Monday, September 15th

I've been tossing around the idea of doing an SS1K, and today would be a good test to see how that would go. We planned to ride the entire way back in one day, which for me would be about 675 miles (add another 70 or so for Jim). My longest day in 15 years had been Thursday's ride, just over 450 miles. Way back in the day I had done a number of back-to-back 650 miles days on a trip out to Colorado, and my longest day ever was 848 miles coming back from Cincinatti - but that was a long, long time ago. We wanted to get the earliest start possible to minimize the chance of finishing the trip in the dark when we were likely to be pretty tired. So, up at 5:25, at the bike at 5:45, and on the road at 6:05am.

Man, that's early

The GPS info for the trip up to this point. The Max Speed number is imaginary - the 2610 has trouble when it loses reception for a while.

The GPS was predicting a 4:34pm arrival, with no stops.

We meant to get gas the night before, but forgot about it. So made our first stop not 2 minutes from the hotel to fill up. What is it with Indiana's pumps not shutting off? Jim had a 'splash' incident a couple days ago, and now I was cleaning up the bike from a gas overflow. Great way to start the day.

Rode through Indiana as the sun was coming up - well, at least it was getting brighter as there was no sunshine to be found yet. I had put on my Aerostich raingloves over my regular gloves to keep my fingers warm, but it was still pretty chilly on the highway. We stopped for coffee/restroom break at a McDonald's, and ended up spending almost 45 minutes there. The power had gone out the night before (and thousands of residents were still without it) and they couldn't figure out how to get the coffee machine brewing again. Add to that the slowest register crew I've ever seen, and a long line, and we ended up killing a lot of time in there. Still, it was good to warm up a bit.

Not much to say about much of the ride back - it was all highway, very little traffic, and no major incidents. Jim's tailpack came undone once, and was hanging off the side of the bike, but that was the extent of the drama. It rained a little bit in western PA, but mostly the first half of the ride was overcast and dreary. Once we got through the rain and stopped for lunch (Quizno's, mmmm) the sun came out and it started to heat up. Passed some other bikes on the road, but not a whole lot. Passed the AMA Museum.

I was checking my air pressure at every gas stop, and it was holding steady. At some point in PA whatever had been in my tire was gone and everything was still fine. At the Sideling Hill rest area on the turnpike I was surprised to see my tire looking pretty shaggy - never noticed this before, and I was concerned (looked the same when I got home, the next morning it was back to normal looking) but not TOO concerned.

Shaggy tire, and you can see the cut on the left side where whatever was in the tire came out

Truckin' through PA

Go Rossi!

Jim waves goodbye as we split off at the Schuykill

My last stop of the day, the Super Wawa to get a drink

Again, ignore Max Speed. Not too bad an average for a long day in the saddle.

Arrived home safe and sound at 6:37, with about 12 hours of riding done. I am now a firm believe in the power of the beaded seat cover! I could have ridden another couple hours no problem, my butt was not the least bit sore. I think an SS1k would be doable on the Multi, just need to get going earlier (4am? 3am?) and really work to minimize stops. I'd pack food and drink to eat roadside, maybe stop for 5 minutes every hour or so to nibble/hydrate.