Wisconsin Riders?

Just curious if there are any Wisconsin riders out there? Anyone interested in any long distance rides? Around Lake Michigan would be an easy quick one to start. If my riding pants come in early enough on Monday I may drop a 1000 miles and be back in time for work on Wednesday.

You must be young. :beer:

I ride in Packer Land occasionally. Esp. the SW Driftless area. Nice place. To visit.

The run around the lake is on my list of things to do soon! Where in WI are you? Maybe we could meet up for a back road scratch some time.

MaxSwell... 36, so not terribly young.

Epyon007...I live just outside of Madison, as MaxSwell stated, the Driftless area is a great location as is a trip through the Kettle-Moraine forest. Have you ridden anywhere near the St. Croix river? I've head that has nice scenery but haven't made it up that way yet.

Off work at 0600, sleeping until roughly 11~12 and then I'm off for the Lake Michigan Loop, back by noon on Wednesday if all goes as planned.

Have a great trip, ride safe and tell us all about it. I'd like to to Lake Superior circumnavigation some time.

So many roads; so little time.

I have done the St. Croix many times yes. I'm hungry for new roads!!!! I think a buddy was trying to bring me down to Driftless but we ran out of time on the way. It was late in the season and we weren't clothed for a few hour ride at night. Though I was on my RC51 so I had my own space heater hahaha.

Tihnking of Sir Terry, all I can think of is

[image: baddeerkarma_zps009668b7.jpg]

You have been warned....

I understand there is a lot of that going around in Wisconsin. :ohmy:

Keep up the good work Dutchy. But don't enjoy that too much.

WI here as well. In Waukesha... To early for me to ride as we are in the middle of a move to our new house. I am interested near the end of April so hit me up if you would like.

Nick

It would be cool to have a little MN/WI VFR get together this summer!

Meh, kettle moraine is kinda boring for the riding, but the scenery is nice. There is a route out near Erin/Mount Mary that I like to do though. The real problem I have with pushing beyond 7/10ths around here is the condition of the roads and the wildlife. I feel like every car driver on the road cuts the corners, dragging gravel from the shoulders up onto the road. Combine that with the potholes, mud that the tractors deposit, and the foliage making almost all the good corners blind and the whole thing is a big mess.

OP good luck with your ride, it's nice today but the forecast calls for thunderstorms, snow, wind, and freezing temps for the next couple days. Hope it is better on the Michigan side. IMO it is too early to even have the bikes out of storage, but I won't ride on salted roads. I would potentially be down for a ride in SW WI into SE MN or a circum-Lake Michigan route later in the season.

I'm with ya on the riding conditions, which is why I do track days!

Epyon007

It would be cool to have a little MN/WI VFR get together this summer!

Sounds like a great idea, maybe for a day ride or something small to start a tradition going forward.

I got back from my trip around Lake Michigan yesterday morning around 0100. I left a little bit after 1400 on Tuesday and was hoping to make it around in a day but ran into a few unforeseen circumstances. I traveled clockwise, starting in Sun Prairie, WI, over to Milwaukee, then following near the coast all the way around. Didn't get the required sleep before the ride so after forgetting my pin number to get fuel and then forgetting my pin to get into my phone in Manistique, MI I called it a night and got a motel. Not to mention temps had dropped down to around 36 chilly degrees. Departed Thursday morning, ran into rain around the Mackinac Bridge and then it was off and on rain until I got distracted talking to my wife and kids on the phone, lost track of how many miles I had gone since the fuel light came on and ran out of gas just outside of the Cook Nuclear Power Plant in Southern Michigan. Heavy downpours started at the same time..... MISERABLE to say the least. No one stopped. I pushed the bike for about a mile or so, gave up, and called roadside assistance which took another hour to get to me. My Shoei GT Air helmet didn't perform as well as some of my past helmets in the rain even after multiple Rain-X applications. After fueling up I reluctantly started off towards home. Rode non-stop in the rain from roughly Sawyer, Michigan to the Wisconsin state line, dark, heavy rain, Chicago traffic. Also not one of the highlights of the trip. Just south of Madison I ran into the worst rain of all and was down to 50mph trying to navigate using the white fog line... Rolled into the garage after 1100 miles, 34 hours later, and soaked to the bone.

Leads me to a few comments on the 8th Gen.... It handled flawlessly in the rain and poor road conditions through Chicago, almost with a "hang on, I'll get you home" mentality. As far as the cold goes, I searched and searched and couldn't find a warm spot to thaw out my fingers. If I recall, my 5th Gen had a nice warm spot just forward of my knee against the frame where the side fairings jetted out about 2". I could tuck my hands in there and warm them up a bit. I suppose it was due to the side mounted radiators vs the front mounted rad on the 8th Gen.

Any suggestions on a spray on coating or applied wax for raining conditions would be appreciated. I'm wondering if the pinlock system had an affect on my vision?

Attached is my route from my SPOT locator. I think I have a couple pics I'll throw on here after I post this.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0OlIRCJY3dVhptVfPUaT7ZAYhkTFfa6FP

America's Tallest Flagpole near Sheboygan, WI[image: gallery_35021_7795_55012.jpg]

Mackinac Bridge[image: gallery_35021_7795_1113742.jpg][image: gallery_35021_7795_1361611.jpg]

Holy socks, dood. What an ordeal. I'd say that ride alone qualifies you as a Real Rider.

I bet that hot shower/bath felt like paradise no? :-)

One to remember for sure!

Dutchy

I bet that hot shower/bath felt like paradise no? :-)

One to remember for sure!

Yep! First thing I did when I got home. Woke up to snow here today. Need to get the bike cleaned up and ready to ride again. The dirty white reminds me of the space shuttle after returning from a mission.

perseverantist

Dutchy

I bet that hot shower/bath felt like paradise no? :-)

One to remember for sure!

Yep! First thing I did when I got home. Woke up to snow here today. Need to get the bike cleaned up and ready to ride again. The dirty white reminds me of the space shuttle after returning from a mission.

:worthlesswithoutpics:

I'd like to see what the pre-wash situation looks like. I've never seen the Space Shuttle after return. :)

MaxSwell

perseverantist

Dutchy

I bet that hot shower/bath felt like paradise no? :-)

One to remember for sure!

Yep! First thing I did when I got home. Woke up to snow here today. Need to get the bike cleaned up and ready to ride again. The dirty white reminds me of the space shuttle after returning from a mission.

:worthlesswithoutpics:

I'd like to see what the pre-wash situation looks like. I've never seen the Space Shuttle after return. :)

Shuttle... First thing that came to mind after the dirty bike condition. I had the luxury of seeing the shuttle piggybacked on a 747 on it's way back to Cape Canaveral. Couldn't believe how dirty and wore out it looked. Here's a pic I found on the internet of the dirty beast.

[image: gallery_35021_7795_94943.jpg]

[image: gallery_35021_7795_1051065.jpg]

[image: gallery_35021_7795_886800.jpg]

[image: gallery_35021_7795_2130069.jpg]

^^^^^ (chuckle)^^^^ Okay, now I see (said the near-sighted dood). I was only partly serious. I do appreciate your effort. And you are correct about the similarity to the shuttle. Ha!.

So did you have to replace any thermal control tiles on the bike? :wink:

Props on completing the ride, now we have no doubts as to the state of your sanity... I used to do crap like this when I was younger (I have vivid memories of one particularly nasty hailstorm) but now I've gone soft. I'll still ride in the cold up to early December, but Cold+Wet=Cage at this point.

Glad to hear you made it back in one piece. This has been the weirdest spring ever. Saturday it rained, snowed, became sunny and the snow melted, then it rained, than more snow... Sunday it was around 60! Now this AM it was snowing here again..... Will the real spring please show up!

For real. I thought about pulling the bikes out on Sunday, but the forecast indicated that the weather would be pure crap for at least another week.

Great story about that flight back to Kennedy Space Center: http://infinite-frontier.blogspot.com/2009/06/nasa-747-pilot-shares-experience.html

Click on NASA link at bottom of article for more great pictures and info.

"Wisconsin.... always a positive surprise!!!"

Theres a couple of us here in the madison area if you are ever looking for company.

3 hours ago, klrtovfr

Theres a couple of us here in the madison area if you are ever looking for company.

Good to know... I'll hit ya'll up in a week or two. Found a decent route for around here following 78 south to Argyle, Gratiot, into Illinois.  Fairly curvy for these parts.  Once the fields get put in there'll be less worry of debris on the roads/corners.   The rain yesterday probably helped clean it up a bit too.  Heading out for an Iron Butt Great Lakes Circumnavigation on Monday!

15 hours ago, perseverantist

Good to know... I'll hit ya'll up in a week or two. Found a decent route for around here following 78 south to Argyle, Gratiot, into Illinois.  Fairly curvy for these parts.  Once the fields get put in there'll be less worry of debris on the roads/corners.   The rain yesterday probably helped clean it up a bit too.  Heading out for an Iron Butt Great Lakes Circumnavigation on Monday!

I'm here in Madison too.  I was thinking about heading down to Cycle Gear Bike night tomorrow after work.  I'd love to see and hear your 8th gen, as I'm thinking of buying one once my '07 Anniversary VFR sells.

In Cedar Rapids now....but up past Madison, to Coloma at least once a month to see family