Episode 028 – Top 5 Motorcycle Roads of Iowa – Best Motorcycle Roads

Episode 028 - Top 5 Motorcycle Roads of Iowa - Best Motorcycle Raods - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkEWCF1Z6ck

Transcript:

(00:41) 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 let's talk Tire plug kits and inflation all right not the uh money kind but air inflation that kind of inflation um yeah

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(01:48) AOS Stitch um that duth company makes pretty high quality things that's a usually you can buy just a full uh tire repair kit so what comes with that is the plugs the glue that you kind of add on there there's kind of a reamer that you ream it out with and then a funky hook to get your plugin there so you can get it out there's kind of a little escape hatch um so that all comes with it and then now kind of the new kits instead of people used to carry an inflator like a you know like a full-on inflator like 12vt plug it in you know

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(02:55) yeah that's kind of the thing now I mean they're in the $40 to $60 range but boy oh boy I mean you've been involved in a in a in a motorcycle trip where you guys had to get to a you know get to a shop to repair it luckily even they did it the next day yeah um this is one of those things at least get you a couple days down the road and uh things like that so there's an AOS Stitch is a high quality one there's also one um off excuse me Amazon Dino plug tubist tire repair toolkit both in the same range

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(03:56) crazy about again emergency situation you may have to do some things but but yeah if you would happen to be taking your bike in to get the tire fixed I would it would be a good idea to just go ahead and drive a nail or screw something through your tire M cuz that's what happens try try plugging it and see if you can get it to plug um because it's a little bit of a you know just like many things you don't want the maybe have it be your third time you know and you can put a couple of them in there yeah that's a good idea yeah it it

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(04:55) ridden your motorcycle on gravel before uh the the the stion when you get on the gravel if you have to uh is a real floating sensation like the bike doesn't feel like it's planted on the road in a track like it's rolling around on marbles oh wait yeah it is on marbles right so it it'll really start to float on you the front tire and the back tire kind of going in different directions um what what you need to do really is is Don't Panic to start with don't be heavy on the gas uh the throttle don't be

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(05:55) surface and then uh again just real real gentle on the throttle gentle on the brakes I wouldn't even use the front brake you know in in most cases um and you'll you'll you'll be still be able to control it um and and then you know if you do have to come to a stop just again be careful as you're pulling away because a a motorcycle tire will spin real quick and gravel so um you know just look for the spots that have been you know driven by cars and trucks and that and you'll see those packed down

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(06:54) you're going through corners um I think it's good to kind of be leaning forward you want more weight on the front than the back um you know that's a giving your front tire more weight so it's more traction and the back tire gives it a little more loose and then I guess I was just going to mention too it's not just gravel roads especially in the midwest there's a lot of Chip seal roads in Iowa oh yeah and um you know they repair them in the summertime when we want to ride motorcycles and the repair is spray down

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(07:53) goel into the road so especially in the in the spring early spring when you're out riding you can all of a sudden come upon some gravel on the road on you know paved Road that'll have gravel on it because the snowplow has tossed it up there so until a lot of cars have driven and and pushed it off or rain um you can you can come up on some gravel just on a regular paved Road well like you said I mean no one likes take their bike on gravel but if you have a bike that's a little easier to clean like just getting

(: 08:19

(08:49) feet out I mean it it's it can be touchy it can be a little sketch right yeah the next segment is what we call the mile marker it's our story segment in the mile marker today Todd we're going to start uh episode one of a six-part series which talks about the top five best roads of Iowa Missouri Illinois Wisconsin Michigan and Minnesota so 651 65 I don't know but no yeah I'm kind of excited to talk about this I mean of course these will be a little controversial everyone has their opinions of what the best roads are for

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(09:53) there oh that's this town it's 20 M away it's like what you know where we live over here in Eastern Iowa you can't see a mile without a tree or a hill getting in your way but uh you know and then as you go towards the Mississippi River it Bluffs and you know it's not a mountain I get it it's not but it's it's very you know hilly windy tight and then in in Southern Iowa it's the same thing and we'll talk about one unique thing that only Iowa has uh in one of the parks on

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(10:51) the leaves you know are turning and it's just a beautiful thing um other tips just for this section and i' like to hear what you think too but just photos you see them on the Internet with these covered bridges are just they're cool um there's some of these Bridges though that are only on um gravel roads which you mentioned um I I've never actually been down there to see them have you I've just seen one uhuh otherwise I've seen pictures but I've only gone to one yeah so they're cool I mean it's uh it's

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(11:52) and and what they did was the the headlights of vehicles are so bad back then they actually painted the light poles White so that you could kind of stay between them because I think also if you can imagine the roads of this time were not much different than the not roads I mean it was just the place most people drove yeah um that's adir County um Jesse James historical site is there and then there's a freedom Rock uh for that for the county amendo Freedom Rock was really cool a lot of counties and Iowa have freedom rocks and they're

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(12:53) that someone can do there MH so I've traveled this before it's just it's cool I mean it's kind of just nostal and again nothing super special about it but it was just like when you see these polls you're like oh that makes a lot of sense do they do they keep painting them yeah they do they do okay well I'm pretty sure that the poles that we see now are not the poles that were there then and I'm sure that cuz they're pretty wide they're pretty out out but it's kind of the the thought of it you

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(13:51) American Gothic house is actually located down down here you see a lot of American Gothic in Iowa since that house was originated here but this is the one so uh so to see the original um the best time for this particular area is in summertime there's some like local events that happen so you can get involved but uh there this used to be a really heavily traveled area the stage coach um so that's in Franklin and then they have some there's the hershler winery so what's really neat for me when

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(14:55) see so what is Les Hills um in Western Iowa in that River Valley um it's just a very unique landscape and what it is is silt I believe they believe is from the glaciers that melted and laid in this area near the river um and then in the winter times there' be a little less winter so then the this silt would get wind blown and it built up what looks just like like the the the bluff areas that you've seen everywhere but what's really weird about it as you're driving through and it's just all dirt Earth Black Earth

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(16:03) a little town that's there like I said this is all about the scenery there's nothing to see here except these wild looking Hills um but bring a camera because it is interesting it's winding and it it's weird the the path it takes and then I've never stopped there but it looked like Dave's old Home Cafe in pisna was a place that you can maybe stop and get some more information about the area there's a historical marker in in the town of pis as well so so uh this lus is it l or Los I think it's l lus

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(17:11) American area and then Pikes Peak state park is also at the very top of it and that is quite quite a view as well again fall that's scenery weather is better and just watching for the Wildlife there's a lot of there's tons of pull-offs on the Iowa side to stop and see mhm little towns here and there he weaving in and out of some pretty neat places and some pretty good Bluffs in some of those spots yeah I know one year when we were riding through there was a you know a little bit of a landslide that looked like maybe a house was going

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(18:10) it's only 13 miles and eventually turns into Iowa 52 which is officially the Great River Road but boy you know we've rode this a couple times I've rode it a few times it's a very unique Road it's just a beauty it's it's fantastic the views are amazing uh it it windes a lot the the condition of the road itself it a little help yeah it needs a little help it wasn't the best correct uh paved road yeah it was a little bumpy it might have been concrete too I'm trying to remember but uh yeah the condition of

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(19:13) of the year you ride that one well fall anytime um yeah I mean it's just fall I mean you are literally overlooking tens of thousands of trees on the Wisconsin and Iowa side and you just can't help it I mean it's just awesome and there's not a lot of pull-offs if I remember correct not on c9y specifically um before it and after it but again it's only 13 miles so um I actually I don't think there is one um but by Balon there is a beautiful pulloff that's just iconic the podcast can be found on best motorcycl roads.com

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(20:23) therefore it kind of kicked me out but while there is some in Iowa I would say the majority of Advent writing is probably over in Wisconsin right in the Midwest for sure yeah there's a couple of groups that are mid uh that are Iowa advv is maybe another reason way they say it I know over by soy Iowa there's a group and I think there's another one maybe it is Wisconsin there's a lot of guys that will do gravel rides um in Iowa like when you think of ADV in Iowa it's mostly gravel riding um some level

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(21:23) gravel road and then in the middle of this four-way intersection there's a big old tree and there's an I forget what the name of it is now but yeah um you have to re do a research on Gravel Road Iowa tree tree in the middle of the road um it's kind of a quirky thing but it is definitely out on the middle of a gravel road and we talked about The Bridges of Madison County gravel roads some you know River some of the River Roads around here there's some extra roads that are gravel that are really that are

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(22:18) out the episode and talk about what we liked maybe didn't like about the uh episode Todd what do you got for today well I think in the the very first uh place in in the mile marker you were talking about the freedom Rock and that got me thinking about all the the counties in Iowa there's 99 counties in Iowa I don't think they all have freedom rocks yet but that's the goal um that's that would be kind of just a fun ride if you ever you know veterans um these Freedom rocks are being painted by one

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(23:20) think each one of them works with the local veterans to kind of kind of make it that County's own like I think which is probably the coolest part about it for me um anyway yeah yeah and how about your reflection um a couple things I think just [Music] um the the L Hills is cool if you haven't seen it I mean it's easily something that you can plan a route through it's not a destination but if you can get there sometime to see it it's really cool just to see how that works um or how that has worked over

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(24:23) up your day don't keep it to yourself like subscribe and share it with your crew we're all about the Thrill of the ride and the bond it creates keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes friends and endless roads the stories ride forever take care [Music] [Music]

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