The bugs were terrible in Iowa!! I had to stop several times and clean off my face shield and headlight. My next run was from Omaha, NE to Sioux Falls, SD on Interstate 29N. It was a nice ride and I enjoyed seeing the combines out cutting down the corn stalks….as a matter of fact, the country is SO FLAT out there that you can literally see for miles, so it was nothing to see several combines for miles, all with their dust clouds following them. Hung out in Sioux Falls for a night then proceeded on to Brookings, SD…yet another childhood community. South Dakota is a beautiful state and although I missed the snow the week before and it was sunny, it was still a little frigid.
On the way back to Omaha, I had to run a strong 30+ mph headwind….man, that really worked on me. Couldn’t get low enough to be aerodynamic, so had to deal with it. Cross winds coming off the plains were very tricky too….they would whip up out of nowhere….a lot of the time I was leaning hard into the wind just to stay straight.
The trip back to Omaha took about 4 hours and I was ready for some cold beers and rest….oh yeah, and a good neck rub from an aunt of mine that I hadn’t seen for 30 years.
OK Hapo…this one’s for you man….It was time to head home and as much as I was enjoying my trip, I was anxious to get home again…so, I decided to do it all in one shot.
This was just pure, get-down, motorcycle riding….no Bullshi_ _ _ ng around and no sightseeing. I left from Omaha, NE at 3am on the 16th and pulled into my driveway in Roanoke, VA 21 hours later, at midnight. The only rest I got was when I stopped to get gas (~140-175mi per tankful)…that took the longest since I had to remove the tankbag to get to the gas tank fill hole. I have to admit, the first few steps after getting off of the bike were a real challenge, especially as the hours wore on….kinda made me feel like a cowboy! Ha…
I hear ya Dingo….here are some tips and other things that I found useful:
The Chase Harper 1560 tankbag is expandable into the shape of a triangle…the narrowest portion toward the rider and the highest portion toward the windscreen. I laid across the tankbag and rested the chin of my fullface helmet on the forward lip of the tankbag….this did an amazing job of saving my neck muscles and helped keep me somewhat aerodynamic. I am 6ft. tall and weigh 205lbs. The only time the tankbag didn’t work well was when I caught the terrible headwind heading south from South Dakota to Omaha….bounced my head around like a polo ball.
I wore a full leather Fieldsheer suit and AGV riding boots and used baby powder…yep, baby powder to keep “everything†fresh and not sticky and uncomfortable….if you know what I mean.
The rest was due to fitness and my workouts…if you workout, here are some exercises that will get you ready…if you don’t workout, here are some exercises that will get you ready:
1) Wrist curls and reverse wrist curls help strengthen forearms and wrists
2) lunges and bent-over dumbbell deadlifts tighten the butt and strengthen the hamstrings…for long periods of sitting
3) crunches, leg-lifts and hyperextensions keep the mid-section fit and provide the ability to bounce back quickly after being in the same positions for hours.
4) upright rows and shrugs strengthen the trapezius muscles which help to fight wind fatigue
These are the minimum exercises which should provide the most help and only part of my overall daily routine.
Prior to the long ride, I got as much riding in as possible…anytime I could grab a couple hundred miles, I did.
That’s it….I didn’t use anything else and yep, everything worked just fine when I turned in that night with my sweetie!!
I guess ya just gotta love it….and man, everytime I turned the throttle a little bit and felt the response of this bike, I got another adrenaline rush!!
Oh, by the way, I found out that Shell gasoline was what was making my bike cutout. I usually use Exxon supreme and have never had a problem, but there weren’t any Exxons in the Midwest, so I had to use Amoco and Shell. No problem with the Amoco, but the Shell really mucked it up!!
