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

Transcript:

(00:00) if you see a Thirsty Turtle you’re in the right place hello and welcome to best motorcycle roads I’m Tom and I’m Todd we have over 65 years of combined motorcycling experience and 30 years of planning and riding motorcycle trips we’re here to share with you everything we’ve learned over those years our goal at best Motorcycle Roads is simple make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be we’ll dive into technology planning packing the roots other tips and everything in between from essential

(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

(01:13) yeah well first of all for safy to keep your motorcycle engine from getting damaged if your bike tips over it also can save your legs from getting smed crushed between the engine and the and the uh highway or the road but I mean there’s lots of lots of good reason for having them um and I have tipped over my motorcycle more than once uh sometimes just in the car wash you know but uh but I have tipped it over at at intersections before and yeah it just the bike won’t lay all the way over then it’ll kind of sit at a 45 degree angle

(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

(02:12) factor a little bit I mean if it gets really bad but you’re right and then I think you would talked about too it’s it’s a place to mount things to a little bit too a lot of lot of people will Mount the highway pegs like we’ve talked about before you can mount lights um extra lights it’s just kind of one of those things I think it’s probably just something for someone to sell you as well maybe I don’t know well I’ve seen people Mount cameras too well now especially yeah lot that’s a great view

(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

(03:04) engine guards for the most part not necessary but a nice to have very nice to have they’re not very expensive if remember right there’s um often I mean you’re buying them fitted for your bike so they have bolt patterns and bolt setup ready to go into your bike it’s a takeoff a bolt that’s maybe in the engine frame and bolt yeah yeah sometimes they clamp on if there’s no yeah no they’re really good again one of those things you want to make sure is look at the specifications on them when

(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

(04:02) start with helmets cuz there’s a couple options right so firstly people a lot of people put them in their bags you know especially if you’re on day trips but like where we’re on these longer trips you know your bags already full right so so I mean a lot of the the like accessory manufacturers like a cur icon they’ll make a special little clip one that hooks um on The Handlebar mhm and and if you look most well I should say like motorcycles that were made up in to say 2010 a lot of them have a place to

(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

(05:00) helmet ends up touching the bike either the pipes or the something so it’s a great idea but when you’re hanging down and you just got done riding for two hours and you put the helmet on the pipe you’re melting something you know and then I don’t like to leave the headsets out just exposed yeah the other thing too is a lot of times those force your helmet to be upside down if it’s raining or drizzling that’s not a good way to to keep your helmet ex so you’ve all that and then so then also like the other X

(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

(05:57) the d-ring if you if you have a really small helmet and then you can just hook it on somewhere on the bike um you know probably not the handlebars because you might be able to take it off but but no if you just Loop it somewhere and then it’s so compact you can just leave it on the bike all the time so it works pretty well yeah that’s a good idea you know I’ve never really locked up my stuff like that I mean I lock stuff in the trunk and lock it in the side bags but um I mean when we’re going

(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

(06:48) great cheap option I mean people want it they want it they’re going to steal it you know you’re kind of there’s nothing you can do about it but it just deters enough to like not someone just yeah I’ve never thought of the the bike lock great it works really really good so seems very logical yep so uh other than that uh the other thing is you know when we’re going to be like overnight of the hotel and and maybe you don’t want to bring everything in um you know a lot of us have just like half covers over the

(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

(07:43) think had the old handlebar locks I don’t know if they even have those any I know they think they work that well but I know a lot of um um City people will also use their’s a rotor lock and you can clamp a rotor um so that’ll help a little bit yeah um that’s that’s helpful too yeah I haven’t had to use one of those no I mean we don’t we’re in Iowa probably leave the keys in it so well they don’t even half the new ones don’t have keys anyway true fob so the next segment is what we call the mile

(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

(08:46) watched the podcast she like Dad duh get your facts right it doesn’t start so I need to say that the Mississippi R River starts in like Lake itasa right and I think you said it was close to beiji and I was like no I don’t think no it is it’s Emily I got you thanks Emily she caught me so yeah it’s um originally I was look I was looking up some facts for this originally the Mississippi River is 2552 mil long but now it has since reduced Itself by 200 miles so I suppose just I don’t know that’s what the

(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

(09:46) love to ride from Lake itasa all the way down so the interestingly enough it actually is the Gulf of Mexico which I generally in my mind always thought that New Orleans was the bottom of Louisiana it’s not so I’ve actually check they’re 70 M south of until the Mississippi uh goes into the Gulf be which is kind of cool um but yeah there’s some great there’s a what’s really cool the Minnesota um DNR actually has a webcam running all the time up at the lake in Minnesota so you can see in any given

(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

(10:46) up there definitely um but also I I mean in St Paul on that side um well I clearly it splits the two cities but but uh it’s pretty narrow I don’t know if you’ve been through that I have but I just don’t remember I mean I would say it’s you’re like huh like it just looks like a river you might see in any given town so um so it’s kind of cool to see that I think there’s a Convention Center that’s sitting right on the river and part of the deck you can watch and it it’s it’s small um so so not many barges

(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

(11:45) of cool things on both sides of rivers as you work your way down through the states and the number of states at the Mississippi River is pretty cool too if you start to count through them so yeah I’ve mostly stayed on the Wisconsin side I think went up up in the north part mhm because I think the the east or excuse me the West Side pretty much leads you right into the cities and I think we try to get away from there normally when we’ve been riding bikes but yeah I feel like a few times when I have ridden

(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

(12:37) that the Wisconsin side but there’s a really great Road um and it just there’s Bluffs a lot of Bluffs up there so you’re riding I mean really close to the Bluffs and then the road train track River and it’s a really cool um it’s not really long u but it’s a great stretch mhm um but then south of St Louis I don’t know if you’ve R this as much Mike and I have rode this one a few times but you get south of St Louis you can take 61 and it goes all the way down to like Cape Gerardo it actually goes right down

(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

(13:36) yeah um that’s like uh elto elto pass illino yeah it’s by carbon not far from car yeah right and uh it’s you know this uh this uh Hill really um that has this um cross that they erected that’s like 100 big metal cross yeah metal cross 111 ft tall it’s huge um I think it was completed in the early 60s they started it had the thoughts about it in the 50s but then um sometime in the early 2000s it needed like a lot of repairs and they did a big restoration project on it and reskinned the whole thing they added a

(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

(14:44) Services they’re going to do an eclipse viewing party there and yeah uh yeah it’s it’s pretty cool it is a couple other towns along the river that are cool just uh Sabula is in is on the Iowa side right across from Savannah and I always think that it’s a really cool Causeway that goes from like Sabula to Savannah um just it like it’s not the Florida Keys by any stretch but there’s water on both sides at times it’s just kind of a cool yeah and they used to have a really cool great grate Bridge

(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

(15:44) if I remember right um I think when we went there we stayed on the bottom level but a couple of us did walk up I don’t know if it was it was it was closed or you know just lights were off but there was another gigantic bar up there and I seem to remember there was big stained glass wind window and ton of old bikes like lots of old bikes 20s T you know early bikes yeah it was neat it was a just a regular Museum and maybe they open that up for special occasions I don’t know but um and then poopies is out by the more out of town and that’s

(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

(16:45) but it’s called navu Illinois now they do have some wineries but what’s interesting is this is kind of like the epicenter of the American Indian settlements in that time the river kind of comes back so there’s kind of a a lowland of area it’s really interesting if you’re into that history check it out because there was a huge settlement of Indian American Indians in that area like they’re thinking millions of it’s a towns yeah it’s really interesting and then another really odd fact is Joseph

(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

(17:42) but there’s a little park and they have a statue of papey the Sailor because I think they somehow that was his hometown they made that his home yeah so it’s cool it’s a great place to take a picture so I think for me uh mostly my memories about the Great River Road in general Mississippi river is just so many times when we’re coming up home it’s we generally when we’re coming from the north we’ll head that Wisconsin side and I don’t know if you’ve never like checked out the Lock and Dam systems that the

(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

(18:35) amount of use that the that area that river is used you know and and then yeah we right in the summertime you know they have like three or four or six barges connected to a tugboat just full of grains or something and it’s it’s actually interesting if you’ve never seen that to watch a a barge go through the whole Lock and Dam system because it’s amazing it it’s amazing and those things have been around since the 50s or 40s I they’re really old and so well engineered and they still work it’s

(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.

(19:28) com slmp podcast all the information you need will be there uh but you can subscribe on Spotify Amazon music apple pocketcast and YouTube this is the interactive segment we will be looking for input from you uh we want you to send us your questions and suggestions for roads topics and anything else you have on your mind so today’s Q&A comes from Carly and Carly asks how do you keep the group together and organized during a ride especially when writers have different skill levels or they yeah we just home well um in our group we we’ve we’ve had

(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

(20:33) signals um you kind of want to find out U The Experience level of the writers that are coming with and generally I would say try and keep the less experienced writers towards the back but um you do have want to have somebody in the far back maybe that does have a communicator that says we’re going a little too fast can we slow it down you know the back of the group isn’t catching up uh so that you’re not overriding those beginners and and pushing them but then excuse me also talk about if you get to an intersection

(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

(21:30) the the best thing to do talk about it before you leave just so there’s no fear in the in the back like I don’t know the route I hope they don’t leave me and then you’re trying to race to get up there and a few of us will run full like full on map action you know like and a lot of the newer people may not have all that Tech and sometimes it’s hard to get the maps uploaded so yeah I would say that if you’re in a small group like let’s just say two an experien and you’re inexperienced then I let them

(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

(22:20) first time I rode in a group ride even after riding my motorcycle for 10 years or more the the one weird thing that I kept focusing on was the Stagger and the distances yeah am I too close am I too far back am I in the right side of the lane or the left side of the lane and unfortunately I think beginner rer writers that’s probably common that they’re they’re worried about that so that’s all they focus on they’re they’re looking at the back tire of the person in front of them which probably really

(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

(23:14) some of these big group rides they want you tight and they want you on top of each other and that can get a little U it can get a little nerve-wracking but it is nice to run stagger if if every other person is kind of Staggering it just gives you just a little bit more time to find a little more space and it and it works out pretty good too so yeah now it’s time for The Last Mile it’s it’s our way to close the episode with our reflection so what about this episode about the Mississippi River Todd

(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

(24:13) home I just I think about that a lot when we’re riding and then I don’t know it’s it’s cool it’s a great there’s not much bad to see there yeah if this episode revved 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