Episode 021 - Travel Essentials for Trips - Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWbrdy26yH8

Transcript:

(00:00) we rode all the way to El Dorado and lived to tell the [Music] tale hello and welcome to best motorcycle roads I'm Tom and I'm Todd we have over 65 years of combined motorcycling experience and 30 years of planning and riding motorcycle trips we're here to share with you everything we've learned over those years our goal at best motorcycle roads is simple make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be we'll dive into technology planning packing the routs and other tips and everything we can find in

(00:40) between from essential prep to Unforgettable Roots we've got you covered before we Kickstart today's Journey we ask you to sign up for our BMR Rider alerts it's our way of keeping you in the loop with the latest rides tips and stories we promise no spam only the essentials to enhance your motorcycle Adventures join the BMR our crew today we'll put a link in the show notes ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips this is our segment about reviews and tips we call it the toolkit um when you're planning

(01:13) for these travel Essentials so you know that's what we're talking about for the kind of theme today Todd so you know we've talked about it a number of times but tools right I mean the veterans of the show will know but you got to bring some tools and we've talked a lot about the latex gloves is just something to throw on there for two reasons right one it's great um if you're getting into something that's greasy and Mucky second we've also used those as emergency glove Liners in case it's raining as well so

(01:42) but zip ties those gloves some tape um electrical and and and duck style if you want to really tie something up and uh you know just those tools that you've been using as you're adjusting your bike I mean those are kind of the minimums and uh they'll get you to the next stop um I've had a time when Turk and I were riding I forget exactly where we were at but um the the bike just shut off nothing no electricals no anything and it's like what could that possibly be so luckily he rode up to a Walmart bought some

(02:15) tools we took the side covers off it was on my Kawasaki concour and what it ended up being was the the the battery cable was loose oh wow you know so I don't know if we' have had all the tools but we ended up buying some so again it's like it's really just to get to the place where you need to do the thing so um you know that's what I think from a tools standpoint you kind of live and learn and you pick them up as you go but the great thing about riding bikes is usually there's another person with a

(02:41) bike so yeah somebody can go somewhere and help you do something so and then just a power bank you know um we've been riding and we like to keep our headsets charged between stops sometimes they won't go especially if you're riding a long time for the day but they're just handy at times phones you know you your phone phone might run low on battery when you're going in to a brake you can plug your phone in and boost it the headset boost it and then cameras and all these things the power banks are

(03:09) just super handy and then there's certain ones that you can buy actually that can jump start a motorcycle as well so wow you know one of those things and they really work um it's pretty crazy yeah U speaking of power Banks and we were talking about headsets uh for some reason on this most recent ride this weekend my headset which was fully charged only last about an hour and a half yeah and I started getting the signal that was going dead um I forgot to bring my power bank but luckily you had one so well luckily I had kind of

(03:39) had one that ended up ripping itself out of the whole entire trunk so another thing to work on yeah uh the other thing too is uh rain gear absolutely it's an essential for sure it is an essential even on one day rides you never know when things can change um and I would just recommend you get some ring gear the packs down kind of small because usually on longer trips you've already got a lot of gear and to have a a rain suit that's big and bulky uh taking up maybe a whole bag is is not good so find

(04:09) something that can pack down um I'm currently using a Nelson rig uh storm suit uh storm jacket yeah and pants and it packs right down into its own pouch inside the jacket and it's real small uh very weatherproof so far but it's only you know one year on this one right um but yeah I'd say make sure you have that with you anyway for sure ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips and I've said it before sunscreen again and look at my

(04:43) face why did I forget to put the sunscreen on once again I don't know sunscreen damn it because it was like 47 degrees when we left right it was it was colder out you know and you just don't think about it because you have plenty of wind and it's cool enough and I had my sunglasses on did have my modular helmet so my chin bar was down so this part stayed out of the sun you know my sunglass pred but everything else around I burned myself once again oh a couple episodes ago we were talking about how

(05:13) it'd be really nice if the fold down was that yellow so that like at night because I'm going to tell you about two well probably five years ago now I switched over to using tinted I have a tinted Shield I've also had the reflective I love it for that reason man and you guys mostly are wearing your sunglasses anyway um so I don't know I mean I've switched over to it and it really ticks me off because it's another 50 bucks every time I buy a helmet I got to buy a $50 tinted screen right but I'm

(05:44) telling you it's great I don't like having the screen down because I I like a little more fresh air um that always feels stale to me I feel like I'm in a fishbowl so I leave my screen open unless it's raining real hard yeah um that's where I I get myself every time yeah I pay the price oh the other thing too um to go along with the rains suit idea um look for a rain suit that's got the real thin Hood yes uh because when it starts raining it's important to really just take your helmet off pull that hood

(06:15) up over your head it's real thin put your helmet back down over that keeps all that water from running down the back of your neck down your back yeah I've never had one with a hood yet yeah I know you sometimes you don't have your rain jacket on but you know really uh that'll help keep your whole back dry your butt dry your seat dry you know honestly well if you don't have a hood and you why would you put the damn stuff on anyway I always fig we're going to drive out of it oh goodness the next segment is what

(06:41) we call the mile marker it's our story segment this is our story segment we call the mile markers so we're talking about ENT trip Essentials um we've covered some of the gear the tools power bank and a little bit of the ridewise um now um it's essentially like where are we going to ride to right and we've we've mentioned this in other episodes you know there's so many great rides and then there's kind of the Epic rides if you want to use that overused term a lot so from the half the ride it you know

(07:14) we've always talked about the tale of dragon it's been one of our it's been one of our most memorable rides but I would also say it's been one of our most stressful rides and the reason why and the one tip and maybe this should have gone into ridewise I don't know but is enough time you know because we've got a trip that we're planning this summer and we were thinking about going around the entire um uh uh Great Lakes the whole entire thing it's like 2600 miles divide that by 400 which is plenty of 400 per day

(07:46) day got okay yeah all of a sudden you're at six seven days and oh by the way we were talking about leaving from Chicago so another day there another day back all of a sudden you've got a nday trip which no one can take that much time so um that's the part I think that I'm learning so much is just really be careful about how long you're going to be gone and do not make it hectic you know I think we've mentioned this in the tale of Dragon episode you know for us leaving from Iowa the dragon is a hard

(08:18) two days away it's two days of writing from here so that means you four days before you've even done anything we generally go on a 5-day trip well we've done that we've made it a five-day trip so many times MH and feel like we miss a bunch of stuff you know so so what I would say is like one of the essentials is really planning it out thinking hard about how long do you want to be gone now you know when you can expense some more times you know when you can get a little longer time than I think the tale

(08:45) of dragon for us should probably be an eight-day trip you know if we really want to ride some of the things and having fun enjoy some of the the things but we've never done that yet so it would be fun when we have a little more time to kind of test that theory and see how it goes so um but okay so that's that time my second thing that I thought of was really just I'm loving it and you know with the with Google photos and Amazon photos and all the Apple photos all popping up all the time it's really

(09:15) great to see the pictures that we've taken over times right and I'm just saying that's an essential and I did get one picture but like you know we wrote a day trip the other day we didn't take any damn pictures you know like we'd keep doing it to ourselves I don't know we need a literal like on trip checkbox next but really I mean like just look around and see like I just reflecting from the Minnesota trip we stopped and took a picture at the world's biggest bluegill we stopped and took a picture I

(09:43) think it was the Viking in Alexandria and I think we stopped I don't know if we got a picture because it was rain and um a Paul bunion and blue yeah I've got pictures that those are great right I mean and I don't know it's it's cool that when you think about those trips and see who was on well you know we can't even remember half the time who's on the damn trip you know it's like was this personal was this I don't remember you know oh let's look at the picture so I mean really plan those pieces out um

(10:09) it's it's just time to do the things you wouldn't normally do like some of my favorite things that we've done is had dinner with Dave like in Minnesota when you and I wrode down we met my buddy Mike in North Carolina like those are great parts of it like that I think I like as much as most of the other stuff agree heck we just took a day trip you know recently over the Memorial Day weekend and we met Steve and his wife and it was it was a hoot man like we just had a good time and I don't know um

(10:40) it's those planning of those things that I think sometimes gets lost especially for me when cuz I really like to plan that whole map out before we go and then it's hard to stop at the biggest bluegill and to take a picture cuz you didn't know it was there or you know you forgot so I don't know what are your thoughts on those things and what what what makes you think about like when you want to plan a great trip yeah it um what I like that we do sometimes is we'll get together and and get everybody

(11:10) in the room and say Here's the route here's the right the big things we want to see or we want to get to yep now who knows of some things in between things things that you're aware of that you want to stop at you've never seen or you know maybe you saw but none of us have and you think it's worth it um I I that I enjoy that part of it um but we have have so many times just while we're riding all of a sudden we'll see something and say let's let's take a look and what I worry most about is the

(11:37) ones where we didn't say anything yes you know I was looking when when we looked at the the big looping all the Lakes I went back and then looked at going around halfway then I started to zoom in on some of these little fingers in some of these places of little towns like you know this weekend on that Memorial or this last when we rode the Memorial Day Weekend ride um those little towns we went through were so interesting you know like taking two more minutes and doing a loop in the town just to see something but like some

(12:05) of these downtowns are kind of revitalizing themselves you know and there's little places to stop there were some really nice towns we went through exactly I mean I know we've talked before about the Iron Horse Social Club in um Savannah Illinois and it's just a cool place to stop to say hey I've been there you know I've been to there I've been there you know um we don't do enough of that at times and that's partially my fault from pushing so hard times but yeah yeah I I agree I think if

(12:32) we we can slow down a little bit and if we just happen to see a town that we like the looks of let's ride it let's let's ride all around I know it's so true you know um but so um from the teaser you know we did get to Lorado Iowa yeah unfortunately the map the Google maps of Eldorado I'm going to have to go make some suggestions because the bridge the bridge wasn't even there I mean I don't even know what that was all about but uh so that we went there because it said uh Great River Road right so just past this town

(13:03) I mean trust me this town's about 15 streets oh yeah it's probably not that many had the Great River Road I've driven by it for years um going up to Dora to pick up my son from college and every time I drive by there only on the one side of the road on the east side it said Great River Road well my I'm playing that I mean I'm granted it's probably the Cy's naming of the road or whatever but it was uh I just always wanted to ride it and you know so we finally took the time to do it we zipped

(13:34) in through the town which was awesome cuz it's just you come through this town and it's probably what 150t drop would you say maybe down the bottom of Valley the bottom of Valley and then you always see it from up above these two peaks of this beautiful old church church and it looks like the whole town just kind of lines up to the church doesn't totally so we went there and we drove by the church then we went to go where the bridge didn't maybe used to be and we came back out and then of course in you

(14:00) know typical summer fashion we start rolling down this Great River Road and there was a detour about two miles in yeah so we ended up I don't know we went way around it and never really got back we go back and look at our map see where we went someday we'll go back and rde it from from El Dorado but it was still a great ride and we ended up riding c9y which was pretty amazing Road and then picked up on Old Highway three which I never even knew went into that area and that was Dee there that was pretty awesome I

(14:32) thought three well C9 y had some amazing uh scenery it was the best road with the scenery match I would say but the quality of the road itself yeah uh it was getting it was a little rough yeah there was you could tell the you know the winter and summer you know Season done any favors no had helped it all and then I don't remember I have to go back and see what road are coming in down and when we hit that Guttenberg Road I just don't ever remember going south on that road before we may have went North yeah

(15:01) but that look over the river right there unbelievable yeah but three three was a wonderful road and it was great uh it was wellmaintained very well maintained really nice little tight but yeah windy it wasn't chip seal had a line yeah and uh yeah yeah it was really good recommend that one totally the podcast can be found on best motorcycle roads.

(15:24) com podcast all the information you need will be there uh but you can subscribe on Spotify Amazon music apple pocketcast and YouTube this is the interactive segment we will be looking for input from you uh we want you to send us your questions and suggestions for roads topics and anything else you have on your mind today's roadside Q&A comes from Mike and Mike was asking us about the headsets we've talked about yeah uh that we like to use headset communicators and our helmets and wanted to know which ones we

(15:53) use uh we've been using Cenas forever uh for many many years prior to Cena we had a whole conhon of different ones that that was a hot mess I think it was called Hot Mess yeah that didn't work all that well it looks like the those communicators look like what the trunk of my motorcycle looks like right now we got to see that sometime but we're using uh Cena 50s right now uh the best technology they've they've upgraded to now is the mesh technology um it puts everybody in the same group just

(16:25) instantaneously just it's a one button click yeah and it puts everybody into the mesh and even if you separate from the group and you fall out of that group as soon as you get close enough you go right back kind of still on the channel you're still on the channel and the mesh kicks back in and you're on it it's is it a Wi-Fi that they're actually creating mesh I I assume so I I haven't looked at that so I don't want to say but I'm pretty sure that's what they've done um I think that's also why the

(16:52) batteries last a little longer than Bluetooth yeah because Bluetooth will amp up and back so yeah yeah and then unfortunately and so you know there's two big players s Cena Senna and then cardo and cardo's kind of fallen behind we've talked about this before and they do have a mesh but they will not talk mesh to mesh oh I see so that's proprietary between the two and then but they can if you if you and a friend have one you can connect the intercoms together because I think that is Bluetooth that's a Bluetooth so just

(17:24) don't um you can't unfortunately do that now if you're completely vested cardo Senna does make the Bluetooth connector that does Connect into mesh MH um so that's possible but that's still like 200 bucks so now you like you almost buy the 50s for it so I don't know that they're better I think they're just more common and then I think uh you you haven't been on a trip that you've heard this yet but we've been on two trips recently where more and more people using it and then like so you'll ride up

(17:54) on people and you'll all be talking together with people either meet or following so there is a way actually change the channel it's not simple though so okay yeah cuz I noticed when I clicked in to join uh it did say mesh channel one one yeah and that's the default yeah and most people leave it leave it so like if you're if you're antisocial you don't want to talk to anybody else then change your your channel right away yeah but it's kind of fun like when we were riding down to the

(18:22) eclipse we we started hearing something on there and pretty soon it was like blah BL blah blah and they're like hey these guys are on here too hey how's it going you know it was cool it was fun you know nothing wrong with that it was It was kind of fun it's like being on Channel 19 on your CB radio right it's exactly what it is now when we were up in it it where it did get annoying when we were went up to the slimy crud run um we ended up following some people that had it and then it was kind of kind of

(18:49) TR like it wasn't bad but like yeah then we couldn't talk because then it was broadcast on their Channel they didn't realize I don't think that this was a this it wasn't the Channel 19 so in that case you probably could have just shut off mesh and just gone to the Bluetooth connection right but like we had never connected to Bluetooth before so then we had to pull over and then it' be an hour yeah it takes a long time to do that yeah yeah for sure now it's time for The Last Mile it's the way we close

(19:15) the episode Down with our reflection Todd what are you thinking well we had a just a a really nice ride this past uh weekend Memorial Day weekend we rode about 350 miles um it was just nice I just forgot my sunscreen once again uh the tan looks good on oh boy yeah I'm I've got to learn my lesson I talk about it too you know so uh yeah no that's it it was just a great ride the weather was absolutely perfect we could not have got a nicer day it wasn't humid uh it wasn't hot I mean yeah it was just perfect yeah

(19:49) you know I'll plus one on that and kind of double down on what we've talked about here it had everything was enjoyable like one we had some new roads that we road before M to a little bit of Adventure here and there where we were um just kind of finding our way around a little bit which was which was nice we didn't have any big photo ops or big like things to see um but I mean like we did end up on like a c9y and some of the kind of Standards or the best roads that we found in Iowa and then you know this

(20:20) new element of we met some people friends and had a had a drink and some some burgers with people which it just a really great C to the day and then like one thing we kind of talked about at the end and this kind of goes into this trip planning is we left early not crazy early 7: in the morning we did our 350 you know we were home by 4:30 in the afternoon and stopped for a long time yeah um to eat which and then I don't know like we were all talking about how nice that was too so it wasn't like sometimes when you're busting home

(20:53) from those trip days like we I we've gotten home at dark past dark before and it's too much like it's like you know a little bit goes a long way you no it was nice to get back in the you know late afternoon that was I thought that was perfect and I know you mentioned uh there weren't all that many scenic areas actually c9y did really have some beautiful unb but we had all been up there many times so we didn't pull over to take more pictures there good point there was some Scenic literal Scenic

(21:20) pull offs that we could have take pictures from and yeah we just kept rolling but we've been there yeah all have those pictures already totally yeah for sure great road though 9 Y in Iowa if this episode revved up your day don't keep it to yourself like it subscribe to it and share it with your crew we're all about the thrill of the ride and the bond it creates keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes friends and endless roads the stories ride forever take care [Music] [Music]