Photos posted in my Picasa albums

http://picasaweb.google.com/2000roadstar/Route66June2009?feat=directlink

I will continue to blog here

I will continue to update this blog with my motorcycle adventures. We have Blue's Bash coming up in August, I have various other events to comment on such as Vintage Motorcycle Days, I have my CB-360 project that I will be documenting here. So if any of that interests you, check it out from time to time.

Bill

mile marker 41

Whenever I went 'truckin' with my Grandpa we were always looking for milemarker 41 on the way home. That's the New Carlisle exit off I-70. Man, was that the case yesterday!

Well, the battery swap worked. We swapped batteries back in Indianapolis and I made it to my driveway. I got home around 4:30 yesterday. I went back out later to put the bike away, it wouldn't start!

So that's the end of this trip. I'm glad we did it. I'm glad I got to do it with my Dad. I don't think the magnitude of the trip has really set in yet. Now that I'm not "on" the trip and I'm starting to think back and recall portions.... WOW! that was a TRIP! That first saturday in the car wash waiting out the rain seems so long ago. We ended up doing 10 days and around 4800 miles. It's gonna be hard for us to top that. Mexico? Australia? ;-)

stranded in St. Louis ! 400 mi from home

Stopped to get gas for the last time today, shut the bike off, noticed the station was CLOSED... bike wouldn't turn over! My charging system is shot. Got it push started and got gas. Dad went and got a room and then we push started it again. Got to the hotel room.

Our plan.... put dad's battery in my bike, push start his, it will charge my battery as we ride. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

hopefully it will get me home.

Ride the Rockies wth me!

conquered the Rockies today

here's the new configuration
it rode fine.. can still ride for miles with no hands!

headed for the Rockies!

Dad had to pee... he didn't pee in the Colorado River! This was at a rest area!

Snow!

Roadside repairs

The Bill Blue Multi Tool

Multi-Tool DYI

1. Grab a handful of tools. Make sure you have some screwdrivers with plastic handles as the plastic will be used for adhesive.
2. Place tools in a container of your choice. I used a 'leather like' River Road saddle bag.
3. Set that sumbitch on fire.
4. There you have it, be the envy of your friends!
   

melted a hole in my saddle bag!

My exhaust has melted a hole in my saddle bag. It got so hot, it metled all the plastic on the tools in the saddle bag! Completely melted handles off screwdrivers and turned it all into a lump of tools. Started melting my rain suit together, but I think it is still useable. So this morning I have to find a way to patch the huge hole in the bottom and maybe bungee that bag to the back of my T-bag on the back of the bike. yikes!

ride with me !

today... Vegas to Grand Junction Colorado!

We poured on some miles today. About 510
here's a map

L.A. to Vegas yesterday....

We left LA around noon and headed across the desert to Lost Wages. Stayed at the Freemont in old downtown Vegas. It was pretty nice! $40 room, $7.77 buffet. We made our donations so they could keep the lights on...

Peggy Sue's 50's Diner..
map of Route 66 in the crapper!

some Beatle impersonators at the Fremont Street Experience

An evening with Jeff and Di

We spent the night with our cousin Diane and her husband Jeff. They greeted us at the driveway and motioned us into their garage and treated us like we were royalty! WOW! It was so cool. Their house is unbelievable and their hospitality surpasses words. They had cold beer waiting and giant filets that Jeff grilled to perfection.

Day 4 Pics

Rio Puerco Bridge just west of Albuquerque, NM

Route 66 Casino, just west of Albuquerque, NM

I had some great tacos at this joint in Holbrook, AZ


Seligman, AZ the inspiration for the movie Cars

Here come the pics!

Day 3
Dad lost his sleeping bag in Oklahoma City

The Big Texan
Amarillo, TX


Cadillac Ranch

Amarillo, TX

the aspire is back online!

I'll update while I can...

Made it to Barstow, CA last night. Rode through the Mojave desert in the middle of the night. The air was so hot I had a full face helmet on with the shield down to keep the air off my face.

I'll post some pics from the last few days soon... We are fixing to head to L.A.

Mobile Blog

The Aspire one is being a PITA so visit my mobile blog till I get it fixed my mobile blog

first mechanical failure

one of my support brackets on my fairing broke in Springfield, Mo today. Now my fairing is laid back against my bar risers. It also popped out the guage hole plug when it broke. I wedged a pair of leather gloves in between and it rode fine like that. These brackets done hold the fairing on , just stiffen it up a bit.

make that a 12 hour ride to OKC...

Just got a room in OKC. Not even sure how many miles we did today. Enough to keep us on schedule. Old 66 is slowing us down a bit. Missouri was good about directing you off the highway onto old 66, but then NOTHING! No signs... It should be better marked. We did run a really cool stretch in Missouri. Oklahoma however, we have run for probably close to a couple hundred miles. Nice pavement, scenic, and HOT! 103 in Tulsa. It was pretty miserable most of the day. I hate to say it was not enjoyable. But it wasn't.

dad just checked his bike, we did 490 today. Amarillo tomorrow!

8 hour ride to OK City

we're getting ready to roll!

somewhere south of st. louis

we did almost 500 miles yesterday. Not bad considering we left at noon, made a visit in Indy, and waited out a thunderstorm in a carwash in Illinois (100 miles from Missouri).

Here's Dad and Aunt Mid in Indianapolis. I hadn't seen Mid in years and we had short visit and a cup of coffe and got back on the road.

Here we are waiting out a major downpour in Illinois.... We pulled off the road, into this car wash and 15 seconds later it started pouring...

we are leaving at NOON!

We decided to sleep and let the storms get through the area. I got my saddle bags and T-Bag mounted. I'm about to take a shower and pack the bike.

I'm still feeling pretty crappy. Not sure how much riding I'll be good for today. I got whooped just mounting my stuff! Still coughing and snottin.

Next update... from the road!

tomorrow... and here's what I've got left to do

1. Balance front wheel - DONE!
2. install seal between inner and outter fairing - DONE!
3. lube all linkage and cables - DONE!
4. Mount iPod
5. Install saddle bags and T-Bag
6. Pickup supplies - DONE!
7. Install side wind deflectors
8. A good washin'
9. Fix my clever lever (throttle lock) - DONE!
10. Put together a tool kit
11. Possibly install some baffles if I get 'em in time. - Didn't order

1 day til launch... I'm *almost* ready

Got my front wheel balanced. Now the bike rides smooth as butta! still have not washed it, still don't have my bags mounted, still don't have anything packed. I have a lot to do tomorrow night.

Road Tested

I will be trying a bunch of new stuff on this trip. From butt powder to new boots and from a rain suit I hope to never use to a fairing from a Harley Davidson.

1. Anti Monkey Butt Powder

I bought a bottle for me and Dad. We'll put it to the test!

2. Sha-Sha Shoes E Boot II. My second pair of Sha-Sha's. First was the shorter flamed boot. I got a deal on these and thought I would give them a try. They look cool. I've worn them a couple times.

3. Cobra 'Fat' Freeway bars. Another place to put your feet = another place to put your BUTT !

I already know I like these from the 120 mi ride we did on Sunday. NICE!

4. Defender two piece rain suit and boot covers. Good reviews, price was right. Hope it never comes out of the bag.

5. Acer Aspire One... how I plan to update this blog from the road. I've been using it a couple of hours now and so far so COOOL! actually usable. 10" screen, decent keyboard, battery life seems good.

A (proposed) Route

Anything could change. Pretty sure we will catch Route 66 in St. Louis, MO. We plan to spend the first night in Springfield, MO and the second in Amarillo, TX. Both of those will be 600mi days. The next several days will be shorter. The road home is up in the air... like a lot of this trip... we are gonna wing it!

View Route 66 Trip in a larger map

4 days... and I'm sick as a dog!

Wasn't feeling up to par yesterday. Just thought it was the hours I had been keeping. Started having that burning in my lungs/soar throat last night. This morning, full blown chest cold or pig flu or something. I went to urgent care and got some antibiotics and various OTC symptom relievers.

My wife picked up my new Acer Aspire One today. I'm working from it right now. Not bad! I can actually type on this keyboard and the screen is pretty nice.

I really want an Acer Timeline, but can't swing it right now and this little netbook will work great for the trip. I'm resting tonight and will attempt to finish everything in the last 3 days.

5 days...

The shake down trip was great yesterday, but I still have a lot to do.

1. Balance front wheel
2. install seal between inner and outter fairing
3. lube all linkage and cables
4. Mount iPod
5. Install saddle bags and T-Bag
6. Pickup supplies
7. Install side wind deflectors
8. A good washin'
9. Fix my clever lever (throttle lock)
10. Put together a tool kit
11. Possibly install some baffles if I get 'em in time.

yikes! that sounds like A LOT!

120 miles and nothing fell off !

I did about 120 miles yesterday and all is well. I did NOT have my saddle bags on. I am hoping they lower the sound of my pipes. Hard to hear my stereo, my pipes are so loud. I am getting old. Dad predicted I'll have a Gold Wing before long. ;-)

My 12" windshield is great, the stereo is great, the crash bars are AWESOME! It is so nice having another place to put my feet.

Too bad I didn't get this done sooner. I'm afraid my ass is in no shape to do 600 mile days! We'll see...

Finished at Midnight!

Had to remove the tank to run the wiring harness to the front of the bike. Yamaha made a FINE looking engine when they designed the RoadStar. As good or better looking than an Evo or TC motor.

Here I am LATE last night connecting the brackets inside the fairing and connecting the headlight wiring.

Here's Charles mounting the windshield:

Video is being uploaded now... Hopefully it works, it's been uploading for LOOOONG time. Only 28Mb... wt?

it's ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!

Can anyone name that tune?

Finished up at around midnight. First road test will be this morning and then a ride up to Lima this afternoon. Should be a good 'shakedown'.

Once again, a big THANK YOU! to my brother-in-law Charles. He stayed still it was done last night and did all the electrical work. It would have never occured to me to pull 3 pieces of 14ga wire 6 ft long through a piece of heat shring tubing, but man, did it look good when we were done! I was going to use some crappy looking wire loom!

Another big THANK YOU! to Matt for always being there with supplies and hardware! ;-)

slowly making progress... 7 days til launch

Here's a Bill's Eye View of my new fairing. And below you will find a close up of the IPOD connector on this Sony Xplod head unit. This is not just an auxiliary in, it actually plugs into the Ipod connector (not the headphone jack) and the head unit can control the ipod. Pretty sweet.



I got my rear wheel back on tonight. Tomorrow I remove my tank and run my power wires from the battery up to the fairing. Also hope to get my crash bars mounted.

all that AND a free shirt

follow up to the previous post. After spending all that cash, they did give me a free Iron Pony T-Shirt. So I don't have to pay to advertise for them. ;-) I really DO like IP, I'm just bitchin' a little. ha!

Blue OUT!

should be GOLDEN Pony !!! $$$$$!!!

Yowza! I went about a Ben Franklin over what I planned at Iron Pony tonight. Their "in store" prices are WAY higher than their "on line" prices. No haggle either. The crash bar I wanted online is like $167... in store... $200! I ended up getting the FAT bars at the left for $215. Battery, I was thinking it would be $70..... cheapest one, $99. I got the best I could buy for $115. Throw in a couple other things such as a cable luber and lube... $370 out the door!

So I was bumming about spending all that cash and then got a call that my fairing was next door at my Father-in-Laws. Chuck got it all done and it was waiting . WOW! Chuck did a kick ass job and did it in a hurry! This thing ROCKS. Sony XPLOD marine grade head unit with IPOD connector, 2 Polk Audio 5.25" and 2 Polk Audio 4" speakers. NICE!

Thanks to Matt for making the aluminum trim/bracket for the stereo and supplying me with ideas and hardware... and Charles for putting it all together. You guys made this happen.

work work work...

I got two things done on the bike today.... jack and sh!t !!!

Got home from work and logged in and did some more work. Then when that was done, I made potato salad for a cookout at work. Then when that was done I worked on a website I am doing for a customer. I just finished and it's 12:45 in the A.M. I'm off to bed.

Iron Pony tomorrow for some parts!

Balancing Act of 2009

Dad and I (mostly Dad) mounted my new Metzler ME880 tonight.

Here's Dad watching the wheel go around on the balancer.

I still need to run the power wires for my fairing, install new rear brake pads, do a major detail job, fix my loose throttle lock, buy and install some crash bars/highway pegs, lube all my cables and ball ends... seems like the list keeps growing! Still need to get my battery too. We are making a trip to Iron Pony on Thursday. Cha ching!

Progress today! I got the oil and filter changed and I got my rear wheel pulled off. My Dad will help me install the new tire. Check out the New and Old tire here! That old one was shot! No wonder it cornered so bad last year. My brother in law, Charlie, took my inner fairing and all my electronics and he will install all that stuff in my fairing. What a guy! He does excellent work.

keep the rubber side down...