20140529 - Bar Harbor Me to West Greenwhich Ri

The day started at our B&B with, what else, breakfast.  Having been on the internet looking at weather for the last hour, it was time to come downstairs and see what Ralph was planning for us.

Breakfast started with some wonderful chocolate chip and almond scones and a cup of tea.  Mike was already downstairs and having trouble with the internet.  He asked me if I did anything.  Why do people always look at me when their connection to the Internet is broken?  I told him it must be his computer and about that time, someone else came down with the same complaint.  Clearly, I had the priority lanes on the Information Super Highway this morning.

Ralph offered us a menu and told us the special was polenta with black beans, salsa and 2 eggs any style.  We all ended up with the special, and it was fantastic. 

We planned to check out and tour the park.  There is a loop that runs around the park and we planned to get video of everything, plus stills.  Monies paid, keys returned and bikes packed, we made our way to the park.  It is a national park, so there is a fee to get in.  My park pass was still valid and has more than paid for itself, so I didn't have to break out any cash.

<<<<insert video and stills here  >>>>>


After the park, we decided we needed to make it a good way back home; but, wanted to take Rt. 1 and see things instead of just driving interstate.  We made that happen until we got to about Portsmouth.  We decided to take a long lunch and hopefully arrive in the Boston area after rush.  If that didn't work out, we were going to take a long dinner and do more riding after dinner.  Plan B is what happened.  We got as far as Lowell when the traffic was nearly stopped.  So, we took an exit and found a Chinese buffet.  Consulting my road atlas (for the 600th time this trip), we plotted a course for Woonsocket RI.  Yes there is a Woonsocket RI and I'm sure all you riders born after 1980 know what a road atlas is, how to use it, and carry it as religiously as I do.  Here's proof there is a Woonsocket.

Herby the Love Bug was also in Woonsocket on this day:

After Woonsocket, the temps were falling pretty fast.  We really wanted to get West of the greater Hartford area; but, that wasn't going to happen.  We ended up at a Best Western, where the chlorine in the hot tub was noxious!

Today, we're getting a late start to let traffic die out and will finish this trip, adding connecticuit to the list of states visited and complete our Northeast states tour.

20140528 - Sebago lake Me, to Bar Harbor Me

As stated in my last post, the lodge at Sebago Lake is wonderful.  It's also for sale.  So, if any readers are in the market for investment property in Maine, here's an opportunity.

Looking at the weather, we knew we were in for cold and rain.  We knew we were going to pack out in the rain and end in the rain; but, we might get sunshine after we arrived.  Because we knew we weren't going to see much countryside, we opted for interstate and ran out to I-95 as quick as we could.  About the only interesting thing we saw was a C-5 fly over us while landing at Bangor International airport.

Temps for this ride were in the upper 40's.  I put on my heated jacket and heated gloves.  I didn't need the heated pants or socks.  My traveling companions were wearing leather jackets and chaps and a bunch of sweatshirts.  There was definite conversation about them getting heated gear if they were serious about riding long distances regularly!  We also talked about rain gear and the important qualities of that.  These are separate blog posts though.

We stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts outside Bangor for them to warm up.  I took the opportunity to Yelp for a B&B in Bar Harbor and found Acacia Place.  Ralph answered the phone when I called and was happy to have us.  We pulled in introduced ourselves and with expert precision and prejudice, got out of our riding gear.  Since the sun was now starting to poke out, we decided to walk the town and grab some pictures.  Ralph was great in pointing out where to go and also pulled up the information about the tides so we could walk over to the island.

Today happened to be Mike and Crystal's 32nd anniversary.  Things were planned differently.  I was hopeful to leave them alone for the day and leave them alone; but, they were insistent that we stay together for the trip.  When we arrived at Acacia, I asked Ralph for a suggestion for them on where to eat and he gladly provided.

Our walk around Bar Harbor was wonderful.  We shot many pics of the harbor and the island.  I left Mike and Crystal to shoot pictures of some of the wonderful houses on the island and leave them for dinner.

After returning to Acacia, I again consulted Yelp for a place to dine.  Knowing where Mike and Crystal would be, I wanted to choose something different; but, lobster was on the menu.  I looked at the menu of about 5 places and settled on Steward's on West street.  I initially seated myself outside; but, the temps were dropping fast and I moved in.  During that time, I got a text from Mike.  He was uncomfortable at the restaurant that was suggested as he wasn't dressed for it.  I asked him where he was and he said they were at the same restaurant I was.  I looked around and didn't' see him.  He was downstairs.  They very graciously invited me down; but, I really didn't want to be part of their anniversary dinner.  I sent them champagne instead.

I got the Down East Lobster special - Lobster, mussels, potato and corn, with clam chowder and blueberry pie.  Everything was great except the lobster, which was still good; but, overcooked.  The shell crushed instead of snapped while trying to get at the meat.  I think I would go there again; but, I would explore other places first.

20140527 - VT to ME...If you've ridden in one cloud, you've ridden in them all.

Let's review.  We intend to get all the states in the Northeast this trip.  Technically, DC and DE are in the Northeast; but, we won't be going there on this trip.   We've only got two to go...

Connecticut and Rhode Island are the outliers.

This morning, we  looked at the weather using KOA's horribly slow internet connection and after a half an hour of browsing what should have taken 3 minutes, we came to the conclusion that we were going to be riding in rain and that we were likely to get about halfway through the White mountain park before entering it.  We thought that we could do that and evaluate things in Conway NH.

As predicted, we started getting rain about halfway through the park.  The ride was enjoyable up until that point.   We started up the mountain and reached an altitude of about 2600'.  We were in the clouds from about 1600'.  Visibility was about 25 yards.  Seriously.  It was disappointing that we were not able to see anything except the signs that said moose crossing.  No mooses either.  Literally, we missed about half the park.  We did vow to come back to visit Vermont and New Hampshire though.

Today's route...

After several hours of 50 degree temperatures, rain and more, worse rain ahead, we decided to call it quits for the day.  Yelp came to the rescue and found us a Bed and Breakfast a little over a mile from where we were.  It's a shame it's raining, because this is a beautiful place right on the lake.  We have a couple very nice rooms and we're paying half what we would pay at a hotel chain.  This is the B&B ---> Sebago Lake Lodge.

Donna is very nice and offered us a ride into town to get some food, which we might take her up on.  She also said if we had any wet clothes, she'd be happy  to dry them for us.

Tomorrow's plan is to make Bar Harbor and hang there for the day.  We're planning lobster in the evening and an early start on Thursday.  We need to be back by Friday afternoon, so we'll plan for getting halfway back and including Rhode Island and Connecticut by Thursday night!

20140526 - Bethlehem PA to Quechee VT

Like clockwork, Mike and Crystal arrived at my sister's house at 7am for the first of several days of riding.  The plan is to travel North through NJ in to NY and then into Massachusetts and either stop in Vermont or, continue into New Hampshire; depending on timing and weather.

I thought the ride through Northern NJ was nice; but, getting out of NY into Mass was gorgeous.  We had to stop to don rain gear; and this is what we saw...

We weren't in Mass all that long; but, needed to stop in Adams Mass to take some pictures for Mike Adams.

Now, anyone who says there isn't nice motorcycle riding in the Northeast US has not done this ride.  It is truly spectacular.   Roughly, we rode 23N-84E-9W-Kingston NY-back roads to Adams Mass - 8N - 100N - 4N - Quechee Vt.

So, we arrived in Quechee and decided this was a good stopping point.  It put us close to the Interstate and a small distance away from the entrance to the White Mountains and the Kancamagus highway, supposedly one of the nicest motorcycle rides in New Hampshire.  We arrived and set up camp will less than 5 minutes to spare before the rain started!  Sometimes, everything just works out.

This KOA campground has some defining features.  The first has to be the very nice staff.  The staff is here on a work program.  They own their own trailers and go from park to park and work for their parking spaces.  They are retired and very friendly.  They initially put us in a spot that wasn't very motorcycle friendly, and promptly moved us over to a better spot.  They also came over to tell us that rain was likely and if we wanted to pitch our tents on higher ground (the next spot), we could.  The second defining feature has to be the owls.  Many country settings feature crickets.  This place had just as many owls.  I rolled over several times over the course of the evening and heard owls right up until the sun popped over the horizon.  Unfortunately, I didn't see any.  :-(

The weather for the next day was looking bleak, so we decided to evaluate the plan for tomorrow when morning came.  Meanwhile, there was an unplanned issue with Mike's tent, so he and Crystal ended up here:

It just wouldn't be right camping and not having s'mores, so bring on the sugar coma...

20140525 - The New England States (PA, NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, ME)

Now that my 18,000 mile service is out of the way, it's time to get back to the mission of riding all 50 states.  This week, I'll be riding the above mentioned states with Mike Adams and his wife.  As always, the plan is to point the front wheel ahead and follow it where it takes me and the rest of the bike.  There is a bit of logistics involved in this trip that may dictate the length of this ride.  Surely, I'll get all the states above; but, if time permits, I may make a lap around Halifx.

My spot tracker for this trip is here.

Weather for this last week has been outright nuts with thunderstorms everywhere.  It looks like I'll escape that and have a relatively dry ride.  Tuesday may be a bit wet; but, if that's all, it's going to be a good week!

18,000 mile service, invoice and comments

I brought in my 2013 K1600GT for it's 18,000 mile service last week and picked it up today.  In addition to the 18K service I asked Hermy's to check out the turn signal switch because I didn't like the way it felt.  It felt "crunchy."  I also asked them to check on the front tire, as it was about time for a new one.  Finally, I asked them to check the turn signal cancellation function.  My friend Mike was repeatedly reminding me on our last ride to turn off my turn signals.  I thought that was automatic.  Next, I asked for a new center stand as the original was showing rust and it is only 10 months old.  Finally, I just had the oil changed and asked them to skip it if that didn't interfere with any other part of the service.

Just for asking, they replaced the switch.  I'm sure there was an evaluation involved; but, under warranty, they replaced it.

Hermy, the GM has been working with BMW for the past few weeks to get BMW to replace my center stand under warranty.  He made that happen.

The turn signal cancellation thingy is apparently an option I turned off at some point whilst fumbling around with menu options.  They reset that for me.

The front tire was shot.  It wasn't as shot as my back tire was a couple weeks ago (see video below); but, it wasn't going to get me very far before I started seeing belts.  I replaced it with a Michelin  Road Pilot 3 to match the back.

During the examination of my bike, the technician noted a cracked ignition coil.  Nobody seems to know how that happened; but, they replaced it under warranty.  The part had to be ordered from Germany and it took 3 working days (over a weekend of course) to arrive.  My bike was down for about a week due to this.  I'm concerned about this part as Hrmy's says it's quite irregular.  They also noted the water pump was leaking and replaced that, again under warranty.

Finally, somebody gummed up the bolts that hold my auxiliary lights on.  I was glad to hear this because when I did the body panel replacements, I couldn't get them to budge.  Apparently, they were cross threaded.  This work was taken care of under warranty as well.

I went in expecting about a $1k invoice, plus the cost of a new tire.  Hermy's finished it up with more work and less cost than I thought.  I'm really happy with the quality of service and the service team.  I can confidently recommend them to all my Motorad brothers and sisters if you're in the region and need service.

Here's the invoice.

 

Where do you position your motorcycle in stopped traffic?

Today, I watched this video; and, like many others on topic, I was horrified by what I saw.  I wanted to take a couple minutes to open a discussion on where you can best be positioned when you're stopped in the roadway.  Please take a look at the video and continue reading.


In my humble opinion, being stopped on an active roadway with no vehicles behind you is one of the worst places you can be.  Let's talk about some options that might keep you alive...then again, they may not.  You clearly saw the truck launch the car in front of it several car lengths.  A bike stopped in front of that car would have been impacted with substantial force, certainly enough to do injury, if not death.

Instructors jump in, I'm just giving an opinion and don't believe there is a right answer.  Here's some options.

1)  Probably the worst possible place to be, in my opinion, is to be directly behind the car in front of you.  I'm willing to bet that if we took 100 riders and put them on their bike, 10' behind a cones representing a car in the lane in front of them, less than 10%, from a standing position, could turn hard right toward the shoulder to clear the right bumper, then hard left to go up the shoulder.  I'm willing to bet that 10% of that number, or 1% of the total couldn't do it consistently, on someone else's command.  This is a complex maneuver, substantially more complex than making a right turn from a standing position at a traffic light.  The distances are much shorter and you're going to try to do this maneuver under the pressure of a high speed cage bearing down on you?  I think not.

2)  Let's assume for a second that traffic is stopped in both directions, or for some other reason, an escape to the left is possible.  You could position yourself in the left 1/3rd of the lane.  This has only one distinct advantage that I can think of.  A driver that is not paying attention to the road that is suddenly confronted with stopped traffic will instinctively try to use the shoulder as their escape.  If this happens, you're in a better position to avoid the impact entirely.  My brothers and sisters from California are no stranger to splitting lanes and this kind of escape is a normal day of riding for them.

3)  Be in the right 1/3rd of the lane.  The advantage here is that you cut down the maneuver described in 1, above, down to something entirely manageable, particularly if you leave plenty of room between you and the bumper in front of you.

4)  You could position yourself on the shoulder.  The rider with the helmet cam and several in front of him did exactly that, and I'm sure it saved all their lives.  The problem with this is that  it's not a space you can legally be in.  It's for emergency vehicles and there is generally debris there that is just dying to get into your tire.  You're probably going to sacrifice some tires by doing this; but, it was key in saving the lives in this video.

While I can't give advice on where you should be and concede that every situation is different, I can see with absolute clarity a couple things.

A)  You should not, under any circumstances get any closer than about 15', preferably more from the car in front of you, until there is a good line of traffic stopped behind you.  I've been known to spot a traffic jam and approach it at 20 mph or less until I have a line of cages behind me and they are at my speed or less and are giving me space.  While I'm moving, I can move quickly and accelerate into a safe zone if I have to.  In one particular case I was riding into a traffic jam and a border patrol agent, probably a biker himself, rode a safe distance behind me, lights on, to slow down traffic on the stopped interstate.  I was very grateful.  A stopped interstate is a dangerous place to be on a bike.

B)  Avoid the wait.  You have to watch your mirrors whether you think you're protected from the rear or not.  What you can't do is wait to execute your escape plan.  The second you think someone isn't stopping, go.  Don't wait another second.  Every second you wait increases the chances that you either won't execute well, or blow your chances all together.  What if you go to escape and stall?  Do you have enough time to pull the clutch in, hit the starter and try again...this time under more duress?  Don't wait.  Go.

C)  Make a decision about where you want to be and what your escape route is.  Understand the pros and cons of your option and continue to be relentless in evaluating the situation and your escape routes.

D)  A high speed accident will involve lots of space.  Whilst escaping, don't be conservative as to how far you go.  People may be upset with you, thinking you're trying to avoid the traffic jam.
Screw them!  I'm not suggesting that you get back in 20 or 30 cars ahead; but, I wouldn't hesitate to move 10 cars ahead.  10 car pileups are not unheard of.  Where do you think they came from?

E)  If you're riding with someone, you're both going to have to be aware.  One will have to take a left side escape and the other the right.  Slowing the cage behind you, as described in A, will also help.

Please feel free to add your thoughts to the comments.  I'm always interested in what others have to say about safety.  I don't think we talk about it nearly enough and I see riders every day that surely aren't making good decisions.

Ride safe and have fun!