Coast to Coast (and back?) with an Italian Supermodel

I've mentioned it before--I use the squeegies when I fill up to scrub the grime off the front. Rest of the bike doesn't seem to get dirty except for the swingarm. And a few times on the trip I've taken it to a self-serve car wash. Trust me--if you saw it in person you would not think it was detailed. Ever!

Kreiga is the 20L.

1000 / 16 = 66.66*
1000 / 14 = 71.43
1000 / 12 = 83.33*
and finally... *grin*
1000 / 8 = 125

Might I suggest that tweeting one's real-time GPS co-ordinates, whilst most certainly entitling one to entry in the Iron Butt club, could also result in membership to the Iron Bar club? Especially when you make the Prosecution's case for them ;-)

Awesome stuff man. I've never done such a long day in the saddle and can't imagine what it felt like on the Ducati! Can't wait to see the rest of the report!

Thanks, guys. I saved all my gas receipts if I ever wanted to get into the Ironbutt club officially. That and CC records of when I checked into my hotel (as well as my receipts for dinner in Scottsdale) should be enough. My GPS coordinates, along with time-stamps--are also on my iPhone pics.

But I just wanted to do it to see if I could. I've got the documentation just in case anyone wanted to call BS and claim it was impossible.

Struggling on a slow internet connection--can't even upload pictures. Tomorrow eve I head off to Death Valley, which should be even worse.

As for Austin recommendations--PM me if you don't have a place to stay. Place I was at rocked.

Other recommendations:
Uchi (Tako Pops, make a reservation)
Tacodeli (Cowboy Tacos, breakfast tacos)
Second Bar and Kitchen (downtown) Get the Chorizo / Avo appetizer

There's a few clubs / bars downtown that I went to--all were cool, but I have no idea what any of them were called

Bats @ the Congress Bridge (show up around dusk)

There's lots to do/see on Congress, too!

My impressions of what it's like to spend a day in the saddle: not nearly as bad as I expected. Knowing I would be doing very long distances I didn't even sweat the first several hundred miles. Seemed like every time I looked down at the odometer 50 miles had blown by. (Those perceived-distance-intervals shrunk to about 2 miles from glance-to-glance by the end.)

First 200 miles: I was freezing. I didn't put enough clothes on and was too lazy/concerned with moving forward that I just kept waiting for it to get warmer. It didn't, so I stopped and put my arm-warmers (socks with the toes cut off) on.

~300 miles: My neck started to hurt. The radar detector sticks out of the right side of my helmet and catches the wind like a small parachute. Around 400 miles I removed it, but the muscular stress took its toll for the remainder of the day when the speeds got up there.

400-600 miles: Needed to stand up a lot.

820 miles: Tired. Fatigued. Really wanted it to end.

1000 miles: Kicked myself mentally for not picking a hotel EXACTLY 1001 miles away!

1036: "Ahhh, that wasn't so bad!"

When I hit Tucson I was really out of it. Kept asking my sister and her husband to repeat themselves. Felt very zombie-like. It didn't help that I was most likely very dehydrated and had probably consumed 500 calories the whole day. After checking in I walked across the street and had a bowl of hummus and a giant plate of really overcooked lamb (bleh), but I was so hungry I didn't let the barmaid take the food away (instead I asked for a free glass of wine).

Next day I met up with flyinturbo and his gal for breakfast, but that was about the only energy I had. I vegg'd in my hotel room the following day/night recovering. Wasn't that sore, just very, very tired.

Seat heat: not a problem. Air temps were in the 50s and 60s.
Bike: Never missed a beat.

The amazing thing was the day after resting up I jumped on the bike and did another 400 miles (indirect route) to Vegas and felt great. It actually felt better/more comfortable than ever. Met up with a Ducati guy and some of his buddies for a "ghost-rider" like ride. Insane. More to come....

My last 3 days of what-would-have-been normal forum browsing have been spent reading this RR. I'm only on page 30. I'm considering printing it.

Congrats.

Last time I did this in 2009 it was much easier than your slog.
First I was on my aging Adventure.
Second I left OC in the late summer, so warmer. Cold on top of the passes though.
Left the house on the hill, in the OC about 7:00 AM, got to Westminster Colorado, 1059 miles later in time for the 10:00 PM news.
Keys:
1. Camel-bak, 3-liters
2. I only ate some gummybear energy go-beans (cycling food, I happened to have in my backpack.)
3. I stopped for gas, got water and peed.
4. Only stopped to pee and add or subtract gear.

Passes in Colorado are fucking cold, I was wearing mesh, stopped on top of Vail Pass, put my longies on, and rain gear over. I stayed at about 2 mph over the limit.
Got up the next morning rode to a bicycle shop to replace my broken glasses, then 150 miles to my dad's motorhome on BLM land to fish and camp with him.
Very little wind to bother me on the way to Westminster, so less fatigue. Heading back west a week later, not so much. Made it to Cedar City before I crumpled heat, and wind did it. Got a late start from Colorado Springs after a long wedding reception.
I remember grabbing a breakfast of sorts in Evergreen some sort of Starbucks-like place. Very hazy on the exact details.


Don't like interstates

The first time I did it was on a 1974 Norton Interstate. But, I was young then.

And the GPS will lie to you,

Finally caught up. Very enjoyable read! I like your philosophy too.

Asked this in another forum but I guess you didn't see it yet:

How has that telecommuting from the road worked for you? I did that for 2 1/2 weeks last year and found it difficult to get much work done. Small laptop screen, too many distractions, unreliable internet.

Mr. Head--you, sir, are fucking crazy! Nearly 24 hours on a motorbike is insane!

Sorry I didn't see your post, Rod....I'm on a full size laptop, which sucks to lug around, but it makes it much easier to work (full size keyboard/screen). The only problem is when I have a shoddy wifi connection. I've got a hotspot on my iPhone, though, which has saved my ass numerous times. I've been working remotely for so long that I find it no different on the road than it was in my home office. If anything, my home office habits (sit in front of PC for 8 hours) have interfered with my 'traveling', not the other way around. Checking in a new place on Sunday, working all week, then leaving on Friday night or Saturday morning isn't exactly the best way to see a new place, but I knew that would be a reality of the trip.

Closer to like 15. and the Adventure is a couch compared to a sportbike squish-n-squat.

My wife got me a Verizon Hotspot at Costco uber cheap a while back, basically free. Then our new cell deal means all our phones can be hotspots.
It works quite a bit better than the hotel wifi. Marriott wifi in the room blows BTW. Not enough horsepower to stream much more than Pandora.
When I was in Mukilteo I could work wirelessly from my hotel using my extremely full-sized notebook. That was at a "Staybridge" hotel. The Residence Inn's I've been in the last five months have completely crap wifi. I'd go to Starbuck's and stream MotoGP on my iPad. That worked great, since it was wee hours of the morning nobody cared or bothered me. My work involves CAD tools so I take big bites out of the network.
Funny thing since we moved to W7; my computer won't log onto the wifi at the hotel, but it will log onto my hotspot. :huh

Yeah, like I'm going to pay the company to do work for them.

Twice I've been able to hoodwink them into them into letting me travel by my motorcycle and camp in place of hotels too! All I had to do was pack a damned 17inch Dell tech-notebook.
But, they paid me!

Quick question, Why did you not opt for a better traveling tire? even with all that rain those SC had to be scary.

Mr Head: Try Springhill Suites.

Versys: There's only one other tire that will 'work' with the 1199s Traction Control--and that's the Supercorsa (vs. the SP that I'm running). Very few 200 width tires out there....definitely none that are all season. But the real reason is that I have zero complaints with the Supercorsa SPs. Two sets of tires in 15,000 miles is phenomenal considering how sticky they are (which probably saved me from what would have been a Darwin award just a few days ago). Though I have never driven on a Pirelli car tire I liked, I have never ridden on a finer motorbike tire.

Back to Austin.

This was my second time I'd been to Austin, so I'd hit up a lot of the 'must go' spots, which I found relatively unmemorable. But as a whole, Austin is very cool. I rented an apartment right off of Congress, which is close to lots of restaurants and bars (as well as second hand stores where the drunk come to buy 'new' clothes at 11pm)....

Congress is also close to downtown--where it gets really lively. I met up with Calexio, who was in town visiting a TX girl he met in Redding. Things started off mature, but then turned into a blur. I'll let the visuals do the talking:











(Inside Joke)


Ended up meeting a bunch of people that night, but the very sweet girl above did stand out. The absence of pretension (and overall happiness) of everyone (not just women) provided a healthy dose of perspective.

Cheese board at Second Bar and Kitchen (I don't like eating cheese, but I'm fascinated by people who do):

Mmmmm, Uchi:


Impaled Tako:


Hamachi:


Avocado Margarita:


Tacodeli!




Can anyone name this song? I've heard it before, but have no idea who the original artist was (or who did the remix).

Video

No song attached... (or I'm not patient enough or something???)

Too short of a video....
Is that the young lady (in green) that stands out? Very pretty.
Just wondering what cell phone network you use? Since my latest, and hopefully last, venture has to do with cell phones.

So...yea...time for a trip to the grocery store and a few hours belly'd up to the home bar to perfect this sucker.

That cyclist is this dude.

I just discovered this thread and am enjoying it. My GF participates in triathlons and I'm just a gravel/dirt enthusiast who follows a bit of racing. I'm reading on (~65 pages to go).

Death Valley Teaser (pic is uber condensed due to the terrible interweb connection I have):




Yep--that's the cyclist. Never did get a thank you or an update on how he was doing. Hope he's still training and riding.

benZvan, send me the recipe when you get it down.

looks like you ran into my buddy Alex in Austin. he's on a bit of a road trip too.