End of Season - 1,123

1,123. That's the total number of miles I put on my Harley this year. Give that it's snowing and below freezing here, I'm fairly certain that's going to be my final tally for the year, despite putting the old girl on a batter tender to keep her ready, just in case.

That mileage number doesn't include the miles I rode on demo fleet bikes, including my dream bike, but even so, I was still under 1,200 for the year.

That's definitely not one of my better tallies. I didn't get out and ride nearly as often as I would have liked this year, for a variety of reasons. Most of these reasons were good - rides conflicted with kid sports nights, family outings, or other things. Cutting down my commute, while great in general, also cost me around ten miles a day during riding season.

I didn't do an Iron Butt ride this year, and I didn't make any road trips up to Minneapolis or down to Kansas City. I didn't even ride down to Sioux City like I did last year.

It's not like the fun is gone, I just had an off year. I think the moral of the story is that if I want to get my miles up more next year, I need to plan more rides, not just trust that they'll just spontaneously "happen."

Ride Report: June 2018

Well, that was a bit of a letdown. Tallying my riding miles for June this year gave me an even 225. That's kind of sad, especially considering my totals for June last year. Granted, last year featured my first Iron Butt ride, but still, 225 is pretty low in a month for me.

Then again, as I noted in the only long-ish ride I did last month, this just isn't the right time, at the moment, for me to go blasting off for hours at a time on a regular basis. That time will come - when kid sports, household maintenance, and other necessities aren't limiting factors - but I'm not in a terribly big hurry to get there. It's like riding anyway - if you're hurrying so fast to get to the destination, you're not enjoying the journey along the way.

But I'll still try to put in a few more miles in July...

Around The Web - Five Whys

Hey, I'm published somewhere else again! I'm not sure how regular my contributions are going to be, but I'm happy to be contributing at least occasional articles over at The Motorcycle Obsession, and sharing my riding adventures with a new and bigger audience.

Check out my first article, Five Whys, where I answer five why questions about riding!

Pride Goeth...

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. - Proverbs 16:18

A few years ago, Kitplanes Magazine published an article looking at the accident rate for homebuilt aircraft.  One of the most interesting data points was that the accident risk is not a straight decreasing slope: accident risk starts high at the first flight, decreases gradually over the first forty hours, then spikes again before decreasing!

 

 

 

You'd think I'd be able to handle one of these by now.

I don't have statistical data to back it up, but I suspect there's a similar trend among motorcyclists. The first year sees a gradually declining accident rate, followed by another spike from overconfidence and cockiness as riders start writing checks that they don't yet have the skill level to cash.

At least, that's what happened to me. They say confession is good for the soul, right? Here we go: it started with a partial drop on the way home from working a new story for Airline Reporter (story coming soon). I was tired, and distracted, and forgot to put the kickstand down before reaching for my wallet. I was saved by the gas pump, and the only damage was a bit of skin scraped off my left thumb.

Lesson learned, I had my first drop, no more, right?

Two weeks to the day later, I rolled into the parking lot at work, executed a tight right turn to drop into a parking space, and just kept leaning farther right. There was nothing to catch me this time. It was one of the slowest, gentlest drops you could possibly manage, but it still saw me ending up with a motorcycle on its side, puking half a quart of oil onto the asphalt.

At least there wasn't any further damage.

A week later, I was at a Harley Demo Fleet event, test riding most of the new 2018 models. I figured I'd give the Sportster 1200 Roadster a try. I know the Sportster, how much different can this one be? I forgot to put it in gear, then dumped the clutch too fast and stalled it trying to roll out of the parking lot. Oops.

Properly chastened, and hopefully with my major incidents out of the way, here's to a plan where my accident rate can start declining again. Ouch.

Halfway Through - Progress Check

At the beginning of the year, I put down a few goals. Since we're now halfway through, it's probably a good time to make a progress check, and see how I'm doing so far.

Still one of my favorite bike photos this year.

1. Motorcycle Stuff: Turns out there's no Experience Rider Courses in South Dakota this season. So much for that one. I did manage my first Iron Butt ride, though, so that one's complete!

2. Health and Fitness: Making progress. I'm just a few pounds away from being under 200lbs, and was lifting weights consistently for the first five months of the year. I'm currently taking a break from lifting to focus on 10k training with Adventure Girl, but the weights will come back in the fall.

3. Youtube/Twitch: It turns out a fair bit of people enjoy talking workout streams! Those were pretty popular, and will be back, again, in the fall. Followers are slowly increasing, and I hope to hit affiliate status soon!

4. Writing: I mean, this blog is getting updated regularly, and my Marooner's Rock byline is showing up regularly, so I guess that's doing all right.

5. Reading. Finished Atlas Shrugged. Finally. Jumped into a bunch of other books too.

"Hey, Cool Prius! Rev it up for us, will you?"

- Said no kid ever. Motorcycles, on the other hand...

Light content day. Adventure Girl got her first group H.O.G. ride, a fifty mile jaunt through the countryside, surrounded by the thundering roar of twenty Harley V-Twins.

A scattered storm front turned the ride home a bit more exciting than I would have liked, however, as we ran from lightning behind us right into lightning ahead of us. I don't think I like getting caught in thunderstorms on a motorcycle.

Home safe though, with naught but a sore neck from high speeds, and a good story about a lightning strike close enough to light up the sky all around us.

More tomorrow!

One Year In - Thoughts on My Sportster

Much like last week's gear review, a year of riding is also a good time to reflect a bit on my choice of steeds. After five thousand miles, I've kind of gotten a feel for what I like and don't like. Is it time to dump the starter bike for something else? Maybe a street bike or dual sport?

The day I picked her up.

The short answer is "No!" I won't be changing rides anytime soon, well, unless H-D announces the Milwaukee Eight engine coming to the Dyna chassis in 2018, that would change my mind right quick, but barring that, I'll be sticking with my Sporty for some time to come, possibly until Adventure Girl is old enough to have it passed on to her.

The thing is, when I picked out a bike, I wanted a good all around ride. Something that I could commute comfortably on, with room to pick up a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread on the way home if needed. I wanted something that would be able to handle an occasional road trip, let me ride two-up with my kids around town, and with enough power to put a smile on my face and pass traffic at South Dakota interstate speeds.

My Sporty does all of that. Sure, she's a little short-legged for long trips, but after a hundred miles or so, you kind of want to get off and stretch anyway. There are faster bikes, there are bikes that carve up corners better, but I'm not going to track days anyway, so those capabilities aren't very useful to me.

Now, there are a few things I plan on changing. The wind protection is a bit lacking for my six foot, one inch frame. My current solution proved itself out on my Iron Butt ride, however, it's definitely a function but ugly solution. I'd like to go to a batwing fairing, possibly over the winter.

Ugly, but effective. Like an A-10 Warthog.

It's a similar story for my handlebars, they're just a little too low and far away to be comfortable over distances. There's probably a set of mini-apes in my future.

Still, long distance comfort changes aside, the Sportster has proven a solid, reliable choice. Fuel economy is usually more than 10mpgs better than my Saturn, and maintenance has been limited to normal wear items.

There's enough power for me to throw it around a bit in sweeping highway on-ramps, and if I look a bit silly hanging half off a cruiser in the turn, well, I don't care, because I'm smiling and gunning the throttle the whole time! That's really the most important part. Every time I put my gear on, go outside, put the key in the ignition, flip the fuel injection switch and flick the start button, I get a big smile on my face. It doesn't matter whether I'm riding five miles, or five thousand, the moment I hear that "Doom, da-doom, da-doom, da-doom" sound booming from the tailpipe, I know I'm going to have a good time.

One Year In - Riding Gear Review

After celebrating a year riding by accomplishing one of my long-term goals, I figure it's time to take a good look at my gear. I ride ATGATT (All The Gear, All The Time) both for reasons of personal safety, and because I will require my kids to ride that way while they're under my roof, and I don't want to have any more "Do as I say, not as I do" arguments than I'm going to end up having anyway.

Let's start with my helmet.

Helmet: Harley-Davidson Branded HJC IS_MAX 2


Pretty much this one, only with the H-D logo on the forehead rather than HJC. It's not a super expensive helmet, but seems to work well. It's broken in to be pretty comfortable, enough so that I was perfectly fine having it perched on my head for all the riding I did for the Bun Burner 1500. The visor is pre-drilled for Pinlock, which is an absolute necessity for riding into the fall, and the integrated sun visor works well without interfering with my prescription glasses

I do wish the chin vents had a screen of some sort though. I've enjested a couple of bugs onto the inside of my visor that had to be dealt with by quickly flipping the visor up to clear them. Not my favorite kind of surprise!

Overall though, this helmet has been a good performer for me. It's reasonably quiet, and the modular design comes in handy when stuck in traffic or needing to take a drink of water on a long ride, without compromising my overall safety the way a half- or three-quarter helmet would. I should have bought it in white though. Black cooks my head in the summer

Jacket: Harley-Davidson FXRG Switchback Textile Riding Jacket

This thing is brilliant. Definitely my favorite bit of gear. It breaks down into four separate layers, with built in CE rated elbow and shoulder armor in the base mesh layer, plus a pocket for a back protector. I do wish the back protector came with the jacket, because it was a $65 extra item, and a bit of a squeeze to get into the pocket.

In the summer, the mesh layer gives pretty good protection, while allowing plenty of airflow to stay cool once you're moving. In the spring and fall, I gradually add/subtract layers as need. With the windshield on my motorcycle, this keeps me comfortable in 30 degree freeway riding, and becomes my winter coat when it's January and -15 degrees. When this jacket eventually fails, I'll buy another one. It's well worth the money.

Gloves: Alpinestars SP-2s
These are great summer gloves. Well vented, pre-curved for less hand fatigue on long rides, and I'm very confident in their protection level. My only issue is that ventilation gets severely excessive when the temperature drops below about 60 degrees. A good set of thermal liners helps, but I need to find another pair of gloves for approximately October - April.








Pants: Spidi Motorcycle Jeans & Strength & Tourmaster Pants
 My ride everywhere pants in the summer are Spidi Motorcycle Jeans. They're reinforced for better durability, and have CE rated armor in the knees and hips. They're well ventilated, but they get heavy when you're off the bike. Certainly better protection than just a regular pair of Wranglers, but not a lot of fun to wear when you're off the bike in the summer.

When colder weather hits, I throw a pair of overpants on. This makes commuting a lot easier, since I just keep my work pants on underneath rather than changing at work. They're also nice for freeway riding in cooler temperatures. I pull the hip and knee armor out of the overpants, leave them in my Spidi jeans, and am decently warm at high speeds.


Feet: Milwaukee Motorcycle Boots
They're boots. They do the job, they're reasonably durable, and they seem like they'll stay together pretty well. I really wish I'd bought a pair with a side zipper, which would have been much less of a pain in the ass put on and off all the time.