[sturgeon]

Ah yes, the glory days of actual hair. These days, as you can see, I'm a bit, umm, shinier. Although no bikes are shown, these were both taken on road trips, albeit about 45 years apart. Earlier one on a '71 Kawasaki H1, newer one on a BWM R1150RT, both from Waterloo to Thunder Bay, about 1,500 km each way.

 

[Birkenfelder]

Another tale proving youth may not have the best judgement: In March, 1972 I left Mt. Clemens Michigan heading to Cocoa Beach Florida to visit my best friend. The nonstop trip of almost 1200+ miles took approximately 19 hours, riding my '71 Moto Guzzi V-7 Ambassador. The trip TO Florida went well. The return saga was a bit more eventful, when in downtown Atlanta Georgia, I compacted the end of a push rod...leaving me "dead in the water". Thanks to a Guzzi aficionado samaritan (guardian angel) who just happened to be passing by (with his entire family in a station wagon), I was rescued and back on the road within two days. My savior not only provided free lodging in his home with wife and five children, he also provided meals and all connections to repair the Guzzi. Lastly, upon parting company, he insisted on giving me extra money, as in his opinion I did not have enough to continue my travel home. I repaid him immediately upon arriving home. We kept in touch for several years.

I think of this trip often when out for my local jaunts, and wonder how I did the nonstop MI to FL trip - today I feel challenged to do more than 250 miles in a day. Time marches on...

 

[Lawrence of Suburbia]

Wow! What Good Samaritans that guy and his family were. You were so lucky, Bob!

 

[sturgeon]

@Birkenfelder, I think that must be the curse of Italian vehicles on the I-75! I live about 120 miles east of Mt Clemens in Ontario, and blew up my Fiat 124 on I-75 while headed north to Sault Ste Marie one Christmas, I think in 1970, near Grayling. Broken connecting rod. My good samaritan was the tow truck driver who left dinner with his family to get me into town on Christmas Eve, and got some relative to open up his motel to get me a room.

 

[Thunder Fighter]

My longest single day ride is not up with you guys as I have never been big on touring. I did Geelong, Vic to Tathra, NSW via the coast roads in a day about 20 years ago. It looks like about 750km with the detour down to South Gippsland rather than heading direct to Bairnsdale. Half of that leg was done 2 up and was surprisingly good on my old CBX750.

The way home was along the same but direct route so 680km but the last 300km was done in a torrential downpour. So bad that the bike went from 4 cyclinders to 3 then down to 2 with water in the electrics. Managed a stop in Sale (I think) at a friendly bike shop who gave the plug caps and a few other places a squirt of WD40 or similar to displace the water and made it home after that a bit wet but otherwise fine.

On other rides I've often done 500+km in a day through the hills and back roads up to central NSW and then back down the Great Alpine way in Vic on 3 day rides our old club did once a year. Never had any issues on these rides on either of my Aprilia Tuonos. These sound short rides but they were fairly rapid on twisty roads with a group of other sports bikes, so a lot more effort than crusing on a motorway or even back roads. Pegs down often on these rides and while I was never the fastest, I was towards the front of the pack.

After a few years break from riding other than commuting, I am looking forward to some more leisurely rides in the country on the R.


Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

 

[scrivens]

When touring I've rarely done more than 5-600km a day, as I like to look at the scenery and often potter around at 95kmh or so if there's no traffic around, but back in the early 70's when I lived in Newcastle I had friends in Melbourne and Murwillumbah/Surfers Paradise and often used to ride to either place non-stop on a Friday night and back on the Sunday afternoon, which is around 700km to Surfers and 1000km to Melbourne. The bikes used on those runs were a Honda SL350, Honda CL450 and a couple of 500 Suzuki Titans, decent sized bikes at the time. I bought my first Honda Four in 1974 and the power and smoothness was a revelation. Very little traffic around in those days so it was easy to sit on 60-70mph for hours, especially at night. A lot of my day runs these days are 300km or so over 4-5 hours (I live on the edge of the countryside so no suburban traffic to get through) and back a few months in the Summer I did one morning run of 350km on the R and a night run of 300km on the Versys. Over the last ten years I have often covered 2-3000km over a week on day rides and general running around, hence the big mileage I rack up on the bikes. I have a Ford Falcon but in the 10 years I've owned it I've only put a bit over 25,000km on it and most of that has been interstate trips.

 

[Birkenfelder]

@Birkenfelder, I think that must be the curse of Italian vehicles on the I-75! I live about 120 miles east of Mt Clemens in Ontario, and blew up my Fiat 124 on I-75 while headed north to Sault Ste Marie one Christmas, I think in 1970, near Grayling. Broken connecting rod. My good samaritan was the tow truck driver who left dinner with his family to get me into town on Christmas Eve, and got some relative to open up his motel to get me a room.

Sturgeon, you must be close to where my ancestral relatives settled after arriving here from SW Germany. They lived in St. Agatha (just outside of today's Kitchener...Berlin of yesteryear). And where the mighty Fiat 124 blew up was just minutes away from where I built my first home... north of Hillman MI. Small world. While you're perhaps traveling from ONT through MI, and then perhaps back via the Sault to Sudbury, I used to do similar in reverse.

Hey, maybe it's just the I-75 curse, and applies to hooligans like us ...I completely fried cylinder # 3 on BOTH a '65 Porsche 356C and a '71 Type I Super Beetle...both within driving minutes of your Fiat demise. Bad stretch of road or something...

 

[sturgeon]

@Birkenfelder, I could probably walk to St. Agatha; I live near the west end of Waterloo. Used to spend a fair bit of time at Kennedy's tavern out there.

As for the 'curse', I used to flog the Fiat pretty hard, and that stretch of I-75 has never been very conducive to driving slowly. I recall another, nightime, trip up to the Sault. Hadn't seen another car for a while when a set of lights started gaining on me. I was running at about 85-90 mph, and he blew by me like I was standing still. I had no idea that the state troopers were driving hemi-powered pursuit cars in those days. He just waved as he went by. That was just south of the Mackinac bridge, and I next saw him coming out of a diner in Sault MI. He'd already been in for his coffee and was headed back out. We exchanged pleasantries as we walked past each other.

I now avoid that highway, especially in the Saginaw-Flint corridor. Too many crazies.

Small world indeed.

 

[mikeS]

Ah yes, the glory days of actual hair. These days, as you can see, I'm a bit, umm, shinier. Although no bikes are shown, these were both taken on road trips, albeit about 45 years apart. Earlier one on a '71 Kawasaki H1, newer one on a BWM R1150RT, both from Waterloo to Thunder Bay, about 1,500 km each way.

Hey Sturgeon; I had to do a double take at your more youthful pored image .. thought you posted a photo of John Lennon ..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sturgeon]

Hey Sturgeon; I had to do a double take at your more youthful pored image .. thought you posted a photo of John Lennon ..

Others have said the same - I always maintained that I was lots better looking, Nowadays, I just look like Mr. Magoo :grin2:

I did once meet Ringo Starr, in Palo Alto CA. We were staying at the same hotel, and chatted for a couple of minutes at the bar over a couple of beers.

 

[Lawrence of Suburbia]

Ah yes, the glory days of actual hair.

Thank the Lord I still have a pretty good head of hair, albeit almost white these day! However, as an offset, if viewed from side-on you'd swear I am eight months pregnant! Not a pretty sight..:surprise:.

 

[sturgeon]

LoS, unplanned pregnancies are not uncommon here in middle-aged men, especially in the winter months, starting around Christmas.

PS - little to no hair on top of your head is quite nice when the weather is hot; give it a try, you might find you like it.

 

[scrivens]

I've had at least one bike continually for 48 years but only started keeping any detailed records back in January 2010 thanks to one of those handy iPhone apps. This thread got me to thinking about the costs of bike ownership as I'm going in today to get my 68th tyre fitted since Jan 2010. I've always done my own repairs and servicing bar the majors on the R1200R and Versys 1000, buy oil and filters in bulk, make a lot of parts and fittings myself and I only insure my bikes for 3rd Party Property, not comprehensive. The results are a bit of a shocker. Since January 2010 I've had 12 bikes, usually 3 at any time, and have ridden 340,000km. The costs are:



Bike purchase costs - $114,000
Selling price of 9 bikes - $57,000 (exactly half, funnily enough)
Petrol - $20,000
Accessories - panniers, stands, heated grips, lights and all the other junk - $4000
Service and parts costs - $5000 (home ones and bike shops)
Tyres - $14,000
Rego and TPP Insurance $16,000


making a grand total of $116,000 in 8 and a half years.


For 30 years or more I've had at least two bikes in the garage and my mileage has probably averaged 40,000km a year for those 48 years, so the lifetime total cost would be truly staggering.

 

[Panzermann]

I've had at least one bike continually for 48 years but only started keeping any detailed records back in January 2010 thanks to one of those handy iPhone apps. This thread got me to thinking about the costs of bike ownership as I'm going in today to get my 68th tyre fitted since Jan 2010. I've always done my own repairs and servicing bar the majors on the R1200R and Versys 1000, buy oil and filters in bulk, make a lot of parts and fittings myself and I only insure my bikes for 3rd Party Property, not comprehensive. The results are a bit of a shocker. Since January 2010 I've had 12 bikes, usually 3 at any time, and have ridden 340,000km. The costs are:



Bike purchase costs - $114,000
Selling price of 9 bikes - $57,000 (exactly half, funnily enough)
Petrol - $20,000
Accessories - panniers, stands, heated grips, lights and all the other junk - $4000
Service and parts costs - $5000 (home ones and bike shops)
Tyres - $14,000
Rego and TPP Insurance $16,000


making a grand total of $116,000 in 8 and a half years.


For 30 years or more I've had at least two bikes in the garage and my mileage has probably averaged 40,000km a year for those 48 years, so the lifetime total cost would be truly staggering.

Yeah, Scrivens, but if you didn’t spend all that money on bikes, you probably would have just wasted it ... :wink2:

 

[Anthonyp0808]

Not my longest one day ride, but one that certainly deserves an iron-butt award.

Flew to Kalgoorlie (a fairly outback mining town) in the morning and then rode a Vespa 600+kms back to Perth that same day!

 

[HarryWS]

Not my longest one day ride, but one that certainly deserves an iron-butt award.

Flew to Kalgoorlie (a fairly outback mining town) in the morning and then rode a Vespa 600+kms back to Perth that same day!

I think that deserves some sort of medal or award.......congratulations Anthony! :001_cool:

 

[sturgeon]

...
making a grand total of $116,000 in 8 and a half years.

For 30 years or more I've had at least two bikes in the garage and my mileage has probably averaged 40,000km a year for those 48 years, so the lifetime total cost would be truly staggering.

Sounds about right to me. :smile2:

 

[mcmonkey mcbean]

Himeji to Kanazawa, Japan 2017

Maybe not the farthest in kilometres, but this stretch had me riding for 12 hours.

Rain, some roads having a 60km speed limit, worse for wear secondary roads, little traffic hear and there, and being a tourist in a foreign country, it gobbles up time.

It was a day like none other!
My travel companion who wanted to tag along, on a otherwise trip I'd planned to do on my own, was unwell had
abandoned the trip.
I was determined to get some kilometres under my belt to make it back to Tokyo three days later, to return the bike on time.
A garlic fueled dinner the night before didn't help get me out the door any sooner with the trips to the toilet, I could tell I was nervous but excited.

The GPS rented had Japanese base maps, but points of interest were loaded in English, by code input it was accurate, but a crude way to get around.
My point of interest was Hikone Castle, this would get me near enough on target to the Shirakawa Highway and into the mountains and lakes of Gifu avoiding the massive city of Nagoya which we road through a week earlier.
Some travel was by paid toll roads 'expressways'.. some not.

From the previous two weeks of 30 degree + temperatures it began to plummet near the mountains, 18 deg cel,
I was noticing the difference.
My stops for hot noodles were brief, locals who could speak some English would warn me of a Tyhoon coming my way, September was Tyhoon season! I had the Japan meteorological app downloaded, and this was useful too.
But still when local people are warning you, it kinda gets your attention. :surprise:
Riding hungry, always hungry, even though eating to full, new countries has this effect on me.
Lucky as I found Japan has the most delicious food on offer.

Briefly stopped at a quaint village in the mountains, took some photos without pausing too long to get my phone wet, rode past lakes, through lots of tunnels, onto the village of Shirakawa, famous for the age of the village and houses with grass thatched roofs.
It was a busy place, I could not park my bike anywhere close without getting moved on, and it was still raining!!!:cursing:

Chilled, I sheltered in a rest room took out my ipad and looked on booking dot com for accommodation.
I got dark at 5.30 6.
You can get a great hotel for approx $65-$80nz, a little more and you can stay at a traditional ryokan.

I spotted a Hotel in Kanazawa for 40,000yen.....the equivalent to $55.00nz and booked it.

Took out my book with 'points of interest' and a temple in Kanazawa would get me to Kanazawa.
Input the code to the GPS it told me 70kms to go.... 70kms can be a long way in Japan terms.

The route took me through the mountains, this time via tunnel after tunnel, and it was God send, the tunnels being warmer I could warm up, eventually I popped out on the West coast.
Turning North and doing head checks over my shoulder it was a race with the dark grey cloud looming down around me and behind me.
I was breaking speed limits with abandon.

Taking the off ramp into Kanazawa, the GPS was turned off and through experience, my phone with google maps worked better in the city, it was crudely duct taped to the tank, there were plenty of traffic lights to study the phone maps waiting.

Tall and skinny the Hotel was quiet recognisable from the photo on the internet, a busy popular old city, it was a relief to turn off the busy streets to the Hotel foyer and greeted by the concierge
who directed me to park my bike.
Nothing unusual when staying at a Hotel in Japan to be greeted by concierge, although these men looked VERY tidy.
I locked the bike and dragged my pannier contents out, for this trip they were dry bags, I was completely exhausted.
Walked past the hotels carpark and parking in the shelter of the hotel foyer. Admired the lastest Bentleys, Telsa and a couple of Lamborghini's......What! OH hang on!!!

The penny had not quiet dropped until I stepped inside the Hotel.

A long weekend holiday, couples were walking about formally dressed, women in Kimono men in smart suits.......waterfalls fell from walls into beautiful featured pools below, 'Oh my days'....it was FLASH
and here I was standing in biker jeans and holding dry bags.

I quickly whipped out my Ipad and checked the booking dot com receipt......:| Did I turn white? whiter than I am, swear words silently passed my lips.

What I thought was $55.00NZ was $550.00NZ
Oh yes, of course I kicked myself a few times, with booking dot com, no refunds, I just had to take it on the nose so to speak.

By the time I got into the lift, escorted to the room, in no time I had that bath running and salts added, opened the Hennessy whiskey from the bar fridge, turned up the heat pump, spread my wet gear around, and opened the curtains to the amazing city vista and watched the typhoon pass on by.

I slept so well.


http://www.r1200rforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=95385&stc=1&d=1527932492

Next day in Kanazawa a stop by a samurai district located at the foot of the former Kanazawa Castle, where samurai and their families used to reside.
My rental for the 3 weeks a BMW f800r.

http://www.r1200rforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=95393&stc=1&d=1527932687

Probably not the best choice for breakfast snack but Japanese roll baked cake with bean jam 0

 

[The Dogfather]

This is a great thread and I thought I’d try and re boot it. Mine wasnt overly exciting or the longest distance, but it was memorable. Mid 2004, I had visited friends in Bathurst as an overnighter returning from visiting my parents in Tamworth and heading home. I’d left before dawn so as to meet and have breakfast with some other friends in Georges Hall Sydney. After leaving Sydney mid morning and getting bored on the Hume, I thought it a good idea to deviate through Tarago and Bungendore and then join the Monaro, down to Cann River then West back into Melbournes East. I recall it being about 9pm when I arrived home and my wife saying that I looked grey. I’d left in near Zero C, stopped to avoid a dust storm on the Cann Valley Hwy, and ridden the last few hours in cold drizzle from Bairnsdale to Beaconsfield for a total of around 1200 k’s.

 

[RRRooster]

I thought this might make an interesting longer-term Thread for folks to contribute to. Doesn't matter, for this purpose, if your longest-ever one day ride was 100 miles (or kilometres) or 1000+ - others would, I'm sure, enjoy reading about it, the where, when, why, how, and any interesting things arising, plus many pix, of course.

Here's my kick-off contribution, being my Journal notes from the solo round-Oz GS trip I took too long ago and that I mentioned recently. Enjoy...

Day 13 – Thursday October 7th – Kununurra to Broome. 41°C on the road, 44° in Fitzroy Crossing.


I intended to ride only as far as Fitzroy Crossing today, about which I had heard a lot of negative reports – even the friendly quarantine officer at the NT/ WA border said not to stay too long at either Halls Creek or Fitzroy Crossing. He was right about Halls Creek – dirty, grubby place full of dirty, grubby aborigines, including lots of kids – why aren’t they at school?

I’d booked ahead at the Fitzroy Crossing Inn, which was about three ks off the highway along a rutted track. It must have been pension day as the Inn was surrounded by scores of aborigines, all with their wine casks and slabs of beer. I didn’t even stop – just did a u-turn and headed back to the highway, determined not to give them a chance to play with the bike in the night! After a second stop at the Fitzroy Xg servo for yet another drink of milk I set off for the extra 400ks to Broome.

Luckily I had started very early, getting up at 4.45am and on the road by 5.15, first light. An easy ride, with less of the Kimberley landscape to see, but still some of it among a lot of plain, small trees and shrubs, etc., with hills in the background.

The road was pretty good, although it fell away a bit after about 150ks west of Kununurra. But at least there were hills and valleys to see, and some bends, to re-learn how to ride!

Had several stops for petrol, five in all I think, and the day got HOT - 41°C indicated on the bike gauge, although the oil-temperature gauge never went past four bars. Bike still running perfectly – and next to no other traffic.

Had many drink along the way – realised just out of Kununurra that I had left my two drink bottles behind in the ‘frig, but they were easy enough to replace, I just bought 2 x 600ml bottles of water and clipped them in.

About 35ks from Broome (and the ocean) the temperature fell quickly and dramatically to only 30°C or so – lovely! It was very hot off the bike, but OK while on it and moving, but I’ve got a couple of sore spots (heat-rash?) on the upper underside of my thighs, I guess from sitting in damp underclothes all day as a result of the high humidity. Five days in Broome will fix that!

Arrived in Broome at 5.20pm, after exactly 12 hours in the road, including five stops just for petrol and drinks. 1046ks for the day, so that equals an average of 87kph. Most of the way I pinned the throttle open to 120kph and kept this up literally for hours. Needed to slow down often, though, to 80kph or so for the many one-lane bridges across the hundreds of creeks here.

Entered Broome just on dusk, so saw nothing: straight to the motel, where the manager gave me a huge upgraded apartment, air-con, cooking facilities, the lot. I left the bike outside overnight on the tiny verandah, and plan to take it to Annie’s for safer keeping tomorrow morning.

Showered (beautifully refreshing) and shaved, unpacked and cleared away, then walked about a kilometre to the Roebuck pub – had a nice salad, two beers, glass of wine. Not too bad a price – salad $17, wine $5.80 or so.

Tomorrow (Friday) I’ll just relax a bit, get the bike away, do a little grocery shopping for five breakfasts, do some overdue laundry, have a swim, and generally relax.



After-note: there were two lots of unintended and unexpected consequences from this day’s marathon ride. First – happily, the mate I was to stay with in Perth, another 2400km further south of Broome, and seven days more riding, is a pharmacist, and he made me up some witches brew that fixed my sore thighs – although some minor blemishes remain to this day (pix on request). I also learned the importance of proper underwear as well as ATGATT on long distance riding.

Second – much more importantly: as one does on long and undemanding hours in the saddle I had the chance to think, and ponder the plight of our many disadvantaged aboriginal (indigenous) inhabitants in these very remote areas. I’d also seen something of this on other trips into the outback. What I saw disturbed me, but what could I do?

Well, I found I could do something, and not long thereafter, on returning home, I signed-up as a volunteer to work with indigenous families, communities, individuals, work that took me to some pretty remote parts and that exposed me to some experiences I’d not otherwise have had. I like to think I made a tiny difference.

My first "Official" iron butt ended up being 1164 miles in 16 hours and 32 minutes. That is my longest day ride EVER! Have done 1000 miles before and since then,,, but NEVER again.