Half way lol.
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gggGary's latest XS project "madness"
- Thread starter gggGary
- Start date
Are you going for an IBA certified ride?
According to Google..going through Duluth is only 452 miles one way so you are going to need an addition 100 miles or so..to make it 1000...
I once rode from Casey Ill. to Wendell in 16 hours..860 miles on my 2001 Honda ST1100..that could have been an IB ride but i didnt think i was going to ride that far and didnt take the proper methods to document my time and mileages...
I once rode from Casey Ill. to Wendell in 16 hours..860 miles on my 2001 Honda ST1100..that could have been an IB ride but i didnt think i was going to ride that far and didnt take the proper methods to document my time and mileages...
Yes Pete I went to Moonshine..in 2012..BTW I thought i recognized your avatar elsewhere ..today i went on ST-O as a guest and lo and behold..there you are...Congrats on those awards for MOTM etc...good job sir.
I once rode from Front Royal VA to Richmond Hill, ON on a Honda CB360T. I don’t know the distance, but it took quite while to iron my butt out after that trip.
Holy crap thats masochistic...LOL
My LD riding days are finished..no interest and loathe the interstates or superslabs...Cutting back to an XS650.....less is more...
Back down to rice lake, 200 to home. Did a few extra miles up at international falls, still will need about 50 more when I'm near home. Nope just diy no cert. Had a couple issues but it's still rolling, details later.
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Thanks MadMax-im! I wrote an article on changing the ST1300 clutch slave cylinder withOUT removing the engine. That saves nearly $1500 in labour and quite a number of people have used it - which led to the MOTM.
Like XS650.com, ST Owners is also a super technical resource for the folks who own one of those big fast highway battle cruisers - but the “social” atmosphere on ST-O is entirely different from the one that prevails here:
- No cussin’
- No spittin’
- No nudity
- No jokes about the fairer sex (or anything to do with sex)
The design spec set for those bikes was reportedly that they had to be able to do 200 km/hr for three hours without refuelling (that’s about 125 MPH), so they carry nearly 30 litres (7 USG) of fuel.
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Yeeah..i know..its too sanitary over there and i was personally being over moderated for the same stuff others were saying unmoderated..I got fed up and left about 4 yrs ago...i was STBNE there..i loved my 95 Pure pearl Red St1100 and after I moved here I bought a 2001 . Loved them but I cant manage that weight anymore...I used to average 22000 miles per year on the ST platforms...not any more tho...I know the regular gang on ST_O but I dont make an effort to sign up and post there..I prolly could under a different screenname...My computer and my router have changed so has my electronic footprint..And they wouldnt know it was STBNE unless i told them...then Joe would prolly can me..Not doing that....
I am also on the original ST owner site...ST-Riders.net. Thats where many of the original email list members are and were long before ST-O was ever around. Its less moderated over there and many of those folks are on both sites..and some who were on ST-O wont return there anymore...Life goes on..
By my estimates Gary should be home before midnight..keep on truckin Gary!!!!
I am also on the original ST owner site...ST-Riders.net. Thats where many of the original email list members are and were long before ST-O was ever around. Its less moderated over there and many of those folks are on both sites..and some who were on ST-O wont return there anymore...Life goes on..
By my estimates Gary should be home before midnight..keep on truckin Gary!!!!
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I missed this earlier...Excellent work sir!!!
To keep max happy i went past home and came back, done. Really really done. Woosh. G,night
Outstanding Gary! YOU DA MAN!! I look forward to hearing more about your trip. Now hit the showers! 
Thanks Gary for updating us on your safe return home..I stayed up hoping to see this...Now hit the shower and the sack...Goodnight!!!
Atta boy Gary!
I thought you were doing a SS1000 hence my comments on mileages...Heck i'm happy you made it back safely...mileages be damned...Pretty darn impressive for someone to do a ride like that on a 42 year old bike...No way i could do that anymore....
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Well THAT's off the bucket list, good riddance. blecch. ha ha
The mostly boring story;
A: don't do this, really, it's not worth it.
Go pick some roads you LIKE, stop and smell the flowers, quit when you get tired. A MUCH better adventure than endless road pounding.
There are not enough hours of daylight to do this safely. Riding the freeway, at night, in deer country, after 18 hours in the saddle is seriously NOT fun.
I kinda pushed myself into prepping the bike "in a hurry", schedules hadn't allowed the ride at peak solar hours, weather and coming events suddenly said "it's gotta be Sunday". Lots of changes, no shake down cruise, got me a couple issues.
Didn't sleep well, you know how it goes just before a big adventure. Up at 4, suit up, add a couple last minute things I thought of while tossing and turning. Plugging in the phone and GPS chargers, in the dark driveway, I mixed up SAE plugs and plugged two power feeds into each other. Oops that blew a fuse! 'cuz one power has to go backward into the other, course I didn't catch that immediately, thought the battery had discharged, etc, etc. so with the timer ticking I ran through the drill, found and fixed the issues,fired up, and got off about 40 minutes late. Change number one: Knowing the end of the trip would be brutish, I dumped riding the "backroads" from my specs, and went with the get r done option.
Basically the route there and back, with some miles added at the end for Max.
First trip pic (way) above was sunrise just north of Baraboo. Cellphone mounted on bars camera doesn't much care for XS650 level vibration. This was shot on the Duluth bridge at speed,
Duluth is a pretty harbor, you get up in the air to see it on the way through.
Ride up was basically flawless. Fuel mileage using mostly premium; high 40's, oil consumption; bit less than a quart in 1,000 miles. This is a hotrodded 750 with 8500 miles on it since I've had it, unknown how many before that since the engine was last opened.
Compression 182 182 cold before I Ieft.
Glad I had the standard tank on, hit reserve pretty much like clockwork at 130 miles. think I went to 155 once before fuel. most I put in was 3.3 gallons, 'sposed to be a 4 gallon tank. Right about international falls is where things got interesting. My voltage LED started showing 17 VOLTS at 4000 RPM, crap! This is a 79 with a solid state RR conversion (way it came to me) wiring is a bit um yes messy.
those dual charging cords were a last minute add on-thrash.
So looked at everything a couple times and thought; well what can I do? Ride on. Figured crap the reg died in always charging mode, the batteries going to boil, how long can the rotor and brushes take the abuse, and I REALLY hope the Pamco and e-advance don't fry! about 20 miles later the LED showed back to normal! and then kept trending lower. Much of the tip home it was showing 11's then 10ish volts, but going back up to normal for a bit after fuel stops?? THEN also just after international falls, the bike quit, like a light switch, no motor on the highway. Quickly flicked the kill switch off on off and backfire and Shazam! back to running "fine" It also developed a burble, not quite happy at low RPM but ran fine at highway speed. An airshow letting out with stop and go traffic in Duluth was not fun kinda over revving to get away from a stop and holding it at fast idle "just in case". The motor, quit, hit kill, go back to running, kept happening the entire trip home, at random, 20 to 60 mile intervals. never got better or worse but completely nerve wracking! Just waiting for that trip over, sitting on the freeway,"flipping the switch doesn't fix it" moment that never happened.
Allison was waiting for me and came running out when I pulled in at 11. Got off the bike and my trusty well over 10,000 miles on many bikes inflatable sheepskin seat pad was GONE! I know it had been under me not long before. Too tired to do anything about it. This morning I hopped on period piece and back tracked, after one false alert that was a dead skunk, I found it! Safe and sound on the center line 11 miles from home.
So with madness set up just how I like it, with good weather it was a fine mount. No back rest, didn't really bother me. Other than sore sit bones and slightly ringing ears this morning I feel "fine". I use a quiet ride helmet with inflatable ear seals and blue tooth to the GPS but there is still plenty of road noise behind the minimal windshield.
other minor stuff, had some issues with adjusting windshield and it's mounts.
Had fuel set up with a one petcock to one carb system the throttle side carb went dry 5 miles before the LH side so learned to turn that petcock to reserve BEFORE the RH cylinder died, making an awkward throttle hand petcock handle turn un-necessary.
Getting old, no glasses I own are prefect for all parts of the view, distance, sun screening GPS screen. pick any two, LOL After 16 hours of saddle time night glare wasn't fun.
Again save yourself the trouble, go have fun instead of doing silly, meaningless "record attempts".
Gotta go do some bike clean up.
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I enjoyed being along for the ride.
Congrats.
Congrats.
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