Day 6... Iron Mountain Road.

This morning we were able to make a decision about where to go for a ride. The 7 of us, on 5 motorcycles, 3 heavy cruisers, 2 sport-touring bikes, went east towards Sturgis, then headed down Vanocker Canyon Road. The traffic was not too bad, but heavy enough to keep the speeds at a "little too slow to really enjoy" pace. Vanocker Canyon runs into Nemo Road. We turned right onto Norris Peak Road and rode it to the end at hwy 44. We followed 44 to 385, down to 16, then onto Twin Springs Road. We rode 323, aka Old Hill City Road, into Keystone.
We stopped for lunch in Keystone at a place called BarLee's. After lunch we went east on 40 the turned onto Playhouse Road. That's where John and I got separated from the rest of group. They were ahead of us and missed the turn. It turned out for the best.
It gave john and I a chance to hit the twisties with out anyone else around. Playhouse road is a short cut to 16A, aka Iron Mountain Road. We were able to ride that section from south to north. That way, when you drive through 2 of the 3 tunnels, you come out looking at Mount Rushmore. John and I stopped at the scenic overlook at the top and waited for the others to catch up. We never saw them, but they later claimed they drove past us and honked.
The rest of the ride was straight up 385 to 85 to Camp.
Headed for Vanocker Canyon...

From the scenic overlook on Iron Mountain Road.

Lots of these....

One of the pig tail bridges. This one starts at the end of one of the 3 tunnels...

16 A splits into single lane, one way road sections..

Two more bridge shots, shot on the fly...

A profile shot of Washington....

Iron Mountain Road is one of the roads in South Dakota that can not be missed!! It's best to do it anytime except the 3 weeks around rally time
Zoom in close near the letter L on the map to see the best area of Iron Mountain Road...

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Day 5... The Last of the Lazy Days.. I Hope.

Larrie, Julie and Lyle arrived around 7:00 p.m. last night. They had been fighting a terrible headwind across most of South Dakota. Larrie was driving his ten year old H-D cruiser, with his wife Julie on the back, and pulling a heavy camper trailer. He was complaining that his bike had a hard time with the wind and would only do 60 MPH. On a couple of gas stops, Lyle would use 2 gallons to Larrie's 4. It must have been a bad wind!!
After they got here, they set up camp and bed time was soon to follow.
This morning, the 7 of us went for breakfast at the Legion in Sturgis. We met some friends, Tom and Karla, Lee and Gabi, John's cousin Paul and his wife Mona, and a few others. We all had breakfast together. It was nice to see old friends again!
After breakfast we split up into smaller groups and walked around Sturgis. I picked up a t-shirt, a shot glass, and a pin/patch set. The 7 of us all met back at camp afterwards.
We has a minor problem to fix. Larrie's bike seemed to be over charging. He and Garth ran back to Sturgis and picked up a regulator/rectifier for his bike. We spent most of the afternoon on the repair job.
John and I went to the Stonehouse Saloon to meet up with Paul and Mona. We visited for a while and returned to the campground.
Today was a day of rest, Lyle and Larrie rode the 610 miles from MN in one day. They needed a little down time. I'm not sure about where we'll go riding tomorrow, but I'm thinking the Hill City and Keystone area.

A picture of our tents....

Lee and Gabi....

Downtown Sturgis... and the official start of the rally isn't until Monday!

I promise more rally and scenery pictures as soon as we start riding the hills again!

Day 4. Waiting for the Others to Arrive.

It's been a chilly windy day, with an overcast sky. This morning, the 4 of us went for breakfast and then back to camp to plan a ride. We headed down Spearfish Canyon again because we wanted to make a stop at Bridalveil Falls so Ronni could see them, and get some pictures. When we got there, we ran into some old friends, Tom and Karla. We never did get around to taking any pictures of the falls.
We went to down to Rochford for a pop. There's a rustic bar in the middle of no where called the Moonshine Gulch Saloon. On the right side of the picture is, from r to l... John, Garth and Ronni.

While we drank our pop, a copy of the Captain America chopper like the one in the movie Easy Rider pulled in. A neat old school chopper!

It was a rather cool ride. At one point the temp was only 55 degrees. We went back to camp and waited for the others to arrive.
I got an early start on today's blog while sitting at the picnic table near the Office. I needed to charge the battery anyway!
There will be more pictures from our rides after today.

Day 3.... From Belle Fourche, SD

I had a good nights sleep in the tent, and was up early. John and I went for a late morning ride down Spearfish Canyon and back. The traffic is still light for a pre rally week. The campground is still lightly populated. That will change in the next few days.
I snapped a few pictures going down the canyon.

John and I stopped at Cheyenne Crossing for lunch. Good burgers and good pulled pork.
We returned to camp to wait for Garth to arrive from Castlegar BC. We were surprised to see him pull up with his bike on a trailer. He brought his wife, Ronni, with him.

After they got their tent set up, they went off to the store for a few supplies. While they were gone it started to rain. I spent most of the afternoon napping in my tent listening to the rain and thunder. The temps dropped nicely after the rain started.
My view most of the afternoon..... The first one's for you Bob...

When the rain cleared, the sky was beautiful. The sunset was fantastic!

Someday I'll figure out how to shoot a picture of the sun. It was an intense orange color. I just couldn't capture that image...

Day 2 of My Trip to South Dakota.

We woke up with the sun this morning at the Faulkton City Park. There was no dew and the tents were dry at sun up. We had about 50 drops of rain during the night. I thought for sure we were going to get pounded. There was lightning a ways to our north, but it never came south.
We packed up and were on the road by 0830.

We continued west on US-212, and came across huge fields of Sun Flowers. As far as you could see!

Soon we crossed the Missouri River.

After crossing the river, the terrain changes from crop land to pasture land. Real rolling pastures... Not the "Pasture Land" of Oregon, Bob...
We spotted this little guy. He was not sure about getting his picture taken. He kept trying to stare me down!

We had a very late breakfast in Faith and when we were done, it looked like it was going to rain. Weather.com showed storm clouds on the radar, but the weather radio mentioned nothing about rain. We decided to risk it and rode into it. We got a light sprinkle, but not enough rain to get my jacket or gloves wet.
We made it to Belle Fourche and set up camp at Wyatt's Hideaway Campground. We've been here just about every year since he opened 11 years ago. It's a great place to camp. Quiet, clean, and safe, with great washrooms!
The weather has cooled off and it looks like a good night to be in a tent. The rest of our group will show up Thursday or Friday.


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On The Road Again.......

Yup, I just haven't gotten my fill of riding yet. This morning, after a slow start I was on the road to St. Paul, MN. I met John at his place and we headed out for South Dakota.
The odometer at the start of the day at my place in WI.

Picking up John in St. Paul.

We left the cities on I-94 and took hwy 7 west to hwy 23 down to Granite Falls, MN. Then 67 to avoid road construction.
We stopped for the night at the city park campground in Faulkton, SD.

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ZX-14 Comfort Modifications.

Today, Brady Steffl, from the blog, Behind Bars left a comment on my blog, asking how I could do 700 miles a day on a Ninja. Well Brady, here you go. These are the comfort related modifications I've made to my 2009 Kawasaki Ninja Zx-14.

The very first thing I did to my '14 was to change the seat. On the way home from the dealer, I noticed that the stock seat felt like a 2x10 with a vinyl cover over it. It was also tipped forward so the "boys" were being crushed into the gas tank. The seat would be OK if I were constantly hanging off and dragging a knee in the corners, but not so good on the highway.
I had read on a few of the Zx-14 forums that the seat from the new Kawasaki Concours 14 was a direct swap and very comfortable. I watched a Concours 14 forum, waiting for someone selling the stock C-14 seat. It turned out to be the best $125.00 I've spent. The seat swap involves trading brackets between the seat pans.
The ONLY thing I'd change would be to buy a C-14 seat from a newer model. The newer ones are all black, the earlier ones like I bought are black & gray. The stock Zx-14 seat cowl won't fit on a C-14 seat, but I can live with that.
The stock Zx-14 seat

The Concours 14 seat.

I also installed a set of bar riser blocks from Helibars. The machined and anodized aluminum spacer plate is only .75" thick, but it makes a huge difference. The spacer raises the bars just enough to help take some of the weight off my hands, and some of the bend out of my back.

Left bar with riser block removed. Fork adjustments easy to access.

Right side bar with Helibar spacer in place. Fork adjustments now sit slightly recessed.

The last thing I did was to change the wind screen. The stock screen is fine for the track. But in real world driving, which includes bugs and rain, a taller one is a plus.
Stock clear screen, and a Zerogravity Sport/Touring screen.

Some people on the Zx-14 forums will install foot pegs from a Buell Ulysses. That swap lowers the foot pegs bout an inch and a half. I've never felt the need to do that. I have plenty of legroom.

I've changed to Michelin Pilotroad 2 tires and get 10,000+ miles from them. I've mounted a Ram Ball in the steering neck to mount a GPS. I added a set of Givi V35 PLX side cases on SW-Motech mounts from Twistedthottle.com. A Throttlemeister helps with the ability to take my hands off the bars to rest them a bit.
The changes I've made, make is possible for me to cover fairly long distances in relative comfort. At nearly 40 MPG and a 5.8 gallon tank, at 200 miles I'm ready to sit up and stretch.

Day 10...There's No Place Like Home...

After a depressing night at a meth addict infested, crap hole of an "RV Park" in Glendive, MT, I set my sights on getting home. 11 and a quarter hours, 710 miles (1142.6 Kilometers) later, I'm here... I didn't even try to take pictures along the way. I missed the giant buffalo statue in Jamestown, ND. The giant catfish statue in Floodwood, MN. The Paul Bunyan statue in Akeley, MN.

The only pictures I took were... Almost there...

Getting closer...

At last...

10 days of riding. Almost no rain. 3479 miles! (5598.9 km)

What a great trip! I got to meet some really interesting people and ride in some new areas. I can't wait to go back!

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Day 9... Still in Montana.

This morning, I knew it was going to be hot. It was 75 degrees when I pulled out of the Mustang Motel in Townsend. I followed 12 and diverted around White Sulphur Springs. There was a lot of road construction on US-12.I rode 30 miles of ripped up roadway. I will have to be checking the fork seals after that! I also had a bad head wind and high heat to contend with. I wanted to ride to Bismark, ND, but I had to stop in Glendive, MT, there was a huge storm cloud ahead of me. The weather radio was talking about Quarter sized hail and lots of lightning. I checked out the free camping at the City park, but the lot was mud and the place had 2 large groups of teens. I found an RV park and paid my $15.00 to camp.

The day was not a total bust. I had a little excitement on 12. A rancher was moving a large herd of cattle down the highway. They were on 4 wheelers and had dogs helping.

I was a little intimidated by thr number of cows. Luckily, a pick up truck came up behind me and then got in front of me to divert the cows. That worked great.
I snapped a picture of the dinosaur in the city park in Glendive.

These last 2 wont mean anything to anyone but Nancy......

Got to go, running low on battery. I hope Wednesday goes better.