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| The route map on Google Earth |
Day 1, July 28, 2012
Gypsy Stats:
12 hrs 22 min Elapsed time
8 hrs 8 min Riding time
410 miles
50 mph ave speed
Beemer Stats:
419 miles
51 mph ave speed
46 mpg
Day 2, July 29, 2012
Gypsy Stats:
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| Clouds fill the gap approaching Port Clinton |
12 hrs 0 min Elapsed time
8 hrs 31 min Riding time
483 miles
56.6 mph ave speed
Beemer Stats:
496 miles
57 mph ave speed
51 mpg
Total Trip:
38 hrs 12 min Elapsed time
899 mile, GPS Trip Odometer
893 miles, GPS Tracks
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| Tim's new '99 Triumph Thunderbird |
911 miles, Beemer main odometer
915 miles, Beemer trip odometer
Gas record:
48.7 mpg for the Beemer
Paying an average of $3.83/gal for premium
Not many photos from this trip. There was a lot of moisture in the air all weekend and the camera developed a lens error very early after riding into the cloud bank that filled the Schuylkill Gap at Port Clinton. Oh, well....
The whole trip got started because Tim found a '99 Triumph Thunderbird with triple pipes in Schenectady, NY for sale on the internet. He was planning to drive up on Saturday morning in a rental car to pick it up. Well, Schenectady is half way to somewhere, so why not make a weekend of it?
Dave and I formed up early and headed out with the intention of stopping for breakfast at the diner in Lenox, then slabbing on to Schenectady to meet Tim and the new bike by 1:00. Skies were clear, temps were a pleasant 68-70 until we approached the mountain heading towards Port Clinton and found the Schuylkill Gap full of low hanging clouds and fog. We pressed on under overcast skies north of the mountain until 5 miles before Lenox and breakfast, it opened up and poured. By the time we could stop under an overpass to put on rain gear, we were already wet. Five miles on, in Lenox, it had let up. After breakfast (which was great, as expected) the rain had let up, but we rode with our wet weather gear on since the sky continued to threaten. It's not twisties, but we had a nice run up I81 to Binghamton, then across I88 through the Mohawk Valley towards the Albany area. Sure enough, shortly before getting to Schenectady we were in rain again.
At the appointed place, we found Tim and his new T-bird, along with more rain. The seller of the T-bird recommended Jumpin' Jack's on Rt 5, a left over drive-in from the 50's, for lunch, We got there and under cover just as it started to really pour again. Waiting out the storm cell gave us plenty of time to consume the fish fry and discuss alternate plans based on the Doppler radar on Tim's iPhone app. This showed a line of t-storm cells running from Schenectady to Rutland, Vt, right along our planned route, and moving along the line to the north east. Finally, thinking that the map showed the storms a little north of our route to Bennington (NY 7 out of Troy to Vt 9) and hoping that we might be off to the edge and out of the worst of it, we headed out during a lull in the downpour.
Wishful thinking; as we left Troy in began to really pour. I think we were sitting under our own personal t-storm cell and tracking north east with it as it moved. It never let up pelting us all the way to Bennington by which time our gear, which was basically working very well, was saturated and starting to bleed through. The thing about modern rain gear is that it relies on evaporation to drive moisture. When it's 110% humidity and the rain is pouring, the gear gets overloaded. On the upside, my BMW boots, which are advertised as waterproof, proved to be. No, seriously, I mean really waterproof. At the end of the ordeal, my feet and socks were bone dry.
We had decided to give it up in Bennington and find a place to stay even though we had a non-refundable reservation in Killington, but there were no vacancies to be found. By the time we were done looking, the rain had let up and the sky was lightening, so on north. With a light rain, the gear was fully up to the task and we were actually pretty comfortable (except that Tim's boots had leaked and his feet were soaked). At Rutland, we turned right and headed up the mountain on Rt 4. Halfway between Rutland and Killington was our destination, the Killington Econolodge. No restaurant at the Econlodge, but the local pizza shop delivered, so take out pizza for dinner and no need to go out again in the wet and, now dark. Gear off, dried down, and fed, we were pretty happy to be out on the road. Tim was looking forward to seeing how the new bike ran on dry roads.
Coffee at the free continental was not too bad Sunday morning. Up, packed and out by 8:30, we headed out to tour a little of southern Vermont, temps in the upper 60's under overcast skies with dry roads (at first). Vermont roads tend to be swoopies rather than twisties; a nice morning ride without being too taxing in any way. The triple straight pipes on the T-bird turn out to be pretty loud, maybe not Harley-straight-pipe-loud, but certainly not the sublime purr of a BMW. Tim was thinking he was saving lives all morning. Riding along 300 to 400 yards behind him, I was constantly aware of the engine tone. The Triumph triple makes a pretty sweet and very unique tone thru the straight pipes. Of course, I was hearing Tim's bike and could not hear mine (that sublime purr again). This added a very interesting dimension to the ride. I could hear every roll-on, roll-off, throttle-blip, and shift of Tim's bike from 1/4-mile-away. On every curve, I knew how he had approached, how he entered, and when he rolled-on the exit; amazing how much useful information about the next bit of road was transmitted back in that exhaust note. It gave me a whole different appreciation of loud pipes. But I still do not believe they save lives.
A couple of years ago, before I started this blog, we had a run in with Deputy Dawg in his Ford Windstar minivan in Jamaica, Vt. He ran us down (took a while to catch us in the Windstar as I recall) and accused us of going through town at an excessive rate of speed. Well, 60 in a 30 zone may be considered excessive in Vermont, I guess, but who knew it was a 30 zone??? Oh, yeah, Deputy Dawg. Net result was three doses of entertainment tax, which we dutifully paid and got on with our ride. But Jamaica, Vt, has kinda rankled ever since. So today we crawled through Jamaica at 30.000 mph with Tim, now possessed of "pipes" pulling in the clutch and roaring the throttle of his loud bike all the way. Turns out the Johnnys were not hiding out by the Town Hall and the best he could flush was a women coming out of church with an armload of flowers. Well, you give a kid a hooligan bike and the next thing you know, he turns into a hooligan...
Breakfast at Dot's Diner in Dover Vt should have been great but it took 1 1/2 hours, the food was late and cold, the sausage gravy on biscuits really was not that good and, as Tim pointed out, the coffee was not as good as the coffee at the Econlodge continental. Definitively not a 5 star. Next time through, I guess we'll go elsewhere.
Popping out of southern Vermont into Massachusetts, we were getting short on time and long on cloudy skies, so with gear on we hopped the slab and blasted for home, dodging raindrops the whole way. Dodging the Sunday evening NYC-bound traffic from nearly everywhere forced our route to the north, across I84 to Scranton, then south on I 380, deking off before I 80 to run PA 940 to the Northeast Extension and south to Allentown.
Experience with tires so far on my R1200R is summarized below. The life of the pair of Conti Motions put on at 8880 miles was pretty so-so. The Michelin Pilot Roads lasted considerably longer. The new front Pilot Road 2 is firmly scrubbed in after the WVA trip. The Pilot Road 2 rear tire installed last April is showing its age with 6155 miles and wear bars in view but not yet at surface, but clearly needs replacement before heading out for any extended riding.
