Not quite a Hoosier Daddy Ride

The morning of May 1, 2004 broke like the wind. It was thunderstorming and hailing in LorezapamÔÇÖs neck of the wood. It was cold and overcast in my neck of the woods. Then my tire air pressure gauge decided it did not want to work, so I dug out the other one and that worked fine. Topped up the tires did the walk around and off I went. Headed down to ShapiroÔÇÖs Deli to meet up with the Indianapolis group for the first time, Dzimbric, Lorezapam, and YB in IN. 6:07AM I was on the way according to the GPS. The track feature is really nice for documenting the rides.

Leg 1
Home to Bypass/Toll Booth (Sometimes it creates legs a little too easily)
Distance: 17.5 miles
Duration: 25 minutes
Average Speed: 42MPH
Weather: Overcast and mid 50's

I have learned that taking the longer distance way around South Bend is better than going through it, no traffic lights and more miles for the contest. If I go through South Bend it is 45 minutes minimum, if I go around it is 25 minutes. Also it adds another 15 miles which isnÔÇÖt bad. Sure it is 45 cents for the Toll Road, but it is worth it, plus avoiding construction.

Leg 2
Bypass/Toll Booth to Shapiro's
Distance: 165.5 miles
Duration: 2 hours 48 minutes
Average Speed: 53MPH
Weather: Overcast and mid 50's, and getting worse

Nothing that earth shattering about the ride, simply around the bypass (US-20) and down to Shapiro's via US-31. In one of the few moments of pure brilliance in recent memory, I got my rain gear on at the perfect time. I do mean perfect. I pulled over at about 8:40 as there was a parking lot, and it looked like rain the way I was headed. Just as I finished putting the rain suit on, the rain started. Put back on the gloves and rode away, after talking with Lorazepam on the cell phone, I found out he was not going to make it. Given the weather it was not a good day to ride safely. I must have been a site for the passerbyÔÇÖs, some guy in a blue rain suit, with a red helmet on, black gloves, black boots, wired into a silver motorcycle (electric jacket), holding a cell phone into the helmet. Oh yeah, two ears and a tail on the helmet as well.

Arrived at ShapiroÔÇÖs at 9:18AM, took the gear off and put it in the saddle bags. That was the payback for the moment of pure brilliance. Why take the gear off in the parking lot to go inside where everyone else has their gear? Especially the rain gear. Guess the brilliance to bonehead ratio was set even. Once again another site, a guy getting undressed in a parking lotwearing a red helmet with tiger accutraments. Oh yeah, left the helmet on so my ÔÇ£hairÔÇØ wouldnÔÇÖt get wet. The brilliance to bonehead ratio is probably leaning toward bonehead.

Breakfast and conversations was fun. I told Dzimbric that Lorazepam was not going to make it. We could not find Garth, I came up with 4 scenarios for why he was not there:

• Hung over
• Scared of getting wet
• Went to St. Louis
• In the night of fun, his buddies decided to send him to Vegas
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  I wonder what it was
  
  Leg 3
  Shapiro's To 31st Original Mini Rally - BMW Motorcycle Club of Battle Creek #14 (Sturgis, MI)
  Distance: 247 miles
  Duration: 5 hours and 13 minutes
  Average Speed: 47MPH
  Weather: Crappy low 50s and raining hard
  
  Comments: Teresa, Dzimbric and I headed out of Shapiro's toward Sturgis. After a gas stop, Teresa spun off and headed back home. To be fair the weather was pretty cold, and it did not look like it was going to get any better for a while. She did not have all the right stuff, like electric vest. Dan and I continued to Sturgis. We definitely took the scenic route. Also the GPS took us to the wrong camp site. Luckily we found some people to help us out.
  
  Unfortunately, I lost a tiger ear on the ride. It appears that rain loosens the suction cup. Looking at the track of the day, one can tell we had not actually planned our route to Sturgis and communicated it well. I had the GPS setup to make it a superslab run, however we got off the interstate for the scenic route. Well we definitely wandered some. No biggie, it was still not bad. However the bonehead:brilliance ratio is still out of balance.
  
  Arrived at the rally, did the typical stuff instead of beer though it was hot chocolate or hot coffee. Reconnected with some people I hadnÔÇÖt seen since the 2003 National. The idea of joining the Michiana BMW club was bandied about for a little while. Definitely something to consider.
  
  Leg 4
  31st Original Mini Rally - BMW Motorcycle Club of Battle Creek #14 (Sturgis, MI) to Home
  Distance: 42.6 miles
  Duration: 1 hours 3 minutes
  Average Speed: 40MPH
  Weather: Low 50's drizzle. Cold and Dank but the rain did stop.
  
  I need to figure out the gas gauge and range a little better. The gauge ran out of bars about 6 miles from home. I thought the way it worked was reserve was when there was one bar. I could have made it to the BP and saved money, plus had a Premium only hose. Instead I filled up at the closest station, and after seeing how much gas I put in, I had about a gallon. So when there are no bars left on the gauge, there is one gallon left. Other than that an uneventful ride.
  
  So it was a pretty long day for me of about 470 miles. I have realized that not only is the RT speedometer off by a little, that same ÔÇ£fudge factorÔÇØ also applies to the distances. Looking at the GPS results against the odometer results there is a difference. However I ainÔÇÖt gonna say which way, but I have both documented.

Sounds like a fun day Brad. I ended up riding to a friends place and installing a topcase on the RRS. It rained very hard off and on during the day here and I donned my rain suit for the ride home at twilight. I relocated my led tail/brake light from backoff, to a plastic support for the new topcase. If it isn't raining tomorrow, I will get pictures.

Raingear

I have never seen Brad get flustered until I told him he was missing an ear, he stopped and did a manual search, guess he thought it might be invisible to me and it might still be found by touch, I am glad he did not want to use his GPS to backtrack our route to search for the little rascal.

I guess Brad and I were both suffering from boneheaditis. I looked at my rainsuit hanging in the garage and said, Nah I don't need it, my Atlantis suit will keep me dry.

The Atlantis suit will keep you dry the first couple of hours then it keeps you kinda dry. I guess they were right about needing a liner. That and I soaked two of my three pairs of gloves. Glad I had the summer ones stashed along with my comfortemp, that's what saved me for the ride home.

Even with my heated vest I was shivering so bad at Sturgis I could barely write my name, looks like my dog scrawled it with a muddy stick.

My shift indicator went goofy during the ride, it identified 3rd and 4th but 5 and 6 was still 4 and below 3rd was 0. I guess it needs some raingear too.

Actually I realized how lazy I heve been getting on the RT and it was good exercise having to count my gears again.

Brad, don't you have a idiot light on the RT. When mine comes on I have 1.1 gallons in the tank, this means you are on reserve. I look at my odometer and give myself 40 miles from that point.

Just to play it safe.

Hey guys. Brad was right on 3 of the four reasons I didn't make it.
1. Just a wee bit hung over
2. It was fricking pouring rain when I woke up.
3. I went to St. Louis to see about a girl.

I actually had everything on to leave before I decided to bail. It was just too nasty outside to get me motivated to ride. We're talking high winds and the whole bit. So I went back to bed and got up a couple of hours later when there was a break in the rain and headed to St. Louis to see my girlfriend. I did get a nice ride around St. Louis on Sunday afternoon with a riding buddy out there and my girlfriend on the back. I suppose I'll catch y'all next time.