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Motorcycling in the Nation's Capital

June 8, 2002

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Ride Diary, SaddleSore to Central KY

SaddleSore to Central Kentucky, subtitled "a helluva long way to go to have lunch at a Cracker Barrel." :)

My friend Tom and I completed our first SaddleSore ride yesterday. Me on the VFR; he on a '02 BMW R1150R. We put our heads together and planned the route over the last couple of weeks. I looked for routes that avoided major cities, yet destinations that were served by Interstate highways. A plus was avoiding toll roads and states with low speed limits. Things like going west in the morning and east in the evening to keep the sun out of your eyes are things to think about too. Anyway, the route we chose was DC to Winchester, KY (just east of Lexington), which turned out to be 520 miles by the mapping software. It would put us through WV with its generous 70-mph speed limit and on lightly traveled interstates, principally I-68 in Western Md. and I-79 in WV. The scenery's nice too for a day of droning along the slab.

Overall, it was a great trip, although the groin is a little numb this morning. The VFR performed flawlessly, although there was a little problem with the ScottOiler I mounted last week. I noticed at the last stop the oil reservoir had run out and as we hit DC last night, the bike seemed to run like crap at low speeds. Turns out on closer inspection this morning that the vacuum fitting had come loose, so the bike was running with a vacuum leak and way lean on #1 cylinder.

Stock seat and stock butt works for me I guess. I have a throttle lock and throttle rocker. Tom doesn't have a throttle lock and his right hand is hurting this morning. I think a Throttlemeister has his name on it. We were starting to get a little "punchy" as the sun went down and we had the added task of watching for wildlife in the dark. Tom and I had noticed the number of road kill Bambis. Riding from gas stop to gas stop with your feet up will take a toll on your knees. As we came back into DC (my feet hadn't been down for close to 200 miles) I felt like my legs had fallen off. Slide back and forth on the seat to vary your position and alternate between the balls of your feet and your heels on the pegs. Tom could put his feet on his valve covers. :) Those boxers come with built-in highway pegs. The CamelBak and Tylenol hits added a lot of comfort too.

Here are the numbers

  • Departure: 6:17 AM Arrival 11:31 PM GPS shows a slightly longer trip time of 17:23, which included short rides to get our time-stamped ATM receipts.
  • Total miles by GPS 1,041 1,074 by the bike odometer, so bike odometer is 3% optimistic.
  • 59.9 mph average speed including stops. We took about an hour at the Cracker Barrel in Mt. Sterling, KY.
  • 70.0 mph average on the move
  • 93.3 top speed. We dialed in between 75 and 80 most of the way. A little higher when boredom set in. :)
  • VFR got 39 mpg (by GPS)

    The keys to doing these things in a timely manner is simply to keep moving, and not necessarily at blistering top speeds. I find maintaining higher speeds and the stress of always looking for Johnny Law can be very tiring. Neither of us has a radar detector. We limited our gas stops to 10-15 minutes. Having a GPS and mapping software (a printout of your route with mileages and running times) helps a lot in maintaining your pace and checking yourself. I had set the highway running speed at 70 in the mapping software, so we kept pace with that. I had planned 16 hours riding time and with our hour for lunch, that turned out to be about right. One thing we might do in the future is to get an earlier start next time. Both of us are "morning people." I would be nice to get some serious miles under our belts between 5 and 8 AM.

    Our route planning seemed to pay off. There was very little traffic the whole way. There was one incident of weirdness on I-70 near Hagerstown, Md. I'm on the lead doing about 80 when I see this pickup veer off the road and kick up a huge cloud of dust. And then I see this wheel and tire darting across the road, into my lane. On the binders quickly to let the wheel pass in front of me. Definitely one of the weirder things I've seen on the highway. I guess the guy in the truck neglected his lug nuts! Tom saw it too, so I was not having hallucinations.

    Speaking of which, the whole exercise (like most of motorcycling) is mental rather than physical. The GPS makes a nice toy to play with and helps keep your mind sharp. I find when you're in the "zone" the miles just melt away. I tend to do simple calculations in my head involving times and distances. I figure when I become so addled that I can't do simple arithmetic, it's time to get off the bike!

     

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    This page created and maintained by Paul Wilson

    In "Our Nation's Neighborhood"

    Capitol Hill, Washington DC, USA

    Last modified 7/10/2002.