St. John's Gildehaus

Gateway Riders and Shadow Riders both had a sausage-fest at St. John's Gildehaus on their ride calendars. I don't ride with groups but thought it would be fun to see a bunch of bikes. The weather forecast was T-storms but the radar was clear so I headed out to Highway T and beyond.

It was a glorious day for riding but a bit windy. I hadn't been on highway V since spring, when it was a mess of patches and busted pavement. Now it's brand new blacktop all the way to Union, and it's one smooth sweet sweeper.

No bikes at the church and the line was too long for me so I explored instead. St. Louis Rock Road starts at V and heads back toward town. It's a lovely top of the world ridge-runner. It's patchy but my new Sport Demons didn't care.

After ride inspection found some oil leakage at valve cover gasket. I didn't do anything unusual on this ride so I have no idea what the problem is. Back to the shop for warranty work.

Too Busy Riding

I haven't written many entries to this blog lately because I've been too busy riding. That will change with the weather. Soon I will write more than ride.

Last weekend I took my wife on a tour of my favorite recently discovered rides. Over two days we rode more than 100 miles on wonderfully bad twisty roads, crossed three rivers, rode three ferries, in two states and five counties. We saw great scenery and an unearthly circling flock of pelicans over Calhoun County, Illinois. I avoided the boring Great River Road and its endless parade of noisy Harleys, preferring to spend my time on mostly empty back roads.

This weekend it's threatening to rain. Very sad. It's a full moon and the autumn foliage is at its colorful peak. I might have to risk getting the Nun wet and road-dirty. She's due for a bath anyway.

The Honda CB 900... by Triumph

I love vertical twins, but I have only owned two. My first bike was a Honda Dream 250, a parallel twin with forward leaning cylinders. My third bike was a four cylinder Honda 550. My second bike was a Honda CJ360T, a true vertical twin, and I thought it had a beautiful engine. I loved the looks of the vertical twin DOHC (double overhead cam) Honda CB450 but somehow never bought one.

And now I own a New Bonneville, which is like a big brother to the 450. It's an even bigger DOHC vertical twin motorcycle. It's the big twin Honda never made.

The Bonnie is also classic-Honda-like with its high quality, smoothness and quiet strength. In many ways it's more like a grown up CB450 than a classic era Triumph. And I couldn't be happier about it.

60s Triumphs were fast, great looking and super cool, but they weren't great vehicles in several important respects. They were unreliable and not the best handling bikes. Some people found their quirks charming. But I needed a bike that would get me safely to my destination, every time. In the 60s and early 70s that meant Hondas and BMWs.

Honda changed motorcycling by making performance and quality affordable. The other manufacturers had to inprove their quality to compete. Every motorcycle company has benefited from Honda's lead. Remember the AMF-era Harleys?

So when John Bloor reinvented the Bonneville, he insisted on a super reliable, high quality machine capable of competing with the best bikes in the world. And Triumph built one. I bet even Sochiro Honda would love the New Bonneville.

Honda changed automobiles, too. Remember the Vega?

Calhoun County Revisited

Yesterday I returned to Calhoun County, Illinois. Traffic was heavier and two ferries were running. I rode the MRR, the Mississippi River Road, past my intended Hardin turn off because that road was completely unmarked. After riding twisties devoid of bike traffic I met the western part of the GRR, the Great River Road. The GRR is fairly flat and barely curved so it was full of noisy Harleys and similar machines.

I took the GRR back to Hardin and perhaps the only gas station in the county. The lot was full of Harleys and trikes. I got the hell off the GRR route and took my missed cut off back to the MRR and home by the twisties.

Riding a hundred miles of "bad" twisty hilly roads has left me a bit sore. You use a lot of muscles to navigate the bad back roads; muscles that you don't use if you're reclining on a cruiser, taking easy roads.

The trees are beginning to change color. Next weekend will be very colorful. I've had enough of Calhoun for awhile. The scenery is primarily bare, recently harvested fields. I'm starting to miss Wild Horse Creek Rd.

I just had new Pirelli Sport Demon tires put on the Nun and they feel great. A minor oil drip turned out to be a loose oil filter that was installed by an authorized dealer tech. When the warranty concludes next April I'll be doing most or all service work myself. I'm more careful than the average mechanic.

I'd be riding instead of writing if I hadn't overdone it yesterday. I'll take the Nun for a spin sometime today but right now I'm enjoying a restful Sunday morning.

Calhoun County, Illinois

I discovered the Ozarks of Illinois!

Just across the Mississippi River from St. Charles County, Missouri, via the Golden Eagle Ferry, lies Calhoun County, Illinois. Unlike much of Illinois, this place is hilly and full of twisty roads.

I didn't crop the road surface out of the above photo so you can see what a rural Illinois road looks like. It's gravel and oil. The nicest ones are compressed with a roller. The cheap way is to just let the traffic compress it. The surface is as smooth as asphalt but tougher.

 Above is a museum piece that sits outside a tourist trap. It's a Cushman; the original motor scooter.

Here's a shot of the ferry ride back to Missouri. This was a much nicer ferry ride than the one at Grafton. And the roads were hilly and twisty and Harley free. The only other bike I saw was a sport bike that was getting off the ferry before I first got on. The roads from Golden Eagle to Brussels, IL are better suited to a Bonneville than to a sport bike. And don't even take your Gold Wing over there. You might fall down.

It was a beautiful day and a great ride. I'll be back when the leaves change.

Grafton Ferry

I rode a ferry for the first time yesterday. It was OK.

Grafton, Illinois is cute, tiny and overrun with noisy Harleys. Harley riders love the Great River Road (Hwy 100) because it's flat, wide and has mild curves. I was on 100 for less than two hours and saw around 200 Harleys. I also rode a winding hilly road through Pere Marquette Park, on which I saw zero Harleys.

I had lunch outside on the main strip in Grafton and it was like a Harley parade. Once in awhile a big bike would purr quietly by... Gold Wings, of course. There were a few sport bikes mixed in with the groups of Harleys.

The time I spent on 100 quickly became boring. The scenery is nice but repetitive. The first eagle you see is exciting, but a dozen eagles later the thrill wears off.

One fellow traveller endorsed the Golden Eagle Ferry over the Grafton Ferry. It leads to a hilly section of Illinois between the Illinois River and the Mississippi River. I'll be making that trip soon.

I took a lot of photos during the Grafton trip but none of them are very interesting. I include only one so-so ferry shot:

A Nun is Born

I have named my 2008 Triumph Bonneville T100.

1. The bike is black and white and chrome all over.
2. I refer to my Sunday morning rides as "going to church."
3. I have loved Grace Slick since I first heard her sing.

Therefore I have christened my beloved motorcycle...
The Chrome Nun.

For those of you who are not classic rock geezers like me, "The Chrome Nun" was one of Grace Slick's nicknames and once featured in an album title: Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun. I grew up with the Jeffersons (Airplane, Starship, etc.) and have always considered Grace the first lady of rock.

The new monikker suits my T to a T. She's respectable in a disreputable way and she's entirely capable of being unladylike.

And to continue the theme, my next bike will be The Penguin, a euphemism for a nun popularized by The Blues Brothers movie.

The Penguin will be a black Ural Patrol 2-wheel-drive sidecar bike. I'll paint the belly of the sidecar white, like the belly of a penguin. And I'll paint two small white circles on either side of the fuel tank to resemble penguin eyes.

The Penguin will be my winter bike. 2WD Urals do great in the snow and their high-amperage alternators can power electrically-heated riding gear from head to toe.

I won't be able to afford The Penguin for a few years but I'm publishing the idea now to stake my claim on it. I won't have a major cow if someone copies the idea, so long as I'm not accused of copying them.

I'm 56 now. I intend to have my Penguin by the time I'm 60. In the meantime, I'll ride the wheels off The Nun.