell phones (Yes, in Yellowstone ) and grabbed a bite to eat.  I really wanted to hit the border of Colorado by the end of today...but my stomach was bigger than my eyes.

I enter the west gate along with a continuous line of sightseers.  The first tool (of many) that I encounter today is a guy in his car who slams on his brakes in front of me.   Why you ask?  Because of the bright red sign that said (can't remember exact wording):  "Bald eagles nesting.  No stopping.  No standing.  No leaving roadway."  To emphasize the point the park had also placed a row of bright red cone about 50 yards in length on both shoulders of the road.  Did this stop the mouthbreathing dumbass?  Nope!  I'll just stop in the middle of the focking road, get out, and hold up everyone else.  Awesome.

It's starting to warm up and I can see thunderstorms brewing on the edges of the caldera (that's Yellowstone for the n00bs who don't know that the entire park is a volcano's crater).  Traffic is slow.  I'm being tailgated by some bitch in a mini-van.  I have to continually watch for people in front of me slamming on their brakes to take pictures of...beetles, pinecones, hills, and the occassional buffalo.

I pull into one of the parking lots that services one of the many geisers (can't remember which one I stopped at).  Parking lot is full.  People are driving rented RVs down the lot in the wrong direction (they work as a loop), screwing up everyone else doing it the right way. I shoehorn in between two cars, hide my helmet under my coat, and pray that all my shit is there when I get back.

I hoof it around the wooden walkway through the stinky pools and vents belching sulfurous fumes.  All in all it was pretty cool, but hiking around in boots and textiles pants makes one hot..and makes for strange looks.  I get back to the bike...everything is still there. But not something I want to do on a regular basis.  Okay, onward to Old Faithful then I'm heading south.

Yeah.

So I get to the Old Faithful complex area and it's like the beginning of the superbowl.  Cars as far as you can see and not a free spot to be found.  Buses lined up to hell and back, belching desiel fumes into the Yellowstone air.  Thousands of people running around.  The FJR was already in the mode that allows for cooking a full breakfast on the gas tank (more on this later)...so I decide to bail.  There SO much to see and do in Yellowstone that I plan on taking the cage (and the wife ) and making a couple days out of it.

I hop back in the queue for the road around and out of the park.  It takes FOREVER to get the hell out of there, and it seems even longer when you're trying to get out.  One of the thunderstorms rolls over the south entrance.  I'm geared for it, but since I'm gong 35 mph it's like sitting in the middle of the road in a torrential downpour...no wind to keep some of the rain off you.  You're bound to get wet somewhere.

I'm hot.  I'm a little wet.  Figuratively speaking the FJR is literally glowing red...and I'm going nowhere.

To make a long story short:  I make it out.  Loop through the Tetons.  Get gas in Jackson and consider stopping I'm so beat already.  Jackson is a complete nuthouse and the FJR starts glowing white.  I head out and decide to bail on Colorado due to needing to be back in Spokane, WA by Friday.

I stop in Montpelier, Idaho (very SE corner) and get a room pretty late in the day.  380 miles that took forever and beat me worse than my Iron Butt ride.

[UFO]

Now, a little about the FJR before I post Day 6 (today).

I have a serious love/hate relationship with the FJR.  Most days I love it...perhaps 80-90% of the time.  The rest of the time I absolutely hate it.  Yesterday (Day 5) was one of those days.  While Day 4 was a great motorcycling day, Day 5 was one I wish I could forget despite seeing some beautiful parts of the country.

Given the right circumstances this bike will literally fry your nuts and inner legs and you have no hope of cooling down save pulling over and stopping for the day.  Here are the circumstances:  A very warm to hot day and a single instance that allows the FJR to become heat soaked.  All it takes is being stuck in a mild traffic jam and the FJR will go so damn hot that it's painful to hold you hand on the gas tank, even with a tank that is over half full.  Fluids can act as a great heat sink, especially when there's a 145 hp engine with almost zero thermal management sitting right underneath it.  And once that gas has reached it's transient temperature (which is pretty quick on a warm/not day when stuck in traffic) the only way to cool it off is to just pack it in for the day, or fill it to the brim as fast as physically possible and get moving at 70+ mph before this new gas can get heat soaked.  On Day 5 the FJR ran at 3 to 4 bars the entire day.  I only manage to get it down to 2 bars very late in the afternoon by getting back on the road away from traffic.  Even they it would pop up to 3 bars the instant I had to slow down to 45 mph for small towns.  It would take 15-20 seconds (yes, I timed it) to pop back up to 3 bars.  But they it would take about 5 minutes to get it back down to 2.  This is how BAD the FJR (at least the gen 1 bike) can be when heat soaked.

On warm/hot days if you can manage to minimize stops and keep moving at 70+ mph the entire day...it does fairly well other than engine heat blowing on the shins and some creeping up into the crotch area.  But it's nothing like when the entire bike is soaked with heat...and I mean the ENTIRE bike (handlebars, plastic, subframe, everything).

This has been my first real long stint on the FJR through all type of weather (so far).  On Day 4 it performed flawlessly.  Yesterday I wanted to chuck it into a geiser in hopes it would cool it off.

It's a deal breaker for me at this point.  It took me 4 years to make a decision that I've been tossing around in the back of my head.  The FJR is an astounding bike for cool weather riding at high speed.  If it warms up and you have to make frequent stops it's an unbearable mount.  The search for a replacement will begin this winter.

Now, the real question is:  How did Yamaha not know about this issue?  Let me rephrase that.  Why did Yamaha release this bike knowing of this issue?  There are two paths that led to the oven that is the FJR.  1)  Test riders didn't do their job or kept their mouths shut.  2)  Yamana management/marketing shrugged and pushed it to market knowing that "heat" is an accepted byproduct of high performance engines.  While part of this last statement is true, it's complete bullshit.  The fact that Yamaha redesigned the thermal engine management on the Gen 2 FJR indicates someone screwed the pooch along the line...or that it was pushed to market by management/marketing.

Oh, and don't give me the typical crap like "Well, teh ST1300 is hot.  Teh Concours is hot."  Etc.  Yes, other bikes have thermal managment issues too, but I'm talking about the FJR.  I don't care about those other bikes right now.  Go ride them and burn your nuts.  

My 2 cents.  YMMV.  Have a cookie.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.

[UFO]

Updated daily...assuming I have net access.

Day 6:  Montpelier, ID to Winnemucca, NV via Salt Lake plateau and I-84 - 530 miles

Soooo...my original plans of western domination (Colorado passes, Grand Canyon, and Monument Valley) were far too ambitious to be met if I have to be back in Spokane on Friday for a wedding.  Taking backroads to visit said places also doesn't save much time. So they will have to wait for another day.

The plan for today was to scoot over the Wasatch mountains into the Salt Lake Basin, jump on I-84 and haul ass for the Bonneville Speedway, then far across Nevada so I could cut up into Oregon and play for a couple days.

Here's how it went down...

I make an early, pre-dawn launch today to avoid the potential of high desert heat should I run into it.  I had about 300 miles under my belt by 11:00 AM and that included stopping for bre'fas (as Bubb Rubb would say).  I took 89 out of Montpelier and crossed the Utah border.  As I climbed the pass above Bear Lake I met the sun about halfway up and snapped a picture.  89 is an interesting road.  Parts of it have brand new blacktop, other parts look like remnants of the Roman empire.  The center section is rife with tight twisties paralleling a stream...full of blind corners and oily, rough blacktop.  To top it off it looked like a deer haven.  Being that it was just after dawn and I was following a waterway in a valley...I played it save and cruised into Logan.

From Logan I cut down to I-15 and the only instance of near mayhem on the trip...of course it involved another human.  A guy was coming up behind me fast on I-84, so I signal and move over.  This jacktard, of course, assumes I'm a left lane bandit and swings over to the right to pass me at a high rate of speed.  It was close.  Impatient fucker.  Is anyone surprised that my only near mishap involved another human on a busy interstate?

I work my way down to Salt Lake City, dodging oblivious cagers.  I merge on to I-85 and peg it.  The speed limit is 75.  Yeah, right.  The road has like 3 bends in it until just before the Nevada border.  I pass the Great Salt Lake and its marshes on the right.  It stinks.  I see no attraction there myself.

I make it to the Speedway pretty quickly considering the distance.  It wasn't what I expected.  Not sure what I expected...but I didn't imagine it would be under water in July, with trash strewn all over and the entry sign full of bullet holes and graffiti.  I like the version that lives in my mind's eye better.  I had at least wanted to take the FJR out a ways and take a picture.  No go...not unless the FJR grew paddles.  There were only two other people there at the ramp that normally leads down to the salt.  A couple having a picnic on the blacktop who spoke German.  

The rest of the day was uneventful...except for the massive rain squall I saw approaching from a good 10 miles away giving me ample warning to thrown on my rain jacket.

I roll in to Winnemucca at about 3:00 PM at 530 miles and call it a day.  Hwy 140 and 95 lead up into Oregon from here...and that's where I intend to go next.

[Orson]

That sums up my experience of Yellowstone...and that was back in the 80s.

It's probably twice as bad now.

you can plop down in the middle of the Amazon and there will be two German tourists sitting there eating lunch  

[Busa@11K]

It's a deal breaker for me at this point.  It took me 4 years to make a decision that I've been tossing around in the back of my head.  The FJR is an astounding bike for cool weather riding at high speed.  If it warms up and you have to make frequent stops it's an unbearable mount.  The search for a replacement will begin this winter.

Too bad Yamaha didn't get it right the 1st time ... but the 2nd Gen FJR sounds like they worked out all the flaws that got past the first attempt.  I'd definitely keep a new model FJR on the new bike list.

One bad day out of 6 isn't bad.  If you were working instead of riding you're odds would be much better of having a higher "bad day ratio".  

That's strange that the salt flats would be under water in the middle of summer.  Wonder when they are dry?  

[stefrrr]

At least the water on the salt flats made for a good picture.  

[bomber]

is anyone sruprised by your near mishap on the interstate?

'course not

when Nebraska had two (count em, 2) motor vehicles, they managed to hit eachother

glad is was a miss, Skip -- and thanks for the posts!

[UFO]

Updated daily...assuming I have net access.

Day 7:  Winnemucca, NV to Redmond, OR via Crater Lake - 535 miles

I didn't really plan on doing 535 miles today, but decided to hit Crater Lake again at the last minute.

Left the booming metropolis of Winnemucca at about 6:30, heading north on 95.  I stopped to check the FJR's oil level in a turn out after everything was warmed up as it looks like yesterday's sustained high speed interstate miles in UT and NV may have burned a tad bit of oil.  But the FJR is a weird beast.  You can check the site window and it looks lower than you expect.  Ride it.  Check it again and the sight window is completely covered with oil.    Anyway, oil level within the norm, so I press on.

At the 140 junction there's the dreaded "Men Working"  "Fresh Oil"  "Loose Gravel" signs everywhere.  The Subaru that was a ways ahead of me goes past the 140 cutoff, then I see him put on the brakes and turn around in the middle of the highway.  Either he's lost or he doesn't want his new cage (temp plate on it) to get mucked up and would rather drive the extra miles to wherever he's headed.  Me?  I planned on taking 140 anyway...so I avoided the chip seal BS.

I turn on to 140 and see a ribbon of asphalt that stretches to the horizon...and I know that no state patrol are going to be patroling this road.  In about 75 miles of high speed cruising...I see all of 10 cars, maybe a little less.  At the Denio Junction I see a guy on a pearl white K1200GT taking a breather.  Nice bike.  I think he was staying at the same hotel.  He later passes me as I take a breather in a turnout at the top of a pass.

At the Oregon boarder the lunacy of their 55 mph blanket speed limit hits me square in the face.  After spending most of the morning at 80-90 mph average, 55 mph feels like I could literally get off the bike and walk...yet the roads were just as straigh, albeit rougher than shit compared to Nevada's pavement.  I end up ratcheting it down to 70 since I'm still in the middle of nowhere.  Hey Oregoon...Newsflash:  it's not 1978 anymore.

Just before Adel, OR I pass a hang glider launch site.  The picture is pretty deceiving.  It's a long ways up.  And the 2 lane, 8% grade road winds it's way down the cliff to the basin below...with not a single guard rail.  

On the other side of Adel the road gets more interesting for two reasons.  First because it's twisty.  Second because there's...poo...EVERYWHERE on the road.  I'm not talking about the random pile of horse crap you may see on a rural road.  I'm talking cow shit everywhere for a stretch of about 3 miles.  I can only theorize that the cows are herded across the road to other pastures? Hell, I dunno...but it made some of the corners kind of troublesome.  Oh, and some of that shit spray up on my Sidis.  Now I can officially say I wear "shit kickers."

I gas up in Lakeview and forget that I'm in Oregon...but the guy lets me pump my gas anyway.  I head towards Klamath Falls and get turned around in town trying to find 140 that goes up the left side of the lake, but I find it eventually.

It's nice and cool up on the crater rim, and the chipmunks are frisky.  I swear a group of them were going to jump on me looking for food.  So I break out some peanuts (probably not supposed to, oh well) and they go crazy.  One of them seems dominant, and stuffs so many peanuts in his cheeks that he looks like he's gagging from having too much peanut buttery goodness in his mouth...kind of like what dogs do when you give them peanut butter.  I was

Time to shoot for Bend, OR and call it a date.  Note to travelers:  Hwy 97 north of Klamath Falls is pretty much hell on earth.  And the closer to Bend you get, the closer to hell you're getting.  Avoid it if possible.  You've been warned.

Bend has an old town layout that hasn't aged quite well.  This FJRs tank is on mile 290 or so and the last bar just started blinking...and of course it takes me forever to find a station since all of them are "downtown," meaning leave 97 and drive around until you see one...as opposed to seeing big station signs sticking up and "Exit here for gas" type signs.  It was rush hour, and looking for a hotel was turning in to a PITA, so I cruise up to Redmond and find one in a matter of seconds once there.

[UFO]

More pics for text above.

[Busa@11K]

Note to travelers:  Hwy 97 north of Klamath Falls is pretty much hell on earth.  And the closer to Bend you get, the closer to hell you're getting.  Avoid it if possible.  You've been warned.

So what's the deal on 97?

You should have buzzed over west of Portland to take a look at the "Spruce Goose".  It's there in a museum ... forgot the name of the town, but it's about 45 min west of Portland.

So you're heading home then cagin' it to Spokane?

[R Doug]

Note to self, avoid going through Yellowstone on motorcycle.  

Seriously, is there a good and bad time of the year to travel through Yellowstone?  And, I'm assuming it's the peak season for tourists now?

[UFO]

Going through Yellowstone is fine on a bike.  But if you have lots of valuable gear/gadgets draped across it during every stop it sort of takes the fun out of it.

97 is hell because it's bumper to bumper traffic on a 2 lane for 150 miles or so with a 55 speed limit.  Ugh.

I was fairly close to home so I zipped home yesterday and caged it over to Spokane with the wife for the wedding.  I'm not sure my rear tire has another safe 1000 miles in it fully loaded anyway.  I expected more mileage out of the Avon's, but I can't complain about them...great tires.

[JimWilliamson]

Thanks for the write up!

So what bike is high on The List?