Day 3, 6 Jun

I guess it's pure anticipation that gets us up early today. The three of us tossed and turned in our cots until 0600 at which time we simply could not stand it any more and got up to shower, etc. We left at 0800 with our destination as Mark's niece's house about 50 miles away. His parents are going to join us for a big family gathering so this is a big deal. Still, we had lots of time to kill so we went to the American Motorcycle Museum in Pickering, OH for a visit. Of course it is neat to see a collection of special bikes but the current display is of bikes from the stars (movie stars, that is) so I was not as blown away as others might be. I don't even own a TV and can't care less who some of these people are. The bikes were cool.
Late breakfast at a small town spot and then off to Melssia's place way out in the country. She is a Sheriff's deputy, as is Troy. Between them they have the ultimate man cave out in the country,but without any of the rough edges. We spent some time talking and having a fine time until Troy asked if we wanted to do a bit of target shooting. Well, not one to turn down such an offer I said HELL YES so we headed off to a deserted part of the property. Between the Glock's, the AR15, and the shotgun we had a wonderful time throwing lead at paper targets. Troy is a K9 handler so we got to see all the dog stuff. Man, I'm glad we have a guy like him in that job.
On the tech side, the bike is running great. That new battery is charging at 14.29V and everything seems to be perfect. My low fuel light came on at 141 miles, I refilled at 190 and had lots left. I saw that my tires had lost about 1.5 psi and will fix that tonight since Troy has compressed air.
Tomorrow we want to make it to Mackanaw City (sp) which is about 385 miles away. With an early start that should be do-able and will be our longest day of the trip. I'd actually like to go beyond that but we are still figuring out our riding patterns. Now it's time for burgers on the grill and some really great beer. Life is very good.

Day 2, 5 Jun

Up early and what do we see? RAIN. Well, that means we might as well get a slow start so we left at 8:45 wearing all our rain gear. Since I had discovered yesterday that my riding suit leaked Mark loaned me a rain jacket to wear over my Roadcrafter. This loaner looks like it will be up to the job....but it's PINK with some blue. Oh well, I feel good about my manhood and dry is worth any cost so away we go. We decide to take the Interstate as far as Charleston WV since the backroads would not be much fun in these conditions. Along the way the rain just gets worse. At one point we were putting along at 75 going up a hill and a tractor trailer decided to change lanes right in front of Mark. Wish I had had ABS at that point. No contact, just a bit of pucker factor. At that point the rain and clouds were all around us. By 1300 we finally found dry roads and started stripping off rain gear. We got to Parkersburg WV, got off the slab and soon got on Ohio 555. This is a must do road. Go to Google Earth and follow 555 north and you will see a road that is clearly a paved goat trail. At 45mph it is all the fun I can stand. In fact, lots of the road are fun at 35mph if you like to pactice your riding skills. Much better than the Dragon! By the time we had put 20 miles on 555 I had to force myself to concentrate because I was getting tired and on this road you need to be on your "A" game at all times. There were countless times I reached the top of a hill only to find that I could not see which way the road turned, oh, and the suspension was now light and the road was falling away fast. Exciting.
We finally got to our destination in Newark and spent the night with Mark's old friend Steve. Steve's brothers showed up and we talked motorcycles and other manley stuff until late. Man, what fun. In total we rode 376 miles today under challenging conditions. My check engine light did not come on so the battery must have been the problem.
Riding in the rain for a few hours leads to some serious mental exercise. Think about that damn drip inside the helmet that lands right on my nose. Why do some car drivers tailgate in the rain? The middle of the toll booth is coated with a thick layer of slime that is like a wet bar of soap in the shower. When you want to pay the toll for the group it's always hard to dig out the money. Bob Evans is the wrong place for fast food at noon. A hot cup of coffee is great when it's raining. A cold beer at the end of such a day is priceless.

Day 1, 4 June 09

OK, today's the day. After hardly sleeping at all last night it was easy to get up and get on the road. I took the scenic route from Portsmouth to Rt 5 along the James River until I got on US40 headed west. What a delightful road! I rode the two lanes through
some of the prettiest rural scenery in Virginia. There were lots of small town, tobacco barns, old mansions, livestock in the fields, and exactly what one would hope to find while 'out in the country' until I got to Fort Pickett. That's where 40 bisects an Army post. Hence, the 'Tank Crossing' sign. That's for real tanks. I did not see any, just their tracks.
Along the way I stopped in Victoria for lunch. When you can have a country ham sandwich, iced sweet tea, french fries, and cake for $6.25 it's hard to complain. I particularly liked the OPPS! cake. That's where the cook made a yellow cake which the day crew topped with chocolate iceing...not knowing that the cake was a lemon cake. It was still good tasing.

When I was leaving Portsmouth I looked at the weather radar and saw bad stuff to the west. Thus I fully expected to see some rain before I got to Roanoke. True to that it started to rain in Gretna (about 2PM). Correction, it started to POUR. In fact, some trucks simply pulled over when they could no longer see the road. I was looking for an overpass, with no luck. My waterproof suit ain't waterproof. At least my boots stayed dry inside but there were a few rivlets of water which always find their way to my crotch. The rain continued all the way to Mark's house and in fact it's still raining now at 8:30. We expect rain in the AM and might delay our departure just a bit to let the worst go past us.

Mark and David met me in the garage

David decided to cut his hair off for the trip, with some help from his Mom, Beth. What a trooper she is.

Tomorrow we think we will have about 6 hours travel time. If it's raining like now we will take the Interstate to WV, then hop over to Ohio 555.

Today I only rode 276 miles but it seemed to take all day. I guess those stops to call Redline really cost me some time. The check engine light still comes on after the bike warms up. I finally figured out how to call up the trouble code and it says 'battery HI' which is not a greeting. It's either a bad battery or bad regulator. As soon as I got to Roanoke we bought a battery (last one this size in the entire metro area) and it is charging now. Oddly enough I am showing a charge of 14.2V when going down the road so everything should be OK. Go figure. If this does not take care of the problem the regulator is next. Gotta get that from a Ducati dealer, not what you find on every corner of the globe. Oh well, it's supposed to be an adventure.

T Minus one

Boots seem so basic as to be ignored. Actually they are critical to having a good trip. If your feet are wet, cold, pinched, or cramped you will have a horrible time. These are 12 years old, made for Aerostich, and took me two years to break in. Here I have them sitting the sun so a fresh coat of SnoSeal will soak into the leather. This makes the boots more supple and helps keep them dry on the inside. Don't believe anyone who claims that their boots are waterproof. They just have not ridden through a long enough rainstorm.

The first thing people ask about when we talk about a long distance trip is how sore by butt will be. OK, let's cut to the chase....yes my ass does get sore. This gets better as the trip goes on but I try to solve the problem by having a decent seat and moving around on the seat. This trip I will be using a sheepskin pad.

It's handy to have a way to carry stuff you get along the way. I also use this net to help dry my socks if they are not dry from hanging in the room overnight after a wash in the sink. Note the attachment points on the hard bags.
My bike has chain drive. I like the fact that it is the most efficient way to transmit power but the fact is that you need to lubricate the chain to keep road grime from eating away at the built in lubrication which is sealed with 'O' rings. The lube also keeps rust at bay. I'm using an automatic oiler that dispenses oil based on distance traveled. I can change that setting on the fly if, for example, I am in a heavy downpour that is washing the lube from the chain. I use ATF as a lube because it slings dirt off and keeps the rust away. Yes is does make a mess on the rear wheel so I have the unit set for very light delivery.
It seems a shame to have all the electrical gadgets we love to have but also have a huge lump of chargers that must be plugged into the wall every night. I have run 12V electricity from the bike into my tank bag. In the bag I can charge my cell phone or IPod.
Speaking of electrical stuff, I have installed a volt meter just above the controller for the ProOiler. Above both you can see a knob that controls the heat to my heated vest. Once you try heated gear it's hard to do without.
Of course everyone seems to use a GPS nowdays. Mine is a Garmin Zumo. Oh, I still carry a bunch of paper maps. The GPS is a handy backup for the Ducati speedometer and a reminder of when I have gone 150 miles and should start looking for fuel. The gas gauge on the Multistrada is not to be trusted!!!
Here you can see the adjustable levers, handguards, and throttle assist. They combine to make the bike fit me better as well as offering a bit of comfort on a long trip.

T Minus 2

With time getting shorter and shorter I spent yesterday getting some of my last minute tasks done; waterproof bag, ear plugs, hi tech undershirt, and an attempt to figure out why I have that check engine light glowing from time to time. The plan included hooking up my computer to the bike and using Techno Research software to diagnose any trouble codes on the bike computer. Of course things did not go as planned. I could not get one computer to talk to the other. After a series of calls to Michigan to talk to the tech guys at Techno Research we realized that I had a very old copy of their software along with an old driver for the interface cable. Once I loaded the new software at least I now had the two computers talking but then I discovered that the Ducati computer does not save a history of trouble codes! Now I'm back to square one. As I will worry constantly if the trouble light is burning I think I better bite the bullet and replace the fuel filter. For the non Ducati owners this means taking much of the bike apart because the tank is a large plastic gizmo that actually extends to under the rider's seat. The filter is inside the tank along with the fuel pump. Oh well, might as well start now.This is the fuel pump with fuel filter. At shop rates I bet it takes $200 to install the $4 part.
This shows why I hate to remove the tank. That's the gas tank on the towel....it's huge!

T Minus 3

Now is when I need to do the final changes/packing for the trip. Last weekend I did a 500 mile shakedown ride to West Virginia. Since I had quite a few new additions to the bike this trip was critical. Here's what I found: The new tires grip just fine in spite of their much more aggressive tread pattern and the higher tire pressure worked well too. I'm running 38F and 42R in an attempt to get more mileage for this trip. The new chain did not stretch but I was able to cut back on the oil delivery of my ProOiler. I started with table 12 and am now up to table 18. The chain still has enough lube but my rear wheel no longer has a coating of oil. I thought that the 'low oil pressure' light was coming on. Now I see that it is the 'check engine' light. I already knew that the stepper motor was bad so maybe that's what this new light is all about. The built in diagnostic program does not show what the error is all about and the bike runs great so I can only hope that Dave Lillard can find the problem on Tuesday. The stepper motor only controls idle speed so I can go on the trip without it. We ordered the part last week....all Ducati parts come direct from Italy! Let's hope the problem is not a clogged fuel filter or something else that requires removing the gas tank. What a huge PITA that is!
Clothing is always a challenge. I travel light but on this trip I need to pack for cold conditions as well as wet. It's a good thing that I experienced some brisk conditions last weekend. Now I know that I need a fleece jacket (but a thin one). I should also take another long sleeved undershirt to add a layer for medium days. My electric liner works great so for really cold days I just plug that in however that does not help when I get off the bike. Today I'll go through all my stuff and see what I can leave behind. Nevertheless, it looks like I will need a small waterproof bag to carry on the passenger seat so I have less jammed into my other bags. That's a good place to stuff extra gloves and maybe dirty clothes.
Another observation from the weekend trip, my gas tank holds something like 5.2 gallons of fuel (yes, I should know the exact amount but I simply don't trust the Ducati figure on this). The fuel gauge is notoriously unpredictible. My low fuel light comes on as early as 90 miles sometimes and this weekend I got to 149, 154, and 162 miles before the light came on. On the final tank I rode 203 miles before I put 4.3 gallons in the tank. That's almost 47 mpg! The importance here is that I feel more confident in the fact that I can go 200 miles on one tank. Gas stops can be few and far between when out in the less populated parts of North America. I think I'll also carry a 3' section of gas hose just in case.
Today I go to the bank to get cash (dollars and loonies), then a supply of good ear plugs, the dry bag, and double check fasteners on the bike.