🏍️ Dive into the heart of motorcycling the Mississippi with Episode 013 of "Best Motorcycle Roads"! From gear reviews to unforgettable routes, safety tips, and heartwarming stories, join Tom and Todd as they share over 65 years of biking wisdom to make your next ride the best yet. #MotorcycleAdventure #RideSafe

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⏰ Timecodes ⏰

0:40 - Welcome & Intro

1:13 - The Toolkit: Gear Reviews

4:02 - Ride Wise: Safety Tips

8:13 - Mile Marker: Stories from the Road

19:28 - Roadside Q&A

23:40 - The Last Mile: Reflections

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About: "Best Motorcycle Roads" is your go-to podcast for everything motorcycling. From tips and tricks to unforgettable rides, Tom and Todd bring their decades of riding and friendship to the mic, sharing the joy of the road with fellow enthusiasts. Whether you're a seasoned rider or just dreaming of your first bike, there's a place for you here.

Episode 013 - Ride the Mississippi River plus Gear, Safety & Stories | Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast

Transcript:

(00:40) prep to Unforgettable Roots we've got you covered before we Kickstart today's Journey we ask you to sign up for our BMR Rider alerts it's our way of keeping you in the loop with the latest rides tips and stories we promise no spam only the essentials to enhance your motorcycle Adventures join the BMR crew today we put a link in the show notes this segment about motorcycle gear reviews and tips we call the toolkit let's talk about engine guards in the toolkits today um you know maybe why do you need them or why would you want them

(01:46) probably depending on the on the motorcycle guards that you have the engine guards that you have mine have always just stopped at about 45 degrees but if it were to go all the way over and my leg was still under um it wouldn't be trapped it wouldn't be pinned yeah I mean without those it would be a problem but you know it saves a lot of dam damage to the sides of the motor you know and um but there's plenty of reasons to and I think the motor itself would probably be fine you know you're kind of just saving the scrape

(02:39) of a camera it really is cuz you can see the front tire yeah it gives a little perspective yeah it's it's a neat perspective it is cool tur call has a good video of him out in the mountains with the camera mounted down there does he but he always says five minutes after in I sure wished I would have known that the butterfly hit the screen oh yeah yeah that's true you do have to check those pretty often to make sure you don't have of uh something squished on the on the lens you so I would say

(03:32) you're torquing them down because it does take a lot like you you sometimes you put those Highway pigs on there you're really oh yeah for pushing on them and stuff like that yeah so yeah cool ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips ridewise let's talk about gear security so how do you secure your helmets your jackets uh luggage and all that kind of stuff when you're going to take a break um you know let's talk about some recommendations uh Tom what what do you think well we'll

(04:33) to put your helmet um so like on your Gold Wing there was there's some hooks in the back and I think you can release them and they pop open you hook the d-ring of the helmet over and then it locks back up so a lot of times it'll be one of those um there are on some of the newer bikes too there's a like a pan handle looking thing and it kind of plugs into the side and there's a little release for it so it's the same thing most of the time people don't like those and the reason being is because the

(05:28) Factor to me is again on trips or these things where you put a jacket cuz you're usually taking that off you want to get off when you're not riding so what I've found the thing that I like to use is um like a bicycle lock one of those cable locks has a key they they fold up small you know as a softball size when everything's done there's a key and then you can run the um you can run it through a jacket's uh sleeve sleeve that's a good idea and then through the modular helmet you know the the flap or

(06:23) in to eat somewhere we I don't know we put our helmets on the seat if someone wants to wear my sweaty helmet I think the biggest place throw the jacket over the helmet I don't know yeah I think of the one place where it would have been a good idea and I think we probably just found space in our trucks like when we're in Memphis or when we're in St Louis or some of these or place where you're going to be leaving the bike park and walk not yeah not like kind of visual on it so yeah so I think it's a

(07:14) bike you know or full cover whatever but if you just cover the bike that's sort of is a deterrent for someone to yeah Snoop around your bike I mean if they're walking by and they see a phone on your handlebars and it's easy to grab you know that that could be but honestly if you cover the bike it's kind of out of sight out of mind out of side out of mind I don't feel like people are going to reach in and try and just look under your cover to grab a GPS any of that kind of stuff um you know and the old bikes I

(08:13) marker it's our story segment in the mile marker today we're going to talk about the Mississippi River exploration so it's a long it's kind of a big subject you and I I have not been all the way to the top I don't think or the bottom we've circled around but so basically there's a lake in Minnesota I I need to correct this so several episodes ago we were talking about the Mississippi River Road uh ride I mistakenly mentioned where I thought the Mississippi started and my daughter

(09:17) Wikipedia said it's 2318 now so it's lost 200 miles I'm assuming we either you know I don't I didn't look and see why I probably should have that would have been helpful wouldn't it yeah so so the golf maybe is moving well Inland I'm assuming that the water is taking like taking control and straightening things out but I see oh oh okay that yeah that makes sense say okay gotcha um but uh I would definitely I think the next time we get up there there's a there's a day and time I'd

(10:18) time if you search for um start of the Mississippi webcam and you can see I was looking at it earlier today there's people standing there and there's a Placer you know oh really so yeah we'll have to check that out sometime but that would be cool and and what it's so it's a river that flows out of the lake correct and you can walk I mean it's like there's rocks like you can walk overcross it it's uh probably about 10 ft wide but it's walkable you know so yeah well let's cool let's make a trip

(11:17) up there not a lot of barges there no maybe a small p t no not quite that small but basically when you talk about the Mississippi Road you're really talking about the Great River Road so I mean there's a lot of websites one big website for that experience Mississippi river is kind of the home and you can get a map and it's kind of there's not one Great River Road even though they call it the Great River Road I think on both sides they actually sometimes call it the Great River Road so there's a lot

(12:10) North I think I've ridden on the West Side I've ridden more on the you know the Iowa side but well when you get there but then when you get to Minnesota I think we generally will jump and most of the time probably where we're heading too so but uh no I mean but one of my favorite little stretches is there's McGregor Iowa to Lancing and it's it's almost where the Iowa side ends most people cross the river go to Wisconsin and that's what a lot of people in this area call the Great River Road it's on

(13:07) pretty much down to Paduka Kentucky that's a really good riding down there south of St Louis as well I know I know I've been through Paduka with you guys right and I don't know how exactly we got there I don't remember that either but I know that Mike and I left one time and I think met you guys but we ended up going around St Louis and we cut back to the river and rode right along that it was a nice ride um for sure yeah so and then not too far away from that we've talked about this before the bnob oh

(14:15) bunch of lights and it stands like you know over a th000 feet above sea level it can be seen from like 7500 square miles around I mean it's it's big it's super impressive it it really like oh cross out in the middle of Southern illino it's pretty cool it's pretty NE they have a lot of events up there because it's kind of a big wide open area at the top and you know it's it's a great view it's a great view I know that uh they've got an eclipse they have worship Services up there sometimes Su morning

(15:14) graded gred like metal Great Bridge but that's been replaced now yeah I think I think it it was too old but and then on the other side in Savannah in Illinois there's some a couple kind of very popular like destinations um the Iron Horse Social Club is in like Downtown Savannah old bar old cool tons of like it's almost like a mini Museum really right they've got a lot of bikes in there they' got stain glass windows churches I mean huge ones right uh but I think those are up on the second level

(16:16) kind of the the place where they have bands and it's kind of a big place now I mean there's like the last time I was there's a restaurant and a tattoo shop and a big bar and a huge area to have like concerts and and stuff it it looked like there could be a lot of people there yeah I've never been to it when it was like an event but it it looks cool yeah um there's another little town that's kind of interesting lots of History I've wanted to go there a few times we just keep never getting there

(17:15) Smith actually lived there for a while who was the the guy that published The Book of Mormon and so there's a Mormon church there as well but don't confuse that with the musical The Book of okay so I've seen that it's great back one more place it's kind of back where the Bald Knob is there a little town called Chester Illinois and as you're crossing over from Missouri to Illinois there's a little Park to stop at it's right off I mean you get across the bridge and I can't remember if you turn left or right

(18:09) Mississippi rof hars are way cool so that's cool and then there's a train track that generally there's a lot of train traffic on there yeah it's very busy you know and then it's usually you know the sun's coming down and it's just a great look and I that's what I think of a lot when I think of it so yeah I I know whenever I'm riding along the river it's just neat to see people out fishing it's neat to see a barge you know making its way up or down the river uh just the

(19:05) amazing neat and then sometimes it's a treat then you'll see a couple like small boats in there with them and yeah it's just it's wild yeah to see a little tiny well what it looks like a baby Boat Boat 20 foot boat go in next to a you know a barge it's it's silly to look at yeah the podcast can be found on best motorcycleroads.

(20:06) kind of the same group that rides all the time so for us we know who's riding with us we know the skill levels um and all of us now use the headset Communicator so uh that's the preferred method but I understand that if you're organizing a ride that you know people that you don't know are going to be joining you the chances of you having uh headsets and communicators that will link together is probably slim to none but correct um so at that point you know you really want to talk about some hand

(21:05) and you're going to and you get split up um plan ahead so everybody understands we're going to watch if if the group gets split the front half of the group is going to pull over off to the side of the road where it's safe and we're just going to wait yeah and so that the back Riders don't have to try and bust ass and catch up they just know they're going to be waiting for us so yep as they start coming up they can Flash their lights and the rest of the group can pull out but I think that's probably

(21:55) lead because then they just go at their Pace you know like that's if it's small yeah but if it's big I like leader you know experience in the front experience in the back and then just keep everyone going I mean it just you don't want people like it's already uncomfortable enough you know I mean there's enough stress and things that you don't need know need to add it by having people think that you're pushing them yeah yeah it's good Stu and I think I've mentioned I I mention it all the time I I know the

(22:48) bad idea yeah and so it's you know we want to make every everyone comfortable just don't worry about that as much and to your point Todd you know I don't know if we've ever talked about the Stagger there so you know I mean your your motorcycle is quite a bit narrower than a car and the reason why you stagger is because you can ride a little bit closer together but then if someone breaks soon you kind of have a little more buffer so it's just a little bit you know and some people will ride really tight I mean

(23:40) for you I just love it I love riding along the Mississippi River um you know just it it just windes and it's twisty in in the um you know just the scenery yeah seeing people on the river the scenery is great the the um you know the sun casting Shadows is cool or reflecting off the water M absolutely if you get a chance ride the Great River Road pick a side and ride it One Direction and then go to the other side ride ride the other way on the yeah I I agree I think like I said my favorite thing about that is sometimes coming