Summary

In this episode, we reflect on a grueling 12-day, 5,200-mile ride across the U.S. While the stunning landscapes were unforgettable, the real focus is on why my motorcycle gear didn’t make the cut. From cold, rain-soaked mornings to uncomfortable, worn-out gear, this episode delves into the harsh realities of long-distance riding and why it’s time to overhaul my setup.

Timecodes

0:00 - Fat Smitty’s adventures

0:08 - Comparing a 5,200-mile trip to shorter rides

1:00 - Day 1: Iowa to Rapid City, SD

2:16 - Day 2: Rapid City, SD to Big Timber, MT

4:00 - The must-see roads near Mount Rushmore

6:05 - Day 8: Olympic Island loop ride

10:36 - Why I’m ditching my gear

17:44 - Toolkit: The Watersy Jug review

22:32 - What’s next: My plan to overhaul my gear

Products and Gear Mentioned

Watersy Jug - https://amzn.to/3Xgjxit

Drink Tube Set - https://amzn.to/3XjXOWL

Water Bladder Tube Cover Insulation - https://amzn.to/3XBAnJN

Clear Vinyl Tubing Food Grade - https://amzn.to/4eivD1q

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Bottom Line

Mile Marker

One of our riding guys, we call him Turk, has a son out in Seattle and said that he needed to have a dog sitter because it's very expensive to get dog sitting, apparently, in Seattle.

And so that was how things started. So we rode bikes out to Seattle to watch the dog. Because that's cheaper, two people riding bikes. Well, it was for him.

[00:00:53] tom: So I guess maybe should I just walk you through. Yeah, that's a long, that's a long ride. So it was [00:01:00] 12 days.

Day 1: Solon, Iowa to Rapids City, SD

Shout out to my buddy Lincoln's from Rapid City. We left early five in the morning, got into Rapid City about 4 45 in the afternoon, nothing exciting there really. We stuck to highway 20 and then got worked our way up to interstate 90. but what was cool is we were able to check into the hotel at, like I said, 4 45 and we're about three days before Sturgis.

So kind of one of the cool things. I don't have a big desire to go to the Sturgis Rally itself, but I do like the idea of visiting. So we got to ride through town. unfortunately, the skies were getting pretty dark that day. And so what we did, we drove through, but. We were gonna stop. Gas Monkey has a brand new restaurant there that I kind of wanted to eat at.

Day 2: Rapids City, SD to Big Timber, MT

Yeah, that's how the road is on this Iron Mountain road. so we took that, rode all through that. Turk got a little scared and nervous. So when we got down to Custer, the park entrance, he went to Custer, the town, and then I went and took the needles highway, which was unbelievable. this is the classic one that you see where the bus goes through and has space, almost no [00:03:00] space.

And then you ride through the one and you're looking right down a dead nuts set at, at mountain Rushmore. So it was really cool. I took then the quick pass around. I saw a crazy horse on from the interstate, and then we had a great lunch in Custer at a little. Place called Baker's Bakery Cafe. Highly recommend it if you get there.

on to Big Timber through Wyoming. Total mileage for the day was only 496, but it was hot. Wyoming was pushing 95 at times, and it was hot, very, very hot. So, big day three, big timber, all the way to Seattle. We really just kept it simple. We took 90 all the way in, so it was a pretty boring day, except the scenery is just awesome.

Absolutely phenomenal mileage was somewhere around the 744 miles range for day three.

Cause I was working eight to noon back here, but I was working 6 00 AM to 10. So it was really great. because it left us time to do some writing on the other days. So day five, I went to work, and then I called it the ferry loop that we did the first day. So what's great, I just learned this about Seattle.

I guess I assumed, in my mind, could have looked at a map, that Seattle was on the ocean, but it's really in that big bay. So what you can do is there's the Olympic National Forest to the west of Seattle and then you can go all the way down to Tacoma if you want to, or you can take a ferry across. And that's what we did.

We took a ferry. We rode about 180 mile loop. And then that's where we ran into Fat Schmitty.

Fat Schmitty's

[00:04:49] tom: right, tell

[00:04:50] tom: Fat Schmitty is a restaurant that's no bigger than a one stall garage, I swear, in a town called Port Townsend, Washington. So,[00:05:00] we have a little place near us. That's called Sutliff.

bar and grill, bar and tap, and it has dollar bills pegged to the ceiling. This is like that, except they're just dangling. So they almost, it's, it's weird. It's kind of messes with your mind a little bit, but apparently every year they take all the dollar bills down and they give them to charity and then they start over again.

So that was pretty cool. So, but neat place. great burger. they had shakes, but I didn't have, didn't have room for a shake.

So I have to get it next time. You know, you have to pace yourself. That, day six, I worked and we skipped the ride again. We were both still recovering a little bit, but we did get a meet up with, my son's friend who lives in Washington at a place called Dick's drive in, which is basically an old McDonald's.

Mount Baker

You never you never go up The mountains. So you kind of, so you circle it. so that was really cool. ended that ride in a town called Bellingham, Washington for a pizza. And then back to his son's apartment. And, that's about Bellingham is a, is probably less than a half an hour away from Canada, actually.

So what was another neat thing is they offered ferries there. You could always, you'd go all the way up to like catch a can in, yeah, we were looking at that, but I didn't, there were 30, 36 hour ferry rides and it was like 400 bucks. So that was not into the budget nor the timeframe that we had. So

[00:07:00] tom: the big mudslide, I think that would have already had happened, but yeah, I just, yeah.

Olympic Island

Cause it's like 45 and 50 mile an hour speed limits, but all the way out there. Oh my gosh, it was really interesting. And we got to see the Pacific coast line at times. and wow, it was quite the thing. I mean, when you get way, way out there, there's not much there. It's kind of reminds you of these scenes that you see in like an England, English, you know, or European, like, bay town or something.

Yeah, yeah So day nine it was monday back to work at panera and then we we took a ride down to mount rainier which it's kind of a unique mountain in that it it's It's a huge mountain, but there's no mountains really right around it.

So it's kind of everything's flat. And so, Yeah, we took a ride up to there got some cool pictures and that was about 197 mile day So day 10, I went to work and then we rested because we knew we were rolling out early on the next day.for day 11,

Ride Home - Express

So we grabbed, we got up at 4 a. m., Pacific and we cooked all the way to Glendive, Montana. 1049 miles. And wow, what great views, but they're all rolling by at 80 miles an hour. That's The speed limit in Montana is 80 and oh my gosh, I mean, it's just [00:09:00] hard. And the thing, you know, we've talked about this, knowing your range of your bike, the range of your bike is not the same, at 80 mile an hour as it is at 50 months, 65 or 60 miles an hour.

Yeah. how did yours do not good? really we were looking. And so then you have the second variable problem, which is even though you can go 180 miles at 80 miles an hour. You might not find a gas station at 180 miles. So it was everything from filling up at 150, 160, because you'd look at the GPS and it's, you have 60 miles left on your tank and it would say 105 miles to the next gas station.

It was different than other trips, you know um, but Yeah, I mean it was enjoyable

I, I just, I love it there.

Right. So, so that was one of the coolest things that did happen that I'd say was a note was I found a bunch of great places. I'd like to go back to, you know, as a vacation. Yeah.

Todd's Crazy Horse Story

The artist, Korshak was there and he was talking to people. He was just sitting at a table. And when you went to the visitor center, he was sitting there and talking and telling you about what it was like to carve that mountain. And you know, the amount of times he climbed up and down that ladder, the ladders to get to the top.

But of course he's passed on, but still there's something about that place. Yeah,

[00:12:37] Todd: but you were on the interstate, yeah, so that, yeah, I mean, you get some views, but going that fast, it's hard to look around.

It was just hot and

Yeah. Yeah. You really, really have to, this is that bottom line for this episode, and this is a part, this is a two parter, right? Because I, Well, let me say this first. You really got to give these big rides a try. I, I don't care how fast you do it. You know, if you take two weeks to do it, or you know, riding short distance every day, or hammer out the miles.

There was something interesting about, like, maybe the 5, 000 mile mark, where you're just like, that was different. You know, like, and I can't really put words to it exactly, I don't think, but, yeah, it was enjoyable to take To think about how far it was, you know?so yeah, so the last point is I hate my writing gear completely now.

[00:14:03] Todd: you're talking, you mentioned your seat. What do you have now and what would you get?

We've talked about so many times. We've talked about these seats not protection, but support support Yeah, you know after At this point now, it's after about 90 minutes. I gotta get off Which is fine, except if you're trying to pound out days and time you're not going to do it doing that, you know

[00:14:41] tom: 90 minutes and then I and I had a sheepskin and beads on which gave me a little more But you just had to find unique spots to kind of to get it figured out.

[00:15:02] Todd: Were there specific moments? In the trip that you're like, all right, this isn't working for me. This isn't working for me.

Well,

So

[00:15:41] tom: hard. It's foam armor, but like You just don't, it doesn't compact. Yeah. I'm pissed because the rain gear doesn't compact. You know, I don't like my rain gears compaction rate right now. What do you have for rain gear? I don't even know what it's called. It's just flip flap, you know, like, but it's [00:16:00] huge.

That's what I'm looking for is I really want to get strategic about the, the gear and that we'll talk about it next week because it's, I've got a good plan and, yeah, we'll leave you in suspense.

I think

So, okay. I mean, you've had your gear a long time.

[00:16:47] tom: coat is old.

[00:16:55] tom: yeah,

Jacket. Yeah. , your jacket, your mesh pants, you know. yep. Did you even use your mesh pants? Nope. Pants. You didn't? A whole

[00:17:07] Todd: Alright. Alright. In the gloves you've had for a while.

Yeah. So yeah, it's a hot mess. So I'm a hot mess. It's a hot mess. I hope you have some solutions for next week. I think I do. Okay, good.

Toolkit

Watersy Jug

What do you think it is? It's not nitrous. So yeah, now I'll put this in the show notes, but I bought a water jug that's a one gallon. It's called water Z weird name, water S Y water Z. And then I bought a whole bunch of other crap, but what I ended up using was the one gallon jug. And then there's a drink tube set.

It's G Y Z R drink tube set, and that's everything I needed. I had the water jug mounted directly behind me, like I'm passenger seat area. And so then I had enough space, to put the, hose, right where I needed it and oh my gosh, does that thing work really? Did you pack it with ice too? Or so? Yeah. I mean, I experimented, but basically half full of ice and all of it.

But no, I mean, that thing was just awesome. . And the reason I like that one is not be, it comes in many different colors or whatever, but it comes with a neoprene sleeve. The neoprene sleeve is made to have a, like a, oh, like a strap. A shoulder

[00:19:33] tom: Which is brilliant because then you can use the the clips shoulder straps to connect it.

I just connected it to my

[00:19:40] tom: And then I just took it in. when I take the bag off, then it's connected, doesn't, and the bag that I have has a handle on it and you just carry it.

Is that, does that turn into hot

[00:20:17] Todd: That makes sense. And

And then when you let off, it starts shooting water in places. Ask Turk how he knows. but no, this stainless steel jug was absolutely phenomenal. that sounds good. It was great. Like, and that, and that Wyoming day I drink a gallon of water the other days I didn't, but like, but that day, man, I was, yeah, I like

I think I'll, I'll probably get one of those too, because [00:21:00] I know I just have like a 20 or 24 ounce. And you know, I put that in my cup holder and then I've got a passenger cup holder behind me. I can reach back and put the other one, but still I can, I drink through those. And then I'm like, I need more water.

What

Like at times kind of cool yourself off with it or not really. I don't know how you'd do that. Yeah. And there was a couple of times where, like you could, you could though, if when you're off the bike, you can squeeze that by valve and get some water out because the, you know, it's lower. Yeah. So yeah, totally.

but this worked out pretty good. Oh, that sounds great.

Join us on the next episode where I revere my, you know, brilliant plan to fix my utterly pissed off gear problem. Part two, right?but if you liked the podcast today, please like and subscribe or sign up for one of our BMR rider alerts. It's our way of keeping you in the loop.

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