St. Louis, MO, to NH; going home

[PhilB]

I have ended my job in St. Louis, MO, as of next Friday, and will be riding my Monster back home to NH next weekend.
Pursuant to that, I got a few things done to the bike today.

a) YAY for round wheels! I've been riding around with a dented front rim for a few weeks. It's amazing how good a round front wheel feels (and with a new tire, no less).

b) We also realized that I've been blowing some exhaust out through the "head gasket" area on the front cylinder. So we pulled it off, having no idea what we would find. Warped head? Condition of internals? Well, we found:
(1) My particular incarnation of bike doesn't have or use head gaskets. This was a surprise to everyone. The head and cylinder surfaces are just lapped smooth and bolted together. So they re-lapped the surfaces and put it back together, and it worked out fine.
(2) The internals are still in good shape. The piston looked fine. The cylinder walls were still in good shape, with no gouges and the original crosshatching still good, after 259K miles so far. It does run better now, with that fixed.

This bike continues to amaze me.

PhilB

[jasnmar]

Lol. No head gasket... Of course . What else would you expect .


Have a great trip.

[Rosco61]

Safe travels Phil !

[gumby]

Maybe you should leave Thursday so you don't miss the fashion show at Seacoast!

[PhilB]

Maybe you should leave Thursday so you don't miss the fashion show at Seacoast!

It's 1200 miles; not a 1-day ride. I'm visiting a couple of friends on the way. so I'm taking an easy 3 days to get there. Also, the job here does go to Friday, and taking off early to make it to the Seacoast event would cost me a couple thousand dollars of income. I'd like to go to it, but not *that* much.

PhilB

[gumby]

Holy shit Phil, I'd skip the show too.

[RandyO]

It's 1200 miles; not a 1-day ride. I'm visiting a couple of friends on the way. so I'm taking an easy 3 days to get there. Also, the job here does go to Friday, and taking off early to make it to the Seacoast event would cost me a couple thousand dollars of income. I'd like to go to it, but not *that* much.

PhilB

I rode from Newington to Joplin in 23 hrs, went thru StL at about hr 19

[loudbeard]

Were you towing that shitty back hoe with your SV too?

[PhilB]

I rode from Newington to Joplin in 23 hrs, went thru StL at about hr 19

OK, it *could* be a 1-day ride, if I decided I really wanted to flog myself. But a few years back I worked for a year in Ohio, and made friends with the local Duc-heads there, so I'm going to stop over night there. And I have a friend I have known since middle school who I haven't seen in some time, and who now lives in Rochester NY, so I'm going to stop overnight there. That splits the trip into easy thirds, about 400 miles a day; A nice relaxing ride. Not everything has to be a record-setting attempt, or an effort to show off how extreme or tough one is.

PhilB

[RandyO]

hardly any kind of record. 1200 miles in 24 is just a long SS1k, done by well over 60,000 riders, even the BBG that I did (1500mi in 24) is no record, it's been done by thousands of riders, just a few days ago, a fellow New Hampshirite did over 1700 miles in a calendar day (28 hours using a combination of passing thru time zones and switching back to standard time) in his Million Miles for MS quest

[PhilB]

hardly any kind of record. 1200 miles in 24 is just a long SS1k, done by well over 60,000 riders, even the BBG that I did (1500mi in 24) is no record, it's been done by thousands of riders, just a few days ago, a fellow New Hampshirite did over 1700 miles in a calendar day (28 hours using a combination of passing thru time zones and switching back to standard time) in his Million Miles for MS quest

That's kind of cool. That's not what I am doing.

PhilB

[jhawley]

That's awesome.

Out of curiousity how much are you traveling with?

[ilikenapalm]

hardly any kind of record. 1200 miles in 24 is just a long SS1k, done by well over 60,000 riders, even the BBG that I did (1500mi in 24) is no record, it's been done by thousands of riders, just a few days ago, a fellow New Hampshirite did over 1700 miles in a calendar day (28 hours using a combination of passing thru time zones and switching back to standard time) in his Million Miles for MS quest

Not the purpose of this thread, but his math is wrong. You don't magically gain a fourth hour. 27 hours, not 28.

[PhilB]

That's awesome.

Out of curiousity how much are you traveling with?

Probably going to go ahead and ship most of it, and ride light -- tankbag and sleeping bag. When I rode down here, I carried everything I really needed with me (pic below). But now I have more things. I had been expecting to be able to carry a couple suitcases of stuff home when I flew for Thanksgiving, and put the rest on the bike when I rode back, but the timeframe moved up unexpectedly, and I'm riding home for Thanksgiving. It will probably look more like what I had when I rode to Birmingham for Barber Vintage last month (pic below).

PhilB

[RandyO]

Not the purpose of this thread, but his math is wrong. You don't magically gain a fourth hour. 27 hours, not 28.

normally, no, but he did it on Nov 6 and gained his 4th hour but setting time back from daylight savings to standard

[RandyO]

That's kind of cool. That's not what I am doing.

PhilB

I know that, just pointing out that you wouldn't be setting any kind of record (except maybe personal, have you done long distance/IBA type rides?)

I use LD rides to my advantage, especially when my goal is to explore new roads, I can get to them quicker, I've done the backroad tour almost everywhere east of the Mississippi.

[zombie]

OK, it *could* be a 1-day ride, if I decided I really wanted to flog myself. But a few years back I worked for a year in Ohio, and made friends with the local Duc-heads there, so I'm going to stop over night there. And I have a friend I have known since middle school who I haven't seen in some time, and who now lives in Rochester NY, so I'm going to stop overnight there. That splits the trip into easy thirds, about 400 miles a day; A nice relaxing ride. Not everything has to be a record-setting attempt, or an effort to show off how extreme or tough one is.

PhilB

I'm with ya on this way of thinking, I've done a lot of long distance and flogged lots of miles in short amount of times.
nowadays I like to enjoy and chill a little more.
Sounds like you have a really nice trip back planned , enjoy your spin

[PhilB]

I know that, just pointing out that you wouldn't be setting any kind of record (except maybe personal, have you done long distance/IBA type rides?)

I use LD rides to my advantage, especially when my goal is to explore new roads, I can get to them quicker, I've done the backroad tour almost everywhere east of the Mississippi.

I haven't done long-distance/IBA-type rides just for the heck of it. That's not my thing. I've done some long rides just in the service of getting there.

In 2010, I only had 4 days between jobs to get from San Diego to Cleveland, so that was 2700 miles in four days: 900/600/600/600. Not anything like a world record, but a lot of time on a Monster with no fairing at all, and more than most people be up for doing.

This past April, I went to the MotoGP at COTA, from St. Louis, and only took one day off at each end to get there, so as to not lose more income than I had to. So that was a 900-mile day down. On the way back, I got caught in some storms in OK, and took an extra half-day off to finish the ride back.

I have thought of doing a properly documented SS1000 or BB1500, just to get into the club, and I might well do that one of these days. But even then, I have very little interest in doing any more of that.

The thing is, I'm not a very extreme rider, nor do I want to be. I ride daily for transportation mostly. I ride between 10K and 15K a year -- well above average for a motorcyclist, but not more than most people drive their cars. My extreme mileage on my bike is really all about that I've had it for a long time, and it serves my needs well, and it keeps running, and I don't own a car.

PhilB

[PhilB]

Damn.

The weather has cut me off, and I can't safely get to NH on the bike.
Patina has been left with a friend in Columbus, OH, and I'm at the airport waiting for my flight the rest of the way home.

PhilB

[Chippertheripper]

Bummer. It's moist and windy AF here right now.
Not fun riding at all.

[Garandman]

Snow yesterday in much of W and C MA and flurries overnight in Boston. Happy Thanksgiving!

[aldend123]

Damn.

The weather has cut me off, and I can't safely get to NH on the bike.
Patina has been left with a friend in Columbus, OH, and I'm at the airport waiting for my flight the rest of the way home.

PhilB

So I was going to ask earlier about what you'd do if you were riding home in a snow storm, or if the temps dropped and had you riding in 5 degree weather. Like if the job had you stay out there until January. Guess I got my answer. Why didn't you opt for a hotel for a day or two and wait for the next temp peak? I'd guess major highways by now should be good. What happens now? Get the bike in the spring? Ship the bike back?

I'm kinda confused as to why you've stayed with the monster for so long. I think you've answered this before, but seems like a more sport touring oriented bike would fit your usage. Something with a fairing, heated equipment, and luggage space.

[PhilB]

So I was going to ask earlier about what you'd do if you were riding home in a snow storm, or if the temps dropped and had you riding in 5 degree weather. Like if the job had you stay out there until January. Guess I got my answer. Why didn't you opt for a hotel for a day or two and wait for the next temp peak? I'd guess major highways by now should be good. What happens now? Get the bike in the spring? Ship the bike back?

I didn't want to wait, because it's Thanksgiving week, and my daughter and grandson have come out from CA for the holiday, and I didn't want to miss the time with them. And I had no way of knowing how soon or whether the weather would decide to cooperate. From where I was, the route went along Lake Erie, through Buffalo, NY, so it wasn't very likely that once the bad weather started, it would end well and soon. I'm not sure what I'll do to get the bike back at this point, but since winter has started here in NH, it isn't urgent. It would just go into storage here.

I'm kinda confused as to why you've stayed with the monster for so long. I think you've answered this before, but seems like a more sport touring oriented bike would fit your usage. Something with a fairing, heated equipment, and luggage space.

It suits my needs quite well. I mainly ride for daily transport -- work, errands, whatever. About 70% daily grind, 25% touring and travelling, 5% sport riding. For most of the time I've had it, I was in SoCal where lanesplitting was allowed, so small and light and nimble was important. By this point, it and I fit each other really well, and we've stayed together so long that it's now an experiment to see how long it can go for. Also, I don't like fairings in general. I added heated gloves to my Monster; if I had a newer bike I might add more heated gear, but I might not. Luggage space would be helpful. I actually bought a set of hardbags that were made for the Monster, and will add them to the bike at some point. The mounts are set up for the stock bike, though, and are not compatible with the rearsets I have on the bike now, so I need to modify them to get it all to fit, and I haven't gotten around to that yet. If I get it back here before spring, I may try to do that this winter.

I am looking at sport-touring bikes, to maybe add one to the stable for two-up trips with my wife; the one thing the Monster is poor at is carrying a passenger very far (the bike doesn't mind a bit, but the passenger does). I've tested about 2/3 of the sport-touring bikes I'm interested in; I've got a few more to check. So far, the leading reasonably-priced option is a Moto Guzzi Norge. In an ideal world, with more money in my corner of it, I'd get a MOTUS. But in any case, I prefer the naked bike for general usage, so I'm sticking with this Monster until it blows up, and the leading contenders for an eventual replacement are all the same nature (new Monster, KTM 1290 SD, etc.)

PhilB