It's a little early for one of my road reports. There's a few more weeks (months?) of riding afterall. But this is a short story for informational purposes as well as entertainment, if you can call it that.

I had work in Sioux Falls, so I figured I would ride it vs the usual flight/car rental scenario. According to Google Maps it's about 8 hours if I take the direct route. A little more if I take the "as a crow flies route". It takes me damn near that much time to fly there if you count the time door to door with layovers etc. And there had been some talk of Hwy 18 on this section of the forum, so I figured I would take a looksee for myself. Besides, what’s not to like about getting paid to ride? Here's the exact route I ultimately took -


It's Hwy 94 west to Madison, Hwy 151/18 to Dodgeville, Hwy 18 to basically Clear Lake IA, I-35 to Albert Lea, then I-90 to Sioux Falls SD.

I’ll break this report up into topic summaries – a little different than the way I normally do it -

Hwy 18 - Being a "short" day, I left at a leisurely 9:30 AM. I always make that mistake. I've done a number 1000 mile rides in a day, so for whatever reason I think of 500 miles as a half day. Wrong! Especially when it's 600 miles on really sh*tty secondary roads. Yes, you heard me right. Sh*tty. Horrible. Hwy 18 is possibly the most boring, and choppy secondary highways I have made the mistake of riding. Hwy 20 to the south is a skip down the yellow brick road by comparison, and I avoided that because it was boring. Don’t get me wrong – there is plenty of good riding in Iowa. I love the roads over by the river. But like any state, it has it’s not so great roads too. My original intent was to ride Hwy 18 all the way to the Sioux Falls area. As you can see, I diverted to I-90 by way of I-35 because I had had enough. Besides, Google Maps told me Hwy 18 all the way added about an hour vs the fastest route. They were wrong. As you can see, Hwy 18 is a straight line west from Milwaukee. Straight, that is, until you zoom in. I didn't zoom in - a rookie mistake. What it really is, is a series of jogs north and south that add quite a bit of time and distance. According to Google Maps it's 513 miles. My odometer read just shy of 600. Factor in a few boring towns and Casey's gas stations (no high octane) which dominate Iowa, and one road closure that resulted in an unauthorized (signs indicated a different route) 10 mile gravel road detour. I could have done the 30 mile paved detour. No thanks. But that gravel road sucked. I’m okay with gravel, but this was fresh gravel on a crowned farm road. It was like riding on ball bearings. Factor in the oncoming trucks hauling trailers at 50 MPH and it wasn’t much fun. That’s all I have to say about Hwy 18 other than never again.

Wind and Batwings – As luck would have it, there was a very strong wind from the west, the direction I was traveling. Because the route jogged north and south, the headwind was often cross winds. If there was a gravel road to my west, it sucked because it created a dust storm that blew across the road. But, that’s part of the ride in Fall. And I will say that, despite many claims here on HDF, the batwing fairing tracked true throughout. Not one wobble. Ok….at low speeds sometimes the wind would actually catch the fairing and steer me around a little. But at high speeds, with that big gyroscope out front, the bars were a rock. I could have ridden no hands in the worst cross wind. Yeah, I would still be leaning into it, but so what. I guess I have yet to hit the cross wind that has some folks concerned about batwings.

Suspension – Just tossed some 13.5 Progressive 444 HDs on the bike. They did a pretty good job of soaking up the bumps. But some of the highways just suck. Hwy 18 and I-90 have sections that feel like miles and miles of speed bumps. I’ve heard visitors to the Midwest say they roads are awful compared to theirs, and in my experience, they are correct. One guy I talked to (from Texas) even said he thought the “speed bumps” were intentional and wondered why on earth we have those. I’m pretty sure he was serious. Anyway, I had Ohlins on prior to this and didn’t like them. The Progressives work better for me overall.

Windshield – 10 inch HD Wind Splitter. Windshields are as subjective as shocks and seats. I tried a few different ones and the Wind Splitter works for me. It’s low enough that I still know I’m on a bike, but high enough to toss the smooth air up to my helmet.

Shoei Quest Helmet – It’s fairly quiet and very comfortable. Sure, the side winds make some noise, but once into a head wind it got better. The next day with a tailwind it was very quiet.

Senna SMH10 headset– pretty much sucks for music. I wear earplugs and the speakers just can’t get the volume to make it worth it. Around town it’s fine. Even at country road speeds it’s okay. On the interstate? Worthless. Cheryl and I have used them on more scenic roads at lower speeds and they were good for talking and a little music though.

Sioux Falls – It was a very long day in the saddle getting there. I’ve done the ride many times and usually it’s 7 hours. This time it was 10 plus. In the wind. The whole way. Once I was on the Interstates (starting with I-35) I was able to run 85 MPH – 90 MPH. In the high winds and at that speed I was getting 30 MPG. Not bad all things considered. I had half a tank in Clear Lake where I stopped for a late lunch (3PM). I figured I wouldn’t make the 217 miles on a full tank with the wind, so I just figured I would run her dry and then fill up somewhere along the way to make it with one gas stop. I got pretty far, but the needle dropped quickly. When traveling, I tend to ride until the reserve light comes on. This time I was getting a little nervous because the next gas station (according to Infotainment POIs) was beyond the last countdown readout. I usually count down to 20 miles and start looking. In this case, because of the high fuel consumption and distance between full stops, it got to the “Low” reading vs a countdown faster than normal. Low is Moco speak for "out". But "out" is really half a gallon. I made it to Blue Earth and filled up there. 5.8 gallons. After another blast I made it to Sioux Falls as the sun was setting (really fun when riding west). I parked the bike out front of the Holiday Inn Conference Center downtown along the sidewalk out front. It was a legit space, so I didn’t bother with the “Under the canopy” request. Within an hour room service brought me two Shiner Bocks and a Jalepeno Cheeseburger. Despite the long hard day I actually knew I would look forward to the ride home tomorrow.

I-90 – After my meeting at 7:30 AM I hit the road. Yeah, that was a long ride for an hour meeting. But that’s my job. So I hit I-90 because I wanted the most expeditious route home. Well, to Madison anyway. I had told Cheryl I would meet her and her son there for a late lunch (3 PM again). He goes to UW – go Badgers! Anyway, in South Dakota I-90 is great. Smooth and 80 MPH speed limit. The heavy wind that beat me up yesterday was a blessing today – tail wind – gotta love it. 90 MPH felt like 50 MPH. Then I got to Minnesota. Speed bumps. Wonderful. I will say that they are trying to fix it because there were many construction zones where one side of the highway was totally closed, diverting oncoming traffic to our side. One section I putted along at 60 MPH in single file behind a line of cars for 20 miles. I watched my “arrival time” on the bike’s GPS got from 3:05 to 3:30 on that stretch. As bad as it was, it was still better than Hwy 18. Eventually the countdown on the reserve started. Not bad this time – 260 miles on that tank. But Minnesota has a shortage of highway gas stations around Rochester and once again I got nervous. I did a POI search for gas stations along my route and for whatever reason it showed only Kwik Trip and BP gas stations – all well beyond my reserve. I knew it was a glitch, so when the “Search nearest gas station” thing came up on the gps, it showed a Kwik Trip gas station 6 miles away. Wtf? Before it said 80 miles to the nearest one. Now it's 6?? Knowing it was probably off the Interstate a piece, I zoomed back on the map and it confirmed I would need to divert off I-90 to hit some small town to get gas. It looked as if maybe I could stay on the interstate and take the next exit to be right there, but I didn’t want to risk it. Plus seeing a new to me town is always a good way to break up a ride. Made it to the gas station, filled one tank, emptied another. I calculated 43 MPG. Not bad for hauling ***, and certainly better than 30 MPG. I pulled out and went on my way. Sure enough, at the entrance to I-90 was another Kwik Trip. Oh well.

The ride into Wisconsin – I had made up time despite the reroute for gas and I was back on track – arrival time 3:10. I got slowed down by construction traffic crossing the Mississippi. No biggy. And the view coming down into the valley is always great. Unfortunately, I could see that it was clouding up quite a bit to the NW. Cheryl had mentioned that rain was due to hit Madison around 4PM. I figured I might be getting wet a little sooner than that. Traffic was moving as well in Wisconsin as it was in South Dakota. And the roads were almost as good. I jumped in with a line of cars going 90 MPH and stayed with them. I knew with the tail wind I could pour on the coals and make Madison before refueling. Usually I’m very concerned with the presence of LE in WI. They are very good at collecting revenue for the state. But, I figured in the line of cars on a Tuesday afternoon I was relatively safe, which I was. No drama and I arrived in Madison at 3:05.

Madison – I met Cheryl and Tyler on State Street. If you know Madison, you know State Street is a walking only street, closed to traffic except busses and bicycles. It’s also the hub for all the happenings. You have to see the Halloween festivities to believe them. It’s crazy. But today it’s just the usual hustle bustle of college kids, pan handlers, and us. Tyler laughed at me when he saw me and said I hit a bulls eye on looking like a biker. I don’t think he knows what a biker really looks like. I had black ballistic nylon riding pants and a Belstaff ¾ length jacket on. Not very bikerish in my book, but whatever. We went to Hop Cat. It’s a great place to eat that has dozens of beers on tap. I settled in to a nice Organic White from Great Lake Brewery. And ordered another burger with fried jalepenos on it. The one last night sucked. This one was much much better. If you make it to Madison, check them out. By the time we were done it was 4:30 and rain was threatening. And Madison rush hour traffic sucks. The ride would be interesting. Cheryl followed me on my secret routes to avoid the heavy stuff with marginal success. I had to stop to let her catch up a few times. We both needed fuel so I pulled over at the BP on Washington St. I was just getting ready to fill up when I noticed gas was $2.29 a gallon. Another wtf? It was much lower everywhere else. So I cancelled the transaction and we left. Or tried to leave. Some brainless woman was at the exit waiting for her turn to go into traffic. Unfortunately, her turn never came. We sat and sat, Finally Cheryl motioned to me to go the exit upstream and get around the timid woman. Which we did. I got into to traffic right away, and even slowed to wave the woman infront of me. Clueless, she just sat there. I emphatically pointed at her, and then in front of me. Nothing. So I left her sitting there – clueless. My guess is she’s still there. We went to the next gas station. It was crowded but we were able to pull up to two pumps one in front of the other. I hopped off the bike and noticed that the crowd consisted of young black men loitering about, leaning on cars and eyeballing everyone that was pumping gas. Lots of gravity defying jeans with exposed boxer shorts. How the heck do they manage that anyway? But hey, gas was $2.09. I had Cheryl stay in the car and I pumped her gas and mine. I saw the gas station owner (presumably), an Indian guy emptying the trash. He had his cell phone obviously out and ready to call. It was obvious the eye-balling loiterers made him nervous. Started the bike up and pulled forward to the apron. I look back in my mirror at Cheryl who started to pull forward, when one of the young men stepped in front of her. Naturally, she stepped on the brakes to avoid running the dipshit over. He stands in front of her car and throws his hands up like “WTF??. By this time my kick stand is down and I’m about to get off the bike, head fully turned to face the goings on. At that moment, before I could get off the bike, the kid puts his hands together and does a little bow like “so sorry – my bad”, and steps away. Phew – crisis averted. His friends say something to him and he looks my direction and we lock eyes. Crap…..back in the game. He pauses and I can see the wheels turning – “should I or shouldn’t I?” Fortunately for both of us, he just kept walking over to his friends casting a few sideways glances in my direction. Cheryl and I beat it out of there with no further incident. All I can say about that is I’m glad I didn’t have to do anything more than I did. I don’t care who the man is – you don’t mess with the ones he loves. In hindsight I really feel like I have a guardian angel. That could have gone south hard. The fallout from protecting oneself and their loved ones is probably a living hell.

The ride home – It’s about an hour home from Madison, on another highway riddled with speed bumps. I-94. It’s okay to Oconomowoc, but east of there it’s pretty bad. One time I was driving next to a guy on a late Superglide and I saw him hit one of the speed bumps. The back tire came completely off the ground and his *** off the seat. I knew the feeling. Also it was starting to rain in earnest. And as usual when it rains, the idiots come out to play – especially in rush hour traffic. It seemed like every dipschnitz in a small car thought it was okay to pass all of us lined up in the left lane waiting our turn to get by slower traffic in the right lane, at 85 MPH only to cut in front of one of us and jam on their brakes to not hit the car they cut behind. I had it happen to me and was not please. The spray off the road and car really gets you when that happens. Not to mention it’s unsafe. The roads were just at that slippery time when it’s wet, but hasn’t washed the oils off. It was then that I started to think about that 20k tire on the back of the bike. Yeah, the front had 20k on it too, but it looks pretty good still. The back is still not down to the wear bars, but it’s close. To think that I had looked at the weather prior to my departure and saw nothing but sunshine in the forecast. I’m sure glad I didn’t trust that
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Belstaff Tourist Trophy waxed cotton ¾ length jacket – It’s a warm, heavy coat. It’s more or less water resistant, so it’s a good choice for changeable weather because it breathes well. For my ride it worked great. It was good protection from the wind but comfortable. In the rain adequate – especially having the batwing in front of me. Without that I doubt it would keep a person totally dry.

First gear mesh pants with rain liner. These are my Go To pants. They are comfortable and move air well. With the rain liner in they protect well. As long as you wear pants under them they are warm enough for the 60 degree temps I was riding in.

Soft Lowers – I put them on in the morning. That’s what I like about them – toss them in the tourpack and use them when you want to. Don’t when you don’t want to. They work great and kept the rain and cold off my non-waterproof Frye boots. I even like the way they look as they kind of add to the vintage look of my bike.

So that’s it. I made it home alive, if not a little worn out. It was about 1100 miles in two days. Nothing to write home about, but I got paid 57.5 cents a mile to do it. Wednesday I get to do it again, but this time to Minneapolis. 321 miles but this time Cheryl is joining me. We’ll bee-line it there, but we’ll take Hwy 35/Great river Road back. Hopefully the Fall colors are good up there. Regardless, it’s a beautiful ride. We’ve done it many times. And yes, there will be a new Dunlop on back.

 

River road is something to look forward to.

 

I guess I,ve never understood passing by a gas station on a bike because you don't want to pay 15-20cents more per gallon--saving 60-90cents for less convenience and possible safety---I,ll never understand-----All in all tho great write up and informative. My riding friends sometimes do the same[cost of fuel] which ends up having us stop twice on our journey .Agree on the soft lowers-good choice

Rocker

 

Thanks.

On the gas thing - I wouldn't pass up on gas on the highway because it was too much. But in the city I do it on principle basically. I don't want to reward them with my business. But remember, I was also filling up Cheryl's suv. I couldn't even tell you what the cost of premium was at either station. And in this case, they were the highest I had seen in weeks. They were way off. In hindsight, I would have paid the extra 25 cents a gallon to avoid an issue. Who knew?

 

My mistake on the suv--missed that --sorry--that would compute to another $5--great info on the roads /eats -----500-600 mile days tires one out .We stick to about 400 now

 

1100 miles?I truly admire your persistence.450 is my limit. Seems you're having a blast though.

 

Hey! You got in a two day ride. I call that priceless. Don't sweat the small stuff.

All the roads in the world have bumps. They all get windy, cold, hot, rainy, heavy traffic and on and on. It's all a part of being on two wheels. Look back on it as an adventure. Because it surly was.

 

Oh heck yeah. I would do it all over again, that's for sure.

Well maybe not the gas station in Madison.

 

You said you'll be in MPLS... Wave as you pass by! If I didn't have a meeting all morning, I'd meet ya!

 

I will! Might be from the truck though. Looks like rain for weds, thurs, and friday.