When I was younger (mid 30’s) I did two sort of endurance rides. Neither was specifically planned to be an endurance ride. I simply wanted (needed?) to see if I could get somewhere which happened to be fairly far away, in as little time as possible. I was not trying to set any speed record, though. Just wanted to get there without lallygagging.
The bike for both rides was my old R100/7. No windshield other than a small home-made fairing from the headlight nacelle ending just over the top of the instruments. A period photo of the machine is shown at the top of this email and here (dry-stored in the basement today, near our clothes washer and dryer). This bike started out as an ‘RS’ but shortly after I purchased it from its original owner in about 1981, I converted it to a /7 naked bike and sold its fairing and everything else that was ‘RS’. I still have this bike and would guess it has about 100-150K on its odometer (which was not working for a few years, twice). It has the RS’s bigger 40mm exhaust and a few other ’RS’ items. With the help of an extremely talented friend, and over the course of several winters, I hot-rodded it the way I wanted (at that time…): /2 ‘high’ handlebars, Kehin ‘slant slide’ pumper carbs, high performance cam, bigger pistons, mono lever swingarm, oversize Heinrich tank, frame stiffener bars, extra holes in its cast aluminum airbox, drilled-out straight-through mufflers, lightened flywheel, special clutch, etc. It made 68HP on a dyno, which is a lot for one of these, and would wheelie on the throttle in 2nd with only a light effort. Which stock versions of this bike won’t do. It’s a tank, but back-in-the day was still a lot of fun to build and ride.
One of my two quasi-accidental endurance rides involved two back-to-back 900-mile days riding home from Bike Week in Florida to Duluth Minnesota. What made it an endurance ride wasn’t the distance, though. It was the low temperature. The second day it was below freezing the entire time. When I reached my residence, it had gotten down into the low twenties, I think. There were quite large snowbanks on the sides of the roads from Chicago north, but the road itself was dry all the way. In my driveway when I got home there was about a foot of accumulated snow. I was so tired I ploughed into it as far as I could and then just left the bike on its sidestand right there, surrounded by great clouds of steam coming from the hot engine melting the snow. Then I staggered inside leaving a trail of shedded gear all through the house like a three-year-old and slept for ten or twelve hours. Woke up famished but alive.
The other long-hard ride was the year the BMW National Rally was in York PA. I rode there from Duluth in one very long day and when I pulled up at the gate at three or four AM wanting to camp, the entrance security would not let me in, so I got back on the bike and rode down to somewhere near the shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where I watched the sun come up over the water, then turned around went back to the rally site, got right in, set up my tent and slept until noon. I think the total miles of that ride was about 1,250-1,300 and the total hours was around 22 or 23.
I don’t consider myself an endurance rider, but for most of my years when riding on road trips a good day is around 750 miles and an easy day is around 500-600. Today at age 68 I’m satisfied and comfortable with anywhere in the 3–600-mile range and have nearly zero interest going for more. The well-known cliche: "The older one gets, the faster one was” is sometimes true, but both hard-ride accounts are as close to accuracy as I can remember them.
Famously, whatever doesn’t kill you hopefully makes you stronger. What were some of your hardest/fastest/longest rides?
- Mr. Subjective, 11-21
I’ve ridden faster and further than this trip, https://geezerwithagrudge.wordpress.com/2021/12/03/my-hardest-fastest-longest-ride/, but nothing I have done since has been harder, longer, or nuttier. It was my first street bike and my first solo long-distance trip and nothing that came after that ride was ever the same. l had ridden motorcycles since I was 15, but after that trip to California from Omaha my self-identity was never the same. If it weren’t for your post, I’d have probably never written-up this “adventure.” Thanks, again.
Hardest ride ever was climbing Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. It was June and the weather was a sunny 70 degrees F on the ground. We were dressed accordingly. When we stopped at the toll booth, the man there said, “You can go up there, but you better look at this first.” What he pointed to was a chalk board indicating that the temperature at the summit was 28 degrees and the wind was gusting between 50 and 75 MPH. I was more than a little surprised when I saw my riding companion hand over the toll money.
We started up the winding road and the conditions progressively deteriorated. The visibility got really bad and a lot of the road was not paved. As I recall, there were no guardrails and it was about a 7 mile ride to the top of the mountain. No heated gear in those days, so we were freezing by the time we reached the summit.
As it turned out, the ride down was much worse than the ride up. The wind was gusting and the visibility was so bad that I couldn’t see beyond the front wheel of my own motorcycle. It was all I could do to keep my Kawasaki 750 twin on the road. There was no way to stop, so the only option was to keep going.
I’ve been riding for over 50 years now, and that ride down from Mt. Washington still reigns as some of the most terrifying moments I’ve ever spent on a motorcycle.
While I have done many 700 and 800 miles days (a decade or more ago) and have done some longer really-type multi-day rides such as the Four Corners USA Tour, and several Three Flags rides, my longest day was the ride three buddies and I did to qualify for the Iron Butt Association, the Saddlesore 1000. Back then it was OK to start and end the ride at the same spot. We mapped out a route form my home near Seattle out to Lewiston, ID, then Missoula, MT via Lolo Pass and then back to Seattle via I-90. We puled into my driveway at 2 AM and creaked and groaned our way to my hot tub. Somehow we stayed awake long enough to fill guest beds and couches, then slept until noon. Great ride going out, but on the way back it was “are we there yet?”
These days 450 miles is pretty much a long day, but I am retired now so The Clock and Calendar no longer dictate miles.
500,000 miles in 40+ years. I have told people “I don’t try to ride everyday but try every month!” No big deal, right? Living in Minnesota and riding in the winter is cool… (Pun intended) I remember before I bought Areostich or the electric vest, riding in on a January day. Sunshine but 4 degrees above zero. My hands felt like flippers! Opened up the door to the boiler room and hugged the heat!
Then I bought the Areostich 1 piece in April of 2006. I had made a vest with multi-strand wire. #27 size insulated. First wiring was only 100 feet. A fellow rider’s eyes looked like saucers.. “Tim you need more wire!” Back home adding more. Then later purchased a used vest made in Duluth.
Now I have the Darien for summertime and the ‘Stich’ for winter. I was told by the associates at Riderwearhouse, " This is the last time we are repairing your Aerostich, I have to say you have ridden well!" I think I have well over 300,000 miles on that worn out protection!
Back in the early 1980’s I would get people sneering at me. I could claim that I could ride over 1000 miles at a time. They would shake their heads.. “I don’t put that many miles on my car!” Now it seems that I get more respect! One friend said, “I know why you ride 1000 miles, you want to get home to your wife!”
I have had amateur radios on the BMW. Huge antennas.. upto 13 feet high! Fun part besides talking is the people in their cars! Windows quietly lower. "Who are you talking to, NASA? " High Frequency band of 20 meters. Listening to the Net control where people are calling in to the Net and getting a relay to another ham operator. I call in.. “Motorcycle Mobil” Dead silence.. See, most Ham radio stations need a good ground to transmit their signals. Cars and trucks have their steel roofs or pickup boxes.. however a motorcycle? So the Net control answered me. I told him my position. Southeastern Minnesota on highway 60. It was 10 am local time. However I then called in again on the 20 meter band. But this time I was in Western Colorado. The Net control assumed I was still in Minnesota! "This is AB0TS, Tim in Fruita, Colorado on a BMW K100LT! I have an Icom 706mkii and a Screwdriver antenna, your signal is 5 by 9! thanks for running the Net.
All sorts of things can be done with a radio and a motorcycle, eh?
Andy,
I loved the picture you painted of your arrival home after your trip from Daytona Bike Week! That is some sweet slash seven!! Love the Heinrich tank$$$
Lou
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