Jeremy and Juli Cross the Continent On Their Honda

June 13, 2010, Our first night "away"

2010-10-17T20:56:00.001-04:00

Sunday, June 13. Suited up, about to pull out of Rhinebeck.

Last post, we left off describing our departure from New Hampshire, the trip to Rhinebeck, New York, and the vintage bike show there where we spent the whole weekend. Things were crazy up through this point in time. We'd ridden the approximately 250 miles from our home to Rhinebeck on highways and big roads through heavy rain. Thursday night when we finally arrived at Rhinebeck, the gates were closed and we had to spend the night in the field outside the fairgrounds.

During this leg, my dad and his girlfriend were following behind in their car, as they would be helping us at Rhinebeck. In fact, we'd turned the weekend into a family outing as my two brothers and their significant others also made the trip out to the show. We all had a great time and Julianne and I were grateful to have a chase vehicle for the beginning of the trip, especially with the bad weather. Despite receiving a thorough soaking, the old Honda proved itself on this leg and ran the distance, at highway speeds, with luggage and a passenger, and without missing a beat.

Not that this leg did not have its challenges. This was literally the first time we'd ridden together with the bike fully loaded. We'd intended to do some short practice trips, but read the previous post and you'll see why it never happened. So I had to learn very quickly how to handle the weight, and the poor performance of that single, solid disc brake when it's wet!

Nevertheless it was a great ride, and we weren't phased. By the end of the weekend we were excited to take off, and that we did.

Family photo before leaving Rhinebeck

June 13, 2010

Sunday afternoon, after enjoying ourselves at the vintage bike show, Julianne and I suited up and headed out for the trip! Rhinebeck is right on the Hudson River, and crossing the river was a big milestone for me. We crossed the river at Kingston and followed Rte. 209 all the way to the Delaware Water Gap. This was a very pleasant ride through pretty rural country. At a gas station we saw a group of bikers with a trailer who were headed up to bike week in Laconia, New Hamphire. It was funny to see people headed up that way when we were headed out!

We reached Port Jervis, where the Delaware River came through and formed the border between New York and Pennsylvania. We stopped here for a couple of supplies, including a gallon of spring water which we'd bunjee'd to the top of one of our hard cases. I wasn't sure where we were at this point, and asked the girl at the counter how much further until the Pennsylvania border. She must not have understood me because she said about an hour, and it turns out we were within a 1/4 mile of the Delaware River! We crossed it here on the Mid-Delaware Bridge, which is a steel grid and if I may say very slippery on two wheels when it's wet!

We weren't sure which campground we'd end up in in the Delaware Water Gap. We figured we'd ride around, check the place out, and find one. First we continued down 209 and stopped at Dingman's Falls for a short hike to the falls. It was a nice little excursion and we met a very excited couple who'd been told by other visitors they'd just seen a bear go through there!

We were still undecided about where to camp, and decided to cross the river at Dingman's Ferry on an old toll bridge, very cool. I really wanted to check out the Old Mine Road, but we couldn't find it right away. So we continued south and through the beautiful water gap area. We did find a bit of the Old Mine Road, but it turned out to be gated a mile in.

Well, we wound up wandering around the East side of the Water Gap for a good while, seeing deer, rabbits, old farmsteads, and lots of pretty countryside. We wound up getting all turned around and drove into Blairstown, New Jersey. I had to consult the map to see how to get back to the Water Gap, and by now we were short on daylight and needed to find our campsite. I'd had a great time winding through the Water Gap on the old CB500.

So we headed back up to the river on New Jersey Rte. 94, and ended up coming back into the Water Gap from the south end, following 209 north. At this point we were basically looking for any place to pitch our tent and after much wandering and frustration, we passed a "group" campsite off of 209. It had a little road heading down toward the river, and was gated. Well, the Honda just fit past the gate so we rolled on through.

Our Campsite in the Delaware Water Gap

Lucky find, and fun too: a water pump!

The little road into the campsite was about 1/2 mile, and we motored slowly down it passing a handful of deer. When we pulled into the empty campsite, there were deer scattered about. They eventually scurried off, but they were still nearby.

This campsite was ideal because it was meant for groups, but there were no groups this evening, the site was all ours. But there were bear-proof trash cans, a picnic table, bathrooms, and a water pump! And the site was right by the beautiful river! We lucked out here, even if it was a quasi-legal night! It was still pretty wet that evening, so we put the fly on the tent and prepared a dinner of something canned and some rice, and went to bed around 9:30, by which time we were exhausted! It was a great evening of sight-seeing though, and the roads in the Water Gap area are just a blast on an old motorcycle!

The next day the plan was to head down through most of Pennsylvania, see the Martin guitar factory, cross the Sesquahanna, and end up near or in Pine Grove Furnace State Park. From this point we'd follow the Appalachian Mountains, basically paralleling the Appalachian Trail, all the way to the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This proved to be one of the best legs of the trip, and we'd just started out!

Finding this night's campsite did not go too smoothly. Many nights would turn out this way, unfortunately. At first we didn't realize we needed to start looking for a site until it got late, then we'd drive around looking for one and not always find a good (cheap) one. This night we were lucky, and we'd have lots of great nights like this.

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Jeremy B

The parking area near our Water Gap campsite, across from the pump.

There was a big old snapping turtle hiding in the middle of it before, and plenty

of deer to be seen out in the meadow.

Getting the bike rolling again: The trip's early stages

2010-08-22T23:15:00.000-04:00

June 10, finally taking off over Catamount Mountain, our first of many mountains to climb

It's been a while since our last update, in which I promised to begin to tell the full story of our trip, complete with plenty of pictures. And now, after a couple of weeks of reluctantly shedding our hard-earned nomadic traits, and settling back into domestic life, we've finally been through all the pictures and have even compiled a sequence of where we were at the end of each day. This combined with looking over the map we brought will allow me to remember roads, places, people, and happenings so that I can share with you all. And so it begins, the official account of our 2010 cross country motorcycle tour. The trip officially began the weekend of June 11th, but what happened before the trip is interesting and relevant enough to merit some attention here.

Preparations for the trip were moving along swimmingly by the beginning of May. Juli and I had plenty of route ideas, most of our camping gear together, and I had the bike almost ready to go, excepting the addition of our luggage system. I had completed many repairs and upgrades (see previous posting "Shakedown Street") but had yet to ride the bike any number of miles, during which I would normally fine tune things like the front end suspension, carburetors, and ignition components. We also both had to finish our school semesters, and Juli had to move out of her Long Island apartment and studios. Crunch time was upon us, as I had a recording project to finish and had yet to fabricate the luggage mounting system for the bike.

To help fund all this work and the trip itself, I had been working in the hardware store at home on the weekends. One glorious New Hampshire Sunday morning, I rode the Honda four miles down Catamount mountain into town and to the hardware store. The bike was running and working well and I remember thinking how nice it was to be riding. Sunday mornings are kind of weird in that the store opens at 9:00 but the customers are always pounding the doors down at 8:40. So I pulled into a very busy parking lot, mentally preparing myself to deal with the lovely public. Suddenly, without warning, I was introduced to the front of a very large pickup. It turns out this large and ugly truck was piloted by a real meat-head who didn't like to look in his direction of travel while driving. The truck struck me on my left side and I was thrown down, landing next to the bike on the pavement, which was better than landing beneath the bike. I got up and tested all my limbs and muscles and determined that I was just fine, and moved on to freaking out about my motorcycle.

What a lovely machine a modern truck is

My little Honda had taken the worst of the hit. The bike was thrown down with some force, leaving many parts broken, dented, or bent. The handlebar was badly bent, and it came around and dented the gas tank badly. Both headlight ears were bent to one side, the left footpeg was bent around, and the front fender was dented. Perhaps the worst part of the damage was the puncturing of the stator cover, on the left side of the bike's engine. The plow frame of the idiot truck struck this part of the bike, mashing the stator into a mess which prevented the crankshaft from turning. This particular bit caused me to wonder whether this bike would ever run again.
Somehow none of the lights were damaged and the bike's frame and front end came through without having been bent.

The truck's plow frame hit here, about 9 inches from my foot.

The terrible driver was good enough to hang around while a member of our town's fine police force filled out a pseudo accident report using a blank D.E. form. I got insurance information and took careful notes and pictures of the damage. I was terrified that I had just lost everything, since a 1971 CB500 in mediocre condition has a Blue Book value of not very much. This incident weighed on me heavily, but in the end was resolved reasonably well. The insurance company actually acted in an honest and reasonable manner; its adjuster totaled the bike and I was given a decent sum in compensation. This amounted to less than I had invested in the bike, but I got to keep the bike to salvage or whatever else I decided.

Nope, those aren't ape hangers. The handlebar
was well bent and the tank got a nasty dent

What a scary, nerve-wracking thing to happen! It goes to show you that you must, as a motorcyclist, ride as if every driver is actively trying to kill you. Car drivers are stupid and are ignorant of the presence of motorcycles. It also goes to show you how important your safety gear is. This was a low speed accident, but I was banged up bad enough and the bike well messed up.
I was, as always, wearing my helmet, riding jacket, leather gloves, jeans, and hiking shoes and came out okay. Injuries included a scrape on my wrist, a bruised hip and shoulder, and not much else to speak of. It wasn't until later that night and over the next couple of days that the pain really hit me. My arm and shoulder hurt and it was kind of hard to walk for a couple of days. After a visit to the college campus medical office, I was deemed complete and not broken, only bruised.
So after a few days of recovering both in mental and physical health, I once again began to prepare the bike for the trip. Juli and I were determined not to let a little incident like this halt the trip we'd been planning and looking forward to for so long, even if we weren't able to leave on time. So I started ordering parts online and got working. I must admit it was a little emotionally taxing to start fixing, replacing, and repairing things again. Much of this I'd already done earlier in the season, and the bike was 98% ready before the accident.

One morning, during my daily coffee and craigslist ritual, I stumbled upon this little darling: a 1972 CB500/4 complete and original but sitting for 25 years and with a stuck engine. I called right away and left a message, then called my older brother to borrow a truck. We came home with the bike the next evening and I had a pile of good parts. The tank and side covers were immaculate, and I also got the stator and cover, handlebars and controls, and some other various bits. The poor bike had been sitting so long that none of the chrome was still chrome and the engine really was well stuck. I felt bad tearing this bike apart because it was so original. Everything was as Honda had originally made it. This was a great educational experience, though, as I got to see how cables and wires were intended to be routed, among other things.
So the green CB500 became brown and was put back into service in a matter of weeks.
During all of this, we had been planning to attend the Rhinebeck Grand National Supermeet in Rhinebeck, New York. This was a large vintage motorcycle fair, which we had attended last year. Julianne sold woodblock prints of old bikes there, and for this year we were to have prints and t-shirts (You can see her work on etsy). The plan was for our family to come with us, so they could haul all of our vending stuff and spend the weekend together at the show as my brothers and father are gearheads as well. Juli and I wanted to use the Rhinebeck show as a springboard for the trip, meaning the bike and luggage had to be ready by June 10.
So the race was on and we had very little time to get everything ready. Thankfully my older brother agreed to help me fabricate the luggage mounting system. I don't have a welder or know how to use one. So I dreamed up a system of square tubing and brackets and he welded them up for me. By the morning we were supposed to leave, we still had work to do and my father and I literally finished making the attachments for the cases that morning. Julianne was loading camping gear into the boxes as we were attaching them to the bike!

Leaving our yard

Finally, by the late afternoon on the Thursday before the Rhinebeck show, we'd finished figuring out the luggage and suited up for the trip. Rhinebeck is in the Hudson valley about halfway between New York and Albany, and is a 250 mile drive from our home. We'd planned on taking the day to make the trip on back roads, but time did not allow for this now so we took the highway the whole way down. The first 3 hours of the 4.5 hour trip were done in heavy rain, limiting our visibility and comfort. Yes, the gods were really testing our conviction to do this trip! But we soldiered on and arrived in Rhinebeck just after 10PM. We were too late to get into the fairgrounds and had to sleep in the field outside the gate. Pitching a tent somewhere and calling it a night would be a common theme throughout the trip. Between the heavy rain and having taken the highway the entire way, this first leg of the trip really was a good test run or shakedown of the bike. It ran great and all of our luggage stayed attached and dry.

Our table at Rhinebeck, with the Honda
on display and a map of our route

The weekend at Rhinebeck was fantastic! We had a great time looking at old motorcycles and Juli sold a fair amount of t-shirts and prints. I enjoyed seeing the vendors' tables, looking over old parts from all types of bikes. I even picked up a couple of items for my future scrambler project. At Rhinebeck we also met Andy from Boston, a forum member at the Honda SOHC4 forums. These are the forums I referred to countless times when rebuilding and repairing the Honda before the trip. Andy has traveled extensively on his Honda CB750, the big brother to our CB500, so it was especially great to meet him as he had lots of technical and route advice for us.

Putting on our rain suites before departure

Our vending spot was right next to Tim Baer's, which worked out well because he was selling Indian motorcycle prints and we had prints too. He turned out to be a great guy and had also traveled on his motorcycle many times, so he had lots of great advice as well. Tim's dad Butch was there and asked us, as many people did, if we really thought that our old Honda would make it across the country and back. He then proceeded to tell us about a cross country trip he and two friends did on 1920s Indians a few years back!

So on Sunday afternoon, we suited up and got ready to begin the trip. Crossing the Hudson River would be a milestone to me. Indeed any time we were to cross a major river I made sure we got a picture or took note of it. So now, after a tumultuous running-up, the trip really was ready to take off, and on time at that! We were packed, suited, and filled with plenty of advice and knowledge from people we'd met at Rhinebeck. We took a couple of family pictures before leaving (see top of page) and boarded the Honda.
Our plan was to ride as far as the Delaware Water Gap and find a campsite there for the night. This would be a reasonable distance to complete in the late afternoon and we wanted to see a bit of that area as well. So off we went to our first wild campsite!

That's how the trip began. It was exciting, scary, and hectic, but we were able to leave on time and are glad we did. Next I'll probably describe the luggage for the bike and some of our routines that developed throughout the trip. Then I'll move on to describe what we saw and did in Pennsylvania over the first couple of days.
So that's it for now.
Good night!
Jeremy B

.....And we're back!

2010-08-02T21:52:00.002-04:00

On Friday, July 30, 2010, at 10:30 PM EST, the sleepy streets of Pittsfield were disturbed by the sound of a certain 40 year old, air-cooled, inline 4 motorcycle that had just carried its two weary passengers and all their camping gear on a 10,000 mile exploration of America. After a 350+ mile day, the Honda was driven into its garage for the first time in 7 weeks, where it was finally able to rest happily indoors for the night.

Its riders, having become accustomed to sleeping in the open air for all but five nights since leaving home, were reluctant to forgo setting up the tent, and to instead sleep indoors. We've found that to sleep in a bed in a bedroom, where things like wallboard, curtains, and glass insulate the sleeper from the sounds of insects and birds, the subtle changes in light that occur as the planet rotates, and, perhaps most importantly, the fresh air, is less to our liking. Despite this drastic and change of lifestyle, we slept well and woke up happy to be home.

The trip is over, complete, and we are settling in to a normal, planted lifestyle. We survived without any major breakdowns, crashes, dangerous encounters with wildlife or humans, or any other incident we were warned about before leaving. The bike suffered a few mechanical ailments, most notably the total loss of the use of first gear, but was nevertheless able to complete the trip in one piece and with little trouble.

For two days in Memphis, I was down with food poisoning the worst case of which I had ever had myself or heard of any person having. Juli nearly came down with heat exhaustion on an eight-mile hike through a canyon in Utah. But we came through unscathed and excited to do more traveling in the future.

Our route was shortened by a few thousand miles about halfway through. By the time we arrived in southern Colorado, we realized that, at the pace we were going, we would not have enough time to get out to California and the Pacific Northwest. But we were having so much fun taking in the sights and not worrying so much about how far we'd have to go that day, that we did not want to speed up our pace. So instead of continuing west from Utah to California and up, we simply went north to Yellowstone to shorten our loop. Hopefully we'll make it to the west coast on another trip, maybe even on a motorcycle!

It wasn't until yesterday that we managed to get all 16GBs of pictures from the camera onto my computer, and I have yet to view and remember each picture. But anyway, we're here, and plan to fulfill our duty to write a thorough and interesting account of it.

Right now, my plan is to write an entry for every two to three days, complete with images and an occasional video. I'll also give explanations about our camping gear, how we packed it, our methods and the route we took. I feel I must apologize to all those prospective readers who were told they could follow along by reading our updates from the road. Over the course of the trip we found ourselves stopping to use a real computer only occasionally. For some reason, there simply was not time for writing. I now wonder how those motorcycle journalists who write those wonderful articles that inspired this trip actually find the time to write enough while on the road to compose the great articles they do.

So while Juli and I get organized and I think about how best to describe to you all the great things we saw, here is a collection of photos from the trip. These range from the first few days in Appalachia to the southwest, to the Rockies and the East. Enjoy them, and please come back to see the rest over the next few weeks!

Our first weekend out was spent at Rhinebeck, NY, where Juli sold prints at a vintage motorcycle meet

Our bike along the Blue Ridge Parkway, America's gift to motorcyclists

Writing postcards from a laundromat in Floyd, Virginia

Julianne learning the Appalachian way of life

The Blue Ridge Again:

The Blue Ridge again. Imagine over 450 miles of this.

Beware of the bad sound on this video. Our little camera does not respond well to air pressure. This is Parson's Bridge Road in Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Mississippi delta farm country. The blues was born here.

Memphis was hot, I was sick, and the bike suffered a shifting failure, but it's still a neat place!

Oklahoma was flat but beautiful

Western Oklahoma going into New Mexico was awesome

The bike really struggle to get up here!

A grand canyon indeed!

Arches National Park

Our campsite outside of Moab, Utah, along the Colorado River

Grand Teton was just amazing

Buffalo in Yellowstone. Kind of frightening really

Our campsite in the Badlands of South Dakota

Bighorn Sheep in the Badlands

After a flood in Iowa

Buffalo, NY. Man I liked the West.

Me fitting a new chain in a parking lot outside Rochester, NY

Bennington, VT. Juli was happy to be back in Moose country after booking it across from Chicago

And the morning after. The bike is dirty now.

I hope this is a good introduction and encourages you all to come back and see more.

Good night,

Jeremy B

Quick Update: It's 90 in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee and getting hotter

2010-06-22T13:02:00.000-04:00

Luckily we're indoors. The little town of Lawrenceburg has a lovely library with air conditioning and computers. Today we got up around 7:00 eastern standard time and left around 8:00 from Chattanooga. We stopped for coffee and scones at a great coffee shop in Winchester, a nice town with a picturesque town square made up of old buildings. We hope to make it to Tupelo, Mississippi today, but the hot weather makes for slow progress. Leaving early was a must, as the temperature was nice and cool, almost bearable until around 11:00 Central Time.
That's right, somewhere along here we crossed time zones!

There's a little byte of an update for y'all, as they'd say down here. Here's the jist of what's happened over the past month or so since my last posting:
-I crashed
-I finished my school semester
-Juli got her master's in art
-I changed the color of the bike
-We prepared for the trip
-We all went to the Rhinebeck Grand National Supermeet in the Hudson Valley
-We left from Rhinebeck on Sunday June 13.
-Rode through the Delaware Water Gap, saw the Martin Guitar factory, Gettysburg, Maryland, Harper's Ferry, Shenandoah National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, Charlottesville Virginia, Smokey Mountains, Chattanooga, and we're on our way to Memphis via the Delta.

So I'd like to post tons of info on the last week or so, but won't be able to share much yet as we're not near computers often. Don't worry, there are tons of great pictures and videos to share already!

We'll check back in with where we are and what we're doing soon.

Jeremy B

PS: A friend asked a very good question about what to do when we get very bad downpours. Well the cute answer is that we get wet, but we really are prepared. We each bought a two-piece rain suite that's designed to be worn over your protective gear. It consists of a jacket and pants, so our feet are still exposed, and we're working on a solution to that. The bike is fine in the rain. Anything moisture-sensitive is sealed off.
Now, in a really bad downpour, we will mostly not ride and wait it out. We've already had some of those on the trip, and they are no fun and dangerous. A light to moderate rain, though, is fine.
Cheers

Shakedown Street

2010-04-12T12:30:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, April 11, I finally finished getting the bike back together! It had gone through a lot of repairs the last few weeks, and a lot of Grateful Dead music, jazz and blues as well. I took a short shakedown ride yesterday afternoon, and it didn't seem like too much has shaking on Shakedown Street! I wanted to check the handling and the alignment of the forks and wheels after making all of my repairs, and while our road was rather bumpy, the bike seemed to handle just fine. I'll know more when I open her up a little and ride at 60mph. That, by the way, is probably going to be a common cruising speed on the trip.
So because of all this mechanical work, I haven't done much mapping recently. For those of you who weren't tuned in, we have a route planned from here to the western end of Oklahoma. From there on I have no maps made up, but I do have lots of ideas and suggestions to look at. I don't want to overdo it, though, so I am trying to leave plenty of room for interpretation.

Anyway, here's a list of what I got done on the bike over the last few weeks:
-Cleaned and re-adjusted carburetors
-repainted exhaust headers
-New Chain and Sprockets
-New rear wheel bearings
-New rear tire and tube
-New steering head bearings
-New fork seals and oil
-New front wheel bearings
-New front tire and tube
-New front brake pads
-New front brake lines (braided stainless steel)
-Speedbleeder installed on caliper
-New coils, plug wire and caps
-New points plate assembly (although I re-used my old points)
-New Horn
-Cleaned and repainted speedometer, tachometer, indicator panel, triple tree, and caliper

I think that's everything. I also did a 3,000 mile tune-up as per the Honda manual. The stuff on the rear of the bike wasn't too bad, but the front bearings, fork seals and other parts required pretty serious disassembling the of the bike. It got the the point where I looked down at a garage floor littered with countless fasteners and major pieces of the bike, and questioned my faith in myself as a mechanic! It's pretty unsettling to see your bike in that condition. Remember that part of Star Wars where C3PO got taken apart in the cloud city? You see him on a conveyor belt with all his parts strewn about and he looks down and says "oh my!" It was a bit like that. See the picture.

Well thankfully I employed good workshop skills, carefully separating and labeling parts and taking plenty of pictures. The old Honda is back together now and running better than ever!

Setbacks: I went through two rear tire tubes before finally getting the third one in without puncturing it. I ruined one of the rear wheel bearings during that process. Thankfully our local Honda dealer had keeps this stuff on hand. They were sympathetic to my tube-ruining problem and gave me a slightly larger size that wouldn't need to stretch over the rim as much
Also, the upper triple tree broke on me. I think it was missing a spacer and was already cracked, so that when I took it off it fell apart. Ebay came to the rescue and I got another one from some salvage yard in Maine.

The gauges look nice with their new paint. It is truly surprising how good those green gauge faces look. Every 70s Honda had them, and they all fade and peel to the point of looking ridiculous. For some reason, mine are immaculate. The tachometer had to come apart to replace a screw, and I still need to redo the rubber cushioning around it and the speedometer. I had made some cushioning material out of one of my many scrap tire tubes, which worked fine. I just need more of it.

So the bike (mostly) ready to go in terms of mechanical condition, but there are a couple of things to button up. I will register it this week hopefully ride it often for the next two months. I want to dial it back in before the trip.

In an effort to not turn this into a technical blog, the next posting will be on route ideas for the West! We need to figure out a good way to see everything in the Southern Rockies, which is kind of a huge task. But I'll tackle it again this week.

In addition to school, gigs, work, and all the mechanical work on the CB500, I've had another distraction to contend with: my birthday present to myself. It's a 1970 something Honda CB350. Actually it's a CB350 frame with a CL350 engine. And a wheel and some forks. So it's a frame, engine, wheel, and forks. It's kind of like a fetus of a motorcycle, which will grow and develop the rest of its body next year when we get back from the trip. I already have lots of dreams for this "bike" and am very excited for a project that I can do from the ground up! But until we get back from the trip, maybe even longer, it will reside in my incubator, the black van.

I found a website called "Youtube" recently and uploaded a short snippet of a video of a 1971 Honda CB500 idling happily in the driveway. See it here:

So long 'til next time!

Good Old Days of Motorcycling

2010-03-15T14:59:00.003-04:00

Readers be forewarned: This posting will consist of me rambling on about motorcycles. This morning I was reading a thread on a motorcycle forum about whether you should believe in the "good old days" of motorcycling. The premise was that when an old timer tells you stories about their early days of motorcycling, you shouldn't believe a word they say. You know the type of story I mean. Fishing tales. "When I was 18 I had a (insert bike model) and did 108mph up the driveway with my girlfriend on the back...." But, said the forum members, old bikes were slow, had bad handling, terrible brakes, and broke down frequently. Today's most basic, affordable motorcycles would run circles around the average 1970 BSA, Honda, or Harley anything.

And I believe it. Today's average 4-cylinder, 600cc street bike, the successor to bikes like mine, are lighter, twice as powerful, and have fancy triple-disc brakes and sophisticated suspension. One of these bikes would leave my old Honda so far behind in any kind of race that its rider would have time to completely master the ukulele while waiting for me to catch up.

Well, I don't disagree that motorcycles have come a long way since the 70s, but do today's digitized, computerized motorcycles really offer that much improvement over the old bikes like mine in terms of real world usability? To me, not really.

Reason numero uno, maintainability. I can run through the entire Periodic Maintenance chapter of my official Honda CB500/550 shop manual in a half hour. Timing, cam chain, valve adjustment, chain adjustment, all of it. On some modern bikes, it can take a half hour to remove all of the body work necessary to begin the maintenance cycle. Its simplicity is the source of its reliability. Allow me to elaborate (cue collect sigh and eye roll).

The CB500, though released in 1971, is firmly planted in 1960s technology, mostly technology developed by Honda. Overhead camshafts, for example, were common in racing during the 1960s (see pic of a 60s Honda RC166 DOHC 6-cylinder racer), but rarely found on production road bikes, Honda being the exception. Their glorious little twins, the Dream, Superhawk, and the Black Bomber all employed overhead camshafts. These bikes were screamers. The CB450 Black Bomber gave a serious challenge to the British 650 twins, then the kings of the road. The 305 Superhawk was capable of 105 mph and 9,000 rpms!

Working turn signals, electric start, and disc brakes were all major innovations for Honda, but were really 1960s innovations. This, for me, is why the CB500 is the perfect blend of old time mechanical simplicity and modern reliability and convenience.

The handlebar controls, for example, were relatively amazing in 1971. The electrics on Hondas worked every time because the name "Lucas" was nowhere to be found. But the controls were made of cast aluminum, not plastic like today's bikes. These metal controls have already survived one or two tippings of the bike while under my ownership. Likewise, the hydraulic disk brake, another innovation, is operated by a cast aluminum master cylinder with an aluminum reservoir, not a plastic urine container you will find on today's bikes.

The Honda also has carburetors, four of them. Old technology, yes, but the linkage connecting them is a minor engineering marvel. Precise ball and socket joints with springs and rubber parts for insulation ensure smooth, even movement of all four slides. Today's bikes (mostly) have fuel injection, which is honestly superior to carbs in every single way except simplicity. But carbs can be tinkered with, and don't require the extra sensors and wiring necessary for fuel injection. These carbs are slide-operated, meaning there is no need for vacuum diaphragms, meaning less hoses and simpler carb maintenance.

The Honda has a single overhead camshaft with rocker-operated valves, not a shim and bucket setup. I can adjust valves with a feeler gauge, 10mm wrench, and a screw driver. No need to carry an array of shims. Also, I can get to the valve rockers by simply removing screw in caps, and there are only 8 of them! This is a very easy job that can be done on the roadside. You don't need an enclosed lab environment with special tools for this. Just look at this picture. Have you ever seen such a symmetrical, simple, elegant engine design?

The Honda has an electric start, which is flakey on our bike, but it also has a kick start! And, as you can see, it's right on top of the engine, easy to remove. The 83 Yamaha Virago Juli and I rode for a whole summer had an electric starter, but no kick start! One day we took it to the Sandwich Notch and went for a hike. When we came back the battery was dead ( I think some kids had done a little meddling). How the hell do you start a bike with no kick starter if the battery dies? Well, you bump start it, which took several tries resulting in repeatedly pushing that stupid bike up a steep hill. No such need on the Honda.

The Honda has a cable operated clutch, throttle, speedometer and tachometer. I'll never understand why some motorcycles now have hydraulic clutches. With a cable, there is no master cylinder, no fluid, no hydraulic lines, and no slave cylinder to worry about. These would all require maintenance and eventually rebuilding. With a cable there is a cable! You adjust the tension once in a while and lubricate it. Thats it. As for the other cables, most bikes still have cable throttles, but many bikes now have electronic speedometers and tachometers, meaning more wiring and sensors to worry about. Not to mention the electronic devices themselves, which must have a shelf life.

The fuel supply to the carburetors is gravity fed. No fuel pump or vacuum petcock. Just two hoses running from the bottom of the tank to the carbs.

The Honda has a battery and coil ignition fired by points. Now the decision to keep the stock points system was not taken lightly. I was considering a Dyna S electronic ignition, but in the end decided to save some money and deal with points, which means periodically setting the gap and timing. I don't mind this maintenance, and if Robert Pirsig is to be believed, the task will actually enhance my life and the trip.
Now, points are a dated and obsolete technology, but they're another one of those things that can be fixed easily on the side of the road. There is currently a 2005 Triumph at our house with a burned out ignition control module, rendering it immobile. That could not happen on the Honda.
Also, that poor Triumph, after 18,000 miles, has a warped front brake disc. The front brake disc on the Honda, operated by a single-piston caliper, is nearly 1/4" thick and made of stainless steel. These are not particularly desirable features, but my Honda also has around 18,000 miles and is 34 years older, and that thick disc is still fine. It will, however, be getting new pads.

And, by the way, the battery, all of the electrical components like starter relay, fuse, voltage regulator, etc, are easily accessible. If there is a problem, it can be found in minutes. The air filter, as well, is right beneath the flip-up seat. Nothing is hidden on the Honda, and this is not by mistake. Soichiro Honda was a genius, and he wanted his products to be reliable and simple to work on. The SOHC Hondas are certainly designed with ease of maintenance in mind. Honda also made sure that a solid parts supply was available to owners, which partially exists today. I can go to the Honda dealer and order most parts. Only big items like seats, gas tanks, side covers, etc, are no longer available.

So besides those details, there's the obvious stuff like air-cooling as opposed to water-cooling. Water-cooling was found on the big Suzuki triples of the early 70s, and later on Honda Goldwings, but really was not commonplace on motorcycles until the 80s. Air-cooling has its advantages, the obvious being the lack of a bulky radiator, extra hoses, a water pump, and rubber parts, all of which would be questionable after 40 years.

One time on Top Gear, the lads took a trip through Botswana in three separate, self-chosen cars. If one's car was to break down, they would be forced to drive an air-cooled VW Beetle for the remainder of the trip. Hmm, old school, air-cooled, dead simple car, as a backup to more modern cars.

All of these simplistic features add up to a reliable machine. There is simply less stuff that can break on a 1971 Honda. Yet, the bike is equipped with modern enough features to make it fast enough and reliable enough for practical use today. The perfect blend of modern features and old school simplicity, making the Honda easy to keep running.

Of course, the valid counter-argument is that a new bike, while more complicated and expensive to maintain, doesn't need to be maintained as much. While that is true, I am interested in long-term longevity as well as ease of maintenance. I often wonder what the "vintage" bike market will be like in 40 years. Will people be riding and enjoying their 2010 bikes? With the number of computers, wires, hoses, hydraulics, etc, I really don't think so. I think we will deem bikes like that as not worth fixing and maintaining. More trouble than they're worth. But maybe people were saying that about my Honda in the 70s. "Who's gonna deal with four carburetors and electric start?" Well, it turns out they have held up just fine. Regardless, I am fairly certain that nobody will uncover a 2010 Honda CBR600 that's been sitting for years and be able to revive it the way we can these old bikes. And I'm pretty sure nobody will revive one in hopes of touring on it, or using it daily.

I am reminded of a short ride I took last summer with my dad and his girlfriend. We were on a country road somewhere near home, dad was in the lead on his 2004 Royal Enfield Bullet. Trish was behind him on her 90s Harley Sportster, and I was in the rear on the Honda. It dawned on me that the order of new bike to old bike was exactly reversed. The Enfield, though made in 2004, was nothing but a continuation of a 1950s motorcycle with modern controls and lights. The Sportster, well, those were designed in the late 50s and despite having disc brakes and electric start, have used the same engine design since. The Honda, made in 1971, with it's inline, SOHC engine, was the most technologically advanced bike of the bunch! That's not to say that the Honda is more reliable than these other two, but I'd say it's as reliable, and even more fixable.

So, while you may not believe the wild stories about how fast and amazing old motorcycles are, you should at least consider how usable and enjoyable some of them still are. We're enjoying ours, and wouldn't trade it for anything!

Here's to Spring!
Jeremy B

Southern Hospitality-Not Just a Catch Phrase!

2010-03-08T15:40:00.003-05:00

The past couple of weeks have been pretty map-intense. I have a few more days planned, but am a little stuck when looking further West than Oklahoma.

In the last posting, I described our route down through Appalachia on the Blue Ride Parkway, into the Smokey Mountains. Recently I've found some possible routes from there to Birmingham, Alabama, through Mississippi and up to Memphis, where we'll cross that big river.

Here's what a route from the Smokies to Birmingham may look like:

View Blue Ridge to Birmingham in a larger map
View Larger Map

In Birmingham, I plan to visit the Barber Motorsports Museum, which has a huge collection of vintage motorcycles. This stop seems appropriate since I am a vintage motorcycle lover and will be on a vintage motorcycle while in the neighborhood. We'll then visit the town of Birmingham, rich in history.

From there, we'll cross West across Mississippi, through the delta, home of the blues. This is another sort of mecca for me, as I am a blues loving guitar player. Most of the great blues men from the 1920s to the 1960s hailed from this relatively small region. We'll be passing through BB King's hometown of Itta Bena, for example.

We may even stay in this eccentric inn, which is no more than a collection of delta-style shacks, like the ones our blues heroes might have lived in before they gained hero status.

Many of the towns in the delta claim have a blues history museum of some sort. Many claim to be the birthplace or home of some great blues man. Consequently, we'll have to limit our sight seeing in the delta, since I could accidently spend the whole trip here, seeking out these places.

Here is what a route across Mississippi to Memphis may look like:

View Birmingham through the Blues Country to Memphis in a larger map

Once again, I got many of these ideas from asking around on the adventure rider forums. I simply put up a rough idea of where I want to go, and people responded with great first-hand knowledge of scenic routes and places to catch. I want to emphasize how friendly and hospitable the people from the south have been in helping with my trip planning. I had nearly twenty replies to my last inquiry, asking about getting from Birmingham to Memphis. Nearly all of these replies included an invitation to stay over for dinner or crash at their house, or to use their garage for maintenance/repairs, or to assist with mechanical troubles! And all replies included great tips on good roads and interesting sites. These people seemed genuinely friendly and eager to help us along. Don't believe me? Read my thread yourself!

Now, getting across Arkansas is going to be tricky. No, not because there are "dry" counties, but rather because the state contains the Ozarks, and judging by maps and pictures, it looks impossible to pick a route and stick to it. Here is a route that was suggested to me.

Part 1:

View Arkansas Day 1 in a larger map

Part 2

View Arkansas Day 2 in a larger map

As you can see, there are many great looking roads going through the Ozark Mountains. We will most likely make a route through here as we go, using the above maps as a guide only. I know it will be too tempting to take scenic bypasses when coming through here, so I'm going to leave room for options.

After Arkansas, it's West through Oklahoma. At the west-most point of Oklahoma is where I run into a brain cramp. I just haven't figured out how to navigate New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. I do know that our next stop after these states will be the Sierra Nevada region. Julianne and I also have a long list of towns and national parks we want to see here. We may cross into the Rockies around Pueblo, CO, and make sort of a circle down into Arizona and back up through Utah, and west from there. It's too soon to say. I think we'll definitely try to pick a general direction through these areas, since it's such a big chunk of the country. More on this later as I figure it out.

In other news, I got lots of parts recently for the bike and have been plugging away at it, replacing old crusty stuff that I don't trust. Last weekend I put in brand new ignition coils, a points plate, spark plug wire and caps, and a new horn and fuse holder. I also replaced various rubber seals and o-rings on the bike that were old and cracked.

This past weekend I began installing new bearings on the rear wheel, new chain and sprockets, and a new tire. Of course, I screwed up one of the bearings, and put a puncture in the tube while installing the new tire. So now I need another new tube and one wheel bearing for the rear wheel. I'll also get a new front tire, as the one we currently have won't last another 1,000 miles.

And, a reminder to other motorcyclists, check the condition of your rear tire frequently, especially if you frequently ride double. This thing was just plain dangerous:

Hopefully by the next posting I'll have these repairs completed so I can tackle the front of the bike, which is getting new brake lines, pads, fork seals, and a tire. I also have to make the rack to hold our side cases. I hope to get this stuff out of the way as soon as possible. The weather in New Hampshire this weekend was amazing, and the roads were clear. Having the Honda in so many pieces, un-ridable, on such a nice day, felt like getting caught with my pants down!

So long 'til next time. And remember, the weather's warming, so watch out for motorcycles!

Jeremy B

Easing Through the East-the first few days

2010-02-15T17:24:00.008-05:00

It's been a lot of work planning this trip! The past few weeks I've been spending my idle hours at my school library, where I can take advantage of US road atlases and an internet speed that can handle google maps (my apartment internet is a little flakey). I bring along our National Geographic Guide to National Parks and a notebook. I edit Word files listing campsites, route ideas, and other growing bodies of information. I email park rangers about camping permits. I also save PDF maps and state and national park brochures. Our United States make up a very large and overwhelming landscape, and it takes a lot of information sorting and decision making to plan a route that will be enjoyable and possible.

And now, after all of this hard work, of which there will be much much more to come, I have the first.........four or five days planned!!! Yes it's going to be a long winter yet. All of this planning makes me both anxious and tired. Sometimes the route planning gets overwhelming, and I feel like grabbing a big road atlas, packing the bike and leaving tomorrow. At the same time, I want to plan carefully enough so that we don't find ourselves in Strip Mall Land every 30 miles, sitting in traffic behind a filthy minivan full of suburban rats drinking plastic milk-shakes out of styrofoam cups. So I think all this map-looking, finding the roads with green dots next to them, will pay off.
So here is the first leg of our trip, which will take four or five days depending on how much sight-seeing we do. The first portion of our trip will bring us to Rhinebeck, NY. The plan so far is to attend the Rhinebeck Grand National Supermeet the weekend of June 11-13. Last year this was lots of fun, and we thought it would be a good jumping off point/event.

Here is my idea for the leisurely route to Rhinebeck, which is in the Hudson Valley:

View NH to Rhinbeck in a larger map

We'll probably leave the Meet late Sunday afternoon. From Rhinebeck, we'll take NY209 to the Delaware Water Gap, spending our first night in the Delaware State Forest. The next day will be a busy one. We're going to stop in Nazareth, PA, to see the Martin Guitar Factory. They have free guided tours, which sounds very fun! From Nazareth we'll make our way down to Micheax State Forest for our second night of camping. This is near Gettysburg, which we'll visit either that evening or the next morning.
View Pa Nazareth to Gettysburg in a larger map

Our next night will be somewhere along the Blue Ridge Parkway, depending on how many stops we make in the Appalachian mountains. We're going to take the Skyline Drive, then the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to the end, in North Carolina.
View Gettysburg to the Blue Ridge Mountains in a larger map
Somewhere near the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we'll spend another night camping. I have a list of possible campgrounds, but I don't want to choose one now. Again, this will depend on how many stops we make, or if we do any of the short hikes along the parkway.

So far I am looking at 250-300 mile days. This figure will change as we enter different parts of the country. Oklahoma may be a 500 mile per day state, while the Sierra Nevada in California may
be a 100 mile per day region. A quick, superficial google maps search indicates that from NH to
California to Portland and back, avoiding highways, would be a 7,300 mile trip. So perhaps we should throw on a couple thousand miles worth of scenic byways and excursions. If we traveled 10,000 miles, averaging 250 miles per day, we would need 40 days to complete the whole trip. I think we're in good shape considering our eight available weeks!

A tool I didn't mention here but have in the past is the adventure rider's forum. I put up a few posts
asking for route suggestions, particularly in Eastern PA. The route in the google map above, going from Nazareth to Gettysburg, is one that was suggested to me by some folks on the forum. Some of the roads in that map were ones I had already considered, but it's great to get first-hand advice from motorcyclists
who are always seeking out good roads. And, one part of the route that I hadn't discovered is the
ferry crossing at Millersburg, PA. You cross the Sesquahana River on an old ferry boat. Looks like fun!It's stuff like this that will make this a great trip.

Watch for more posts about route ideas, and if you have any, feel free to comment!

Out of Hibernation

2010-01-17T21:56:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

Our last post was on the heels of a chilly but wonderful motorcycle ride in late November. Oddly, despite tonight’s snowstorm, this post is on the heels of another chilly but wonderful ride!

Yesterday that nasty old man winter, who usually occupies this corner of the world sometime between September and June, took a much needed holiday, leaving us with a bright, sunny, 45° Saturday. Naturally I got antsy and took the Honda out of hibernation. After a quick wipe down the bike was ready, and I was off for a twenty-mile back road ride. It was beautiful and rekindled my sense of adventure, making me itch for the real spring, when our trip will only be weeks away.

This Christmas our family was rather generous, giving us lots of stuff that we can use for our trip. Also, we bought those green dry boxes mentioned in the previous posting. For a mere $24.99 each, we got two reasonably rugged and large cases that can hold lots of our gear. Here it is held up to to the bike:

It will be mounted a couple inches further back, to give more leg room to the passenger (this will be Julianne and me alternately. I am not too proud to ride pillion!)

Here's a shot of our new gear:

The two square things are towels of the microfiber variety. These are quick-drying, light weight, and compact. The lantern is the Apollo mentioned in a previous post. It's folded up in this picture. The big spoon folds up like the spatula next to it, and the utensils still in the packaging are of a similar material. These things are cool. They weigh nothing and are very compact. There's also a headlamp, which will be handy if we have to setup camp at night.

Not pictured are our cookset, which we bought earlier this fall, our sleeping pads (we bought the Thermarest Prolite pads), GSI JavaPress, and the sleeping bags and tent.

We still require a stove, and after speaking to a guy at EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports for you non-yanks), we're convinced we need an MSR Whisperlite International. This stove runs on white gas, or gasoline or kerosene if you're in a pinch. Originally we thought we'd want a canister stove, like the Coleman F1 we mentioned before. They're extremely lightweight and small, but we were worried about the cost and availability of the isobutane/propane canisters they require. The EMS guy said he liked his Whisperlite and had just used it on a hike of the Appalachian Trail. He gave us the impression that the Whisperlite is efficient, as a 20 ounce bottle lasted him around five days using the stove for two meals a day.

Also, I like this stove for its durability. A quick online search will show that these stoves have been around a while, and are regularly used in the roughest, coldest, hottest, and highest conditions. I like that it comes apart easily for cleaning and that you can buy all the parts and tools you need for it. That is a mark of quality. While it's slightly bigger and heavier (it weighs about 1 pound) than the canister-type stoves, the Whisperlite seems like a good choice for us. Our Christmas gift certificates to EMS will likely go towards this stove. We still have a few things to get, including a water carrier, one of those foldable buckets, a couple more stuff-sacks for clothes, and some other things, but we've got a great start.

A Route to the Pacific

Trying to find a good route across the whole country and back using only the scenic roads is kind of a daunting task. We've done a lot of reading and research on the great roads and regions across the country. The Adventure Rider forums are a great source for stuff like this. One major component of the trip will be the National Parks and National Forests. These will be like dots that we need to connect.

So the big picture looks like this: From New Hampshire we're going southwest toward the Hudson Valley, down through Pennsylvania (Delaware Water Gap), and into northern Virginia, where we'll get on the Blue Ridge Parkway. That will take us all the way down to the Chattanooga region. From there it's going to be west toward Memphis. For this leg of the trip, we have a detailed route figured out. From this point west, it's less specific until we figure out more details about roads and routes.

We'll go west across Arkansas or southern Missouri, eventually crossing into Colorado. We want to see lots of parks in the four-corners region, and we haven't figured out an exact route through this region that allows us to see everything there. So there will probably be a lot of hop-scotching around that area.

After this it's west toward the Sierra Nevada in California. We'll see the Yosemite region before going further west until we finally reach the Pacific Coast highway. North from there to the Cascades region and the Portland area. We'll explore that region for a while, hopefully.

Then it's back East toward Yellowstone. After Yellowstone it's further East to the Black Hills of South Dakota, across to Chicago, and pretty much straight home from there, as there isn't much between Chicago and New Hampshire that we especially want to see.

So, the major focus areas where we'll spend the most time will be the Appalachian region, the four corners (Utah/Colorado/New Mexico/Arizona), the Sierra Nevada, coastal California and the Redwoods, the Cascades and Columbia River regions of the Northwest, Yellowstone, and the Black Hills of South Dakota. The places between these places will certainly be fun to see, but these are the areas where we're hoping to spend some time doing day hikes and sight-seeing.

And, of course, we're open to suggestions for more places to see along the way! We would love to hear about interesting places and routes, so feel free!

We'll definitely keep posting about new developments on the routes. So stay tuned!

Jeremy B

Let Us Give Thanks for Vintage Hondas

2009-11-29T21:09:00.001-05:00

What a great Thanksgiving weekend! Today Juli and I decided to go on a short hike up Blue Job Mountain, not far from us in NH. It's a little mountain, and the trail isn't long, but its unique position means great views in all directions. You can see into the White Mountains, East to Maine, bits of the seacoast, and West toward Vermont.
Anyway, despite today's late November date, the weather was nice, mid 40s and sunny. So we took the Honda! The picture above is Juli and the Honda at the trail head. We wore many layers! On the way there, a couple of the roads we wanted to take turned out to be dead-ends. The Honda has seen some mild off road duty, and handles it well, but I didn't think we'd make these ones, especially with two on the bike.
What a great ride, though! We found some great roads we've never been on. It's interesting to ride when all the leaves are gone because you see things you wouldn't notice in the summer. For example, the view of Bow Lake from Province Road was beautiful! Somewhere in Strafford we were behind an old, gray Jeep CJ7. The sounds and smells from that jeep filled me with great memories. We always had cj's growing up, and sound of the 258ci straight six engine of the AMC era jeeps is one of the more enduring memories I have kept from childhood.
It was a great day, and probably our last ride of the season. When we got home I added Stabil to the gas tank and parked the bike in the tent behind the garage. Sad, but the reality is that we may not see many more days above 40 degrees, and that's cold enough for me. From now until Spring the focus will be the repairs and maintenance items listed in the older post.

On another note, we made some great discoveries in the luggage realm. First off, on our way back from Thanksgiving dinner Juli and I stopped at a bike dealer in Maine. I have been wanting to see the new Moto Guzzi V7 in person since it came out, so we made a special stop. That bike, by the way, is absolutely beautiful. The perfect size, stance, style. I was thoroughly impressed! Anyway, at the dealer we saw a nice little top trunk from EMGO that looks to be the perfect size for our rear rack.

Best of all it's relatively cheap! I looked at some nice cases from name brands and they're great, but many of them cost over $200! It was great to see this trunk in person and witness just how sturdy it was.

Speaking of cheap, we had a new idea for side cases as well, and it came from the redneck world of Cabelas! Don't get me wrong, I like Cabelas; in fact our tent came from them and it is excellent!

There is lots of talk on the adventure rider's forum about using ammo cans for side cases. It's cheap and easy, but those things are very heavy, and our little bike can't carry a ton of extra weight. And as much as I like the Pelican style boxes I mentioned before, they are pretty heavy too. That's why I like these plastic boxes from Cabela's:

They're called Magnum Field Boxes, made by a company called Plano. They appear to be rather tough, light, and are bigger than the Pelican's I was looking at. They're also top-loading, which could be handy. These are also cheap, around $25!! Next time we're in Maine, we'll stop at the Cabela's store and see them in person. That way we can judge whether they'd be tough enough for what we want to do.

Also, this weekend we looked at some travel books and I found one that I really like from National Geographic. It's their guide to scenic highways and biways. As a gauge for the quality of routes described, I looked at the New Hampshire section. They mentioned Route 302 and the Kancamangus Highway, as they should. But they also mention Route 153, which snakes up the east side of the state. My dad discovered this road on his Royal Enfield and raved about it. It is off the beaten path, but a great ride, so it seems that National Geographic is good at judging great routes! It will be a great tool for finding those small, twisty, hilly, narrow roads we hope to stick to on our trip.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was great. With all this planning and fun we had this weekend, Juli and I both feel thankful.
Seeya
Jeremy B

Preparation H (for Honda): Getting the bike ready

2009-11-19T12:04:00.001-05:00

Earlier I mentioned what repairs, replacements, rebuilds, I have done to the bike to get it ready. After spending countless hours reading on the SOHC4.net forums, I have a good idea of what goes wrong on these bikes and what items should be looked at before a long trip. So this is my to-do list for the winter. Like last winter, these jobs will be spread out over time as I have time and money to complete the projects.
Here's what I'll do:

Front End:
Rebuild front fork with new seals and oil
wheel bearings
   -There is a squeak coming from the front end sometimes that I fear may be dried out bearings. A seizure would be somewhat catastrophic.
clean and adjust brake caliper, add new brake pads
  -brakes are also squeaky, not sure why but this should fix it.
Stainless steel brake hoses
   -This is one of the best upgrades on these old bikes. It quickens the response of the front brake and resists fading as you squeeze the lever. Those old rubber hoses are probably unsafe anyway, so whey not replace them with the best?
Tapered Roller Steering head bearings
  -Not sure the bike needs this repair right now. It's more of an upgrade that improves handling. I will do it if funds allow.

Electrics
Fix electric start
  This may involve replacing the solenoid, or the switch. I am not sure why the starter doesn't always spin. One issue is that the normal starter button is missing and the previous owner hacked into the wires by the left side cover and added his own push button switch. That'll also be fixed.
Clean and lubricate all electrical connections
This can make a big difference on these old bikes. The SOHC Honda charging system doesn't offer much extra juice, so corroded or dirty connections can really affect brightness of lights, switches, and even how good the thing runs. I'll unplug each connector and polish it, then put it back together with dielectric grease.
Replace/fix Horn
Not sure why the horn doesn't work because I haven't looked into it. It's the switch, a connection, or possibly the horn itself. Fortunately a horn can be had for like $10

Tune Up/Maintenance
New points/condensers
I have no idea how old these parts are, so since they're cheap I'll go the safe route and get new ones. I also intend to keep an extra set on the bike. I have contemplated getting the electronic ignition for this bike, but we'll see if funds allow. Points are nice because they're so simple you can fix on the side of the road. Electronic ignition is maintenance free and will probably never fail, but if it did I would have no way to fix it while on the road.
Clean and synchronize carburetors again
I think the bike is running rich, so I want to take the carbs off, clean them, recheck float levels, and re-sync them. Over the summer I invested in a fancy carb sync tool, so that job isn't so bad. What is bad is taking the carbs off and putting them on again. That has been the least pleasant job on this bike. I should be damn good at it after doing it so many times trying to get the carbs right, but alas, it still sucks.
New Chain and Sprockets
I have no idea how old the ones on the bike are. The chain is definitely done for, and they recommend doing the sprockets at the same time. Unfortunately the CB500 cannot use an o-ring chain, they're too wide and rub against the engine case, possible wearing a hole through it (ouch!). A standard chain is cheaper though! Sprockets are pretty cheap for this old girl too.
Maintenance Schedule
Routine stuff all in the first section of the manual. Check and adjust cam chain, valve clearance, timing, etc. This is easy and won't cost any money (provided I don't break anything).

Chassis
Swing Arm Bushings
These were a weak point on the old Hondas, one of the few things that didn't last long. There are aftermarket bronze bushings that work better. Mine may not be bad, but I want to replace them anyway as the bike will be at or above load capacity with the girl and me plus luggage. Plus, I think it would be good to take apart, clean, and re-lubricate the swing arm pivot shaft. That grease is 38 years old.

New Rear Tire, tube, rim strip

Ahh, spoked wheels. Standard size for this bike is 3.50-18. The old inch-sizes are not hard to find, but you don't get much of a selection. I think I'll go with a Dunlop 4.00-18, which seems to work on these rims. Dad's Royal Enfield runs these and I really like them for dirt roads. I am going to try this job on my own, we'll see how that goes. I guess I should check the spokes for tension and the wheel for balance while I have it off.

Rear wheel bearings

Probably past their prime as well. Not something I want to deal with on the trip, so I'll do them as a precaution.

Aesthetics

Repaint exhaust headers

Last winter I painted the exhaust headers because the chrome was really crappy and a couple of them were a little rusty. Brilliantly I chose engine enamel in a spray can, not realizing that engine enamel is not heat-resistant enough for exhaust pipes! So my nice black headers have been slowly reverting back to crappy gray.

Here's what that project looked like. I came up with an ingenious method of painting the individual pipes! Here's before and after, then shown reinstalled on the bike. This was before I had done the seat and gas tank, among other things.

I may also repaint the tank and side covers with a fresh coat of green. I never took the time to sand and polish my original green paint job, so if I have time I'll redo it.

So there's my to do list! Some of these repairs have been covered in Motorcycle Classics magazine's series on their project CB500, so for some things I have a nice, full color set of instructions in the vernacular language. I also have the amazing resource of sohc4.net, which has helped me immensely so far.
Please note, parents and others, that most of the repair items I have lined up here are mainly to improve the safety of the bike. I could probably ride it to Alaska tomorrow, but I want the bike to be as safe and reliable as I can make it!

Please stay tuned for more exciting posts!
Jeremy B

Recent Ride and Sleeping Pads!

2009-11-11T17:57:00.001-05:00

Riding the country on our little old Honda will surely be exhausting, so we're investing in a good summer's sleep! We've already got the tent and sleeping bags, and just last week I got two Themarest Prolite sleeping pads!
These things are awesome. They roll up to 4"x11" and weigh one pound each. They're only about 1" thick when inflated, but they'll provide a cushion from the ground as well as an insulating value. These were a big expense, one of the largest single purchases for camping stuff, but there was a sale at EMS so I figured we'd take advantage.
There is still tons of other stuff we need to get (see our earlier posting) but it feels good to check off two of the biggies.

Sunday, November 8 was a glorious fall day here in New Hampshire. I was home for the weekend and took what may be my last motorcycle ride of the year. Originally I thought I'd ride to one of the local ridges but the weather kept getting better so I continued through the country to the seacoast. The bike was running great but I discovered a couple of issues that will need to be addressed over the winter. First of all, it's vibrating too much for a Honda four cylinder. So much, in fact, that one of the tiny screws that hold the tachometer gauge face vibrated loose and fell off, leaving me with a wobbly tach face! It's not easy to get inside the tach to fix this, but luckily my favorite magazine, Motorcycle Classics, did a feature on how to take apart the old honda gauges. I think the vibration is simply due to the need for a tuneup. I need to sync the carbs again and check valve clearances, all routine stuff that hasn't been done in a while.
The back tire is about spent. I don't know how much further I dare go on it. I plan to replace it myself, so if you're bored and in the need of some humor at another's expense, you can come over and watch me try to change the tire!
Also, the front end is squeaky. I need to take apart the caliper and clean it, and I probably need to replace the wheel bearings as well. Despite the relatively low miles shown on our bike, I think the age alone of some components (like bearing grease) can merit replacement.

Speaking of mileage, Sunday's ride almost put my bike's mileage over 18,000! I was about 30 miles shy of crossing the big 18k. Oddly, my Subaru is currently about 30 miles shy of crossing over the 180,000 mile mark! Hmm.

Another thing! Apparently clicking the "follow" thing on my page really does nothing other than tell me you're interested in the blog. You won't get an email or anything telling you when I've updated the blog, so please bookmark the blog and check back every few days to see what's new!

Next couple of blogs will discuss route ideas, as mentioned before, and a list of what I still need to do to the bike to prepare for the trip.
Cheerios!
Jeremy B

The Bare Necesseties-Just add-venture

2009-10-30T14:49:00.004-04:00

Let me just reiterate the fact that Julianne is an art student and I am a music student. In case that doesn't bring up any connotations for you it basically means that we are poor as f$%k! We're not touring the country on a new BMW or Harley checking into hotels every night. That is expensive and boring. We're going to rough it, so it's good that we're poor because we wouldn't have it any other way.

So the necessities for the trip will include full camping gear, which will have to (a) fit on the bike and (b) be lightweight so as not to overload the bike. Lucky for us there's another group of adventurers who have already figured out small and lightweight gear: the backpackers. Backpacking tent, sleeping bags, stoves, etc, are all very small and very lightweight, not to mention excellent quality. Their gear does, after all, need to last months at a time in the wilderness. Here is a tentative list of what we think we'll need. After the list I'll go into detail about individual items.

Sleeping
Tent
Sleeping bags
sleeping pads
tarp (for under the tent)

Cooking
stove
fuel bottles for stove
cookset
water container (probably inflatable)
foldable water bucket
utensils
lighter
dish towel
soap (multi-use)
2 nalgene bottles
coffee percolator or press

General Camping
hatchet
knife
lantern
head-lamp
towels
sun block
bug repellent
first aid kit
tooth brushes and paste, hairbrush, deoderant, etc
maps

--The following lists are things that won't come from the backpacking world and I'll discuss them later--

Tools
spark plug wrench
#2 phillips and flat screwdrivers
wrenches (don't know exactly what sizes I want to bring yet)
allen wrench (I replaced a lot of screws with SS allen head bolts)
Pliers (leatherman possibly)
tire repair kit (not sure what type yet)
Electrical tape
zip ties
tappet feeler gauge
chain lubricant
quart of 10W40 oil

Parts
spark plugs
tail light bulb
signal light bulb
spare main fuses
points set

electronics
camera
blackberry (we originally were going to bring a laptop, but this can replace it for our purposes)
charger for camera and blackberry
solar charger for blackberry

First off, sleeping. We have already acquired a tent and sleeping bags. The tent is a Cabela's brand ultralight tent, which we bought over the summer and have already tried out a few times. It's light for its size, around six pounds, and packs small . We got the three person tent for the extra room; this thing will be our house for the summer after all. It's great sleeping without the fly, and the fly is very water resistant for crappy weather.

Juli just got two sleeping bags! They're synthetic backpacking sleeping bags and are also very small and lightweight.

We are thinking of getting sleeping pads as well. These are small, thin air mattresses used in the backpacking world. We are looking at the Thermarest Prolite, which is a self-inflating pad, a big selling point for me. One of the most irritating things in the world is blowing up an inflatable with your mouth, and I don't think we'll be too excited to do it every night after a full day of riding! This thing packs really small, around 5X11 inches and only weighs 1 pound.
There are a couple of comparable pads by Big Agnes and Exped. The Exped pads are awesome, but about twice the weight of the Prolite. More expensive, too.
We're also considering a traditional foam sleeping pad, and I really like this one from Thermarest. I like that it doesn't inflate it can never puncture and become useless. It is very light but doesn't pack quite as small as the Prolite. It's much cheaper, though, and I wonder if that will outweigh the benefits of self-inflating pads. Ultimately, I think we'll decide on one of these after comparing them in the store. It will have to pass the comfy test.

Now onto cooking. I have pretty much picked out a stove. This
is the Coleman F1 Ultralight. The picture shows the stove on top
of the canister. Originally I didn't want one that uses this type of canister because I wasn't sure it would be easy to find them on
the road.
But I have just discovered that a certain big box conglomo that
shall remain nameless carries them, so I think we'll find them
okay. They also have a couple of light stoves there, but not this particular one. It will have to be ordered on the web. This little
guy weighs 2.7 ounces as opposed to the one in the store that is
over a pound!

I have two different cooksets in mind. One is the MSR Quick 2, which is very complete yet compact. It includes two pots, two dishes, two stainless mugs, a strainer top, and it all fits into a 7x5" package! I am also looking at the GSI Pinnacle Dualist. It is similar in size and weight to the MSR set, but it doesn't have normal shaped mugs or plates, which I don't like. It does come in a bag that doubles as a water bucket, which is awesome! It also includes two utensils, which the MSR does not. Still, I really prefer the shape of the dishes and mugs of the MSR set. Also, the GSI only comes with one pot. Two could be handy on the road.

Coffee! Some may consider this a luxury item and not worth the weight, space, or trouble, but Juli and I really like coffee and I think the trip will be too exhausting to go without. I can't decide if we should get a percolator or a press. There is the Open Country 2-5 Cup Perk, pictured at the left, which is about 5X5 inches and weighs 9 ounces. I like the simplicity of using a percolator. But a coffee press, like the GSI JavaPress seems like a good idea. I really don't know how it works. You put some hot water and coffee into it and "press" the coffee through the water, supposedly making coffee. I think we'll probably go with the perk. After all, cowboys on the range didn't carry a javapress.

Now for cleanup. Towels soap, and bucket. Well, the soap we've already got. It's biodegradable and can be used on dishes, in your hair, and on your clothes and body, and is called simply camp soap. For the towels we were thinking of getting pack towels, which sound like microfiber towels. They're very lightweight and absorbent, and we're thinking of getting the bigger versions for our bodies. The bucket we want to get is super cool! It folds! We saw this one at EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) that we really like. Carrying water is also concern. We might get an inflatable water container, which can be seen at EMS too. We might also carry a plastic gallon jug. It's something we haven't quite figured out yet.

Now how we'll light our campsite at night. There are all kinds of LED flashlights and lanterns that are lightweight and small. I think we'll go with one LED lantern and one LED headlamp. The lantern can be ambient light. The headlamp could be useful if we have to setup camp in the dark or if we have a bike issue in the dark. We don't plan on riding at night but you never know.
I haven't picked out a headlamp yet, but the lantern I want to get is a Black Diamond Apollo. I checked these out at EMS too and they're really tiny light, but very bright. It runs on 4 AAs or a rechargeable pack sold by Black Diamond. I'll need to do some more research to figure out which to get. We won't always have access to electricity so we may have to go with batteries that get thrown away when dead (which I hate doing, I am usually a rechargeable fan).

So besides all this camping stuff we're also going to need clothes for our bodies. Many motorcycle travelers get by with just one or two changes of clothes other than their riding gear. I think we'll try for that. We'll get a stuff sack for packing extra clothes.

So that's most of what we'll bring. I tried to be detailed but am sure other things will pop up. We'll need to pack wisely to get everything on the bike. We need to avoid packing like the picture up top!

Next posting, I'll probably talk about route ideas so stay tuned.
Jeremy B

Equipment: Outfitting the motorcycle for luggage

2009-10-26T18:04:00.001-04:00

One of the driving forces behind this trip is that Juli and I are not wealthy barons. We simply do not have the funds to fly to Europe and spend the summer hiking the alps and looking at Renaissance art in Florence, Venice, or Mantua. The closest we can get to having a traveling adventure is riding our (old) motorcycle across our own country, camping along the way and experiencing national parks, museums, and historical places.

So, maybe you saw that picture of our (old) motorcycle in all its smallness and lack of storage space and wondered how we plan on packing all the necessary gear for such an undertaking. After all, goldwings have huge trunks and side cases that would hold two of each animal that walks the earth (or swims; those hard cases are waterproof too). Well, here’s the plan:

First of all, the bike came with an original equipment chrome luggage rack, which I am very happy about. It is very handy for strapping whatever you need for a day trip with bunjee cords. Plus it looks really cool!

But for the trip the rack is going to serve as a platform for a genuine motorcycle top box, something like this:

These boxes are from JC Whitney and are fairly cheap (under $100). I found other such boxes from Givi, but I can’t justify spending twice as much money for a name brand top box. I haven't decided the exact size top box I want yet. I am waiting until we have more of our camping gear so I can better judge how much room we'll need. I plan to add a luggage rack to the top of this box, where we can strap longer things like the tent or sleeping pads.

We’ll also have a tank bag. I haven't done a ton of research on these yet so I haven't picked one out. Notice the clear pouch on top where you can insert a map! We'll stuff things like a cell phone, change for tolls, water bottles, anything we need to get to quickly will go in here. The cool thing about these is that they are magnetic, they literally just stick to the top of the gas tank. This could be an issue for riders of modern bikes with fake gas tanks!

The side cases have been by far the biggest technical challenge. We decided to go with hard side cases for their strength and weather resistance. In the 70s you could get Wixom hard luggage, similar to what early BMWs had. You could also get Hondaline luggage, but I think that might have been later. Nowadays, though, nobody makes hard luggage to fit these bikes. Let me rephrase: It's not really the luggage itself that is the problem. Ebay currently has 300 listings for hard bags that we could probably use. It's the racks that the luggage attaches to on the bike. There are lots of manufacturers of hard luggage and racks to mount them, but nobody makes one for a 1971 Honda. So I'll make my own.

Thank goodness for the adventure rider's forum!

advrider.com

This is a great website full of motorcycle traveling enthusiasts. There are some serious folk on here who have circled the globe, so there is lots of great info on everything from route advice to bike advice to bulls#t advice. This is where I discovered the idea of using hard cases like Pelican or Storm cases for luggage.

These are Pelican cases sold as a complete luggae system. by Cariboucases.com. They are industrial hard plastic, extremely durable (used by EMTs, military, etc) and reasonably affordable.

Caribou does not, however, make a mounting system for a 1971 Honda. So I plan to make my own rack that will hold these cases.

There are cheaper alternatives to using cases like these, but we do have some specific criteria that a side luggage system will have to meet. The cases will need to hold quite a bit, but they cannot be too big. We need them to be lightweight and they must not intrude on passenger leg room, the way some home made systems do. There are two of us on this bike at all times, and it's a small bike! So, while I enjoyed reading threads on advrider about making your own side cases out of ammo cans, the truth is that the big ones weigh in at 15-25 pounds each! Some people were clever enough to weld their own steel cases, but I am not and those would still be too heavy. Some people used mermite cans, a type of food container that the military used. They are large and not very heavy once hollowed out, but they are simply too big for our bike. I could even use the cheap ebay plastic side bags, but I would still have to fabricate a mounting system so I wouldn't save much money. The durability of pelican/storm/hardigg type cases is superior anyway, so that's what we'll go with.

I have read countless posts on advrider describing how to make your own mounts for cases like these. What I will do is make a tubular steel frame that will attach to the shock-mount stud and signal light bracket on my bike. The signal lights will probably be taken off anyway, because I'll want to move the tail and signal lights forward to where they'll be more visible with all the luggage. More on that later, as I figure it all out.

Here is a picture of what my rack will look like. The bike pictured is a Triumph Bonneville, so mine will be very similar because the rear subframe of this bike is a lot like mine. I am not yet sure if I will connect the rack to my existing luggage rack or if I will run a piece of metal across the bike to secure the two sides together and minimize movement.

I will drill holes in the plastic cases and attach a u-channel of aluminum to the bottom, and a turnable block of metal or plastic to the top. There are many different ways to do this. One that I especially like is pictured here:

http://www.stromtrooper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37568&highlight=seahorse

So the cases themselves will be Pelican 1500 or something similar. They are pretty big, roughly 6x12x17 inches on the inside. To save some money I may go with Seahorse SE-720 cases, which are around the same size. These cases can be had with locks for $60 each plus shipping. So figure in maybe $50 for the stuff to build the mounting rack, and I've got a system that costs many more hundreds to buy. Of course, that point is sort of moot anyway since nobody makes a system like that for my bike!

For an idea of how these cases would look on an old style, naked bike, here is an airhead beamer with pelicans attached, image stolen from somebody on the advrider forum. These are pelican 1520s, a couple of sizes bigger than what I was looking at. I may get gray instead of black. Also, I too plan on using reflector tape on our cases. Can't be too visible out there!

So there you have it! Those plastic cases aren't pretty, but they're big and strong yet light enough for us. In addition to all of these cases and bags, we'll also get a fork bag for the front of the bike. That bag will hold our tools and a quart of oil, maybe the chain lube too, we'll see how big they go!

Next I'll write about just what we're going to put in all this luggage! Stay tuned!!!!

Jeremy B

Living Our Dream: The Story so Far

2009-10-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

The Jist:

Here it is, our travel blog for the big summer 2010 cross-continental journey! For those of you who don't know, Julianne, the art student, and I the music student, have been planning an epic journey of discovery. We're going to spend the summer riding our 1971 Honda CB500 from our home in New Hampshire to the west coast and back again! We'll stick to the smaller highways and byways. We'll do a lot of camping along the way. We'll see some of the cities and national parks that we've always wanted to. Hopefully we'll have the adventure of our lives!

We'll start with describing the idea, and then the bike itself. Tomorrow, I'll talk about what we're bringing and how we'll equip the bike.

The genesis:

Traveling is something Juli and I have always been interested in. Neither of us have seen much of the country or any other country, unless you count Canada.

One fine day in the summer of 2008, we were both at home in Pittsfield and my dad had the idea to ride motorcycles down the road to look at a Volkwagen bus. We love old VWs, and it was a great excuse to take a little bike trip.

Now I've seen a fair number of busses in my day. Our family has owned two and Juli and I have spent lots of time tramping around our region in dad's '83 Westy. But this bus had an impact on us. We both felt a deep desire to buy this thing and drive it far. We spent the next day fantasizing about driving across the country in a bus, bringing very little with us and camping out where ever .

Then we both realized, "why not drive across the country?" We could save up enough money to take a summer off. The trip itself didn't have to cost much if we did a lot of camping and national parks and other amazing free stuff. We mainly just wanted to get out and see the rest of the country. Juli's car or even my car would make the trip.

I can't remember exactly how the idea to use a motorcycle came about. We thought about the cost of gas. Any motorcycle would get at least a few more mpgs than either of our cars. (Remember, this was 2008, $4.29 per gallon gas was on our minds).

But the more we thought about it, the more a motorcycle made sense. How are you supposed to "get out and see the country" from inside a glass cage? How are you supposed to experience prairie wind from inside a car? Or the wide open skies of Wyoming and Montana? Or the rockies? Or the Pacific coast highway? Yes, a motorcycle was the obvious way to take it all in. We could bring minimal camping gear and camp along the way, to save money and to connect with the land.

The Bike

If we were to take a motorcycle, it would first and foremost have to be one that we could afford. No bikes made within the last 25 years need apply. Secondly, it had to be one with the proper riding position for two-up traveling. No goofy assed feet out front cruiser bikes. No racer-boy wanna be tupperware-cladded sport bikes. Thirdly, it had to be big enough for us and some luggage, but not too big to be fun to ride. No goldwings, 1100 specials, or other behemoths, and no honda Z50s. And finally, it would have to be something reliable. Or sort of at least.

So I scoured craigslist and ebay and local classifieds for weeks. Don't be fooled, I already do this anyway. I love old bikes and am always looking for good deals for fun. One day, in October of 2008, I came upon this old tramp:

A 1971 Honda CB500 Four, decent shape, $500. This was one of

many similar to this that I had been looking at. I told Juli about it because it looked like such a great deal, and she asked "could we use it for our trip?" Now, whether this bike would be good for the trip for not, I would have replied "yes," and I did, for it was love at first sight for me. We wound up getting the bike for $400 because it wouldn't start for the guy. The reason it wouldn't start turned out to be a dead battery, but that wasn't all this old girl needed. As you can see, there were some cosmetic issues. The torn seat, the crappy white paint, the gas-varnished engine covers, and general dinginess of the whole bike needed attention.

So the Honda got all that and more. The bike had around 14K when we brought it home, and was in nice shape overall. Besides the paint and 4 into 2 exhaust, it was very original. I spent the fall and winter working at it little by little. Here's a rundown of what I did:

Rebuilt master cylinder

did the basic tune up: valve adjust, camchain adjust, chain adjust, etc

all new spark plugs

new battery

new uni air filter

cleaned, polished, painted various engine and exhaust bits

replaced shocks with progressive and heavy duty springs

recovered seat

painted it green

cleaned and rebuilt all four carbs

replaced grips with ourys

replaced all cables

Jeez, that list seems so short for how much time I put in! Some of these jobs, especially the carb work, I had to repeat several times before I got them right, which is one reason the list looks so short to me. Also, it was spread out over a few months when I would come home from school on the weekends. And finally, each job had to wait until I had saved up enough money to buy whatever part I needed at the time.

Well, after half a summer of tuning and tweaking, I've got the old girl running nicely!

Here's the bike after all this work:

Before I forget, I have to mention the forum of the century: SOCH4.net. Without that site I would never have got the bike going so well. The forum is full of knowledgeable nuts who own and maintain sohc4s, (The first honda 4 cylinders, from the CB750 in 1969, to my bike, to the CB350F, CB400F, CB550, and the last SOHC CB650 in 1982). I downloaded (for free) the factory shop manual for my bike and received (for free) countless bits of advice that got me through fixing the bike. Seriously, I had no idea what the f%#k I was doing when I got this thing, and those guys, my book, and a little luck helped me get the bike running great!

Now, as for the bike, it is a freaking classic! I always appreciated the smooth, timeless lines of 70s and older bikes. My dad's got an 04 Royal Enfield that was pretty much my favorite bike. It is amazingly fun to ride. My brother's got a 75 CB750 that I road a couple of times before getting mine. I liked it a lot, but it seemed a little unwieldy to me. Maybe it's because the thing was dangerous.

But when i got the CB500 I discovered the perfect motorcycle! I like to describe the design of this bike as simply elegant. Four cylinders in a line. Four carburetors. One overhead camshaft operating 8 valves on rocker arms. A simple single disc up front with a cast aluminum master cylinder. Spoked wheels. Round headlight. Two gauges. Simple, yet sophisticated. These old bikes were and are renowned for their reliability, and over the 3k miles I've ridden it so far, I have to say I would ride it to the end of the world tomorrow.

This thing is the perfect size and weight and has plenty of smooth power. 50 horses to be exact, for anyone who cares. It has plenty of go to propel Juli and I over the mountainous back roads around here we love so much at a brisk pace.

Okay, well, let's get this out of the way now. There are maybe 2 people who haven't tried to talk us out of using this "old," "small," bike for this trip. "You'd better bring tools." "Are you sure that thing will make it?" "That bike is too small and uncomfortable for a cross country trip"

Those are the most popular comments so far. As far as tools and reliability, I have every bit of confidence that I can keep this thing going for our trip. It's solid and simple. I am fairly confident that any break down we would experience would be something simple and minor enough for me to fix either on the side of the road or in the next town if need be.

As far as small and uncomfortable, we are plenty comfortable on this old girl. We're not big people, and we're not bringing much stuff. We like riding normal sized motorcycles. I don't get today's giant overweight overpowered touring bikes. We're going to ride country roads. We don't need to go 85mph for extended periods of time.

Here's something I'll probably repeat in the future. Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is (among other things) one of the most beloved of all epic motorcycle adventure stories. He did the trip on which the book is based on a honda cb77 superhawk. Don't know what that is? here:

It's a 305cc twin with a about 28 horsepower. Him and his son with a mountain of camping gear, on this bike riding across the country.

So before you ask why we don't get a goldwing or something, just remember Zen!

That's enough on bikes. The next posting will focus on what we'll bring and how we'll outfit the motorcycle for the trip!

Good night,

Jeremy B