The Journey Home

Epilogue

This is Part 4 in a 4 Part Series. They are the The Prologue, Leg 1, Leg 2, and The Epilogue

The Ride Home - In the Silverado

Dad and I drove an Bun Burner Gold in his new Chevy Silverado. 28 hours for 1900 miles is respectable whether you have two wheels or four. Back home I found myself with a rattling brain with DVD’s full of memories bouncing around. My agenda is a shower, some nappy time, reintroduce myself to my slightly confused cat, and figure out why my home computer won’t boot up.

The IBR was a good thing. Another life list thing done.

Sunset somewhere in Western Nebraska riding home with Dad.

The Tires

Although I think I ultimately made a fine choice of a Metzler ME-880 tire and had plenty of rear tread at the end of 9700 miles……it cupped very badly. Riding a tire on straights for a very long distance (say from St. Louis, to Quebec, and then to California)…then doing some twisties (like to Lick Observatory) seems to do some weird things to the tread blocks on a tire. Combine the cupping with some fatigue on Night 9 cruising across Nevada and I thought my rear end was doing a BMW impersonation and trying to grenade itself!

First pic shows general center wear expected of a tire in the IBR.

Right of center shows a canyon that has a huge amount of extra tread on the right side and a shortage of tread on the left side of the cut. At 60 mph or so, going left or right around a corner on a two-laner and one seriously wonders if the rear end is going to explode. While riding down the Interstate dead straight at FJR nominal, however, it is fairly quiet.

That’s the kind of thing that will play serious mind tricks on a person in the as they crest Donner Pass in the dark hours of night headed to Nevada.

Fortunately, after talking with Warchild around Reno about the symptoms he gave me some reassurance and I run what I brung. He called it “tire howl”.

In the clear morning light of Wendover……things seemed better again…in their proper context.

Tire happy when going straight…..tire unhappy when cornering. Go straight if possible.


It could have been worse.  Another rider’s tire. 

Life After the IBR

I had been told that things would be different afterwards and I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t have a huge desire to ride much after the event. Or more precisely, I think I didn’t have a desire to perform repairs and maintenance to the bike…and chose not to ride.

It also took me months to chronicle the adventure. With the effort about 4 months afterwards I think I may have lost a few details that were fresh, but gained some perspective….or wisdom if you will.

I also figured out that I want to run the event again. Funny thing about 17th and analyzing your own rally is that you figure out the “woulda, should, coulda, didn’t” and you want another shot at glory in the Top 10. And, I’m guessing the Top 10 folks want another shot at a Top 3. And, I know that the Top 3 folks, want another shot to be the winner.

2009?

I hope so.

February 1, 2008

The e-mail came for applications to 2009….and I signed up! So the cycle continues

Son of an Iron Butt Mom

February 7, 2008

After advice from John Langan that my brake lights weren’t the brightest I installed a set of Hyperlites and found out I had a faulty front brake light switch…..which makes me think they weren’t realizing I was on the binders all the time. My typical deal is to grab the front brake first and apply rear brake a short time after. All they were seeing was the rear brake part a fraction of a second later.

Going to have it looked at by the dealer.

February 8, 2008

OK, my combination of mesh gear and snowmobile rain gear did work, but I’m going to splurge this season and go with Aerostich. I scored a Darien jacket for $265, added a back protector for $60, and a set of pants for $297. We’ll see how they work.

February 29, 2008

The mystery of my malfunctioning HID lights was solved…at least partly. One likely went out because of some electrical connection and the other burned out. You can see it discolored below. More discussion is here.