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Riding Minnesota: a Man, a Motorcycle and a Map of Minnesota

Number 56 - The Missing Sign - Highway MN 56
This sign was long gone - I see that it's been gone since 2016 according to Google Streetview. 😕Hopefully it will be replaced soon!

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Beautiful Sunflowers

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The only truly gravel (highway) road that I encountered on the whole ride - MN 74
Minnesota Highway 74 has a short ~5 mile section that is gravel. However, it does happens to wind through some very beautiful areas of southeast Minnesota, so I can't fault it too much. If you're in the area and have an adventure bike or don't mind a little gravel, it's a fun ride!

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All done!!!
On November 3rd, 2018, using a Garmin InReach Thom Rieck became the first person to document riding ALL of Minnesota's highways.

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Some Stats About the Minnesota Ride
I rode over 44,000 miles during 2018 riding season, with a large majority of that attempting to complete the Minnesota ride. Here are some rough statistics of what exactly it took to be the first person to document riding every highway in Minnesota.

1995 BMW K75S
Miles: 15,375
Gallons of gas: 301
Gast cost: $933
MPG: 51
Tires: 1.8 sets
Oil Changes: 3
Other: 2 transmission oil changes, 2 final drive oil changes, 1 spline lube, 1 valve check, 1 headlight bulb


2007 BMW R1200RT
Miles: 16,647
Gallons of gas: 365.9
Gas cost: $988
MPG: 45.5
Tires: 3 sets
Oil Changes: 2
Other: 1 air filter, 1 set of spark plugs, 1 low-beam headlight, 2 transmission oil changes, 2 final drive oil changes

2009 BMW G650GS
Miles: 3,464
Gallons of gas: 64.1
Gas Cost: $176
MPG: 54.2
Tires: 0 sets
Oil Changes: 1
Other: Nothing :)



Here's something amazing (and embarrassing), if you took my mileage total from these three motorcycles and divided them by various MPH averages...

Mileage total of 35,486 miles:

Avg. MPH Hours rode Days rode
50 709.7 29.6
55 645.2 26.9
60 591.4 24.6
65 545.9 22.7


Now, this doesn't count all of the hours I spent waiting at red lights and stops signs. Therefore, I probably spent over a month sitting on my motorcycles this summer 😧

My yearly total for my tracking app (Rever) was 839 hours

Most importantly: I never had a roadside chat with any law enforcement!!

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Good Job

Minnesota winters must be long and cold this much detail and planning, than the doing, all the riding in the short summer all I can say is well done Sir! :thumb
 
Wow, what a ride!
Is there a Welcome to Minnesota sign when entering the Angle Inlet?
I'm currently "collecting" all of the Rustic Roads in Wisconsin, not in one summer but over three years!
 
Wow, what a ride!
Is there a Welcome to Minnesota sign when entering the Angle Inlet?
I'm currently "collecting" all of the Rustic Roads in Wisconsin, not in one summer but over three years!

According to the MN DOT website, there is not a "Welcome" sign entering the Angle Inlet. The road isn't technically a highway, so it wasn't on my list.

I'm kind of surprised that MN doesn't have a Rustic Roads collection - I assume you're going to put in for your patch?
 
Looks like fun, I'm not sure how long it would take to ride all the roads in Newfoundland. As for Minnesota I just want to ride to Duluth so I can visit Aerostitch.
 
Just finished listening to the podcast on walk this morning. And then saw this thread!

Great job. I did a double take when you were introduced. I am also Tom from Rochester, MN


LOL
 
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