Episode 001 – Planning Your First Motorcycle Road Trip

Transcript:

(00:03) in this episode discover how a narrow escape on a lane and a half Road in Kentucky from a Ford LTD turned into one of our most unforgettable rides and [Music] Roads hello and welcome to best motorcycle roads I’m Tom and I’m Todd and we have over 30 years of motorcycling experience and 15 years of plan planning and riding motorcycle trips we’re here to share what we’ve learned with you our goal at best motorcycle roads is simple make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be we’ll dive into technology planning

(00:42) packing the routes and other tips and everything in between from essential prep to Unforgettable routes we’ve got you covered before we Kickstart today’s Journey uh 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 will put a link in the show notes our first segment is called the toolkit this is our segment about motorcycle gears review and tips we call

(01:17) it the toolkit um I could give up a lot of things Todd when it comes to ride motorcycles but I don’t think I would ever want to give up the communication in the helmets um ever since we started having that I I just feel like it’s changed a lot of the ride MH I mean I know you started out and I think we did to Brad and I with the Moto coms which was a pretty primitive I think that really allowed two people to speak if you had two up and it allowed you to have music in your helmet um which was nice but it was primitive no bike to

(01:52) bike with the mocom um and then the autocom was something that Brad and I had that was a little better it was Bluetooth it got back and forth and then we moved to the Senna 20ss and I think things started to really get good then the problem with the senas is everyone will say is it takes you an hour prec connection to get all the connections together um so that was always frustrating and then I think here recently when the Sena 50s is came out it just changed the game CNA 50s is on mesh it’s a one button click it

(02:25) everybody’s on um yeah yeah I remember spending uh we could easily connect two Riders you know with our 20 S’s and uh we but once you started adding three four five Riders uh it took forever and uh yeah the 50s has just got it all worked out it eliminates frustration but if if you have any thoughts or if you’re even thinking about it I can’t recommend the 50s enough um they’ve got the Senna app too if you need it we haven’t used the C app I don’t think since the 50ss came out because they just work but

(02:58) there are some settings and features that you can change in there I don’t know if you’ve looked lately Todd but sen is getting into helmets and stuff too so they what they call their their Quantum uh Quantum series helmets so that has like either built in Senna so everything you know they’re trying to make the whole thing go but and Senna does have Partnerships with a lot of the top helmet makers now and so a lot of the C stuff is plug Inplay or at least there’s channels for the speakers and

(03:25) microphones and I don’t know I think they’ve really run away with it a little bit I think you know cardo and and Senna were neck and neck there for a while but I just it doesn’t seem like it just seems like senna’s really taken away and running with it um something new that we’ve just heard about and haven’t got a chance to play with is something they call Mesh port and uh I was doing a little reading before this and they have three sections a plus mesh which actually allows you to take any

(03:50) Bluetooth and connect it um into mesh the mesh blue which um is I think how older Bluetooth devices like you could even Technic technically have like airpods connect to uh the mesh and then the third one is mesh red and mesh red is is other devices so I’m really looking forward to trying this out sometime in the next future um in the future but a GoPro 12 has Bluetooth you can connect this mesh red to that and then we’ll be able to record all of our Communications that we’re having with vide so so yeah Sen’s really got it

(04:22) going on right now in my opinion so yeah looking forward to that yeah we’ll we’ll put a show note we’ll Link in the show notes so you can check that out too so well let’s go to ridewise in this section we focus on planning and safety tips and today we’ll discuss dealing with weather on the road um as well as pre-planning so inclement weather is not uh preventable uh we we every trip I would say two out of three trips uh we ride in Rain uh at least one day sometimes more and you just have to

(04:54) really be flexible you have to pay attention and start the day maybe by checking the weather um because often times you can change your route to avoid uh some storm cells and and then we always communicate that to everybody in our group you know um you know we just have a game plan uh for the day and we’re going to communicate that before we take off and we know that if we if it starts raining the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to look for a for a safe place to pull off yeah and uh

(05:23) if we can find a place that’s covered that’s even better so we’ll we’ll get undercover quick put put the rain suits on and then uh you know set our set our plan for the rest of the day but um we just know that when it’s going to rain we’re going to be flexible we’re going to slow down quite a bit uh because it’s it’s you know it’s a little more challenging and it’s uh just not a lot of fun um but you know I would watch the weather reports as you go especially if you you’re suspecting a a weather cell

(05:53) you know coming that day yeah and I think we just have grown to learn to call audibles during the day sometimes you just need to put the m into get there and you just slog it out and sometimes you say you know like we could change this a little bit and either not ride as many miles cut a loop off the edge you know just I think you just have to kind of play it by ear and see how it’s going to go but um yeah I mean and that kind of ties in with pre-trip planning I think a little bit is like having some alternates like I know when

(06:22) I’m planning things sometimes I’ll make a big loop out around and if things get crazy you can cut through that Loop and you know take a shortcut um which can help you know the day I think we’re really big fans of planning out the trip in details I think um I like to have every mile planned whether you follow those or not it doesn’t really matter um you know you see a lot of the online groups hey we we use the coin flip method you know and and that’s that’s okay I mean if that’s what you like

(06:49) that’s great I feel like there’s been many a time where I’ve missed something that’s amazing that I really would have liked to see had I known it was one mile to our West you know or something to that effect so so it’s good I think we always talk about leaving flexibility um yeah go ahead I was going to say that’s important for the entire group I mean when we started riding we we knew each other pretty well uh you know we were good friends we knew everybody was kind of chill and and willing to make changes and and relaxed

(07:17) and um if you haven’t gone on the trip yet and you haven’t uh you know found your group that’s going to go with you and you’re kind of be careful as you’re choosing I mean you really want to pick some people that are are willing to be flexible and just um and not be whiners and complainers and uh you know be upset if if everything doesn’t go the way they want it to um you know it makes it easier when you’re having to change your plans you know um friends one thing that I really take

(07:49) into consideration when planning trips is the fuel range so knowing who’s going to be on that trip is important um you know we have a guy Mike he likes to he has about 150 mile range in his head I think he can really go like 190 but he’s comfortable at 150 that it’s good we don’t want anyone to Todd’s Point is getting you know anxiety this is supposed to be fun and relaxing so you know couple hours between you know with wheels up is a good number um we’ve got kind of a pre-planning checklist I think

(08:19) that can help you plan your next trip we’ve got steps that you can take kind of back your way into a great motorcycle trip we’ll put a link to those in the show notes we’ve been kind of keeping track of that adding some tracting um but also just uh what I always like to do is get a you know kind of a a good idea going and then start to look around what you can find that’s what’s around there um you can research um I like to use the state websites there’s State national Park searches um if you get

(08:49) down the city level I’ve looked at the Chamber of commer um all those things are great options and just Googling you know what’s in this area what’s in this area it just takes time it seems like it does take a lot of time to do those things but um they’re really really really helpful um a lot of people use Butler motorcycle Maps those are very popular they’re good um there’s another kind of offshoot I shouldn’t say offshoot but a competitor called Freeman Maps um they’re technically free maps

(09:18) but they charge you shipping and handling which is fine too um but and then there’s a lot of apps out there there’s a ton of people that like to use the apps um there’s writer apps um and then Google Maps I think it’s probably the hard to beat especially with carplay and Android auto coming to bikes um Google Maps might be the easiest thing to plan on and the most frustrating at the same time we can talk about that at a later time but honestly it’s simple to use it’s easy to drag and drop and I

(09:45) think it works pretty good yeah and one of the things that you always do Tom and I appreciate it is you you do you look down to the detail of the roads in in Iowa we have gravel roads uh not all states do but Tom always checks as he’s making our uh planning our rout and he generally tries to find two lanes for most of our rides he looks to looks down and Zooms in to see if they’re gravel or not and and and that’s wonderful but another thing that you always do is we have a a a pre a pre-trip meeting with

(10:14) everybody get everyone together and say Here’s the route we have planned here’s the idea here’s some of the destinations here’s where our stops are for the night and is there anything else that anyone wants to stop and see is there anything in the area that interests you uh because we don’t want to miss it you know yeah we’ve met friends relatives um found restaurants from drive-ins diners and dives I mean anything that you can imagine I think that’s the perfect time for that one other minor trip when

(10:43) you’re using that Google Maps I think is be careful when you’re dragging and dropping cuz sometimes you’ll pull like off of a road for a sec maybe you get into like a parking lot and then it’s like oh we’re turning up well we’re turning around so it’s just you really want to zoom in and kind of check the details but yeah that makes a great road so yeah the next segment is called mile marker this is kind of our story segment so um as we tease the little bit we’ve got um an interesting Kentucky Road

(11:11) incident uh we were we were in Kentucky headed home from a ride and we found I tend to throw if we’re getting four lanes hitting a lot of four lane then I’ll maybe kick off and do a a small County Road just to kind of to break things up a little bit and I’d found a stellar Kentucky Road for the ride home it was a real doozy I’ll let you tell the story it was just over one car wide and uh Tom you happen to be leading that day and this this day will never leave my mind it stuck in my mind because it was the day I thought I was

(11:46) going to see one of my my good friends get killed on a motorcycle because here we were on this one lane weaving it was was around trees and around fence lines and it just kept winding winding winding and I was behind you I was the next one behind you and all of a sudden Here Comes This giant Ford LTD around the corner he was flying two guys in it and you were right down the center of the lane and it was so sudden that you were on top of him and my I mean my heart stopped and I don’t know how I mean everything just flashed through my head

(12:17) I was like here it is and somehow you got stopped or you got you went to the side and he veered to the side and both of you kind of went off the road and thank God because it was scary it was scary for me watching it you know I was right there I don’t think I had time to get scared what I remember is I was watching him and he was not watching the road and I could see his face and then boom he looks up and his eyes got that big and from and then he he moved and we were all good but I can’t be 100% sure

(12:47) but I am really really sure I believe this road was called old railroad Road and it’s north of the city of fall of Ruff Kentucky I forgot that I’ll put a link to that uh to that City there and you can you can see if you can find it I don’t know if there’s bad roads in that area they were just unbelievable they were narrow but wow what what’s some great writing it was so windy I don’t know how it could have been an old railroad road but whatever well you know that’s what it was called so um yeah and so we talk

(13:21) about planning a lot um I think you can think you can be ready and you’re not and I think the key for me is just like if you never taken a trip yeah just do it if if you can’t find somebody that’s already run a trip then just give it a try you know I think the first real like multi-day trip that Brad and I took was called postn named it we called Loop the lake um it was 2007 and we planned but we had no idea what we were planning for um you know it was there was no GPS so everything was Maps so Brad was famous for maps in his

(13:55) tank bag and he he liked to look at those and he did a really good job of that but we had no communication um we had no gear I’m pretty positive I maybe had a motorcycle jacket that I bought and that’s it I think gloves and and a jacket um I don’t know I think the luggage I I remember the luggage being simple and really not that not well attached to the bike um so we ended up you know you laugh at us now but I mean we trailered our bikes from from our place to basically north of Chicago in a little town called Zenda Wisconsin my

(14:29) buddy has a race shop there and he’s like yeah you can park them so we rode up on a or we left like on a Thursday night pulled it in we slept in Brad’s truck and uh we we we kicked it up in the morning and uh drove up by Green Bay met my brother-in-law at the time and sister-in-law or yep and we stayed in Escanaba Michigan the first night I I won’t forget that this this still makes me laugh because uh we originate in Iowa we’re in Iowa and to get over over to the Chicago area is only about a 3 hour

(15:02) three and 1 half hour ride and I I couldn’t believe like I’d been riding for quite a long time and I’d ridden over you know Chicago many times my family is there and and you were going to trailer from here to Chicago and then Loop the I thought what are you doing trailering it’s it’s right there oh my gosh it’s only three and a half hours but anyway you did it that’s what we did so uh yeah we stayed the first night in Escanaba uh there’s a there’s a big boy statue and restaurant still there I

(15:27) think it’s still there today that was the first night uh the second night was on the south side of the bridge and Traverse City I remember you know that planning word again is we didn’t have plans and we didn’t have a room I think there was one room left in town and we got it all four of us stayed in the same room um anytime you’re in the up you can’t forget about pasties uh not to be confused with pasties but basically pasties is the hot pocket of up miners of the past um the story that I was told

(15:59) back then was that pasties started from leftovers from dinner they put it in some bread baked it and that was what they took to work to eat the next day pocket yeah so um the ma Bridge um great bridge that you know um separates upper and lower uh Michigan man what a cool ride across the bridge couple miles long just a sight to see if you’re ever in that area it does it does have mesh in it though on one side is mesh I think it one side is not yeah yeah so people get a little nervous about that yeah it makes your your bike float a little bit

(16:33) when you’re rid M you know just let her ride um there’s a little town on the South Side called Bliss uh the bliss store in Bliss Michigan it’s just a great Americana General Store um it’s about an hour south and west of Mao Bridge just a great store um locally owned kind of thing highly recommend stop it in Bliss if you get the chance um and then uh Michigan 19 up one of the popular Road it’s called the tunnel of trees another narrow road it’s it’s not two cars wide meeting a Suburban on the

(17:08) tunel trees you’ll remember that yeah um yeah so that was one of the things I I remembered so well and then we looped on the bottom side slipped through Gary Indiana we got stuck I don’t know what the heck we were doing honestly Todd because like we were in downtown Chicago traffic as well again no GPS so you know we’re on maps and then oh my gosh that my love of GPS may come from this trip alone so you know we got the bikes loaded up in the trailer we kicked out took a wrong turn headed downtown

(17:39) Chicago instead of out of town and then at the very end of the day it was about 1:00 in the morning we’re crossing the Mississippi from Illinois Iowa and we hit something in the road so we ended up having to change a tire and unfortunately the a gentleman in front of us hit the hit the same thing H his tire we changed his tire first cuz he’s like an 85-year old man so we were doing our Good Deed good for you guys but uh yeah it but you know honestly again like we talk about so many times like I remember every step of this trip it was

(18:10) the first one I remember how much my butt hurt on the third day you know like I was like we’re in we’re on the wrong side of the lake and I never going to make it home you know so um so yeah so yeah that’s our um that’s my story for the day I guess this podcast can be found on best motorcycle roads.

(18:31) com slmp podcast all the information you need will be there uh but you can subscribe on Spotify Amazon music apple pocketcast and YouTube all right uh roadside Q&A yeah in this segment uh we’ll be looking to answer your questions and take any suggestions that you have for topics and we’ll provide insights and advice based on our years of planning uh planning trips and our writing experiences so we’re just basically asking people to you know if they have questions or hey talk about this we’d love to dig in right yeah and since this is episode one

(19:05) I guess we don’t hey we don’t have anybody yet we have no listeners please no that’s that’s good I’m I’m excited about that part because you don’t know what people don’t know and it’ll be fun to to help out so yeah all right so the last segment is called The Last Mile it’s our closing segment Todd do you want to talk about what yeah I think for me building camaraderie and having uh these experiences together is is really what I enjoy most I think you enjoy most as well um you know sharing some laughs

(19:35) uh sharing the stories and and these are stories that that will live forever so and and how do you do that for us it’s the communicators is a big part of it uh because while we’re riding just to kill the time and uh you know we talk about our families talk about our kids talk about plans talk about the podcast talk all these things that we’d like to do and they’re also essential for spontaneity um if we’re riding by something that someone sees and says hey let’s pull over and take a look at that

(20:04) and they’re in the back of the group uh without communicators there wouldn’t be any way to do it so um these communicators I think as we mentioned earlier are just essential um you know and it’s a way to share laughs along the way and point things out and um that’s my favorite part you know just like building our friendships along the way and then you know pre-planning uh really pre-plan with your group ask everyone to be flexible um you know there’s no wi you know you can’t have whiners on the trip

(20:35) that’ll just spoil your trip so uh be selective you know the first couple of trips you take um and maybe a good idea is to just set some group ground rules during your first meeting and just say let’s all throw out some ground rules that we can all live by you know one might be uh we’re not going to you know whine about having to wait an extra hour before we eat you know or uh you know just throw out some ground rules that everyone can live by agree to it and and then have a great time yeah you bet I

(21:05) think for me it’s just um as I reflected on this episode and T thought about that first ride is just get out there if you’ve never done a first group ride trip get out there and do it it doesn’t even have to be just do one day you know but if you don’t go out there you don’t have one and it doesn’t start kind of the the domino effect because like I said earlier I just I I love that trip I remember so much about it um I remember the great things the bliss store we’ve stopped there a couple times when we’ve

(21:33) been in the area the bridge um we’ve got a great picture of three bikes in the bridge and you know just take those pictures and remember that trip so yeah that’s what I remember but yeah so yeah we’re ready the next episode we’ll have is called planning your first motorcycle trip um so if this motorc if this episode reved you up your day please don’t keep it to yourself you know like it subscribe it share it with your crew um we’re really all about the thrill of the ride and the bond it creates as you

(22:01) can tell keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes friends and endless roads the stories ride forever take [Music] care