attain celebrity status: check!

[krid80]

Congrats, Dirk!!!
Can I get your autograph??? :BLAA:

Of course. I'm not one to let my fame go to my head.

 

[CHEMIKER]

That's great! Thanks for sharing.

 

[wrlomas]

awesome!!!!!! Ride on!!

 

[Humperdinkel]

That is bloody AWESOME mate & a nice little free plug for our beloved forum :thumbup:

Next mission should be for you to ride around Oz :rockon:

Im wondering if there is a story in the Aussie crews Tassie trip next year :don'tknow: I WANNA BE FAMOUS

 

[Motogiro]

I caged up Ventura Ca. to jtarkany's house to meet the crew when they came in. I brought donuts from the famous Randy's Donuts in Santa Monica area.

My ribs were still healing and I was bikeless. I had planned to meet up with the crew and ride some of the ride, but........

It was great meeting you all!

And yes if you guys are planning it this coming year I'll meet up with you! :rockon:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Humm.....wonder who receives the credits for taking some of those photos?

 

[krid80]

Humm.....wonder who receives the credits for taking some of those photos?

Good point....

If Vegasrider was not there to take the photos of me at the Golden Gate Bridge (and several other places not shown here) I would have been tasked with finding a English speaking tourist at one of the viewing areas. Not a simple task!

Thanks, Kenny. You rock hardcore. :rockon:

 

[krid80]

Haha, there's even a shout out to the FZ6 forum in the article. That's pretty cool.

Touring like this looks like it would be a lot of fun, especially in a group.

On long trips like this, do you typically listen to music somehow or just cruise along? How often do you typically take breaks?

I've yet to ride more than 3-4 hours at a time, and no highway yet.

I wanted to wait until I was on a pc before I replied to your post, Haelous. I have been posting via my HTC EVO 4G (even used the photobucket app to post the pics in the first post of this thread).

It is insanely fun to tour like this, but I have found that there is a distinct freedom to riding alone. For example, if you read my full ride report that I linked, Lone had a habit of getting us started late. If you are alone and get a late start, you have only yourself to blame.

I was using a SENA SMH-10 Bluetooth helmet headset that played bluetooth audio streamed from my EVO 4G. It worked flawlessly and only left me silent twice when I neglected charging it. Also, with my phone, it will voice dial over bluetooth which was awesome. When approaching the Grand Canyon, I was watching a storm in the distance but couldn't tell how much it was going to threaten my route, so I voice dialed my brother in Illinois, from rural Arizona, and had him do a little forecasting for me. I stayed dry thanks in part to his calculations of the storm's movements. I loaded about 4GB of music on my 8GB micro SD card and set it to shuffle all of my music. Worked GREAT! Not only that, but I had my EVO set to do turn by turn navigation a couple of times and the voice guidance was played right inside my helmet. Definitely helped me find the Excalibur in Las Vegas.

I typically start a trip taking breaks every 50 miles for the first tank of fuel, then stretch it to 100 or so on the second tank. My goal on a multiple day trip is to be going a full tank nonstop by the end of day one. This really makes the miles fly by and allows for more miles in a day due to meaningless stops. One thing you have to be sure to keep in mind is hydration. I made sure I drank at least a quart of water or gatorade at every fuel stop and usually would deposit that same quart at the next fuel stop before replacing it in my system (if you know what I mean...).

I think highway riding is ok as long as the highway isn't too terribly dull. Kansas sucks. Plain and simple. As does Colorado east of Denver. Southwestern Oklahoma and the panhandle are rather dull as well. Other than that, the scenery made up for the lackluster ride quality. Interstate 70 in Utah is amazing and I would love to ride that again someday.

My best advice is to plan an easy route that will take about 6 hours in a car to complete, and then go ride it over 8 hours. Take enough breaks to not get weary but don't drag out each individual stop. Try to stop for gas, pee, drink, munch on mixed nuts or jerky, and be back on the road in 15-20 minutes. Anything longer than that and your body and mind will start to try to convince you to stay off the bike longer. Have a smartphone and know how to use it. Use weather apps with radar, calculate fuel economy, take and send pictures and texts. Share your experience with others while you are doing this short trip. People who don't ride will find you crazy, while people that do will find themselves jealous. If possible, do it on a weekday (Monday - Friday) so if you have any issues, there will be a bike shop or repair facility available. Also, aside from metropolitan rush hours, traffic should be lighter.

Once you have a full 8 hour day in the saddle, you are pretty much there. Plan to average about 50 mph when you are doing freeway traveling (this includes 15 minute breaks). So in 8 hours, you should be able to cover 400 miles. As the article says, my longest day (15 hours riding) was just over 800 miles.

Let me know if I can help any further. Happy riding.

 

[psnbye]

Thats really cool! Congrats on your new found fame Krid, good job on the tips for long rides too! I have a bluetooth helmet also but cant hear music or phone at speeds over about 50 mph or so, need to get a better one I guess. What weather apps do you use? Are they pretty accurate?

 

[krid80]

Thats really cool! Congrats on your new found fame Krid, good job on the tips for long rides too! I have a bluetooth helmet also but cant hear music or phone at speeds over about 50 mph or so, need to get a better one I guess. What weather apps do you use? Are they pretty accurate?

I use the Weather Channel's app and accuweather's mobile website. Using both together is really accurate.

A tip for the bluetooth music, wear ear plugs and you'll hear the audio better!

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Touring like this looks like it would be a lot of fun, especially in a group.
.

Best of both worlds, Dirk's trip had a combination of riding solo all the way up to four other riders during certain parts of the trip.

 

[discgolfdude]

Wow, congrats Dirk! What seat do you have? I have a stock and after about 50mi my butt hurts, and I have to get off and walk a bit!

 

[mxgolf]

Thanks for the tips to long distance riding. I tagged along with Vegas Rider for 100 miles and that was fun. I hope I can make it too Laguna Seca for the Moto GP in 2011. :rockon:

 

[krid80]

Best of both worlds, Dirk's trip had a combination of riding solo all the way up to four other riders during certain parts of the trip.

Agreed. I did indeed have the best of both worlds.

Wow, congrats Dirk! What seat do you have? I have a stock and after about 50mi my butt hurts, and I have to get off and walk a bit!

I have made long freaking trips on the stock seat, but I upgraded to the Top Saddlery for this go-round.

Thanks for the tips to long distance riding. I tagged along with Vegas Rider for 100 miles and that was fun. I hope I can make it too Laguna Seca for the Moto GP in 2011. :rockon:

I'd love to go to that GP in 2011, I'll be at Indy for the third year (Lord willing)

 

[Haelous]

I wanted to wait until I was on a pc before I replied to your post, Haelous. I have been posting via my HTC EVO 4G (even used the photobucket app to post the pics in the first post of this thread).

It is insanely fun to tour like this, but I have found that there is a distinct freedom to riding alone. For example, if you read my full ride report that I linked, Lone had a habit of getting us started late. If you are alone and get a late start, you have only yourself to blame.

I was using a SENA SMH-10 Bluetooth helmet headset that played bluetooth audio streamed from my EVO 4G. It worked flawlessly and only left me silent twice when I neglected charging it. Also, with my phone, it will voice dial over bluetooth which was awesome. When approaching the Grand Canyon, I was watching a storm in the distance but couldn't tell how much it was going to threaten my route, so I voice dialed my brother in Illinois, from rural Arizona, and had him do a little forecasting for me. I stayed dry thanks in part to his calculations of the storm's movements. I loaded about 4GB of music on my 8GB micro SD card and set it to shuffle all of my music. Worked GREAT! Not only that, but I had my EVO set to do turn by turn navigation a couple of times and the voice guidance was played right inside my helmet. Definitely helped me find the Excalibur in Las Vegas.

I typically start a trip taking breaks every 50 miles for the first tank of fuel, then stretch it to 100 or so on the second tank. My goal on a multiple day trip is to be going a full tank nonstop by the end of day one. This really makes the miles fly by and allows for more miles in a day due to meaningless stops. One thing you have to be sure to keep in mind is hydration. I made sure I drank at least a quart of water or gatorade at every fuel stop and usually would deposit that same quart at the next fuel stop before replacing it in my system (if you know what I mean...).

I think highway riding is ok as long as the highway isn't too terribly dull. Kansas sucks. Plain and simple. As does Colorado east of Denver. Southwestern Oklahoma and the panhandle are rather dull as well. Other than that, the scenery made up for the lackluster ride quality. Interstate 70 in Utah is amazing and I would love to ride that again someday.

My best advice is to plan an easy route that will take about 6 hours in a car to complete, and then go ride it over 8 hours. Take enough breaks to not get weary but don't drag out each individual stop. Try to stop for gas, pee, drink, munch on mixed nuts or jerky, and be back on the road in 15-20 minutes. Anything longer than that and your body and mind will start to try to convince you to stay off the bike longer. Have a smartphone and know how to use it. Use weather apps with radar, calculate fuel economy, take and send pictures and texts. Share your experience with others while you are doing this short trip. People who don't ride will find you crazy, while people that do will find themselves jealous. If possible, do it on a weekday (Monday - Friday) so if you have any issues, there will be a bike shop or repair facility available. Also, aside from metropolitan rush hours, traffic should be lighter.

Once you have a full 8 hour day in the saddle, you are pretty much there. Plan to average about 50 mph when you are doing freeway traveling (this includes 15 minute breaks). So in 8 hours, you should be able to cover 400 miles. As the article says, my longest day (15 hours riding) was just over 800 miles.

Let me know if I can help any further. Happy riding.

Thanks for the advice!

I have the HTC Incredible, and I am a big fan of Android and it's versatility. I have a second battery for it as well. My phone is rooted, running CM6.1. I have a 32GB microSD and keep tons of stuff on my phone.

Where do you keep your phone while riding? I considered mounting it on the bike, but I am a bit uncomfortable with not having it on the inside pocket of my jacket in case of an off while riding in a more rural area, which I do routinely.

The SMH-10 looks great! I like the buttons on the outside of the helmet, and the speakers should fit in the speaker openings in my Shoei RF-1100. I'm a big fan of dials for volume, I just think they're more intuitive. I also like how it can be used while charging. I have an SAE cable on my bike for the battery maintainer, so I can just add an outlet or two that way.

What kind of battery life do you actually see? It says 12 hours, but as we all know the manufacturer's numbers typically aren't quite correct. I'm just hoping it's at least 4-6 of continuous play, which would be enough for a normal weekend ride with a buffer.

 

[krid80]

Thanks for the advice!

I have the HTC Incredible, and I am a big fan of Android and it's versatility. I have a second battery for it as well. My phone is rooted, running CM6.1. I have a 32GB microSD and keep tons of stuff on my phone.

Where do you keep your phone while riding? I considered mounting it on the bike, but I am a bit uncomfortable with not having it on the inside pocket of my jacket in case of an off while riding in a more rural area, which I do routinely.

The SMH-10 looks great! I like the buttons on the outside of the helmet, and the speakers should fit in the speaker openings in my Shoei RF-1100. I'm a big fan of dials for volume, I just think they're more intuitive. I also like how it can be used while charging. I have an SAE cable on my bike for the battery maintainer, so I can just add an outlet or two that way.

What kind of battery life do you actually see? It says 12 hours, but as we all know the manufacturer's numbers typically aren't quite correct. I'm just hoping it's at least 4-6 of continuous play, which would be enough for a normal weekend ride with a buffer.

I, too am rooted on a custom Rom but I am currently running Fresh 3.4.0.1. I am downloading cm 6.1 to try out as we speak.

I kept my phone on a charger in my tank bag on this and most trips. It seems to work quite well. I used my battery tender lead to power a cigarette lighter style socket and was able to air up my air mattress using this as well.

Battery life is at least 12 hours I would say. Very infrequently did I have to charge the headset on the bike.

What do you like about cm 6.1?

 

[Kazza]

:steve:

Only just read the thread

 

[krid80]

:steve:

Only just read the thread

welcome to the party.....

 

[Haelous]

I, too am rooted on a custom Rom but I am currently running Fresh 3.4.0.1. I am downloading cm 6.1 to try out as we speak.

I kept my phone on a charger in my tank bag on this and most trips. It seems to work quite well. I used my battery tender lead to power a cigarette lighter style socket and was able to air up my air mattress using this as well.

Battery life is at least 12 hours I would say. Very infrequently did I have to charge the headset on the bike.

What do you like about cm 6.1?

Wow, a battery life that's actual factual. That's impressive in and of itself.

To me, CM6.1 feels faster than stock, but I don't use HTC Sense. I like having more icons on my screens. I use whatever ADWLauncher CM has installed at the time. I've been running it since CM6.0 RC1, trying Sense ROMs occasionally, but always coming back to CM because I don't like Sense.

I like the additional settings as well, like the ability to adjust the auto brightness levels and turn the button lighting on/off at different brightness levels.