Well here we are again, a little less than 2 months left and all is well. The FJR looks to be in pretty good shape and I'm working on setting up a tire change before the start of the IBR. I'm planning to put the bike in the shop in the next couple of weeks to get the valve check done. The shop said it would take 2-3 days to complete. Sounds like a good time to go camping and do a little fly fishing. I have found my water jug container at Target and I'm planning to mount it this weekend. I'm going to put it on the right side passenger peg.
Last weekend I took a trip up to Santa Fe to meet a friend that has competed in the IBR back in the 90's and has been part of the staff ever since. We talked over lunch about mental prep and bike setup. We also talked abou the NM LOE in October that he runs. I told him about the practice run a few friends of mine are going to do in a couple of weeks.
Right now my sons off at boy scout camp and next week we are going camping as a family so I don't have much planned for the next couple of weeks. I'm really focusing on making sure I have all my paperwork and all the stuff I'm planning to take with me.
I'll probably drop the bike off to the shop right before I head off to camp next week.
Well the real countdown is starting, I'm 6 weeks from heading for Spartanburg, SC and the start of the IBR. The FJR goes into the shop this week for a valve check, after I get it back I'm plannig to change the air cleaner, plugs, oil and drive fluid. Once those items are done the bike is ready to go. I'm spending more time right now making sure I have all my paperwork in order and making sure I have everything I want to take ready to go.
Well here it is 4 weeks left before I take off for Spartanburg. I pick up the FJR tomorrow after the valve check. I have lined up my tire change in Spartanburg and I'm doing a night run the 22nd to get back into shape. I have some friends that want to do the NM LOE in October so I told them lets get out and ride like a rally. I'm not worried about them slowing me down, they are both experienced riders that I have been out with several times so it will be nice to have the company. We are planning to take off at 9 pm and run till 4am. We will stop take pictures and document just like in a rally. Once done we will sitdown and practice doing the scoring. It should be a hoot. Another nice thing is that it is supposed to rain Wednesday night so this will be excellent practice. I'm hoping to get in about 6 bonus location and two fuel stops. That will be great practice for getting on and off the bike and documenting the stops. I think we can get in about 300 miles, but that is cutting it close.
It looks like I have all the paperwork ready to go, so all I have to do is get the bike and myself ready to go.
Well I picked up the bike after the valve check this week and went for a short ride to test out the bike. All seem well so tonight I should be ready for the practice run. Should be interesting the weather has been taking a turn for the worst.
Well the practice run went off without a hitch, There was 2 of us, we did a routing exercise from 9:00-10:00 pm, then mapped out the route. Once we had the route choosen, we took off. We ended up riding till 03:20 am so just under 6 hours and went 290 miles. We averaged just under 54 MPH. Not bad considering I made us do 2 fuel stops and we did 5 bonii stops. I think we averaged about 10 minutes per stop. So if you calculate out the stops we averaged 68.7 MPH.
In the first part of the ride, we hit quite a lot of road construction and after we cleared the construction we were zooming down the interstate (that's when we starting seeing a lot of deer) man that was a little nerve racking. I know I saw at least 6 in a 15 mile stretch on I-40 East of Albuquerque, NM. Once we cleared that stretch I really didn't see anymore critters. To be honest that is the most deer I've seen along I-40 in a long time. The only thing I can figure out is that we have been getting a lot of rain and the sides of the interstate had just been cut. We ended up missing all the rain which made the riding nice but I was hoping to get a little rain. When practicing it is nice to get hit with bad weather I think so you can checkout your gear.
Once we hit our last stop, we headed for a Denny's close by for breakfast. After breakfast, we split up heading home. I found out a couple of days later my buddy left his riding gloves on his saddle bag at the last stop he thinks. There went a good $75 bucks. This was a nice little practice run, it told me I have a few issues with my setup on the bike and will need to make a couple of adjustments.
I'm thinking I need to do one more big ride before heading for Spartanburg August 18th. Not sure what I'm going to do something close to 1000 miles should be good.
Well until next time ride safe.
Dave
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