Ranger Road Trip 2009!!! ***56K take a hike***

Very Long Read!!!!!

This trip has been 2 years in the making. I had planned on taking the Bumblebee but as fortune would have it, I stepped up to a VFR this year so this was her big test. To date I have had the VFR 4 months, managed roughly 8,000 miles on her in that time. The Diablo Strada's she is shoed with already have close to 6,000 so it will also be a test of tire longevity, my first long term set on Arc Angel.

I set out Tuesday Sept. 1st after work for my sisters place in Wabasha, MN. 200miles of slab and great scenery riding up 61 from La Crosse, WI to Wabasha, MN at sunset. I have always loved the river and it serves as an excellent beginning to a most epic trip, bald eagles are fishing and the weather ir crisp and beautiful.

Wednesday, September 2nd. The fog is thick and low in Wabasha. I hang out with the kids and my brother-in-law for a while. I see my niece off to school and my nephew off to daycare. It's 8:30am, it's 50F and the fog still hasn't lifted, oh well, break out the heated gear and suit up. 9:00 am and I'm up the cliffs and there is no fog, nothing but glorious sunshine but it's still only 52F.

Not much to tell, I slab it across MN, enter SD at noon, temp is still 68, the heated gear is off but I'm still wearing it. My first stop in SD I run into a forum member from MI who is on his way back home. 2nd gen S with BMW bags.


We talk for a few, he heads out and a guy on a Harley rolls in. He takes a long stare at the bike and then sits on the bench next to me and we strike up a conversation. He's German and used to own a VFR and ride the Autobahn. Very nice gentleman. After checking the radar on my phone I suit up and head out. It's still only 72F at 3pm so I still somewhat bundled up. I get bored easily on the highway, even with music and the CB, the truckers make some comment about all the SD road construction and that's where our stimulus package is going (100 miles of repaving in the eastern half of SD, they aren't kidding). After 30 or so attempts with the camera, I finnaly get this shot of Mr. Buzzlebee:


As I get close to Chamberlain, I approach rain. I pass 3 vintage BMW's as we head into the rain. Massive down pour but it's only 5 miles wide or so. Rather beautiful on the back side as I start to dry out.


My next stop is in the middle of nowhere SD. As I pull into the gas station (only thing on the exit) I hear the emergency alert tone come across the outdoor speakers. I fill up and go in to find out the deal. There are 5 other guys there on Harley's and Wings. Come to find out, the storm I had just ridden through 45 min or so ago was now dropping golf ball size hail on the interstate. Good timing. The guys and I chat while I snack and slam a coke. It turns out there are on their way back from Yellowstone, there are all from the east coast and take a bi-yearly trip. I'm then asked if I'm a good cook and I ask why, they said they could drop through Wisconsin in 2011 on their way to Alaska and pick me up, I gratefully decline and warn them of the rain as they are heading east into the storm. Off again.

Ever wonder where all those packets of sunflower seeds come from?

Fields upon fields of sunflowers all across the central part of SD.

Next stop Badlands. I have another thread with good pictures so I won't spend too much time here, I played with a few of the camera settings and here is what I got.




My bike getting sucked on.


The loop ends in Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug.


I pull over in Rapid City for the night. Tomorrow, a most excellent day is planned. Roughly 600-700miles today, rather boring but now the trip gets fun.

 

Thursday, Sept. 3rd. I'm up early and get the bike packed. But something is a little off, my rear tire is at only 25 psi, odd. I prop it up on the centerstand spin the tire and put soapy water on it, can't find anything but one pin hole and a shallow cut, neither of which is leaking. I air the tire up and pack. There are 2 bikes a few rooms down and I notice the one is somewhat disassembled. I talk to the guy, he had broke down last night and some local kid picked him up and hauled him in (there are a still a few good folks out there). I loan a few tools while I go get a snack for breakfast. After an hour or so he reassures that he's on his way to getting the bike running. I tell him if he's still here when I return, I'd buy him a beer but I had better not see him.

First destination of the day, Devil's Tower, only 90 miles away or so from where I'm at.




I head back to Rapid City via Spearfish Canyon, beautiful, reminds me of the Cherohala in a way, casual speed limit and beautiful scenery, just not the massive drop offs.


I wind my way into the Black Hills and hit Needles Highway. I missed out on this last time due to a recent snow storm. Needles, definitely worth paying to see.




Next up I head towards the Wildlife loop in Custer but I decide to go up one of the peaks for a view, it was interesting as it was packed limestone, a good test of the stability of the bike, even fully loaded.

It was worth the view to get up there.

Off to the wildlife loop. Saw some turkey a few Pronghorn and them I found the Buffalo heard.


I had to ride around the one sleeping in the middle of the road.

Next up, Iron Mountain Highway, a most excellent road. Again casual speed limit but there is so much going on on this road you don't notice much and here's why.


Several of these, single lane tunnels.


Several of these as well, curly cue bridges.


I head back to the same hotel and wait for my friends to arrive from MN. Mr. Buzzlebee takes a well deserved rest as well, only 400 miles or so today but it was beautiful. A worthy note, the broken down Harley guy and his buddy are not here, good to know he got the bike running.

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The guys got in around 1am mountain time. We sleep in a bit and then begin to pack up. First thing I do is check the tire pressure, hmmm, 20 psi this morning. I grab Mark and he tells me to fill the tire and he gets a soapy rag, this time we find it, it's the pinhole I found yesterday and now it's leaking.


Plugged and ready to go.


We head out and the first fun of the day is the Bighorn mountains. It's warm nearly 88F at the base but the pass is at 9400 feet. Off we go.




Up, up and away. We are on 14a, to note, there are straightening the upper section of the east slope, way to take the fun away State of Wyoming.
View from the pass at the top.


The descent on the back is awesome, 14% downgrade, 35-45 mph corners in a 65mph zone, talk about chewing the tires up. We drop for 59F at the top into a furnace at 90F at the base. We hustle across the plains to cody, grab lunch and head off for Chief Joseph highway which is on the northwest side of Cody.

This is a highway that should be on anyone's Bucket List, one of the most scenic I have been on in the country so far.

Here is the view from the top facing west.


A little road porn.


Panoramic view


Down Chief Joseph and out to Wyoming 212, this is where Beartooth pass is. To date my highest pass was Veil at 10,600+. Well this beats it by a few.



A lake near the top.


I felt like I was on top of the world up here, utterly amazing. Altimeter on the GPS reads 10,980 peak and it's a whopping 48F. Nice thing is, it will warm up on the descent.


Hello Montana.


We stop at the rest stop and gear up, the sun is setting behind the mountains and we still have a couple of hours to get to Columbus, MT. Riding down the Beartooth is breathtaking.

For now the CB's have been purely fun, good to crack jokes, make fun of each other. But now they show their usefullness. It's dark when we leave Red Lodge and we have 45 miles of rolling country to Columbus, it's Friday night and the animals are out. Mark and I run point with all the lights on, calling out the deer spottings across the CB's as we all know where to look. Talk about an adrenaline rush but no incendents getting to Columbus. Mark and I go to Subway and get dinner, riding on the back of the Wing is like sitting in a Lazy boy, now I can see why it's so good for 2-up. Time for bed. Saturday is going to be just as good if not better.

 

Saturday morning, we are in no big hurry, we are only 100miles from Bozeman for the one and only mandatory stop of the trip so we take our time heading out. Key note, tire pressure is still 39psi, the plug is holding well. We slab it to Bozeman, the run there on the highway is pretty fun, 75mph speed limit with 50mph marked corners on the interstate, oh I was having fun. I'm really falling in love with the VFR at this point.

Ok, so on to the mandatory stop of the trip, the original Pickle Barrel shop on campus in Bozeman.



Father and son.


This is worth the trip.


Out of Bozeman we head through the Gallatin Pass. A beautiful run. At one point I was trailing and looked up to see a Bald eagle flying next to the guys along the river. I called it out over the CB and they all looked over just in time to see it. They weren't 50 feet from it, I couldn't get the camera out in time as it happened in a matter of seconds.

Off to Yellowstone, Paul's dad has not seen Yellowstone so we spent some time. Now it's Labor day weekend so the place is packed.


Old Faithful


The falls on the east side of the park.


More buffalo and a light rain and mist. We decide not to run Chief Joseph at night and head out the east entrance of Yellowstone as the sun sets.


Most of you have seen those videos from Europe where the guys are railing the mountain and there is nothing but a half stone wall between you and a big drop off, well that is how the east entrance run is and we were running at night, half wall on the right the headlights show the top and rock wall on the left, only a dotted yellow line marks the center of the road. We wind out way out and off to Cody for the night. We are nearly there when we pass through a 1/2mile or longer tunnel. I can hear the 2 harleys in our group over the mp3 and my own bike in the tunnel, lol.
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Sunday, we start in Cody, WY and hot foot it across the plains to the Bighorns before it gets too hot, forecast is for 95F here by noon, I don't want to be around for that.

We passed a plane graveyard along the way and then off to the Bighorns on HWY 16 this time, the southern most of the 3 passes.




Stopped at a most excellent pull off for pictures.





Mark and I take off ahead of Paul and his dad. We are flying up the pass, 65mph speed limit and we are doing nearly triple digits in the corners, Mark is grinding off the rubber on the side of his boots has he's got the Wing leaned to max and he's leaned off the bike. I'm managing to keep up on the VFR and I'm getting no arguement from my tires. After 15 min or so I call out Mark and ask if we should pull over, he says he's surprised Paul hasn't yelled at us across the CB for taking off. It's not took long and they pull up. Mark and I are all grins, Paul gives us an obniouxs smirk and takes off.

We hotfoot it across WY and back to the Badlands, we take Wes to Rushmore as he's never seen it before.


This is the one night we arrive anywhere before the sun sets so we sit up and drink and have some fun.

 

Monday, Labor Day, last major day of the road trip. We head out and go to Wall Drug, then through the Badlands. It's hot. I can't bear to wear the suit in 90F heat doing 30mph so I'm squidin' it in just helmet, gloves and a long sleeve to keep from getting burned.





The gang at the last stop before slabbing it back to the Twin Cities.


Not much more to write about today, super slab for 600 miles. I had a physical breakdown from not enough to eat but after 2 consecutive food stops my body recovered and we finally pulled into the Twin Cities by 2am.

I have video to upload and will get that done later.

Tuesday I set out for Wabasha, MN. Only a 90 min ride, met up with my parents and went fishing for the day. Had a great time, caught a 4lb+ smallmouth, several walleye and a dozen or so bluegill that I could barely get my hands around. I had dinner with the family and then headed home. All in all nealy 3000 miles, 8 days and a most glorious vacation. The Diablo Strada's have held up well, I now have almost 10,000 on them and I still have tread left, the plug is still holding and Arc Angel is in desperate need of an oil change.

Much has happened since I got home. Only 5 days later I closed on a condo, have since moved and am getting setteled in. It is now the second weekend in October, it snowed yesterday morning and I still have work to do on the condo and the apartment, oh the the VFR still needs an oil change.

Hope you enjoyed.

 

Update: I finally got the oil changed on Arc Angel tonight. The K&N oil filters seem to be tightening over time so I didn't put this filter on as tight.

5 months, 12,000 miles and I'm still a very happy camper, I love this bike. The Diablo Strada's have almost 10,000 miles and there is still tread left. I wasn't getting that good of mileage on the SVS. The shop already has the new Pirelli Angels in which will go on over the winter. I just need to get the throttle jump at 3K taken care of, add a switch fuse box up front to run the gps, cb, powered tankbag and auxillary lights so everything is secure.

If anyone knows about this quarky 3K throttle jump and can link a thread so I don't create a new one, please do so.

 

Nice write-up and pics. I'm glad you warned us about the 56K ahead of time, since that is still what I use. Gotta love living in the sticks...

I don't think I've seen anything about a "3K throttle jump" posted before, but you didn't elaborate unless I missed something.

 

Nice Trip Ranger. Wishes I was along. Officially, i grew up a little north of there but I don't admitt that to many.

 

wow...great pics and write up...i just have one thing to say...


theres still 56k!?!?

 

I think I'm one of the last...

 

Nice write up and photo's. Brings back memories when a friend and I went to Rapid City saw Rushmore then off thru Spearfish, Devils Tower and to Bozeman for the night. The photos of the open range buffalo's walking across the road is great. Never actually had that happen on the trip where they were laying in the road.

Thanks for the memories. What's next year?

 

thanks for sharing an epic adventure! great pics too!

 

There are a few that still have DSL or Dial up.

Next year, who knows all depends on how much time I need for a family vacation. I may do several long weekends instead. I have thoughts of a 2 week vacation in a few years out to the west coast or the east coast. And somewhere down the road, Alaska.

 

The 3K rpm throttle jump is really odd, it's only noticable in gears 1-3, it's like a second set of valves is opening or something, if you try to hold 3K the bike gets jumpy, below or above nice and smooth. Some guy down at deal's gap told me to get the starter valves synched. This is why I ask because I can't imagine Honda having 2 settings on the valves, the VTEC is no issue at all.

 

What gets my attention is the "gears 1-3".

I sometimes will warm up my chain before lubing it with the bike on the centerstand. The motor is cold, I start it up and let it run for about five seconds and then put the bike in first gear. Then I'll go through second, third, fourth, etc.. What is unusual is that the engine RPM will remain the same through the first three gears; when I put it into fourth gear and above, the engine rpm goes up 300-500 RPM. Put it back into third, it slows down again.

My reason for mentioning this is that Honda evidently changes something between the lower three gears and the upper three gears, so whatever is causing your bizarre throttle response may be related to the "lower gear" running conditions/sensor inputs, if that makes sense.

 

For the past three years I have been going out to Red Lodge in July, we seem to have made all the same locations and stops along the way. Beartooth and Chief Joe are just amazing, the Big Horns are pretty awesome as well. I can't wait to do it all again this July, another forum I frequent has a get together every year there, based at the Alpine Motel in Red Lodge.

 

:thumbsup:Wow!! I really have to make some time for a trip like that