Episode 051 - 2025 Plan of Attack

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[00:00:00] All right, Todd. Here's the best motorcycle roads 2025 plan of attack.

Ride hard, pack snacks, and let's not try to lose Brad at the gas station again.

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The bottom line is, it's never too early to start next year's planning,~ uh,~ like syncing calendars, right, Todd? Yes, lesson learned, yes. So, yeah, I mean, that's one thing that,~ uh,~ we gotta do soon here is get a hold of everyone's calendars. We tried last year and it was a valiant attempt,~ um,~ but,~ uh,~ you made changes late and my calendar was already set.

I don't know about that.

The first ride was in April. So, yeah, so what we're doing, I think today is just kind of trying to plan a trip with five or six guys that, you know, it's, We kind of got a plan [00:01:00] ahead because everybody does have things that are going down. So yeah, vacations are usually on the calendar by this time. They're getting there, right?

Yeah. So I think what we're looking to do is maybe just pencil in some things. We'll need to send out the calendar stuff again. But,~ uh,~ I think we're hoping to maybe start things off early May. Last year we started in April because of the eclipse thing. We don't have an early start.~ Uh, ~so we were thinking maybe day ride.

You haven't been to the Slimy Crud Run. It's a great start to the season, I think so. It's usually a little cool, but it'll work. Yeah, first Sunday in May, right? Right, so May 4th, Slimy Crud Run. And then I've got kind of an idea of a spring ride. ~Um, ~so we have some options. We planned out a couple of rides last year that we didn't do.

~Uh, ~one was the Missouri history, right? If you remember, there's just a ton of,~ um,~ historical places in Missouri. And that's episode 25. We talked about that. You can go back and look, but I, I guess I didn't realize how many,~ uh,~ civil [00:02:00] war era. like monuments,~ uh,~ battlegrounds that were in Missouri. So we did it.

We talked about that one a lot. We've also talked about,~ um,~ Turk loves the stormy Cromer hat company and that's up in Michigan. So we've talked about that as another option in spring. ~Um, ~and then I had one more thought and actually it was,~ uh,~ in episode 29 where we talked about the top five roads in Missouri.

So all the way down at the bottom of Missouri,~ um,~ is highway 90. And it is literally like in the furthest southern western corner of Missouri in an appropriately named town,~ uh,~ Southwest City, Missouri. Oh, of course. ~Um, ~and I mean it is five miles from,~ um,~ Arkansas, five miles from Oklahoma. Would it be Oklahoma?

Yeah, it'd be Oklahoma. Okay.~ Um, ~so we're kind of, this one would be basing everything around like a 45 mile road, which is highway 90. And if you remember, I had to go back and look this, but I couldn't resist to remember this quote. And when we were looking [00:03:00] up and doing research on it, it said, It's a two lane highway for its entire length and rugged in areas.

Very hilly and very curvy. It's like, that is like, in the, that's perfect, right? That's perfect. We need AI to go out and find all the roads like that. So, so that's another option. And one of the reasons why I was leaning on that is,~ uh,~ there's another guy that does a lot of broadcasting, especially in the Goldwing crowd, it's called the Cruise Man.

He's down in Dallas, so the other thought I had was,~ uh,~ Turk and I are generally up for a little more writing. I was thinking maybe a hit in Dallas before, and then maybe meet you guys in the southwest corner of Missouri. Or anyone that wants to go, of course. Yeah, I've got a brother in Dallas, so I might as well head down there too.

Yeah, right on. So that'd be kind of cool. ~Um, ~I've always wanted to connect with Cruise Man. He's kind of a, he's a fun guy, goof, and has a YouTube channel as well. So I think that's the other thing,~ um,~ that we'll talk about later, but it's fun to try to meet some of these people that are in some of these areas.

I know there's another guy that rides with the Ozarks a lot. And if we can connect with some of those people, it would just be another way to kind of be more connecting. [00:04:00] Like we've enjoyed meeting people along the way. And if we can kind of. Pre plan a little bit of that that could that could be interesting as well.

Yeah I know cruise man is a is a gold wing rider He talks about gold wings and we both ride gold wings as well as brad And ~uh, ~so yeah, it'd be fun to meet up with him for sure. We've watched a lot of his episodes for sure We have so that's kind of the spring thought. ~Um, ~and then for a day ride. ~Um, ~We also had a episode.

I think it was 28 27 or 8 it's that The top five roads of Iowa,~ uh,~ historic Hill scenic byway, which is,~ um,~ loosely there's a highway to, and in the Southern part of Iowa that runs from Arabia to Donaldson. And if you remember this one definitely fits the no chains,~ uh,~ mantra, there is no fast food restaurants in any of those towns.

So this is kind of Amish country for us. And then also where the American Gothic house, which ties into the grant wood and things we've talked about before,~ uh,~ So that's a house or an area down there. ~Um, ~[00:05:00] that,~ um,~ that would be cool to see. I've never seen that, that house before. No, I have not either. And I think it's a pretty easy, this is like 120, 140 mile ride.

~Um, ~but then you throw in getting there and getting back and that's probably,~ um,~ that, that wouldn't be bad a day ride as well. So, yeah.~ Um, ~The big ride of the year probably is going to be a fall, fall ride. ~Um, ~and that is another trip down to the tale of dragon. ~Um, ~for me, I think it's gonna, it would be my fifth.

I think it's my fifth trip. ~Um, ~and this one's kind of going to be fun, special, and a little bit,~ um,~ interesting. ~Uh, ~I have another friend, Mitch, who hasn't been on any rides with us yet. But,~ uh,~ he's getting a little older and kind of, I think he's thinking about retiring his road bike. ~Um, ~so, but him and I have talked for the last few years.

And he wants to ride down to the Tale of the Dragon before he hangs up his official riding boots. So that's kind of, ~uh, ~interesting. I mean, you know, all of the group of us are definitely not getting any younger. And I'm sure there's going to be [00:06:00] a day when any one of us probably, you know, Decides maybe no more,~ uh,~ longer trips.

So that's going to be interesting. I mean, I'd know the last time when you and I went,~ uh,~ that was one of my favorite trips and it was only the two of us and had the rest of the people been there, I think it'd have been even a little more fun, but we did some writing then. ~Um, ~so we rode all the way down and saw my friend Mike that had that funky old tobacco barn.

If you remember,~ um,~ that was cool. ~Um, ~and then we rode. I think the only road that we didn't ride that's like one of our favorite roads is the Devil's Triangle. We rode literally every road down there. ~Um, ~I know that was episode four. ~Um, ~our Tale of the Dragon episode, which was what we talked a lot about that.

I think there was ~um, ~a lot of discussion there, but I just remember, the road I remember most is that little Switzerland, if you remember that, that was probably the curviest road I've ever been on. That was, that was great. ~Um, ~and the elevation change was just ridiculous. And I just, what I remember thinking about when we rode on that road was, some of [00:07:00] these driveways were, I mean I don't think I would have rode a motorcycle up some of these driveways.

It was a gravel road that was very steep. ~Um, ~I just remember that as being one of the things like, oh my. ~Um. ~Yeah, that would be truck tough, tough. And maybe if you got up there writing it down, , it might be even worse. Yeah. Because you came out onto a flat road. I mean, it was like the, that's, yeah. That's 12 feet wide.

Yeah. You know, maybe I'm exaggerating, but, so I don't know. I mean, I'm, I'm excited to ride that ride at the same time. It's gonna be a little bit,~ uh,~ you know, I don't wanna say sad, but interesting from the perspective of. He's kind of being done riding after that big rides. And he's wrote some, he's wrote a lot.

That guy puts on miles, like he's written a Dallas before and he just kind of just drives from where? Iowa. Oh, okay. Yeah. So. And like one day he'll just hammer it out. So, yeah. So yeah. So that'd be kind of interesting. I mean, I'm, I'm excited. I think we're going to, I think the plan on that one is to take a little longer.

He's got a niece that's down at one of the schools that are [00:08:00] down there. Wants to see her. Yeah. And so, ~uh, ~that'll be,~ uh,~ that'll be an interesting one. I mean, we've, in my opinion, we've pushed that ride too short every single time. Yeah, I, it, minimum five days. I think that probably needs to be, if you want to hit a lot of those five days is what we've done.

And I think that's way too, that's what I'm saying. It's minimum. That's minimum. You can't even, yeah, for us, you can't even get there and back. I mean, you're going there and getting back in five days. Yeah, it's tough. So I think that'll be a seven or eight day or maybe,~ um,~ and you know, maybe not everyone can, maybe some will have to figure out a way to kind of get some loops in that people could maybe jet if they needed to.

Yeah. ~Um, ~I'm thinking the same thing on the Missouri,~ uh,~ ride that we talked about for the spring too. Just, I think one thing for the overarching goals of 2025 for me would be to,~ um,~ just take a little more time. I think I tend to be a little aggressive on the timeframes. And I think what we've found is, for the most part,~ um,~ if we'd slow it down a little bit, I think we'd find [00:09:00] that there's interesting things that happen in those, in those shorter, or not so rushed,~ uh,~ because we, we talked about this before, I mean, the planning is important, like, without planning, I, I would be, probably go crazy, but.

But I think that there are opportunities to slow down. Yeah, we've passed some things that probably were worth seeing and stuff Yeah, I'm getting some pictures of and things we didn't even know we passed Sometimes, you know, we talked a lot about the Bristol stop. That was kind of a Winget moment and that was cool.

It was great. Yeah, in fact Mitch, I think, actually also has a Corvette. He's a Chevy guy, so we could talk about the Corvette Museum. That was neat. That was very cool. That was a really cool stop. I remember it was god awful hot that day, if you remember. And that was the best part of that stop. It was all air conditioned.

Yeah. I just remember that from that day. It was like, boy, I'm kind of glad we did this. It was hot. So finding [00:10:00] opportunities like that, I mean, Every right is different. You know, not everything is the same, but yeah. Hey, I want to ask you, you mentioned when you were talking about Iowa, you said it would fit the no chains mantra, but you didn't explain no chains.

I continue to do that. So, you know, that's back in one of our,~ um,~ We have, you know, all these are our podcast episodes, right? And then we also post the same podcast on YouTube as a video podcast. And then we've been doing a few and I think I've done most of them, but I know that's something that you're going to do as well.

But so we have video extras or, you know, interview extras. So one of them,~ uh,~ we interviewed,~ uh,~ John Delvecchio, who has a really good writing book out there and, and we can put a link in the show notes to that. But,~ uh,~ So he's the one that brought up the no chain. He got me on the no chains mantra if you want to call it that.

~Um, ~just kind of um, I guess thinking about that is, is we've enjoyed doing this sporadically I would say. I don't think we like hold our feet to the [00:11:00] fire on it, but when we go. Especially when we're finding places to eat, we try to eat at places that aren't a chain. ~Um, ~and the first time I heard it, I was like, no chain.

Yeah. What are you talking about? And then maybe I thought it was like, you know, no writing the end of the mountains where you have to put chains on the top, but It's a great idea, right? I mean, and we've talked about it before, but I mean, you brought up the idea of it's just a good thing for the local, right?

I mean, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, not only restaurants, but hotels, you know, find the mom and pop hotels. ~Uh, ~sometimes they, they, they just have the best stories too. ~Uh, ~just great people that know their local area. ~Uh, ~they're passionate about their local area. They want to tell you about it. And then there's They keep a lot of history sometimes in those little motels and hotels.

And sometimes they've been in the family for generations and generations. And,~ uh,~ yeah, I just love the idea of no chains. You're just really getting more culture. I think when you, I mean, it does take a little longer to [00:12:00] plan, you know, and get ahold of it. What I love about that is like many of these, these small, like we talk about the wagon wheel down there in Cuba, Missouri, and it's so cool.

Like you need, it's cool because they're these little cabins, right? That's one cool thing. But they also have covered parking which we it's cool. I mean like so you park your bikes underneath the awning or whatever And then they have little places we were playing cards out there like they had picnic tables a fire pit.

Yeah I don't know. Like I think you're right on the money when you say the stories, you know The more we've done this kind of thing and talk to more people That's the parts that we always enjoy the most. So like I think You Finding a way to really embrace the no chains piece on all these rides whether it's a day ride or if it's a multi day ride That's gonna be good for us because it's just more stories.

I mean, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, love it And then I guess at the end of the day if we don't get enough writing in we can we can bookend with the other Slimy Crud run. [00:13:00] It'll give us another chance and that's always the first Sunday of October So that's that's kind of our other thought and and you know mention again where the Slammy Crud Run is and what it is.

Sure. Cause you just mentioned the name of it. Yeah. Great. It's from,~ um,~ I always have to think about this. It's in Leland. It's, it's in Leland, Wisconsin is where, where you go. ~Uh, ~Pine Bluff, Wisconsin to Leland, Wisconsin. And it, and it's just this thing that started in the seventies and it was,~ um,~ started by some guys that would just like to ride.

They didn't want to. get advertisers. They didn't want to get sponsors. They were this guy and I should know his name and I don't remember it. But he was, he was an author of motorcycle,~ um,~ magazines because motorcycle magazines were the big thing back then. And he, he thinks that Wisconsin is the best pound for pound riding in the U.

S. He says you can get more variety in Wisconsin than anywhere else. And he's, I mean, he's definitely, you know, not, I don't think he's wrong. I mean, yeah, is there one or two roads that are better? But his point is the [00:14:00] collection of roads that are in Wisconsin are amazing. So, so basically it just started out some guys, Hey, we're going from a ride from here to here.

And,~ uh,~ so, and it just no advertising, they don't send anything out. They have a bad Facebook page and a bad website and it just shows up. And my favorite part about it is, is that there are so many. I always say whatever bike you want to look at they will be there and it's everything so somebody will bought the brand new whatever the newest thing out is and it's dual sports to sport bikes to cruisers to harleys to everything under the sun and old bikes every old bike triumphs and all that stuff it's just insane so ~uh ~yeah I mean it's just a fun thing if you find your if you find yourself able to get to Wisconsin the first weekend of May.

First Sunday of May, first Sunday of October. You really should check it out. And ~uh, ~it's just all walks of life. There's no time you get there. Yeah, every bike on the whole, both these towns are just full of motorcycles. and it's [00:15:00] just a, it's just fun. Yeah. And it's not like there's a, a planned ride. No plans.

There's no routes. There's no plans, no routes. Yeah. Nothing. People just get together. Yeah. And then, and it, and it's a bookend on the, the writing season, right? I mean, that's how they more or less, yeah. Like they celebrate the start of the writing season in Mace and the end of the writing season of October.

Yeah. More or less. Yeah. I mean there's some ld, long distance riders that have a little bit wider thing that they ride, but this is really kind of your. Just kind of says, Hey, let's season started. Hey, the season's ended. There's so many plates. It's unbelievable. And it is fun to have the,~ uh,~ the,~ uh,~ mesh intercoms on that day.

Cause you'll run into more people. Sometimes they know you're listening and sometimes they don't. So that's kind of fun too. I remember last year when we were there, there was, there was a boyfriend, girlfriend that we're writing and clearly they were not enjoying the day. They were really arguing about like, just slow down.

You know, it was like, it was funny. So, yeah. So yeah, that's kind of the plan. We need to get that calendar on the move. And I think 2025 will be a good year for [00:16:00] us. Yep.

This is a section we call the toolkit. We share motorcycle gear, gear review, and other riding tips.

So with the toolkit, I thought of three things, I think, or I had one and you had a couple, I guess, of things that kind of go along with this.

And,~ um,~ I want to really work harder on, you know, camera mounts. We use a lot of RAM mounts. And one of the things I'm trying to do is kind of get a little bit better experience on that. So hopefully I'll work harder on getting the cameras mounted and recorded. You know, trying to make this easy is the thing.

I mean, like when you get off the bike, you don't want to have to be maintenance mode. Right. So, I mean, ~um, ~I do have the permanent mounted cameras on that run all the time. Those are handy, but they're just not as good as like the GoPro quality. So trying to find that balance for me, this, this year is a, is a good place, but Ram mounts is what we use now.

And hopefully,~ uh,~ Find some some better options. So if anybody has any please speak up. Yeah, and I know for for myself a plan of attack Thinking you had to 2025. I want to get [00:17:00] some tpms sensors. Yeah ~Uh ~my tires I have haven't had those yet. Yeah, it'd be nice rather than me having to lay on the ground Well, that's what I was gonna say.

I mean, we're admittedly old And that does suck. I mean like I remember one of the last trips like You, I mean, for me, I pretty much am not going to be able to get down and squat and find by the time we have all the gear on for sure. So I end up on the ground, which is fine. I don't mind that part, but,~ um,~ you know, more than one time we've seen where we've been low pressure and you didn't know it and that's just bad.

I mean, it's not safe,~ um,~ to the point of, you know, ruining a tire. ~Um, ~so like it's a good thing to keep those pressures up and it varies so much. I mean. I know when we rode out west and in Montana, both my tires changed overnight with just I don't, it was altitude and,~ um,~ you know, temperature, temperature, a big difference.

~Um, ~yeah. Yeah. And,~ uh,~ I always check before I go on a long trip, but I don't check in between on my small. So yeah. [00:18:00] So I need to get that. And then the other thing I'd like to do is,~ um,~ my bike, is it 22 years at this point, 22 years old and,~ uh,~ the seat that's on it, it's 22 years old. So the, you know, it's broken down a little bit.

The foam isn't where it should be. And for long trips, I. I'm feeling, feeling some pain. So, ~uh, ~I don't know if I want to spend 1, 500 on a 22 year old bike, you know, buying a really high end seat, but I'm probably going to look around on the internet, see if anybody has something,~ uh,~ a high end seat maybe that's used, or the bike got totaled, or, you know, the And you've never been uncomfortable in the stock seat, have you?

Like, not necessarily. Just more recently I have, and so I bought an air pad for it, but, yeah. ~Um, ~so, no, I, I could just put a new stock seat on it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if I could find one. I mean, those,~ uh,~ That's a pretty wide range, I think, that fit the bike, so that'll be interesting as well. Yeah, because I think my bike, 2002 Honda Goldwing, through up maybe 2016 or 2017, probably is about the same seat.

For sure through 2010, 100%. Yeah. I mean, that's the same body [00:19:00] style and everything, but I don't think they changed the rear ends. I think they only changed the front a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think I can find something used. Yeah. Good stuff. If you liked the podcast today, please like, subscribe, and sign up for BMR Rider Alerts.

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