🏍️ Episode 016 - Route Highlight - Eclipse Ride #2 - Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast

In this episode, Tom and Todd dive deep into motorcycle gear essentials, manage heavy traffic during the eclipse, and share unforgettable road trip experiences. Whether you're a seasoned rider or new to the scene, this episode packs a wealth of knowledge and tips to enhance your rides.

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Featured Gear and Insights:

The importance of a reliable tire gauge

Navigating through heavy traffic

Observing an eclipse on the road

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⏰ Episode Timecodes:

0:00 Introduction & Gear Talk

1:13 The Toolkit Segment

3:42 Ride Wise Safety Tips

8:07 Mile Marker: Eclipse Trip Recap

19:36 Roadside Q&A with Eric: Motorcycle Safety

24:59 The Last Mile: Reflections

26:00 Closer and Thanks

#MotorcycleAdventures #RiderSafety #RoadTripTips

About This Episode:

Join Tom and Todd as they navigate the challenges and joys of motorcycle riding. This episode not only covers essential gear and safety tips but also takes you along on an adventurous eclipse-viewing trip packed with traffic management strategies and stunning scenery. Perfect for riders seeking to enhance their skills and enjoy the thrill of the road.

episode 016 movie - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=474bcyKE44k

Transcript:

(00:41) 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'll put a link in the show notes this segment about motorcycle gear reviews and tips we call the toolkit on the toolkit today we'll talk about Tire gauges and uh because we needed one on

(01:45) couple things one if you ever have to check the tire pressure on the back wing of a Honda Gold Wing uh it's like a contortion event um and I don't contort very well uh Todd so uh so this usually you want to look for something that now there's some super nice ones that have like pivoting fronts but this one you don't really ever want one that comes out the tip in straight ahead you usually you'll want something that's at like a 45 or a 90° angle just because you're having to sneak down in around

(02:41) it releases the pressure so just couple tips you know you can still buy a really nice tire gauge for10 or $15 versus $2 um so yeah I would just it really works well and then this one actually is kind of cool it has a glowi in-the-dark face oh yeah so then you know if you ever need to hit it with the headlight and then go down to it and then it's gloin the- dark too so just something to keep thinking about as you think about these things that locking the Locking pressure thing I yeah I've had those before and I

(03:42) pressure on the Honda Gold Wings 36 in the front 41 in the back it's really interesting to see how high those get like really be careful and be thinking about it when you get those tires heated up the pressure goes up quite a bit so especially if you starting when it's really cold guide wise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips So today we're going to focus on uh some planning and uh safety tips uh and this is about like heavy traffic uh which is the case uh that this trip on this trip

(04:49) and you know we were seeing it and we actually when we pulled in one of the first times you know Chris was getting the riot act from this guy and we're just like dude we're trying to stay together here like just let us stay together it's like fine pull out in front of us like you can be in front of us and we'll be right behind you but like we want to stay together and then man I mean it was just and then people left Rane right lane it just like stay in Lane it was only four bikes right we were four bikes four bikes so but yeah

(05:44) know I know when you and I rode down to the tail of dragon we ran into rain and I think there was an accident and two things that I remember about that one this is going to come of a shock I didn't have any rain gear on but we we were we rode up and it was raining and then I was was like cuz I'm like hey I'm cool we're moving it was just blowing past yeah until we stopped yeah and then I was like oh yeah now it's getting wetter but you know rain or those congestion people are just not paying attention and

(06:44) traffic we were on smaller roads we were at the such the beginning I'm like all right we're watching Chris was watching ways I had the Google Maps I'm like well it's telling me that turning left is a 20 minute extra like we're not going that way and then oh PR soon's like oh nope it's six minutes faster now so we get on there we're and we're in the best thing in the world we're zipping along pretty soon we did this we pretty soon it's like hey man we're getting close to

(07:38) you know the the truck that you were next to in traffic you get off and go all all these side roads finally come back up and you're right next to them again yeah the only thing we did do at the very end we ended up taking like Business 61 I think when we got into s l that was a little better but you could see it was just red we'd have been we could have went to Kansas and had better had a better idea yeah the next segment is what we call the mile marker it's our story segment for today's mile marker we'll recap our

(08:39) unfortunately yeah I missed the full Sol that was a bummer you know I loved it in 2017 and was just looking forward to the trip again and riding with everybody and uh yeah son of a gun I couldn't couldn't do it well the good news is is this year we started early so we can end late you know right yeah yeah so yeah I mean um yeah I think we've talked about this before for is not getting things too tore apart before um before D-Day I thought I did good I mean I had a day with the bike was complete together

(09:44) switch that was It was kind of wore out um so he disabled that and and everything worked so had no troubles on the trip so so that was nice um but yeah so day one boom we leave at 7 o'clock in the morning Todd was there to send us off and it was uh almost raining 38 degrees cold cold windy cold raining oh and uh let me guess Tom you didn't have your reindeer on we were going to be we were going to be rolling we didn't need it so oh I was looking at the maps the weather did not portray what I was what I was seeing and

(10:56) well we kept thinking we were going to weave around it that's what half hour from here yeah yeah so yeah but I you know I was proud of myself you know as a we're 50-year-old men here I got my ring gear on without you know a chair the little winds right yeah so anyway uh we rode out of the rain probably somewhere in Missouri um it wasn't hot but at least it was enough to get get dried off um and then we ended up in hanal where we met our buddy Chris at uh Big Muddy and that was some good barbecue the only only thing that I have

(12:05) we couldn't find it anywhere um so Chris ended up finding it on his like XM or something and he was playing it so loud that it was going through the speakers oh all through your headsets yeah so that was pretty cool and then we got into Montgomery City Missouri and I'm like there's a Mexican restaurant let's just stop um so we did so we got um we we hung out there and talked to them and after 15 minutes we figured out that we could only watch the alternate Channel where the Sue bird and that other lady

(13:08) then got up in the morning early and headed down to Donathan and man uh you know there's a lot of great roads and great riding in Missouri but Missouri 819 might be one of the great ones really yeah that thing was unbelievable and we picked that up um well yeah we picked that up on the day before as well so out of hand um we were riding on that as well so that that's a great Road I think it's the I think it would be considered the old um like Avenue of the Saints maybe oh um I think 61 would have came after

(14:13) train up above yeah so we stopped there um and I had what had might have been the best breakfast sandwich I've ever had so bacon egg and cheese oh gosh what was good with a side of pineapple cake I remember that well you know it was almost noon so okay so then we we finally made it down to the eclipse um we were literally uh you know the next town south was Arkansas so we're right right there and man we we started pulling in we're like okay this is going to be interesting because there was cars everywhere this must I mean this was a

(15:21) had a group of people this was kind of we were just kind of by ourselves and it was a little quieter but what was wild is uh just the number of people when the eclipse started happening you could hear them from that it was pretty cool yeah so uh the fun part is I set up a couple GoPros we've got a couple of time lapses and then I haven't showed you I don't think yet but the Drone the Drone video too so I had flown a drone for about 11 minutes during the eclipse so yeah pretty cool I mean like what you've

(16:28) yeah one of the cool pictures on the Drone as I I got it up there and the camera was not I didn't put any filters on it so we weren't really getting like pictures of the of the eclipse MH but what we were get what I did do is do a couple 360s with the Drone so you could kind of see the Horizon oh yeah it was cool it it's weird to see a 360 degree Horizon with no sun yeah you know so yeah we'll post that on the YouTube channel at some point here but yeah four minutes of Darkness this time you guys I

(17:28) Popeye the really cool little Park um you know we're getting really old now we got to stop at the parks and see the way points so but boy did we on day three on our way home had a great time we were talking to Chris if he would have kept just High tailed at home it was a 4 and a half hour drive for him just to go straight 55 and he's like I don't really want to ride the interstate and so we decided that we actually um we rode with him together all the way up on the Illinois side 61 mhm and I think he

(18:33) didn't cross in Burlington did you mustine is where we cross yeah we crossed in mustine boy it was cool though um because in Iowa that was really like a few days before planting season was really going to get started and so we um we able to just like ride through that River Valley what a it was a beautiful day temperatures were just right yeah yeah we had a good time coming back and then uh yeah so it was a good one it was a really good one man yeah I'm sorry I missed it well you know you know how it is uh so but no yeah I

(19:36) questions and suggestions for roads topics and anything else you have on your mind today's roadside Q&A comes from Eric and Eric said um newer Rider here uh what's the safest way to lay down a bike bike to avoid an accident well Eric never lay down a bike never never never no no don't do it um your your tires have a lot more friction with the pavement than the side of your bike and metal and yeah don't do it uh just a real heavy squeeze on your front brake uh apply the back brake as you know as as hard as you can without

(20:43) then it's coming up behind you um but you're not going to slow down uh laying it down no uh it might even speed up just a little bit well you know Chris has been in a motorcycle accident before yeah and um you know the thing that happens when you start to lay it down and this is why I am very huge on having bags on the bike um because what happened to Chris and this is what happens is your your left foot usually because you're going to usually lay it down that way it's possible to do it the other way but your foot goes under the

(21:47) it would have cut you know um but you're right and I one one thing that I did especially and they'll they'll teach you this if you take any motorcycle rider safety classes there's a couple three things that really press on to you one if you're running over something you know you want to break before you get there and then actually let up accelerate you're lightening the front end and then you hit the brakes when you get over it so you're kind of you know using inertia to do that the other thing

(22:37) unreal how much power your front brake really does have correct your front Brak has got a lot of power it can really pull the speed down quick correct without without skidding because you know the weight is going on to that it won't skid like you think it will um it will eventually it will eventually but I tell you I've locked up both of them it was not a good idea but no I mean for real though scrub scrub the speed uh you know if you if you hit something you might come up on top of it but don't

(23:35) people are not leaning the bike over to the point of trouble you know in a turn yeah in a turn sorry yes that's what I meant yeah so you're right and you know your brakes will work in a turn you just got to there's some you want to test that as well you know yeah so yeah it nine times out of 10 I think you're going to be better to be on that bike yeah and I'm glad you mentioned if you're going to run over an object to break his hard as you can and then let go let up and then it it light like you

(24:28) you might want practice that if you no don't practice it no no never practice it does it is possible yeah he got lucky not probable he got lucky yeah that was the nine times from the one time yeah now it's time for The Last Mile it's the way we close out every episode with our Reflections Todd what's your reflection of this last ride well I I just really wish I could have been there I I felt so bad that I had to just two weeks out or three weeks out I had to tell you I I couldn't be there but I do

(25:28) idiot and didn't go and watch the real Eclipse so you know I know um I think we were talking about 10 years as the next option if we don't want to go to Iceland 10 years we can go to like Montana maybe it was so so uh you know it's a little sketchy on which of us might be able to ride a motorcycle by then so uh yeah so I was glad to see it it was fun for me to do the photography that we did so looking forward to seeing how that comes out as well if this episode up your day please don't keep it