Just Ride.

Should this ride thread be just a.... well, thread? Or should there be a dedicated Forum topic?

  • Yes, it's own topic in the Forums

    Votes: 19 90.5%
  • Nah... threads good enough.

    Votes: 2 9.5%

  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
Pete, How was the ride across the Big Mac? Riding that grate was a tendency to increase the pucker factor a bit IIRC.

Yeah - that grid certainly wasn’t chosen with bikes in mind was it beags - but at least it wasn’t windy.

Having said that - I always find on either steel grids or grooved pavement, that the best approach is to just relax your grip on the bars and let the bike wiggle around a bit. The path it takes invariably turns out to be pretty close what I would choose anyway and there isn’t so much erratic darting back and forth which I have experienced with the white-knuckle approach. It’s more of a gentle swaying motion as the tires “hunt” for their spot.

Pete
 
Bob..I always enjoy your rides..You obviously plan them out in advance..so it isnt a random meandering. You write so well and then you dazzle us with your photography and of course the AZ landscape...BTW My parents for years subscribed to Arizona Highways..Wish we had kept them all..
Pete..Great to see you on the mega mile muncher..Safe travels sir...Silver is the fastest colour...;)
 
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Oh, the wigglin' isn't the part that bothers me … it's the inevitable downward glance that makes you say "F*#K that's a long way down!":yikes:
I could never ride this route..I have this phobia of high bridges over large open deep bodies of water.. I would go 1000 miles the other way...I live in NC but you'll never see me do a ride to the outer banks...no thanks...LOL on the other hand..give me the mountains any day of the year ..You can beat the roads or the scenery.
 
LOL, Yepper we have plenty of those long high/draw bridges with still grates and tunnels around here! You get used to them and like Pete says,relax a bit and let your tires find there groove! In windy conditions you’ll have to work it a lil more to keep straight! Ha ha and try not to look down! Glad you made it across safely Pete! And can’t wait til I get to the mountains here in a couple of weeks,love the mountain riding too madmax!
 
Stumbling across history.....one ride at a time.
When I lived in Austin I was a few blocks away from a thing that looked like a control tower, in the middle of a subdivision. Later I found out that it's the control tower to the original Austin airport, which they left standing. It's many miles from anyplace you'd put an airport nowdays!

I'm going to be heading through your way soon on ol' Trigger on my way to the west coast. We need to get together.
 
Nice riding there Pete. Hope your bike is running good. Man lots of kms in one day. Would have to try an ST one of these days to see how they run. J-C

There is no better mile muncher IMO J-C. They are fast, quiet, handle better than other big tourers and the ST is as reliable as a chunk of granite. 200-300,000 km is not uncommon at all and on the ST Owners forum, there are virtually NO tales of ST1300 engine rebuilds - like NONE. Even clutch repairs are rather rare. I had to replace the clutch slave hydraulic cylinder and while access was a bit awkward, the parts cost only about $75 and the job took under two hours. My 2007 bike has linked ABS brakes, an adjustable seat and an electrically actuated windscreen. Even the headlight aiming is electrically actuated.

The only downside is that the bike is fairly heavy and tall and given the aging rider demographic, that can become an issue. Oh, and it has been out of production since about 2013-14 so, while mechanical and electrical parts are easy to find (lots of parts commonality with the Gold Wing and other big Hondas) the plastic fairing parts are getting to be scarce.

EDIT: the other issue is that because these bikes are heavy and powerful, they chew tires up at quite a clip. A lot of STOwners have installed car tires because they last so much longer and cost much less than motorcycle tires. Apparently, this works fine and certain car tires actually work extremely well on the ST. This is called “dark siding” and it’s mainly rear tires that are replaced but some guys have gone “double dark side” and installed an appropriately sized front tire as well.

I haven’t done this as I don’t put that many miles on my ST - ‘cause I’m too busy enjoying my XS650s!

If you check the ST Owners forum, there are usually 3-4 very nice bikes for sale for asking prices of $3-6K (which is only 10-20% of the cost of a new Gold Wing) and about 1/3 the cost of a Yamaha FJR or a Kawasaki Concours - the only comparable Japanese bikes still in production. As for the FJR and Kawi - most comparison tests in the press concluded that both are superb sport tourers but they both lean more toward “sport” than “touring” in terms of comfort.
 
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Another great adventure, and photo essay, Bob! Wow! The things you didn't know you didn't know, eh? These are the things people in Europe don't have. This country is less than 250 years old (okay, European settles started getting here, like, what, 400 years ago?), it's enormous, and there are still places "out in the middle of nowhere", like the places you keep finding! And so much history in such a short time! Keep the adventure alive! :rock:
 
There is no better mile muncher IMO J-C. They are fast, quiet, handle better than other big tourers and the ST is as reliable as a chunk of granite. 200-300,000 km is not uncommon at all and on the ST Owners forum, there are virtually NO tales of ST1300 engine rebuilds - like NONE. Even clutch repairs are rather rare. I had to replace the clutch slave hydraulic cylinder and while access was a bit awkward, the parts cost only about $75 and the job took under two hours. My 2007 bike has linked ABS brakes, an adjustable seat and an electrically actuated windscreen. Even the headlight aiming is electrically actuated.

The only downside is that the bike is fairly heavy and tall and given the aging rider demographic, that can become an issue. Oh, and it has been out of production since about 2013-14 so, while mechanical and electrical parts are easy to find (lots of parts commonality with the Gold Wing and other big Hondas) the plastic fairing parts are getting to be scarce.

EDIT: the other issue is that because these bikes are heavy and powerful, they chew tires up at quite a clip. A lot of STOwners have installed car tires because they last so much longer and cost much less than motorcycle tires. Apparently, this works fine and certain car tires actually work extremely well on the ST. This is called “dark siding” and it’s mainly rear tires that are replaced but some guys have gone “double dark side” and installed an appropriately sized front tire as well.

I haven’t done this as I don’t put that many miles on my ST - ‘cause I’m too busy enjoying my XS650s!

If you check the ST Owners forum, there are usually 3-4 very nice bikes for sale for asking prices of $3-6K (which is only 10-20% of the cost of a new Gold Wing) and about 1/3 the cost of a Yamaha FJR or a Kawasaki Concours - the only comparable Japanese bikes still in production. As for the FJR and Kawi - most comparison tests in the press concluded that both are superb sport tourers but they both lean more toward “sport” than “touring” in terms of comfort.

Thanks Pete for the info. My other bike is a Yamaha Roadstar 1700. A bunch of Roadstar owners on the clinic forum run darkside tires and have called them taxi tires. Sounds like the ST and Roadstar are similar as in not too many rebuilds, can go on for many miles but clutch spring (diaphragm type) weakens over time. I just replaced mine with a Barnett conversions and plates and steels were still within spec (94000kms). I just saw a few ST bikes today driving around to and from work. Gonna check out for sure. Thanks again Pete! JC
 
Hi All:
My Manitoba adventure continues....
I woke up in my little hotel room in Superior Wisconsin this morning and it was piddling down rain <dang!> so I bedded down for a little extra sleep. The funny thing is that the weather forecast was for mainly clear skies all day and all the way to Winnipeg (which was about 400 miles / 700 km away). Anyhow, by about 10 AM the skies were cloudy but the rain had stopped, so I loaded up Sylvia and set off for the day. Note that beaded mat thingy on the seat - I installed it just before I left Windsor and by gosh, it’s pretty good! The ST community is always griping about the stock seat. I don’t find it that bad, but I must admit that 8-10 hours is a bit much. That beaded mat ($16 at an auto supply store) did actually help a bit.
00755460-CEA4-4181-BA25-A9C8BED507A4.jpeg

I had a choice of heading west from Duluth and going through Grand Forks ND and then straight north to the ‘Peg or heading due north to International Falls and then west along the south shore of Lake of the Woods which forms the border with Canada. I looked carefully at the weather along both routes....and chose the northern route. Well, that didn’t work out so well as the piddling from the sky started again about 20 miles north of Duluth and it basically kept on and off all day. The terrain across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota is like the UP of Michigan: rolling but heavily wooded and not very populated.

Once I was past the greater Duluth area, I don’t think I saw more than 50 other vehicles until I got to the Canadian border. The formalities there took literally seconds and then more straight roads, lots of trees and few people until I arrived in the little town of Steinbach Manitoba at 7:00 PM (around 50 km south of Winnipeg). I’ll ride into the city tomorrow as my meeting starts on Thursday morning.

In Steinbach I am staying at a tidy little motel called the Sleep Suite Inn. The folks there kindly allowed me to park under the awning between the columns which keeps my bike away from the large construction company trucks and trailers that dot the parking lot.
B30041D1-43E9-49F4-984C-BDE1FFF9B958.jpeg

In my experience, parking in amongst those types of vehicles often ends unhappily for the bike. There is a good deal of construction around this area including summer telephone and hydro pole maintenance which is a messy-muddy business as evidenced by the sign on the door of the hotel.
50885892-4E8F-4A07-BBF8-5CCD84EFBBB1.jpeg

I doubt I will see a sign like that tomorrow at the elegant downtown Fort Garry Hotel - but it’s OK by me.

Cheers,

Pete
 
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I could never ride this route..I have this phobia of high bridges over large open deep bodies of water.. I would go 1000 miles the other way...
I often overcome this kind of thing by rationalizing. Like when's the last time you heard of something happening, or everybody else is doing it so I can too. Everybody else's parachute opened, why wouldn't mine? :)
 
Hi All:
My Manitoba adventure continues....
I woke up in my little hotel room in Superior Wisconsin this morning and it was piddling down rain <dang!> so I bedded down for a little extra sleep. The funny thing is that the weather forecast was for mainly clear skies all day and all the way to Winnipeg (which was about 400 miles / 700 km away). Anyhow, by about 10 AM the skies were cloudy but the rain had stopped, so I loaded up Sylvia and set off for the day. Note that beaded mat thingy on the seat - I installed it just before I left Windsor and by gosh, it’s pretty good! The ST community is always griping about the stock seat. I don’t find it that bad, but I must admit that 8-10 hours is a bit much. That beaded mat ($16 at an auto supply store) did actually help a bit.
View attachment 149373
I had a choice of heading west from Duluth and going through Grand Forks ND and then straight north to the ‘Peg or heading due north to International Falls and then west along the south shore of Lake of the Woods which forms the border with Canada. I looked carefully at the weather along both routes....and chose the northern route. Well, that didn’t work out so well as the piddling from the sky started again about 20 miles north of Duluth and it basically kept on and off all day. The terrain across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota is like the UP of Michigan: rolling but heavily wooded and not very populated.

Once I was past the greater Duluth area, I don’t think I saw more than 50 other vehicles until I got to the Canadian border. The formalities there took literally seconds and then more straight roads, lots of trees and few people until I arrived in the little town of Steinbach Manitoba at 7:00 PM (around 50 km south of Winnipeg). I’ll ride into the city tomorrow as my meeting starts on Thursday morning.

In Steinbach I am staying at a tidy little motel called the Sleep Suite Inn. The folks there kindly allowed me to park under the awning between the columns which keeps my bike away from the large construction company trucks and trailers that dot the parking lot.
View attachment 149374
In my experience, parking in amongst those types of vehicles often ends unhappily for the bike. There is a good deal of construction around this area including summer telephone and hydro pole maintenance which is a messy-muddy business as evidenced by the sign on the door of the hotel.
View attachment 149375
I doubt I will see a sign like that tomorrow at the elegant downtown Fort Garry Hotel - but it’s OK by me.
Cheers,
Pete

Hi Pete,
the beady seat will leave little dents all over your rear end. Dents make a golf ball fly straighter, what do you hope for?
I remember Duluth's spaghetti interchanges and the steep hill going North as you leave the place.
Alva & I have stayed at Steinbach's Sleep Suite Inn, too. Despite the Inn's name being ghastly pun, the rooms are OK.
The Fort Garry's rooms may be elegant but it's 1930's elegance; modern it ain't.
Check out the Samurai Japanese Restourant in the basement, too.
They feed you at an island table with a meter-square hotplate and a knife-juggling Chef in the middle.
 
Good afternoon all!
I got up to more piddling from the sky this morning so I lazed around until it stopped at about 9:30 AM and then rode the 50-odd km into Winnipeg.

The Fort Garry is everything Fred said - plus they are shooting a Hallmark Christmas Special movie here right now so there are lights, cameras and action all over the danged place.
2246FD7F-BF5C-4C23-A073-1AC766147747.jpeg

The hotel was built in 1911-13 as one of the series of CPR (Can Pacific RR) hotels in key cities sprinkled across the country. They are all magnificent structures and have the sort of presence that invites historical movie productions and romantic weekend getaways. However, the rooms are rather small and are wired like summer cottages with nowhere near enough receptacles for array of rechargeable electronics that most people tote around these days. There are definitely no signs admonishing guests to remove their muddy work boots before entering.
Sylvia is parked nicely out of the way in the underground parking garage and you can see the sort of ornate style of the Fort Garry visible even in the stairwell which you can see through the window behind the bike.
D5549197-C217-46BC-B5E7-98F04F74563B.jpeg

As you can see, she is secure with a disc lock in recognition of the fact that until a decade ago, Winnipeg had more vehicle thefts per capita than any other city in North America.
CAAE5A0D-51E0-4037-8499-47ADC7907C19.jpeg

And so, the outward bound stage of my trip has ended with a final mileage of 1857.5 km from home to here. I haven’t worked it out but I think that I averaged about 50-54 mpig which is pretty good considering the rapid pace I was making.
3F3F4C83-80A0-4FB1-A779-ACF756490FF7.jpeg

After a bite of lunch in the Fort Garry’s very nice bar (see below), I went for a walk up the street to look around the provincial legislature building which is famously topped with a larger than life-size gilded statue of a boy brandishing a torch.
B69D3B47-62BB-412F-8245-09B6B6BAC717.jpeg

The statue has quite a history - here is a linky to an article on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Boy_(Manitoba)
04DBA1E8-0AAD-424D-B6A5-AFA4B29966BF.jpeg

The statue is imaginatively known as “The Golden Boy”....
2BDC6D31-49E0-4429-B639-47148A73146B.jpeg

I continued my walk to the beautiful Winnipeg Union Station building which is just a few meters from the Fort Garry. The station is the passenger terminal for VIA Rail Canada and is surmounted by a magnificent dome - well worth a look.
95208D92-4259-42A6-AE27-72F8B0A33BF9.jpeg

Here is a view from inside Union Station.
578EAEB0-28F3-4F16-9917-1952D393E11D.jpeg

Anyhow, tomorrow, it’s on with my meetings - so I’ll wrap this up until Friday when I set off for more adventures on the way home.

Pete
 
The Fort Garry is everything Fred said - plus they are shooting a Hallmark Christmas Special movie here right now so there are lights, cameras and action all over the danged place. - - -
Pete[/QUOTE]

Hi Pete,
alas that my elderly brain had confused Winnipeg's Fort Garry Hotel with Saskatoon's Bessborough Hotel.
The Bess' was built in the grand style in the 1930s to help dig Saskatoon out of the great depression and it
DOES have an upscale Japanese Restaurant in it's basement.
 
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