Shake It To The East

Hot Rider and I got back from our shake down run out to Milwaukee and our ride with Ultra200922 and his wife. It was a great weekend and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

There are some people that wanted to hear how my shakedown run went if I should ever be able to get one done done. Well, I did and here is is my report. Of course I can't sum it up in a simple sentence so I am going to go in parts. I am going to go in order.

Performance of SAC Luggage:

I do not impress very easy but I am with this tuff. There is more than enough room for anything that needs to brought with and even for stuff that doesn't need to come with. Its function is really really good and easy to use. The SAC Luggage is easy to mount and dismount. Once I figured out how to strap it to the bike, everything was a cinch. I did get a chance to use the cargo net as HR didn't want to always wear her helmet. Works well. The quality and function of this luggage is TOP NOTCH!!

PACKING

For this trip, I didn't limit what it was that we brought. My reasoning is this, "how do I know what to bring and not what to bring if I don't take everything?" do I think that we brought too much? Not exactly, we just need to change what it is that we bring. We brought essentials and some funs stuff as well. Other that than that there wasn't room for crap. LOL. The luggage was heavy but it held what information that we were looking for. The luggage and packing I would have to give it a B+ Not bad for a first time road tripper.

Here are some pictures of my luggage system that I decided to buy. I also got a couple of shots of the luggage rack. Enjoy!

The Departure and Ride:

Hot Rider and I left Hutchinson, MN at 10:00 on the 4th to Milwaukee ,Wisconsin. All strapped and ready to roll we headed out of town down MN Hwy 22 to Glencoe. from Glencoe we hooked onto U.S. Hwy 212 East. Once we got to Interstate I494 E we hooked onto that until we exited to I94 East. From this point it was a pretty straight south eastern ride to Milwaukee. My speed was pretty constant at about 73 mph and traffic was actually pretty light. We had traveled just over 100 miles when Hot rider and I decided to stop and grab something to eat. In fact, Hot rider and I stopped at the same A&W restaurant that Red Rider, Hot Rider and I stopped at when he was out this way.

Here is a picture of the place.



After we ate, then we headed to the same Kwik Trip that the three of us once visited and decided to take on some fuel. Back to the road in short order, this was our only stop of significant time consumption. From there we just steadily pressed towards Milwaukee moving at a clip of 73 miles an hour. I had the cruise control set and I must say that I am really glad that I was stubborn and said that I must have it. It was really nice to have.

There really isn't much to report on thios part of the ride other than that it was really HOT!!!! I had decided that I was going to wear my chaps, leather vest with no shirt underneath and my helmet. Well, I found that I am NOT going to bring my chaps with on my way out to Nevada as I do think that it was overkill.

We arrived in Milwaukee at about 5:30 P.M. After fighting with the GPS a little, we finally made it our hotel in West Milwaukee. By this time I was pretty beat. Not really from the ride, but mainly because I was fuggen hung over. :roflmao: I took a nap right when we got to the hotel. When I woke up, Hot rider was saying that she was hungry. She had said that there was a pub or something that she saw within walking distance from the hotel. I said sure. Well, it took only about 2 blocks of walking before I saide I think we need to get back to the hotel. I picked up a 24 oz. beer and crashed. she ate Pizza Hut. this concludes the first night.

On the morning of the 5th, Hot rider and I were up and on the road by 9:30 A.M. From the hotel we went to go see Eric Bacon, a salesman at the House of Harley in Milwaukee. Eric is the salesman that sold me the Road Glide out of Hals Harley Davidson in New Berlin WI. We keep in contact often.

After our little visit with Eric, Hot Rider and I departed to meet up with Ultra200922 and his wife in Bonduel WI. That trip was about 150 miles north. Here is one of the most frustrating things that I have found about riding, especially when using a GPS, sometimes it just doesn't pick up the construction. :witsend: The meeting point for Ultra200922 and I was set at Docs Harley Davidson in Bonduel. However my GPS did not recognize the address for Docs so we had to put in an approximate location to get us there. Ok, so off we go. As mentioned, there was a lot of construction going and my GPs was all over the place. I finally just started making erratic turns so it would set a new course to get me out of the construction area's. Finally we got of Milwaukee and were headed north on I43 North to Green Bay. This was both an easy and cooler ride as were riding right next to Lake Michigan. Nothing interesting happened during this stretch of riding. Again, had the cruise control locked in at about 70-73 mph and just chilling. It was pretty cool riding too because of the lake. Temps dropped just a bit. Felt good.

NOTE: Still not a word out of Hot Rider. I had to periodically ask if she was OK back there just to see if she was still on the bike. :roflmao: She needed nothing so we just kept on riding!

Finally I had to take the 180 Exit off to Green Bay I believe it was for 41 North then off to Hwy 29. Again we ran into some construction. again I had to just make some weird and multiple turns to get the GPS to set a satisfactory course. We will talk about the GPS later.

Finally got on the right course and riding to Bonduel. I did have to stop at a gas station and see if were headed in the right direction as my GPS wasn't being the most helpful at this point. It was confirmed that were headed in the right direction. As I was riding on Hwy. 29 I saw the billboard that said that Docs was about 10 miles ahead.

I just ride!!! I'll yell if I need something other then that I just sit and go for the ride!! LOL

So here we are riding on Hwy. 29 West and I am looking for Docs. I am looking for the traditional HD sign that most dealerships have. I didn't see one, so I keeo riding. I did see this huge building off on the left that said "Antiques." Anyways, I am still looking for the traditional HD sign but didn't so I stopped of at a gas station and asked them where Doc's Harley Davidson was. They said to keep going the direction that I was and it will be on my right about 5 miles up. Well, to make a long story sort, they told me the fuggen direction and it happened to be the building that said, "Antiques." :gah: Finally we got there and met Ultra200922 and his wife.

Docs was interesting place. He has a lot going on that is for sure. He has a food joint there that serves up some pretty good BBQ. I guess all in all I wasn't overly impressed with the place, but I did really that AC Cobra that he had there. The part was meeting Ultra200922 and his wife. They are awesome people.

Here is a picture of Ultra200922 and his wife Misty! This is at Docs Harley Davidson

Nice pics & commentary, thanks Johnny. Cool that you guys made some new friends.

After sitting at Docs for a little while getting acquainted with each other, we decided that it was time to ride. We headed west and eventually went north. That night we ended up staying in town called Rhilander. We did have to do a little bit of searching for a hotel room. We tried two previous places and all had no vacancies. There was this one part of the ride that we knew we were in Indian country. We didn't see a lot of them but just the style of the homes and the up keep told the story. I believe the reservation that we were on was called the Menominee Indian Reservation.

We checked into the hotel at about 9 P.M. and then we met up at the hotel bar and got further acquainted with each other. We were there for about 2 hours then it was time to get some shut eye.

One of the things that I felt that I have to do is to keep close track of fuel mileage. What I chose to do was to have Hot Rider write down in a notepad the mileage and amount of fuel that I took on each time fuel was needed. I will have to say that most of the time I was kind of like, hey, this thing is getting really crappy gas mileage.

For the first two days of our trip, I would have to give the performance grade of my bike an A+ All of the systems that needed to work, did. At no point was I wondering if my bike was going to make it back in one piece or not.

At the beginning of my trip I changed oil. I switched it out straight 60 weight as I new that it was going to be really hot and that the bike was going to run at a constant rpm. I also took my rain sock off and let the engine breath unadulterated fresh air. My theory here is that since my bike was tuned with the rain sock on, that the only way that I would get better gas mileage was to take that rain sock off, my theory is that I will lean out without it on.

Other things that I did was I greased the neck bearings, cleaned the air cleaner and double checked the plugs.

The only aspect of bike's systems that I was less than impressed with was the performance of the GPS. Not its actual function, but the fact that the power cord would wiggle out of the jack periodically so I would have to keep messing with it as I am riding. I did not like that. Thank God that I bought a hard wire power supply that is going to go on my bike soon.

As mentioned in different thread, I just love these Pirelli Night Dragon tires. Of course we weren't into any real curves for the first day and a half but comparing to other reviews, these tires performed better than reported up to this point. Well worth what I paid for them that is for sure.

Again, not a peep out of Hot Rider. She is just kicking back and enjoying the ride!

Looks like you got your bike set up very nicely Johnny. I like the looks of that SAC luggage. Good pics and commentary. Everyone likes to read about someone's trip and what you had to deal with along the way.

Sounds like Hot Rider is already well adjusted to this bike. One thing that might make a nice addition for long rides 2 up is an intercom, so you both can talk leisurely without having to shout.

Looking forward to seeing you guys in August.

P.S. Doesn't your bike have the dual trip odometers for totalling your trip mileage?