Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kiro]

Cambo and I developed a plan to ride to the 76th Annual Black Hills Rally this year. I rode out from Maine, he from Leesburg, Virginia, and we met at State College, PA the evening of Thursday, August 4th to start heading west. My trip dates were August 4th through Tuesday, August 16th. I was on my ’13 CUSE8 with the tour-pac dismounted and a luggage rack installed. Cambo rode his ’13 CVO Breakout, which offers little in the way of wind protection. Cam’s total ended up at 4,740 miles; mine ended up at 5,595 miles door to door. My Day 1 was 554 miles and ten hours riding through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York into Pennsylvania.



Because Cambo was riding a stripped down bike, I carried his gear for the trip back and forth. He shipped the balance of his gear to Jimmy (2k), who along with Kyle (his son), and Heath King (brother-in-law), were trailering out from North Carolina. We’d rented a house in Nemo, South Dakota, about 18 miles from Sturgis, for the event week. Cambo had a backpack and full-face helmet, which I carried on my Electra-Glide during the transit. Between us we had four helmets, lots of camera equipment and anything else we needed for the transit and in my case, for the entire trip. I had all my gear packed in a dry bag, the saddlebags and had a cased tripod tied off. Everything was water protected in the event we ran into inclement weather.





Friday, August 5th -  Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois
We left the Hampton Inn at State College shortly after breakfast, at 0615. We were heading to Pecatonica, Illinois, which is north of Chicago and Rockford, to spend the night with a friend of mine in corn country. Although we didn’t know it yet, this would be the single worst day of the excursion due to traffic and road construction. We didn’t arrive in Pecatonica until 10:00 pm Eastern Time – it was a long day with several hold ups and incidents during the ride. At a gas stop along the way, two cars collided at an intersection just as we cleared it, which shut down the road for a time. Between road construction, highway lane closures, and running into rain – we had to pull off the road at one point due to visibility in hard rain, it was estimated we lost three hours or more. Also, Cambo had an earplug break off in his ear and we were trying to find tweezers or anything else we could locate to extract it. In the end result, I got some needle-nosed pliers from a lady at Subway to pull out the plug. We did 695 hard earned miles this day, including the enjoyment of riding through Chicago at rush hour…





Saturday, August 6th
We had breakfast in Pecatonica with my friend and got on the road, a bit later than usual. We didn’t want to simply rush off where we arrived so late the evening before. Once we got west of Chicago the trip started to be a lot more fun – less traffic, more open roads with better riding. We traveled through Illinois, Iowa and into Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where we stopped for the night, a total of just under 500 miles. This was one day on the road we decided to take it easy and get some extra rest. After having dinner at an Outback Steakhouse we returned to the hotel and kicked back. By now there were thousands of bikes and vehicles hauling trailers around, all heading west…





Sunday, August 7th
Cambo was up early, I stayed in bed until 0700. We had breakfast at the hotel and packed the bike for the run to Rapid City, our stop for the evening. We were on the road by 0820 local time. We couldn’t get into the Nemo house before the afternoon of the next day, so we took our time and enjoyed the journey. Another easy day on I-90, an 80 mph interstate. We rode most of this at 92 mph on cruise control. My odometer indicated it was a 388-mile day.



We arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota at 2:45 pm local time. It had been a great ride in and by now we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We had buffalo burgers at Wall Drug and stopped at various scenic overlooks, talking to people along the way. Our plan was to meet another photographer, John T. Elliott, who kindly provided space for us to spend the night at his Hilton Garden hotel suite in Rapid City. John was waiting for us by the time we arrived.



The plan was to unpack, kick back a bit then go riding. In the end result this didn’t happen. Cambo’s cooling fans on the Breakout never shut down once the temperature dropped. They continued to run and when he went to move his bike, the battery was discharged to the point it wouldn’t start. He rode John’s Road King to Walmart, to learn they didn’t have a single battery charger remaining in stock. He did find a charging system; one that you charge, then hook to the battery to provide a boost. This worked out well, except not until the next morning due to the charging time involved. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, drank some great Bourbon and smoked a few good cigars while we kicked back…

[kiro]

Monday, August 8th
One thing I planned to do after the West Virginia CVO GTG run, was to have some Custom Dynamics plasma rods and a Magic Strobe modulator installed to get more light on the back of my bike with the tour-pac dismounted. I didn’t have time after West Virginia to get these shipped and installed, so planned to do it first thing this Monday – which I did. The three of us were at Rapid City Harley just after 0700, where we got in line with some other riders waiting for the gate to open. Apparently the day before the staff had let some people in early to find out where the tent’s they wished to visit were located. They didn’t come back when the gate opened and there were bikes parked in the way all over the place. Today they weren’t going to let that happen and they kept a tight rein on everyone in line waiting. They opened the gate just after 0800 and had a guy leading a parade into the parking lot. The parade leader told me where to peel off to find the Custom Dynamics tent, which I did. Unfortunately, these guys didn’t show up until after 0830. Although I was first at their service area, arriving early didn’t aid the effort much. Cambo and John had breakfast while I waited and kept waiting, then stayed with the bike while the parts while installed. Not a bad deal though and installation was free. Shortly after 0900 we were on our way for some riding in the Black Hills…





Yes! We were finally riding the Black Hills… John took us along Iron Mountain Road, Needles Highway and into the Town of Custer for lunch. Our plan was to meet the balance of the crew at the Nemo house around 3:00 pm and we planned accordingly.



At the House in Nemo…
In the afternoon our group was assembled. Everybody decided on where to rack out and we unpacked. Cambo and I were in the basement, where two bedrooms had been partitioned off. This worked well for me because I had a table to set up/leave my laptop to download the camera cards. Few image files were enhanced during the run – we were far too busy with early mornings and returning late. This also prevented a good deal of social time just hanging out around the house – that simply didn’t happen. We were riding just about all the time doing long days. Jimmy and crew had gone into Rapid City and supplied the house with all the basic necessities before we arrived. In the end result, we never cooked a meal as we weren’t there often, although Jimmy did feast on some sandwiches from time to time during the week. John had been serving as our guide riding while in a lot of pain. He had injured his back and it wasn’t going too well for him being bounced around on his Road Glide. He’d intended to ride with the full group on Tuesday, but decided to rest up in preparation for going into Montana later on. John left us soon enough to return to Rapid City and his hotel suite. We developed a plan to meet him Wednesday morning to start yet another adventure…



Tuesday, August 9th
When everybody was up and assembled, we went down the street to an all you can eat breakfast established to benefit the Nemo Fire Station. It wasn’t all we had hoped it to be, and I’m being polite here, but water was $1 a bottle there and I took advantage of that. I must have been drinking twenty-five bottles daily in an attempt to stay hydrated. After multiple days in the sun I started to stay covered up as much as possible – long sleeve tee or jacket, and wearing a face mask with some form of head cover. After days of starting/stopping everyone had shed their helmets as just one more thing to deal with when riding. Actually, Cambo had his helmet blow off his head leaving Rapid City the day before – this is a tale in itself, not recounted here. He had his full-face available as I did, but we didn’t wear them. With Kyle aptly leading the pack we traveled all the typical Black Hill roads in the area. We covered some of the same ground from yesterday but also covered some new roads for this trip today.

[kiro]

Wednesday, August 10th – South Dakota into Wyoming and Montana
One of the rides we’d discussed before coming west was going into Montana and riding the Beartooth Highway, noted as one of the most scenic in the nation. This worked out well, several had been there but most of us hadn’t – nobody disagreed with this idea or the subsequent plan. Plus, we had John, who lives in Wyoming, and he was okay with serving as our guide for this run. Because of the distances involved, this was a two day run with an overnight away from Nemo. So Wednesday morning we got up, collectively tried another place for breakfast, then got on the road to rendezvous with John around 0900 at a gas stop. It was another great day to ride and we started off riding I-90 through Wyoming into Montana. John, being familiar with the area, had several neat stops planned. Besides fuel stops, the first was at the Stoneville Saloon in Alzada, Montana, which we were pleased to see had people around but wasn’t overly busy. This was a great stop and we even obtained some free tee-shirts from past Sturgis events – nothing around Sturgis is free, we were amazed...



We planned to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, not far off I-90 and headed there next. It sure is big sky country in Montana as is often stated… The visit to the Custer Cemetery and battle site was a moving and terrific experience. I believe any of us would recommend it to anybody who has an opportunity to visit.



After departing the National Monument, we weren’t too far from the City of Hardin and this is where we stopped for lunch, visiting the Ranch House Grill. It was okay with good food, friendly people and everyone enjoyed it.



John had arranged for us to spend the night with his niece and nephew (Stephanie & Gerald) in Joliet, Montana. So we headed for their home after a long day riding and sightseeing. My log indicated we rode 357 miles this day to prepare for the Beartooth run. Steph and Gerald couldn’t have been nicer – we had a cookout with a few pops and everyone kicked back to relax. The afternoon light was getting soft – our arrival timing was perfect, so I broke out my tripod and set up to do some high plains photography…

[kiro]

Thursday, August 11th –Montana, Wyoming and back to South Dakota, almost
After a good night’s sleep, Cambo and I were up at 0600 and starting prepping to get back on the road. Soon enough the crew was up and we had coffee and discussed plans for the day. Due to the number of people we were spread out all over the house. Because it’s chilly at the summit altitude of the Beartooth, everyone dressed for cold weather. Cambo and I broke out the full-face helmets for today’s run. Shortly afterwards John got us back on the road. We stopped for breakfast in the City of Red Lodge, elevation 5,568′ and population noted as 2,125 persons in the 2010 Census. I knew my cousin, Tim Kirk, lived in this area, but with no cell phone reception and little time, hadn’t tried to contact him. However, he was following me on Facebook and took a chance we’d stop exactly where we did. He spotted my bike with a Maine plate across the street and knew I was there somewhere. I was astounded when he came into the restaurant asking for me… Tim was later joined by his wife Jone and dog, so we took time for a photo-op.


   
Soon enough we were back on track for Beartooth Pass... We started climbing and the temperature starting dropping as we increased the elevation.



Approaching and at the summit – 10, 947 feet, we observed a few snowflakes, but it didn’t pick up we were relieved to see. The next week we read a major flurry hit the area and completely closed the pass to vehicular traffic. Guess we were just lucky in this instance…



So down we came and started the run back to Nemo. John continued to lead us until the turn off to head home. We stopped together once last time for fuel and said good-by to our friend. It had been a great couple of days… However, before this happened we stopped in the City of Cody, Wyoming, elevation 5016’, to have lunch and check out the area. We were still a long way from Nemo and figured another eight or nine hours of road time ahead.



Back on the road, John broke off for home. It was getting late so we decided to make some time to get back to the house. We were riding into nightfall and soon were into darkness on I-90 East.  Somewhere around the City of Gillette, still in Wyoming, I thought my heel shifter had fallen off – in any event, I couldn’t shift the bike. I was in 5th gear and I was able to alert Kyle to pull over while I investigated. Probably should have kept going, it was about 10:30 pm at the time. Looking back, this all worked out okay. Once it was recognized the bike needed a part – no road side repair was possible, I got on the phone to get a wrecker to haul it off, always a sore point as you never know how that will turn out. It would have been hours before this happened, although that was not what I was told initially. In the meantime, some local guys stopped by in a pick-up, indicating the best thing to do would be to ride the bike in any gear that could be obtained, continuing east to the City of Sundance, thirty -miles distant. So I continued, riding in 3rd gear and keeping the tach just below the red line with my riding buds bringing up the rear on this high speed road. We located the Harley dealership easily enough and noticed a not so great looking hotel one block over. I walked over to see if they had any rooms – ‘yep, one left - $150’. This place didn’t look all that nice, I was appalled and said so. The clerk straightened me out soon enough by stating, ‘Do you want the room or not’. Humbled, I nodded my ascent, I had little choice... So I paid $150 plus tax for six hours in this room while my friends returned to Nemo. Each day is a new adventure…

[kiro]

Friday, August 12th – Wyoming back to Nemo, South Dakota
I was up at 0600 the next morning, out and about checking the area. Had a coffee at the hotel office – what they considered a ‘continental breakfast’ was a bit of a joke to say the least. You can trust when I say, nobody else was around – it looked like a ghost town. I viewed some traffic around the block and went over to investigate and ha! - a café, so I ordered an omelet, which was good. The shop sign at the dealership indicated they opened at 0900, but I was hoping the service guys would be there early, which is the case in shops where I live. That didn’t happen. At about two minutes before 0900, everybody showed up at once, both service and store employees, as I waited to explain the issue. They understood exactly what happened and had done this repair a dozen times in the last few days. I learned I purchased the last repair kit they had available as they were talking about getting some more parts in an immediate sense. The Owner, sitting at a table, indicated if I wanted to speak with him, which I did, I needed to go over where he was. He indicated he’d been horse kicked a few years back and had a bum leg so couldn’t get around well. I thought about telling him I’d rub it for him if it would help get me back on the road, but restrained myself. The staff was nice enough but you could tell the start of bike week had been a busy time for them. Patience is a virtue as they say, and although I was the first guy there this morning – my bike had been parked in front of their service door since 0630, all the bays were full. It appeared they had more lifts than mechanics as it was. I talked to a rider and his wife from Ontario, Canada. They ride a 1989 Road King with an Evo engine - same as my ’86 FXR, being repaired and they were waiting also. They’d been staying near Sturgis and were going back afterwards. I asked why he was here. His response was Rapid City H-D was so busy they wouldn’t take his bike in, so he drove all the way to Sundance. I figured being stuck here was a bit of blessing under that scenario as described. I was 120 miles from the house in Nemo - $94.28 and several hours later I was on the road, leaving just before 11:00 am. I texted Cambo informing him I was on the way and started riding on a beautiful late morning. Actually, this multi-hour solo ride was one of the most enjoyable I had in the west…



Downtown Sturgis – Friday afternoon…
Not long after I returned to the Nemo house, Cambo was after me to get ready to go once again. This was the only day remaining before starting back and we wanted to get into Downtown Sturgis. Jimmy and Kyle had a ride planned, so they were off on their scoots. Heath was up for going with us so he was waiting at the house as well. I informed Cambo he had to be patient for a while longer – I needed to recharge my camera batteries, download, and then duplicate the image files from the compact flash cards on both cameras from the Beartooth run. Not certain on the time, but once this was done we weren’t long before getting on the road. The road through Vanocker Canyon from Nemo to Sturgis was a lot of fun to ride. We couldn’t get on it much though, as there were many bikes heading in both directions, some traveling dismally slow on the twisty and winding roadway. All the same, we got into Sturgis soon enough… It had been a number of years for me – I was pleased to be back.



We walked the streets, checked out the vendors and enjoyed the afternoon…



We spent some time in the Oasis Bar and Lounge, where they had a lot of karaoke activity underway. It was good to get off our feet and out of the sun for a time. It was harsh light for photography, but one takes what one can get and the subjects were compelling. I found a place that was providing sewing services and had a few patches added to my vest – the ‘official’ Sturgis 76th and the obligatory – at least in my view, ‘I rode mine’ patch… We enjoyed the sights, shopping and street scenes.



We headed back to the Nemo house, arriving around 7:30 pm. Jimmy and Kyle’s bikes were there, but they weren’t. We learned they went Downtown, just in time to get caught in a major soaker. It rained every day we were in Nemo between 5:00 and 7:00 pm, sometimes with tremendous thunder boomers. It didn’t take them long to return once it started raining, so soon the group was reassembled and the five of us talked about the upcoming morning departure. We all had things to do, not the least of which was finishing off the Knob Creek Bourbon – I set up five shots dividing the balance of what we had remaining, while we discussed the day’s events. Afterwards I pre-packed everything I could to get ahead on time in the morning, but ended up spending most of the time getting the images files downloaded and duplicated.

[kiro]

Saturday, August 13th – The Return, South Dakota into Iowa
Not certain about Cambo, but I slept until 0730. We are both early risers generally, but this adventure was fairly exhausting with lots of riding each day, with the exception being yesterday on the Main Street visit. I only did around 150 miles on Friday with the ride in from Sundance then going to Sturgis. I’d taken the time to back my bike around in the garage so once loaded all I had to do was drive out. The roadway in and driveway was a gravel road, and it pitched away fairly sharply once off the garage slab. By doing this I was able to simplify things when the scoot was loaded for departure.



Soon enough everyone was up and active in preparation to getting on the road. We had to search everywhere to make certain everything was ready to pack. My bike was loaded – we said or good-byes to our crew of housemates and at 0920, got on the road – a late start with all we had to do beforehand…
We headed to pick up I-90 east towards Sioux Falls, entering the interstate near Sturgis, so we had a chance to ride the canyon road again. There was no holding back, we were on a good road with little traffic at the start – it was 95 mph pretty much all the way on the interstate, but that takes the fuel level down quickly. After a fuel stop Cam and I got separated when I pulled over to insert an earplug. I thought he was ahead of me, when I actually passed him before entering the highway without realizing it. It took several hours for us to reconnect – nearly a tank of gas, but eventually we got back together and made certain this didn’t happen again. I was waiting at the now infamous Exit 387 East in Hartford, South Dakota... I pulled out a camera and started taking exposures while I waited. Cam excerpted the following text exchange from this incident:



A few images from my wait:



I noted that earlier in the day while riding along passing by the Huron, SD exit about 3:15 pm, I was struck by a major wind burst. I was cruising along, minding my own business, but when this wind hit it pushed me back so violently against the backrest it nearly pulled my hands off the handlebar grips. Not only that, it blew me off the right lane center-line to the other side about six feet. I’ve had this happen before but never this violently - yikes! It certainly served to wake me up.
We went through Sioux Falls, roughly 380 miles from Nemo and kept on going. At one of the stops we discussed how long we planned to ride. I suggested an early evening, riding as long as daylight prevailed, with and an early start tomorrow. Cam looked at me and said, ‘no, we need to make Des Moines, Iowa tonight’… ‘Hmm, okay I suppose, but that’s a long way for a late start’... I agreed, provided we made a hotel reservation – we were going to be late. This is funny now, but far from humorous that evening as I reminisce. So we rode on… I tried to call a Hampton Inn in Des Moines multiple times to generate a reservation with no answer – this was really strange. I figured the phone number we found on line must be incorrect. I entered this address into my phone and set up to navigate to the hotel.

[kiro]

We arrived under the hotel vestibule at 10:30 pm after a 690-mile day. What happened next was dreadful at the time… I went inside to inquiry about getting a room. The clerk looked at me like I was from outer space or something – it had been a long day, maybe I was looking wind beaten or something. He indicated they’d been 100% sold out for over a week – I didn’t know? Know what? The Iowa State Fair is underway, the 2nd largest in the country – over a million people turned out for this, you won’t find a hotel room anywhere. He started to tell me about a small, unaffiliated hotel that had five rooms remaining – I just walked away thinking, ‘wow’… I walked back to my bike when the sky exploded – it started raining – hard… This is just great I thought – I wasn’t overly pleased at the moment with Cambo’s plan and I was dragging behind without a place to sleep. I went back inside and asked specifics on this hotel he mentioned. The GPS indicated it was 17 miles distant and was entitled, ‘The Palace Inn’ - Uh-huh-I was thinking this can’t be for real… However, it was time to take some type of action, good, bad or indifferent. I looked at my running mate and said I’d observed a Burger King off the exit coming over here. I may be tired, chilled and now wet, but I had no plan to be all those things whatsoever and hungry also. I’m going to seek sustenance... The Burger King was fixing to close and lock the doors – figures, right, it was just before 11:00 pm… The guy looked at us – think he felt sorry for us actually, said come in, but order immediately - no issue with that. So we ate and watched the rain pour down out the window. The plan was, 1) find The Palace Inn, 2) If unable to obtain a place to sleep, to ride as far away from Des Moines as we could and look for a hotel anywhere we could find space. We stayed at the Burger King and out of the rain until they put us out…

At the Palace Inn - untold luxury in Des Moines – these shots are from the morning after…



The Palace Inn was fairly terrible, but they had rooms. It was after midnight and we were tired. We couldn’t stay together in one room as none of the rooms offered two beds. Okay – we’ll take two rooms. They clerk told me we’d be in rooms next to each other, but even that was incorrect. Cambo ended up on the other side of the facility, with no parking. When he came back to my side of the building he was far from pleased about all this. I on the other hand had a bed – I unloaded the bike and passed out…

Sunday, August 14th, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana into Ohio
A new day! Hadn’t heard or viewed a text from Cambo yet when I got up at 0730. I took a shower and shaved and took the image group posted above. Gawd – this place was a dump, but closer inspection in the room didn’t indicated any bedbug or other insect issues – could be worse I supposed. Later Cambo stated he had roaches in his room. People used this hotel for extended living quarters from the looks of things I noted. I packed the bike in preparation for getting out of Dodge… We were hungry and wanted breakfast before getting on the interstate, so thought we’d check around some. We asked a fellow at a gas stop – he said there was nothing around whatsoever when it came to restaurants. Cambo talked to a fellow, a former rider, who was checking out his Breakout. He said there’s only one place for breakfast in the area. It’s a few miles away but the food was good. This is where we headed.



We departed from breakfast at 0900. Time to get some miles behind, which we did… My log indicates we rode 621 miles this day. We ended up spending the evening at a Hampton Inn in Springfield, Ohio. It had been a fairly easy, uneventful day except for one incident. Around 3:30, while riding the interstate cooking along, Cambo ran over an object in the road, which he thinks was a section of metal pipe. It bounced up after impact and smacked him on the right leg – hard… Because I was running my GPS, I was leading at the time and never observed this event, but he came up and signaled me to pull over. We got off on the roadside – Cambo was lying in the breakdown lane next to an off ramp and he wasn’t happy, moaning and groaning… I was starting to get concerned but stood him up to make certain his leg wasn’t broken. He had a dent and the beginning of a significant bruise, but we had little choice except to keep riding. I asked if he wanted to find a hospital or express care facility. He said maybe later but let’s ride on and see what transpires. In the end result he persevered with this injury. It remained sore and tender for a few days, but we didn’t stop further over it… I should point out there’s a bit of controversy about Cambo’s leg strike. Later he stated my back wheel ran over the pipe and shot it his way. I have no recollection of seeing anything in the roadway whatsoever. Then he mentioned that I may have possibly thrown it at him intentionally… I denied this, stating if so, I would have tossed it at center mass to maximize the impact… It’s one of the many mysteries of the road I suppose – we will never know. We checked into the Hampton Inn in Springfield, Ohio at 10:10 pm - we were back in the eastern time zone.

Before and at the Springfield hotel. Special effects by Cambo…

[kiro]

Monday August 15th, Ohio, West Virginia into Pennsylvania
Cambo woke me up about 0730 with the terrific news it was raining out, and not just sprinkling either. Great… We checked the weather on television and our phones. No sense in waiting it out, it was a large front and we were going to be in it all day. We discussed this and the proposed route for this leg of our journey together. Today was the last we’d be riding together as the split off to head home was pending. I didn’t mind riding in the rain as long as the visibility was okay, but all in all, it was pretty miserable. We dressed for it the best we could and broke out the full-faced helmets. We got on the road at 0915.
 
Images from the day…



It wasn’t long after we stopped at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center before we went our separate ways. Parting after such a great ride and so many days together was sad as it marked the end of our journey, but both of us were ready to get home and back to reality for better or for worse. Cambo indicated it was 4:03 pm when he turned off and I continued on my way. It had been a run for the ages…

I’d checked the distances and wanted to be close enough to get home the next day without riding too many hours. I made a reservation at a hotel I was familiar with from previous stops, the Hampton Inn Scranton at Montage Mountain, which is actually in Moosic, Pennsylvania. My plan worked splendidly for a change. I made it to the hotel just as dusk overtook the day, pulling in at 8:05 pm. I had optimized the daylight hours to nearly the last minute. I’d ridden 540 miles this Monday, most of it in the rain, but I was pleased that during the time after our split it wasn’t raining. The road was wet but visibility was much better.



Tuesday, August 16th – Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and home to Maine
I was up at 0600 and rested – tonight I’d be sleeping in my own bed… I planned the final leg to miss the commute traffic on the trip in, which worked well except for stoppages related to road construction on I-84 in Connecticut. Not much can be done about that I suppose. Cambo made it in Monday evening and the balance of our group drove straight through to North Carolina, so they were home. I was the final member still on the road. I had breakfast at the hotel as I checked the weather. Overcast all day with a chance of rain – great… It was supposed to be raining in NH and Maine by the time I got there also. I was in ‘home’ territory more or less now and had traveled this route many times, so knew distances and where to make fuel stops. The first was off Exit 10 in Newtown, CT. Fuel and the Blue Colony Diner for breakfast. I arrived there at 0925.



Besides fuel, I had one last stop to make on the way through New Hampshire. My radio started acting up at the West Virginia GTG before this trip. I didn’t have time to get it pulled before heading west, but wanted to stop and have it replaced to save a trip later. I called and made arrangements to have this done in Windham, where the shop had been holding a radio for me. I arrived at In-Focus Mobile Audio just before 1:00 pm…

Radio Change out…



Just as I was preparing to depart the audio shop the rain hit. I waited a few minutes, but decided to go on – I wanted to get home. The rain slowed as I crossed the border into Maine and I was able to pick up the pace a bit. I arrived home at 4:30 pm with 18,761 miles on the odometer. It had been a good run with great people…



Epilogue

Cambo provided an update of his return after our split… 'It rained all the way until I pulled into the garage in Leesburg! 600+ miles in the rain. Got rid of my wet clothes and took a shower. Next day I went back to check on the leather pants and this is what I found in the garage!'



'My leather over-pants, which were soaked through from riding distance in the rain had mold growing on them in less than 24 hours!'

Find below one of the videos I assembled from the Sturgis 2016 run:

https://youtu.be/yOqAHyCGFa4

[TN]

Love hearing road tales like this, y'all done good. My hat is off to Cambo riding that breakout, while owning a touring bike too. 

Cambo you ship some gear to and fro? I know Kiro ain't got allot of room after packing his camera equipment.

Ride On


TN

Great pics Kiro.......

[cambo]

Love hearing road tales like this, y'all done good. My hat is off to Cambo riding that breakout, while owning a touring bike too. 

Cambo you ship some gear to and fro? I know Kiro ain't got allot of room after packing his camera equipment.

Ride On


TN

I did TN. Shipped most of my stuff to Jimmy and he also took them back with him and shipped them to me and didn't even charge me to ship'm back. So thank you 2k for making it possible for me to ride the BO to Sturgis. Oh, BTW, doing the same thing next year! BO all the way!!

BO stands for Breakout and Body Odor as I had packed one less shirt than I needed for the road and the third day was repeat day!!!



Cam

[SHRADER]

Epic ride gentlemen!!!

Thanks for allowing us to share your adventure.

[CVODON]

Used a LOT of filters.

[Chief2505]

Sounds like a great trip with great friends! I am envious at both the trip and how you can do such a great write up! Thank you!

[Royalroadie]

Great ride report and pics. Looks like one for the books.

[OhioDave]

Sounds like a great trip with great friends! I am envious at both the trip and how you can do such a great write up! Thank you!

  agreed

[Black Diamond]

Thanks for taking us along with the pics and comments!

JW

[GSPLewie]

Amazing photos and write up! Ever swing through Nebraska, let me know.

[OBB]

I  followed along on FB but reading the recap here while having my morning coffee, just about put me "on your shoulder" for the trip. I felt like I was riding along with you guys. Great pix and write up! 

[ultrarider123]

I enjoyed riding with y'all if only via ones and zeros....Thanks for sharing.  Made that trip many times and enjoy it each time in rain/shine/hail/storms/snow/heat/cold or whatever the good Lord decides is needed for the day.  One we need to do at some point is Beartooth Pass.  It sure is beautiful by all the pictures I've seen and I know the pictures don't do it justice....

[GregKhougaz]

Great pictures and a great ride report!       Such  a great report that I moved it to ride report!

[JCZ]

Excellent ride report guys.   Thanks a bunch for taking us along! 

[2k]

Only honored to be part of this great adventure..........great write up and stirred the urge to do it again!!!!

[Boatman]

Kirk and Cam-

Thanks for taking us a long on your incredible journey.  Enjoyed the pictures and commentary.  Know it takes a while to do and put on site.   

[DCFIREMANN]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing a great journey with us!!!!

Be Safe

THE DAWG

[Harley Guy]

Wow, just wow...
.
As I read your report and viewed the pics, I reminisced about our Black Hills trip this year in early July. We stayed at the Deadwood Hamptnon Inn.
.
Great report and pictures. Thank you for posting.
.
RDE ON......

[kiro]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Three Main Street Sturgis photographic templates were taken down because of the fifty-seven images, eight exhibited ladies in body paint, deemed inappropriate to post on the forum. I reconstructed the templates and uploaded the revisions so the account is now complete...

Kiro

[MadCVORG]

Great report--well written! Kiro, I need to meet you some day; you know your way around a camera. Hard to find real photos in this era of 'point and shoot'.

[cambo]

Excellent ride report guys.   Thanks a bunch for taking us along! 

JC can I talk you into joining us next year? Would be cool to have to of them dayglow orange bikes in the pictures! They really brighten up a cloudy day.

[JCZ]

JC can I talk you into joining us next year? Would be cool to have to of them dayglow orange bikes in the pictures! They really brighten up a cloudy day.

I'm tempted!  But I've been to Sturgis and many other rallys for so many years that I try to go the opposite direction now.....avoid the crowds.  And honestly, my favorite "go to" places are all in the west.....the Rocky Mountain states mostly.  Having said that, I, along with several others from Cali, are hoping there will be an unusually cool spell in Jun so that we can make it to the NMITM in Ark.

Yes, it would be odd.....kind of felling like lookin in the mirror as we're riding down the road with another 13 orange & black.    I have until May 2018 and then I can go where ever I want....whenever I want and we'll sure make something happen to hook up with you guys. 

[cambo]

I'm tempted!  But I've been to Sturgis and many other rallys for so many years that I try to go the opposite direction now.....avoid the crowds.  And honestly, my favorite "go to" places are all in the west.....the Rocky Mountain states mostly.  Having said that, I, along with several others from Cali, are hoping there will be an unusually cool spell in Jun so that we can make it to the NMITM in Ark.

Yes, it would be odd.....kind of felling like lookin in the mirror as we're riding down the road with another 13 orange & black.    I have until May 2018 and then I can go where ever I want....whenever I want and we'll sure make something happen to hook up with you guys. 

 

[Boatman]

Kirk-

What ended up being wrong with your shifter problem in Sundance?

[kiro]

What ended up being wrong with your shifter problem in Sundance?

I think the spline stripped or something. The heel shifter was right down on the floorboard (that night I thought it fell off as I couldn't feel it at all), and I couldn't shift with the front lever. The shop had a repair kit for it, three parts I think. Fixed it in less than an hour. They indicated it was a common problem and had done a dozen of the same repairs recently. I heard them talking about getting some more of the kits for this as I got the last one in stock apparently. I need to find the receipt and check the part numbers, but with parts and labor is was only $94 - fairly inexpensive in the MoCo world... I'll do a follow up once I locate the paperwork.

[cambo]

I think the spline stripped or something. The heel shifter was right down on the floorboard (that night I thought it fell off as I couldn't feel it at all), and I couldn't shift with the front lever. The shop had a repair kit for it, three parts I think. Fixed it in less than an hour. They indicated it was a common problem and had done a dozen of the same repairs recently. I heard them talking about getting some more of the kits for this as I got the last one in stock apparently. I need to find the receipt and check the part numbers, but with parts and labor is was only $94 - fairly inexpensive in the MoCo world... I'll do a follow up once I locate the paperwork.

Had the same problem returning from MV last year on my 2015 Limited. The heel/toe shifter splines broke off. As soon as I saw Kirk's heel shifter and how it felt when I moved it using my hand I knew exactly what the problem was. In my case Harley Davidson of Lynchburg send out the truck (I was 50 miles away on a Sunday afternoon), towed the bike back to their dealership, fixed the shifter, filled the bike up with gas and charged me exactly $0!  Wish they were close to where we live. They would be my preferred vendor for everything.

[RoadTrip]

Wow. Just wow. Great trip report. Awesome pics.

[ptnlinda]

Just love these reports. Thanks for taking the time to put it together, much appreciated.

[kiro]

What ended up being wrong with your shifter problem in Sundance?

Follow up on shifter issue... I found the receipt from Deluxe H-D of Sundance (WY). This indicates they replaced the 'shifter shaft lever, gear' - #33709-82A and 'lever, gear shift'-#33718-82B. It was an inexpensive fix, but a debilitating issue when it happened as you can't shift. And it's really inconvenient at 10:30 pm on a 80 mph interstate with five bikes on the side of the road - LOL... The bottom line was $91.03 - $63.38 parts, $27.65 labor and tax, so you know it wasn't major. I paid the $50 deductible using my ESP.

[ultra98]

Thanks for sharing this great ride awsome 

[OBB]

Follow up on shifter issue... I found the receipt from Deluxe H-D of Sundance (WY). This indicates they replaced the 'shifter shaft lever, gear' - #33709-82A and 'lever, gear shift'-#33718-82B. It was an inexpensive fix, but a debilitating issue when it happened as you can't shift. And it's really inconvenient at 10:30 pm on a 80 mph interstate with five bikes on the side of the road - LOL... The bottom line was $91.03 - $63.38 parts, $27.65 labor and tax, so you know it wasn't major. I paid the $50 deductible using my ESP.

Put the claim into ESP for that fleabag motel you got stuck in. They'll reimburse you for that also.

[Indenial]

I appreciate you taking the time to post and share with us.. I loved the photos and the effects.
eight exhibited ladies in body paint, deemed inappropriate to post on the forum.  I like inappropriate----PM them to me---Just kidding, just got back from Sturgis myself and can only imagine what they looked like.  Besides, imagination makes it better.  Thanks, for the post.

[kiro]

Put the claim into ESP for that fleabag motel you got stuck in. They'll reimburse you for that also.

That's a great idea OBB and one I hadn't considered. Thanks for the head's up!

Kirk

[rockytop117]

It's taken me most of the morning ( distractions at work) to read & view all the pics but hats off on a excellent read !

[kiro]

It's taken me most of the morning ( distractions at work) to read & view all the pics but hats off on a excellent read !

I can understand that rockytop... It took untold hours to evaluate/enhance the image groups, then set up the selected shots to upload. Afterwards it was fact check, organize and create the actual report text. Once it's done it's in archive for a long time though, so worth the effort. This was actually an outline for an expanded web article I plan to create when I have more time available. Thanks for your comments...

[bigsixman]

Super job documenting your Sturgis trip. I enjoyed the photos and the comments.

Beautiful work!

[red ben59]

Can't believe I just stumbled across this  Great photos, amazing!!!!!!!!! But the play by play really makes me feel as if I was there.  Thanks for sharing you guys ride with me

[Jock]

Can't believe it took me this long to see this thread!

Enjoyed the journey and thanks for the time and effort placed towards sharing it.

 

[longlast]

looks like a great time was had by all Thanks for sharing 

[CVOStreetglide]

Kiro:

Many thanks for the writeup and pictures. I felt like I was along with you guys through the good times and the bad. 

It's good that all of us "senior citizens" can still make a run like youguys did and live to tell about it. 

Hopefully there will be many, many more runs and good times  in you guys future.

VERY BEST WISHES

JERRY