Didja ever have one of those rides...
I have been cooking up a plan recently to accomplish another certified ride on the resume, just a simple in-state Saddlesore 1000 here in the depths of a balmy Arizona winter. Why? Well, why not; I've got nothing better to do, I don't have an Arizona in-state ride, and the weather geniuses have stated this weather pattern is going to last a few days. A day that my wife had to work between the holidays was chosen. The bike is prepped, the gear is ready, time to enjoy a bit of familiar roads for a thousand plus miles.
I got thru the ride, but – did you ever stop to think that sometimes it's just one darn thing after another? A list of issues that I encountered on this single ride:
• Wrong receipt data - three different locations. At one location, I managed to take a photo of the receipt, but it was from a previous stop. Another location; the time was off - by like a couple of hours. I asked the guy, "Hey, y'know your computer time is off?" "I can't do anything; sorry!" Gaah!
• Receipts! Speaking of those, on this ride, I’m taking a photo of the receipt, along with the odometer, for submittal purposes. So, the small clipboard I have is great to hold that receipt next to the Goldwing LCD display to get those images. Shoot, I even practiced a couple of times in the garage, just to make sure my point-and-pray camera would catch a shot clearly. The problem is, the clipboard actually has to balance on the end of the key. The key obviously must be either in the ON or ACC position, keeping that display enabled. I’d like for the clipboard to be reasonably level with the LCD display, in order to help the camera a bit (focus). It took about four stops before learning how the handlebar had to help support the clipboard so that it’s all lined up properly.
• ProTip: Gel-type pens at near freezing temperatures for several hours don’t work - at all. Those were the only two pens I had, so this ‘write mileage on the receipt’ trick? Doesn’t work if you don’t have a pen that works. D’oh!
• Thirty miles into the ride, very close to me fully leaving civilization, my handlebar mount water bottle decided it wasn't going to go for a long ride, and promptly decided to jump out. Fortunately, the rest of the mount was intact enough for me to stop, tighten things down on the mount, before continuing. I'm kinda partial to having one of those 700mL flip-top water bottles available, this ride won't have that, but I do have a small cooler with 500mL water bottles. Ugh!
• My diligence in hitting Bubbler GPS points at my various stops wasn't as good as it should have been - I missed three of them. Since I'm also using my Android phone for a trip computer, Bubbler is typically hiding in the background. I need to derive a way of having Bubbler pop up on the screen after being stationary for a certain period of time (5 minutes?). I've done some research on this to see if it's possible. It is, but it costs money. Need to get that list of stuff to do at each stop better (I’ve said this before…)
• After availing myself the use of the facilities at a McDonalds along the way, I felt it might also be a good time to grab a quick bite to eat. I'd not eaten anything substantial since dinner the previous evening. The interminable wait for the food order to be processed just is another reminder of why stops are better if they are staggered. I don't recall but less than a handful of times having an unintended stop this long on any of my prior Iron Butt rides.
• I've done previous rides where my GoPro camera is set up to record still images every 30 seconds. I hadn't realized it, but at my first fuel stop, I managed to mis-align my camera. Instead of it being pointed to the front, it had folded over and was pointing at my seat. D'oh! I didn't actually notice it's position for three hours, only at my 4th stop along the trip. The first three were in total darkness; it's not like that's compelling time-lapse video, seeing car headlights go by, but it does kinda tell a story.
• I'd thought that rush-hour traffic in the 12th largest metropolitan area (Phoenix) wouldn't be *that* bad on a weekday between the two holidays, during afternoon rush-hour along I-10. ::chuckle:: No, I suppose, I'd hate to see it on a normal weekday. It really wasn't *that* bad, but then again, I like going thru there at any time *other* than rush-hour!
• Gerbings makes some fine heated gear. At the beginning of the ride, I knew about several hours of temperatures that were anywhere between 34 and 39 degrees. After the second stop, I'd plugged in the liner...and is sorta felt warm, but wasn't sure. I've always worn my jacket with the controller in the jacket itself, just to keep it from getting beat up. When I removed the liner, I did a quick check. "Gee, was this thing on?" ::click:: Nope, it had been off the entire twelve hours I had been wearing it. The heated grips and heated seat made up for it - a little bit. D'oh!
• The new Goldwing I have also has a GPS. This version has the ability of importing routing data, so this ride was also a test ride for one I’m hopeful I can do later this year. Using Basecamp to plot this first major ride, and having the information available on the 7” screen in front of me was nice. I do have some small tweaks to do, but I was satisfied that this will be adequate for routing purposes in the future.
So, after all of those what I thought were bone-headed problems, another ride was successful. 1030 miles in a leisurely 17:46. Google claims that my moving time was 15:45, and a review of my stop history shows that my normal stop times were in the ten minute range. The 28 minute McD’s stop…wow!
I just sent off the data for ride verification.
I have been cooking up a plan recently to accomplish another certified ride on the resume, just a simple in-state Saddlesore 1000 here in the depths of a balmy Arizona winter. Why? Well, why not; I've got nothing better to do, I don't have an Arizona in-state ride, and the weather geniuses have stated this weather pattern is going to last a few days. A day that my wife had to work between the holidays was chosen. The bike is prepped, the gear is ready, time to enjoy a bit of familiar roads for a thousand plus miles.
I got thru the ride, but – did you ever stop to think that sometimes it's just one darn thing after another? A list of issues that I encountered on this single ride:
• Wrong receipt data - three different locations. At one location, I managed to take a photo of the receipt, but it was from a previous stop. Another location; the time was off - by like a couple of hours. I asked the guy, "Hey, y'know your computer time is off?" "I can't do anything; sorry!" Gaah!
• Receipts! Speaking of those, on this ride, I’m taking a photo of the receipt, along with the odometer, for submittal purposes. So, the small clipboard I have is great to hold that receipt next to the Goldwing LCD display to get those images. Shoot, I even practiced a couple of times in the garage, just to make sure my point-and-pray camera would catch a shot clearly. The problem is, the clipboard actually has to balance on the end of the key. The key obviously must be either in the ON or ACC position, keeping that display enabled. I’d like for the clipboard to be reasonably level with the LCD display, in order to help the camera a bit (focus). It took about four stops before learning how the handlebar had to help support the clipboard so that it’s all lined up properly.
• ProTip: Gel-type pens at near freezing temperatures for several hours don’t work - at all. Those were the only two pens I had, so this ‘write mileage on the receipt’ trick? Doesn’t work if you don’t have a pen that works. D’oh!
• Thirty miles into the ride, very close to me fully leaving civilization, my handlebar mount water bottle decided it wasn't going to go for a long ride, and promptly decided to jump out. Fortunately, the rest of the mount was intact enough for me to stop, tighten things down on the mount, before continuing. I'm kinda partial to having one of those 700mL flip-top water bottles available, this ride won't have that, but I do have a small cooler with 500mL water bottles. Ugh!
• My diligence in hitting Bubbler GPS points at my various stops wasn't as good as it should have been - I missed three of them. Since I'm also using my Android phone for a trip computer, Bubbler is typically hiding in the background. I need to derive a way of having Bubbler pop up on the screen after being stationary for a certain period of time (5 minutes?). I've done some research on this to see if it's possible. It is, but it costs money. Need to get that list of stuff to do at each stop better (I’ve said this before…)
• After availing myself the use of the facilities at a McDonalds along the way, I felt it might also be a good time to grab a quick bite to eat. I'd not eaten anything substantial since dinner the previous evening. The interminable wait for the food order to be processed just is another reminder of why stops are better if they are staggered. I don't recall but less than a handful of times having an unintended stop this long on any of my prior Iron Butt rides.
• I've done previous rides where my GoPro camera is set up to record still images every 30 seconds. I hadn't realized it, but at my first fuel stop, I managed to mis-align my camera. Instead of it being pointed to the front, it had folded over and was pointing at my seat. D'oh! I didn't actually notice it's position for three hours, only at my 4th stop along the trip. The first three were in total darkness; it's not like that's compelling time-lapse video, seeing car headlights go by, but it does kinda tell a story.
• I'd thought that rush-hour traffic in the 12th largest metropolitan area (Phoenix) wouldn't be *that* bad on a weekday between the two holidays, during afternoon rush-hour along I-10. ::chuckle:: No, I suppose, I'd hate to see it on a normal weekday. It really wasn't *that* bad, but then again, I like going thru there at any time *other* than rush-hour!
• Gerbings makes some fine heated gear. At the beginning of the ride, I knew about several hours of temperatures that were anywhere between 34 and 39 degrees. After the second stop, I'd plugged in the liner...and is sorta felt warm, but wasn't sure. I've always worn my jacket with the controller in the jacket itself, just to keep it from getting beat up. When I removed the liner, I did a quick check. "Gee, was this thing on?" ::click:: Nope, it had been off the entire twelve hours I had been wearing it. The heated grips and heated seat made up for it - a little bit. D'oh!
• The new Goldwing I have also has a GPS. This version has the ability of importing routing data, so this ride was also a test ride for one I’m hopeful I can do later this year. Using Basecamp to plot this first major ride, and having the information available on the 7” screen in front of me was nice. I do have some small tweaks to do, but I was satisfied that this will be adequate for routing purposes in the future.
So, after all of those what I thought were bone-headed problems, another ride was successful. 1030 miles in a leisurely 17:46. Google claims that my moving time was 15:45, and a review of my stop history shows that my normal stop times were in the ten minute range. The 28 minute McD’s stop…wow!
I just sent off the data for ride verification.