Ride from Seattle to Champaign

[p_s]

This is the story of my return trip from Seattle, where I had a summer job, to Champaign, where I live. I rode my '85 GS550ES there in May. You can read about that story here:
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=124973

I'd had a lot of problems with old seals and gaskets as well as electrical parts giving up over the summer in stop-and-go commuting. Maybe the motorcycle could tell that I was far away from my garage, my tools, my parts bike, and my car. My kitchen counter 2 weeks before my trip:

And the kitchen table:

And the "garage":

(I disclaim any knowledge of the causes of the oil stains in the driveway.) I was looking forward to having my garage again. The trip in May was 3000 miles in 8 days. This would be 2500 in 5 1/2. I had to get back for my brother-in-law's wedding or I would have taken a few more days and visited some people along the way.

 

[Craiger]

Definitely subscribing to this!

 

[seuadr]

pretty bike.. more story!

 

[Skyboy8950]

Paul, I thought you said you were going to buy a new bike out there. I didn't know you took your own. Holy mackrel, thats a lot of miles. Good work!

 

[p_s]

Paul, I thought you said you were going to buy a new bike out there. I didn't know you took your own. Holy mackrel, thats a lot of miles. Good work!

Well if there were a way to buy a bike there and keep this one that'd be great. Seattle Craigslist is better than porn.

 

[80GS750]

hey paul i cant wait to see the narrative....


glad you made it home ok on your last leg of the trip!

lol

 

[p_s]

Day 1: August 8, 2008
Start: Redmond, WA
End: Grand Coulee, WA
223 miles
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=seattle+wa&daddr=Grand+Coulee+Ave+%4047.939240,+-119.011150&hl=en&geocode=5152144626444859012,47.832443,-119.134204%3B12913405204968334901,47.939240,-119.011150&mra=mr&mrcr=0&sll=47.812924,-119.177284&sspn=0.100063,0.30899&ie=UTF8&ll=47.517201,-120.942993&spn=1.610112,4.943848&z=8

I started saying goodbye to everyone at work around 3. One coworker asked me where I was staying, and I told him the plan was to get to Omak and find somewhere to stay there. He asked me if I knew what Omak was known for, and I told him I didn't. He told me that once a year a combination of Native Americans and rednecks get together and put on the "Omak Stampede". Basically, they ride horses off a cliff and try not to get killed. It turns out it was to be that weekend.

With that knowledge I changed my plan. I'm certain all 8 hotels within 60 miles of Omak were sold out, and even if they weren't, I'm sure the clientele were rowdy that night. It probably would have made an interesting story though.

So finally at 4 I got on my bike and set off with a revised plan:

I stayed on the superslab for a couple hours to get out of Seattle. There are more scenic departures, but not on a Friday afternoon in Summer. That part of the ride was pretty boring. SUVs with the cruise control set to 77 passing SUVs with the cruise control set to 76.7 and that sort of thing.

I passed a couple of church buses loaded with 10-year-olds. A few made the peace sign at me when I passed them, which I returned. That stirred up the whole bus.

A few miles later I stopped at a marked scenic viewpoint:

Behind me were 15 rusted scultptures of horses built by an eccentric artist years ago. I couldn't get a good photo of them without a hike in the heat, but there are some here if you are curious: http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2008/08/i90_horse_sculpture_may_get_up.html

Not long after that I left the superslab and rode deserted two-lane roads through deserted two-lane towns. It was great to be all alone in the eastern Washington desert. Plus, the bike was running great. There had been a slightly erratic idle and a very slow oil leak, and it seemed like my last-minute tinkering had solved those problems for good.

I was riding through what once was a river bed, and there were sharp cliffs on both sides of the road. There was a river on my left that must have been very impressive before the Coulee Dam was built upriver during the Great Depression.

I arrived at Grand Coulee around 8, checked into a motel, ate dinner, and went to bed.

 

[p_s]

 

[82Shafty]

Good to hear that you made it back safe and sound!

 

[p_s]

Day 2: August 9, 2008
Start: Grand Coulee, WA
End: Kalispell, MT
410 miles
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sad....864774,-115.905762&spn=3.198905,9.755859&z=7

The plan was to sleep in Kalispell, just outside of Glacier National Park. I woke up kind of late--the doorbell to wake up the proprietors of the motel was right behind the back door to my room and every time someone arrived late or left early they woke me up. I should have worn earplugs. This place had no continental breakfast either, but I had a better plan.

The previous morning I'd made a sandwich to take for lunch with some ridiculously expensive bread and cheese. This was probably a $7 sandwich. Then my boss took me out for lunch, so I saved it--thinking it'd probably smell awful and I'd toss it. To my surprise this hotel room had a refrigerator and an oven, so for breakfast I tossed the sandwich in the oven. The cheese and mustard melted into the bread, and I ate an incredible breakfast.

This was forest-fire season in eastern Washington, and it was very hazy when I stepped outside. I stopped by the Coulee Dam, which is most impressive, but there was no point in taking a picture of it behind all the smoke. Here is a picture owned by the federal government:

According to wikipedia, "it is the largest electric power producing facility and the largest concrete structure" in the United States.

Next I rode across Nespelem Road, which had a great combination of tight turns and no traffic whatsoever. Later I stopped at Colville National Forest and had a walk-around. It was a little cold and a short hike in all my gear put some heat in my bones:

A few minutes later I scared the **** out of myself in this u-turn:

It was posted 15 and I took it at about 20. From what I can recall suddenly the road camber went the wrong way and I instinctively leaned all the way off the bike, dragged a toe, and gritted my teeth. The GS550ES drags the center or side stand before it drags the fold-up pegs, so it's almost too late if you drag any hard parts. It looks much sportier than it is.

I calmed down and enjoyed the next few hours of scenic riding. I pulled into Kalispell around 8, ate a delicious prime rib, and went to bed.

(I promise there will be better photos for the rest of the trip.)

 

[Skyboy8950]

Sounds like you are having fun. Definately a lot more fun than me driving my 20' box truck towing my truck from Champaign to Portland...

 

[p_s]

Day 3: August 10, 2008
Start: Kalispell, MT
End: Red Lodge, MT
520 miles
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sad...189712,-110.643311&spn=3.240321,10.239258&z=7

I ate a quick breakfast, topped up my oil, and headed towards Glacier National Park. The sun hadn't yet risen above the clouds:

Then I got stuck in the middle of a convoy of tinted SUVs tailgating each other to the top. There was nowhere to pull over due to road construction. The twisty mountain pass turned into gravel, and then it turned into one-lane of gravel with a traffic light. Just after the end of the one-lane section I pulled over and took a few more photos. The one-lane section took about 5 minutes to go through, and it was one-way, so I knew that if I waited 8 minutes or so I'd have the road to myself. Well, almost. A cyclist passed me looking pretty weary. There are several signs restricting access to cyclists during, well, most of the day, but a few ignored the signs. I had no problem with them.

 

[p_s]

Part of Glacier National Park is in Canada, where it has a silly name:

 

[p_s]

On the side of the trail were two baby ptarmigans and their mother:

 

[p_s]

Some interesting conveyances to the top:

And one last shot of the lake:

About one mile before the exit to the park I was going a little quickly and saw a white car with a light bar on top coming in the opposing lane of traffic. I grabbed the front brake and before the front-end had even dived the flashing lights came on. Apparently I was doing 67 in a 45. $140. The officer said that they have a new kind of radar that works even when the car is moving. Hrm. Not much I can do about it. I've put about 10k miles on this GS, and I was breaking at least one law for at least 9k of those and had only just received my first ticket, so I can't complain too much.

Then I enjoyed a few miles of deserted twisties outside the park and then a few hours of straight roads and rolling hills. I stopped for gas and a sandwich near Great Falls, and when I got back on the bike the starter wouldn't fire.

I pulled out the multimeter and the charge on the battery was quite low. I push-started the bike as a pack of Goldwing riders pulled in. I asked one of them to rev the bike to 3k while I checked the voltage. (With all the gear on the bike the easiest thing was to read the voltage from the battery charger pigtail at the rear of the bike.) He blipped the throttle a few times and then I asked him slowly to hold the revs at 3k. Finally he understood. I saw 13.2V or thereabouts, so I decided the bike was unlikely to die in the middle of nowhere and I carried on.

About 20 minutes later on a piece of straight road without any cars around, I pulled the clutch, hit the kill switch, and tried the starter, and it fired right up. I tried that a few more times and the starter always fired.

Then it began to drizzle and the sky became very dark, so I pulled into a gravel street to put on my rain gear. I had to push start the bike again. It's really not hard to do on a warm 550, even with all the luggage. The next gas stop was a quick one, as the shop was closed and the bathrooms were locked. This time the starter fired. One of the exhaust to header joints had also began to leak and the bike idled loudly but sounded fine above 3k. I decided that was something I could ignore until I got home.

I pulled into Red Lodge, which was in the height of post-Sturgis madness. The hotels were either sold out or ridiculously overpriced. Hordes of helmetless Harley riders were doing laps around the main street and stumbling from bar to bar. Eventually I found a room at a Comfort Inn for $150. (Fortunately my former employer would be paying at least $100 of it.)

I left to get a bite to eat and came across two riders whom I'd passed earlier in the day. They were riding a new Hayabusa and a new ZX1200 and were complaining about the hotel rates. I showed them my GS and they didn't say anything. :-k

I ate a burger and drank a couple pints of Rogue beer. The burger joint had about a dozen Rogue variants on tap, and I learned that the Rogue brewery was only a few miles away. I went to bed early. Tomorrow I'd be riding 3 mountain passes.

 

[p_s]

Day 4: August 11, 2008
Start: Red Lodge, MT
End: Custer, SD
482 miles
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=red+lodge,+mt&daddr=WY-296+%4044.840810,+-109.572330+to:44.810827,-107.969856+to:custer,+sd&hl=en&geocode=2724756509088100119,44.840810,-109.572330%3B17924000538348050713,44.802170,-107.947040&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=2&sz=12&via=1,2&sll=44.797673,-108.016548&sspn=0.105732,0.273972&ie=UTF8&ll=44.386692,-106.699219&spn=2.013765,6.965332&z=8

You won't be surprised to find out that I had to push-start the bike in the morning. It didn't start after the first trip through the parking lot at the motel, but a man polishing his chrome offered his help, and we got the bike started. I filled up with gas two blocks away and had to push start the bike again, but it's much easier when it's warm.

Then I left town heading towards the Beartooth pass. With a bit of effort I passed a pack of cruisers--they don't like to be passed and I didn't have fuel injection and they did, so it wasn't as easy as it is at sea level. My bike didn't want to rev past 6 grand, and that's where all the power is. I don't understand why you'd want a maniac on a crotch rocket right on your tail, but maybe these guys were still in the mentality that they were driving to their boring job downtown and needed to make everyone else late. I assume that's the reason for the tight formation, even in turns. The locals all pulled over and waved me by, except for the few that were quicker than me (which isn't hard if you have fuel injection and gas it on the straights).

I began ascending the east side of the Beartooth pass. It was slow, tight turn after slow, tight turn with a mountain range to stare at on the short straights. This was motorcycle heaven: increasing radius turns, decreasing radius turns, positive camber, negative camber, blind turns, u-turns. I could have ridden up and down this all day. I was dragging my toes on half the turns, and I was huffing and puffing when I got to a rest area, even though the temperature was not much above freezing.

From the top:

Here is a picture of a fun turn that these three and their support van would take at half the posted speed:

I got stuck behind them on the way down and missed a few good turns. Then I got stuck in the middle of their pack and missed a few more turns.
This scenario would repeat itself all day. You could pass them on the double-yellow, wait, or get stuck. Riding a mountain pass on a dry day would definitely be better with a fuel-injected bike so you could pass these overweight relics and the machines they ride. In May I rode a mountain pass while it was snowing and, given the choice, I'll always take melting snow over slow, American cruisers. It's probably not so bad if you aren't riding in Wyoming right after Sturgis.

Then I took the Chief Joseph Pass into Cody. It was fun, but nothing like the Beartooth. Then I filled up and push-started the bike in the direction of the Medicine Wheel Pass on US-14a. This pass was closed when I rode west in May, and I'd heard great things about it. The views definitely lived up to everything I'd heard about it, and the curves were fun, but, again, nothing like the Beartooth pass. I think the US-14 pass through the Bighorns I took in May was more fun for motorcycling, but the views were far less impressive.

Then I had lunch, push-started the bike, and put down 140 miles on I-90 to get to the turnoff for Custer, SD. I was averaging about 85--the going rate of traffic--and I got to the gas station on fumes. I turned in under 35 mpg that tank. This bike is not made for high-speed touring. But this time the electric start did work.

I made it into Custer around 5 and found a room. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that I only get at the end of a good snow-skiing vacation. Even though I would ride around the Black Hills the next morning, the excitement was over, and I felt like I just had to put in a lot of boring miles and get home.

 

[gbw]

Day 4: August 11, 2008...
they don't like to be passed and I didn't have fuel injection and they did, so it wasn't as easy as it is at sea level. My bike didn't want to rev past 6 grand, and that's where all the power is.

I hafta say that I am really enjoying reading this. You have some talent in this story telling/writing area. Thank you for doing it.

I also hafta wonder about the affects of high altitudes on carburated vehicles. I bet you were at several thousand feet above sea level so the air must have been very thin. I know what this feels like when I try to run in Denver. The just isn't enough air.

But how do you compensate for it? Would opening the choke a little help or do you have to completely re-jet the carbs to compensate? Actually, now that I think about it, opening the choke would probably have the opposite of the desired affect...or would it?

Anyway, thanks again for sharing and I can't wait for more.

 

[Planecrazy]

Enjoying the trip so far! I hope you learned at this point to pick a hotel at the top of a hill so that the push starting aggravation could be avoided - hehe!

Regards,

 

[p_s]

But how do you compensate for it? Would opening the choke a little help or do you have to completely re-jet the carbs to compensate? Actually, now that I think about it, opening the choke would probably have the opposite of the desired affect...or would it?

Right, I was starting around 5k ft up and going up to 10k or so. You could just guess with the jetting and I'm sure it'd run better. Probably I should have just pulled the air filter. The '83-'86 GS550E/ES has two siamesed carbs, so dropping the two bowls wouldn't be a big deal, really (if you've put allen-head bolts in). If I ever take this bike to the mountains again, maybe I'll bring some jets.

Another crazy idea would be to pull the choke jets, so it's just letting in air. I can't remember how much work was involved in that. And that would be adjustable.

I had a friend who did a similar trip on a carburated 1988 Ninja 600 (liquid cooled, much more power at sea level) and also had a hard time in the mountains.

 

[p_s]

Day 5: August 12, 2008
Start: Custer, SD
End: Oneill, NE
380 miles
http://tinyurl.com/5986nr

I packed, had breakfast, etc., and then discovered this on the seat of my motorcycle:

I think the windshield needs more than that:

Some dirt from Glacier National Park construction:

They must have confused my bike with all the spotless chrome parked next to a trailer a few spots over.

I'd removed the battery and put it on my Battery Tender overnight, so I didn't have to pushstart the bike. Then I filled the tank across the street and did have to pushstart the bike.

I turned left onto US-16 instead of left onto US-16A and missed half the twisties I'd been planning on riding. I discovered this 15 miles up the road, and I should have turned around and done the original plan but I didn't.