Well here it is August and I'll be heading out for South Carolina on the 18th. The Rally starts on the 24th at 10:00 and ends on the September 4th at 09:00. I think I have everything ready to go and the bike is about as ready as I can make it.
Like I talked in July I think I need one more long ride so I set up a 1000 mile ride for the 7th. I'm going to do an in state Saddle Sore 1000, mixing the riding up with interstate and back roads.
When I get to Spartanburg, SC, I have a friend from the FJR forum that is going to help me do a tire change. I shipped a set of tires to his house a week ago and he has a No-Mar tire changer and balancer. My plan is to take off the morning of the 18th and ride to somewhere between Oklahoma City, OK and the Arkansas border. The second day, I hope to get at least to Knoxville, TN, so that on the 20th I only have a couple of hundred miles to go. My goal is to arrive at my hotel in Spartanburg, SC around noon, drop off my stuff and head of to my buddy for the tire change. After I get the tires changed I'm going to try and minimize my riding so that I start the rally with tires that are as fresh as possible. The plan is to try and run the whole rally on one set.
Well here it is the 5th of August and I changed the engine and drive oil so all I have left is changing out the plugs. I check ed the brake pads and they look good, so we are getting close. I have registered my SPOT and set up a shared page for friends to go checkout how I'm doing in the rally.
I'm going to do the long ride this week, My plan is to do 950 miles in 15-16 hours. I will start will full tanks so I hopefully will only need two fuel stops and maybe a couple of stops to stretch. If everything goes well I should average 60-63 mph and that will be enough to hit my goal for 15-16 hours. I start around 04:00 and should be home by 20:00. This will be my last ride before heading for Spartanburg on the 18th.
I have also ben packing and re-packing trying to squeeze every inch of space out of my saddle bag as possible. My plan is to ship 5 days worth of clothes to Santa Ana, CA and take 7 days worth of clothes to start and throw away what I'm wearing each day, this should help save space. Then once I get to Santa Ana, CA I will restock and be good to go for Spokane, WA.
Well another great weekend, I was able to get out and do the 1000 miles without any real issues. I did have a small electronic issue, my speakers in my helimet were giving me trouble and I had to stop and try and fix them. On the side of the interstate at 04:30, I gave up and yanked them out of my helimet and put in earbuds. I cannot do that kind of miles without my tunes. So off I went 960 miles in 15 hours. I averaged right at 64 mph. I did have one section about 90 miles with a nasty crosswind (it also did a number on my Road Smarts, I have never seen a set of tires get so torn up by being pushed like that). I knew that stretch would be bad and when I came to the bail out point (shorter ride home) all I had to say to myself was I needed the miles and off I went. One important factor I found out was that the beaded seat cover had to go, I had to pull it off with 100 miles to go. I just couldn't take it any longer. It was nice allowing better airflow but I have a hard seat to begin with so the cover just made it harder. I ended up doing three fuel stops and one break to stretch my legs, I was pretty pleased since I have not been over 600 miles since March.
All I have left for the bike is to change the plugs and it should be good to go. I still need to do a little work on my hydration system, on my last ride the temps hit 96 degrees and with full riding gear it felt like 110. It was a little cumbersome to grab the hose for my hydration pack.
Well thought I would slide in a little ride today that was almost a big mistake. I running 50-55 on a State Hwy when I guy ran a red light turned right in front of me. I hit the brakes hard and started sliding (thought I was going down for sure). Luck for me the car accelerated and we missed, I then hit the shoulder and the gas and went around him. Should have seen his face when he saw me speeding by him on the shoulder of the road. He gave me a dirty look like I was at fault.
The bike is going to be parked for the most part, just a little ride here or there nothing big, just need to do final checks before I take off on the 18th. My plan is to take off arond 10:00 ride abot 700 miles and call it good for the first night. I will then take off and ride about the same amount and leave myself about a 100 miles on teh 20th.
Well here we go it is the 17th, I leave tomorrow morning for Spartanburg. I completed the final checkouts and replaced the spark plugs. The bike is as ready as it is going to be, no it's up to me. I'm really struggling right now, I'm really not feeling the pressure/stress I thought I would this close to go time. I have to work tonight till 03:00 then I still plan to take off at 10:00.
Once I get to Spartanburg, I'm planning on making one/two more entries on my blog before the rally starts. Once we start I will be on the road for 11 days and probably won't make an entry until September.
Well I made it safe and sound, the ride was really uneventful which was nice. I do have a problem with my GPS, it seems to be losing power every once in a while so I need to do a little wire management and see if I can find the problem. I took off Tuesday like I planned running to a little town East of Oklahoma City then just past Alanta the second day. I arrived in Spartanburg on the 20th about 09:00 just in time to sit down for breakfast with some friends from Colorado.
Right now I'm sitting in the hotel kicking back watching riders come and go. Several are making their last run to pick up fresh tires. I was lucky, I met someone on the FJR forum that lives close to Spartanburg that helped me replace my ires so all is good. I'm planning to make a short run today to break them in a little before the start on the 24th.
Well until next time ride safe.
