Ride Report: 989 miles in 18:30
This will be a ride report and a gear review because I had some new stuff, some people might want to hear about.
I started yesterday morning at about 8 AM in Aurora, CO. I was planning on making it to Vegas in two days, but I did it in one so I didn�t plan the Iron Butt thing, all well next time. I rode through Deer Creek to Hwy 285, to Hwy 50, then Hwy 149, hwy 160, hwy 89 into St. George Utah, then down into Vegas. Got here about 2:15 Mountain time.
Deer Creek is Deer Creek, awesome, too short as I ended up at 285 quickly. I thought 285 was going to be boring but there were some good spots in there and the same goes for Hwy 50. The scenery through there is amazing. On the advice of ASP, I took Hwy 149 down to South Fork. Everybody, this road was a lot of fun. The scenery was great and the road was good. Towards the top of the pass the pavement goes bad and a few corners were very dirty. I saw zero LEO�s. I had a lot of fun on Hwy 160 as well, especially going over Wolf Creek. Thanks again for the advice about the snow shed I remember you mentioned that and checked my speed going in. After Cortez, CO the road was flat and super straight.
When I got to Cortez, I was at the 500 mile, almost. I was thinking damn I should stop, but I didn�t want to stay in Cortez what a boring town. I will keep riding. So off I went. My GPS said I was about 490 miles from my hotel in Vegas and that was on a route that crisscrossed between AZ and Utah. Well next time I saw a hotel was Page AZ, and I decided not to stop. When I finally got into Vegas, I was exhausted and my indicated mileage was 989. I left at 8 AM Mountain Time and pulled up to the parking lot at Stratosphere at 2:15 Mountain time. If I knew I was going to do an Iron Butt I would have done the documentation and the extra miles.
Gear
2006 Honda VFR. Bone stock
I bought this bike a couple of months ago for trips like this. Riding around town, I started to question why I bought that bike, I was starting to miss my various sport bike that I had. My butt and hips when numb during the ride, but I am not sore as I write this. I guess that is about the most anybody can ask. Right before I left I tried to get some new brake pads, and found out everybody in town had to order them. I thought that was strange, and I didn�t want to postpone my trip so I went anyways. Well about Cortez the brakes got really bad, now as I sit in Vegas I am having pads overnighted here, because I straight can�t ride anymore with the brakes like that. So lesson learned make sure you got fresh brake pads on before an epic trip. Overall my VFR was awesome, and the only problem was my lack of maintenance. I am glad I have the VFR, I never wished for more power on the trip. Six gear is useless except for superslab at 80 MPH plus. Gas mileage was between 40-45 MPH. I expected less with the luggage but the difference was minimal.
Tires. Bridgestone 021
Well I have never had a sport touring bike and I have never had sport touring tires. I do race so I am on race tires a lot, and it has been a while since I have abused some super sport street tires. These Bridgestone�s felt like stones in the twisties. I had a hard time having confidence in the front tire, and they would move around a bit at extreme lean angles. Drug the center stand once. Now that could be the weight of the luggage and me not adjusting the preload (probably) as well. These tires show zero wear though I think they will last long time. I just can�t go knee dragging though canyons with them, but I save that for the track these days anyways. I found some sport bike riders on 149 that I didn�t have hard time keeping up with and I eventually passed them anyways.
IPhone GPS: Co Pilot
I decided that I don�t need a dedicated GPS unit, so I used my phone. I had been using Magellan from the App store that I spent 80 bucks on about 6 months ago. The problem with Magellan is that there was no trip planning. I started doing some research and got Co Pilot for the whopping price of $20 bucks. This navigator is the best that I have used. There was trip planning, the display was great and I was always able to see it on the IPhone. I could customize the information on the display, so I used Speed and Elevation on the Colorado Leg and switch to miles remaining to destination when I made the push to Vegas. For some reason in CO hwy 149 the navigator keep telling me to stay on 149 as it turned left. For some reason it felt the need to tell me stay on the road and take the various side rides. That got a little annoying. I did this trip without any practice using the navigator and had some issues in the beginning but I quickly figured them out. I love the ability to create an entire trip and save the trip, to bring up later. My Magellan just couldn�t do that on the IPhone, or least I never could find it.
I mounted the IPhone with a Ram Mount off the steering head. The phone was never in the way of anything, and view was fine right between the handle bars. Can�t say anything bad about how the phone was mounted. I powered the phone with a Powerlet plug on the left fairing that I installed and Powerlet IPhone charger. I did notice the CoPilot kills a battery quick so don�t try it without the power cord.
The IPhone did have some issues, being that I couldn�t operate anything with my gloves on. One of the annoyances was if I received a text message, the message would display on top of the GPS display. Well when I didn�t acknowledge the text message the phone would then think nothing was running and go to sleep. I would have to pull over, pull off a glove and close the text message to keep going. Also the CoPilot would play the IPod on the phone and I used that, for music why I was riding. Just make sure you have a good playlist because the IPod does not operate very well through blue tooth.
Chatterbox Bluetooth.
I picked up a chatterbox blue tooth to help listen to the tunes, and communicate if need too. I used that to listen to the music and GPS directions. Not too many complaints except you can�t use the controls on the Chatterbox to control the IPod on the IPhone. You can pause the music but can�t restart it without removing a glove and working the IPhone. One way to make it work is buy a blue tooth adaptor, and then you can control the music, but the problem is it plugs into the same location as the charging cable. Since the Chatterbox can do two bluetooths I took an IPod and tried that. I had the hardest time getting them both to pair up in the right order. I got tired of it and just created a good playlist that I didn�t have to mess with on the IPhone. I made the playlist quickly and the IPhone over played a couple of bands; Nickelback and Greenday. I had to remove them from a playlist on a gas stop. Since I was unable to skip songs, I grew tired of them throughout the day. So again make sure you have a good play list.
Tour Master Transition 2 jacket.
I have always worn leather, so I decided for this trip I should get something a little more heat friendly and found this Jacket at Performance in Denver for $170 bucks. I thought that was a pretty good price. The jacket is pretty nice, there are more gadgets on the jacket then my IPhone. The jacket has four very large vents, and one large exhaust vent on the back. The only problem I had was when I opened the shoulder vents the jacket ballooned on me, pulling on my shoulders. I think this is a problem with the angle I am sitting on the bike, but I did have to close those vents. Also, it is a � length jacket, and the bottom back was blowing up a little bit. This is probably an adjustment issue. I don�t have much to compare it too, but if price was no option I would give it a B. Being that this jacket was less than $200 bucks, I give it an A.
Luggage.
I picked up some Nelson Rigg Silver Streak Saddle bags. I was a little worried that the stock exhaust would melt them, but there is no damage. They worked really well and I give them an A. I really wanted to find some OEM cases for this trip, but I didn�t. I did find some on Ebay but not in time for this trip so my Nelson Rigg set will be for sale soon. The only grip if I had one about the saddle bags was, there is a little net on the front of the bags that looks like they should carry a water bottle there. Well they do up till about 100 MPH then I lost my water bottles on both sides.
I also have an Adrian Sports rear seat bag. I have mix reviews with this; it is huge and carries a lot. I fit my laptop in there and bunch of clothes. It did however keep sliding forward on me; I would have to push the bag back with my butt on several occasions. I adjust some Bungy Cords and that helped, but it would still slide forward. I will try some more bungies for the return trip.
Well thanks for reading, I am writing this because something like this would have been useful for me as well.
This will be a ride report and a gear review because I had some new stuff, some people might want to hear about.
I started yesterday morning at about 8 AM in Aurora, CO. I was planning on making it to Vegas in two days, but I did it in one so I didn�t plan the Iron Butt thing, all well next time. I rode through Deer Creek to Hwy 285, to Hwy 50, then Hwy 149, hwy 160, hwy 89 into St. George Utah, then down into Vegas. Got here about 2:15 Mountain time.
Deer Creek is Deer Creek, awesome, too short as I ended up at 285 quickly. I thought 285 was going to be boring but there were some good spots in there and the same goes for Hwy 50. The scenery through there is amazing. On the advice of ASP, I took Hwy 149 down to South Fork. Everybody, this road was a lot of fun. The scenery was great and the road was good. Towards the top of the pass the pavement goes bad and a few corners were very dirty. I saw zero LEO�s. I had a lot of fun on Hwy 160 as well, especially going over Wolf Creek. Thanks again for the advice about the snow shed I remember you mentioned that and checked my speed going in. After Cortez, CO the road was flat and super straight.
When I got to Cortez, I was at the 500 mile, almost. I was thinking damn I should stop, but I didn�t want to stay in Cortez what a boring town. I will keep riding. So off I went. My GPS said I was about 490 miles from my hotel in Vegas and that was on a route that crisscrossed between AZ and Utah. Well next time I saw a hotel was Page AZ, and I decided not to stop. When I finally got into Vegas, I was exhausted and my indicated mileage was 989. I left at 8 AM Mountain Time and pulled up to the parking lot at Stratosphere at 2:15 Mountain time. If I knew I was going to do an Iron Butt I would have done the documentation and the extra miles.
Gear
2006 Honda VFR. Bone stock
I bought this bike a couple of months ago for trips like this. Riding around town, I started to question why I bought that bike, I was starting to miss my various sport bike that I had. My butt and hips when numb during the ride, but I am not sore as I write this. I guess that is about the most anybody can ask. Right before I left I tried to get some new brake pads, and found out everybody in town had to order them. I thought that was strange, and I didn�t want to postpone my trip so I went anyways. Well about Cortez the brakes got really bad, now as I sit in Vegas I am having pads overnighted here, because I straight can�t ride anymore with the brakes like that. So lesson learned make sure you got fresh brake pads on before an epic trip. Overall my VFR was awesome, and the only problem was my lack of maintenance. I am glad I have the VFR, I never wished for more power on the trip. Six gear is useless except for superslab at 80 MPH plus. Gas mileage was between 40-45 MPH. I expected less with the luggage but the difference was minimal.
Tires. Bridgestone 021
Well I have never had a sport touring bike and I have never had sport touring tires. I do race so I am on race tires a lot, and it has been a while since I have abused some super sport street tires. These Bridgestone�s felt like stones in the twisties. I had a hard time having confidence in the front tire, and they would move around a bit at extreme lean angles. Drug the center stand once. Now that could be the weight of the luggage and me not adjusting the preload (probably) as well. These tires show zero wear though I think they will last long time. I just can�t go knee dragging though canyons with them, but I save that for the track these days anyways. I found some sport bike riders on 149 that I didn�t have hard time keeping up with and I eventually passed them anyways.
IPhone GPS: Co Pilot
I decided that I don�t need a dedicated GPS unit, so I used my phone. I had been using Magellan from the App store that I spent 80 bucks on about 6 months ago. The problem with Magellan is that there was no trip planning. I started doing some research and got Co Pilot for the whopping price of $20 bucks. This navigator is the best that I have used. There was trip planning, the display was great and I was always able to see it on the IPhone. I could customize the information on the display, so I used Speed and Elevation on the Colorado Leg and switch to miles remaining to destination when I made the push to Vegas. For some reason in CO hwy 149 the navigator keep telling me to stay on 149 as it turned left. For some reason it felt the need to tell me stay on the road and take the various side rides. That got a little annoying. I did this trip without any practice using the navigator and had some issues in the beginning but I quickly figured them out. I love the ability to create an entire trip and save the trip, to bring up later. My Magellan just couldn�t do that on the IPhone, or least I never could find it.
I mounted the IPhone with a Ram Mount off the steering head. The phone was never in the way of anything, and view was fine right between the handle bars. Can�t say anything bad about how the phone was mounted. I powered the phone with a Powerlet plug on the left fairing that I installed and Powerlet IPhone charger. I did notice the CoPilot kills a battery quick so don�t try it without the power cord.
The IPhone did have some issues, being that I couldn�t operate anything with my gloves on. One of the annoyances was if I received a text message, the message would display on top of the GPS display. Well when I didn�t acknowledge the text message the phone would then think nothing was running and go to sleep. I would have to pull over, pull off a glove and close the text message to keep going. Also the CoPilot would play the IPod on the phone and I used that, for music why I was riding. Just make sure you have a good playlist because the IPod does not operate very well through blue tooth.
Chatterbox Bluetooth.
I picked up a chatterbox blue tooth to help listen to the tunes, and communicate if need too. I used that to listen to the music and GPS directions. Not too many complaints except you can�t use the controls on the Chatterbox to control the IPod on the IPhone. You can pause the music but can�t restart it without removing a glove and working the IPhone. One way to make it work is buy a blue tooth adaptor, and then you can control the music, but the problem is it plugs into the same location as the charging cable. Since the Chatterbox can do two bluetooths I took an IPod and tried that. I had the hardest time getting them both to pair up in the right order. I got tired of it and just created a good playlist that I didn�t have to mess with on the IPhone. I made the playlist quickly and the IPhone over played a couple of bands; Nickelback and Greenday. I had to remove them from a playlist on a gas stop. Since I was unable to skip songs, I grew tired of them throughout the day. So again make sure you have a good play list.
Tour Master Transition 2 jacket.
I have always worn leather, so I decided for this trip I should get something a little more heat friendly and found this Jacket at Performance in Denver for $170 bucks. I thought that was a pretty good price. The jacket is pretty nice, there are more gadgets on the jacket then my IPhone. The jacket has four very large vents, and one large exhaust vent on the back. The only problem I had was when I opened the shoulder vents the jacket ballooned on me, pulling on my shoulders. I think this is a problem with the angle I am sitting on the bike, but I did have to close those vents. Also, it is a � length jacket, and the bottom back was blowing up a little bit. This is probably an adjustment issue. I don�t have much to compare it too, but if price was no option I would give it a B. Being that this jacket was less than $200 bucks, I give it an A.
Luggage.
I picked up some Nelson Rigg Silver Streak Saddle bags. I was a little worried that the stock exhaust would melt them, but there is no damage. They worked really well and I give them an A. I really wanted to find some OEM cases for this trip, but I didn�t. I did find some on Ebay but not in time for this trip so my Nelson Rigg set will be for sale soon. The only grip if I had one about the saddle bags was, there is a little net on the front of the bags that looks like they should carry a water bottle there. Well they do up till about 100 MPH then I lost my water bottles on both sides.
I also have an Adrian Sports rear seat bag. I have mix reviews with this; it is huge and carries a lot. I fit my laptop in there and bunch of clothes. It did however keep sliding forward on me; I would have to push the bag back with my butt on several occasions. I adjust some Bungy Cords and that helped, but it would still slide forward. I will try some more bungies for the return trip.
Well thanks for reading, I am writing this because something like this would have been useful for me as well.