Episode 027 - Minnesota v2 - Best Motorcycle Roads - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxuLEDRAVw0

Transcript:

(00:00) what did the wolfes say to the bear when they s the guy with all the pies looks like we found our dessert [Laughter] [Music] guide 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 dive into technology planning

(00:41) packing Roots other tips and everything in 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 enance your motorcycle Adventures join the BMR crew today we'll put a link in the show notes this segment about motorcycle gear reviews and tips we call the toolkit the toolkit today is

(01:13) simple and hopefully painless all right um just we talk a lot of you know we throw a lot of things you got to buy this and spend all this money but like sometimes um there are cheaper opportun options right like seat Comfort is one of those um I have an ultimate seat and honestly at about 4 hours it starts to get a little uncomfortable um and I think part of it is I just need more like probably need a little more core muscle but but you and Brad have used uh some of these like assists like so I have some beads that

(01:45) sit on the seat which look completely uncomfortable whatsoever but I think the key to beads on seats is airf flow so I think in the in the summer I think they're better they're they're good option and then one time when we were in Wisconsin and I still forget where Turk and I bought the um skunk the skunks the skunk skin PS the pelts yeah and that has the same effect I think it it's to get more air under your backside so you kind of get more air flowing but but you and Brad you ride with a well I've got

(02:17) uh the imitation version of The Arrow Air Hawk Air Hawk Air Hawk yeah and it's a you can put water in it so it's two options but I I just put air in it and it's a yeah it's a it's a I would call it a of mini pillows mini pillows yeah that you you fill fill with air and you don't need much air um cuz if you if you actually fill it up too much then it feels hard like real firm and I suppose that gives you that flexibility yeah right yeah so um I added that to my seat because I've had the same seat in my

(02:47) bike now for 20 yeah however long that's been 22 years at this point and you know it's it's broken down a little bit yeah um so that that Air Hawk uh the imitation conversion that I bought um it just helps a little bit uh you know it's it's not it's not like having an ultimate seed it's not anything like that but it's not a th000 bucks either right I mean we're talking a hundred bucks or less than that so yeah it's it's lasted a few years just like that so I'll go

(03:19) with that until I get a new bike I might throw one of those in on this upcoming long long trip because I think just for me and you've mentioned it many times before but like POS seating position feet position options and if Turk and I are going to ride a couple thousand miles out and a couple thousand miles back we're going to want some options yeah cuz I think you know you get it it gets it just gets to be where you're kind of moving and you need to move so yeah so with the beads I've never tried

(03:48) those yeah they're weird at first I was going to say does it feel weird do you do you feel unstable on the seat at all like not really um what you feel is cool it's cold oh okay and then you again the options you know then you take the this the U the Pelt and put it over those and you get a different sensation you know and then you R it without the beads in the Pelt and then you get a different kind of feel so it's kind of nice you kind of have these different it's like you said it's these different position

(04:16) options and positions you know just kind of making your backside tired in a different way you know so yeah I think this is a great option until you can afford a great the best option which is a you know custom and again I mean like I wish sometimes some of these um manufacturers or these dealers would offer these really nice custom seats with it it's like you know you buy a brand new motorcycle go in and spend $27,000 and another th000 bucks roll in the seat you know roll it in you know so yeah yeah just take my loan on

(04:49) the whole thing right you might as well ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips ridewise the section we focus on planning and safety tips and we want to talk a little bit about fall riding uh because that's where you know it's going to start to get into the 60s and 50s and it could get colder than that so in the morning it's a little especially in the morning um and that's happened to us quite a few times so really the things you got to think about are are layering because

(05:17) it's going to be cold to start the morning and then maybe by midafternoon you're going to be you know low 70s or mid 70s even but um so really think about layering up and wicking material of course next to your skin is is really preferred um but you also have to consider you know in the fall you know you need something sometimes to break that wind yes you know when it's cold so um you know your rain jacket actually on the outside breaks that wind it does um I mean a full leather jacket you know Saran

(05:48) wrap Saran Wrap would definitely do it you scuba diving wet suit if you'd like but um yeah breaking that wind is is pretty important in have a rain suit with you of course you know um because um you know fall you know that's it's an unstable time you know it can change you know on a dime and then you know I always talk about on your rain gear make sure you get one that's got that thin hood that pulls up over because I still don't have one I know you don't I need one you put you pull that thin Hood up

(06:21) and then put your helmet on and then when you stop and it's raining the water doesn't drain right down your neck down your back and into your underwear you know we need to find a rain suit sponsor we really do we talk about this all the time but um yeah get a get a rain jacket that's got that little uh thin hood on it that's a big deal well and talking about this this ride it's really interesting because I this ride that we're going to talk about today I think is a planned ride that I think we

(06:45) should look at maybe even looking at a Fall Ride for it cuz I think it'd be unbelievable great so we can talk about that later but but when you get in those Falls it's no joke I mean you get into Northern Minnesota and you're talking it's cold I mean it can get cold at night and and even the next morning like we I think we've talked about this previous but you start to see a little more moisture humidity and then that's on this you know and then pretty soon you've got beads and yeah and I've got

(07:13) you know I mean I've got some thicker motorcycle gloves but honestly when it get starts to get real cold uh I'll switch over to ski gloves or snowmobile gloves and something that's got the big Gauntlet that runs up your arm I mean really it this reminds me of a quick story because okay like I was trying to Source motorcycle gloves loves for us at some point in time so I was talking to other countries I had them build me some they there used to be a company called the hippo hands and what it was was

(07:38) attached here like snowmobiles you and you put your hands in them in them y but then there was another so they made these these big gloves you know and they're like they like two finger like it's mittens not gloves Brad got so Brad got so damn cold on this when we rode down to the eclipse cuz it was raining and cold it was it was April um and so he I had them with and he resorted to him he like these are dumb I can't do anything but it works my hands are warm so wow but I mean it's true I mean so you can look at all these

(08:14) different options and even having a pair of those like we're riding with crew I mean he could hard have a hard time getting to the buttons you know and but you know but it's true like if you can get you know those in the I mean once you get on the interstate like a lot of times it's raining and nasty and cold it's not like oh let's do some Vistas you know like let's just get there you know and if you have so yeah yeah um thermal undergarments oh yeah you know if you've got some thermals bring them

(08:41) with layers it's more layers you might want them in the morning you know and you can also get battery operated heated gloves or you can get the you know those little thermal packs you break and and stick in those are good to put on the tops of your hands um but electric gloves electric boot warmers or even just the thermals to put in there uh the tow warmers um and it sounds silly but putting some ear plugs oh yeah in keeps that cold air that gets in your helmet from kind of getting into your ear canals and making

(09:14) you cold when you get a new helmet a lot of times they'll come with what they call the breath guard and most of the time people pull it out but but there's two pieces that that work well and that's the breath guard and then there's a pin Shield yeah and that pin Shield is a shield that goes inside your Shield and seals it so that there's moisture can't get up to your P so it's not the stuff from the outside it's the inside that that it's for yeah that's perfect the next segment is what we call the

(09:42) mile marker it's our story segment the mile marker today is talking about this potential Minnesota trip we just went to Minnesota in 2023 it was a fantastic trip if you remember we went backwards because we didn't realize and figure out that there was rooms no rooms in in uh in Deluth the first night so we went backwards so it's a similar trip um what we're thinking here is um hitting brainer Minnesota on maybe the first night lots of Scenic hit the Great River Road our kind of main stay um and then

(10:12) up by Brainard we'd go from Brainard to elely and on the second day what would be really interesting is around um I have you ever heard of Lower Lake white fish no okay so that's really close to Brainard but there's a nice Scenic the Paul bunion Scenic byway that kind of goes around there and so I think that would be a cool thing to look at and then you know our new fat or our new thing that we have to is taking pictures with giant sculptures so the Crosby serpent lake is fairly close to Brainard

(10:42) and offers a giant serpent statue so I mean we're there why not um Lake myx um mil X also is also a lot of known for its its its views I think there's some pretty good elevation there and so kind of day two would be more about riding and seeing um roads day three and I'd never even heard of this before but in elely Minnesota there's an International Wolf Center and a northern bear American bear Center again those could be kind of cool to check out um but also up along the NorthShore area is a is a few things

(11:21) the Gunflint Trail um is kind of that right on the edge of the Superior National Forest um and then also so there's a couple notable lighthouses uh Split Rock is the one that's up on that side which is kind of cool we haven't stopped that many lighthouses on the Minnesota side a lot a little bit more on the Michigan side um but once in a while I think it's good and we've rode that area before and the scenic outlooks there are just ridiculous like it's just I don't know it's it's almost like

(11:54) Eastern Seaboard esque to me when I've seen him um so two hard would never be complete with Betty's without stabbing a Betty's Pies but now you know Dave our friend Dave from up there he really wants us to try The Rustic in Cafe next time so he's saying better pie and that is a strong statement I was going to say that's hard to beat yeah yeah so hopefully we'll uh get a check that on the way back that's kind of it would be more north of gr Harbor so somewhere on that Gunflint Trail would be where

(12:24) that's at so there's some cool if you remember there's two um tunnels up there too which yeah seems weird that there'd be tunnels in Minnesota but I mean those those Bluffs are so big you cut right through them yeah and uh you know yeah when you're long I can't help myself I'm honking when we're in there right I don't know Doppler effect just got me every time what were you going to say I was going to say you know you're around the Great Lakes so of course there's going to be huge yeah huge yeah

(12:55) it's very you know town to town is very sparse but when you get there there's a lot of cool stuff yeah and we're not I don't think the plan here would be to stay in duth this time but we have stayed really in that Harbor before there's a couple of uh hotels in that Harbor oh man that's cool cuz you can kind of see the boats coming in and out and that's neat smaller boats not the big ones but yeah yep so final day um of this kind of day four thing would be wota to Solen back home for us um great

(13:25) Rivers's Bluff State Park is apparently some of the best views around you've been in Winona have you ever been to that State Park I yeah yeah I have it sounds like it's amazing it is fantastic yeah back the Great River Road we talked about Decor in the last one but if we like May so much we could hit it a second time whippy will be closed if we do this in the fall but we but the Sugar Bowl is always open all right if we don't get enough pizza right so I don't know I mean um when we're looking at some of

(13:56) these I think it's important for us to take a peek at these um scenic routes you know and sometimes I see this when we're driving around like around us we have Highway 6 which is the um what is that the great Lincoln is it Lincoln high what do they call that the Lincoln Highway I thought Lincoln Highway well you know what it's Highway six six yeah I guess it's interesting I try to I find myself looking at these sign the signs more you know we've talked about the Great River Roads so much to nauseum

(14:25) but on both sides there's nice placards that kind of show you that you're on there um what is it called like there's in near De Mo there's a really cool uh section of Highway 6 it's called the the White Post Highway and it was for safety reasons that they painted the um the electric poles white because the cars were so poorly lit the headlights that they were people lots of crashes when cars first started cuz the lights were so bad so they painted the the light poles on each side of the road white and

(14:55) so that's called The White Post highway but there's just all these little eclectic things and these roads and you know what we try to avoid the big cities we'll get on the interstate ride through but if we can find these other ones there's just so many stories you know and and you and I have talked about this just stopping at more of these historical markers even if you stop at every third or fifth or 10th one something happened there that someone took the time to do say something yeah and I don't know it's like history that

(15:22) kind of gets forgotten MH so yeah you know we didn't get to do that when we were down in Memphis that time but there's there's that one road that's all about the blues you know it's like the the great Blues road to the podcast can be found on motorcycl roads.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

(15:54) topics and anything else you have on your mind today's Q&A comes from Mark and this question came in a little while ago but because we're talking about this it it's perfect so he's he's going to plan a ride this summer he said should I take the Minnesota Northshore road yeah or the Great River Road what what should I do uh where should I go this summer yeah we've we've been on them both I don't know that we haven't taken we haven't ridden from duth all the way to

(16:23) Grand Portage well you missed that trip we did go around Superior oh that's right you we did take it um okay yeah well how would you answer this I would answer that Great River Road all day I mean if you're comparing those two roads um there's no comparison um at all uh the North Shore Road is cool um and I've said this I think to you before but you're so dang close you know like when you're up there by Two Harbors oh my gosh breathtaking views scenic but the rest of it is like oh well I've I've

(16:54) seen a pine tree like that before and I can't see the stinking Lake you know so so many of the these roads are so even if you're less than an eighth of a mile away sometimes you still can't see the the lake um so I for me the Great River Road is so amazing and so varied you know like just and then jump over on the other side and it's almost like a completely different like ride you know and it's you can see the road you're on so for me Great River Road all day but the NorthShore is cool if you haven't

(17:23) seen it before it's just different I mean that Northshore Road's about a 150 mil or something it's long I mean it's all the way from duth all the way up to what is it grand Grand Portage Portage yeah yeah and there's not much in between there um but there's some good views and unfortunately I think it's getting less and less and that's how the like some of these trips that go up what's that big the Boy Scouts will go up there and stay on that island what's it called yeah I know what you're

(17:49) talking about foret what it's called but a lot of you'll see a lot of like um you know trailers and things going up so they're going to go over across the way yeah that's pretty cool too and how I don't remember now U stats but how long is Great River Road do you know I don't know I should know that I talk about it so much I know I was planning to go all the way from the the full Mississippi trip and I was figuring that was going to be close to um right around 1,000 miles I think or 8 800 maybe um so you

(18:21) know I mean that's a 2 to three day ride based on you stay off the main highways so it it's it's quite long quite a bit long probably five times four to five times longer but different views completely you know oh absolutely every time I feel like we're up there on that Northshore Road I feel like I'm cold like it just looks colder you know sometimes it's hotter than heck but you know yeah it's uh well you know there more impressive bugs if you're into the mosquitoes like those things there's

(18:50) some big mosquitoes up there aren't there I remember we were up near there and it was just like we were stopping I'm like well put that on the ridewise for next time bu I mean vanilla whatever to get those things my gosh they were just attacking yeah that's right I'm glad you mentioned that cuz I forgot about that so great River Road uh Mark that's the one we would yeah highly recommend um I I don't know where he's leaving from so I don't know which is closer but he's heard us

(19:16) talk about you know Great River Roads so he was just kind of toally wonder what what would we recommend and uh yeah we've been on those both so yeah Great River Road now we have the last mile it's our way to close the episode with our reflection to what are you thinking for today woo well we talked about a lot um and said nothing no I'm said nothing uh you know Tom I like this uh this Minnesota route that um we're talking about I mean we've of course been up there but this this is a little bit different yeah and well I

(19:50) think it's similar to it's kind of similar to what we did last time but it was raining we got so much rain two or three of those oh it terrible yeah it was rain half of the trip so yeah I do really like this and uh I mean there's a little more exploring in Decora from what I can see so yeah yeah I'm I'm looking forward to that yeah that's good um you know and I just two things I think it's interesting to review we we just literally maybe you know like within three trips ago we did this trip

(20:21) and now we just found more things that are completely different almost like you could almost ride the same thing and have a completely different trip so that's interesting to me but then secondly I think just thinking about the longer trips that I'm taking to is I'm thinking a lot about these seat positions that you talked about and pads that we discussed and just trying to figure out like how do you get all this packed but yet have all these options um it'll be it'll be an interesting trip you know you've got

(20:47) a Gold Wing you've got a whole extra seat you can P I definitely have bags for that um boy I but I we've talked about this before like I didn't have enough space when we went to uh the eclipse trip I was in trouble like I mean I was it was bad yeah it was really bad so um so I'll have to revamp revamp things a little bit but no so yeah I mean I'm excited to go back and uh I don't know maybe this serpent Lake statue is probably my biggest thing so all right yeah if this episode revved up

(21:18) your day don't keep it to yourself like subscribe 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]