Nearing the departure time ...

If you read the top of the blog site you may recall that this blog started after our first long motorcycle trip  was drastically shorten due to our best dog, Hero, was hit by a car on the nearby highway.  It was a Wednesday, four days from departure Day of Saturday.  We ended up going to Atlanta to visit my sister and family instead of the Great West.  It was a good trip and we spent the rest of the month helping Hero mend.

Well, Hero is fine, and no other dogs were used in this experience, but the bike is not running.  The 40-something year old bike is fine except for the ignition system which is a 'new' electronic system.  I have not yet determined the cause and solution, so it may be a wire I didn't fasten securely when I rewired a major portion a month or so ago, but we will soon know the cause.

It seems that I may be programmed for last minute failures.  I am OK with that as the failure always results in some high quality relational activity.  Oh, and my third HTC Desire cell phone went belly up during this weekend as well - another technology failure.  The carrier chose to send me a better phone, more about that when it comes...

In this case the failure occurred on the way to teach a MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) class in Tazewell County, Virginia.  Thirty miles from the college the bike just quit.  As I thought about the probable failure scenarios, a car pulled over and a guy jumped out who said "Hi Ron, remember me?"

I did not, but it was Scott, a student in a class five years ago.  And he was an off-duty deputy sheriff.  He helped me push the bike up a driveway to a safe spot near an industrial building, then called to see if an on-duty deputy could give me a ride to class.  That worked, and I arrived in style -- in a police car.  Had the ignition not failed I'd have missed that adventure!

A student in the class offered to drop me off and pick me up at the motel and to take me to the bike on Saturday evening after class to try and fix it.  We were unable to make on-site repairs to get it running, so my wife drove up on Sunday and along with the MSF coordinator, we got the bike on my until then unused trailer.  It is home now and I am working on it. I have all the parts because a good friend just bought the same electrical kit and offered to let me use the parts to determine what it needs to run again.

I am still planning the whole trip, but it somewhat depends on how the ignition system repairs go.  There might be a delay in getting on the road, and I may, as a last resort, take another bike.

PLEASE: Don't forget to click on the 'subscribe' link at the top left to get notified of blogs as I publish them and also take a look at the Not Alone website to see how you can be part of the solution as you follow me down the road!






LESSON LEARNED:

• Breath deeply and think.  
• Give God a chance to work it out.  
• Realize that the people who intervene are vital to your time on Earth.  
• Be thankful that no dogs were injured in the process.

Ten days to go, and counting!

The bike pictured on the right is purported to be the bike ridden by John and Sylvia Sutherland in the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance story.  It looks just like mine but note that the rider is neither John nor is it me!

A lot of last minute testing of the bike and the rider has been going on.  A trip last week to Richmond, Virginia put over 400 miles on the bike and all was well until a few miles from home when the main fuse I added blew because of a chafed wire to a directional signal.  I called a good friend who happens to be a ham radio operator as well as the owner of an old BMW like mine and while he was coming up the mountain I figured out the problem and was able to ride home with the lights off, with him following behind in his car.

This resulted in me redoing the wiring on those home made lighting units and putting new bulbs in as well.  The fuse box I put in is pretty hard to get to and I have been thinking of relocating it, but that may cause other issues so it will stay put.  I might need to take the seat off to see the fuses, but I was able to replace the blown one by feel.

The APRS tracking device that relays my position to the internet via ham radio got a test in my car yesterday. It worked just fine on my commute to work.  It is not on the bike yet because I can't decide on a mounting place for the antenna until I figure out how all the gear will be placed.  Weight balance on a bike like this is critical.  I made a trip to Winston-Salem (about 250 miles) Sunday to visit a relative and my wife who was there helping her out, with all the gear I expect to take.  I lashed it down in two different ways to compare comfort and handling and have now figured out where that little antenna can be mounted.  That will come in the next few days. 

Finally I have ordered new pads for my old Aerostich suit, new float needles and gasket kits for the carburetors and I think I'm about ready to travel.

There are several things in the works with Not Alone and I'll tell you about them all as they come about.  One thing I will say is that if you'd like to join me on the last day of the ZAMM2011 ride, it is planned for Saturday, July 30 from Winchester, Virginia to Ocean City, Maryland.  That ride goes right through Washington DC (US-50 is New York Ave) so let me know and you can join us at any point along the route. I will have a map on-line as the day approaches and we can tweet our progress for you bird lovers out there! You don't have to be on a motorcycle, just come and join the fun.

Days of ZAMM

I'm not alone on the ride this year!

It is now official. I am asking that the folks that want to make a difference for military families direct contributions to Not Alone. Not Alone provides programs, resources and services to warriors and families impacted by combat stress and PTSD through a confidential and anonymous community. Their vision aligns with my original fund raising idea and after a couple of conversations and many emails with their Executive Director, Mike Jones, and a look at their financials I am proud to recommend them to each of you.

My goal is to raise a dollar a mile for these folks, which means about $7500 total. If more comes in that is OK as well! You can make a difference by clicking on the NotAlone logo which will take you to a special contribution form that will add to the ZAMM2011 ride total. Any amount is acceptable but I have some special days that I'd like to offer to individuals or groups of friends.

These special days are the runs described in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that I will start riding on or about July 3rd starting at the author's former home in St. Paul. I will be reading the book along with each days travel and I invite you do so too. See the link under 'good reading' on the left for the full text of the book, check it out of the library or buy a used copy on-line. I am sure to make comments about the book along the way, and take pictures where they took pictures to see how the landscape has changed since their trip in 1968, the same year my bike was manufactured.

I am also looking forward to meeting some of the readers of this blog and the Not Alone families who live along the route and in some bigger cities along the way. If you would like to meet up with me please leave a comment on this page or email to zamm2011@gmail.com. I hope that some of these will work out.

These are the mileage figures for each of the ZAMM days:

Day 1: St. Paul, MN to Oakes, ND 324 miles
Day 2: Oakes, ND to Lemmon, SD 258 miles
Day 3: Lemmon, SD to Miles City, MT 191 miles
Day 4: Miles City, MT to Laurel, MT 191 miles
Day 5: Laurel, MT to Gardiner, MT 165 miles
Day 6: Gardiner, MT to Bozeman, MT 85 miles
Day 7: Bozeman, MT to Lolo Pass, ID 255 miles
Day 8: Lolo Pass ID to Brownlee Campground, OR 281 miles
Day 9: Brownlee Campground, OR to Prineville, OR 319 miles
Day 10: Prineville, OR to Grants pass, OR 228 miles
Day 11: Grants Pass, OR to Redwood Valley, CA 321 miles
Day 12: Redwood Valley, CA to San Francisco, CA 177 miles

I may or may not stick to this exact daily ride schedule, but you will be able to follow along on this blog.

Let me know if you pick up one of these days and I'll try and mark them off the list.

I'm ready for the ride! Please join me on-line or in person.

Lesson Learned: When recovering a 40 year old seat, one might not be able to reuse the tiny rusty screws, but I managed to do so by rethreading them.

It worked. Those are 3mm x 0.50 screws.

ZAMM2011 Ride News

ZAMM2011 Ride Details coming soon!

I have exciting news to share after all this time. I posted last time that I was interested in a way to share this ride experience with military families that are having a tough time. I felt, and still feel, that we can make a difference in the lives of at least a couple of families and I have to say that every single person I have talked to about this has been supportive.

However, the task of identifying the right people to benefit from the fund-and-awareness raising is not easy. Collecting the funds without a 501(c)3 IRS designation is troublesome on many levels. Working with an existing agency is possible, but several I looked at were doing something other than my vision, and I did not feel right about it. And then, just as I decided to abandon the support idea, in the strangest place, Groupon.com, was a mention of an agency that was not known to me and that I never noticed in a Google search.

I spent a few days seeking info on this agency and then contacted them asking someone to call me to discuss my ride idea. They called and all looks good. I am awaiting financials before I reveal the name to you all to consider becoming a part of the solution. Spending some time on their web site as I have done will give you a intimate view of how too many of our military families are doing. It is my plan to meet some of the bike-riding members along the route as well so you may see and hear the stories of meeting interesting new friends this July.

In communications news is a special email address that I will be using on this ride, zamm2011@gmail.com. ZAMM is my shortcut for "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," the book that describes the route of the St. Paul to San Francisco portion of this 7500 mile ride.

The bike has cleaned up electrical system with not one, but three, fuses (original bike had none!) and rear directional signals on the old Craven hard bags. My daughter is a skilled seamstress and she designed and my wife assembled, bag liners for the hard bags to make it easier to load and unload each day. They came out really nice and next time we really know how to make them.

The bike picture at the top of the page is what the bike looked like in it's "Sunday going to meeting" dress-up clothes. I have converted it to working clothes and will post a picture of it in the next post when I get the seat back on. It is kind of like it's 2005 setup but with a dual seat instead of the solo seat and higher handlebars.

I have replaced the front brakes, trued up the front wheel so it is now round and straight and even added a cosmetic touch, stainless steel "hub caps." They make the rest of the bike look a little shabbier, but the wheels look nice.

Fresh grease on the bearings completes that part of the bike. The carburetors got really cleaned and reassembled and after a few test rides are now adjusted pretty well. I have a squeek in the rear springs that I'd like to eliminate as I have no radio to turn up louder, but that is about all. Oh, I have a new seat cover I might as well install as the one on there is nearing 50 years old. My butt is older than that, but I found no new ones for sale on ebay!

I will be posting my estimated arrival dates in the next post. I am looking for affordable (learned that word from my wife) places to sleep, camp or eat, and to enjoy good company at meals so if you want to be a part of this adventure and are near the routes on the map in the last post, let me know at zamm2011@gmail.com.

And finally in a day or so I will be putting up a link that you may use to support the official ride partner. Don't let me be alone on the ride!

Lesson Learned: Often when one gives up their own solution the right solution presents itself. I have learned this one before, but I am forgetful!

Planning is going on...

The summer 2011 trip has undergone additional planning and a challenging route is under consideration. I have also been getting the bike ready for the trip, so far lacing one new rim with new spokes for the rear wheel, and next getting the front rim, which got new spokes a year ago, trued up by the local dirt bike wizard who did a great job on the first one. I have only ridden the bike 18 miles this year due to foul weather and too many other things (like work) taking up days with perfectly good riding conditions. It ran great for a 42 year old bike!

Another idea is to raise funds for a couple of military families that are living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Inspired by a Tech student that rode across the country on a bicycle and raised a lot of money for MS, I figured that as long as I am riding why not help some folks who have given to protect us all and got more than they bargained for. My current idea is to accept sponsorships at $1 per mile which, if fully subscribed, would bring in over $7000 which I would split between two families. I am counting on military friends to identify the recipients, and would give the funds to them as a Debit Card to be used as they see fit, hopefully on something to benefit the whole family. More details as the plan is finalized. If you know of a family that you think is deserving, please write up a nomination without revealing last names or other identifying details like address and send it along with YOUR contact info to me at bmw@goodhousing.net. No promises on this, but you might make someones day in July.

Click on the map above to see a bigger image. The westbound part follows Bob Pirsig's trip detailed in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance from St Paul, MN to San Francisco, CA with a detour to visit friends in eastern Oregon. The Eastbound route follows US-50 coast to coast ending in Annapolis MD, or if I can stand it, all the way to Ocean City, MD. I will be blogging and if you want you can follow along by reading the book as I relive it. I'll post page numbers for each days travel and I may offer a T shirt that I designed for the trip as well.

And note that the book is NOT about Zen or Motorcycle Maintenance.

There will be a party on the East Coast if I make it! You are invited, stand by for details.

Summer trip planning II

Since my last post a lot of map marking, reading and on-line research has scraped the accumulated grime off a trip plan thought of so many years ago I am not sure when it was. In the 1980's I'd guess, I restarted reading Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and again did not get much past North Dakota. This was maybe the third attempt, and right as I found myself reading in 2 or 3 page sessions, approaching the time to give up again, I conjured the image of reading the book at the very places he was describing in the text. Actually making the trip that he made in 1968, part of which was with friends riding the same bike I will be riding, a BMW R60. At that time I knew not if the trip details in the book were fiction or fact. On one level it did not matter.

Looking at the states I needed to traverse to get to my goal, a route emerged that brought Pirsig's journey to mind. So a few keystrokes and clicks later and I had a map of his trip, worked out by Pirsig Pilgrims who precede me along the way. I learned that people have earned PhD paper and that there are conferences on one of this book's real messages: the Metaphysics of Quality.

Anyway, Beaverton is not on his route so I'll have to ride a few extra miles. And then there is the return trip. I now plan to ride another bucket-list road: US 50 from San Francisco to Annapolis. A book called Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen gives details of the good stuff along US 50 called the "Loneliest Road" in the country. Looks like some very nice scenery out west. I hope the gas stations are not too far apart for my little tank. Looks like 7000 miles plus. Maybe too many miles, we'll see.

So on the bike front, I am lacing new rims I've had on the shelf for many years to the hubs and getting them trued up by a professional wheel tweaker, re-lining the brakes, ordering new tires, greasing everything that is supposed to be slippery and wiping off everything that ain't.

I'm mounting my old Craven bags because they hold lots more than the cool Enduro bags now mounted and they have a luggage rack to strap down tent, sleeping bag and the like. Maybe I'm even going to install the dual seat rather than my very tired solo seat so that I can slide back and stretch the legs over the many miles.

I will be running an APRS tracker on this trip so where there is a ham able to capture my signal and relay it to the internet, you will be able to follow my progress. With my new cell phone I should be able to post photos as well. It will be a great to have you along on this hot, cold, dry and wet ride!

Summer Trip Planning has begun!

I recently posted a version of this to the "Slash 2 list" read and populated by other people who ride and love these old bikes. I got a lot of good ideas and some offers to meet the people whose words have informed my riding experience for ten years or more. I now open it up to you to make suggestions, but I'll take a few off the table to avoid both of you typing the same thing:

0- I will be careful, but not full of cares.

1- I don't choose to ride interstate highways, but sometimes they are good.

2- I know that the mid-west holds less charm for motorcyclists then the Mountains on either side of it, and I know it is hot there in July. But for me it is mind over matter and having traversed at least part of the mid-west each July for some years, I can say with some confidence that I will survive it again.

3- I do take my time and smell the roses - that is what the trip is all about. I do not plan the details, only a loose list of places to try and visit. If I don't make it, there is usually next year.

Speaking of next year, Ann and I are getting pretty serious about the "Ride your bike to France" trip. Maybe on a modern bike. That trip is actually more miles than Oregon, and a lot of water crossings.

So here is the original post (with minor edits and a photo of the old R60):


I have friends in Beaverton Oregon that are expecting a baby in mid-July so I am looking at riding my old R60 out there, going west on the northern route via WV, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and finally Oregon.

I guess I'll go to the coast while I am close, and return by the southern route via Dodge City to see Jim and his sweet wife. Maybe he will give me a ride in the MG.

So at this point having never traveled the good roads in the Iowa -> Oregon stretch on an old bike, I am open for suggested routes, cool things to stop and do, good local food, camping, etc. Any of you along the way that like to host crazy solo riders, let me know. I'd love to meet more of the list contributors.

View July 2011 draft map in a larger map