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Finally, a Ride Report!

Rapid_Roy

New member
GR3 Soldier's Grove, WI
These were the best of times, these were the worst of times.
My brother picked up a sweet ride in Illinois 2 weeks previous.
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He was bringing that, and I would be on my faithful RT.
I couldn't get the whole day off, so I got home from work at 12:30 Friday. Got the bike ready and by 1:00, I called my brother. He said he had a couple of stops to make and then we could leave. I thought, what was he doing all day while I was at work? It had been a long time since he had regularly motorcycled and camped. We compromised and I said I would meet him at the store. He wasn't there. I drove over to the gas station. Success! Then we went to the store, and by now, I was chomping at the bit to ride.
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We finally took off, and headed west towards Madison, Wisconsin. We hit some country and I started to relax, then, an obnoxious detour in Jefferson! I eased out to pass a truck that was sandblasting me after the detour, and, much to my surprise, I couldn't pass his bumper. The bike sounded starved on the left side cylinder and I was having problems breaking 60. I backed off a bit and slowly sped up enough to pass the truck, but I didn't like that. It was 4 lane as we neared Madison but 2 lane for most of that trip. I was thinking about it as we hit the 4 lanes so I pulled over on a frontage road.

Last year, I loaned my brother one of my bikes to ride all Summer. We tried the RT, but his boots had a eyelet that caught the clip on the float bowl and he lost it completely. (He ended up with my /7 and put around 600 miles on it.) We got another float bowl and at first it leaked out the overflow. I adjusted it slightly and it wouldn't leak anymore. I got on it to ride home and it started acting weird a hundred feet down the road. I pulled over and noticed the floats were bent from his shoe. I bent that back and it seemed to run fine. I did the Slimy Crud Run this year at 270 miles and no problems. I gave her a spring tune up and torqued the heads and adjusted the valves. Apparently, when I adjusted the valves, the left side now needed more fuel because the valves were off on that side. I checked the float bowl and the floats were still somewhat bent so I fixed that. I removed the other side and checked the level of the surface that pushes the needle valve up. Yep, left side was off. I adjusted it, put her back together, and did a quick run down the frontage road, she was good to go. We jumped on Hwy 14 (The belt line) in Madison. Like a freeway, we skipped around Madison and stayed on Hwy 14 headed West, as 2 lane, to Black Earth, WI. Why?, you ask? Remember the boots that ripped the clip? Those were the only boots he had, so he made a pair of spats to cover the eyelets. He is hard to fit and we discovered a shoe store that had boots in his size on the way.
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He found a good pair of boots, and we finally started hitting some country. We had to make time now, so we stayed on Hwy 14, until we hit Hwy 60. That runs the Wisconsin River for a while and is very nice in spots. We stayed on that until we found a Hwy W that cut North to Hwy 61, just shy of Soldier's Grove, where the Rally was. The trip was uneventful and we hit the rally by 5:30. We set up tents, then went to a bar in town for a meal. It was good, and we saw Hummingbirds right next to the window. We ate and talked, then headed back to camp to socialize. That went well until about 11:30pm when it started to rain and everybody called it. We got plenty of sleep for the full day. I just wish it wasn't so full, as you will see.

By now, you may have noticed the different tank. He had a pinhole rust leak in the original one, and staying home is not an option. He had a spare toaster tank that was pristine inside.

Here are some shots of the Rally grounds:
Looking South
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Looking North:
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I walked North, this is looking South west:
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and North again:
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We ate a hearty meal at the pavilion:
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I met a guy who went to my High School and we never really met. I knew who he was, but it's a small world. He has a GS Hi Eric:wave
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We finally left for a ride. Myself, and my 2 brothers.
We were North of town on a alphabet road, and we saw stuff like this:
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and this:
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Then, the bad thing happened:
This
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led to this:
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My eldest brother has 2 fractured vertebrae, a cracked rib, a sprained foot, a broken toe, and a bruised lung.
We spent most of the day in the hospital. We then drove back to the site and got pictures, at my brother's request.
We just got back to the rally and the announce the meal and door prizes.Here is myself and my brother, goofing.
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I got sorta drunk later, but it wasn't a happy evening for me.
It started to rain again Saturday night late, so I went to bed.
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The next morning, my brother beat me up and they had already left with a Bert Hefty (The Madison Club Rocks!)a truck, and trailer. They picked the bike up and my other brother and I, packed up the tent and all his stuff. I said bye to my brother as I wanted to take a slow, introspective, ride home, and take some pictures.
Well, it was cold, I was kind of down and I had a long way to go, so I didn't take much. I went home the way we came, here is a shot of Hwy W, about 7 miles south of Soldier's Grove.
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I also stopped to put on my neck warmer. Any exposed skin that day would get pretty cold on a motorcycle. Then, I was comfortable and I took off. I had a spirited ride to Hwy 60, and headed east to merge with Hwy 14. I edged down in Spring Green and I bring you:
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Frank Lloyd Wright's Studio/Home/School in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It sort of looks like it belongs there.
I have sat in FLW furniture though, and it is darned uncomfortable.:laugh
Looking North West:
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Closer:
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There you have it. My hands were cold from taking pictures and it felt like it was colder. I am about a 1.5 to 2 hours from home now, so time to go. I hit 14 East again, but stop right before it's 4 lane, at Arby's (fast food) . I eat with all my gear on and I am still cold.
I am about a uneventful hour from home now as I hit the belt line around Madison again, ever headed East. I got home about 2 pm, unpacked the tent to dry it out and showered. I missed my family this weekend, and I was finally back in my element. I called the hospital and talked to my brother, but I was still a little shook up from it all. When I was holding his hand in the ditch, I realized how much I care for my brothers. (and he has an awfully large hand)

So, there ya go. I had almost 400 hundred miles this weekend, but only the first 160 were fun.
Thank you, Cheers!
 
nice pics, but sorry to hear about your bro, hope he recovers OK and the bike gets back on the road.

What you said about FLW place, yeah it does look like it belongs there, but then so do most of his homes, that was one of the great things about his work, his signature if you will, he designed his structures to be apart of rather than separate from, the environment in which they were built. Its what he called "Organic" architecture.

In a book I have that is a series of lectures he gave at Princeton University, called the Kahn Lectures there is one of my favorite sayings of his, it basically says that he viewed "style "as something you end up with rather than something you start out with in contrast to most designers that would start out with a given "style" such as Roman, Gothic, etc, and build to that, he started out with figuring out what the needs of the client was, the enviornment in which the building would be built and designed to that, the end result was his unique "style", thus was "modern" architecture born. And yeah, his furnishing while pleasant to look at and that fit so nicely, were VERY uncomfortable! Too square, he understood buildings but fell way sort on understanding the human structure!

He's a pic of his Usonian house (designed for the working man), another example of how his houses really fit its environment

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Anyway, he's hoping your bro recovers OK!

RM
 
Roy,

Glad to see that you're at a point where you were finally able to carve out a little time for a ride! Sorry that it was so dramatic! From the look of the bike's remains, I expected to hear that your brother's injuries (while not insignificant) were much worse - very glad for all of you that they're not. It's a real shame about the bike. Hope it can be rebuilt?

Cheryl
 
sorry to hear about your brother's spill roy, but luckily, he's ok and will ride another day.

very nice pics, i used to live across the street from a FLW house in Amherst MA. i love the functionality and straight lines.
 
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